Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Have I Achieved My Summer Goals?

Back in May I wrote a list of objectives I wanted to achieved over the summer, a little summer to do list and I thought It would be a good idea to look back over the list and see if I actually achieved anything because yes, I'm sorry to say... Summer is over in my eyes. Bring on the blankets, fairy lights and hot chocolates.

#Get a new job
The most important goal of the summer was to get a new job and thankfully I have achieved that. If you haven't read a few of my more personal posts lately you might be questioning this goal but I don't want to bore you with the topic anymore so head over to a previous post to find out all the details. Anywho I am now in a new job, with amazing work friends and a much better work life balance. I really couldn't have found a better place to work at and I am so thankful it all worked out in the end.

#Become more fit
This was always going to be the up in the air idea, would I start working out or would I forget or just not be bothered. Annoyingly right now I am not signed to any gym BUT i do have plans to join one with Callum in October so watch this space!

#Grow my hair
I am proud to say I haven't caved and chopped all my hair off yet, I have even had a trimmed and the dip dye taken higher to balance out the length of my hair. I have even invested in a hair oil so hopefully that will encourage my hair to grow even faster. I am aiming to have my long bum touching hair by the start of next year so wish me luck!

#Finish off the bedrooms
Even though no physical progress has been made in the bedrooms, we do have plans in place. A colleague at work has agreed to make and fit my wardrobes since he is a carpenter which is amazing. Having someone I already know come over to make my wardrobes takes a load off my mind and makes me excited about the process. Once they are in my blogging/beauty room can really take shape. I have already made plans of how I want my space to look so I will definitely make a post about it when it happens.

#Fill up my cooking book with recipes
Do you know where the best place is to get dinner recipes? Pinterest of all places. There is a whole community of food lovers on it who share all their favourite recipes and I get most of my dinner ideas from there. My book is filling up but I definitely have room for more!

#Get the garden started
This ambition was a bit ambitious for myself really... I bought some lovely plants and painted my garden table and chairs to make the place feel homely and then all my plants died in the crazy heatwave we had. I have since replaced the plants and so far they are still alive, just. My plan is to spend more time in the garden now it is cooling down so hopefully by next summer the garden will look like a jungle.

#Visit another country
It's been a long time coming but I am finally going on holiday! After the year I have had this holiday can't come quick enough. Cal and I are going to Majorca at the end of the month and I can't wait to spend a whole week sitting by the pool reading hundreds of books and exploring the island. Hopefully being on holiday will spark some new ideas since there is nothing better than letting your mind run wild with no distractions.

What have you done this summer?

DIY Garden Table Set

I recently brought back to life a old set of garden chairs and a garden table which my parents have had for quite a few years. It was unloved and a faded light brown colour which didn't look any good. Annoyingly I didn't take any photos of the table before I started work on it but alas I am not god...

I really wanted a garden table set for my royal wedding party as I knew it was going to be a lovely day and my parents had given us this set all the way back in summer last year so it was about time we got it looking up to scratch.

The set had been sitting in our garden since last summer so you can imagine how horrible it looked and felt so the first step was washing the chairs and getting rid of all the spiders and cobwebs. Not the most glamorous job but I had to make the wood ready for painting.

The second step was painting the set to make it look brand new and Cal and I decided to choose a dark brown colour which would wear well on the wood over time and cover up the light faded colour. The dark colour makes the set look brand new and the paint I used was the Dulux Woodsheen Stain and Vanish in Golden Teak. Because we used a stain and vanish the colour on the table should withstand any weather but we will be smart and house the set in the garage during the winter and when we aren't using it.

To complete the garden set I wanted to buy some bright seat cushions to make the set really stand out in the garden and I was originally looking for bright green cushions and then one day my mum found this crank handle parasol and cushions separately in our local B&M and rang me to tell me she had a surprise.

So herself and my dad came round one Friday with this parasol and cushions and set it all up for me ready for my party the following day and I think it looks banging all together.

This DIY job was incredibly cheap (for me hehe) since the vanish only cost £15.99 from B&M but I have found it cheaper on eBay and a parasol and cushions aren't a necessity for this garden set so the total for this DIY can be £15.99.

For reference the garden parasol was £29.99 and the cushions were £6.99 for a set of two. Trying to find anything you have bought from b&m on their website is a struggle so I have found some similar alternatives.

Crank Handle Parasol (Similar)

Cream Seat Cushions (Similar)

The total for this DIY project including the gifts from my parents totals at £59.96 which is still cheaper from most good garden tables right now so still a bargain of a DIY, especially when it means you have recycled something that would have just gone in the bin.

My Summer Goals 2018

This summer I am planning on overhauling my life and basically sorting my shit out. This year has taken me on a roller coaster and it is only the fourth month in so I am expecting big changes this summer and I will make them happen.

# Get a new job
My work life has changed dramatically this year as you all know now and not for the good so my main aim this summer is to get a new job. As much as I love retail I really do think I need a change of environment and surroundings. Something closer to home with less stress would be the ideal situations so fingers cross something that ticks them boxes comes up.

# Become more fit
I don't really care about losing weight and going on a diet, my plan is to tone my body and become more fit in general. Although since moving out my eating has become so much better and I am learning to cook something new everyday, I still have weeks where my eating is terrible especially if I am working long hours. I am planning to join the local gym with Cal in the next month or so which will be really good for me, I used to go gym nearly every day when I first left school as a hobby so I can see myself getting really into it again.

# Grow my hair
I have had short hair since 2015 now and I think it is about time I went the other direction and grew my hair (if I can) I have been trying to grow my hair since I was 16 and it would never grow past my boobs so I ended up giving up and going for the chop. Now I am ready to try again and hopefully grow my hair long and put more bleach in the ends so my dip dye starts higher in my hair. This is how I hope to have my hair soon...

# Finish off the bedrooms
We are nearing a year in our house now and we still haven't finished everything we would like to because we aren't made of money and life gets in the way. We still need to get built in wardrobes in the master bedroom and once that is done we can get rid of all the rails of clothes in my little room and turn it into my blogging/beauty room. Once that is complete I think my blogging game will become stronger and more routined.

# Fill up my cooking book with recipes
Like I said my cooking skills are getting better with every Mary Berry cookbook I read (she is my gal) and everything that I really like to make I write up in my own little cooking diary. It has four different colours on the pages so I can separate my cooking lists, slow cooker recipes, recipes for dinner and baking recipes. I love filling in this book (because I have no life apparently) and get wait for it to be full.

# Get the garden started
My garden is a blank space at the minute and I really want to make the space into something beautiful and relaxing so in the summer I can sit in my quite place and read a book or do some gardening. I plan to dig out all the plants in my front garden and start from scratch and decide what me and cal want to have.

# Visit another country
Lastly I really want to go on a holiday aboard this year and get out of England. I have some ideas in the pipe line with my family to have a big group holiday but if that doesn't work out, Cal and I will definitely go somewhere by ourselves. Maybe a weekend in a city or a week by a pool in a cheap hotel in Spain. My ideal holiday would be Benidorm but no one shares my love of it :(