Our 5 Year Anniversary!

Hello lovelies!

On Friday, James & I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. I mean, how crazy is that!? In a way, it sorta doesn't feel that long as it's like he's been apart of my life forever, but at the same time, it's gone so quickly.. weird huh? 

Due to time off work & booking the hotel that we did, we actually celebrated a week early. James' Dad & Maria kindly bought us a Secret Escapes voucher for Christmas last year, so we used it to book a night's stay at the beautiful Warren House.

We didn't want to travel too far from home, meaning the outskirts of London was a good option for us. Warren House is in Kingston-Upon-Thames, which is about an hours drive away. We decided to make a few stops on the way to our hotel, starting with Chessington Garden Centre. I absolutely love it here. We used to visit quite often when James worked at Chessington World Of Adventures, but we hadn't been since early Spring. It looked so beautiful & festive. Garden centres are one of my favourite places to go to meet a friend for tea or lunch as there's always so much to see & eat! Perfect place to pick up a unique Christmas pressie.

The added bonus of this particular garden centre is it's dog friendly & there's even a assigned place for doggies. It gave me the chance to sneakily take a few photos of cute ones!

After lunch, we then headed to Jurassic Encounter Golf, which was literally down the road from the garden centre. Despite it being freezing, it was really good fun. James actually plays golf properly, but mini golf is about as far as my ability will stretch, so it's fun to play it together, despite it getting seriously competitive!

We could check into our hotel from 3pm, so we'd timed our arrival about 4pm, just when it was starting to get dark. We were greeted with prosecco & were shown to our room, which over-looked the gardens.

After a few glasses & a nap we went down for dinner at 7pm & basically had the dining room to ourselves! We were wined & dined & truly spoilt with a three-course meal. I had salmon pate for starter, James had goats cheese ravioli & we both had a steak for main & white chocolate cheesecake for pudding. To say we were full afterwards was an understatement!

The next morning, we woke to a full English breakfast & an all-you-can-eat continental buffet in one of the many dining rooms. It was soooo delicious. 

We then wanted to explore a bit of the local area before heading home & after some researching online, we headed to Richmond Park. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but when we started to drive through, we couldn't actually believe how close we were to London! We honestly felt as though we were in the middle of the New Forest! There was so many beautiful deer as well, this massive 'army' that we found as well as a smaller heard, with a gorgeous red stag.

We had a walk through the woods & despite it being freezing cold, the sun was shinning & it honestly felt so Christmassy! I'm honestly so sad I'd never been before, but can't wait to go back again already!

Have you ever visited Bushy Park? That one is next on our list!

Hope you're having a wonderful December so far lovelies! The Christmas countdown has officially started! Make sure your following me on all my social media (links below!), as I'm truly in the Christmas spirit this year. Also, I was lucky enough to recieve the M&S Advent calendar from my mum & I'm opening each day of my Instagram stories if you wanted to check that out as well!

I would love to read your Christmassy blog posts, so please leave them in a comment down below.

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Life Lately #138

Hello lovelies!

In the middle of November, 4 of my friends took part in a local theatre production of Two. If you don't know the play, you can read all about it here. It's usually performed by 2 people funnily enough, however, they are a small theatre group of about 10. It was so well done & was lovely to see them on stage.

Last weekend, we finally got to celebrate Charlotte's birthday with her. You might remember a few weeks back I posted about Our Adventure To London, that Char had suprised us all with for our birthdays. We decided to plan a night out for her, starting with a posh dinner at Miller & Carter Steakhouse in Brighton. I'd never been there before, but the food was delicious! We had a starter & a main before heading back to Cathy's for games, presents & birthday cake.

On 17th November, my Grandad turned 90! We had a birthday buffet celebration with all the family on the Sunday afternoon. Elisa made him a cake which was personalised from his time in the Merchant Navy. It was so nice to get everyone together to celebrate.

We met up with James' mum & Barrie last Monday for dinner at Prezzo. It was so nice to see our little town covered in Christmas lights & decarations. We also managed to catch up with Allan & Maria on Sunday for brunch at Bills. Allan had also recently celebrated a birthday & they'd just returned from a snowy trip to Iceland so it was lovely to hear all about it.

& finally last Friday, James & I travelled up to Kingston-On-Thames for an over-night stay at Warren House, to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. (which will actually be this Friday!) We stopped at Chessington Garden Centre for a look at all the Christmas decorations & to have lunch in Sedum Restaurant. I absolutely love it there, we used to go quite often when James used to work at Chessington World Of Adventures. We then played mini golf at the Jurassic Encounter Golf Course, before heading to Warren House. The following day, we headed to Richmond Park, which I was so excited for! We saw lots of deer & had a walk through the woods (where I got to play in the leaves!). It's such a beautiful place. 

How has your November been lovelies?

