Confessions of a Pinterest Addict

Yes ok I admit it i am obsessed with Pinterest and if you think I'm weird I challenge you to go on the website, create a few boards of an interest (your choice on the theme) and not go back and create more and I guarantee you won't be able to help yourself.I have been using it to inspire me in decorating my flat with cheap, easy, DIY things. This week I created a christmas decoration on the cheap simply by gluing festive scrapbook paper to cardboard letters with PVA glue. I'm so happy with them and think they look really effective, I chose to spell out Noel as it was festive but not to long a word that it took to much time. 

My other Pinterest board that is starting to take a bit more flight is the recipes board. I am no Domestic Goddess by any means but I am a good eater, almost anything, however the other half of me is incredibly fussy and would quite happily eat the same meals week in week out which I am now finding tiresome. Pinterest helped us to discover our cheese risotto recipe which is now a staple in our house, Dave even calls it my signature dish! Another gem though not quite as good as the risotto is a chicken and bacon pie, I will be posting these recipes soon to share and any more we find along the way - we have had a few disasters along the way to (don't mention the Bolognese Pasta bake - it didn't go well!)

New Glasses 

Sadly life isn't all about Pinterest, work is going well and is incredibly busy especially for this time of year when things do tend to quieten down but I do have a lovely bit of time off for Christmas which I am looking forward to! I've never mentioned in my blog but i have for almost a year suffered with Migraines, I have been on prescription medication but the best thing that helps me is a herbal remedy from Holland and Barratt called a Migrastick. Last week I went to have my eyes tested to see if that might be causing the problems and I have been giving glasses to wear while I am using a screen. I really didn't think glasses would suit me but I went to Barnaby's Opticians in Bournemouth and they were amazingly helpful, I've posted a photo, what do you think? 

The other big event this week was my 2 year anniversary with Dave! These 2 years have flown by and I am more in love with him  now than ever!! He really spoilt me with dinner and presents which consisted of a Pandora charm for my bracelet and some boots which I love! I can't wait to this time next year when we are celebrating 3 years!   
         

Winter Blues and a Christmas Countdown

My Cat and Dave's Spiderman

It has been a long while since I wrote a blog post however time has been against me as per usual so I'm sat here with a cold and giving myself 5 minutes blog time. 

Winter has well and truly come, Halloween has been and gone and with it our beautifully carved pumpkins and a job lot of pumpkin soup I made, which was quite tasty but after the sixth time of having it for lunch I did get a bit fed up of it! The flip flops have been put away and the boots are on, coats are a must and as I have already mentioned I have my first cold of the winter. 

Getting the flat cosy this winter 

It's not all dull and gloom though Christmas is coming and no one loves Christmas time more than me especially as I have 2 weeks off work this year! A first for many years!! I have already started scrolling through Amazon grabbing some bargains and some interesting stocking fillers for the family and being the first year in our flat have started buying / making decorations to make our flat a little grotto (will let you know how the homemade ones go!)  I have been to a few Christmas fairs and seen the Christmas adverts on TV, controversially loving the Sainsburys one not raving about the John Lewis one this year, but I have yet to hear Christmas songs and wear a festive jumper! I guess November is too soon. 

I don't think I've ever blogged before about my problems with migraines unfortunately I suffer quite a bit with them. It's really hard as it affects my work life and my personal life as I have to go bed to sleep them off sometimes for the rest of the day. One thing that does help is something called a Migrastick from Holland and Barretts but I have to use it in time, if the migraine is to far gone then there is nothing I can do about it. This week i went for an eye test where the optician said working in front of a screen and then coming home and studying and staring at the screen is causing pressure on my eyes. I'm really hoping this will ease my migraines watch this space I suppose. 

Finally in my little update college work though hard is going really well, completed my first unit and now onto my second one (well I haven't started yet but I will do) and I'm even a little bit ahead! Work and college together though has been stressful and I haven't been feeling very well with it all, my amazing boyfriend went away one emotional full of tears day and came back with roses and chocolates! I am so spoilt, such a lucky girl!

I've been making coasters

So I've been making coasters, I really want our flat to be homely but individual without spending out loads of money hence I have been dabbling a bit with make your own. Very simple things, such as making coasters, because I am not very creative but these have turned out okay. 

Things you will need: 
Bathroom Tiles 
Scrap book Paper 
PVA Glue 
Paintbrush 
Felt Pads 
Scissors 

Firstly you need to decide on your scrapbook paper choice and cut them to size according to the size of your tile, I gave mine a small white border from the tile itself. 

I then smothered the tile in glue and stuck the scrapbook paper on and painted more glue over the top (really layered it on!) 

I left the tiles to dry for 24 hours and knew it was ok to carry on because the top of the tile was rock hard, I then stick on some felt pads to the bottom of the tile giving it a bit of a lift. 


Below is my finished product and don't think they look to bad! I also recently painted a stencil on our table but I'm not so please with the outcome so I'm planning on doing something similar to this on that! Will let you know how it goes!

