Reflecting on the high’s and low’s of 2016

Happy Friday everybody

So the past year was one of my least favourite out of the 30 years i have been alive, so much happened that i never expected and it changed me so much as person going forward in my life.

Here’s a look back on some of the things that happened in 2016 in my life;

I quit my job and have never looked back or regretted the decision i made;

At the beginning of the year i was working as an estate agent for a well known high street agency and i hated getting up every morning working a job i hated with awful pay (which was less than minimum wage) and i had enough of the blue sky thinking cooperate crap they drill into their employees and i decided to quit my job and i have never looked back on it since, it was the best decision i have ever made, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders with a massive sigh of relief.

My illness was getting worse and i needed answers to what was wrong with me;

For numerous of years i have been poorly on and off with my stomach and digestive system as i struggle to eat foods and my intestines don’t digest it like a normal persons does, this was making me very unwell to the point i was drained with no energy, sick every time i ate food, tired, headaches and constant bloating, i saw so many drs and consultants last year to get answers and a clear diagnosis that everything came back normal i am still in limbo with no firm name for my illness.

We went on the best family holiday ever to my 2nd home Florida;

So every year since i was 4 we have gone to Florida for a family vacay i love America so much its my favourite place on earth the people the lifestyle the weather everything about it is better than dreary England, Me and dan had a great time and we created some amazing memories while we where there and have decided to get married there this year when we go.

We had to move out of our lovely home;

When we returned from Florida our landlord called to tell us he was selling the house we lived in and we had to look for a new place to live as he wanted to get it sold asap, this was a shock to us as we made it a lovely happy home and spent a lot of money on decorating it and making it look cosy.

Step back in time 5 years and i’ve moved back to my parents house;

I hadn’t lived with my mum and dad for 5 years so to go back to living with them but taking Dan with me and moving us both into my small single bedroom with all of our stuff would be impossible but we have made it work for us and to be honest its cosy and live able.

I became the next Mary Berry;

Due to my diet and lack of food choices i had in my life i decided to start baking all the foods i was missing out on all gluten free of course, so i started to bake cupcakes and then made some cookies, shortbread biscuits and my favourite of all things to bake is my gluten free Victoria sponge cake ands its delicious.

Losing friends that i thought where real that turned out to be fake;

So last year i learnt a hard lesson that not everybody’s like me when it comes to being a good friend and being loyal i have had to learn this the hard way, to some people it may be minor but to me loyalty is a huge thing in a person or a friend and unfortunately for me i had no choice but to cut ties with these people in my life as they took more from me than they gave.

Coping with my anxiety and mental illness again;

Suffering with a mental illness and anxiety is never easy but you learn to cope with it everyday and focus on positive things going on in your life instead of the negatives except towards the end of last year someone i care about very much was experiencing mental illness for the first time and to witness someone go through this everyday took a toll on my own mental health and i started suffering with insomnia and panic attacks due to having little or no sleep and worrying for the other person, this is something i will always live with but its back under control.

Celebrating my 30th Birthday;

On the 28th December i turned 30 even though we didn’t do anything amazing i still had a lovely day celebrating with Dan and my family with lots of lovely presents, cards and money and we will celebrate it properly when we go away in May.

So going forward with 2017 and remaining positive and happy as i believe that’s the key to living healthier and longer in life and to not look bck on the past as it’s exactly that in the past.

Thanks for reading and if you want to read my new years resolutions or other blogs remember to like, comment or follow me as i like hearing your reviews and let me know if you have a blog and ill check it out x

My New Years resolutions for 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE 

Welcome to my 1st blog for 2017 and this one is all about my resolutions even though every year i say i’m not making any i always do.

My resolutions are relevant for me and my life some of you may be able to relate with them, I am not giving up chocolate or going to join a gym or stop drinking (As i don’t drink alcohol anyway) instead i am being more ruthless and selfish as i think this is the way forward for 2017.

