Onwards and Upwards

I've had a crazy month, I had come back off my cruise and I think after all the recent changes in my life I was feeling rather overwhelmed and I sunk into a spot of depression. I didn't want to get out of bed and I would cry all day-when I wasn't sleeping that is. I eventually pulled myself together and decided I needed to start sorting myself out. I am currently still trying to find someone to talk to because I think the only way to get your sort your issues is by talking to someone.

I then started gradually building myself up to getting out and doing things again, first just with the family and then I was starting to meet up with friends. I met up with a friend recently and went to this cute coffee shop and had a gorgeous hot chocolate and a toasty brie and bacon panini. Yum! I could eat one of those right now.

The big challenge of the month was going out to a 21st birthday party, he was a friend's brother but also a member of our young farmers. I hadn't seen any of my young farmer friends in ages so I was naturally feeling really nervous and I was also worried about being cold. When I'm cold I get really anxious and panicky and I really didn't want to ruin my evening.
The day of the party I was hopping from going to not going every five seconds but in the end I just decided to buck up and go, I had my car so I could leave whenever I pleased and that helped reassure me a little. Of course I ended up really enjoying myself and I danced the night away with my friends and then spent the majority of the next day gossiping with my bestie and just feeling very sleepy.

I was very proud of myself for going in the end and was so glad I did go.

A Weekend In Oxford

This past weekend we went up to Oxford for my dad's mum's 70th birthday, yes another big birthday celebration, I feel so lucky to have been able to go up to Oxford to help her celebrate. My grandma was set on visiting Blenheim Palace on actual birthday. We all talk about visiting all the time but haven't ever got around to it.
When we arrived I had expected it to be beautiful but not quite as stunning as it actually turned out to be. The drive way was so long and gorgeous, you'd be mad not to have thought it was beautiful.

 I was mesmerized by all the incredible building work and the interior was so grand, although personally they had gone a tad overboard with the gold bling. I'm more a monochrome, neutrals kind of gal, but times and trends change.

 It was a very chilly day so unfortunately we couldn't really explore the gardens, which even in the cold looked incredible, there was a cold mist drifting over the vast lawns of lusciously green grass which was a beautiful sight to behold. We will definitely be visiting again in the summer to have a look around the garden and I think the palace would be even more stunning in the sun.

 One of my favourite pieces in the palace was this huge, crystal chandelier. I couldn't find any info about the chandelier so I'm not sure whether it's always there and always stays there, whether it has always been there or whether it was more recently put in. I'm sure there was information around about the chandelier but I was so busy snapping away and admiring all the rooms and the furniture to read everything around me.

I almost fell over taking this photo of the ceiling so I can't imagine how difficult it must have been having to paint this, the ceiling was so high up yet they managed to paint this and include so much detail!

We had a wonderful weekend visiting Bleinham, hope you enjoyed this different style post.

A Birthday To Remember

Surprises!

Don't you just love surprises? Yes, of course! One better than surprises though is organizing surprises! This year it's both my grandma's big birthdays-the big 70. They are both the most inspirational, influential women in my life along with my mama of course!

This post is about my mum's mum, the big problem we have when it comes to her birthday is that she's like a detective! She ALWAYS knows when something is up.
At Christmas she feels all the presents under the tree and tries to guess what's in them...naughty grandma. So when we decided we wanted to organize a surprise birthday cake, I realised we had set ourselves a real challenge.

Finding someone to make a cake and organising how we wanted it to look was easy. It was the going to collect it that was the hard part, my grandparetns were staying at our house at the time and we were going to have to sneak out without her guessing what was going on. My grandad and I decided we would 'go to the shop to get the newspapers,' we did go the shops but we also went and picked up the cake.

Later on we went out for a delicious meal! I loved the food, however I totally got carried away and didn't take a photo of any of the food. Bad Blogger. The portions and food was just the kind I love, nothing too over facing yet lots flavour.

When we got home it was time to present the cake, my brother, dad and grandad distracted her in the lounge whilst mum and I silently rushed about getting candles and champagne ready to surprise my grandma with.

What a surprise it was, she hadn't guessed a thing and was feeling very emotional when we all started singing Happy Birthday, we had succeeded in giving my grandma a birthday to remember. We immediately indulged in a lot of cake eating and a lovely glass of champagne whilst watching grandma open her presents. The night was perfect!

This is the look I wore out for dinner, I was inspired by the ever beautiful Audrey Hepburn. I'll be going through this look again in another post.