James & I are decorating our tree this weekend & I couldn't be more excited! I'm also going to be blogging a lot more frequently throughout December, so keep an eye out for some festive posts! : )

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September & October Favourites

Glittery Nail Polish

A glitter top coat just completes my everyday look at the moment. I'm loving using this one from Nails Inc over dark reds, greens & even pastel colours like lilacs & baby pinks. If you want to check out more of my nail art, you can see them over on my Instagram, or I regularly post about What I'm Wearing On My Nails so keep an eye out for those!

Soap & Glory Mascara
I only seem to discover new products when I run out of my exsisting ones. My favourite mascara is & always will be the Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara, but I have to say, this one is slowly creeping up my list. I think it's pretty similar to the Maybelline one, it definitely lengthens my lashes but it seems to hold the lift longer throughout the day.

The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying
I bought this book a few years ago & never actually read it. I mean, I started it, got a few pages in, then completely forgot about it & moved on to the next book. I rediscovered it the other day when I was sorting through my collection of books & decided to give it another go. It amazes me how the subject of tidying can be so interesting. That sounds weird, but why would you write a whole book on how to tidy? Isn't it easy..? Marie Condo is a brilliant author & honestly captures your attention on the subject right from the first page & I can't wait to put into practice all the tips & tricks she suggests.

Gold Accessorize Eyeshadow 

I mean, can you get anymore Autumnal? I've absolutely loved wearing this for evenings out over the past month, paired with this Primark top, they make such a statement together. 

Primark Top

I picked this up in the Primark in Poole on our holiday to The New Forest last month & I'm obsessed. It's perfect for days out, or dinner & drinks in the evening with jeans & boots. It goes with everything & I can see it's going to be a staple in my wardrobe. I went shopping with my girlies last week & I also picked it up in red.. it's just such a lovely style, I couldn't resist.

Music

Ellie Goulding - First Time

The Citrus Clouds - Fire Exits

TV

TOWIE

Ah the new season started in September & as always, I'm obsessed. 

Dr Foster 
So, it was only when someone said to me 'season 2 starts next week' did I suddenly remember 'I forgot to watch season 1!' James & I started this last month & we are hooked. It's so gripping. We are half way through season 2 at the moment, so no spoilers please!

Events

James & I went on holiday to The New Forest in the middle of September & had the most amazing time. I wrote a full post on our adventure which you can read here if you like.

James got a new job! I'm so proud of him. It's still working with animals but is in a much better paid position. He's just started his first week so we're excited to see where it'll take him in the future.

The girls & I headed to London for the day & we generally had one of the best days ever. We had a picnic, visited Choccywoccydoodah, The Sky Gardens & finished by seeing a show in the evening. It was called The Comedy About A Bank Robbery.

I got my hair cut! I absolutely love it. I now have a longish bob & it's so much fun to style.

We celebrated Mum's birthday on 22nd. We had a chilled day together, eating lots of food & venturing out on an Autumn walk.

& finally it was Halloween! I didn't go out to celebrate this year, but we all dressed up at work & it was so much fun. I'll obviously fill you in a bit more in my next life update post!

& seriously, I can't actually believe that when I come to write the next Favourites Post, it's going to be reviewing the end of the year.. how scary is that!? So much has happened, it's going to be quite an emotional post I think.

Did you celebrate Halloween this year? : )

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Life Lately #135

Hello lovelies,

I mentioned in my last update post that I was staying at my parent's house looking after the animals. Just look how adorable Honey looks snuggled up in bed. I thought she would be getting me up at the crack of dawn, but I actually had to wake her up! The chickens were so cute as well, they all lined up in the morning for their food & went to bed obediently at night.

Charlotte organised a late birthday celebration for the 4 of us in London at the end of September. I'm going to write a full blog post on our day, so won't talk to much about it now, but we had such an amazing day. I was the only one (bar Char obv!) who knew what we were doing & it was so much fun giving the girls clues through-out the day! We visited The Shard, Choccywoccydoodah & saw The Comedy About A Bank Robbery in the evening!

Last week, we had a launch night at work for the Year Of Culture that's coming in 2019. It was so beautiful, we got out the red purple carpet & had lanturns all around the foyer. People came from all over the District to watch the launch & it truly made the building feel magical.

I met up with my girly Ricka for brunch at Bills last weekend for a catch up. We hadn't properly seen each other since the middle of May, so we had so much to talk about. 

The girls & I went to see Home Again last week & I haven't enjoyed / cringed at a film for so long! Reece Witherspoon is fantastic as always & the 'young boys' were brilliant as well. Highly reccomend it for a girls night out.

Saturday night I spent with my Grandparents. We had a family meal at their house to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary in September (they were away at the time) so we had a long over-due catch up, was so lovely.

