Who Are You Again?

Why hello there!

Who are you again, you ask?

I've been asking myself that same question lately!

I apologise profusely for my lack of existence on here in a loooooong time. I honestly just haven't felt like blogging for a long time. A lot has been happening in my personal life as well as uni kicking my ass - they weren't lying when they said third year was going to be a testing year! I also got a new job a few months ago, so juggling that and my uni work is proving to be... a little challenging to say the least.

It's nearly Christmas though! Woop woop!

And we all know I have a deep love for Christmas. I've been to the Nottingham Christmas Light Switch-On (again), and then of course I've been around the Winter Wonderland market here (obviously).                                

I also went to meet my bestest girl in Manchester so that we could catch-up whilst drinking mulled wine and touring the huge Christmas Market there - it was incredible (again, obviously).     

I officially finished all of my uni deadlines for this term on last Friday too, which means I've finished all my deadlines for this year! How freakin' crazy is that?! It does mean I could relax a little bit more though for my final week of uni before I go home and get all the baby cuddles and snuggles. Then again, a lot of said babies are getting older now and try to wriggle away when I finally catch them to steal a cuddle *insert my sad, pouty face*.

I guess I have a hell of a lot to catch you up on then, considering the last time I blogged was in June - I'm a bad person (and blogger), I know.

So what's there to tell you?

Well, I spent most of my summer working and going around lots of UK beaches with my grandparents in their caravan (I made a nearby beach be the specification to whichever campsite they looked at).

And of course I spent a hell of a lot of time with all my little ones. I took Daisy to Edinburgh for the day with my friend and we went to the zoo during my summer break as a late Christmas present/early birthday present for her. The week before we went and all of the day we went she was singing "We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo" which is apparently a nursery rhyme she sings in nursery now, or so she told me. Whatever the case, it was the frickin' cutest thing you've ever seen!

Talking of my little munchkins, it was three of their birthdays and two in the same week during summer and they had an adorable little, frozen-themed, joint birthday party, which I was chief photographer for because I am the queen of taking too many pictures...

I also took way too many pictures a few months ago when we all went away for a little camping holiday which provided a well-needed break from uni as well as smiles and cuddles from a huge amount of cuteness!

My mama and I had a lovely little break away for a week in Glasgow. It was so relaxing and we got to catch up with some old friends too whilst we were there. My mum even let me drag her around the shops for the day, and anyone who knows my mum will know that this is a BIG deal because she hates shopping. And when I say 'hate' I mean hates shopping. So thanks for grinning and bearing it for me, mama.

I moved into a house with some of my uni girls, and my room is the best and the homiest ever (once again, thanks mama Fi *mwah*). I have a picture wall in the form of wardrobe doors this year, just to mix it up a bit. 

I was also lucky enough to get to go and see Imagine Dragons whilst they were in Nottingham on tour and it was, without doubt, one of the best concerts I've ever been to (although I feel like I say that about all of the concerts I go to).

I'm struggling to think of anything else worth telling you now... I've been so lucky to do so many lovely things lately that I just can't think of them all at once. That always happens, I sit down to write, thinking I've got so much to say, then realise, actually, I have nothing. Nada. Zero. Noth-ing.

Oh well. I hope you've enjoyed this little catch-up and, who knows, maybe I won't leave it six months before I blog again. Then again, maybe I will. Guess you'll just have to watch and see!

Katie x

(If you haven't already, please read my last blog post, it's an important one about the suffering my little hometown is going through at the moment. Just click HERE).

5 Things I Love About Home

 I'm home!

Which I already told you, I think, but, well, I'm telling you again! It feels so good to know that I'm home and I don't have to worry about all the things I should be doing back at uni, because there isn't anything! Now I have the whole summer to relax a bit and slowly start working on my dissertation. It's an incredible feeling to not have to worry about deadlines!

In honour of being home for the next few months, I thought I'd list a few things I love about home, because we all know how I love a good list.

1.

Family.

An obvious one, really. But no matter how often I try to make a journey home, I always miss my family the most. Especially my last month or so in Nottingham I started to get really homesick, and there are only so many Skype conversations you can have before you realise it's just making you miss your family that much more. So I can't wait to spend the whole summer with my family and going on adventures with the little ones.

