Week in Photos - 26th November 2017

I haven’t felt that great this week to be honest. Although I seem to have almost got rid of the virus I’ve had for the last few weeks, I just seem to be feeling pretty down, wiped out and run down. Basically, all I want to do is stay in bed and sleep. But this week has been crazy busy with university and appointments, so that hasn’t been an option. I don’t really like being negative on here, but I also think it’s important to acknowledge when things are a bit crap – this is meant to be about my life after all. Somehow, I need to find some motivation and get myself back on track again.

After taking some time off, I was back at Uni on Monday for another news day. I had to edit together a pretty serious video about railway suicides. So I decided to treat myself to a Christmas Starbucks in one of their cute Christmassy cups. I noticed they also had some adorable ceramic Christmas mugs in the shop, which I’m so tempted to go back and buy (although I’m not quite sure where I will put it – my mug collection is getting pretty big!) Thankfully, my news package got some amazing feedback from my course leader and another lecturer. They’ve even recommended that I enter it into a competition, which was a massive complement. I’ll be sharing it on my YouTube very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Freddie always manages to spread himself out in the most uncomfortable looking positions! Yet somehow still manages to look cosy and cute. He’s particularly loving my Dunelm teddy bear blanket at the moment!

It’s been so dark, cold and gloomy recently and as I mentioned, I’ve been struggling with my mental health quite a bit. So when I popped into Waitrose to get some cash out, I decided to pick up these beautiful autumnal flowers to go in our kitchen. How gorgeous are those roses.

My Mum has made our kitchen look nice and cosy with fairy lights. There’s a heart hanging from one of the windows and then three lanterns, all from Waitrose. I always like to use lots of fairy lights and candles this time of year. It helps to make the darkness a bit less dark.

I received these amazing Dr Martens for my birthday last month and completely forgot to share a photo of them with you! So here they are – have you ever seen anything quite so pretty?! I will definitely feel like some kind of mermaid unicorn when I wear these. There’s a ‘What I got for my birthday’ video up over on my YouTube channel.

On Thursday, my Dad and I took the train up to Denmark Hill for my appointment at Kings College Hospital. I had to do some exercise tests where they monitored my breathing, oxygen saturation, heart rate and blood pressure. I knew it would be hard, but oh my goodness it completely knocked me out. I ended up having to give up before I passed out, so I hope they got what they needed. Because I was so wiped out afterwards, they told me to go down to Costa and get some sugar in me (and who was I to say no?!)

Our boy is doing so well since his surgery – he’s such a fighter. Considering how poorly he was only a short while ago, he’s done fantastically. This week he had his stitches taken out in two stages, but unfortunately he’s still got to wear the inflatable collar (which he’s not impressed with at all!) but it’s so he doesn’t re-open the wound. It’s good to have the real Alfie back again.

A few years ago, I started a little tradition that each year I would buy a new Christmas film. I’m building up quite a collection, so it’s getting more and more difficult to find films to add. But this year, after getting recommendations from some Facebook friends, I picked up a box set of Santa Clause films and also The Nightmare Before Christmas. So I’m looking forward to watching these over the next few weeks.

My Mum and I went over to Richard and Lisa’s yesterday to see the bunnies, Benjie and Beatrix. They’re so cute and fluffy, so it was nice to have a little cuddle.

You can check out my YouTube channel here, where I have recently uploaded a few new videos (and hope to continue doing!)

I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

If you don’t already, please give me a follow on Bloglovin here - I can’t believe I’ve managed to hit 800 followers now! Thank you all so much. I’m planning a giveaway as soon as I can get some bits together!

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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Week in Photos - 6th August 2017

This week has been quite a bit quieter than the last few weeks (or even months!), which is just what I needed, as I’ve been absolutely exhausted. Saying that though, I’ve felt a bit flat if I’m honest. I’d got so used to having to push myself and run on pure adrenaline, that when it actually came to me being able to scale back and rest, everything felt a bit empty. I knew I needed to get some rest and try and get some energy back, but I also needed some things to look forward to and keep me occupied, so I’ve been trying to find a balance. I scheduled a couple of meet-ups/activities this week, but also had days where I didn’t do much at all apart from pottering around at home.

I shared a couple more photos from my trip to Peggy Porschen this week, as they made me smile. The pink cake that I had there was strawberry and champagne (and seriously amazing!) and we also shared a few macarons, which were also very tasty.

Last Sunday, I met up with my friend, Lilli, as she was due to leave for Germany on Monday where she will be working for at least a couple of years. We decided to try out Beatons Tea Room in Crowthorne. I’d heard great things about it but had never got round to trying it. We got there for about 11.45am, so were too early for lunch and too late for the full breakfast menu, but they had an elevenses menu we could order from. They had so many different teas to choose from that it took us quite a while to pick one! But the tea and food were delicious and the setting was really lovely. We had a nice chat and catch-up, and I will definitely be going back there with my Mum to try out the lunch menu.

