29

I don't know how but every year, regardless of it I've been blogging constantly or not, I find myself sitting down in the middle of January to review my year. I guess it's become a bit of a tradition, but seriously, reading last year's post back, it seems like no time has gone at all.

So 2019 was quite a big year for me looking back.

Firstly, James & I bought our first home together! I've mentioned previously our journey with properties; which have included renting our first 1 bed flat back in 2017, we then moved in Spring 2018 to a 2 bed house, to now finally being able to say we are the owners of a 3 bed house as of September last year! I do really want to write a full post on our homes & how special they've all been ('cos lets be real here, I get seriously attached to things waaaaay too much) but re-reading last year's post & remembering writing the sentence "We haven't decided what we are planning yet for our next move & if we'll be here a while longer, but everything seems to be moving in the right direction, so watch this space" I genuinely remember typing that as I was scrolling through Rightmove looking at all the amazing houses & setting up viewings, which we started in February last year. It was a complete roller-coaster. I lost count of how many properties we viewed (yes I am picky, but I'm so pleased I was as our property now is everything I hoped for) & I knew it would take time for the right one to come along. Anyway, fast forward to the end of September & we got given the keys & the rest is history. I can't begin to tell you how happy we are here, to have celebrated our first Christmas in our new place was so special, surrounded by amazing friends & family. There really was nothing like it.

Another massive change in our lives is James & I have adopted our first fur baby! I'm actually writing this on Wednesday 15th January & we are picking him up on Saturday 18th & we actually can't wait. I'm not sure when this post is going live, but yay! If you want to see lots of puppy content, head over to my Instagram account. We have also set up a home account, which you can follow & I'll link pup's here too.

Ah so now would be a good time to mention fitness maybe? Start of the New Year, new you right? What a load of rubbish! Haha. However, last year I did discover an exercise that I love, it definitely deserves a mention. If you know me, you know I'm not a massive fan of exercise. I tried the gym (once, hated it!) but I found a class with my work besties that I actually look forward to & feel fabulous afterwards. It's called Bounce. It's honestly so much fun, we do a class once a week (wish I could do more, but just depends on working hours) but I honestly can't recommend it enough. I'm still not there 100% with my fitness, but it's definitely helped me get on the right track. I'm so grateful as well but for my birthday this year, my Grandad kindly bought me a Fitbit, so I'm extremely excited to track my calorie burn at class.

Leading nicely on from my Bounce classes, last year James & I took part in the South Coast Challenge. We walked 25km, from Eastbourne to Alfriston over the Seven Sisters - raising just under £1000 for The Alzheimer's Society in memory of my Nan. It was an incredibly emotional day, for myself & my family, but I was so proud of us for doing it. As we'd been training for the walk, I found some beautiful places in our home town. I feel like it was a year for discovering new things that actually were right under our noses to start with. There's nothing better than walking out your front door & being able to walk to town in 20 minutes, but equally, 5 minutes down the road you find the most beautiful countryside. Feeling so extremely lucky. 

As well as raising money for The Alzheimer's Society, I couldn't forget about the other amazing charities. My work ladies & I took part in the Race For Life this Summer & raised an incredible £1100 for Cancer Research. Sally is trying to persuade me to do the Pretty Muddy this year & as I'm away for normal RFL, I don't see how I'm going to get out of it.. haha! We also took part in Wear It Pink, Children In Need, Christmas Jumper Day, Elf Day & Red Nose Day, where we dressed up as superheroes. I also organised 2 extremely successful quiz nights as work. The most recent one being last Friday where a last minute raffle managed to raise £150 for The National Kidney Federation. I'm extremely passionate about raising money for charity & even though it's going to be hard to top last year I'm going to try my absolute hardest to keep raising as much money as possible for these amazing causes.

