The wintersmith is loosening his grip...

Until Friday, I honestly couldn't remember the last time that it was "daylight" when I left work at 5pm (hmmm, October maybe?)... and what a comeback from Mother Nature !

I stood in the office car park and stared for a while, because I'm a bit of a sunset geek. And when I'd finished staring, I took these photos. I hope you don't mind me sharing them with you :)

Welcome back Spring. I have missed your light.

xx

Ikea bedroom furniture.... I really want you!

I'm getting itchy feet to change my bedroom furniture. At the moment, I have a large antique pine wardrobe with matching bedside cabinets, and a few other pieces (such as my dressing table) that I've literally owned since I was eight years old. It's grey and white MDF nastiness that was really cool in the 80's but definitely should not be seen in 2011! Retro chic it isn't!

I don't mind the pine stuff too much, but it's not to my taste any more. Needless to say, my bedroom is WAY overdue for a makeover! I think I've been putting it off as one of those "next year" jobs  but now it's really playing on my mind and I hate having to look at it. To be honest the room embarrasses me!

My dream bedroom looks a lot like this.... light, airy and peaceful with lots of book storage ;)

image from IKEA's website

I already have a cream coloured wrought iron bed and feel like brightening up the room with some white furniture. I LOVE the Bramley range from Laura Ashley:

Sadly, the Laura Ashley furniture is too far out of my price range but I've had my eye on IKEA's Hemnes range of (white) bedroom furniture for a while now. I recently went to IKEA with my friends Gemma and Amy, and seeing the range in person has just made me want it even more! Do any of you guys have this range of bedroom furniture? Would you recommend it?

 

What does your dream bedroom look like?

xx

**Photos from Laura Ashley and IKEA**

Life Update: A Wedding and A Bad Back

Big fat fail on the blogging front so far in 2011!! I'm so annoyed!

In my defence I've had the dreaded lurgy which lasted for two weeks and left me sounding like Mutley with a tres annoying barking cough, and then I put my back out on Sunday.

"How did you do that?" I hear you ask..... well it pains me (ha!) to admit that I fell out of bed. Which would be embarrassing enough in itself, but I was actually dreaming of being at the Zoo. It was one of those vivid dreams that makes you feel really involved and emotional. The Zoo then flooded and I was trying to rescue the animals... a split second later I was on the floor and the "elephant" that I was clinging onto actually turned out to be the bedsheets! I have to admit that it is quite funny.

The verdict is that I've torn the ligaments in my lower back (from trying to hold onto the elephant I expect!) and my gosh it hurts. My GP wanted to sign me off work for a week so that I can rest it, but I honestly can't afford to lose a week's pay this soon after Christmas so I've been dosing myself up with tablets and going into the office - on the condition that I sit at my desk and stay there!

I know that I must be mad going into work feeling like this. My long-suffering colleagues deserve a gold star this week too!

In between the Mutley illness and the Bad Back I went to my good friend Jenny's wedding. My best friend Louise and her hubby came over from Germany for the occassion and so the old gang of us were all together again. The whole day was wonderful from start to finish and I was honoured to have been asked by Jen and Adrian to read a beautiful text during the ceremony. I almost started crying after making the mistake of catching Jen's eye but took a deep breath and got to the end... aaaand I didn't trip over my floor-length dress! I was very proud of myself :)

Jen and Ade had the fantastic idea of planning some games inbetween Afternoon Tea and traditional speeches etc, and the "evening" part of the day. Afternoon Tea was amazing btw. Home-made cakes, cupcakes, jam tarts and scones sitting on shabby-chic cakestands with little pots of various home-made jam, and beautiful tea and coffee pots dotted along the tables... I was in heaven!

The children had a little games room just off the main reception room so they were happy (although it wasn't long before they discovered the balloons. One of my worst fears is a child plus balloon!) and we had a wine tasting game followed by a charity quiz.

Our team won the quiz!!! Jen and Ade kindly donated £50.00 towards a charity of the winning team's choice, and we chose the Cystic Fibrosis Unit at Papworth Hospital in memory of my cousin Mike. Another wedding guest donated another £25.00 which was an unexpected and wonderful gesture. I was quite emotional at that point. I'm so pleased that the unit at Papworth will benefit from their generosity.

This is what I wore:

from asos

Don't you just love it when you go back in to look and it's in the bloody sale?!

I haven't included a photo of myself wearing it because I don't have any photos of myself that don't include other people, and I didn't want to upload wedding photos without asking Jen and Adrian first - hopefully I'll edit this later or create a separate post and show you some pictures!

Am I rambling? Yes. As usual a massive post! Is this even making any sense? It really is the tablets :(

xx

100th Post!

And sticking with the New Year / celebration theme, I thought I'd celebrate in style! I was just browsing on YouTube and saw this on the homepage - London rocking the beginning of 2011 and showing the rest of the world how it's done ;)

Enjoy! xx

Stick with it, there is music!

Happy New Year!

Well hello there lovelies!

How are you all? I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. I had a brilliant time! I've been really busy over the past few weeks but have had so much fun! It was my friend Jen's Hen Day on Tuesday, and we finished the day at the Panto where we saw Jack and the Beanstalk. It's been years since I've been to a pantomime and it was fantastic, a real giggle. John Altman (aka Eastenders Nasty Nick) tried to steal my handbag - how rude! He was in character though, dont worry!

I'm off to (finally) see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows at the cinema tomorrow with my lovely friend Gemma, one last treat before I go back to work on Tuesday... but we won't talk about work here.

I can't believe it's been a whopping three months since I last blogged!! It was a lovely surprise to see that I still have followers, more so in fact than when I last spoke to you. And I've repaid you all by been a very bad blogger indeed. (Hmmmm, I think we've had this conversation before. I really need to get my blogging head back on!)

As regular followers may know, 2010 was a terrible, heartbreaking year for my family and I, and I'm so, so pleased that the new year is here at last!

I was looking back at some of my old blog posts before sitting down to write this, and wow so much has changed since this post. Very sadly I didn't get my nos. 14 & 15 wishes, and I told you all about that here.

You guys have been amazing over the last year, and in return I will try my very best to make sure that I pop up in your blog reader more often in 2011!

Thank you for reading, following and supporting me xxx

**Image courtesy of weheartit**