Happy Advent!

Happy December 1st, you lovely people! I know everyone is saying the same thing, but I can't quite believe it's December already! It doesn't feel that long since it was last Christmas. This year, Oscar surprised me with a fancy Liberty beauty advent calendar! For the last two years I've handmade advent calendars for O with lots of little goodies inside and he forgot to get me one! So this year he seriously made up for it with this little beauty! 

It's taken all my willpower not to Google what's inside and this morning I had that Christmas morning feeling when I got to open the first little drawer!

So inside drawer #1 was this adorable hand cream by Byredo Parfums and it smells amazing! I'm not a very patient person, so I'm not quite sure how I'm going to limit myself to opening one drawer per day? But O said if I cheat, I won't get any Christmas presents!! How mean is that?! ;)

I suspect I'll be posting my daily treats over on Instagram, so you can follow me here if you want to see what's inside the other 24 drawers! 

Sunday Mornings #30

I suppose this post should technically be called 'Sunday Afternoons' since I'm typing it at 5pm, but I'm sure you'll let me off with a little late one, won't you?

It feels like forever since I did one of these posts. Five months to be exact! I can't believe it's been so long. So I think we should use this to have a little November catch up. (Can you believe November is almost over? How did that happen??). 

It's been over a month since we moved to Norwich now and it actually feels like we've been here much longer. The house is finally coming together, we have some new furniture arriving in a few weeks and I'm slowly trying to persuade Oscar to let me put some Christmas decorations up. I've managed to start burning some Christmas candles without him noticing, so you never know...

We're making a conscious effort to start exploring our new surroundings a little more. On Monday we went to Horsey Beach to see the little seal pups and oh my goodness, I think it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I kind of expected just to be able to see the seals off in the distance, but they're actually right there on the beach in front you. There were hundreds of them. We took some photos, so hopefully I'll get a post up about it soon. But if you're in the Norfolk area, it's seriously something to tick off the bucket list. We've also hit up some of the shops in Norwich city centre too, of course. I'm a fan! :)

Last week we got a little crafty and decided to make our own candles. I thought it would be a real faff, but honestly it was really easy and I was pretty impressed with our finished products. I may be stocking up with some Christmassy scents to make some homemade pressies!

I have been counting the days til advent begins. The lovely Mr bought me a Liberty beauty calendar and I am dying to open it! I've somehow managed not to google what's inside, but I don't know if I'm strong enough to wait until Tuesday to open the first little drawer! 

Both O and I have been eating to much healthier since we moved. I've been meal planning like a fiend and we're trying to stay on the healthy wagon until Christmas eve. I even bought a spiraliser from Lakeland...what has become of me? I'm trying to persuade O that we should invest in an ActiFry, but I'm not sure he's convinced. Do any of you lovely people have one? Would you recommend it? 

Oh one last thing, lets talk about what TV you've been watching. I need some recommendations! I just finished Jessica Jones (brilliant), and about half way through Newsroom (amazing - West Wing fans will love it!). Oh and can we talk about how happy I am about Luther coming back? Far too excited!

Sunday dinner is now calling me, so I'll sign off for now. Let me know how your life has been lately, I've missed you all! Hopefully it won't be five months until my next post! 

5 Things I Want to Make More Time For.

{Full disclaimer: I have totally pilfered the idea for this post from the ever lovely Estée Lalonde.}

When I was trying to make my list of 5 things, the first one that popped into my mind was pizza. Can I have that? Let's be honest, everyone needs to make more time for pizza. You know how it goes, there's always stuff that you want to do but never actually get around to it. I probably have more spare time on my hands than the average human at the moment, yet I still don't seem to do the things that I keep putting off. So here is my bonafide list of things that I want to make more time for.

1. Exploring.

What with all the moving and job changing, O and I have put adventuring on the back burner recently. But now that we're living in a new city, we have plenty of opportunities to explore - starting with the little coffee and pastry food truck in the local park. We will hit that up this weekend! PS If you have any Norwich or even Norfolk recommendations, please comment below!