So onto a completely different side of the year was all the incredible places I visited. It wasn't a year of big holidays - but James & I managed to spend 3 nights in one of our favourite places, the New Forest. We did this a few years ago & loved it so much, it's the perfect base for travelling to Bournemouth for the day & we also explored the surrounding area. I honestly can't recommend it enough. We were also lucky enough to visit my godparents in Cambridge In September. I used to go & stay with them for a few days when I was younger, but hadn't been to Cambridge for years so it was lovely to explore again. Oh & I had the best few days away with the girls. We booked a lovely 2 night stay in Birdham at the end of October & it was honestly amazing. Highlight? THE ORANGE TWIRLS! Hahaha. I joke, we made some amazing memories & I'm extremely grateful to them all.

Apart from holidays, I was lucky enough to go to London with our family, to see the amazing Phantom of the Opera, as well as recently Dear Evan Hansen with my girls. I would highly recommend seeing both if you get the chance. Dear Evan Hansen blew me away completely as I had no idea of the story before seeing the show & it was simply beautiful. We also saw McFly in November which was absolutely amazing. My teenage self could not contain the excitment, despite being in the scariest seat in the world. Hahaha! 

I also got to meet two new arrivals last year; Gemma had her second little one Harry & Sarah welcomed baby Ella into the world. Both absolutely gorgeous & I can't wait to watch them grow up.

& someone else who has grown up ALOT, is Honey. My little girl celebrated her 10th birthday in October & we threw her a sausage birthday party! Make sure you check out the photos on my Instagram page, she had the best day!

 Oh & I can't fail to mention hosting another 2 events - my Easter Party & Summer BBQ. The Summer BBQ I do every year but the Easter Party was such a success, I'm hoping to do that again this year!

So there we go, these are my highlights. I started this post thinking shit, what am I going to write about?! I haven't done anything this year, but actually looking back at all my photos, I've actually done quite a lot & achieved so much. So how am I going to end this.. Promise to blog more? Exercise more? Adopt more dogs?? Haha, that last one sounds like the most likely to happen. But in all seriousness, my Fitbit is currently vibrating my wrist, telling me to move more, so I'm actually going to walk round the garden a few times & grab some lunch.

Thankyou if you've made it to the end of this post. It's actually felt lovely being able to put all this down & review the year. I have an amazing feeling about 2020, I'm not going to lie. 

Oh & before I forget, here's the link to my last blog post. Honestly, please give Anna's book a read if you're thinking about setting up some goals for this year. It's never too late to start a new habit : )

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Our Trip To London

Hello lovelies!

On 24th September, the girls & I travelled to London to visit our friend Char, who had arranged a day out for our birthdays. I was the only one that knew the itinerary for the day, the other 3 girlies had no idea where we were heading too! Char had made clues that we could all open just before we headed to our next location. 

Our first stop was a picnic in Hyde Park. Now I know it's a big park, but nobody warned me how many dogs would be there! I managed to spot 5 sausage dogs within 2 hours. I was in heaven. And on to the actual picnic, Char made us all a packed lunch, which was so sweet. We each had a juice box, with a chicken wrap & salad.

The girls were then given their next clue, which resulted in us heading to Choccywoccydoodah! I didn't actually realize you could sit & eat in one of these shops, as I've been into the one in Brighton before & never realised they had an upstairs seating area. We'd just had lunch in the park, but their menu was too good to resist! I had a pink lemonade, with salted caramel brownies & ice cream, which was incredible! It amazed us all how filling everything was, which resulted in quite a few of us getting doggy bags for the jounrey home.

We then got given our tickets for The Sky Garden, which Char had booked up months ago! If you haven't heard of the Sky Garden, it's basically exactly what it sounds like, a garden, in the sky. The views over London are incredible, we could see for miles.

It's actually a free attraction, where you can purchase drinks & food if you wish from the bars when your up there. Such a beautiful location to visit, I'd highly reccomend going.