For me 2016 was more lows than highs and was a huge test on me and Dan as well as our mental states, my anxiety and illness with food we had a lot of crap going on in our personal lives by having to move out our lovely home and go to stay with my parents we left our jobs as the company we worked for are appalling and treat staff like crap and we couldn’t cope with it any longer so onwards and upwards for this year, i believe people create there own look and this year cant be any worse than the last one.

Here are my resolutions for 2017;

1. To travel more and see the world i love going away and even though i am not a huge fan of flying due to my panic attacks it doesn’t stop me from seeing the world for what it is and visiting places i have never been before, places on my to visit list this year are; Florida (which is my 2nd home) Bahamas, Barcelona, Monaco and Edinburgh.
2.  To remain positive and not let the slightest things get to me or upset me i am a very sensitive and emotional person even though i don’t come across like this in person to most people and put on a front i intend to stay positive in all situations as everything happens for a reason and thinking negative makes you feel a whole lot worse and ruins a good day.
3. To not settle in life over the past 14 years since i got my very 1st job i have done nothing but settle in my career, i have worked in retail most of my life and its never been the dream job or the life i had imagined for myself its good if your a student but not full time if you want nice things or a car, house etc as the pay is minimum and the rewards and discounts aren’t as good as you may think, this year i am going to focus on what makes me happy as i am unable to do something i have little or no interest in and i want to start living my life how i imagine it to be, we spend more of our lives at work than we do with our own families so its about right i made a change and went after the job i want and i wont stop until i get it.
4. To get better in myself and my health as the past 9 years i have had ongoing issues with my stomach and digestive system which means i have been living on a gluten free diet for the past few years and now i am on a fodmap diet, i intend to get a diagnosis for my illness this year as its been left nameless by the drs and consultants and i am ready to get it solved so i can get back to being healthy again.
5. To be more confident this is something i struggle with on a daily basis and i think most women also struggle with this its not reassurance i need from others its what my brain tells me and i believe it (not good enough) to do the things i would like to do in life but feel i would be no good at so i wont attempt to try, i think i need to believe in myself more that i am just as good as anyone else and not to get so down if it doesn’t work or pay off.
6. To be selfish and cut out negativity i always put others 1st before myself but this year i vow to be more selfish and not go without or put my needs behind others, also there is lots of negativity in my family more so my dads family they all like to talk about you behind your back and slag you off for doing better than them in life as they don’t like to see anyone do better than them so this year i am cutting of all negative people in my life as they are toxic and i don’t need people bringing me or my dreams down.

These aren’t the usual resolutions people generally make but for me this its what i want to change in my life this year and i won’t give up after the 1st month like most people do as if i make these changes i believe it will change me for the better as a person going forward.

Thank you for reading and let me know what your resolutions are.x

What i got for my 30th Birthday

On the 28th December i turned the big 30!

I am not gonna lie i hate having my birthday so close to Christmas as when i was younger my aunties and uncles would always buy me joint gifts which i thinks a cop out and quite bad in my opinion just because its so close to Christmas day.

This year for my birthday we planned to go to Birmingham for the night and go shopping at the Bullring the next day, but. we had to scrap and cancel this plan as Dan got tonsillitis again for the 4th time this year and he was to unwell to go, so we have rearranged it for the new year now hoping it wont be as busy either when we do go.

Instead we just opened my presents and cards and popped to Mansfield to the chemist and i went in to Primark and managed to get the coat i had been looking at for the last month or so in the sale for £10 so i was happy with that purchase.

This was all my presents and cards i got for my Birthday the older i’ve gotten the more i have come to realise who matters and truly cares about me when it comes to receiving a card or even a Birthday text, i have lots of aunties, uncles and cousins on my dads side yet i received 1 card from 1 of his 7 sisters and 5 brothers, in my eyes thats disgusting and rude.

I got lovely cards and presents from the people who matter with lots of Dory balloons, confetti,a keyring, note book, lots of money to treat myself with and some beautiful diamond pear shaped studs from my mum and a yankee candle with some limited edition bits from the cath kidston Disney collection which have now all sold out online.

Because of my Gluten free allergies etc i was unable to have a Birthday cake shop bought so i settled for some home made gluten free vanilla cakes i made for everyone to enjoy.

