I Give Up... for today

All day from the moment I woke up until roughly 10 minutes ago I've been setting up my online shop. I've been

♥ taking picture after picture after picture
♥ editing said pictures
♥ resizing said pictures
♥ uploading said pictures
♥ rearranging said pictures
♥ naming products
♥ pricing products
♥ playing with a lot of html
♥ making my shop look pretty

And though I'm nowhere near finished I think I've accomplished the last point.. my shop does look pretty. I am rather proud of my little shop. I may feel like my head is going to explode but it's definietly worth it. Half of me wishes that I was finished so I could declare my online shop open, but for now I'll make do with half finished. 

But for all you out there (hopefully someone) that is interested here's a sneak peak before the big reveal...

Oh and yes I have used blogger but I think it works pretty well. Hopefully I will get a chance to work on it this week, but I doubt it due to a heavy work load, but I have got Sunday off. Yeay!

How has your Monday been?

I hope you all did something fun! 

Speak Soon,

Katie 

x

Day Out, Instagram Style

I'm sure that many of you share my love for Instagram. It has the amazing capability of making an average almost unusable picture, pretty. I do have a problem where I can only use the same style for my pictures if they were taken at the same time. I know, I know, just one more example of how strange humans really are. 

Last week we went for an unexpected shopping trip to Homebase of all places. I needed some wooden doweling for my felt moustaches, which is still propped up in the corner of our living room as we speak, and the pictures from out trip have been sat on the computer waiting to grace to presences of my blog ever since. 

What better way that to start the day with funny faces? / Or a cuddle from a furry monster? / Bamboo Munching / An unimpressed Michael / Myspace style / No explanation.

And what better way to end the day than with a Drifter McFlurry? Not happy that they used the Oreo packaging, but you can't win them all. 

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. 

Speak Soon, 

Katie 

x

A lovely long weekend ahead

My long weekend off from work has finally come around again. I love to sandwich my weekend with lazy days. 

             ♥ Today being Saturday I had a lovely long lay in, waking up at 2pm. Some would say that this was a waste of a day, but it's just what my body needed. 

              ♥ I then stayed in bed to finish my book which was incredible but had such a sad ending, which in turn made me sad. So when Mike called me from work I told him just how sad I was. haha. Michael is doing a long shift at work so isn't home until 10pm. But he is bring pizza and cake home with him so I guess that make's up for it.

            ♥ Now I'm enjoying some much needed guitar time. I've played the guitar for a year now on and off, learning from my amazing husband who has played for 8 years. He really is amazing on it guitar and I am nothing in comparison but that doesn't make me love to play any less. 

I love how you can see my PJ bottoms and my funky slippers in the reflexion. haha.

Stunning screen shot. haha.

I've recorded this cover of one of my favourite songs ever, Moon River. I don't do it any justice but I love to sing this song about as much as I love to listen to it. Hope you enjoy singing along too. (and don't mind the dodgy eyeliner and the facts that is the only make-up I have on, it's my lazy day.)

Speak Soon,

Katie 

x

All bad things come in 3's... The Third

I should be at work right now, in fact I should have been there at 9am, but I'm not. I'm sat at home with a poorly car outside. It sounds awful and it partly is, but at the same time I was very lucky. My accelerator cable snapped at I was travelling at 40mph on a dual carriage way. Luckily I was in the fast lane (not normally a lucky place to be as your car breaks down) next to a turn off, with no traffic on the opposite side of the dual carriage way and with quick thinking I made it down a side road as my car was slowly dying. 

I'm pretty impressed with my parking skills, so obviously I needed to take a picture.

I phoned Mike, I phoned work, I phoned my Mum, and then I phoned AA. Pretty normal order of priority there. haha. I was informed that the AA would be with me within the hour so I sat back and waited. I was pretty impressed when they tunrned up within 30 minutes, and temporarily fixed my car so I could get home.

I phoned work and requested today off as a holiday day, and surprisingly my request was granted. We're on the way to a local garage to get our lovely car fixed. Keep your fingers crossed for us that it doesn't cost too much. 

Speak Soon,

Katie 

x

P.S The first two bad things were:

♥ Our TV broke... well sizzled.

♥ Our exhaust blew... which still needs to be repaired. 