Char's photo

& finally we headed to see a show in Piccadilly Circus called The Comedy About A Bank Robbery. The show is written by the Mischief Theatre Company, who did The Play That Goes Wrong, which has been on my list of shows to see for ages! It was absolutely hilarious, I can't reccomend it enough. We had seats in the first circle, that were 'restricted view', however it was extremely quiet in the circle, so we just moved a few seats along & only had small pillars on one side of the stage, so for £10 per ticket you couldn't really complain!

We then said goodbye to Char & headed home, with a cheeky stop at McDonalds on the way! 

Just want to say again Char how amazing the day was, you are an incredible human. This post is in honour of your birthday! Hope you're having the most wonderful day & we all look forward to spoiling you in a few weeks time!

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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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Life Lately #86

 

Hello lovelies,

 

Feels like I haven't done a Life Lately for ages! (Well I haven't so that's probably why..)

 

Myself & James went for a meal at our local Smith & Western back in August, which we haven't been to for ages! It was delicious. Those curly fries are to die for!

 

Harvey went to the vets to have a check up & a blood test. He's always so hyper so seeing him all drowsy after the aesthetic was really odd, but he was back to his normal self the next day, he just wasn't keen on being left at the vets..!

 

On the bank holiday Monday at the end of August, James' family hired a canal boat for the day. It absolutely tipped it down & we were all soggy by midday! We stopped at the most gorgeous pub for lunch to warm ourselves up. I had a jacket potato with salad along side some nachos!

 

If you've been following me on Twitter &/or Instagram, you'll have seen I've been on holiday to France! (Sorry for the lack of posts while I've been away!) We stayed in the most gorgeous chalet, which had a shared pool between 10 houses, but it was very quiet & peaceful as we went off-season. James has been going to the chalet for over 13 years, & it was so lovely to go & for him to show me around. I'm going to do a full post on our France trip soon, so keep a look out for that!

 

& finally, I managed to meet up with my girl Lorna for a trip to London. We live about an hours train journey from London & although I know a lot of people that commute each day, I rarely get the opportunity go to there. We arrived at Victoria & bought lunch before heading to Hyde Park & sitting amongst the pigeons & squirrels in the sunshine. We then headed to Oxford Street, where our first stop was New Look, followed by Forever 21 & finally we headed into Lush. We had a full guided tour around the shop, going through all the new & some of the old products. If you haven't been, it's definitely worth a visit!

 

How have you been lovelies?

Normal blogging will resume from now on, I promise : )

 

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Life At The Moment #69

Hello lovelies!

Haven't done a catch up in a while & as the last few weeks have been very eventful, I just wanted to do a quick round up.

First of all, I know it was nearly a month ago (crazzzzzzy how fast the time goes) that it was Christmas! If you're like me & still have those festive blues, you can check out our Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Boxing Day adventures here. I love Christmas, but after it's been & gone, it feels like your life is half empty.. is that just me?

At the end of December, myself, James, Alex & Flo went to Winter Wonderland. You can see a post about our adventure here. I'd highly recommend going if you haven't, even after Christmas day it's still a beautiful place to visit.

Myself & my work colleagues finally managed to meet up (so hard to find a day where none of us are working) & we went for a late Christmas breakfast at the local Beefeater. I never realised before but they do an all-you-can-eat breakfast before 10.30 every morning. We had a full cooked English, plus access to the continental breakfast menu, which included croissants, cereals, toast, muffins & yogurts. Oh & endless refills of tea & coffee. Perfect.

It was James' 21st birthday on 1st January & I managed to book a hotel just outside of London for New Years Eve. It was the most stunning place, complete with heated flooring, a tv in the bathroom & the biggest bed to spread out on. I've done a full post about our stay which you can read here.

& finally, one of my New Years Resolutions was to re-connect with friendships & last Sunday, myself & my three best girls got to spend the day together; shopping, eating & playing games. It seems silly, but to find a time when we're all free is near enough impossible with our working hours.. just need to book in a few more days now : )

What have you been up to recently?

As always, please leave your links to your blog posts, I'd love to read them!

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James' 21st

Hello my lovelies, hope you're all well.

 

Today I wanted to share with you a very special post featuring something I had been planning for nearly a year. Back in February 2014, I booked myself & James an over night stay on New Years Eve at Hotel Verta. 

 

As well as being New Years Day on the Thursday, the 1st January is also James' birthday & being his 21st & all I wanted to make it memorable. We headed up to London just after midday on the Wednesday & stopped for lunch at Nandos, before checking into our hotel at 4pm. Hotel Verta is located on the River Thames, 4 miles from the London Eye. I'd packed a picnic & some champagne for our evening meal & we sat in bed & watched Alan Carr until midnight, where we had the most fantastic view of firework displays over the Thames.

 

Nandos!

On the train to London & our room

Our view



Getting packed up on New Years Day

I insisted on wearing my hat. Biggest mistake. It was so windy I had to hang on to it the entire day..

 

Oh & the hotel has it's own helipad where we saw a helicopter land & re-fuel in the evening! We then headed home for more celebrations with the family & to eat a ton of cake & Chinese on New Years Day.

 

How did you celebrate New Years? : )

 

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Wimbledon!

If you read my previous post, you'll know I was lucky enough to go to Wimbledon last Friday (mens semi-finals day) Oh my gosh. Simply amazing..

 

My tennis nails!

Myself & Dan watching Murrey in the semi-finals

See that guy line judging? That's Ferenc! : )

Ice cream, actually delicious, even if it was very over-priced.. : ' )



What I decided to wear : )

I still can't actually believe I was lucky enough to go.. & to top it off Murray lifted the trophy today as the champion at Wimbledon! Ahhhh!

 

I just can't believe the atmosphere there. The whole day felt magical as you walked around the arena & watched the players on court. We also managed to watch our friend Ferenc at work, he's a line judge & we got to enjoy strawberries & cream with him during lunch. : )

 

Did you watch the final today?

 

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Life At The Moment #40

Hello / James won me this : ) / Nandos / Crumpet (my first one everrrr!) / Late night scrabble / OOTD / Ombre / Baby's new harness / NOTW / Best film ever / New shirt for work / Naughty / Penguin case in honour of London Zoo / Giraffes! / Magic Mike poster, yum / NOTW / Sunnies / & James found my spares.. / Baby / OOTD / Sunny walk / OOTD / We're silly / Alan Carr's last day. :'(

Today, I'm in the worst mood ever.

 

Not only do I have to say goodbye to my first car which I've had since I was 17, I've got problems with my pay check, feel ill & my head feels like it's about to explode.

 

But, this past week has been a good one. : D

 

If you saw my previous post, you'll know myself & the boy went to London Zoo last Thursday. It was so much fun & we got to see the giraffes which was the highlight of the day for me.

 

I also managed to squeeze in a shopping day with Gemma, a meal with Dan & a dog walk with Honey.

 

Just need to breathe through today & all will be good. Typical Monday eh? : )

 

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London Adventures

Hey dolls, how are you all?

Firstly, what did you think of my gorgeous guest bloggers? Weren't they amazing? If you missed any of the posts from the past week, please please please go & have a read. On Saturday, Jen posted her Christmas wish list, quite a few items on there I really really want! Felicity posted on Monday about our gorgeous obsession we both share, Dachshunds! & finally Katie did a gorgeous introductory post on Wednesday. Make sure you read their posts & visit their blogs, you won't be disappointed. : )

Anyway, if you follow me on Twitter, you will have known I went to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park on Wednesday! (Sorry I did post ALOT of "I'm excited" updates!) I met up with Gords in London (It's our half way point as he's still at uni) & we travelled on the underground to Hyde Park. Winter Wonderland has free entry but you pay for the activities that you want to do & obv any food & drink you want! So I thought I'd share some photos with you from our day.

