New Year, New Me?

At this time of year you always see this phrase floating around, 'New year, new me!'. We all make new years resolutions or goals that we want to achieve, but how many of us actually stick with them?

I know myself that every year I make the same goal, 'lose weight' and every year I make some form of an effort but then always seem to end up back on square one. Last year was probably my best effort yet and I managed to lose almost a whole stone, but then after having some time off of work, that all piled back on... but you know what? This year, is my year.

I've decided that enough is enough, no more excuses, I need to give myself a kick up the bum otherwise I am never going to get to where I want to be! With that in mind I am making some changes to my lifestyle, that are honestly going to be quite drastic...

Dieting

Yes, the dreaded word... I've thrown the word 'Diet' around a lot in my life, and I have about the same amount of willpower as a goldfish has in long term memory, nil. This time I'm PAYING for my diet, and if this doesn't make me want to put effort in then I don't know what will. I have decided once and for all to go on the Weight Watchers plan, after a long time umming and erring about it. My mum had a fair amount of success on the weight watchers diet after my brother was born losing roughly 5/6 stone, and I'm hoping I can replicate some of that success. 

According to my height my healthy body weight should be 10-10 1/2 stone, but my goal is to get to 11 1/2 stone, as that is what I weighed before I went to uni, and honestly I was really happy with my body back then. This mean's I've got almost 4 stone to lose... Which is a HUGE amount, but I really feel ready to do this. I've set myself the goal of losing 2 stone by Tim's Birthday which is August, and I could reach that target by losing a mere 1 Ib a week, which I feel is doable! The best thing about the plan I am doing with Weight watchers is I barely have to count anything. I am doing something called the Healthy and Filling plan, whereby I have a list of foods which I can eat as much of as I like (within reason), and I only have to count foods that don't appear on the list. A lot of the foods are fruit and vegetables, eggs and potatoes, meaning I can make a healthy diet based mainly on just those!

I will be writing weekly weigh in posts as well, so that I have no where to hide...

Exercise

Another word I dread hearing... Last year was probably my best year for exercising, I had a gym membership, went to Aquarobics classes, and even did the 5k Race For Life in my home town! This year I want to build on that even more. Since the gym we were signed up to went bust, Tim and I had kind of given up on the whole idea of exercise, but all that is about to change as we have just bought an Exercise bike! Using the Christmas money we got from Tim's parents, we decided to invest it into something sensible and bought ourselves a cheap exercise bike. After testing it out and seeing that it seems to work just fine for working up a sweat, we think we've made a good choice. It also means we have no excuses to not get a short workout in...

On top of that to help kick-start my new life of fitness I am taking part in a Blogilates challenge this month. I have followed Blogilates on Youtube for a long time now, but haven't actually been trying out her workouts. I saw she was offering a Beginners Fitness Calender for January for free, and I thought it would be the perfect way to start my year... Each day has up to three workouts which you can simply search for and Youtube and then follow, and then you can tick them off as you go! I've printed my calender off and have placed it by the light switch in our bedroom, so that not only is it easy for me to see, but Tim can also monitor how I am getting on with it. If you'd like to check out the Blogilates Beginner's calender yourself then please check out her blog.

Cutting out the Rubbish

As well as going on a diet, I have made the decision to cut a few things out of my life almost altogether, in the hopes that it will not only help me lose weight, but will also help me feel healthier. So I will be giving up fizzy drinks almost entirely, only allowing myself one a month if that. Not only am I giving up fizzy drinks, but I am also giving up Alcohol! I feel I drink far too much alcohol currently, and to be honest I don't really like the kind of person that I am when I am drunk, so I am limiting myself to drinking only on special occasions, and even then only one or two drinks is acceptable.

I'm hoping that my new lifestyle will be as successful as I am dying for it to be, but I guess only time will tell as to whether I am able to stick to it...

Sum Up Sunday #6

From Top Left to Bottom Right: All my Baking Books, Christmas Chocolate collection, new stand mixer, Hot chocolate with all the trimmings, Gingerbread house, Sister Selfie, NYE Selfie, New Blog notebook, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Selfie with my bro, Wedding Selfie, and Cuddles with Sven.

