Made it!

Yesterday was the first day of the summer holiday, and it couldn’t have come soon enough!  It has timed itself perfectly with real summer weather too!  Finally, hot and sunny weather instead of constant rain!  This makes me very happy!

I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks but I’ve forgotten my camera every. single. time that I’ve done anything!!  Last weekend was D’s dad’s birthday so we went to D’s parents’ house for a barbecue.  D and his brother were in charge of the cooking and did an excellent job!  D’s mum pulled out all of the stops and it was a really good night.  Also, a big hello to Matthew if you’re reading!!

On Saturday I went to my first ever baby shower!!  It wasn’t a big American-style extravaganza, just a small gathering and a tea party in the garden, but it was such a nice afternoon.  It was made even better by the weather and I caught some sun for the first time in a while!  I’m so excited, I can’t wait until the arrival of the little one!

Sunday was spent in our local park making the most of the hot weather.  One of the things I miss about living in a flat is a garden, but the park is a 5 minute walk away and is actually really nice.  It’s always busy when it’s sunny, but there’s always enough space for it not to be overcrowded.  I think we’ll be spending a lot of time there this summer if the weather keeps up like this.  I’m quite an active person and always want to do something at the weekend, but just laying in the sun doing nothing was perfect.

Next time I post, I’ll definitely include some photos!

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In other news, Forever 21 has just opened up here and it’s quite sad how excited I am about this.  Hopefully I’ll pick up a few things when I go on Saturday.  I’ve noticed that a few things that I like are in the sale so fingers crossed they’ll still be there this weekend!

Also, D and I have started doing the Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred and it’s HARD!  We did it last night for the first time and today I feel like I’ve run a marathon.  We took some ‘before’ photos so we’ll be able to see how much it has worked in 29 days…

Weekend Catch Up – Chester

This weekend has been the perfect mixture between busy and relaxed.  On Saturday, D and I decided to go to Chester for the day.  The weather was perfect – really warm and sunny – and it actually felt like a Summer’s day!  We didn’t really do any shopping, but had a lovely lunch at a place called Joseph Benjamin and walked around the city walls.  I love cities within walls!  I was a bad blogger and didn’t take many photos  - but here are a few.

{I loved the coloured doors on these houses!}

On the way back from Chester, we stopped at Cheshire Oaks to check out the Le Creuset shop.  I couldn’t believe how American the whole place was, but I loved it!  We’d been looking for a griddle pan for a while, and luckily the one we wanted was on offer so it was down from £70 to £42!  We cooked steak on it last night and it was good – I love that it gives meat the charred lines.

On Saturday night we met up with some of D’s friends at a local bar and I think the nice weather brought everyone out as it was packed!  It was fun though.  It was so busy that I didn’t get to take any photos but nevermind.

On Sunday we chilled out for the whole day – I had a lie in which I never do.  Our flat has blinds instead of curtains and they’re paper thin so I usually wake up when it starts getting light, but I must have been really tired on Sunday!  We watched the Wimbledon final with a jug of Pimms and had strawberries in the evening – it was very festive!!  Overall, a great weekend!

Catch Up

Do you ever get into one of those moods where you’re bored with everything?  I’ve been in one of those for the past week or two.  I think I’m just in a bit of a funk, really, but I’m dying to get out of it again!  I need to keep reminding myself that it could be a lot worse, and that I’m really very lucky.

The weather has been awful and that always annoys me.  It’s the middle of summer (Happy 4th July, Americans!!) and it seems to have rained non stop  for a good month now.  When I started this post, I was sat next to the Juliet balcony with the window wide open because although it was a little cloudy, it was bright and HOT!  I do like to get my money’s worth whenever I can – I’m a summer baby and would take being too hot over too cold any day.  D came home from work and joked, “What’s that big orange thing over there, in the sky?” and it took me a good minute to realise that he was referring to the sun.  Now, it is raining so heavily that our car park is pretty flooded and we can’t see anything further than a few hundred metres away.

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I’ve just started reading Fifty Shades of Grey…it’s a shocker!!  It’s so awfully written, and ever since I heard that it’s loosely based on Twilight, I keep spotting things, but it’s kind of dragged me in.  I haven’t fallen for CG yet (he’s a sadistic control freak – who would?!) but will definitely keep on reading.

It seems like D and I haven’t been on a date night in forever, and usually end up either going for a drink or to the cinema.  I found this idea on Pinterest (where else?) and love it – date night in a jar!!  I have a stack of lolly sticks at work, and so will definitely be doing this when I have a little time in the evenings.  Do any of you have any good ideas to add into the pot?

I haven’t baked anything in a long time, so long in fact that I can’t remember the last thing I baked!!  The other night I decided to make some oaty biscuits from a Jamie Oliver magazine free with a paper at Christmas (that I can’t find a link to), and Joy the Baker’s lemon, poppyseed and blueberry muffins.  Both are delicious and have been serving us well this week.  D helped me to make the muffins and definitely did a good job!  They don’t have a crumble topping as I’m a bad baker and ran out of butter.  I did want to take some photos, but the light is so dark that maybe I’ll have to wait until I bake them again. 

So, even though I haven’t really done anything exciting in the past few weeks, I’ve still managed to write almost 500 words on the matter.  Do you ever have that, where you say a lot without really saying anything at all?