Thirty Day Challenge - Question 1

Your middle name and how you feel about it

My middle name is Mary after my nan and of course for that very reason I love it!

I don't ever remember not liking it even when I was younger.

Thirty Day Challenge!

I saw this posted on Tumblr and thought as I was having such fun with the "meme's" lately I'd give it a go!

I'll post in between my usual ramblings - let me know if you give any of this a go too! 

What I'm Reading - Week 13

It took me a lot longer than usual to finish reading Eclipse due to travelling into work with friends on a few days but I finally reached the end yesterday afternoon

My slight interest in Twilight waned throughout this book but I am ready for Breaking Dawn as this will be the only book I'll read without having seen the film first. I'm just wait for the call from the library to tell me it's arrived for collection

This week my book of choice is The Girls Guide to Homemaking

I'm looking forward to reading this book especially as I'm in the midst of a homemaking spurt in my flat!

More about me!

You seemed to enjoy the A to Z of me so when I saw another meme at Beki's blog I thought I'd give this one a go too!

ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

No one specific my dad heard it at work and liked it but I like to think it was after Queen Victoria!

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

Sadly it was not too long ago! 

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Nope

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE A FRIEND OF YOURSELF?

Of course! I'm a very loyal friend and so I'm told great fun too!

DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?

Far too much!

WILL YOU EVER TRY BUNGEE JUMPING?

Despite going through a phase of wanting to I don't think I ever will

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL?

I don't drink/like milk so I'm not a big cereal fan although my favourites is the American cereal Lucky Charms

WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Shoes and Eyes!

WHAT IS YOUR EYE COLOUR?

Brown and Green, they change!! 

(and for Twilight fans it has nothing to do with the type of blood I'm drinking!)

SCARY MOVIE OR HAPPY ENDING?

Happy ending although I do like scary movies

FAVOURITE SMELLS?

Cinnamon, aftershave on men

SUMMER OR WINTER?

Winter, Halloween, Fireworks, Christmas!

COMPUTER OR TELEVISION?

You mean I have to choose, I'm very rarely without one or the other! I'll say the computer because I could watch tv on that!!

WHAT'S THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN AWAY FROM HOME?

America!

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL TALENTS!

I'm very good at motivating other people! 

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

Essex born and bred!

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

Blogging of course! All other hobbies seen to be on the back burner at the moment!

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?

No

FAVOURITE FILM?

Gone with the Wind, Uptown Girls and Practical Magic

DO YOU HAVE ANY SIBLINGS?

1 brother

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

A wife and maybe a mother

That's all folks

Elephant Fun!

My friend Ben has just returned from his latest holiday where he enjoyed an elephant ride and felt the occasion should be marked with an elephant charm for my Pandora bracelet

Isn't it cute!

Happy Birthday!

Have a lovely day Kelly and can't wait for Saturday

love you

A to Z of ME!

Lissy Lou recently posted her "A to Z of me"... well hers obviously and I thought I'd have a go too!

A. Age: 
31... 32 in a few weeks time - EEEK

B. Bed size: 
Double, I love my divan with under bed storage all so I could have a valance!

C. Chore you dislike:

Washing up... but maybe drying up more

D. Dogs: 

I've wanted a chihuahua for YEARS!

E. Essential start to your day: 

I can't think of anything I need first thing in the morning but I love waking up to a nice text message!

F. Favorite colour: 

Red


G. Gold or silver: 
The majority of my jewellery is silver but I'd like to upgrade to white gold!


H. Height: 
5ft 4

I. Instruments you play(ed): 

I learnt to play the flute briefly when I was at school but as I was unable to read music I gave up!

J. Job. 
I'm a secretary for an insurance company in London

K. Kids: 
None although maybe one day


L. Live: 
Essex although please don't assume anything like the stars of The Only Way is Essex even if it is filmed far to close to home!

M. Mom’s name: 
Christine which she doesn't like. When she was younger she pretended her name was Christina and made people call her Tina!

