Minx Nails

For about a year now, I’ve been having minx nails done on my toes (I hate feet, even my own, so have them manicured all year round too, not just in summer).  I don’t know if you’ve seen Minx, Katy Perry, Beyonce and a whole host of pop stars seem to favour them at the mo.  They can be patterned, pictures (Katy likes having piccies of her hubby on her fingers) or metallic or a combination.  They are stickers that are shaped to fit the nail, heated up with a heat lamp or a hairdryer and stuck onto the nail.  My favs are the leopard print ones that you can get in different colours.  Minx are fabulous because they come in a massive range of different patterns and colours, they don’t chip and they last until you peel them off.

Just a tiny selection of the designs available!

Anyway, I was having them done every 5/6 weeks at a local salon at a cost of £28 a pop.  The last time I had them done ‘professionally’ I thought, “I can do that better than her ... it can’t be that bloody hard ... it’s not brain surgery”.  After all, I don’t have ‘professional’ manicures cos I’ve never found anyone who can to a manicure as neatly as I can!  So, I thought, “Where could I get the stickers from?”  eBay’s always good for stuff like that, so I hopped on and low and behold, found loads and loads and loads of em ranging in price from £5-£12.

Now, bearing in mind that you can probably easily get at least 3 sets of toe nails done from one strip of stickers ... the savings are HUGE ... You do the maths!  So I thought I’d order one strip (of a design I’d not had before, a lovely abalone shell design) and thought I’d give it a go. 

It was easy peasy and a complete bargain for the princely sum of about £3!!

So, how do you do it?

1.   Choose your design (obviously!)

2.   Make sure your nails are trimmed, filed and clean – no grease and no varnish

3.   Peel off a sticker that roughly matches the size of the toe nail you want to start with (I recommend the big toe first as it isn’t as fiddly)

4.   Place it lightly on the nail and score around it with a hoof stick so you get the outline of the nail shape

5.   Peel off the sticker and trim it to size ... DON’T TRIM THE TOP ... just trim the bottom and sides

6.   Warm the sticker (for about 10 seconds) with a hairdryer set on medium

7.   Place the sticker on the nail, making sure that the bottom and sides are stuck down and then pull the top and trim it to size - use the hoof stick to makes sure that the sticker is well and truly stuck down!

8.   Then file any little bits at the top of the nail that are too small to cut. 


 

9.   Repeat with each of the other nails  ... Finally, hold the hairdryer over the toes for another 10 seconds or so and rub each nail to make sure it adhered properly and VOILA fantastic set of Minx at a fraction of the salon price!

It didn’t even take any practise ... it was so easy!  If you’re unsure of any of the steps I’ve done here, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube!

If you want to remove them, use the hairdryer to heat them up slightly, then peel them off with tweezers. Word of warning though, I wouldn’t put them on my finger nails.  For one, when you peel them off, it can be a little harsh on the nail ... fine for toes, but I wouldn’t want to subject my finger nails to that stress ... plus they wouldn’t last as long on finger nails, as they’re in and out of water and subject to more stress than your toes are.

Next will be my holiday toes ... I always do the Gold Cheetah design for hols and every single time get lots and lots of compliments.  In fact, last time I was away, I caught a women taking a photo of my toes (yes, honestly) when she thought I wasn't looking, to show her daughter ... some people are weird!

So, go for it ladies ... it’s the Party Season after all, it won’t cost a lot and you’ll feel fab!

Until next time, lovely people, be fabulous!

Lots of Love

Jx

Top Tips ... Nails!

I thought I’d do a couple of quick ‘off piste’ posts on some ‘Top Tips’ stuff that people often ask me about.  You’ll remember I did a post a few months ago about my Holiday Top Tips, well I had quite a good response to that, so I thought I’d do a couple more.

Well, as I’m sure you’re aware, I’m a bit of a girlie girl (no shit Sherlock!).  You’ll never see me without nail varnish ... EVER ... or horror of horrors ... chipped varnish!!!! Nor will you ever see me without makeup outside the house ... even at the gym ... which I’m told by some people is weird?!  Don’t get that one ... anyway ... 

I’ve tried so many different types, makes and techniques of pretty much every kind of cosmetic over the years that I thought I’d share some of my findings with you which should hopefully save you some time and money!  Big caveat though, these are only my findings ... these things may not work for you ... so that’s my disclaimer done!

