I thought I would start up the holiblog series again, for this summer.
Here is how I have spent the later part of July, since the summer holidays began.
It’s been a fun start.
H a pp y • H o li da ys •
Saturday 17th July 2021
Out for a sunny walk, near our flat. We discovered a new part of the park.
Sunday 18th July 2021
Big Kids
💙
Moooooo
Fun at Alton Water enjoying the sunshine, mini golf, walking and ice cream.
Monday 19th July 2021
Breakfast with my friend Gemma & her boys.
Tues 20th July 2021
💙
Snacks!
The cinema really started to fill up
The boys first visit to our flat in over a year and a half 😍
Wed 21st July 2021
Summer Reading Challenge
Sharing stories
Reading
💙
The start of my Summer Reading Challenge Volunteering. Signing up these guys and meeting for lunch at the bakery.
Hot Dog Party 🎉🌭
Sat 25th July 2021
Coffee and a book
Sushi 😍
A chilled out Saturday. A bit of me time.
Mon 26th July 2021
Walking on the Heath
Lunch 🍽
Meeting up with Dan, a long walk followed by lunch.
Tues 27th July 2021
Wolves Wood
Walkinga
I made a friend 🐸
A walk in the woods together, followed by Arts & Crafts with Evie and lunch at Sainsburys with Charlotte.Painting at Pennikity Pots with my friend Steph and her boys.
Wed 28th July 2021
Summer Reading challenge week 2
The Waterfront
Dinner at the Bistro with Louise, Kerry & Rach.
Sat 31st July 2021
The boys first sleepover in over a year and a half . Dinner and lots of games.
I thought I would do a halfway through the year, book update!
Every year I have done a reading challenge of sorts, and this year, instead of monthly or quarterly updates I thought I would do two Six month updates.
So, here is my first reading update of 2021, January – June.
[Disclaimer: I’m not that fast a reader sometimes, it comes in fits and spurts, and I’ve had lots of revision to do, so its not as long a list as I’d like]
January – June 2021
The Winter GardenBy Heidi Swain
The Land of Stories: A Grimm Warning By Chris Colfer
Because of YouBy Dawn French
The LidoBy Libby Page
Pushby Ashley Audrain
The Holidayby T.M Logan
A Taste of Homeby Heidi Swain
Only Time Will TellBy Jeffrey Archer
The Sins of the FatherBy Jeffrey Archer
Until Next WeekendBy Rachel Marks
The Dead Fathers ClubBy Matt Haig
Saving the Day By Katie Fforde
The MotiveBy Khurrum Rahman
Best Kept SecretBy Jeffrey Archer
My favourites so far are, of course the Heidi Swain novels ‘The Winter Garden’ & ‘A Taste of Home’ as well as ‘Until Next Weekend’ ‘Push’ & ‘The Holiday’ which I could not put down. I love that feeling.
The suprise was the Harry Clifton series by Jeffrey Archer, the perfect example of not judging a book by its cover.
I thought I would do a little post to comemorate our anniversay.
I usually post a little something each year because, after all, our wedding is the reason I started this blog. I wanted to document the planning and experience of our wedding.
I can’t believe its been 5 years. It was a wonderful day.
Hubby ♡
Mum
Bridesmaids
Dad
The ceremony
The best man
The in laws
Auntie, Uncle & Nephew
1st dance
NEVER FORGET
Confetti
Our Cake
‘I do’
The date is the same as our original anniversary as I really wanted to get married on our anniversary.
So, today also marks 10 years together and that is absolutely mad. How time flies.
Especially when you are having fun 💗
To my husband…
I wish I could put into words how wonderful you are, but my words would never do you justice.
From our 2011 trips to the Heathlands, Nights out, Uni Visits & Cinema dates to now, 2021 … having just come out of a year of doing none of those things because we are in the midst of a Pandemic (who’d have thought it aye)
Thanks for always making me laugh, for always taking care of me and for always dancing like a fool around the lounge with me.
Marrying you is one of the best choices I’ve ever made. You are my bestfriend. 10 years later and I still find myself thinking, Wow, soulmates really do exist.
So, One week ago me and my twin sister turned 30!! The big 3 – 0 as they call it.
Here is how we celebrated!
Birthday Morning
I started off the day with a lovely breakfast in bed, made by my husband.
Followed by cards & pressies 🥰
At work I was spoiled with lovely birthday banners, balloons, presents, cards (from the childrem too) & an amazing cake!!!
Birthday Afternoon
Once I had finished work I met my twin sister for lunch at this cute little cafe.
As per restrictions, we took advantage of their lovely little courtyard, and the sunshine.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch and opened our presents to each other.
We then picked up our niece from nursery anfld met up with our husbands and my nephews for a nice little walk and a play in the park.
Birthday Evening
We spent the evening having a little afternoon tea garden party at my parents house.
We enjoyed the delicious treats from my birthday hamper, courtesy of my lovely work friends.
It was lovely to enjoy it with my mum, dad, and two sisters. We havn’t done something just us five, probably in years! It was really nice (& all of the food was delicious.
We had a really fun day!
Other celebrations included…
A tattoo!
Not something I ever thought I’d get…. so exciting!!!
Me and my twin sister talked about it last year but I wasn’t 100% sure I wouldn’t chicken out!
We both LOVE Harry Potter so we went for a simple lightening bolt design ⚡⚡
I love it.
I also enjoyed a fun games night with my friend to celebrate turning 30 (Very 2020) on Zoom, as well as a nice family BBQ meal and board game session the following weekend.
Mental Health Awareness week runs from 10th -16th May 2021.
Mental health is so important, ao much so that I probably can’t really articulate in this blog post, the extent to which it is.