2.

Baths.

From family to baths. Yep. That's how I roll! When people tell me they don't like baths, I actually question that person's sanity because, honestly, how can you not love baths?! Light a few candles, grab a book, make sure there's loads of bubbles and climb into that lovely hot water and life is brilliant!

3.

Cheese.

Shallow, I know. Seriously though, that stuff is freakin' expensive, and I'm a cheese addict! At uni I have to make a conscious effort to cut down on the amount of cheese I eat and try and make it last me. Therefore, when I'm home, I do the exact opposite; I eat as much cheese as humanly possibly and annoy my mum when she comes home and realises I've eaten all the cheese that she only bought a few days ago - sorry mum...

4.

My House.

Before you start thinking I live in this huge mansion, I don't. I live in a normal little house but it's home, and I love it. My mum has cute pictures of the little ones all around (as well as a few embarrassing ones of me and my brother when we were younger), and it just feels home-y. And it always smells nice; I never need to worry about walking into the hallway... not that we have one of those at home but if we did I wouldn't have to worry about it smelling like sweaty feet or whatever other kinds of smells there were at uni.

5.

The Countryside.

I don't actually live in the countryside, not properly anyway. However, my grandparents live in a little village surrounded by fields and gorgeous views and I live with them part of the time; it's one of my favourite things to be able to go and run outdoors in some place quiet and calm with just me and my iPod, and occasionally a dog or two as well if I'm at my grandparents. Something as simple as a lovely, peaceful view can make me the happiest person for a few hours. I'm going to blame it on the creative writer in me; it helps me to think better.

There are plenty of other things I love about being home but those are the five that come straight to my mind. Of course, there are things I miss about being at uni too, like all of my friends and my flatmates and I love living in a big city too, but it's nice to have a change and a little break from all that busy-ness.

Katie x

Second Year = Completed!

Haven't written one of these in a while! 

It's definitely not been hard to notice I've been as absent from this blog as a first-year uni student who doesn't actually care about passing the year with higher than the necessary 40%. I've missed this little space but I've really just had no time for anything that isn't Literature essay related *sad face*. 

However, as of a week and a bit ago, I am finished for the summer! Woop woop! It's been a hectic few months and uni work practically buried me (if you'd seen the state of my friend's room - you'd have thought she was trying to bury herself under a million printed drafts of essays about urban landscapes and feminism).

As you can tell, we were more than a little bit happy to have finished our
final exam and second year!

So, even though it's been a hell of a long time since my last post, there hasn't actually been that much happening... but here's a little life update anyway!

The last blog post I did I told you all about the awesomeness of The Script concert that I went to (HERE). Some of the girls from my course and I booked tickets to go see Imagine Dragons at the Capital FM Arena in November, which I can't wait for! I love their music so obviously as soon as we heard they were coming to Nottingham we realised we had to go.  I'm considering it a birthday treat to myself, as well as an end-of-second-year-of-uni treat.

Only a few days after I went to see The Script, my grandma and grandad came to visit me in Nottingham, brought the dogs, and stayed for a whole week, which was amazing! It was perfect timing too, because homesickness had started to overtake, seen as I hadn't been home for over three months. It was lovely to see them and I got to show them around Nottingham a bit more as well as taking them to Sherwood Forest, one of my favourite places in Notts.

I went on a work placement with a friend from uni at the beginning of my Easter holidays before going home, where I got to see all of my little ones! I really hate how fast they grow, they just seem to ignore me when I tell them they're supposed to stay little babies forever! My nephew has learnt to say my name too, so he kept walking around going 'Kakie' and grabbing my hand to lead me to what he wanted, because of course he would know that I'm a softie and give in to cuteness way too easily. Although I did end up working most of the time I was home, which sucked because I wanted to see people but it was good at the same time because money. What student doesn't need money? Also, rather bizarrely, it ended up snowing for quite a few of those days - I know I live in the North of the UK, and our weather is often a lot crappier, but snow in April? That's crazy weather, even for us!