Thats all for my blogs for 2016 i hope you enjoy reading them as much as i do writing them and next year for me i am planning on upping my blogging and vlogging game with weekly videos on youtube and blogs, keep a look out and i wish you all a healthy and happy new year.

Thanks for reading

Amy x

Recap on the last week 19th – 24th December

Happy Christmas Eve everybody.

I am far from feeling festive or in any sort of Christmasy mood, i think its hard when you dont have your own house and can do things how you would like, living in a bedroom at my parents isn’t what i had in mind as i want to feel festive films on cuddled on the sofa with treats, chocolates and buffet foods, i build it up in my head that Christmas is better than what it is but its just a deadline of making sure everything is done there is no fun and enjoyment in it anymore for me anyway.

So this past week has been quite boring as i don’t feel like i have done anything as i have avoided public places for how busy they all are.

Monday; Me and Dan attempted to go to Mansfield to Sainsburys to get some bits in we wanted but it was so busy we couldn’t get a space and we drove to Tesco instead which was still busy but not as bad the annoying thing was they hardly had anything i wanted to get so had to go without, we then came back and made some lunch and chilled out watching vlogs we had to catch up with.

Tuesday; I felt ill again with my stomach as it was still bloating even though i was sticking to my fodmap and gluten free foods i was still getting a reaction which was getting me down, i decided to call my dietician to go back and see her as something is no longer working and i need other food options, i also made an appointment to go back to the drs for more tests to be done as this is unresolved and its still not been pinpointed to what issues i am having in my digestive system.

Wednesday; This for me was the worst day i had had in ages with my anxiety going through the roof, i had a panic attack which drained my energy and not only that but i had 1hr 10 mins sleep all night as i was wide awake panicking and worrying in bed, i felt so low and my mind was all over the place, i haven’t felt like this for a couple of years and every thing is stressing me out atm or getting to me more than it should (anyone who deals with both anxiety and depression know how hard it is to switch off and try and relax its easier said than done) my mum did buy me some flowers to cheer me up and make me smile which they did.

Thursday; I got 6hours sleep still not great but since living at my parents i have had 1 good nights sleep as my dad wakes early for wok which wakes me up and then i struggle to get back to sleep as i am not used to being woken at 3am every week day, i decided to paint my nails ready for Christmas today in the Tanya Burr red glitter polish as its festive, i completed wrapping the presents up and we have got through 10 rolls of wrapping paper this year next year people can have a gift bag as i might be a creative person but i hate wrapping presents up, we also watched the film Curly sue which is a classic and even Dan enjoyed it as he had never seen it before.

Friday; Christmas eve eve and i decided to bake some shortbread biscuits using my new cutters i got from home bargains in festive shapes, i put some mini party sausage rolls in too for everyone to eat as thats always a food i associate with Christmas and buffets, today i started to take some new tablets from Boots for my stomach which should help me digest food as it gets stuck in my digestive system and makes me bloat or sick so i am hoping these will help until i see my dietician in January.

Today is Christmas eve and we are watching films on the tv and later we have our Christmas eve bags to open with treats in for later and new pjs for me, Dan is ill and has a cold which is the same as what he had last Christmas so he is feeling far from festive and so am i.

This is the last weekly blog of the year

Thank you for reading and i wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year x

Recap on the last week 12th – 18th Dec

Happy Sunday folks,

The last week we have tried to do everything we wanted before the kids break up for Christmas and the shops become rammed to the point you fall out with yourself due to the stress of last minute shopping.

Monday; We took a trip to one of the garden centres near us called Brookfield’s which is at Mapperly top, i have only ever been once before a few years ago and they had Christmas photo points and a Santa’s grotto so like the big kid i am i needed to go, I always forget how EXPENSIVE garden centres are and it costs about £6 for a coffee, we didn’t stay to long then came home and chilled out.

