A yummy scrummy cosy weekend...

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in ages.

We ate yummy food.
I made jalapeno poppers which were actually AH-MAY-ZING, and SO easy to make. I got the recipe from Lindsay at Aisle to Aloha, on this blog post. I was worried they might be too spicy for me, but the combination of the cream cheese and the pastry made them super yummy with just a little bit of a kick! The boy loved them too.

For main course I made sirloin steak with garlic butter sauce, dauphinoise potatoes, and crunchy green beans. The UK does green beans alllll wrong, but living in the US for a year taught me the way of the crunchy green beans! I use a recipe for these from O'hana restaurant in Walt Disney World. Yummmmmeeee!

Dessert sadly was a fail. I attempted a white chocolate mousse, and it was all going so well, until right before I was gonna pour the mix into the glasses, and it seemed to sorta separate and go lumpy! I think perhaps I should have let the chocolate cool a little more before mixing, cant think where else it went wrong. Luckily we were really full after dinner anyway, so it wasnt a great loss!

We cosied up and played games and watched movies.

Normally on a Saturday we go out for dinner and drinks in Glasgow, but we decided we were going to go out a nice drive on Sunday, and find a yummy roast somewhere, so we decided to have a quiet Saturday. In the afternoon we went out for a little while, I went to Waterstones to buy some writing paper, and the boy went to the pub to watch the Rangers game. Then I went to the pub to meet him, and we spotted that a measure of vodka, including a mixer, was 45p!!! 45p!!!! WHAT! Thats pure craziness. The stuff must be like paint stripper, urrrgh!!!

After that we came home, and cosied up to play Glasgow Monopoly, drink some cider and eat tiger loaf with pate. That bread is just nom nom nom!

We went a drive to Balloch

And found a nice wee country hotel restaurant that served us up a yummy roast beef dinner. It was super lush, although my lovely boyfriend told me that my cooking on Friday night was better. He is the designated breakfast chef coz he makes amazing scrambled eggs, and I think this is his way of nominating me to be the designated dinner chef! ( Though I may need some help on the dessert bit haha!)

I was excited about this trip as I'd been planning to wear my new dress from Asos since we decided on our trip 2 weeks ago! (Sorry about the rubbish pics, im pretty bad at self photography!) Its a very Sunday-ish sorta dress, doncha think??

Wore my hair down and straightened it for the first time in ages. Really wanna do something different with my hair, maybe a new colour... any suggestions??

So that was my super weekend! This weekend is a little bit lame, we went out in town last night which was fun, but today I had to leave my boyfriend so I could come home and prep for the big interview on Friday. Scary stuff, but it will all be over with in 6 days.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Jilly xo

A Valentine's D.I.Y!

What a busy week its been! With one of my 30 Before 30 goals to reach 50 posts on my blog, I've been thinking a lot about posts and ideas for my blog, to ensure I dont let it slip like I have done in the past. I now have a list of ideas for posts, and some photographs to go along with those, but just not had the time to get on here and actually blog! So hello again, I haven't forgotten about you!

So last week I decided I wanted to get in the Valentine spirit, and make some kind of decoration to hang in my room or above my desk. I really enjoyed making a Christmas Wreath, and I still had a smaller sized polystyrene wreath to be used so I decided I would make a Valentine one! 

My initial plan was to do a pink wreath, with red hearts, but as I was planning it out in my head I decided to go for a neutral colour for the hearts, because then it wouldnt look too Valentiney if I decided to keep it hanging in my bedroom after Valentine's Day has passed!

Here is the finished article, with *super easy* to follow instructions below.

You will need -
* Polystyrene wreath
* Wool
* Pins
* Felt
* Embroidery thread & needle.
* Twine
* Glue

1. Start by pinning the end of your wool to the back of your wreath. Wind it round. And round, and round and round. It can be time consuming, but do what I did and stick on the TV and catch up on soaps, or a movie, or whatever.  Easy peasy!

2. Cut out 3 hearts. I drew mine freehand with a pencil before cutting, or find a template online if you dont trust your drawing! Use your embroidery thread to stitch around the outline of the hearts.

3. Glue the tops of your 3 hearts and stick them to the twine. Wrap the ends of the twine round your wreath, and pin at the back.

4. Take a co-ordinating piece of wool or twine and make a loop, to allow you to hang your wreath.

annnd TA-DA!  You have a super cute, super easy Valentine decoration.

Have any of you been making anything cute for Valentine's? Please leave me a comment and show me your pretties!

Jilly xoxo

Hello Friday!

Man, am I glad to see you! This week was my first week back to work after the Christmas holiday... And it was just the LONGEST week ever, even though I only worked 4 days!

So anyway, some things I've done this week...

I decided on number 30 for my 30 Things Before 30 list..... ZORBING!!!  I had thought about this before, but i'm a bit of a wimp, and thought I'd end up not doing it. But then my boyfriend happened to mention it a few days ago, and he thought it sounded like fun, so I decided to add it to the list, in the knowledge that he will make sure I go through with it!!

If you don't know what zorbing is.... imagine a giant inflatable hamster ball, rolling down a hillside with people in it! Scary but fun!!



