Lovely Things || July 2017

Happy August…finally…I’m only three weeks late with this post, but better late than never ehh?!

At the end of last month I vowed to make July less hectic than June. I had a brilliant time, but was feeling pretty washed out and in need of some time at home, in the garden and enjoying the sunshine. I’m happy to say, I think I pretty much managed it! One annoying blow at the beginning of the month was that my long waited chance to see Adele perform was snatched from me, as she cancelled her last two shows. Unfortunately we also couldn’t get refunds on our train tickets either so all in all the first weekend of July was a frustrating one, but I guess it can’t be helped!  I’ve had work trips away, blogging events and actually quite a lot of time at home in Cornwall instead, which has been delightful! 

Work Trip to Birmingham

The first week of July 2017 was spent mostly in Birmingham where I had the chance to attend an interesting Early Careers Researcher conference alongside one of the industry’s biggest shows in the NEC. Staying in both Birmingham Uni and hotels was fun for a few nights, especially as I got an evening with my bestie Sally, heading out on a bit of a food and drink safari around the city (mainly because who would have thought you’d need to book a table on a Tuesday night?!) Big error!

Before Sally had finished, but about 7pm, I had the chance for a little shop around the Bullring, but actually didn’t find very much at all. I got this lovely dotty green dress from H&M, which is super flattering (even if we were twinning in matching pine green!), and a relaxed stripy t-shirt dress too. Seeing as I tried on about 3948567362 things in Primark and New Look beforehand (classy bird ehh?!) I actually think I was restrained!

After wondering from place to place for a while, we had some interestingly presented but tasty food at The Distillery, right by the canals, topped off with one of the best G&Ts ever! Pinkster gin with WATERMELON AND CUCUMBER TONIC! Yes, this is a thing, it’s made by Double Dutch Drinks, and it is deeeeeeelicious! Afterwards, on our way back we headed to Wagamamas specifically to share a piece of their white chocolate and ginger cheesecake (yep, we went there just for pudding!) and some tasty tasty green tea. God their green tea is good, what do they do to it?!

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Pizza, Prosecco and Jazz at Ocean, Exmouth

You might have seen this post about my night at Ocean, Exmouth with my brother Harry. We saw the beach in sunset glory and drank prosecco and at pizza – all whilst listening to a fab jazz band! Apparently they’re running jazz nights all throughout the summer so if your local I’d highly recommend it!

 

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Embracing red lipstick

This is an odd one for many, but one I’ve loved embracing this month – red lipstick! In fact, any kind of lipstick. I’m not usually a particularly girly girl, and I actually have pretty big lips, but that has always meant that I feel pretty overwhelmingly made up when I wear lipstick. In July 2017 however, I finally plucked up the courage to start wearing it a bit more and get myself used to looking more doll-like. Any recommendations for lipsticks that wouldn’t be quite so jazzy, but still suit a pretty rosy complexioned gal, let me know!

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Gardening

Adam and I got quite green fingered during July! We are fighting a forever battle against the bind weed that blights our front garden, grows insanely fast and threatens to choke every plant going. However, I’ve found it therapeutic doing some digging, planting a few plants here and there (a lot of what you see was left three years ago by the old tenants thankfully) and slowly learning what each plant is (and more importantly, if it’s a flower or a weed!!)

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Climbing a Church Spire

One of the work trips I had to take in July was to London, for an environmental review I’m doing of a new church development. The vicar and church workers were brilliant, and I also got to climb up onto the church roof, which involved this sketchy wooden ladder, but the view was incredible, and I also got to see how the old clock at the top works. the church is beautiful (I mean, LOOK at that ceiling folks!) so I’m excited to be working on this project!

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Our first night in the van

In July we visited Southampton (for a lovely lunch in a cute cafe with my uni friends Amy and rob) and then headed on to Winchester for Hatty and Alex’s housewarming. They’re doing a similar thing to us and have bought a house that needs renovating. They’ve done some major works already and we were so impressed! Alex also took part in the latest series of Masterchef, and I was yet to try his culinary delights, so I’m VERY pleased he put on a delicious buffet of meats and salads. I still salivate at the thought of them now, the food was THAT good! His instagram is also total #goals, and he is so inventive with the food he makes! However, back to the point of this tale, was that we very excitedly got to party with their friends and then head back to our luxury accommodation in the van. 4ft airbed, duvet and throw acting as a curtain at the ready, I *may* have had to wake up and do a wee in a bush on the side of the road, and we *may* have been in the middle of a housing estate. Just gotta hope this classy gal didn’t have anyone peering through their windows at 3am ehh?!

Lessons from this tale were – PJs are needed, who would have thought a big metal box would get cold at night eh? Though the airbed was surprisingly comfy and I actually slept pretty well!

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Nearly finishing the kitchen

This is funny as we now pretty much actually have finished the kitchen. I’m so late to the party this month with July’s Lovely Things post! We aren’t doing anything drastic yet (as that’s all in the plans to come….ooooooh….but even though we were intended on not bothering to paint any room from the glorious magnolia the house was dipped in entirely before selling, we aren’t going to be able to afford doing the kitchen for a while. Therefore a little spruce has made it a much brighter happier space to cook in. White walls, grey woodwork and a nice lil minty green eau de nil style wall at the cooker end have definitely helped. All that we’ll do next is strip all the downstairs doors back to plain wood and change up the handles for something pretty. for now we’re living with the cupboard doors and tiling…etc – dreams aside, we’re sadly not made of money!

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So there you have it lovemuffins, I’ve finally finished off July’s Lovely Things (nearly in time for Augusts ehh?!).

Do you ever get so stuck on finishing a post no others seem to come before it, so then you end up not posting for weeks?!

Sorry I’ve been AWOL this month, in fact, this summer more accurately. Sometimes life gets in the way and when you’re busy smashing up the house, or always saying yes to seeing friends and family, organising parties and having people come and stay, sitting on your laptop doesn’t really fall into the equation. In fact, in our week off, we were so busy with DIY, I didn’t open my laptop once, and my phone battery seemed to last days as I checked it so irregularly! I can only think of this as a good thing. However, I do miss blogging, so I promise I’ll get back on it again, I have so many great ideas bouncing around in my head an in my notes that I really can’t wait to share with you!