Tuesday; Chilled day i wasn’t feeling to good again with my stomach and it just looks like a balloon all the time, getting sick of eating the same foods over and over when your gluten and wheat intolerant and have to be on a fodmap diet also without eating fish and meat theres not much choice left for meals, i am arranging to go back to my Nutritionist in the new year as its getting me down on a daily basis feeling like shit, my mum picked me up the Christmas tv guide so i could have a look at what films are on and what a big disappointment they are I don’t know who picks what goes on over xmas but the options are rubbish and repeats from last year and the year before that. 

Wednesday; I took my mum to Mcarther glen the one near us at jct 28, its not as good as all the other outlet shops in the uk but it will do as i couldn’t be bothered to drive to York outlet or Cheshire oaks, we popped to get some bits for my dad as he had the lease presents out of everyone under the tree, We got some good offers and savings in the Fossil store, Thornton’s and Hallmark as my mum got me a Yankee candle the large jar for half price in my favourite smell (Snow in love).

Thursday; Today was another pj day for me as i felt really run down with a head cold and my stomach was still off so i was being really careful on what i was eating with every bite of food my stomach just bloated more and more, i watched the Santa Claus movie with Dudley moore in it and fell asleep it wasn’t as good as i remembered it to be and then later in the evening i finished off the wrapping presents.

Friday; Today i made rice crispys Christmas puddings that i had seen on Pinterest and some vloggers doing on Youtube, I didn’t do gluten free ones as gf rice crispys are £3.60 sod paying that works out £2 more, all the family said they where nice so thats good, I also cleaned my make up brushes as this is something i hate doing I always clean mine with shampoo and a brush cleaner from eBay which is so good and i would recommend getting one they are 99p.

Saturday; Today we chilled most of the day before going over to see Dans family to take there Christmas presents and his parents dog was happy with his new Santa toy and then we decided to go to Fosse park shopping as it closed at 8pm and we thought it would be the best time to go, I went to Primark and got a couple of jumpers, a long hoody, glitter socks and some lip crayons.

Sunday; These days are for being lazy, watching films and eating biscuits drinking tea whilst writing this i have got National lampoon Christmas vacation on the tv this was a film i featured in my top 10 Christmas films to watch, 1 week today and its the big day and i can’t wait for a nice dinner and lots of presents with the people i love.

I hope your all ready for Christmas and if you haven’t already go and have a read of my blogmas blogs which include;

• Too 10 Christmas films to watch
• What to buy the person who has everything
• Making mince pies
• Christmas on a budget

plus many more, Thanks for reading x

Recap on the last week 28th Nov – 4th December

Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to weekly blog number 12!

Its officially December and the advent calendars are open and i am enjoying a cadburys daily chocolate and a make up item from my Tanya Burr advent calendar which i am loving so far.

This last week has been busier to normal, as you know from last weeks we decorated the tree on Sunday the 27th November, i know its early but i got impatient and wanted it up, heres is a picture below.

My beautiful Christmas tree at my mums house all ready for Santa to put the presents underneath. 

Monday; I went to see my Gran as it was her birthday, i don’t see her that much as to be honest as i am the least favourite grandchild she has, as i was always my grandads favourite and i don’t think she liked that and since he passed away the effort i’ve made with her has gone unwanted and unnoticed.

Tuesday; I decided to make a start and wrap some presents up, i always like wrapping and using ribbons and bows but this year i cant be bothered as it looks all nice to just get ripped open and go in the bin, so its a waste in my eyes, i bought my wrapping paper from matalan on 3 for 2 or they are £4 individually to buy but the paper is thin and rips super easy so i wouldn’t buy it again or recommend getting you gift wrap from there. 

Wednesday; We took a trip to Home bargains and matalan to see if they had any Christmas bits in, managed to get some stocking fillers and a new Christmas mug as that is something i do every year, it was from home bargains and was 99p it looks like the Santa from the coco cola advert then we came back and i started prepping for blogmas for the 1st December. (my new mug)

Thursday; 1st of December and 1st day of blogmas, i decided to do blogmas for the first 12days  of December as i wanted to start blogging more and so far a lot of you are reading them, liking them and i have new followers so thank you for that, Today i made mince pies too but slightly cheated as i used jus-rol pastry and just cut them into shapes and added the mincemeat filling but everyone said they where nice, as i cant eat them as they aren’t gluten free plus i don’t like mince pies anyway.

