Ramble, ramble, ramble...

Buns & Roses

2012-03-03T19:03:00.000Z

After my day got off to a bit of a crappy start (I was running late for my wedding dress fitting in Brighton, so pulled over at some Services to call ahead to let them know but then my car wouldn't re-start so I had to call out The AA, thus missed my appointment completely, which was quite funny because as I have a Saga breakdown policy, the guy was expecting to assist an over 50. I then explained that I work for Saga and we had a little giggle (Saga and The AA are owned by the same company)) I actually ended up having a really productive day wedding-wise.

Things I achieved:

Found potential ties for the men to wear- I didn't have our colour swatch with me but it looked about right.
Looked to Penelope Cruz and Zooey Deschanel for hairspiration.
Had a consultation with a florist for my bridal bouquet- who totally 'got it.' Succulents, Roses, Ranunculus and Hypericum berries are going to feature in it.
Had a consultation with a lovely hair stylist called Jack at Vatican hair & beauty in Canterbury, who's girlfriend is a make up artist (woohoo!). I told him I wanted a Penelope inspired bun, but a little raggedy, and he suggested a side-bun. I know it probably looks like a standard bun to you, but I literally never do anything with my hair, so it's pretty special for me. I'm going to put an ornate hair clip in it on the day. Jack also suggested I buy Sea Kelp to help my hair grow so I then swiftly made my way to Holland & Barratt.
Arranged for my wedding dress to be couriered via Parcelforce from Ozone in Brighton to a bridal shop called Jodi in Canterbury, and booked my two fittings with the seamstress there to save me having to travel to Brighton any more.
Made a poor girl in Topshop take photos of my hair, as per the below!

Feeling all dressed up with nowhere to go, I have persuaded Ruari to go to the pub down the road for dinner. Nom. His team won their rugby match today, btw, and he scored a try. Yay!

Hope y'all are having good Saturdays! x

Rubber Lover

2012-03-02T22:34:00.002Z

Ruari and I both took today off to do weddingy things. We went to the council offices thinking we just needed to fill out a form to say we want to get married, but we got sent to the registry office as it turned out that we had to have a special appointment for a 'notification of marriage.' Luckily they could fit us in today so we just had to dash home and grab some ID and proof of address and get our priest to sign a form. We then had to answer a couple of basic questions about each other and hand over £67 quid.

After that, we headed to Bluewater to see what the High street had to offer Ruari in terms of wedding suits. Ruari doesn't like me documenting his life, so I won't go into any detail except to say that we found one. It's having a few adjustments made to it then he's picking it up on Monday- exactly two months before our wedding! I was surprised at how painless the whole suit-buying experience was, as Ruari is very picky, but I know that he'd previously been to Saville Row and looked around Canterbury to no avail.

We had Mexican for dinner in a place called Wahaca, after not being able to find Chilango's (which I'm sure used to be there... non? I was then ready to SHOP!

I fell in lust with this pair of Melissa for Vivienne Westwood pumps in Urban Outfitters, but for £85 and after hearing lots of things about how painful they are to walk in, I decided against them. They were lovely though.

I also spotted this super cute letter 'N' purse in UO. I didn't buy that either, but I think I might pick one up when I go to Brighton tomorrow for my dress fitting.

I eventually did fork out and bought myself this little white rubber-strapped Swatch watch. I wear my black little Swatch almost every day and have wanted a white one for yonks. I had to buy a shorter strap for this one as it had a mega long one that's meant to wrap around your wrist twice. It was £32 then the extra strap was £7. Ruari then bought me a couple of dresses in H&M- one monochrome stripey jersey that I'd mainly wear for work, then a pastel pink floaty shirty dress that I'd probably wear when it's a little warmer.

I then went a bit nuts at the Mel stand in Schuh and bought myself TWO pairs of Jubes at £25 each- one pink and one black, because I couldn't decide which I preferred or which would go with more things. Plus I figured that two pairs of these are still cheaper than the Melissa's. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can wear them with pretty socks, or even bare tootsies and I'm so pleased that they still have the bubblegum smell (for some reason I only thought the smell was put into her Viv shoes), but I have a feeling that won't last long. In fact, because they're rubber I think my feet might reek.

After spending far too much money between the pair of us, we headed home feeling relieved that we'd succeeded in doing weddingy things. I'm off to Brighton tomorrow. Might wear a pair of my new Mels.

By the way, I ordered the Lazy Oaf watermelon skirt but had to return it because it was teency weency (despite being a size S-M) plus Ruari said it didn't do anything for me. Also, the aged 12-13 year old kids watermelon dress I bought from eBay was also teency weency so I sold it for a tenner to someone at work. It was so small that it fit his 7 year old little girl. So, no watermelons for me!

It's time for Criminal Minds, so, L8rzzz x

Please, Mum, can I get a tattoo?

2012-03-01T22:17:00.000Z

I've pondered over the possibility of getting a tattoo since I was a teenager.

Things I have considered include:

Would it make me unemployable?
What if it isn't perfect (i.e. if I got a star and each of the points were uneven *shudder*)
What if I don't like it?
What if I get fed up of it?
What if I have a reaction to the ink, or catch a disease from the needle?
Would my mum disown me?
Would Ruari not love me any more?

I am now older, and slightly wiser, and have pretty much rationalised all of the above fears. For example, in every organisation I've worked, there have been people who have visible tattoos, some of whom have been in senior positions and worked their way up career ladders etc. Tattoos generally aren't perfect and I personally think that's part of the art. If the tattoo really sucks or I get fed up, I could just get it covered with something else. The last three are a little trickier, but I think there are skin tests and hygiene standards in place to prevent reactions and disease, and I kinda think my mum and Ruari would get over it... Or is that just wishful thinking?

As a teen, just some of the tattoos I considered (which I'm glad I never got) included:

The AFI bat on my lower back (but would it just look like a bat flying out of my ass)
The Weezer '=w=', again, on my lower back (quite a contrast in musical taste compared with the above)
Black star on my wrist

The tattoos in the image at the top of this post (all by my friend, Elizabeth Jane Miles) incorporate elements of tattoos that I've liked for a while now. I like framing, roses, and when the line is a darker shade of the colour of the shading (if that makes sense), as per the flower in the teapot and the blue roses.

Oh, another thing is that I've always felt like tattoos had to mean something, but I have learnt that some peoples' tattoos mean something and others mean nothing- and that's that. So, I think I'm just going to go for the plunge and get something I like, just because I like it, and not worry about it having to mean anything.

My latest consideration is whether to get it done before or after my wedding. I'm edging towards 'before'. Ej will be doing it, btw. Go and check out her tattoo blog and watch this space!

LOVE x

Company iPad

2012-02-28T21:09:00.005Z

I've got my hands on one of the company iPads for the night. So far I've been on Twitter, been paranoid that the company have set this thing to secretly film me and save my passwords, have watched an episode of Criminal Minds (I'm beginning to be able to tell which series I'm watching depending on which devices the team are using) taken pictures of myself taking pictures of myself, and am now watching Supersize vs. Superskinny whilst typing this. I now have wrist ache from holding the iPad at an awkward angle with one hand and tapping on the screen with the other. I know you can get stands and keyboards for them, but, like, doesn't that defeat the point?

Anyway, due to Google's lack of continuity of service between devices, I have had to now switch to my laptop to finish this blog post because the iPad version of 'adding an image to a blog post' is the mega old desktop version and won't let me upload the pic I took with the actual iPad. Hard to explain.

All in all, I'm not impressed with the hunching-over-iPad induced back ache and carpal tunnel syndrome risk, which I had my suspicions about, and general incompatibility between sites I want to use/ stuff I want to do. I've found Blogger to be a nightmare on my iPhone, too. Guess it's probably something to do with the whole iPhone/ Android war. I'm pretty fed up of Google at the moment. And Facebook... Don't get me started on Facebook!!

Right, well, I am now going to do what I'm meant to do with it (check how our paid search ads and landing pages look), right after I've emailed my parents.

LOVE x

Snappity snap

2012-02-27T22:37:00.001Z

I'm so excited and relieved to say that we've finally booked our photographer! He's not actually a wedding photographer by trade, but he is an award winning documentary photographer, called Ed Thompson, who's work has been featured in The National Geographic, Newsweek and The Guardian to name just a few. I particularly like a series of photos he did documenting the rescue of UK battery hens. I'm really looking forward to seeing the snaps. Eeee!

In other news, my Lazy Oaf watermelon skirt arrived today but the waist is freaking TINY! It's a size S/M and the bum-bit is fine, but I just seriously don't go in at the waist, so it's just got to go back, unfortunately.

x

GOSLING-ATHON

2012-02-26T20:46:00.003Z

Emma came over this afternoon and we watched Crazy, Stupid, Love AND Drive, back to back. We were pretty much just swooning the whole way through! I enjoyed Drive much more the second time round, and had a new appreciation for the soundtrack. Emma and I have both given up sweets for Lent and so we ate pizza then snacked on grapes, lots of tea and a couple of cookies. Chocolate doesn't count as sweets, right? If it does, we have both failed miserably at Lent!

I have just ordered Murder by Numbers, The Notebook AND Lars & The Real Girl, at a total of £9.47 on Amazon, so Emma and I can have another Gosling-athon sometime soon. I saw Murder by Numbers at the cinema yeeeeears ago, and remember Gosling and Michael Pitt looking hot, and I've seen The Notebook twice (and cried both times), but I really want to see it again (and make Ruari watch it and cry). I've not seen Lars, so that's kinda my wildcard. I bought Blue Valentine a little while ago but am yet to watch it. Also, The Ides of March comes out of DVD soon, so I'll probably order that, too. I'm all Gosling'd out!

Hope y'all have had good weekends! x

P.S. Mum, Ryan Gosling is an actor that I am in love with.

WEDDING: TO DOs

2012-02-25T20:11:00.001Z

We still have soooo much to do- you wouldn't think we were getting married in just over two months!

I need to find someone to do my hair/ decide what I want my hair to do!
I also need to find a make up artist/ figure out what I'm doing with my face on the day.
Decide on and order wedding favours. (We're thinking little bags of sweets in out colours i.e. pink Millions and pale green sherbet pips... Maybe?)
Decide on a photographer.
Figure out how we're going to fit everyone we've invited for the day-part into the marquee- we kinda underestimated how many people would be coming. (May involve hiring an extra marquee).
Order our wedding rings.
Sort out where we're staying on the night.
Organise our transport on the day.
Tell the council we're getting married.
Decide on decorations.
Find a florist.
Order a wedding cake- (we tried some cakes on Monday night, but are yet to make up our minds).
Find a suit for Ruari.

I did a few weddingy bits today, mind. I tried on a whole bunch of underwear but was just finding it all really poorly fitting, so I got my boobs measured in Debenhams and discovered I am smaller round the back and bigger in the cup than I thought I was. My new size makes me sound like I actually have a rack when, in reality, I really don't. I ended up just ordering some boring undies from Wonderbra at ASOS in my newly awkward size- they're purely practical, nothing interesting- but should arrive in time for my dress fitting next weekend.

I went in to the silversmith's that made my engagement ring and explained to them what I wanted. I think I'm just going to go for a plain platinum band, the same width and thickness as my engagement ring so they can hang out in harmony together. They gave me a ball-park price of £500. Yowzer.

I booked in for a make-up tutorial with Clinique in Fenwicks for a couple of weeks time, where they show you how to do make up and persuade you to buy stuff. I wanted to speak to the girls at the MAC counter, but they were sooo busy so I'll just try and catch them next time.

I haven't decided whether to stay in my dress for the whole evening yet. I'm a bit worried about scruffing the train up or spilling things down it, and I'm considering selling it after use, so I've just ordered a potential evening dress from ASOS. I've never liked anything I've ordered from them once I've seen it in real life, so we'll see. Even if I don't wear it on the big day, it's still a nice dress and will probably wear it another time.

I also sneakily ordered this beauty from a random seller on ebay last night...

Not to mention, I finally bought that watermelon skirt I posted about the other night from Lazy Oaf. Oops!

Goodbye, bonus! (And I've not even received it yet!) x

SCHMALLPAPER

2012-02-23T22:30:00.002Z

We still can't decide on anything. This Cafe du Paris wallpaper by Marie Claire is the latest 'potential' for our bedroom.... Maybe.
I'm tempted by this Cat Print paper by Elle Kids, though....

#firstcelebcrush

2012-02-21T22:51:00.001Z

Who: Damon Albarn.

Year: 1994.

School Year: Year 3.

Age: 8 years old.

Tonight's Brit Awards have brought it all back.

After many years of crushing, I finally had an opportunity to see Blur perform at Reading 2003. I was 17 and my musical tastes had moved on, and it was a toss up between them and AFI. It was close, but I went for Blur as I figured it'd probably be the last time they'd all be together and I'd liked them for longer than I'd liked AFI. I hate festival clashes. In fact, I hate festivals.

What a line up.... I'd totally watch a different set of bands if I could go back in time to what I actually watched. If that makes sense?

Set list:

Ambulance
Beetlebum (Damon fell off stage)
Girls & Boys
Gene By Gene
Badhead
Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary BowlsClub
For Tomorrow
Good Song
Tender
Caravan
Out of Time
Crazy Beat
Brothers and Sisters
Song 2
Popscene
End of a Century
Trimm Trabb
Battery In Your Leg
The Universal
To the End
On the Way to the Club
Encore:
Me, White Noise (with Phil Daniels)
Parklife (with Phil Daniels)
We've Got a File on You
This Is a Low

Yeah. Just felt like sharing. x

P.S. See my previous post about my earlier musical loves.

P.P.S. Blur also taught me a lot about the Solar System:
I spy in the night sky, don't I
Phoebe io e lara leda callisto sinope
Janus dione portia so many moons
Quiet in the sky at night hot in the milky way
Outside in
Vega capella hadar rigel barnard's star
Antares aldebaran altair wolf 359
Betelgeuse sun sun sun
(Blur -Far Out)

SCHMELON

2012-02-20T23:14:00.004Z

I don't usually like writing posts about lusting after things but, as you may already know, I proper love the aesthetics of watermelons (and I also love a body-con). Therefore, it only makes sense that I want this watermelon skirt from Lazy Oaf - £45.

The other day, a friend brought my attention to 'Are you a Melon or a Lemon.' Naturally, I'd like the melon t-shirt and to cut some fringing into it, but parting with £35+£5 postage for the honour pains me a little.

I found out today that I got a year-end bonus and pay rise at work, so I might treat myself. Maybe. x

CATURDAY

2012-02-18T17:47:00.001Z

I've been feeling a mixture of good & bad, hot & cold, happy & sad lately. It's all quite a long story that I won't bore you with, but mostly involves tales of woe regarding my mum's home-buying situation, my wedding dress needing to be re-made, our wedding meal having to be down-sized (thus having to make cuts to our daytime guest list) and work stress. On a positive note- our wedding invites are ready to go! In fact I posted a few on Monday and a whole bunch today. We still need a few addresses for some of our friends, but the remainder will be hand-delivered. Woohoo.

These guys have been making me happy lately. The felines had the snip last Friday but have recovered without any problems. Yay.

P.S:

The girl on the bottom left is my friend, and fellow wedding-planner, Sammi. She was interviewed on SometimesSweet.com, but also check out her blog at 28.02.13 x

We may not have ordered a cake yet...

2012-02-04T14:59:00.001Z

But we have just ordered this cake topper!