2. Reading.

I have about five unfinished books on my bookshelf at the moment. Whenever I get time to read, I always think of something else that I should be doing. I used to love reading before bed, but I've gotten out of the habit of it lately. My mission is to finish at least one of them in November.

3. Yoga.

I used to jump on the mat every single week day religiously in the summer. But again, I've let this slip recently and my downward facing dog looks more like a snoozy poodle these days! It probably doesn't help that my yoga mat is still lying in an unpacked box in the spare room. I want to do Adriene's 30 days of yoga cycle again to get me back into the flow. 

4. Offline.

Oscar and I are both guilty of being slaves to our phones/iPads/laptops/Xbox's. Before we moved we used to eat dinner on the sofa and watch many many episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Now that we have a dining room, we eat dinner at the table without our phones. We actually speak to each other now (shocking I know). I waste so many hours being online doing absolutely nothing when I could've been finishing all those books I have on the go. I need to turn off my devices and be more productive. Sorry Netflix. 

5. Date Nights.

These have been pretty few and far between of late. We usually try to have one at least every two weeks, but I actually can't remember when our last one was. Tomorrow evening marks our first date night in Norwich. We're off to see Spectre and then for some dinner. I think we just need to pencil these dates into our diaries like any other appointments so that they don't get forgotten about. 

How about you lovely people? What do you want to make more time for? I know at this time of the year, some sofa and blanket time will also be high up on my list...along with ALL the pizza! 

Almost at home in Norwich

I come to you today from a very raining Norwich. It's so dark outside that I've had to switch the lamp on...and it's only 12pm! Hello Autumn! For those of you who don't know, a few weeks ago we packed up all of our belongings and said goodbye to our little seaside bungalow in Scotland and headed south to Norwich to start a whole new chapter. If you've been around these parts for a while, you'll know that the Mr and I tend to move about on a regular basis. Normally for work reasons or sometimes just for a little adventure. So here I am, planted on the sofa in our new living room trying to write this post (on my shiny new MacBook Pro - thanks O!) whilst O plays a very loud Assassin's Creed game on his Xbox One. Don't worry, he's leaving for work in a minute or two, so soon I'll be able to concentrate on the task in hand!

Right now I'd say we're about two thirds of the way through the unpacking. We're in that in-between stage of grabbing things from boxes and suitcases and throwing anything we don't have a place for yet into the overflowing spare-room. I'm sure we'll get to that eventually! We've pretty much got a semi-livable living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom, which I think is pretty impressive. I did try to assemble an Ikea Alex drawer set on my own this morning, but lets just say that flat-pack DIY is not my jam. 

I'm slowly getting used to our new surroundings, we're about twenty minutes walk from the city centre (within the Golden Triangle apparently). I think we've got the best of both worlds with being super close to the city (shops!) and having a huge leafy park right around the corner (where I took that photo right up there). Did I mention that we now have Deliveroo and super fast broadband (thanks Virgin!)? I think those are two very important facts that you should know about our new home! 

There's definitely something to say about feeling 'at home'. For me it's all about comfort, security and some sense of familiarity. I think you leave little pieces of 'home' scattered all over. If you search you'd likely find mine in a few places: in Scotland, Toronto, Manchester, the North East and good old Essex - to name but a few. Where are your home(s)? Norwich is slowly beginning to feel a bit like home already, especially with our furniture and little trinkets finally being unboxed. 

Once I unpack my camera and have a little more time to do some exploring, I hope to get back on to this blogging wagon. Sorry for my lack of 'being here'. See you soon! :)

3 + 1/2 {and a little wedding chat}

Today is our three and a half year anniversary! This little date snuck up on me this time and it wasn't until yesterday that I realised. How are we celebrating? O is in London at the beer festival with his old work buddies and I am staying with the parents, as I'm helping out a friend with some work early tomorrow morning. I am so looking forward to a little reunion tomorrow evening, where we shall be ordering pizza, getting comfy on the sofa and watching some trashy TV (or O will no doubt try to get me to watch Blade Runner again without falling asleep...).