We’ve all been affected by mental health in some way, whether its ourselves, someone we know, or someone we don’t, like a celebrity we might admire.
It’s a part of all of our lives and yet there is still so much stigma surrounding it, its still not discussed enough in the same way we would a physical illness. Its affects can be just as devastating as something physical… if not even more so, especially to come to terms with.
You are not alone.
Your feelings are valid.
And it is ok not to be ok.
A smile can hide a multitude of feelings, but sometimes even doing that can be too much, and thats ok too. Talk, to anyone, someone.
Talking about mental health doesn’t have to been seen as negative, its just being honest.
& the world needs more of that. Just think, it could help you and do many others.
Talk. Take control. Keep going. Take it one day at a time. Do something you enjoy. If its bad now, it hasn’t always been. Focus on that. It will pass.
& this, for anyone who needs it, from the brilliant author Matt Haig.
Stay.
Don’t suffer alone. It won’t always be an easy conversation but it will be so worth it.
I hope that people would know, but incase you don’t ~ I’m always here if you need a chat, day or night.
Christmas, Spring/Summer are my favourite times of year to read and as I was enjoying my book this afternoon it got me thinking about this time last year…
April 2020 was a both a confusing and enlightening time for me (It sounds strange I know, stick with me)
Lockdown was fully in swing at this point, Pandemic – WHATTTT, very confusing! But, amongst the madness of Lockdown, for the first time in probably 11 years I had time… time to do the things I enjoyed, unapologetically, emphatically and with a new found appreciation for them.
And with this feeling and freedom in place I got such a heightened enjoyment from the novels I was reading. It of course helped that they were bloody brilliant books… so, lets take a walk down memory lane…
🌸
April. This seems to be a good month for me in terms of discovering new books, especially ones that turn into firm favourites, that I always recommend when someones asks me; ‘Do you know of any good books?’
🌸
In the midst of the OG Lockdown…
I read ‘The Silent Patient’ in a day I was so enraptured by it, gripped to the last page…
We also had another Heidi Swain release, which always makes a month amazing (& this sunny seaside stay is one of my faves of hers) ‘The Seaside Escape’
…and I found another firm fave and cosy number in ‘The Flat share’ which has lead me to many brilliant books by Beth O’Leary as a result.
Fast forward to today…. & I’m thoroughly enjoying ‘The Lido’ by Libby Page. Its a cosy, feel good book that restores your faith in community, friendships (unconventional & not) and yourself along the way.
I’m so invested in this story, its endearing characters and community that I know I’ll be sad when it ends and we aren’t spending our time together anymore (if you know, you know!)
I want to see how it all plays out but I don’t want to say goodbye.
You know you’ve got a good’un when thats the case.
I’m super looking forward to the end of the month as I have a few Preorders coming my way and I’m SO EXCITED!!
They are: ~A Taste of Home by Heidi Swain ~The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary ~Until Next Weekend by Rachel Marks
(& a new Sarah Morgan book at the end of May 🙌🏻🙌🏻)
All we need is for this sunshine to stay, Covid to be kept at bay and a nice cold drink to sip as we enjoy these brilliant books!
I love an excuse to bake and Easter is the perfect one.
Also, I can now eat chocolate again as I gave it up on the 8th of Jan until Good Friday! Horray.
So, here are two Easter bakes that I have made this Easter weekend.
They are super easy, relatively quick and even child friendly.
Let’s take a look!
Chocolate Easter Nests
Chocolate Easter Nests
I surely don’t even need to include a recipe for this Easter classic!?!
This Easter season special is great to do with kids and one of my favourite ‘cakes’ whenever I seem them on sale.
I had to use shredded wheat this time as we already had it in the cupboard but my preference is cornflakes, and of course I used Cadbury chocolate and mini eggs.
Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies
Cadbury Creme Egg BrowniesGooey goodness!
These brownies came out super gooey and were so delicious, especially warm!
I had this ‘Brownie in a jar’ mix from Christmas, that I hadn’t used yet and all you needed to do was add 125g of butter and 2 eggs (whisked together first). Super easy!
I then cut the creme eggs in half and pushed them into the batter, fondant side up.
A brownie recipe that I use alot is a BBC Good Good one, I’ll leave a link here .
I used to share snap shots of my life on her, things we had done to celebrate different occasions, fun days out, holidays, however, obviously this last year has been quite an unpresidented one.
I feel like I haven’t really shared much of what I have been doing because really we’ve all been doing the same haven’t we! Staying home, Locked down, on and off since Summer, working and just trying to stay safe.
But I thought to myself, why not share the celebrations we are still having, as wierd as they may seem in comparison to how it used to be, because it’s all we’ve got at the moment and we should still be grateful for what we can do during such a mad time.
Today is Mothers day and I have shared on here, for several years, our tradition of our Mothers Day, homemade afternoon tea.
This year was a very 2020/21 affair, via Skype, but it still involved Afternoon Tea so no complaints here.
We ordered the individual Afternoon Teas from a small local business (All Covid safe) and enjoyed them at our own homes via Skype.
They were delicious and it was nice to be able to continue the tradition, even if it was a little different to usual.
Most of our ‘Usuals’ seem a distant memory right now don’t they 😣 but, it’s also so important to embrace what we can do, communicate and spend time together however we can, whilst staying safe, because we can still stay in touch and stay connected, and we will all be back together properly one day.
It gets to everybody at some point, this wierd time we are a part of, but I’m so very conscious that there are people in such a worse situation than me, who have experienced some of the worst times during this pandemic.
If the worst part of this whole situation, for me is that I can only speak to people through a computer then I’ll be forever grateful. I know some people have it much worse.
It’s still ok to find it hard though and I hope you’ve had a little bit of light and joy come your way today!
Roseanne Byford 