They’re supposed to go to this….Sew…Last weekend I went to a dance. An Enchantment Under The Sea Dance as they did in one of the greatest movies EVER made. Organised by Nicki of PPHV, The Positive People Of Hill Valley Preservation Society, which I have mentioned in another post. This was all organised to raise money for the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinsons research and to pre celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the date that he goes Back To The Future (Which was 4.29pm) October 21st 2015.
So I went with my partner in crime Connie. As I have said before, My go to girl for girlie stuff. Sew as usual I was late, as I had a late night and started doing my hair late:took way too long. I didn’t have a dress, which I had planned to make, left that till late as well, so panic bought 5 dresses hoping one would look the biz and one did. If I do say so myself…what dya think? 😆
If you want to buy my dress CLICK HERE to see mine and many more dresses
There was a friend that I hadn’t seen for ages and he invited me down to Wales to spend a few days. He was my Manager for 5 years and became the person that I phoned from work on a Friday afternoon. We’d talk about work and personal stuff, it was such a nice way to end the week. He became ill a little while ago, so when we finally were able to contact each other again, I jumped at the chance as I knew he was on the mend.
I got the Coach down there so I could chill out and have a snooze; the journey was only 3 hours long. He met me from the coach and we gave each other the biggest hug.
We chatted for hours and he tried to fatten me up on homemade welsh cakes. I met his daughter and Grandson who has the most plump cheeks I have seen on a child for so long. I had to stop myself squeezing them like I do to my Nephews.
On the first day he cooked a fabulous meal and I slept in a big bed with an en-suite.
The following day we went to meet another of my ex managers who now runs a coffee shop (The Coffee Post) in Fairford, which in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.
It is picturesque little town.
Welcome to FairfordThe Coffee Post
Soy milkshake and green tea The local Parish Church
The local Church, beautifulGraveyard, not spooky at allLike an old Bonsai TreeLooking at the old watermill, which is now a private residence
Sew today, as we were both off for the summer holidays my Mum and I decided to do stuff.
I’d heard that there was a lavender field near us last year during the winter, not so good to see in the cold (plus it’s closed). I told my Mum that we should go but she thought it was too far away. I’d heard that in my area, back in the day, it was full of lavender fields; there are a couple of streets named Lavender Road and Lavender Gardens, so knew this too be true. Make a long story short, we went. It’s a 30 minute drive from where we live and it was a beautiful sunny day.
It was only £1 to enter, which helps them to maintain the gardens from April to October. The smell was amazing. A huge field of lavender bushes that had a heap of bees in them. When we were away from the crowds we could hear the faint buzz of the bees. I tried to get a photo and almost succeeded. Tell me if you see them or not…
Lavender Fields foreverMe and the MumkaNow can you see them?See any bees?
Sew, last year I heard about Veganuary in December. I have wanted to try being a vegetarian since I was in High School, but liked my meat too much. The main focus of Veganuary is to ask as mainly people as possible to become vegan for the month of January. One person not eating any animal products for a day would save 1 animal. Veganuary is in it’s 3rd year now and growing every year.
I emailed one of the organizers, Matt and asked would it be OK for me to go vegetarian instead of vegan. He said that he was vegetarian for many years before going vegan so of course it would be OK. This Vegunary gave me the little push I needed. I hadn’t really thought it through. I started on the first of February 2015. It was a Sunday. Usually on a Sunday I would have a fried egg on toast. Before I even got out of bed, I watched ‘100 reason to be Vegan’ on YouTube. I didn’t have a fried egg that morning or have done since. I ate vegan for 2 weeks, and that was it. I didn’t go back to eating meat although I did have a piece of Salmon during that 2 weeks. Trying to justify it, I know though that this will be my last piece of fish that I will ever have. I grilled it to perfection and had it with some New Potatoes and green beans. It was good and I have not touched fish nor flesh since. I tried to be vegan but turned vegetarian. I tried not to eat too many things with egg or milk in the ingredients but I was either too hungry of lazy to care. I love Halloumi and Cakes and I love snacks.
Toward the end of last year, Mid December, I thought “I can do this”, I have been almost vegan this past year, lets do this. I signed in again to the Veganuary website and pledged to do it. Long story short, I only done 2 weeks. I did become vegetarian though so I was/am doing some good.
So through out the year I was a vegetarian. Cutting down on my egg intake and cutting down on my dairy. Sew, toward the end of last year, I decided to do it again but being more prepared than last year.
Sew, January began and lets just say…SUCCESS!! I found it alot easier than last year, I guess because I knew what was to come and an idea as to what to eat. I was vegan for the whole month of January.
