Looking Back

  Just a few Christmas memories from my heart to yours.

Keep Dreaming xoxo

 

Merry Crimble.

Christmas. Well, I think it's safe to say that I am severely lacking in Christmas spirit this year, but that being said, Christmas preparations are currently underway. My Mum is in the kitchen prepping all the veg and cooking the ham. The Christmas eve food is going to be made this afternoon. The entire house is being cleaned ready for our guests tomorrow/tonight. There's a gingerbread house waiting to be assembled... the tree has been up for a week. I think I've done some of the rounds these past few weeks, I've at least attempted to see as many friends as possible. I've got one stop to do later today to drop of a present and then later on I guess it is off to Church.

Earlier on in the month, Lottie and I went to Lincoln's Christmas Market which was lovely. Don't get me wrong, it was flipping freezing but it was really nice to see all of the lights and to stuff our faces with food. I've been meaning to blog about this for a while seen as it was a few weeks ago now... but oh well! So we went on the train which was full to the brim, then we walked around the market, bought some hotdogs and Lottie got some churros ( no, I'd never heard of them either... they're doughnutty). We then escaped to a café to warm up... I can never remember the name of this café but it's really nice, and I shall share as soon as I remember the name! It has a vintage-y kind of feel but it's really cute all at the same time. It was a lovely night, and it was nice to chat with Lottie and go for a wander around Lincoln.

Have you got anything special planned for Christmas day or done anything Christmas-y? Merry Crimble and Keep Dreaming xoxo

24 days till Christmas

Its official, the first of the advent calendar windows has been opened and the Christmas countdown has begun. Particularly early for my family, we’ve even been out and bought our Christmas tree… don’t worry it isn’t going to go up for a while though! We got our tree from clumber this year, which meant we went for a walk beforehand. I think I have an Autumn/winter uniform of some kind as all of my recent ‘outfit posts’ seem to be me, my jeans, my wellies and my coat. At least I stay toasty warm I suppose!
 

 

 
 

I literally can’t believe how quickly Christmas has come round, but I’m starting to feel like I’m in an okay place at the minute. My sister should be home in a few weeks which is always nice, although it’s a shame she won’t be home for her birthday… I’ll have to just send birthday wishes her way! It’s weird how months go by and in a way your life doesn’t even change… you just keep on plodding along, but I kind of like it that way, no drama, no change, I guess that’s just the way I am though! Hopefully I’ll be doing lots of Christmassy things with my friends in these upcoming weeks. Hope your Christmas countdown is just as good and as festive as mine!

Things.

I read an article on Thought Catalog this week: http://thoughtcatalog.com/lily-garcia/2013/11/53-things-i-need-you-to-know-wherever-you-are/
I thought it was really fun, so I thought I'd give it a go myself... without the twist... just simple, old me! You should try writing one yourself!

 

1.       I go to bed at ridiculous a time in the afternoon because I like to sleep for 12 hours

2.       Sometimes after that sleep I can’t be bothered to get out of bed so I just lay there

3.       I hate breakfast. It’s the worst meal of the day. I always have toast.

4.       I love walking to school on my own in the morning. I’m not a morning person.

5.       I always have to have a mid-morning snack… because I didn’t eat all my breakfast.

6.       Mid-morning is when I’m at my most chattiest, I’ve finally given myself the energy.

7.       I love train stations.

8.       I like to figure out people’s stories… what they’re doing here and where they’re going.

9.       Sometimes I like to pretend I’m going somewhere special and not just too Meadowhall again.

10.   I have a nail varnish obsession.

11.   More specifically, I have three shades of a very similar plum… when I put them on I can’t tell which I’m wearing.

12.   I like photos

13.   I often look through them, I could spend hours looking through old photos… they make me happy.

14.   I wish I was back in those photos

15.   I feel old

16.   I’m 17, I’m not old.

17.   I just feel it… so I dread my birthday

18.   Sometimes I wish I could forever stay at primary school age.

19.   I love the Christmas build up… it’s the best part of the year.

20.   I like to have a go at DIY-ing at this time, I’m not very good at that.

21.   I wear a hoodie and socks to bed… my feet still get cold.

22.   At night I spend two hours on my own. Sometimes I like to just sit and think about my day.

23.   I find it difficult to relax… I think too much.

24.   I plan my outfits for the week.

25.   It makes my mornings less stressful… I really hate mornings.

26.   Autumns my favourite month, but really I just like the colours.

27.   I love wearing my wellies… I love it even more when it’s snowing.

28.   When snowflakes fall on my nose and eyelashes I start to sing the sound of music in my head

29.   I have an adoration of musicals

30.   I think Grease is my favourite, I like Rizzo’s character.

31.   I’m even getting tired writing this list… it’s only 9 o’clock.

32.   32 is my lucky number. I will therefore stop at 32.

Bonfire Night

Confession! I'm writing this on the second and not the fifth, I couldn't contain my excitement! I went to the Rugby Club on the second and had a lovely time. I went with two of my friends who I love to bits and I'm so glad I went.

I don't know what it is about Bonfire Night, whether it's the fireworks, the cinder toffee, the friends or the fact you freeze your arse off but I completely love it! There's just something great about getting wrapped up all warm and going out into the freezing with your wellies on to be all snuggly!

We went to the Rugby Club anyway, went on a ride, eat some chips, and watched the bonfire and the fireworks. We also did a lot of singing towards the end of the trip which was funny.

I hope that all my Bonfire nights live up to this one!

Keep Dreaming xoxo

Rounding off the food.

That's it... the end of my food addiction. So, I shall round it off with a similar recipe. For the two recipes I've shared so far, they've started with the same tomato-y base/sauce/pasta ... I guess it makes it easier to have the starting point down to a tee! Again, this pasta has a tomato-y sauce which is similar to the pasta I made for the fried sandwich, but with water added so that it isn't quite as thick as a paste!

