Midweek Musings: Instagram, Anaemia and Stylish Storage

I'm writing this during one of those sacred forty minutes that happen (if we're lucky) four times a day. Naptimes. Except that for some inexplicable reason my neighbour seems to be drilling in their garden (IN DECEMBER?!) so I'm not sure how long I've got before Daph decides she's had enough of the racket. Fingers crossed.

This has been a funny old week. First off, I noticed about three weeks ago that the corners of my lips were cracked. Not chapped, but actually cracked. It was starting to get really painful, and every time I ate or spoke (let's face it, these are things that happen a lot) it hurt. It got worse and worse, until I started to resemble The Joker. I consulted Doctor Google, as ever, and was informed of a condition called angular cheilitis. Which can either be caused by thrush (!), a bacterial infection, or an iron/vitamin B deficiency.

Anyway, I continued slathering on Vaseline and Eight Hour Cream in the hope that it would go away, but to no avail. Hence me rocking up at the doctor's in desperation, only to be told that anaemia is really common after you've had a baby, as the baby nicks all your iron stores (little sods). And that an iron deficiency was most likely to be the cause, especially as my periods have restarted and I've had three heavy f*ckers since having Daph.

The whole situation has been compounded by the fact that I decided to give up red meat for a month when Daph was about 10 weeks old, because of some Horizon programme or something I'd vaguely watched while half asleep one evening, that said red meat gave you bowel cancer. So just when I needed to eat more red meat, I'd cut it out completely. Massive Homer-Simpson-style DOH.

I'm rambling, but my point really is: women who have just had babies! Do not give up red meat! Eat more steaks. Drink more blood. You need the iron. Here endeth the lesson.

Luckily my lips are getting better with the aid of some athlete's foot cream (Nice! it specifically says DO NOT USE ON THE FACE on the packet, but I'm hoping my doctor knew what she was doing when she prescribed it...) and lots and lots of burgers. And steaks. And spaghetti bologneses. Cutting out food groups is a mug's game.

Onto more salubrious topics! I've been searching for a few weeks now for some attractive storage for Daph's ever-expanding toy collection. But everything I found was really dull, or super twee. Until I turned to my trusty friends at Nordic House, and fell in love with this amazing set of three felt woven baskets - I love everything about them! Nordic House have got some really great storage pieces on offer - and their beautiful white-painted furniture range is also extremely covet-worthy. Have a look!

Finally, like most bloggers, I use Instagram (hey! you can follow me here!). However, unlike most bloggers, my Instagram feed is not a thing of beauty. Most of my friends who blog have Instagram feeds that could basically be printed out as they are and set into a collage and framed in a tasteful white-painted frame and sold for £75, whereas my feed is just the most random mish-mash of stuff I've seen/done, and that - here's the kicker - I've REMEMBERED to Instagram. I always forget about Instagram, hence it's a bit of a mess.

But this video has made me feel ever-so-slightly better about it... worth a watch, apologies if you've already seen it, enjoy if you haven't. It really made me laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzKi-o4rHw

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