MY WEEK: 2

Hello lovely people! How has your week been? Here's mine!

Sunday pub life

I started the week last Sunday by spending some quality time with my Mum and Dad down the local pub. I live in the same town as my folks so I'm lucky that I get to see them quite often however it's not very often is it just us three, so as my fiance is still away we thought it would be nice to have a catch up and some lunch.

I love spending time with them and putting the world to rights and with the impending house move and wedding, our family has a lot to talk about lately!



















I improved on my yoga workouts this week which I'm so pleased about! Managed to get back to my half an hour everyday and although I'm a few video's behind on Yoga with Adriene Yoga Camp, I'm back in the zone with it! I've been on late shifts all this week, my least favourite of all the shifts, so I've taken to getting up early and doing my workouts before I start work. Very smug with myself for working out! I think I'll write a post about the Yoga Camp once I've finished the challenge.

I also got my hair done this week, just a cheeky root colour and cut. I go to an Aveda salon and have done for years because I used to work with the brand I trust it and I really love that they are mainly a plant derived colour system, my hair feels more looked after using them and it's always super shiny.  I feel like I should have taken a before picture because it may not look nothing spesh but it feels so short to me right now! It had got a little bit too long.
I want longish hair for my wedding next year so I'm making no rash hair decisions till after then! What with having my brows done last week and my hair this week, I'm starting to resemble a bit more of a human!











I'm really missing my fiance now! He's been away working in Finland for 10 days, another 7 to go! We spent so many years as long distance, but living together makes it so much harder when he goes away! He keep sending me snowy photo's it looks so pretty there.

And lastly this week, I've become a big fan on Zayn Malik's new song. Who knew that would happen? I definitely did not expect to like it so much! New fan.

I hope you've had a fabulous week let me know your highlights in the comments! I have some time off next week so hopefully I'll have time to get up to more things and next week's blog post will be more exciting for you guys!

Chat soon, Steph x

MY WEEK: 1

When I started a blog, I did so because I thought it would be fun to share some of my beauty knowledge and to talk about the things that really interest me and that I love. I also wanted to be able to look back on my life and read what I had been up to and have an online diary. So this year I want to (attempt!!) to write a weekly post where I look back at the week just gone. I will just put a little disclaimer out here- I am an ordinary gal with a pretty ordinary life so I can't promise this is will terribly exciting but that's life. And this is mine.

 If you've been following by blog lately, you will know that me and my fiance are in the process of buying a house which is very exciting but also horrendously stressful and a long old process! We are now at the point where the solicitors are going back and forth conducting all the searches and checks and we are just going with the flow. There is so much involved when buying a house it kind of makes my head hurt! I bought my flat when I was 21 and it all felt quite straight forward back then and it's been a great first pad but we definitely have out grown the one bedroom situation and at 28 years old I literally cannot wait to have a garden and stairs and another bedroom and a driveway and a space to host guests!!!! Yay! Much excite! We've sorted quite a lot out with the paperwork this week so hopefully soon we will get an exchange date. I like to be organised so not knowing when we are going to actually get in is rather disconcerting.

I also had a little gander around Next home, Asda Living and TKMaxx this week for some new home inspiration. I actually bought a framed Audrey Hepburn quote for the house I do not yet own. Yes I realise this is a tad keen but I loved it so much I had to buy it! I have no idea where it will go yet but I will make it work! P.S the cardboard triangle will not be kept on it! FYI.

I've already bought a chest of drawers for the bedroom which are currently squished into a corner of my tiny lounge but again we had to have them! We went to a really cool vintage/ antique furniture shop local to us where it is literally an Aladdin's cave of all sorts of random pieces.