Happy Birthday Nanna

My Nanna turned the grand old age of 89 on June 10th, so to celebrate we took her out for a meal. Three generations of women sat around one table means the world to me. She spent her actual birth-'day' in the Isle of White which is where she was born and spend her childhood, before moving to good old Yorkshire to start her married life. 

My Nanna was her usual cheeky self and we ate, laughed, and joked all afternoon. I love spending time with her, and the more time my Mum and I spend with her, the more we begin to realise where our sense of humour comes from. 

I enjoyed a beef burger (as usual) with cheese and bacon, Nom Nom! My Mum and Nanna both enjoyed  scampi and chips. I must admit that though the food was amazing we wont be going back. I just think that it doesn't take that much of a effort to be nice and friendly, so I would prefer to give my custom to somewhere else. Yes I am a mardy moo. haha. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

We popped into Morrison's on the way home. I don't know if it's just that Monday feeling but there are so many grumpy people around today. This then lead to my Nanna muttering that the cashier could 'kiss her arse' under her breath, which lead to my Mum and I bursting out in fits of laughter. I love how old people just say exactly what we think! She then ran through those moving doors that they always have in Morrison's. Yes you know the ones. They terrify me. I've never seem my Nanna move so fast. Both my Mum and I have said that we're going to have to get her a trolly for Christmas. haha! 

Hope you all had a lovely Monday, we definitely did. 

Speak Soon, 

Katie 

x

A Beautiful Baby Boy

We went to visit our friends on Sunday. They are the ones who have just had baby Logan, who is now almost three weeks old. Incredible to think that only 2 weeks ago we were visiting them in hospital when he as only hours old. We left it a while before visiting again so that they could settle into their new lives without the added stress of guests. I know if I'd just had a baby I'd be cherishing all the free time I had and not having to entertain family and friends. Not that we needed entertaining, but you know what I mean. 

I don't have any pictures of me holding Logan, but even better still I do have pictures of Mike holding him! They both look so relaxed. I love the first picture as you can see just how proud Logan's Dad is, watching his best friend hold his baby. It brings a tear to my eyes, and a huge smile to my face.

Bless him, it was such a warm day that little Logan was so restless. The only option in that situation is to take off as much clothing as possible, and it worked a treat. 

He really an amazing little boy. His parents are so proud. I was completely mesmerised by how tiny everything was, from his little nose to his little toes. His little facial expression are adorable, and the noses he makes just melt my heart. Though I say that, we're still going to wait to have a baby of our own. Both Michael and I have discussed how we're just not ready yet, both financially and mentally. Yes babies are incredibly cute and rewarding, but they are also incredibly straining, physically, mentally and financially. And I'm adult enough to admit that we're just not really for that yet. I still stick to what I said before that we want children in the next few years... but I now emphasise on the few years part. For now we're just going to enjoy newly married life. 

Speak Soon,

Katie 

x

Births and Dates

Three days after our wedding our friends baby was born. We've been waiting for this day for so long, but praying that he wouldn't arrive until after our wedding day. Don't worry it's not as selfish as that, well it kind of is, you decide for yourself. The proud father of a beautiful baby boy was Michael's best man. We'd asked the little one to wait until straight after the ceremony until he made his appearance into the world and he did us all proud and came a few days later. 

And here he is little Logan

Such a beautiful name for such a beautiful baby.

Both Michael and I are already completely smitten.

As anyone knows parking at any hospital is a complete nightmare, which meant we only had 5 minutes to meet Logan, and see how the new parents were doing. Both Mum and Dad are fine by the way. We ended up parking in the restaurant over the road after promising that we'd go back and eat. So we ended up having our first date as Mr & Mrs. And it was very yummy indeed. 

Though I did ask Michael for a Chicken Burger and instead received a normal Beef Burger, the food was still amazing.

And what better way to spend waiting for your meal to arrive than commenting on the birth of a new baby on facebook. haha. 

Speak Soon,

Katie

x

The last Sunday being 'Single'

Today we needed to pick up a few more wedding supplies, Mike's shirt and my shoes to be precise. Obviously we ended up picking up a few more items along the way, and took a few pictures to add to my lovely blog. 

A quick outfit of the day.

