27/08/2013 - A long time ago on a Tuesday far far away...

It's been a heck of a long time since I updated my blog. I'm struggling to remember what happened, given the madness of the last couple of weeks but I'll give it a go.

The best part about waiting until now to post is that I have no secrets any more! The wedding is done! I can show you what I made as I made them, as opposed to being all secretive! It's a weird feeling!

I had a very bad night's sleep last night. I'm not used to Paul not being here so it's weird! Barney went on a stomping trip most of the night which left me black and blue. He really loves me, doesn't he?!

Paul also had an awful sleep, so at least I wasn't the only one!

I got through a day at work somehow! I had loads to do as it's my last week in work before W day, and so had to work very hard indeed!

Paul popped into Manchester to buy a shirt for my brother for the wedding. He also bought a pair of socks especially for the day.

Yup. Hot pink socks!

They weren't as expensive as the ones he wanted to buy and he gets some other fun colours as well! I can say now, after the wedding, that a few people did notice the socks and enjoyed them! :)

I did a few more bits for the seating plan, which I didn't photograph at the time, but was getting a little bit cranky while doing it, so we went to bed pretty early to try to make up for some of the lost sleep!

24/08/2013 - Two weeks to go!

Ah the joy of being close to the wedding! I have a given Saturday title for my blog! I'm going to be screwed in a few weeks time, aren't I?! It's already difficult to be original!

Yes - two weeks today I will be getting married and all this hard work will be out there for all to see (and then a few weeks later for you blog followers who are there in spirit)!

I woke up feeling crappy. My fiancé got me drunk last night. It's all his fault. He force fed me gin. Had I not known there was gin I wouldn't have wanted it. Yes Paul, my small hangover was YOUR FAULT. I still had my cold as well, so instead of strong painkillers, I took Day Nurse and hoped that would help.

It did!

We had a hot date in town to keep today, as we needed to get wedding stuff done. You know, because it's two weeks to go and all that?!

To keep Paul sweet (even though he got me drunk last night) I took him for breakfast. We usually go to the same cafe just in the business district of town. We like it because it's cheap and quirky. They have murals on the walls and since last time we went, they've made it even bigger!

 A cafe with painted cats on the walls?! How could I not love it?!

I had a lighter meal, what with feeling a little delicate (did I mention Paul got me drunk last night?!) but Paul had a full English breakfast.

Does that make you feel hungry?!

From there, once we were fed and watered, we headed to town to look for wedding ties for Paul and the boys. We also needed to get a few other bits for Paul's outfit and something to keep me warm in the evening of our wedding, as once the sun goes in, it's a bit nippy  up there!

We found Paul's tie in the first shop we looked in. We looked around a little more just in case, but in the end, as is always the way, we went back and got it. We were so lucky because it's in a REALLY expensive shop, and when Paul had seen this particular tie in the week, there was a sale on. When we got there today, the sale was nowhere to be seen. It had finished, and all the sale goods were packed up to be sent back to wherever these things go. Lucky for us, they hadn't sent them back when they were supposed to, so sold us the tie for the sale price, and even put it in a posh box for us! :)

We got ties for the two ushers as well, and all the other bits and bobs that we needed to get.

Success was ours, and we headed home feeling smug!

We had a few hours to chill at home and then we had to head out to one of Paul's friend's 50th birthday party! Not our usual kind of Saturday night, but hey - it gets us out of the house, and she's coming to our wedding so we should go to her party too?!

The sky was gorgeous tonight. Really nice pink tones. The picture doesn't do it justice.

The party was in, basically, a working mens club. It was nothing fancy. But it was fun. The DJ was very good and she had put on a good spread.

Our wedding photographer was there (hi Lesley!) as were another couple who had their pictures taken by the same photographer so that was nice!

We had a couple of drinks (yes - I was well behaved for once!) but it would be rude to leave without having a dance with the birthday girl!

I think Paul enjoyed himself. They were the only two out there for a while. Until we joined them!

We got our train home (an hour later than planned) and headed straight for bed. So rock n roll!

29/06/2013 - Window Shopping

Saturday. Previous has been the morning of the lie in. Not today. First thing's first, we needed to get to the vet so the kitties could have their booster jabs.

Maia was up first, and she was very well behaved. The vet gave her a clean bill of health, and advised that she needed some assistance with grooming herself as she's not to good at it. I think I can manage that.

Barney was next. He did NOT want to come out of his box. We had to basically tip him out! He need not have worried. He also got a clean bill of health! The vet loved him! So yay for the babies! All good for another year!

We came home and had breakfast, then headed into town to do some shopping and also compile our wedding gift list!

This random bee thing was in the middle of Liverpool One shopping centre. No idea why.