I heart Between The Trees

LATELY

2012-02-02T21:32:00.000Z

Good Girls Don't Wear Leather

2012-01-21T02:01:00.000Z

I'm coming up to my ten year anniversary of dietary vegetarianism, but only my fourth year of consciously not buying anything leather (I avoided it when I was vegan, but the availability of fashionable leather goods at a low price later numbed out my conscience for a few years.) I'm also coming up to my 18 month anniversary of trying to only buy shoes that are going to last, rather than cheapie pumps that make your feet stink and are really just slippers which are no good in the cold) which has meant investing significantly more monies into (most) footwear that I buy these days than I used to.

I'm a big fan of Vegetarian Shoes (although I'm pretty sure my desert boots and airseals make me look like I have clown feet) but I'm always on the, err, hunt for quality purveyors of vegetarian non-foods. I've come across few shops lately, including Beyond Skin and Freerangers (although I heard the latter were particularly unhelpful when Ruari tried to purchase their beautiful Lorica satchel for me in time for Christmas (which resulted in me not getting it.))

Tonight, however, I discovered Good Guys Don't Wear Leather. A vegetarian shoe store from France. Never have I seen such beautiful shoes in such an array of colours and textures that I can actually buy without having to worry about their origins*. They all seem to be unisex, or at least come in unisex sizes, which is good news too. That's my 2012 Christmas list sorted then. Ha!

*I don't know how much any of this stuff is because their online shop appears to suck, so I might not be able to afford it, and even if I could, there doesn't seem to be a way for me to do so without actually going to France...

Exciting, non? Can any of you guy recommend me some more vegetarian non-food retailers? x

If I weren't the one getting married....

2012-01-20T20:12:00.000Z

If everyone (but mainly the ladies) wore a colour from this hairband to my wedding, I'd be a happy lady. Think of how pretty the photos would be!

Additionally, if I were going to my wedding but wasn't the one getting married (?!?!), I'd probably wear one of these dresses.

All from Topshop. They have some great pastels on there at the moment (which should all be reduced by May ;-)) x x

P.S. This would be my back up with some charity shop black heeled sandals... ok, maybe if the socks were a bit shorter with frills around the edges.

I heart Katy Perry...

2012-01-19T21:23:00.000Z

Especially with pink hair. Bottom left is probably my fave, followed closely by top left. She makes some fricking awesome pop too.

Papel Picado

2012-01-15T23:02:00.001Z

I found a UK based supplier of Papel Picado wedding banners! Yay!

Between The Trees on ebay offer a few different sizes and colours, but Ruari and I are initially going to order one string (£14.99 for 18ft), to see what they're like IRL, then potentially buy some more. The idea is to decorate the marquee with them, but the marquee lining is going to be white, so I don't know whether it will all just get a bit 'lost' in the white wash.

I went to my mum's this weekend to go 'mother of the bride' dress shopping. She showed me a few dresses from Viyella that she saw the other day and we managed to narrow it down to one... then I suggested another. She couldn't decide which she preferred, and I thought she looked lovely in both, so she ended up buying both so she could ponder for a while.

Also, turns out my mum has a few succulent plants that we could potentially use as part of our centrepieces for the wedding. I'm thinking of just putting them in a simple pot then tying either a green or pink ribbon around them and dot a few candles around them. I haven't totally thought this through yet. But, 'yay.'

Bridesmaids Dresses

2012-01-15T17:13:00.001Z

I have been waiting for these Thyme Allure dresses from Coast (at Debenhams) to be reduced for what feels like forever. At £180 each (and I'd need/ like two) I'd really rather not have to pay full price for them, especially as I'm sure they were reduced when I first spotted them. I should've just gone with my gut at the time.

My latest worry is that when I get my dress adjusted, I will look like a fat dumpy mess due to my flat chest, big rib cage, thick waist and short legs. I've put on a few lbs recently and I've been generally feeling a bit bummed... I really don't suit this wedding-planning malarky. As much as I'm looking forward to getting married, I can't wait for the actual wedding to be over. I also can't wait for spring. x

Wedding Flowers

2012-01-08T19:46:00.000Z

I'd like succulents at the wedding, with hints of pink and coral in my bouquet. I may even give them away as favours as the succulent my mum gave Ruari and I as a house-warming gift is literally the only plant I've ever managed to keep alive. It's pretty low maintenance, so I think it'd be pretty cool for those who aren't necessarily green-fingered. Not sure.

The centrepieces on the tables won't have colour in them- I really like the idea of having them in a jar or vase. Ruari's mum spotted some artificial succulents in Sainsbury's that could be used as centrepieces, but at £5- £12 a pop, I wonder if it'd be cheaper (and a nicer touch) to DIY them with plants from a nursery and vases or jars from somewhere like Ikea.

I found a shop on Etsy called 'Succulents Galore' which have loads of gorgeous plants, but they're unfortunately based in San Diego- pretty sure even the most hard-wearing of plants couldn't hack the distance, surely? I couldn't see anything to say they'd ship here either. I have instead been looking at UK sites so that I can actually name the specific succulents I want and find out whether they're even available at the time of year I want them at. Glenhirst Cacti & Palms have an entire section dedicated to the different types. That's where I'll be spending most of my time online for the next week or so!

Wallpaper, schmallpaper

2012-01-08T14:39:00.001Z

We want to wallpaper the hallway, one wall in our bedroom and maybe the spare room, too. Ruari's had his eye on this 'Woods' wallpaper by Cole & Son since day dot. I've seen it styled in various places online- mainly living rooms and offices, but I'd like to have it up in the hallway to create a feel a bit like you're walking through woods when you enter the house. I've not seen it used in this way, so I'm not sure how it would look. There are also a few different colourways to choose from but I think I like the monochome the most, especially for the hall. We painted our hallway a pale grey last year, but we think it's 'missing' something... Could this be the something to fill in the blanks?

I really like this Flamingo print wallpaper from Cole & Son for the back wall of our bedroom. Again, it comes in a few colourways, but I like the grey or the blue the most. We already have a lot of different shades of blue in our house, so Ruari's reluctant to have even more blue in there (plus he doesn't like the flamingos). We borrowed the Cole & Son Contemporary Selection sample book from Brewers and the grey is a little browner than I'd imagined it to be and looks a little odd with our grey bedding. It seems that the blue would be the winner- it'd co-ordinate with our different sets of bedding and the array of pink accessories I have collected over time. Can Ruari be swayed? Probably not. Back to the drawing board for me :-(

Wedding Shoes

2012-01-08T12:38:00.001Z

Whilst not being the most delicate kinda shoe, nor typically associated with weddings, I knew I wanted to wear shoe-boots on the big day as I wanted to have the height of heels, but the comfort of shoes. (I completely swear by shoe-boots, those with wedge heels are even better, but definitely not wedding-y).

I came across these beauties 'Chantilly' by Harriet Wilde, but paying £229 for a pair of shoes that I will probably only wear once wasn't really a viable option. Plus there were leathery elements to them, which I couldn't really ignore.

After a bit of peeking around online, I came across 'Tornado' by ASOS. (I'd actually considered buying these as office shoes last summer as I wanted shoe boots for work that wouldn't get to hot, but I think I decided they weren't quite appropriate and ended up wearing ballet pumps for the whole of summer instead.) I only looked at them with 'wedding eyes' when I saw them featured on the blog, Savoir Weddings, which prompted me to revisit the ASOS site. Luckily they were still in stock and, after perusing a couple of the other colourways, I decided to go for them in 'neutral.' What's more is that they're vegetarian too, so that sealed the deal for me. Ordered them for £35 and chose free delivery as I'm not in a real rush.

I'm still waiting for the colour swatch of my dress (grr) but it should be here in the next week or so. I might consider getting these dyed to match the colour of the dress, which is a Champagne colour, but these aren't really going to be on show on the day, so if they're close enough, then I might not bother. It also depends on whether these are dyeable and how much it would cost.

So, yeah, just thought I'd share. I might be doing a bit more sharing of the wedding now that it's only FOUR MONTHS AWAY!!! Crrrr-aaaaa-zyyy!

LOVE x

P.S. Check out my friend, Sammi's, wedding blog, 280213. I love it, and she is a total beauty with amazing taste.

HNY!

2012-01-01T22:51:00.000Z

Happy New Year! It's 2012! Can you believe it?

2011 was a crazy year. I remember thinking (thus, tweeting) back in July that more 'stuff' had happened in the world by that point in 2011 alone than it seemed would usually occur the space of a decade- then even more stuff blew up. Literally.

Just some of the 'stuff' that happened in 2011:

Gadaffi and Bin Laden- killed
Revolutions in the Middle East
Passing of Steve Jobs, Amy Winehouse and about 65 other notable figures
Royal Wedding(s)
Occupy [everything]
UK riots
Eurozone being even more screwed than usual, apparently
Oslo shootings
New Zealand earthquakes and flooding
Volcano erruptions in Chile and somewhere else that I can't remember
Japanese earthquake and tsunami
General crazy weather around the world- hurricanes, tornadoes, storms etc.

Part of me wondered whether it was just that I was more aware of world events (mainly due to Twitter) or whether the world was actually more fu*ked up than usual. I'm still not sure, but I definitely think that more sh!t will go down in the world in 2012 and we're all screwed, basically.

Personally, 2011 was pretty darn good (much better than the previous three years) and was quite a big year for me; Highlights include buying a house, setting a wedding date (officially this time), adopting a pair of rescue kittens and retaining my job. 2012 is going to be the year that Ruari and I finally tie the knot and will have been together for over 7 and a half years by the time we actually do. Hopefully my mum will move to Canterbury (fingers crossed her home-buying chain re-forms soon), my brother's acting will bring him more success and Sarah's business will do well. I won't list all the things I hope for in 2012 for myself, my friends and family, but hopefully I'll be able to reel off a whole bunch of cool sh!t this time next year.

Resolution-wise, my resolutions from last year are still completely relevant and I neither failed nor succeeded in 2011*. I think my problem is that I make them a bit too open-ended and not SMART enough, y'know? I'm basically going to re-use those resolutions and set some definitive goals so I can measure my success.
*bar the one about seeing people more often. I totes failed to see any of my old West-Country-based uni pals, or London pals for that matter. I am the worst real life friend ever. I also never made a trip to Scotland to see my brother either. Sorry.

In other, more recent, news; my mum and brother came to visit after work on Thursday, which was lovely. I saw the new year in last night with some of my favourite people and delicious food. Ruari and I have had a very relaxed weekend together (for a change as he usually works on Sundays) and the kittens have been extremely sleepy today, which has made for some interesting viewing. I just had a bath and moisturised my skin with Trilogy- Everything Balm, which I got free aaaages ago*. It was actually amazing- it was waxy and melted into my skin like butter and now I'm so oily that I feel like I could go in an oven for a couple of ours like a chicken or summat. *Literally ages ago- it was a freebie when I subscribed to Womens Fitness magazine which I had for about 15 months that ended about a year ago- it's a wonder it was still in date.

Ruari and I are about to watch Animal Factory, so I better dash. I hope 2012 is an awesome year for you all!

LOADS OF LOVE x x

P.S. My blog turned three on the 30th December! My first year and a half of blogging was pretty heavy- a fair amount if crap happened in my life and it sort of acted like my therapy. These days I think the tone is much lighter and I try not to bore the crap out of my readers or make them want to kill themselves any more. Not that that's what I tried to do before, but that's definitely the effect my old blog posts have on me, anyway. It's always interesting to look back from time to time, though, I find.

A World Of My Own

2011-12-29T22:20:00.000Z

Since Ruari and I got the kittens, I've had a song from Alice in Wonderland in my head. This evening, I finally looked up the actual lyrics...

Cats and rabbits
Would reside in fancy little houses
And be dressed in shoes and hats and trousers
In a world of my own

All the flowers
Would have very extra special powers
They would sit and talk to me for hours
When I'm lonely in a world of my own

There'd be new birds
Lots of nice and friendly "how do you do" birds
Everyone would have a dozen blue birds
Within that world of my own
I could listen to a babbling brooke
And hear a song that I could understand...
I keep wishing it could be that way
Because my world would be a wonderland.

FESTIVITIES. #3

2011-12-28T23:10:00.000Z

Hello! I hope y'all had a lovely Christmas. I have been reading about what people got up to and what people wore, however, I can safely say that I did very little more than absolutely NOTHING for three days solid and barely got out of the two sets of pyjamas I was given!

Ruari and I celebrated our very own Christmas in our bungalow with our various animals on the 24th, as we were due to go to our respective parents' houses for Christmas and Boxing Day. We had Coco Pops for breakfast and opened presents shortly after whilst watching my favourite Christmas film- The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The 1979 version with English accents). We cooked our veggie roast dinner, lazed around, then packed our bags (and animals) and went to Ruari's parents' house. We decided to take the animals there as Ruari's parents only live 30 minutes aways (as opposed to the 2 hours to my mum's house) so to cause them the least amount of travel-stress as possible. I then drove on to Eastbourne where my mum, dad, brother and his girlfriend of a million years were. It was lovely to see everyone but I was soooo tired and ended up sleeping on the sofa whilst they went to church.

Christmas Day arrived and after quite a lay-in we all exchanged gifts. I later started watching Inglourious Bastards but then decided it was a bit depressing for Christmas (so finished it on Boxing Day instead). We had Christmas lunch and my dad came over with Kate [cue more exchanging of gifts and telly-watching]. Uncharacteristically, we all watched the Eastenders Christmas Special (which was a total head-f**k as I've not watched it in yonks). I must have taken about four naps on Christmas Day- how unbelievably lazy?!- but it was nice to be in the company of family (although I must've been completely rubbish company!)

Boxing Day was pretty similar, minus the gift-giving. Oli and Sarah left to go to Rugby because Sarah's mum has been taken ill so I stayed in with my mum and watched about five hours of Dynamo: Magician Impossible and part two of the Eastenders Christmas Special. I spent a wee while browsing at the sales online- I'm mostly interested in my bridesmaids dresses being reduced, but no such luck so far- and researching Oli Sykes's new girlfriend (Cristina Piccone, in case you were wondering).

I made my way back to Ashford on the 27th where I spent the day with Ruari's family, mostly by an open fire. I had my third Christmas as I got even more presents. Again, it was lovely to see everyone on be reunited with the kittens and bunnies- it sounded like they'd forgotten who I was in the three nights I was away.

Present-wise, I got totes spoilt again this year. As I said in my birthday post, I don't usually like listing stuff that I got on here, but I want to make sure I remember just how Goddamn lucky I am! Some of the gifts I received included the above chicken doorstop, money, sweets, chocolates, three pairs of earrings including a pair of Disney Couture Minnie Mouse earrings, a Calavera Tapatia Day of the Dead and an AIW print, a cute Dear Prudence for UO picture frame and cat Christmas tree decorations, black Vans, Chloe Perfume, Loungefly purse and hair clips, nail polishes, nail art pens, nail wraps, Steam Cream, ecoTools brushes, bed sheets, touch screen-friendly gloves (have you ever tried to use your iPhone whilst wearing gloves? Nightmare!) owl jewellery and hat. That isn't even all of it... Honestly, I am so lucky to have such thoughtful friends and family.

All in all, I had a very relaxed and sleepy Christmas. I couldn't have asked for more in terms of gifts and time with my closest family who I don't get to see all that much really. I actually can't believe it's already! I went back to work today but we're allowed to dress down this week and take it in turns within our teams to leave at 3pm. I left at 3.30 and sneaked to Canterbury to do a couple of exchanges and snoop around some of the sales. I bought myself a navy blue chiffon blouse with foxes on it and a light brown cardigan from Zara and some essentials such as Ibuprofen and a packet of crisps.

