Purple pirates and painted faces

Hello lovelies!

How are you?!  

Sorry it's been so long- please ignore the dust bunnies and the cobwebby corners (they're totally left over from Halloween... ahem). The last few weeks have been such a rollercoaster I've basically saved myself the cost of a ticket to Alton Towers. Well, that's the story I'm sticking to, to counter-act spending money on a novelty Christmas jumper at some point in the future, once I find one that's suitably ridiculous. 

So, most important thing first: I MADE CUSTARD. From scratch! I've never done it before but, after being thrown into an Emergency Custard Situation by T's Mum baking us an apple and blackberry tart when we were out of ice-cream, I rose to the challenge and I'm very proud to say I succeeded. It wasn't the best custard I've ever had, but it wasn't lumpy or vanilla-y scrambled eggs, so I'm counting it as a win.



Secondly, I've spent the last two weeks transforming myself into a Florence Nightingale/Nigella/Kim & Aggie hybrid, because T's had an operation on his back which basically renders him immobile until January. I take my bobble hat off to the thousands of people who juggle cooking, cleaning, and caring for someone on a daily basis because it is seriously hard work. Which reminds me, I bought myself a new bobble hat. 

[This is where I was going to put a photo of me in my new bobble hat, but I'm having a Bad Face Day, which means no photo. I'd recommend you look at the photo of the M&S model instead.]

I bought said hat in the midst of a hardcore shopping expedition in Haywards Heath. I'd never visited it before but, finding myself with several hours to kill while T was under the knife at the local hospital, I decided to charity shop until I literally dropped; thanks to an over-stuffed carrier bag explosion. Amateur. 

The explosion was partly due to buying a gigantic coat which, again, won't be shown in situ on me due to aforementioned Bad Face Day; so you'll have to make do with the photo below. 

[image source]

The combination of gloriously vivid purple and a ruffle-y collar make me feel like I'm in fancy dress as the captain of a pirate ship sponsored by Ribena. 

Talking of fancy dress, I spent the first weekend in November as fancily dressed as a girl can get; being a bridesmaid for a childhood girlfriend. Now, y'all know I'm really not a hair-and-make-up kind of girl, and usually take a much more lazy-arsed laid back approach with my appearance. So I was surprised to find I actually rather enjoyed having my hair done for two hours, and being given a new face by a make-up artist! 

Part of the enjoyment might have been due to spending the morning in my PJs, eating croissants and drinking prosecco, but it was rather liberating letting other people choose what I looked like for a change. This is my super-sleek hairstyle:

And here I am in my bridesmaid's dress and make-up, in two uber-glamorous photos taken in the toilets at the reception. I really am pure class. 

It was fun to play dress-up for the day, but I'm not sure I'll be changing my usual clean-teeth-and-go routine any time soon. Removing three wipes' worth of make-up and TWENTY FIVE kirby grips before going to bed is too much like hard work; especially after umpteen glasses of prosecco. 

What have you been up to recently? Do tell- I've missed you all!

Katie xxx

P.S. I'm linking up to Hannah's #TWTWC.

A Wonderful Week

Hello lovelies!
How's your week going? 

Mine has been EPIC so far. So many good things have happened already, and it's only flippin' Wednesday! 

First off, I discovered an alternative word for "diagonal" - catty-cornered. How brilliant is that?!

Secondly, I'm spending two days of this week on a training course, and day one involved so much cake that I had to bring some of it home for Tom(!)

Thirdly, my bestie sent me a link to this video. "Joey" climbing the ladder totally made my day. 

I'd assumed today would peak when I finished work and got to put on my new socks. If you're thinking that sounds a bit sad, you've clearly never experience socks this cosy before. 

Anyway, cosy or not, I was fantastically wrong about the socks being the highlight of my day. I arrived home to find this mystery parcel waiting for me:

I was mentally revisiting recent online purchases to think of anything that might have such a beautiful, handwritten address, and came up with nothing. Then I unwrapped it and found this:

That's right. Ribbon AND glitter. By now, my heart was beating like I'd just run a marathon. Or so I assume, given that I have no idea what a post-exercise heartbeat feels like. Then I opened it and found THIS:

Freakin' UNICORNS people. Sadly, I can't share smells with you over the internet, but this box also smelt like vanilla cookies and MAGIC. Turns out it was this candle:

And I also found all of this inside:

While unwrapping the presents (accompanied by plenty of gleeful squealing) I kept searching for a card to reveal the mystery sender, but had no luck. It was only after discovering the diary contained a rather special date that I realised it was from my future sister in law:

I immediately sent her a totally non-hysterical text, to find out what I'd done to deserve a mystery box of such awesomeness. Then she told me to look under the lid...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPP!!! I am SO PSYCHED about this wedding. 

