Guest Post | The Stork and the Beanstalk

Today we have a lovely guest blogger + a $40 giveaway to her etsy store Moonbeatle (details below):

My full name is Fritha Moonbeatle Tigerlilly Quinn Strickland..but you can call me Fritha. Were my parents hippies you ask?*..

I was really excited when Ashley contacted me to do this questionnaire swap, I love Ashley’s humour, you should go check out her answers here. Before you read on here is a little about me:

I am a 27 year old mumma to Wilfryd Cadno and freelance artist living in Bristol, UK with my boyfriend Tom and our two fat cats (no seriously they are really fat).

I am a great believer that what you are happiest doing at 5 is probably what you are happiest doing your whole life (there are some exceptions, I’m not sure there is a huge amount of call for worm eaters..maybe restaurant critic?…) for me it was and always will be drawing.

Whilst at Uni I wanted to be children’s book illustrator, after leaving uni I realised it was pretty hard to be a children’s book illustrator, I was too lazy and that was the end of that. If you want to see a great Children’s book illustrator you should check out our mutual friend Sarah (she will feel embarrassed I wrote that)

Any parent will tell you the first year of becoming a parent is intense! That being so my artwork has taken a back seat whilst I have settled into this new and amazing/exhausting role but slowly I am getting back into my creative passions also.

Previous to having a kiddo my work had been featured in nationwide magazines such as The Metro and Company, I also designed Paperchase’s 2012 Valentines range (not boasting or nuffin ;))

I am a lover of wildlife and nature,I’m a life long vegetarian (not eating meat once, ever *) I have a thing for foxes, so much that my son’s middle name Cadno is that Welsh for Fox. We did consider Hemulen also as I love the Moomins..

I also love photography, writing and reading beautiful blogs like this one (creep much??)

I love the blogging community, the snapshots into people’s lives and the friendships that can be made.

I hope you enjoy my answers and thanks Ashley for featuring me! xo

1. What time did you get up this morning? Officially – 6am..its probably more like 5.30 though,my darling son has never been one to lie in…

2. How do you like your steak? Still grazing happily in the field, I’m a vegetarian 😉

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I had to really really think about this one which shows how long it has been. Then I realised I saw a film at ‘baby cinema’ about 6 months ago, the idea is it is a showing where you can take your babies but watch grown up films and not get thrown out if your baby cries. ‘God Bless America’ was showing..if you have seen that film you will know why 5 minutes in you realise its not the best film to show new mums! After a few hysterical laughs and hands over our babies eyes it was fairly enjoyable..in that I liked the clothes.

4. What is your favorite TV show? So here’s the thing, we don’t have TV gasp but we do watch boxsets and films via good ol’ Netflix. So whilst I don’t have a favourite ongoing series my latest favourite thing to watch is Firefly, the best sci fi/western you ever did see.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Now this answer may just make me a dullard or it may just mean I’m 100% content but honestly? I would still live in Bristol. Bristol is such a alternative and creative city. The area we live in is multicultural and yes a little run down, but our neighbours will drop in for cake and you can get a organic vegan meal in pretty much every cafe you go to.

6. What did you have for breakfast? I gobbled down marmite toast whilst trying to stop my one year old flinging Weetabix on me.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? I am a girl of simple tastes, when I was a child we would be allowed to choose what ever we wanted to eat for our ‘birthday meal’ mine was always always ‘pasta,sauce and cheese’. A second favourite would be peanut butter noodles. I was in heaven as a student, now my boyfriend makes me eat a more varied diet..

8. What foods do you dislike? Apart from meat (although as I have never actually eaten it I guess I cant say I ‘dislike’ but ya) the only thing I cant stand is beetroot, urgh!

9. Favorite Place to Eat? I love Thai food, there is a great place near us that can make all the menu with Tofu instead of what ever meat is that dish. Which is great as usually as a veggie you are limited to about three things on a menu

10. Favorite dressing? I dont’ ever use any..is that more of an American thing or am I an oddity?

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Never learnt, I live in a City and can walk to just about anywhere in 45minutes in any direction (its a small City and I walk fast)

12. What are your favorite clothes? I wear dresses as a staple, I do own one pair of jeans but they just don’t suit my shape, so dresses 🙂

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Cuba without a doubt (I was jealous to read Ashley has been!)

