21 Reasons Why I Love You For Your 21st Birthday

Josh turns twenty one today! Twenty one! My favourite drama queen has decided he is now too old and refuses to get excited for his birthday, boo. He's only twenty one?? Imagine what he'll be like when he's thirty? Let alone fourty. Luckily that's far in the future and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

To make it a special birthday I made Josh a scrapbook with twenty one reasons why I love him inside, some are very cheesy beware. And for todays post since its Josh's birthday i've decided to share them with you! 

We're also going to Miller & Carter for dinner which I am looking forward to and I bought GOT s1-4 and i'm hoping he waits to watch them with me! 

It took a lot of time to make this and to keep it as manly as possible, he better like it haha! 

1. I love it when you call me H, I thought it was weird when you first called me it but i've grown to love your nickname for me.

2. You spend a lot of time with me and my friends and they've all grown to love you which is incredibly important to me.

3. Without you I would never know how wonderful it feels to sleep soundly beside someone. 

4. No matter what mood i'm in whenever I see you I can't help but smile.

5. Because despite all the mornings you've woke up next to me when i'm smelly with greasy hair and mascara on my cheeks yet you still call me beautiful.

6. You're incredibly handsome.

7. You put up with me even though I can be very challenging, like the time I spilt all my coke in the bed or when you had to pick me up from the Arcadian because I was so drunk i'd spent my taxi fair. (Though to be honest you're worse to deal with!)

8. You always smell amazing, and Paco Raban will forever remind me of you.

9. You admit i'm a princess! I already knew that obviously but its nice to hear someone else say it.

10. We get to do cute things together and you never complain when I drag you around places I want to go. (The zoo is still on the list though.)

11. You're a complete gentlemen and I can't remember the last time I opened a door around you.

12. The first thing I noticed when we began dating is that you take a ridiculous amount of time to get dressed after you shower even when we have to be somewhere, and however weird it is I find it really funny and I love that about you. Plus I get to take sneaky pictures of you in your pants.

13. You have an amazing and welcoming family and I don't think we would work as well as we do if you didn't.

14. I love it when you play with my hair, it feels safe.

15. There's nothing better than a text off of you saying "good morning babe" or "how was your day beautiful?". 

16. I know you trust me and I hope you know I trust you, and I know that I never have to keep secrets from you and that you wont keep them from me.

17. I see a future with you that's wonderful and exciting.

18. You love me as you would say "like a lot" and it makes my day to know you love me or are missing me as much as i do you.

19. You have an amazing family and I don't think we would work as well as we do if they weren't so welcoming. 

20. Because you're my best friend, I can always tell you if something is wrong because you always make me feel better. 

21. Because you push me to do things I need to do but don't want to, and you're the practical voice that I don't seem to have. 

Happy birthday Josh, I love you! 

Family Thoughts

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Surprises!

I don't know what it is about birthdays, but they just really get me excited! I have always loved celebrations and any excuse to buy presents. Birthdays are a sure fire way to get (most) people in a good mood. 

We were counting down the days till one of my work friends Laura's 21st and we happened to be working the same shift on her last day of work before the week she booked off for the occasion, and since she didn't know i'd be seeing her before her birthday (surprise!) we spent it celebrating. 

To make it even better on my break I went out and bought some candles and a cake, then hid them in my locker. It was a late shift so the inside of the store was empty and I had told my manager Kyle about the cake so we rushed to get all the cars through drive through as quick as possible. Laura knew something was up and you could see she was getting nervous evertime Charlotte came up to front counter to see if the cake was ready yet! 

When drivethrough was empty Kyle and I tried to light all the candles in a massive rush, and we took the cake to Laura. Who tried running away, much to her dismay Kyle wouldn't let that happen and we all sang happy birthday! It was a really nice end to my shift and I know Laura loved it despite her embarrassment. 

Then a few days later on Saturday Josh and I headed over to Charlotte's with some other girls from work, since Laura's so persistent Charlotte couldn't keep her away from her house for as long as she'd hoped so Laura was the first person to her surprise party. Why doesn't that surprise me? It was a nice night with everyone and I hope Laura had a great 21st. George even made curry and I tried it and liked it! Me?? Guess I have no excuse now when Josh wants to go for a curry... 