My Coasters 

                             

Quick Catch Up

Wow it's been a while since I posted a blog, I have had loads going on but all really boring mundane stuff hence why no post so I'll bore you with a quick up date now! Work is crazy busy and hard work I feel like my work load has doubled and that's not including college work aaaggghhh! I am struggling to find the time to balance everything and still maintain a healthy social life of a 20 - something year old - any suggestions are welcome! It's not that bad but trying to save thrown in the mix as well just doesn't happen! 

Date night with my man

Living in the flat is still bliss the idea of shared housing now seems so far way and a distant memory! No going back now! A small drama in the oven blew up on the same day I drove my car in to our wall - whoops! Thankfully my car is old and already has dinks and the estate agents sorted the oven quickly for us so it wasn't to bad! We have realised now we live together we actually see less of each other and there isn't so much quality couple time so that prompted us to have a date night! I love anytime with Dave but this was particularly nice especially with Thai food involved and 50% off the bill thanks to Table Pouncer! 

Other than that it has been painting our coffee table which is nearly finished ( pics on what it looks like and how I did it to follow) and trying to improve my cooking skills. Any good recipes I find I will post on here but I am tired of the same things and Great British Bake Off inspired me a little - just need to find the time........

Oh and I have also succumb to joining instagram my excuse being a picture is worth a thousand words so follow me kate90a 

Come Let Us Judge You

I have had a lot of experience in church, church the building and church the people. I was involved in a baptist church from when I was 16 through originally going to their youth group and suddenly found that because I believed in God that suddenly all these rules and regulations were thrust upon me and told that if I believed in God then these were a must so that's what I did. These were what we would consider laws don't muster, don't steal but then there were also what I would call the 'standard strict Christian rules,' drink in moderation, no sex before marriage, only be in a relationship with fellow believers, pray and read your bible every day and so on ..... Your commitment to the cause the has to grow, now not only attendance on Sundays and helping with teas and coffees is enough but now the evening service, Tuesday. Prayer meeting, kids groups or mid week meetings, painting the church on a Saturday which is all well and good if your free but if you don't go it's frowned upon, there are almost levels of Christians and you look down on the ones that do less you then you aspire to be the ones who do more! 

I got in to this spiral, I agree that it is not just up to the pastors / ministers to do the work but I think people need to do it willingly and not judged and guilt tripped in to doing something, if they don't have the tremor can't do it let it go, don't bitch about it behind their back! The pressure gets to much and for me breaking point was when I fell in love but he was not a believer. 

I fell in love and I fell hard but I knew it wouldn't be allowed, suddenly I was Eve in the garden of Eden with the forbidden fruit being asked to take a bite and I did! Our relationship developed in secret which I thought was necessary and only now looking back I can see how crazy it was but then came the point where I needed to decided my relationship or my church?

Thinking about it now makes me so upset and a little but angry, why should I have to choose? Especially when my boyfriend was nothing but supportive that I went to church even if he didn't however I knew my other love the church wouldn't see it like that. Meeting with the Pastor and his wife was the most intense meeting ever which consisted of them saying to me either give up your relationship or your involvement in this church (which incidentally consisted of half my income as I worked part time for them) I chose the latter and the worst part is I wasn't even surprised I had seen it happen before! 

Looking back now on everything happened I still well up, I invested 6 years of my life loving that church and the people and it ended up them shunning me! I understand this is not all the church members but unfortunately most of the people I was closet to not everyone. Life is not black and white and the church needs to stop pretending that it is and some people need to be knocked off their pedestals, just because my boyfriend is not a Christian doesn't make me any less of one. I lost a lot but gained everything; freedom.

Happy holiday in Rhodes

You will be pleased to know, unless you are one of 'them' that I have never been happier in a loving relationship where he knows my flaws and doesn't judge me, I go to a new church that loves me and my boyfriend and does not judge only welcomes us in. I'm just said that this is the path I had to take to be free and that all he hurt and upset happened on both sides of the story however I know God loves me, I am thankful God forgives because I know those who have treated me badly will need forgiveness for what they have done! 

Back to Reality

After the chaos of moving house it's back to reality, back to work but it's not all back to normal for me. Today marks the the day of officially starting college again by doing an NVQ level 5 in business management and leadership and I am terrified! I haven't studied properly in the conventional way since I was at school and that seems like decades ago even if it wasn't! Writing my first assignment this week I found myself struggling with the basics let alone anything else, how do I start this assignment? How can I express myself on paper? I don't know the correct business terms and I don't know what I'm really doing at work. The company is expanding rapidly in what we do and we are suddenly dipping our fingers in a lot of pies a large portion of this being my responsibility. This is why I'm doing the course to understand why I'm doing different tasks at work and hopefully getting the knowledge to do this better but at the moment work is a struggle. Working full time and then coming home to study is going to take it's toll and I am already feeling tired all the time. 

