5 good things.

It has been a while since I did a "5 good things" post. I used to always do them in a Monday Summary but from now on I'm going to do them whenever I have 5 new good things to tell you about, which I'm hoping will be quite regularly over the next few months as we are going to be rather busy!

1) On Tuesday it will be my final day at my current job where I have been for 2 1/2 years. I have wanted to find something closer to home for a while so I'm really pleased to have found something which ticks all the boxes. I guess it's going to be a big change but I'm really excited about it (if a little nervous) and looking forward to the extra spare time I'll have which means more time to spend with Lily and Lola.

2) Thank you so much for the nice comments and tweets I have received in relation to the new look on my blog. I was so happy reading them and I'm pleased that you like the new design as much as I do!

3) My beautiful new bag arrived last week (c/o Sarenza) and I didn't waste any time in taking it for a spin as it accompanied me yesterday when I was out for a hen night in the afternoon/evening (and if I'm honest, early hours of this morning!) 

It is by Irregular Choice and features an unusual cat design complete with purple crystals for eyes. Everything by Irregular Choice is a tad nuts but I am always drawn to looking at their weird and wonderful shoes. I was browsing their wares when I noticed that they also did bags, and as I really needed a new small bag with a strap I decided to order the Miaow cross body bag. I'm really pleased with it as it is the perfect size for my purse, phone, camera and other bits and pieces and the quirky design is sure to get lots of attention.

Irregular Choice "cat" bag c/o Sarenza

4) Pricing up a holiday for September. This is self explanatory. Who doesn't love a week of sunbathing, reading, eating and sleeping?!

5) It was my best friends hen party yesterday which involved decorating cupcakes and making cocktails in the afternoon, followed by food and drinks in the evening. It was a brilliant night especially for the "hen" who really enjoyed it, but best of all we have the pleasure of ploughing our way through 4 delicious cupcakes each that we filled, frosted and decorated with our own fair hands. The jam filled one Jonathan and I demolished first went down well. 3 to go!

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Monday Summary.

I always start these off the same way - "it has been ages since I did one of these!" It's not that I haven't had good things going on, but more like a distinct lack of time. Between working full time, making/selling jewellery part time, 2 Pugs, a boyfriend, work outs, seeing friends and seeing family there isn't much time for blogging at the moment *sob* But I am determined to make time for you lovely lot.

Wise words (source)

 

My 5 good things:

1) My Sister and I may finally have found me a bridesmaid dress! The one we really wanted sold out everywhere and every time we thought we had found one in my size it slipped from our grasp. It wasn't meant to be, but that's fine because we found another beautiful dress which fits me like a glove! Now I just need to find inspiration for hairdos and makeup, book a contact lens assessment and get rid of my pasty Winter skin then I'm almost ready! Vegas here we come!

2) We had a lovely Valentine's Day in our household completely avoiding the day itself and definitely avoiding venturing out, and instead the Saturday before we had a lovely evening in. I got home from seeing my friend in the afternoon to this and I just had to run back downstairs to film it for keeps:

Valentine's surprise. from Victoria Jackson on Vimeo.

I was so overwhelmed! I found Jonathan in a room upstairs holding some roses. Then he cooked dinner which consisted of goats cheese and pear bruschetta which was heavenly, followed by homemade salmon and crab fishcakes with asparagus and new potatoes (followed by some of my homemade rocky road for afters). He really is a keeper! Oh, and he also made pomegranate vodka cocktails from scratch, the clever so-and-so.

3) Suits. Have any of you been watching this? We needed a new series to follow after watching and finishing all EIGHT series of '24' over the past few months and Suits is brilliant. Very different to '24' but brilliant nonetheless.

4) Making jewellery. I have had a bit of a shuffle round recently and decided, for now, to keep my bigcartel store for friendship bracelets and use my Etsy store for the other kind of jewellery that I make. It makes things easier for me, avoids duplicating everything and keeps costs down, and I enjoy using Etsy as there's a great community on there. If you have an Etsy account (or shop) do leave a comment to let me know what your username is and I'll be sure to pop on by.

5) My new workout: Davina - Ultimate Target. I love it! I come home from work and actually want to work out. This may be due to the honeymoon phase in that the moves are still fresh and new and I can't get bored of it yet but we shall see. I may add one or two other Davina dvds to my collection to mix things up a bit. (Proper review of this coming soon!)

What are your 5 good things?

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Monday summary.

