The Saturday Mayfair

My sisters husband is in a town band, and last Saturday we attended their local area to celebrate May! There were many brownies, rainbows, guides, cubs, cadets, dancers, stalls and entertainments provided, and Isabelle (my niece) felt a little overwhelmed to being with. Then, once settled, she was her usual self and set me off running after her. She enjoyed the music, balloons and bubbles, and everyone else's cake. 

These were two yummy mallow things I bought for Michael and myself, and they turned out to be pretty darn tasty! Mine was a latte and michaels a zebra. 

Afterwards, mum and I went to a little Thai place for lunch - 

Seafood rice noodles something or other 

Beef udon black peppercorn something or other. 

The place was called something like Super Bowl, and it was delicious. Very well priced, well made food. I would certainly return given the opportunity! Have you eaten anywhere good recently? 

Temptress

This colour is so beautiful and I love wearing it all the time. Unfortunately it takes three layers to get to this beautiful shade - it's kinda purpley red beforehand - so it takes AGESSSS to dry.

But it's totally worth it, as it lasts quite well :) 

The nail varnish is from no7 and it's called temptress. Have you tried anything from the collection? What would you recommend? 

Pink princess

Pink and sparkley nails are just beautiful. I feel like a Disney princess or something. Unfortunately the baby pink nail varnish is  made by studio London, so the quality is rather crappy in all honesty. It took 3 coats to get to this colour, it was really quite streaky and it chipped really badly within two days. The glitter is from no7 and absolutely beautiful... Just a pain to get off! 

Beached quail

I went for a jokey title for a little laugh. Do you ever find post titles are difficult to decide on?! 

In reality, we just bought some quail eggs! I'm really excited to try anything new, as I think there are so many things out there that you could end up loving if you just gave it a chance. Quail eggs was certainly one of them. They are dinky and really quite beautiful. 

We shared them with Michaels dad, and ended up with 4 each. I chose to have two fried and two boiled. Both ways were delicious (fry til white and not snotty, boil for two minutes) and I wouldn't hesitate to have them again. I like that the white to yolk ratio was more equal than with a chickens egg. 

On that note, my sister has chickens now! And I also can't wait to try out her home grown eggs. Further to that, we have a little farm up the road that sells duck and goose eggs which I'd also like to sample... Have you ever tried any of them? What did you think? Would you try them? 

where for art thou, perfect blazer?

I have been looking for a blazer for years, and that's not even an exaggeration. I just want a simple, plain, black blazer that looks better undone that needing to be done up. is that so hard to find? Yes. I try on every blazer I see, and they are just not the ones. I want a blazer to wear with everything; dresses, trousers, jeans, leggings. I'm looking for something that fits like this

 

 

 

so it can obviously be found. all these lucky ladies found theirs! am I just the wrong shape?! I will not give up my search, so watch this space. 

So what's happened since we last spoke?

I think this should be a regular feature, probably for a Monday in reality. And for those of you who listen to Greg James on radio one please ignore the familiarity.

-Since my absence, my sister has given birth to a beautiful baby boy name Isaac Charles Peter. Isaac's sister Isabelle is now 18 months so Natalie certainly has her hands full! 

-I have gained more confidence in my job, and I think I've found my feet a bit more. I had my three month review and had feedback that I'm doing well. 

-We had Mother's Day, and I got my mum a little plant and a plant pot :)

-Michael and I went to Bournemouth for a couple of days away, we went to their sealife centre and on the pier. 

-I've become well and truly addicted to a particular brand of hummus

-The flat finally has internet! 

-Michael finally moved out of his room on camp, so it's definitely official that we've moved in together 

-I've got my highest score in bejewelled blitz 

And that's about it really, what have I kissed with you guys? Please update me I'm very interested! Xx

Since when did being an adult become such hard work?

I know you're going to look at me and think, really? are you so young you didn't know?

But life after uni is really hard. After uni you aren't an independent learner who can spend all of their time sitting comfortably whilst reading academic articles with a cup of something nice and pondering you thoughts on them. You can't leisurely write down your ideas and formulate a coherent essay. You don't get time to yourself. Your time now equals money, and that's what it comes down to. 

I come home from work every day and I'm drained. Every minute of every day I'm questioning information, analysing conversations, making decisions, assessing risk. It never stops, and you never really get a break. And that is just exhausting. 

So is that what being an adult is about? Your job taking everything you've got, and in return you get a healthy pay packet? I have to say, I didn't see that one coming. I've been lucky enough to enjoy every job I've had, and I haven't felt exhausted, I've felt motivated. But the reality that the career path I chose will exhaust me everyday is slightly daunting. Do these things become more managable, or do the tasks and concerns or questions just vary when you start to develop a different way of analysing them? 

