Let’s have a little recap… ๐Ÿงข

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

So – We are a week into a new year, 2023!

How did last year shape up?

Here is my 2022 ‘Resolutions’ Blog post…

My list of goals was as follows…

Which ones did I manage to achieve you ask?!

Well I have tried my very best, and most days thanks to my relatively active job, have done my 11,00 step goal.

I do drink a lot of water but keeping it as consistent as possible is key going forward.

What else? …

I think I have taken more photos with people this year and I was also really chuffed that I managed to keep up with my ‘1 second of the day’ video diary. 365 days of a second clip, all mashed together to represent my 2022. Its pretty cool

What’s next?

Now the next point is a great example of why going back to a post is useful (especially one of this nature) if I had I would have remembered my ’10 minutes of reading every day’, this might have spurred me on to read more this year.

10 pages is a manageable goal, so I will endeavour to take this forward (and hopefully be more successful) this year.

I think I will also instate a ‘reading time’ between 9-10pm in order to give myself some quiet, alone time and some much needed therapy in the form of a good novel (or 60)


Spending less time on my phone is 100% something I really want to work on (Tik Tok has a lot to answer!!) It’s not great, it’s so bad for accentuating my already distracted nature, and staring at my phone never makes my head and or eyes feel good either.

I also haven’t started wiring a book… maybe 2023 will be that Year, who knows!


Me and my husband Tim don’t really buy meat anymore on our weekly food shop. We chose ans cook lots of veggie alternatives and are also making a conscious effort with regard to dairy free products and better recycling practises and minimilising food wastage. I am actually really pleased with how well we have done this and how far we have come! I honestly never thought I would actually be able to do this beyond the odd ‘meat free Monday’.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not turning full veggie and I usually eat meat if we go out or order in, but we have made a lot of great changes to our diets.

I have definitely managed to sleep a bit earlier some nights but this is very much a big thing that I need to work on and probably will be a constant battle for me. I don’t sleep ‘well’ alot of the time but I can sleep well so improving this with some of the above and a better routine may help.


The final one is ‘Pass my driving test’ which I am chuffed to say I did, last year. This is one of my best achievements and I am so happy I don’t have to do driving lessons anymore. It wasn’t easy but it was so worth it in the end.


How did you get on with any of your ‘goals’ or ‘resolutions’ from last year?

Have you set any new goals for 2023?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

What have I read in 2022… part 2 ๐Ÿ“š

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

So I already posted part one back in July, halfway through the year… that post is below if you would like to take a look at that first…

Here is what I read in the second half of 2022.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley-Heller

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey

The Therapist by B A Paris

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Library by Bella Osborne

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling

The Retreat by Sarah Pearse

The 24 Hour Cafe by Libby Page

The Girls Who disappeared by Claire Douglas

A Christmas Celebration by Heidi Swain

An Unfortunate Christmas Murder by Hannah Hendy


I definitely seemed to slow down a little at the end of the year so that’s something I need to work on.

My Top Rated Book: ‘Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Five Books That I would Recommend:

  • Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
  • The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
  • The Therapsist by B A Paris
  • The Girls Who Disappeared by Claire Douglas
  • The Harry Clifton Series by Jeffrey Archer

What has been your favourite book of this year?


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

NYD 2023 ๐ŸŽ‰

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

Here we are, 2023! How mad.

I hope you enjoyed NYE, however you spent it. We had a chilled one with out friends, playing games, eating party food and having a few drinks.

We made the most of the first new day of the new year by spending the day together.

We started off still at our friend’s as we stayed over last night. We all had a nice chilled, lazy get up which was great as I was knackered from staying up but also from a rubbish nights sleep the previous night (I never usually have trouble staying up until midnight!)

Once we left, we decided to stop off for lunch on our way home. We both fancied a roast to roll in the new year, and let’s be honest, a roast is way better when you don’t cook it or there’s no washing up at the end, so to Toby carvery we went.

Perfect for a Sunday or Bank Holiday and there was a slot that fitted I’m perfectly with when we would be arriving home.

