Fe-line Paws of Approval – August

As we’re nearing the end of August, it’s time for a little update from the Top Cats at Fe-line! We’ve been busy planning events for the rest of 2014 and looking ahead already to 2015, and if you can’t make it to any of our meet-ups then you can still hang out with us online: we’re on Twitter with our #felinehour every Tuesday evening from 8-9pm. Here’s what we’ve been enjoying, thinking about, talking about and wearing at Fe-line HQ this month:

Anaïs

I don’t have a very tangible paw to give away this month, but my Fe-line Paw of Approval has to be given to housemates. I’ve been house-hopping between friends’ homes over the summer and have rediscovered my long lost love for coming home to a gaggle of girls! I made some of my best friends when flat-sharing at university but then went on to lodge with an older couple,  live with only one lovely friend, and then move in with my boyfriend. Over the last few weeks I’ve been reminded of just how much fun it can be living with mates: we’ve cooked for each other, watched TV and films together and socialised with each other’s friends. Even though my boyfriend and I do all those things all the time, having some female friends to share the evenings with seems to make these activities like more of an occasion. I’ve loved hanging out with a girl gang more than usual, and it’s made me really appreciate and miss other friends who I don’t get to spend this kind of quality time with. So, that’s why I want to put a paw up for house sharing friends across the lands!

Debs

This month, my Paw of Approval goes to the makers of my favourite dress: Eucalyptus. I’ve owned various Eucalyptus items over the years and, whatever size I’ve been, I’ve always found that their clothes have that all important flattering cut. They are my go-to brand for lovely, floaty, pretty clothing – their skirts have acres of material that properly swishes when you spin, love it!

Eucalyptus is a London based company which was started in 2002 by a “girls only team of designers, determined to create individual, comfortable and feminine fashion with a good touch of quirkiness”. What could be better than that? For more info, you can visit their website: http://www.eucalyptusclothing.co.uk/ or, if you’re Oxford based, you can drop into the covered market where Fresh Clothing stock lots of their yummy clothes.

Jo

My Fe-line Paw of Approval has to be baby related this month. The Babe has learnt to crawl this month, started teething, had his first stomach bug, two colds, moved into his own room and then back into ours and there has been little time for much internet surfing or cool links collecting. My life has been a repetition of chasing after him, repeating “Don’t eat that”, administering nurofen, applying bonjela and fighting him to go into the pushchair/car seat. My quiet little baby has disappeared and has been replaced by a raucous little boy (I absolutely love it).

So I am giving my Paw of Approval to the Munchkin duck bath.  I went into Boots looking for a non slip mat for the bottom of the bath and this is what I came out with. (FYI this is not a picture of The Babe it is a promo shot of the product). I think the duck bath is the best £8.99 I have spent on a baby item, because not only does it make my life a lot easier, it makes bath time really safe but it is also so much fun. Munchkin products are great for this they make parents life easier but are also kid friendly and budget friendly. I don’t have to hold The Babe in the bath anymore and this saves my arms, he can happily sit in the duck and play with his toys and so he has the freedom that he loves, it’s win, win. The only thing I am asking is when they are going to make an adult one or a big one to go in the garden?

 

Rosie

My Fe-line Paw of Approval this month goes to Coco Wedding Venues. I am (sadly and happily!) not in the market for a wedding venue any more but this website is just sigh worthily beautiful. Coco was set up by Emma Hla at the beginning of this year and has gone from strength to strength, rapidly increasing it’s venue portfolio and being nominated for Best Designed Blog at the Wedding Blog Awards (you can vote for Coco here!) The idea behind the website is to bring together a style focused directory of beautiful wedding venues which are all helpfully categorised by Coco’s Wedding Venue Styles including Rustic Romance, City Chic and my favourite Bohemian Beats.

The Coco blog is also full of useful (and very pretty) information for brides and grooms to be, from unusual colour palettes to news on new venues and swoon worthy wedding suppliers to real love stories. The blog is a great wedding resource tastefully put together and lovingly narrated by Emma’s characterful writing. But more than that, it’s a great source of inspiration and incredibly uplifting, as looking at pretty things always is! So make a cuppa, sit back and indulge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing the Fe-line Book Club

Fe-liners, we are oh-so-very excited to be announcing the launch of (drumroll please):
 

 
We love reading here at Fe-line HQ so, starting this September, we’ll be burrowing our way through a book each month and this is our invitation to you to join us! Although there will be some physical meet-ups around Oxfordshire, we will mostly be running the Fe-line Book Club out in the wonderful world of cyberspace (more details to come) so you can join in the conversation wherever you may be.
 

What You Can Expect From The Fe-line Book Club

• Fabulous Fe-line chats
• Monthly feedback on each book including lots of additional content delivered directly to your inbox
• Plenty of opportunities to have your say on which books the Book Club reads
• Author events are very much in the pipeline so do watch this space (we do like our events at Fe-line!)
• Last but not least, some great books to read

 

Our September Book

As Fe-line has something of an Oxford connection, it seemed appropriate to kick off with an Oxford based book penned by a local author. We can therefore reveal that our first book is to be:

After I Left You is Alison Mercer’s second novel and it’s just been released in physical form. Alison Mercer lives in Oxfordshire with her family and you can read all about her (and even find some handy book group questions for After I Left You!) on her brilliant blog: http://alisonmercerwriter.com/
 

Our First Meeting

Although, as mentioned above, we will mostly be running the bookclub online; we thought it would be great to meet up in person from time to time and will therefore be having the inaugural convening of the Fe-line Book Group at the Fe-line Frock Swap on 20th September. If you’re likely to be in the Oxford area, do mark it down in your calendar, further details of the Frock Swap can be found here:

 

How To Get Involved

If you would like to become part of our literary clowder, then we would love to have you along for the ride! Simply click on the banner below to join our mailing list and get details of future titles & meet ups, get yourself a copy of After I Left You, and start reading (I bought mine here). If there are any books you’d love to read with the Fe-line Book Club, do drop us an email.

 
Happy reading!