Being an adult sucks, and I'd like to go back to being an academic now please. 

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Ps. Sorry for the absence. I haven't felt like doing anything when I come in from work these days, there's a lot going on over here :) 

up, down, jump around

 

 

Before this blog post I always wore my hair down with this dress. I can't remember what else I was doing, but my hair was bothering me and I tied it up. I got back to taking pictures and actually preferred it with my hair up.  I bought these leggings by accident, they were in a sealed pack and I thought they were going to be black, unfortunately not. Now they're sold out and I can't get black ones, and I don't know if I hate them too much and need to return them all together or if I can deal with it. They definitely don't go with my brown boots is my only clear issue, as I like dresses and boots. Can you help a sister out?? 

Oh and you can probably tell but this is the dress that is the same cut/shape as the purple one I had too many issues with!

The local lakes

You know I'm a fan of a woodland walk. so when dad came up and the day gave us clear blue skies, I suggested we explore the nearby lakes. Michael has been for a run around them, but he waned me that they were very muddy so I shouldn't go for a little while. 

These photos don't do the place justice, it was honestly really nice! 

Mama Mia ikea

Michael and I have spent so much time at ikea since we moved away from home. Ikea was some what of a novelty. When my mum and Wayne came up, we went, when Michael's parents came up, we went, dad came up today, and we went again- but that's because I need to return a shelving set. Each time you go you get to 'swipe a surprise', and we've won things like a donut, a torch, a food hall voucher, and for all our hard work this time, we decided to use our restuarant voucher. £13 for food for two. 

So we got all of this.... 

And paid 65p. What a day. 

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Ps please don't think I'm rude and ignoring you all. We still haven't got the internet sorted at the flat which means I'm still doing everything on my phone. Unfortunately on the blogger app there's not option to reply to comments, and when I try to use safari to sign into google it just freezes. So I'll still be AWOL on the comment front for a while :( sorry 

Mustard lovin'

Michael thinks I hate the colour yellow. and it's true, I mostly find it offensive. Unless it's a mustard yellow, and it suits it's purpose. Our mustard and grey living room? Suitable. His bright yellow hoody that's just really yellow all the time? Offensive. My lovely mustard top with the flower pattern that Hollie gave me? Lovely. It's just how it goes.

  

 

Paired simply with a leather jacket, jeans and those heeled boots from the other day!

Studio London

Michaels sister manages a cosmetics store (score! I hear you shout!) yes indeed. For Christmas I generally advised nail varnishes that were pinks, reds and nudes, if any became available. 

And boy was I spoiled! I think I got three. Up first is this beautiful shade of purple. Sometimes you can really see the purple to it, others grey and others, weirdly enough, the browner shades come out. As much as I've been concerned by this, I think in reality it means it's just a versatile colour! 

I think the next one will be the red below the one I'm pointing at. The purple shade is number 41, and the make is studio London. The coverage is average-fair, I think it could do with a third coat in honesty. But it hasn't chipped as easy as I would have expecte in all honesty! 

Have you tried this brand before? What did you think? 

V-day

The aftermath of valentines day. We had a quiet one that included two incredible steaks, gin and heart balloons, did you get up to anything good? 

It's the start of something new

It's a good job I like learning because being a newly qualified social worker means I have another year of being assessed... 

Check out all those books and that paperwork. It's only the beginning! 

I'm actually ashamed I didn't know that one word had so much meaning. But what a wonderful word it is :) 

Purple Pain

 

 

As beautiful as this dress is, and it really is (total bargain too! £8 from Primark), it caused me a lot of pain. I have another dress; exact same cut, exact same size and shape and whatever else, just a different pattern. I tried that one on in an 8 and it's very comfortable. I loved it so much I popped in and got this one, grabbed an 8 and carried on with my day. No no, clearly not. This 8 was so so tight I could walk and talk, but not sit well and definitely not eat, which is one of my favourite things to do. So back it went, and I picked up a ten. THE TEN DOESN'T FIT AT ALL WELL EITHER. This is the ten, but it's quite different from the 8 I have in the other patterned dress, which is disappointing.

I digress, beautiful dress, lovely to wear, pale legs, yet again.

Prints galore

I love that it's become acceptable for prints to be worn together. I didn't realise I had such a love for it until I bought a leopard print belt...

 

 

I kinda hate to admit too that I'm choosing to wear this top backwards.. is that too weird? I can take it back. But I love the stripes on this top, and hate the lips. Sometimes I wear it inside out but everyone can tell it's inside out. dilemma dilemma. Still, this has some kind of charm... right?? I'm also slightly repulsed by how pale I am... so much so, I've fake tanned since these photo's were taken, ha.

Oh, and my hair was like this- fancy fancy ;)