Overall it was lovely seeing Laura happy and celebrating her birthday with her, and all the little surprises were lovely. If you have any stories of surprises i'd love to know in the comments! 

The back scratch multitask.

Life is pretty sweet right now, its SUMMER can I get a hell yeah? So even though i'm not at college i'm seeing my friends more, my boyfriend more, and my paychecks are looking good. 

I'm currently lying in bed taking roll of Josh's back scratcher  its incredibly cute that for once Josh fell asleep on me instead of vice versa! He woke up a few minutes ago moaned he was hot, demanded a kiss and a backscrscratch , then rolled over and fell straight back to sleep! 

So here I am trying to scratch Josh's back with hand while writing this blog post with the other hand on my phone. I'm a multitasking queen!

Mmhh.. Now there's crumbs in the bed, after I momentarily paused this post to munch on the donuts next to the bed that I made Josh take me to Tesco's for earlier. 

How do you tell when you've become too comfortable in a relationship? Is it when you laugh so hard at their jokes that you fart and not very discreetly (totally never happened I will deny my laugh-farts ok). 

Or did this become apparent when I dragged Josh down the tampon aisle and then the chocolate aisle and told him to prepare for the week ahead. 

Or when you start bypassing the cuddles after sex and stand with the window cracked open wafting yourself to create a breeze looking nowhere near sexy hunched over and panting, yet not giving a shit. 

I think me and Josh have got too comfortable. Yes. 

But I can't complain, the romance is still there! He bought me flowers last week for my birthday, we still hold hands over the table during dinner and to be honest I have never been so affectionate or felt such affection before. The more we see each other, the longer we're together, and a lot of the time when we're not together shows me how much i'm loved, and it's fabulous.

What i've noticed more than ever though is I am a jealous person. I get a serious case of the green eyed monster if anyone else has Josh's attention. 

When we first got together I encouraged Josh to go out with his friends, and I enjoyed the time away to do something else. Now i'm trying to guilt trip him into thinking of me the whole time he's there, which honestly defeats the point of him being there, and when it comes to other girls... Just trust me when I say I am not proud. 

I've never considered myself a jealous person before but it didn't take long to unveil the truth. 

But this relationship malarky is good! It's nice and i'm happy. Ew gushy. Now i'm gonna go eat the rest of these donuts. 

Leave me a comment! Are you in a relationship or loving the single life?p

A Long Process

I'm a lampshade and bedside table away from a completed room. (And I wanted a new duvet cover too, but at the moment the only one's I like are from the white company, i'll keep looking for now.) But I am too excited not to share what i've done so far!

It's been an excruciatingly long process, I've actually moved into my sister's room now she's moved out so it wasn't a rush to complete as I still had a perfectly sleepable room to stay in. Which in one way is good because this was a BIG investment for me as while i'm at college i'm only working part time, my mom and nan have been lovely and helped out where they can but ultimately it took a lot of patience and saving.

This is what the room looked like beforehand:

Waaaaaay back in January of this year (see what I mean about patience!), I began the process of painting etc. I used a white non drip gloss from home of colour for the door, the skirting board and the wardrobe that is built into the wall. Along with home of colour's pure brilliant white matt emulsion (or at least I think it was emulsion I honestly don't know) for the walls and ceiling. The wood on the doors etc had yellowed over time so a quick sand down and a fresh coat of paint and they were looking gorgeous again!

I was so excited to paint and start the process of creating my masterpiece, I didn't understand how tedious the task would be haha. It's a good thing I roped in my cousin for help! 

Then a month later in February I finally found a time when I could get my wallpaper up! I went for Graham and Brown Feather Your Nest wallpaper on the walls, at the time it was £19 a roll which is incredibly expensive but I had my eye on it for ages and it was what I planned my room around. When i was looking for a link though I noticed it's now only £12.99! I could've saved myself £15! The pattern is very busy and I wouldn't say its everyone's taste but I fell in love with it, and I still think its incredibly beautiful. My aunt put it up and I think she did amazing! I'm so grateful, I could not have imagined myself getting it up so perfectly but you can barely see the joining lines as it is matched up so perfectly!

