30 day photo challenge round-up. days 21 - 30

well with all the engagement excitement i almost forgot to finish off sharing my snaps from the 30 day photo challenge. never fear, here i am with a bumper 10 day finale!

day 21 ~ pretty pattern (top left). my love of pretty wallpaper is so great that i hate to put a cupboard in front of it. the solution - paper the inside of the cupboard!

day 22 ~ trees (top right). the view from my living room window. can you spot my neighborhood heron?

day 23 ~ sunset (bottom left). had to cheat and use a photo a couple of days old for this one... the sun was not behaving for me on the 23rd!

day 24 ~ a smile (bottom right). bunny smile!

day 25 ~ sun flare (middle). trying to capture the sun setting beyond the trees.

 day 26 ~ something old (top left). notre dame! building started 1163 - that's old!

day 27 ~ after dark (top right). sunset over the seine. that's the eiffel tower sparkling away on the left. the lights came on just as we stepped onto the bridge, it was like magic!

day 28 ~ daily routine (bottom left). all my lotions and potions.

day 29 ~ purchased (bottom right). how did i manage to spend 53 euros in laduree? macaroons of course. yum!

day 30 ~ in motion (middle). sorry to end on such a rubbish photo. this is the view from my train window as i sped home from work. it was a particularly grey day and the scenery was not great!

well done if you are still reading. i'll be back soon with all the details of our time in paris. the food, the hotel, the romantic proposal! see you then!

{em} x

he put a ring on it!

i'm so happy! thankyou neal, thankyou paris!

{em} x

30 day photo challenge. days 16 to 20

i'm getting a little behind with sharing my instagrams from the 30 day photo challenge. but just to prove i'm still snapping away, here are days 16 to 20.

day 16: what i ate. this one may be a little misleading... i made a big bowl of salad to pile onto a lovely veggie burger (and a venison burger for the fella).

day 17: on the shelf. my beautiful collection of delux penguin classics. i love to take them out and stroke their beautiful covers occassionally. 

day 18: in my bag. a brolly and sunglasses... only in england are both so often needed! i never go anywhere without my handsanitiser. and more recently i've taken to toting around heaps of make up. lucky i have a big bag.

day 19: where i slept. i'm a throw cussion addict. i don't care if they are hard work, i think they look fab.

day 20: what i read. a yoga memoir called "poser" by claire dederer.

{em} x

filling in the blanks {pre-paris}

i took today off work so get ready for my trip to paris. did i mention i was going to paris? oh that's right, only a million times! monday is a public holiday, so that's a 4 day weekend. if you could see my face right now you'd know i love a long weekend.

i haven't played at filling in the blanks for a while so since i'm currently waiting for the polish on my toe nails to dry i thought i'd give it a go.

1} one of life's most simple pleasures is going to bed early with a good book.

2} the 100th time i have to jump out of the way of someone walking whilst texting makes me want to punch someone.

3} i like bunnies because they are fluffy beyond all reason.

4} seldom is a funny word

5} if i had to choose one beauty product to use for the rest of eternity it would be a really difficult decision! if forced i guess i'd say moisturiser. does that count?

6} i'm happy that i'm off to paris tomorrow. (oops did it again, sorry!)

7} i would never eat a banana. those things freak me out!

{em} x

prompts from http://thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/

not going crazy after all...

via pinterest

last night we finally discovered that the ringing noise that's been plaguing my evenings for weeks was not in my head after all. it was in fact, my bedside lamp's bulb about to go pop. now i know that i'm not going crazy after all, i feel much better.

the more i think about it, that light bulb seems to be a metaphor for life at the moment. things have been a bit sad around here recently, with summer disappearing before my eyes and the hopelessness of waiting for little hearts to mend. the glow has gone, leaving a ringing in my ears, but it has not yet been replaced by something new. i'm looking forward to autumn with crunchy leaves under foot and that chill in the air that means it's ok to start wearing woolly tights and warm hats. then before we know it christmas will be here where old wounds are healed and we bond over the things that matter; the things that keep our little family together.

thank goodness i can always make myself feel better by thinking about christmas!

{em} x

unremarkable girl on eating veggie

so this morning it struck me that it's been 10 years since i caught the veggie bug.

a whole decade without meat. well almost a decade, it happened on a kind of sliding scale. if you don't mind, i thought i'd talk about that transition today. (don't worry, this isn't going to be a lecture on food choices). 

aged 17, my favourite food was a well done steak. i didn't like my meat bloody but that aside, i never put much thought into what i was eating. then i read a book from the college library in which there was a chapter about vegetarianism. as i remember it, that book was completely unbiased and discussed all sides of the debate from what human teeth have evolved for to what would happen if vampires knocked us off our spot at the top of the food chain. and just like that my mind was changed.

in that first year everyone, including me, thought this was just a phase. i could still be tempted to a bacon sandwich and while i was living under my parents roof, the traditional sunday dinner was mandatory. but the ball had started rolling and there seemed no way of stopping it. as i went off to uni and had the chance to "be myself" and other such cliches, one of my biggest freedoms was to eat how i wanted. that graduation photo on my parent's wall shows the fruits (no pun intended!) of such behaviour. thanks to 3 years living on cheese and chocolate, graduation em was a little bit plumper than the older models.

in the years since, i have learnt how to maintain a healthier veggie diet, but also a more extreme one. gone are the days of not bothering what's in the gravy or turning a blind eye to the gelatin in the desert. now i'm suspicious if my food was ever sniffed by a living thing. thankfully i've found alternatives to meat like quorn and tofu, which i couldn't live without.

i don't often talk about food here. i'm not a great chef, and i don't have the wildest of pallets. but i want to blow my own trumpet for once. many people may disagree with my eating choices,  but no-one can doubt my commitment to it. 10 years now and i think we can safely say this isn't a phase. while i'm not quite ready to become a fruitarian (though check out this site if you think it's an intriguing concept), i'm certainly proud to be veggie.

{em} x

musings on love and loss {journal entry}

i feel i should write something poignant about love and loss today.

{barbed wire heart from TheLonelyHeart on etsy}

this week my little sister has suffered her first real heart break. as a family we share her hurt and wish so much that we could have protected her from this. break ups are painful, and whether you’re 19 or 99, i imagine that the feeling of losing someone you love is very much the same. regret, disappointment and frustration create such an ache deep down inside that it feels life will never be the same.  

i feel for my sister so enormously right now because I’ve been there myself. over the last 10 years i’ve laid in bed and cried over boys more times that I care to remember. i’ve known what it is to feel worthless and hopeless, and if i could go back in my past and change my attitude during these times, i would jump at the chance.

i would look for the bigger picture.

i would have faith in myself.

i would not give up hope so easily.

the truth is that life isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be filled with all kinds of excitement, surprises and pleasures which make it worth living. happiness isn’t achieved by snagging the right person or climbing the right career ladder. happiness comes from within, from acceptance of how things are and hope for the future.

to quote my beloved baz luhrmann song...

sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. the race is long, and in the end it’s only with yourself.

i wish i could change the amount of time i have spent worrying about the finish line.

{em} x

journal day prompt from sometimes sweet.