Pumpkin picking at secretts farm

Last weekend we celebrated Halloween by going in search of the perfect pumpkin at Secretts Farm in Milford. I love this place! It has a huge farm shop, little cafe, butcher, regular farmers markets and loads of seasonal events for families. During summer I took Leo there for his first Punch & Judy show and there were loads of kids enjoying the 'pick-your-own' berries, taking home huge boxes of fresh strawberries they had picked themselves.

So when I heard Secretts were doing a 'pumpkin week' event I knew we had to go!

Facing my fears about returning to work post-baby

Sometimes I really don't look forward to socialising these days... apart from the huge faff of trying to make myself look less 'Surrey Mum' and more 'London girl about town' I usually dread trying to come up with interesting chat.

A marathon, not a sprint

 A photo from my BMF class this month! I'm number 21 hiding away in the background.
Not quite ready for pics on the blog of me running just yet :)

So it's the end of August and according to my last blog post I was meant to lose 10lbs by now... oops! 

Ok so that totally didn't happen. BUT, I did make some progress this month towards being a healthier and happier version of myself - and as long as I'm not taking any backward steps I'm satisfied with that for now.

Ok... let's try this again!

This is one of my favourite quotes of all time and it is with this in mind that today I start a new healthy eating and exercise programme in an attempt to get my physical and mental health back on track.

A new year and a new addition to our family

Happy New Year everyone!

On this day every year I am usually still feeling a little worse for wear having overdone it a tad on New Year's Eve. But not this year. Today is the due date for my baby boy and so it's a very special day for me and I am definitely not hungover. 

I'm back

I've pretty much abandoned this blog since my last post four long months ago. 

It wasn't intentional. I've often considered sitting down to write about some of the things going on in my life but I just wasn't feeling it to be perfectly honest. 

After not writing for a month or so I started to feel rather guilty and then after another month or so I felt like it had been such a long time since I had written a post that I wasn't quite sure how to get things started again. 

Would I have any readers left anyway?! 

Starting a new life in Surrey

Hello from Guildford! 

We moved out of our little London flat one week ago and what a week it has been. The packing seemed endless and it almost finished us off completely but we got there in the end.

Leaving London

The prettiest bridge in the world: Albert Bridge in Chelsea

At long last the time has come to pack up our possessions and leave behind the city I have called home all my life.

A week from today we move into our new home in beautiful Surrey. We are so relieved the search for a place to call our own is over at long last. Chris and I are now the proud owners of a lovely red-brick Victorian town house in Guildford and we are so excited to start our new life there and make it feel like home!

Five movies to cheer you up when you're feeling down

One of my favourite ever book/movie characters, Bridget Jones, slobbing out in front of the TV!

Today I've been sitting at my laptop attempting to write something half-decent for you all but the words just won't come. I think it's because I've already written a couple of posts about losing my Dad and I don't want to depress you or make anyone think this is becoming a 'grief blog'. 

Act as if

My Dad died exactly one month ago today and this past month has been one of the hardest I've ever had to endure. 

Losing my Dad so suddenly and unexpectedly has really knocked me sideways and I'm now taking some very much needed time out to rest, recover, and reflect. I'm not working at the moment thankfully so I have a little breathing space in my life while I try to come to terms with what happened. 

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die" [Thomas Campbell]

The beautiful funeral flowers I chose with my sister

You may be wondering why my blog has gone strangely silent over the last month or so. Where have I been? Why haven't I been writing my usual regular posts? Well...

On Sunday 1st March my amazing Daddy passed away. His death was sudden and completely unexpected and I miss him so much already.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Yes, that's me in the middle! This was on the banks of the River Thames photographing St Paul's Cathedral.

As a special birthday treat (thank you Christopher!) I spent a wonderful Sunday last weekend on a beginners photography workshop around London's South Bank, taught by none other than our amazing wedding photographer John Alexander (if you want to see a few of my favourite pictures from our wedding take a look at this post).

One year wiser

Today is my birthday, I am 33!

Being 32 was so great - I really had one of my best years yet (read this if you want to know why). I'm truly thankful for every opportunity that came my way during the past year and I feel very grateful to have had so many happy days and reasons to celebrate.

Learning to play the property game

We have officially started our house search - hurrah!

As I mentioned in a recent post, I have several BIG plans for 2015 and probably the biggest of these is to finally get on the housing ladder. At long last Chris and I are ready to buy our first home. We have a hefty deposit saved, mortgage broker ready to go, solicitor waiting in the wings, and all our finances in order. And we are first time buyers - i.e. chain free. It's going to be easy, I thought naively!

"Explore, dream, discover." [Mark Twain]

Happy at the Tulum Mayan ruins - a place I've been dreaming of visiting for over 10 years!

Over Christmas and New Year I was very lucky to spend 3 weeks travelling around Mexico with my husband Chris on a wonderful, exotic, much longed for adventure holiday. 

It's a country I've dreamed of visiting for a very long time and one of those places I just knew in my heart I would totally love. 

A year from now you'll wish you had started today

Chris took this pic of me in Playa del Carmen, Mexico on 31 December, as the sun set on 2014.

Think back to your life a year ago... you were probably making your New Year's resolutions for 2014 and promising yourself "this will be MY year!". 

Now, one year on, have you kept those promises you made to yourself?

Goodbye 2014... what a year!

It's that time again... a chance to reflect on the past 12 months and look forward to the year ahead. I feel so blessed that for me 2014 was such an awesome year - one of my best ever in fact!

Breaking free from 'stuffocation'

I've written a fair bit on the blog about my mindless spending and dependency on credit cards, and I've detailed my mission to escape from these poisonous habits. 

But what I haven't talked too much about is why I became addicted to spending money I didn't have and exactly what motivated me to get, and stay, out of debt. What have I added to my life to replace the fun shaped hole left when I removed my nasty binge shopping problem?

Confessions of a shopaholic (part 2)

- Read 'Confessions of a shopaholic (part 1)' here - 

Last Autumn I chopped up my credit cards and went cold turkey on shopping and spending of all kinds except for essentials like food, toiletries, rent and bills. It was extremely hard to lose this 'spare cash' which I depended on like a drug to perk me up, keep me entertained, and see me through to the end of each month after I inevitably burned through the salary payment I had received a few short weeks beforehand.

Confessions of a shopaholic (part 1)

'Tis the season to be jolly... and also to spend money like it's going out of fashion.

Crazy Christmas consumerism has been on my mind lately after seeing horrible video footage on the news of people stampeding into shops on 'Black Friday' and having actual physical fights with each other over television sets and laptops. People stomping on and crushing others in a desperate attempt to blag the best deal on crap they don't need and undoubtedly can't afford. 

Can anyone honestly take pleasure in watching their brand new telly knowing they punched someone in the face and acted in a completely unacceptable manner to secure it? It's disgusting behaviour! So much for goodwill to all men and loving thy neighbour etc...