Fun Things To Do On Halloween

Hi lovelies,

Ok, let's be honest here. I'm not a fan of anything remotely scary. I hate being terrified.. I can't think of anything worse! I know some people love it & I applaud you for it. I wish I had the guts to visit haunted houses & watch scary movies but I get no enjoyment out of it, just a slight heart-attack & feel sick. But, the reason I wanted to write this post, is to prove that you don't have to be into scary things to enjoy Halloween. I absolutely love decorating the house with cute sparkly pumpkins & baking cute spider cookies, so I've put together a few ideas to inspire you to do the same.

Pumpkin Picking
This is something I have wanted to do for years & finally, this year I got to go to a pumpkin patch! I took my mum & we visited Tulleys Farm. They have a PYO section on the farm, where they grow over 75000 pumpkins each year! There was so much choice, from big traditional pumpkins, to small bobbly ones! Mum & I picked a selection, as I find the little ones are perfect for decorating around the house, including our window sills, ledges & bookcases! Tulley's are open until this Wednesday, so there's still time to go along if you're local.

Baking

There are so many mouth-watering Halloween treats that you can bake from the comfort of your own home. You just have to walk into a supermarket & you are transported to confectionery heaven. I've lost count of the amount of magazines I've picked up over the past month & how many page corners I've turned to save the recipes! I made the most delicious Salted Caramel Tart this week & oh my goodness, it was incredible if I do say so myself! I decorated it using white icing to give it a Halloween theme, but I'm definitely saving the recipe for other occasions as it went down so successfully. If you simple type 'Halloween Food' into Pinterest, the most amazing selection comes up & the recipes are incredibly easy to follow. I loved the idea of these little strawberry ghosts, so easy & quick to do.

Movie Night
This doesn't have to involve scary films as such.. any Autumnal / Winter themed movie will do! The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favs, alongside Halloween Town (who remembers this from the Disney channel?!) But even films like Chalet Girl that make you feel all warm & fuzzy are definite crowd pleasers. I would highly recommend one of these over the Final Destinations! You can make up for the lack of scariness with some Halloween snacks & decorations after all!

Walk
Now you can make this as scary as you like! There's nothing I love more than wrapping up in my fluffiest coat, putting on my hat, scarf & gloves & going for a walk at this time of year. I much prefer to go in the daytime.. however if you did feel daring, you could venture out at night for an extra scary experience! (Just make sure you go with friends / family & take your phone!)

Games Night
There are so many fun games I've found online for this time of year! The girls & I are heading to visit our friend Nicola this week & I've printed off Halloween themed quizzes & prepared some games! So far we have 'pin the nose of the witch', 'Mummy wrap' & 'dangling donuts'. All you need for the Mummy wrap, is to be divided into teams & see who can wrap the person of choice in as much toilet roll as possible in a short space of time! & the dangling donuts game I thought would be hilarious to play; you just need to put some donuts on a piece of string & hang them from a door frame or something similar & blindfold the person before they try to eat the hanging donut! Think of a pinata but with donuts & you can only use use your mouth! You can tell we're taking alot of alcohol with us.. haha!



I would love to know what you've got planned for Halloween.

Whatever you're doing, I hope you have a wicked time : )

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Life Lately #141

It feels like Christmas was so long ago! Especially as James has his birthday so soon afterwards (1st Jan) & we celebrated the New Year & we're now planning my birthday! It all goes by so quick.

On 23rd December, we had our yearly friends Christmas do at Elisa & Jamie's. This year, instead of everyone bringing a dish individually, they cooked the entire meal themselves! Complete with this amazing cocktail to start. We swapped Secret Santa presents & ate waaay too much food! I always love going to this every year, they really are the greatest group of friends a girl could ask for.

Christmas is always a bit of a whirlwind for us. We travel to family every day, starting with James' mum & partner Barrie for Christmas Eve. We travelled down as soon as I finished work at 6pm for an evening of food, games & presents. They had 2 french families staying for Christmas Day, so we had tons of food & drink! I managed to make my way through a whole bottle of champagne! We left just after midnight & headed back to our flat.

What made this year extra special was we woke up on Christmas Day in our own place. I've absolutely loved decorating & making the space our own this year. We bought a Christmas tree at the beginning of December & it was lovely to add presents underneath throughout the month. We opened our presents to each other early Christmas Day before heading to my Grandparents' for lunch.

We always have a full roast dinner at lunch time on Christmas Day & this year was no exception. My family completely spoiled us this year!

& finally Boxing Day was spent at James' Dad & Maria's house with extended family. We ate way too much again & played lots of games. I'm so rubbish at most games, I usually end up last! Hahaha, but it's fun none the less.

We celebrated James' 24th birthday last weekend, starting with a meal at my parents' on Friday & we went to Globalls in Brighton for the afternoon on Sunday & played 2 rounds of golf. If you've never heard of Globalls, have a look at some of the pictures on their website! It's such a brilliant concept & really inexpensive. I actually won the 1st round & came 2nd overall, so not bad at all!