N. Nicknames: 

V-Ho because I claimed one night I thought I was J-Lo on the dance floor and someone replied more like V-Ho and it stuck and V because bored with signing emails at work with Victoria I started putting "V" band everyone started to call me by that instead

O. Overnight hospital stays: 

None!

P. Pet peeves: 

People who sit on their phones in your company..... talking loudly on trains... rudeness.... bad manners....

Q. Quote from a movie: 

"I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her" from Notting Hill

R. Righty or lefty: 
Lefty

S. Siblings: 

1 brother

T. Time you wake up: 
Mon - Fri my alarm cruelly wakes me up at 7am


U. Underwear: 
Getting larger as the years pass!

V. Vegetables you don’t like: 

Asparagus

W. What makes you run late: 

Not getting out of bed in the morning!

X. X-rays you’ve had: 

Many on my teeth in the past year!

Y. Yummy food you make: 

I'm a dab hand at baking.... fajitas.... shepherds pie.... and my roast chicken is pretty special!

Z. Zoo animal favourites: 

I can't think of a particular favourite but I'm haunted by Kelly dragging me round one of Florida's theme parks to see the manatee's!

Brace Face - The end is near

This time next week my days with a "brace face" will be over!!!

I toyed with the idea of getting a brace for many years until I finally became fed up of only seeing my dodgy teeth  in even the nicest of photos

Even when I made the decision to have a brace fitted and choosing the most discreet of braces within my price range I was still worried I might feel self-conscious but as this photo proves it was not the case!

I think having a brace at a late age was the most sensible thing for me! A few years older (and wiser?!) I was more secure in myself and seeing the difference in my teeth after only a matter of months certainly proved it was worth it!

So next Monday I'll be back without my mouth full of metal (ok ceramic in my case!) to show of my straight nashers! I'm so excited!

Ideal Home!

I was lucky enough to win tickets for the Ideal Home Show on Torie Jayne's blog this week

I can't wait... now who will I take with me?!

Funny Friday

Do we think this explains how Henry VIII obtained 6 wives?

(Picture of Henry VIII's armour from The Tower of London)

Off with her head!

Today my mum and I took a trip into London to visit The Tower of London

We spent a few hours there walking around and particularly admired the Crown Jewels and I was overjoyed when I commented to mum how Queen Victoria's Small Diamond Crown was my favourite

and she replied "you could have something like that when you get married" to which I responded "I'll be holding you to that"! I just need to find the man now!!

To The Beach...

It feels like it's getting colder rather than heating up (even if the sun seems to be attempting to shine) and I may not have a holiday booked yet but on my shopping trip last week I couldn't resist this beach bag...

I loved it instantly (and walked round the shop with it on my shoulder!) 

For a split second I considered putting it back as I'm not heading to the beach any time soon but for £3 I pulled myself together and snapped it up!

What I'm Reading - Week 10

Yesterday I finished reading New York Valentine and as expected I'm now craving a trip to NEW YORK! Oh to have 4 weeks to spend there working for an up and coming fashion label!

Today it was time to return to the Twilight saga, specifically Eclipse

I actually "enjoyed" the Eclipse film more than the first 2 films so hopefully this book will prove a good read!

Back to Work!

This weekend it was back to work in the flat, specifically my bedroom!

When I first moved into my flat I intended to move my furniture from my parents. Unfortunately Kelly & I were being rather ambitious and accepted our limitations and instead I stocked up in IKEA on new wardrobes and chest of drawers. You can see how my room used to look here

I also decided a year down the line I wanted more of a grown up and luxurious bedroom (leaving the cottage look for my spare room) and if possible my original furniture! The chest of draws didn't prove a problem but 2 wardrobes and my mirrored dressing table were going to prove more so!

Luckily enough a friend of the family knew a man with a van and today they delivered my furniture!

First please imagine the alcove wall is painted like the rest! When I originally painted it I couldn't move the large wardrobe out of the way - no excuse now! That's the next job on the list.

