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 ;) 

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!

Oh no...

I still love looking around for a bargain for the flat. Today's is this hilarious door mat, and I love it so much. 

My week at work got better even though it was a lot busier and more serious. I'm hoping I continue to grow and change with it, and learn from every step. 

Mondays recipe

My favourite thing to make at the moment has to be... Anything in the slow cooker. I've been a super prepared house wife recently, choosing meals for the week on a Sunday and going shopping. Preparing the ingredients the night before so I can just turn the dial of the slow cooker in the morning and be greeted by it's lovely aromas in the evening. 

My favourites been the pork chips, and I am going to share that recipe today. 

You need: 

2 pork chops

Chicken stock (made per instructions)

A very generous glug of Soy sauce 

Teaspoon of Honey

2 cloves of Garlic

2 teaspoons of ginger

Add it all, Mix it, make sure the chops are covered (add more stock if not), turn it on, enjoy. The flavour is intense throughout and the sauce leftover should definitely be reduced... I was too hungry though! We had it with sweet potato mash and fine beans but you can decide by what you have in the fridge :) 

A greyish blue day

As I hinted the other day, I'd started a new project whilst Michael was away. When we moved into our flat, my dad very kindly gave us a chest of drawers. It fitted into our built in wardrobe, had enough storage for all our stuff and was generally perfect. Except it was lilac... Silly Stacey forgot to take the before picture pre-first-coat-of-paint, so this sorry excuse will have to do. 

As you can see it had been a wonderful shade of purple.. And also lime green at some point.. And a lovely neon pink too. But now, instead Of all of those wonderful colours, it's these...  

I found inspiration from Pinterest (common theme of the blog, all hale Pinterest) and after Michael and I had decided an olive green/blue colour scheme for the bedroom, I remembered that I had the paint leftover from my room project to hand. 

I love the finished piece and it feels good to have something that we've made our own, it our own home :) listen to me.. What a sap. 

Promise

I first smelt accessorize's own fragrance in Leeds. I just happened to be walking into the shop when someone else had sprayed it and fell in love. That's happened before in the body shop too- and both perfumes I absolutely adore. I bought one from next recently (jadore) and it's not be at all, too strong, too much. But promise hits the nail on the head. 

It's light, delicate, not quite fruity but kinda floral I guess. It just smells fresh and really really pleasant. My only complaint is that it's eau de toilette and I lose sniff of it quite easily (mostly because I'd smell it 24/7 if I could!) 

I didn't buy the perfume the first time I smelled it, because I was being a poor student and couldn't afford it. Then when I'd been paid I thought I get it, and I swear the cashier told me it was over twenty pounds so I got on my high horse of 'I'm not paying over twenty pounds for a non brand perfume' (cause I happily buy next and the body shop for under that knowing they aren't brands) but when I popped into town, I decided I deserved it A) because I'd worked so hard at my poopy job and B) because I wanted it and had finally given in. To my pleasant surprise the perfume actual costs £15, not £20 odd, so that's something!

Have you ever tried it? I urge you to find your nearest accessorize! 

Blog your heart

Big things are going on around here. Which actually just means michaels away, because I usually need a project when I have a lot of time to myself. He's currently on a promotions course which is great, but our little flat is feeling a lot bigger and emptier than usual. 

I've been on more training today which is always a nice day out of the office. My job actually felt manageable before the weekend, and I'm desperately trying to remember how I felt (I told my mum I'd had a great day!). I'm hoping that I'm slowly finding my way in the world of social work, but I'm also spending a lot of useless time hating on it in my head. Which I need to let go of in order to have a chance at being happy. 

I'm struggling to like something that keeps me away from Michael so much, is so fast paced, and gives me so much responsibility and stress. I'm not sure if the job is for me, in all honesty. When I go out on visits and actually work with families, it puts into perspective why I'm doing it, but being bogged down with processes and paperwork is more than half of the rubbish battle. I will stick it out for a year. Mostly because I am being assessed this year. Thinking about it now though I should be grateful for that tie in. A year is plenty of time to settle in and give me enough experince to be able to make an informed judgement, if I didn't have that year, how long would I have given it really? 

and of course, and probably most importantly, this job has given me the opportunity to live with Michael, which wouldn't have happened for another couple of years otherwise. And for that I'm incredibly grateful, as I love that boy with all my heart and I love coming home to him... When he's actually around ;) 

Sorry for the rambling but it helps to get it out, I think myself round in circles.