I went for Roast Turkey as I didn’t have any at Christmas. It was so really juicy turkey and it was delicious with cranberry sauce, the thick gravy and awesome roasties.

After our yummy roasts we decided for go for a walk.

After that we headed home for a little while before we went to the cinema.

We went to watch the film ‘Till’ which was playing as an Unlimited Screening, so you can get to watch the film before it comes out to everybody, if you have an unlimited card (which we both do)

The film was incredibly powerful, thought-provoking, inspiring but also truely heartbreaking. The film was from the perspective of Emmett Tills mother Mamie, which it what makes it so compelling and as I said, emotional – It is told from the perspective and experience of a black women and is co-written and directed by a black women.

I took some of the Christmas chocolate in a tub for us as we have loads left still. It saves us buying anymore and is a good way of getting through it as you need a cinema snack!!


How did you spend your New Year’s Day?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

What books did I get for Christmas?

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

I hope you all had a lovely, book filled, reading relaxation filled Christmas.

I thought I would do a blog post on my new books, that I received for Christmas. There’s quite a variety of genres so I have some cool new additions to my bookcase.

Let’s take a look!

The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain.

‘He jumped to his death in front of witnesses. Now his wife is charged with murder.

Five years ago, Erin Kennedy moved to New York following a family tragedy. She now lives happily with her detective husband in the scenic seaside town of Newport, Long Island. When Erin answers the door to Danny’s police colleagues one morning, it’s the start of an ordinary day. But behind her, Danny walks to the window of their fourth-floor apartment and jumps to his death.

Eighteen months later, Erin is in court, charged with her husband’s murder. Over that year and a half, Erin has learned things about Danny she could never have imagined. She thought he was perfect. She thought their life was perfect.

But it was all built on the perfect lie.

Christmas at the Little Waffle Shack by Helen Rolfe

‘Heritage Cove is in full swing for the festive season and as the temperature dips, who will be lucky in love this Christmas?

It’s December in Heritage Cove and along with the village Christmas tree, frosty mornings and the promise of the most wonderful time of the year, the new waffle shack is about to open. And its owner isn’t a stranger to the Cove, because after all this time, Daniel is back to make amends with his brother Harvey โ€“ as well as a few other locals he might have offended along the way.

Fairly new to the village, local blacksmith Lucy has kept up the pretence of being with her ex for the sake of his gran but sheโ€™s fed up with all the lies. Determined to come clean and live the life she wants to live, sheโ€™s devastated to find that her attraction to Daniel is tainted by the fact heโ€™s hiding a few things of his own. And his secrets are ones she isnโ€™t sure sheโ€™ll ever be able to get past.

Heritage Cove is full of friendship and community; itโ€™s a welcoming place people visit and never want to leave. But will it work its magic for Daniel and Lucy?

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton.

This is Tom Feltons Autobiography. He played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series. I am really looking forward to reading this.

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them by JK Rowling.

This is the Original Screenplay of ‘Fantastic Beasts and where to find them’. This is the script of the film. A great addition to my collection.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling.

As the Order of the Phoenix keeps watch over Harry Potter, troubled times have come to Hogwarts in a year filled with secrets, subterfuge and suspicion. The deliciously dark fifth instalment of Jim Kay’s inspired reimagining of J.K. Rowling’s classic series is an epic artistic achievement, featuring over 160 illustrations in an astonishing range of visual styles.

A lovely haul.

I also got a voucher that I can use to buy more books! ๐Ÿ˜


What books did you get this year, for Christmas?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Blogmas Day Twenty Five: IT’S CHRISTMASSSSS ๐ŸŽ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

So it’s finally here – Christmas Day!!

I hope you have a lovely day whatever you do.

I saw this idea online, so here is my ‘ideal Christmas day’

My ideal Christmas Day โค๏ธ

6.00am – Open Stocking

8am Onwards – Get ready, prepare the breakfast pastrys

9am – Open Presents together at our home

10am onwards – Go and visit my Mum and Dad

11.30 onwards – Christmas Lunch at my father in laws

1pm – Christmas Dinner

2pm Onwards – Presents and relaxing

3pm – Kings Speech

4/5pm onwards – Games/Snacks/Cheeseboard

6pm – Seeing more of my Family in the evening, more present opening.

