A snowy walk

A couple of weeks ago I took my camera out with me for a walk in the snow.  Normally it's too cold to stay out for long enough to take pictures but the temperature was just about warm enough to spend a few extra minutes outdoors.  So on our way to a cafe for some lunch I snapped some snow!

I love fairy lights and what could be more romantic than fairy lights, snow and a swing?!  I definitely needed that cup of tea to warm up after taking pictures in the cold though!

Life Lately: Lemon Drizzle Cake and Pink Tulips

Hello!

I think it's time for a life lately post as I haven't done one for a little while.  I had quite a quiet time at work for a couple of weeks which was lucky as quite a busy time is about to follow from right about now!

I've kept going with the baking streak I had been on since pancake day.  This cake was requested by my fiancé.  It was a lemon drizzle cake which I don't think I had ever made before.  It was really tasty and quite a bit denser than the carrot cake I had made before.  The recipe was super simple and you can find it here.  I personally preferred the lightness of the carrot cake but my fiancé preferred this one!

We bought some pretty tulips.  I requested the girly pink ones though I think my fiance wanted the yellow and red.  Hello spring!

I've been obsessed with this Green and Black's Organic Milk Chocolate with delicate flakes of Sea Salt.  Soooo yummy!  It's been on offer for a little while but recently went back up to full price again which is a shame because it's so expensive :(

I've been doing a lot of work on my wedding veil which I will have to write a full update post on soon!
I hope you have a great week

Till next time :)

Twirlybirdie

Life lately: Flowers, Cards and Rice Milk

Hello!  I hope you have had a lovely Monday (haha).  Luckily for me it's my day off as we work Saturdays and (Sundays too sometimes).  As seems to be the usual for my days off it was overcast and cloudy all day long :(.  It was also pretty chilly so I was convinced I was going to achieve little other than spending the day hiding under my duvet thinking of all the things I should get done whilst avoiding going outside.  As it is I actually managed to convince myself to get out the flat and go for some tea with my fiancé as well as go food shopping and even hoover the flat (woo)!  This evening I'm even writing a blog post whilst I wait for the dinner to cook.  A much more productive day than I expected.  So without further ado, here is a selection of photos that I've taken from my life lately.

This is a really beautiful flower I received after the performance on Sunday.  It was given anonymously but was a lovely unexpected surprise!  So thank you mystery person :)

A card I drew to give to my sister to ask her to be a bridesmaid at my wedding.  I tried to draw a relatively accurate picture of what her dress will be like!  Her dress is so pretty, it's a vintage dress I bought from an antiques market in Marylebone.  A lovely 1930's dusky pink number.

My current favourite drink, Sea Buckthorn juice, which is apparently very good for the immune system as it is rich in vitamin C!  Perfect for the winter season when you need to start warding off colds.  I'm addicted right now and trying to stop myself from buying it every day as it's not cheap.

I bought these cute paper index notes to help me to be more organised in my notebooks.  I love writing in notebooks much more than on loose A4 kept in a ring binder, but I do find it difficult to keep track of different notes I've written on different subjects.  My brain skips around like crazy so I have blog post ideas, to do lists, general life plans etc all randomly skattered all over the notebook.  Now I can put a little sticker on a page I need to refer back to and even write on the sticky note exactly what it is.  Should have started using these ages ago!

Ever since I've tried to go dairy free the one thing I couldn't deal with was using a milk alternative in my tea and coffee.  However somehow I've managed to wean myself onto using rice or oat milk in those as well.  I've also developed an issue with caffeine too so now all my tea and coffee drinks are lactose and caffeine free!

Dinner is ready!  It's a lovely stew which is definitely something that appeals to me on these cold, dark evenings.  Unfortunately I put tumeric in it (yellow, stains easily) and then managed to splash it on my lovely cream jumper which is now lying in the bathroom smothered in Vanish.  I'm praying the stains come out!  I am so clumsy and even own the most gorgeous apron so why I never wear it those times when I really should I'll never know!

Till next time :)

Twirlybirdie

Little things from my week

Hi there!  I've been away this week on tour with the company which is why there's been a lack of posts.  We had a nice trip to Germany which involved lots of travelling.  It was quite exhausting but a good experience nonetheless.  I wasn't able to take my camera with me so I have lots of photographs to take for future posts, however I do have some pictures ready that I took the week before I left.