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Half full…of despair 😉

15. Where would you want to retire? …this city (I know I know) but in a house we built ourselves

16. Favorite time of day? 11am, its not too early. You can already have had a great morning or if you haven’t its early enough to turn things around and still have a great day

17. Where were you born? In a one bedroom top floor flat, in a bohemian area of this City i call home

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? ack none, I didn’t even watch the Olympics..I did used to be part of a Synchronised swim team though so maybe I would watch that

20. Are you a morning person or a night person? I don’t like mornings when they look like 5am (is that really the morning or is it the night?) but I am basically a granny in 27 year olds body and I cant ever seem to stay awake past 10.30pm.

21. Pets? Two fat cats, Pedigree British Shorthairs that we got from a rescue centre. They came to use so well tamed they wouldn’t even sit on the sofa, we broke their training so they would snuggle up in bed with us..now one of them pisses in the corner of the living room from time to time sigh

22. Any new and exciting news that you’d like to share? I’m trying to get back to my art work so hopefully this year will hold lots of new and exciting things for my shop!

23. What did you want to be when you were little? An artist (I think basically what you are happiest doing at 5 is what you will be happiest doing the rest of your life)

24. What is your best childhood memory? This question has been the hardest so far, mainly because I don’t have a great memory (I blame a reckless youth). I remember being a child and my dad grabbing my hand at the top of a hill and hurtling down, our legs going so fast I could never stop myself but knowing it was ok because my dad was holding my hand, the sound of my mum shrieking ‘careful!’ in the background and then reaching the bottom in super quick time out of breath and laughing.

25. Are you a cat or dog person? See question #21 …also a dog once chased me right up a tree once..true story

26. Are you married? Nope..maybe one day, maybe not

27. Always wear your seat belt? Who doesn’t?! Actually once when I was 15 I was in a head on collision when my friends mum was driving me home, after we had stopped and realised we were both alive I said “wow that was lucky, I almost didn’t put my seat belt on” I will never forget the look she gave me!

28. Been in a car accident? See above..I’ve also been in a bus crash and a coach crash where I had to crawl out the sun roof Jack Bauer style..always wear your seat belt guys.

29. Any pet peeves? People letting their dogs poo on the pavement, wee on the toilet seat, dishes left on the side and not straight in the dishwasher, people emailing me asking me to product test their vacuum cleaner (read on)

30. Favorite pizza topping? Spinach, Artichokes, Feta.

31. Favorite Flower? A Tigerlily (dur)

32. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Never taken, maybe one day..maybe not

33. From whom did you get your last email? From a company asking if I would like to product test their vacuum cleaner….clearly they picked the wrong person.

34. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Fever London, Anthropologie, Numph and Ruby Belle

35. Do anything spontaneous lately? I have a baby..sometimes we spontaneously decide to go to IKEA for lunch but thats as far as it goes at the minute..

36. Like your job? Mostly, depends if he’s had his naps

37. Broccoli? …?

38. What was your favorite vacation? We went to Corfu as a family (with Tom, my parents, siblings, and my brother’s wife) my mum isn’t well so this was a big effort to spend some quality time together, I (have two brothers and two sisters). Pre baby so we drank Retsina, sunbathed and ate..it was great although I got eaten alive by mosquitoes..I still have the scars.

39. Last person you went out to dinner with? …I tried so hard to remember this! It was with Tom 7 months ago I think..I think we need a date night again!

40. What are you listening to right now? My son listening to Barefoot Books.

41. What is your favorite color? Blue..No! Yell.. (Is thrown over the edge of the pit and eaten by the killer rabbit)

42. Have you ever been robbed? Of sleep yes for well over a year now.

43. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blue..No! Yell.. (Is thrown over the edge of the pit and eaten by the killer rabbit)

44. Do you drink? There not called Champagne Thursdays for nothing (or officially, playgroup)

45. Red bull or coffee? Tea but I do drink Coffee now and again..never Red Bull, ack

What do you know?, we’re both robbed of sleep and both dream of Cuba. I suggested we meet up one day in Cuba, who’s in? Anyway, on to the goods…

Fritha’s etsy shop is full of fantastic goodies. Here are some of my favorites:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

You can enter to win a $40 store credit to Fritha’s etsy shop Moonbeatle by any of the five following ways (please leave a separate comment for each entry):

1. Follow Tigerlilly Quinn on Google Friend Connect

2. Visit Moonbeatle and leaving me a comment as to what item (s) you would chose if you were to win.

3. Follow Tigerlilly Quinn on facebook and leave a comment on this post.

4. Follow Tigerlilly Quinn on Twitter and leave a comment on this post.

5. Follow The Stork & The beanstalk on facebook and leave a comment on this post.

That’s five ways to enter and five separate ways to win. Best of luck and many thanks to Fritha for being so effin’ rad.