 

We did manage a little date night last night, as we had booked a last minute hotel in Glasgow (O had a super early train to catch in the morning) and went out for some Greek food. I seriously can't get enough of Greek food at the moment, anyone else with me? So much so that I've almost persuaded O to book a little villa somewhere in the Greek islands for a week. Almost.

 

This coming December we'll have been engaged for three whole years (I know I know, shotgun engagement! But when you know you know, right?). With all our moving around, our wedding has pretty much been put on the back burner, but we finally have some (secret) plans in place. We've decided on the ceremony, have an almost date (2017 - we have Canadian and Barbados holidays booked next year) and just need to narrow down a reception venue/country! It's hard work wedding planning when your friends/family are scattered all over the world...but we're getting there. What I can tell you is that we're going for a low key affair and that O has already planned his outfit. He's way ahead of me in that respect!

 

At the moment I'm pretty much obsessed with honeymoon planning. We have a huge travel to do list and narrowing it down is proving a little harder than we thought. So if you have any recommendations, we'd be more than grateful to hear them! :)

 



Camping! {+ a video}

Did I mention we bought a new tent? Well we packed up our shiny new car this past weekend and headed to Tarbert for a few nights under the stars. Before Oscar and I met, he used to be one of these minimalist campers. These days however, he has more camping swag than Go Outdoors! I have to take most of the blame (credit) for this, as sleeping on the hard ground is not my thing. So instead, we compromised and bought a heck of a lot of new camping gear. We now have a much bigger tent, some seriously comfy camping chairs and a huge blow-up mattress (amongst many other glamping accessories!). We tested the new tent out in the Lake District a few months ago and on Sunday we pitched our little canvas (is it even canvas?!) home up in Port Ban. 

Our campsite was right on the west coast (near Tarbert) of Scotland and we literally pitched up right next to the beach. I genuinely don't think I've ever seen anything to rival these views. We took a shed load of food with us, but of course decided to drive 16 miles to find the nearest fish and chips! 

If you fancy seeing a little more of our trip, I might've just made a video of all the best bits! You can find it right here...

I'm still trying to find my way around filming and editing, so if you have any tips, please let me know! Please do like and subscribe if you like it! Thanking you kindly! 

P.S. Please forgive me for the Crocs...they really are the ugliest thing I've ever worn, but they are the best footwear for camping (my Birkenstocks got soggy at the beach!)... #sorrynotsorry

Video :: Glasgow!

So I know I've been a little AWOL on the blog front lately. What with the move and all the craziness that goes along with it, I've had to put my blog mojo to side for a while. However! I have made a little video of a Glasgow adventure! Now go easy on me and excuse my shaky camera and editing, I'm a YouTube newbie! I used iMovie to edit this one, but the Mr just installed Premiere Pro on his big boy PC, so I think I might give that a go...if I decide to give this YouTubing thing another go! Hope you enjoy! 

Oh and you can subscribe to my channel here if you fancy! :)

thirty four

Last Thursday {July 2nd, in case you want to pop it in your diary! ;)}, I turned 34. Oscar arrived home from Norfolk at about 1am on said Thursday and then promptly swept me away to a little surprise getaway. He was very naughty and booked us into The Midland in Manchester for three nights, along with a ten course (you heard me right, TEN COURSE!) tasting menu at The French by Simon Rogan. The hotel was beautiful of course and the dinner was actually the best food I've ever tasted. The plates were the prettiest I'd ever seen and there may have been an optional cheese course with an obligatory gin or two. We decided on a no phone rule during dinner, so alas, I have no photographic evidence, which is pretty much how the whole weekend went! 

Of course, we couldn't not go to Moose Coffee for breakfast every single morning. Their pancakes and french toast are *almost* as good as their Canadian counterpart and their coffee is legendary (they sell their own beans too!). If you're looking for a secret little lunch spot, Pancho's Burritos is amazing. Oscar had the lime pork burrito and I had the burrito bowl. Serious value for money and the portions are huge!

