Growing up I was an avid reader, devouring books in days and embracing all the new worlds the authors created. In Yorkshire, where I lived from the ages of ten to twenty there was a fantastic library just round the corner where my mum and I would go to hunt down new reads. After leaving home and heading to uni I switched to...

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This travel case came to me recently. It belonged to my mum who died in 1996. She had kept wool in it and it had lived, with sewing materials, in a pouf (storage footstool!) in my parent's sitting room. Opening it I found: pictures from my parent's sitting room of children and grand-child; bamboo sticks from when my mother learnt to make silk...

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Can you believe January is almost over? So far it feels like we've just been having a mass clear out, speaking of which, we made another trip to the tip and have another car load ready to go again plus more bags for the charity shop.  Frosty morning walks were replaced mid-week by muddy ones and having a Spaniel means a very mucky...

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While the house is being KondoMarie'd (today I got rid of 2 bags of clothes) we've stumbled across a few empty beauty products that are both new first buys and staples in the Smudged It household... so on their way to the bin I thought I'd give you the rundown. Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm £4.50 - My old go to before I discovered...

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 I had a pair of wellies for years and years. So long in fact that the soles had worn down. Walking used to be an occasional leisurely activity. This increased substantially with the arrival of my daughter's Sprocker, Monty, because, although it is HER dog, I have been roped in! She is saying "You let me get him!" We do love him and...

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We planned on going to a National Trust House as a day out/treat after spending the last few weeks solidly DIYing. Going online the day before, it turns out everything, yes EVERYTHING, near us is closed until March. To cheer ourselves up we baked, so we might not have had a day out but at least we had a sugar high to cheer...

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When Caroline Hirons posted a review about my mum's favourite balm cleanser and it was on 2 for 1 offer... there was only one outcome, the results above. Let's rewind a few years when I was in my final year at uni and researching my final project on selling beauty online and the way it was/is changing, A was invited to a Temple...

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Whilst wandering around Borough Market in London (SE1 9AB) we came across the Monmouth coffee shop/cafe. It smelt wonderful; I just had to have a cup. It tasted so smooth. My daughter, who never drinks coffee, tried a sip and said it tasted good. I bought a bag (the beans are ground to your specification on site) and brought home the smell and...

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The first full week of January is over (that went fast) and we're back off the sofa DIYing. Here's our first Sunday Summary of what we've been up to over the last seven days.Bye bye Christmas tree! We spent Tuesday taking down the tree, putting away the decorations including our souvenir ornaments, like this Corgi. We've finally finished the wood floor, in the...

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January isn't my favourite month of the year, I'm not a fan of the lack of sunlight or damp weather but I do love the idea of a fresh start. A chance to look at my life and wonder if there's anything I want to try or focus on over the coming 12 months, resolutions of a sort... like maybe watching less TV...

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New Year. New Start … one that will last? Hopefully! Habits are so hard to change. Requiring grit and determination and a will power so strong as to overcome ‘I’ll do it later.’ Or, better still, tomorrow. My Santa stocking (well, pillow case - the stockings are packed away in boxes since the move; eight months ago – don’t ask) contained Marie Kondo’s...

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Christmas is over, the turkey's been eaten (well we had chicken), champagne's been drunk and mince pies demolished. A New Year's begun, so what better time to start a new adventure?  Time for introductions for those who have stumbled upon Smudged It and what you can expect to see on our little space of the internet. We're a mother and daughter, Alison &...

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