This week is seriously kicking ass. 

Katie xxx

Ninja Flamingos and Crafty Hens

S'up homies! 

How are you? 

I've been busier than a bee recently, so it's been tricky to figure out what to share with you first! Anyway, here goes:

Hen Party Time
Last weekend I attended my first ever Hen Party. Thankfully, it didn't involve glittery Stetsons, inflatable willies, or having to hand over our dignity at the door. Instead, we indulged in craft activities, afternoon tea with Pimms, and a delicious three-course dinner at The Manor in Brighton. The Hen's two BFFs arranged a sewing session to make personalised patchwork squares (which will become a wedding quilt for the fabulous future bride), and even prepared goody bags with glowsticks and bubbles! I used felt to turn my quilt square into a snack pocket- because no blanket should be without one :p To top off a fantastic evening, my pudding was the best brownie I've EVER eaten. EVER. And I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that I've eaten (more than) my fair share of brownies....

Me and the brilliant Moll contemplating the placement of her raindrop buttons (image stolen from Jess, one of the excellent party organisers)

Surprise presents
If experiencing the best brownie of all time wasn't amazing enough for my Saturday night, Fran also presented me with this incredible set of pun-related postcards as a "just because" present. I actually met Sarah, the wonderfully talented illustrator of said postcards, at the Brighton Etsy Craft Party and can confirm she's just as lovely as she is talented. Now I just have to decide which of my friends is most deserving of receiving the llama postcard...

Image from Sarah's Etsy shop

Fly(mingo) Tipping
About a month ago, Fran asked me if I fancied adopting an unwanted plastic flamingo from her garden. Obviously, I did - but Tom put his foot down and refused to let me bring home "any more weird crap". Tom had a dinner date with Fran's husband last weekend and, unbeknown to me, Fran's other half sneakily left the flamingo on our driveway! I only realised what had happened when my parents came round for a cuppa the next day and started giggling about the new addition to our front garden. 

I feel like he needs a hat

Tackling chores
This weekend has mostly been spent cutting down and digging up parts of our overgrown garden (there's another bag hidden behind that large one above, which is about 3x4x4ft), and painting the tiles in our kitchen. I'm trying to paint one area each week, so it's done before the end of August in preparation for our new floor being laid in September. Exciting times, eh? 

Here's the before, complete with the everyday clutter of people who actually use their kitchen (the photos on this blog are definitely never going to be of the "beautifully styled" variety :p):

And a close-up of the ugly mottled-beige tiles with orange floral motifs, and a huge chrome-and-poo-brown trim around the edges. Lovely. 

Here's the after:

I still need to track down and fix on some new, white trim, but I think it's looking so much better already.

Finding my Dream Job
I've spent the last few months looking for a new job, and stumbled upon three brilliant options last Sunday: a Professional Slime Maker, an Ice-Cream Taster, and a PRINCESS! I'm genuinely sad I don't live in the East Midlands or have a food science degree; I reckon I'd be amazing at the ice-cream job.

Puddings galore
After all that gardening, I reckon I've earned a treat or two. I've been pinning mug cake recipes like they're donkey tails at an old skool children's party (enthusiastically, not while blindfolded), and tried out this one (for me) and this one (for Tom) on Friday night. They weren't as pretty as the ones illustrating the recipes, but they were damn tasty!

Oozey peanut butter and shiny molten chocolate. YUM. 

However, my favourite recent dessert discovery has to be that combining Greek yoghurt with a certain household chocolate spread (or Aldi equivalent) tastes EXACTLY like a Mississippi Mud Pie Muller Corner. Aka the best corner yoghurt in the world - and I don't seem to be the only one who thinks so!

What have you been up to recently? I've also managed to squeeze in some reading and crafting this weekend, but I'm going to share my craft project in a separate post, just in case I wear your eyes out! 

Katie xxx

Hopping To It

Hello lovelies!

I hope you all had excellent*, extra-long, extra-chocolatey weekends :) I realise that this post is incredibly late as a last-weekend round-up, given that this weekend is already upon us (HURRAH!) but, in my defence, I spent Monday to Wednesday in a chocolate egg coma and then last night, just as I was about to hit "Publish", we had a power-cut; which wiped out the wifi. It also meant we had to get ready for bed by the light of candles, my bunny nightlight, and Tom's bike lights; which was much more exciting than brushing our teeth in normal circumstances.