OK ... here goes:

Nails

Since all my nails snapped recently (they’ve always been long, not false ... apart from the thumbs as they don’t seem to grow!) I’ve ventured into the realm of colour (I’ve always had French manicure as I don’t like colour on long nails ... it’s a bit too 80s or Porn Star, you choose!) and I just thought I’d mention that UK Glamour magazine (not the best mag for my age range it has to be said ... however ...) currently has one of four different Nails Inc nail varnishes attached to its latest copy.  Nails Inc usually cost £11 per pot and they stay on forever (if you put them on properly), Glamour costs £2, I bought 4 copies so I’d collected all 4 available colours – red, cerise (I’ve had about 6 people comment on fab this colour is ... also I’ve had it on for a week now and it’s only very slightly chipped today on my left thumb) a real dark nearly black and a lovely nude.  £8 for 4 varnishes ... bargain!

Other colours I’ve tried recently:

Chanel Le Vernis – Rouge Noir – fabulous, classic (made famous by Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction), dark and lovely on short nails ... my absolute fav colour ever!

Chanel Le Vernis - Peridot – awful, changes colour when you moved your fingers from a kind of sickly yellow to a putrid green.  It was only on two days when it chipped, it also made my hands look dead!  This is one of their latest colours and has been sold out everywhere ... took me ages to find some ... wish I hadn’t!

Chanel Le Vernis – Particuliere – a lovely nude colour ... another classic.  I remember when this came out and it sold out immediately ... I think it took about 10 months to get hold of some.  It's lovely, but very conservative.

I’ve also got another couple of Chanel’s – Blue Satin (dark rich blue) and Pirate (a deep red) ... both OK, but don’t seem to stay on very long without chipping.

OPI have some fab glitter varnishes in gold and silver that last for ages (wonderful for Christmas), but you can’t get the buggers off.  I had to get some varnish remover that removes false nails to do the job!  Nightmare!

There’s also these OPI (although you can get cheaper versions which I’m sure are just as good) ‘shatter’ top coats that you apply to any colour nail varnish and they give a crackle effect ... quite clever really, but I’m not sure they look that good on short nails.  Kinda made my nails a bit stumpy.  Plus, the white one (I have black, white, gold and silver) looked like I’d gone mad with the Tipex ... not a good look!

I’ve also had a couple of suede effect nail varnishes from OPI.  These are a matt varnish and are great if you’re in a rush as all you need is a base coat and a couple of coats of the varnish and it dries in minutes.  You don’t need a top coat cos that would spoil the effect.

The French manicure kit I’ve used forever is Elegant Touch ... it’s about £5.99 for the pink, white and clear (although I don’t use the clear) ... BARGAIN ... and you absolutely can’t beat it. 

Manicure Top Tips

So ... top tips for a manicure that should last a week without chipping (mine do!) if you do each step properly:

1.   Shape your nails and sort out your cuticles ... there’s nothing worse than nasty, craggy cuticles – makes your manicure look cheap and nasty!

2.   The base - I use is OPI Nail Envy ... two coats which I take over the top of the nail (prevents the colour you put on later from chipping)

3.   The colour – I use no less than two of coats of whatever colour I’m using (please avoid coating the cuticle with varnish, it looks horrid – the amount of nails I see with nasty, messy, colour coated cuticles ewwwwwww... you’re better off with no varnish than messy cuticles! If you don’t have steady hands and your lines around the cuticle aren’t neat – especially when you’re using a dark colour – use Leighton Denney’s Precision Corrector ... it’s a little bottle of strong varnish remover with a tiny brush which makes it easy to correct any mistakes, no matter how small!

4.   The top coat – I always use a top coat (apart from when I’m using Matt varnish) and have found Sally Hanson Diamond Shine Base and Top Coat is particularly good and give a good shine.  Again, I take it over the top of the nail (it helps to seal the colour in and prevents chipping)

5.   The Quick Dryer – I finish off with Pro Strong ProQuick (quick dry manicure dryer, which you can only get from either QVC or eBay, but it’s by far the best quick dryer I’ve ever found ... and I’ve tried ‘em all!) – again, I wouldn’t use this on matt varnish as it dries quick enough without it.

6.   Follow with a good hand cream ... if it’s a good one, you can also massage it into the cuticles – my favs are Clarins Hand and Nail Cream and L’Occitane.  They’re both non greasy, work into the hands well, smell lovely and don’t have a greasy residue.

It sounds like a lot of effort, but it’s really not ... takes me about 10 minutes from beginning to end and the results last at least a week ... well worth it!

