By Stacey x

For Christmas, our friends bought us a Private Pod Dining experience at Craft in Birmingham. Craft is located at the back of the ICC and designed with a British Garden theme, with the pods overlooking the canal. It has its own entrance way through a beautiful floral archway. On arrival, our pod was ready slightly earlier than our booking time and we were shown to our private pod. The pod was incredible it was private, but we could still see and be seen. It had its own temperature controls and the bonus of its own speaker which you could connect to through Bluetooth which added to the atmosphere. The kitchen is helmed by Andrew Sheridan who has appeared on the Great British Menu. All food and wine are sourced within the UK and the experience we had included a four-course menu and a free bottle of Fizz. The free bottle of Fizz was a Halfpenny Green Sparkling White Rose from Shropshire. The menu included information about what we were having, the idea behind the dish and the creativity an...

What a month December was, definitely one of the busier months we have had in a while. I didn't feel that Christmassy this year. However, we still managed to have a good month so here are 5 happy snippets from it. Christmas Lights in Trentham Gardens On the 12 th December we visited the Christmas Lights around Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent and they were lovely. I’ve never done anything like this before and it was the perfect thing to do for Christmas. The gardens were big, and the trail went all the way around them in a big circle. I was quite ill as well this weekend and so felt like this was the best thing to be out in the fresh air and just taking time to appreciate the lights. I’d 100% do it again next year and would like to visit the gardens when it isn’t Christmas. Jersey Boys UK Tour On the 18 th me and my fiancé’s family went to the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham to see a matinee performance of the Jersey Boys UK Tour and it was good. It was a unique show, and the...

I think it’s safe to say that I will be very glad to see the back of 2021 it’s been a mixed year. The second half has been better than the first half. The main thing was being able to start doing normal things and being able to enjoy them even more. I thought I would pick out some of my highlights from the year. Getting Engaged In February I got engaged and it was amazing, it was at home, and it was very simple. Darren got me a card with some nice words and a rose and asked me in our living room. I had no idea even though looking back now it all makes sense. We have booked our wedding for summer 2023 and I am so excited for it. I have a wedding blog post that I will link,  Wedding Planning Part 1 Holidays We have been very lucky to have been on holiday within the UK twice this year and I am so thankful that we were able too. In June we went to Brean in Somerset for 5 days which was lovely, we stayed with my family in a lodge that had a hot tub. We also had lovely weather as wel...

It feels like November flew by but it has been quite a quiet month before the chaos of Christmas and December hit us. I'm still taking everyday as it comes and I am continually grateful to be able to experience what we can and for the life we live. Here are the 5 happy things that have happened this month, Darren's Birthday This month was my fiancé's birthday and whilst we didn't do anything big to celebrate it. However, we did go and have an amazing meal at Miller and Carter which was so lovely. We both had salt and pepper calamari for starter, then we both had a steak with chips and I had it with beef dripping sauce and no wedge because I don't like them. It was so nice that I could treat us to this and it was the perfect way to celebrate Darren's birthday. Mum's Birthday This month was also my Mum's birthday, it was really nice to go to my parents and just chill there for the day and then have a Chinese takeaway to celebrate my Mum's birthday. We ...

We got engaged in February and we’ve started to think about what kind of wedding we want. I thought it would be interesting to document various steps we get to in our wedding planning. We’ve settled on getting married in summer 2023 and originally we’d booked a registry office for the ceremony and then hold the reception somewhere close such as a sports and social club. We’ve put the deposit down for this which was about £100 and is non refundable. Originally, we wanted a fairly small inexpensive wedding, where we just have a big party and that, then go on a really nice honeymoon after. However, in the past few months this has all changed, my fiancé's parents went and had lunch at a small hotel that’s about half an hour away from us and picked up a wedding brochure as an idea, originally for the wedding reception. We looked through the brochure and just fell in love with it and started thinking about how our wedding could be there. I then booked us an appointment to have a show ...

May, marked one year since I bought my Nintendo Switch Lite, so, I thought I would give an updated review about what I think one year on.   I bought the Nintendo Switch Lite because it was a bit cheaper then the big one as well as being more portable for me to travel with. I don’t regret getting the smaller one because I’m still not fussed about putting it through the telly. Also only one set of my friends have the bigger Switch and I don’t see them often so I don’t buddy play with anyone, it’s just me that plays. Overall, I’m still very happy that I got the smaller one but I have thought about getting a bigger one at some point purely so I can play Pokemon on the through the telly but if I get one it'll be a second hand one. Honestly, I do dip in and out of playing it, I don’t gravitate towards playing it that much at the moment, I think this is also down to trying to find out what games I like playing. I’m currently playing Pokemon Sword which I borrowed off my sister as I wante...

I know, I know, I have left my little space of the internet unloved and untouched for about 9 months now and I’m not going to apologise because honestly, a lot has happened and I haven’t felt inspired to talk about anything. However, I’m going to try and be a bit more present here and just talk about the things I want to talk about. So I thought I would catch you up on what’s been happening whilst I’ve been away. Back in September me and my fiancé moved in together and are renting our first ever house. It’s a 2 bedroom terraced house in a borough of Birmingham and we absolutely love it. We’ve extended our lease on it for a further 12 months as well lately. We’ve got it to exactly how we want it and just have the garden left to sort out now. The location is great, we live in a town but we haven’t had chance to explore because of the pandemic. We are really close to the motorway which is helpful for our jobs and going to visit family and friends, when we can. I miss my parents but movi...

I’ve had my Nintendo Switch for a couple of months now and thought I would give an honest review of the console. I know this is a very niche kind of thing but I hope if you are considering getting one that this review will help you in some way. I’m also going to share some of the games I have bought and played, so hopefully this review will also give out some game recommendations. I love games consoles I’ve always had them, starting with a Sega, then a PS1, a PS2, the original Nintendo DS lite I think they were called. I had an Xbox, the Wii, the newer version of the Nintendo 2DS and now the Nintendo Switch Lite. For a bit more game chat, check out my previous blog post on the Disney video games I’ve played over the years on these various consoles. I’ve wanted a Nintendo Switch for ages and I was originally set on buying the big one that goes through the telly. In hindsight this was too expensive and one reason was so me and my boyfriend could play together but realistically I don’t k...

Long time no speak, unfortunately a lot has been happening within my life personally and across the world but I thought I'd have a look back at the goals I set at the beginning of year and how I feel about them and how much closer I am to them. Blog Originally I wanted to post on here regularly and I haven't at all maybe once a month if that. I really struggled of what to talk to about especially with lockdown happening and I had so many plans that I was going to do posts on and what not but that has been blown out completely. I'm back to square one trying to think of ideas. I'm starting to think this might not be for me any more and might have to step back from it. I'd rather not have to get to that point though because I enjoy writing so I'm sure I can find a middle ground, but I think best not to set myself any solid targets at the moment and let it flow. Screen Time I'm not going to dwell on this but my screen time hasn't changed at all if I'm ho...

I can't believe I am writing this it's crazy, I had so much to look forward to this year like most people and unfortunately I probably won't be able to do any of it. This lockdown has taught me to see what I value most and what is more important to me and what I actually want to do. So I thought I'd put a little list of 7 things I want to do when lockdown is over. 1. See and spend time with Darren properly We haven't seen each other properly since lockdown started which at the time of writing this is 7 weeks however in the UK they are changing with rules that we can see each other outside, which is better than nothing I guess. I'm hoping in June we can actually go between our two houses and see each other like we used to. It's really hard we've been together nearly 9 years and this is the longest we have been apart like most people. Fingers crossed, I just want to cuddle up and watch Disney+ together as that's something we haven't been able to do...