Happy Easter!

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter! I hope you all have had a great weekend so far.

Was surprised with an Easter egg off Phil. The other day, I was saying how I miss being a kid and not getting an egg anymore, and this is what I got! <3

And it has a mug! I don't think he realised, bless him. No idea where it's going to be stored... our mug and glass cupboard is starting to overflow. Oops! 

Do you enjoy Easter time?
Originally thought we would be going to the "in-laws" so I downloaded some colouring pages and activities for the boys off Crayola. Oh I do love those nephews!
Not happening now, but hopefully going to be doing some wedding planning activities instead. Cross your fingers for me!! Might also be able to go take pictures of the church so I can crack on with doing the Save the Date cards. Shall see what happens tomorrow.

Phil is on a night out tonight for a friends birthday. Sadly, I couldn't go. I do miss him lots *sad face* first time in a long while that we've spent a night apart.

Decided to watch 'Labyrinth", been quite interesting. Looking forward to watching it tomorrow!
Anyone else watching it? Your thoughts so far?

Anyway... going shopping on Monday for some black jeans. Not sure whether to go "skinny" or straight leg. Shall have to wait and see! I did go on ASOS Curve earlier to check it out. Always thought they only went to 18 maximum... Was great to learn otherwise!
Another post for another day :)

Bye for now!
L x

St. Ives Apricot Scrub

This has been fantastic! I've been using it for about a week now as I've figured that I really need to get started on taking care of my skin.

I usually suffer with really dry skin on my forehead. But since using this, it's been smooth.

It has been slightly weird trying to get used to actually using it. Feels so rough as I apply it to my face... Obviously it's meant to be like that.

It says it gently exfoliates dull surface cells to instantly reveal smooth, radiant skin. Hits it spot on!

I bought this at Poundland, so I doubt I'll be able to buy it again from there. They never keep hold of decent products in there *sad face* 

If I can find this elsewhere, for a decent price, I will definitely buy it again!

Has anyone else tried this?

What's your favourite skin product?

L x

A Thrifty Wedding

As mentioned in a previous post, we went to a wedding fayre. Helped kick us into gear about getting this wedding planned!

There's 16 months until Phil and I get married. I know many of you may think that is plenty of time to plan a wedding. So would I. However, I've been told otherwise. I've been told to send out 'Save the Date' invites out in the next month or so. The plan is to do a lot of this home-made and save some pennies!

'Save the Date's

The plan is to take a picture of the church we are marrying in, get them printed, and try and create postcards.  Phil wants the little reminder that I'm originally from a seaside town. Hopefully that can be done in the next couple of weeks! I'm being given some photo paper, so we've saved some money there. Always a good thing!

Invites

As this is going to be a small intimate occasion, we decided that we could even try doing homemade invites. 

I was given a calligraphy set and ink cartridges for a birthday present so I need to practise that for a bit before attempting the final product. Paid £4.99 for a pack of blank cards and envelopes from The Works, and not all of them will be needed.

Flowers

The amounts we got quoted at the wedding fayre was obscene! Decided to just simply buy the flowers ourselves and make the bouquets ourselves. Would save a lot of money!!

Cake(s)

We keep having discussions over this. The first stall we went to, the cakes looked too much, and tasted so dry! The second stall, however, lovely! And they were gluten free! We did agree to arrange a tasting session to figure out whether or not, we want to go in that direction. Need to find out about dietary requirements.

Photographer
We're having an old friend of mine be the photographer. I've always been a fan of her work. I know I'm biased as she's my friend, but Phil checked out her stuff on Flickr and said yes!
Phil's brother and his fiancee gave us an initial quote of £500 for a photographer, took that as a challenge... the quote we got off my friend? More than 50% off.
The videographer is actually Phil's brother in law, although we do have to officially ask him, haha!

Dresses
I don't have many bridesmaids. So far, there's Phils sister and my maid of honour is my best friend, JamJam, from my hometown. Both have completely different personalities and I would like that to reflect in what they wear. As mentioned in a previous post, we went shopping, and I found a lovely dress that I thought would look great for one of them! Need to find a place that can alter it so it will fit perfectly.

The picture really doesn't give the dress any justice.

Centre pieces
Has anyone ever flicked through Pinterest? It's amazing!! So many ideas on there. We've gone for the empty jars to put flowers in. So far, I think we have about 10 saved. Not sure how many is actually needed... but any excessive jars will come in handy.

Decorations
Has anyone seen that episode of Superscrimpers where they did a wedding special?
They made paper pom-poms out of tissue paper. We both liked that idea. 
The plan is to go to the venue and take photos to help inspire us. 