 The large wardrobes in the alcove have been replaced with my dressing table - I'm so pleased to have this back even if I don't sit at it!

The mirror was from Past Times, you can see my Valentines gift waiting for a home on the wall and my fabulous vintage French secretaries phone

Next to that is one wardrobes which will house my work clothes

My second wardrobe sits in another cover and inside here are my evening clothes which sadly aren't seeing much activity lately!!

In front of my bed (which you can see in this post) is my chest of drawers with TV and currently some gorgeous vintage pictures

I also brought some new bedding which I've forgotten to photograph so that will have to wait for another post!

So for now I'm off for a bath and then snuggle down in my new bedroom!

Something Old & Something New!

That Gal brightening face primer is one Benefits top sellers which doesn't surprise me!

I prefer brightening primers to foundations and there is always one in my make up bag. Whilst I'm also a fan of Barbara Daly's Face List Cream it's packaging doesn't make it easy to apply on the train 

(yes I'm one of those annoying girls who puts her make up on on the train and yes a man did move away from me whilst I was putting it on the other day - clearly he didn't appreciate my face powder flicking in his direction!)

That Gal is also one product that I use so regularly that I actually replace it frequently (is it just me or does anyone else love when they use up a beauty product feeling like they've justified it's purchase and made some great achievement?) which I had to do last week. I tend to buy it in from Boots so I get the advantage card points and on this occasion it gave me the excuse to pop into Lush in the same area and pick up their Lip Scrub that had I'd been seeing popping up on Tumblr recently

I suffer from dry lips which I treat with Elizabeth Arden's famous Seven Hour Cream in it's lipstick form but I needed something to provide the smooth base first and this lip scrub does just the job - and tastes great too! I loved it so much it went straight in my handbag and I made all my family try it when I caught up with them Saturday!

What beauty products are you loving right now?

February - A Review

February the month of luuuurve has been a good one even if the love is not of a romantic sense!

There has been good food, perfect gifts and the arrival of my new furniture!

My brother was on tv - he was shown pumping iron in the gym which you can image led to some ribbing from his colleagues!

I became obsessed with discovered Tumblr and fell asleep watching the Oscars!

March looks like it should be pretty eventful if the plans I'm making are anything to go by and of course I'll be sharing them all with you!

What I'm Reading - Week 9

My reading has fallen by the wayside lately but having just collected New York Valentine by Carmen Reid from the library I have a feeling it's going to be picking up!

I've spoke of this series of books before and can't wait to see how Annie Valentine gets on in my fave place in the world!! I have a feeling I'm going to want to return before I even finish Chapter 1!

More from the weekend

It was back to work for me today after a great long weekend!

Unfortunately Saturday's plans to be in the audience of A League of Their Own fell at the first hurdle! Arriving at the studios I went to the organiser to confirm we were in the right queue and was told they were full up already! So back to the car my friend and I went and instead headed back to my flat, cracked open a bottle of wine and watched Lets Dance for Comic Relief followed by my guilty pleasure Take Me Out - does anyone else watch this show? I literally cringe as I watch it but cannot resist tuning in each week!

Sunday it was off to the cinema to join in with some Bieber Fever! I felt right at home with so many fellow brace wearers on screen! I have to confess I rather enjoyed the film, it was interesting to see JB's rise to fame and how talented he is (he can play guitar, piano and the drums!).

The route home from the cinema took us past Kelly's house so my cousin and I popped in to check up on Miss Sophie and then I stopped for a cuppa with my auntie before heading home for my Oscars night.... and would you believe I FELL ASLEEP!!!

I've loved watching E!'s coverage of the SAG, Golden Globe and Grammy awards but this years Oscar's wasn't up to much - I can't even tell you whose dress I liked!

Of course I couldn't be more pleased for Colin Firth and the Kings Speech winning their awards!

My unexpected early night Sunday did mean my day off Monday wasn't wasted and I treated myself to a shopping trip but was very well behaved and came home largely empty handed!