Dress - Primark £5!!! Great if you can find your size

Shoes - Primark

Leggings - Primark

Belt - Primark

Cardigan - Matalan

Bag - Next 

I should have just typed everything from Primark, bar a few. haha.

Then we headed to Meadowhall, which is our closet large shopping centre, and I needed my wedding shoes so a large selection of shops was a must. 

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I like need to take a picture of where I park just incase I forget.

We managed to pick up everything we needed, so expect to see a haul post very soon, as naughty Katie also picked up a few summer dresses and shorts. 

On the way home we took the scenic route (I stumbled upon the word scenic then as I own a Renault Scenic so could not comprehend the word in two different forms.haha) and ended up stopping to take a walk along the canal. Not something we normally do, but it was a beautiful and unexpected change. 

No surprise that pictures were taken along the way so I'll let you enjoy a select few. It was a beautiful day, with fantastic natural lighting, so even though I wasn't using my high quality camera the pictures turned out perfect. 

Once home for some reason both Mike and I were motivated to clean, and three hours later we're sat relaxing in our lovely 'clean' home. I love Sunday's and will be so sad if we have to start working them. If I could offer someone who is just leaving school and looking at getting a job a little bit of advice... don't work in retail or pharmacy. You will never get nice working hours, and when you do, some big boss who works 9-5pm will change that for you. I only feel sorry for people who have families who work in retail, they really do get the poop end of the stick, at least with Mike and I we could stay up all night to see each other, whereas with children you just can't do that.

Enough of the moaning now. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Even if it wasn't the best one for you, pick out one great thing, I guarantee you there will be one. 

Speak Soon,

ever the optimist, 

Katie

x

An Introduction: Millie

Here's Millie. She's ours, and she is amazing. 

She's a cross between a Dalmatian and a Border Collie. They call her breed a Dollie. She almost 3 now with the energy of 10 dogs. Her tail drives us mad, with the amount of things that she can send flying, but at the same time we don't really mind as we know she's happy. She's currently sat chilling on the sofa  worn out after her football session in the garden with Michael. 

We love her so much, and though at times she can be so naughty (like trying to eat my salt dough decorations) we wouldn't/couldn't change her for the world. 

Obviously I couldn't resist a chance to photograph Michael. He's getting much more used to having a camera shoved into his face at every giving opportunity. Good job really. 

Yes he was in trouble for swearing at the camera, or me. I could have censored it, but then thought 'why would I censor life?' Though I did make him pose for a 'proper' shot.

On another note... 

look what we had for tea. It was incredible. Though I must admit that my favourite food is of course bacon (sorry to all the vegetarians out there.) Yum yum. You can't resist a fry up. 

I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. I know a lot of you are excited as it's only a three day week, but it's not for those of us who work in retail or healthcare or even both. And I'm sure all of you that do have the day off work will insist on shopping, only to inform us of how glorious the weather is. I know you enjoy making small talk, but it's not nice. I'm going to put away the green eyed monster now so don't worry. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week. 

Speak Soon, 

Katie 

x

Day In The Life: Easter Sunday

On an Easter Monday what better way to spend the day than remembering Easter Sunday? 

♥ This year we had a very different start to the day than usual, as we went to Church with my Nanna. We are getting married in three weeks and we wanted to hear our Bans being read for the third and final time. Now I wouldn't say that I am the most religious person, but I also would not say that I don't believe. I just haven't fully made my mind up yet. It was a very emotional start to the day as it made me happy to see people drawn together by their faith, but it also made me sad to see such a small congregation. Half of me expected to see the Church packed, and that we would have to go early to make sure that we got a seat. I was wrong. Most people were old, and the thought that the faith was dying out scared me. I wish that I had taken photos as we attended the Church where we will be married... which gave both Michael and I butterflies. It was also nice for once to celebrate Easter in the way it was meant and how it originated. I for one believe that the true sense of Easter has been almost forgotten with Easter eggs, and the Easter Bunny. I think from now on I will celebrate both ways, and pass this onto our future children.

Easter Bonnets and Rice Crispies made by Nanna, and the Nicer Dicer from my Mum... I wanted this for so long.

