via modern hepburn 

Busy Bee

The past few weeks have been emotionally and physically draining to say the least, so during my week off I'm on a little quest to make some posts, catch up on sleep, bake mini cheesecakes and play in the sun, but until then I thought I'd put a post together in photo form (of course) of the past 4 weeks..

My culinary skills just continue to grow as I cooked the boy and I fruity noodles and chicken, red pepper and pineapple skewers | These alphabetic stamps I bought from Paperchase are the only thing I need at the moment - perfect for cards, posters and (like above) those must needed lists us organised, geeks love to make | Payday can only mean one thing - lets spend it all before the days over; H&M top and necklace and new music | For hair purposes only - TIGI Bed Head shampoo & conditioner is a hair savour | I tried my hand at making homemade cheese burgers, which if you must know - were delicious and so juicy | After a crappy weekend the boyfriend surprised me with a shirt Ive wanted for weeks and the whole Twilight Saga *scream* | A small DIY which I managed to turn into a complicated DIY *smiles* | Honeycomb ice-cream at Frederick's | Breakfast date 

Chicken Caesar salad with smoked bacon croutons - I know how to treat myself | My first Cath Kidston purchase | Monochrome jacket | BLUE SKIES! | Our first visit to TGI's and OH MY was it good -  incredible service, lots of birthday celebration singing and hundreds of calories.. It's a once a year kind of treat | Finally got my new boots, it's definitely love and I sooo 'need' the red ones | Drinks in Manchester to end a lovely day | My favourite thing this year so far is this original photo booth at Fred Aldous (Northern Quarter) | Manchester's new attraction - Skyride 

My first time trying stuffed mushrooms, yumyumyum | Cocktails with friends | Getting geeky with my new alphabetic stamp set | A piece I clearly must have in my future house - a neon yellow Ferris wheel | Facetime with my princess, LOOK AT THAT FACE! | My ideal bedroom (photo via Design Sponge) | My way of testing out lipsticks.. afterall they're never the actual colour they say they are | Mochas at Costa make my face happy | I've waited months for this album, fan since '05 

Feel free to follow me on Instagram, I go by the name of caitlln on there.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.. ttfn!

Days fly by

Tired days at work usually end relaxing in M&S café drinking a medium mocha - hoping to gain energy as the dreadful work uniform search continues. I definitely need to learn how to balance my time better.

During my painful shopping trips cat tops have become a thing. I've had my eye on a River Island t-shirt for weeks now so when I saw it in the sale I couldn't resist! Pout face pose.

H&M attempted to tease me with a cat t-shirt too but there was no competition, even with his facial expressions, River I's was a clear winner; look at that sequin moustache.

Trying to enjoy the shopping instead of endure it; the boy treated us to our first ever Starbucks! He had a cool lime refresher while I had mango passionfruit blended juice and a piece of shortbread. I wasn't that into the shortbread but I'd so go back for another Mango Passionfruit!

We ended my second full week in Frankie & Benny's having dinner and a few drinks. The chicken pesto pasta I had was delicious and the boys cajun chicken calzone was so good! I'm not a big chip lover but theirs are so crispy I simply cant resist, umm. We finished with chocolate covered waffles, toffee covered pancakes and ice cream - calories don't count after 6, RIGHT?

After abandoning pretty much all things non work we decided to spend last weekend back home with my nearest and dearest - my sister and her family. My sisters just gave us our first niece so all weekend was spent ooohing and awwing her every move.

Finishing the week with the boy cooking me dinner, it was definitely a proud momo, he's come along way. Bless

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. 

Insider Info

Don't you just love it when you put a lunch recipe together and it's successful?! I always struggle to put a simple meal together for lunch so I like to think this was some sort of miracle.
I much prefer to go out and buy lunch then make it at home. How am I supposed to know what I'm going to feel like eating in 3 days time? I believe "anything is only as hard as you make it" - its kind of a motto I like to secretly live by and for my lunch I like to make things extra difficult so I'll end up with the ever so boring ham sandwich: this clearly oozes excitement. Not today though. Today was my second week of buying food for my lunches and I was determined to not fall into the ham sandwich category again. Over the past year Ive changed my diet so much (for the better, mind.. Well apart from that chocolate cake last weekend but let's just keep that between you and I) so I needed lunch to be healthy and delicious at the same time! I'm not here to spend £££ on lunch; it had to be affordable, enjoyable and fill-me-up-able* so meet my healthy pita breads filled with chopped up ham, lettuce, cucumber, tomato with a tea spoon of crème fraiche mixed in!Since changing my diet I'm always looking for ways in incorporate healthy food into appealing meals so this is clearly a 'proud of myself momo'

*a word for the future dictionary

Me Time

This weekend has possibly been the most enjoyable, relaxing one I've had in a long while. The boys been at work so I've had some good old quality time with my secret other half Edward, that's right I am a complete sucker for Twilight and Edward obviously has my heart (we can cringe together if you'd like but we all know he's what dreams are made of HA) weekends like this have box sets written all over them.

Aswell as my obvious time with Edward I made a few scrapbook pages with my stencils, became the newbie at work, had the most amazing pesto pizza evs and geeked out to David Attenborough (has to be done).

If you, like me, fall in love with my cat socks and feel the urgent need to go out and buy them,they're from H&M, they come in a pack of 3 and are the softest so go on, treat yourself.

The Wait Is Over

Monday was our only day of rest so we went to Salford Museum and Art Gallery, it was our first visit and I felt it was SO time to go see their Victorian Street and peer through all the shop windows at the original 19th century wares. My personal fav had to be the antique wooden printer trays and stamps. The whole street gives you that black market kinda feel, it's amazing when you actually remember thats how people used to live, you don't get that opportunity often.. Yes, if you weren't aware I'm a massive NERD.

This week has been non stop. I've finally started my new job and with studying, I don't even reach 10pm anymore (who would of thought it eh?) I've abandoned pretty much everything else in my life since I started so this weekend I plan to do very little and get organised i.e. rest my achey muscles I never knew I had; get crafty; drink tea; eat cake and write a few blog posts for next week so watch this space. 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

"Round up, round up..."

1) I've only been cooking (properly) now for around 2 years so when ever I can I love to try out a new recipe and this one is super simple (my favourite kind of way) - Basil pesto pasta with tuna, it takes a whole 12 minutes to cook and you just season to your personal preference - mines ground black pepper.

2) After not celebrating my good news when I originally got it 4 weeks ago the boy decided to take me out for drinks to finally celebrate my new job! It took an whole hour to drink that one pint - I am clearly not as hardcore as I used too be.

3) Saturday night we had a night in and rented some movies, ate more calories and obviously regretted them the next morning. We decided to rent Skyfall and Ted: Skyfall was incredible, I love a film full of action and I'd definitely recommend it! But on the other hand Ted wasn't so incredible, I laughed once and although I used to have a soft spot for Family Guy this film just didn't do it for me.

4) This day was my favourite as we decided to spend Sunday afternoon wandering around the stunning Grade 1 listed Ordsall Hall! My next post has all the details so I won't say much apart from if you love old buildings, history and tea and cake a visit is clearly needed!

5) Out with the old in with the new. I pretty much fell for these cushions when I saw them, I was pretty obsessed with check over the Christmas period so it felt like fate (or an excuse whichever one you chose, I'm happy with) We picked these up from the sale in Matalan for £4 each!

6) Tonight I endured the boy with another one of my newly found recipes I wanted to try out - Creamy bacon and spinach pasta. It's actually a Sainsbury's recipe so here's the link Creamy Bacon & Spinach Pasta Recipe | Sainsbury's