After shopping for some bits and bobs, we headed to John Lewis to go get make a ridiculous list. We got there and they handed us our scanner and also a voucher for free tea and cake! AWESOME!

 Tea, scanner and bakewell tart. It was sweet.

Paul got a caramel tiramisu. Paul loves Tiramisu. If it's on offer, he will order it. It was ok "good! Not amazing, but good!" - Amendment by Paul 30/06/2013

This teapot is crap. Don't buy it. It spills tea everywhere!

So once we were fed and watered we started on the ground floor and worked our way to the top.

We put a nice wide selection of household goods on there, plus a lifetime's worth of cushions. We're not actually expecting people to buy us stuff off there really, as John Lewis is expensive, but at least the option is there.

We did have some fun too!

There were lots of chalk products. There might have been a few words written on them...

We headed for a beer and then tried to find somewhere to eat. There was at least an hour's wait pretty much everywhere. Yeah. We're not up for that. So we got some chilli burgers from Tesco and headed home.

So much cheaper than eating out!

The burgers were good! We watched the newest Defiance and Continuum and I started falling asleep on the sofa again. Which is nice.

A successful day. We haven't actually looked at everything we've scanned yet. I'm a bit scared to, knowing the price tags that are so common in John Lewis.

26/06/2013 - Wedding dress Wednesday

Nice morning off the gym today! It's a good thing! I need a break!

Today I only did a half-day in the office as I have pressing matters in town with need attending to.

Today is the day of my first wedding dress fitting! The day when I get to find out whether all my hard work has been worth it.

Yeah.

I got to put the dress shop and it was very quiet. They got my dress out and asked me to put on a hooped underskirt.

Um. What?! I hadn't had to wear one of those before.

Apparently my dress is supposed to have one. I put it on and they helped me into my dress.

I won't be wearing the hoops on my wedding day. It looked...wrong.

The dress itself fit like a glove. Which made me sad. I wanted it to be too big! All these hours in the gym and it FITS?! Urgh.

With a few pins here and there, and the scissors to the bottom of the dress, I got to walk around all fancy.

There are a few little 'issues' I have with my dress. I'm not going to list them here. I got quite upset about one of them and I am still trying to deal with it, but it's not information that I feel able to share with you all, as I cannot provide evidence as to why.

I'll get over it. Until I do, I'm not going to think about it for a little while, if that's ok. My next fitting isn't for another couple of months, so I have plenty of time to get over myself.

Trying on the dress did have it's uses though. I got to pick my veil, which is pretty, and put that on order. I also got to try on my jewellery with the dress. I have a borrowed item from my Mum which belonged to her Mum, given to her by my Mum's brother who passed away before I was born.

I'm not going to reveal. Sorry. But here's the box!

It's from Southport! We're getting married in Southport! It was meant to be!

I was on a bit of a downer, so didn't get everything done it town that I had wanted to get done. I got home and carried on being a grump. Paul was wonderful.

Chris came round for usual #Whedonsday fun. To be honest, I don't really remember much about it. I was in so much of a funk. Sorry Chris, for being bad company.

We ate Italian Shepherd's Pie for dinner and Sicilian Lemon cheesecake for pudding. Still no smiles from me.

Today should have been an exciting day. It should have been one full of smiles and joy. Instead, I am incredibly miserable.

Oh, I forgot to say above - the dress fit like a glove because it was the wrong size. I ordered one size, they ordered the same size and I got the size smaller. Seriously. So I guess I should rejoice in that I have clearly lost a dress size, and wedding dresses are notoriously smaller than other dresses, so yay me?! I just wish I had had the feeling of being smaller. I know it's saved me money on alterations, but it would have been nice to have seen the fruits of my labour. I only discovered that the dress was smaller after I had taken it off and saw the label. So I was probably in a negative frame of mind during the whole appointment as I thought I hadn't lost anything.

Sorry. This isn't a happy post. Brides to be, if you want my advice, send me a message. I have some words of wisdom that I am not going to post here in public. I don't want my full feelings on today to be remembered in this blog. I want to forget about it to be honest, so in a few years time I will recall everything being a-ok!

I had a lovely cuddle with Maia though, which was nice.

18/05/2013 - Woe is me!

I woke up this morning with a migraine. Not good. One is not amused.

I ate a couple of crackers and took some medication and it eased. Temporarily. Which was good as I had to head into Liverpool to meet my bezzie who needed to do some shopping before heading out to Sorrento in a couple of weeks to be a bridesmaid at her friend's wedding.

As it was a bit of a rushed sesh, we went for some lunch before she got her train back home. We went to a place called House on Bold Street. Everywhere was absolutely packed. This place - not so much!