So yeah, that's about it. If you're a real-life friend and I didn't see you over Christmas... WE MUST MEET UP! Come to Canterbury and hang out!

What do you have planned for New Year's Eve? 2012? How did that happen?!?!?! x x

TWENTY SIX

2011-12-22T20:45:00.005Z

So... I turned 26 two days ago. It's been ok. More than ok. In fact, I'd probably go so far as to say it has been the best birthday ever. Not just the actual day itself, but I mean in terms of where I am in my life n' that. I really feel like I have a lot to be grateful for and I can't take that for granted. Last year was a good one too, but in previous years I've usually been pretty angry and/ or disappointed with myself. I like to look at old diaries and blog posts to see what I was up to 'on this day x number of years ago' and I can see that two years ago I was in a pretty crappy place. On a lighter note, I'm also really glad that the snow didn't foil any of my birthday plans this year, which it has done for the last two years. Woohoo!

Anywho, I barely slept on my birthday eve- not sure why- but I got out of bed at 4am and started opening cards and presents. I eventually tired myself out at 6am and slept for another hour.

Owl cushion, Jingle G perfume and Montagne Jeunesse face masks- from Oli & Sarah. Owl post-its and tissues- from Karl & Nikkie. Birthday chocolate and Debenhams voucher- from my dad. Fearne body lotion and shower gel- from my sister. Necklace and earrings- from my mum. Wine glass charms- from Ruari's mum. Fiona also got us a cat bed, cat bowls and a feeding mat. Ryan & Lyz also gave me a cute vase, re-usable coffee cup, home made body scrub and owl note cards.

Ruari gave me the kittens, of course, an owl mug, rabbit slippers and the Lady Gaga x Terry Richardson book.

My lift-share picked me up for work at 8am and I was super surprised that he gave me a Pot Noodle, Chocolate Orange and bottle of cider, which was awesome! At work, the very recently engaged, Emma kindly gave me a Hello Kitty x Liberty box full of smellies and an amazing rabbit card with a wee badge on it! I also got a lovely owl card from all of the guys, which is proudly displayed on the top of my card display stringy-thing. Oh and another Pot Noodle from the guy who sits next to me. I do love a Pot Noodle!

We later had Christmas lunch, which was pretty LOL-filled due to my manager being very keen to not to get the dregs, resulting in him getting his food 15 minutes before everyone else, and the boys using up all of their breath on blowing up loads of ridiculous rocket balloons and letting them go. (It was actually a lot funnier than it sounds... s'pose you had to be there!)

Emma and I:

Emma came back to ours after work for a bit then more peeps joined and gave Custard A LOT of attention whilst Marmite hid underneath the Christmas tree!

I was very kindly given an awesome rabbit mug from George & Nat, a goose brooch & Topshop nail art pen from Dan & Gem, and a Toppers voucher from Ross & Emmi!

Sorry to be so boring and 'I did this, this and got this' but in previous years I haven't done so because I thought it would sound a bit crude, and I kinda wish I did now. I was very lucky to have had such a good day surrounded by friends and to have been given so many cute presents. I also got lots of birthday texts, calls Facebook posts and tweets, which was really sweet (although it killed the battery on my phone, haha!). Thank you to everyone for making my 26th so painless! Loving y'all!

x x x

P.S. Owl-based card update:

From Nat & George:

From Dave & Fiona:

From Layla:

FESTIVITIES. #2

2011-12-17T12:30:00.001Z

In the last week:

We have had our Save The Dates made and have started to write and distribute our Christmas cards:

I got mega stressed about having not saved the date with our friends yet, especially as our wedding is on a UK bank holiday so I really wanted to get in there early as people get their new calendars and holiday entitlement. After a little cry and a talk with Ruari, we decided to design our Save the Dates last weekend and get them printed as sent out over Christmas whilst we wait for our invitation designs. We took our inspiration from this Cinco de Mayo wedding photoshoot which I've probably mentioned a million times. I'm so relieved to have finally sent them out, but I wasn't expecting them to get back from the printers so soon (Tuesday) and I'd already started posting Christmas cards on the Monday :-/

This picture makes them look a lot bigger than they actually are. They're a bit bigger than a business card and smaller than A6. I think that's fair to say? Not sure.

Ruari and I put our Christmas tree up!

'nuff said! Although we need some tinsel and beads...

I went to my work's Christmas 'do. I was the only girl out of my 'lot' who was drinking.

I had 3 pints of cider, 1 glass of wine and 1 glass of Bucks Fizz. I'd had soup for lunch and could barely eat any of my three course meal. Fair to say I was pretty wasted and my manager has video evidence of me dancing by myself to some kind of awful pop song. How embarrassing! Ruari picked me up at the sensible hour of 12am whereas the boys carried on partying 'til 2am!

Ruari and I adopted a pair of kittens (as mentioned in my very brief post last night).

We got them (Marmite & Custard) through the Cats Protection who are a charity that specialise in rehoming unwanted cats. They also provide cat advice and promote neutering to avoid unwanted litters being born. Our kittens are 13 weeks old and we bred by a lady who, apparently, had made money from her first litter so thought she could do the same with a second litter, but ended up calling Cats Protection because she couldn't cope any longer. They had two more brothers which had already been rehomed and when we collected them last night from their carer, they were living with their mum and a male cat called Brambles (who is being rehomed on Wednesday). They lady was keeping them in a shed that she'd kitted out for them and she regularly fosters cats whilst they're up for adoption. She was the lady who looked after Mimi, the three-legged Saga cat when he had to have his eye removed. She said he made a really good recovery and is now living the quiet life with one of her friends. As part of the adoption, we had to sign forms to say we promise to keep them indoors at night, to get them neutered and microchipped. They've also given us loaaads of information on looking after cats and a local newsletter which I look forward to reading.

Received some cute cards:

From Donna and Witti:

From my mum:

From Dan & EJ

From Sammi & Anton

Package from Pip :-)

Time to play with the kittens. I'm determined to make them love me! Mum, Dad and Kate are coming over later. Yay! Hope y'all are good? x

P.S. Here is my desk at work, as mentioned last week:

Here is a festive gingerbread man from Money Supermarket (I think):

Oh and last, but not least.... The most amazing packet of chocolate fingers from Staples. Only £4.99! I'm a fool for not buying them!

Introducing...

2011-12-16T21:21:00.001Z

The two new boys in my life; thirteen week old brothers, Marmite and Custard. I'll let you guess who named them and which is which ;-)

Thank you to Ruari and Cats Protection, Folkestone, for bringing them into my life! Details and more pics coming soon! x x x (put your paws up!)

FESTIVITIES. #1

2011-12-09T21:55:00.001Z

This week has actually been quite good considering I ~~stacked it~~ tripped over within ten seconds of leaving my house on Monday morning, scuffing the brand new wedges I'd bought at the weekend from New Look. It sucked but, thankfully, both myself and the shoes were fine. I did have to quickly change my tights before work though.

I succeeded in my task to buy decorations for my bank of desks at work. I basically just rinsed Poundland of gold tinsel and red bows and proceeded to cover mine (and my reluctant manager's) desk in all things Christmas. I failed, however, to take any pictures so I will have to share those at a later date.

Ruari has been busy pretty much every evening this week with either the gym or various band practices. Tonight he's shooting a video at the RCA with The Sans Pareil. We had 'date night' on Tuesday and watched Bridesmaids which I thought was a waste of over two hours of my life, but I seem to be the only person who thinks that. Admittedly, there were some LOL moments, so it wasn't all bad, but it could've been edited to more like 90mins, IMO.

Last night, my friend Emma and I went to Westwood Cross in Margate after work to buy our Secret Santa gifts and generally mooch around. We then went to Nando's for dinner where I had a Halloumi and Mushroom pitta with chips. nomnomNOM!

Here are some pics from the week:

A better picture of one of the pretty trees at work.

I got this today.

Inside it were a pair of stockings for Ruari and I to make, and....

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!!! I can't wait to open them!

Here are mine and Ruari's Christmas bits thus far. We now just need a tree. And tinsel.... And fairy lights.

And we need to write and send out our cards! Arghhh!!!

Loads to do this weekend- glasses to collect, presents to buy, cards to post, shoes to get re-heeled, rugby matches to watch (Ruari's team are playing against the doctors of Guy's Hospital tomorrow), friends to see, and mothers to call. Where has the time gone?!?!?! I'm freaking out a little :-(

SLEEPING TIME NOW!

P.S. How cute is this handmade card from our friends Dan & Gem?

P.P.S. I'm loving the app 'Doodle Booth' I downloaded earlier this evening (used on that picture of my parcel, though in hindsight I should've used it after I'd Instagram'd it.).

Also, I can't not mention the new app from Saga; 'Woteva'. I'm not just saying it- it's actually alright. I'd even go so far as to say it was LOLZ, although their definition of 'fugly' is incorrect and I don't think the terminology included is necessarily restricted to teenagers, as advertised, as it seems about 70% of the words form part of my daily vocab!

Downloaded any good apps lately, iPhoners? x

Hello, December

2011-12-03T12:59:00.000Z

1 + 2. I can't believe it's December, already. My 26th birthday is fast approaching (on the 20th) and I'm actually ok about it. In the past I have dreaded getting older, but I feel like things are pretty good and I'm ready to meet the other side of 25... I think! Picture #1 is the moment it turned midnight of the first of December on my phone, so I took a pic. The second is my Hello Kitty advent calendar. Did I mention I have the mental age of a 12 year old?

So, the last week has been a bit emo. Mum got the news on Monday that someone in her home-buying chain had sadly died. It's quite far back in the chain- the buyer of the buyer of the buyer of my mum's house and the chain ends at my mum. The man and his wife had completed the sale (I think) but the wife has, understandably, gone away to be with family and I suppose she's re-thinking whether to still move. This means that mum might lose the apartment in Canterbury if she hasn't completed in the next month, along with a £750 admin fee. I'm sad that someone has passed away, but I'm also gutted for my mum. She really deserves some good news and, as I've said before, I really wanted her to be in Canterbury by Christmas. Her house (and my old room) has been pretty much completely boxed up since September when we thought things were going to move the first time. She doesn't seem to be eating properly, and I know she's probably dwelling on all of the things that have gone wrong. Ugh.

3-5. Without going into too much detail, an opportunity at work that had potentially arisen appears to have disintegrated. I haven't officially been told, but I just put two and two together. I'm actually ok with it as I'm really happy doing what I currently do, and working where I currently work. It would've been a pretty big life upheaval for me, which I had anxieties about, as I know what I can be like. I come away from it all feeling flattered to have been asked and it's really made me think about what's important to me. It's actually exciting times in my at work as we're going through a complete re-branding exercise, including a website redesign. I'm currently awaiting the results of an SEO site audit by an external agency. My role will then be to make sure the recommendations that come out of it, happen. I currently do a similar thing for PPC but the plan has been for a while make me less PPC and more SEO. I'm slowly getting there. These are some pics I took as I was leaving on Friday. I particularly love the fairy lights in the trees outside. This weekend, I am in charge of acquiring Christmas decorations for my bank of desks at with a budget of £13. Poundland, here I come!!

What else?

6 + 7: On a lighter note, this is probably the most organised I've been for Christmas in my life! I've already ordered (and returned) a party dress from Rare @ ASOS and ordered a replacement from Dorothy Perkins (which I'm waiting to arrive). Hopefully it will look better than the Rare one did on me- the shoulders didn't sit right, although I probably could've lived with it if my hair was long enough to cover it, but because of my aforementioned horrendous hair cut, I've got to wear it up for the foreseeable future! I've also made a dent in my Christmas shopping list. I have a feeling the postmen at work are going to hate me by the time Christmas arrives because I've ordered so much stuff to be delivered there!

8 + 9. I ordered the cutest moustache pin badge from Magasin Cross Stitch by Sarah Fordham. There are so many wonderful things on her Etsy, I just couldn't decide, so I bought a wee something in tribute to Mr. Moustache (he's not dead or anything, don't worry, I just couldn't think of a better word than 'tribute.') Here is is, proudly pinned to my Topshop duffle coat which I got in exchange for my faulty quilted jacket (which I actually really miss!)

Ruari is currently playing a rugby match against the Faversham Seconds, so I am expecting him home at about 2.30, all bruised and battered. We're going to venture into Canterbury to get Christmas decorations for the bungo. 'citing. I am then off to Eastbourne later to watch The X Factor with my mum. I'm all about Little Mix and Amelia Lily. I'd be happy if either of those two won.

Right, I better move.

L8r xx

P.S. I've stolen the format of numbered photos and corresponding descriptions from Sailor Jennie. I need to get me some photo-editing skills. Hmm...

P.P.S. What have you asked for for Christmas?

Misc.

2011-11-27T19:18:00.001Z

Hello, all. Apologies for the quiet spell. Judging by the rate I'm going I probably won't blog all that regularly during the winter but, if anyone's interested in what I'm up to, I 'micro-blog' over on Twitter and also post pics up on Tumblr, usually via Instagram. This tends to end up more like a consolidation of all of that stuff anyway.

Here are some things that have been brightening up my days over the last couple of weeks. (Again, brought to you, mostly, by Instagram):

Innocent smoothie hats. In case anyone is unfamiliar, every winter for the past 4 or so years, Innocent Drinks have collaborated with a whole bunch of grannies who knit hats for their amazeballs smoothies in a campaign called 'the big knit' that raises money for Age UK. My humble collection thus far is below. The 'fruity' ones are from last year, but the pink one is from one I bought in Boots as part of a meal deal last week. I really want a watermelon one!! (On a side note, I've just created a Tumblr dedicated to these little hats. I'm such a loser! http://iloveinnocentsmoothiehats.tumblr.com/)

Anyone who follows my 'regular' Tumblr account, or are friends with me IRL, might know that I love watermelon art. I even have a Facebook photo album dedicated all things watermelon-y. (Again, I know I'm a loser). Anyway, Ruari and I went for dinner with a whole bunch of friends on Friday night to celebrate a friend's birthday (I had a yummy paneer tikka masala with naan, then Nat's home made chocolate cake with peanut butter icing for dessert). It was lovely to chat to people and I was super excited about the onion, tomato and cucumber 'art' our plates. (You probably won't be as easily pleased as I was/ am....)

On said Friday night, I wore my new contact lenses for the first time. It was a success, although they tickled the insides of my eyelids a bit and I could see a whole bunch of glare around lights. Here is my muy atractivo mug, all dolled up, for a change!

Here is Mr. Moustache's mug, close up. Very close up, yesterday morning.

Ruari and I went to another friend's birthday gatherings last night in Margate. She's a tattooist and lives with her boyfriend (also a tattooist) in the nicest apartment, a converted hospital, and they have a whole bunch of antiques and taxidermy around their place. I wish I'd taken some pics, it really is beautiful, although I'm reeeeally not sure how I feel about taxidermy. Literally, just don't know how I feel. I'm kinda torn, but it mostly depends on how the animal died. Like, whether it was roadkill or was just killed especially to be stuffed.

This afternoon, my dad brought my mum and my 17-year-old half-sister, Katie, up to Canterbury. We met at Ruari's parents' house so I could show them the garden that the marquee is going in, and the general redecoration that's been going on over the last couple of years. It's the first time Katie's been up this way to see me, and the first time my dad's seen Ruari's parents' house in daylight so we had a little tour.

Whilst there, Ruari's mum, Fiona, gave me this cute little owl tree decoration that she picked up for me from a garden centre lately. He looks very sleepy!

Kate and I in the garden. I look a little bit spacky, as per! (The owl and phone are in my pocket, btw, making my belly more pronounced!.