Friday; Today we went to wollaton park for a nice walk around the house and the lake, its based in Nottingham and was used in the Batman film as wayne manor, it wasn’t busy at all and cost us £2 to park for 3 hours, which isn’t to bad, we hadn’t been in over a year as this was where we had our 1st date back in May 2015, i got to use some of my new lenses for my iphone  i bought from Avon to take some good photos, after we went here we popped to the waitrose in wollaton and got a Christmasy hot drink, i got a salted caramel hot chocolate and Dan had a caramel latte, then we came home and caught up on some vlogs on youtube.

Saturday; Today was meant to be a do nothing day but that didnt happen as i ended up wrapping more presents, making some cards, going to tesco to get some food in as i am struggling again with meals and what to eat, me and Dan did make our own xmas cards this year as its more personal than buying them from a shop plus i love cards and always keep them.

Mine i made for Dan is on the left and Dan made me a Dory card as i love Dory and Disney.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my blogmas blogs x

Blogmas day #2 (Making mince pies)

Happy Friday everyone, its officially December and the advent calendars have been opened with daily chocolates to enjoy in the morning and i am loving it so far, the best time of the year for me.

I have seen lots of posts on Instagram of people making mince pies and wanted to give it ago, i have never made them before and now i am into my baking i thought i would try them out, i slightly cheated though! ssshhhh don’t tell anyone.

This is all the ingredients i used to make them with a few photos along the way;

I am not great at pastry yet and thought i would buy the Jus-rol shortcrust pastry as i have seen other bloggers using this, i picked this up from morrison for £1.50 along with the mincemeat also £1.50.

You will also need 1 egg and some icing sugar to complete the recipe.

1. I put the pastry in the microwave for 10 seconds as stated on the box to soften slightly for cutting, i use a round cutter for the base of the pie and a star cutter for the top as it looks more festive.
2. I greased the baking tin i used to put my pastry in as i didn’t want it to stick, and then put a tablespoon of mincemeat filling in each pie, this sheet made roughly 7 but you could so more if you had a smaller baking tray.
3. I lightly beat an egg in a cup and brushed it over the top of my mince pies before putting them in the oven to bake for 20 minutes on gas mark 7, i did check on them half way through as i am still getting used to the new oven.
4. Once cooked i removed them from the oven and placed them on a wire rack to cool down before dusting over some icing sugar to give the finished look.
5. These where delicious apparently, having being told by my family as i don’t like mince pies but they smelt lovely.

            Here is the finished products my home made via (cheating pastry) mince pies.

Thanks for reading x

Recap on the last week 17th – 27th Nov

Hello everyone and happy Sunday 

I am sorry it’s another late blog as i know i said i would be back to writing 2-3 blogs a week from now on but life doesn’t always go as smoothly as we plan for, a few things happened over the last week regarding having down days and generally not feeling up to it, as we have a lot of things going on in our personal life’s.

Back to what has been happening over the last week/ 10 days for me, we got a new front door at my mums, i did some black Friday shopping and i put the Christmas tree up.

Friday the 18th; My mum got a brand new sage green front door which looks lovely except it had faulty handles and the pain of glass leaks water in when it rains, so she is awaiting for either a replacement window or a complete new door, the company that have made it had no interest in coming out to look at the faulty door as they had rushed to get it completed.

Here is a photo of the new door; half moon frosted daisy glass windows and a lovely green colour way.

The weekend was another boring un eventful one as are most of the weekends throughout autumn/ winter because it’s too cold for me to be out due to my allergy of the cold.

Random part of this blog but i am loving the new series of (I’m a celebrity get me out of here) it has got to be one of my favourite shows of the year as i love ant and dec and the celebs this year are so nice and working as a team unlike previous years, my favourites so far are Scarlett, Adam and Joel and i love that they all get stuck into the tasks and win as much meals as they can for the camp mates, i will be sad for when it ends in 2 weeks.

