Since I moved back home from uni I’ve been so focused on saving money that doing things at the weekend hasn’t really been possible. Days out and trips all add up and I’m trying hard to watch all of my spending.

As you can imagine it has lead to life feeling quite repetitive and dull. Go to work all week, chill out at home at the weekend, repeat. 

I was starting to feel if I spent another weekend at home I would go crazy. 

Last weekend we had such utterly fabulous weather, the clocks went forward and it really felt like Spring had finally arrived.

As we’re watching our budget Jared and I went for a drive. I know, we sound about 74 but we are really lucky to have fabulous countryside on our doorstep that Jared hasn’t seen before. The drive itself was lovely in the sunshine, with some tunes playing and chatting away about our week. 

We headed for the tiny village of Compton Chamberlayne which is where my Nan grew up and my Dad was born. The whole village is one street so I showed Jared the house they used to live in. It really is the cutest little place and has a real old charm to it, with its daffodil lined verges.

After having a quick look around we headed out of the village towards Fovant in order to see the Fovant Badges. These are military badges of regiments that fought in the First World War which have been carved by soldiers waiting to head over to France. The oldest was created in 1916 and they are carved into the chalk hillside. You can see them from the road and there’s a viewing layby which has a guide to the badges. Well worth a look if you are interested in local history.

We then drove back through Barford St Martin and stopped for lunch at The Barford Arms. Two enormous plates of food and drinks cost us around £25 so we were really pleased with the value for money. The food was hearty and tasty and the cosy interior of the coaching inn topped off a really fun afternoon. 

Overall we had a really lovely time and it was so nice to actually get out and explore our local area a bit more. I'm going to try and think of some more fun things to do that are close by and still inexpensive. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Things that have made me happy this week

Its been a long week that has mostly consisted of revision but I have managed to squeeze in some fun things to stop me going completely crazy. So here is what I've been up to this week. I'm one exam down now with only one left to go next week.

1. Abbi's birthday. So last Wednesday was my absolute BFF's birthday and shes a whole 21 years old. In the three years I've known her shes always insisted on us making no fuss for her birthday but this year I decided to just totally ignore her requests and go all out. My original idea was just to get a small group of our geology friends together for dinner to celebrate. But then I thought her flatmates might like to be involved so I contacted one of them and we hatched our plan. It soon grew to include her friends from halls and rugby friends as well. It took a lot of planning to get 4 separate groups totaling 18 people in the same place at the same time so a massive thanks to Felicity for all her help (you're amazing). It was 100% worth it for the look on Abbi's face when she walked in and we were all waiting to surprise her. Thanks for being the best mapping partner a girl could wish for <3

2. Cheeky Nandos. Ok after all the social media buzz surrounding #cheekynandos I remembered I had never actually been. So as a revision break Jared and I went to the one in Southampton and it was everything I expected. The food was good but not amazing and the banter was out in force. I don't know if I'll go again but I'm glad I experienced this part of British culture.

3. New Clinique bonus time. I recently discovered the site feeluinique.com (I know I'm about a million years behind the times) and used it to restock on some favourite facecream from Clinique. Partly because I was too lazy to go to town but mostly because you got a free bonus time gift with it. This included the Super Defense Day cream, Liquid Facial Soap, High Impact Mascara, Blush in bashful blush and a Chubby Stick in Roomiest Rose. I can't stop wearing it, its just too pretty! Plus the bag it came with is pretty cute. And you can never have too many little make up bags.

4. Malcolm in the middle. Such an oldie but I never watched it back when it was actually on TV. I'm currently on season 3 and it makes me so incredibly happy. Mostly because their crazy lives are remarkably similar to my own childhood except I am one of 4 girls instead of boys. Whether you've already seen them or not they are perfect for procrastinating as each episode is only 20min long.

5. Real Techniques brushes. I've always been a massive fan of Ecotools brushes but they don't have as large a range as Real Techniques. Everyone seems to love them and they are a similar price so I thought I would give them a try. I got the powder brush as I don't currently have a nice big fluffy brush and the Expert face brush. I've always used a flat foundation brush and find it leaves streaks so this is perfect for buffing in your base. Plus they were on offer in Boots. A girl's gotta take advantage of these things.

6. Sisters coming to visit. All three of my sisters came down to Southampton for a day out shopping followed by dinner at Turtle Bay. I was naughty and got three new dresses and had the juiciest steak for dinner. But shopping and good food soothes the soul right? That aside though it was nice to spend some quality time with them as now that two of us are at uni we don't get to see each other as much as I would like.

Things that have made me happy

So its been a while since I've posted and been even longer since I've done one of these posts. My bad. Its been a busy few weeks and I've been up to lots of stuff.

1. I finally booked my holiday! I'm off to Crete in July for 10 days in the sun with Jared. I've worked hard to save for this trip and it feels so good to finally have it all booked and sorted. I've just got the car hire left to organise and then all that's left to do is get excited! I've already bought a new bikini and I'm constantly thinking about new outfits I want to take with me. I can't wait!

2. My sister Ellie got me this adorably cute gift just because. Firstly isn't that just the nicest thing? A surprise present for no reason at all? And its from Paperchase which is where the stationary gods place their gifts for me to drool over. A big thank you to her, the notebook lives in my bag so I can jot down random things I need to remember. So not only is it pretty but its also useful.

3. During the Easter holidays I pretty much just worked (in order to pay for uni next year and for Crete) but I did manage a weekend back in Southampton to see Jared. We wanted to go to the beach but it was raining so went off to explore Winchester. Its such a cute little place and as I've previously mentioned on this blog reminds me so much of Salisbury. The main thing we had come to see was the cathedral which is stunning and I had no idea it was *quite* that old. After a cheeky McDonalds we spent most of the afternoon in a second hand book shop which sorta made me feel like we were in a Match.com advert or something. I got a book on watercolour painting as a gift for Ellie, to say thank you for my notebook.