I spotted this cute little ladybird who's colours are the opposite way around. I took the time to Google whether this is normal. Apparently it is, but birds don't like to eat them because they create a different smell/ taste that birds aren't into. More ladybird facts.

We then stopped by at Badger's Hill Farm as I wanted the family to see the random animal collection/collective, lolz. I particularly like this shot I took of a wallaby.

We had a cuppa and a spot of lunch then I saw this Mr Rabbit just as we were leaving. Very AIW!

We then went to The Old Tannery to see the apartment mum bought the other week. She doesn't have a moving date yet, but hopefully it won't be long.

Kate, Dad and I, back at the bungalow.

I have finger-Tourettes.

x

P.S. The view out of a window at work:

P.P.S I'm so mature...

I have blogger's block.

2011-11-20T17:20:00.001Z

That is all. x

Hot vs. Not

2011-11-12T19:13:00.001Z

HOT:

1. I got the best card in the post this morning from my Maid of Honour, Donna (Maid of Donna).

2. I had my first contact lens appointment at Specsavers today. I'd booked the appointment two weeks ago and was hoping I'd get some today but because I'm getting special lenses for astigmatism, I've got to come back next week. I'm so excited to be able to see on nights out! I also got my specs re-glazed with my new prescription- I was so impressed that it was done within the hour and only cost £39*. (I decided to just stick with the pair I have whilst I decide on some cool new ones). What's even better is that I got a 'Golden Ticket' that gives me 50% off my contact lenses next week! I have to say, I do love Specsavers. The fave of all the opticians I've ever been to, and there have been a fair few.

3. I was invited to my first blogger event on Thursday night. I was so excited to because I've always wondered what one of these things are like. It was put together by a PR agency that specialise in ethical fashion and lifestyle brands such as Ethletic, Komodo, Pants to Poverty, Oxfam and Essential Care.

I was most excited about getting my make up done by Essential Care as they specialise in organic and vegetarian skin care products and make up. The girl who was doing the make up was really lovely and was genuinely interested in the brand, but she was a freelance make up artist so couldn't recommend the best things for me to buy or help me figure out what would be most suited to me. I went home with the catalogue of products, so I will have have a good read, but just last weekend I had to stop myself from buying some make up in Boots because I wanted to make sure what I was buying was veggie etc, so I thought I'd hold out until the event. I still don't have any make up, but I don't have any money so I guess that's that then! Here are a couple of snaps with Megan- I'm wearing a Komodo cardi and Meg's wearing a Komodo coat.

4. My mum bought an apartment in Canterbury City Centre today! Eeeeeeee!! I won't go into the details of why my mum didn't buy the house in Wincheap right now, as it's a whole other boring post, but I'm so happy she's found somewhere else (that's totally perfect for her!) and it'll be great to have her nearby! She should be in by Christmas! YAY!!!! (pictures won't go in the places I want them to, damnit!)

NOT:

1. Being almost £500 overdrawn when there's two weeks left until pay day. This month has drained me! £499 car insurance (don't know why I paid it in full rather than setting up monthly payments.... IDIOT!!), £400 marquee deposit, £450 mortgage & bills and the rest on food, train travel and petrol, oh and 3 new tyres for my car. Not actually sure what I'm going to do :-/. I hate banging on about money, but I've actually never been this skint in my life! *My mum had to lend me £39 for my glasses to be reglazed because my card got declined!

2. I got my hair cut last week in Eastbourne by a hairdresser that my 60 year old mother recommended. Where I'd had a long bob, or a 'lob' during the summer it'd become quite thick and heavy at the ends where there weren't any layers, so I just wanted it to be restyled so I could grow it out nice n' long until May so I'd have maximum hair-options for my wedding. The hair dresser (who was lovely) got a bit scissor-happy and cut about 90 million layers into it, the shortest layer being ear-length. It reminds me of the hair cut I had when I was 12 years old when I'd asked for 'the Rachel from Friends' do, and I came out looking like Rod Stewart. She even used 'thinning' scissors that I haven't seen since the 90s. So, yeah, I basically look like I'm 12 again, and the fringe I'd cut for myself two night's previously has only exasperated the situation. My hair do's only saving grace is that it's long enough to put into a pony tail and I bought some nice hair clips using some vouchers I had from Accessorize to ease the pain. In hindsight, I only have myself to blame for listening to my mother!

3. My MOH is going back to Austria on Monday.... because that's where she lives. Whyyyy, damnit, whyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?!?!?!?!?

WARM:

(Not sure if these are really hot or cold because I'm gutted that I had to return the things I did, but I'm pleased to have new things instead). I returned the blue quilted jacket I bought a couple of months ago from Topshop (not this exact one, but similar) because the quilting was coming out of the stitching, even though I hadn't washed it. They didn't have any more in stock so I exchanged it for a green winter duffel coat for an extra £34, (thanks again, mum). I also returned my light brown cardi with dark brown elbow patches to H&M because the sleeve had come unstitched and exchanged it for a black version instead.

So, yeah, that's about it. Can't tell you how much better I'm feeling today compared with last week. HAPPY DAYS. xx

Untitled.

2011-11-06T10:38:00.000Z

Instead of writing about how gloomy, blue and fugly I'm feeling, here are some pictures of the morning I spent with my friend Emma at Badger's Hill Farm in Chilham last Sunday. People who follow me on Tumblr or Instagram, apologies for the repetition!

Emma, touching an ass.

Achtung!

Cock surrounded by hens.

Osterich and hilarious duck/ goose with it's head in a bucket in the background.

Mallard with brain tumour?

Spot the wallabies!

Terracotta heaven!

Cute card that Emma picked up for me in Whitstable :-)

Looking at these has made me feel a little warmer inside. As has the thought of Emma being severely hungover this morning after going to a party that I flaked out of last night. LOLZZ!

x x

Listening/ watching:

2011-11-03T21:19:00.000Z

Triggered by hearing a piano-ified version of The Pixies- Where is My Mind being used on a Thomsons Holidays telly ad*, I decided to YouTube some of my favourite songs from when I was younger/ heavily influenced by my big brother. Some of these were b-sides or album tracks so didn't have videos and I was gutted that I couldn't find anything for Smashing Pumpkins- Once in a While.

Here y'are:
Pixies- Where is my Mind

The Longpigs- Lost Myself

Suede- So Young

Blur- Clover Over Dover

Oasis- Cast No Shadow

Weezer- Jamie

Bluetones- Sleazy Bed Track

Morrissey- Speedway

The Smiths- I know it's Over

Jeff Buckley- Lover, You Should've Come Over.

Stone Roses- I Wanna Be Adored

x

*which reminded of this rant by Henry Rollins:

Happy Hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T22:03:00.001Z

I hope you're enjoying the spooky season! Anyone care to divulge any gory deets?! I'm going to a Monster Ball next weekend (almost guaranteed to get messy) and I watched Corpse Bride and painted my nails slightly halloween-y yesterday (didn't bother with any elaborate nail art in the end), which is more than I usually do at this time of year. I also bought a massive 1.1kg tub of sweets for a fiver last Monday in anticipation of lots of trick or treaters but, alas, we have had none. Oh well... more for me ;-)

Here are some of my hallowe'en-based Instagram snaps.

My little munchkin pumpkin...

Jack-o'-lanterns on our doorstep.

Ruari's freaky, giant pumpkin :-/

Mine is supposed to be a little bunny.

Eyeball jellies at work today. I don't eat jelly, but could appreciate the coolness...

Hallowe'een-esque nails + just a fraction of the sweeties I bought!

Plastic skull tumbler, £2 from Morrison's. Might get another one if they're reduced after Hallowe'en.

x x x

Lacklustre.

2011-10-26T21:55:00.004+01:00

Yo,

Soz for the lack of updating... I'm blaming the weather/ shortening of days for most things at the moment, such as my lack of desire to get out of bed in the mornings/ do any exercise when I get home/ generally leave the house unless I really must or, indeed, even doing anything whilst I'm in the house. As a result, I feel chubby and just want to drown myself in a sea of Walker's crisps, flying saucers, macaroni cheese, Jaffa Cakes, Coca-Cola and Skittles. I'm considering investing in a light box and staring at it at all times for the next five months.... or moving to Australia.

Things that have been keeping me going lately:

Saturday:
GO APE! And general good times with the extended family in celebration of Lyz's birthday.

Sunday:
France vs. New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup Final. I was so gutted that Morgan Parra had to watch from the sidelines after being injured in the first half. I totally just wanted to hug him and kiss his face better, which I'm sure he'd have appreciated.... Not. Totally loved his replacement, Trinh Duc too, though. [Being a bit of a internetty keen-bean, I found this interesting article about social media and the RWC2011 today].

Monday:

Appreciating Morgan Parra and my very own brunette beauty, Ruari.

Tuesday:
Evening meal with the extended family and new-found inspiration for my Cinco de Mayo wedding...

Pastel yet Mexican = PERFECT.

Papel Picado:

Mariachi El Bronx:

Today:

That is all.

I hope you are all well.... xo

P.S. Does anyone else know at least five people who either look like The Count, an Ostrich or a Peacock? I think I might know more than five. Ruari is an example of an Ostrich. Penelope Cruz is a Peacock and the new addition to my team at work is The Count, as was one of my old marketing lecturers at uni.

I want blue hair...

2011-10-20T20:15:00.003+01:00

It's been a while since my last 'hair' post but here I am, again, SEVERELY bored with my hair. It's just so nondescript at the mo. Just boring, boring, BORING. I really want blue hair, but not sure whether I'd go navy, royal, electric or turquoise. Who am I kidding, as if I'd actually do it, but I can pretend. My half sister always has amazing hair and am pretty sure she's sporting turquoise at the mo. Maybe I could have blue hair for my wedding and that could be my 'something blue.'

Check out these fine examples of blue locks. The first few pics are of my latest girl-crush, Charlavail Effron (a Hayley Williams look-alike who is awesome in her own right.)

Awesome hair grip she made....

Hayley W:

K-Pez, last year.

Lady G and Amber Rose in turquoise.

Gwen Stefani, back in the day.

Random picture I nabbed from Tumblr.

Me, in a blue wig, circa 2009.

An example of one of my half-sister's amazing hair do's. She's deleted her Facebook so I can't lift a blue-r one.

Oh, how I wish I could get away with blue hair at work and without ruining my hair forevs.

Christmas bits pt.1

2011-10-16T09:00:00.001+01:00

Hello!

I've been embracing the whole 'OMG, they're selling Christmas stuff already' thing this year with open arms. Here are some things that have jumped out (not literally) at me whilst I've been mooching around various town centres lately. Despite being a bit of a web-head, I rarely buy anything online, and if I do, I've almost always seen it in real life beforehand. I'm very much into touching, holding and trying things on before parting with my dollar. Anyway, I digress.

If I didn't hate foxes for their noisy love-making and what they did to my rabbit, Rupert, I'd have snapped up this beautiful £55 cardi from Urban Outfitters.

I love this Love Hearts stamp-kit and this owl iPhone sock- both from Urban Outfitters. Hoot hoot!

Owl hottie from Accessorize. Hotties annoy me (I much prefer hot water bottles) but this is so cute.

Loved this book: 'Lovely things to make for girls with slender means' from Boots.

I still can't quite believe they sell stuff as cool as this in Boots. I particularly like the pin cushion kit. But they are all, essentially, pointless:

Button soap and a lolly pop face-towel. Standard.

Mugs.

Giant sweeties and Marmite-based goodies from BHS.

Finally, how cute are the faces on these decorations from BHS?! Adorable!

So yeah, I'm not trying to drop any hints for anyone or anything, but just wanted to share some of the novelty/ cutesy goodness I'd seen. Who knows, real life friends, you may even be on the receiving end of some of this stuff!

LOVE x x

Wedding dress = Check!

2011-10-15T19:04:00.001+01:00

Here-within, you will find a long-winded account of today's wedding-dress-purchasing experience in Brighton. But, firstly, check out this amazing knitted Brighton Pavillion I saw in a shop window (as seen on the Alan Titchmarsh show, don't-cha-know?!)

So, today, Donna, my mum and myself went to Brighton for my first bridal dress appointment. I'd booked in with Hope & Harlequin on the 21st September as they'd been highly recommended by a couple of friends. One of them even said 'I wish I'd just gone there first because they were so amazing!' So, yep, didn't book any other appointments and was pretty sure I'd find something awesome in there. I'd driven down to Eastbourne the night before, straight from work, and watched telly (including a very dark episode of Criminal Minds) with my mum until relatively late.

I woke up at 7.29am (I'd anticipated my alarm a minute early after dreaming that Sean Connery had died and I'd been tortured at a Tudor-themed work Christmas party), had a coffee, hopped in the shower etc etc and picked up Donna at 9.00am. My appointment wasn't until 11am, but I didn't want there to be any chance of me being late or missing it as I know what Brighton can be like on a Saturday and this was a big day for me. Even though I've been engaged for over two years and had set a date in the past, this time I knew it was the real deal and actually trying on dresses was a huge breakthrough for me.

We arrived in Brighton at 9.36 (according to my parking ticket) and killed some time by looking around at the lovely H! by Henry Holland collection in Debenhams and having a bite to eat and drink in Costa Coffee. We then wandered down to Sydney Street in The Lanes, after being sidetracked many times by various shops along the way. Hope & Harlequin was a cute, unassuming shop that fitted in with the others around it. We walked in at about 10.50am where we met an assistant. I said I'd arrived for a bridal appointment and she said the bridal dress-lady hadn't arrived yet so she'd give her a call to find out where she was. She couldn't get hold of her so she advised us to go for a coffee and come back in 15 minutes. As we were early, this was sort of understandable, so we went away and came back after a bit longer than 15 minutes as I had time to go to Vegetarian Shoes and buy myself some new shoe-laces for my brogues and two belts- one brown and one black (with a removable buckle- I've always wanted to wear outlandish buckles, but never had the right kinda belt!).

When we came back, the lady still hadn't arrived, but we were told she was on her way and that she 'won't be long.' In the meantime, the assistant went to the bridal shop (that appeared to be over the road) and returned with a handful of dresses (and another bride-to-be which she seemed to have picked up along the way) which she plonked on a table, then hung up in the tiny fitting room (not before dropping at least one of them). She said to just try those on whilst we waited, and continued to take the details of the other bride who was very keen to try on some dresses. It was 11.30 by this point and I was pretty deflated. This was a big day for me and I'd travelled a long way, and had booked this appointment well in advance. There wasn't anywhere for my mum and Donna to sit and it just wasn't what I'd imagined this day to be like at all. I've had better service in a market stall. After having the curtain closed on me by the assistant, I was alone in the cubicle with about six dresses which weren't my cup of tea whatsoever. Some of them would probably be nice, but I'd lost any motivation or any 'oomph.'

I opened the curtain, came out, and said to Donna and mum that this whole experience had been awful. They agreed and I decided to walk out. I just said to the assistant on my way out 'Sorry, but I'm leaving' and I said to the bride 'You can have my appointment.' It was 11.40am and the dress-lady still hadn't arrived. I was so disappointed and angry. I've never walked out of a place before, or caused any kind of a scene in a shop or restaurant, but this was just awful. I'm sure the bride after me found herself a lovely dress, but this was a day I'd been looking forward to and imagining for weeks and I wasn't going to be made to feel like an inconvenience or that I was just buying any old dress.

Walking back up The Lanes, feeling pretty darn bummed out, we stopped by at the most amazing shop called 'Alice Dreams'- a shop dedicated to everything Alice in Wonderland- themed. Being a big fan of Alice, again, I wanted almost everything in there. For example, how cute are these little toys?! There were also mugs that reacted to the heat of the liquid inside them that caused the Cheshire Cat to disappear (if that makes sense).

