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**

Little Miss Bookworm

*Warning! I've got my geek-head on! This is a long post!*

You probably know this already, but I love, love, love books. Always have. I may not get as much time as I'd like to sit and read these days, but in my opinion there is no better way to pass a lazy Sunday than buring my head in a good book and getting completely lost in another world (with a nice cup of tea and some chocolate Hobnobs close at hand of course).

Books instantly calm me. I love knowing that I am the first to turn the pages of a new book. I love it when someone has read the same book and you can get into a really heated discussion/debate (delete as appropriate) about it.

Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? Using your imagination to visualise the people and places you're reading about. The best thing is that two people can adore the same story for the same reasons but they can have completely different opinions on what such-and-such character looks like or what the protagonist's environment looks like etc etc.

Take film adaptations for example. I can remember the Harry Potter community spitting blood over the casting of Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. To me, Evanna was the Luna I'd always visualised in my mind, but others were so upset and outraged that you could tell that their perfect vision of the character was well and truly shattered.

And then there's Twilight... online forums went crazy after the casting of Rob Pattinson was announced, and most were heavily against him playing Edward. I can't add to that debate having only recently discovered the series, but I chose these two book/movie franchises as these are arguably the most popular (mainstream) adaptations of recent years - to those outside the fan communities, fans reactions may be silly and extreme but I think it's a great example of the power of a good book.

In fact, I would probably go as far as to say that I am always slightly suspicious of people who live in book-free homes, or those who claim that they don't read books - does anybody else relate to that? I always like to nosey through other people's bookshelves as I think it gives a really good insight into their personalities.

What mine say about me goodness only knows! I fall into two distinct camps with books. Firstly, the escapism books that are light and easy reads, and secondly, books that satisfy my inner geek - being anything to do with the Home Front in World War 2 (think the Blitz, rationing, general social history of the time).

Most of the books in today's post fall into the former category :)

When Tesco had their "Buy 2 for £7.00" offer, I was in bookworm heaven, and I knew that I had bought quite a few as reward for enduring the drudgery that is grocery shopping.... (who am I kidding? Any excuse!!)

It wasn't until I decided to rearrange my bedroom recently - including bookcase - that I realised exactly how many brand new unread books I have. In my defence the Tesco book offer ran for about 18 months, but still...            
(look for the justifications in italics - God loves a tryer!)

I am quite frankly shocked.....

These are all non-fiction! I owed it to the animals to read their stories!

and disgusted at the amount of books here....

Geeeeek books! Plus some of Atonement was filmed near me.

It would have been rude not to.

I wanted to read the film novels before the movies were released - oopsie!

And Alan Carr makes me laugh.

So inspired by Jane Tomlinson's story - she did so much for charity.

The Chantelle book was £1 from Asda's bargain bin and

it has hologram writing on the cover - I like rainbows

(errr ok. I concur. I have no excuse for the Chantelle book!)

I had to get the "Paris" book as I have the others in the series,

and I couldn't pass up on a geeek book which was on offer!

These are unread books that I have scoured from charity shops...

50p each!! And the New York one is BRAND NEW!

And these are car-boot beauties that my Daddy collected for me ♥...

Houston, we have a problem. Yes, you were indeed correct if you counted 37. Oh. My. God. I had no idea!!

I wonder if there is such a thing as Book-buyers Anonymous? I will definitely read them all though - I'm just on a book ban for the forseeable future.... umm apart from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book that I've requested for my birthday. But obviously that doesn't count, being a recipe book. Hehe!

Have you read any of these? If you have, what did you think of them?

I would love to ask for your reading recommendations too but quite frankly I daren't. I will be the old lady with a million books if I don't restrain myself now :D

xx

Shopping Spree: Love Suzie Jewellery

I first heard about Love Suzie Jewellery when they followed me on Twitter. As is customary with a new tweetie follower I had to check them out to make sure that they were a) an actual person rather than one of these automated nonsense profiles, b) a nice person, and c) someone who wasn't going to spam me with silliness! So after their profile passed my daft little test I had a quick nosey at their website and immediately fell in love with this little guy! (Apologies in advance for the poor picture quality - my camera really dislikes shooting close-ups)

Errol The Owl

I love owls and had been looking for the "right" owl necklace for ages. Errol was perfect! Unfortunately he had sold out when I initially browsed, but the lovely lady from Love Suzie (I'm not sure if Suzie is actually her name, but for the purpose of this blog post I'll possibly pretend that it is!) very kindly said that she'd tweet me when he was back in stock.

True to her word, "Suzie" let me know a couple of weeks later that he was available again and I bought him straight away! I also fell in love with the Wish Me Luck! necklace too... ah well, a girl can never have enough pretty jewellery - right?

Wish Me Luck!

I loved the pretty packaging too!

  

The customer service was fantastic - in fact "Suzie" is probably the friendliest seller that I've ever dealt with and my parcel was with me within two days of ordering. I don't think it gets much better than that!

For what it's worth, I will definitely buy from Love Suzie again and already have one or two other pretties in mind!

Has anything from Love Suzie caught your eye?

xx

**The Boring Small Print: Love Suzie Jewellery had no prior notification of this blogpost. I have not received any goods or compensation from Love Suzie in return for this review. I purchased the items with my own money and all opinions are my own. There. I think that covers everything!**