It's a bit trendy and mismatched, but it's fun enough and the menu is quite varied.

Luce decided that lunch was on her as she had got some pretty good tips the night before. She came back from ordering lunch with these:

Gin and tonic. For breakfast (I hadn't eaten yet, other than the couple of crackers earlier on). I'm not proud of this but couldn't say no.

I ordered cheese and ham ploughmans. It was good, although I had the outside slice of bread so one side was a little dry. Clearly they didn't do what we did when working in catering and use the other side as toast.

Lucy had citrus and coriander wrap. We were going to go halvsies but she decided she liked hers so much she wolfed the lot down!

 We also got a this little delight. Cheese fondue!

Before anyone comments - cheese isn't my migraine trigger. I think today's was caused by last night's large glass of wine!

We did enjoy the melted cheese delight. To the extent we were gutted that we ran out of things to dip in it. The celery was awful and flimsy so we gave it a miss.

The next picture is all Lucy. I did not chastise her for it as I found it very funny!

Yep - we got a spoon. Drank it like soup. HEALTHY!

She had to get the train home, so I did a little more shopping and then came home. Which was a good thing as the migraine came back with a vengeance so back to bed I went.

I can't honestly tell you what I did for the rest of the evening. I had some dinner. I think I stayed in bed and probably caught up on my blog! I am awfully lax. Sorry.

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge isn't an easy one for me. It is all to do with swimming. I can't really swim. I'm not very confident and I don't like swimming pools really. The chemicals in the water make my skin dry and sore. I much prefer sea swimming, which only happens on holiday.

I have scoured our holiday pics for a pic of me in the sea and none exist (apart from one from about 6 years ago on me in Turkey night swimming, and it's of me in my bikini when I was super skinny but even though it's on Facebook, I'm not putting it out there AGAIN!) so here's a pic of me in Tunisia 3 years ago in the sea. This was us walking back to the hotel after swimming so technically it counts..

Yeah. I fail.

17/05/2013 - Fun day Friday!

Yes we got up early and yes we went to the gym. Again. Are you bored of hearing that yet?! I'm not bored of telling you! I'm proud of us going 4 times this week and I hope we can do it again next week! :)

Colleague J was off again so it was just us merry few. Sadly J being off meant that no one had collected the post from the Post Office, so muggins here was tasked that job. Which meant I got an extra 4 mile walk in my daily exercise. Yay.

Sadly for me as I was walking towards the main road I was greeted with the sight of a dead cat in the garden-y bit. With the same colourings as Maia. This upset me so much. Poor little thing. It was little too. I send my love to it's owners, whoever they are. It also makes me glad I made the decision to keep my two indoors. There are too many maniac drivers on the main roads around here. I have lost a cat once, I don't wish to do it again.

Poor little thing.

Anyway, after a dull afternoon in work, I met up with Paul and headed into town to do some shopping. On today's list - wedding shoes and mini-bridesmaid dresses.

As we walked down the main shopping street we were greeted by these:

I have no idea. But it's all good fun!

Anyway, we were just getting an idea of dresses for S, our mini-maid. To me, she's too old to be a flower girl so mini-maid she is! Dresses for little girls are just too cute!

So pretty!

Really cute!

We have a few ideas now, which is good. I need to send the suggestions to S's Mum and let her take S to try them on and she can have whichever she likes best. She'll look gorgeous in whatever she wears so I'm not too fussy!

We also came across something amazing for me and a definite for the wedding list.

This is my wine glass. It might just about hold enough for me...

We also went to check out a pair of shoes I'd seen online at Kurt Geiger as a possibility for my wedding shoes. The problem with Kurt Geiger shoes is that they have a tendency to be ridiculously high. I couldn't find them in the Kurt Geiger shop, however they appeared in Debenhams. On sale. For half price.

Well. That pretty much sold them to me! They're high, but not scary high. If they get uncomfortable, I can now justify buying a nice pair of flats to wear in the evening - perhaps some TOMS or something.

Want to see? Ok!

Cute, huh? They have a gold glittery sole as well! I just need to wear them in and scuff the base a little as they are a little slippy. Anyone got any tips so that I don't go flying down the aisle?!

After finding that bargain and being all window-shopped out, I treated Paul to a bevvy.

We then went home, ate Gumbo and watched Black Swan on BluRay. It was really good. Not at all what I imagined it to be! Natalie Portman is just too pretty. Urgh.

I then passed out. Literally. Still wearing my new sparkly shoes and everything. Oops.

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge pic - Climbing stairs. EASY!

 Here's me walking up my stairs, only to be halted by a giant stair-dwelling miniature panther! He would not let me pass. Big meanie.