My top 7 goals for 2015....

My goals for 2015 ... 2014 was a pretty big year for us, we got married and bought our first house so 2015 has a lot to live up to. Instead of setting unrealistic or immeasurable resolutions I have decided to set my self a few small goals that I can actually achieve and measure the results. Once I have completed them I can set some more and keep growing through the year instead of wading towards a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Visit family more.

As I noted in my round up of 2014 my first goal is to see my family more. This year I am really going to make it a priority to go across and visit my family when we go down to Surrey in the summer. 

Improve my cardio.

I spent a lot of time at the gym last year but due to shift changes we have had to cancel our membership so I am going to invest in a workout DVD for now then get the weights out in the garden when the weather improves. My cardio is very bad and I am not a fan of running so I am going to try some different bits to up my cardio. 

Life happens when you are busy doing other things ......

Sorry for the hiatus ... Life took over for a while. It's been a hectic few months, we got married, moved into a brand new house and one of my best friends moved countries.

Cue lots of DIY and organising for us these last few months. Life has been a bit hectic following the move, we have moved to the other side of the city so it's necessitated shift changes for the hubby & I am now playing taxi. It's not a bad thing as we can get up together and they are more routine than his old shifts but it's still a big change.

Moving also meant we have missed out on going to the gym a lot in the weeks just after the move as we had deliveries and needed to go out to get things after work. We are getting back into it now but it's a bit harder then before due to the later shifts. Hopefully now things have calmed down we can get get into a rhythm again.

The house itself is now 95% sorted, there are just little random bits to sort like getting some shelves in our landing cupboard to make use of the large overhead space for linens. Asking the family builder about expanding our under stair cupboard and sorting through some bits that seem to be currently stored in the garage so I can get the car in. So like you see these are fairly unimportant but just bits we would like to do. Only real thing we need to do soon is tiling the splash back in the kitchen.

In terms of my friend moving the cliff notes is that as of august one of my closest friends is currently residing in South Korea. It's an amazing opportunity and I am so thrilled for all the experiences he's going to get, but it's hard. We've gone from talking to nearly daily whenever something popped up to an eight hour time difference. There is a very small window where we are both awake to IM so trying to embrace delayed longer messaging.

I've got some experience with long distance friendships as another of my best friends lives in LA so that's an 8 hour time difference too. If she wasn't actually American I might start to take it personal that my friends live so far away. Really glad my last best friend is just round the corner... Well sort of she lives in Cumbria so that's an easy drive away for visiting. 

So anyway that's a cliff notes version of the last few months and now hopefully I will have some more time to read, blog, relax and go to the gym. 

                                                                           xXx

#marriedmay

So as anyone who follows me on Instagram will know I recently got married to my amazing boy. We celebrated our wedding on 04/05/14 and coincidentally there was a photo a day challenge running on Instagram (set up by @phoebewedding) called #marriedmay so I decided to join in and share my day.

Here is the line up:

Here are my entries:

Running left to right on each row, I didn't do 18 as I didnt really read any wedding blogs I mainly looked at Pinterest but I had already covered that, also I did 3 pics for day 22 stationary as we had a lot of elements.   

I had so much fun going over all the little elements of our day and sharing them. Your big day goes by in such a blur of smiles, happiness and photographs so it was really nice to specifically look at the little elements that made up the day. The little things are the bits that can get lost in such a big day but when you are planning they are the pieces that bring the whole day together for you at that stage.

Well I hope you enjoyed looking at the different elements of my big day and for any readers planning their own big day I hope your day is as magical as mine was and that maybe this has given you some ideas.

xXx

NEW INK!!!

Really I should have posted this weeks ago. When I was down south me and the Fiancé decided to go and get new tattoos. Fiancé's sister V had been to a local place near a few times so she said we could go there with her.

Turned out fiancé's cousins partner M also a new tattoo so his cousin O said he would drive us all. The place we went Camberly Tattoo is a walk in only shop so we went for it opening. Fiancé and me knew what we wanted M and V were a little less sure, in the end the 4 of us all came out with new ink hehe O didnt but then hes not a fan. Safe to say it was an odd family day out, but fun.

Originally I wanted the design I got on my ribs but the lad pointed out that with it being round and having straight lines if I moved at all it would look awful. So I swapped to having it on my ankle opposite my cat. I can still cover it up if anyone says anything with either dark tights or trousers.

Fiancé went in first as he wanted his arm piece all re-done, in the end it took an hour and a half but it looks awesome.

Before - looks a lot darker in this pic it was actually a bit patchy

NEW INK! you can see its a lot more complete and coloured in much better. 

Here is my new mandala inspired ink!

