Sorry I haven't blogged much lately!

I had a lot of family events going on over the last two weeks.

Last Thursday I travelled to Wolverhampton with my little family for my auntie's wedding. My nieces were bridesmaids and they looked beautiful, even if the youngest did scream through the entire service!

It was nice to be able to buy a pretty dress (in a smaller size!) for the wedding though. We left the evening do early on Friday night for the journey home.

Saturday was my nanna's 75th birthday. My sister and I had been planning a surprise party for her at the Holiday Inn and after months of planning and keeping it a secret we were over excited & very stressed! We had a sneaky suspicion that she knew about it, but after seeing her reaction when she walked in, I genuinely believe she didn't have a clue!

We invited her family from London, all of our family from up North and a few of the people she works with. It was a really nice night with entertainment from Peter Brown, a beautiful cake from Scrummy Mummy Cakes and Martin Kirby taking photographs for us.

We also paid for our nanna and her sister to stay at the Holiday Inn after the party. Their room was huge with a double bed EACH! I surprised her by putting the room key in her birthday card but it fell out when she opened it - she didn't even realise!

This is my nanna looking very happy/surprised/excited;

And her beautiful birthday cake;

I don't think I have any other photographs from that night that can be blogged without embarrassing my family or offending your eyes, so i'll leave it at that!

Monday was spent in the kitchen cooking up a storm for my cousin's birthday party. Typical British 'bank holiday' weather meant our plans for a BBQ/garden party were dampened (quite literally!). We settled for an indoor BBQ instead and I roped my mum into helping me. My favourite bit of the day was embarrassing my cousin by singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. I didn't enjoy when her cake was cut though. I made it myself and it took 8 hours!!!!!! After messing up my first attempt (which is rather unlike me!) I then had to remake 24 cupcakes and a 7" sponge, cover with icing and decorate. Of course, she couldn't have a standard cake, she wanted it to be Zebra print. Then I over complicated it further by suggesting the use of non-toxic black glitter...

Here's how it turned out;

Laura x

Good Friday

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to my routine and planning my day, so when people change my plans at the last minute, it kind of annoys me. I need to realise that sometimes it can be a good thing, though.

I wasn't really looking forward to today because my 'plans' for this morning weren't exactly something I wanted to do, but they got changed at the last minute and my day ended up being pretty good!

After an unscheduled nap, I went out into the garden and finished weeding the rockery before putting up the fairy lights and butterfly solar powered lights, then I planted seeds and rearranged the ornaments. The ornaments look a bit crowded and the rest of the rockery looks a bit bare, but once the flowers start to grow I think it will look beautiful.







Me and my dad started the garden this time last year but we never got a chance to finish it because he passed away. I finished it on my own, mostly for my dad, but I also found it quite therapeutic...it gave me something to focus on and helped me get through my grief.
Easter Sunday was the last time I saw my dad, so I'm feeling a bit sad at the moment and I think having something to throw myself into is helping again.

After that, I made cornflake cakes with Bethany and Chloe. We put mini eggs and a fluffy chick in the middle of each one so they look like nests. We're growing some cress too. I love doing activities and art & craft stuff with them, I never did anything like that when I was a kid.

Now me and Chloe are snuggling up on the sofa to watch some Doctor Who! We have episodes 7-13 to watch in preparation for the new series kicking off tomorrow! Then we're all off to my nanna's for dinner, which brings me to the question; why do we eat fish on Good Friday?

Laura x

chilling at the beach

Sitting in the garden, surrounded by my family, enjoying some yummy food (if i do say so myself!). It's perfect BBQ weather today!











I've been reading my Recognise magazine (follow them here) which has a rather refreshing interview with Jessie J. I think she's a breath of fresh air to the music industry. An artist who refuses to be labeled, wether in relation to her music or her sexuality, constantly telling people they can be whoever they want to be. She's a pretty inspirational character.
There is also an interview with McFLY which made me laugh quite a bit! I saw them on their Above The Noise tour a few weeks ago and their performance was so strong, I can't wait to see what they do next.

Laura x