Today is my Birthday!!!

(I went a little made on birthday pictures! They were all found on Flickr (And should link there!) – apart from the top on which is here.)

Christmas 2006
Clearly I thought having my photo upside down was really cool!

February 2007
I wanted to prove that I could do it so I did – shortly after this Chris chimney climbed the whole doorway.

April 2007

Birthday Picnic in Russell Park. I turned 21 that year! Two weeks later me and Chris got married!

Swanwick – April 2008 (ish!)

We ran out of chairs in our huddle so I sat on the floor – it then was a joke that it looked funny with a bible in one hand a bottle of Bomberdier in the other so this became my profile picture for a bit.

Camping – September 2010

Our Connect Group went camping for the weekend. Me and Chris ended up lying on the car bonnet chatting – it was actually really comfortable once I’d fidgeted a bit.

This was the same camping trip – this is my latest picture. Ready for when me and Chris celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in two weeks ish.

13. Read 3 of the 6 Jane Austen novels (In Progress)
I started this one of with the aim to finish it, I started Pride and Prejudice and I’m part way through – my phone has it at about 16% but I could have sworn I was further than that oh well! I have Pride and Prejudice on my Kindle (and on the Kindle iPhone app so I can squeeze in reading here, there and everywhere. I have a paperback copy of Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey but haven’t started them yet. I also have a copy of The Mysteries of Udolpho which appears in Northanger Abbey.

14. Watch the 3 Lord of The Ring Films (again) (1/3)
I watched The Return of The King while curled up feeling ill back in about January but that was as far as I got. I guess this is something easier to fit in between now and my birthday.

15. Read the 3 Lord of The Ring Books.
This didn’t happen. In my mind I was going to read The Hobbit and then move onto The Lord of The Rings and do them all in one go but again it didn’t work out. It’s three days to my birthday and I’m not even a third through The Hobbit.

16. Meet @Ellefie in person (If you don’t read it go read her blog – she’s my birthday buddy).
Again this didn’t happen the two times that I was most recently in London and had time to spare, Ellefie was busy, when she was free and could spare the time I wasn’t in London or was already on the train home. We will make it happen this year!

17. Watch all 17 Studio Ghibli feature films (no 18 is being released in July 2011 – 8/17 as of 21st January).
I managed eight of the films but no more than that. Leading up to Christmas – Film Four showed all 16 out of 17 (Arrietty had come out in the Summer and was too recent for televising). I sat down and set the TV to record all 16 films but the signal cut out on a few of the recordings and I think at one point the computer (that runs our TV) had been switched off or unplugged for about 24 hours and so that meant that the two films that fell in that window were also missed.

18. Watch Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
I either got this for my birthday or it happened to be on TV but this was a good one – it’s an iconic movie but part of me didn’t get what made it so iconic (If you can enlighten me that would be good). Then again part of me wanted to go buy a ticket to New York and jet off as soon as possible!

19. Finish His Image My Image by Josh McDowell.
This one was added, as this time last year the pastor at our church told me to read this book. So I did.

20. Finish One Day by David Nicholls (Done – 1st May 2011)
When I heard that the film was coming out, I had to read the book first. I really liked the book overall but I think there are bits I would change – but that’s just my opinion.

21. Go to a concert.
Somehow I heard that Cerys Matthews was on tour last May and so I got tickets. I wasn’t really sure if any of my friends would want to go with me so I booked a single ticket and got myself over to Milton Keynes. I’d never been to The Stables before and seeing as I had misread the ticket as well I ended up arriving in Milton Keynes over an hour early so I grabbed some food (It’s so lonely sitting in a restaurant on your own when everyone else is with family and/or friends). I had an amazing time – I’d ended up sat right at the front right in the middle. When Cerys did Galway Shawl/Strange Glue I was singing along – I’m not sure the people around me appreciated it though. I wrote about the concert the following day – you can read about it here or watch the video of Galway Shawl/Strange Glue here (unfortunately it’s not the version from MK).

22. Cook a Roast Dinner
This was going to happen at the end of last week but it turned out that the joint needed over two hours from frozen and we didn’t have that kind of time to do it! That was a shame as I was actually really excited about doing it. I might be able to fit it in this weekend but then it’s passed the deadline really.

23. Home make at least one Christmas Present (Done)
I made my Mum’s Christmas Present and made my Secret Santa present for Caz. I was so chuffed!

