Friday Favourites 29th April - 12th May 2017.
FF12.05.2017
I've fallen back in love with writing these posts.
You might not have even noticed I'd fallen out of love with them again, I switched up the way I wrote these in October last year. I was doing my favs weekly, 5 favourite things of the week but it just got too much. Like I totally fell out of love with it in that format so since then I've been doing them weekly with a much longer post and it definitely works better.
Except the last few weeks I've been a bit manic and it's come to writing my Friday Favs and I've had to refer to my bujo to even see what I've been up to. That means I feel like my favs becomes just a run of 'I did this and I did this and I did this' and whilst anything noteworthy I've done is probably a fav, it's the little things that go amiss.
So to change it up I've turned to my trusty bujo and instead of just looking back at my calendar, I've created a designated Friday Favs spread which has over a months worth of space on it (4 lots of 2 week blocks) and I'm jotting down the little things as well as the big ones for my Friday Favs and now I'm back in love with it again. Back with the recommendations, the big things and the little things and the tiny things and hopefully it'll be a more fun read too.
1. Domesticated.
I have a right problem with the idea of being a 'housewife'. Not that I think it's a bad thing to be, much the opposite actually but I have a problem with the idea that it's expected. I actually really like making nice meals and spending a lot of time cooking new things when I've got time and I like feeling like I'm looking after the both of us. The second I feel like that's my 'job' or expected of me I'm like nah hun.
Anyway that's a blog topic for another blog post; the past few weeks I have been planning meals a bit better, kinda working out what we're going to eat every night based on what we're up to, if it's something Joss can make for me to come into, if it's something I can cook all day in the slow cooker for when he comes in... It means shopping is easier because I can fill our cupboards with what we need and we're eating much better food rather than grabbing something from the freezer.
In the past few weeks we've had spaghetti carbonara, cheesy beans jacket potato with sausages, burgers, pie and homemade wedges and this absolute beast which was slow cooked beef (6 hours falling apart kinda beef) with mash and onion gravy and peas all in a giant Yorkshire pud. It was divine.
This week we have planned macaroni cheese, fajitas and sausage and bean hot pot all before I go away on Wednesday - but more on that later.
2. Oversized Jumpers.
You know when you put yourself on a spending ban and then Boohoo emails you with a sale and suddenly you find a little order on it's way to you? Guilty. So this was a super small order in all fairness and cost me a measly tenner but so so worth it. I got this oversized navy jumper for 6 quid in the sale and I always find Boohoo a bit hit and miss (something I don't think I'm alone in) but this was absolute gold. It's oversized anyway but I also sized up because I wanted super baggy and it's surprisingly thick so I think it'll get more wear in the Autumn now butttt it's got bits of glitter in it and omfg I feel so sparkly and princessy.
3. Bae.
This little gal is fast approaching her second birthday and is a fully fledged toddler now, the only trace of a baby is when she demands I cuddle to her to sleep with milk. Except now she's so big I can't hold her with one arm and now I have to balance her bottle under my chin. Pro Auntie skills. She's always in my favourites even if I just tone it down a bit for the blog but this fortnight I didn't see her for a week and when you're used to having her to babysit 3 times a week, it's weird. Luckily she's been an extra cute little gem and has suddenly learnt to sing a bunch of songs words for word in tune including Twinkle Twinkle (which we dueted), London Bridge, Mary Had A Little Goose (don't ask), Row Row Row your boat and the first 7 or 8 letters of the alphabet song. She also said "I love you I love you" whilst I was carrying her back to the car. My heart.
4. Springtime Hedgerows.
Bit of a weird one I'll grant you. So we've had weeks on weeks of blazing sunshine in the part of South Wales I'm in since pretty much Easter now and then the past 2 days it's pissed it down and suddenly everything is blooming. I live in the arse end of nowhere as does my Mum (whose house I work in) in single track lanes and the hedgerows at the moment are insane. They're full of flowers and birds and about 3 times the size they normally are and it's a joy.
5. Swimming Seals.
So there's no surprise I've been to North Devon last weekend and I'm sure there's no surprise that it's my favourite thing about the last fortnight. However, I thought I'd split it up a lil bit because whilst the whole weekend was fabulous, there were lots of individual little bits that brought it all together.