 
 
I finished the book i've been reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon. Such a great book! It's about a young boy called Christopher who has aspergers syndrome, and tries to solve the murder of a neighbours dog, yet happens to uncover much more than what he first expected. The book is written through the eyes of Christopher, and it is a clever and humorous insight into the mind of someone on the Autistm Spectrum. I have a specific interest in this as I am studying Autism Spectrum Disorders via distance learning at the moment, but it's a great read for anyone.
 
 

This week I've been enjoying reading all the blog posts from A Hasty Life's  "It's in the Bag" Blog crawl. It's my turn on Monday to post pictures of my bag, and the contents of it, so I spent time this afternoon taking some pictures for that. While reading *this post* by Sandy a la mode, I came across the  website of Spotted Moth, as thats where her gorgeous bag came from. And I fell in love. With a bag. A bag that costs $86 dollars, which is fine. But another $39.99 on top for shipping to the UK!!!! *Cries*. It's so so pretty, but just not affordable at the moment unfortunately :o(

Here is the beatiful bag in question. It's so me - one for the Wish List! Visit Spotted Moth to see more of their cute stock.

And last but not least I ordered a supercute dress from ASOS. Ordered it on Monday and it arrived Thursday, and I LOVE it! Cant wait to wear it tomorrow night when I go to a gig in town with my boy :o)

Isn't it cute!?! I've wanted a plaid skirt or dress for ages, so fell in love with this when I seen it. I havent got the legs for knee high socks though, so I'll wear it with black tights and black boots.

This weekend i'm going to be mostly chilling out with my boy. Tomorrow we are playing Glasgow Monopoly ( I love that he indulges my dorky side!) and in the evening going to see a band at King Tuts. And I may just have a few Strongbow's while i'm at it ;o)

What are your plans for the weekend? Have a super one whatever you get up to, and make sure you check back on Monday to read my post from the Blog Crawl.

Love xox

Happy New Year & 30 Things Before 30!

                                                                                     Photo from weheartit.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! I hope you all had a great time bringing in 2011, however you celebrated it! What did you all get up to? I had a brilliant weekend in Liverpool and Manchester with my very dear friend Mikey, who I don't get to see all that often. We had a few (*ahem*) drinks, we partied at The Warehouse Project with Annie Mac and Mark Ronson, (well, not literally with them, but you know what I mean!), we watched films, ate rubbish and wrote colourful lists about what we want to achieve in the next year and beyond.

I decided I wasnt going to write my usual New Year Resolutions, but this year, as its getting so close (only 18 months!!!!!) I was going to write a 30 Things Before 30 List. I started a bucket list a year or so ago, but when the list is so huge, and its such a massive timescale, then its so easy to become complacent, and not actively work towards any of the goals. My 30th Birthday will be on July 23rd 2012, and so I thought it would be a cool idea to have a more specific list of what I want to achieve or do by then. My bucket list that I started previously had lots of huge exciting things to check off, such as travel plans, or plans for my own home and family, but my 30 Things Before 30 list had to be much more realistic and simple goals, seeing as I only have 18 months to achieve these, and as I might *hopefully* be starting a Post Grad Diploma in August, I wouldn't really have the time or the finances for anything wild or extravagent!



Anyway, here's what I have come up with so far!!

1. Cycle round Millport.  (a small island not too far from where I live in Scotland)
2. See Wicked.
3. Leave my current job. Hopefully to study, but if not, to a job that depresses me less.
4. Visit a casino. I dont particularly want to gamble, just want to say i've been there!
5. Go to a football game with the boy.
6. Have a massage
7. Stay in a yurt. The boy and I are looking into going HERE! how pretty.... and while we are in the Lake District we plan to do number 8 also.....
8. Eat in a Michelin starred restaurant.
9. Go Whale watching.
10. Learn to use the DSLR I share with my dad. (Technically its his, but he never, ever uses it so I can have it when I want)
11.Make 1 item of clothing.
12. Learn to say "hello" in 50 different languages... Mikey and I thought this would be a cute one to do!
13. Create an art wall.
14. Move out of my parents home. I know im WAY to old to be living at home, but at the moment I just couldnt afford to move :( They are only here like half the time anyway.
15. Learn to make soft pretzels or pretzel bread! The things I miss most about living in America are pretzels and Forever 21!
16. Reach 50 blog posts. So after this one, another 38 to go. Thats not even 1 a week, totally do-able!
17. Reach my goal weight ... but thats a secret!
18. Print photographs - I have empty photo albums from the Bahamas and the Disney Cruise line waiting to be filled!
19. Run a 10k. My hardest goal for sure!!
20. Have lots of picnics with my boy.
21. Make 1 green change every month.
22. Start a healthy recipe collection (and cook them!)
23. Go on a road trip without deciding on a destination.
24. Go to Disney. California would be my favourite option but with current finances, Paris will be more likely!
25. Grow my own peppers.
26. Make a cheese fondue. omnomnomnom, I think this one excites me most ha!
27. Write at least 1 handwritten, snail mail letter per month.
28. Learn embroidery.
29. Learn to crochet.
30. ???

Still need a number 30 as you can see, but i'm pretty chuffed with my list so far. Whaddya think?

Do you have a 30 Before 30 list? What exciting goals do you have for 2011?

Jilly xo