I love going out for coffee.  This wasn't mine though, seeing as I'm avoiding caffeine, so I had to make do with taking pictures of my fiancé's (sad face).  I was experimenting with using the manual focus setting and liked that I managed to capture the froth on this coffee so well

 The sun was shining and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of these leaves in the sunlight.

I love it when the sky is clear and this perfect shade of blue.

 I bought this super snuggly oversized cardigan.  It's soooo warm and comfy.  I wore it during the whole of the tour to keep warm and had lots of people saying to me that they wanted to buy something similar.

 I got this yellow rose from a friend who was watching one of our recent performances.

 Candle weather is sneaking up on us.  This was the only one I had left over from last year and I suddenly felt the need to light it.

 I'm still really enjoying making my morning smoothies.  I bought some frozen berries and they make the drink turn this gorgeous shade of purple.

I drew my first 'Will you be my bridesmaid?' card.

Looking back at these pictures I realise how sunny that week must have been!  Since I got back from the tour the weather has been mostly grey and cloudy.  More candles and bath products have been purchased to counter the gloom!  In fact, it's time to go and light one of those candles right now!

Till next time :)

Little Things From My Week

This week has been a moderately stressful one for me.  I've been struggling to deal with pressures at work so in my free time I've been focusing on little treats to get through.  They seem to be mostly food related treats though from looking at the pictures!

I have trouble digesting food in the mornings so getting the fuel I need for dancing is difficult.  I have started making smoothies for breakfast and I feel much better.  I can get the fuel I need and my stomach tolerates the liquid breakfast much better than a solid one.  I worked up the courage to add some spinach to this smoothie in particular and it still tasted great!

I bought a new kettle after getting sick of finding sediment at the bottom of my tea from all the lime scale that had been building up.  The filter in it was damaged and it was an old one we'd inherited from a friend anyway.  This kettle was the cheapest decent one I could find and was on offer too.  It definitely seems to be doing a better job than the old one so far.

I bought this milk to try after not having much success with the coconut milk version.  Unfortunately I still couldn't stand the taste of it in my tea and coffee.  The taste of nut in it was very strong.  I could tolerate it in my smoothie's though I probably wouldn't buy this one again.  The taste was just too strong for me.

I bought myself some mini macarons from the supermarket as a treat.  I've never bought them before but been tempted often.  There were pink ones too but they were all gone by the time I took this photo.  They were best enjoyed with a cup of tea or coffee.

I've been struggling to avoid caffeine recently, falling foul mostly at work during my mid morning break.  However I'm very pleased with myself for avoiding it totally now for two days in a row.  This is a picture of a decaf tea I made to go with my mini macaron afternoon treat.

Have you had a good week?  I hope so, and I hope the next one is better for me than this one was!

Twirlybirdie xxx

Life lately: Sunny weekend with tulips and coffee

Hello,

I hope you enjoyed your weekend.  It was lovely and sunny today which always puts me in a good mood.

 Yesterday it was International Women's Day so my fiancé bought me these lovely yellow tulips.  I had been craving having fresh flowers around the house ever since the snow melted!

They were closed so I looked forward to them opening soon!

In the evening we were about to go out to meet friends for drinks when typically I decided that it was time I whipped together a batch of cupcakes!

The morning after our wild Saturday night out (wild for us, we were home by about 2.30am) we were definitely in need of a coffee!  So we went to one of our favourite cafes in town.  I this particular cafe because of the light that comes in from the big windows and the white crockery.

My fiancé likes the little pictures that are on the sugar packets there!

I love a good pouring in the milk shot.  Yum.

Sugar too.  Sorry for getting a bit carried away with the coffee shots.  There are more but I will spare you!

My fiancé decided to make some paper cranes.  I have no idea why but they are pretty!

This morning the tulips had opened :)

I hope the sun was shining where you were today.

Twirlybirdie :)

Weekend activities:An Old Church and Cakes

Hello!

I had a nice relaxed weekend.  The sun actually shone which made me decide to take my camera out with me.

I wore my floral dress from M Butterfly.

There's this awesome looking old church in town.

We stopped at a local cafe for some coffee and cake.

The cakes were yummy.  I hope the sun shines more often from now on!

Twirlybirdie :)