Favours
We've actually asked Phil's Dad to help us with these. Don't want to give too much away about this as obviously we want it to be a surprise for the guests. But they'll be homemade. Again, saving pennies!

Transportation
No idea on what sort of car to have to transport us from the church to the reception venue. I'm probably going to be walking to the church from the future in-laws.
Anyone got any recommendations?

Reception & DJ
We've managed to 'score' a really good deal with this. We both know the owner of a really nice b&b and barn. Phil through business, me through regularly staying at the b&b. £60 for the barn for the entire day, and a DJ for the price of two bottles of red wine. We're going to be asking guests for songs that they would love to be played.Guaranteed to have people dancing this way!

Presents for the family after the wedding

You know the frames you get in school photos? We received a bunch off someone from Freecycle. We originally was going to use these and adjust them to use as the invites, but more and more people started cancelling. Instead, we decided to use them to frame wedding photos for the family members that we know will love to get a photo of us. There's a use for everything!


So far, the wedding has physically cost £13.99. Not bad, eh?

Has anyone got any tips etc? Anyone else a fan of Pinterest?

L x

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Catch Up

Been meaning to post a few days ago... Been so busy!

As you may have read in the last post, I had a job interview. Went very well, at least that's my thoughts. I answered questions, I asked some. The whole process lasted 30 minutes... never had an interview lasting that long!

As you can imagine, I was constantly changing my mind about what I was going to wear.

Phil had treated me to a dress off eBay and some new tights from Evans. I still haven't bought myself anything as in a previous post, I was on a mission!

I was going to wear the new dress but ended up changing my mind and wearing a dress that makes me feel fantastic... Everyone wants to feel fantastic for an interview, I thought :)

Ignore the lighting, the camera on my phone changed the effect somehow as I was taking the picture.

I bought this dress in the George sale. I love Asda! You could probably say the majority of my clothes are from there...

Phil had a day off on Friday, so we decided to crack on with sorting the new flat out. Needed to get a couple of things, and dropped off a box full of unneeded items at a local charity shop. I'm sure we didn't need two extra toasters and an extra kettle.

We did buy a dress though. Not for me! But for Phil's sister. Saw it, and thought it would look lovely for a bridesmaid dress. Post coming soon for more details about the wedding!

We had 3 of the nephews for the day on Saturday... was so much fun!! At first all of them (including Phil) were in the back room playing either on the XBox or Pop Up Pirate. Next thing I know, we're all in the living room either playing on the wii, UNO, or exercising on my air walker. Even when the UNO machine broke, we had lots of laughter going on! We don't get to spend much time with them so we absolutely love it when we see them. And now that we have a spare room, we can have them staying over.

We did have the eldest staying over. He's at that awkward age where you can't show affection without it being "uncool". But we were all on the one sofa either snuggling or tickling each other so we would win the game. When we dropped him off back home, you can imagine how it felt when he gave us both a bear hug each. 

Enough of the mushiness.

Must get ready for an evening of pool. 

What did you do for St Patrick's Day?

L x

Mothers Day bake

Had a very busy few weekends. And of course, it was Mothering Sunday this past Sunday. Which means there's a gathering! Phil's Mum has been amazing to me. She's shown me love and support when I had a fallout with my own mother, and at the moment she's got some health issues, so I wanted to show my love in some form. And for me, that seems to be through cake or something I've made.

I found the recipe through either a Tesco or Asda magazine. 

Was very rushed as well. Realised the time too late and had to quickly make it. 

It is meant to be Malteser's Millionaire Shortbread... but we had no Maltesers. However, we did have Magic Stars, chocolate biscuit balls and chocolate curls.

  
 FOR THE BASE

1. Preheat your oven to 160oC/Gas 3.
2. It says in the recipe to line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. I ended up using two normal round cake tins.
3. You need 180g plain flour, 125g butter and 50g caster sugar.

4. When the mix comes together, remove and press into your tin(s).

5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

6. Remove to cool. I will warn you, it smells delicious! Very tempting to nibble on just like this.

THE UPPER LAYERS 

1. Put 150g butter and 150g dark soft brown sugar (although I do advise to use less - your taste buds would thank you) into a saucepan. Stir until melted.
2. Add the contents of a 397g can of condensed milk.

3. Stir continuously until the mixture has thickened slightly.

4. Immediately pour over the shortbread base.

5. Pop this into the fridge to set.

6. Time to crack on with the topping! The recipe calls for 200g milk chocolate. I ended up using 300g thanks to misreading either the recipe or the shopping list.

