My Favourite Place

I have many favourite places in this world but one of them is a big love of mine in Nottingham: Rufford Park. 

Whenever I feel stressed or anxious about anything, or even if I just need some fresh air, I love to go there. 

It's one of the most beautiful places all around the year. When the lake's frosted over in the winter and your breath is clouding the air in front of you, or when the sun is beating down in Summer and making the lake glisten over every inch; it's always stunning.

If you ever come to Nottingham I recommend you put at the top of your 'Must Visit' list. Although I love places like Sherwood Forest too, it's just the constant calm of Rufford Park that attracts me to it. You have more room to think than you'll ever need, and you can walk forever and always find something new to see every time.

Katie x

Music Crush #20

It's Music Crush time again! Wooooo!

I have quite the eclectic music taste; one minute it can be rock, the next charts/pop, to relaxed, to some kind of heavy rock stuff, to disney, to blues, to everything basically. 

Lately, I've been listening to the more relaxed music out there and, honestly, a lot of it's been classical/piano music, like Ludivico Einaudi and Roberto Cacciapaglia, but I didn't think they really suited this blog (although they are great musicians that you should listen to at least once in your life!). 

So, sticking to the relaxed music I've been listening too, I found an old sing that I've recently re-found, but a one that I  absolutely love!

Birdy

~ ~ ~ 

Wings

This song is beautiful.

I love the fact that I can still here the piano in it, hence why it's a part of my relaxed playlist at the moment. Birdy's voice is perfect with it too, there's just something about her voice that lulls me into a kind of calm serenity, in an eerie kind of way.

The fact that she's only nineteen too, amazes me - she writes amazing music, can sing, play the piano and is just all round pretty awesome, before she can even go to America and legally drink! Wow.

Here's the song, all for your listening!

Katie x

Music Crush #9

Hello!

Sorry about the lateness of this weeks Music Crush but I've had a lovely day out with the Big Little Ones and then a pamper night and somehow I only managed to get back an hour ago... I honestly don't know where the time went!

I've been really indecisive about what song to choose this week. I've been listening to 5 Seconds of Summer's debut album on loop for most of it but I feel like I'd be cheating making them my Music Crush because they got their chance to shine only a few weeks ago. Therefore, I was left with the task of trying to find another song I've been loving just as much. The next song that came to me was a one by The Script, but they were last weeks Music Crush!

 Then it came to me. This weeks Music Crush should be...

*DRUM ROLL*

MAGIC!

~~~

Rude

This is definitely not the kind of music I normally listen to but I'm in love with it!

I originally heard the beat to the song on an amazing rendition sang by a father who didn't want a certain man to marry his daughter - it's hilariously amazing - and I googled what the song it was originally based on was and found this one. 

I think it's just something about the laid-back tone to it that I love. It seems so chilled. The lead singer, Nasri, has a reggae sound to his voice, a bit Bob Marley-like to a certain extent, and it makes the song seem less about a serious topic and more about just being content.

So here is the original song by MAGIC! for you to listen to:

And if you fancy listening to a father's response to the song, which is one of the best things I've heard in a long time, then here you go!

Katie x

A Lovely Few Weeks!

Hello!

I'm back!

Sorry for my notably long absence but, as I'm sure any frequent readers know, I've been on my holidays and to say the wi-fi there was awful would be an understatement - they may as well have not had any, it was that bad. My brother also got married this week so when we came back off holiday a lot of my time was thrown into helping them get organised for the big day.

I'm back now though, so you can expect a lot more blog posts to be coming your way!

I figured since it's been a while since I've blogged I'd ease myself back into it with a general little chat and life update for y'all.

Despite the lack of decent wi-fi, our holiday was still incredible. In fact, maybe the lack of wi-fi made it better, it meant you weren't stressing so much about what was happening at home. It definitely made it more relaxing.

We went to this quaint little hotel in Ovacik, Turkey, called Hotel Leytur and it was positively adorable.

This is the second time we've been to this particular hotel and I just love how quiet and relaxed it is. It's not right in the middle of an enormous, lively city but it's not far away from a little bustling one known as Hisaronu (there's supposed to be some accent-y things over certain letters in 'Hisaronu' too but that's just too complicated to try and add). If you wanted to go out for a night or have a change of scenery it's easy to just jump on a doormush (minibus) and it's only five minutes away. We went there a couple of times and I can definitely see why people describe it as the 'Turkish Blackpool' because that's exactly what it reminds me of. It has all of the lights and activity that Blackpool has - it even has a miniature fun fair!

There was a Turkish Night whilst we were staying there too, where they had a BBQ Grill type-thing outside - there was sooooo much yummy food, I was completely and utterly stuffed! They had a belly dancer too after all of the food, who was not only an amazing dancer but she was hilarious too! She got loads of the people staying at the hotel up to dance with her and it's safe to say that a lot of them had the dancing abilities of an awkward giraffe!

It was a fantastic little get away for my mama and I and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you like to just sunbathe by the cleanest pool you've ever seen and relax for the duration. It's perfect.

We only arrived back two days before the wedding so there wasn't much time to do anything else, although I did manage to squeeze in an afternoon with Daisy, which was just super cute, as always!

Then it was the wedding my whole family had been waiting for! 

My big brother finally tied the knot! It was something that, although him and his partner had been together for over ten years, we never actually thought would happen. I always remember when I was little and I'd play with my dress up dolls and read books about Cinderella getting married to her Prince Charming, my brother would tell me he didn't see the point in marriage, it was just a posh piece of paper after all. None of us ever thought someone would manage to change his stubborn mind but they did and I couldn't be happier for them! 

It was a truly wonderful and stunning day and the weather managed to stay amazing for the whole day, too! I would say welcome to the family to his new wife but she's always really been part of the family to me, so there's not much point!

And that's everything. That has been my life up to now... Aside from the part where I left my kindle in Starbucks on Friday - that wasn't fun. I'm pretty sure my heart still hasn't returned to the correct rhythm after that wee heart attack. Don't worry, my kindle and I have been reunited and we've been spending a lot of time together in our attempt to put the mistake behind us and continue with our relationship...

Katie x

Holiday Tradition

Hello!

I go on my jolly hols on Monday! It's safe to say, I cannot wait! A lovely, relaxing week with my mama!

We have certain little traditions when we go on holiday, one of those is that we take DVD's (quite a lot, actually) and we watch one, either on a night or in our little afternoon chill!

About Time,
We're the Millers,
Now You See Me,
That Awkward Moment,
Red 2,
Identity Thief

This is our holiday DVD collection, plus a few that we both know we love. We've been collecting these since about Christmas, I think, and trying not to watch them so we can watch them whilst we're on our hols!

As you can tell, most of them are comedies or rom-coms because what's the point in watching something that's going to make you depressed and cry your eyes out when you're supposed to be enjoying your holidays!

Holiday traditions are awesome, especially for once the sun goes down and you have to occupy yourself some other way than relaxing in the blazing heat by the pool.

Katie x