Afeitar

Beetroot tart tatin

2012-01-29T19:28:00.001Z

This was our dinner on Tuesday, it was so delicious. I'm a rather big fan of beetroot, in the past few years I've been eating it more and more. I picked up these baby beetroot from the farmer's market on Allerton Road and knew instantly that they would be perfect for this tart tatin recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Everyday.

We are not vegetarian at all and do enjoy our meat dishes but we, like Hugh, have been trying to eat less meat lately for a variety of reasons. It's nice to have more variety and not centre meals around meat. It's also better for the environment, cheaper and healthier. I've adapted this recipe slightly and increased the quantities too because we have a bigger frying pan. If you have puff pastry in your freezer, this is such a quick & easy meal to make.

Ingredients

400g baby beetroot

2 tbsp sherry vinegar (or any other nice vinegar really, Hugh F-W suggests cider)

2 tbsp demerara sugar

Olive oil

Knob of butter

One sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180c/gas mark 5.

1. Scrub the beetroot and take the roots off and slice them in half.

2. Heat up a large pan that can go in the oven (no plastic handles!) and melt the knob of butter and add the olive oil. Then add the vinegar and sugar and mix until the sugar dissolves.

3. Add the beetroot to the pan and fry gently in the sauce. Then cover with foil and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the beetroot is nice and tender.
4. When the beetroot is tender and juicy, cover the pan with the rolled out puff pastry, cutting off any excess and tucking the pastry around the beetroot to cover it.
5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry has puffed up nicely and turned golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly, then place a plate upside down on the pan and flip the pan over to turn the tart out onto the place.

This was seriously delicious. We ate our tart with some sweet potato wedges but it'd be nice in the summer with some salad too. We've just bought some golden beetroot from the Lark Lane farmers market and we're going to try it with those this week. The vinegar and sugar creates a lovely sweet sauce for the beetroot and the pastry is perfect because it doesn't go soggy like sometimes when you make a traditional tart.

Are you a veggie or willing to embrace veggie food?

Curly sue - Remington Pearl review

2012-01-25T14:00:00.000Z

Thanks for all your lovely comments about my curly hair on my last post - I love it too! My hair is quite thick and coarse and never really took to curling products very well. I had my hair curly for my sisters wedding, but by the end of the day they had nearly fallen out. They were just done with GHDs by a hairdresser. I always used to play with my mum's curling tong and heated curlers when I was younger too but it was always SO disappointing. My hair just wanted to be straight. More recently I even tried velcro rollers which just wasn't good at all. My hair just refused to create any volume with them. I am pretty rubbish at doing things with my hair and my usual effort extends to using hair straighteners on them. I can't even braid hair!

So, when I had started reading about conical wands I decided to look into them. I thought about yogi wands but they were too pricey for something I had never really tried. So, I plumped for this Remington Pearl curling wand. I got it for £20 but now it has gone back up to £25, but I still think that it's worth that because of the results I've had with it.

Before - my hair is very straight and boring at the moment.

This is the curling wand. It comes with a heat protective glove to use whilst wrapping your hair around the wand and also the little silver pouch which is heat protective. I used vo5 volumising spitz on each section of hair as I curled it. I put half of my hair up in a mini bun and then start curling the bottom half of my hair

The wand has an adjustable heat setting, from 180-210. I always have it on the highest because my hair is quite resistant to heat. I section off each part of my hair to be curled, twist it around the wand and then leave for approximately 20 seconds. This is a bit of trial and error really because at first I wasn't leaving it long enough and was getting a very weak curl in my hair, but the longer I leave it, the curlier it is. It depends on your hair type and what effect you want. Also using wider sections of hair results in looser waves whilst smaller sections results in tighter curls.

And after! This is what it looks like straight away, which is a bit too perfect and defined for my liking. I gently combed through the curls and back combed underneath them slightly and tousled it to my prefer style. Then I sprayed it with hair spray to keep it in all night. Then this was the final look:

I am now spending some time searching 'curling wand tutorial' on YouTube to get some other ideas! All in all, curling my whole head of hair probably took about half an hour which is pretty good considering how long it stays in and how nice it looks. It is definitely going to be my fail safe going out hairstyle. I also really recommend the Remington Pearl curlers, they are worth it if you are like me and don't want to spend a lot of money on something that isn't an everyday hair styling tool but want something that works.

2 outfits, 1 day

2012-01-23T20:42:00.003Z

shoes - tesco

skirt - topshop

t-shirt - h&m

cardigan - dorothy perkins

shoes - topshop
dress - new look
cardigan - zara

I've had a lovely weekend. Saturday I went to the Tate Liverpool to the Alice in Wonderland exhibition with Alex, Char, Sophie & Steph and then for lunch afterwards. Then in the evening we went out for a meal with Scott's family for his brother's girlfriend's 21st. Sunday was spent tidying up the house and cooking lunch for my Mum & Auntie. I wore the first outfit during the day on Saturday. The green skirt was a Christmas present from Scott, I love the bright green colour. In the evening I curled my hair with my new conical wand that I am in LOVE with! I have a post just about that coming up soon. I still need some practice but it's definitely easy to use, I like the curly look.

Did you all have a lovely weekend too?

Cuthberts Bakehouse, Liverpool

2012-01-18T15:30:00.000Z

One of the most popular google searches that leads to my blog is 'cupcake shop Liverpool', which no doubt leads to an old post of mine bemoaning the fact that there is nowhere to get good cake in Liverpool. However, things are slowly changing and I don't need to drop out of being a librarian in order to provide the good people of Liverpool with nice cupcakes as other people are doing it for me.

Cuthberts Bakehouse opened last year, just after I finished my MA at the Uni across the road from it. Typical. Although some might say it is a good thing because I would spend too much money in there and end up the size of a house. I had been meaning to try it for ages but it isn't really somewhere I walk past often now. However on Saturday I decided we would go and try it.

How cute does it look?! This adorable illustration is by Becka Griffin, a lovely scouse illustrator. (I really want one of her bespoke house portraits of our house *hint hint*)

I ordered a Mr Whippy cupcake, the frosting was so so light & delicious. I love the idea of squirting raspberry sauce on top of a vanilla cupcake, I want to try this myself now. I would use a flake instead of a chocolate finger but maybe they had ran out of chocolate flakes or something. The cake was nice and not dry, but I prefer a lighter sponge. I suppose it is all personal preference though.

Scott was very traditional and ordered a cream tea with the biggest scone I've ever seen and some Brew Scouser's Breakfast tea. The scone was still slightly warm and so delicious and soft. Perfect!

I will certainly be going back to Cuthberts, it was a lovely relaxing cafe. It isn't in the main shopping part of the city centre so it has a slightly more sophisiticated and relaxed feel than many of the coffee shops around Liverpool One which become far too frantic for my liking on a Saturday afternoon. Plus, where else can you get so many different homebaked treats?! They have a wide range of cupcakes that I want to try and also do traditional cakes like Victoria sponge, Bakewell tart and coffee & walnut cake. The rocky road also looked amazing. We had a hot drink and cake each and it came to about £7, which I think is really good compared to your typical high street chain and the quality is far superior too.

Cuthberts Bakehouse

103 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5TB

Sequins in the daytime

2012-01-16T20:48:00.002Z

Dress- c/o George

Cardigan - Red Herring

Boots - Topshop

Although it's January and everyone is still feeling the comedown after Christmas, I think there's no need to hide the sequins and glittery party dresses away in the back of your wardrobe. I wore this on Saturday just for a quick jaunt into Liverpool to try to spend my Christmas vouchers but fail. It was absolutely freezing but so lovely and bright. I adore winter days like that although I don't like having to de-ice my car in the morning AT ALL! This dress was sent to me via George at Asda, it is actually really good quality jersey. It feels so soft and I don't think it will bobble at all (although I haven't washed it yet so I guess only time will tell). It certainly feels better than other jersey peter pan collar dresses I've had in the past. The sequins on the collar did get slightly itchy after walking around shops all day. I do not own enough sequins at all though and now I have a strange desire to buy more sequins or at least accessorise with them more. I am already rather in love with glittery nail varnish all year round so why not sequins?

The bedroom

2012-01-12T11:30:00.000Z

We've finally finished the bedroom! It had been finished and habitable for a long time but over the Christmas holidays we hung up some pictures and got our dressing table which was just the cherry on the cake. Let's have a quick look at some before photos:

Magnolia, magnolia and more magnolia! Also only single glazing and a really dodgy panic alarm button which we got rid of. Also look at how badly painted the bedroom door is! The flooring was also in a real state too, splodges of paint everywhere.

We decided on a grey and mustard colour scheme quite easily and worked around Scott's bed and wardrobe also (which are Ikea Malm & Complement)

This is our new dressing table, the Edland from Ikea (yes, we have LOTS of Ikea, mainly because of our budget and also their tendency to make nice things. We try to mix it up with second hand stuff too though so it isn't too much). I like the shape of the legs a lot although it doesn't really provide too much storage. It fills in what was an empty gap though rather nicely and the dark grey complements all our other shades of grey.

I love the cast iron fire surround. We repainted it and also painted the hearth stone which was so grubby and dull. The mirror above the fireplace was in my old bedroom, it was a fiver from a local charity shop. The owl and deer were also charity shop finds.

We went for the tord boontje habitat light which has been a nightmare to dust as my friend warned me! My Mum & Sister hate it and call it a 'cobweb' but I love it.

We treated ourselves to the Orla Kiely pillowcases but just matched them with some mustard sheets from M&S and an Ikea throw.

This is my view from the bed. You might remember the chest of drawers from this blog post, I repainted them myself and really like them.

And on top of the chest of drawers is a photo of us from my sister's wedding.

These are the photos that Scott hung over the holidays, they are Henri Cartier-Bresson prints, Scott's favourite photographer.

We painted the floorboards with Ronseal Diamond Hard floor paint, because we decided that hiring a floor sander would be so messy (we had an electric sander we used in other rooms and were hoovering up dust for weeks) and also the floor boards weren't perfect and some had been replaced quite obviously with wider boards, but we didn't want to cover them up completely. I really like the painted floorboards but we want a nice rug to go by the radiator in the photo above, but haven't found the right one yet. I hope you like our bedroom, it's been nice combining our two styles in a way. Some of my family have been almost shocked by our colour decisions (so much grey!), thinking that I would choose girlier colours and prints, but I think this room is a nice balance of both our personalities.

I'm back!

2012-01-09T22:34:00.002Z

Jesus, December gets a bit busy & mad doesn't it? Every weekend was jam packed and the darkness made me want to do nothing when I got home from work. However, now that we are past the winter solstice and the festive social period is over I am back and ready to blog more than before! I have been a bit addicted to instagram though, snapping away on my phone.

Christmas tree and Pepe

Our festive wreath on our lovely red door.

Gorgeous coffee from my new coffee pot in my new mug.

Hanging up our tugboat print.

Spending my New Years Eve playing Dream Phone.

New moleskine and pens.

Shoes.

Toad in the hole, yum.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas & New Year. We enjoyed our first Christmas living together and nesting in the cold weather. I am a bit gutted I didn't blog more and share with you our Christmas tree and decorations and stuff! I am looking forward to the summer and doing up our little back yard and there being more daylight for better photos and time spent outside. I am such a summer girl, it's unbelievable. Just 3 more months to go until Spring! Are you counting down the days until Spring or do you enjoy nesting in winter?

Dark days

2011-12-01T22:14:00.001Z

shoes - tesco, skirt - topshop, t-shirt - h&m, cardigan - marks & spencer, coat - topshop, scarf - new look

Happy December! (Omg, December already.) This is what I wore on Monday - it was still very dark when I left the house so I'm lucky to have managed to snap these, although they are quite poor quality. I am hating these dark days and nights! I never want to get up in the mornings or do anything when I get home from work. The only shining light getting me through the next few weeks is Christmas (of course) and the fact that after the 21st December the days will start getting longer again.

This is my new fur scarf, it was an absolute bargain from New Look for £6!I ordered it online and got it delivered to my local store for pick up - something I've been doing with a few shops lately for Christmas shopping to save on paying postage, it's been really good.

Anyone have any tips for avoiding the winter blues and feeling more energetic in the dark days?

Delightful day off

2011-11-24T22:19:00.001Z

boots - topshop, skirt - new look, t-shirt - m&s (I think!), cardigan - red herring, scarf - c/o moodys, coat - topshop

On Tuesday I had a lovely day off. I went for a run in the morning round the park (still not got sick of living so close to Sefton Park, don't think I will to be honest) and then showered & changed to meet my friend in town. We met up in Bold St Coffee, a great independent coffee shop on Bold Street (of course!). Bold St is one of my favourite streets in Liverpool, along with Lark Lane. They are both full of a great mixture of creative & independent shops.

How awesome is the latte/flat white art? I ordered another one and it came with a heart in it, but I thought taking too many photos of my coffee may look too weird. After a few coffees, we went to see Zee at Fact. This was a really strange piece of installation art where you walk into a room and it slowly fills with smoke and different strobe lighting effects start. It lasts for 12 minutes and is such a strange/great experience, some people said it was hallucinogenic, others have compared it to a near death experience. It was an experience anyway! It's only on until this Monday the 28th so I recommend visiting it if you get the chance. You have to be over 18 and sign a disclaimer beforehand and unfortunately when we were in there a woman did injure herself and an ambulance had to be called. I hope she is ok now though!

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one again, it's Scott's sisters hen night on Saturday and then on Sunday I may be out for tea again with the parentals. I'm also in work on Saturday day and have to find time to squeeze in some Christmas shopping (I NEED to start before December! Have you all started yet?).

P.S. Does anyone else have the hardest time ever giving their blog posts titles? Ugh, so hard to do! Hence the wet title of this blog post.

Nutella cupcakes

2011-11-22T10:30:00.000Z

These are my favourite cupcakes ever. I am such a big nutella fan, I could easily eat a jar of it in one sitting. I go through phases of being obsessed with peanut butter and nutella, at the moment I am on a nutella kick. I made my first cake in our new kitchen but it was a cake for my brother-in-law to thank him for helping us move stuff and doing some plumbing. Whilst the oven was preheated and I was in the baking frame of mind, I also whipped up a batch of these nutella cupcakes. These were the first cupcakes I made out of the hummingbird bakery book, over 2 years ago now! That book is still my favourite recipe book for cakes, I think I have almost memorised the vanilla and chocolate cupcake recipe off by heart.

Ingredients (Makes 12 cupcakes)

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

40g butter, at room temp.

120ml milk (the recipe said whole milk, but I just used semi and they turned out okay!)

1 egg

120g nutella

hazelnuts to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/170c/325f

2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and mix together. You can use an electric hand whisk for this. It should be a slightly sandy/grainy texture

3. Pour the milk into the mixture and mix. Then add the egg and beat until it's all incorporated.

4. Spoon the mixture into cupcakes cases in a muffin tin, filling to about halfway or 2/3 full. They rise quite a bit. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

5. Leave to cool completely, then cut out a little circle in the cupcake. Pop the loose piece of cake out, insert a dollop of nutella, then put the cake piece back ontop so you have a filled cupcake.

For the icing

250g icing sugar

80g butter, at room temp

25 ml milk

80g nutella

Mix all the above ingredients together until incorporated and continue mixing for about 5 minutes. The more mixing, the fluffier the icing! Use a palette knife to ice the cupcakes, then decorate with a hazelnut. Enjoy!

Everyday is like Sunday

2011-11-20T17:59:00.001Z

shoes - tesco, dress - zara, cardigan - h&m

dress - topshop, cardigan - dorothy perkins, boots - topshop.

Well, I wish everyday was like Sunday where there is nothing important to do and everything becomes very leisurely. I have spent most of today in bed after a night out last night. I can't seem to hack staying out until 3am anymore! Well, I can, but I just want lots more sleep the day after. I had brunch with Scott at 11am and then went back to bed by midday for another 3 hours, ha! Now Scott is cooking a Sunday dinner for us. Lamp chops with roasted vegs and roasties. Hmmm.