& finally Char came back for the weekend, so we arranged to meet up with our other friend Shez for a roast. There is nothing better than a roast dinner on a Sunday. Since moving out, James & I haven't yet cooked a roast, but that's made it seem like more of a treat when we do have it, either round parent's houses or out & about.

How has October been for you lovelies? 

Getting excited for Halloween? I've already planned my outfit!

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Lanzarote 2017

Hello lovelies! 

So, we're at the end of September, sorry what!? Where has this year gone.. I can't actually believe October is nearly upon us & Christmas cards are in the shops. not that I've started buying presents or anything..

I was meant to write up this post about a month ago, but you know, life again, has got in the way. I feel like I say this most times I start a blog post, but it's so true. There's always so much to do when you're an adult. Anyways, let's take a trip back to my Summer holiday & pretend I'm not sitting here with my 'Winter Glow' candle & heating on, shall we?

If you were a follower of my blog last year, you'll remember Cathy & I went on holiday to Lanzarote & stayed in the Coronas Playa hotel. So this year, when we were deciding where to go away, we couldn't think of anywhere else we'd rather be, so we went back! Our best friend Boop also came along for the ride ; D

Like I mentioned, Cathy & I had already been last year, so I'm going to leave a link to last year's blog post here for you to have a read all about the hotel & entertainment side & just post a few special pictures from our holiday in this post.

This was the view from our room over the relaxation pool. They have an activity pool to the left, which is where we chose to sit. They do a full day of games & have music playing from 10.30am to get the day started.

This is the view from the hotel to the beach. It was quite literally on our door step!

One of the resident turtles.

We decided to go down to the beach one afternoon with the inflatables (doughnut & Sally the flamingo) FYI I got sand in places I never want to get sand in again.

The evenings were fun, we'd always get dressed up (except one night where we came back to the room & played games & ate chocolate!) & go to dinner, before heading to the Pavillion for the evening quiz & live entertainment. Same as last year, we had completely varied acts, including some circus performers, a comedian (who was extremely inappropriate & cringey!) & even our reps performed in a talent show.

Thankyou girls for the most amazing holiday, let's not wait another 10+ years for the next one!

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Our Adventure To Wales

Hello lovelies!

James & I took a trip to visit our friend Tom at the end of May. We'd been planning on visiting Wales for the longest time, so seeing as he lives in Tenby, it was the perfect excuse to go!

From our home town, it was due to take us a total of 5 hours without traffic & pit stops for food, so we set off at 2pm as James had to work in the morning & arrived at 9pm. The traffic was actually quite bad around Heathrow, but we managed to get through to the Severn Bridge without too much trouble.

For our first night, we stayed in a B'n'B in Tenby called Little Red Rooster Rest. It was quite an unusual place, filled with lots of little touches, including this towel swan that we found on our bed when we arrived!

We woke up early the next morning to meet Tom & check out of our room. We'd only booked one night here, for the second & third night we were staying in an apartment I found through Air B'n'B, which was in Saundersfoot. It was absolutely pouring that morning, so we decided to head to Carmarthen town centre to do a bit of shopping. We saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie before heading back to Tenby to eat at The Blue Ball.

They just have the cutest shops in Tenby high-street. I spotted this one called Bali Hai which was selling ice creams & milkshakes. If we weren't so stuffed from dinner, we definitely would have gone in!

Tom was performing in a play during the week we went to visit, so we dropped him off about 6pm at the theatre & went exploring the beach at Saundersfoot.

It was so quiet - perfect time to take some sneaky pictures of the dogs running around!

We then went & checked into our apartment in Saundersfoot. I can't stress to you how adorable this place was, the photos really don't do it justice. I absolutely love booking through Air B'n'B as it always feels so personal. The owners lived next door & came round to meet us when we arrived & made sure we settled in without being intrusive. When we entered the apartment, we also found they had left us milk & tea making facilities, despite it being self-catering, which was a lovely touch.

We woke early the next day to beautiful sunshine, perfect for our day at Folly Farm. Tom visited the zoo last year & said how lovely it was & he was right! There were lots of animals to see & talks to listen to.

As well as farm animals, they had a lot of the bigger animals you expect to see at zoos, including my favs, giraffes!

We then headed to Tenby for a proper explore, including a walk on the beach & seeing where the final episode of Sherlock was filmed! It's such a beautiful place, I swear I could live there happily for the rest of my days.

After our guided tour by Tom, we headed back to the apartment to get changed before heading to see Tom's play in the evening. It was such a wonderful show & was lovely to see all his family who were either in the show with him, or watching that night. We went for a drink afterwards & got home just after midnight!

Unfortunately the next day, we had to make the 5 hour journey back home again. It took us another 7 hours, but we eventually made it, just in time to change & head out again to Allan & Maria's pre-wedding dinner! But that's for another post..

Have you ever visited Wales? I can't wait to start planning another adventure there..

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