The Days Gone By| Feb to March

It feels like forever since I wrote one of these posts, so I thought I would let you all know what I’ve been up to over the past month.

 

Valentine's Dinner- As you will know from my Valentines Day post, this year Matt and I decided to stay in and have an evening to ourselves. To make it special I cooked dinner (seems I never cook), and I’m happy to say I never gave him food poisoning so I would say it was a success.

Hart of Dixie- I am a little bit obsessed with this programme, and I know a few of you are also. If you loved Rachel Bilson in the OC you will love her even more in this…She is my girl crush!

Ebaying- I have been going mad on ebay this past month. I have so far sold about 40 items of clothing and made about £200. I think the people at the Post Office are sick of the sight of me, but it's great to get rid of my fat clothes and get some money for some new ones!

Theme Hospital- After seeing all the talk of the relaunch of SimCity, it had me wishing that Theme Hospital would be relauched also. So after a long search online I found out how to get the game to work on newer operating systems. You can see more info here if you are interested.

My New Apartment- Matt and I have signed for a new apartment and I am so so so excited! We will finally be living together again after 9 months of long distance, and we will be living in a building I have had my heart set on so I couldn’t be happier! Expect lots of posts about interiors, furniture and pictures of my new apartment in the coming months!

Confused.com- This past week, thanks to my blogger friend Jamie, who writes the Zombie Fitness Blog, I was featured on Confused.com. The article was about their top fitness tips from favourite fitness bloggers, so I was honoured to be featured.

Personal Fitspiration- As I was sorting through my pictures on my laptop this past week (blogger problems) I came across some bikini pictures of me from 5 years ago and was amazed at my flat stomach! I think I’m going to print out the picture and put it by my treadmill as some fitspiration!

Matts Birthday- My boy turned 27 last week so we were obviously out celebrating. We went for some food and plenty of drinks in Leeds last weekend, and I definitely paid for it the next day!

Hangover Breakfast- The second hangover of the month, this time from meeting up with my friend whom I moved to France with. We haven’t met up in about 6 months, so we went out for a few quiet drinks in Jesmond, Newcastle, which turned into playing drunken darts at my friends house till 2 in the morning. It is safe to say I was very thankful for this breakfast in the morning.

Fitness Clothes Haul- I finally went and bought some new workout clothes! My road running trainers are a little tired and have given me a sore foot this past week, so I went and bought these gorgeous new pink ones, along with new leggings and bras!

Mothers Day Afternoon Tea- As today is Mothers Day I have spent the day with my gorgeous Mother Bar. We went for a run on the fells this morning, had some laugh when trying to complete some hill sprints, and treated ourselves with homemade afternoon tea.

Froggy’s- The pond in my mum’s garden is currently home to hundreds of little frogs! We went up this afternoon to watch them all.

 

Do you love Hart of Dixie as much as I do? Have you ever made money from Ebay? What have you been up to over the past month? Anything exciting?

Fifty Facts and a Catch Up

 

Pretty Snow- Cookie Dough- YouTube video- Dinner-Sunrise- The Hospitality Show 2013-Playing in the snow- Chilli and Ginger Salmon- New running trainer insoles- Cajun Chicken and Wedges- Card from my boy- Mozzarella and tomato Chicken- Woolly Hat- Easter Egg- Posing before work- Baking cookies- Cutie George- The Devils Number-

So it is finally the end of January… what a long month! Pay day was yesterday and I’m already itching to spend it after a month of having very little money. I never learn! It seems that January is everyone's least favourite month, and although it’s not my favourite I don’t hate it. I think January is a great time to focus on yourself and enjoy life's little luxuries. I mean the majority of people don’t have any money and we have all set ourselves New Year Resolutions, so why not get cracking on improving yourself than dwelling on the end of the holidays.

I have had a quiet month on the home front but a very hectic one for work. This month I got to go on my first ever business trip and although it was only to the Birmingham NEC it was great to get out of the office and talking and networking with everyone else in my industry.