And my best tip ... don’t ever, EVER do any kind of housework without wearing rubber gloves and most of all NEVER, EVER put bare hands in washing up water! ... NEVER!  There endeth the lesson!

Next post will be about Minx nails ... they’re the brightly coloured/patterned or metallic nails that the likes of Katy Perry, Beyonce and Cheryl Cole seem to be favouring at the mo.  I’ll tell you how you can do them yourself rather than have them done and a salon and save yourself ££££££s!

Until then lovely people, stay fabulous!

Lots of love

Jx

The Date – Chapter 2

So I left my last post having just met the man of my dreams (NOT!).  I don’t think I told you his name ... KEN!  Says it all ... sorry if I’m offending any Ken’s out there, but I’ve only ever known 3 Kens ... one was my cousins ex husband who’s about 70 and not a very nice person ... at all! Ken Dodd and Ken Barlow!

Anyway, I digress ... we left the other bar and went back upstairs to the bar we were supposed to meet in.  It’s always a bit awkward when you meet someone for the first time, let’s face it, even though you may have spoken them, it’s still pretty much a blind date and you’re trying to sus each other out. 

When we got upstairs, the waitress showed us to a high, bar type, small square table with high bar stools (well they’d have to be, given that the table was tall! Lol) and we sat next to each other (that was unfortunate as you’ll see later) and we ordered drinks.  Then, it began in ernest ...

He was loud, obnoxious and spoke about himself (amongst only a couple of other, rather ugly things) and how wonderful he was, the whole time ... honestly ... the WHOLE time!  Oh, and he kept hitting my arm (as I was sitting quite close to him – shame I didn’t sit the other side of the table so he couldn’t have reached me!) and said “eh eh” every time he said something he thought was funny! OMG ... Kill me now!

I’d have got out of there sooner than I did if I could have mustered the strength (I was shattered, a bit punch drunk and ever so slightly disappointed, after the mega long day I’d had and him being such a plank).  I remember thinking “How quickly can I get out of here?” In fact, I had quite an internal dialogue going on.  I thought, “I can’t go yet” that was after 10 minutes, “But why can’t I go yet?  I don’t know him, I don’t owe him anything and I don’t like him!” ... cut a long story short (you really don’t need to know the whole conversation I had with myself), I decided to give it an hour and then I was outta there.  Big mistake ... I really should have gone sooner!

So, what did we talk (or should I say, what did HE talk) about?

·         He said that most men wouldn’t have bothered with me after I’d postponed our first meeting but that I was lucky because he ‘wasn’t other men’ (asshole)

·         How fabulously fit he was (he really wasn’t)

·         How he liked a good fight (honestly!)

·         How people didn’t like the fact that he was opinionated (wonder why)

·         How his ex-wife had taken him to the cleaners (don’t bloody blame her, she deserved a good payment for having to sleep with him and listen to his shite)

·         How rich he was (found that hard to believe ... he was wearing pleather for God’s sake)

·         How most women who he’d met on the dating site wanted to jump straight into bed with him on the first date and weren’t interested in a relationship (in his dreams)

·         And finally ... how most women were bitches, although he was sure that I was different (nice) 

That was my cue to exit stage left.  When I said it was time for me to leave, he got really quite pissed off and said he couldn’t understand why, because we’d only just got there, we were getting on so well and he thought we were going to “make a night of it” – don’t ask me what he meant by that ... I shudder to think. 

He said, “So because you’re making a quick exit, you obviously don’t like me and don’t want to see me again!” ... OK, now, if I’d met him in the afternoon (Rule No 1) I’d have said “Correct”.  However, as I had to walk a few dark streets away (breaking Rules No 4/5) I decided not to piss him off further and said “Of course I do!  I’m just tired ... it’s been a long week blab la bla” and he said that he’d give me a call in a day or so and we’d arrange to go for a meal ... which I agreed with.  Anything to keep him on side ... after all, I didn’t know him from Adam and I’d already broken most of my own Rules!

Well, he walked me to my car ... and when we got there (me practically running, well as much as one can in 6 inches) he hugged me again ... ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ... I dived in the car as quickly as I could and locked the door.  Phew!  I started the engine and was outta there within seconds.  About 3 minutes later, I got a text through from him saying that he couldn’t wait to see me again and to go for a ‘lovely meal at ... (I can’t remember the name of the place he said)’.  I didn’t reply and haven’t heard from him since!  Phew!

So .... I’ve decided to give the dating thing a rest again for a while ... it’s all too much for me!!!!  Sets my nerves on edge ... I’m a bloody nervous wreck at the best of times, but this is on a whole other level!