This giveaway is open worldwide. I will announce the winner in two weeks. Please make sure your email address is valid, as the winner will be contacted via email. Good luck!

{I asked my beautiful sister to help me out with a post this week to allow more time for family bonding while Willy has off work. He goes back today, by the way, so wish me luck. These few weeks spent with our boys have been some of the best. With no further adieu, here’s some memories from our shared childhood…}

I was right about Hooper’s age when Ashley was born. I have no memories of this trauma but, according to family story, I was so pissed off with this new arrival monopolizing my mother’s time and boobs that I threw fruit at my sister. Namely, bananas. Granted, Hooper has a much sweeter disposition than I will ever have, but I still worry for little Van’s safety.

There’s also a family story that says I despised Ash so much that I called her “beast,” but I couldn’t say beast—it came out as “Beeze.” To this day, that’s what I call her—my Beeze.

We didn’t get along for the first 15-20 years of our lives. There wasn’t all-out fighting (though, don’t be fooled, Ash is vicious), but there was bickering, accompanied by a few sweet moments that revealed the true love beneath—my favorite “trick” was to tell her, “Give me a french fry and I’ll be your best friend.” And she would do it, every time. I’m not sure if you understand how much Ash loves french fries.

It’s only in the last decade or so that I’ve come to truly appreciate the bond siblings have. It’s like no other. There are memories, experiences, and feelings only my sister and I share. There are ways she knows me that no one else will. Ever. Here’s proof:

Ash will remember when:

We drove the Maui rental car (aka Monsta) all the way around the island
We smoked that weed before we got on the plane
We drove by her crush’s house, repeatedly
We ran around Grandma Helen’s living room while she played the fast piano song, usually after a meal of mac-and-cheese and grape juice
We pretended our Barbie dolls were Olympic gymnasts, complete with those custom leotards we spent hours sewing
We caught mom and dad having sex (It happened, mom, stop denying it)
We thought mom and dad might get a divorce after that Tahoe trip
We jumped on trampoline until the sun went down
We busted dad as Santa Claus
We watched “Price is Right” and ate Eggo waffles with towers of whipped cream every summer morning
We said, “Don’t tell mom and dad, but…”
We went to dad’s basketball games, drinking orange soda in the back of his van with those twins whose names I’ll never remember
We romped with Kasey
We each flirted with Dan Benson and cruise ship Joe
We memorized “Nadia”
We memorized “Grease”
We rollerskated in the garage to Janet Jackson
We made dad cry with that picture of us in our softball uniforms
We almost got away with you having that party while mom and dad were out of town (until dad found the beer bottle in the rose bush)
We named our goldfish after McDonald’s food
We begged our parents to have another kid
We complained about our parents, cried about boys, disagreed about everything, dreamt about gymnastics, shared way too much information about…well, I’ll spare your readers, laughed about everything

One of my most meaningful memories is being there for the birth of Van. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there with all the pain and grunting and bodily fluids. I thought I’d feel helpless, just standing there, but I could tell in her eyes that my presence meant something, even if all I could do was finger-comb her hair and kiss her forehead and tell her, “you’re amazing” (because, fucking hell, labor is no joke).

And now I’m not just her sister; I’m an Aunt to her two little boys. That’s probably my most important title to date.

I wonder what memories Van and Hooper will build together, probably without any of our knowledge. They’ll have stories together known only to them. I can only hope they’ll throw their aunt a bone every once in a while.

Start typing

November 2024

A Mother's Journal

It’s always nice to hear the opinions from other moms. We live in an overly-saturated age of information these days and what were once fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants decisions are now thought out and methodical. Helping weigh the pros and cons of cloth diapering is freelance writer and mama Sara.