So this month has been great for my career and also for my blog. I have already completed one of my New Year Resolutions which was to film a You Tube video. I was so scared and nervous about it, but after getting such an amazing response from all you lovely people I have gone ahead and made my second video, which you can see above. The second one was so much easier to make than my first one, I felt more at ease when recording it and am happy to hear that my accent has toned down and is a bit more natural now! So to anyone thinking about dipping their toes into the YouTube world my advice is to do it! Yes it is scary but you will never know how it goes until you do it!

Subscribe to my Channel so you don’t miss my next video!

How has your January been? How have you been working on your New Years Resolutions?

Days Gone By| It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 

With only a week to go, it’s definitely starting to look a lot like Christmas. I don’t know about you but I enjoy the build up to Christmas just as much as, if not more, than the day itself! That’s probably why I start my personal build up from as early as possible. I started buying presents in October, I made homemade gift tags in November and I always put up my tree on the 1st of December.

I thought I would share with you my life in pictures from the past few weeks, in particular the Christmassy ones!

• The other weekend my boy and I went Christmas shopping in the lakes. I didn’t have much left to buy but wanted to get a few smaller gifts/stocking fillers, and it’s always great to support local shops. While at Bowness-on-Windermere I got his lovely picture of the snow topped fells.
• As I mentioned above, I started Christmas shopping in October so I managed to finish buying it all quite early. I enjoy wrapping presents just as much as I enjoy buying them, and this year I made my own gift tags featuring my cute and troublesome dogs. You can see how I did it here.
• As the newbie at work I was drawn the short straw and had to write a load of Christmas cards for our clients. It took me a good hour or so as I had to use my fancy writing, but on the plus side it did put me in a festive mood!
• My gorgeous Christmas Tree! I take pride in my Christmas Tree decorating skills and love nothing more than putting the Christmas music on and trying to and cram as many baubles on the tree as possible.
• As  you may have seen from my Twitter or Instagram, I bought this adorable faux fur Russian style hat from Primark last weekend. It only cost £6 so was an absolute bargain! I love how glamourous it makes me feel!
• A little shot of my Christmas Graze box… yes I am still buying these! I find that their little boxes are perfect for snacking at work.
• Christmas George! Don’t you just love decorating your dog in Christmas decorations! He doesn’t look impressed does he?
• This is the Christmas Fairy that I have had since I was a tiny little baby and it still sits proudly on top of my mum’s Christmas Tree.
• My mum also bought new Christmas decorations this year. The one I am most in love with is the Christmas glittery Hedgehog… how cute!
• My dogs got treated to new Christmas jumpers aswell. They were going to debut them on Christmas Day but we were too excited so took some pictures of them now.
• The last picture is from June this year when my friends and I travelled around Finland and Lapland. While we were there we visited the real Santa at his workshop in Lapland. I mean you can’t go to to Lapland without seeing Santa Claus!

Have you been getting in the festive spirit? When do you put your Christmas tree up? Do you have any Christmas traditions?

The Days Gone By| A Week In Pictures

A little update for you all. To be honest I have not been up to much recently, as I have been pretty much tied to Kendal as I am dog sitting for my mum while she is honeymooning in Hawaii… so jealous! So apart from the weekends when my boy comes down to visit, I have been keeping the company of two very lively and sometimes annoying dogs and working hard at work. However despite the lack of excitement in my life these past few weeks I have still taken plenty of pictures.. blogging problems.

