#QUEENSONTOUR in Cinque Terre - 7 dos and donts to make your trip boss

Can I pull off boss? Or indeed a hashtag in the non ironic sense? Never mind.

Recently, I uncharacteristically booked a holiday a whole year in advance. Normally I just go wherever the bargain Ryan Air flights take me, but I had some air miles and I fancied visiting the insta-porn which is Santorini so next September, off I go!

Talking of insta-porn, in case anyone wants to be equally organised and book a holiday for October next year, or even April/May I can recommend Cinque Terre, a collection of beautiful little coastal towns, about 45 minutes from Pisa.

Cinque Terre I like to think of as the poor man's Amalfi coast, and I mean that as a massive compliment as a poorer Amalfi coast is still a lot richer than me. And some restaurants in Cinque Terre sell prosecco for like 13 euros a bottle which I am pretty sure nowhere in Amalfi does...

Cinque Terre translated from Italian means "5 lands". "Lands" I think is a little bit of a stretch, more quaint colourful villages built up the coast side, which at night make the whole coast line looked like it is covered in lanterns and fairylights. It is uber romantic, but I really liked visiting with my gals, who I felt indulged my swoons at the views and relentless instagramming more than Will anyway. ;)

Pumpkin spiced waffles

Hi. I hope you are all feeling more sprightly today than I do. Apparently, now I am 29, drinking 3/4 of a bottle of wine and 1 cocktail when out for dinner is enough alcohol to make the next day feel like there is a goblin in my head scratching his nails on a blackboard before taking a break to bulldoze into my grey matter.

Yesterday morning, when I was living my best life hangover free making pumpkin pie waffles in my pjs whilst listening to my favourite spotify playlist (which is a wonderful mix of Frank Sinatra and Justin Bieber), feels like a far away dream. But it did happen. These waffles did happen, as these blog friendly photos of me pouring maple syrup over bacon and them prove. Hmm bacon. Do you know what goes well with bacon. Pumpkin. Whether that pumpkin is stuffed with bacon and cheese and roasted (YUM) or pureed and popped in waffles, pumpkin and bacon is a dream team, so you should make these waffles y'all.

Copper pipe leaning ladder DIY

It will never cease to amaze and excite me, and disappoint and concern Will, the homewares you can diy with simple plumbing copper pipes.

You feel all practical and fancy because you are working with metal and drop terms like "copper pipe cutter" but really working with copper pipes is probably most akin to working with lego, so it suits me fine, and I have been gradually filling mine and Will's home with little copper pipe accessories. But Will does actually like this one! Or so he says.

I've been hankering after a decorative leaning ladder for a little while ago, as that is the kind of relatively useless but pinterest friendly home pieces I am into, being the basic bitch I am. Every visit to one of the antiques and junk shops round the corner I've kept an eye out, I've looked on ebay a dozen times, but how do you post a leaning ladder? The alternative, driving home in our two seater car with a ladder sticking out the window seems a little risky. But then exactly like an apple falling on the head of Isaac Newton it hit me - copper freakin pipes. Rose gold coloured, easily cut-able, easy to stick together copper pipes. One of my proudest creations is copper pipe based (I made this table from the tutorial on A Beautiful Mess) and this project is easier still.

9 nice things and 3 slightly bad things | September and October

Happy Sunday gang! Hope you are having a lovely one. I've been to Birmingham this weekend, and now I am using Will being out of the house dropping his niece at uni as an excuse to buy things for my next homeware DIY attempt he would not approve of. Mwahaha. Enough of the cackling, 9 lovely and 3 mildly bad things from September: