1. Going to Ikea with Madeleine for a fun day out!

Our housemate decided he wanted to buy furniture for his room so we all went to ikea, with my friend Madeleine (who I hadn’t seen for MONTHS). We spent hours walking around looking at everything and anything. Madeleine and I spent most of the time taking photos of us trying everything out!

A massive Best Buy has just opened near Ikea (I think it’s the first one in Britian) and I really wanted to go but we were all ravinous with hunger so we went straight to Bluewater to get some food. We went to Ed’s of course :) I had my favourite- the bean burger combo (bean burger, fries, onion rings and coleslaw) with a diet coke. Dan had his favourite- a slick dog combo with a root beer and chocolate mint malt milkshake. So unhealthy but soooo good!

2. Trip to London with my Mum

I hadn’t been to Central London for ages so this was a really fun day out. We went on the London Eye (where my mum bought me a cute I <3 London hoody), to Covent Garden market, Leicester Square, Chinatown and Oxford Street. I was so exhausted for days afterwards, we did about six hours walking! I ended up doing yoga on the Wii Fit at midnight to try and loosen up a bit so I could sleep!

3. Enjoying the weather

We’ve been having plently of BBQs in the goregous weather we’ve been having! I love having a garden and we’ve been making the most out of it. It’s so nice to sit out in the sun, having friends over or even to just have our morning cup of tea! Snowdrop has been loving it too!

4. Dad and Grandma visiting

Saturday was the first time my Dad or Grandma had seen the house since we moved. It had been way too long since I last saw them. We went for lunch at this really nice resturant which is right by our house. I had a goat’s cheese and mushroom burger, expecting it to be a veggie burger but it was literally a slice of goat’s cheese and a whole mushroom in a bun with relish! It was really good though (and I’m not usually one for goat’s cheese). I had a soda and lime with it, that’s only the second time I’ve ever had that drink and it’s really growing on me. The perfect thirst quencher for a hot day!
Afterwards we went shopping. Dad and Grandma got me a blender, hand blender and iron as house warming gifts :)

I’m so excited about the blender as it’s means I can now make home-made soups and smoothies! Nom.

5. Getting into fighting shape!

Recently I’ve been trying to give my lifestlye a healthy makeover. I’ve started eating a lot better and been trying to exercise regularly. It’s been hard and I’ve had some setbacks but I feel so good for it. Dan said this morning that he was starting to see results and my skin is much clearer. If you want to read my fitness blog, leave a comment and I’ll email you the link.

6.Work as usual

After a nice few days off over Easter and some fun weekends it’s been back to work as usual, except with lovely warm weather!
Here’s a video of us on our way home from work one day:

7. New Shower!

After being broken for AGES we finally have a working shower! It was so nice to have one yesterday after I can’t remember how long. I do love a nice bubble bath, but not every single day. I almost forgot how quick showers are compared to baths! lol

8. Taking Photos

The warm weather and clear blue skies has really got me back into photography! Dan drove the country lanes route to work the other day especially so I could take photos :) We had some extra time another day so grabbed some lunch from a supermarket (I got sushi NOM!) and went to one of our favourite spots to eat it. It’s this little lake hidden down a quiet road which always has loads of ducks and an ice-cream van! It was so nice eating lunch in the warm weather whilst watching the ducks. Another day we went to these gardens I love so I could take photos of the blossom. I’ve also been using my tripod in the garden to take photos of the blossom. I edited the last two photos in Paint Shop Pro.

[edit]This is why I love blogging and taking photos! If I hadn’t make this post I’d probably have forgotten about everything mentioned in it. I really need to blog more often and definately take more photos, especally of people![/edit]

Dan and I found these amazing gardens. There’s a river, ducks, flowers bed and a tropical greenhouse with a pond. It’s so beautiful, I absolutely loved walking around it and took loads of pictures (see my flickr). I definately want to come back here for picnics and to just relax.


