Wedding Fever

Since the royal wedding last Saturday I now have wedding fever and won’t stop watching it. It was such a beautiful wedding and day, that now I just want to keep reliving it.

It takes me back to my day. I married in Southampton, in a Tudor Hall, which I found whilst watching a documentary about Southampton, then saw it in a picture in a wedding venue magazine.

Choosing a venue can be hard as you can get married in most places now. I originally wanted to get married at Arundel Castle, but this was way out of our budget, so then looked at getting married at the local Racecourse, Goodwood, but then there was accommodation, because I have a lot of family who would be travelling from London and from north of England.

So as soon as I saw the documentary about the Tudor Hall in Southampton I knew this was the place. It has to feel right and when you look at a venue take a moment to take it all in, can you picture your wedding there?

Can you decorate it as you’d like?

Is there good accommodation nearby?

In our case there was.

The only issue we had was our wedding clashed with the Boat Show in Southampton, so many of the hotels had already been booked up. Keep in contact with the Event Managers of the Venue in case they have a staff change over which they did at the hotel we chose. What had been agreed in their contract, when we payed the deposit hadn’t been carried out, and so we had to make further alterations as the hotel was also holding our wedding reception afterwards.

Then we had to at last minute find a new DJ as the one we booked had cancelled out on the day 4 hours before our wedding reception was about to start.

It didn’t all go to plan but it was a great day and would love to relive it again if I could.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

I love a Royal Wedding

Thank the lord it is Saturday, the weekend, and I am feeling good this morning after having a good rest. Thanks to my mum for looking after Henry, so I could go out with my friends for the evening.

We met and had a drink and a bite to eat in Victoria, in London and they gave me some lovely presents, which I put posted a picture on my Instagram account. We were going out to celebrate my birthday, a very belated celebration.

They know me well as I do love a nice bag and toiletries, are always my favourite, which means more baths for me.

I enjoyed the wedding last week. I am a sucker for a Royal Wedding, and did watch the whole thing on This Morning. It was a really nice wedding.

One tip I would give to any bride is to enjoy the day as much as possible because it goes so fast before you know it, it has already been a week ago.

I thought Eugene looked beautiful and the whole venue looked amazing.

I love a good wedding, and it did bring a tear to my eye.

Do you like a good wedding? What did you do Friday night?

I would love to hear from you.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

 

 

I have dreams about being on Strictly Come Dancing

Being a massive fan of Strictly Come Dancing, which is the UK version of Dancing with the stars, I been having dreams that I am on the show. No this isn’t a ploy to actually be on the show, as I have to be real to myself, that it is never going to happen, but I do dream about being on it.

I was lucky enough in 2016 to actually be there to see the show live, for the 2016 Semi Final, as my friend happen to be working on the show. It was a dream come true, I felt like I had jumped into the TV screen, and I got to have a photo with Ore Oduba, who was lovely by the way, true professional.

I used to do Ballroom, Latin and Disco dancing as a child all the way up until I was 16 and then started working and couldn’t fit it in anymore, but I loved it. I even won the cup for having the higher marks in my final exam, and I really miss it.

It was a lovely little dancing school, and I still wonder if it is still going on now.

If you are thinking of taking up Ballroom and Latin dancing then go for it, it is really a great way to keep in shape.

My favourite performance so far is from last Saturday, the Paso Doble, danced by Seann Walsh and Katya Jones.

Plus the Jive by Kevin Clifton and Stacey Dooley.

So far these have been my favourite, but they all were good I thought on Saturday it still is anyone still one show competition.

Who did you like on Strictly?

Have you done this type of dancing?

I would love to hear from you.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

Celebrating my birthday

Last weekend I celebrated my 40th birthday. How do I feel?

I feel OK, I not allowing the negative thoughts about it come through, the thoughts of “I haven’t achieved everything I wanted and age and time are catching up with me”,  but I still got time to achieve all that I want, instead.

On the actual day which was last Thursday, I met my mum for lunch, and went to the Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, in Victoria street, London. The food was lovely, I had Pasta Bolognese and my mum had ravioli type dish.

Then Saturday my husband and I went to see Bat Out Of Hell, at the Dominion Theatre.

Image result for bat out of hell musical

It was a really good show. If you like Meat Loaf, whom I have seen in concert you’d like this musical. It is about a young girl called Raven, is kept prisoner by her father who happens to be dictatorial ruler of the city, but she falls in love with Strat.

It includes all the songs you’d recognise from the Bat Out of Hell albums that Meat loaf had done in his passed albums. Real tribute I felt to Meat Loaf and his music.

In the evening we met my family (my mum, step dad, brother and his family) for a meal in Bills, in Wimbledon. Really nice meal, and delicious pudding.

Soon I will be meeting my friends for a birthday drink too, soon.