The house we are buying is a 1950's house but it has been lovingly and completely refurbished inside so we won't have to do anything to the inside it's had new floors, new bathroom, plastering and painting all done- everything! It's an old exterior and like a brand new house on the inside so all we have to do is furnish it! We are thinking of going with a retro, 1950's almost Scandinavian theme as we really like that style of furniture. And the drawers really suit this and they were £20!! I know what a bargain! I'm thinking of doing a bit of up-cycling on them and maybe painting some of the wood and sanding and varnishing the rest. When I get onto giving them a make over I might blog the process if you like?

My Grandma turned 82 years old this week bless her! We had a little gathering at their house with my parents, fiance and Grandma and Grandad at there house to celebrate. I am super close to my Grandparents they pretty much helped bring me up so I love spending time with them. My Grandma makes amazing cakes so she always puts on a great spread!

Brow day was this week, thank goodness! So I got to see my good friend Sarah who I used to work in a spa with as therapists together and she sorted the mono situation. Hallelujah. We also went for a cuppa afterwards and had a good old catch which was so nice.

One of my besties/ bridesmaids came over last night for a catch up and general put the world to rights whilst cringing a bit at Take Me Out.

I have been a bit hit and miss with my Yoga with Adriene  Yoga Camp so I need to get my ass into gear next week and get back to a daily practice. Need to keep the focus and motivation up, it's only half an hour a day after all. I loose more of my life looking through social media each day so half an hour is definitely doable. Cue eye of the tiger music.

Without knowing it I'm actually really succeeding at dry January. It definitely wasn't a conscious decision but as I'm this far in I feel like 'hell yeah I can so this'. So erm yeah, I doing that apparently.

And finally my fiance has gone off to Finland this week for work and he is not back for a few weeks which sucks a bit! We did spend 5 of our 10 years as long distance couple so on one hand I am used to being on my own however we have lived together for a while now so it is very strange and way too quiet without him. I can only apologise for any emotional outbursts on Twitter over the next few weeks! You have been warned! Maybe dry January might not be a success after all.



Hope you've had a great week gang- what where your highlights?

Chat soon, Steph x

MY NEW YEARS GOALS! 2016 EDITION

Every year me and two of my best friends sit down together and make a list of 10 things we would like to achieve in the year ahead. We have done this probably for the last 4 years and I find it really useful to have a written list to keep track of and at the end of the year we go through our lists again with each other and see how many we managed to tick of during the year. Life goes so quickly it easy for a year to pass you by and feel like you haven't done all you wanted so I find it so helpful to have a bit of a plan to work to. It's quiet interesting to keep the lists to and look back on what were your priorities at that stage in your life, but as I now have a blog I'll be able to review it with you guys too!

In the past we have struggled at times to find 10 things to write down so we have made ones for each other which is really fun! If you have a friend who is always saying they want to do something then they never do anything to make it happen, it's a great way of pinning them down and getting them to think about achieving it! I haven't written them in order of wanting to achieve, more just what popped into my head.

From my Greece holiday. The skies the limit this year

So here are my goals for 2016:

1) MOVE HOUSE- If you read my Review My Year post, you will know that me and my fiance are currently going through the motions of buying a house as we currently live in my flat and it is just not enough room! Buying a house is such a long process and there seems like a never ending amount of paperwork but if all goes to plan we could be looking at moving in March. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

2) RENT OR SELL MY FLAT- we haven't decided what to do with my flat as yet so this is something we definitely need to sort once we've got the house secured. I'd love to keep it on and rent it as it's a great little home for someone but we shall see!

3) GET A DOG- This ties in with goal number 1, we both would LOVE a dog and have spoken about this for absolutely years! We've been together for 10 years and we've probably talked about it for the duration! But living in a flat means it's a no go so the house may also have a four legged resident too. We haven't really decided what type of dog although we do love a sausage dog! My family dogs have all been rescues so I think we would check the local centres first. We did say after our Skaithos trip that we may re-home from there- blog post about it here but it does seem a long way to go!

