Life Lately - New Home, Making a Project House a Home

Hey All

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that C and I had bought our first home, property by us has been rising in price and we were getting to the point we were about to be priced out, as we started to look more at properties we decided a fully done up house wasn't for us. We knew we wanted traditional features still in the house, we wanted a bay and we wanted something we could make our own.

We've been in the house for over 6 months and I can't believe how much time flies so I thought I'd shared some of our progress, we've essentially lived in a building site for the last 3 months with our bedroom being our only sanctuary and because of all the work the rabbits were also in our room so it's been stressful!

Life Update

Hey all

So it's been a long time since I wrote a blog post and even longer since I did a life lately post. A lot has been going on lately and life has been hectic!! C and I have just bought our first home and it's a total project renovation house so life has been busy moving, and starting working on it and Christmas thrown into the mix.

Life!

Well it has been a pretty long time since I've done a Life Update - so make a brew, take a seat and browse my recent happenings with me!

Of course, I've been stuffing my face with street food as that's generally what I like to do with my spare time. This time it was the Winter Social from Depot Cardiff and *finally* I was able to see all of the umbrellas in their glory!

How pretty are they?! I love the snowflakes hanging from them.

I shared a few different dishes with a friend and we had a Merry Cheesemas burger (Wensleydale and cranberries on a burger, yum!), Crab Flatbreads (also yummy with so much garlic) and finally a pulled pork bun with winter slaw. I was very full at this point but clearly i still had room for one of my favourites - Science Cream!

I'm not one of the biggest fans of ice cream but the offerings from Science Cream are just perfect, the ice cream is made in front of you with fresh cream and liquid nitrogen. The result is the smoothest ice cream in existence, so I chose Sticky Toffee Pudding on this occasion and it really did have hot sticky toffee pudding with it and a dollop of salted caramel sauce, so much drool.

I had to go home and lie down afterwards.

I've also been changing a few things with my look. By that I mean, I bought a new palette and got my hair cut - I'm not one for drastic measures!

The Gwen palette is outstanding, both outside and in. As expected the Urban Decay eyeshadows are the most pigmented and silky as always and the colours are beautiful. Our post is here if you'd like more info!

As for my hair, I had a fringe cut in! It's taken some getting used to - mainly as if my hair is a mess I usually just scrape it back but now i have to do something with my fringe....I've bought lots of dry shampoo to cope though!

It normally looks a bit fuller than this, I was going for the Zooey Deschanel look so I need to wait for it to get a bit messier and relaxed. I definitely like the change though!


I've also been keeping busy with papercutting, although I haven't shown much on the blog or twitter. My latest creation is for my bedroom and is a classic Paper Panda design, you should checkout her website. I've been planning on making this for an entire year so I'm pleased that I've finally got to the framing stage, now it's just time to decide where on the wall it needs to go!

I'm thinking a gallery wall which probably means that I will need to make a whole lot more before I can put anything up!

Another paper related hobby I've been getting into is colouring. I have a fair few books now but you always need a few topics to keep you interested. The Harry Potter one is a current favourite, though it is taking me forever to complete each page.

Lastly I've been on a real health kick the last few weeks. I'm really missing having more control over my diet and exercise, and the thought of Christmas eating filled me with dread. That and if I indulge too early I will unfortunately make myself ill, so I need to control myself and then I can enjoy Christmas Day itself.

So I've been roasting loads of veg and making cous cous with soy sauce in batch. I then pair this with tuna, chicken or feta cheese for my lunches so with a good breakfast and this for my lunch I knew I wasn't going too wrong.

I've also been trying to exercise as often as possible. M gave me her spare 30 Day Shred DVD so I've been doing it as often as I can. 20 minutes is not much to ask and I know I have at least that to dedicate to myself every day and keep my eating in check. It's haaaaaaaaaaaaaard work don't get me wrong, but I've decided to just get stuck in and not wait until January to make changes.

In an effort to try more healthy recipes I have also finally made Cauliflower Pizza!

It was a really long process to make, not only to grate the cauliflower but to dry fry it for 15 mins and then bake it for 40 mins before even adding the topping........I was starving!

It did really taste like a pizza though so I was impressed, I just wouldn't make this for myself on my own and would probably just save myself for a real pizza!

It's been such a busy few months and I'm looking forward to a few days off over Christmas with my family. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

L xxx

Life Lately

Hey All

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've recently moved house so I'm without internet. That will be changing on Saturday. Can't wait to have it back sorted. I've also managed to catch a cold so feeling a little under the weather. I've got so many posts I've been wanting to write but I thought I'd just do a little catch up post!!

On Monday it was one of my brothers birthday's so I popped home for the evening to see him and catch up. I also made him a cake as I'm now out of shared accommodation I have room for all of my baking stuff. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it wasn't too bad!

L and I have been lucky enough to head to a few events the last week so we will be sharing some bits from these next week. First up we went to see the new products Dior have released for Christmas and then off to Lush. I couldn't resist some purchasing from both places and I've definitely discovered a few amazing new bits!

As I've just moved in with C we're enjoying making our new place feel homely. We've got most bits from Ikea or TK maxx. I still need to grab a few bits. These are the pots we got for the bathroom. I love the colour and look of these and they were a TK maxx bargain. One was £3 and one was £4. An even better but was the fact they are candles so I lit the candles every night till they were gone and then cleaned the jars. Candle pots are so pretty when I couldn't find what I wanted in the bathroom section I thought I'd check there!