I ended up settling on an Alice-themed craft book, featuring 50 projects, called Everything Alice as I figured it would enable me to make Alice-y things for my friends/ myself, etc. Whilst in there, my mum asked the assistant if she knew of any bridal shops. I was worried she'd suggest Hope & Harlequin, but she actually directed us to 'The O Zone' (which sounded a tad 1990's... How wrong I was later proved to be!)

I'd come across the shop online and 'liked' them on Facebook before, but didn't make an appointment as H&H sounded so perfect. We went in there and were told that they were choc-a-bloc today but that I was welcome to take a look around. After hearing my experience at H&H, they were sorry they couldn't fit me in for a full appointment but said I could try something on in-between appointments. I found a lacy number with a peep-hole back, which is what I'd imagined myself in but, when it was on, it just didn't look right.

Just then, amazingly, someone called to cancel their 12pm appointment which meant I could have it! We 'started again' now we had gained 1.5 hours and Leslie, the lady, showed me around the shop and explained who the different designers were etc. She then gave me six tags to put on the hangers of the dresses that I wanted to try on and it took me about 15 minutes to choose the six. I actually lost count of how many I tried on in the end, but I think 'the one' was the third I'd tried. It wasn't at all what I'd expected myself to like, but was initially drawn to it as it was something a bit different.

All of the other dresses I tried on afterwards just paled in comparison and even Donna couldn't believe how much she liked it as it was just so girlie and it didn't have 'hanger appeal,' in Leslie's words. My mother's face looked like thunder when I had it on- to say we don't have the same taste is an understatement. I'd tried on many dresses just to please her but, although some were actually ok, they just didn't do it for me like this one did. I was pretty sold on it after looking in the various mirrors in the shop and trying it on with a couple of veils (totally didn't think I'd be into a veil, but I was sold on that too. Leslie says she converts 50% of women who say they don't want veils, and I was one of them).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I signed some forms and put the deposit down (half the price of the whole dress, so £550) and was allowed to take photos as I've agreed to buy it. The next time I see it will be in February for my first fitting. I'll then try it again few weeks before the wedding for some final alterations. Wow! I couldn't believe how much better the service was in comparison to H&H. All of the ladies in The O Zone were so friendly, helpful and accommodating, I couldn't recommend them any more highly.

Super happy, yet also wondering whether this was just another one of my impulse purchases (albeit a very expensive and non-refundable one) we made our way back to Churchill Square. Mum ended up, abruptly, leaving Donna and I to have lunch and a wander by ourselves. She was clearly unhappy with my dress choice- she said it didn't look 'weddingy' but, really, I think it just shows a bit too much arm and shoulder for her liking. I think the fact that I'm so adamant that I'm happy with it and not willing to budge, shows that it must really be the right one for me. If it wasn't, I probably wouldn't have been so sure and would've tried some more on or given into my mother's wishes. A few things just led me to feel it was 'meant to be.'

The dress is 'Champagne' in colour and is by a designer called Amanda Wyatt. My actual dress is featured deep within that Facebook page... Feel free to try and guess which one it is! ;-) We later met up with my mum and left Brighton at 3.30pm, feeling shattered yet very pleased with my decision. Everything is falling into place!

I am going to a wedding fair tomorrow morning as I hear there is one going on about 10 minutes from my mum's house. I am also meeting my friend, Steph, in the afternoon for a spot of lunch, a good ol' catch up and a chat about Facebook advertising. We love the internet, we do!

X Factor tonight.... yeahhhhhhhh! <3 x x x x

P.S. After spending approx £600 today, it's safe to say that my spending ban has utterly failed. Oh well.

P.P.S. A post all about some of the cool Christmas bits I've seen lately will be coming soon.

Face Furniture

2011-10-09T17:14:00.003+01:00

I got my eyes tested in Specsavers in Canterbury last week and, it's official, I have a new prescription, which means... new spec-time. I couldn't be arsed to look around there and then, but had a peek around Vision Express in Eastbourne today and, OMG!, there were just so many nice pairs of glasses there.

I didn't know that Superdry do specs now and they are beautiful! I tried a whole bunch of them on (as well as some Ray Bans). (Thank you, iPhone 4 and Steve Jobs for making it about a billion times easier to take pics of yourself trying on specs, and thus choosing a decent pair. I love you, and may you Rest In Peace, Steve).

My faves were these Superdry- Jetstar frames @£90 that go from being a dark grey-ey black at the top down to a light pink.

What do you think? I've only ever bought glasses from Specsavers in the past, and have only bought designer frames if they've been 'BOGOF.' £90 feels a lot to pay for a pair of specs and lenses aren't included in the price. I'm also thinking that the pink might be a bit limiting outfit-wise, but I'm considering getting my new prescription put in my existing pair of glasses, because they go with everything and I love them. Hmmm..... xx

P.S. Two posts in one day.... a rare beast.

P.P.S. I have a head ache- think I overdid it with a Harajuku Lovers perfume in Boots earlier. Ugh.

This one's really boring...

2011-10-09T11:10:00.001+01:00

Oooh... This is my first post using the new Blogger interface. I've heard mainly bad things about it but I like it thus far. I like that they've moved the space that you write in to the centre of the page and it looks a little more like you're writing in a Word document rather than a text box. (OMG! And you can upload multiple photos at one and they don't get put to the top of the page by default! What's not to love?!)

Anywho, I made a surprise trip to Eastbourne last night to visit my mum as she's pretty down in the dumps after he house-sale falling through. During the two hour drive, I thought pretty hard about my favourite women. As in, women that inspire me and, I suppose, influence me. I think I'm going to save the outcome of my thoughts for another post as I want to source some pictures and think about how I word my reasoning. But, yeah.

So, mum and I watched the X Factor and I fell asleep on the sofa before I could see Lady Gaga's performance on Jonathan Ross. I'm pretty sure that's what caused me to have some quite heavily Lady Gaga-based dreams last night. I'm not quite sure how to explain the parts about the murdering toilet/steam room(?) assistant in Eastbourne's Arndale Centre, though. She was a cruel lady. Basically, this girl had gone into the steam room without getting the assistant's permission first, so she locked the girl in the steam room and closed all of the ventilation... I can only assume the girl died. I made an escape, dressed in a Lady Gaga- inspired outfit and my friend Sam and I then were then trying to leave Bristol/ Disneyland Paris/ The Eden Project(?!) in his car, that just wasn't going fast enough on the motorway. Oh, and I was also on holiday in somewhere like Crete and there was loads of cake and ice cream, but I didn't fancy any of it. My dreams are always mental. No idea why. I didn't have cheese last night before bed, I don't smoke or take drugs and I only very occasionally drink. Lord knows what kind of a place my mind would be if I did take any kind of stimulant.

This post is turning out to be very misc and must be even more boring than usual for anyone reading, sorry. My blog is a bit like my therapy, though, and I really notice a difference in 'me' when I don't get my thoughts out, however pointless and mundane. Twitter serves a very similar purpose. I was considering taking a break from Twitter when I hit 10,000 tweets, which I think will be pretty soon at this rate, but I actually don't think I'll be the same if I can't share my thoughts, if only with myself albeit in a very public place. That sounds ridiculous, but it's actually like a thought diary for me. I just wish you could easily go back to a tweet you wrote, say, this time last year, or the year before, to see what you were doing, or thinking. But, as someone who has the potential to dwell on the past a little too much, that's probably a good thing.

I'm going to drop my mum to church now. I don't go inside these days. God, I'm feeling really weird today. Don't feel my usual self at all. What's wrong with me?!?! Hopefully I'll write later in the week and I'll have sprung back to life again.

I hope y'all are well. LOVE xx

P.S. This has been a MAJOR guilty pleasure of mine for a few months now.

P.S. I think I'm in love with the French rugby player, Morgan Parra. (In the above song, I like to swap the word 'Jagger' for 'Parra'). Total babe. Looks a bit like Ruari in some pics. Non? Nom.

Since my last update...

2011-10-04T21:39:00.008+01:00

Wedding planning:

My parents have written letters of consent to say they're happy for me to marry Ruari.
Mum posted my confirmation certificate.
Ruari and I have made a first appointment with a catering company called Blackbird (for tomorrow night). I'm thinking a traditional meal after the ceremony then a Mexican evening buffet. Not sure yet, though.
I've negotiated a discount with our favourite marquee company of the bunch I contacted a few weeks back, Kent Marquees.
I've set up a second appointment with our priest, Father David (for next Monday night).
We started drafting our guestlist and wording our invitations last night.
We've confirmed that the wedding's defo gonna be on the 5th May 2012, btw! Woo!!
And... I have my first dress appointment in 11 days at Hope & Harlequin!

Post-half-marathon:

Three of my toes are still bruised. I would post pics up, but I don't think anyone really wants to see my manky feet... If I'm wrong, do let me know and I'll post them up another day!
My blisters aren't painful anymore. Thank GOD!
My body started feeling human again last Thursday and I no longer ache at all.
I'm so past the discomfort of the half-marathon that I'm even considering going for a run. I'm thinking of getting some new trainers so I don't rip my feet to shreds, again.

40 day spending ban:

I don't think I've mentioned this on here, but on the 20th September, I decided to give up buying novelty, nail varnish, stationary, clothes and other crap for 40 days (spending money on socialising in real life is ok though). I was basically getting fed up of my spending habit and coming home from a trip to town, getting the guilt and thinking 'why the eff did I buy that?!' It's due to end on the 30th October, so I have another 26 days to go. It's going ok so far, apart from.....
Today, I bought three pairs of tights from Primark @ £2.50 each, but I count those as a necessity because mine are all either holey or covered in rabbit fluff that won't go away, or are all bobbly around the feet.
On Saturday I exchanged a £20 dress I bought before the ban, for another dress that was £5 cheaper (which had cats on it). I've already worn it twice, so I think it was a good purchase! Ideal situation would've been to get a full refund but, like I said, it had cats on it and my old cat-print dress seems to have shrunk and is now too short for work.
I bought Ruari a £2 plastic skull glass from Morrisson's whilst I was doing the food shop tonight. Technially we paid £1 each for it as it was on our joint account.

Life:

Mum's chain fell apart, pretty far down the chain so, basically, mum needs to find a new buyer for her house, pronto, or the chain needs to come back together. I just hope the house she wants doesn't get sold in the meantime :-( This seriously blows. I was so looking forward to her moving. I'd hoped she'd be in Canterbury this side of Christmas.
I went to Pizza Express on Thursday night with a friend from work and it was laaaaaavly... Olives, dough balls, Bosco salad, chocolate ice cream and Mocha = Perfection! I haven't been to a Pizza Express since I went to Cornwall with my mum and brother a couple of months ago. There was once a time when I went there almost once a week.
I hung out with a few different people at the weekend with whom I watched the rugby, ate Mexican food and drank lots of tea. I also caught up with the X Factor and just fast-forwarded past the over 25s. Louis Walsh is a joke! I still love Tulisa, though. I think a group might win it this year, y'know.
I've always wondered what my 'qualities' are, and was told by my manager today that my 'randomness' was one of my greatest qualities. I later asked Ruari what he thought mine were and he said some lovely things.... Funny, understanding, positive and pretty were my faves, although I'm not sure if 'pretty' is really a quality!

Misc.:

I discovered the rabbit-equivalent of Crack at the weekend. Mr. Moustache has been pestering me (jumping on me, digging at me, nipping and sniffing me more than usual) ever since I gave him a couple of nibbles of a Veggie Percy on Saturday. Carrots just don't seem to cut it anymore.... Oops...
I took 5 bags/ boxes of crap to the tip on Saturday, which included paperwork from college, uni and previous jobs. I have a ton of confidential paperwork to dispose of now... Might have a bonfire.... 5th November's not too far away, I guess....
My friend, Emma, started on my floor at work last Monday. Not sure if Ive already mentioned it.... Anyway, it's fully ace having her around.
My free WaterLess Levi's finally arrived! (Better late than never, eh?) Woohoo! They're so comfortable but slightly too big and long at 28/32, but I tend to put on a few lbs at this time of year, so I'll probably grow into them, and I might get the length adjusted, or just wear them turned up or turned in. I think my winner is still yet to receive hers, though... Going to contact the PR shortly....

Ok, that's enough... There's probably more of my mundane-ness to share, but luckily for you, I've forgotten. I probably shouldn't leave it so long between posts.

Hope y'all are well x x x

Go and See: Crazy, Stupid, Love

2011-09-28T21:07:00.007+01:00

I saw it last night. I have no idea how long it's been out, or how long you have left to watch it but, seriously, go and see it! Ruari literally had to prize me away from my laptop last night for our Tuesday-night-date-night (we were originally meant to see Drive, but I really wasn't in the mood for anything too manly) and I'm so glad he did.

Crazy, Stupid, Love on IMDb

1. It's actually funny. I enjoyed it a lot more than I did The Inbetweeners Movie (big fan of the series, but maybe I just expected too much) AND for the first time in my life (that I remember, at least) I actually 'LOL'd' IRL at something in the cinema. I've sniggered before, but this was a proper uncontrollable 'HA-HA-HA!!!' It came outta nowhere, didn't expect it at all, it just happened.

2. Steve Carrell. I have a soft spot for him, especially since the time I dreamt he was my twin. He's great in it and scrubs up surprisingly well.

3. Ryan Gosling. This movie has seen him catapult himself right up to #1 in my babe estimations (and probably the estimations of any woman who watched the film). At least for now. Wow.

4. I'm really conscious of giving away spoilers, especially after my Boy in the Striped Pyjamas-Twitter-faux pas. But all I'll say is "I was surprised". As was Ruari... and he's hard to surprise. TMI?

5. Easily on my 'favourite films of the year' list. Way up there with The King's Speech and The Social Network (apparently they're both 2010, but I'm not convinced). Ok, well, it's one of my faves of the last 12 months.

So, has anyone seen it? What did you think? Btw, I'm pretty sure the babysitter girl was in America's Next Top Model one year. Right? xx

P.S. Does the fact that I like the UK's current #1 single make me a bad person? Dappy- No Regrets.

13.1 miles = Done, but only just!

2011-09-25T16:56:00.005+01:00

This post is brought to you from the makeshift bed Ruari and I have made out of sofa cushions on the floor in our living room. I have been sat here for about 75 minutes (I know this because we're re-watching the Ireland vs. Russia rugby game as Ruari missed it this morning. I watched it earlier whilst eating my muesli and drinking a cuppa, so this is my second time watching the sexy Irish. No sign of Tommy Bowe today, though).

Earlier today I ran a half marathon. When I say 'ran', I really mean 'jogged very slowly' and 'walked' 13.1 miles. I did it in 3hrs 6 mins- I think I came something like 5th to last- hahahahaha! I'm pleased to have just finished, really. I wanted to do it in 2hrs 45 MAX, but I got blisters in the arches of both feet at mile 2 (despite wearing M&S 'blister-free' socks), a stitch from miles 4-6, then miles 11 onwards were an absolute killer! Leg cramp, foot cramp, feeling sick etc etc. At no point did I want to give up, but I just started thinking 'oh fuck it, I'll get to the finish when I get to the finish.'

The night before, I re-read all of the lovely comments people have left on my Just Giving page, and I also had a few 'Good Luck' tweets, which were lovely. I'm so happy to have raised £300- totally didn't expect to raise as much as that at all. So, thank you to everyone who sponsored me- even tiny amounts mean a lot as I know times are rough at the mo and there are a lot of people trying to raise money for lots of different causes.

