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November 2018 Goals

So, November is upon us already.  I love this month, not just because it’s my birthday but also because it’s one step closer to Christmas! I thought it was time to share my November 2018 Goals.

Last month I managed to achieve some of my goals see the post herelet’s hope we can have another successful month!  I have decided to only post about goals affecting my home life and my blog, I…

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October 2018 review

So its time for the October 2018 review!! It’s been another hectic month.  The good thing is that I now have an extra person working with me at work. So with that and being able to flex my hours more, hopefully things will start to improve!

Although I didn’t post my October goals, I have decided to still post an October 2018 review – where I was with them, but make it into more of a general…

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Trip to Leeds

A Couple of weeks ago, my sister Katherine and I took a trip to Leeds.  It was a spur of the moment trip booked as a part of celebrating her birthday.  It is a few years since we last took a trip so it was nice to get away without the kids and our husbands to do a bit of shopping and relaxing! 

Getting the train

The start of the day was hectic! It looked as though Kath might miss the train.…

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Family Weekend in Wales

Family Weekend in Wales

A couple of weekends ago; actually probably a month ago (where did that time go!! read here) we headed off to Wales for a weekend break.  This was one of the Pet-friendly short UK breaks I had booked a few weeks ago (see the previous post here )

I found this cottage via one of the Facebook pages I joined (either Last minute Pet-friendly holidays, or Dog-friendly holiday accommodation) and it…

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My week - general chit-chat update - 29 September 18

My week – general chit-chat update – 29 September 18

I am in the middle of doing a few blog posts. All are unfinished……I have been in the middle of a really busy/stressful time at work, especially this week. So that has had to be the focus.

Just shows that I am still struggling to get the work-life balance I wrote about previously! So I am afraid I am doing just another chatty post…..hope you don’t mind!

A proper goals update post will happen…

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Art giveaway winner

A couple of weeks ago I entered an instagram giveaway for some handmade illustrated prints from a young illustrator who had reached her goal for that month of 200 Instagram followers.

The illustrator also happens to be my very talented daughter!  Unfortunately, I didn’t win, but she enjoyed the giveaway so much that she decided to do another giveaway. They were all done live on Instagram…

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Struggling to fit it all in mini update

Struggling to fit it all in mini update

So I have a whole heap of blog posts I want to write, but as per usual life has had the better of me.

I started both an August favourites, which if I am not careful will become a September favourites and also started to write up a weekly update one, which included last weekends trip to Wales and the week since. It’s been another busy week at work – the sort where there is so much to do it feels…

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Booking a pet friendly UK break

Booking a pet friendly UK break

Over the summer, we have not booked any big holidays and instead decided to do short breaks in the UK that are pet-friendly.

Things we considered when booking the pet-friendly break….

1 they needed to be cheap – we are on a budget this year more than ever.  Anyone with kids know how expensive they can be (it never seems to get any cheaper)

2 they needed to be family friendly – neither of…

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Weight loss update?

I have been doing weight watchers for about 6 weeks now, so I thought it was time for a quick update on how it’s going.  I may try and do a weekly diary – let me know if this is something you would like to read!

Weight loss progress

Its been fairly slow, I lost an amazing 5 lbs in my first week, then I have done much smaller amounts since.  In total I have lost 9 lbs to date – the app…

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New shoes - shopping nightmare!

New shoes – shopping nightmare!

Apologies for the unplanned blogging hiatus!  Its been a busy time at work, summer hols for the kids.  I have also been lacking a bit of inspo…….this post is a bit of a moan about a recent shopping experience for shoes – sorry for the long post……

We were due to attend the first of three weddings this year.  I went for a dress that I knew I would be able to wear again, as more of an everyday…

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Dabbling with Intermittent fasting

Dabbling with intermittent fasting, my experience and what I am doing now #diet #weightlossblog #bloggerstribe #ukbloggers

You know that I have done various posts on the subject of my weight (here is just one).  This time I dallied with the world of Intermittent Fasting.  I had done a fair bit of research on it in the past, I had the original 5:2 diet book and just recently I’d read a lot about 16:8 or 20:4.

To those of you who do not know about intermittent fasting, you could start by reading this post here or the…

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So sometimes I think I have a very old-fashioned term of phrase (in fact saying “term-of-phrase” is probably an old-fashioned term of phrase…..) Anyway, it was a cause for amusement at work when I declared that our weekend away a the seaside was actually a visit to “the coast”……I mean yes I suppose it is old-fashioned, but I also know what a meme is and how it’s funny so that must balance it out……doesn’t it? I also play “Fortnite” on XBox, doesn’t that make me down with the kids??

