Things I love Thursday: Pugs

I would never EVER call myself a dog person, they scare me. When I was younger, I would hide behind the settee even if a person dressed in a dog costume came on the tv. When it comes to pugs however, my little heart melts. Their squishy little faces are just so ugly they're cute.

So here's a selection of images of the most adorable dogs in the world....

Awww supercute via WeHeartIt

Image via Flickr



Via WeHeartIt



J'adore Purple

All images via WeHeartIt

Shopping adventures

I love stuff, I always have and probably always will. My love of stuff was encouraged more when I moved to Chester and met my best friend Celia. She introduced me to the wonderful world of charity shopping, and I haven't looked back since.

Hunting for bargains is one of my favourite things to do when I have a little bit of time, and even Paul has now come to the second hand side and loves having a nose. Our little house is full of settes (one which only cost us £10...super bargain), curtains, pictures and cute nic nacs that we've picked up on our shopping adventures.

I love that all this stuff has a bit of history, which then gives it a bit of character and also means, especially with second hand clothes, we don't end up looking like everybody else wandering along the high street. Hurrah.

Here's a little look at some of the fabulous things me and the mister have treated ourselves to...

If you've never ventured into a second hand or charity shop, have a look here and here for some tips on how to get the best when you're bargain shopping.

Snail tales and Etsy prints

Back when Paul and I first met, he would always walk me home. Whether it was ten o'clock at night, or three in the morning we would always wander along down the road from his house to mine, yabbering away and getting to know eachother.

The walk would only take about fifteen minutes, down the main road and then up a path way, which since the first night we walked home together, we have called Snail Alley. This is due to Paul's ability to squash every snail that had decided to take a slide along the path that night (and every night we ever walked that way). In Paul's defence, he did not set out to squash anything, I think he actually managed to step on more poor snails by trying to avoid them!


I brought this print from the lovely Little Miss Mushroom's shop on Etsy.It was one of those things that I HAD to buy, partly because it is super colourful, but mainly because it made me think of all those walks home. Now it sits on the mantel piece in our little house and whenever I look at it, it makes me smile.

30 before 30...

I love birthdays! I love helping other people celebrate theirs, but I especially love my own birthay. I try to make it last at least a week, and I usually start the countdown to my big day weeks or sometimes even months before. Maybe the reason I love Christmas so much is because I know my birthday is next month. Whoop whoop.

This list is of everything I want to achieve before I turn the big 3-0 and no longer want to celebrate birthdays :) It includes places I want to go on my travels, things I want to make and where I want my career to go.

It's exciting to think that I could cross all these things off in the next four years....wish me luck.


1. Spend a weekend in Paris
2. Spend a weekend in Barcelona
3. Take Hublet out of Europe
4. Spend a week camping
5. Go to DisneyLand Paris (I love Disney, and would love to take the munchkins there)
6. Go on a road trip with Hublet
7. Get married-Ok, this is cheating slightly as it's all booked, but I'm super excited about it
8. Start saving up for a little house of our own
9. Make a dress
10. Learn French
11. Take a cake decorating class
12. Make a patchwork picnic blanket
13. Read a "classic" book
14. Spend New Year in Edinburgh
15. Enter a writing competition
16. Visit Cornwall
17. Visit Salisbury- I have wanted to go here as long as I knew it existed. I don't know why, i just do
18. Successfully plant a hanging basket and have it flower all Summer long
19. Grow a Sunflower
20. Start a vegetable patch
21. "Host" a Christmas dinner
22. Go Ice Skating outside in London at Christmas
23. Get a journalist job and actually use my degree
24. Have a stall at a craft fair
25. Sell something I've made
26. Get my writing published
27. Travel by train to or through Europe
28. Go back to Benidorm with Hublet- Best holiday EVER!!
29. Go on a Canal holiday
30. Move out of the town I live in....This has been on my To Do list since I was about 18, I've left a few times but always come back. Now I want a permenent move.

A-Z of Me....

I have set myself a challenge to post a blog everday in October....PRESSURE! So to start off, I'm going to tell you a few things about myself. I've seen these little A-Z's on a few other lovely blogs an thought I'd join the fun. So here we go...