Here's me with my mum and dad pre-race, this morning. Unfortunately, Ruari couldn't come and cheer me on as he got called out to help on his dad's boat at 5am :-( It was great having my parents there though and there were lots of friendly faces clapping and shouting words of encouragement en route.

There was a greasy burger van right by the finish line- I couldn't resist a plate of salty, vinegary, ketchuppy chips... They couldn't get into my belly fast enough. In fact, I think I swallowed a few whole! Haha! Perfection, they were!

Here's the medal I got at the finish line. Woop!

My strategy was to jog 6 songs, walk 1 song, and repeat until I finished. The various animal stamps mark the songs that were walkers... (I had a piece of paper in my pocket telling me what every 6th and 7th songs were as I thought this was safer than getting my iPhone in and out of my pocket ever 20 or so minutes).

But after Britney Spears' 'Piece of Me' I was just about ready to die. I think that's when I got to about mile 11, and my strategy went to absolute pot. I probably walked 90% of the distance after that point. I was on track to finish in 2hrs 45 up until then. That teaches me for having only 'trained' up to 10 miles and expecting adrenaline to kick in at that point. There was defo no adrenaline going on until I was about 50 metres from the finish line!

All in all, an awesome day. I'm so relieved that the weather was decent. I was worried it'd be a rainy, windy, grey day, which would've been a nightmare, and probably would've added another hour onto my time!

Time for a nap.... Looking forward to XFactor later. Against all odds, I actually really like this year's judging panel. Gary... Wow!

N'night! x x x

COMFORT FOOD

2011-09-24T14:10:00.005+01:00

Good news: My internet connection is working again and my parents are coming over tomorrow!
Bad news: Ruari's working today, a Saturday, I've got a load of crap that I brought home from my mum's house to sort through today and a half marathon to run tomorrow.

So, it's 2.30pm and I have successfully snoozed the morning away and watched TOWIE: Reem all about it. I've never even seen a whole episode of TOWIE, but I couldn't stop watching what they'd all been up to over the summer. Oh dear.

Anyway, I woke up from my snooze earlier all hungry and in need of a quick fix. We're out of milk and Nutella so I can't have a cup of tea, cereal, or Nutella on toast (and I can't be arsed to walk to the cornershop). What's a girl to do?

We only have boring, straight up, chocolate in the house, which I'm not a fan of, so I had the genius idea to melt a some squares and use a stray packet of Rice Crispies (the most boring of the Kelloggs multi-packs, right next to Corn Flakes IMO) to make a delicious comfort food....

NOM!!

I do feel slightly like a pig for doing this, but I'm not going to give myself a hard time about it because it wasn't a massive amount, and at least I don't drink hot chocolate through Time Out bars anymore :-/

Anyone got any creative comfort food ideas for me to try (especially as it feels like winter is around the corner)? I used to love microwaving chocolate Eclairs until they were all squidgy and the chocolate centre was all oozy.... Mmmm....

x x x

Interwebz: #fail

2011-09-22T17:34:00.007+01:00

Yoyoyo,

Just to let y'all know (before anyone misses me- ha!).... My internet connection at home has been dead for the last couple of days and I don't know how long it'll be 'til it gets fixed. This is a massive bummer considering I pretty much live on the internet and have just renewed a freelance social media consulting contract. Epic #fail. Unimpressed, Sky Broadband. This blog post is therefore brought to you by my work-work's internet connection. I'll probably be shot for doing this.

In other news:

With race day fast approaching, I have raised £260 so far for my half marathon on Sunday! Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, I really appreciate it! I am especially happy that I have blown my fundraising target of £100 out of the water, too. I haven't trained in ages, so my new strategy is basically to just do anything and everything to get to the finish line: Run, jog, walk, crawl. Bring it on!
Nicki's Nail bar is opening tomorrow for one afternoon only! I've got two 15 minute (or one half hour) slot left... V. Exciting. Check out my menu (you'll have to look at my latest twitpics because I'm blogging from work and it's not letting me move photos into the right places once I uploads pics... www.twitter.com/nickohlaa ).... obvs. people can choose a whole bunch of combos. If I fill all of my slots, I will have raised £64 for the Saga Charitable Trust (it's fundraising week at work).
I have booked my first ever wedding dress trying on appointment for mid October and Hope & Harlequin in Brighton. SCARY/ EXCITING!
My boss went to a special guest speaker thing at Google yesterday and he stole a corporate goodie bag for me, which included a green drawstring bag (which is a bit circa 2000, but I'm not fussy), colouring pencils, a ceramic pretend take-away mug thing that you can colour in, literally colour in, (I've given it away because my friend bought me one just recently. It weren't Google, mind. And you couldn't colour it in.) A notebook with some corporate-ness on it and a classy chrome pen. (Google Chrome Pen, geddit?!) The pen shows the Google colours in the holes when you twist the top to turn the pen on. (Turn the pen on, wtf?!) (you know what I mean.)
I think that's about it.... Oh, I've not been able to go on the web version of the Facebook site. I hear they've made some contraversial updates and people are now migrating to Google+. I'm there.... +Nicola D

Hope you are all well... x x x

P.S. Innocent Drinks are giving away coupons to reduce the price of their amazing veg pots. The discount amount depends on how many people have tweeted #tweetandeat! When I last checked, they were reduced by £1. I'm limited as to what I can do on this computer- I can't copy and paste.... v. annoying. Again, see my Twitter feed for the link.

P.P.S. Bring Me The Horizon have brought out their own brand of BBQ sauce! Amazeballs! I hope it's veg. (Ditto re: Link to more info)

L8rzzz x x x x

Week in pictures

2011-09-17T10:02:00.011+01:00

1. Back to work after my week off and I ensured there were lots of creature comforts around me to ease me in. Newbies include my owl hand cream from Fenwicks (centre under my monitor) and my owl mug from Paperchase. Also I got my Harajuku Lovers perfumes out of my drawer for the sake of the photoshoot.

2. November Coming Fire's Radio 1 session at Maida Vale was aired on Monday night. I only managed to stayed awake for the first two songs and Daniel P Carter's chat with George. I need to catch up with the rest. I've named this photo 'Radio on the TV'.

3. It's 'Fundraising Fortnight' at work so as well as running a half marathon next Sunday, my boss is kindly letting me open a nail bar at my desk next Friday afternoon to raise money for the Saga Charitable Trust. I've booked six appointments so far and have two more half-hour slots left, or four 15 minute slots. A couple of the men in the office are also getting their nails done to prove their macho-ness. In the email I sent out, I told people to 'think WAH Nails, but not half as good.' Ha.

4. I did my own nails on Wednesday night (and went over the 'lines', as per). I attempted to use the sugar skull nail decals that I ordered last week from Etsy but managed to stick four of them to the backing plastic (because I'm an idiot) before successfully transferring one (wonkily) onto my ring-finger nail. It's ok, I have 15 left... :-/

I also watched Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and spoiled the ending for my tweet-readers... Sorry. I've thought about that film a lot since watching it, and the recent news stories about the gypsy travellers using homeless people as slaves has really been sticking in my mind. It's so sad.

5. I made Ruari take a picture of me in my new Topshop jacket and my veggie boots, which I've decided to dub Veg Martens. They're so comfy too. I was expecting to have to break them in, but they're perfect already. I love that my jacket has elbow pads but it feels quite delicate, like I could rip an arm off quite easily if I were to sling my handbag over my shoulder too vigorously or something.

6. Thursday night involved Mexican food with George, Nat and the newly-weds, Dan and Gemma. I did Nat's nails to practice for next Friday but I majorly went over the lines and spent quite a lot of time faffing over what to paint. I think I need to invest in a Models Own x WAH Nails nail art pen as liquid eyeliner didn't really work for writing 'TGC' on Nat's ring-fingernail (her son's initials.) I also found that I need to cut my time down for 'wacky nails' by 10 minutes as it took 40 mins for me to do a base coat, leopards, glitter, crackle, initials, top coat and drying oil as per the (overexposed pics) below. I also need to tidy up a bit better... Must remember to bring q-tips with me on the day!

7. On Friday I found a picture of myself and my fellow half-marathon runners on the cover of our staff magazine. I've nicked a copy to show my mum. Haha.

8. I got a cute card and these Harajuku Lovers perfume cards in the post this morning from my friend, Steph. We've shared a love of anything Gwen Stefani/ No Doubt-related for more than 10 years. Super kawaii!

9. This post has been brought to you from my sofa whilst I have been 'watching' the Ireland vs. Australia rugby match. I love Tommy Bowe.

I'm off to Eastbourne later to finish packing up my room. This should be the last of it now. Eeep! Hope y'all are having good weekends! x x

Day #9: Bunny Tibbar

2011-09-11T22:45:00.003+01:00

Today was awesome, but this topped it off:

Mr Moustache proved himself to be the cutest, most awesome rabbit ever. Yet again.

Day #8: Gathering + Canterbury

2011-09-10T19:14:00.010+01:00

We had a small gathering at the bungalow last night. Hopefully the first of many. I didn't take any pictures (douche!) but here is one of Donna with our ridiculously packed trolley beforehand. I pretty much just panic-bought anything in sight that was Mexican.

The night went well- I had fun and enjoyed having people over (after the initial stress of getting tummies fed), but certainly learnt a couple of lessons about how much stuff to buy, especially the drink: mixer ratio (I bought far too much tonic for the amount of gin there was.) At least Ruari and I are set for our next few gatherings... I'm planning to have uni friends, placement friends, work friends, misc. friends and, obviously, family over at various points in the future so please don't be offended if you weren't invited... it was relatively last minute and I really wanted to spend time with Donna (my maid of honour) as she now lives in Austria and I never get to see her.

After watching (well, I was present in the room doing my nails whilst Ruari and Donna watched intently) this morning's Rugby World Cup match (England v. Argentina), we nommed on some left over Mexican food then it was time for Donna to catch her train home. As it was such a lovely sunny day, Ruari and I walked into Canterbury on the yellow non-brick road/ cycle path. It took an hour door-to-door and after a nice iced drink we had a quick peek around the shops. There are a few things I want to buy, but I'm going to get my friend Emma's opinion on them tomorrow as Ruari was being a bit useless. We're going clothes shopping because she's starting a job on the same floor as me at work in two weeks' time and I can't wait!!

So the main reason for this post was to share with y'all the Studio Ghibli art I've been spotting around Canterbury lately. I initially saw this small Totoro from the film My Neighbour Totoro near Wagamama's a while back (but it's now been removed)...

I then saw this one on the cycle path, near Habitat today...

This unfinished one by the Jubilee Hall in Wincheap...

And this one by the bus stop in Wincheap near Morrison's.

I wonder who's doing them? They're like some kind of Banksy of Canterbury, but really into Studio Ghibli (or just Small Totoro's!)

Has anyone else seen these, or any others, around Canterbury? Who's doing them? Loving the mystery!

It's almost time for X Factor. Yessssssssss.....!! x x x

P.S. I love, love, LOVE this O2 advert for the Rugby World Cup called 'Get up for England'. Because the RWC is in New Zealand this year, all the games are on reeeeeallly early in the morning/ late at night. Wish I could get woken up by the England squad.... Fitttt!!!

SEVEN YEARS

2011-09-09T07:58:00.010+01:00

Yesterday was mine and Ruari's seventh anniversary. Here are some pix from the day (which felt a bit like Christmas)....

Ruari and I exchanged cards after having breakfast in bed. He got me the card on the left... the bear is up the tree holding a heart and at the bottom it says 'Hey! You stole my heart!' How cute?! I also gave Ruari iPod earphone splitters.... so you can plug in two sets of earphones into an iPod whilst you're walking around town or whatever. He often gives me an earphone so I can hear whatever he's listening to, so I thought this might be quite cute.

My package from Vegetarian Shoes arrived on Thursday. I was so anxious to open it yesterday that there aren't really any pics of me opening it up.... Just loads of pics of the shoes in and around the box. Ha.

I got Ruari some lights for his bike and the shed, a book and a couple of DVDs, his favourite Molton Brown shower gel and the new David Beckham fragrance (don't knock it 'til you've tried it, it's actually really nice!) which came with a free sports bag.

We then spent the day pottering around the house. Ruari went to the gym at one point whereas didn't get changed out of my pyjamas until gone 5pm. I'd been busy arranging some of my clothes into rainbow order (very important and not a waste of time at all!) and deciding what to give to charity or sell in a boot fair.

I also attempted to sort through my b-zillion boxes of craft stuff that I have hidden under our bed. It's probably a fire hazard, but I've always had a 'thing' about stashing stationary etc under my bed. My mum can vouch for me on that one... especially when I had a midi bed, which is a hoarder's dream!

Here are some photos of my feet in the air with my new shoes on whilst I was waiting for Ruari to finish talking to Ross. Standard.

We eventually went to Wagamama's in Canterbury for dinner. I had the new asparagus and mushroom dumplings (which were a bit rough) and the Yasai Cha Han (which was amazeballs). Ruari had some chicken dumplings and a beef dish and we both had apple and lime juice. We then took some snaps of ourselves outside the church we're getting married in next year- woop woop!

Once we got home, I forced Ruari to take some pics of my outfit, and then he decided he wanted some too. Haha!

Mr. Moustache then decided he wanted to join in the fun too whilst Carla ran away into a corner.

I then cleaned the rabbits' cage, did the washing up and vegged on the interwebz whilst Ruari put together some chairs we bought from Ikea monnnnnthhssss ago.

This concludes my post of vomity happiness.

LOVE x x x

Day #6: Magnets

2011-09-08T18:06:00.009+01:00

Ruari's talking to one of his boy mates in the kitchen, about pumping iron and such, so I'm taking this opportunity to share the craftiness I spoke of in last night's post. (Blogger's doing that thing where the photos are uploading the wrong way around, even thought they're defo the right way up on my computer. Grr.)

Whenever any of my old boring fridge magnets break, I always save the magnetic bits on the back. I've saved up quite a few of these over the past few years and have never really been sure what to do with them.... Until I read my friend, Nat's, book of craftiness yesterday. It suggested that you use old buttons (of which I have hundreds) and stick magnets to the back to make a cool new, er, magnet. However, my 'back bits' were a bit too big for most of my buttons and as I was sorting through all my old accessories, such as band pin badges, I thought 'A-HAAA!!' and quickly reached for my glue gun.

I removed the pin bits of the pin badges, obv.

Here was the outcome....

Earlier today (10 minutes ago) I decided to do the same to some old watch faces and gems that have broken off old accessories. My fridge is now looking slightly OTT (and that's just the front), much to Ruari's dismay, but hey.

P.S. Tonight, Ruari and I are going out for dinner to celebrate our seventh anniversary together. I'm going to be wearing one of my new pairs of Vegetarian shoes.... So excited!!!

P.P.S. The local cat, Gammy, came up to our back door earlier... Cute, but I think he's after my rabbits.

Days #2- #5: Percy Pigs and wedding planning

2011-09-07T21:58:00.011+01:00

My week off thus far hasn't been quite as productive as Saturday was, but it has been really nice just mooching around and relaxing to the max. Here are some pics that pretty much sum up what I've been up to.

On Sunday, I discovered that M&S now do vegetarian Percy Pigs or Veggie Percy's. (I'm guessing they can't call the 'pigs' because they don't have pork gelatine in them. Or am I being too literal?) Anywho, it's good to be able to eat these again. I haven't had one since I became vegetarian at 16.

M&S also blew my mind when I came across this baby. A giant Bourbon shaped biscuit tin @£4.99. I was immediately taken back to my vegan days where I, literally, ate about 25 Bourbons a day just because they were vegan and I could. Needless to say, I put on a fair bit of weight during that year. I didn't buy it, but I'm tempted to go back for it.