Wondering if you should You Use Cloth Diapers? Here’s her take on the pros and cons:

So! Should you use them or not?

Disposable Diaper Con: Disposables are filled with chemicals that, while safe, can really irritate your baby’s bottom. Some babies get rashes or other skin irritations from them. You might not want so many chemicals that close to your baby.

Whether or not you choose cloth or disposables is up to you. Don’t let anybody bully you in either direction. You’re allowed to make the choices that work best for you, your family and your new baby.

Thank you, Sara, for stopping by to share your opinion. What has your experience with cloth vs. disposable diapers been like?

You can read my opinions on cloth diapering by clicking here.

one // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight // nine

And here’s some of the fabulous leggings they currently have available in their online shop:

And thank you all who keep voting over on Top Baby Blogs. I’m in second place now, which puts the biggest smile on my face. Cheers!

Today we have a lovely guest blogger + a $40 giveaway to her etsy store Moonbeatle (details below):

My full name is Fritha Moonbeatle Tigerlilly Quinn Strickland..but you can call me Fritha. Were my parents hippies you ask?*..

I was really excited when Ashley contacted me to do this questionnaire swap, I love Ashley’s humour, you should go check out her answers here. Before you read on here is a little about me:

I am a 27 year old mumma to Wilfryd Cadno and freelance artist living in Bristol, UK with my boyfriend Tom and our two fat cats (no seriously they are really fat).

I am a great believer that what you are happiest doing at 5 is probably what you are happiest doing your whole life (there are some exceptions, I’m not sure there is a huge amount of call for worm eaters..maybe restaurant critic?…) for me it was and always will be drawing.

Any parent will tell you the first year of becoming a parent is intense! That being so my artwork has taken a back seat whilst I have settled into this new and amazing/exhausting role but slowly I am getting back into my creative passions also.

Previous to having a kiddo my work had been featured in nationwide magazines such as The Metro and Company, I also designed Paperchase’s 2012 Valentines range (not boasting or nuffin ;))

I am a lover of wildlife and nature,I’m a life long vegetarian (not eating meat once, ever *) I have a thing for foxes, so much that my son’s middle name Cadno is that Welsh for Fox. We did consider Hemulen also as I love the Moomins..

I also love photography, writing and reading beautiful blogs like this one (creep much??)

I love the blogging community, the snapshots into people’s lives and the friendships that can be made.

I hope you enjoy my answers and thanks Ashley for featuring me! xo

1. What time did you get up this morning? Officially – 6am..its probably more like 5.30 though,my darling son has never been one to lie in…

2. How do you like your steak? Still grazing happily in the field, I’m a vegetarian 😉

4. What is your favorite TV show? So here’s the thing, we don’t have TV *gasp* but we do watch boxsets and films via good ol’ Netflix. So whilst I don’t have a favourite ongoing series my latest favourite thing to watch is Firefly, the best sci fi/western you ever did see.

6. What did you have for breakfast? I gobbled down marmite toast whilst trying to stop my one year old flinging Weetabix on me.

8. What foods do you dislike? Apart from meat (although as I have never actually eaten it I guess I cant say I ‘dislike’ but ya) the only thing I cant stand is beetroot, urgh!

9. Favorite Place to Eat? I love Thai food, there is a great place near us that can make all the menu with Tofu instead of what ever meat is that dish. Which is great as usually as a veggie you are limited to about three things on a menu

10. Favorite dressing? I dont’ ever use any..is that more of an American thing or am I an oddity?

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Never learnt, I live in a City and can walk to just about anywhere in 45minutes in any direction (its a small City and I walk fast)

12. What are your favorite clothes? I wear dresses as a staple, I do own one pair of jeans but they just don’t suit my shape, so dresses 🙂

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Cuba without a doubt (I was jealous to read Ashley has been!)

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Half full…of despair 😉

15. Where would you want to retire? …this city (I know I know) but in a house we built ourselves

16. Favorite time of day? 11am, its not too early. You can already have had a great morning or if you haven’t its early enough to turn things around and still have a great day

17. Where were you born? In a one bedroom top floor flat, in a bohemian area of this City i call home

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? ack none, I didn’t even watch the Olympics..I did used to be part of a Synchronised swim team though so maybe I would watch that

20. Are you a morning person or a night person? I don’t like mornings when they look like 5am (is that really the morning or is it the night?) but I am basically a granny in 27 year olds body and I cant ever seem to stay awake past 10.30pm.