4. As we are now in the start of the new tax year I got some holiday pay. I wasn't expecting to receive this and it made an excellent contribution towards paying for my trip. Nice to get a little unexpected something extra.

5. Last weekend was a special occasion so Jared and I went away for the weekend to Exmouth in Devon. Although the weather was rubbish we had a lovely few days and watched a lot of films and ate huge amounts of food. We made an excellent playlist so the drive down was pretty fun as well.  After a stressful week full of deadlines it was really nice to escape to some fresh sea air.

6. As mentioned above I had a big essay due to last week and I am relieved to see the back of it!

7. A quick shopping trip turned into damn I need more lipsticks. I got these on a 3 for 2 offer and I am just loving the purple shades for Spring!

The Happiness Project: Part 2

So it has been a full week since I handed my dissertation in. It feels like much longer but I think that is mostly because I have been really busy. But more importantly: I've been busy having fun at long last.

It's been quite the action packed weekend and thanks to my new uni timetable I now have Fridays off which makes life even better.

I spent Friday going shopping by myself which is always such a treat. I love taking the time to browse slowly and just generally peruse at my leisure. I also got myself a new bag, some new sunglasses (for generally being fabulous) and a new thermos flask for surviving long days at uni. Naturally I have forgotten the thermos today. Well done Amber.
After I had finished wasting all my student loan I spent the afternoon reading which is something I rarely get time to do at uni as there is always so much going on. My book of choice was The Wrong Knickers by Bryony Gordon and I have actually already read it. Its such a funny book and any girl in her twenties can identity with it.

Friday night was a Disney themed house party being hosted by one of my friends. Yes that's right I did say Disney. My excitement could barely be contained. My girl friends came over for drinks and to get ready (always the best part of the night) and the party was a great laugh. I drank a little bit too much wine and ended up getting a taxi to Jareds. Apparently I was very drunk and being quite annoying but oh well. A girl deserves to get drunk with her friends once in a while.

Saturday was spent recovering with Jared being lovely to me because I was feeling rather fragile while watching loads of films. By mid afternoon (and copious amounts of ibuprofen) I was feeling much better. I spent several hours pampering myself for an amazing date night with Jared. Was really nice to spend some time together.

Sunday mostly consisted of food starting with an all you can eat breakfast and ending with a dominoes order. There goes my eating healthily resolution! Then just snuggling up in my onsie watching Harry Potter before bed. Got another action packed week ahead.

The Happiness Project

So some of you might remember a few weeks back when I was still in the midst of exam/dissertation hell I wrote a post about all the things I was planning on doing once it was all over?
Well now that it has all been handed in I just thought it would be nice to share the positivity and happiness of all the fun things I've been up to.

In my head, I have called this 'The Happiness Project'. Please nobody laugh at how lame that sounds, I just think its important that we all focus on doing the small things that make us happy. In the rush of everyday life it is so easy to get caught up on all the stuff we need to do and this makes it hard to do the stuff we really WANT to do. So I'd like to share with you guys my busy week so far which I have tried to fill with as many fun things as possible.

In a way, this is the whole theme of my blog, in that I try to celebrate the small everyday joys in life. It can be tough sometimes, and recently things have been tricky for me. This post is about how you have to sometimes be nice to yourself and be proud of your achievements, even if they seem small to others. What is important is learning to respect how you feel and understanding how to make yourself feel happy. So while the things listed below are actually very mundane, for me the time I have spent with people while doing this has made all the difference.

Went on a fantastic date night on Friday to Turtle Bay which has got to be one of my favorite restaurants. This was partly a celebration of me finishing exams (and my dissertation although I had not handed it in) as well as Jared's birthday. A big happy birthday to him <3 I got pretty sloshed on Prosecco before we even got there and then continued with the wine throughout the meal. It was nice to get merry though after so long of having to be boring. The food as ever was divine, and I had pulled jerk pork for a starter followed by Mo Bay Chicken (chicken in creamy sauce) with sweet potato fries. Jared had their goat curry which was also delicious and as always I was getting food envy. The only problem with Turtle Bay is all the food is so good I always want all of it. 

On Monday as we all know, I handed in my dissertation and this was the same day as the start of the new semester. My new modules seem to be fun so far which is good. As soon as lectures were finished I headed straight to Boots and treated myself as promised. I bought my new Clinique Sonic Brush as mentioned here and a new Long Last Lipstick in a colour called Rose Shimmer. It's much pinker than the lipsticks I usually wear but I wanted a change. So far I am obsessed with it. I think after all that hard work I deserved it. And I feel better now I've rewarded myself.

I did have a whole day of Netflix planned yesterday but this has had to be postponed due to my boyfriend being called into work at the last moment. Will be doing this at the weekend instead and I am really looking forward to some vegging out. We've made a whole list of movies we want to watch and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Yesterday, instead of watching Netflix I went to the gym and actually enjoyed it. I haven't been in so long it was actually fun. Fingers crossed for me becoming a super fit gym fanatic. It could happen.

After the gym however I undid all my hard work by meeting my flatmate for lunch at Wild Lime where the food as ever was delicious. Plus it was nice to have a catch up as I have hardly seen anyone recently.

I spent the afternoon having a really good sort out of my room and threw away a whole bag of rubbish. There is something so soothing about having stuff back in order and clean isn't there? Had a lovely relaxing bath before heading out on a bar crawl with the rest of the geologists in order to celebrate our freedom.

So there is what I've been up to so far. Can't wait to carry on having fun over the rest of the week!




Pictures: my own and the top one is stolen from Pinterest.