♥  We then all went round to my parents house for Easter Sunday Lunch. We do this every year. We like to celebrate special occasions like Christmas, New Year, Easter, in the same way, with family, food and laughter. The food was divine as usual. My Mum truly is the best cook on this planet, and her roast potatoes are to die for. 

And this was BEFORE dinner. Haha.

I love watching these two wait for dinner, I just wish our Millie could have shared in with the smell.

Of course the puppies need their own Easter Meal.

My love these dogs has been shared many times before

♥ For years we used to play cards when we had the family over, but through unforeseen circumstances we have not done this for quite some time. I think you forget how much you enjoy something, until you do it again... and a game (or games) reminds you of how much fun it really is. 

Jaspa brought his Doggie Beer as my  Dad tormented my Nanna. I love our family.

♥ We called it a night at close to 10pm, as we all could have swallowed the room with each yawn. We dropped my Nanna off at home, then Mike and I only stayed up for another hour then had to go to bed. 

Obviously we need the last pictures of the day... Que. PJ shot

♥ All in all it was a fantastic day. The following points made it even more special and also brought a tear to my eyes:
               ♥ Hearing our Bans being read, and realising how close our wedding day really is
               ♥ Sharing the day with such wonderful people
               ♥ After dinner my Dad ending a phone call and telling us that he has arranged us a honeymoon. We don't have much money, and could not afford a honeymoon. He has now arranged for us to spend the weekend in Skegness, in a caravan. I cannot wait. 
               ♥ Coming home to our Millie and Jake, and knowing I have Monday off from work. 

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter.

Speak Soon, 

Katie 

x

Wedding Planning: A few ticked off the list

Today has been a rather hectic but productive day. I had an early start due to my wedding dress fitting appointment, which was a 9:30. Though this was originally a daunting time for me, now I'm rather grateful as it enabled me to cram so much into my day. At the beginning of today I was so nervous for our Wedding day, after yesterday when it hit me that we had just over 3 weeks left until the big day, and not a lot had been organised. Now as I sat here typing this I'm starting to look forward to it. 

♥♥♥♥

The dress fitting went well. The dress still needs some slight alteration on the bum area, but these should be sorted by next Friday. It's quite strange to think that on the morning of the Royal Wedding, I'll be having my final dress fitting for my wedding dress. 


This is a quick shot I took while trying to figure out the lighting. I'd love to show the pictures of my dress, but I'm going to save that for the 14th May. 

♥♥♥♥

Next we headed off to a flower shop. The one we chose was a recommendation from my Mum, and even though she had not been for years, they were lovely. My original plan of daffodils for my bouquet was not meant to be as they have all now died, but my second choice turned out to be perfect. I want to call them gerbils....  

Gerber Daisies. The lady who helped us had so much patience with me. Organising a wedding is so far away from my comfort zone, that making a decision, sometimes requires a little bit of help. The colour combination she chose was just perfect. She will also keep the stems quite long with ribbon to hold them together. We then chose the white ones for the button holes. 

♥♥♥♥

As soon as we got home I got started on making our wedding invites. I had my mind set on making them out of salt dough, but the smell of them baking had put me off for so long. Even to the point that come our wedding day we would have no guest. 

Once they had baked, I gathered them all up to take to my Mum's to paint.

I will dedicate an entire post for these as they were so fun and rewarding to make. 

♥♥♥♥

By 3:30, I had almost completed all the painting, just in time for my hair appointment at 4pm. I tried to wait for 2 weeks before the wedding for this, but my split ends were driving me mad. At this appointment, I managed to organise my hair appointment for my wedding day, and book in my trial appointment, and to top it all off book in for all the waxing a girl would need for their wedding day. 

♥♥♥♥

I feel so much better after all this, as I've managed to tick off 3 more big things from the never ending wedding to do list. I really am starting to look forward to our wedding day, rather than dreading it, from lack of organisation. 

I hope your week is going well.

Speak Soon, 

Katie 

x

A late post: Mother's Day

This post has taken so long to do, as I have spent so much time playing with photoshop, watching online tutorials, and then creating prettier pictures. I've had photoshop for a good few months now, but have never really had time, or patience to get to grips with it. I decided to give a go, and have really enjoyed it so far. I've not done anything really challenging yet, but I'm sure that the more I get used to it, the easier it will become.

