This week's happiness

Things that have made me happy this week...

Chanel

My mum totally spoilt me at Christmas and gave me some coco mademoiselle - one of my favourite perfumes ever. I've been wearing it this week and I love love love it. Even better that it now reminds me of my mummy :)

DIY wedding confetti

As I've mentioned a couple of times in previous posts, one of my best friends is getting married this July. As with any upcoming wedding the to-do list is rather large and so to relieve the teeniest bit of pressure off Emma (if that is even possible!), I was officially put on confetti duty. Now, I'm not married, nor engaged, but if I were planning a wedding then there would be several moments in particular on my special day that I would wish to be captured by the photographer. One of these moments is the classic 'confetti shot', which equals beaming smiles, walking through a sea of your favourite people - family and friends - who are cheering you on and showering you with love and beautiful flower petals. Wedding confetti shots can look incredible and if I can make this dream a reality for one of my best girls, then that's what I'll aim to do!

 And so a few months back, I began preparing for what would be a rather long but satisfying process of collecting, drying and preserving flower petals...

Italian Breadmaking at Bread Ahead Bakery

As part of my Christmas present from my lovely Rob, I was given a few baking lessons at the amazing Bread Ahead Bakery in Borough Market, London. I can't tell you how excited I was to book some classes! We discovered Bread Ahead one weekend whilst strolling through Borough Market, browsing the fresh food stalls. Hidden away at the back of the market, on Cathedral Street, is the bakery which has been purposely built as an educational 'hub' and bakery school, run by Justin Gellatly {expert baker and author of the amazing book Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding}, Matt Jones and Aidan Chapman. Each day, Bread Ahead also have a small stall in Borough Market itself, where they sell some of their classic baked goods, such as doughnuts, sourdough and rye breads, Italian breads and a whole lot more. If you haven't visited, it's a must, if only for one of their legendary doughnuts which are out of this world.

Bread Ahead have a brilliant selection of bakery classes to choose from, ranging from the simple 'Oath to The Loaf' where you are taught the basic skills to make a perfect bloomer, to more specific classes for the more advanced baker, such as 'Guide to Nordic Baking' and the 'Patisserie Workshop'. They also have seasonal classes held around the year - at Christmas time they had a Yule Log class and a mince pie class! It's not surprising that I was slightly stuck for choice at first but after lots of contemplating I decided to book myself onto the 'Introduction to Italian Breadmaking' class. I'm a big fan of Italian food; I love a good pizza, pasta makes my tummy happy and I would happily put mozarella on anything! But I can't say I had ever attempted to bake ciabatta or focaccia before...

This Week's Happiness

Things that have made me happy this week...

Raspberries

I've eaten far too many raspberries this week. Sorry not sorry! Love these beautiful little berries.

Budapest: The unexpectedly beautiful city

One of my good friends is off to Budapest soon and asked me if I had ever been... to which I replied "YES!!!" and got all excited! Back when I was 18 (you're going to have to re-wind a few years here(!!!), I hope you don't mind) I did an inter-railing-Euro-trip in my GAP year, travelling to 15 different European cities across 9 different countries. I had some of the best times of my life on that trip, it was incredible. I'd never realised just how vastly different each European country is - and each city too! Each city was a total surprise. Reliving some of my memories inspired me to do a very belated travel post on Budapest, one of my favourite cities from the trip. This is for you, Kat, I hope it gives you some travel inspiration! xx

This week's happiness

Things that have made me happy this week...

Roses galore
It feels like a long while since I decorated the flat with pretty summery flowers in milk bottle vases! Our flat is now filled with roses... 2015 is the year that one of my best friends gets married and so the confetti making must commence! This has cheered me up this week, I do love roses.

Recipe: Guilt-free flapjacks

It's January and everyone I know seems to be in serious 'detox mode' after consuming one too many mince pies over Christmas! So when could be a better time than now to blog a healthy, guilt-free recipe?! I've got to admit I've been feeling ever so slightly sluggish myself these past couple of weeks - I ate way too many Lindt chocolates over Christmas - and so it feels great to be back on the healthy eating bandwagon and I enjoyed a long run this morning. Hello bikini body, I am coming to getchyaaa!

 Anyway, on my way home from my run I decided to pop into the supermarket and pick up some ingredients for some guilt-free flapjacks. It's always a good idea to have some healthy snacks around, to pop in my bag to take to work or to enjoy as a quick pick-me-up when I'm in need of an energy boost. If the right foods aren't around, I end up choosing the wrong ones...!  Please tell me I'm not the only one?!