4) VISIT MY FRIEND IN LONDON- This may seem like something that shouldn't have to be a goal but life is so busy for me and my friends another years passes and I've still not made it to see her! Shameful. London is about an hour and a half away via train so the travel aspect is fine it's just trying to get 3 busy girlies all free at the same time! And therein lies the mission!

5) COMPLETE A SECOND YEAR OF YOGA- Last year I started working out using YouTube and doing yoga videos with the amazing Yoga With Adriene channel. It began with her 30 days of yoga challenge where everyday through January she uploaded a new video with different sequences in each. Prior to this I had never done any yoga so I was a complete newbie but I quickly found out how much I was benefiting from doing the videos. I have quite a weak lower back from my therapist days and this immediately made it feel better by strengthening up my muscles and improving my posture. I took before and after pictures and the difference after the challenge was so noticeable. Much more toned and I had way more energy. By doing her video's daily, I was manage at least 30 minutes of yoga everyday and as it was on YouTube I can fit it round my awkward shifts and do it whenever I have time. I kept this up beyond her 30 day challenge up until around August when life got a bit hectic and my exercises got a bit hit and miss. So she is back this year with Yoga Camp, the same principle as 30 days and I am feeling so motivated to get going. Day 8 today so if you want to give it a go head back to day 1 and give it a try. I have actually missed not doing it as regularly as I had been so I am excited to get my energy back and strengthen and tone again! Read my first post about it here  .

6) COOK HEALTHIER FOOD- Now I wouldn't say I cook particularity bad food, I am quite conscious of what to cook but I've got into a bit of a groundhog day situation where each week I sometimes have the same meals. It's boring and it's not as healthy as it could be. My fiance bought me Jamie Oliver's Everyday Superfood cook book so I need to check out the recipes and then make my shopping list!

7) SAVE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE- Now I have really put an amount on this to save because there are now more things I need to save for in my life than previously thought! I get married in 2017 (SO EXCITED!!!) and that is definitely what I need to be saving for but also now that we are looking at buying a house, I need to be really money savvy. One small way we have managed to make some savings is with our food shopping switching to Aldi and this reduced our food bill, although I can't always get everything I need and I HATE shopping there ha ha! But I have to look at the big picture and it's all for a good reason, I just need to move the money I've saved over the my saving as often as I can!

8) DO A COURSE- Again not terribly specific as it probably should be but I'd like to have something outside of work to enjoy and with starting this blog and getting a DSLR I'm thinking a photography course would be really interesting and very useful.

9) LOOK INTO GETTING INVISALIGN- So last year I went for two consultations about getting the invisible brace retainers and I did stare blankly back at them when they told me the cost. Oh. Em. Gee. But I still would really love to have them done in time for my wedding so depending on how the house and flat situation pans out, I may revisit this. It is for life once it's done so it does seem a worthwhile investment, I just need to balance everything!

10) READ MORE BOOKS- I love reading books, I always have since I was younger and I read at least 3 'Babysitters Club' books a day- anyone else remember these? But like a lot of people I only seem to make time to read when I go on holiday so I maybe only read two or three a year. The last book I read was by Giovanna Fletcher called 'Dream a Little Dream which I LOVED but I need to get lost in more stories. Any recommendations?

So there you have my 10 goals. I prefer to think of them more as goals than resolutions as it drives me more to achieve them and I think I've got quite a good mix. Of course there are so many other things I NEED to do this year like the small matter of planning my wedding!!! But there are way to many aspects to that to narrow it to 10! However I will keep you posted in my series. Catch up here:
Miss to Mrs- New series 
Miss to Mrs- Asking my friends to be my bridesmaids
Miss to Mrs- Finding my wedding dress!

I love reading about and watching people's YouTube videos about their goals or resolutions. Sometimes I'll see theirs and think 'oh I need to do that too' it's great for inspiration! Have you made any goals or resolutions for 2016? Please leave me a comment or link me to your blog about them!

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Steph x

"The way to get started is it quit talking and begin doing" ~ Walt Disney