So, I class myself as still a vegetarian as I have products in the freezer and cupboard that need to be eaten, Quorn products mainly and also cheese, which is another matter altogether.
I also spent a week in France, in February, snowboarding on a full board basis so being a vegan would have been impossible! I have continued to be a vegetarian though so all things considered I have been a very good girl. Xx
Sew. After being off the gym for 2 weeks things were back to normal today.
I bought some fruit for our smoothies after the gym and came home to prepare them. Anyway, as I was clearing out the fridge I came across the bottom half of my butternut squash. I was about to chuck the seed away when I thought, why not roast them, so I did.
My own recipe below.
1tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbls nooch (nutitional yeast)
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a pinch of salt
Seeds before washing
After washing and patting dry
After adding the oil and spices
Roast for 10 minutes
After roasting
Ready to serve!
wash the seeds
pat dry
add spices and oil,
mix around.
When mixed put on a tray.I used parchment paper. I roasted them in a pre heated oven on 175-180. I heard a pop. I guess that was something to do with the moisture escaping whilst drying. I had eaten them before I started this post. They were tasty. A little kick due to the Cayenne pepper. Maybe I’ll add less next time, how much is less than a pinch!!
Sew, a new gym opened up near me called Your Zone Studio. Well, it’s very near to my tube station to work. I went past a few times when it first opened and even picked up a leaflet. Promising to burn up to 1000 calories, this is a good thing, right? I thought about it and ummed and ahhed then thought, go for it. The option to have a free session also helped. So I signed up on the website and received a call the next day from a guy named Danny. He asked me a couple of questions, like “Why I wanted to join a gym?”, all the usual stuff and a time was agreed for the next day. This was during the school holidays so it was easy to say yes to tomorrow. I went down and although Danny wasn’t there, I had a really good session with Charlie (girl Charlie). I got a phone call from Danny later that day asking me how it went, Great, I said. I asked how much it was to join and was told. The rate seemed pretty reasonable so after looking at my finances in more details, I finally said “Yes!”.
I have been going for just over a month now and my fitness is definitely improving, so I’ve been told by Alex (guy Alex). I have set days and times that I go which work brilliantly. Even when I get off the tube and I’m feeling tired and either walk or run if I’m running late, to the gym, I ALWAYS leave feeling fabulous. I’m still trying not to eat junk when I get home and sometimes it works, sometimes not. I’ve only missed 2 days on the weekend (laying in bed is so nice). Actually, Myself and the bf had to go and look for a new car, so that was one of the reasons I missed one session.
I should have put in an extra day this week as last weekend was a missed session (make it 3 missed). A weekend away with the girls to Margate for a friends birthday. A rugby watching, Prosecco drinking, looking up at the night sky, pizza-eating weekend. I felt the drink sweating outta me on my first day back exercising. I should have gone today but needed new Knives and am a bit knackered to tell the truth. So yeah, fitness updates may be coming up… Also an added bonus. They email your results to you as soon as you finish your workout, so even though you can see how hard you worked whilst you’re there, you can look more closely at the results later. So loving it xx
Your Zone studio, Colliers Wood
So if you want to work out like me CLICK HERE and if you sign up now you get a free trial
Sew, as the boy was off work today, as he is working on Saturday we decided to take in some culture and go To Hever Castle which is only an hour from South London. Its expensive to do the Gardens AND the castle but I wanted to, so we did. We couldn’t take pictures of the inside of the castle, unfortunately, but I have WAY too many pictures of the Gardens, which I will edit and post tomorrow, not all of them mind!!
Sew… a few months ago I saw some pictures of a very pink room with some very pink marshmallow type chairs, this piqued my curiosity. Then about 3 weeks ago I was reading Time Out and saw the Pink Room and the Chairs…Happy Happy girl. I discovered that they were at Sketch, a restaurant in Mayfair. I immediately went to my go-to-for-girlie-things friend and asked if she wanted to go…Of Course!
I booked online and we were on our way. I was planning on wearing a cute dress but the weather was not going to agree with me so I had chosen nice jeans and a floaty blouse combo. Fifteen minutes before I was due to leave, the weather changed and I went with the dress. 😎 I teamed this with white socks and my new black loafers. If it’s good enough for Alexa Chung is’s good enough for me. With a HUGE black handbag, I was ready to take on Mayfair!
Both my friend and I actually arrived on time which is so unlike us, so we did a small High Five. We got told where to go and went to the Gallery Room. There are 4 rooms in total. The Parlour, The Lecture Room, The Glade and The Gallery which is where we were heading.