• Walk with a view- Last Sunday I dragged my man on a nice long walk with the dogs, the view is the view from the top of the hill I run up, it over looks all of Kendal and across to Oxenholme. I am really enjoying the change in weather, yes the rain sucks, but it rains all year here in Lake District anyway. Its the crisp cold days I am loving.
• Clean brushes mean a clean face- I admit, I am not great with washing my makeup brushes, yes beauty blogger cardinal sin. However last weekend I bought some baby shampoo and spent a good hour washing all my brushes, and the difference in them is amazing! I must keep this up as my makeup looks so much better after applying it with clean brushes.
• Are you breast aware? My Breast Cancer post this past week has received some great feedback. I wasn’t sure on whether to publish it at first as I did not want to offend or lecture anyone, but as it is something close to my heart, and something that is affecting my family right this moment I wanted to talk about it and am glad I have after all your lovely comments. I hope I have helped some of you be more breast aware.
• Drinking green, eating clean- After over indulging both before and after my mums wedding, I haven't been feeling too great so decided to embark on a bit of a detox to kick start my healthy eating regime. You may have seen the post below that talks about it. I essentially have been eating and drinking homemade smoothies and soups and having a healthy dinner, very simple, but effective.
• Autumn television- Oh yes, oh yes oh yes! Gossip Girl is back! I am totally obsessed with this programme! I am so sad it is the last season, I won’t know what to do with myself.
• Puppy cuddles- Pretty self explanatory!
• Wednesday is treat day- This has to be one of the highlights of my week. I came home form work on Wednesday to this scone and note from my lovely neighbour who has been helping me look after the dogs while I am at work. She attends Weight-Watchers with my mum on a Wednesday morning, so after the meeting they always go for coffee and a treat, and this week she brought me a treat… how lovely!
• Cani-x- As I have restarted my healthy living regime again, I have been out on the fells running with my dogs again. It proves a bit more difficult to run down hills when its muddy, I find I slip a lot more and the dogs attached to me pulling like crazy really don’t help. It’s all still fun (until they pull me over).
• Luscious lashes- I had temporary lash inserts applied over two weeks ago, and they are still surviving! Yes there are some gaps but this picture was taken just before I went to bed, so you can see I can still get away without wearing any mascara. A blog post will be coming up.
• Domestic Goddess- Baking at the weekend is something I love to do, I just have to try and not eat all my batch at once. This week I made peanut butter and chocolate squares
• Christmas Presents- I am already buying Christmas presents! Firstly I want to be organised and spread the cost, but secondly it’s because I’m already excited! I am a little Christmas crazy!
• Christmas Chocolates- Again as I am Christmas crazy these were purchased and soon consumed by me and my man this weekend… whoops. Back to the smoothies tomorrow!

What has been the highlight of your week? Have you had a quiet one like me? Have you started Christmas shopping yet?

A Week in pictures

*Champagne cocktails*

*Healthy dinner*

*Mother Bear and her giant salad*

*View from my bedroom at home*

*Zumba Time*

I've had a lovely week, I've gotten over my illness, and had some quality time spent with friends and family.

• Champagne Cocktails- To celebrate finishing our assignments and exams for the past semester me and my best friend went out for a dinner date to celebrate. It was Restaurant Week in Newcastle, where many normally high priced restaurants have special offers on. So we went to Babucio's on Quayside and it was beautiful. We finished off dinner with some gorgeous champagne cocktails.... yum!
• Healthy Dinner- this week I have been healthier, and my lovely boyfriend has been cooking some yummy healthy dinners. This was chicken and noodles with chilli, ginger and garlic, with some sweet potato mash... again Yum!
• Mother Bear and her giant salad- My mum came to visit me in Newcastle for the day and treated me to lunch at Olive and Bean, a great deli that has a wide range of salads, sandwiches and cakes, all homemade... beautiful. We had a lovely shop in Fenwicks as well and she treated herself to a few bits and bobs... a great girly day.
• View from my bedroom window at home- I spontaneously went home with my mother, and spent a couple of nights back home in the country. I love getting away from the city. My bedroom at my mums backs onto the allotments and fells (She lives in the Lake District) so its amazingly quiet!
• Zumba time- My mum also had me exercising with her. I tried the Zumba DVD which is loads of fun. I have the video game for the Wii, so already knew some of the dances, we had lots of laughs!

I hope you all had a great week also.