We bumped into a few of our friends in the city and had some serious belly laughs over copious pints of Deaf Mermaid (amazing Brewdog beer) and Rosebud cocktails (we had these in the Alchemist). We also hit up Red's True Barbecue one evening, because some days you really need all the BBQ that's going! We loved it, the ribs are seriously drool-worthy and their own craft beer is perfect on a hot summer's day. 

We finished the weekend off with even more BBQ at O's family's. A lot of burgers, steaks, cake, beer and cider were had before we almost missed our train back to the city! Props to O's Mum and Dad for an amazing spread, as always and to Holly the dog for keeping us entertained with her digging skills!

No trip to Manchester is complete without a trip to the Trafford Centre where we popped into Selfridges to buy a birthday Nespresso machine (as if I hadn't been spoiled enough...hello all the Charlotte Tilbury make-up!). I can honestly say that I'm in love with this little beauty (caffeine shakes optional!). 

You wouldn't be wrong in thinking that the weekend revolved around food and the odd alcoholic beverage. It's pretty much what O and I do best! All in all, turning 34 wasn't as painful as I imagined and with all the exciting things we have coming up later this year, I have a hankering that it's going to be a good 'un!

Sunday Mornings #29

Hello pals! How the heck are you? I know I've been a naughty wayward blogger...my apologies! Life has just been so busy at the moment and to be honest, I just haven't felt like blogging. After my post the other day, you'll be glad to know that I finally had a decent night's sleep last night...a whole 11 hours! I think the two beers I had helped...So I'm feeling much more human this morning. Anyway, enough rambling from me. Let's catch up, shall we?

:: As you know, Oscar is away in Norfolk for work every two weeks at the moment. I'm not going to lie, I find it really difficult when he's away. When he's back we try to fit everything into that week, which makes it fly in...boo! Last week we had such a brilliant one. O surprised me with a little hotel stay in Glasgow, so we indulged in a lot of beer, food and cocktails. It was the schnizz! The morning after this we drove to Manchester for the Father's Day weekend. Was so nice to catch up with O's family. I also had the tastiest burrito of my life and of course, far too many Krispy Kremes! 

:: The weather up here has been horrendous this week. We've had one sunny day, so I decided to get the gin out in the garden. No excuse needed really! Yesterday was so lovely and hot and this morning I've woken up to cloud and rain. Joy. 

:: Whilst O has been away I've been getting my chefing on! I've stolen O's Moleskine recipe book and have been jotting down all my fave blogger recipe - this means you Lizzie! (The scrawling handwriting in the photo above is Oscar's by the way!) It's a whole other experience just cooking for one, but means I get to eat whatever I bloomin' well like!

:: Another pro to O being away is that I have unlimited Netflix time! I'm not gonna lie, I've only been watching one show, which is of course...The Good Wife! I was on season 2 when I started on Wednesday and now I'm almost finished season 3...whooops! I little bit in love with Julianna Margulies and of course Alan Cumming is perfect as Eli Gold. 

:: It's my birthday on Thursday, so I have lots of things planned next week. Some dinners and drinks are on the cards, along with some family time. O comes home late on Wednesday evening and he won't tell me what he has planned for my actually birthday. Naughty. 

:: We're going back down to Manchester next weekend to celebrate O's sister's 30th with a family BBQ and hopefully lots of cake. There may be more Krispy Kremes too. 

:: I've persuaded Oscar that Waitrose has to become a fortnightly thing. Especially since I get a free coffee every time we go. He was a bit dubious about this, but once he saw the whisky selection, he was sold! I may have bought him a bottle of Swedish whisky (Mackmyra) to sweeten the deal! Totally worth the 40 minute drive, right??

Well that's all for now my lovelies. Let me know what you've been up to lately! I'm off to do the usual Sunday chores and of course have Netflix on in the background...til next time! :)

sleeping on my own...