Our Bank Holiday weekend was mainly spent cleaning, weeding, de-cluttering and visiting our favourite place in the world; THE TIP. We even tackled (cue ominous sounds of doom) The Loft. It took two trips to the tip, the building of an avalache-worthy teetering pile of bric-a-brac ready for the car boot, and two evenings listing things on eBay, but we got it all done. Phew! 

Thankfully, our weekend wasn't all boring chores. On Saturday we went to our collective besties' house for a BBQ to celebrate their super-secret nuptials! Last Monday, Tom and I were honoured beyond words to be the sole guests at their top secret wedding - not even their families knew!! We actually managed to keep schtum about it since February(!) which was so hard but also rather fun. It also proves I'm An Excellent Secret Keeper, so feel free to send all your juicy secrets my way...

Yay for secret weddings!

In addition to the BBQ fun (with an Easter Egg hunt, which I might have become slighty too competitive about) I also received my parcel from Lauren's cheep** and cheerful Easter swap, courtesy of Clare.

I'm sure it goes without saying that those poor bunnies didn't last the night. 

The nail varnish is a gorgeous coral colour, and I love that it's called "Fruit Salad" because when people ask me "what's that all over your hands?" I can tell them "It's Fruit Salad" rather than "It's the chocolatey remains of two dead Malteasers bunnies". GENIUS, no?

The wrapping paper was very "me", given that the Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my all-time favourite books. Particularly his impressive munchings on the Saturday...

The parcel above contained these pretty magnets, which are now adorning our fridge and getting along splendidly with all the others. 

I sent my parcel to Sophie in the Sticks, who has posted a photo of the goodies I sent her here.

Katie xxx

* Yes, I know I could've put "eggsellent" here, but I kind of feel like puns that obvious are beneath me.

** Ok, I cracked***. 

*** Haha. 

Grown Up Stuff

There are two particular activities which always make me feel like a Proper Grown Up. Strangely, these things are not our mortgage, driving a car, or being a member of English Heritage and the National Trust, but are in fact:

1. Working on my laptop on the train. 

2. Drinking a takeaway coffee on the way to work.

This means I am far too excited that my local Waitrose just installed a fancy pants coffee machine giving myWaitrose card holders ONE FREE COFFEE EVERY DAY. FOREVER. And myWaitrose Cards are free. So you're getting free stuff for free. FREEEEEE.

Free cappuccino!! More exciting than a talking unicorn.

I'm now on a mission to find a leak-proof, beautiful thermos cup so I can fill up on free coffee without using hundreds of disposable paper cups and plastic lids. So, if you have any recommendations for a cup that works brilliantly, I'd be very grateful for tips in the comments below :)

As of yesterday, I've added a third thing to my list of Stuff That Makes Me Feel All Grown Up And Responsible. It's also the most exciting thing to have happened to me recently by far (sorry, Waitrose coffee machine). I'm feeling honoured and overwhelmed to have been asked by one of my lifelong (recently engaged) friends to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. EEEEEEEPPP!!! 

I've never even gone to a wedding before, so I'm seriously psyched to be asked to be part of her special day. The cherry on the top of the (huge, weddingy) cake is that I get to share the experience with two of my besties because my other lifelong girlfriend is also a bridesmaid :) Woohoo! And did I mention EEEEEEEEEPPPP?!?! 

Bridesmaids always get to wear capes, right?
[Image borrowed from this amazing Superhero wedding]

I'm not quite sure what being a bridesmaid entails, but thankfully I have 14 months in which to cram in all the knowledge I'll need to be The Best Bridesmaid Ever. I'm going to spend that time watching films involving bridesmaids for tips on what (not) to do (I'm guessing 27 Dresses = Yes; My Best Friend's Wedding = No), learning to walk in heels (as I currently resemble a drunken newborn fawn wearing anything higher than flats), and rugby-tackling unsuspecting women outside florists' shops to build my bouquet-nabbing skills. I pretty sure that covers everything I'll need to do, right?

Katie xxx

Top Tips for Marriage - Guest Post

Hello lovelies!

I'm guest-posting today over at Musings from the Pigeon's Nest, offering newly-brided Bex (aka Shiny Pigeon) my top tips for a long and happy marriage full of awesomeness and void of Sock Nests in front of the sofa. 

If Katie and Tom had listened to me, they'd totally still be together...
(Image source)

You can read my list of handy hints here, and if you haven't visited Bex's blog before I would heartily advise having a good ol' snoop around- because that girl makes me giggle A LOT. 

Katie xxx