Ruari's cousin kindly picked up this amazing owl construction kit for me at a boot fair, and Ruari's mum bought me the little clay owl. How cute!

After dinner on Sunday night I spent about 3 hours (I couldn't stop!) trying to put it together (with minimal instructions) and got this far. I still need to put all of the chest feathers on, but I've not got round to it. It's so delicate... have a feeling I might need to take a lot of it apart (especially it's legs) then put it back together and use some glue to secure it. Nightmare! She's well cool though. I've named her Bertie.

On Monday, I put my wedding planning hat on and rang up some marquee companies in the morning to ask them to measure up and quote. Out of about six companies that I contacted, I only heard back from two of them- Kent Marquees and 2 In Tents. The latter came out to measure up later that day, but Kent Marquees couldn't come out until the 20th. I'm still waiting to receive the quote. I'm guessing it'll cost about half of our £5k budget. Eeek!

I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed by County Marquees as I've emailed them 3 times, called and spoken to someone (who told me to email), left a message and even given them a tweet, but still nothing. They have a really detailed website which I really liked, but their slack response has really put me off. I will try them again tomorrow, although I'm a bit peeved.

On Tuesday, Ruari and I went to my mum's house in Eastbourne. I sorted through my old teddies and general crap I've collected over the years, whilst Ruari smashed up old bits of furniture and took stuff to the dump. Here are some of the teddies I rescued....

Today, Ruari and I met with the new parish priest at St. Thomas' of Canterbury. Father David was about a b-zillion times more welcoming than the last priest we spoke to when we were trying to plan the wedding last time round and him being so nice really made a difference to how we felt about getting married there (see 5th paragraph of this post to see how I felt last time). We've set a new wedding date, but we're keeping it pretty schtum until we've booked a marquee company for Ruari's parents' garden for the reception. For now I will just say that it's a bank holiday weekend in the first half of next year ;-). See this post for some photos of the church taken last year. Oh and we've decided/agreed on a theme, although Ruari doesn't want to call it a theme. It is a theme, though. I will reveal all in time.

I went for my first run in what felt like 10 years this evening and it was actually ok, although I'm now kicking myself for taking such a long break between training sessions. I said to Ruari that I've been struggling to get motivated to run lately, and he replied: 'don't think about getting motivated, just go out and do it.' Ruari is definitely from the Nike 'Just Do It' school of thinking when it comes to exercise. I was pretty gutted to see the field that my running buddies (the local sheep) hang out on was empty. I'm guessing they've been taken to slaughter :-( Here are the sheep in happier times:

Oh, I tried my hand at being slightly crafty earlier, after being inspired by something I read in one of my friends DIY books this morning. I will save the outcome of that for another post in the near future!

How are y'all, anywho? Can anyone recommend me some blogs to read during the rest of my week off? My faves are general lifestyle blogs and arty/craftiness. Nothing too fashion or beauty-heavy though as I find them a bit depressing... Does anyone else get that, or is it just me? x

P.S. The 2nd September was the anniversary of my friend, Sonal's, death. Sonal was one of my house mates in my first year of uni and was also on my course. She died at the end of my placement year, just as we were about to start our fourth year. I felt awful this evening as the actual anniversary of her death passed me by without my realising. I thought of her tonight as I was making spaghetti as I remembered a couple of the tips she shared with me on how to tell if pasta is cooked (throw it on a wall and see if it sticks) and, rather than turning the heat down when the pan is bubbling up, just blow on it instead. Here are a couple of old posts where I've written about Sonal: 2009 & 2010. R.I.P. Thinking of you. x x

Day #1: Front garden

2011-09-03T19:04:00.004+01:00

Here, I will be documenting mine and Ruari's week off together of being old before our time n' that.

We have a whole list of things we want to get done around the house this week and 'sorting out the garden' is pretty high up on it. Our back garden isn't great but is a whole lot better than the front so, today was all about the front garden (I have a feeling this post is gonna be full of innuendo). Ruari's mum and cousin came over to lend a helping hand, or four, and a whole bunch of tools to help us get started. They also brought some bags of compost, bulbs and pansies which meant we could crack on without faffing aimlessly at the garden centre for hours (which is totally what Ruari and I would've have been doing for the first 4 hours of today if we'd been left to our own devices!)

I spent a little while in the morning nursing a crampy tummy and even after two hot water bottles and some Aspirin it was still caning so I dug out some of my mum's extra-strenth Ibuprofen, which soon did the trick.

I wish I'd taken some 'before' pictures of the garden, but here are some 'in progress' ones instead. Honestly, it was such a state beforehand- weeds, overgrown shrubbery and bushes everywhere. Oh, and a bit of tree that was trying to plant it's roots under our house. The picture below is once we'd dug up the flowerbeds and and cleared the weeds etc, and had started planting some new plants and flowers in their place.

We then went to the garden centre where Ruari and I bought a hose, some trellis, more flowers and our own set of garden tools. Oh, and a compost bin. The bill was painful, but we're reminding ourselves that we're spending the money we would've spent on a holiday on getting the house finished instead. Here are our purchases all planted. We're hoping the rose and honeysuckle at either side of the window will climb up the trellis and look all pretty, in time. We might get a few more bits and bobs to fill in the blank parts during the winter, but there are some bulbs in there too which will come up in the spring.

Here is part of our back garden, with our wall all sorted out and my ornaments (and a couple of pots of pansies) on display. I love our view of the countryside. We were so lucky to get some nice weather today for gardening, although it was almost unbearably hot at one point.

I love this pic of the ladies watching Ruari working away. We were all chipping in, honest. This was right at the end of the day.

Next up, is sorting out the side/ our drive. So many weeds and spiders! EUGH!!! Ruari is working tomorrow (so much for a week off) so I'm going to go for a run, do some dusting and buy some groceries (and a watering can). We're then going to Ruari's mum's for dinner. Nom.

Hope all is good in your, erm, hoods. Feel free to share any green-fingered hints and tips in the comments below!

P.S. Today would've been mine and Ruari's wedding day if our plans had gone ahead. Mad.

P.P.S. Gary Barlow is looking hot on the X Factor this year. I've never rated him before, but I've decided he's a total babe! x

Yay vs. Nay

2011-08-31T20:31:00.010+01:00

Yay:

1. Huuuuuuuuuuuge congratulations to our friends, Dan and Gemma, who got married on Friday. It was a beautiful wedding, Gem looked jaw-to-the-floor amazeballs, and I totally cried like a baby before the ceremony even started because the Order of Service card alone was just so darn lovely! I'd share some pics with you, but there's a ban on sharing photos of the wedding on Facebook, which I am assuming extends to other places online and I'm also assuming it means I can't share pics of me and our other friends at the wedding. I will get verification on this and maybe I'll be able to show y'all a couple of choice pics. Honestly, resisting the urge to Twitpic or Instgram or Tumble(?!) at such a picturesque event was tough!

2. Inspired by Dan & Gemma, and also our engaged friends, Sammi & Anton, Ruari and I are starting to think a bit more seriously about WTF we're doing with our own wedding. We decided to put our plans to one side at the tail end of last year because I was a bit stressed, basically. We'd just moved in together, I was settling into what I consider my first 'proper' job and we'd decided we were going to buy Ruari's dad out of the bungalow he'd bought with Ruari a few years ago. Now some time has passed and I'm generally feeling a bit more settled, I feel that now is a good time to get cracking. Watch this space for some more wedding planning blog posts. Also, check out my friend Sammi's wedding blog. These are the 'Save the Date' she and Anton sent out last week- don't even get me started on how cool the stamp they had made which they printed on the other side is- Amazing, huh?

3. It's mine and Ruari's seventh anniversary next week. To celebrate, we had originally planned to go on a sunny beach holiday, then we were going to visit my brother in Scotland, but now we are just planning on spending the week in eachothers' company, helping mum to pack for her move to Canterbury, working on our house and planning our wedding together. Bliss/vomit.

Nay:

1. Mr Moustache visited the his new vet this week and I we were told that he needs to either see a specialist who will almost certainly prescribe surgery and treatment which I can expect to cost about £1000, or we can keep going as we are, but he will eventually need either mega pain killers or to be put down.

2. My doctor doesn't think I need to worry about my annoying, poppy, ears. It's just something up with my eustachian tubes that causes me a fair bit of dizziness and phlegm. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it is a slight pain in the A.

3. Mimi, the three-legged cat at work (properly gets looked after by work-folk. Has a basket and name badge n' everything) has had to have one of his eyeballs removed after injuring it pretty badly last week (work think he was involved in a fight with another animal.) I bloody love Mimi and hope he gets well soon.

The fluffy cat, below, is called Alfie- he hangs out in the park by work and I often see him when walking to my car.

Yay= 3. Nay= 3.

P.S. Half marathon training= not been happening lately, but I will get back on it this week.

P.P.S. Sponsor me, yeah?

Coaster Porn

2011-08-27T22:24:00.005+01:00

Ruari and I bought these bread-shaped coasters from Dwell in Bluewater last week. Aren't they just the coolest coasters you've ever seen? They were an extravagance for us at £14.95, but I've been looking for a set of coasters since we moved into our bungalow and these are the best I've seen by far. There's eight of them and we'll always have and love them (unless someone thinks they're biscuits and tries to eat them- Gareth!!) so they're already worth it, right?!!? I love novelty far too much.

(We keep the ones we're not using in the package on the table at all times!)

Anyone else a total sucker for novelty, or am I just an idiot?! x

My first outfit post. This feels weird.

2011-08-24T19:26:00.009+01:00

Hello,

I really liked what I wore to work today so I decided to do my first ever outfit post. I'm not going to become a style blogger- I'm quite happy to leave that to the pro's/ those who have much more style than me (which isn't hard), and also people who have the appropriate camera equipment/ someone willing to take pictures of them- but I might share the odd outfit with y'all from time to time, if you're into it.

So, today I wore:

A black Levi's t-shirt (I think it's meant to be a pyjama top, but I wear it all the time because it fits so nicely and is so comfy).

A leopard print cardi that I bought on Saturday from H&M in Bluewater. I have beautiful a grey on grey leopard cardi that my almost-mother-in-law gave me last Christmas, but I've been on the lookout for the perfect leopard-coloured leopard print cardi for aaaaaages now, so I couldn't resist when I saw it.

The skirt was from Sainsbury's, but whilst taking photos of myself I realised it was see-through. I wear it quite a bit, so that's pretty embarrassing. There are really similar ones in H&M at the moment, so I might inspect the see-through-ness of those at some point. The tights are just 100000 denier ones from Primark.

My belt isn't too visible in the pic, but it's black with a really thin strap and pair of roses at the clasp. I got it from Asda for about £1.50 at the tail end of last year (I also have one in Silver... see below.) They're pretty common at the mo, but I love mine because they're adjustable and non-leather, which is the main reason I didn't buy the Topshop equivalent at about the same sort of time. New Look do a very similar one for about £2, atm. I pretty much wear either one or the other all the time.

I was lucky enough to win the Panther Necklace via the Silver Service x Brighton Fashion Week Twitter giveaway a few months ago. I need to clean it, as it's gotten a bit manky of late :-/

The nail varnish is called Heart of Gold, from Topshop. I bought it on Sunday for £6 and I absolutely love it. I've been on the hunt for a creamy gold, that's not too pricey and not too glittery, and this is perfect. I totally recommend you buy it. It's a contender for my outfit for the wedding on Friday. Oh, and btw, I was served by Gem Fatale, as she works at my local Topshop!! I was pretty much star-struck as she's hands down, my favourite style blogger and I've never had the guts to speak to her before despite shopping in there most weekends. Is that a bit creepy of me? It is, huh? She was lovely.

The stag ring was also from Topshop, but quite a while ago.

Watch= Swatch. Ruari and I had his n' hers (his was bigger) but the strap broke so he's now got another Swatch that doesn't match mine :'-(

Brogues from Vegetarian Shoes approx. 1 year ago. Here's my post about them at the time.

Ta-daaa!!

So what do you think? Would my work outfits be something you'd be interested in seeing more often? No? Ok.

Love x

P.S. I fully intended to make the most of the sunshine this evening and go for a run, but I left my trainers in my car and Ruari's taken my car to do some last minute panic-buying from the Ashford Outlet in preparation for our friends' wedding on Friday.

Hooters!

2011-08-23T20:43:00.010+01:00

Congrats to Emma for winning the owl decoration (featured hanging out with my jewellery and hair bands) below. It will be winging it's way to you very shortly (ho ho ho!)

I thought now might be a good time to share my owl collection with y'all, then you might understand why it's quite 'me' to be giving away an owl to a reader. How many times have I said owl in this post so far? Too many. Owl, owl, owl.

Bracelet:

Book ends:

More book ends (pic wouldn't rotate, sorry):

Hanging owls x 2:

(ditto, sorry).

Money box x2:

Tray + glimpse of mug:

Trivet + utensil holder:

Misc. soft toys:

Garden ornaments:

My drawer at work:

(This was taken quite a while ago but nothing's really changed. Just the Monster Munch and Snack-a-jacks have been replaced with a Hula Hoop and Marmite rice cake obsession and the Buttons have been replaced with a 4-pack of Double Deckers this week.)

How's everyone's week going? My mum sold her house today and has had an offer accepted on one in Canterbury. Very exciting times! Means I'll have to clear out my room at her house before she breaks her back (again) trying to do that, and the rest of the house, all by herself! I'm very happy for her, though. This has been a long time coming- I just hope she will be happy in her new abode.

P.S. Ruari is generally ok with us having tons of owls (and deer, and rabbits) around the house, but often says something about there being loads of eyes watching us. It does feel a bit like that, I suppose, but in a good way.

Vegetarian Shoes

2011-08-19T22:10:00.005+01:00

I was having a peak at their summer sale today then I randomly decided I felt like sharing my Vegetarian Shoe experiences and desires with anyone who cares to read! What a great way to spend a Friday night, eh? I'm so cool! (By the way, this post has not been in any way sponsored by Vegetarian Shoes, I'm just a fan-girl!)

Anywho, Vegetarian Shoes is an ace little shoe shop based in the Brighton Lanes, UK, but also have an online shop. Whilst I've been aware of them for years, I never bought anything from them until about this time last year.

At the time I'd wanted a pair of tan brogues for ages but faced a bit of a moral dilemma as I'd made the conscious decision not to buy any more leather shoes or accessories/ clothing in general, although I'd been a dietary vegetarian for years beforehand. After numerous mooches around a few of Britain's high streets, I decided to see what Vegetarian Shoes had to offer. After much deliberation, I finally forked out for the above pair of olive brogues (@£64.95 at the time, but now reduced to £20). Once I'd bought them I still wasn't 100% confident about my decision due to my aforementioned lack of fashion sense/ style until Gem Fatale gave them her seal of approval via a tweet after I asked for hers and various other fashionistas opinions!

I wear these to work all the time- they go with so many more outfits than I expected them to at the time of purchase and they've never given me a single blister. I was gutted the other day when my shoe lace snapped as I was about to run out of the door, so I quickly had to change, but have since improvised by tucking the other laces into the shoe rather than tying them up.

Ruari then bought me these beautiful vintage boots in grey (@£74.99) for my birthday last year after some pretty hefty hint dropping/ URL sending. I haven't had a great deal of wear out of them as they're inappropriate to wear for work, but I often wear them at weekends and have been known to rock them on a dress-down Friday. They served me well during the snow/ icy Christmas/ New year in terms of warmth but their lack of grip almost caused a few disasters and I did, in fact, on one occasion fully slip over on some ice. Granted, I was tempting fate by sliding around the road pretending to be on ice-skates. I've been meaning to try some different laces with them, but I haven't got round to it yet. I need to go shoelace shopping!