...turns out I'm not very good at it. With Oscar working away every second week, I've had the house to myself and some serious 'me' time. It never occurred to me that I would struggle to sleep on my own. For the last two nights I've still been awake at 3am and spend the rest of the time tossing and turning. It's not that I'm not snoozy either...I'm so sleepy that I'm yawning my head off, but I soon as my head hits the pillow, it's all downhill from there. I can't switch my brain off. I keep hearing strange noises. I find myself actively listening for said strange noises. I listen out for robbers and intruders....surely this is not normal?!

I've tried all the usual tricks...no caffeine, switching off from my phone/laptop etc., reading my book before bed, but nothing seems to work. As soon as Oscar comes home, my sleep goes right back to normal. Does anyone else have this problem? I would really appreciate any tips/tricks/insight into why sleep has suddenly started to elude me and why my brain suddenly thinks that I can't cope on my own. Any ideas and positive sleepy vibes would be greatly received!

Yours,

A seriously sleep deprived Lou x

{photo credit}

E S C A P E :: to the Lakes

This weekend just gone, O and I decided to test our new tent out and escape to the Lake District. We (Oscar) packed up the car and drove down straight after work. We'd chosen Sykeside Campsite right in the heart of Dovedale Valley to pitch our tent in for the weekend. The campsite itself was great. Plenty of amenities and with two pubs attached, what more could you need?! There were lots of sheep with their little lambs roaming about and we'd been warned about badgers, but I didn't managed to spot any. On a side note, I really wanted to take a little lamb home with me, but Oscar wouldn't let me :( He said that it's Mum would miss it, which is true I guess...but I'm pretty sure it would be happy living with me! The campsite was a little too busy for our liking, so next time I think we'll seek out a smaller one, but we couldn't fault the location. We were literally at the bottom of a valley surrounded by the fells. Waking up to such a sight and then watching the sun set behind those great mountains and hills is something I won't forget in a hurry.

We had checked the weather forecast before leaving and knew that we were in for a wet and windy weekend, but luckily our new shiny tent stood up to Mother Nature. We had no service on our phones, so we switched them off for the entire weekend and relied on our trusty camera for taking photos. I didn't take as many photos as I would've liked, but to be honest, it was just lovely to enjoy ourselves without any technology for a change. Switching off and spending time mindfully with each other is just what we needed. 

We started our weekend off in Ambleside to visit our favourite little bakery, The Apple Pie. If you've never been, the food here is amazing and the cafe is so cosy. I really recommend it, even just for the pastries alone! We then decided, in true Oscar and Louise style, to visit the local distillery and brewery! We've been to the Hawkshead Brewery before and it's now become one of our favourite haunts in the Lakes. It's a little tricky to get to, but the beer and food is really worth the trip. The Lakes Distillery only opened last year, so we were keen to visit an English whisky distillery! 

The distillery setting and buildings are beautiful. The tour itself was a little expensive considering the distillery wasn't in production, we spent a lot of time watching videos and we weren't allowed to take photos. But it is a young company, so hopefully these things will improve. The whisky we tried (and that they sell) is a blend, as their single malt is still maturing. For a blend is was actually lovely, which surprised me! They also distill vodka and gin and let me tell you, the gin is fantastic. We may have added a few bottles of whisky and gin to our collection! The distillery has a restaurant attached, so we decided to stop here for some lunch. Alas, Oscar had been making poor food choices all weekend and accidentally ordered a salt beef salad, which he thought was a sandwich. So even though the food was pretty good, poor Oscar left feeling still a little hungry!

The brewery didn't disappoint! Oscar ordered a Ploughman's lunch platter to make up for his disappointing salad and we had a few half pints of their finest beer whilst almost falling asleep on the comfiest leather sofa known to man. I'm a huge fan of their lager, but Oscar is more of an ale and bitter man! 