In the meantime it's been a few months of many birthdays, including my own! Which has left me rather poor, thanks to many nights out (although very awesome nights out, may I add), meals, presents, etc., etc. All of which were very lovely and deserved!

As for me, I've unfortunately left the teenage years behind and I've entered my twenties, I'm going to make 'twenteen' an age though because it sounds way cooler... right? My lovely flatmates decorated the flat and got me a cake whilst my amazing best friend (I better say that, in case she ever reads this ;) ) took me to the cinema to see The Avengers: Age of Ultron which, may I add, was a frickin' incredible movie. Obviously. My mum also rang me to tell me she'd sent me a card but she'd sent it to the wrong address... again. Yep. Again. It's not the first time she's sent me something and then I've had to go and retrieve it from some random strangers that she's sent it too by accident - she's lucky I love her.

Then came all the deadlines and exams and all the boring stuff, blah, blah, blah. Needless to say they were a tiring few months filled with a lot of work and very little sleep. However, I did find a lovely little place that I started running, or even just going for 'procastination walks' throughout revision period, but I'm gutted I found it so late in the year, especially when I won't be living in halls again next year so I won't be able to just walk out my door and down the road to it whenever I want. Oh yeah, and I developed an addiction to chocolate digestives thanks to stupid revision. Ugh.

BUT! We had a great final weekend - as an end-of-exams celebration and a birthday night out for my bestie, we went for our final ever Saturday night out of our second year, with some of the best people, and had an awesome night with a hell of a lot of dancing and laughing!

So I've realised I maybe had more to update you on than I first thought, and this became a much longer post than I first thought it was going to be.

It feels incredibly strange to think we've finished our second year of uni; it seems to have gone so quickly and it feels even weirder when I think about the fact that I'm heading into my final ever year of university (and education in general) - now that's a crazily scary thought!

Katie x

A Winter Lover

Hello!

I work in a takeaway, not the most glamorous of jobs but a job's a job and, as far as jobs go, it's not actually that bad. When I looked out of my window this morning though and saw pouring rain, I'm sure a did a little happy dance inside my head - it's too early and too soon after just waking up to be physically dancing - yet rain is never really something to get excited about in the UK (especially up north!) because we see a hell of a lot of it over a year. When you work in a takeaway, where there is constant heat everywhere, rain is a very welcome element!

In the UK lately, we've had really hot weather (it's a massive rarity!) and not to sound all British and constantly complain about weather but, it's too hot. Yep, that's right, I said it. It's too hot. I know there are other countries who have weather tons hotter than we've had at our height of summer but we're not equipped to deal with this kind of heat because we're just not used to it! Man, was I dying in all that humidity. I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West that melted to her death - I felt like I was slowly melting into a pool of sweatiness - lovely mental image for you there!

As you can probably tell, I'm not the biggest fan of the English "summer", which basically just consists of sweaty, humid air. I much prefer the winter.

1.

If I'm cold, all I have to do is put another jumper on!

2.

Talking of jumpers; jumpers! I love being able to put a soft, cosy jumper on and feel all lovely and warm.

3.

I can drink hot chocolate and not feel like a numpty for drinking a hot drink whilst it's thirty-odd degrees celcius outside! Instead, I can just feel even cosier with all my jumpers on and a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream sitting in my hands.

4.

I love ice hockey... a lot! And, of course, ice hockey is a winter sport. There is also an ice hockey team in Nottingham, the Nottingham Panthers, who are awesome and, as most of my winter is spent at uni, I get to see lots of ice hockey!

There are plenty more reasons why I prefer winter but I'm going to be late for work if I list them all, there are that many! I just think winter is a much cosier and, ironically, warmer-feeling season!

Katie x

The Trials and Tribulations of a Job

Hello!

As some of you may have read (HERE) I have a job now!

There are a lot of good points to having a job - like having a regular income! That part's definitely the best part!

There are also some not so great things about having a job; here are five of them (in my opinion):

1.