Back to work tomorrow though. I wore the first outfit for work last week, I don't usually wear necklaces for work because they always get caught up in my lanyard that my ID is on, but this red beaded necklace was a welcome pop of colour. The second outfit I wore last Sunday when we visited Scott's mum for Sunday dinner. It was sooo cold, so I wrapped up with my thermal socks and boots. I'd quite like some new boots but I am so fussy when it comes to boots. I have short legs so most knee high boots are too high on me. I've had these Topshop boots though for about 5 years now and they are still going strong. Anyone have any recommendations for nice boots which aren't too tall?

Park life

2011-11-16T16:30:00.000Z

I love living so close to the park, it's almost become a weekend ritual to go for a walk in the walk, either with the dogs or by ourselves. Sometimes we get an ice cream (yes, even in this weather!) or just meander down to Lark Lane for a mooch. The bandstand in Sefton Park is so beautiful; it's said to have inspired the cover art for The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album. I have really enjoyed seeing the park change from summer to winter and I am actually hoping that we get lots of snow so that I can frolic in the snow there! Are you enjoying the change in the seasons?

A foodie week in photos

2011-11-14T17:30:00.000Z

Moon & pea breakfast on Lark Lane

Nutella on toast

Wrapping up warm

Scott's spaghetti bolasgna - AMAZING.

Crabbie's ginger beer after the fireworks

Planning Christmas food & treats

Turkish BBQ at Elif's

Finding my feet

2011-11-12T09:30:00.000Z

shoes - tesco, dress, zara, cardigan - m&s, necklace - cath kidston

shoes - clarks, dress - topshop, t-shirt - asos.

On my last outfit post, Lucy commented that it didn't look right not having my outfit photos against the polaroid wall. And it doesn't. I just can't find the right spot in the house for outfit posts yet! In my last post, I had Scott take my photos (Oh what a blogger cliche, having the boyfriend photographer...) but when I leave for work before he's even out of bed I don't think that is practical. He would not be amused at having to get up early to be my personal photographer. Plus there was something not quite right about that plain white wall. I thought I would feel more comfortable against the dining room door, but the wallpaper just distracts from the outfits. I will try testing out the guest bedroom as my new outfit spot soon and see if I can find my outfit blogging feet in the new house soon. Oh the woes of a 'fashion' blogger... ;-)

The kitchen

2011-11-09T12:30:00.000Z

I am really excited to finally be able to share our kitchen with you! This is probably the room that has changed the most overall and I think it's the most important room of the house.
Before:

After:

Looking at those two photos next to each other has amazed me. Wow. As you can see, we have added A LOT more storage space to the kitchen! We removed the horrible old boiler that was just wasting space and put that upstairs in the bathroom (thank god for having a brother-in-law who is a plumber.) We also had a new window fitted that is bottom opening so it's much easier to open when it gets steamy in the kitchen.

Our kitchen is from Ikea, we chose the Abstrakt high gloss white cupboard fronts for a minimalist look and also for ease of cleaning (no nooks or crannies for the dirt to hide in!) I had my heart set on a wooden worktop, although at one point we did nearly get a laminate worktop. However, when we found out that they would take longer to arrive we instantly chose a wooden one instead! We chose the Numerar birch wood (again down to our impatience because the cheaper version wasn't in stock, but we prefer this one anyway). We had two joiners fit it rather than the Ikea installation people as they wanted the same price as the whole kitchen cost! Very, very expensive.. We were on a tight budget here! My Dad tiled the kitchen with some tiles we saw in Topps Tiles for £5 a sheet and then found online for £3.50 a sheet. I always recommend looking online for things you've found in shops when doing up a house - it's always cheaper because they don't have the overheads of running a shop.

Here are a few more photos and details:

Typhoon Ching-He Huang storage jars

Laura Ashley owl utensil owl, Joseph Joseph worktop protector & biscuit tin (gift)

My kitchenaid

The hob.

Tea & coffee making area

Kenwood k-mix yellow kettle, bodum cafetiere & ikea tea tray.

I love our new kitchen, I haven't baked a cake in it yet though but I think I will have to this weekend to christen it fully now that we are all settled in. I hope you all love it as much as I do!

Remember, remember the 5th November

2011-11-06T16:30:00.000Z

Wellies - Joules

Jeans - Topshop

Jumper - Marks & Spencer

Bow - Primark

Coat - Topshop

Glove/mittens - Asos

Scarf - NY street vendor years ago

This is what I wore to go and watch the fireworks last night, is it me or are firework displays always a bit of an anti-climax? Plus we didn't have any sparklers to play with which I really wanted after seeing other people play with them!

This jumper was sent to me as part of the Voucher Codes Cashmere challenge, I was so excited to be offered a cashmere jumper, it's such a luxury I would probably not treat myself to one. I chose this camel jumper from m&s in a size 8. I chose an 8 because I know from experience that m&s sizes can be quite generous, and this fits me perfectly. Just enough room to wear a vest underneath on chilly evenings too but not look too bulky. The sleeves are slightly long but that is probably more due to me being short and thus having short arms. I haven't washed it yet, but luckily it can be machine washed with other jumpers despite it's delicate nature. I love the combination of camel with red, I think it's a great combo for winter. It has a really British heritage feel to it. I think I'll get lots of wear out of this, I can throw it on over dresses as an extra layer, wear it over shirts for work or just wear it with jeans like this for a casual look. It kept me lovely & warm last night to watch the fireworks.

Thanks to voucher codes for sending me this to review! I have already used one of their m&s codes to get £5 off lingerie to stock up on thermals for winter (ordering them early this year so they don't sell out once it snows like last year, organisation ftw!), there are also loads more codes on their website to save money just in time for Christmas.

Did you do anything for bonfire night or did you have to stay in with scared dogs like my Mum & Dad did? Poor Pepe & Nina :(

Jazzing up drawers

2011-11-05T10:30:00.000Z

I did this DIY a few weeks ago. Scott had this plain old boring set of drawers that we were going to put in the bedroom but they seemed so bland to me. I toyed with the idea of just jazzing them up with new handles, but then I saw this chest of drawers on Apartment Therapy and decided that turquoise drawers would look fabulous in our bedroom.

Lush, no?

However, finding the right turquoise furniture paint was a problem! We had been spending a lot of time in b&q (oh how I hate b&q...) so I looked there but there weren't any right shades. So, I decided to look on eBay and found this japlac paint, which is a high gloss lacquer that comes in some really great colours. However, the tin is really tiny and I was worried I wouldn't have enough paint.

I sanded down and prepped all of the drawer then got to painting straight away. I made the mistake of painting all of the frame all in one go and then ended up with some dodgy runs of paint down the side as the gloss dried slowly but also dripped because it's so thick. The perils of gloss. If I did this again, I would do it in turns and do the top first, let it dry, then turn it on it's side and do one side and so on, so that everything could dry horizontally.

Frame nearly finished.

Then I painted the fronts of the drawers (after taking the handles off) and let it all dry. Luckily one small tin was enough for this DIY. Then I decided to paint the handles yellow with some leftover emulsion and then varnished over it with some gloss varnish so that it would have the same high gloss finish as the drawers.

And ta-da!

Finished drawers! I really love them and think that they add a great zing of colour to our bedroom which has a lot of grey in it. It was really easy to do and I do recommend the Japlac paint because it gives such a nice finish, but I would be careful with it to avoid runs. Have you tried any DIYs lately?

Autumn days

2011-11-03T20:42:00.002Z

shoes - tesco loafers

jeans - topshop

dog jumper - hobbs

coat - topshop

bag - cath kidston

I bloody well love autumn and the wonderful light that it brings on clear days like this last week. The weather still feels rather mild though and I can't believe it's now November! I'm not ready for winter yet! (Although I have just purchased some thermals to prepare, so I am halfway there I guess.) What do you do to prepare for winter?

Halloween lantern parade

2011-11-01T14:35:00.000Z

Every Halloween in Sefton Park there is a lantern parade, organised by local arts and community groups. We went last year for the first time and now that we live so close decided to go again this year. It is such a great spectacle!

It's quite creepy because the park is so dark and there are bands playing as the lanterns parade through the park, then they all gather together for the finale which usually involves setting a big lantern on fire and setting off lots of fireworks (although Scott was disappointed and thought there could have been more fire this year haha). You can see some better photos here. As you can see, there are some amazing lanterns on show!

We also had a murder mystery party on Friday with Scott's family and decorated the house for halloween:

Vomiting pumpkin to greet the guests - lovely!

Skull garland hanging up

And some pumpkins and a spooky view from our 'gothic manor' as part of the murder mystery! The murder mystery party was really good, Scott's brother wrote it all himself. We did one last year too and at first you feel a bit stupid but then get into the swing of pretending to be your character! Great for people who miss high school drama classes ha. I was NOT the murderer, despite the victim being my rich husband who was 30 years older than me. Not suspicious at all...

What did you all do for Halloween? Trick or treating, zombie walk, halloween party or just tried to avoid getting your house egged?

Our living room

2011-10-30T16:47:00.001Z

Phew, what a few weeks! In the last 3 weeks or so our house has gone from a shell with very little furniture or character to a cosy home.

Today I'm going to share with you our living room. It is so lovely to come home from work and have a nice room to relax in. Here are some before photos:

As you can see, it was pretty boring with cheap laminate, brown chimney breast, single glazed windows and magnolia everywhere (much like the rest of the house...). There wasn't even a radiator in the living room! It is much warmer and cosier now with carpet, double glazing and a radiator.

And now, after:

The settee is from Ikea, as is the matching footstool. The arm chair is a hand me down which was once my great-grandmothers. The curtains are from John Lewis (although not our first choice, we did want Sanderson dandelion clocks in red but the widths weren't right and made to measure ones too expensive, maybe one day!) and the telephone box cushion is from b&q. The coffee table is a second hand find and the bookshelves are hand built by Scott.

Now that we are settled in the house, it is so nice having free time in the evenings and weekends. Hopefully this will mean I can get back to blogging, because I have missed it so! I will soon share the dining room & kitchen too. Tonight we're off to the Liverpool halloween lantern parade at Sefton Park, we went last year and it is so good! Hopefully I will be able to snap some half decent photos although it was quite hard to last year. Hope everyone else has been enjoying the halloween weekend!

Goodbye cake

2011-10-06T15:10:00.001+01:00

Dress - Dorothy Perkins

Belt - Asos

Shoes - Clarks

Last week 2 of my colleagues left to pastures new so I was asked to bake a celebration leaving cake for them. I made my traditional triple layer sponge cake with lilac butter-cream decorated with pretty sugar flowers (shop bought, not handmade!). It was also my first time experimenting with icing writing and I think it went quite well!

I've had a super busy week this week, I've been working two 6-day weeks on the run and am really in need of a break! I have a week booked off in a fortnight though which is when we are going to officially move all of our furniture into the house, I am SO excited! I will be able to share some proper finished photos with you all!

Oh and finally I couldn't post without mentioning Steve Jobs. Having an iPhone has changed my life (some might say for the worse, as my Mum always refers to it as my 'hand extension', but I think it's for the better!). Apple make some amazing products and they are so iconic, he will be missed. I also think it is a testament to the popularity of his products that most people found out about his passing using Apple products. RIP Steve Jobs.

Our kitchen progress...

2011-09-30T15:00:00.000+01:00

Before: horrible, lack of space, dodgy piping, cheap worktops, handles and doors, old appliances...(the only nice things were the tiles, but we had to get rid of them unfortunately)

and after: lots more storage, more practical, quality wood worktop and nice new fitted appliances.

We are *nearly* finished on our kitchen! This weekend we are tiling the walls and then we will be able to peel off the blue backing plastic. The cupboards aren't actually that nice shade of blue, but high gloss white underneath. We have become quite accustomed to the blue over the past 3 weeks though and think the white will be a shock to us! If only Ikea did blue high gloss cupboard doors, I am sure we would have gone for that. The worktop is looking fab now after being lovingly oiled every week. Once we have tiled, we can get on with the important stuff, like making my Kitchenaid at home in the kitchen and adding pretty tea towels. We are using pale grey tiles and then adding colour in the accessories; a red Kitchenaid, blue and colourful Joseph Joseph worktop saver, red & blue Ching He Huang Typhoon containers, Cath Kidston dotty cereal bowls and a cerise Le Creuset casserole dish.

Kitchen by afeitar on Polyvore.com

I really can't wait to have a proper, fully functioning kitchen. The past few weeks have been easier than previous weeks as we have a fridge and an oven, but we are still lacking quite a lot of simple things like spatulas and tongs and knives! It's been a bit like working in those army field kitchens they test contestants in on Masterchef. When it is all completely finished, I will bake an extra special cake to christen my kitchen!

Are you a Fearne or a Holly?

2011-09-28T13:47:00.000+01:00

Dress - c/o Very
Shoes - Topshop
Necklace - Primark
Belt - Asos
Ring - Accessorize

Since we've been doing the house up, I've had very little opportunity to dress up in a pretty dress and heels. I wear smart dresses everyday for work, but some dresses are just *too* nice to wear for work I always think. Plus I can't wear heels for work as I am on my feet all day, it's just impractical! DIYing has meant that my home uniform has become a scruffy pair of old, torn jeans and an old primark t-shirt. Not exactly classy, but practical all the same when it comes to painting and oiling and general DIYing. Hence why I have had this dress sitting in my old wardrobe for well over a month.

The folks at Very sent me this dress from the Holly Willoughby collection and at first I was dubious and thought I'd made a bad choice..when I tried it on it felt too long and frumpy looking. But anything can become classy & sophisticated once you pop on your favourite pair of high heels! I love some of the clothes in the Holly Willoughby collection because they're very vintage inspired and remind me of something that Joan in Mad Men would wear. I also like the Fearne Cotton collection though; I'd like to think that my style is a blend of the two of them. I like the classics cuts of Holly's collection, but also like the more eccentric patterns and interesting colours that are in Fearne's collection. Are you a Fearne or a Holly?

Cut the mustard

2011-09-26T12:00:00.000+01:00

Mustard by afeitar

Dorothy Perkins gold top, £28
Knitted Dalmatian Motif Jumper, £45
Dorothy Perkins circular skirt, £23
Cotton pants, £29
Dorothy Perkins opaque hosiery, £5
ASOS strap shoes, £45
Poetic License lace up shoes, $105
Oasis satchel bag, £22

This post is a small ode to mustard. I love mustard and I am so pleased that it seems to be one of the big colours for this autumn. I especially love the dalmation jumper from topshop in the polyvore set above. How cute is it?! It can be friends with my Hobbs dog jumper. Some people hate yellow, my sister being one of them. I used to hate it but then I bought a yellow cardigan from Topshop in 2006 and have been smitten ever since. Alas that cardigan is no more (I lost it one day walking through Liverpool *sobs*) but I have made up for it by buying everything else in mustard. It HAS to be mustard yellow though, not lemon or normal yellow. Only mustard will do. (The irony of all this is that I actually dislike the taste of mustard unless it is watered down in sauces. Ha!)

What's your favourite colour for this autumn?

Dog walker

2011-09-20T14:19:00.000+01:00

skirt - new look

t-shirt - dorothy perkins

coat - topshop

This weekend we were dog-sitting Pepe & Nina because my parents had gone away to a wedding. We brought them up to our place and took them for a walk in Sefton Park, Nina loved chasing after all the birds in the fields! There was also some kind of cross-country relay race going on so we had to play dodge the runners & coaches at one point. The race was a junior race and the kids must have been about 13/14 and there were coaches shouting at them 'C'mon, only 2 more in front of you, keep it up! Keep this pace up!' and gosh, it was competitive! I am glad that when I run I only run against myself, to get personal bests, and not to compete against anyone else because I am the least competitive person ever (although I am sure that Scott would say otherwise...)