I don't even know how I have managed to cram so many things into this one week, no wonder I am so tired! Tim and I started off our week by finally organising our Christmas presents and finding places for them all. This prompted a clear out of our shelves, so that I could fit all my baking books onto them. Well I wish they all fitted on one shelf... some of them are actually floating around on a separate shelf... This also meant we had to find somewhere for all of our Christmas sweets and chocolates and thankfully we have a few spare shelves on our TV unit which is now housing a tonne of chocolate.

I finally ordered a stand mixer! I settled on one by Morphy Richards which was £69.99, my plan is to use this one for now, and then to save up all my money to buy a Kitchenaid later on, maybe when Tim and I finally move into our own place (I can dream right?). Tim and I have been very naughty this week before our new diet kickstarts next week, we've eaten far too many sweets and treats, including building a gingerbread house, drinking hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, AND going out to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for lunch... All I can say is I'm going to miss all of these treats when our new lifestyle really sets in next week.

I've also attended a few events this week, of course it was New Years Eve on Wednesday, and we went to a party in my village, and there was a lot of drink and dancing. To be honest I didn't drink too much, Tim maybe had one too many, my 16 year old brother on the other hand came home completely sozzled, having managed to sneak a LOT of alcohol from under my dad's nose. Tim and I left the party early and went home to bed, and were rudely awoken at about 1:30am by my Dad barging into the living room demanding that I go and help him sort my brother and sister out who were royally pissed. I managed to get them out of the kitchen and up the stairs then as soon as I had settled myself into bed I heard dad shout, 'Oh now he's chundered everywhere', of course I had to go investigate, and I found my brother in a right old state. By this point my mother had now also been woken up (she was at home ill and didn't go to the party), and obviously was none to pleased to find my brother rolling around on the bathroom floor absolutely paralytic... We all tried and failed to get him to bed, and it took us about an hour of helping, and laughing to get him sorted. I can honestly say I have never seen anyone in that bad a state, he was talking nonsense, and crying... There is video evidence of all of this (which I took to show him the next day), but he's promised to ruin my life if I ever share this with the internet. Other than that it was a pretty good night.

Then yesterday I attended a wedding of some of our family friends, and it was a lovely ceremony. It's made me get the itch to get married to be honest... I'm just waiting around for a certain someone to ask! Then when we were outside my sister managed to snap a couple of decent photos of Tim and I, which I couldn't resist sharing.

Apologies for the soppy-ness, but I rarely take a good photo, so when I happen to get some good ones I always get excited. I'm not normally a fan of 'kissing' photos, but my sister snapped us mid-kiss and I think it looks really beautiful... It's probably one of the best pictures we have of us together actually...

Then to top off an amazing weekend I managed to handle Sven for about 15 minutes this evening! It was lovely, he was running all over my leg very confusedly, but settled down and then didn't seem too bothered. He did give me a little nip when I picked him up to put him back in the cage, but I think I scooped him up too quickly and he didn't like it. Either way, I see that as a success!!

This week I'm...

Reading: Blog posts! I'm enjoying reading everyone's resolutions/goals for 2015
Listening To: 'Who Run The World? Girls' playlist on Spotify
Playing: Luigi's Mansion 2 on 3DS
Feeling: Tired... and like I haven't stopped at all this week.
Looking Forward to: Getting back into a normal routine next week, even though that means going back to work.

What I Got for Christmas 2014

I can't believe we are already 2 days into 2015, the time seems to fly by... I thought it was about time that I share with you all some of the gifts that I got for Christmas! I know this video is a little bit late, considering I filmed it on the 29th... However better late than never right?

If you don't want to watch the video then there is a list of the gifts mentioned in the video below, enjoy!

Gifts mentioned in the video:

• Pandora Penguin Charm
• Peek-a-boo Cakes by Joanna Farrow
• No Bake Baking Book by Sharon Hearne-Smith
• The Great British Bake Off: Christmas Book
• Yankee Candle Christmas Votive Set
• Britney Spears Multi-Style Hair Tool
• Lady Gaga: The Fame Perfume Gift Set
• Aladdin Shiny Disney DVD
• The Little Mermaid Shiny Disney DVD
• U-Spicy 10 Piece Brush Set

Please let me know in the comments what your favourite gift was that you received for Christmas, I love to read your comments!