I’m been MIA for so long! I am really sick of this layout and want to get a new one up ASAP. I’m not going to want to blog much until I’ve changed it, I just know it. I need a new layout to inspire me! I’ve got so much to write about and so many photos (check out my flickr). We have now moved into our new house, are all unpacked and settled, and we love it! There are plently of photos on flickr, I may even do a vlog tour soon! Anyways, until I get a new layout up I doubt you’ll be hearing much from me! Hope you are all well.

P.S. I have a new fitness blog to help me in trying to stick to my new, healthier lifestyle. If you want the URL email me or leave a comment on this post :)

This weekend was especially fun, aside from Dan and I both feeling completely exhausted/on the verge of becoming sick. Tomorrow is my sister Ashley’s 18th birthday so we all went with my mum to Top Golf for the day. We played a game on driving range, messed around taking photos on the podiums and played adventure (mini) golf. It was absolutely freezing but so much fun! At one point I hit my ball into the water trap, expecting it to just make a splash, but it bounced several times over the surface- it was completely frozen over!

Afterwards we had a yummy roast dinner made by my dad and fairycakes my mum had made for my sister (because she doesn’t like birthday cake). Then Dan watched several football matches (whilst I was drifting in and out of consciousness on the couch and played with my kitties) and gave me loads of cuddles until it was time to leave. He has been so cute and romantic the past few days :)

It was a really nice, relaxing weekend. Sometimes I just need to get away from the concrete jungle and mad rush that is London…but it’s always fun on the journey back to see all the pretty lights :) I love the feeling of travelling, it puts me in the perfect state of mind to daydream (and blog)!

Dan and I both had today off work because of the snow, which means so far this week I’ve worked a total of half a day!! Not so great from a financial point of view but it’s always nice to get a little extra time off. I’ve decided it’s time I seriously started saving. I’ve had a full-time job for about a year now and I’ve just turned 23 so I need to start beng a little more mature with my money. Dan and I don’t want to have to carry on living with other people forever, especially once we’re engaged and married. If we both get a good amount in savings and if I take a job oppourtunity I have later in the year, I can see us being able to afford a mortgage.

Most of the day was spent relaxing, we didn’t want to risk going out anywhere because the roads are still really icy. I walked to a mini-supermarket near us with our flatmate Big Dan in the evening and we bought loads of delicious food to cook for dinner for the house. Dan, Big Dan and Hayley all had steaks and I had my favourite- enchiladas! It was delicious but I’m sure I went over my allocated 1200kcals for the day. I’m going to have to restart my two week challenge tomorrow. I have decided I want to lose 11lbs so I’m starting with the two week challenge from My Big Fat Diet Show to kck-start things (and to get me to reduce my portion sizes) and then I’m going to try to just eat healthy, normal sized meals and up my exercise!

Dan’s in bed already and has been for a couple of hours. He hurt his back earlier :( I’m off to shower and then give him some much needed sympathy!

[ps]nI was finding blogging hard to get back into as I hadn’t done it regularly for so long, but I’m starting to find it much easier already and really thereaputic to write :) [/ps]

Today was my first proper day back at work after the Christmas holidays, although it was more like a half day as we got to go home really early. This is us toasty-warm in the car on the way to work. I spend most of the journey taking photos. Dan is a computer technician and a lot of his job involves going to people’s houses to fix their computers, so if he has a call booked on the way to/from work, I go with him and work in the car.

We were only actually at work for a few hours, it started snowing quite soon after we got there. A lot of Dan’s calls for the day were cancelled so we got to leave around 2PMish (via a very quick call). I took a ton of pictures on the way home, I love my new camera! I was so excited to have so much to photograph!!

When we got home we played in the snow for a while, make dinner and just watched tv. I watched My Big Fat Diet Show. It was really good, typical diet show but some much needed motivation for me to get fit! One of my new year’s resolutions this year is to get fit and eat more healthily.