This Santa was actually quite scary.. he was laughing around in his chair.. it was quite contagious, but still.. scary!

We went on the 'big wheel' to see the entire Winter Wonderland from up high. It was a cross between a big wheel & the London Eye. The little pods weren't as warm as we thought they were gonna be!

This was the view from up in the pod, looking over London. : )

Gords bought me some tea to warm me up. It was freeeeezing!

The Christmas market was adorable, even if it was expensive! They had tree decorations, homemade goodies & jewellery.

After the Winter Wonderland, we were trying to decide where to go & Gords mentioned the M&M Shop in Leicester Square. One of his friends at uni had suggested it when she heard we were going to London, so we hopped on the tube & explored. For those of you that haven't heard of / been to the M&M Shop, it's basically four floors of M&M chocolate & merchandise! Heaven. : )

This was the 'pic-a-mix' section. How awesome is this!? I did actually make Gords hold the bag under every tube & I tried to get two of each colour.. let's just say I got at least two of each colour.. they kind of all fell out as soon as you pulled the lever!

My selection of M&M's!

So next we ventured over to Covent Garden. I love this part of London, it's so gorgeous, especially at Christmas time. Just look at the beautiful decorations!

It was so nice to have a day like this before the mad rush of panto starting at work & before all the children broke up from school!

& it is now only a week till my boy is home for Christmas, yay! So excited.

But yeah, panto has started at work now! I did my first shift last night. I'm mostly selling the merchandise, (programs, flashing batons, wands, glasses, etc) but I am working on the box office too! We've got about forty shows in total, so from now till the 2nd Jan, it's gonna be non-stop!

Hope you're all well girls, chat to you soon!

London Science Museum

Hello girls. : ) 

Here's a few pics from the other day when I went with Gords to the Science Museum in London. : )

This was amazing. It was a large world that rotated & changed colours to show climate change.



Neil Armstrong. : )

This train was called Puffing Billy. How cute is that. : )

This dress was made entirely of Metro newspapers! : )

This was so hard to take a picture of without any children playing on it. (Or Gordon for that matter). It's a animated floor. When you stepped on it, it rippled like real water & the fish went mad! : )

This is probably the hardest thing to explain. It was a black wall with little lights on & it was "The sound of the internet". It was actually the highlight of our day. Imagine a robot voice reading out random phrases from a dating chat room. This is basically what was happening, but it wasn't monitored, so anything could come out. The best one "I like my nipples bitten". Hahaha, how immature are we?! So funny to see parents running to put their hands over their kids ears & rushing them out the room!

I love this clock. It was hanging on a wall & everytime a second went by, it moved it's little legs & turned the clock. I can see why you'd be freaked out if you're not a fan of creepy crawlies, but this was awesome. : )

Anyway, I've now sorted all the guest posts out, thankyou to everyone who sent me one! They'll be posted over the next two weeks while I'm away. 2 days! I'm so excited. Hope you're all well. : )

London Day Out!

Last Wednesday, I went to London with my boyfriend for the day & we visited Portobello Road, had a walk through Kensington Park & finally ended up on Oxford Street, standing next to a horses' head & some jelly men. Mad right? : )

The gorgeous tea pot down Portobello Road

Sign in Portobello Road

Sleeping duck in the park. :)

Fountain

The bear water fountain. :)

Horse head in Oxford Street

Jelly people in Oxford Street

So yeah, I thought I better pick just a few photos from the day instead of posting a HUGE page of them. : )

It was such a gorgeous day, we came home from London about 5pm & had dinner at the beefeater in town, then went to see Transformers 3 afterwards. It was sooo good & worked really well in 3d.

Just want to say a HUGE thankyou to all my followers! Can't believe over 100 of you are interested in my random posts & thoughts. So much love to all of youuuu! Oh & I've created a facebook page for my blog - please pop over & give it a thumbs up!