The lessons I learned this time ... to stick to my own Rules ... I made em up for a reason ... Safety First!!  Oh, and get them to send a ‘recent’ picture of themselves before I agree to meet them. 

More potty stuff soon my lovelies ... including some Top Tips stuff (haven’t done any of them for a while).  Until then, as always, be fabulous!

Lots of love

Jx

The Date – Chapter 1

So in my last post I told you about my latest dating escapades and said that I’d tell you about the one and only date I’ve had out of the last tranche of the North's most eligible bachelors (yeah right!).

Well here goes ... I’d had an email from a guy which was quite sweet and really rather funny!  Mehreen and I looked at his picture and christened him “Chipmonk”.  He wasn’t what you’d call ugly, he had quite a pleasant face, but he really did look like a chipmonk!  You know ... sticky out front teeth and fat cheeks.  So we agreed that I should give him a go and the (by now) familiar routine of emailing followed by number swapping ensued.

We arranged for him to call me when I knew I’d be in the car (again, you need to read the previous post for the reason) and he did.  We had quite a good little chat for about 20 minutes ... he made me laugh (which is always a good sign).  He said to ignore his picture on the website as he’d lost quite a bit of weight, cos when he saw the picture of himself, he thought he resembled ... yep, you guessed it, a chipmonk!  At least we agreed on that ... although I obviously didn’t say anything.

He was really quite funny and there were no awkward silences, unlike 'Ole Blue Eyes' from my previous post (in fact, in retrospect, I couldn’t get a word in edgeways!) and I had to end the call when I reached my destination and we agreed that we would speak again before the weekend ...  I think that was a Tuesday.  Anyway, we did speak again later in the week and we agreed to meet up on the Sunday. 

FYI, I have some safety rules when I’m meeting men from these dating sites ... you really can’t be too careful and I’ve had pretty shitty experiences with people I thought I knew well, let alone complete strangers!  So I’ve designed my own dating rules for when you meet someone for the first time:

1.   Meet them in the day wherever possible

2.   Only meet them for a drink – coffee is good – cos you can get away quickly if it’s not working out and they don’t expect the world! 

3.   Never have a meal with them on a first date, it’s far too personal and what the hell do you do if you find you don’t like them when you meet them ... you’re stuck with them then for at least a couple of hours and you have to watch them eat!  Ewwwwww

4.   Meet them somewhere YOU feel safe.

5.   If you do meet them at night, make sure it’s a place with a well lit car park not too far from your home (not theirs), for obvious reasons

6.  Make sure you tell someone what you're doing and where you're going

So, with this in mind, we agreed to meet on a Sunday afternoon at 3.00 pm for coffee (only he was quite patronising when I said ‘coffee’ ... I should have known then ...).  However, when Sunday came I had to postpone.  I’ve been having some work done in the house and my dad had come round that morning to put some shelves back up for me after having some walls plastered.  Unfortunately, it took far longer to put them back than expected and as my dad was being such a star, I didn’t want to leave him while I met this bloke.  So I texted Chipmonk and said that I needed to postpone.  He seemed OK about it and we agreed to meet on the Thursday evening ... (Rule 1 - broken).

As I felt quite bad about having to cancel, when he said that we should meet in a bar that was 40 minutes from home, I felt I couldn’t really say no. Mistake ... you can ALWAYS say ‘no’ (Rule 4/5 – broken).  You owe them nothing!  Another lesson learned as you'll see ... 

So, Thursday came around, it took me two hours to get home from work, I had 10 minutes to get ready and I got back in the car to travel the 40 minutes to meet him. 

When I was about 2 minutes away I got a text from him saying he was in the bar.  I had massive trouble finding a parking space and had to park in a rather dark side street (Rules 4/5 – broken ... again!).  I darted out of the car and went as quickly as my 6 inch heels would let me to where we'd arranged to meet.  When I got to the bar (which was upstairs), there was no-one around who even remotely looked like him or were on there own.  I spoke to a waitress and she said that he may be in the bar downstairs, next door as people often got the two places mixed up. 

So delicately (due to the heels!) I made my way back down the stairs and to the bar next door.  Just as I was about to go in, he came out bounding out and have me a huge hug! Ewwwwwww I thought, “I don’t know you, geroff!”  ... his aftershave was pongy too ... I thought it was all a bit weird.  When I asked why wasn’t he in the bar we’d agreed to meet in, he said that he’d gone into the other bar to use the toilet!!!! What’s all that about!?  And before you ask, of course there were toilets in the other bar!

