Washing Up!

We hand-wash our dishes rather than use a dishwasher for many reasons:

• Dishwashers are too destructive on vintage dishes and cutlery
• It's another machine to breakdown or need maintenance
• I don't like the chemicals in the dishwasher detergents

I have lots of arguments with people about how environmentally friendly dishwashers are.  I maintain the actual creation of a machine, the waste when they are disposed of and the harsh chemicals going into our water system all outweigh the fact that they often use less water than hand washing. 

Sorry, but babies aren't cute - old Teddy Bears are

My friends post pictures of their babies. At the moment they are talking about the royal baby and that all babies are cute (even if they are royal is the general comment).... It's not just the parents, but childless people too, talking about the cuteness. I haven't come out and told them that I don't think babies are cute.

Sure, when you hold them they smell nice and turn all your nurturing switches. The more time you spend with them, the more your instincts to protect kick in. It's nice. But they aren't cute.

They especially aren't cute in pictures. I've seen cute pictures of toddlers - mostly the things they are doing and the clothes they are wearing, but babies? No.

Doing strange things to them like putting them in flower pots is especially not cute. That's just sickeningly bad taste.

Generally I just keep my thoughts to myself and think 'each to their own'. I think baby animal photos are sometimes cute, but I'm not into the obsession with cute really at all. I think Teddy bears are cute, but I don't collect them. I'm not into looking at pictures of everyones' cats either - I'm just not a part of this Cult of Cute....

Panda image is from this Etsy shop