Homophone wallcards

I love a good pun, me. There is quite simply nothing I find more delightful than a game of words; English is a language chock full of interesting little quirks like seemingly insane spellings, irregular verbs and homophones.

We learn about homophones in primary school, nice and early on so we can spot them coming a mile off. They're those tricksy little words that sound the same, but are spelt differently, like 'made' and 'maid' or 'pear' and 'pair'.  There Their They're confusing even for grown ups (see what I did there? HOMOPHONEJOKESLOL). Which is why you might want to have a few of these wall cards from Present and Correct scattered about your abode to help you remember that the homophone is constantly lying in wait, ready to trip you up at any given moment in time.

I love the nice, clean typography, which is aesthetically pleasing and helpful for learning. Did you know that teachers often favour the sickeningly friendy font Comic Sans because it's one of the few sans serif fonts (essentially this means it doesn't feature curly tails or hats on the a) and that makes it easier for children with dyslexia to read. Unfortunately, comic sans makes me want to simultaneously scream, vomit and tear out my eyes every time I see it, particularly as it's usually plastered all over some form of passive-aggressive note in a toilet or kitchen, so it makes me really happy to see this pretty little font featured on these wall cards.

Additionally, each card has a great set of homophones on both sides, so if you get bored of 'piece' and 'peace' you can flip it over and give 'hole' and 'whole' a turn.

The Homophone Wall Cards cost a mere ten of your English pounds. I was duped into spending more than that on a vodka, lime and lemonade on Saturday night in Soho. One of these would not only be better for my general behaviour in public places, but it would also be, like, totally helping me learn more stuff and that.

For anyone who is interested, here's a list of homophones. I don't know why you would be, you're here to kill time on our lunchbreak presumably, but if you do happen to be a little bit bored and interested like I was, you can have a nosey there.

I originally wrote this post for About Your Dress Blog, you can still find it amongst heaps of other posts by me and two other talented ladies there if you'd like to go and have a peek.

Up-cycling

Sounds kind of made up doesn't it? Well I guess that's because it is a made-up word, but if you think about it for a moment, all of the words had to be made up at some point, so I'm comfortable with writing about up-cycling. Especially as it has good meaning behind it, recycling but BETTER because it involves lots of lovely vintage bits and bobs!

My good lady-friend Ria wrote a blog post recently about upcycled suitcases and sweet little train cases by Etsy Seller Remixed Vintage, but I have found another supplier that might load your luggage, if up-cycling is your bag. Sorry, I have a terrible taste for alliterative puns and innuendo. I'll be an embarrassing mum one day.

Brighton Pod are a 'promoter of original design' in the UK and so, if you have a bob or two, you can find some lovely things on their website, including these gorgeous bags by 'uoldbag' which have been transformed from something old into something unique and simply wonderful.

Take this delight, the 'Large Great Britain up-cycled vintage suitcase' this could be yours for £225, plus £20 delivery. See how the map has been carefully decoupaged onto the suitcase and varnished with lacquer so that it's waterproof! So clever!

Or there is the 'English channel up-cycled vintage suitcase', which has the most lovely shape, wouldn't you agree? To own that treasure, you'd have to part with £255 smackeroonies, plus £25 delivery, but it would be totally worth it. I can just see it, in the spare room of my imaginary house, resting at the end of the bed on a trunk, holding nice fluffy white towels and toiletries for my guests...

This Flamingoes and Roses suitcase for £390 also particularly takes my fancy and is hand embroidered (no mean feat I imagine!) I'd feel particularly pleased with myself as I trundled off on my holidays proudly brandishing it.

The last one I'll feature, which was a Very Hard Thing To Choose I can tell you, is this splendid red vanity case, which would set you back £160, but you could be happy in the knowledge that you were the only person in the world to own one and that you were supporting British artisans. And that would be a comforting thought indeed.

Okay fine, no more pictures, but whilst I'm at it, you need to look at this, this and this. The one with the mouse in his mouth is particularly terrifying, which is ideally what you want your suitcase to communicate to the baggage handler at Heathrow: Treat me with care, dude, or I will destroy you like this owl destroys mice and other small woodland creatures.

Oh, by the way, you can follow @BrightonPOD on Twitter, like I do, then you'll hear about all the other lovely things they stock.