New thing every week in 2016 #3

Welcome to the third post in my 'New thing every week in 2016' series! You can read the first post here and the second post here.

The ten weeks I've focused on for this post went from some big highs to a pretty big low which meant it was a difficult post to write. I turned 30 on 4th June which resulted in a lovely few weeks where I felt truly happy but, unfortunately, my health nightmare started on 15th July.

Read on to find out what I got up to between 20th May and 28th July...

Week 21: Drove around North Wales on my own for a few days on a work trip

Week 22: Ate at the Bear Inn in Clarks Village

Week 23: Got the bus to Cardiff Bay (and turned 30!)

Week 24: Did a Future Learn course on the European Union 

Week 25: Went bowling with a 3 year old

Week 26: Ordered a takeaway from Prezzo

Week 27: Went to Kaspa's

Week 28: Did my first Weekend Warrior challenge on the Fitbit

Week 29: Went to Southampton with Neil

Week 30: Received my first pair of earrings from Clogau 

I already know the next ten weeks will be difficult ones to look back on because I'm painfully aware of what happened next in the rollercoaster ride of 2016. However, on the bright side, the next post will include a holiday to Florida! Check back for the next instalment in a few days. 

Clogau's beautiful Forget Me Not range

2016 has been a difficult year so far.

At the beginning of the year, my grandmother passed away at the grand old age of 98. She'd been suffering a lot towards the end so it was comforting to know that she was in a better place with no more pain, but it was still very upsetting for all those left behind. I have many precious memories of my Nan and she taught me so many crucial life lessons which I still live by today.

My grandmother kindly left me some money and I wanted to make sure I spent some of that money on something significant and meaningful in memory of such a special lady. I scoured the internet for weeks and eventually came across the perfect keepsake - Clogau's Forget Me Not necklace.

The necklace is really beautiful and I smile to myself every time I put it on. Nan always used to smile fondly at my love of jewellery, even though she wasn't a jewellery magpie herself, so I'm sure she'd approve of my choice.

After buying the necklace and falling in love with it, my eyes inevitably strayed towards the rest of the Forget me Not range. However, I couldn't justify spending that much money on anything else from the range so I decided to be content with my necklace.

A few weeks later, along came my 30th birthday and a new ring from Neil...

There are two rings in the range - this small stacking ring and a bigger Forget me Not ring. Neil correctly decided that the small stacking ring was much more appropriate for me as my hands are so small! It was so thoughtful of him to buy this ring as an accompaniment to my beautiful necklace and it made me very happy on my 30th birthday morning.

And lastly, to complete my Forget me Not story, I've been going through a difficult time in the last few weeks which I might blog about next week (if I'm brave enough). Neil has been amazing throughout the whole ordeal and took me into town on a particularly difficult day last week to buy a special gift from a certain shop...

The beautiful Forget me Not earrings! These earrings really are stunning and look so perfect and elegant when worn with the necklace and the ring. I wore the whole set last weekend and it's fair to say that it cheered me up significantly.

So, although 2016 has been a very difficult year in parts, one positive thing has come out of it... my discovery of Clogau's Forget me Not range!

Are you a Clogau fan? If so, you should definitely pop in to your local store soon to take a look at their Forget me Not range. Please don't blame me if you also fall in love with the entire collection!

Birthday haul #2 - gifts I can wear

Following on from my 'gifts I can gaze at' post, this next instalment of my mini birthday haul series focuses on gifts I can wear.

Firstly, let's focus on one of my biggest loves... jewellery! I received some really lovely jewellery for my birthday and I've worn every item quite a few times already. I had three exciting bags to open on my birthday morning...

The beautiful Tiffany & Co bracelet is from Neil's parents and came all the way from New York. They bought me the matching 'Tiffany Blue' necklace a few years ago so this is a great addition to my collection. I love the elegance and simplicity of this bracelet and took great pride in wearing it all day on my birthday. 

The surprise in the Clogau bag was a very thoughtful gift from Neil. I bought a forget-me-not necklace from Clogau a few weeks ago in memory of my grandmother who passed away in February, and Neil bought me the matching ring for my birthday. It's very dainty and detailed... I'm now saving up for the matching earrings as it's such a pretty collection! 

The Pandora charm pictured above is a pretty four-leaf clover from my Irish colleague, Edwina. It's so sparkly and fits in perfectly with the springtime charms on my Pandora bangle. Staying with the Pandora theme, my parents gave me money for my birthday which I spent on the beautiful 2016 Pandora Club charm. You can see the four-leaf clover on my bangle below, as well as the intricate heart-shaped Club charm. It has '2016' engraved on it so I thought it was the perfect thing to buy with my birthday money. 

When I went home to celebrate my birthday with friends and family last week, I received another Pandora charm from Nicola - this one will also fit in perfectly with the charms on my bangle! 

In addition to my jewellery gifts, I also received a pink Fiorelli bag from Neil. I fell in love with it when I saw it on a recent trip to Clarks Village but, as I'd also fallen in love with a yellow bag, Neil said he'd buy the pink one for my birthday so that I could have both. This is my fifth Fiorelli bag... I just can't help it, they're so pretty and come in such beautiful colours! 