7pm – Buffet Tea

8pm – More Games and Christmas TV.

I hope you enjoyed your Christmas Day.

That’s it for Blogmas 2022! Thanks for all the support, likes and shares of my posts.

And to those who find it difficult at this time of year – I am thinking of you too and hoping that 2024 brings you health and happiness.

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Blogmas Day Twenty Four: Christmas Traditions โœจ๏ธ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

Traditions are one of my favourite parts of Christmas and so I thought for my penultimate Blogmas post I would share some of ours.

December

  • Christmas Rock N Roll Panto, this is on every Christmas at our local Theatre. Me and Tim go every December.
  • Mince Pie taste testing, because how else will we know which ones are best?!? It’s a public service really.
  • Put up the Christmas decs, and LOTS of them. Nothing makes you feel more Christmassy!!

Christmas Eve

  • Christmas Eve boxes, for my Nephews and Niece. I make these throughout December and deliver them on Christmas eve for them to enjoy.
  • Making festive treats, usually for our Christmas day dessert. This uwat I made a Lindt Chocolate Cheesecake for Christmas Day and the Platinum Jubilee Lemon and Amaretto trifle for Boxing day (it was a hit in the summer!)
  • A Christmas Byron. Me, my twin sister and our friend Demi go out for lunch or dinner together at Byron. No idea how this started but we’ve done it for at least 5/6 years now.
  • Watching ‘The Snowman’. I always watched this on Christmas eve as a kid so I carry it on now! I usually watch it before I go to bed.
  • Going to look at the Christmas lights. We drive around our local town and have a look at all of the awesome lights people have put up on their houses. This is one of my favourite traditions.

Christmas Day

  • Opening up our stockings first thing. I still have the same sack that I had as a child and I love having that to open first thing, good old Santa ๐ŸŽ…๐Ÿป
  • Going to Mum and Dads in the morning. It would be so weird not to!! I’ve only ever either woken up there (literally the same house) or gone there first thing on Christmas morning, my whole life
  • Christmas lunch. THE. BEST. MEAL. OF. THE YEAR. My father in law makes an amazing roast each year too do I can’t wait.
  • Christmas games, one of my absolute favourite parts of Christmas. Having fun together- it doesn’t get better than that. I very luckily married into a family that probably loves games even more than my family do – winner!

Other:

  • A Christmas walk. When we do our Christmas with Tim’s Mum we always go for a lovely wintery walk somewhere. It’s so nice and we always discover so many hidden gems near us that we would probably never visit.

What are your Christmas traditions?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

IT’S CHRISTMAS DAY TOMORROW!!

Blogmas Day Twenty Two: More Christmas decorating…โ„๏ธ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

So, I obviously did a post at the beginning of Blogmas showcasing some of our decorations, our tree and some of our tree decorations…well…

… I may have bought some more when I went into town this week!

I thought I would share them with you as they are a different theme to our other more traditional decorations.

In our hallway/entrance room we usually have a sort of winter vibe, but this year I could only find a few bits amongst our decs ( I have no idea what’s happened to the other stuff) so I thought I would add some more stuff to make it a bit better.

One of the things I took inspo from is the escape room we did a few weeks ago… random I know, but they had baubles on the ceiling… and they looked so cool, so I took the idea and fitted it into the winter theme…

I went into Wilko this week and they had a big pack of giant baubles in whites, silvers and light blue… perfect for a winter theme… and half price!

I added white lights which go along the wall. We have had these up before but they go really well with the theme in this room as all the other lights we have are warm lights.

And of course tinsel! Light blue, silver and white.

Also from Wilko I got some hanging snowflake garlands…. these are white and silver and look very nice hanging in the doorway to the lounge.

