Loving Life

SOPPYNESS WARNING!!


Yesterday was mine and my boyfriend's two year anniversary. We're long distance for most of the year but spend each long summer together. I find it really difficult when we're away from each other for a long time but since I've been home and spent lots of time with him in the last week I must declare I am very happy and in love :)


Right, Soppyness over.


To celebrate two years together we went out for a meal on Friday night at a local pub/restaurant. It was very nice, I had red onion tarte tatin with Shropshire Blue cheese, potato rosti and buttered spinach which was lovely. The Boyf had sausage and mash and I was jealous of the creamy herby, garlicy mash!


For pudding he had blackberry and apple crumble and I ordered white chocolate and pecan parfait as an experiment (I didn't know what parfait was!) anyway, it was basically extra frozen ice cream in a 'slab' and it was nice. We discussed the waiter's slow service and the pub dog who begged for food but it didn't spoil it!


Yesterday we went to Ludlow. We had discussed staying a couple of nights in Ludlow in a couple of weeks but after changing our minds and booking two nights in York instead, we decided to go for the day.


Ludlow is in the same county as us but it still took about an hour and half to get there. We drove through the rain and arrived in sunshine, when we drove through the town to park it reminded me of  parts of Cornwall. When we walked past fish bars and restaurant advertising langoustines  I found myself looking for the sea to find there wasn't one, I felt it should be by the coast.


The boyfriend knew a cafe to go to for lunch, he had a venison burger (urgh!) and I had smoked salmon and homemade pesto on bruschetta- yummy! We wandered around the castle but didn't pay to get in. We had ice cream too , he had ginger&mango and turkish delight (urgh- why would you want ice cream that tastes like flowers?) and I had fudge and pistachio.

There was lots of lovely looking houses.

On the way home we stopped in Church Stretton for tea, even though the tearooms were closing, and saw this beautiful house entrance.

However, being students, we did think of how annoying it would be to come home drunk and to have to walk up all those stairs!

We had a lovely day but having left after about 3 hours of walking around I am glad we didn't book to stay in Ludlow as we would of ran out of things to do.

Silent Sunday

Who are you?

Since I've started linking blogs up to Kate's listography I've been getting lots of new followers and comments on posts, which I love. However, I get considerably less views and comments on my own (un-linked) posts.

I've found a lot of mummy bloggers and I like reading these blogs but am obviously not at that stage in my life yet so I have been looking for some bloggers more my age recently, just out of interest. Yesterday I found Jane at tea-and-vegemite-toast and found she is 21 and studying the same degree as me in Australia, we seem to have a lot in common and to post about similar things so I was excited to follow her. She's been blogging for a similar amount of time as me but has a lot more followers and comments from people (although I have posted less often!).

I enjoy browsing anyone's blog but am interested to know how everyone gets so many followers? This is by no means me wanting to 'increase my popularity' I just want to meet more people who's posts I like to read and people who enjoy reading mine. What I would like to know if you're reading this is
-Who are you?
-Do you enjoy reading my blog?
-What do you like reading about?
-How did you find me?

I have a few school friends who read my blog and have their own blogs (even if they don't post much!) and my boyfriend and mum have the link and read occasionally. But my blog link is not something I would ever post on facebook- why? because it almost seems too personal. I think I show a different side of myself on my blog because I can be honest and not know who will read it.

I have friends at Uni that I would talk to about anything and be completely honest with, I would say I was completely myself with them, yet I don't think they would be interested in reading my posts.
My housemates and other friends know about my blog, I discuss things with them that I have written on here yet they accept it, without any desire to read it. I don't think about who I'm writing for on here, I write what I want to write.

I'm interested to find more blogging friends, people who's blog I look forward to reading and who I have something in common with. Suggestions would be much appreciated :)

Likes and Dislikes

Likes

-My new favourite meal- Roast veg with sweet potato and Halloumi

-Being free of Uni work
-Being on Holiday
-Planning fun things to do
-Booking holidays
-Baking!
-Tea of course
-Eating out
-Painting my nails and doing my hair
-Wearing outfits I forgot I had
-Staying in bed
-Cake for Breakfast
-Cuddles all day
-Staying up late

Dislikes
-Having no money!
-Work not giving me shifts

What are your Likes/ Dislikes?