24. Read My Life in France by Julia Childs and Alex Prud’Homme. (Done)
Read, Loved, Seen the film (which is loosely based on it/Julie Powell’s imaginings of Julia Child).

25. Cycle to Sandy and back
Yeah so didn’t happen! Chris suggested this one because he knew it really would be a challenge but having cycled across town to my friends house and nearly dying, Sandy was going to be too far away.

You can find Part 1 here.

(Source)

L is for…

Lincoln Brewster

No-one noticed that my alphabet was in the wrong order did they? Lincoln Brewster is an American worship leader that my Uncle introduced me to. I hadn’t heard of him but I downloaded the whole album after listening to the 30 second bites of each track like three times over!

Joining up with Megan from Happy Day Blog.

Dear Monday, the sun was shining this morning but by about lunchtime it clouded over and the heavens opened. It’s been raining pretty much for five hours straight now.

To my Manager, you rock! My colleague is on holiday and you’ve spent pretty much all day helping me out. You rock!

Dear Amazon Kindle Customer Service (Especially Rebecca H and Eleanor), YOU ROCK! I sent a chat message earlier and you asked me various questions but were able to diagnose that my Kindle is poorly and needs replacing. Can I have customer service lessons from your instructor?

Dear Rain, I know we need lots more of you due to the “drought” and “hose pipe ban” we’ve got but could it not rain when I don’t have a coat with me?

Dear Hot Chocolate, just what I needed after walking to the car without a coat and trying to park near The Fountain.

1. Read Love Wins by Rob Bell
This has sat on my bookcase pretty much since I got it – I’m going to try and read it this week but first up I want to get The Hobbit finished.

2. Take part in the “Messiah From Scratch” (Christmas 2011) 
At the end of November last year I was able to go to the “Messiah From Scratch” at the Royal Albert Hall. It was amazing and so much of a challenge but I really did struggle – I thought I would be able to sing soprano but I now know that if I go back this year I’m singing Alto for sure!

3. Watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (July 2011)
Me, Chris, Mum and Rich (maybe my Dad and Rich’s girlfriend too) went to see the film when it came out at the cinema. My Mum sat next to me and about three quarters of the way through she whispered to me “Don’t tell me after all this Harry dies?!?!” Well I couldn’t tell her what happened – I wasn’t going to give it away.

4. Re-Read Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (July 2011) 
Before we went to see the film I was determined to re-read the book – and I did. Was probably better the first time round buy my heart was still in my mouth towards the end.

5. Go on an adventure within the UK on my own. (April 2011) 
In April last year (the day after my birthday), my friend Dave moved up to Stockport to live nearer to his Fiance (who is now his wifey! Yay!!). Having dropped him and a car load of his things at his new house I drove home to Bedford – not the most direct route but it was pretty and it was an adventure. I drove along the A6 which goes through Hazel Grove and High Peak amongst some other little villages right through the Peak District (it was pretty much the same route that me, Chris and Our Sidekick drove last weekend following the wedding). I got to Sutton-in-Ashfield and visited Kewey – I then drove the rest of the way home (You can read the more detailed trip here.)

6. Read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (In Progress)
I’m in the progress of reading this – I have a paperback copy and a Kindle version in the hope that I can read bits between everything that is happening this week.

7. Make 10 Items to Open an Etsy Store
Well I managed the items and I opened the Etsy Store but that’s kind of where it finished – I’m not sure I will keep it going at the moment but I managed to achieve it.

8. Fix My Bike
Although we’ve been at this house for nearly three years and have been out of our first “flat” for four years my bike was still living in the church garage. Well me and Chris loaded it in the car and got it home – it got fixed and now lives in our garden lol. Okay so at least in the garage it was dry! Might have to move my bike down to the shed or at least get some tarpaulin or something to go over it.

9. Go on a Road Trip
This was also the same trip to Stockport – it was a slightly unplanned road trip but was so worth it. Had so much fun!

10. Watch 100 films
I thought this was going to be hard as it works out at about 2 a week but actually it was relatively easy. I worked my way through my DVD collection and borrowed DVDs from my brother – add in going to the cinema and that soon adds up to 100 films.

11. Read 5 Biographies
I know for sure that I’ve read at least 1 – maybe 2 but either way I’ve not completed this one. I thought it would be easy but actually I really struggled to find ones that I actually wanted to read.