Birthdays and weekend at the seaside

It was Ewan’s 13th birthday – yes my youngest offspring is now a teenager, in some ways, it has felt like it’s been a long time coming, but in another, I can’t believe I now have 3 teenagers in the house.

Ewan and I – Birthday selfie with the newest teenager in the family!!

Ewan had a new bed for his birthday, so on his actual birthday he only got small pressies to open and his cards from other people.  We used to always have a birthday barbeque, but work has been crazy busy again and I just couldn’t face the cooking, cleaning up and cost of a family party.

So I decided that we should have a weekend away to the coast instead.  I booked a caravan as camping seemed like hard work for a couple of nights.  The weather is normally unpredictable too; also we hadn’t changed the roof bars since I had changed my car at the start of the year, so it would have meant taking both cars (so double petrol too).

    Yorkshire Coast

I chose the Yorkshire coast as its only a couple of hours away, and we hadn’t been for a while.  As we couldn’t check in until after 2 pm we headed straight to Bridlington for a few hours.  It was gorgeous weather!!

Even the Seagulls were sunbathing – oh my god they were vicious.  We bought fish and chips on the front and as I walked to our little table one of the fish dropped off – I have honestly never* seen anything like the way the blooming birds swooped in.  I would have lost an arm if I had tried to stop them!

*Actually, I have seen something like it.  Now, this isn’t’ meant to sound snobby (because I definitely am not a snob) but it was kind of like 7 pm in Tesco when they start reducing the food that’s almost out of date.  There is a swarm of people hanging around and when the food comes out they all push in – its actually really scary unless you are a part of the club!!  ……..anyway back to Bridlington!

Bridlington had whippy ice cream for £1 which is such a bargain -and brilliant in this “heatwave”

Luna was mesmerised by the sea. She loved walking along the front and meeting loads of other doggies, but she also seemed to love the view!

I don’t know if it’s just because of the sun and the blue skies, but everything just seemed beautiful. Definitely worth a visit if you like your typical English seaside town with chippies, arcades plus some of the usual high street stores.

  Saturday – Whitby and Scarborough

Believe it or not, it was about the same distance (in travel time) from where we were staying to Whitby than it was from home to Whitby.

There was a couple of major things that happened on our trip to Whitby.  The first thing was that it was the first ever time I had been to Whitby when it hadn’t rained!  I mean I have been there a lot, and it has always rained, no matter what time of year I have gone.  The second thing was Chloe and I managed to pretty much miss all the “Goth” shops.  We went inside one, but didn’t see any more – I am sure there used to be a lot more.  Did we miss them or are they just not there any more?  We did buy some lovely big scones at a bakery shop, which were huge.

Eddie managed to find a shop that sold Warhammer stuff and bought a new game, which actually looks really good.

Lunch

We had lunch in a lovely little cafe called Crumbs n Cobbles.  Was a little expensive but lovely food and was dog-friendly which was one of the main reasons for choosing it.

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Chloe and I shared the Quesadilla and Nachos as we couldn’t decide which we wanted so we went halfsies.  Eddie had an Egg Mayo sandwich as he was hoping to get chips later and Ewan had an all-day breakfast burrito with Chips which looked delicious.

This time we also walked all the way down the pier bit where the harbour wall is. Chloe and I stopped to take some pics with her Instax camera, but Eddie walked on further with Luna.

We will definitely be revisiting Whitby again soon as its so dog-friendly!!

  Scarborough Flying Visit

We decided to head off to Scarborough; although by the time we got there a lot of the shops were starting to close. I am always surprised by how early everything closes on this coastline.  I am just spoiled by living next to a city that is open late!

Nothing much changes in Scarborough.  We had a nice walk along the front and some of the tacky shops including one called Seabay!!  Chloe and I got matching bag pompoms!! Chloe’s had already broken by the time we got back to the caravan! damn you cheap pound shop!!

Look at the amazing picture postcard view though.  We parked up at the top.  The walk down through the gardens was lovely but the walk back up the steps just about killed me!

The beaches are all off limits for dogs at this time of year; perhaps if you walk further there may be one that is dog-friendly.  We just had no time on this visit.

  Back at the caravan

By the time we got back, I think we were all tired, but we still headed down to the beach for a play with Luna.  The site is next to Tunstall Beach.  I wouldn’t say it is really child-friendly.  There are cliffs that are eroding along the front. You have to walk for about 1/2 a mile in order to find a way to get down on to the beach.  Even then there are loads of boulders and old pieces of rusty farm equipment nearby.  The beach itself is sandy and is nice. I would be worried about being on the beach when the sea comes in as it kind of comes in around you. If you had headed to one of the beaches to the left you could easily find yourself stranded with no way of getting back off the beach.  Whilst it’s beautiful, I am not sure why no one is trying to slow down the coastal erosion.