Tuesday; I baked for the 1st time in so long, plus my mum has got a new swanky oven andi wanted to test it out so i made some easy peasy shortbread biscuits all gluten free obviously and then some gluten free vanilla sponge cakes with pink icing and some with lotus biscoff icing for those who aren’t gf, i used my Mickey & Minnie shape cutters that i bought from amazon and i am super impressed with them.

Wednesday; I took my mum to get her car fixed and we did a bit of food shopping so nothing exciting and then i came home and made some Christmas cards for my dads martial arts school and i made some for the family, keeping with a blue and silver colour scheme.

Thursday; I feel that i went here, there and everywhere this day as i had to pop to Mansfield to the crappy Primark there as i hd to take a jumper i bought from fosse park back as it was faulty and came away from the seem, which i was gutted about as i loved the jumper and they didn’t have another to exchange it with, i also had a nosey on the Black Friday deals online and saw a Gold Chromebook laptop by acer i liked which was reduced and with all the work planned next year, ill be putting is to good use, my mum has got it me for xmas so its off to Santa until Christmas day, we ended up getting it from Curry’s at Arnold as they had it in gold as the silver was bit snoozy looking.

Black Friday; Dan decided he wanted to sell his ipad mini and buy a Amazon fire tablet instead as he had been having a play on my mums tablet and he thought it was really quick and responsive unlike his ipad, plus his ipad is 3 years old and doesn’t get the new ios updates so its quite slow, he bought the Amazon tablet from Argos in black and it was faulty due to a dead pixel so he exchanged it for another one and it happened again which was strange so we got a refund from Argos and popped to Curry’s pc world at Mansfield and got another black fire tablet from there and guess what? Yep same again another dead pixel in the screen, we googled it and its a common fault apparently in the black ones so we got another refund and decided not to bother that was until we got home and Dan ordered an orange one from Argos at Beeston to collect on Saturday.

Saturday; Lazy morning then off out to Beeston to get the 4th Amazon tablet hopefully with no dead pixels and unbelievably it was fine and he loves it so he is happy and so am i, as i am sick of seeing Argos stores now and don’t want to go into another for a long time, then we came home and we decided to put our christmas tree up in my mums lounge as her tree is lousy and small at 3ft tall, My tree is from The Range and the decorations are from all over to be honest, it took me about 4 hours to assemble it and add the 3 sets of lights and lots of silver and blue baubles with the odd Disney bauble bought back from Florida, Disney springs christmas shop when we went in June this year.

Here is a couple of photos of my beautiful tree and yes i am biased but i love it.

Sunday; Sunday dinner with no meat for me, we watched formula 1 in Abu Dhabi as me and Dan both enjoy it and said we would love to go and watch it there one year as when i lived in Dubai i went to Abu Dhabi a handful of times and i saw the yas marina from the mall and Ferrari world, we also caught up on master chef the professionals and i have been trying to organise my plans for future blogs and vlogs to come in January. 

Thanks again for reading and i will be back to weekly blogs from next Sunday x

Gluten free food haul from Tesco & Asda

Happy Thursday everyone,

I have been very successful for once with regards to gluten free shopping thats because i have moved closer to a good Tesco store which have a really good selection of free from food in store (this is the branding for the free from foods).

I got a lot of items i’ve never seen or knew where available as the Tesco i used to live near was shocking and didn’t cater for gluten free or free from sufferers, I managed to get a lot of Tesco’s own brands of gf food and i took some photos to show you what i got for others who struggle like i do on a daily basis.

This is what i got below; This came to just less than £16.

• Tagliatelle pasta £1.20 per pack
• Sage&onion stuffing mix £1.70 per pack
• half a loaf of white bread 8 slices £1.76 per loaf
• Assorted jam tarts x6 per pack £2 
• Angel slices x5 per pack £1.80
• Southern fried chicken portions x6 per pack £3
• Yorkshire puddings x8 per pack £1.59
• french petit pain x4 per pack £1.80

The gluten free bread from Tesco is the best bread i have tried that taste like normal bread, i just wish it didn’t cost so much for the product at £1.76 for 8 slices.

