Three years ago I got married (picture heavy)

Three years ago today I married the love of my life. (I’m the one in white FYI)

The day was everything I hoped for and more. I was treated like royalty. It was the most expensive day of my life and I hope it stays that way! The dress I wore was by Mori Lee and was second hand. It was the first one I tried on and fitted like it was made for me. It needed no alterations. Ok, so it wasn’t the height of fashion, but to me it was timeless and suited me down to the ground. This was the lowest cut dress I’ve ever worn and yet I felt entirely natural wearing it.

My oldest friend Caroline was my chief bridesmaid, seen giving me my well deserved drink in the first picture. My lovely sister-in-law Lynne was our second bridesmaid. They both looked amazing in the scarlet gowns we picked. Not enough people use white, scarlet and yellow as their colour scheme. FACT.

My husband Chris looked handsome in his suit and had his old mate Dan as best Man, who did a sterling job. My brother Theo and my cousin Gregory were Ushers and did a fab job. My brother is the blond one, incidentally he’s single, any takers?

I wore 5 inch heels under my gown, hence why my Dad is a bit miffed I’m now slightly taller than him!!! Note I’m still not quite as tall as my bridesmaids, should have found higher heels!

We were married in St Peter’s church, Thurston and held our reception at The Grange Hotel, Thurston. We had a modest congregation of friends and family to support us on our big day. A golden Rolls Royce with driver was my chauffeur for the day.

In a surreal twist of fate our Wedding photos are used on the website for the gorgeous reception venue “The Grange” (with two other couples’ pictures) and against all odds, my hairdressers use a shot of my wedding hairdo for their marketing at Wedding fayres. The world is a strange place, but I feel like my dreams came true on that day.

Apologies for the enormity of this post, just wanted to share some special moments with you.

P.S. The dress wont be worn again by me, if you are interested in buying it then drop me an email.

Actually cooked something

It transpired that a few weeks ago I was able to cook something nice for tea to present to hubby on his arrival home. (bet you wish you’d married me huh?)

I’d bought a load of stuff from our local butchers and bought pork chops for tea upon hubby’s request. Instead of the predictable boiled potatoes with steamed carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and gravy, I thought I’d jazz things up a bit.

I knew we had leeks and spring greens in the fridge and it rang a bell that I’d used them in something together before. I looked it up. I fried the finely chopped leeks in a dash of oil with 2 cloves of garlic, while blanching the spring greens. After 8 minutes I added the drained spring greens to the leeks. The smell was yum, I love garlic!

I chopped the potatoes into cubes and added a dash of oil and sprinkled with mixed dried herbs, tossed then popped into the oven. The pork chops went in the oven with nothing on. I know seasoning is meant to be used but I don’t. Just to remain in touch with predictability I steamed the carrots and broccoli.

I cooked the potatoes too long so they burned a bit, but apart from that I was well chuffed with what I’d produced. It tasted nice, it was filling and I managed it myself. Hubby was pleased. Job done.

Photos from the garden

Just a quick update of what’s going on outdoors. The runner beans are going crazy and finally the lilies are flowering. Bright orange, so pretty. See for yourself!

Felixstowe & Hair

This week’s FBFF questions from Katy are on Hair. To check out ModlyChic to see what everyone else wrote.
1.      How often do you get your hair cut? I get my my locks cut every 8 weeks on the dot, unless something gets in the way of the dates.

2.      Do you go to the same stylist each time, try someone new, go to the
cheap hair cutting chains or live it up in a salon? I go to the same local hairdressers. I am very happy with my stylist, she knows my hair and how to tame it!

3.      Do you colour your hair? How often? What’s your natural colour?
The poor quality of my hair means that my stylist has recommended that under no circumstances should I colour my hair. Trust me, I do not want to do anything to make my hair any worse!

4.      The one thing you always do to keep your hair looking great is: Errr, it doesn’t always or even sometimes look great. I wash it every 2 to 3 days. When washing my hair I alternate between conditioner and hair mask. If I don’t wash it I’ll spray in a bit of Batiste, its not a miracle product but its better than nothing. I apply heat treatment before blow drying or straightening. My hair is much better than it used to be but its still far from healthy.

5.      What hair trend do you love and wish you could rock? I so wish I would dare to get my hair cropped short, like Emma Watson. I totally wouldn’t dare!

It seems like I’ve not written a post for ages. Possibly just as well really as I’ve not much to report. We have completed day 6 of the 30 day shred. I wasn’t really out of breath or sweaty at the end of tonight’s session. Should we move on to level 2 early? I don’t think 4 more days of not stretching myself is going to do much good. Any ideas?

In pictures: Our trip to Felixstowe a few weeks ago. A great pic of me and the hubby here. Felixstowe really is looking fab in these shots. I wore horizontal stripes and my loved red check trousers and my polka dot Cath Kidston plimsols. The cardi was a bit much, the sun was out and as soon as the wind dropped the heat was great. Apologies, no make up!

I <3 my hubby!

And finally in the world longest post, Jos from My Pretty-Pink Journal has been so sweet and passed on to me this fab award.

Rules of the Award
1. Write about yourself.
2. Pass the award on.
3. Notify the bloggers who got it!

About moi? I’m not cool, I one of the uncoolest people I know. Fact is I don’t really deserve this award at all, but I’m so grateful that I have been given it. I have learned to keep valuing stuff which you set your sights on. For example, when I was about, lets say 10, I went to the local horse show and watched all the girls competing in the 1’9” showjumping class. I so wanted to win a rosette. Year in year out I wished I could be in the top 6. I wanted to win. Years later I was in that class, winning rosettes. I won the class once and got the jazzy plastic trophy. Others scoffed. Smalltime. How tacky the trophy was. I was PROUD. I had achieved what the little girl inside me had always wanted. Never let go of what was important to you.  When I started blogging on 1/1/11 I wanted someone to follow, anyone! I saw a blog award someone had been given. I now have 102 followers and several awards. To be big players its nothing. Its their local show with the tacky plastic trophy. To me it means THE WORLD. Thank you.

I nominate everyone. You read my blog, you must be cool

Inspired by Nature – by Tasha’s Treasure Trove

 

Hi everyone,

When Sophie asked for someone to do a guest post on her blog I offered straight away, but when she actually asked me to write something for her, I was completely stumped on what to write about. A couple of emails were sent back and forth between us and when Sophie suggested something inspired by animals or nature, I jumped at the idea, and for several reasons.

I'm sure there are a lot of other bloggers out there who from time to time suddenly lose inspiration on what to blog about, but for me it happens on an almost constant basis. And I always end up going back to the same formula which is, talking a little bit about my mostly boring life and putting up some photographs that I've taken either on holiday or round and about my town, but the comments and feedback I get are always so nice and encouraging I always forget that I don't own a hi-tech SLR or have access to beautiful rolling green fields and tropical islands all year round, and that's because I'm always inspired by my Mum and Dads garden and the sights I've seen on holiday.

Whether it's wild horses in the New Forest grazing lazily on the grass, seagulls in Devon cheekily scouting for chips, bumblebees buzzing about Mum's Californian Lilac or ladybirds at Ashridge Common, I'm never short for inspiration in the natural world. So I encourage anyone whose feeling a lull in their blogging to take a deep breath and just either sit in your garden and enjoy the beauty of nature, or take a walk to your local park and really look at it, because like me, there's always something that can surprise and inspire you.

Thanks to Sophie for letting me guest blog, and I hope you enjoy the photos.

Click them for a larger view.

xxx

 

To read more of Natasha’s posts visit her fab blog Tasha’s Treasure Trove