Luna didn’t like paddling in the sea but loved the large expanse of sand to run and play ball.

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  On Sunday we headed back into Bridlington, for another walk around and found a lovely coffee shop called North Man Coffee shop.  Really lovely little coffee shop with really good coffee – definitely worth a visit.

Chloe and I both had a latte which was honestly one of the nicest cups of coffee we had all weekend!

    Look how cute it was inside too!

        After wandering around we bought a cob and pasty to have in the car.  We headed off home with my iPad tethered to my phone, so we could have the England World Cup game on!

Yep – still can’t take a family selfie!!!

And that was the weekend.  We definitely have decided that we are going to do more weekends away this year.  Eddie is currently without work, rather than having one big holiday a few small trips will break up the summer.  If you have any suggestions let me know in the comments!

Julie xx

Write up from out recent weekend at the Yorkshire coast for my sons 13th birthday. #dogfriendly #scarborough # whitby #familytime #bloggerstribe #ukblogger So sometimes I think I have a very old-fashioned term of phrase (in fact saying "term-of-phrase" is probably an old-fashioned term of phrase.....) Anyway, it was a cause for amusement at work when I declared that our weekend away a the seaside was actually a visit to "the coast"......I mean yes I suppose it is old-fashioned, but I also know what a meme is and how it's funny so that must balance it out......doesn't it?

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Theatre, theatre and awards dinner

Theatre, theatre and awards dinner. #sherlockholmes #play #awardsdinner #busyweek

Theatre

So I have been quiet on here for the past week as it’s been another busy one…..two very different types of theatre have featured!

My Dad has suffered for ages with bad hips.  I have arthritis in my right hip, but nowhere near on his scale, so its something we have all wanted him to have done for ages and ages.

He got a cancellation for last Thursday, so I was up early to drop them over at…

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Book Review - The Note by Zoe Folbigg

My first ever Book Review - this one is on The Note by Zoe Folbigg

I was attracted to The Note as it was free to read with Prime reading, which I mentioned in my May Favourites (if you haven’t read it, check it out here)

Goodreads

Here is what it says on Goodreads

“The note changed everything…

One very ordinary day, Maya Flowers sees a new commuter board her train to London, and suddenly the day isn’t ordinary at all. Maya knows immediately and irrevocably, that…

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Now that May is coming to a close, I thought I would do a post of things I have been liking – a “May Favourites” post but its also a “things I have discovered this month” post!

May Favourites – Podcasts

I used to listen to podcasts years ago.  I listened to the Chris Moyles podcast whilst he was still at Radio 1 and a few other comedy podcasts.  But that was a long time ago, but now thanks to my daughter Chloe I have rediscovered a love of them.

Sometimes I get stuck in traffic and listening to podcasts has changed my life – very dramatic I know – but I don’t worry as much about getting held up as I have something different to listen to.  I am still listening to new ones all the time but ones I have really enjoyed this month are true crime, story style podcasts.  Here are links to the ones I have really liked – this isn’t a sponsored post, but the Serial Killer and Unsolved Murder podcasts have got me well and truly hooked.  I love the way they are narrated and reenacted.  They have become a popular thing with all of us.  Eddie has started listening to them when he is in the car too (and even the kids have enjoyed listening to them too)  At one point we got home and finished listening to one on our phones with no TV on – our version of listening to the wireless (very wartime!!)

May Favourites – Clinique foundation

I wrote about this in last weeks makeup post (it’s here if you haven’t read it).  I don’t know if it’s just the way it makes me feel when I am wearing it (a lot more confident) or if it is that it has a nice coverage and even look without being too heavy.  But its definitely my go-to choice at the moment.

May Favourites – Victorias secret

I honestly didn’t think that Victorias Secret did bras in my size.  Whenever I have looked in the store, I had never seen anything big enough.  But I asked them to measure me and they managed to find about 6 styles for me to try (all 38E or 38DD).  It was great. The lady that measured me was attentive enough but also gave me enough space to try things on and decide on what I liked.  The rooms were decorated in a nice way too.  I will definitely be going back – especially now I have my little card with my size and favourite styles on!

    May Favourites – Couch 2 5k

After week 1

I restarted the Couch 2 5k program at the start of May. Whilst I know I have run far further in the past,  I seem to keep re-starting and building too fast. Then I injure myself. So this time I decided to start again and build slowly.  I also had my youngest Ewan running with me.  So far so good – we are at the halfway point so it’s starting to really build now but I am enjoying it.  If you are thinking about running you should definitely check it out.