Asda’s selection at the Mansfield store not all stores have this much in as the one at Langley mill has an embarrassing amount of stock in (don’t shop there if you or gluten intolerant) as they don’t cater for your needs.

This is what i got from Asda at Mansfield.

• Salted caramel cookies x9 per pack £2
• Butterfly cakes x6 per pack £2
• Gingerbread Santa’s biscuits x6 per pack £2

This came to £6 for these items works out more or less £2 per item, which is a lot for gluten free food but thats what i know i have to pay to be able to eat.

I know its not cheap or ideal but food shopping for me and my allergies is a nightmare but now i know i have other options especially at Tesco, Mansfield oak tree store, I was shocked how much they had in for me “Yes it’s expensive but i would rather pay the prices than get ill and be unable to get out of bed for a week“.

I do hope this helps other sufferers in the uk when looking for free from foods, not all these items are available at every Tesco store or online unfortunately, my advice is stock up as the dates are always good to store in your cupboards.

Thanks for reading x

Recap on the last week 27th sept – 3rd oct

Happy Monday everyone, I know i am a day early writing this but tomorrow i have a busy day at the hospital etc.

The last week has flown by as do all the weeks this year, I went to Matalan last Wednesday and Home bargains for a look around and ended up buying more than i needed from both shops, as well as some new christmas decorations for the christmas tree, Yes i am early but i am getting prepared now as i am not a last minute shopper.

Here are a few of the bits i picked up from the stores;

New decorations from the range i picked up 6 which worked out at £2 each so pretty reasonable and very pretty.

I got a new jumper from Matalan, i am not a fan of these colder months as i am allergic to the cold and have an allergic reaction to it which is rare and 1 in 100,000 people suffer with it, i have to avoid the cold weather a lot and my Drs have always told me to avoid skiing or colder countries.

I feel like i have been living on the same food for the past week which is Schar gluten free make your own pizza and gluten free waitrose pasta, because i struggle with what to et at the minute i am very limited to my diet and until i see the dietician on Tuesday i am a little bit in limbo.

I did some more Gluten free baking on Thursday and made a Victoria sponge cake, their wasn’t an occasion i just fancied making it and how delicious is was i wish i had made 2, My dad texted me to say it tasted better than a shop bought one so that made me smile.

The cake stand is from Home bargains and cost £4.99 people are selling the same one on eBay for £12.99 don’t get ripped off.

Over the weekend we have been super lazy due to the cold and rain and had no get up and go attitude so we watched lots of Harry Potter films as I’ve only seen the first 3 films, we lit some autumn smelling candles and drank lots of hot tea and ate lots of treats, we have only got to watch the deathly hallows part 1&2 now, but i am a big fan.

Exciting news: I have set up my own YouTube channel called natural blonde and it will feature all my blogs in a vlog form especially covering Dubai and Florida as well as shopping hauls, i love watching others do it and want to get involved myself and pushing my boundaries and confidence and doing something out of my comfort zone, I hope you all get behind me and subscribe to my channel.

I have been writing my list for santa the main present is a new vlogging camera and makeup and perfumes the usual bits, I’ve also been coming up with plans for my big birthday in December, being born 3 days after christmas isn’t great as everywhere is super busy and very costly or cold with snow, I am hoping my mum and Dan have good ideas for the day.

I have had to yet again complain about another gluten free product i bought on Sunday from my local coop store, there own brand of choc chip muffins as they where inedible and dry when i cut them in half, they cost £1,59 for a pack of 2 and the best before date want until the 5th December, i really wish companies would get gluten free people in to taste test the food or not bother in attempting to make the goods when the quality and the products aren’t sellable.

The jam tarts however are scrummy but not worth £2.60 for a pack of 6 gluten free tarts.

Thanks for reading and ill update some of my new purchases in a separate blog. x

remember to follow me on Instagram: naturalblonde and my YouTube channel is the same name naturalblonde.