I am just taking a quick lunch break from decorating on my day off, we are currently painting our bedroom. It is a lovely shade of mustard yellow with dark & light greys. It's loooovely and I can't wait to finish it and show photos off, but it may be a few more weeks yet.

Liverpool food & drink festival

2011-09-13T15:30:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we went to the Liverpool food & drink festival and sampled some of the best food in the North-West. Lots of my favourite scouse food shops & restaurants were there, including Lunya, The Ship & Mitre, Raggas, The Chocolate Cellar and The Monro. We also sampled some new food from Chilli Banana, a thai restaurant on Lark Lane. We watched Aiden Byrne doing a butchery demonstration & drank cocktails from Santa Chupitos (Jamaican Me Stormy is my favourite: rum, ginger beer & fresh lime juice mmm.) Sadly we couldn't stay much longer as we had joiners in fitting our kitchen, so we took them back some takeaway fish & chips from the James Monro and then marveled at our new kitchen. The festival was really good for £4. I know some people complained about having to pay because other years it has been free, but as someone who has visited the Good Food Show (or Masterchef Live as it is now called) two years in a row, Liverpool Food & Drink festival was definitely value for money.

Breaking the silence

2011-09-11T14:23:00.000+01:00

I haven't blogged for over a month now and I have missed it so so much. However, since becoming a home owner every weekend and evening has been spent doing DIY and other little jobs that need doing. I have spent more money on paint in the last few weeks than I have on clothes in the whole year. We are still living between 2 houses, staying at our house 75% of the time but then spending the rest of the time at my parents when we need clothes cleaning and long baths. Progress has definitely been made though and I have some updates to share with you soon (but I have left my camera and SD at my parents this weekend so you will have to make do with some cliched instagram photos). Meanwhile, here is a round up of what I've been up to the past month:

Enjoying walks around Sefton Park, which is just a stones throw from our house.

Visited Center Parcs with my family, where it rained. A lot.

Had a paint trauma in the guest room which involved us peeling back about 27 layers of old paint back to the plaster.

Drank the BEST coffee I've ever had in the UK at our new local coffee shop that opened a fortnight ago.

Snaffled this blanket from my Nana for our house. Score!

Enjoyed the Liverpool Food Festival, notably Jamaican Me Stormy cocktails from Santa Chupitos.

Got our kitchen fitted, finally! I love it so much. (It is not blue, that is just the protective film. It's really high gloss white underneath.) We will be getting it tiled soon and then it will be completely finished.

And last night was spent wallpapering in the dining room. We also painted our blackboard wall this week which is just underneath it. I love the contrast between the wallpaper and the blackboard wall. Cannot wait to get this room finished, we just need new flooring fitted.

Our aim is to be properly moved in by the end of October, so about 6 more weeks to go. We probably underestimated how much would need doing on the house when we bought it, and there have been many set backs like finding damp patches, water leaks, gas leaks, bubbling & peeling paint and breaking radiators. However, it is so satisfying to see the progress we have made compared to the 'before' photos, and I will be sharing some more updated photos soon. I am also loving living in Liverpool. The location of our house is absolutely perfect. I just can't wait until we can spend less time DIY-ing and more time enjoying the area around us. Hope everyone is well, tell me what you've all been up to the last month!

2011-08-10T20:18:00.003+01:00

Inspired by Katie, just a reminder that Liverpool is an amazing city, even at times like this. The 'riots' aren't representative of the true nature of scousers and we won't let it mar our name. It hurts to see people make comments about the riots being 'normal' in Liverpool and how all the houses are boarded up and the cars torched anyway so you can't tell the difference between before and after the riots. Why is there such a prejudice against the city? Liverpool is a fantastic place, yes it had it's problems in the past and still has problems now, but the Liverpool that I know is a city full of amazing radicals who are so friendly & helpful. Take for instance our neighbours: they pushed a little 'welcome to the street' card through a few days after we got the keys to our house. You can walk down the street in Liverpool and say 'hello' to someone and not be frowned upon. People were out on Smithdown Road with their brooms helping to clean up after both nights of violence. This is the Liverpool I love.

My thoughts go out to all those in Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and London also. Stick together <3

In the night garden

2011-08-07T19:53:00.000+01:00

It was my niece's first birthday on Wednesday and we had a little party for her yesterday. I was on cake making duties (like a good Auntie) and made this In The Night Garden cake. The figures are actually plastic, I wasn't going to attempt making them out of fondant icing! I don't usually work with fondant icing, but I found this very fun. I made maka paka's stones using white fondant icing and mixed in some cocoa powder with it. I didn't mix it all thoroughly because it gave it a great marbley/stone effect. The stones on the path were just cut out using different circle cutters (for the teeny tiny ones I used a straw). It went down really well and I think we managed to get it to serve probably 30 people! The cake was 3 layers so it was huuuuge.

Other than cake making, we have been busy on the house but also having to take a breather a bit because Scott has been a bit under the weather. Next weekend we are going to Center Parcs though and having a spa session to help destress us! Seriously, owning a house is hard. First we have found damp on the chimney breast as we were scraping the wallpaper off and panicking about how to get that fixed and not blow our budget, then the paint in the guest bedroom wasn't sticking at all and causes loads of bubbles. Woe. But then we discovered that the damp actually wasn't damp, it was just a damp and sticky surface on the plaster but as we scrubbed it down it wasn't damp underneath! It's like a roller-coaster.

Dusty hearts

2011-07-31T22:10:00.002+01:00

Dress - Topshop

Cardigan - Zara

Shoes - Clarks

This dress is 4 years old but it still keeps making an appearance as, to be honest, I have been running out of clean clothes to wear. At the moment every evening or weekend time is taken up with doing house things, so the washing isn't a priority! Don't worry though, I have managed to do some tonight. We have spent all weekend up at the house painting and sanding down the living room and guest bedroom. I was sanding down all the polyfilla in the guest bedroom and it was SO dusty, it made my hair look like I was going grey. It was so dusty on the windows, I decided to do a window doodle:

The list of things to do at the house is ever expanding! We found some damp patches when we stripped the wallpaper so they really need to be sorted out and we are also trying to sort out the double glazing this week. The plan is to get the living room finished ASAP, we've just finalised our choices for the paint colours after much deliberation. So many nice colours and combinations, too few rooms & walls!

I think I will keep our living room a secret now until I can do a big 'final reveal', but what are you favourite colours for living rooms?

Home sweet home

2011-07-28T22:39:00.001+01:00

We have the keys to our house! We got them last week and it has been non-stop since. We have had a new boiler fitted and received our new kitchen ready to fit it. We've also found some damp patches on the chimney breast which is quite distressing... There is lots to work do and we won't have any internet yet, so blogging may be intermittent until we are settled. I can't wait until we are all settled and to show you how we do it all up! But for now you can have a nosy at our 'before' photos on my flickr set here.

Anyone have any tips on how to stay organised throughout a big house renovation & move?!

Mustard yellow

2011-07-20T17:13:00.000+01:00

Mustard yellow is one of my favourite colours, right after pillar box red and royal blue. It helps that they all go quite well together too! Hence I couldn't resist this dress in the Topshop sale.

I love the little crochet collar on it, it feels so 60s. It's also super super comfy. I imagine it will bobble rather easily but I only paid £18 for it so it won't be the end of the world. I wore it with my loafers I previously posted about (can't get them off my feet at the moment!) and my trusty Topshop peter pan collar jacket. I have a great fondness of all things mustard yellow. It all began with a mustard coloured cardigan purchased in 2006 which can be seen here. Also note the 2 yellow handbags! I am also currently lusting over a lot of mustard items for A/W, which I will share later this week. I always love mustard but even more so in the Autumn for some reason.

What are you favourite autumnal colours? I know we're not in autumn yet but this weather feels like we are!

Loafing around

2011-07-18T12:44:00.014+01:00

Shoes - Tesco
Dress - Peacocks
Necklace - Accessorize

This I what I wore on Saturday after working til 1, for an afternoon of loafing around. We spent the afternoon making mood boards for the new house and looking at paint swatches. We've decided on a colour scheme for the bedroom, but we are still undecided on what colours or wallpaper to have in the dining room and living room. Well, we have idea but we're not sure of which way around to have them. We get the house keys at the end of this week so we will be spending the weekend cleaning and painting. I am so excited! I will take lots of before photos for comparison, because I think that will be good to look back on all the gradual changes we make to the house as we make it 'ours'.

I am on a bit of a loafers kick at the moment, I picked these up from Tesco for just £14 and have already nearly wore them to death, oops.

Graduation day

2011-07-15T15:20:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I graduated with my MA in Information & Library Management, it feels amazing to say that I'm a master of something! 2 years ago I graduated with a BA in English and didn't have any real idea that I was going to be a librarian. It was just a small acorn in my mind and how it has grown in the last 2 years!

The graduated was lovely. I got to pose in front of both of Liverpool's cathedrals, first the wigwam and then the Anglican, which is where LJMU always has it's graduation ceremonies. My only gripe is that the ceremony was very long and very boring! To be honest, I only wanted to wear the cap & gown and get my photos taken and also catch up with old class mates I haven't seen in over a year. I got to do all of that, but also had to endure the less fun bits too.

I know quite a few other bloggers have been graduating this week too so I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's outfits! For my first graduation, I kept it simple with just a white shirt and black skirt like you're told to wear, but this time I wore an old Miss Selfridge dress because it had buttons down the front but was also a lot prettier than the average graduation outfit. I wore my Duo shoes too, but they ended up hurting me so badly because I have never worn them without tights before! What did you wear to your graduation?

Birthday cheesecake

2011-07-13T11:16:00.000+01:00

For my birthday at the weekend I made this yummy, yummy strawberry cheesecake using the strawberries we picked at Kenyon Hall Farm. The recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book and is so delicious & rich. It has a digestive biscuit base, a cream cheese strawberry compote flavoured filling, and a mascarpone cream topping. I had to bake the cake in a water bath which ensued in chaos as the water started to leak into the cake and made the base soggy! I swear I will not make my own birthday cake next year, I will get Scott to make me one. No one should have to make their own birthday cake should they? Then again, this wasn't a traditional birthday cake. I didn't even put candles in it and have anyone sing me happy birthday!

Do you prefer a traditional birthday cake or would you have a cheesecake?

23

2011-07-10T21:39:00.001+01:00

Loafers - Tesco

Dress - Topshop

Cardigan - M&S

Handbag - Asos

It was my birthday yesterday but because we have been so busy/stressed with the house purchase, I wasn't that excited at all. Even Scott commented that he might have forgot because I wasn't giving him the daily countdown like I usually do every year. I guess as you get older birthdays become less of a big deal. We decided to venture to The Tate Liverpool to go and see the new Magritte exhibition.

It was such a lovely day in Liverpool, it's so nice being by the water when it's sunny. It was still really windy though as it always is in Liverpool. I had a few Marilyn Monroe moments in that dress! The Magritte exhibition was really good and interesting, it included some of his personal photos too which I really loved. I really love surrealism, it's always done with so much actual artistic talent but so much imagination too.

After the exhibition, we hit up Habitat to stock up on some frames for the house. It's sad that it's closing down in Liverpool and people are losing their jobs in an already dire job market, but on the other hand the sale has come at a good time for us too. We bought £150 worth of stuff for £100 and framed lots of our art last night too.

If everything goes to plan, we should have the keys to the house in less than 2 weeks! I can't wait to get in, but we have a few things to do before we can move in. It's exciting but also nerve wracking. I imagine that blog posts may become even more sporadic once we move in, but I can always been caught tweeting @afeitar.

Strawberry picking

2011-07-07T13:27:00.000+01:00

Last weekend myself & Scott headed over to Kenyon Hall Farm to big the reddest, juiciest strawberries you have ever seen. They are so much tastier than the supermarket strawberries! We also picked up some redcurrants that I've used for red onion & red currant relish which is deeeeelicious with any cheese. It's my birthday at the weekend so I'm going to make a strawberries & cream cheesecake from the new hummingbird bakery book because it looks SO delicious, when I first got the book I said 'I NEED to make that in the summer!'. I am also cursed with the curse of always making my own birthday cake. I can't complain though, because I am rather fussy when it comes to cake and would rather make my own. Especially strawberries & cream cheesecake with locally picked strawberries! Yum.

New running shoes

2011-06-30T23:06:00.003+01:00

On my day off on Tuesday I went into Liverpool to get my gait analysed at Up & Running, a specialist running shop. The lovely sales assistant asked me a few running related questions, like how many miles a week I was running, what I was training for, if I had any aches & pains because of running and she also looked at my current pair of running shoes. As soon as I tried my old pair on, she knew that they were too small for me. I had had a black toenail because of the pressure exerted on your big toe when you run and obviously my trainers were too small. They suggest that you go up a size in running shoes than your normal shoe, because your toes need more room to move around. I couldn't believe it when I ended up walking away with a pair of 6.5 shoes when I'm normally a size 5!

So I tried a few pairs of running shoes on and then I hopped onto the treadmill and ran for 2 minutes whilst being filmed on a webcam. They then play the film back to you with their special software, which looks at the way your feet move when you're running and the alignment of your ankle and leg. I am a neutral runner who heel strikes, but some people will put more pressure on the outside or inside of their feet, either being an under or overpronator. Different kinds of running shoes suit these different kinds of runners. I needed a shoe with no kind of arch support in it but with lots of heel support as I heel strike. I also needed a pair of shoes with lots of wiggle room for my toes to prevent black toe nails occurring again!

I chose this brightly coloured pair, Saucony Progrid Triumphs. They should have been £95 but because of the unpopularity of the bright colour, they were only £65. It may sound like a lot of money but the more you invest, generally the more mileage you will get out of the shoes. After running for over 6 months in a pair of £25 running shoes, I felt like I needed some more suitable shoes. Plus everyone will see me coming and know me as 'the girl with the bright orange trainers'.

We're going to the chapel...

2011-06-29T12:44:00.000+01:00

Dress - courtesy of Very.co.uk

Shoes - Topshop

Fascinator - handmade

Handbag - ?

This is what I wore to Connie & Phu's wedding. The dress was sent to me via Very.co.uk and I really love the colour of it. It's a good job really because on the website the photo of it is very pale blue, whereas as you can see above it's more of a turquoise! I think I would have been so annoyed if I had bought it especially because of the colour, but luckily I prefer this turquoise colour. It was such a lovely weekend! It was quite stressful getting 90 cupcakes and one 3 layer cake down to Portmeirion in Wales, down all of the windy roads with unbelievably tight corners and hidden dips. A few of the cakes got smooshed, oops. Luckily I had baked a lot of spare ones so we were a-okay! The couple loved the cakes and I got lots of compliments on it so all the stress was worth it. Not sure if I will do it again but it was worth it once we got there in one piece!

Pretty snazzy even if I do say so myself!

The wedding was in Portmeirion which is a lovely little village that was built as a rich architect's personal project between 1925 and the 1970s. It was modelled on Italian villages but built into the Welsh hillside. It's a really quirky and unusual place, but was such a lovely place for a wedding. The food was also AMAZING. We had a chocolate & coffee tart with horlicks ice cream with dessert, it was so delicious.

It was lovely to travel to somewhere new we'd never been before for a wedding. However after having a weekend away it now feels like I'm still catching up with everything! I have so many errands to do and washing to catch up on. Hey ho. Congratulations Connie & Phu!

P.S. I caught the bouquet too! (Is it cheating since we're already engaged? I dunno..but everyone told me to go up and I caught it! Haha!)