It was all in all a great weekend and glad I got to celebrate my birthday in style.

I’ll only be 40 once so good to celebrate it.

Have you recently celebrated a birthday, if so let me know, I would love to hear from you.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

End of another week

Image result for the weekend cartoon images

It is Friday once again, and I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am.

I started my new job this week, as a Nursery Practitioner and it is good to have a fresh start of something new to get my teeth into, but been tiring at the same time.

I am looking forward to tomorrow evening as I am out having a meal with my family and during the day, my husband and I are off to see a show “Bat out of Hell”, to celebrate my birthday.

I am now officially a 40 year old woman. How does that make me feel?

That I feel I have a lot more to explore.

Also Strictly Come Dancing continues tomorrow and I will be watching on catch up, on the BBC iPlayer. I’ve been having dreams about being on the show, I truly love it, my favourite on TV.

So far I have been impressed with the performances, and think a lot of them could be possible winners. I think it such a great show especially for Saturday night TV.

It is also a relief not to do the school run for two days, as boy I never realised how stressful it could be, as getting my son dressed isn’t always stress free, so time of the school run I am a anxious wreck.

I have written about in my other blog website, about being continuously anxious:

https://theparentingadventurestipsandtricks.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/continuously-anxious/

Do you get stressed when it comes to school run?

What you up to this weekend?

I would love to hear from you.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

 

 

 

Strictly is back…yay…

Yes it is back and I can not wait. I don’t know all of the celebrities this year so not sure who will stand out and who will not, but still excited to see it back.

It really is my favourite show. I am a bit sad that Brendan Cole not in it this year, but looking forward to seeing the new dancers take centre stage.

I have been watching a lot of Youtube and I love watching Routine videos, and recently watched this one by Doitonadime, check it out below:

I have also been watching a lot of videos by The Rich Life.

And the other videos I like to watch at the moment and ones by Tracy Hensel, she does a lot of videos about budgeting and scheduling. It’s always good to get inspiration.

So what do you love to watch on TV and on Youtube I would love to hear from you.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

Wimbledon Common Open Day

Each year in Wimbledon, well the last couple of years they have done a Wimbledon Common Open day, where there are animals, food stalls, fair ground rides and shows.

Here is a photo of my mum and son feeding the goats they had there.

It is a really good day out. You do have to pay to go on the fair ground rides, by purchasing tokens and the food on the stalls but worth the money.

Henry our son, who is 4 years old loved it.

Here is a picture of him on one of the rides, and they even had bouncy castles and trampolines too.

We were very lucky with the weather as last year it rained.

So why not check it out.

What days out to you go to? I would love to hear.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

Looking after those pennies

The one place I constantly need help with is money. I have battled with debt, which is like a dark cloud hanging over me, that I continuously need reminding on how to live with a minimal life style.

In searching I came across these videos on “Miniimalism and Money- How to spend intentionally” by Muchelleb. See below:

She also does a video of how she paid off $30,000 in 1.5 years (and travel Europe).

They are worth watching, and really helps to control those pennies when you have so much to pay for.

Sometimes it seems endless that is why I budget all the time, from grocery shopping, to gifts for people, to any clothes or shoes I need as I try to use what I have got, and only buy for any replacement clothes and shoes, when they have become completely and utterly worn away.

If I never budgeted I would be worse off, and so whatever you spend your money on you should budget all the time, and one the thing I try to get out off is paying full price. If I can get something in a sale that is worth spending on, I will go for the sale.

Do you like to budget?

How do you control your money?

I would love to hear from you.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

Visiting Wisley Gardens

Last Sunday as it was coming up to my nieces 11th birthday, we celebrated by having a picnic in Wisley Gardens.

Such a beautiful place to visit with it lovely flowers, plants, ponds and a cafe where you can have a drink and enjoy the scenery.

There is even a play area for children to play, but my nieces wanted to climb the trees there.

Inside this large green house is some lovely plants, flowers and a waterfall which you can walk under, and apparently you can get married in there too.

It costs about £14 to £15 for adults, families it is about £40 and about £12 for a large group of 10 or more per person, but it is well worth the visit.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X

 

Getting things done

Thank the world that it is finally the weekend, and I have so much to do this week arising, because my son is starting school. YIKES!

I have been watching a lot of videos by Jordan Page, on how she schedules her weeks and days, by following a Block Schedule system, check this out below:

They are really good to watch, and helps get you organised.

Here another about how she budgets and got out of being in debt.

Here is one of her videos about how she does her “To do’s”, and how to get things done.

I find her videos so inspiring, and she makes it easy and quick to do.

She even plans her years in advanced, see video below:

She is truly inspiring, and now I am going to sort my own life out too.

Many thanks for reading,

 

Carrie X