And, of course, no birthday would be complete without some Disney pyjamas. As my birthday is at the beginning of the summer, it's the perfect chance to stock up on new summer pyjamas. I had the Jungle Book pyjamas from my parents and the Little Mermaid pyjamas from Neil. I can confirm that both pairs are very comfortable!

So, to sum up, I love receiving gifts I can wear. Check back soon to read my last blog post on my birthday presents - gifts I can use! 

Valentine's Day 2016

Although we don't particularly believe in celebrating Valentine's Day, we don't need much of an excuse to go for a nice meal. So, as Valentine's Day conveniently fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to go to The Captain's Wife for their special Valentine's lunch.

I thought it was the perfect occasion to wear my anniversary necklace with my new high-necked top from New Look... I haven't included a photo of my face as I was in the clutches of a horrible cold and no one needs to see that!

As it was such a sunny day, we decided to walk to the pub rather than take the car. It's only two miles or so away from our house so it's a perfectly manageable distance when the weather is nice, and we passed some beautifully Instagrammable views on our way there. We also thought we'd feel (slightly) less guilty about the volume of food we were guaranteed to eat if we burnt off a few calories first.

We'd booked our table for 1:30pm and got shown to our seats straight away. The pub was really busy, as always, but the order for our starters and mains got taken fairly quickly. I went for the tomato soup to start... you can't go wrong with traditional soup and bread!

The soup was very tasty, and our main meals came to the table just as we finished our starters. We both went for the Vintage Sunday Roast Platter which included rump steak, turkey breast and pork loin, as well as all the usual roast dinner trimmings. Although we weren't given the extra gravy promised in the menu which was disappointing, the meal itself was delicious. The parsnips, steak and stuffing were my particular favourites! 

I was full to the brim after my main meal and probably shouldn't have eaten any more. However, dessert was included in the Valentine's lunch offer so I obviously had to go through with it. Our waitress also took half an hour to remember to take our dessert orders which meant I had a bit of time to prepare myself! I chose the apple crumble with custard and it was pretty spectacular. I'm not a big fan of custard and would have preferred an accompaniment of vanilla ice cream, but the crumble was nice enough (and filling enough!) on its own. 

Although the service was pretty disappointing and put us off from visiting again any time soon, we still had a lovely time and both thought the food itself was great. We got wrapped up again and left for our walk home... cue more breathtaking views!

We blitzed a few boring chores when we got home because we're very romantic like that, then we settled in for the night with a bottle of Prosecco and some exciting holiday shopping on the laptop (equally exciting blog post to follow on that). We definitely didn't need any more food for the rest of the day!

How did you spend your Valentine's Day? Hope you all had a good Sunday, whether you believe in celebrating Valentine's Day or not!

A very belated post... our first wedding anniversary!

It's been nearly six months since our first wedding anniversary, so what better time to blog about it? I'll pretend I meticulously planned it that way rather than quite simply forgetting to blog about it until today. 

Our wedding anniversary was on Sunday 30th August, but we decided to start our celebrations on the Saturday evening as that was exactly 52 weeks from the wedding day itself. This also meant we could celebrate for longer (and eat more celebratory food) which is always a bonus. As we held our wedding reception at Cardiff's Copthorne Hotel with amazing food, we decided to go back there for dinner on the Saturday night. Everything I wore was from New Look, of course!

I chose the goat's cheese and balsamic red onion tart to start and it was really really good. I was a bit worried about the goat's cheese as I hadn't tried it before, but it just made me realise that I've been missing out on a tasty flavour all these years! I had steak for my main meal which was also delicious (although not photogenic enough to appear here). 

It was great to be back at the Copthorne a year on, eating in the exact same room where we ate our wedding breakfast with our family and friends. The restaurant was nice and quiet, and I enjoyed a glass of wine while we were there. I also took the opportunity to pose in one of our favourite wedding photo spots! 

On the day of our anniversary itself, Neil gave me a beautiful 'cariad' locket from Clogau to mark the day. This photo definitely doesn't do it justice! He also printed a tiny wedding photo which fits perfectly inside the locket to make it extra special and significant. It has quite a long chain so it looks great with high-necked tops and dresses, and I absolutely love it. 

In the afternoon, we went to one of my favourite places in Cardiff... Pettigrew Tea Rooms! As usual, the afternoon tea was spectacular and I even got to try a new cake flavour - blueberry and orange. Absolutely divine. 

We went to the cinema after our afternoon tea, but I'm afraid I've completely forgotten what we went to see. This is what happens when I don't blog about an occasion until six months later! I'm sure the film was good, whatever it was. 

I obviously used our first anniversary as an excuse to post a few collages from our special day on Instagram. I love a good collage, and I had hundreds of wedding photos to choose from! 

We went to Florida a few days after our anniversary and enjoyed a few special celebratory meals there too, so it was a really lovely first wedding anniversary all round. 199 days to go until the second one!