Pretty much instantly, I knew he definitely wasn’t for me.  I think the pleather jacket didn’t help.  What is all that about?  I’ve said it before ... remember Ferrari man back in March? If you can’t afford a leather jacket, don’t get a fake leather jacket ... they’re horrid and they don’t fool anyone!  The main issue though (before I sound too shallow!) he was also at least 10 years older than the 45 years he said he was and totally unrecognisable from him picture ... what is all that about??? Why do people do that? ... they must honestly think that they look younger or that you won’t pick up on the fact that they lied or that they used a picture 10 years old.  Weird!  A bit like men who describe themselves as ‘Very Attractive’ ... don’t get that either!  And he wore light coloured jeans in winter ... WRONG ... and a really horrible chunky gold chain.  His skin was that kind of really sickly pale (read, 'recently been dug up') that comes from a really poor diet and too much alcohol ... anyway, you get the picture.  All in all, not very pleasant and all night, all I could smell was his pongy aftershave every time I moved my head (it must have got on my hair when he hugged me ... ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww).

Well lovelies ... I’m gonna have to leave it there for today ... things to do, people to see and all that.  Actually, I’m off to have some champers ... it’s on offer all over the place you know, well it is nearly Xmas and there’s a recession on!  I’ll finish the story tomorrow.

Until then ... be fabulous, you lovely people.

Love you lots.

Jx

Back to Internet Dating!

I can’t really remember where I was up to with my posts regarding internet dating ... I guess I should read back through ... second thoughts ... nah, can’t be bothered.

So, a month or so ago, when I was getting over my anaemia, I kinda came over with all this energy and thought “oooooo I’m gonna have a proper go at this dating thing this time!” even without any nudging from Mehreen!  So I decided to start by having a really good trawl through the men on the dating site and send as many winks as I could muster.  I also decided to finally reply to some of the many messages I’d had ... well, the ‘cleaner’ ones that had been sent by people who, on the surface, didn’t look to be complete psycho freaks!

So ... where shall I start ... hmmmmmmm let’s start with ‘Yoga Bloke’.  He was a rather yummy looking guy who included a picture of himself doing a head stand in a pair of skimpy shorts and he was topless ... well that caught Mehreen’s and my attention (OK, so we’re fickle!), he had a very fine torso even though I say so myself! So I sent him a message ... after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing he asked from my number, which I sent ... that was the last I heard from him!  Mehreen and I agreed that he was one of those who love the chase and stop when he gets the number, or he’s married and panicked or both!

Then there was ‘Scouse Man’.  In his profile, he said he had his own business and he seemed quite articulate (ie he could spell and use punctuation in the right places, including capital letters at the start of a sentence ... quite a rarity in the dating email world!).  We emailed a few times and he sounded quite nice, so again, when he asked me for my number, I gave it to him.  By the way, I’ve found the best time for me to speak to these guys is when I’m in the car.  That way, I’m in control (yep as I’ve said, I’m a control freak) and I have to do it ... I can’t find something else to do and I’m not waiting round for them to call.

So I was travelling down to Milton Keynes to get my eyebrows tatoo’d (that’s another story altogether and I will post it in the next few days) when he called me.  To say he had a Scouse (Liverpool) accent doesn’t do it justice ... now, don’t get me wrong, my whole family, both sides are from Liverpool and the majority have ‘accents’ ... and I do myself when I’m with family, however, this guy’s was so thicccccccckkkkkkkkkkkk ‘la’ I could hardly understand him (my dad would go berserk if I introduced someone like that to him!) ... less than articulate just doesn’t cover it!  In fact, some of my friends have very young children and have a much better grasp of the English language than he did!

What made things even worse was it quickly became apparent that he didn’t actually own the business, as he’d said in his profile and in his email, he just worked there (I wondered why he said he needed to speak to me at lunch time ... turns out, it was cos he wasn’t allowed to use his mobile in work and he had to leave the office to speak to me and he could only do that at lunch time ... definitely not a business owner!) and had spent most of his working life, “on da tools la” (honestly, I kid you not ... that’s what he said!) fixing fridges.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with fixing fridges, just don’t lie about it!!!!! 

... So after about 5 minutes of being called ‘La’ and ‘Gerl’, I made the excuse that I needed petrol and I’d text him later.  Phew ... that was a close one.  About 3 days later, I got a text from him asking if I was free for a chat ... I didn’t reply.

