Nose to Nose.

The barbecue we had last Saturday evening was a great opportunity to show off my culinary skillz, and I did just that, before also showing off my drinking ability (read lack of) by 'necking' two bottles of wine at lightening speed, never a good idea, ever. It was a lovely evening though, and we were very well prepared for hosting, making salads, and extra bits as well as picking up some candles from Cargo for sitting outside, which worked a treat.

*If you happen to be interested, the photography nerd in me wanted to tell you that as in love with my new Nikon 1 as I am, so far it's not doing great when shooting in lower light. This is something I'm not pleased with as I'd expect a better performance, both from Nikon but also from a camera that cost as much and allows for interchangeable lenses.


Although it's pre-bought, making puff-pastry anything is always so satisfying and delicious.


I made homemade lemonade, it didn't end up suiting the palette of people who just wanted to drink but turned out to be my best batch.
I definitely recommend buying loose lemons if you're going to attempt this as they seem to be much more juicy. I used the same amount of lemons as usual but got twice as much juice!


Moon's mum gave us this because she's moving soon, and it finally got some use, even if it doesn't suit carrot and celery sticks that well, my snack selection went down well.



She hovered around as usual and I gave her a bit of a hard time with lots of kisses and cuddles. I asked her why she doesn't love me yesterday and she put her paw in my face :(


Bottle #2 before food, such an awful idea. But thanks to Sam for selecting a nice wine, turns out it goes down easy...





Sam & Moon.






Putting candles to the test.



We rounded up the evening with the 'Breaking Bad Drinking Game', a silly idea, especially since I now feel as though I've missed out on the two episodes we watched. I'm well and truly into it though, have to pace myself though or I can see it will be easy to get a little obsessed.

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Despite what my head might have told you on Sunday morning, it was a great evening. In fact, it's evenings like this that make me glad that we're in for warmer weather for the near future as we didn't do enough of this when the weather should have been nice. It's so good to be well and truly settled in.

Sister company.

As I've mentioned previously, I've had my sister to stay with me, it's been a little awkward as I had to work on Wednesday and my interview on Tuesday took a little longer than I thought it would have, but we spent the evenings together, watched a few movies and caught up, which was nice because although we talk throughout the week, it's much better to actually see each other.

Yesterday I finally had a full day off and we headed off to Reading for a bit of shopping, a little unjustified on my part but I do find that there is a wider selection of shops there so it's even nice to look. I do feel that now I'm completely settled I should definitely start venturing around a bit more and finding out what else is around.

We started off with lunch at Giraffe, although it's a chain, this one was different to the others I've been to, the interiors were much nicer, I don't know if it's because it's new but it just felt like there was so much space. Lunch was delicious, we had nachos and I went for a steak sandwich. We also chose some lovely alternatives to fizzy drinks, with Lucy having pomegranate iced tea and me going homemade lemonade, yum!







You'll see below that I gave pink lemonade a go once I got home, this regular lemonade was so zingy, I'm definitely on the look out for a juicer so I can make real lemonade, so refreshing!


The Giraffe in Reading is near the cinema and so offers 20% off to Vue customers, I really wish we had deals like that going here.

Although my bun was a good effort, I think due to the layers it didn't hold up until the end of the day as I'd hoped. I don't like wearing product in my hair unless I'm off out-out any tips on how to do a proper one would be greatly appreciated.

Lucy was loving the fake Ray-Bans I picked up for her from Turkey, Faux-Bans.

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When we finally got home after being stuck on a train with no driver or air conditioning, Moon had made us this tasty puff-pastry concoction. I know it looks like all we did yesterday was eat, but there was a lot of walking and shopping involved too!

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After reading the Trends With Benefits girl's post on picnics and thinking about trying out their recipe, I was even more spurred on by my tasty lunchtime beverage. I actually ended up using this recipe as I prefer raspberries to cranberries. It's so tasty and apparently the cordial will last a whole week, I hope I have some time to pick up some sparkling water to make it like real pink lemonade. It feels like something I'll find myself making again and again as summer rolls on. ♥

We rounded off last night with a screening of Rec 3 (which was not that good) and The Lorax (which was really good). My sister was all to happy to be around Doll again, even if the feeling wasn't always mutual.

In cat-related news, we've actually started letting Dolly out unsupervised and she's been coming back! I've had the back door open all of today and she's been coming and going, she doesn't venture further than our garden so I really see no harm in it, Moon is very nervous that we might lose her again though and we aren't letting her out at night. I hope nothing bad will happen and that we've really made progress, she's turning into the best cat.

I picked up these sandals in the sale section of Primark yesterday. I've been kind of looking for a cheap pair of sandals for a while and although these were still £6 - bit much for Primark - I'm glad I got them as they're a lot more comfortable than I thought they would be. I just wanted something a bit more fashionable than flip-flops and I think these will make a good change every now and then, they're a bit flat to team with my maxi dresses/skirts though, curse my height!

Finally, (I know I've been rambling on), I got this pretty sketchbook from Paperchase. I just couldn't resist it and the paper is so thick and nice, I've already done a few drawings in it, I really want to keep it up as I'm a bit out of practice.

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Thanks for reading, you may have noticed that I've made a few little changes, I'm quite happy with it though, I think it was a bit too cluttered before and now it makes a bit more sense. I even got some use out of my graphics tab - it's had more use this month than it has ever - and used it to help draw my header, something I probably should have got on top of ages ago.

I hope you're enjoying the sun, even if it's a bit cloudy today. I'm off to work in a bit, which means I get to miss the Olympics opening ceremony, I don't like sport but it would have been cool to see that, looks like it will be highlights for me tomorrow. I hope you have a great weekend!