Running for cake

2011-06-24T11:15:00.009+01:00

I love coffee and coffee flavoured things. I am so upset that both Quality Street and Roses no longer do their coffee chocolates anymore. They were the best out of the whole box. However coffee seems to divide opinions. Scott is a coffee hater, therefore I never usually make many coffee flavoured things. However for Father's Day I decided to make this delicious coffee & walnut cake as both my Dad & Grandad are coffee lovers too. I used a Nigella Lawson recipe as she likes her coffee flavour to be quite strong, using espresso powder. The walnuts are also ground finely with the sugar, meaning that the cake is smooth with no chunks but with a slight nutty flavour. The buttercream was also AMAZING! And the best thing about this cake was that it was literally just 'throw everything into your food processor, mix, cook, DONE'. The recipe is available here. About half of the cake was leftover so I took it into work and it went down so well. Some people even said that they don't like coffee cakes usually but enjoyed this one immensely.

Since doing my run in Manchester in May, I have been a bit lazy with my running. I need the motivation of the race to keep me going. So, I have entered another race in September! It is the Southport 10k and on the 4th September I'll be running along that promenade in the photograph above. 500m of the race is on the actual sand, which I think may be quite hard. However I am aiming for a sub 55 10k, which considering I have 11 weeks until the race and my current PB is 59.55, should be doable with lots of training and effort. I've devised a training plan to keep me motivated and committed. I think that if I KNOW I have to go for a run on a certain day and do a certain time or a certain speed, then I will stick to it. I really want to get that sub 55 10k! Then my next aim is for the Liverpool half marathon in March. I love running and how it helps me destress and I can feel my body getting stronger with every run. You honestly cannot beat the feeling of getting a personal best or finding each run easier as you train. Now a 5k is my easy, short run but I remember when even running 2k was a challenge. Plus, running regularly means I never have to feel guilty for having a slice of cake again...

Tomorrow I am off to a wedding in Wales, which I am quite looking forward to! I have made the wedding cake and cupcakes for the wedding too, I'll share photos when I return. Wish me luck getting them all there in one piece. What is everyone else doing this weekend?

Father's day

2011-06-22T19:07:00.000+01:00

Skirt - New Look
T-shirt - H&M
Bow brooch - Primark
Cardigan - Zara

This is what I wore on Sunday for Father's Day, we just had a paella with my grandparents and I made a yummy cake which I will share later this week. This outfit was quite unusual for me really because there is NO red in it! I don't wear purple often either, but I do like jewel colours including purple. I had to add a bit of red in the form of my lipstick though. I wore this for most of the day but then got changed into my old scruffy jeans to do some DIY with Scott in the garden. Last weekend we bought an old bench on eBay for £3! Well, technically we won it for £2.40 but we gave them £3 and felt a bit cheeky asking for the 60p change. It was still a complete bargain although it needed sanding down and re-varnishing. Luckily my Dad has an electric sander so we used that. God knows how long it would have taken if we had to do it all by hand!

Here is the bench before, with Nina modelling it. It was being used in their bathroom so the water had obviously damaged it slightly and worn the varnish down. It was also quite scratched & just scruffy looking.

And here it is after! This time with Pepe showing it off. The wood is so lovely when it's naked, it looks like a completely new bench. I bet that would be sold in Ikea for about £30! Which is still cheap, but not quite £3. I did about 10% of the work and Scott did 90% of it, teamwork! Yeah! I'm going to get to work on some other DIY projects though, like making matching cushions for our wallpaper. We went to the house on Saturday to measure up and we're getting a bit of a clearer idea of exactly how we want it. We're not quite sure when we will get the keys because they are still conveyancing, but hopefully in July.

Ship & Mitre

2011-06-20T14:57:00.000+01:00

Dress - New Look
Shoes - Topshop
Cardigan - Zara

Did you all have a lovely weekend? I had quite a busy weekend (all weekends seem to be busy these days with this house buying lark!). Friday I went to one of our favourite pubs in Liverpool though, The Ship & Mitre. It is a real ale pub with so many different choices of real ales, European beers, fruit beers and ciders. I always try a different one each time. This week they have had a Belgian beer festival on and as one of my friends has just returned from living in Belgium for 9 months, she wanted to go to drink some of her favourite beers she can't get over here. I tried the Floris Honey beer first and it was so so amazing, really tasted of honey! Then I had a cider called 'Greensleeves', which was mint & nettle flavour. That was so delicious with ice, really refreshing. The bar man gave us a try of all the ciders too, but I think this was my favourite. Really unusual. Then, I finished off with a pint of Rosarda rose beer. I have a real sweet tooth when it comes to beer and like the fruity lighter beers, although I can be partial to a nice bitter depending on my mood.

I wore my bargainous dress, £12 from New Look! It has a really cute bow detail at the back which I love (although my bra strap does peek out from above it slightly which irritated me) and the pattern kind of reminds me of dresses I would have worn in the 90s when I was a little girl. In a good way. I thought that the dress was quite girly so I put on my killer silver shoes to jazz it up a bit.

When we were in The Ship & Mitre we pondered whether many people actually buy any non-beer/cider drinks in there. I would feel quite silly going into a pub with over 80 different beers to choose from and settling for a G&T you could get anywhere! There are so many different varieties of beers, there's something to suit everyone. Are any of you beer or real ale drinkers?

Ruffled

2011-06-17T14:09:00.000+01:00

shoes - clarks
tights - dorothy perkins
dress - miss selfridge
cardigan - debenhams

I am on a roll posting now! I think that the blog meet up really inspired me to keep on blogging. I think that a big thing that put me off blogging was feeling the pressure to be constantly buying new clothes to blog and feeling guilty if I posted an old or recycled outfit. But to be honest, who really has the budget to showcase a new outfit every week? Especially when you're buying a house and saving money for that. I do miss the days when all of my income was just spent on clothes or rubbish sometimes, but knowing that I'll be able to own my own house and be independent is definitely more satisfying that having a new pair of shoes. I like to buy items that will last me and are versatile now. I don't go for faddy 'it' dresses that everyone wants. Take this dress for example. I bought this dress 3 years ago now and I still like to wear it. It's comfy but smart, so I can wear it for work, but it's also pretty enough that I can wear it for nights out or to dinner. The colour is also a staple colour in my wardrobe so I can mix and match it with lots of accessories.

Do you ever feel pressured into blogging 'new' things all the time? I did, but now I am accepting that I have a wardrobe bulging with lovely clothes that will last me a long, long time and I'd much rather spend my money on other things now, to be honest. That doesn't mean I'm not interested in fashion, I just have different priorities at the moment.

Fashion babylon

2011-06-15T18:26:00.000+01:00

dress - h&m
shoes - clarks

This dress is a staple work dress for me now. It is easy to throw on in the morning when my hair is wrapped up in a towel turban, has big pockets handy for carrying around junk in and is so so comfy. I have had this dress a long time (since I was an undergraduate) and have wore it lots and lots and lots. In fact I've worn it so much that's now a bit baggy on me, but not worn out yet. I will be so upset when it does finally bite the dust.

This week I've been reading this trashy fashion novel, Fashion Babylon, after being recommended it by a colleague. It's part fiction, part fact. It follows a designer across 6 months and is peppered with so many fashion anecdotes, but it's also an inside peek into the real world of fashion and how a collection is really produced, from the Polish seamstress copying m&s shirts at the last minute, to the mad buying appointments with shops from small fashion boutiques to the big names such as Harrods or Saks. It also discusses the intricate details of the mark ups designers put on their clothes, which are then further marked up by the shops. One really interesting bit was about 'seeding' which is when designer's PRs target celebrities to give freebies to and then hope and pray that they wear them. It kind of reminded me of how some high street stores are now 'seeding' bloggers to give freebies to! I'm taking the whole book with a pinch of salt but some of the facts & anecdotes are rather interesting. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the slightest bit of interest in fashion.

Have you read any good trashy books lately? At the moment I'm not reading much, but this was the perfect way to de-stress as it was so easy to read and entertaining.

You said everything about it moved on your career.

2011-06-14T16:42:00.000+01:00

Dress - Primark
Shoes - Primark

Oh. My. Gosh. An entirely Primark outfit! Considering that I haven't bought anything except for tights and knickers in Primark for about 2 years this is quite a feat. The dress was a sale find and only cost £5! I love wearing it for work, but my only gripe is that it has no pockets and also sometimes the bow undoes itself and I don't notice and spend the day looking like I can't dress myself.

Oh yes, I never mentioned my haircut in my last post! I went for the chop and really like it. It is so much healthier than before and also so much easier to style in the morning. I've transferred libraries recently so have a bit of a longer journey to work so any saved time in the morning is a winner for me. I hated how long it would take for my hair to dry and then style.

I've also been buying and making a few new house things for our move! Below is a utensil holder from Laura Ashley that I love so much. I'm a sucker for anything owl shaped really! When I bought it I thought it was a vase, then my Mum suggested it would make a nice utensil holder and I noticed on the sticker it is actually a utensil holder. So I'll use it as that because it's so pretty it deserves to be on display all the time and not just when I have flowers in the house.

I also made my heart garland! I am quite pleased with it but would have liked some yellow yarn in there too. I just used yarn that I had in my crochet bags though so it was technically free and only took me a weekend to make. I like short and sweet projects like that, so that I can practice different techniques and have a quick result, but I would also really, really love to crochet a big blanket one day.

Have you been making anything lately?

The meet up!

2011-06-12T20:46:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the day of the meet up! I was so worried that no-one would turn up because even in the last week a lot of people ended up not being able to come, but it was a lovely day as 7 bloggers met up in Manchester, chatted about blogs (and how weird non-bloggers think we are), ate cake and went vintage shopping. Everyone was so so lovely! I wore my new bargain dress from New Look which was £15. (I'm on a bit of a self imposed clothes shopping ban because of the house, but I couldn't resist this as it was such a bargain.) My lovely blue necklace is a vintage find from Etsy.

Here are the lovely bloggers! L-R Zoe of Penny Blossoms, Danielle of A Blog from Blackpool, Joanna of Mrs Bossa does the Do, Char of t*rexes & tiaras, Alex of Odd Socks and Pretty Frocks and Pearl of Fashion Pearls of Wisdom.

I couldn't eat yummy food and not take a photo of it! The first photo is a lovely piece of carrot cake that I had in Nexus and the second photo is the yummy bento box I had in Walrus.

We then went around some vintage shops in the Northern Quarter in Manchester and some of us tried on some clothes (I was veeeeery good with my clothes shopping ban and was sorely tempted but resisted) I loved the dress that Pearl tried on above but she didn't buy it. Alex also bought an amazing Lowry-esque print blouse. After I left Mrs B, Pearl & Alex all tried on jump suits and there are some photos on their blogs of that; I was sad I missed out on that! It looked like such a giggle. The whole afternoon was so much fun and absolutely flew by. We hope that we can arrange some more meet ups and events like this in the future. This was the first time I had ever met any fellow bloggers and it was so nice to discuss things like the pain of taking outfit photos in the winter, switching from blogspot to wordpress and having to explain 'umm yes I take photos of myself and put them on the Internet' to people who don't read blogs!

June already?!

2011-06-08T21:04:00.000+01:00

I can't quite believe it's June already! Here is a quick recap of things I've been up to:

Gardening and baking. My blackcurrant plants have produced a real bounty of blackcurrants, so I baked a lovely blackcurrant and almond cake. It was so moist & delicious. The recipe for it can be found here. My courgette plants are just starting to become established so hopefully I will have a glut of courgettes in a few weeks if the snails can keep off them, and my strawberry plants are currently going bananas.
Crocheting again! I made this little cafetiere cosy over the weekend WITH NO PATTERN! Well, I found a pattern in this book from the library, but when I started looking at it I realised that it was too big and not suitable for my cafetiere as the handles are at different positions so I just made it up. It's a bit slapdash on the bit where it buttons together as you can see here, but I'm really pleased with it overall. I need to teach myself to stop missing stitches or adding extra ones in though when working in rows! I find crocheting in the round so much easier for some reason.
Aaand.. buying a house! It is really scary and I've been trying to keep quiet about it because I'm paranoid like that, but things seem to be going smoothly at the moment and the survey's been done and the solicitors are starting to do their thing so it seems a bit more real now. It's been quite stressful at times because you want to do so much to help the process along but you can't; and then there's the money worries too. But I am so excited about our first house together and can't wait to get in and decorate. Here's hoping the rest of the process goes smoothly! (I am still oh so paranoid something will go terribly wrong and we'll be heartbroken...wish us luck!)
Running & shredding. Oh my gosh, I am SO achey today after doing the 30 Day Shred yesterday! I never used to ache like that after it but I'm thinking maybe this is a good sign that I'm actually putting more effort in now that I'm fitter? I also have a black toenail at the moment from running because my trainers are actually terrible now, but I'm getting new ones for my birthday next month hopefully.
And looking forward to the Manchester Meet-up! This Saturday between 2-4 at Nexus, Dale Street, Manchester, a group of fashion bloggers are meeting up for tea & cake to discuss blogging and meet each other. I'm really looking forward to it and hope that afterwards some of the other bloggers enthusiasm will rub off on me and I can throw myself back into the blog, because although I have felt at times like deleting it, I have also missed it too. Please come along to the meet up if you're in the North West or invite any bloggers you know in the area!

Pesto roasted chicken

2011-05-22T21:21:00.001+01:00

Today I made my first roast dinner all by myself! I often volunteer on Mother's Day or birthdays to do the Sunday dinner but inevitably my Mum ends up interferring because she likes things done her way whereas I like to do things a bit differently. However, today for some reason I managed to do it all alone. I roasted a chicken with a pesto butter rub under the skin and jamon serrano on top of the breast. Oh my, it was delicious! I'll share the recipe below:

125g butter, softened

Juice of one lemon

Large handful of basil

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

2 cloves of garlic

Whizz all of the above ingredients together in a food processor then rub in in between the chicken skin and meat. (This gets your hands very dirty and it feels almost gross but good in a weird way.) Stuff the chicken cavity with 2 garlic cloves and a whole peeled onion. Roast in the oven at gas mark 6 for about an hour and a half. Halfway through the roasting time, cover the breast with about 4 slices of jamon serrano or parma ham.

This was SO delicious! Sometimes roast chicken can be so boring and dry, but this was oozing with flavour and the chicken was so tender and delicious. I really recommend using butter rubs in future. I think I'll play around with these and maybe do some Moroccan inspired chicken rubs. There are endless possibilities.

By the way, thank you for all the comments on my last post. I think my blog will change quite a bit over the next few months, more recipes, more house stuff, more laid back. I think then I'll be able to find my blogging groove again. Oh and in a bid to raise some money to buy things when we move I am selling some things on eBay including the above items; a River Island skirt, Barbara Hulanicki for Topshop skirt and New Look red blazer. Nothing is listed above £5 so get bidding today! We will probably be putting the money towards a dining room table...or a big American style fridge that Scott is obsessed with. Hmm.

Have you got any favourite Sunday dinner recipes to share with me?

Uninspired

2011-05-21T18:14:00.000+01:00

Lately I've been very uninspired when it comes to clothes. For the past few months I haven't really been as interested in the latest fashion fads or constantly updating my wardrobe. In fact, I would now rather spend my hard earned money on things for our future house and eating out, or even just groceries. I do enjoy food shopping far too much now I think. Perhaps it's a sign that I'm becoming old and boring, or just more sensible and have different priorities. I check the ASOS and Topshop website about once a month now, whereas it used to be practically everyday. I actually felt a pang of guilt the other day when I bought that red stripy t-shirt below from Asda for £4, because I didn't need it.

I feel like I've lost my blogging mojo when it comes to outfit posts. These are some recent outfits I have managed to snap before rushing out of the house to work. When I get home in the evening though we are either house hunting, relaxing, cooking or baking, or going for runs and to the gym. Could it be? I'm practically an adult now? I guess I just have different priorities at the moment. Also constantly feeling guilty for not commenting on everyone else's blog is not relaxing at all. So, from now I, I think that I will blog for myself. I will blog when I want to about what I want, not feel guilty for not replying and not feel guilty if I can't post regularly. I know it's easier said than done, but I feel that for my sanity I need to do that.