I’ve wanted to go to the cinema for ages but it’s not always easy to find someone to go with. So towards the end of last week, I messaged my sister-in-law, Emma, to see if she fancied going to see Despicable Me 3 this week, and thankfully she did! So, on Monday afternoon, we went along to our local Vue Cinema to see it. Despite it being the third film in the series, I still really enjoyed it and would definitely watch it again (but then I do have a slight obsession with the Minions and Agnes with her unicorns!)

After the cinema, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner somewhere. It took us a while to choose where to go, as there are quite a few places to choose from in Camberley! But, in the end, we went for Bill’s, which is usually a safe bet for good food and drink. I particularly love their pink lemonade.

During the week when I was just pottering round the house doing odd jobs, Bekkah was looking after her god-daughter, Trinity. So, of course, I had to have some cuddles with her! She’s still so tiny – she is also very smiley and very cuddly. So I got in some practice for when baby Cole arrives in December!

On Thursday, my Mum and I went over to Marks and Spencer as we both needed to get some new bras. After sorting those out, we had a look round the food section and came across these rainbow macarons. Now, I’m never one to pass up a macaron, so when my Mum popped them in our basket I wasn’t going to complain!

Yesterday, Lisa’s sister got married and my Mum and I went along to the ceremony. It was a lovely service and Clare looked beautiful in her dress. Lisa and Richard also looked very smart with Lisa in her bridesmaid dress and Richard in his tweed suit. Thankfully the sun shone when we needed it to and we managed to dodge the crazy showers.

You can check out my YouTube channel here, where I have recently uploaded a few new videos (and hope to continue doing!)

I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

If you don’t already, please give me a follow on Bloglovin here - I would love to reach 800 followers and we’re so nearly there! I do have a little giveaway planned for when I get there!

I also want to apologise for the slightly shabby state of my blog at the moment. I’ve had problems after Photobucket changed their terms, but am gradually sorting things out and hope to also have a new layout fairly soon.

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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January Happiness Project Round-Up

This year I decided to give my own Happiness Project another go after failing a bit with the last one I tried. If you’ve never heard of The Happiness Project before, you can check out my introduction to it here. I made a sort of bucket list for each month of things I would like to do and also national days I could celebrate. Some I came up with myself, and some I found on Pinterest. But I made sure not to put any pressure on myself to do them all because that would just take away from the whole idea of it being a project to increase my happiness! I said in that post that I would share my project with you over the next year, so today I thought I would go through the things I did throughout January.

First up on my list was to set up a new planner and calendar – a job that definitely needs to be done at the beginning of the year. This is something I tended to do anyway to be honest, but I really enjoy doing it, so I thought I would pop it on my list! I ordered myself a cute Boofle calendar at the end of December, so started by filling that in with birthdays, anniversaries and any appointments I already knew about. Next was my Filofax - I’ve had a Filofax for about ten years now and absolutely love how simple they are to keep. I used to use it as a diary and address book, but now I keep my addresses on my iPhone, the Filofax is mainly an appointments diary. So I filled it in with the same birthdays, anniversaries and appointments as my calendar. I love to be organised and know what I’m meant to be doing – it helps me feel happier because I can plan and keep up with my commitments. But I really wish I could make more time to perhaps keep a more detailed and pretty planner like a Bullet Journal or drawing/scrapbook-type journal. I think I will have to make a list as the year goes on, of ideas that come out of doing this project that I would like to make more of an effort to do.

Something I was really keen to put on my list for each month was to buy flowers. There’s something about having fresh flowers in the house that really lifts my mood, and because no one is going to buy them for me, the next best thing is to buy them for myself! Rather than just buying a random bunch of flowers each month, I’ve tried to specify a type of flower (or bunch) instead. For January, my goal was to buy some white roses, as I always think they are a good winter flower. But I do love a bit of colour, and white roses on their own can be a bit boring. So I chose this bunch of pink and white roses from Waitrose that go with my room décor perfectly.

Next on my January bucket list was to have a Snow Fairy and Epsom salts bath. A bit random I know, but I’m terrible at making time for myself to have a nice bath (please don’t think that means I don’t wash though!) I have one or two (OK, probably more like five!) bottles of Snow Fairy that I stocked up on over Christmas, and it’s got to be one of my favourite Lush products of all time. I’ve also recently been trying out Epsom salts/Magnesium Flakes in my baths to try and help with my muscle pain, but I just don’t make an effort to use them enough. So this was a good excuse to really pamper myself with a lovely relaxing bath. I definitely enjoyed it and really need to make myself take proper bubble baths more often, rather than just a quick dip or hair wash.