We found a Booths supermarket in Windermere to stock up on some late dinner essentials. We bought enough antipasti (antipasto?) ingredients to feed an army, and of course some red wine and beer to go along side it. The cheesemonger was really spot on with his recommendations, as the brie, stilton and cheddar we bought were seriously droolworthy. We spent the evening slathering crusty bread with butter, cheese and salami whilst drinking said red wine out of our camping mugs. Unfortunately it started raining around 8pm, so we had to retreat inside our tent and watch the sunset through our little windows. We whiled away the hours playing Scrabble and cards, before falling asleep to the sound of rain hitting our tent. Isn't that sound the most therapeutic? This little escape was just what the doctor ordered before O heads down to Norfolk this Sunday. Now that we've got this camping malarkey down, we're planning on heading up to the Highlands with our tent for a few days when O comes back home. Oscar is trying to persuade me that he'll need to buy a few more camping essentials first...any excuse! ;)

How were your weekends? Have you been camping recently? I've been a little blog awol lately, so would love to hear about your adventures and news :)

Sunday Mornings #28

It's been a while since I did one of these posts, hasn't it? I thought this would serve as another little catch up since things have been fairly quiet at my end recently. Getting back into full-time work after having a gap year is HARD! I've mainly been falling asleep on the sofa at about 9pm...some nights even at 8ish! The job isn't fantastic, but it's only temporary and I have so many things to look forward to once July hits, so I'm sure it will fly in! Here's how my week's been...

:: Coming home to dinners made by O has been lovely this week! He's been getting home first, so has been on dinner duty and I love it! 

:: Buying a new tent. We have a little 3-man tent that we use when we want to pack light and just pitch our tent up anywhere we like, but we decided we wanted a bigger one. Yesterday we headed to Go Outdoors and picked up a nice 4-man one that's tall enough to stand up in and has lots of space. It even has a carpet...who knew! We've decided to make the most of this new purchase and head to the Lake District next weekend! We're both working this bank holiday, but I have a sneaky three day weekend next week. We may also have bought some fancy new camping chairs, a table and of course some camping coffee!!

:: Greek burgers and Oreo milkshakes after a morning at work. Best lunch ever yesterday! Seriously can't get enough of Oreo milkshakes at the moment.

:: I may have gone a bit crazy with Korres shower gels at the moment. I'm just love Korres products. The lemon and basil body milk was my favourite, but I now have four more scents to try, so I shall keep you updated! 

:: Reading before bed. O and I haven't read for months, maybe longer. We've made it our mission to read a few chapters before we go to sleep. I usually only manage a few pages before I nod off, but O has been powering through chapter after chapter. It's such a lovely way to end your day.

:: Planning future holidays. We have so many little trips planned for nearer the end of the year and I can't wait. After cancelling Canada, we need some little breaks. 

Today we're planning on pitching our new tent in the back garden...as I little dry run, you see! If the weather stays dry we might take a drive to Turnberry to check out Donald Trump's golf course and hotel! How have your week's been? I'm seriously behind on the blog reading front, so I'd love to hear about all your adventures :)

Life Admin...

Well hello there...it's been a while! As you can probably tell, I've taken a little blogging hiatus. It's not blogging, it's me you see. So much has been going on lately that blogging has just had to take a back seat. When I'm stressed/nervous/excited everything else has to stop so that I can process whichever big thing is happening. This time there have been a few big things going on simultaneously, so there has been a heck of a lot of life admin...let me fill you in.

The first major thing that happened is that Oscar got a job offer which was so good that we just couldn't refuse it. This new job just happens to be in NORFOLK! So we will be packing up our things once more and heading back down to the east coast of Englandshire for some new adventures! I am pretty excited about this for many reasons, but really I've just missed living in England! 

I know you must think that we move a heck of a lot...and to most, we do. But whilst we have no real commitments or responsibilities, we want to be able to explore, have adventures and truthfully...go where the work is. These jobs are slowly setting up a future that we both can't believe we're lucky enough to have access to. Within the next year or two we should be able to finally buy the house of our dreams - I've almost persuaded O to let me buy a big ramshackle house in the country with gardens huge enough for at least two or three dogs to roam around in...and maybe a few chickens! Once we move I'm finally going to learn to drive (I've been promised a nice car if I do, nice little incentive there!), take a photography course and hopefully find a yoga class to start going to. 