Mother's Day was almost a full week ago now and I'm just getting round to uploading pictures from the day. I didn't take many pictures from the day, because.... well I'm useless. At special occasions I'm usually too busy enjoying myself than taking pictures to remember the day. 

We spent the day as a family, eating Sunday lunch, and laughing. I absolutely love the days where three generations of women have chance to share the same room, my Mum, Nanna and I. We always have such a good time. Michael came to share Mother's Day with us, as to cut a long story short, we don't have a lot to do with his family, so my Mum, his soon to be Mother-in-Law, is pretty much his Mum now. Families, eh?

Most of the pictures I took were of my parents dogs, but I love them so much, and they are such a huge part of our family life that I don't mind filing up a memory card with pictures of them. 

For Mother's Day I bought my Mum a rather large folder to keep her sewing patterns in. She loves sewing, and creating items of clothing, that it was a perfect present. I don't usually buy my Nana anything, but I always try to get her a card. I do struggle with this as most cards are to 'Nana,' whereas my Nanna is a 'Nanna,' so some years if I fail to find the correct card she doesn't get one. Typing that sounds very harsh, but really it's not as bad as that, plus I found one this year. Whoop whoop! I didn't take a picture of these, even though they were so cute. 

I'm such a bad blogger. 

But heres a small selection of pictures I managed to take.

This how everyone looks after dinner.... bored very sleepy.

Speak Soon

Katie 

x

Blogging Life begins at 40...

I've had a lovely Sunday. I always enjoy to spend my/our Sunday doing nothing more than chilling out. It's a good job really though as I've had an allergy day. You know the ones where you can't do anything but sneeze at least once a minute. In fact my nose is tickling with another one now. It's like my nose likes to play tricks on the pollen. It welcomes it in with open arms, only to almost immediately reject it. It's a bit cruel really.

But here's what made my Sunday so lovely:

1. To log on to my blog today and watch the number of followers increase to 40, made not only my day, but my week.

Even to the extent that I had to take a picture. 

I want to take this space to thank each and every one of you. 

It means to world to me that people enjoy reading what I write.

And that they leave such lovely comments. 

If you decide to follow my blog, say hi. There's nothing more that I enjoy to do, than to reply. 

Mike even makes fun of me because I actually smile while I blog, and I agree with the computer. Haha.

2. Due to my allergies I have been confined to our sofa, but we have been blessed with such brilliant T.V. 

Normally we don't get chance to watch much T.V. With work commitments, Mike's PS3 addiction, and my internet addiction, it doesn't leave much room to spend time in front of the television. Usually when we do, there's nothing worth watching on. Typical. But today we've enjoyed:

V - I'm a SyFi geek

The Middle

Raising Hope

Now were back to our usual ritual, and Mike's been sucked into the world of Crysis 2. I sound like I mind, but honestly I don't as it gives me time to do this, but we can still be together, while enjoying something we love. 

3. We had ice cream. Again. 

Yesterday we made the foolish mistake of forgetting that we were on lent for the fraction of time it took to order a 99 from the ice cream van. It then dawned on us that we had both given up Chocolate, while looking down at the huge flake sticking out of our cones. We then spent the next couple of minutes digging out little bits of flake. Haha. We must have looked insane to passers by. 

So today when we heard the lovely sound of the ice cream van stopping out side our house we ran out, I would say we had learnt our lesson. But no... Mike still forgot to ask for it without the flake. 

Mike just pointed out Millie in the background. You can just see here face. Haha.

It still tasted amazing, even after we binned the flake. 

What? Are you not as childish as us?

So after an eventful day of eating ice cream, and not a lot more. I'm going to enjoy reading a few blogs. Then read a book. I've got Hush Hush to read next, so I'm going to see how this goes. 

I'm enjoying Young Adult fiction at the moment. I like to mix it up a bit anyway. If you look at my books I want to read page, you'll see how much my reading material varies. 

After that, I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. 

I'm really sad that I had to miss the blogger meet up on Saturday, due to work, but I hope that everyone who went really enjoyed it. 

Maybe they will be another arranged soon. 

So I bid you all farewell. 

Have a good evening. 

I'll speak to you soon.

Katie 

x