Anyone else feel like this with their blog?

Manchester Great Run 10k

2011-05-16T20:43:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the big day! It was time for me to run my 10k. I was a bit nervous because it's such a big run (apparently there are 38,000 entrants) and my first race ever too. It didn't exactly get off to a smooth start when we arrived at the train station and I realised that I had forgotten to pack my race chip so I wouldn't be able to get an official race time. Doh. Scott's race pack got lost in the post too so we had to queue up to get a new one so I asked if I could have a replacement chip. Luckily with it being such a big race they have lots of spares so I managed to get a new race pack. Phew! Thanks Great Run!

I also picked up a charity t-shirt from the British Heart Foundation stand and was ready to go.

There I am, looking very fresh faced & bleary eyed. It was a very early start for a Sunday morning but maybe I had better get used to it if I'm going to become a proper race runner! I was in the pink wave who only set off at 12.30, but we arrived early with enough time to get a new race pack and find our bearings. At 11.25 we had to line up for the warm up. It was drizzling and cold and I looked like a bit of an idiot with my Asics poncho on! The green wave set off (Scott and his brother were in this wave) and I was waiting by my lonesome. I felt quite nervous at this point. Then we slowly moved forward on Portland Street and off I went! The run went quite well, before I knew it I was at the 5k mark in less than 30 minutes which meant I was on track for my sub 1hr 10k. Then kilometres 6-8 felt quite hard. I think it was mainly boredom because at this point we were just on some industrial estate in Manchester and I had no clue where I was. Then we started approaching the city centre again and the crowd were cheering and I sped up and made it across the finishing line in 59 minutes and 55 seconds! I was so elated. I didn't think that I would manage it in less than one hour because I had a few hiccups with my training because I was injured with plantar fasciitis for a bit. My foot did start hurting again towards the end but it's been fine now.

Look at my red, sweaty face! So happy I finished it. I felt so tired on the train home though and promptly fell asleep for an hour nap when I got home. Then I had a lovely bath and rested my sore toes. I definitely need new running shoes now I think. They're going on the birthday wishlist.

And here is my first race medal! Here are a few tips for race days:

Be prepared! I admit I wasn't completely prepared with all my kit ready for the morning because I'd been watching Eurovision the night before. Hence why I forgot my race chip. Some smaller runs might not have spare chips and be able to give spares out. Make sure your kit is clean & ready, down to your socks and bra. Pack your bag the night before with water, your race number, SAFETY PINS!, race chip, pre-race and post-race snacks. Snacks depend on how long you'll be hanging around, I ate a nakd bar about 2 hours before the run to keep me going because I'd had a big bowl of porridge at 8am. The golden rule is to never try any new food on race day - a funny tummy is the last thing you want.
Don't worry about not training enough. Now is not the time to worry! If you've completed your training plan and can run about 90% of the distance, you'll be fine. I had only ran 8.5km before my race. Not running the complete distance gives you an extra sense of achievement. If I had ran 10k the week before and then ran it again on the Sunday but gone slower I would have been so disappointed. However this way you're guaranteed to get a personal best in the race.
Don't start off too fast! This is THE golden rule. It is so tempting to start off really fast as everyone else speeds off. Try not to feel too competitive at the start. If you try to start off slow you'll see yourself overtaking all those runners who set off too fast.
Enjoy the day. Don't take it too seriously, especially if it's your first race. Enjoy the crowds, wave when people cheer and take it all in your stride.

I've got the running bug now and I'm already thinking about entering a half marathon next March. I would kind of like to do one sooner, but the Liverpool half marathon is only in March and there aren't many nearer. I may enter a few 10k races in between and try to get my PB down to 55 minutes.

Kitchen p*rn

2011-05-12T14:50:00.000+01:00

Source: re-nest.com via Helen on Pinterest

Source: community.apartmenttherapy.com via Helen on Pinterest

Source: designspongeonline.com via Helen on Pinterest

Source: kleypas.blogspot.com via Helen on Pinterest

Lately I have become a bit obsessed with looking at pictures of pretty kitchens. I long for my own kitchen with wooden worktops and little splashes of colour.

By the way, don't you love Pinterest? I love it because it actually saves the source of images and CREDITS the image! Not gonna lie, I hate it when people post blog posts of images and then just say 'source: weheartit and fffound'. They are NOT the sources. You can find me on Pinterest here.

I'm back!

2011-05-08T20:51:00.000+01:00

I am DONE with my MA! On Friday I handed in all 95 pages and 17,000 odd words of my dissertation on eBooks in public libraries. It felt so good and now I'm free to blog again. April was a very, very quiet month on the blog front but obviously my dissertation came first. On Friday I celebrated by having tea at The Quarter in Liverpool, sat outside looking at the Anglican cathedral. It was lovely.

Then yesterday I took the opportunity of FREE time to bake! There are so many recipes I've been wanting to try from the new Hummingbird Bakery Book, including earl grey tea cupcakes. I love a good cup of earl grey but wasn't sure about these. They could either taste very lovely or very wrong. Luckily they were lovely (could actually be more earl grey-y! Only the icing really tasted of earl grey, in the cake it was so very subtle you could miss it if you didn't know it was there).

The earl grey flavour comes from steeping tea bags with boiling water for the cake and then with milk for the icing. They look like vanilla cupcakes with a sneaky secret. They are perfect for a tea party.

Talking of tea parties, I have to admit that I was slightly upset to be spending the Royal wedding bank holiday doing Uni work, otherwise I would have held a typically British tea party to celebrate. I also spent all the Easter bank holidays and the May Day bank holiday doing Uni work...it was terribly depressing. But! I have finished it all now and the feeling of relief is amazing! Now the summer can officially start. I hope everyone enjoyed the bank holiday bonanza more than I did.

60 years (plus those shoes!)

2011-04-17T20:02:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday my Nana & Grandad will have been married for 60 years. They first met when my Nana was 16 and my Grandad was 18, back in Spain. However, it took them 9 years to get married because they were in post-civil war Spain and my Grandad wanted to escape to better places before settling down. He ended up in England and then married my Nana although they were both in different countries (it is called a wedding 'by proxy' and just involves signing the paperwork with witnesses, I don't think they are allowed now though). My Nana was then allowed by her Father to come to England to live with my Grandad and the rest, they say, is history. It makes me sad in a way that they never got to have a lovely wedding and there are no photos of my Nana on her wedding day. But! It also fills me with love because their marriage was motivated by their desire to spend the rest of their lives together without the need for materialistic wedding things. And 60 years later they are still going strong. I only hope that myself and Scott will have such a long and happy marriage like theirs has been.

Today was spent with family celebrating their 60 years of marriage. I took it as an opportunity to debut my new shiny shoes I posted a photo of in my last post that prompted a lot of questions!

Aren't they beautiful? They are VERY VERY high! I nearly didn't wear them because I've been suffering with a slight bout of plantar fasciitis from running, but they actually helped because they meant there wasn't much pressure on my heel but more on the balls of my feet. Plus I wasn't walking very much so I don't think it has hampered my recovery... The shoes are from Topshop and I first found them thanks to the Domestic Sluts on my lunch hour and instantly squealed, discussed them with my colleagues who convinced me to buy them and then ordered them as a nice Friday lunchtime treat. They are so much higher than any shoes I've ever worn before - they look much higher IRL than in photos for some reason! There is a sneaky hidden platform too. I love the colour too, they will go with pretty much everything. I think I have christened them my 'David Bowie Shoes'. Love them. My dress is from h&m too, I don't think I have ever actually blogged it before but it is a firm favourite for family do's.

I'm back to the grind tomorrow of work and dissertation! Even the Easter bank holiday will be marred by the black cloud that is my dissertation, although I am celebrating my friend Corinne's birthday on Friday which shall be fun and help motivate me with my work this week. Hope you are all enjoying your Easter holidays! (But not too much, of course!)

Recently...

2011-04-15T16:02:00.001+01:00

I have been very, very busy lately with my dissertation, training for my run, (you can now sponsor me for my run, I'm running for the British Heart Foundation!) work & lots of family things too. My dissertation completion is my current no. 1 priority so blogging is on a bit of a back burner for the rest of this month.

In very exciting other news, there is going to be a north-west bloggers meet up in Manchester! Myself and t'other Helen are always moaning about lack of events in the north west so we thought 'let's arrange one ourselves!'. It will be on the weekend so all you 9-5ers won't miss out and it will be on June 11th so hopefully all Unis will be finished then too so no yucky exams or deadlines will interfere with it. Who's in?! Join the google group if you want to come and suggest venues, etc.

Oh and also check out my guest post about my favourite bookshop in Bath on Andrea's blog.

Teacup, Manchester

2011-04-13T19:16:00.000+01:00

On Sunday myself & Scott hopped on the train to Manchester to pick up my engagement ring and to get a bite to eat for lunch. We don't often go into Manchester and I wanted to try somewhere different to the usual chains we would frequent when there so I tweeted for some recommendations. One of the recommendations was Teacup & Cakes and the name instantly intrigued me. I searched for their website and found it was a lovely cafe owned by Mr Scruff in the Northern Quarter. They serve loose leaf teas and homemade cakes which was instantly a win for both of us.

For lunch I had the haloumi salad and Scott had the sandwich & soup combo. I loved the teapots too. They brought us a teapot each packed with leaves, a timer for each of our teas and an empty teapot for us to pour the brewed tea into it. This was a genius idea as the amount of times I've had overbrewed, bitter tea is countless!The haloumi salad was lovely - I love haloumi and the way it squeaks against your teeth. There was a sweet chilli sauce to go with it too which was a combo I've never had before but really enjoyed. Scott had pea & mint soup which he enjoyed but I tried a bit and felt it needed more seasoning and oomph.

All through our meal the cakes were staring right back at me from the counter! They looked amazing! Scott had the obligatory scone and it was delicious (I managed to wangle myself a bite or two of it too). What is it about clotted cream, jam & scone that makes it so tasty & quintessentially English? I love clotted cream. I had the miniature victoria sponge which was enjoyable but slightly dense for me. Victoria sponges need to be light as a feather I always think. Still, it was an enjoyable cake. Aren't they plates pretty too? They're Burleigh pottery (the last working Victorian pottery in England!) and Scott is now on the lookout for some to add to our every growing tea set & crockery collection.

Scott is always anti-Manchester and pro-Liverpool but I think that teacup may have just won him over and it might make me able to drag him to Manchester a bit more often with the promise of tea & cake there.

teacup & cakes
55 Thomas Street
Manchester
M4 1NA

Outfits of the week

2011-04-08T21:26:00.000+01:00

Shoes - Topshop

Dress - New Look

Belt - Asos

Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins

Shoes - M&S

Skirt - H&M

Shirt - Dorothy Perkins

Cardigan - Zara

Ah this week has been busy busy. As it is now April, my MA dissertation is due in in one month. I have booked some time off work next week to crack on with it and spent my day off yesterday in the Uni library. It felt weird, like I was going back to a year ago when I was studying full time. I haven't missed it though! Hopefully by May I will be less stressed & busy.

I have also been running & swimming, 5 weeks to go until my race. I had the most awesome run yesterday. I had blisters on my feet from wearing ballet flats with no socks so was worried it would affect my run. I went out just planning on a short one but the weather was so nice and I felt amazing so I went on my looooong run. My garmin gave out after 1.7k so then I had to start up my nike+, but I think I ran 6k. I remember when running 6k would leave me barely unable to move my legs the day after but now I just felt amazing. I CAN do this 10k run!

My favourite skirt

2011-04-04T20:35:00.000+01:00

I am so so so besotted with this skirt - I actually thought the other day about how devastated I would be when it finally falls apart. I have had it for 2 years now and wear it so much.

It was such a great bargain from H&M, £7 in the sale! I always do that £ per wear thing and this must be down to pence per wear considering how much I wear it! It is great for work because it is a nice length and has pockets but it's also nice for casual wear because it's so comfy. In the summer it's nice and airy.

Okay, I just realised that these outfits don't really represent how I wear it. I like to wear it with red tights & black shoes for the contrast but apparently when I do do this I never manage to catch an outfit photo. Oh well.

Do you have an item in your wardrobe that you will be devastated to part with? What's your most worn item of clothing?

PS. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post! I was worried the majority would find it boring but if it helps at least one person in their career decision then I will be very happy.

How I became a librarian...

2011-03-30T18:35:00.071+01:00

I have had a few people email and tweet me lately about how I became a librarian and any advice for someone looking to get into the profession so I thought that I would do a little blog post to sum it up instead of regurgitating information all the time. (This post is going to be quite different to the usual posts around here)

(photo by kharied)

Firstly, I will start by explaining that you need a degree to be a librarian. This can either be a bachelor degree or a postgraduate degree. I went down the postgraduate degree route because when I went to uni to study English I had no idea what I wanted to be. I knew that I liked literature but I didn't want to remain in academia. I had experience of working within the community, doing out reach reading groups with The Reader Organisation, so I knew the power of outreach work. I knew that I wanted to do a job that would help people and I loved the ideology of public libraries - free access to information for all. I researched into teaching at first, did some work experience in a school and found out that I hated it. So I registered for my MA course and started it in September 2009. During my course I had to undertake a 3 week work placement and this is how I got offered my first job - through working hard & impressing the managers in those 3 weeks with my enthusiasm, they asked me to come back to cover sickness and holidays and then the vacancy for my job came up, so I applied and luckily got it. I have been very lucky - I know many of my course mates haven't been as fortunate and it seems that librarianship is increasingly becoming a profession that is hard to get into (especially in the face of budget cuts after the recession).

This presentation below by the wonderful Ned Potter aka The Wikiman sums up the library and information profession more succinctly than I can :

If you want to work in libraries

View more presentations from Ned Potter

Here are a few of my tips though for someone wanting to get into the library and information sector:

Get work experience. You can get experience through volunteering or by arranging a work placement through Uni if you're still studying. You can get a job shelving books in your Uni library or apply for a graduate trainee librarian position - they are a very good way of getting experience after getting an undergraduate degree.
Network. If you are 100% committed to the library profession, it may be a good idea to join your national association (in the UK, it's CILIP). They usually do discounted rates for students or the unemployed. When applying for jobs, this shows that you are seriously dedicated to the profession. They will also keep you informed of the latest news in the sector and help you network. I am on the CILIP north-west regional branch committee and that has been a really great experience to meet other professionals all at different stages of their careers and in different library sectors. Also, twitter is a hotbed of networking librarians. I use twitter to keep me informed & up to date with library news but also to learn about what colleagues in other libraries are doing. Also join LISNPN (a network for new professionals) where you can get great advice on how to start your library career.

(photo by Thomas Hawk - this is actually a 'gentleman's bar' called The Library, but it's still true! We are gorgeous)

Research. Get to really understand what the profession is about, what it's doing at the moment and what the future of it is. It isn't all about books. In fact, there are some librarians out there who don't touch a book at all during their work day. The future of libraries is most certainly in IT. If you have a quaint image of a librarian reading books all day, this is not a job for you. Read librarians blogs because they will give you a real insight into the working life of a librarian. Read this blog post too, because Ned says everything pretty much that I wanted to say and more.

Cause you read it in a big book.

2011-03-27T21:50:00.001+01:00

Shoes - Topshop
Dress - Miss Selfridge
Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins
Heart shape brooch - handmade

Shoes - Clarks
Dress - Dorothy Perkins
Cardi - Red Herring
Necklace - Primark

I am better now! I am so glad, being ill was very boring. I had 2 days bed rest and then was itching to get out and about. I went into Manchester on Saturday (and wore outfit number 2) to drop my engagement ring off to be resized, but when I came back I felt so worn out. Wasn't quite 100%. Today I think I am pretty much back to normal but I still haven't been for my usual Sunday run. I think I will visit the gym tomorrow after work and ease myself back into it. I can't believe how much I've missed the gym and running while I've been ill!