I used:
-Half an onion
-one clove of garlic
-bacon pieces
-tomatoes
-tomato puree
-half a stock cube
-boiling water (to own preference)

So my sauce started off by cooking the onions (diced) and bacon in a pan, then adding the diced garlic and tomatoes. Letting it simmer. Add the tomatoes (chopped). Once it's browned and the bacons cooked through, add the tomato puree and the stock cube. After a while begin to add the boiling water whilst stirring so you get a nice consistency.

Whilst doing this, I cooked the pasta. Then I just drained the pasta and stirred the sauce in with it and served! You could put cheese on top of it if you wish, but I just had it with baguette and it was delish! Plus, there were leftovers for when I got back from the Rugby Club! Enjoy xoxo

Granny's Soup.

I seem to be on a bit of a food role, so I'll just go with it; I'll be the foodie type for the week! I made this soup a while ago, and when I say 'Granny's soup', I basically mean minestrone soup that my Mama usually makes, but I thought I'd have a go at... so don't get too excited people! Any...here's what you'll need (and this is going to be rough because I didn't really follow a specific recipe.)
-boiling water

-stock cube

-can of tinned tomatoes

-tomatoes

-carrots

-pasta

-bacon

-onion

-dried basil

-celery!!!

 

 

So, it starts off the same as my sandwich paste... cook in a pan, your onions, bacon, tomatoes, carrots etc. then add the tinned tomatoes. stir the boiling water into the stock cube (this is kind of about measurement here). Let it simmer a bit. Then boil your pasta in the soup for the set amount of time. It may also be useful to add the basil and maybe some salt/pepper/pinch of sugar at the this point.

Anyway, so you cook cook cook! Keep tasting it, and vwalah you have your soup ready to serve (yay)

Ooooh, celery! You could also add celery! But, here's the finished product! It's delicious!

 And.... you can bag and freeze the left overs for another week!!!

So, have a go if you like at my Mama's minestrone soup! It's perfect for a cold day!

Keep Dreaming xoxo

Let's talk food...

Okay, so firstly, I'm aware it's Halloween... but this year I'm doing nothing remotely Halloween related and so I'm going to skip over that little factor. But, still Happy Halloween!!! (excessive exclamation marks)

So, moving swiftly on! I had the house to myself today, so I thought I'd do some experimenting in the kitchen/ keeping it safe... and I made a bacon/tomato/avocado/cheese creation... yum.
Here's how:

 

You'll need:

-two slices of bread

- one onion

-bacon

-garlic clove

-tomato puree

-avocado

-cheese

-sour cream and Doritos (serving suggestion)

 

 

Dice half the onion and cut up the bacon and cook them together in a pan. Add the garlic (finely diced). Let it cook. At this point I'd have liked to have added tomatoes but I didn't have any! So, then I added the tomato puree and mixed it all in so it looked like a paste. I then put this on top of the bread and added the avocado slices and the cheese. then made up the sandwich.

 I then put some oil into a frying pan, and fried both sides of my sandwich (tricky stage... don't drop the filling when flipping it)

 And vwlah:

Luckily for me, you can't see that I burnt one side of my sandwich but hey ho... it still tasted good, I guess my tip would be not to walk off slightly when frying the thing!

Plus my Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet came today! Yay!

Happy eating xoxo

As the leaves fall...

-Insert apologies for not blogging-

So, I spent my half term being ill, which isn't always the best way to spend a week off of school but that's the way the penny drops. I'm now recovered and up to my usual things again.

I'm loving my college course at the minute, although there is a lot of work but it will all be worth it when I get to my target!

I took these photos on a visit to the duck pond with some of my family. Just a normal Autumnal outfit. Actually, all of my outfits have been covered by this Dorothy Perkin's jacket recently... it's the ideal size, just warm enough!!

Hope you're enjoying the autumn leaves xoxo

Moody Mornings.

It's really the only explanation I have for my face in these photos... mornings. I'd got dressed for college this morning and decided, seen as I wasn't in till ten, it was the perfect time to take some photos for the blog. I thought I'd do the amateur way, by using my little phone and it's self-timer. It had been such a long time, so I jumped outside in the garden... took a few photos, checked them. Disaster moment. I had a 'face' on in every photo, and even if I was smiling I looked like I'd just been smacked. I blamed it on the environment.

So then I thought I could head inside and do some posing by the fridge (one of the bloggers I follow used to do this and so I thought maybe it'd work for me... I was wrong). All I can do is say, yes I am well aware that these photos are appalling, but I'm hoping they're kind of acceptable seen as I haven't done a post like this in a while?

Today was lovely, I caught up with a friend from school and we had a lovely catch up with one another and had a drinky. Asides from that it was just a usual day... been to college, had food, talked to people. Sometimes it's just days like these that make you smile.

Keep Dreaming xoxo

Glamour and Gowns.

So, on holiday I went to Holkham Hall in Norfolk and at the time I was visiting they had a Glamour and Gowns exhibition on. This exhibition showed a collection of dresses made by Belinda Bellville, dress maker for Bellville Sassoon.

The collection consisted of ball gowns, wedding dresses and just usual formal dresses. It was the kind of thing I wasn't expecting to see whilst visiting a Hall like Holkham, but was so please to be able to see this collection of dresses.

It's not a secret that I love fashion... I spend my week nights with my head buried in fashion magazines and browsing through websites so to be in a room if couture dresses, it was kind of perfection.

So, I took a few photos... sneak peeks I guess. But, you should definitely check it out for yourself if you're in the area.

Keep Dreaming xoxo