Carefully melt the chocolate in the microwave. Let it cool a little so it feels more gloopy. (I know that's not a word, but I'm sure you'll understand haha!)

7. Pour over the set caramel.

As you can see before we popped the finished results into the fridge, we topped one with Magic Stars (that's ours!), and for the one we took, we used both the biscuit balls and curls.

There was some left over chocolate as expected... enough to make 4 cornflake cakes! :)

I had a lot of good reviews during the evening when everyone tucked into the buffet that was laid out. 

I wish I was able to take better pictures to show the true yumminess of the whole process, but in between the rushing, and jumping in shock when Phil celebrated a football goal, just wasn't possible.

In other news, I got a job interview this Thursday! So nervous and excited, all at the same time. Going to spend tomorrow going through my clothes to see what will be the best outfit to wear. It's for a posh looking opticians. Hopefully they'll find me suitable after. 

Need to start earning funds for the wedding next year! That's my main focus at the moment....

How was everyone's weekend?

L x

Baby Steps to Better Feet!

Odd as you may think this is... but I hate feet. Especially my own. Hate how dry and hard the skin gets. I always wear socks. Always.

So I decided to do something about it! Months ago, I went to a friend's Bodyshop party, and treated myself to a few items. 

This costs £9, and that was a real treat! Now, I've only been using it for three nights, and I can already feel a difference!

My feet feel absolutely fantastic in the morning, and I've noticed a difference in the skin already. Will definitely be buying this again when its empty. You only need to use a small amount, so it goes a long way!

If you'd like to buy it, click here.

This costs either £4.50 or £6.50.

I know some people will think 'Wow, that's a lot for shampoo!'... but I suffer with really dry hair and have never been able to find a decent shampoo. And I used to always use too much shampoo and ended up with dandruff *sad face* but this has been a godsend!

I only have to use a small amount as it lathers up rather easily and it leaves my hair feeling so soft. And that's even if I forget conditioner! 

To purchase, click here.

And finally!

I haven't used this yet. It was meant to be a prize for a silly game we played, but as the only one who loved the smell of it, I got the chance to buy it for £2. Seeing as it's still selling for £5, I thought it was a bargain! 

You can find it here.

One of my friends back home got me into Bodyshop. The only thing I had bought there before was a lip balm... I guess I was taking a little step instead of a big leap and spending lots of money in there. Now, I know first hand how great the products are, and wouldn't be surprised if I go there more often.

Has anyone else tried their products? Any favourites?

L x

GLAMOUR day

GLAMOUR... It's one of my favourite magazines, along with Company.

It's an absolute treat when I see it on the shelves at the supermarket, and this week it came with a gift! 

As other GLAMOUR readers may know, there were 4 options. I could have chosen the shampoo, conditioner or volumizing oil... But I chose the Percy & Reed Finishing Polish.

As someone with plenty of thick hair, I don't need the oil, although the dryness of my hair would certainly appreciate it! 

I have so many shampoos and conditioners, I'm now forcing myself to just go through what I have now before I start experimenting again with different kinds.

Today, I also noticed I always wear the same few items of clothes although I have plenty...

I've decided to challenge myself to wear all of them! Obviously not like Joey Tribbiani!

But as a plus size woman, I've found it difficult to dress to make me feel good.

I guess I'm still learning in that aspect.

I've read so many blogs of positive plus size fatshionistas, and I admire them! They're inspiring. Has anyone heard of the #honormycurves movement on Instagram? It's so good to see everyone being supportive and loving of each other rather than the usual insults that go around on the Internet nowadays.

I hope everyone's having a good weekend!

L x

Date Night

We had our belated Valentine's this past Wednesday. As we've recently moved in together, we couldn't really afford it on the actual day... and I think it was the best decision. The night was so lovely! Enjoyed a lovely and filling meal! Couldn't believe the size of the pizza I ordered... Ended up having Phil help eat it!

Was such a lovely atmosphere! There were birthday parties, other couples on dates, groups of girls having a girly night out, and someone was eating on their own.

We then went just a few doors down to the cinema and watched A Good Day to Die Hard.... LOVED it! I'm a massive fan of the Die Hard movies, so you can imagine that I was itching for the new one to come out. Worth the wait! Lots of action, one-liners that got the whole screenroom laughing, and moments where your heart melted. 
The ending left it open for the son to take over the Die Hard mantel. I wonder if Jai Courtney will be as good as Bruce Willis...

Has anyone else seen the movie yet?