The longest wait was for a carpet, not only are carpets and underlay expensive but we have had to put a new boiler in. We had boiler problems since the winter started, but there were so many hoops to jump through first. My mom doesn't own our house, but its also not a council house. So we had to speak to the landlord, and the gas company, then we had so many people come and look at the boiler and talk about the new one. My mom insisted I wait to put a carpet down after we found out our boiler wouldn't be fixed because they would have to flush out the radiators and she didn't know if it would ruin a brand new carpet etc. a week or two ago though the new boiler was put in and I had saved up enough money and I bought a carpet! It's a light grey colour, I didn't want something like a pink colour and my mom refused to let me have a white/cream carpet so that was our agreed colour!

Since the carpet has been fitted though I've put my bed up, moved in all of my stuff and made it personal! The rest has all happened so quickly and I am extremely pleased!

I bought my bed out of the studio catalogue but I can't find the exact frame I bought online, it's been an incredibly long time since I have had a new bed. Since i'm nearly seventeen and Josh has been stopping over a lot more I thought it would be a good investment to buy myself a double bed! I'm really pleased with it and my new mattress is extremely comfortable! The bed sheets are spare sheets my mom had for now, but I think they really suit the room, and I hung the photos on the wall using thin rope and tiny wooden pegs from hobby craft! It's took so long since I started redecorating but I am so close to being finished and right now I can sleep in it and really enjoy how beautiful it looks! I'll leave the remaining pictures of how it looks now and I would love to hear what you think in a comment!

What Wonderful Weekends

In the past year I began to stop really enjoying/looking forward to weekends. Shock horror, I know. But I never really did much with my weekends, work and a hell of a lot of drinking was about it. I've come to hate the effort it takes to throw a party and honestly I think i'm done with them for now. I'm not saying i'm packing them in all together, but they would be a lot more fun if I waited a few weeks, months even inbetween them. 

Recently though due to a new addition in my life, i've fallen in love with them again. Due to circumstances the most time I get to spend with said new addition consists mainly of the weekend. 

I'm still going to work, and i'm still going out but I find that now its so much funner. I guess I just wasn't cut out for the hardcore party life like I thought. It's just not for me. 

Now I find myself doing things I never really did before and things I never would even think could be fun. They just fill me with a bit more content than a stomach full of alcohol ever could. 

So for today's blog post i'm here to tell you about the weekends that have had me wishing for Friday again. 

Two Friday nights ago Josh (for those of you (so all of you) who don't know is the new addition) Tom (a friend from work who happens to be his little brother) and I went to watch unfriended. It was fun! The film was absolutely terrible i'm not going to lie to you, a couple even walked out half way through. But spending the evening with the current two favourite boys in my life just felt nice, and Tom cracked me up when he mentioned he couldn't read half of the writing which was a big part of the film because he left his glasses at home!

Two Saturday nights ago Josh, Tom, Hollie (Tom's friend) and I went to Josh and Tom's Grandad's 65th birthday party. I met a lot of their family and had a really nice night. Afterwards we headed back to Josh's and spent the evening talking and listening to good music. I really like Josh's parents and spending time with them is really enjoyable.

Last Saturday night Josh and I went to an awards evening for one of his friends James (who I also happened to work with) and I spent a lot of the night talking with his girlfriend Leah (who I also work with, see a recurring theme??) and at the end of the evening Josh and I danced a little and it was great. Slow dancing with Josh singing in my ear had butterflies in my stomach, Josh then took a liking to a slide and I ended up running around McDonalds with no shoes on because my feet were killing me. Heels are the devil. 

Then Friday night, Josh and I went out to the pub with his parents and enjoyed a few drinks and some good chat. I never thought a night out with your boyfriends mom and dad would be a good time, but it was and I really enjoy myself everytime we go. Like I said earlier I really like his parents, and I feel comfortable around them. I've found I really like meeting Josh's family, i'm awkward and quiet first but then I feel like i'm learning more about Josh and becoming a bigger part of his life and that brings me great excitement. 