We then went out for dinner at our local chinese, which put on a special New Years Eve menu. It was brilliant for trying dishes you'd never normally order. Complete with a glass of champagne, it went down a treat! We then headed back to Allan & Maria's for fireworks to see in the New Year.

On New Year's Day / James' actual birthday, we spent the day with family. We visited Allan & Maria for the afternoon, then headed to Valerie's for dinner & games.

James got given a new board game for Christmas called Labyrinth from Alex & Charl & I'm obsessed with it! We played it on James' birthday & every night since! Like I say, I'm not brilliant at games, but this one is so much fun.

& finally, now the week of celebrations has come to an end, last Tuesday, we went to see Pitch Perfect 3 at the cinema & it was hilarious. Quite a far-fetched storyline though.. let me know if you've seen it & thought the same!

How has January been for you so far lovelies? Do you have any resolutions?

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year!

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Life Lately #134

It seems like an eternity ago now, but we went to watch banger racing on Bank Holiday Monday! It was so so so hot, I think the hottest Bank Holiday we've had on record. We were out in the sun the whole day, watching the cars race around the track. I was the only one that had been before, so it was great to watch everyone's reactions to the racing. (especially yours Jules!)

Oh, now how cute is little Maggie? My mum is looking after her a few times a week for a friend while they are working in London & I met her at the beginning of September. She is such a character, she's in to everything!

Look at these two. Aren't they just the cutest things? We had a girls night while all the boys hit the town & the evening was filled with baby cuddles, Say Yes To The Dress & pizza. 

Jigsaw puzzles. How under-rated are they? Seriously. Ever since I bought one for Elisa for her birthday, I've wanted to complete my own one. The Works had a 20% off sale a few weeks back, so I picked this one up for James & I to play. We're only half way through as it's so difficult, but so much fun!

Char finally came home for Nandos, yay! I'm kinda hoping she came home to see us, but really I know it was for the chicken.. haha! She's been away in Edinburgh for what's seemed like forever, so it was lovely to have a catch up over a bite to eat in town. 

Last weekend, James & I went to the New Forest for a couple of days. It was the perfect holiday for us, filled with animals, food & a cosy log cabin in the middle of nowhere. I'm going to write up a full post on our trip, so I won't go on about it to much now, but it really was the most lovely break away.

This week, the boys have been playing their annual golf tournament, so I decided to cook for them & Maria on Tuesday night. I was extremely proud as every plate was cleared! I made a lamb with orzo dish, with hot crusty bread & we had nuts & crisps for starter & a strawberry cheesecake for pudding. (Thanks Tesco!) Btw, would you guys be interested in me doing a 'what we eat in a week' series on my blog? I've seen quite a few YouTubers doing them recently & find them so interesting to watch. 

& finally, I'm currently staying at my parent's house, looking after Honey. They have gone away on holiday for their anniversary, so it's just the 2 of us (until James comes round for dinners in the evenings) & it's given me so much time to just sit & blog & edit all the footage I have from days out / holidays over the past few months! Expect a few more blog posts & videos over the next few weeks!

How has September been for you lovelies? Are you all set for Autumn? 

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Life Lately #115

Hello lovelies!

These past two weeks have been so busy but also so lovely.

I met up with my girlies last Sunday for brunch & games. I also got to meet Cathy's brother & sister-in-laws bunnies that she's been looking after while they've been on holiday. They are just so cute. I used to really want a bunny & it's re-kindled my love for them again.. I would give anything for a house rabbit but I don't think it would survive long with Harvey around sadly..

The Sidemen book was finally released last week! James & I have been waiting so long for this & as I'd pre-ordered it from Amazon, it arrived on release day, in mint condition. So much love for these guys.

Last Thursday James graduated from uni! We had been planning our trip to Gloucester for so long, it was amazing when the day actually came around. We travelled up on Wednesday night & stayed in a lovely B'n'B in Gloucester before heading to the cathedral early on Thursday morning for the ceremony. James' family met us there in the morning & after he had graduated, we went for lunch at The Queen's Head. It was a lovely pub & they served the biggest portions in the world.. seriously. It was amazing value for money. After lunch we headed back home.

Last Friday I made brownies for mum's birthday. She decided she'd rather have brownies than an actual birthday cake, so I spent the day on Friday baking. The brownies actually turned out really well, not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I was seriously proud of them!

On Saturday morning (mum's birthday) we woke up at 7am & headed across the fields to photograph some of our resident geese. There is around 300 Canada geese that are currently residing in one of our fields & between 7.10 & 7.20, they take off from their nesting spots. We managed to capture some beautiful pictures of them, even some of them flying over our heads! It was amazing to see & sadly, they'll soon be heading home for the Winter.

Saturday evening we had a family meal at my grandparent's house. It was lovely to catch up with them & spend time with my family. We ate the brownies & I also made some macaroons with orange buttercream in. They went down a treat!

Finally, Sunday James & I had a rare day off together & headed out with the dogs to take some autumnal pictures. I love Autumn so much now. I never used to be a fan as I'm a Summer girl at heart, but just all the gorgeous colours at this time of year are too beautiful to not fall in love with.

How has your week been? : )

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