I love my new mandala inspired tattoo. Took the guy barely any time at all. The middle is interlocking S's for me and the fiancé. 

This was us post tattooing, Fiancé looks like he was mauled by an animal, V went to give blood I got  sprained ankle and M well I'll let you decide on that one. 

So I finally got my new ink and I am thrilled. The only bad part was that we bought bepanthen cream to help with healing and it would seem that I am allergic because my ankle swelled up and hurt like hell. I had to keep cooling it down with cold water, in the end I washed all the cream off and just used a unscented lotion till I got home and could use some lavender oil. It was quite red for ages and took ages to heal which was a bit worrying as all my other ones healed much faster  but now its all fine.

When I looked it up it turns out allergies to bepanthen are quite common after tattoos so I would advise any reader to stick to either savlon or good old lavender oil.

I still want more tattoos but will have to save up big time for my back piece and any others ... well I think I am running out of coverable places to have them so they woul involve a bit of logistics.

xXx

What a wonderful weekend ...

So this weekend was full of good friends and good food. 

Friday: 

Our friends from Cumbria travelled down for a quick visit. They had been to stay a few weeks ago but unfortunately fiancé had to work both days so this time it was nice for him to be able to see them during the day. Hehe it was also nice that there wasn't an lengthy gap between visits like there had been for the last visits. As anyone will tell you its hard to organise visits as you get older as life gets in the way and everyone has conflicting plans so it was great to get to see them so soon, also good as S is one of my bridesmaids hehe 

For dinner fiancé served up a delicious chicken, prawn and chorizo paella, it was delicious as ever. Boy makes a mean paella. We try to serve something different whenever we have friends visit to make sure we mix it up, having friends over is also a great opportunity to try new things and experiment/expand your repertoire in the kitchen. 

Along with our paella M brought ingredients to make raspberry mojitos ... yum. They were awesome, he used fresh raspberries crushed in the bottom with the mint and sugar. Really fresh and fruity, they were a delicious cuban treat with our spanish paella. 

Giant paella pan, check, crusty bread, check, mojitos, check ... 

After dinner we sat and watched a film whilst drinking more mojitos, the drinks and company were excellent the film however was not. Got off to a good start then failed miserably but oh well. 

Saturday: 

On the morning we took our friends up to Lumley Castle to have a look as they had not seen the venue for the wedding, then we had a spot of lunch. Roast chicken submarine rolls and crisps. Then they had to get home as M was going away on business Sunday so needed to pack (last minute packing is such a boy thing) 

Saturday evening we went round to some local friends for a chilled BBQ. Unfortunately it was rained off so we did indoor BBQ hehe you have to be prepared in the UK, bloody temperamental weather.

Good night chilling with friends and catching up with come people we haven't seen in a while.  Lots of wedding talk from the girls, the hosts got married just under a year ago, I am nearly finished my wedding planning and our other friends have just booked their wedding so started the planning in earnest. So of course we were looking at dresses for C and I got to see L's finished wedding album, its really nice to chat with other people who are getting married or who have recently got married as you get to compare and swap ideas. 

Sunday:

Today is full of busy, its the last day of our holiday :( sad face back to work tomorrow, we started with brunch, then home for fiancé to watch the first game of the season for Spurs then round to my mams to car pool up to my brothers for a family birthday tea. 

So brunch ... it was awesome!! 

I was chatting with a friend from LA last night and told her we were having US style brunch she replied by asking what we considered a US style brunch ... I answered honestly with I wasn't sure but thats how our Texan friend had described it. My friend then described some of their brunches and I have got to say us English are lacking on the brunch front, the Americans know how to brunch! 

As this was our first visit to N's house for food so I took along a hostess gift, brunch appropriate boxes of Twinings fruit tea. Usually when we visit friends for food we take a bottle of wine and a dessert but that didn't seem appropriate. 

N then introduced us to Texan style breakfast tacos. It was amazing, homemade flour tortillas filled with huevos rancheros (scrambled egg, chorizo and pepper mix) topped with cheese and salsa!! It was delicious, these are apparently available at Texan schools pre wrapped in foil for the kids to eat for breakfast ... I would have loved to have these before school. We also had bowls of greek yogurt with fresh fruit and some granola with Earl Grey tea. It was amazing, we shall definitely be stealing the recipe for  the eggs and trying it again. 

After brunch we came home and the fiancé sat and watched the football while I blogged. (he is very happy as his team, Spurs, won) Now we are off to my mams to head up to my brothers for family birthday tea. Its a family tradition we have, and since my brother and his wife's birthdays are close together we tend to have a joint party either between or when its convenient ie best weekend around them for a family get together. Well I best be off. Blog later. 

xXx