New Years Blog Resolutions...

Happy 2015 everyone! I hope you had a brilliant New Years Eve, and got lots of kisses at midnight, and I hope you are all as excited for the year ahead as I am!

2015 is going to be the year of blogging for me, seeing as I have been at this for two years this month, and I still enjoy doing it, I think maybe it might be time for me to take this a little bit more seriously... With that in mind, I am setting myself a couple of Blog Resolutions, to keep me on track.

1. Take More/Better Photos: This was actually one of my resolutions last year. I have an amazing DSLR camera that I don't use half as often as I should do. I'm planning to trade it in for an even better model at some point this year, so I will definitely need to get in gear and do this.
2. Blog at least 10 times a Month: I really want to be a lot more consistent with my posting, considering some months this year I posted 20+ times and then some months I only posted twice (whoops).
3. Start posting a Youtube Video a week: I started doing this a few months ago and I was going strong and then I started a new job and everything kind of went out the window. It wasn't a hard thing to keep up with whilst I was doing it, so there is no reason why I can't do this...
4. Network more: This is really important to me, when I first started blogging I was big on networking, and to be honest I've just gotten a little bit lazy with it. I want to meet more wonderful bloggers and link up with more people who are like me, this is probably my number one goal for this year.
5. Grow My Blog: I want to reach 250 followers by the end of 2015, and I will do this by promoting my blog on social media a lot more, and linking up with other bloggers. Using Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, having guest posters etc.

So there you have it, just a few things that I am going to try this year, to make this blog a little more professional, and I cannot wait for you guys to come along with me!

2014: Year in Review

I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by, it feels like yesterday that I was sitting at my laptop typing up my 2013 post! So much has changed this year, I have lived with Tim nearly a whole year, and become an Auntie by association to a beautiful little girl, as well as packing my sister off to University... Life never really stops moving does it! Let's see what I have been up to this year shall we?

January

I posted a Youtube video all about my biggest make-up addiction, eye shadow palettes. My collection has actually grown since this video was recorded...

I celebrated my one year blogiversary on January the 29th, and decided to giveaway a W7 'In The Buff' palette, what this space for my two year blogiversary!

February

I posted a video all about having a Mini Tom Jones in My head... OK that sounds weird... I was talking about suffering with something I like to call Lyric Completion Compulsion, check out the video to find out more.

On the 4th of February I wrote my 23 Before 23 list, which was a list of 23 goals I wanted to achieve before turning 23. Also at the same time I reviewed my 22 Before 22 list and saw how many things I had managed to tick off... Soon I will be reviewing this list and writing my 24 Before 24 list (Yikes)

On the 7th of February I shared with you all what I was lucky enough to receive for my birthday, I can honestly say I was a little bit spoilt for my birthday!

March

Tim and I moved in together in March, so I finally felt like I had a bit more space, and started to feel a lot more relaxed. I also started the #100HappyDays Photo Challenge, to document how much happier I was feeling.

For the first time ever I took part in a Bloggers book swap, and got given some Amazing books to read by a fellow blogger. Including Delirium by Laren Oliver, which actually turned out to be one of my favourites.

I also reviewed a new Monthly Hand-Made Polish Subscription box from my friend Kerrie. Each month was themed on a book, and came with a copy of the book, and some handmade polishes based on that book. Unfortunately Kerrie had to stop making polish, which you can read all about here.

April

I started the 'A-Z of Me' challenge, and I'm currently up to F... You can read all of them so far here.

On the 8th of April I finally committed to something that I had wanted to do for a number of years, the Race for Life...

On the 26th of April, Tim and I welcomed to little cuties to our family, and we haven't looked back since. I don't know what our lives would be without constantly having to clean up sawdust and poo that they flick out of their cage...

May

This month I took part in Blog Everyday in May, and you can check out all of those posts here.