As if that wasn't enough to digest, I got offered a job the day after O did. Luckily, they were kind enough to offer it to me on a temporary basis so I was able to say yes to it. I'll be helping out at a local opticians until around mid July. My first day is tomorrow...how will I cope working full-time again?! ;)

On a slightly disappointing note, we've had to postpone our Canada trip next month :( Rubbish, I know, but we have so much going on that it just wouldn't be feasible to go. We were very lucky to be able to postpone our flights til later in the year and we managed to get full refunds from all our hotels etc, so we haven't lost anything by cancelling. 

Just to blow your minds a little more, O's family are organising a trip for us all next summer to...BARBADOS! Yup, we were given this little surprise on the day I got offered my job (many head explosions were had). So even though we've had to cancel one holiday, we've got another in the bag!

Moving down south is probably going to take a few months to organise. O's start date will be in June sometime, which means there will be a slight overlap. I'll stay up here whilst he heads down to Norfolk to start his new job. To begin with he'll be working one week on and one week off. This means that he'll be able to come back home to Scotland every other week. I'm so relieved about this, as I was dreading living in the bungalow alone for a few months. Once I finish work, we'll start looking for somewhere to live. We're both thinking of Norwich at the moment, but we have plenty of time to explore all the areas before we make up our minds. We might need help from any of you lovely people who have knowledge of the area! :)

So that's pretty much everything summed up for the moment and the reason why my little corner of the internet has been so quiet lately. I'm not sure how I'll cope with working full-time and blogging, but lots of you make it look easy so I'm sure I'll be grand! 

Now I'm off to spend my last day of freedom food shopping and catching up on all your lovely blogs! If you have any Norfolk recommendations for...pretty much anything, please be so kind and leave me a comment below. :)

My Morning Routine :: Yoga, Coffee + Lemons!

Routine and I have a complicated relationship. When I don't have any routine to speak of, I crave it. When I do have a routine, I feel trapped in it. What's a person supposed to do with that?! After many years of slipping in and out of various patterns, I think I've finally nailed it. I can get myself out of bed and after a few steps feel vaguely human and ready to face the day. Here are my daily rituals...

Recently my lovely friend Megan introduced me starting my morning off with hot water, honey and lemon. There's loads of health benefits to this (give it a google if you want to learn more), but it really does just wake me up...simple as that! Once Oscar leaves for work, I get up and make this little wonder drink and then climb back into bed to drink it. I'd love to say that I didn't scroll through Instagram and Snapchat, but alas I'm guilty of doing both of these first thing in the morning! Hands up who doesn't?

Once my honey + lemon and my social media scrolling if finished, I get into my yoga gear, grab my mat and block and head on into the living room. If I was clever, I'd set up my yoga stuff the night before, but I'm not that wise! So every morning I push back the sofa and spread out my mat. I get YouTube up on the TV and click on Adriene's channel. Yup, still addicted to her and her channel (girl crush, anyone?)! I think I'm on day 27 of her 30 Days of Yoga program. I love starting my day with yoga. Yup, there are some days when I'm not feeling it, but even Oscar notices a difference in my mood when I don't get on the mat. Plus, we all know how amazing that post-workout feeling is! Normally I'll do anything from 30 - 40 minutes of yoga and if I'm feeling a little cray cray, I'll do some Fitness Blender shenanigans too!

If I'm not on a fast day (you can read more about 5:2 here), I'll usually make the porridge of champions. There's no real recipe to this, I pretty much just through in whatever I have in the kitchen. Normally this involves banana, maple syrup and a little dollop of peanut butter, you know...just for good measure. 

