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?

Graduate Girl| My Graduation

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I now have letters after my name and am a fully fledged graduate. I graduated from Northumbria University with an Upper Second Class degree in International Business Management; it took me long enough! I am very pleased to have graduated and have some very happy and sad memories from the years I spent studying both in Newcastle and France. I seem to have gone through it all with my studies, so am very relieved to be finished with this stage of my life.

I had a great day, and was a very lucky girl thanks to my ever so generous family. I received so many lovely things; seen above. I was never expecting such great gifts, but cherish every single one, and am happy that I can keep them all as mementos of my special day. I received various Pandora charms, vouchers, the biggest bunch of flowers ever, a Michael Kors rose gold watch, and my first ever pair of Louboutins! I am especially excited about my watch as I have wanted one ever since I first saw one; and obviously over the moon with my Louboutins. I had been joking for months saying I only wanted to graduate wearing a pair of Louboutins, but never in a million years expected to receive a pair.

The day of my graduation seems like such a whirl wind now, I don’t even remember certain things as there was so much to take in. It was a very stressful and overwhelming day, but I will run you through the general idea of my day.

My ceremony started in the morning at 10.30 am, so it was an early morning for me to make sure I was looking my best for it! After my ceremony I met various members of my family for photos, we then all had refreshments of Bucks Fizz and Cupcakes.  I then had professional pictures taken and made a quick stop back at my flat to have a cup of tea and rest; it was an extremely tiring day. I went for Lunch/Dinner in the afternoon at Gustos; one of my favourite restaurants on the Quayside in Newcastle. Dinner and drinks were gorgeous, as always, and it was great to sit down and take in the day as it went by vey quickly. After dinner my family left to travel back home, and my boyfriend took me to Malmasion to toast my achievement with some Champers. We spent some time there relaxing and celebrating then retired home.

Overall I had a lovely day, was lucky to celebrate it with family who spoilt me rotten; and both I and them are proud of my achievement.

I hope my followers and reader who have graduated this year enjoy their special day also.

Two Birthdays, One Dinner| The Highwayman Restaurant Review

Having just returned from the Lake District after a very busy but lovely birthday week visiting my family, I thought it was about time I got back to regular blogging, so will be writing three posts this evening as well as taking part in #bbloggers chat at 8, two to be published today, and one tomorrow.

The first, this one, is about my second birthday meal that I had in a Restaurant outside of Kendal in the Lake District. As the pictures show, I went with my boyfriend, Mum  and her partner. The photos also show my two dogs, who didn’t go, but looked cute so thought I would involve them in this post. The meal was for my mums partner’s, Steve, Birthday as well; a double celebration.

We went the the HighwayMan Inn, owned by Nigel Haworth and located in the small village of Burrow, near to Kirby Lonsdale, I have never been before but was thoroughly impressed, not only with the quality of the food and service, but more so of the concept of the restaurant. What I love is that the restaurants uses exclusively local producers for their menu. As it is close to the borders of Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire they are in a prime location to use many different local and regional flavours. The restaurant was decorated with pictures of the producers with their produce, giving it a real feel of community. The first picture shown in this post was the placemat, which again was decorated with the friendly faces of the farmers and producers.

We had a selection of starters to share, sort of like an English tapas, which included deep fried cauliflower with curried mayonnaise, cheese soufflé, deep fried fish cheeks with an apple and garlic mayonnaise, and bread with olive oil and treacle balsamic vinegar. For my main I had a cheese and onion pie, and desert a lemon meringue pie (pictured). Overall it was beautiful, I admit not the healthiest…diet starts tomorrow, but definitely worth it!

As I mentioned the diet starts tomorrow, which it definitely must! I’m off on holiday in 4 weeks, and the past week of birthday celebrations has not be favourable to my figure, I’m looking and feeling a little more rounded… oh dear! To encourage my health kick, I will be posting a few healthy recipes that I am going to give a go… I’m an awful cook, so it could be quite entertaining!

Turning 23| My Birthday in Pictures

Yesterday was a special day for me (Tuesday), it was my 23rd birthday, and my last ever assignment hand-in’s all on the same day. I had an absolutely perfect day thanks to my best friend and gorgeous boyfriend, who both spoilt me rotten. Thankfully for you guys I took plenty of pictures of my day, so you have a better idea about how I spent it.

It actually started at about 1 in the morning,when I managed to convince my boyfriend to give me my present; so he got to see my reaction obviously… not because I couldn’t wait. I was super happy with a Kindle Touch, which I have been lusting after and have not put down since! In the morning the postman visited me on three different occasions to drop off presents and cards… he was like my own little Santa!

I met my friend in town for a surprise afternoon that she had planned for me… I was not disappointed. We first went for cocktails at a favourite restaurant and bar of mine, Babuchios, then wandered across to the Hilton where I was treated to champagne afternoon tea… which was absolutely divine, the manager was a doll, and kept our champagne fully topped up all afternoon. We then went shopping in town, where I picked up a new dress for the evening.

For the evening my boyfriend took me to Mal Masion for custom made cocktails, and then to a beautiful modern Italian for dinner, Gustos. I had Garlic and tomato prawns for starter, then a pizza with roasted peppers, caramelised onions, goats cheese, pine nuts and pesto.. possibly the best pizza I have ever had! We then took a stroll down Quayside and off to a bar for a drink before retiring home. After a long day and many glasses and fizz I was very tired!

I have a few OOTD posts coming up from my birthday, plus a review on some lash inserts I tried, so keep your eyes peeled!