An extraordinary way to spend an afternoon

Today Ivy came round to my house with some exciting cake decorating ideas! She'd made a cake that looked like a pie (a pake) and had some ideas to decorate cupcakes to look like pie and other foods.
Armed with a large amount of colourings and some fresh raspberries and strawberries we made a batch of fairy cakes and got started.

Before adding the 'pastry'

They turned out pretty awesome, well done Ivy!

Next was hot dog cupcakes, we tried adding watered down jam and lemon curd for ketchup and mustard but they just went a bit sloppy!

 We made some green icing to make alien faces

There was one cupcake that spilled over at one side so Ivy had the genius idea of making it into a waterfall. I added 'rocks'.

Separately, I cooked some cheesecake cupcakes with strawberries and raspberries in, cream cheese icing and crushed digestive biscuits. These turned out to be mostly fruit but were very tasty!

Along with random decorations, this is all our epic cupcakes together. It was so fun decorating them and a brilliant way to spend the day with Ivy.

 

Listography- 5 Inventions I wish were real

Self sorting wardrobe- After the amount of time I have spent packing and unpacking my clothes in the last few days I have decided that clothes should have a built in calender so when you haven't worn them for far too long they disappear. It could also automatically throw out clothes that do not fit anymore.

Hangoverless alcohol- This is not because I want to abuse alcohol but simply because I want to enjoy time with friends without suffering far too much the next day.

A self cleaning house- This also relates to the fact I spent four hours cleaning the student house I just moved out of and still had an argument with my landlord who said it wasn't clean enough!

Teleportation Devise- To zoom to visit nice people and places with no travelling time (or cost)!

Food...Zapper? - A machine that reads your mind to discover what food you're craving then it appears. I think I saw this in Spy Kids the film...It would also be good if it could reduce the calories magically, when needed!

A Materialistic List

I decided to ramble about some things I would currently like, please join me, blogging friends.

A Tiger Cub-
After watching 'Two Brothers' recently I realised that Tigers may be one of the only animals that I like, they are beautiful! Watching the hunter feed the cub was like a mixture of a cat and a dog, the perfect animal. I would, however, give it back when it grew up!

A Rose Ring- 

In a materialistic moment, browsing the Pandora website I saw this 

then later in the week found a Disney Couture collection with these snow white rings

definitely in a Rose Jewellery phase!

Spotify Unlimited-

On my current 30 day trial I would love to have unlimited offline music on my phone forever, I'd never have to buy tracks again! Alas, I do not want to pay monthly.

I'm also debating whether I would like a Kindle but I think I have come to the conclusion that I prefer to hold a thick book instead, also, my reading habit often fluctuates back to not picking up a book for months, so probably not a justifiable purchase.

Listography- Top 5 Places I'd Like to Visit.

Tokyo, Japan-

 

I've always wanted to go to a huge City in Japan, the food, anime and gadgetry intrigue me. I do think it would be pretty scary too though, the language barrier is huge and i'm not a fan of sushi!

Italy-

And I am going, for five weeks, I'M SO EXCITED!! I cannot wait for sun, pizza, pasta and ice cream.

A Caribbean Cruise-

 

I'm not sure why I'd like to go on a cruise, maybe It's the idea of cocktails and buffets with ice sculptures. I'd also like the idea of idyllic palm tree beaches for a relax.

Skiing- Maybe in Austria

I've never been skiing and although I don't think I'd be very good at it, I like the idea of spending the whole day out in the cold then snuggling up with hot chocolate at night. I think this would be particularly special at Christmas.

Egypt-

I know it would be ridiculously hot but I loved doing the Egyptians at school so I'd like to see them for real.

Exciting

Enjoying unlimited Buble, Adele and Gaga and many more!

Reasons to be Cheerful

One. I'm pampering myself tomorrow with my first ever eyebrow wax and my first ever trip to the hairdressers, looking forward to someone else washing my hair!

Two. I've had a taste of summer by having a lovely meal with [Emma on Wheels] yesterday and I can't wait to be back to spend time with old friends.

Three. I enjoyed a visit to my Grandma's for a few days and got spoilt with a new pandora charm and a fish pedicure, it was lovely to see her too.