You can read about our adventures here but on Saturday night we went for possibly the most scenic walk ever around Mortehoe and I think I forgot to mention we saw this little beauty swimming in the sea! I'd read on the National Trust website that you might see seals sunbathing on the rocks if you were patient enough and the conditions were right but I didn't think we'd actually see any because it was grey and minging but hello Joss spotted this lil guy on the quieter side of the point and I snapped away quick smart.
6. Paddy & Keith.
I used to hate Keith Lemon. I just didn't find him funny,he really annoyed me as a personality until I watched Celebrity Juice with my housemate in uni. And suddenly I was hooked. I have watched every episode of Celeb Juice since and have found Keith funnier and funnier and after introducing Joss to it too I knew the Keith & Paddy show would be ideal for us. Basically it's a new series (4 parts maybe) where Keith and Paddy (no shit) recreate famous films so last weeks was Dirty Dancing, complete with that final dance routine, and I've seen adverts for Star Wars and Ghost Busters which I think might be this weeks. 100% recommend cos it's mindless mental humour.
7. The Steepest Climb.
Oh Clovelly how you beat me. I won't drag it out because I talked a lot about Clovelly in my Devon Photo Diary but it was genuinely the perfect Sunday activity. It was so beautiful, so warm, everyone was happy and smiley and the pasties and ice cream were divine. Ok so the walk back up near on finished me off and I needed several stops but like I actually cannot describe to you how steep it is. If you're ever down that way definitely definitely pop over there just for a few hours, it's wonderful.
8. The Babies.
Oh the babies at the zoo omfg. I heard the zoo keeper say that these baby meerkats were just born with their eyes not open when she came to feed them in the morning and by the time she came to feed them when we were there at 4pm they were running around like little demons. I don't think I've ever seen a baby meerkat in person before and I die.
9. Seven Years.
Oi oi what's this? A rare couples selfie? We're not one for pictures these days, I document absolutely everything except him and I guess maybe that's because we live together an I see him all the time? Thinking on it I don't photograph my Mum or Dad and that's probably the same reason. Anyway, whatever it is I thought our 7 year anniversary deserved the annual selfie and just look at dem matching mirrored sunglasses. Don't say we're not made for eachother.
10. That Shortlisting.
Well duh this had to be on here didn't it? Again, I'm not going to go too much into this because I wrote a whole blog post on it but of course the Blogosphere Shortlisting was an absolute shocker. It was the messages of support even more than the shortlisting announcement that got to me and kinda toward the end of the week, kinda day I started getting over the shock a bit more and ovewhelming pride has sunk in. Like bloody hell what an achievement for this old blog?
11. The Squad With No Name And Baz The Shark.
I mean I don't even know what I can tell you about the title for this little segment. I don't even know where half our inside jokes start, I know Nina tends to miss them because she's the only proper grown up who isn't on their Whatsapp 24 hours a day. She's our responsible adult for this bunch of reckless little children. Anyway the reason the squad is on the list yet again is because we've all had a belter of a week. The biggest life changes, awards, wedding dresses, you name it we've had it between us this week and on Tuesday we had a bit of a love in over how proud we all are over eachother and how much we love eachother and how glad we all are that we're friends. I think we have one of these every few months and it makes me feel all mushy and inspired and fired up like YASS LET'S BLOG. Love dem gals.
12. Next Week's Plans.
And last but not least just a quick lil one to end - yes next week I am jetsetting off again this time to the dizzying heights of Wrexham. Whayyyyy.
I've mentioned going on trips to Wrexham many many times on the blog and social media and it might seem like the weirdest (and less scenic) places to visit but it's where I went to university. Since we left 2 years ago -vom vom vom post coming soon- we've fallen into the habit of going back there every January, May and October and we've v much fallen into the same routine of where we stay, what we do, who we see and even where we eat. It's like going home when I go to Wrexham, I always talk about driving over the viaduct to the Welcome To Wrexham sign but the feeling I get, it's like when I cross over to the Isle of Wight or drive through the heart of The New Forest; it's one of those places that feels like going home as much as coming back to my actual house does. Very excited to get back up there for a few days of friends and shopping and carbs.
So this post has taken me 2 hours to write because I kept getting distracted by binge watching Confessions Of A Junior Doctor which I 100% recommend, like I implore you to watch it. What a bloody amazing insight into the work of our junior doctors and the absolute shit storm coming toward the NHS if we stay under staffed and under funded. But maybs don't watch when you're trying to blog because it's gripping. Don't say I don't ever give you life advice.