We got shown to our table and I reminded our waitress that I’m a vegetarian so a few tweaks were made to our Cream Tea selection which made me a happy. I choose White Pearl tea and my Friend choose the Earl Grey.
A few minutes later our Sommelier came and asked us which Champagne we would like and we choose the Brut. I had to stop my self chugging it down and sipped it sophisticated like!.
I won’t go into detail about what we had in case you want to go but, it was divine. One thing I will say is that the Panini was absolutely LUSH.
Lots of girlie chat was exchanged while we ate (nibbled) and sipped champagne. Then we were asked which scones we would like. We picked plain and decided to spread the Devon way. Clotted Cream and then Jam. I only had the one pot of tea which was enough for me as I’m not a massive tea drinker but it was beautiful none the less. Below are a few pictures of Sketch.
Sew, I’m going bowling on Saturday with The Positive People Of Hill Valley Preservation Society, PPHV. And I need a skirt for the occasion.
Last year, I went to Secret Cinema, Hill Valley and had the most spectacular time and met some great people. This has led to a group of people getting together purely from meeting online, sorta online dating, without the dates, well except for the occasional meetup.
I went to Nandos with a few of them a few weeks ago to celebrate a New Job offer for one of the girls. She has just left Uni and has got a job as a Graphic Designer, well-done Chickie!!! Some LOVELY food was had. It has changed so much over recent years. They’ve added a new flavour, Lemon and Herb was always my favourite though.
So, back to my skirt. I bought the fabric some time ago (well, that is what I will tell the boy). I bought it on Saturday from Shepherds Bush. I was quite overwhelmed by the choice in some of the shops but found the PERFECT one, well 2, helped along, making a decision by Connie 🙂
I’ll be using the blue one for my skirt and the black one for a dress
There are loads of posts on YouTube as to how to make a Circle Skirt so I won’t go into it here as I’m not going to make a video and I’ve already started to draft my pattern. Just waiting for the fabric to dry.
More on that tomorrow!!
August 16th 2015
Sew, as I was saying. I forgot, yet again, to wash my fabric as soon as I walked in the door. Well, I was hiding it from the boy so it made sense. Anyhow, I finished the skirt…after a small hitch, trying to re-thread my overlocker, which I had not done before. I have had my GORGEOUS overlocker for 3 months now and this would be the first time that I was using it. So that was challenging, running out of bobbin thread: don’t you hate it when that happens and thus messing up my hem. I finally finished with about an hour to spare before I had to leave. I’m silly and didn’t take a picture with it on me so will add a picture tomorrow.
So why had I decided to do this colour run? Well, for one, I thought it was on a Saturday and 2, I thought it would be a lot of fun, with a bunch of mates and would be mates. Angelique made a WhatsApp group and the messages started. Message back and forth about when we should be meeting up, what we were wearing, and just random girls stuff.
I suggested 2 weeks before the run to meet up for drinks to discuss running strategies, outfits etc. It just ends up being a boozy early evening in the beer garden & Night inside. I didn’t mind as one outfit mentioned took my fancy-TUTUS
Tutu And Snowboarding Goggles
Although excited for the following week, I was none the wiser as to where it was, what some of the other girls looked like, what time we were running and some of the finer details.
I eventually got this info from my Angel and my mind was at rest.
On Saturday I pimped 4 pairs of goggles and decided which 2 of the seven tutus that I had received we’d need! Ordering panic! I babysat my Nephews that evening.
Sunday rolls around and after some more messaging in the morning- I got up, had a shower ate some breakfast, done some general running around the house and was picked up at 10.30.
We met up with another Sam, got our T-shirts and waited for the other to arrive.
We were due to have our warm-up at 12.30, which was basically a short Zumba class. but before that could happen we had to get down, low and when the beat dropped…it went a bit crazy. A lot of people had paint sachets that they just threw in the air ad you get covered. It was all the pre-run party to get you in the mood.
Jumping with paint Moving Picture Colour Run In London 2015
We all (14 of us) made our way to the start, where you could see the obstacles from and waited then another 20 minutes before we actually went. The first obstacle just a wooded upright panel with footholds on it. Then we got sprayed with paint. Now, this was good paint as it was just coloured cornflour which doesn’t stain clothes or hair.
So, not to go into boring detail, various inflatable obstacles were tackled that we had to either crawl through, under, over or push through and eventually we all finished. We slid down a giant slide and walked through some foam. Collected a pack of colour paint, joined the end party and threw it and danced again.