12. Learn and Memorise 10 Scales on the Bass Guitar
I’ve kind of fallen out of love with playing the bass this last year and so I think learning scales wasn’t really something I wanted to be doing. With Our Sidekick coming to live with us practising in our house is a bit of a challenge. When he’s around after school it’s time to do tea some evenings by the time we’ve finished tea it’s time for Our Sidekick to go to bed and practicising an instrument is like the last thing I want to be doing.

1. Today is a great day because, it’s the dress rehearsal for our performance.
2. Tomorrow I will hopefully remember all my lines in the performance and not forget my dance moves during the two big numbers (that I usually forget!) .
3. My favourite time of day is about lunchtime because it’s a break from work and there is food! Also if I remember to take my reading book with me I can escape for a little while.
4. Sometimes you just have to eat chocolate – some days it just has to be done. It can’t be avoided!
5. A song that I just can’t get enough of lately is That’s How You Know from Enchanted – it’s catchy and cheesy I can’t help it!
6. My favorite accessory is my robot necklace that I bought back in February. I love it so much and it reminds me of Ruby!
7. My favorite thing about this week was baking cakes for the first time in ages – okay so the brownies were from a premix packet thingy but they tasted so good and I really really fancied brownies. I also made rainbow cupcakes – I haven’t quite worked out the best way to make them and a batch always seems so small – I might have to up the mixture. I need to get some.

Blogging seems to be a little past me at the moment but I have been snapping away like mad with my phone – mainly via Instagram. So I thought I’d share some and explain a bit more of what happens in the pictures.

My friends tied the knot this weekend. At the end of April it’ll be a year since I helped Dave (the groom) move up to live closer to his fiancée.

I don’t really do dresses – I go through stages where I think about being more girlie and dressing up more and then through my own laziness most of the time (or I can’t find a dress that fits right) I stick with trousers and get on with the day. I think if I worked in a job where I was meeting with people on a day to day basis (rather than the people I work with I’d probably make more of an effort). While we were filing time between the ceremony and the evening reception do, we grabbed some food and then went for a walk around a local park. I managed to snap this photo while walking along a wall.

On the way back to the motorway we took the pretty way – I snapped away taking a bunch of photos to occupy myself. Thankfully the sun came out and light up the hills amazingly. There are a bunch more pictures of our journey home on my Flickr Photostream.

Look what arrived on Monday – as part of the Kickstarter project that kicked off Chantilly’s project to record her EP I got an envelope of goodies including a CD copy of the EP, a CD copy of her older EP and a postcard – it was very exciting especially given that I got home in a bit of a mood and the minute I saw the post on my doorstep I was so excited!

A while back my friend Adam told me about The Fault in Our Stars being released by John Green and if it was pre-ordered then it would be signed. Well I pre-ordered. The day the books were due to arrive there were rumbles (or shoutings) around the internet that copies were being delivered but they weren’t signed. The following day my copy arrived and thankfully it was signed. Well I finally read it and it’s sad and happy and memorable. I opened the first few pages and read the dedication – it was to Esther Earl. Esther was a fab girlie who was taken way before her time. She had cancer and she passed away from it last summer. I hadn’t ever met her in person but I’d seen her YouTube videos and somehow that made her more real to me (I mean like not just random YouTuber who I’d never meet in person etc etc – I make sense to me!). Some of the plot is set in Amsterdam and me and Chris went to Amsterdam for our honeymoon – almost five years ago!

I like writing with a fountain pen. I have a posh nice Parker pen at home but I tend to use these disposable ones on the go so that if they get lost or misplaced it’s not too expensive to replace them (we’re talking £2-3 rather than £10-20). I have been using this blue one at work for about three weeks and it died on me yesterday.

HUGStronger is about helping college girlies find their place – amongst other things. Kaleigh and her team hosted a similar project to Kickstarter via a website called Indiegogo. I was able to donate to this and received a bumper sticker – well I didn’t want to stick it to the bumper of my car but I decided to stick it to the front of my MacBook.

I think this makes it Book 7 of 2012 – I have caught up need to keep reading to stay on track to read 25 books this year (that’s about 1 a fortnight). I’m now reading Divergent by Veronica Roth after my friend Cat suggested it to me. So far it’s good – I think I’m about a quarter through it. (Actually according to GoodReads it’s 13%).

I grabbed this CD from my post pile this morning and stuck it on in the car this morning – I needed some sunshine giving how gloomy and rubbish it was outside. My favourite track is “Just The Way You Are” although “Escape” is replaying in my head as I write this post. (You can find Chantilly’s blog here).

