Celebrating our third anniversary

Neil and I celebrated our third anniversary last weekend. This anniversary was extra significant as it's the last one we'll celebrate before our wedding in August! It definitely doesn't seem as if a year has passed since our second anniversary... time is moving far too quickly these days.

I decided to try out my new Barry M Limited Edition Carousel nail varnish on our anniversary as I'd bought it with my birthday money and it went perfectly with the dress I decided to wear. I love it!

We decided not to buy each other presents this year as we're saving money for the wedding and spending a lot on our new house. Both very expensive things, I think you'll agree. However, we did buy each other a card and, if I'm honest, we do have very good taste in cards. Who doesn't love a card with fluffy teddies/dogs on it?

I usually have Weetabix and semi skimmed milk for breakfast every day, even on weekends, but Neil brought big thick rolls and bacon from the butchers with him as a surprise so I had a bit more of a hearty breakfast on our anniversary. With lashings of ketchup, of course! 

After exchanging cards and eating our rather large breakfast, we headed in to town for our usual Saturday wander. However, we had a bit more of a purpose to our trip this time... we went to choose our wedding rings! I won't be posting a photo of my ring here as I want to keep it a secret until we're married, but I'm so excited about the beautiful wedding ring I've chosen. It'll definitely feature in lots of my post wedding blog posts in September/October, so keep a look out for it. We went for our usual Caffe Nero fix while we mulled over our wedding ring options, and I ordered my customary skinny hot chocolate. 

After deciding on our wedding rings and going to the jewellers to place our order, we popped to the Sidoli's hut in the Hayes for a cheeky ice cream. I've already blogged about my love for Sidoli's ice cream. They have such a wide variety of flavours! I went for Creme Caramel Fudge and Strawberries & Cream on this occasion. 

We continued to wander around town after eating our ice cream and I successfully spent the last of my birthday money... blog post to follow next week on what I bought! Unsurprisingly, the post will involve items from New Look and the Disney Store. 

I mentioned in my last restaurant review blog post that we ate at Prezzo last Saturday for our anniversary meal so I won't elaborate on that here, but our amazing bread board deserves to be featured again!

After finishing our food, we headed to the cinema to see 3 Days to Kill. I'll write about it in more detail in my monthly cinema round up, but I thought it was a great film. I shouldn't enjoy films with lots of shooting and bombing as I'm so paranoid about crime and violence, but I really do for some reason. I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day trying to analyse that. 

There was one more surprise on Sunday... Neil had bought a beautiful lemon cake from Costco! The topping was basically a layer of lemon sugary goodness and the cake itself was lovely and light. Although I do want to bake a cake again soon, Costco is a good alternative when we don't have time to bake! 

So, to sum up, we had a lovely anniversary and ate a lot of food, as is our custom. Next time we celebrate our anniversary, we'll be married! 

A busy weekend!

Last weekend was a bit hectic, so obviously I had to blog about it. I love using my blog to document various events and photos, even if they might seem mundane to other people. Isn't that what a lifestyle blog should be all about?

It all started with an awards ceremony at the Vale Resort on Friday night. A campaign led by my organisation had been shortlisted for a Welsh Housing Award... we won! It was a lovely evening (with amazing chocolates) and it gave me a chance to wear my beautiful new dress. I love the lacy detail... this might be my new favourite dress.

This dress is from Tesco, believe it or not!

Neil and I went to McArthur Glen in Bridgend on Saturday afternoon to do some Christmas shopping. I was absolutely determined to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend, and I always get some great bargains in McArthur Glen. It didn't disappoint, and I even managed to spend some money on myself... two pairs of jeans for £37 in Gap. Gap jeans are the only jeans which fit me properly as they actually cater for short people, so I was very happy with this bargain. They were originally supposed to be £39.99 each! I really wanted to post a few photographs of the presents I bought for other people, but I'm not risking it in case they happen to stumble upon my blog. That would be highly unfortunate.

Beautiful Christmas tree in McArthur Glen

We obviously had to pop in to Sidoli's for a break...

After finishing our shopping, we drove to pick Liz up from the bus station then went back to my flat to watch the rugby. I'm not going to comment on the result! We then went to Tenkaichi and ate a LOT of food, then went back to the flat to watch Black Books and play Scrabble. I won... I never win anything two nights in a row. Another lovely evening was had by all. 

On Sunday morning, I drove to Cribbs Causeway with Liz to meet Amy, another university friend. Our Christmas shopping trip to Cribbs has become an annual tradition and it's always a good chance to catch up on all the news and to blitz the last few bits of Christmas shopping. I loved the Christmas decorations in the shopping centre... 22 days to go!

Very similar to the decorations in Cardiff's St David's 2 shopping centre

Palm trees and Christmas trees... why not?

Pretty decorations in John Lewis

No visit to Cribbs is complete without a visit to Pizza Hut

After a very successful two days of shopping, I've actually finished my Christmas shopping! However, after such a busy weekend of catching up, eating and shopping, I feel as if I need another two days off just to recover. I'm definitely not complaining though, I love productive and sociable weekends. 

What did you get up to last weekend?

Sidoli's ice cream

I've made no secret of the fact that I love ice cream more than most normal people. It's just the best thing ever. Although Joe's Ice Cream and the strawberry ice cream at The Magic Kingdom remain firmly at the top of my list, I have found a new rival! We went to Bridgend's designer outlet a few weeks ago and decided to pop in to Sidoli's for an ice cream. I haven't had Sidoli's ice cream for years as it doesn't have many outlets so I was pretty excited about trying it again. We went for three scoops each (judge away), but the server was very generous so it was more like six scoops!

I went for Raspberry Ripple, vanilla with tiny chocolate pieces (I can't remember the official name...) and toffee fudge. It was like a huge lump of happiness in a tub. Amazing. 

Are there any other Sidoli's fans out there? If you haven't tried it, you need to!