While I was ill I pretty much just listened to 6 music and slept on the settee. I have to say I will miss 6 music when I go back into work tomorrow. I love the Lauren Laverne show, she got me through all of my assignments for my MA. I am hoping she may get me through my dissertation too. I would go into the library early and work right through her show until 1, then break for lunch. I was mega productive in those 3 hours! (Maybe the huge flask of coffee helped too...)

The first outfit above is what I wore for a christening today. The little brooch is the result of my handy work while I was off ill (in between sleeping and listening to 6 music, I also crocheted hearts a fair bit). I used my Dad's glue gun to glue a brooch back on to it and I love it! I will try to get a close up of the heart. I also bought some hair slide backs so I could make them into hair clips. Watch this space for them!

P.S. I've had a little spring clean on my blog too, I like simple layouts and I think this is very fresh & clean for spring.

Love hearts & tonsillitis

2011-03-24T12:53:00.001Z

shoes - next
dress - h&m
cardigan - dorothy perkins
brooch - can't remember!

I am currently off work with tonsillitis. I am 22 and have NEVER had tonsillitis before in my life! It started off on Tuesday just as a little niggling cold and now has progressed to full blown tonsillitis. I'm now on some antibiotics and generally feeling a bit sorry for myself (I want someone to bring me some ice cream please!). Yesterday was glorious though and the dogs loved frolicking in the garden. How cute are Pepe & Nina? (Pepe is the grey one and Nina is the smaller, darker one). The spring sunshine made me get out my pretty yellow flower brooch for a splash of colour in my otherwise dull work outfit. I also taught myself how to crochet hearts thanks to Attic 24's pattern and I think I may spend this afternoon in bed crocheting some more. After a little nap. I really hope that I feel better soon because I haven't been for a run or to the gym since the weekend! Anyway, I hope you are all okay and enjoying the sunshine (although I still don't think it's warm enough to go bare legged yet ha)

Bravissimo

2011-03-22T21:49:00.001Z

Who doesn't love lingerie? I have always been disappointed with the high streets offer of lingerie though - always rubbish selection of sizes and back sizes WAY too big! I am quite a petite lady and have always pretty much wore a 32DD/30E. I was invited for a fitting at the Bravissimo store in Liverpool and the lovely fitter, Steph, actually fitted me as a 28F. They don't do fittings using measuring tapes, simply by looking and trying on lots of different sizes. I think this is a good way because different brands have different sizing trends. I have bought a few bras from Bravissimo before but the last bra I bought from there was over a year ago and I think since starting running I have lost some weight from my back and chest, hence why I went down to a 28F. I've wore my bra a few times now and I can definitely tell the different! I was always tightening the straps and pulling them off my shoulders but I haven't had to do this once with this bra and it definitely gives me a better shape. The colour of it is so so gorgeous too and making me feel very springlike.

Whilst I was there I also tried on a t-shirt from their new clothing range, Pepperberry, so that I could see how my bra fitted with a scoop neck t-shirt. The clothing range is great for who sometimes have to buy a size bigger just so they have space for their boobs, but then the rest of the clothes are baggy. (Don't you HATE that?) I tried this one on but sadly it was too big for me in the size 8 curvy. However I think their shirts and blouses are a great idea - no more boob flashing while wearing shirts!

I think that my next purchase from Bravissimo will be a new sports bra (quite a few people have asked me for my recommendations for sports bras!) - I hear that shock absorber ones are the creme de la creme of sports bras. I currently have 2 M&S ones which have served me quite well on a budget but I have noticed that the straps aren't quite tight enough and therefore there's a bit too much jiggling about... Need to keep them strapped in a bit better!

Hummingbird bakery cake days

2011-03-20T21:49:00.000Z

On Friday the new Hummingbird Bakery book arrived through my letterbox and I was so excited to make some cakes from it. Yes, there are lots of cupcakes in it, but there are also many more layer cake, loaf cake, muffin and tray bake recipes to try. Oh and cheesecakes, so many delicious cheesecake recipes! Scott is very eager for me to make the chocolate lime cheesecake. It was my Grandad's birthday so it gave me the perfect excuse to make a layer cake AND cupcakes. I chose the maple & pecan cake and the beetroot chocolate cupcakes. I've made a beetroot chocolate cake before and it was delicious but this recipe had an added teaspoon of cinnamon which just brought out the flavour of the beetroot perfectly. So moist and delicious! I loved the maple & pecan layer cake too although some people said it was too sweet and not flavourful enough. Perhaps a teaspoon of vanilla extract next time will improve it. My only niggle with the recipes is that the quantities for the cupcake recipes seem slightly OTT. It says the recipes make 12-16 cupcakes but I ended up with 18 rather large cupcakes. The icing was even more off! I iced the 18 cupcakes (very generously) and still had enough left to ice about 8 more I bet. It seemed very wasteful to me to waste so much. Next time I may just halve the recipe and skimp slightly on the icing on the cupcakes (better for the waistline and your teeth). Have you bought the new Hummingbird Recipe book yet or tried any recipes out of it?

Oh and yesterday I did a guest post for the amazing collaborative blog, Where are my knees? 5 of my fave bloggers have got together in a bid to motivate and inspire each other to lose weight, tone up and generally get healthier. I was honoured to be asked to be their first guest poster about running and how to start it. The response has been hugely flattering too! It motivated me on a very hard 6k run this morning and now I am aching slightly but I know it's all worth it.

Library books

2011-03-18T10:25:00.009Z

I decided to share with you all a few books I currently have on loan from the library. I've actually found myself borrowing more non-fiction lately. I think this is partly because non-fiction books tend to be quite expensive and I never really buy them and also because they've been helping me with new hobbies.

I've borrowed a few running books, they're good because they include training plans and information about how to deal with injuries. They're also good for reference when you're like 'Uh it's raining, will that effect my running?' or wondering whether you need to take a drink of water with you or something (answers: wear a baseball cap when running in the rain and take a drink of water if you're going to be running for over an hour). Now, I know these can all be 'googled' but really, how reliable are yahoo answers or runners forums? I prefer to have a book written by a respected sports professional to advise me than an amateur.

This book is Great House by Nicole Krauss. I love History of Love by her so when I noticed this new release on the advanced list, I had to put a hold on it. I'm going to start reading it as soon as I finish Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (taking me way too long to read but is great!). Great House has also just been put on the Orange Prize longlist which makes me want to read it even more before the shortlist and winners are announced.

This book keeps popping up on my Amazon recommendations so when I noticed it on the library shelves I had to borrow it! I've made one recipe out of it so far, peanut butter maple cookies, but there are so many more that I want to try. Every single recipe has a gorgeous photograph with it. (I can't bear recipe books that don't have a photo for every recipe! I always end up just trying the recipes that have photos to them). I may actually end up purchasing this book myself or asking for it for a birthday present. I'm a sucker for a pretty recipe book.

What do you all have on loan from your library? I am very lucky and can borrow up to 20 items from my library which means I currently have £307 worth of books on loan! Imagine if I had bought all of them! My 'financial advisor' would have a heart attack. Half of them are books that I will only read once or maybe not even enjoy and then just return. Libraries are a great no risk way to try a new author. They are environmentally friendly because one paper copy can be lent by hundred of people! It also saves space on your bookshelves which can get easily cluttered by books you buy, read once and leave to collect dust. They can help you save money by not buying any books. When I list these reasons, it honestly astounds me that so many people don't use libraries!

It's a Friday so why not plan to spend your Saturday morning visiting your library? Check out a new recipe book and spend the weekend baking, read the newspaper for free, curl up in the corner with a book, borrow a book to help you with your Uni assignment or take out a DVD for a Saturday movie night.

PS. I know today has been hailed as a 'blogger day of silence', but I don't really agree with it. How is remaining silent going to help the cause? Instead, I would rather urge you all to donate some money to the Red Cross via this website.

Leaf tea shop & bar

2011-03-16T14:16:00.000Z

I mentioned the other day that I visited Leaf for the first time at the weekend. Leaf is a tea shop and bar that has been established in Liverpool for a long time now but this was my first visit as since the move to Bold Street, it is easier to get to. (I know, it wasn't that far away, but it was out of my normal way so I never went although was sorely tempted by their pudding club lots of times.)

I always saw Leaf as a rival to Brew Tea bar, but since going I see that although their business model is the same (homegrown business, focusing on tea rather than coffee, using loose leaf tea) they are both very different and cater for different needs! Leaf is the kind of place I would go if I wanted a relaxing meal and a wide variety of dishes with a cuppa on the side, but Brew is the place that I would go for a proper good cup of tea (or smootea or steamer or earl grey latte) with maybe a slice of cake on the side. Brew is closer to the coffee shop model whilst Leaf is more of an up market cafe.

We went to Leaf on a Saturday lunch time so it was very busy but we managed to nab a seat downstairs. We ordered the english breakfast, homemade hummus, lady grey tea and assam breakfast tea. Scott is a bit of a tea connoisseur and wasn't that impressed with the tea blends. Most of them were just fruity teas and there wasn't much scope in the range of black or green loose leaf teas. Still, my cuppa lady grey was very nice. The hummus I had was amazing! I got SO much of it, I couldn't eat it all. It was flavoured with lemon & coriander too and tasted really fresh. I prefer homemade hummus over shop bought so loved this. Scott's English breakfast didn't look like anything too special really but he enjoyed it. The service wasn't amazing and we overheard the couple next to us moan that the service is always slow at the weekend and that they'd been told they'd have a half an hour wait for just some sandwiches!

I think I will go back to Leaf for a nice lunch but if I want a really nice cup of tea, I will always go to Brew. They have vintage fashion fairs at Leaf too and lots of other events and it's a really nice venue for it. You can see some more photos of the new Leaf on Bold Street here.

Weekend casual

2011-03-14T21:37:00.000Z

Shoes - Topshop

Skirt - Vintage

T-shirt - h&m

Cardigan - Zara

Just a short post today! I've been busy in work and then at the gym and now I'm watching choccywoccydoodah and craving an amazing piece of chocolate cake. This is what I wore on Saturday to go for a nice lunch in Liverpool with Scott. We visited a new(ish...new to us!) place called 'Leaf', there are photos of it to come!

Spring is nearly here! I've got daffodils on my windows and I'm growing some basil too so I can make some homemade pesto, yum! I went for my long run yesterday and the sun was so so warm on my face, it was lovely. I definitely feel so much better after a bit of sunshine, I even feel better about my outfits. I hate winter really. I love the idea of it: hot chocolate with marshamallows, snuggles, snowball fights; but the reality is much different to that. Spring, summer & autumn are all my favourites. Winter can go and get lost!

Sweet potato pancakes

2011-03-13T10:31:00.000Z

For Shrove Tuesday I had these sweet potato pancakes for breakfast. They were so yummy! They used mashed sweet potato to give them most of their body so you can almost convince yourself they're one of your five a day. They are flavoured with my favourite spices, ginger & nutmeg (although I added my ultimate favourite, cinnamon, to them too). I suppose they are almost pumpkin pie flavoured pancakes. The recipe is courtesy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in The Guardian.

180g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp grated nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp salt
300g cooked sweet potato, mashed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
60g butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus a little more for frying
Butter, honey and toasted walnuts (optional; bake a handful or two of shelled nuts at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for six to eight minutes), for serving

Sift the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger and salt into a bowl. Beat together the sweet potato, eggs and butter in a separate bowl, then fold in the flour mixture, stirring just until combined – the batter will be quite stiff. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat and add a small knob of butter. Rub off any excess with a wad of kitchen paper. Drop the mixture into the pan in large tablespoonfuls, pressing them down gently with the back of the spoon to form a nice round. Fry for about four minutes a side, until browned on both sides. Serve spread with butter, trickled with honey and with the toasted walnuts scattered on top, if you're using them.

Alphaville

2011-03-11T15:23:00.000Z

shoes - topshop
skirt - h&m
t-shirt - zara
cardigan - red herring

On Wednesday I was feeling really down in the morning. I went for a run but I just felt terrible - tired legs, running nose, absolutely no stamina at all. It was the second bad run on the go - I was getting worried about losing track of my training. I was in dire need of being cheered up before going into work for my late shift at 1! So I had a quick browse on some blogs and Anna had posted about this wonderful lookbook, Alphaville, from an indie New Zealand designer, Papercup. It was love at first sight! The boufanted hair, the scalloped hemlines and of course that colour combination of red & yellow.

Lookbook by Papercup via Muchlove Anna

So I bounced back from my bad run, showered and dolled myself up in my best red & yellow ensemble. It has kept me quite cheery through a bad day actually. The colour yellow always cheers me up.

Pansy print

2011-03-09T12:09:00.000Z

Last week I had to work in the other library across the river, which I don't mind doing except for one thing: it is bad for my bank balance. It is located in a shopping centre and I have to walk through the shopping centre before and after work. After a bad day and you feel like you need rewarding it is BAD! Last week I ended up coming home with this beauty from Dorothy Perkins. I was also there yesterday but managed to have some restraint. I am glad I don't work there all the time. Although I might moan there isn't much to do near my library on my lunch break, at least it keeps my bank balance looking okay. This dress really reminds me of that Kate Moss red pansy print dress from one of her summer collections, only minus the ruffles which I think makes it more wearable really. It says it is a tunic and maybe it is for someone above average height but for a shortie like me it makes a great dress.

Gluten free brownies

2011-03-07T16:42:00.036Z

Last week I made some gluten free brownies and they were very yummy! I haven't really experimented with much gluten free baking because I haven't had the need to, but a colleague of mine is gluten intolerant so I sometimes feel bad taking in all my baked goods that she cannot eat. So, I decided to try substituting plain flour with rice flour in the hummingbird bakery brownies to see how it goes. And, it actually went rather well!

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, chopped
175g butter
325g caster sugar
130g rice flour or plain flour
3 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 170c, Gas Mark 3. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir occassionally until thoroughly melted.

Hmm delicious melted butter & chocolate mix!

2. Remove from the heat. Pour into a larger bowl with the sugar in, and beat together. Add the sifted flour in and stir together.

This is what the rice flour looks like, I bought it from Tesco in the world food section.

3. Finally, beat in the eggs until thick and smooth. (I added in 100g white chocolate chopped up at this stage, you can add nuts as well if you like or keep them completely plain)

4. Pour into a greased and lined baking tray (33cmx23cm preferably, if you have a smaller one just adjust the cooking time and you'll end up with a thicker brownie).

5. Bake for about 30-40 minutes (this depends on the size of the tray you're using like I said, just play it by ear). They should be flaky ontop but still soft in the centre. Leave to cool totally before attempting to turn them out, otherwise they will crack and fall apart!

2 outfits of the week

2011-03-05T17:10:00.000Z

Shoes - Topshop

Dress - New Look

Shirt - Dorothy Perkins

I'm on a roll with my outfit posts now! Hurray for longer days. It's been so light when I'm waking up and coming home. I even managed to go for an outdoors run after work on Thursday(!!). I could see the daffodils and crocus' coming up too, spring is just around the corner. My New Look dress has made a reappearance already, but I just love it too much not to wear it. Definitely £33 well spent. I wore it with a red shirt underneath it this time, felt quite school girl-ish but also smart. When it gets warmer I will probably just wear it with nothing underneath and a cardigan

Shoes - M&S

Skirt - Zara

T-shirt - H&M

Cardigan - M&S

Necklace - Essbeevee

I managed to find my green cardigan this week too underneath a big pile of clothes in the airing cupboard! Oops! I don't think I've wore it since Christmas because it's been sat there. But now that it's nearly spring it felt right to get it out again. I wore this for work on Wednesday and it felt quite casual really because the t-shirt is quite baggy and plain, but I felt comfortable and the heels smartened it up.