It has been a while since I did one of these posts but as I have had a day off today and a hectic morning packing up orders, dashing to the Post Office, walking the dogs, doing my workout and then some housework I thought I would have a sit down and blog my socks off for a little while.

My 5 good things:

1) Our new living room furniture from Next was delivered on Saturday and Jonathan worked like a trouper assembling it (with a little help from me). We bought a few items from the Hartford range as we both love dark wood and we have heard really good things about Next furniture in general. The bookcase is my favourite and is now sat looking rather empty, waiting to be filled with books and trinkets.

Look at the excitement on his face! Like a kid at Christmas.

2) Watching New Girl episodes back to back all Sunday afternoon. I adore Zooey Deschanel as much as the next person and I can't get enough of her new show. I don't often find much worth watching on tv but this is such easy viewing and has lots of laughs. Schmidt is my favourite character and this is one of my favourite clips:

3) Eating amazing (vast quantities) of food all weekend and trying out new recipes. The only problem now is I have to work out even harder this week to counteract the damage!

4) We booked our flights to Vegas! So with accommodation and flights booked bring on the 17 April!

5) Friday night saw Jonathan and I heading to Leeds for a leaving do for somebody at our work. We didn't stay out terribly late as we had to pick L&L up from my parents house but it was nice to be back in Leeds, my hometown. We ate dinner at the Lounge which I used to go to quite a lot with my Mum and Sister for lunch, so it was nice to be back! The food was really, really good. We shared smoked mackerel pate to start, and then I had the burger which was HUGE and came with amazing chunky chips/wedges and a few veggies.

What are your 5 good things at the moment?

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Monday summary.

Source

I hope you all had a good weekend? I'm feeling rather sluggish today after an indulgent weekend of junk food and buckets of Sangria, but it was all very good fun.

Saturday afternoon I went to Meadowhall with my friend as we had an appointment for a Benefit makeover and I needed to pick up a couple of bits from Primark while we were there. The makeover was great, I was very pleased with the results. I already had my base on as I've been having a few problems with my skin and didn't want anything to make it worse, so I asked for some Hoola on the cheeks and a smokey brown eye. The eye makeup was great and made me look so different. I bought Hoola and Brow-Zings which I have used before and think they're pretty great.

Here are my 5 good things of the moment:

1) My Sister made a wonderful bag for me (and one for her and one for my Mum too!) for when we go to Las Vegas for her wedding next April. I can't wait to use it, it's so cute. Lily and Lola even make an appearance!

If only my eyelashes were as long and luscious as my alter-ego!

2) Making progress on the above wedding plans in terms of my bridesmaid dress, shoes, etc. I have spotted a dress that I like so I just need to have a mammoth trying on session just to see what else is out there and how things look on me. I have potentially sorted my shoes, and I'm on the look out for a nice up-do and some pretty makeup although I've got a good idea in my mind of what I'd like.

3) My lovely Jonathan. He always picks me up when I'm feeling a bit down, and looks after me, Lily and Lola so well.

4) The Boots Christmas catalogue is out so Christmas feels well and truly on its way! I absolutely adore Christmas and the whole run up to it - buying presents, making cards, listening to festive songs. Talking of which, She & Him are releasing a Christmas album very soon which I'm sure will be just lovely!

5) After weeks and weeks of waiting to hear about our new house (yes, we still haven't moved!) the paperwork seems to be shuffling along a little quicker now and we're hoping to move in November at some point. I hope we will be moved and settled by Christmas, that would be perfect.

What is making you happy at the moment? ♥

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Monday summary.

Hello folks. I hope you had a good weekend? Mine was a bit too good and I have paid the price with a hefty hangover but it was all good fun.

I haven't done a '5 good things' post in a while so I thought it was about time. Do let me know what your 5 good things are in the comments below!

1) Some long overdue time off. I haven't had anything more than a long weekend off work since June last year so I am ready for this Friday and the whole of next week off work. We had planned to find a last minute holiday abroad but to save pennies we are having a "staycation", visiting local places and generally relaxing. Lord knows I need it!

2) My shop is doing so well and I'm really pleased, as you never know how these things will work out when you start off. I attended a jewellery making course on Saturday with my friend and we have learnt some new techniques and loaded up on supplies so expect some different styles of jewellery very soon. Think pretty wire/beaded bracelets and earrings. The newest addition to my shop in the meantime is this pretty silver heart charm on cotton which is only £1.75.