A. Age: 25
B. Bed size: Double
C. Chore that you hate: Err, all of them! The only one I can just about tolerate is washing up...occasionally
D. Dogs: Terrify me! Although one day I would love a pug...I'm sure it's cute little squishy face would help me conquer my fear
E. Essential start to your day: Cuddles with hublet
F. Favorite colour:Purple
G. Gold or Silver: Silver
H. Height: 5’9″
I. Instruments you play: None. I had one cello lesson when I was about 9, but I'm not meant to be a musician
J. Job title: Front of House staff....posh for Barmaid/Waitress
K. Kids: None of my own, but Hublet has two little munchkins
L. Live: Bedfordshire
M. Mother’s name: Julie
N. Nicknames: Hublet comes up with a different one every week but none of them ever stick.
O. Overnight hospital stays: None.
P. Pet peeves: People who say the time as 1am in the morning, or 5pm at night, adding the word cheeky when it CLEARLY doesn't need to be used eg:"Just had a cheeky nap...aarrgghhh really winds me up just thinking about it!
Q. Quote from a movie: Anything King Julien says in Madagascar...."Shh! We're hiding. Be quiet everyone. That includes me. Shh! Who's making that noise? Oh, it's me again..."
"If he is a King then where is his crown? I've got a crown, got a very nice one and its here on my head. Look at it. Have I got it on?"
"Oh, that's OK. I've got a bigger crown. It's got a gecko on it. Look at him shake! Go, Stevie, go!"
R. Right or left handed: Right, but I've always wanted to be a lefty.
S. Siblings: A younger brother and a younger sister
U. Underwear: Is essential
V. Vegetable you hate: Brussel Sprouts! The first person to have grown them should not of been proud of their work
W. What makes you run late: Hublet! He loves to start telling me about his day just as I'm leaving for work
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth and ankle. I’ve never broken a bone...Touch wood.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Cooking isn't my thing, but I love love love to make cakes.
Z. Zoo animal: Elephants. There's just something wonderful about them.

Escape to Swanage....Part Two

"Do you want rice krispiiiieeeees? Do you want rice krispieeeees?" These are the words that wake us up Sunday morning...well when I say wake us up, I mean let us know that it's probably a reasonable time to get up after what can only be described as not my best nights sleep ever.

Around 2am our airbed (I said we were camping, I didn't say we were roughing it completely) had pretty much completely deflated leading to us root around the tent looking for the foot pump in order to pump the bed back up and restore comfort.

The only thing is, our foot pump seemed to be somewhat unhappy with us needing it at this hour of the morning and let out a scream in protest everytime we pumped it up and down..."eeee, eeeee, EEEEEE!" There went us subtly trying to blow our bed up, gawd knows what the rest of the campsite thought we were up to.

Once we were up we headed to a car boot sale, where we decided to have breakfast, a grotty bacon sandwich and a coffee served to us by a Patsy from Ab Fab style woman who say "Right, ok" after everything. Her sidekick in this marquee cafe is a clumsy woman with a vicar's wife haircut, a floral top and pink jeans who spends most of her time picking up whatever she has happened to drop on the floor, cup, teabag, anything else that comes in to her possession.

Next up is the traditional country practice of ferret racing- I bet on Bubbles, the mister bets on Diesel and after a tense few seconds....they're off, though it's not exactly the Grand National as the four ferrets in the race take their time to crawl down the tunnels. Eventually Diesel emerges the winner (beating Bubbles by a whisker) and wins Paul a pound, hooray!

Once we've checked out all the car boot stalls, we head off to Corfe Castle, where after a wander through the woods, past a field of the biggest cows I've ever seen we get to the stunningly old fashioned village of Corfe.
To the left is the castle and a knight complete with shiny colinder hat greets visitors at the entrance. We explore the castle ruins, and then settle down for a mini picnic of locally made sandwickes, crisps and juice...everything is produced locally here and it is all delicious!
Thanks to the sky opening up we spend the rest of the day driving around Dorset to avoid getting soaked.

Saturday night ended with a firework display, Sunday, the sky was full of a million stars and even more beautiful.