And to finish, it’s my birthday in 8 days – and yes I am probably going to tweet about it every day between now and then lol. I found out earlier today that I am birthday buddies with Ellefie (which I did already know) and ClareBot (which I didn’t know!). I’m a year older than ClareBot and a year younger than Ellefie.

(Source)

I don’t tend to buy albums any more because I don’t always like all the songs – and there’s always that one that never gets played on the CD (or MP3 as most of my music is going that way)

But what about an EP – more than a single less than an album – well again I don’t tend to buy them – I probably buy it by the song (or weight up is it cheaper to buy the album rather than 11 out of 12 tracks for example!). Sometimes I download songs that I just can’t help but play over and over to the point that I’m singing it in the shower or while I put the kettle on at work.

Anyway! There’s an EP I want to tell you about.

A while back my blog-friend Chantilly, started up a Kickstarter project (if you’ve never heard of Kickstarter take a look here) so that she could record and produce her own EP. Well I already liked her music and her covers (or at least the ones I’ve seen on YouTube and not live – she’s in the US you know!) so I contributed to her Kickstarter project – the cool thing about it is that depending on the level of contribution to the project you might something back. So for example with Chantilly’s because I was at a certain level I got an advance track and a download (or something like that), on another project I got a bumper sticker (which I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with it but I have it – I might stick it to my MacBook!) Anyhoo so with Kickstarter you only pay your money if the person reaches their target – well Chantilly did and we waited with baited breathe for the EP to appear….and here it is!!

Today is the official release of her EP which is why I am dedicating today’s Tuesday Tunes to Chantilly. Over on Chantilly’s blog there is an Official Album Release Blog Party Awesomeness thing! She has a fab line up from lots of other bloggers (I’m now kicking myself that I did sign up but at the same time something had to give!). Her fab assistants for the day include Tieka from Selective Potential, Ashley from After Nine To Five. Mary-Morgan from The Muffington Post and Miki from Miki’s Scrapbook amongst other fab people.

So head over to Chantilly’s blog and take a look at all the fun that is kicking off over there or pop over to Bandcamp (click the link below) and listen to the tracks (it’s like try before you buy!). I reccomend Escape and Just The Way You Are.

I think you will like Chantilly if you like KT Tunstall, Sandi Thom, She and Him and The Civil Wars. Either way take a listen.

Minus the Tuesday Tunes logo at the top (which has it’s own link), all the images belong to Chantilly – she’s kindly let me use them to tell you all about her fab EP. Please go take a listen – she’s awesome I promise!

Joining up with Megan from Happy Day Blog.

Dear Weekend, you were far too short! Having spent like 6-7 hours of the weekend in the car going to and from Stockport you vanished right before my eyes. On the other hand we took the pretty way home rather than the motorway. We did the motorway from Chesterfield to Milton Keynes but before joining the motorway we did all the pretty roads – this is the Peak District although it made me miss the Lakes (I’ve been once for a week and I miss it! Now I know why my Grandma and my Aunt love it so much)

Dear D and R, YOU’RE MARRIED NOW!!!! It’s so exciting! Nearly a year ago I helped you (D) move up to Stockport to live closer to R. It was so exciting to see you two makes your promises to each other – and thankfully even thought the church seemed really formal we were allowed to cheer really loud which was funny – especially when the mother of the groom (aka my second mum!) cheered!! It made me laugh really loud and then I felt like the naughty kid misbehaving!

Dear Lil Sis, it was at short notice but it was so good to hang out with you! It was a nice end to the Easter holidays (or at least I think it is!) We watched 27 Dresses. One of my favourites I think. We had pizza and ate Oreos, could it have been any better?

Dear Sleep, it was so hard to escape you this morning. I could have honestly done with some more of you I think. My B&B bed Saturday night was pretty comfortable but Chris switched the lights/fan off in the wrong order and so the extractor fan was on nearly all night – thankfully tiredness over took the inability to sleep due to the noise and I fell asleep – I swear I really struggle sleeping in strange beds.

Dear reading, clearly I missed you to – I read like 25% of a book last night – that’s not good then again it did aid sleep! I’m surprised I didn’t fall asleep with my Kindle in my hand (I did that the other week – Chris took it out of my hand and I woke up he told me I’d fallen asleep – when I told my Dad he laughed and made a comment about how I’m more and more like my Mum each day!)