Recent beauty buys

2011-03-04T13:40:00.001Z

Now, I am by no means a 'beauty blogger'. I don't really know all the ins and outs of MAC pigments or which primer is the best out of 53 different ones on the market. I just buy make up and use it until it needs replacing (shocking concept I know!). However, I recently treated myself to a few beauty buys (mostly in duty free) and thought I would share them all with you.

On my flight out to Spain I treated myself to this OPI nail varnish. It is part of the Spanish collection and is called 'No Spain, no gain' and to be honest it is the name that convinced me to buy it! I love the colour too though, a lovely deep purpley pink. I like pink nail varnish but sometimes it can seem *too* girly and childish for me so this is quite a sophisticated pink and I really like it. Amazing coverage as usual from OPI too. They sell the whole collection on ASOS too. I love the names of the OPI colours! Sadly there were no Valencia themed names otherwise I would have snapped that one up.

As we were flying back on Valentines Day and Scott had euros left over he managed to sneak off and buy me this! It's Nina by Nina Ricci. It's a really lovely smell, I'm no perfume analyser though but according to CheapSmells it smells like this:
Top Notes: Calabrese Lemon and Lime Caipirinha.
Middle Notes: Red Toffee Apple, Vanilla Infusion, Moonflower and Peony Petals.
Base Notes: Apple Tree Wood, Cotton Musk and White Cedar.
It's really delicious and different to any of my other perfumes!

And finally, I treated myself to Lancome Hypnose Drama mascara. My sister uses this and I used it once and was amazed by it! To be honest, I'm not much of a mascara person. I have quite dark & full eyelashes anyway but I have found myself wearing this everyday. It lasts ages and doesn't smudge horribley when I take my make up off like some mascaras did (namely Benefit's bad gal. Urgh, hated that!). It gives really great volume and curl too.

Aaaand that's pretty much all my beauty purchases for the next few months sorted! Ha! Have you bought anything nice lately? Do you find yourself splurging on make up or just buying a few select things that you need? P.S. Happy weekend everyone!

Keep on running

2011-03-02T16:58:00.004Z

So, I have mentioned in passing about my running and have had a few questions about how it's all going so I thought I ought to do a wee post about it.

I bought my first pair of running shoes about 3 years ago now. I could run about 1 mile but then gave up and went back to swimming because that's what I was good at. (I was quite a good swimmer when I was younger, swam in galas for my school and had quite a few badges). I got bored of running and always just said 'I'm a swimmer, not a runner!'. But why couldn't I be both?

Scott always enjoyed running and has ran in 2 half marathons. When he and his brother were thinking about signing up for the Manchester great north run 10k I thought, why not! The goal will motivate me. And it really has! I think I am the kind of person who always needs a deadline to motivate me otherwise I lose track easily. I also like setting myself targets so this run seemed like a good way to ease myself into running.

(Completely unflattering photo of me in my running gear...
I have nike trainers, karimor runnings leggings and an asics t-shirt. Basically Sports Direct's best bargain finds for running)

And so, on the 15th May 2011 I shall be running 10k through the streets of Manchester. At the moment my training is going rather well! I have good runs and I have bad runs, but I think everyone does. Today I ran 6km in 35 minutes and I am really hoping that I can get my 10km in under 1 hour. I started just by running/jogging a short route around the block and getting faster and faster at that. Then when I felt more comfortable I extended the route. I think this is the way to go about building up to further distances.

All running clothes are ugly. It is impossible to look stylish when running but I don't care. I am not one of those girls you see at the gym with loads of make up on and barely break into a sweat. To get to run 10k I need to push my body to it's boundaries!

I'm a novice runner and don't claim to be an expert but here are some tips for people who may want to begin:

Buy a sports bra and decent running shoes! I see so many girls in the gym wearing strappy tops and strappy bras with their boobs on show jiggling about and I think 'yeah, that might look nice to all the men now but in 30 years time when your boobs are down to your knees you'll regret it!'. Also a surprising number of people think it's okay to run in converse? That will do so much damage to your knees and feet if you start to run long distances in them!
Do a bit of research. I got lots of books out of the library, read blogs and bought magazines. It's definitely helped me understand how I can reach my target of 10k and how not to try to push myself.
Remember everyone was a beginner once! You might think 'oh I don't wanna go for a run, other runners might see me and laugh'. I do still feel a slight bit embarrassed/competitive when I see another runner on my runs, but they were all beginners once so understand what it's like. Plus, humans were practically made to run so they're not gonna tell you you're doing it wrong!
Don't go for a run with your fitter other half. Haha! I went for a run once with Scott and by the 2nd kilometre I had such a bad stitch and felt fit to die because I had pushed myself a bit too far! He was running behind me so I felt that I had to run faster than usual. He had reassured me that I didn't have to and he would overtake if he wanted to go faster but it still felt weird. I like running because it's something I get to do alone and at my own pace. It's me time. Some people like running with others, I guess it's all personal choice.

And finally, here are some lovely bloggers who keep inspiring me to run!

Kate from Earth Vs.

Muirrean from Bangs and a bun (She also has a really good post dispelling the many excuses we use to not run here)

Laura from Keeping Healthy

Becky from BeckyBlog

And also a honourable mention goes to my dear friend Emma, who doesn't have a blog but I know she sometimes reads this. She has ran in numerous half marathons and has just entered herself for the Liverpool marathon in October! What a girl. To think back to those days in high school PE where we were always the lazy ones at the back of the class...

Do any of you run? If you're thinking about it, definitely read some of the blogs above and hopefully be inspired.

Rob Ryan

2011-02-28T12:43:00.000Z

How adorable are these his and hers mugs? My friend Kathy bought them for me & Scott as an engagement present. I love the idea of his and hers mugs - my Mum & Dad have his and hers mugs; one has a moustache on it and one has red lips on it! They don't use them now but I love how kitsch they are. I think these are such a perfect present for me and Scott as we are both obsessed with HUGE mugs of tea (and sometimes coffee for me). My Mum said these mugs seemed too big but we were like NO WAY! Perfect size! I also love the Cath Kidston crush mugs because you can fit a whole pint of hot beverage goodness in them.

These mugs are part of the Rob Ryan John Lewis range, there are some lovely things in the range but I do think these 2 mugs are my favourite of them all.

Day & night

2011-02-26T22:16:00.000Z

shoes - topshop
dress - new look
t-shirt - asda

shoes - topshop
dress - miss selfridge
cardigan - debenham

I've had quite an up and down week - but it ended good on Friday with a good day in work starting a new project and then a lovely evening with 2 of my best friends. I bought the black dress the day before on a lovely shopping trip with my friend who was back up north from London. I had so many compliments on the dress! All my colleagues loved it. I love it too and think it may also lend itself to other occasions such as Sunday dinners with the family. There is also a matching blazer available for it which is very tempting... I also desperately need more coloured belts to jazz it up! It came with the black belt but I already have a million dresses with black belts.

My second outfit is an old old favourite - I think I have had this dress for nearly 3 years! That is kind of terrifying. I like to think it's a good sign that I am finally happy with my style though instead of owning clothes for a few months and then hating them. The only problem now is that I have no storage room for all my clothes as I love them all but it keeps expanding! Anyone else have this issue?

Valencia panoramas

2011-02-24T09:01:00.000Z

I love the panorama feature on Scott's camera. I think I used it a little bit too much on holiday and it started to annoy Scott though! There were just so many amazing views! The first photo is the ciudad de la artes y ciencias. It is designed by the architect Calatrava and they are all very unique and futuristic looking buildings, such a contrast from the old town with the towers from when it was a walled city and the cathedral. The middle photo is the mercado central, an amazing food market with nearly 1000 stalls in it! The range of food they sell is amazing, especially on the butcher stalls. You can buy chicken feet, carcases, sheeps heads, every single organ of many animals! So much choice! They use all the left over parts to make amazing stock and aren't half as squeamish as we are in England. I wish some butchers would take a leaf out of the Spaniards books! The final photo is the view from the miguelete, looking down into plaza de la virgen.

Valencia is such a beautiful city, I would really recommend it for a short break. It's right near the beach, has a huge park going right through the centre (the River Turia would flood every year so they diverted the river and the river bank is now an amazing park, perfect for running or cycling through!), amazing food, great climate & amazing people too! (Ha, I would say that, being half Valenciana. Both of my grandparents are originally from there which is why we visit). But if you're bored of Madrid or Barcelona, you should definitely give Valencia a try.

Old favourites

2011-02-22T14:35:00.000Z

Sometimes there is nothing nicer than baking an old favourite. Nigella Lawson's malteser cake is one of my old favourites. I don't bake it often but whenever I do everyone always says 'Oh yes, I love that cake, we haven't had it in ages!'. I think that is a sign of a good cake! If I baked it every weekend I don't think we would be as mad on it.

It was my Mum's birthday so of course I had to bake her a cake. Aimee had reminded me of this cake the other week when she posted about her baking it.

I love the contrast between the creamy brown icing and the deep brown cake! I actually started cutting it up before even taking a photo of the entire cake, whoops! So unlike me. My family always laugh that I take more photos of food than of people, but that isn't 100% true! Honest! I have lots and lots of family photos too. Just more photos of cake than the average person.

As an added bonus, here is an archival photograph of the Malteser cake from 2 years ago. I think I have been making it for nearly 5 years now, such a good cake! This photo also reminds me that I need to use my Nikon D40 again more and stop stealing Scott's Sony NEX3...

How is everyone's week going? I think this week will be quite stressful in work (budget cuts & consultations *groan*) but I am also seeing my friend who lives in London at the moment later in the week which I'm really looking forward to!

Valencia

2011-02-20T19:05:00.000Z

I am back from Valencia! I've been back for nearly a week but since we landed at 11pm on Monday night, I've hardly stopped and had any time to log on. It's been work, work, work & birthdays & training for my run as it's less than 3 months away now! So now it feels like my holiday was so long ago, but I have so many lovely photos to remember it by. It was lovely seeing so many relatives who I haven't seen since I was very little, as we all got together to celebrate my Tia's 90th birthday. Hopefully this week I will get back into my routine and have some more time to catch up with blogs and stuff. Here are a few photos from Valencia though, it's such a beautiful city with such amazing food (churros y chocolate and bombons are my fave!). You can see some more photos on my flickr here. I hope everyone is well, please update me with what's going on and your recent blog posts! I will try to read them all during the week.

Moroccan meatballs

2011-02-13T17:54:00.000Z

This is one of my favourite midweek meals. Lamb meatballs with a spicy Moroccan kick, yum! The original recipe comes from the BBC Good Food website, which is such an ace resource for the midweek munchies. Here are step by step instruction for how to make them:

Ingredients

500g minced lamb
1 red onion, grated or finely sliced in a food processor
2 cloves garlic
Chunk of root ginger
2tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of chilli flakes
Olive oil
200ml chicken stock
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
Handful of coriander, chopped

200g cous cous
50g butter
330ml chicken stock
Handful each of chopped coriander & parsley

1. First, mix together the meat, half the onion, half the garlic and half the spices. (I just chuck everything in the food processor until it comes together in one big lump, if not knead it with your (clean!) hands a lot). Form them into smallish meatballs (should get about 30).

2. Heat some oil up in a large frying pan and brown the meatballs off. Remove from the pan once browned.

3. Fry off the remaining onion, garlic & spices until the onions have sweated and the spices are releasing their aroma. Should start to smell really yummy now!

4. Add the 2 tins of tomatoes and chicken stock to the frying pan. Simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the meatballs back into the frying pan and simmer for 20 minutes, so that the sauce thickens and the meatballs cook thoroughly.

6. Now, start on the cous cous. Put the cous cous and butter in a bowl then pour over the hot chicken stock, stir slightly and cover with cling film. The cling film keeps all of the heat & steam in the bowl which will cook the cous cous. Leave for 10 minutes.

7. Chop the herbs and add a handful of coriander to the meatballs and a handful of coriander and parsley to the cous cous. Fluff the cous cous up with a fork. Serve!

Enjoy!

Save Libraries

2011-02-11T22:02:00.000Z

I love these vintage style photos in support of libraries. Phil Bradley, the vice-president of CILIP, designed them to help support libraries in the UK. Because of all the cuts that the Tory government are instating, local authorities are being forced to make huge cuts in their annual budgets. Sadly, this means libraries are also being forced to make savings. Up to 400 libraries are currently going to be closed, with many more likely to be announced. I understand you're probably thinking 'oh yes, of course Helen wouldn't want libraries to close, she'll have no job. A turkey wouldn't vote for Christmas', but from a personal perspective I can see how worthwhile public libraries are. My sister always takes my niece to our rhyme time and she loves being read to already at only 6 months old. My Grandad would always visit the library too when he first came to England, it was his was of educating himself. He would always read to me as a child and fascinate me with all of his stories & facts.

I know that so many of my blog readers are fans of libraries & visit them often, but I also know that some people may like the idea of them but not visit as much as they would like to. Now is the perfect time to rediscover your library! Even if you don't read a lot of fiction, why not check out the cookery book section or the DVDs that libraries now have?

If you're not entirely convinced about libraries, please do not be so quick to write them off. The Internet has not replaced libraries. Just last week I held 'Get Online' sessions in work and helped 17 people get online who had never been on the internet before. People cannot afford computers & internet connections and the library is their only access to the world wide web. Here are some links to have a quick read of:

'Libraries gave us power' - Nicky Wire on libraries
Voices for the library - great website with many testimonies of the power of libraries.
The Guardian's libraries page.

And don't forget to show your local library some love!

An afternoon in Liverpool

2011-02-08T16:23:00.000Z

At the end of January it was Scott's birthday so we decided to go for lunch somewhere. There was much umm-ing and ahh-ing over where to go. I really wanted to go to Etsu because I'm on such a Japanese food kick at the moment! But it was Scott's birthday so he decided he wanted to go to Jamie's Italian. It was a good choice because the food was amazing. I think it's also partly down to the great quality ingredients they use, the buffalo mozarella was the nicest, creamiest, tastiest mozarella I've ever tried!

Our anti-pasti planks. As you can see, the mozarella balls had been polished off by this point!

I had the bucatini carbonara and posh chips. The chips were amazing - perfect crust and lovely truffle oil & parmesan dressing hmmmm. No full outfit photo, but I was wearing a Zara dress as seen in this post.

The light in Liverpool was gorgeous as we headed back home, so I took the opportunity to snap these photos of the two cathedrals. Oh yes, Liverpool is so good we have TWO cathedrals! One just isn't enough for us. The first one is the Roman Catholic cathedral we call paddy's wigwam and the other one is the Anglican cathedral we call, err, the Anglican. No nickname for that..although sometimes when I forget it's Anglican I call it 'you know, the old red brick one'. I really want to go to the top of the bell tower in the Anglican because the views from the top are supposedly amazing, but I still haven't done it yet!

P.S. Yes I am in Spain, this post is brought to you by the magical power of 'scheduled posts'! I have a few more lined up while I'm away, so please leave some lovely comments for me to come back to.

2011-02-06T09:10:00.003Z

A camel coloured dress! How very trendy I know. I think I only really like camel when it's complemented by red. I couldn't decide whether to get this dress in camel and black or black and white. It is from New Look and I bought it at the weekend. I decided on the camel colour because it seemed a bit more sophisticated and I liked the smaller polka dots. On Thursday me & Scott went into Manchester to visit Tiffany's for my diamond certificate and then went to wagamama's for tea. I had the teriyaki salmon soba, so good. I also managed to eat it all with chopsticks, hence why I look so pleased with myself above. 2 days left until we go to Spain now too!

Giveaway winner!

2011-02-04T22:44:00.001Z

Congratulations to Rebecca of Athene Noctua who has won my giveaway! (I have emailed you Beckie!) Rebecca told me 'Things that are cheering me up on these cold dark days are homemade soups, spending days at flea markets looking for things for our future house and the thought of saving money by exploring Britain this year! x.' So congratulations Rebecca and thank you to everyone who entered, your comments cheered me up. Don't forget to check out Sarah's shop, she is still having a 20% off sale for a limited time only.