If I am fasting, then I'll normally just make myself a coffee. There's nothing better than the first coffee of the morning! I've been seriously loving Taylor's of Harrogate's Columbian blend these last few weeks. I've also started storing it in the fridge and it's really making a difference to my coffee. We have zero room in our kitchen for a fancy coffee machine, so at the moment I use my moka pot and a Nespresso milk frother. On fast days I only have a little lick of milk, still not ready for the world of black coffee yet! Generally my coffee drinking is accompanied by more social media or some YouTube videos. Once the coffee is drunk, it's time to get off my butt and start whatever plans/chores/work I have for the day.

So, that's how I start my day...how about you? What little morning rituals do you have? 

C A N A D A

Just in case I haven't harped on about it enough over the last six months...O and I are off to Canada on June 22nd! ;) We're travelling between Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, so I'm looking to you lovely people for some recommendations! Toronto and Ottawa are like second homes for me, but Montreal and Quebec City are brand new! So if you know of anything we should see, eat, drink (I'll be having all the poutine!) or visit in any of these amazing places I would love for you to share it with me. We would especially be interested in tasty food places, coffee shops and beer joints...you know me!

 

Thanks in advance friends! :)

 



Life lately {in verbs}.

It feels like such a long time since I caught up with life in general on here. I've missed a few of my 'Sunday Morning' posts lately, because life just gets in the way sometimes, you know? I've not been up to many exciting shenanigans recently, but thought we could check in on life's little mundanities today? Let's go!

E A T I N G :: a lot of omelettes and birthday cake. Can't beat a Colin the Caterpillar cake!

D R I N K I N G :: Coffee. I'm loving Taylor's Columbian blend at the moment, it's a morning game changer. Also thanks to my lovely friend Megan, I've been starting my days off with a little hot water, lemon and honey. She assures me the benefits are a plenty and it genuinely perks me up enough to get my yoga on.

L I S T E N I N G :: to the radio in the kitchen. I've moved one of our DAB's in here and I love pottering away with it playing in the background.

W A T C H I N G :: New Game of Thrones, The Island (I'm no Bear Grylls fan, but I'm addicted!), Nashville and Mr Selfridge...a little late to the party I know!

R E A D I N G :: not much at the moment...any recommendations?

P L A N N I N G :: Our Canada holiday next month! I can't quite believe it's come around so quickly. If you have any must do's for Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal or Quebec City, I'd love to hear them!

C E L E B R A T I N G :: O's birthday. I planned so many little surprises for him, it's good to keep him on his toes! Right now he's on his way down to Staffordshire for a weekend long paintball festival. That boy has more hobbies than I've had hot dinners!

W A I T I N G :: On my friend coming over to stay for the weekend. We have many girly things planned and the fridge might just be stocked full of tasty morsels and wine!

W E A R I N G :: Mainly yoga pants and the new slip on Vans I got for holiday times. Not sure it's a great combination to be honest, but it's a comfy one!

B U Y I N G :: a new tire for the Volvo, some ice skate laces for Oscar and possibly some Birkenstocks...are they really that comfy?!

L U S T I N G :: after all of Chloe's cocktails she keeps posting!! 

P O S T I N G :: Continuously on Snapchat...I'm addicted! You can find me on there @weezyduffy, my apologies in advance!

H O P I N G :: The rain will stay away this bank holiday weekend....

R E A L I S I N G :: That the rain will come either way... :(

B A K I N G :: ViviannaDoesMakeup's cookie monster cookies for Oscar's festival. May have had a few myself...

W O N D E R I N G :: How long a can wear my hair in a pleat without O mocking me...

C R A V I N G :: Pizza. Always pizza. Oh and doughnuts. 

L O V I N G :: Yoga! I honestly can't get enough of it at the moment. I literally jump on the mat as soon as I've finished my hot water with lemon and honey every single morning. I think it's definitely helping with my back issues too. Oscar even commented that I'm grumpy if I miss a day...ha! Still using the Yoga with Adriene videos. She is a total babe and even makes me feel like a little yogi!

What's life been like for you lately? :)