3) Making friends. I moved to Rotherham to be with Jonathan as some of you may know, and I don't know anybody here apart from Jonathan's family so I worried a little bit at first that I would feel quite lonely. But then I met one of Jonathan's best friends girlfriends who is just very lovely and we have so much in common, so it has made moving away from Leeds much easier.

4) Mince pies are in the shops which can mean one thing... Christmas is coming! Sorry folks, I know it's far too early to think about it but I flippin' love Crimbo!

5) This Thursday marks 1 year since Jonathan and I had our first date. Can you believe how fast time has flown? For old times sake here's a bit of slush here (number 5), here and here.

Have a great Monday! I'll leave you with some wise words... all courtesy of here.

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Monday summary.

It's the start of a full week at work for me and I just know by Friday early evening I'm going to be falling asleep. These 4 day weekends have been spoiling us! I think Jonathan and I are going to dip into our annual leave soon and have a long weekend - maybe go on a little trip somewhere. We'd love to visit Cornwall or somewhere along those lines, so if you can recommend any nice places please leave a comment below.

I recently appeared on the Style Clone website where they recreated one of my recent outfits. This is incredibly flattering and they said some really nice things about me and my blog, so please do go have a nosy here if you can. For more style tips check out Style Clone for yourselves!

My 5 good things of the moment:

1) Making Rocky Road again. This time we used snickers, marshmallows and digestive biscuits (as opposed to ginger biscuits, Maltesers and chocolate drops last time) and after a taste test I can confirm they're absolutely yummy. Totally calorific though.

2) Plans for another BBQ this weekend (weather permitting!)

3) I saw Derren Brown in Sheffield last week and it was amazing! If you get the chance to go and see one of his live shows I definitely recommend it. The things he can do are unexplainable and brilliant! (Couldn't take a photo while he was on stage for fear of being picked on).

4) Using a slow cooker for the first time and making an unbelievable stew. It was pretty easy to make, especially as we used one of the 'stew packs' of vegetables from Morrisons which are ideal and saves buying all the individual bits of veg. We had our stew cooking for a good 6 hours and it made the meat incredible. We will definitely be using the slow cooker again very soon.

 

5) The return of The Apprentice this week - one of the best programmes on the telly!

Have a great week!

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Monday summary.

I haven't done a Monday Summary post for a few weeks and I almost forgot today is Monday (Bank Holiday weekends do confuse me). I've got another short week at work as I'm on a training course all day tomorrow so just 3 days in the office this week for me. I'll be spending the rest of today drinking tea, spending time with Jonathan and eating a huge slab of lemon meringue pie. Yum!

Here are my 5 good things:

1) I've had a brilliant Bank Holiday weekend but the best bit was visiting friends on Saturday afternoon/evening and having a bbq. We had an absolute blast; making cocktails, eating lovely food, and being generally very silly into the early hours of the morning.

2) I finally got my hands on a 'Pugs not Drugs' Sweet n Sour tee. I've wanted one for ages in the various colours they have come out with (and then longed for the jumper version) but they all sold out before I could get my hands on one. So when I spotted this cream version in Topshop I snapped it up!

3) The Only Way Is Essex - I really didn't want to like this programme but I watched a few episodes recently and now I'm going back to the beginning to catch up. It is so bad it's good! Completely addictive viewing.

4) Generous and friendly people on Twitter helping me with my skincare woes. You have given me some great recommendations which I'm hoping will solve my problem! Thank you to those who tweeted/emailed me - very helpful indeed!

5) Jonathan.. I haven't been slushy and sentimental in, ooh at least 10 minutes, so I'll use number 5 this week to mention just how blimmin' brilliant he is.

What are your 5 good things at the moment?

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Monday summary.

Hola! Hope you had a good weekend! As it's Monday here are my 5 good things of the moment:

1) Lovely comments. Thank you for your nice comments on my last post - I really enjoyed making the scarf and it's good to get feedback on my hard work :) I've got my first order to make another which is very exciting! If you fancy one drop me a line and I'll see what I can do!

2) Viewing houses. We had a look round 3 houses yesterday and they were all lovely, but one in particular was gorgeous. It was a house with 3 floors and a lovely big back garden. I could see myself living there I really could. We'll have to see what happens...
 
I subsequently spent a while Googling kitchens because I'm obsessed with pretty kitchens.

3) The weather. It's so nice to feel some warm weather on my skin after months of snow and rain! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

4) I got some good news from work last week and I'm chuffed to bits. I feel really positive about my future in the position and it's all very exciting.

5) The ice hockey team my boyfriend supports won the league and if he's happy, I'm happy!

What are your 5 good things this week?

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