I also grabbed a little fake Mistletoe hanging decoration as it looked cute ๐Ÿ˜— and went well with everything else (white berries & glitter!!)

And my little winter friends to top it all off. They always go perfectly in here, but even more so this year.

โ„๏ธ What do you think? โ„๏ธ


What is your favourite colour scheme for Christmas?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Only 3 days to go!!! Ahhh so close now.

Blogmas Day Twenty One: Christmas Hampers ๐ŸŽ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

So another nice little DIY Christmas gift I like to out together are Christmas hampers.

Now of course you can theme them however you like, depending on who they are for, but the ones that I usually do are foodie hampers.

Lets have a look!

I like to go for a good mix of different things:

  • Typical seasonal items such as Pannetone, Christmas pudding, mince pies etc
  • New Christmas/festive themed bits that are out that particular year, such as new flavours of crisps, nuts, different cakes.
  • Specific things that you know they like eg a chocolate orange, certain chocolate, fave sweets etc

And I usually do a mixture of both sweet and savoury.

I start picking up bits for these in late November, early December so that when I visit different shops you get a good variety and choice, and you often find different bits depending on where you go.

Most of the stuff that I pick up for these hampers is the sort of thing that has a long life but I am always sure to check as sometimes I get carried away and then remember I need to be careful or the things will be out of date before they’ve received it ๐Ÿ˜…


I think these hampers make such a nice little gift, with lots of little suprised and interesting bits to look through and taste.

They are one of my favourite bits to out together! I often find it hard to stop once I start buying the bits for them as there are alot of delicious treats out there.


Have you made Hampers before? What sort of hampers do you like?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

4 days to go!

Blogmas Day Twenty: Christmas Eve Boxes ๐Ÿ“ฆ โ™ฅ๏ธ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

Every year I make Christmas eve boxes for my two nephews (who are brothers) and my niece. They arrived aged between 5 – 8 so still nice and easy to cater for this year.

So, I thought I would share with you the sorts of things that I have got to put into their boxes this year.

Let’s take a look!


We started off with Colouring/Colour by number/puzzle books…

Followed by some fun Christmas craft activities…

This year I go Christmas Scratch art, Christmas characters and a paint your own Santa ornament.

These ranged from ยฃ1 – ยฃ2 in Wilko so super affordable.


I also added in some funny little novelty ‘Elf Racers’ for them to play with, as well as some tasty treats including chocolate coins (Classic!) and a hot chocolate bomb.


Finally, I added a Christmassy book to each box…

The Works do 3 books for ยฃ5 which is awesome when there are three little ones to buy for haha!


Lots of fun and treats to keep them occupied during Christmas eve and the following days.

And a great way to get into the festive spirit and make Christmas eve special.


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

5 days until Christmas!

Blogmas Day Nineteen: Winter Photography ๐Ÿ“ธ โ„๏ธ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿผ

Winter is one of my favourite seasons and at its frostiest it is the most beautiful.

Here are some photos that my family and friends have allowed me to share, that they have taken, over the course of December.

โ„๏ธโ„๏ธโ„๏ธ

๐Ÿ“ธ Carol Rumsey
๐Ÿ“ธ Carol Rumsey
๐Ÿ“ธ Carol Rumsey
๐Ÿ“ธ Carol Rumsey
๐Ÿ“ธ Carol Rumsey
๐Ÿ“ธ Carol Rumsey
๐Ÿ“ธ Sarah Parker
๐Ÿ“ธ Sarah Parker
๐Ÿ“ธ Sarah Parker
๐Ÿ“ธ Sarah Parker
๐Ÿ“ธ Steph Wiley
๐Ÿ“ธ Steph Wiey
๐Ÿ“ธ Wes Stankiewicz
๐Ÿ“ธ Demi Abbott
๐Ÿ“ธ Neil Gillingham
๐Ÿ“ธ Neil Gillingham
๐Ÿ“ธ Roseanne Byford
๐Ÿ“ธ Roseanne Byford
๐Ÿ“ธ Roseanne Byford
๐Ÿ“ธ Roseanne Byford