Lastly on Saturday night Josh and I went to the dogs with James and Leah again, and I had a great time once again! I know its not everyone's cup of tea and a lot of people disagree with it but I like watching the dog racing, and Josh enjoys betting along with his friend so it made a pretty good double date night! I did get ID'd at the bar for a pepsi though, who knew I would need ID to get a soft drink?? Luckily Leah came to the bar with me and she had ID so I got my pepsi! It wasn't even coke? Why so much effort?!

These chill evenings with good company and the guy in my life just make me wish for weekends again! It's so much easier to get through a Saturday shift when you've had an early night and cuddles and knowing that when you get home from work there's someone amazing waiting to spend the evening with you!

That's enough from me! I'd love to hear about what you look forward to at the weekends, leave your comments below!

Bicester Village

Who would have thought I would be up and out of the door at qaurter past six in the morning? Not me! Now don't get me wrong, i've seen many six o'clock starts but here's the thing about holidays. There's no college, and on this particular day no work, so why am i throwing away the only lie-ins i'll get until summer? 

Because I am a good girlfriend. That's plain and simple. It had nothing to do with me wanting to go shopping... No not at all. I was accompanying, and then my hand slipped. Into my purse and then into the card machine. 

My boyfriend drove his mom to Banbury on this particular day and she had to be there quite early hence why we had such an early start, and I decided it would be nice to go with him since he may have mentioned his plan to take me to Bicester village... 

Now if you don't know where Bicester is then... I don't know where i'm going with this to be honest i don't really know either. 

But! I'm not completely useless I can tell you what it is! 

It's a cute shopping village full of boutique looking stores, and pretty trees and flowers. It's definitely not your typical shopping trip into town as everything was so beautiful (and expensive). 

The stores are all outlet stores, and they certainly had a lot going for them. Imagine your favourite designer, and yes that was there! (I can't say that for certain it probably wasn't), but they had so many shops. They had the typical Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Ted Baker stores, and they also had a Mulberry, Alexander McQueen and Kate Spade store! (More on Kate Spade later.) 

They also had a Jimmy Choo store but I just admired a lot of them sadly from the window. 

I'm going to admit it, Josh is a brand whore. Just don't tell him I said it! I on the other hand, not so much. I do love expensive clothes, but I find Primark satisfies me enough. 

I think its something to do with the whole I work in McDonalds during weekends while i'm at college, thing. My bank account certainly isn't a pretty site, and therefore I would never be able to justify spending so much. 

Which means I mainly just looked and let Josh do the spending, until my minor slip up but i'll explain that later.

It was a lovely day when we decided to go and I think that just made it for me, not only did I get to browse a load of lovely (and bloody tempting) shops, but I also got to sit in the sun taking in the scenery and enjoying my strawberry frappe. Oh yeah and Josh, I got to spend time with him as well. 

Just before we left, I dragged Josh into Kate Spade. It's not a very popular brand where i'm from, most people don't know who Kate Spade is so a Micheal Kors bag is the next best thing. I did contemplate going into MK which was next door but I decided against it. 

I had resisted spending money for the whole two hours we were shopping, but I have a little space inside my heart for Kate Spade. The watches, the bags, the idiom bangles. I've been obsessing over them for ages, and I was planning to go to the store in London sometime soon. 

Anyway, as soon as we got into Kate Spade I fell in love. I knew what I wanted. I knew what I had to have. I got paid on the day we went (bad idea, I know) and since i've had holiday from college I worked almost everyday the week before and so I succombed. 

Any other pay day I wouldn't have considered spending that much money on a bag, Kate Spade or not. But since my pay had temporarily (*sob at temporarily*) doubled, I could afford the bag. And guess what? Still afford to eat! 

I should really be saving for a car, and our holiday. But hey ho, this was the first designer bag I had ever bought myself and if you ask Josh (do you even know who Josh is? He turned up in my life somewhere in the midst of my time away from the blogosphere) he will tell you how excited I was. I felt like a little kid on Christmas and I was my own Santa! 

It's a beautiful grey colour with a shoulder strap, this was the most important element hands down. And it closes at the front of the bag with a really cute Kate Spade clasp, the inside is a white with Kate Spade New York written over and over again in a satiny white. It's beautiful! 

Now i'll leave you with a picture, and be sure to visit Bicester if your near! Not only did it house the most amazing shops, but because of the cute village feel it made an amazing day out.