I've wanted a pair of desert boots for so long that I think they're now out of fashion, but I've been waiting for this particular pair to be reduced from £59.95. No such luck yet, although I'm very tempted to go for a non-leathery high street equivalent as I've spotted a few pairs in the summer sales. I just know that they won't be as good quality as these, though, so that's what has held me back.

In the meantime I've been developing a bit of a 'thing' for these Airseal 3 eye shoes which @ £74.95 seem pricey, but are approx. £5.00 cheaper than their Dr. Marten equivalents so I'm still very tempted to invest. But I can't afford buy these as well as the desert boots (as well as the Vans I want @£30) so I've got to make a decision. Judging by the footwear that has recently been featured on Gem's blog it seems that the Airseals may be a little more 'on trend' than the desert boots at the moment as would be more practical for work than the other two. I think these might be a winner. Stay tuned for a purchase, most likely in September after pay day!

Stationary Porn

2011-08-18T20:34:00.010+01:00

Argh! My blog is doing that annoying thing where it won't upload my pictures the right way 'round even though they are saved the right way round. It's only doing it to some pictures, though. Very odd. Excuse the following lack of rotation.

I wanted to share this awesome notepad/ paper mousepad by Knock Knock, that I bought last week at The Tate, St Ives, with y'all as part of my 'porn' series. It was pricey at just under £7, (you can buy it here for $5.50- ouch!) but it's 100000% cooler than my New Media Age mouse mat and I'm an absolute sucker for desk-based novelty. It has space for daily 'to-do' lists and areas to make notes about things you need to do at the weekend and the following week. Doesn't really do anything that my diary doesn't do, especially as there are 60 pages worth of paper, but I couldn't resist!

Clearly, I'll spend monies to make my working environment a happier place... Take my £2 watermelon pen from Fenwicks as another fine example. Also my £5 pink calculator from Paperchase. Btw, my academic WHS diary has been in action since the start of July and those H&M watermelon wet wipes were a gift from a good friend. (In case you're not already aware, I love watermelon stuff. I have a facebook album dedicated to watermelon paraphernalia and myTumblr is often adorned with the pink/green fruit.)

Not everyone's idea of porn, I know, but it gets me going! Lolzzzzz! x

Bribery, etc.

2011-08-16T21:40:00.008+01:00

How cute is this little guy?! He could be yours!

I'm using him as a bribe to get a few more blog followers. All you have to do is follow the blog (on the left, over there) and leave a comment at the bottom of this post to say you want him, and I will send it to one of you once I get to 50 followers. I've currently got 47, so he could belong to one of you very soon!

He's just a tiny something- the size of a Christmas tree decoration- that I picked up at St Michael's Mount in Cornwall last week that I thought anyone who likes the blog, or is a bit like me, might appreciate. If no one wants him, I will very gladly keep him!

In other news, I've dyed my hair. I got seriously sick of ombre and decided to go for a dark brown using a Boots own brand dye in Dark Chocolate Brown. Here are a couple of pics of me (looking like a goon) without my glasses on. Firstly, looking jaundiced with my old hair and a bright red Natural Collection lipstick and, secondly, a little bit sun kissed/ burnt after my run on Sunday.

This evening, Ruari and I tested out the cycle path from Chartham to Canterbury city centre- he used the new bike that he bought at the weekend, and I used my ol' faithful, Ray. It took us half an hour each way at a very leisurely pace, so could probably be done in about 15 minutes if need be. I'm super happy that we have a direct route to town without having to go onto a single road, apart from the 200 metres from our house to the cycle path, as it makes me feel a bit less like a country bumpkin. Only downside was the swarms of flies that we'd ride into every so often. I think one flew up my nose and went straight down my throat. Vom!

Hope y'all are well :-) x

P.S. If you're already a blog follower, you just have to leave a comment to register your interest. No need to unfollow & re-follow! x

Plant Porn

2011-08-15T03:29:00.007+01:00

Mimosa pudica a.k.a. 'Sensitive plant'/ Touch-me-not/ Sleeping grass = Amazeballs.

My dad got me one of these when I was in year six, so when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I'm pretty sure it died because I played with it too much, or maybe I forgot to water it.

Anywho, I've always had fond memories of the 'thing', so when Oli, mum and I came across a patch of them at the Eden Project last week, I literally jumped for joy because I really wanted to find 'the plant that dad gave me' one way or another. I had a sneaking suspicion I might see it at the Eden Project and, alas, I did! Once we'd been round the place, I swiftly made my way to the plant section of the gift shop where my mum offered to buy my brother and I one each. I quickly obliged and now I have a new friend called Ed :-)

Here's the little blighter (+ Milly) during the day, at mums, when he was awake, and when he'd gone to sleep, when he'd arrived at my house.

Here's Oli's sleeping grass. It has bigger and denser leaves and is also a bit quicker to react than Ed. He's a tad slow, bless 'im!

Check out this short video I found on YouTube that demonstrates its awesomeness. Look out for the teddy bear :-s

What do you think? Cool, eh? x

Must. Run. More

2011-08-14T15:02:00.004+01:00

Today I went for my first proper run in about two weeks. I tried to run about 4 miles after work the other day, but ended up walking most of it because I got lost in Canterbury trying to find the cycle path to run home on. Ended up walking from Westgate Towers to Morrison's and then just walked/ ran home from there and made some new friends along the way....

I've been freaking out lately due to my lack of training and impending half marathon in six week's time so I bit the bullet/ All Bran, put my running gear on and just went.

Originally, I wanted to complete the race in under 2.5 hours, but now I just really want to complete it no matter how long it takes. Due to my lack of training lately, my strategy has changed and the plan is now to run for 20 minutes then walk for 5 minutes and repeat x 7 or 8 times (depending on how fast I run). I'm estimating that this should get me finished in just under three hours. Or just over if I'm struggling. I'm thinking that if I just look at it in bite sized pieces rather than a 13.1 mile whole, then it will seem less scary and more do-able.

I started training for my new strategy today by telling myself to run for 5 songs and walk for 1 and repeat x7 or 8 times. In reality I was fine for the first four lots of running but then struggled with the last three as the day got hotter, I ran out of water then my right knee and left ankle started aching. I did about 5 lots in total, but the last 'lot' was a bit more walky than I'd anticipated.

I generally feel a bit better about things now I'm back on the training wagon. I'm going to try this again later this week but actually get to at least 7 lots of 5 songs. I'm also gonna rethink my training playlist. Lady Gaga was doing my head in!!

So yeah. Has anyone got any running tips? How often should I be running between now and race day? Also, can anyone recommend me a pair of socks that won't blister my feet after an hour of running? Oh and knickers that won't wedgie every time I take a step? Is it a case of going commando?!

Feel free to sponsor me, btw :-) x

Help! I need some style advice...

2011-08-13T19:51:00.006+01:00

I'm going to a wedding in a couple of weeks time and I bought myself a dress today by Lovestruck at Cult in Brighton for just shy of £30. It's a pale minty green, but has come out quite blue in pics. It wasn't at all what I set out to buy, but I think it's really quite cute. However, I haven't got a clue how to style it, so I need your help!

I'm at my mum's house so am limited for example accessories, so I just have a couple that might give a slight idea of where I might take it. I'm willing to spend some dollar on some new pieces though. God, and what shoes should I wear?!??! I kinda want to go down the 'alternative' route with a black belt, slightly gothy accessories and these River Island shoe-boot-wedges which are the most comfortable shoes ever. But being a summer wedding, this might look inappropriate and a bit Avril Lavigne.

Feel free to give me your thoughts/ ideas/ suggestions. Returning it and starting again is an option, but a bit of a last resort. I might dye my hair dark brown... and hopefully get some contact lenses... but I'll defo put some make up and fake tan on. I'm not sure why I didn't take my tights off, and I have just realised it's a tad see-through. Will make sure I'm wearing a nude bra (and maybe some chicken fillets) on the day.

Hair up or down? I think up....

Sock it to me! xo

I'm back!

2011-08-12T23:31:00.003+01:00

Just in case anyone had noticed that I've not posted in a while... I am still alive and I didn't mean to neglect this thing!

I had hoped to be able to blog whilst I was holidaying in Newquay this week with my mum and brother, but the Wi-Fi at the hotel/apartment wasn't as promised and I couldn't seem to blog from my iPhone (frustratingly, I could write a subject line and label the post, but I couldn't write anything in the body, or even upload a photo to demonstrate wtf was going on).

I am too sleepy to write anything decent now, but I will leave you with the gist of why I have been M.I.A. lately.

Catch y'all l8r, when I'm not all disorientated. (Car-lag/ auto-lag (like jet-lag but for car journeys in a single time-zone) exists. I'm sure it does!) xo

Good times and A LOT of eating out.

2011-07-31T19:51:00.012+01:00

I should start by saying that the graphical evidence contained within this post has been brought to you by:

1 x addiction to Photosynth

and

1 x addiction to Instagram.

I will continue by saying that my week has contained:

1 x Domino's pizza last Sunday with my family in Eastbourne (after a nine mile training session). Veg supreme = in my belly.

1 x Wagamama's in Canterbury on Monday with my friend, Emma. I departed from my usual Saien Soba and opted (at the last minute) for the Yasai Cha Han which was deeelish.

1 x visit from my mum, brother (Oli) and (may as well be) sister-in-law on Thursday. T'was the first time Oli and Sarah have seen mine and Ruari's bungalow. They'd spent the day looking for a new home for my mum in Canterbury City Centre and they think they've found one. I feel like the time is right for her to move this time and the place they've found sounds great so I'm really excited for her. Finger's crossed!

1 x lunch on Friday at Rocksalt in Folkestone with the internet marketing team to celebrate a member's belated 30th birthday. I had a bowl of veg whilst everyone else was eating Plaice and picking bones out of their teeth. Vom. I topped it off with a Treacle tart. Nom.

1 x Domino's pizza on Friday night with my friend and mother of one, Nat. We did a half n' half pizza- Nat had extra cheese, sweetcorn, pineapple and jalapeños on her side, whereas I stuck to my usual veg supreme. We watched the Amy Winehouse tribute on MTV, drank tea and talked about boys, childbirth and poo.

1 x dinner at Chimichanga's in Canterbury on Saturday night with Oli. He had the Barbecue pulled pork enchilada and Key Lime pie whilst I had the vegetarian bean chilli chimichanga and the honeycomb crunch cheesecake (which Oli finished off for me).

1 x night where Oli stayed over and watched The Social Network, which I bought on DVD last week. He hadn't seen it before and I think he really liked it. We found ourselves talking about it a fair bit today. The bunnies enjoyed it too.

1 x lunch at Chambers cafe in Canterbury this afternoon. I ate a jacket potato with cheese and beans whilst Oli ate a stack of pancakes. 1 x view out of the window:

1 x purchase of a watermelon-print pen that even smells of watermelon.

1 x Reunion with my folding bike, Ray.

1 x return of Ruari from his friend's stag do in Newquay :-D

END. x

Honestly, 2011. WT actual F?

2011-07-24T11:05:00.010+01:00

This is one of my proper rambly, contemplative posts that aren't in the least bit entertaining. A similar to vein to my blog posts circa 2009.

2011 has been a seriously nuts year in terms of economical, political and religious unrest, natural and unnatural disasters, energy shortages, moral compasses of figures of trust gone awry and, according to one list, 41 celebrity deaths, yet we're only in July! What else will/ can the next 5 months throw up?!

I don't feel I'm anywhere near well-informed enough to intelligently comment on the recent goings on in the world. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm disgustingly ignorant as I generally rely on the news on the Chris Moyles' breakfast show and my Twitter feed to inform me of the latest news. Apart from the odd click through on a link from BBC Breaking, I tend to just let the world go about it's (un)merry way and just think 'Jesus! WTF is going on' from time to time. I then go back to my internet-addicted comatosed state, focussing on the latest developments of Google+ and moaning about how I haven't been for a run in an age.

Last night I wondered whether every other year has been as crazy as this year, but modern technology is allowing news providers to cover more news, allowing 'us' to become more aware of more of the goings on around world than before. As in, do we have more access to news now than we ever did before?

I don't really know where I'm going with this. I guess I just want to say that 2011 has been a really sad year and I hope that all of those who have lost their lives over the last 7 months, rest in peace. For some reason, Amy Winehouse's death is really pulling on my heartstrings. I think because she wasn't much older than me and she was in such a bad place when she was alive. I'm lucky that I've never been driven to drugs but I do sometimes crave an escape, and to an extent I suppose the internet is mine (sounds pathetic, I know). I guess her untimely death is making me want to really think about a few things in my life, address some issues that have been bubbling away that I've just been ignoring, or masking. There are a few things that I want to do that I've just been putting off and putting off that I need to act upon. I need to figure out what's stopping me from doing them and sort it the f out, basically.

I'm happy with how things are going- I count my blessings on a daily basis and I'd say all of the elements in my life are great, the only ones that aren't are beyond my control- but I really want to work on making those parts that are in my control, better. I mean, I feel like I'm given a lot but I don't give back enough, for one reason or another. And that's what, essentially, I mean and that's what needs to get sorted.

Rambling over. I'm off for my belated run now. I was supposed to go at 10am but now it's 12.30pm.

P.S. I've had Amy Winehouse- Back to Black in my head since last night. R.I.P, Amy. x

P.P.S. I loved Amy in the dress she wore for her DVD, I Told You I Was Trouble and Tears Dry On Their Own video.

T.G.I.F.

2011-07-21T21:37:00.008+01:00

This is one of those posts that doesn't make sense but just lists stuff that's going down at the mo.

Music:

Latitude festival last Friday (Friday, gotta get down on Friday).
I've had Katy Perry's 'Last Friday Night' in my head for about two weeks solid, and now Rebecca Black's Friday is in the brain mix too.
Hevy Fest in two weeks time. Line up:

Web:

Telly:

Tom Pellereau won The Apprentice. I'm glad because he was my fave.
How I ever watched hours on end of [insert country]'s Next Top Model, baffles me. It sucks mega balls. Especially the new Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model. Dull, dull, DULL! I'm sorry for inflicting this on my family.

Work:

It was my 10 month anniversary at work yesterday.
I had a successful review with my manager today.
I was invited to a social media brainstorming session which was all about how we think our company could improve their existing social media/ online community offering. I personally think they need to start over. I have a fair few opinions on the matter, in fact. Not for here, though.
We're closer to hiring an SEO agency, at least to do a SEO site audit. Woop!
I've started handing over my paid search accounts to a colleague to make room for me to do more SEO stuff.
5.05pm today = realisation of the effects of a website disaster recovery test + an inconveniently timed crawl of our site by Google. I have asked Google to re-index our site. Pronto.

Life:

Mine and my blog competition winners' free Water Less Levi's jeans should be arriving soon... I might even take a picture for y'all.
Couples breaking up sucks.
I haven't been for a run since.... I can't remember.
Some of Ruari's Irish family stayed at his parents' house for 10 days. They went back to Ireland (Strabane) earlier this week, but it was ace to see them. Too funny!
I went to a Yoga class on Tuesday night with a colleague and it was hilarious. Irish instructor. Need I say more.
My brother, Oli, and Sarah (and Milly, I think?!) are making their way down from Glasgow as I type.
T.G.I.F tomorrow.
Eastbourne this weekend.

P.S.