Not seeing the Little Ones :(

It was Daisy's birthday last week so I did manage to get the night off to go to her birthday tea but normally I take her out a couple of days during the week and I haven't had the chance to do that, which I hate. It was also James's birthday last week (too  many birthdays in one week!) and I only managed to see him for about forty-five minutes; it was literally a quick hello, birthday hug and a quick goodbye. I really miss getting to see them regularly and take them out to do nice things.

2.

No more lie-ins.

I actually have to get out of bed. You have no idea how much of a chore this is. It's awful! I love my bed! And now I have to battle with myself to remove myself from it. It's tough. I feel like I'm neglecting the poor thing. I'm sure my bed knows it too, seen as it's not letting me get a full night's sleep anymore!

3.

Sore feet.

For my job I literally have to stand on my feet for seven hours straight (aside from my eating break about half way through that) and wow is it taking its toll. I feel like every night when I get home I should have some professional masseur here to give me a foot rub. They hurt :(

4.

Uniform.

Most jobs have a uniform. In this sweaty weather, I'm not loving it though. There are a lot of ovens and things where I work (as if that isn't a big give away to the kind of place I work in) so it heats up in there pretty quickly! I have to have my legs covered because of there being lots of hot things, plus I'm super clumsy so it would probably be a good idea anyway, so my jeans are clinging to me within the first half hour and the shirt I have to wear isn't the thinnest of thins either, unfortunately but hey ho! It could be worse. At the secondary school I went to we had to wear all black. Now that was a bit warm!

5.

I miss my grandparents.

Slightly similar to the first one. I normally stay at my grandparents for the majority of the week and then come home for the weekend, or something like that, but these past few weeks I haven't been able to do that and it's killing me. I'm really close to my grandparents and I miss them like crazy not being able to see them. I've even been talking to them on the phone most nights but it's not the same. It takes a bit to get to there house though so I'm constantly trying to figure out whether it's going to be worth going for just the few days or waiting till I've got longer off.

Anyway, those are the woes of having a job. I'll get over them eventually, it's just taking a bit of getting used to when I'm home for the summer and I feel like I'm not getting to see the most important people. And I have sore feet. That never helps.

Katie x 

The Blacksmith Arms

Hello!

I've been for a delicious meal with my grandparents, before I start work today - it was scrummy!

I'm not sure if there are any observant readers out there who read the boring location bit of my blog posts but, if there are any, you will notice that they alternate a lot between Cumbria and Lockerbie; one being my mums home, the other being my grandparents. I visit them a lot in the summer holidays, so my having a job now is slightly putting that off track!

Anyway, to make up for it we went for a lovely meal (and pudding, obviously) to the Blacksmith Arms, in Talkin Tarn. It's my grandad and I's first choice of place to go if we're on a rare occasion of eating out. 

The food there is amazing. There aren't enough words in the English language to describe just how good it is, and as for the chocolate fudge cake, it makes my mouth water just at the thought of it... Mmmmm.

I did mean to take a picture of how yummy the food looks but I started eating it before I remembered - oops!

Talkin Tarn is a beautiful place and the Blacksmiths is only a few minutes away from it. It's super scenic and there are oodles of different walking trails too, for the walkers out there!

It's such a stunning and charming little place that it definitely deserves a visit, especially if you don't live too far from it. Take advantage of these lovely, uncommon English summer days and go visit Talkin Tarn.

Katie x

The Sunny One

Hello!

Yesterday was an actual, fatual sunny day! Believe it or not, they are very rare where I live so, obviously, sun can mean only one thing a trip to the park with my Little One! 

As soon as I walked through the door, she looked at me, grinned and started shouting "shoes on! Shoes on! Out! Paaaark!" - she knows if I go to visit and it's sunny then we go out, so we did and what a lovely afternoon we had, too!

Ice-pops are just crazy-exciting!

Spot the birdies!

I have my own miniature Hermoine Granger - she even ran around the park waving the stick and saying "abbacababa" - in other words "abracadabra" - it's not hard to see where her big sisters are rubbing off on her!

Katie x

Just Another Little Shopping Spree

Hello!

If you read THIS post, from yesterday, you will know that my best friend and I took a day out for a shopping trip in Newcastle!

I didn't go crazy (although I really wanted to), due to the whole summer-means-no-student-finance-which-means-no-money situation, but I thought I would share the things I did buy with you!