These flapjacks are super easy to make and taste really good. You can hardly tell that they contain no butter or sugar! Instead they're packed with healthy nuts, seeds and dried fruits. The perfect guilt-free snack! 

Beauty: Maggs London Make-up Bag

 

Just before Christmas I decided to treat myself to a few little Christmas presents to myself, from myself... it's acceptable to do this, right?! Right! One of them was a make-up bag from the lovely beauty blogger-gone-lifestyle vlogger Hannah Maggs. If you haven't watched any of her YouTube videos then you must, you really must. They are seriously beautiful! Hannah and her husband broadcast their weekly videos each Sunday evening (#sundayeveningwiththemichelaks) and each video is shot incredibly using the most amazing camera equipment and drones, with footage of themselves and their adorably cute son Grayson and beautiful music as an accompaniment. You can find her on YouTube here.

ANYWAY, aside from vlogging and blogging, Hannah has a small business in which she designs her own range of make-up bags, using the prettiest fabrics sourced from Liberty London and the likes. Each make-up bag is named after something significant and personal in her life; the one I chose is called 'Reflection' and this is what Hannah herself has to say about it...

This week's happiness

Things that have made me happy this week...

Gosh it really does feels like it's been ages since I did one of these This Week's Happiness posts, even though it's only been a few weeks! I've really enjoyed doing these posts since I started back in September and they're so nice to look back on as a reminder of all the things I've been enjoying over the months...!

 

Winter walking

It's been a bit of a miserable week weather-wise but we've still managed to make the best of it and enjoy some rather chilly walks through Greenwich Park and across Blackheath. Nothing better than fresh air and enjoying beautiful sunrises and sunsets!

 A cinema date ❤️

We went to our lovely little local Picturehouse Cinema last weekend to see The Theory of Everything. Have you seen it? It's the most fascinating and moving story of Sir Stephen Hawking's life - his marriage with his wife Jane (played by the most beautiful Felicity Jones) and his struggle with the awful disease ALS. I don't think I had seen Eddie Redmayne in any other films before, but wow he has such incredible talent and he portrayed Sir Stephen Hawking brilliantly. He definitely deserves a million BAFTAs. I love a good cinema date, we don't go all that often but on a rainy Sunday afternoon there's something so cosy about snuggling into the big comfy velvet chairs with some popcorn and getting lost in a movie.

 Stolen from Google... sorry Google!

Flower love

Now that Christmas is well and truly behind us, it's been a nice change to have beautiful spring-like tulips and roses filling the flat instead of poinsettia, Christmas trees and holly berries! Tulips remind me of my mummyyyyyy! 

It's Fridayyyyy! It feels amazing to have a whole four day weekend off work!! And it feels even more amazing to finally have a weekend with so few plans! Today I'm having a day to myself as Rob is at work. It's just the thing I need after some long night shifts. I love days to myself occasionally and having the time to clean and tidy the flat properly, have a long bath, do some baking and relax on the sofa catching up on all the TV I've missed. I might even go swimming this evening if I don't fall asleep before then!

Tomorrow I'm catching up with one of my oldest friends, Kat, who doesn't live too far from me these days. We've been friends since we were about 5! We'll probably have lunch together and have a wander somewhere. I can't wait to see her.

Sunday will be a day spent with my lovely Rob. I'm not sure what our plans are but we'll most probably cook a roast dinner as that's what Sundays are all about! We've made a little promise that we aren't allowed to eat out at any restaurants for a little while to see how much money we save!! Does anyone else spend ridiculous amounts of money on eating out too frequently? It's become a bad habit... and it's a habit which is proving difficult to break...!
And then Monday I'm seeing some friends for lunch. I'll probably try and squeeze a few runs in over the weekend too. I am well and truly back on the fitness bandwagon!


Have a great weekend!!

Lydia xxx

Two thousand and fifteen!!

Happy New Year, one and all!

Two thousand and fifteen - Geeeeeez, how on earth has it been fifteen whole years since the millennium?! Crazy!

I've had a busy start to the year with work... I was working day shifts on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day itself so I'm sad to say I was fast asleep when the clock struck 12, I wasn't even woken by fireworks! And to top it off I had a university assignment due on the 6th so quite frankly I don't feel like I've done anything remotely exciting or particularly special so far this year... which is a little bit sad! But thankfully my essay was handed in on time and my busy working week is nearly over. Hurrah! That's the thing with shift work, sometimes it feels like a whole week or so has gone by in a flash, right before my eyes and you actually don't feel like you can justify where the time has gone.