I'm a little teapot (plus a giveaway!)

2011-01-26T18:35:00.001Z

On Tuesday I received a delightful parcel from Sarah's etsy shop, Jewellery Shaped Things. I ordered it on the Friday and it arrived on Tuesday. It's so lovely, and who doesn't love receiving parcels tied up with string? It really cheered me up on a glum Tuesday.

I wore it with my bargainous Primark dress that was only £5 about 2 years ago and I've worn it so much and there isn't a single stitch come undone! Which is very shocking considering it's Primark haha. The cost per wear for it must be getting quite low by now too. I also wore my lovely shoes from Duo, but that was a big mistake after going to the gym in the morning. Such sore calves!

There are some lovely things in Sarah's shop...

Teapots & umbrellas...

Lovely initial necklaces...

And one lucky reader can win one item of their choice from Sarah's shop! To enter simply leave a comment letting me know what is cheering you up on these dull January days, to try to cheer me up too. The giveaway will close at 9pm GMT on Tuesday 1st February. (Don't forget to leave some way of me to get in touch with you!) Good luck!

Lady Heyes furniture finds

2011-01-23T18:42:00.000Z

I've blogged about Lady Heyes before but it was a long time. Lady Heyes is a antiques/craft village type thing just outside Frodsham, Cheshire. There are different little outbuildings full of second hand goodies. I've been lots of times before but this was my first time taking Scott so we can look at stuff for our house. In one of the back rooms there was this little corner all full of fab 70s style/mid century modern furniture that I am loving at the moment! We needed a coffee table and couldn't decide between these two below. The circular one is a g-plan one and was £28 and the rectangular one was £12. So we decided to go with the cheaper one because it will be easier to fit into any room and has storage for all those magazines and 'coffee table' books. I love that green telephone too but it was £25 which was a bit ridic. for a telephone I thought!

I also loved this little kitchen corner. The pink unit is adorable! I think I would paint the pink a turquoisey colour though. Alas, Scott didn't like it.

The rest of Lady Heyes is full of cute knick knacks. Definitely a place to go if you want a tea set. It would be a great place to buy loads of tea cups for a party or wedding too, or mismatched crockery too.

We also bought this 1970s teak dressing table! It was reduced to £52 and we're going to pick it up with a van in 2 weeks time. We are planning to use it as a TV unit or sideboard though by removing the mirror and perhaps just use the mirror as a full length mirror.

Anyone in the north west really should visit Lady Heyes for some cheap cheap furniture finds! Oh and there is also a microbrewery there and I spent saturday night sipping on some 'Blush' beer, which was a lovely fruity real ale. Hmmm.

Wall art

2011-01-22T08:22:00.000Z

Lately I've been scouring Etsy for some fantastic prints to adorn the walls of our future house.

This is actually a print that we own already. We bought it from the Red Door Gallery on our visit to Edinburgh in October. It is available on Etsy from Kate McLelland though. We are going to try to collect posters from all of our travels now (although they may be limited in the future!)

We both love the weird animal prints by Berkley Illustration! This little chappy would certainly cheer up our house on a glum day.

I love how intricate the details are on this drawing by Christine Berry

This would be perfect in the kitchen! I love how colourful all of Laura Amiss's work is.

I got Scott this squirrel from the Tugboat print shop for Christmas. They are all woodcut prints and there are some seriously amazing prints available in their shop!

Finally, two library related prints that I cannot resist. The first one is by paperfingers and the last one is by Paul of Navarone in Glasgow. It's actually made from a map! Love it.

Anyone have any Etsy shops for prints to recommend to me?

Tarta de Santiago

2011-01-19T21:42:00.000Z

My Nana has been asking me for a while to bake this cake. First, she saw a recipe for it in one of her Spanish magazines so she gave it to me. However, the directions were really vague like 'one glass of water' and didn't tell you what size cake tin to use! So I was scared. Then my Nana & Grandad got me the 1080 recipe book by Simone Ortega that is famous throughout Spain and I noticed there was a recipe in it for the Tarta de Santiago!

The cake itself originates from the Galicia region of Spain in the North. Although the name of it is 'tarta', it is not a pie or tart! It's called this because 'torta' is Galician for cake. The cake is the cake of St. James and usually a cross is stencilled on top of the cake with icing sugar. The cake contains lots of ground almonds which give it a slight nutty taste and dense texture and some lemon rind too which gives it a summery taste.

The recipe itself made a HUGE amount! It included 8 eggs, 500g almonds and 400g plain flour. However, once I made the mix up I realised it was way too much and it made 2 8-inch cakes. The recipe said it served 4-6 people so they must be a pretty greedy 4-6 people if they could eat two 8-inch cakes! Anyhow, next time I will halve the recipe and this is the recipe I've included below:

Ingredients

125g butter

4 eggs

250g caster sugar

200g plain flour

125ml water

250g ground almonds

Zest of one lemon

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180c and grease an 8-inch cake tin.

2. Mix together the caster sugar & eggs until pale and fluffy.

3. Add in the butter (at room temperature), water and flour and mix until the mixture is all incorporated.

4. Finally add the ground almonds and zest and mix together.

5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the centre of the preheated oven for approx 40-50 mins or until the top is just turning golden and a skewer comes out clean.

6. Leave cake to cool and then dust with icing sugar.

Lunch time

2011-01-18T10:29:00.000Z

Lately I've been trying to come up some more interesting lunch ideas, as I was getting a bit bored of the homemade soup & a roll rut I had got stuck in before Christmas. I mean, soup is nice and warming but when you make a batch of a soup that goes slightly wrong but still have to eat it all week, it isn't too good. For example, I made some carrot & lentil soup from a BBC Good Food recipe but it included NO onions or garlic at all! I thought this was pretty weird but followed it anyway. It was horrible! Just tasted like what I imagine baby purée tastes like. I still had to eat it all week in work though.

I am a follower of Laura's fab blog, Keeping Slim & Getting Stylish, and she always posts great ideas for lunches. I saw her post of nori wraps and was inspired instantly! I tried some on the first day with humus, prawns and a variety of vegetables. Then I tried them with homemade peanut butter humus from Nigella's Kitchen cookbook, tuna and various vegetables which is what is photographed above. On Saturday I had ran out of tuna & prawns but still wanted some kind of protein in the wraps otherwise they wouldn't be filling at all, so I whipped up a 'tamagoyaki' which is basically a folded omelette, to use as my main filling. My wraps are slightly inspired by Japanese cooking, but obviously a westernised version.

I've been reading up about Japanese cookery and have been quite inspired by it. I want to try making some sushi rice (sushi is NOT raw fish, but the rice that they use! I don't think I would ever eat raw fish bought from a fish mongers in England. It has to be really really fresh) to add to my rolls too for a bit of carbohydrate. I love the Japanese bento boxes. The idea behind them is a healthy balanced lunch that also is cheap. They often use leftovers or whatever odds & ends of vegetables are hanging around in the fridge. I've been reading 'Just Bento' for some inspiration.

Mixed-noodle pasta with pepper confit and wiener flowers

Sweet & sour chicken bento

Chicken & pepper rice cooker bento

It all looks so much more tasty & healthy than a boring sandwich doesn't it?!

2011-01-16T11:30:00.000Z

shoes - clarks

dress - asos

belt - asos

cardigan - zara

coat - topshop

bag - ollie & nic

Don't you hate it when you take a photo of an outfit and then minutes later decide you just don't like it? I think this would look better with some heels because the dress almost hits my knee and makes me look kind of stumpy. Ah well. I wore this on my day off to go for some house viewings. It was really balmy, I think the temperature got up to 11c! So I wore my spring/autumn jacket from Topshop that I haven't had the chance to wear since about September. It reminds me that Spring is just around the corner!

House viewing is very scary and I keep going through phases of 'yes, let's buy buy buy!' and then other times I'm like 'what if....we have no money, I get made redundant, etc, etc'. I know for a fact that I will have to STOP buying clothes. I haven't really bought many clothes in the past few months anyway as we have been saving, but all my money would be pumped into the house. I may even do a little blog sale perhaps to raise some extra revenue? It is such an exciting but scary time really.

In other news, my training for my run is going pretty well. I can do 3 miles in 22 minutes on the treadmill now, although it's more like 2 miles in 20 minutes when it's actually outside. I wanted to go for a run today but it is raining and I don't have any waterproofs! Hoping it dies down later. Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend too!

Weekend

2011-01-09T21:30:00.000Z

Shoes - Clarks

Coat - New Look

Dress - Peacocks

Bag - Asos

(This is one of the two cathedrals that Liverpool has, it is the Roman Catholic one. Scousers call it 'Paddy's wigwam, because the bishop of Liverpool was called Patrick and well errr it looks like a wigwam! I love how modern it looks, really contrasts with the Anglican one, which is also beautiful.)

I've had a lovely weekend! On Saturday we went for a scary bank appointment about mortgages and it looks like we may me moving out soon (once we find our perfect place! Think we need to call Phil & Kirsty in...). Afterwards we went into Liverpool to do a little bit of shopping. The plan was to go and watch Tron Legacy, but instead we went for tapas at Lunya and ended up WAY too full to think about sitting in a dark room watching a film. We had a little bit of retail therapy and then visited my friend Corinne who works in Brew Tea Bar. If you ever visit Liverpool, you need to visit Lunya and Brew, they are my 2 fave places! They also both sell their stuff online which is great. Brew specialise in loose leaf tea and different tea based drinks. I had a sangria fruit punch steamer, which is a fruity type tea with bits of fruit in it. Perfect to warm myself up with. They also do it in a chilled icey version with frozen fruit and it's lovely in the summer. They also do green tea lattes and earl grey lattes! I tried the green tea latte once though and it nearly made me sick, but the earl grey latte is lovely.

I have wore my new coat all weekend, I love it and it was such a bargain. I saw it in the shop before Christmas at full price, £45, but thought 'nah, don't really need another coat and it might not be that good quality', then I saw it on the website after Christmas reduced to £15!! That's 2/3 off! So I ordered it straight away and it arrived on the same day that my peter pan collar dress from Peacocks did too, that Carla was tweeting about the other night, so thanks for the tip off Carla! You can't quite appreciate my new coat in all it's glory because my hair is covering up the cute fur collar. I also can't decide what colour it is, coraly red? I like it anyway, even if it does clash slightly with my bright red shoes.

I didn't really buy anything in Liverpool, but I did buy some new cereal bowls (this blog may end up mostly featuring new housey purchases in the future!). No ordinary cereal bowls of course, Cath Kidston cereal bowls. I got 2 dotty and 2 spray flowers.

I think that they will cheer up my mornings.

After a busy day yesterday I've had a leisurely Sunday, went for a 2 mile run this morning (building myself up slowly for my 10k run in May! The Nike+ iPhone app is really great though) and then we had family round for a paella. Hmm paella. Reminds me that in 4 weeks time I will nearly be in Valencia having an amazing paella on the beach with mi familia! How was your weekend?

First day back at work.

2011-01-05T12:08:00.000Z

Shoes - Topshop

Dress - Zara

Ahh so yesterday was the dreaded first day back at work after the Christmas break. I wasn't dreading it really, I had already been in in between Christmas & New Year so it wasn't too bad. In fact I was quite looking forward to getting back to my routine and getting back to the gym. This is what I wore for my first day back, black & boring but simple! I adore this dress from Zara, it was about £36 I think. I have wore it so much, it's good for dressing up or dressing down. I love the shape of it too, it fits into my work wardrobe brilliantly because it's not all 'power-dressing' but still remains professional looking.

I spent my first day in work catching up on a few projects and then making little finger puppets in the afternoon for my rhyme time on Friday! Rhyme time is a weekly event for 0-4 year olds where we sing songs & rhymes with them and tell stories. It is so much fun! It's also a great way to introduce little ones to the library and to help them develop their literacy. I made little incey wincey spider finger puppets. I do love my job.

How was everyone elses first day back? Or are you at Uni, attempting to catch up on all the work for the January deadlines? Those January deadlines used to ruin my Christmases!

So this is the New Year

2011-01-02T23:11:00.000Z

Yesterday -

Shoes - Topshop

Dress - New Look

Cardigan - M&S

Today -

Shoes - Topshop

Skirt - Topshop

T-shirt - Belle & Sebastian

Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins

My first 2 outfits in 2011! Doesn't 2011 sound weird? A new decade. I hope it's a good one. I spent New Year's Day mostly in bed and then tidying up from our small soiree. Then we had a big family dinner that we always do every New Year's Day, it's like a mini Christmas dinner. It's quite nice to have a final binge before the inevitable 'healthy eating' starts.

So what does 2011 have to hold for me? In February I am going to visit my Spanish family with my grandparents and Scott, it'll be the first time Scott has met them all and I think the language barrier is worrying him but I'm really excited! Then in May I will be running my first race! I've entered for the Manchester 10k and have joined the gym and everything in a bid to get fit. I think tomorrow I will take my first visit to the gym of the year. The 2nd half of this year is looking a bit empty at the moment but I'm sure it will rapidly fill up with exciting things.

Today Scott & myself visited Cheshire Oaks to indulge in some discounted goods, namely discounted Le Creuset pans. We treated ourself to this 20cm Cerise cast iron casserole dish, I can't wait to rustle up a good scouse in it. I'm a bit in love with it and would like a rather large collection of all different sized Le Creuset pans, but alas I also need a kitchen big enough to fit them all in.

Hope this year has been good for you so far, tell me your plans, aims & dreams for the next 12 months!

Farewell, 2010

2010-12-31T15:56:00.000Z

Wow, what a year 2010 was. I am looking back at my old photos and things have changed so much since the start of last year. In 2010 I...

Froclicked in the snow with Scott in January

Visited family in Spain in March and ate lots of churros y chocolate

Taught myself how to crochet & then had no time left to crochet in!

Started my first proper full time job in the library I grew up visiting. It has some lovely wooden flooring and stained glass windows!

Became an Auntie to a lovely girl named Sophia in August

Visited Edinburgh with Scott in October

and finally, got engaged at Christmas!

What a wonderful year 2010 has been to me. I hope it has been as good to you as it has to me and that 2011 is even better! Tonight I am spending the final hours of 2010 with my fiance (still can't quite get used to that, think I will still call him boyfriend or maybe 'hubs-to-be') and friends. I will attempt to eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes 12 and wear red underwear (Spanish tradition). See you all in 2011!

Sick day

2010-12-29T18:27:00.002Z

I am spending today off work, ill. I have that horrid cold/flu thing that seems to be getting to everyone at the moment. I hardly slept last night so I spent this morning asleep in my cosy room, catching up on much needed beauty sleep. My ears keep aching because of the congestion though which makes it hard for me to get comfy while sleeping. Fingers crossed I am better tomorrow because I have so much work to do before the end of 2010!

I have also been playing with Scott's new camera that I bought him for Christmas, it is a Sony NEX-3 and has this rather cool panoramic function on it, so I used it on the 2 photos of my room above. It will also be really good when we go to Valencia to visit family and go to the top of the miguelete. I am hoping I feel better soon so I can get some more outfit posts up on the blog too! I have missed blogging after my mini-hiatus, but this spare time over Christmas has helped me get my blogging mojo back.

P.S. Thank you all for your lovely congratulation wishes on my last post! Truly overwhelming!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

2010-12-27T23:00:00.000Z

Merry Christmas everyone! Yes, that is an engagement ring on my finger! Scott popped the question on the 23rd and of course I said yes! It was my final present in my advent calendar and was originally intended for Christmas Eve but I had my suspicions by then..haha. We will not be getting married for a few years yet, we have said about 5 years time, but that doesn't stop me from perusing Rock 'n' Roll Bride to get inspiration.

I hope you all had a magical Christmas, 2010 has been a truly great year for me and I hope it continues into 2011.