In my second A-Z of Me post I wrote all about my boyfriend. Tim. If you are going to read this one I suggest you fetch your sick buckets...

June

June was a pretty quite month for me blog wise to be honest. I did however manage to do a Primark Haul.

July

I finally jumped on the hype and bought some Make Up Revolution products, and I was very happy with them too!

A year after graduating I wrote a post reflecting on everything that had changed for me in that whole year...

Tim and I finally got around to using his Christmas Present (An Owl of Dates) and had a date night where we made Ice-cream and gave each other compliments.

August

In August I went to Summer in the City, and even celebrated Tim's birthday. but for some reason my blog really suffered this month, and I don't have very much up!

September

September was another slim month for me blog-wise, however I managed to post a Youtube video every week, and I wrote a post compiling my efforts, which you can check out here.

October

I attended my first LUSH blogger event for their Halloween/Christmas collections, and I was thoroughly spoiled, even coming away with a gift bag full of free goodies. I literally cannot wait to attend the next LUSH event!

October was a month that I really seemed to get back into Baking, and I shared with you all the things I had managed to make. Since then I have made even more yummy bakes, especially in the lead up to Christmas!

November

Yet another A-Z of Me post saw me sharing with you my lovely Jack Russell, Maizey, who is the absolute love of my life...

In November I also started a new feature on my blog, 'Sum-up Sunday' and it's still going strong!

December

Tim and I tried a Tesco Finest Chocolate Tasting Experience and enjoyed every single second of it.

I took part in a Blogger Secret Santa, and my Secret Santa got my character spot on! Seriously... even my sister was impressed.

This year has honestly amazing for me, so much has changed, including me to a certain extent. I cant wait to greet 2015 head on and see what it is going to bring me. I've already become an auntie by association in 2014, and in 2015 there are two more babies on the way for me to meet! Tim and I will be moving into a new place in March, possibly our own house, and to top it all off I finally plan to do what I have always wanted to do. 

I hope you all have an amazing New Year, and I'll see you all in 2015!

Terry's Chocolate Orange Challenge

Just before Christmas Tish and I decided that we would do a Christmas Challenge Video together, and I only just got around to editing it... WHOOPS!

Basically the challenge is like Chubby Bunny but with a Terry's Chocolate Orange, and instead of saying 'Chubby Bunny' you say, 'Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal' from Home Alone!

If you've enjoyed the video then please leave a like, or even subscribe to see more of my stuff, also let me know in the comments if you take on the challenge.

Sum Up Sunday #5

From top left to bottom right: Cute box for my new hobby, Pajama Selfie with the boyf, Christmas Jumper, Christmas Make-up, Christmas Selfie game with the sis, Cuddles with my doggy, Maizey thinks she's a cat, Chocolate Mousse Cake, Getting Tim's niece to sleep.

This week was Christmas! If you didn't know that then where have you been? It's been a very fun, and also very tiring week, I can't wait to use the next week to relax...

I've decided to pick up a new hobby, and I needed a box to keep all my stuff in for that hobby, so after a quick trip into TK Maxx I spotted this adorable Parisian style box, and it's the perfect size for all of my things.

For Christmas Eve, Tim and I decided to start a new tradition whereby we buy each other Christmassy Pajamas, and it just so happened that this year, our pajamas matched. 

Then comes all the Christmas Day photos, which of course feature lots of selfies. I bought Maizey a Christmas dress, and she loved it and looked so cute in it! She wanted lot of Christmas Day cuddles, and I even managed to get her to attempt to open her Christmas present (a new dog bed). Christmas Day was also the first time that I have ever worn properly red lipstick, and I think I liked it... 

On Boxing Day Tim and I headed over to his families for our second Christmas Day and we got to have lots of cuddles with his Niece. She was feeling a little under the weather and was fighting not to go to sleep, so I laid her down and rocked her to sleep. Tim was seriously impressed with me!

This Week I'm...

Reading: All the baking books that I have been bought for Christmas, and struggling to decide what to bake.

Listening to: The Frozen Soundtrack (Agian)

Feeling: Tired after a long week of Christmas Festivities!

Looking Forward to: Sleeping in every day for the next week, before having to go back to work!