(Like last time, I'll add a little collage at the end of the clothes being worn because I know how different things can look until you see them on someone).

An essential to any students shopping trip is Primark, of course.

Primark - £8.00

I used to have a bag extremely similar to this which was also from Primark but the clasp finally broke a few months ago, probably because of my extreme over-usage of it... Anyway, I saw this one and thought it was similar, just a different colour, and thought it would do as a good replacement for the one that's gone to handbag heaven (R.I.P. little bow bag). 

I really like this bag and, as you can see, I've already started using it. The only thing is, it's a little bit of a tight squeeze to fit a lot in and I always like to stuff useless and pointless things in my bag, but maybe it will teach me to be more ruthless!

Top - Primark - £3.50
Shorts - Primark - £4.00

How cute are these pj's?!

I have a pajama obsession. I definitely have more sets of pajama's than necessary BUT I only have one set of short pj's, so these were a necessity! Or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself. I know there's not much need for short pajamas in England but we're having a particularly hot spell of weather at the moment (or hot for us English people, anyway) and I can't stand being too hot on a night. So, I bought these. Don't judge. I need pajamas.

Primark - £6.00 each

Two cardigans, one in black and one in navy blue. A bit boring but they were needed - even though it's kind of hot in England at the moment, you still need to take some sort of cardigan or cover-up; the weather can change quicker than you can click your fingers here!

Primark - £6.00

Oh hai there, little bag!

Okay, so I didn't really need another bag. It's cute though, right? I already found a use for it when I went out the other night (also explained in yesterday's blog post, *hint* *hint*). It's actually a really good size. I managed to fit my purse, phone, a small amount of make-up (mascara, lipstick, etc.) a little tin with hair grips and hair ties in it and something else that I can't even remember now in it. So it's perfect if you're trying to be concise and limit what you take out with you.

Primark - £4.00

This one was actually from when I went on a day out with my brother a few weeks ago (I blogged about the day HERE, if you're interested) but I thought I'd just add it to this post, considering it was the only thing I bought that day.

It's definitely not something I would normally pick up, never mind buy, but I was obviously feeling extra brave that day and went for it. It's super pretty actually! The colour and the pattern just scream spring/summer to me. I just need to get used to the round neck, I don't normally wear anything with a high neck but I think the top is lovely. It's a little bit on the big side for me but I don't think it looks bad being a tad too big because it's made of a meshy kind of material. I would wear a vest top under it seeing as it's see-through, but the light material makes it cool for a warmer climate!

Dorothy Perkins - Wallis - £12.75 (with student discount)

Now this was from Dorothy Perkins, or Wallis in Dorothy Perkins, to be exact. The colour is what caught my attention - it's sooooo bright! It's definitely something new for me; I don't normally go for colours this bright but I do love pink so I had to buy it. Once again, it's something good for the warm weather because it's a sheer kind of material and light and airy.

Boots - Benefit - £15.50

Alas, the £15 eyebrow pencil I told you about yesterday (it was actually £15.50). It's by Benefit so obviously it was going to be expensive but Benefit are normally a great brand so I splashed out. 

I really didn't want to use it once I bought it - all I could think was "don't ruin this, Katie. You paid £15 for it - don't be your usual clumsy self with it!". I did finally bring myself to use it though and it's amazing. It's the best eyebrow pencil I have ever used. I'm not much of a make-up person but, if I'm going out somewhere, I'll always at least use concealer, mascara and an eyebrow pencil (there's my little tip of the day!). It's the perfect colour for my eyebrows, stays on incredibly well and it has a little spooly thing (is that what you call it?) on the other end to tidy them up! As my friend said when she convinced me to buy it - it will last at least twice as long as any cheap one you would buy because you don't have to top it up and it's amazing quality.

And that's everything!

It was a lovely little day out and who doesn't love a bit of relaxed retail therapy?!

I hope you liked this little shopping insight, let me know what you thought or if you've bought any pretty summer-y things lately!

A candid moment of me falling over mid-twirl to end - I'm so graceful - thank god the bed was there, or that could have been more painful than it actually was!

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