May Favourites – Kindle App

I think I may do a separate post on my favourite apps that I use regularly.  But one I am loving again is the Kindle app on my Ipad Mini.  I have set myself a target of reading 12 books this year – I used to read loads more than that.  But its hard to find the time, when I am not “Too Tired To” – and Netflix boxsets don’t help!!  Anyway, with the Amazon Prime subscription, you can now get Prime Reading (free books each month) to borrow. It used to be only on the actual Kindle hardware, but now its available via the App too.  I am on my second book this month and I am getting hooked on reading again.

I have a book review post going up later this week, so I’ll leave the actual book detail for that.

If you fancy trying Amazon Prime**, you can get a 30-day free trial. Then you can get a selection of books and magazines to read on your tablet or phone.

May Favourites – Nespresso Vertuo

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We popped into the Nespresso store at Meadowhall for some new pods. Typically for us, we ended up getting a new machine.  The salesman made us both a coffee to try.  I wanted to think about it so he put mine in a takeaway cup. We walked out of the store, sat on the sofas that were just outside and decided that we were going to buy it.  It was a foregone conclusion anyway.

The coffee is as good as the original Nespresso machine, but you can get bigger coffees as well.  The pod gives the machine the instructions, so it knows how much water to dispense etc.  As it is a new type of machine, we also got the welcome offer again. You currently get a £40 credit for buying the machine, so we got a whole selection to try and it only cost about £20.

Again this isn’t a sponsored post – I love a good coffee and highly recommend this machine if you like a longer drink.

That’s it for this month’s favourites.

  Sorry for how wordy this post is!

  Julie x

  ** This post contains affiliate links. If you go on to purchase an item, it won’t cost you any more, but it will contribute a small amount to the websites running costs.

Hi. so here is a post of my May favourites and discoveries #ukblog #blogging Now that May is coming to a close, I thought I would do a post of things I have been liking - a "May Favourites" post but its also a "things I have discovered this month" post!

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New make up purchases

Write up on some new make up purchases I bought a couple of weeks ago. #makeup #clinique #bloggerstribe #blog

Sorry for the delay in posting this makeup purchase write up! I have been trying to make sure that my website is GDPR compliant.  I think it is now, the new privacy page is here.

Also, I have been doing a lot of soul-searching on why my blog posts just do not flow easily – I seem to come up with ideas of what I want to write, but then do not do them.

Part of it is down to the amount of time my…

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This weekend was unusual for this country in that it was warm.  I don’t just mean a little warm, it was lovely and hot even in the evening which makes a nice change for a bank holiday weekend.

We didn’t have a lot planned, but the weekend started with a couch to 5k session (Week 1 day 2) with Ewan on Friday evening.  Plus a drink in a pub beer garden after.

Saturday

We had a slowish start on Saturday but despite being forecast to be a lovely day we headed up to Meadowhall for some shopping as I needed some new foundation and tops for work, I will probably do a separate post on what I bought later this week as we made a couple of surprise purchases whilst we were there too.

Bank holiday Sunday

Beautiful Magnolia

Gorgeous bluebells

Then on Sunday, we took Luna to Elvaston castle, we went fairly early in the morning to avoid the heat.  I am so glad we did as it was beautiful and warm and sunny.  Although it was already busy, you just knew that it would be heaving later in the day.  Luna loved it.  I was surprised by how muddy it still was in places.  We even managed to get a sneaky ice cream in the cafe!  I know we are being good but it was the only treat. The cafe has changed hands since last time we visited.  The cakes and food all looked amazing, we are going to go back on a day when it’s not as busy and when we have more time.

After Elvaston, we nipped food shopping. Ewan made a lovely big brunch – he made potatoes in the Actifry with bacon onion and cheese – they were amazing.  After the big feed, we stayed at home and just relaxed and watch a couple of movies.

Bank holiday Monday

Again we didn’t have much planned.  The one thing we did hope for was a lie in, but that wasn’t to be as one of our neighbours decided that it would be good to start drilling and working on their house at 8 am; as we had all the windows wide open because of the heat it was impossible to sleep in.  Some people can be so selfish, can’t they? I understand people want to get things done on their day off, but I think before 9 am is not good on a bank holiday.

We had brekkie and then just stayed at home and played on the Xbox.  I couldn’t stay out in the heat as it was just too hot for me, I have been struggling a little with hay-fever too.  Later in the evening (when it had cooled slightly), we went to Shipley park so we could give Luna a nice walk whilst Ewan and I did Couch to 5k Week 1 day 3.

I am so proud of Ewan as he is really determined to make a go of his running.  We are both out of shape so it’s nice to do something and motivate each other at the same time.

So that was the weekend – super chilled and for once I actually felt really relaxed for once

Julie x

        Warm Bank Holiday weekend #blogging #bloggerstribe This weekend was unusual for this country in that it was warm.  I don't just mean a little warm, it was lovely and hot even in the evening which makes a nice change for a bank holiday weekend.