 

Now I'm in a new place I'm hoping I can get a pet. I just need to convince C I should get one. This little guy won me over and even convinced C we can go and look together!

After resisting the urge to dye my hair for two months I couldn't wait to get some colour back on it. I really do love my hair purple but it always disappoints me how quickly it fades out. I need to decide what to do with it next. I think I need something more low maintenance for now.

I also had a great whirlwind weekend in London catching up with some of my closest friends from back home. We opted for London so we could see our amazing friend in Mamma Mia. He's sky in it at the moment. The show is awesome and it was amazing to see him on the big stage again!

L, C and I all headed out for Halloween. He was lucky to get stuck with us for the night ;). We originally got tickets for the Splott Warehouse Halloween party but after queueing for over an hour to get in, being squished in the process then being totally disappointed when we got in (you had to then enter a massive queue to get tokens to then queue again to get drinks!!), spending the night queueing in ridiculous queues didn't appeal to us so we headed into town and ended up having an awesome night!

I'm now counting down till C gets back from his latest work trip! The house does feel strange without him there but I'm hoping to change the colour scheme in our bedroom whilst he's away to make it pretty! ha!

It's been a crazy busy few weeks and with Christmas fast approaching it's not slowing down! I'm so excited for Christmas this year though and luckily I'm off to Copenhagen for new year. If you have any travel tips let me know :).

Love M

xxx

Life Lately

Hey All

Long time no post from me,  life really has been a bit crazy lately. The dude got back from a trip, I've had two weeks off work and just lots going on. I've got lots I want to share on here but thought today I'd do a little life update on some things I'll probably go into more detail on soon.

Pretty soon after he got back we had a black tie dinner to attend to celebrate our kickboxing club. It was so nice to get all dolled up and I got to wear my bridesmaid dress from a few years ago too! I had so much fun we ended up staying out till about 1ish but by then my ankle was really sore as it was only a few weeks after I'd sprained it!

By the time he got back we'd planned stuff for all our weekends. The following one we headed up to London to see some of his friends from uni. We ended up travelling all over :London using the boats, cable car and tubes to have an explore and ended up at the Greenwich observatory. It was such a cool day and I was glad I finally got myself an oyster card as it made it all so much easier. After catching a super late bus back from London I had a spa day with my mum. I love going for treatments but was left a bit disappointed by the afternoon tea! Me and the dude also decided to let the parents meet each for the first time. Definitely scary but they all got on really well thankfully.

L and I also got to catch up properly. I swear I have no time at the moment. We went for a sushi date as it's been ages and who can resist Yo Sushi! during September blues. We also headed to techniquest which you can read about here. Having never been I was so excited and definitely want to go to an afterdark session again!

Then the start of two weeks off work happened and some exciting developments. Me and the Dude, (I guess I should update him to C now to go along with the theme of things here!) have decided to move in together. We've been looking at places for a while but decided to finally go for it after finding a cute little house. I'm so excited to make it our home for the next year while we save to buy somewhere or travel. I'm already planning what I can make and he's even said I can scratch off where I've been to his scratch map! That's commitment right there ha!

For our two weeks off as loads of stuff was going on we decided to stay in the UK and go glamping after some friends had stayed in a Geo dome in Scotland. We decided to stay nearer to home and went to Hay-On-Wye. We had the best time there and I'll share more on it as it was amazing!

We've also spent a few day's in York visiting Cs grandma. I'd never been and loved all the buildings and little shops. We stayed in a really cute hotel. We also headed down to West Wales for a few days with my family for a break. It's been a busy two weeks but great one's too!

With it being the Rugby World Cup we've had busy weekends to fit in watching it all. I've loved seeing it but was definitely rather grumpy when England got knocked out! I finally managed to watch my first match in the Stadium too. What a match getting to see the Haka!! It was such a great atmosphere and I really need to go more now.

So there is my busy few weeks! It's not going to get any easier either with now a house move in two weeks and busy weekends but it'll all be worth it!

Love M

xxx

Life Lately

Hey All

I really feel like life is whizzing by at the moment. The past few weeks have felt like a bit of an exciting blur with loads on and the next few weeks feel like they could be the same. Two weeks ago I got my dude back from his latest work trip away which was just in time for my birthday so we headed down to the local street food place with some good friends including L (my housemate has pictures of me opening my presents from L which I need to get off of her so I can share them as L did good on my birthday presents this year!).

I love Depot and going with L is great as we like to share food so it means we get to try loads. I'd recommend heading down if you're local to Cardiff as it's still on through August so there is still time and the have one of our favourite places Science Cream (review here!) and as it's the Summer they have an awesome outside area with converted cars etc to sit in!

I spent my actual birthday with my family and OH. They came down to visit and bought my nieces so we ended up just eating out and exploring Cardiff. We had planned to go to the international pool and go on all the slides but we ended up not having time!

I've been spending lots lately. I really should put a haul together. When hunting for the perfect nude shoe I came across these beauties from Miss KG and couldn't resist!! They were half price and just to pretty not to order. I ordered from Very and couldn't believe how quickly they arrived!

I also finally got my first tattoo and I am totally in love with it. I can feel it becoming an addiction where I just want more. Also I got to properly bake again which I haven't for a while and made macaroons (my new favourite!) and my niece a rainbow sprinkles cake!

As well as all that there has been graduations (OHs brothers), weddings and overnight stays in Brighton and Bristol. Somehow most of this has all happened over the past two weeks!

The weekends just aren't long enough! Have you been on any trips yet?

Love M

xxx