Dan and I were woken up this morning by Snowdrop (our kitten) absolutely screaming. I ran around the flat frantically trying to find her. Our flatmate had just bought a new bed and he’d left his old one outside his room so the delivery people could take it away when the bring his new one. Somehow Snowdrop had managed to get INSIDE it. I have NO idea how!!! It’s one of those bed that are a hollow box, with a draw in it for storage. The bed was perched up on one end, so the draw was on top. I have to open it and reach in to get Snowdrop out! I’m so glad she hadn’t fallen asleep in there and been taken away by the delivery men!

I would’ve been back at work today but our boiler broke so I had to wait at home for the engineer to come fix it (and the new bed to arrive). Luckily I have a job which allows me to work from home, although I was freezing because the heating was off until the engineer came. Even after it had been turned back on the whole place seemed really cold for the rest of the day. I had to wash up everything that was in the dishwasher, which was a lot, but a least it kept me a bit warmer having my hands in hot water. lol

I made french onion soup with cheesy croutons from scratch ready for when Dan got in from work. I thought he needed a yummy and warm dinner as he’d had a really busy and stressful day driving in the cold. After we’d eaten Dan suddenly noticed it was snowing so we all (yes, even Snowdrop- she sat on the window-sill and looked out) ran to the window and looked at the snow falling, super exciting! The photo is me surprised/excited at the snow. Once the novelty had worn off we watched a program on cats (so cute!) and then went to bed with hot water bottles, microwave teddies and hot drinks to keep warm!!!

Today was meant to be my first day back at work but I ended up having to work from home instead today. At first this seemed like a really good thing but our boiler is broken at the moment so it was really cold! Even Snowdrop (my kitten) curled up next to me for warmth! It was strange having the place to myself for a day. Dan and I work together so we’re usually together almost 24/7 so I was really missing him by the end of the day! Pathetic, I know, but what can I say? I love him!

When Dan got back we ate then cuddled and watched the new Star Trek film. Love it. After the film I went into the kitchen and there was a HORRIBLE smell. The dishwasher has completely died, which means I’m in for a day of washing up tomorrow!

Today was my 23rd birthday! My mum and sister came over early this morning, I opened my cards and presents then got ready and went out for a fun-filled day of shopping! We went to Nando’s for lunch, I had a yummy beanie pitta (mmm) and piri-piri fries.

We walked round the shops for ages, I felt completely exhausted afterwards but I got some cute things! I got some amazing hollister jeans and an off-the-should jumper dress on sale, the cute cowgirl dress I’m wearing in the photo and a brown knitted jumper dress. I wanted a brown belt and flats to go as well but couldn’t find anything I really liked. I think Dan was pretty happy to be leaving! LOL I don’t think he had a very fun day shopping but was super sweet all day :)

On the way back we went to the caves near us very briefly. My mum and sister left pretty much as soon as we got back and I made a potato bake for dinner.

Dan and I still both felt pretty sick today so we got up pretty late and just relaxed. In the afternoon we took our housemate (and Dan’s best friend) Big Dan bed shopping. We walked around shops for quite a while so I was feeling pretty bad so we headed home via the supermarket to get some things.

When we got back Dan ran me a bubble bath to help me feel better and said he’d take care of dinner for me. What I didn’t know was that he’d bought some nice things whilst he was in the supermarket. He got Big Dan to sneak them back in the house for him. By the time I was out of the bath Dan had prepared a candlelit dinner for us! He made stirfry because he’d remembered me saying a lot recently that I fancied having stirfry for dinner, he had bought some wine glasses because I’d wanted us to have some for ages and he got one of our favourite drinks – schloer!

After dinner he bought out dessert – a chocolate toffee cake complete with musical birthday candles! That’s me blowing out the candles and making a wish. This is all because it’s my birthday tomorrow and my mum and sister are spending the day with us, so Dan wanted us to be able to celebrate alone as well. He also got my a little present, Four Christmases! He knew I’d wanted that DVD for ages, I’ve been going on about it since we saw it in the cinema.

We spent the rest of the evening snuggling watching Four Christmases and the new Family Guy Star Wars DVD. I also used some of my Christmas money to buy a pro flickr account.