22. Any new and exciting news that you’d like to share? I’m trying to get back to my art work so hopefully this year will hold lots of new and exciting things for my shop!

23. What did you want to be when you were little? An artist (I think basically what you are happiest doing at 5 is what you will be happiest doing the rest of your life)

25. Are you a cat or dog person? See question #21 …also a dog once chased me right up a tree once..true story

26. Are you married? Nope..maybe one day, maybe not

28. Been in a car accident? See above..I’ve also been in a bus crash and a coach crash where I had to crawl out the sun roof Jack Bauer style..always wear your seat belt guys.

29. Any pet peeves? People letting their dogs poo on the pavement, wee on the toilet seat, dishes left on the side and not straight in the dishwasher, people emailing me asking me to product test their vacuum cleaner (read on)

30. Favorite pizza topping? Spinach, Artichokes, Feta.

31. Favorite Flower? A Tigerlily (dur)

32. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? Never taken, maybe one day..maybe not

33. From whom did you get your last email? From a company asking if I would like to product test their vacuum cleaner….clearly they picked the wrong person.

34. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Fever London, Anthropologie, Numph and Ruby Belle

35. Do anything spontaneous lately? I have a baby..sometimes we spontaneously decide to go to IKEA for lunch but thats as far as it goes at the minute..

36. Like your job? Mostly, depends if he’s had his naps

37. Broccoli? …?

39. Last person you went out to dinner with? …I tried so hard to remember this! It was with Tom 7 months ago I think..I think we need a date night again!

40. What are you listening to right now? My son listening to Barefoot Books.

41. What is your favorite color? Blue..No! Yell.. (Is thrown over the edge of the pit and eaten by the killer rabbit)

42. Have you ever been robbed? Of sleep yes for well over a year now.

43. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blue..No! Yell.. (Is thrown over the edge of the pit and eaten by the killer rabbit)

44. Do you drink? There not called Champagne Thursdays for nothing (or officially, playgroup)

45. Red bull or coffee? Tea but I do drink Coffee now and again..never Red Bull, ack

What do you know?, we’re both robbed of sleep and both dream of Cuba. I suggested we meet up one day in Cuba, who’s in? Anyway, on to the goods…

Fritha’s etsy shop is full of fantastic goodies. Here are some of my favorites:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

You can enter to win a $40 store credit to Fritha’s etsy shop Moonbeatle by any of the five following ways (please leave a separate comment for each entry):

1. Follow Tigerlilly Quinn on Google Friend Connect

2. Visit Moonbeatle and leaving me a comment as to what item (s) you would chose if you were to win.

3. Follow Tigerlilly Quinn on facebook and leave a comment on this post.

4. Follow Tigerlilly Quinn on Twitter and leave a comment on this post.

5. Follow The Stork & The beanstalk on facebook and leave a comment on this post.

That’s five ways to enter and five separate ways to win. Best of luck and many thanks to Fritha for being so effin’ rad.

This giveaway is open worldwide. I will announce the winner in two weeks. Please make sure your email address is valid, as the winner will be contacted via email. Good luck!

There’s also a family story that says I despised Ash so much that I called her “beast,” but I couldn’t say beast—it came out as “Beeze.” To this day, that’s what I call her—my Beeze.

It’s only in the last decade or so that I’ve come to truly appreciate the bond siblings have. It’s like no other. There are memories, experiences, and feelings only my sister and I share. There are ways she knows me that no one else will. Ever. Here’s proof:

And now I’m not just her sister; I’m an Aunt to her two little boys. That’s probably my most important title to date.

I wonder what memories Van and Hooper will build together, probably without any of our knowledge. They’ll have stories together known only to them. I can only hope they’ll throw their aunt a bone every once in a while.

4. What is your favorite TV show? So here’s the thing, we don’t have TV gasp but we do watch boxsets and films via good ol’ Netflix. So whilst I don’t have a favourite ongoing series my latest favourite thing to watch is Firefly, the best sci fi/western you ever did see.