It hasn't been all work and no play though. Bournemouth Air Show came and graced us with it's presence the only downside being it was far to busy and you couldn't move around the seafront without bumping in to a few people. It wasn't just the planes that came to town though, anyone who knows me knows that I love Owls, our flat is full of them in the shabby chic style, and there were people down in Bournemouth Gardens allowing you to hold an owl of your choice! For a fiver it was totally worth it and I chose a white owl that looked a bit like Hedwig from Harry Potter, another one of my obsessions!

Other than that not a lot has been happening but it seems we are all busy and never free. We have Duke Dumont coming up in a few weeks which is going to be awesome, another challenge i have set myself is to expand on the things we eat. Dave is very fussy but I'm getting bored of the same meals all the time so any good finds i will be posting the recipes on here for you, if i find any easy enough for me to cook! 

Home Sweet Home

My helper 

We made it and we moved and we could be happier in our lovely new flat. After living in a shared house, even with friends, was not an ideal situation for us but now we have our own space to have how we like there is no looking back! We are very lucky to have reasonably priced rent and although the deposit etc was a bit crippling we managed to scrape it together. 

Here are my tips for helping you move: 



1) Hire a van! It was the best decision that we made and made the whole process so much easier than our original idea which was going back and forward with our cars. When hiring a van shop around try smaller local companies rather than a chain, we paid £40 for 24 hours where as B & Q wanted £15 an hour! (If your Bournemouth / Poole way we highly recommend Abbey Van Hire in Creekmoor)


2) Space your packing out and did a little bit each evening in the run up to your move, made our lives so much easier and we had a lot less stress than other house mates who left it to the last minute. 

3) Get as much help as possible! There is no shaming in asking mates and family to help you out, offer to buy them dinner or lunch as a thank you ans to be honest on your first night your going to be getting a take away anyway - no one could ever feel like cooking after moving. 

4) When packing your stuff label all the boxes so you know roughly whats in them and where they are going in the new house. 

5) If possible move out a day or 2 before you need to give the keys for your old home, this will give you time to go back and do the cleaning and any touching up you need to do to get your deposit back! 

New Home - Couldn't be happier

6) Wear comfortable clothes, seems obvious but you are going to be doing a lot of bending over and stretching so make sure your clothes are not going to get in the way and annoy you. 

7) Make sure the things you are moving fit in to your new place or you will have a wasted journey and be stuck with items that then have no home. Most estate agents will let you go to the property to measure up all you have to do is ask, just make sure you have measured up the furniture so you know what size things are before you go, guessing never works! 

If you are moving I hope these tips help make it smooth, and you are as happy in your new home as we are - hope it lasts!! 

Moving Day Eve

The day I have been waiting for is almost here and it feels so strange! All my stuff is in boxes, except for 2 mugs so we can have a cup of tea, we are English after all! It's strange that something I have been waiting for for so long has arrived and I'm so excited I can't stop smiling. I know tomorrow is going to be exhausting but we have done as much as we can to be ready so know there's just a few hours to wait.

We have been lucky enough to know for a while that we are moving so having been buying things when we have seen them offer meaning most things have been a bargain! Shops I would recommend for house items are Robert Dyas as they have some great weekly deals, The Range and the big supermarkets, Asda, Sainsbury's etc.

We also have had gifts from our parents, Dave's parents gave us a cabinet which his Mum spruced up and then gave us the leftovers to do a shelving unit my parents gave us that was looking a bit tired. I just wiped it down and gave it two coats of paint and it's looking great as you can see!

My other great find was from www.notonthehighstreet.com a bit expensive but great stuff! I found they do moving in pictures and not just standard stuff but they personalised it. It was £14.99 just for the print alone but I fell in love with it and couldn't help myself, the frame, which I think will look great on the cabinet I painted, was only £3 from Asda. I think these little touches make a home so worth every penny and as we rent and won't be there forever is a nice keep sake of our time there.

 Right I'm off see you on the other side of moving day! 

New Chapter

Me and my man

As a new chapter starts in my life and a new blog, hopefully I will keep this one up better than my last one (2 posts and counting - whoops!!) Everything is changing in my life at the moment, my boyfriend of a year and a half and I are moving in to our first proper home, well a rented flat of our own, after living in a shared house for a year. My job is changing as I have become a director of our family business where I work and its back to studying so I can do my new role properly after 6 years of doing no study what so ever - WHAT AM I THINKING!!! 





With this blog be expected to read about any struggles I am having in well life really, what's going on and any of my personal finds; recipes, websites, bargains anything purely because that's what I love on blogs. I promise to try not to whinge but I can't promise, it may be that time of the month! 

My room at the moment - just chaos 

So right here a beautiful mess begins and we shall see what happens, A beautiful mess as that's my life right now, as I pack my room in to boxes it looks a state but so many things have reminded me of the highs and lows of the past 2 years and there have been some whoopers but I'm still here standing strong with my man by side, although sometimes he is carrying me and an amazing array of family and friends, what more do I need? I'm doing more than alright in this beautiful mess!