Another goal on my list for this month was to light winter candles. I have a ridiculous amount of candles – I just can’t help myself, I love them so much! But I’m terrible at lighting them (are you sensing a theme throughout this post?!) So I decided to light my Yankee Candle, Snowflake Cookie, which is a gorgeous candle for the winter months. It’s quite sweet, so if you’re not a fan of sickly sweet candles this one probably isn’t for you, but I’ve got a real sweet tooth. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly Christmassy in my opinion, which is good as you can continue to burn it into the new year (although let’s be honest, I burn Christmas candles all year round!) I’ve got goals to burn different candles throughout the year, so am quite excited to see what new ones come out for different seasons, despite the fact I really don’t need to buy any more candles!

As well as having some bucket list items on my list for each month, I’ve also found some national days that would be fun to mark. Most of them are quite random and light-hearted, although there are some more serious ones that I felt were important to include. The first one for January was National Bubble Bath Day on the 8th. I know I’ve already included a bath-related goal for this month, but there’s no such as thing as too many baths as far as I’m concerned. So I chose a Lush product from my Christmas collection, The Christmas Penguin, and also added a bit of bubble bath from Treacle Moon (who by the way I love!) to make it really bubbly.

Organised Home Day came next, on the 14th, and this was something I will always have things to do for! No matter how much time I spend tidying and organising, there always seems to be more to do. I actually really enjoy tidying and organising though, which may sound a bit weird to some people, but I just find it quite relaxing and I love the end result when everything looks tidy. I decided to focus on my make-up storage, as I recently purchased the Alex 9-drawer unit from IKEA and have been meaning to start sorting out my make-up for a while. First, I worked out which products will go in each drawer and wrote that down so I had something to work on. Then I found a load of old boxes from My Little Box and Birchbox, which I thought would be perfect for organising each drawer into smaller section. And then I started to put my make-up and skincare into the different drawers. I’ve still got some to do, but I’ve made a good start.

The 18th of January was Winnie the Pooh Day, and as a lifelong lover of Winnie the Pooh I knew I needed to do something to mark it. It was a bit of a challenge thinking of something creative to do, especially with limited time and energy, so in the end I just spent some time reading through one of my old Winnie the Pooh books that I’ve kept from my childhood. I love the beautiful illustrations, and the words bring back so many lovely memories of my parents reading me these stories when I was little. I wish I could have thought of something a bit more exciting to do, but the whole idea of this project is to do things that make me happy, and this certainly did. If I do this again next year, then maybe I can think of something different to do. Perhaps you can give me some suggestions if you have any?!

The day after, the 19th, was Popcorn Day, and what better way to enjoy popcorn than at the cinema?! I have to just add in here that I didn’t always mark these days on the right dates – that was going to get too complicated! But my friend Charlie kindly invited me to go to the cinema with her, her husband and two children to see Sing, and I jumped at the chance. As soon as I saw the trailer last year I knew it was a film that I needed to see, so I was really excited to watch it and thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. We were all singing along and dancing in our seats all the way through, and it’s definitely something I will be getting when it comes out on DVD. I always used to be a sweet popcorn lover, but just recently I’ve been craving salty food, so opted for salted popcorn. I kind of wish I’d gone for a mixture of both, but hey, there’s always next time.

National Hug Day came on the 21st, and there’s nothing I love better than a good hug. Unfortunately, being single, I don’t get many opportunities for hugs, so I tend to turn to my family, friends and pets for a bit of love. On this particular day, Freddie came and sat on my lap as he often does, and gave me a lovely long cuddle. A hug from him (or any of our pets) will always lift my mood if I’m feeling down. He doesn’t judge me or ask any questions, it’s just unconditional love (and kisses!) I think everyone needs a Freddie in their life!

The last goal I managed to achieve this month was celebrating Chinese New Year on the 28th. I always used to love getting a Chinese, with my favourite being sweet and sour chicken balls with egg fried rice. But over the last few years my digestive problems have got a lot worse and I struggle to manage food like this any more. But my family were all having some, so I thought I might as well give it a go and just have a nibble of some of my favourite things. Waitrose were doing a deal on their Chinese range, so we decided to get some bits from there, and ended up getting a whole feast! I did enjoy getting to taste some of my favourite Chinese foods again, but unfortunately I was quite poorly afterwards.

So, that was all of the things I managed to do in January, but I did have a few more things on my list that I didn’t quite accomplish. I thought I would share them with you too, just in case you’re looking for ideas for your own list. I’m going to hold onto all these ideas and either fit them in as the year goes on, or do the project again next year! The goals I didn’t manage this month were:

o   Write a 2017 reading list

o   Blue manicure and pedicure

o   Decorate my home for winter

o   Read by the fire

o   Go on a winter adventure

o   Make soup

o   Build a snowman (we had no snow!)

o   Blue Monday (Bright Monday) – 16th

o   Handwriting Day – 23rd

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing how I got on with my January Happiness Project. I’d love to hear your comments and if you’ve done/are doing a similar project I would love to hear all about it too!

Have you done a Happiness Project before? What do you think of the idea?

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