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No deep meaning here, I just like this badge

001: I've been to the cinema more times in the last two weeks than I have in the last year. Four films in ten days. Oh yeah. Here's a little review of each:

• The King's Speech: wonderful, Hitler-y, interesting 
• Love & Other Drugs: porn with a side of emotional devastation
• Black Swan: intense, minor lesbian escapades, made me jump
• Blue Valentine: HARROWING but you do get to see Ryan Gosling's bum. I would gladly be harrowed  all day long for a look at that delicious rump

002: I'm really not enjoying work at the moment. The travelling, the cost of travelling and a few other issues are making me pretty sad. To be honest I quite fancy jacking it all in and going for an adventure on the high seas. Note to self: go on more adventures.

003: I've decided to get a haircut. This may not sounds very exciting but I've not had my hair cut properly for well over two years. It's time for a change. I will miss the tremendous swish but, to be honest, it's just been getting in the way of things for the last few weeks. It's too long, there's too much of it and it gets EVERYWHERE.

004: I got paid on Tuesday. Normally a major cause for celebration, a few drinks and an ASOS spendathon. Unfortunately though I appear to be completely skint. Once all my outgoings have outgone, I will have about £12 left. So, for the rest of January and the whole of February I am buying nothing. You hear me? NOTHING. No clothes, no jewellery, no non essentials. Depressing but, to be honest, I needed a kick up the bum to make me budget.

005: I'm taking part in the blogging 'Pay It Forward' malarkey that you've probably seen here, there and everywhere. I added my name to Em's list (who, by the way, has a lovely blog that you should probably be following. Just FYI) and so here are the rules...

"Pay it forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They in turn must post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011."

I'm probably going to bake some treats so, if you'd like to receive some baked joy in the post, then leave a comment and I'll hopefully get round to it some time in February. Only five though, please. My little oven can't cope with any more (as much as it would like to).

Outfit Post: 9 to 5

It's been nearly three weeks since my last outfit post and I rejoin the land of sartorial documenting with a work outfit. Poor show, Helen. Poor show. I am rather fond of this dress though and it's quickly become one of my absolute favourites to wear to work. Ruffles, spots, comfy and easy to wear. Ding ding ding, jackpot. All I need in a work outfit and more. The belt was a Topshop sale purchase and has a slight bondage-esque quality to it which is, of course, completely appropriate for a day at th'office. I'm such a boundary pusher. Ha.

A fair few people have asked to see more photographs of the house. Well, it's still not finished (and unlikely to be for some time) but I thought I'd leave the background in the photo above, rather than cropping it out like I normally do, to show a little bit of where I live. That television is both my pride and joy and my absolute downfall. Note to self: run more, sit on sofa less.

I think it's clear from these photos that I am a tired girl at the moment. I blame the following: gin, a boy, friends, insomnia and work. Not necessarily in that order.

Dress - New Look

Cardigan - Dorothy Perkins

Tights & Shoes - M&S

Belt - Topshop

Last Week

1) Getting ready to go out on Friday night, wearing my new Me & Zena necklace. Love it.
2) Rain. Lots of it. One of the pitfalls of living in Manchester
3) Epic shoes. Reduced from about £90 to less than £20 in the Office sale. Be still my beating heart
4) My awesome friend Natalie sent me a package filled with American candy treats (let's not discuss the fact it took a month to arrive). Slimming World, I'm so sorry
5) New shower curtain and a new addition to my living room wall. The house is taking shape, very slowly but very surely


I've not really got into the swing of blogging this year. Sometimes life just seems to get in the way and I end up so tired that the last thing I feel like doing is sitting down and writing. I'd rather be watching endless repeats of America's Next Top Model and eating frozen berries. I fully intend to get back into the blogging habit though and there might even be an outfit post in the next couple of days or so. I know. Shocking.


So, how've you been?

Seeking Sanctuary

After an extremely hectic weekend and week so far, I'm only now catching up on all the things I should have done when I was a) drinking b) dying of a hangover and c) watcing football in the pub trying to stave off said hangover. I think I need to have a couple of weekends off the booze to let my poor body/liver/mind recover. I'm not really a big drinker at all any more but these last couple of weekends have been a complete exception! I'm not to blame though, I was led astray. Honest.

Anyway, prior to the weekend's debauchery, on Friday I headed off down to London courtesy of Kelloggs, for a presentation about myspecialk.co.uk, followed by a spa day at the Sanctuary Spa in Covent Garden. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was an incredible day and I don't think I've ever felt quite as serene as I did when I left the spa at about 6pm. Which of course lasted about 10 minutes, when faced with the thronging London rush hour.

I'll write more about myspecialk.co.uk in a later post, as I took a fair few notes that I need to try and decipher before I write a cohesive post. Suffice to say, I think it could be a really useful tool for weight loss and, it's completely FREE! I get a lot of emails from people asking me how I've lost weight and asking for tips and advice. I know that a lot of people simply can't afford to join a weight loss group (like Slimming World) and I think Kelloggs' new venture really fills a gap in the market.

Unfortunately I couldn't take any photographs in the spa (apparently women in their swimming costumes dislike that, I wonder why) so you're left with a photo of the lovely gift we each received as part of the package, and a photo of the gorgeous Koi Carp Lounge that I found on the Sanctuary website. Just look at those white chairs! They hold about three people and I could happily have spent the whole day in one, reading, napping and generally feeling very very serene.

We were lucky enough to have a gorgeous champagne brunch as part of our spa package too (hello smoked salmon bagel with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, I like you) and were also each told to choose a treatment from the ridiculously hard-to-choose-from list. I opted for the prescription facial and it was IMMENSE. Half facial, half massage, all incredible.

I feel incredibly lucky to have been invited by Kelloggs and a massive thankyou has to go to Louise and all the girls for being so lovely and organising such a wonderful day. It was also lovely to meet some new (to me) bloggers, including Laura and Becky. If you are at all interested in different ways of losing weight/getting seriously healthy, then these two ladies are extremely inspirational!

Let Them Eat Cake

I'm a blogger cliche I know, but I genuinely believe there are few things nicer in this world than a really good cupcake. When Laura from Airy Fairy Cupcakes contacted me and asked me if I'd like to sample some of her gorgeous creations I was hardly going to say no, was I?!

They arrived at my door on Monday evening, a beacon of shining baked goodness in the rainy, cold night. Beautifully packaged and for all the world looking like little works of art, rather than just cupcakes. I was lucky enough to receive Cookies & Cream, Raspberry Ripple, Naughty Nutella and Very Vanilla.

I may be a Slimming World convert and generally I stick to the eating plan 99% of the time, but I couldn't help diving headfirst into the box and devouring the Cookies & Cream cupcake within seconds. I basically inhaled it. And it was GOOD. So good. The perfect amount of rich buttery frosting, light fluffy cake and perfect flavours. Delicious.

Airy Fairy Cupcakes are based in Didsbury, South Manchester and currently deliver to parts of Manchester and Cheshire (but if you're further afield just contact Laura and I'm sure she'll be able to help). However, there is a shop on the horizon and I'll definitely be paying it a vist (or ten) when it opens.

Cupcakes make life in January better. Fact.