Next there was Mr Millionaire (Oh how we do love naming them all, as you can tell!).  On his profile, it didn’t say much about what he did, but he described his best feature as his ‘piercing blue eyes’ ... honest ... I know I keep saying it, but you can’t make it up!  This guy had sent me about 10 messages and I hadn’t bothered replying, but with my new ‘gung ho’ stylie, I thought I’d give him a go. 

Same thing happened ie emails followed by phone call (when I was in the car of course).  We had quite a lovely chat (I thought – although there were quite a few awkward silences – which I babbled to fill), where he told me that he was a multi millionaire and had been living for the last 4 years in St Tropez and that he no longer worked cos he was so rich!  Hmmmmmmmmmm don’t quite believe that ... anyway ... we talked for about 40 minutes and we seemed to have quite a bit in common (and no, I don’t just mean a love of Louis Vuitton!) but I never heard from him again!  Dunno what I said!  Shame though, I thought we'd have been quite nice together ... not just cos he was a millionaire or anything! Lmao

Well, I gotta go right now ... but tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the date I went on with 'Chipmonk' ... Betchya can’t wait! lmao

Until then, be fabulous, lovely people.

Lots of love

Jx

Sorry for the Delay!

Well ... it’s been a while and I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for the constant badgering I’ve had from lovely Glynn (Thanks Glynn! ... no I really do mean it :-) ... I wouldn’t have got my backside in gear if it wasn’t for him!).  So this and I guess the next several posts should be dedicated to him ...

Thanks Glynn!

I didn’t really think I had a lot to say (hence the lack of posts) but as I’ve sat down to think of things, I find I have a few, so I’ll just write them down as they come and it’s doubtful that they’ll be in any kind of chronological order, but who cares!

So what have I been up to since August ... well, there’s been more internet dating, I’ve had my eyebrows tatoo’d by a rather famous eyebrow tattoo type lady (who gave me loads of celeb gossip), I’ve had a lot of work done in the house and I’ve started cooking!  Yes, you read it right ... I’ve started cooking!  She who’s usual idea of cooking involves anything from M&S that pings, has actually started COOKING ... from scratch ... no packets, no pot noodle, no super noodle, no tinned soup ... nothing that requires microwaving (unless I’ve made more than I can eat and have frozen it)  or that comes ready made.

Now for those of you who don’t know me will be thinking, “So what, I cook all the time”, well I’m very happy for you ... I don’t!  I’ve pretty much always worked ridiculously long hours and travelled a lot with my job, so cooking has never been high on my agenda ... in fact, until very recently, I used my cooker to store paperwork in ... well, it was extra storage space and I tend to dust rather than clean the hob!!!

I do have to say that it’s always been a question of “Won’t Cook” rather than “Can’t Cook”.  Like my dad keeps telling me, “Of course you can cook, you just choose not to!”  However, I have had a bit of a wake up call lately which kinda led to the discovery of my gastronomic talents ...  I’ve been feeling very lethargic of late ... I mean, not ‘a little bit tired’ lethargic, but ‘couldn’t move’ lethargic ... very unlike me, plus, I’ve had a few bouts of sickness this year (again completely unlike me ... I just don't do ill ... ill is for whimps!) so a couple of blood tests later, found out that I was extremely low on iron, like EXTREMELY low.  Since discovering that, taking liquid iron (ewwwww) and changing my diet, I can safely say that I’m feeling almost back to my boisterous self!  So a word of caution here ... if you’re feeling really tired, I mean REALLY, UNUSUALLY tired, get yourself checked out ... don’t leave it like I did ie until you can hardly move!

Anyway, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve cooked (as I said earlier, no ‘ready made’ packets involved ... oh except dried pasta) spag bol (both beef and turkey), sausage casserole x2  (it was that good I’ve made it twice ... very yum!), bolognese pasta bake, to name just a few.  Oh, and my freezer’s full too.  I haven’t quite caught the idea of portion control yet ... gotta work on that or I’ll be the size of an elephant in no time.  One of the many virtues of ready meals is the control you have over your calorie intake, hence one of the reasons why I’ve always eaten them.  We must never forget that:

 Weight = Calories In Vs Calories Out!

Anyway, last Friday, I invited my friend Deb and her lovely daughter Devon round for tea and made cheesy garlic bread, a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) pasta bake and feta cheese salad, which I think went down well as Deb had 3 helpings, plus what Devon didn’t eat and she took a 4^th home for her dinner the next day!  I’ve know Deb for ever ... her comment, “Bloody hell, I’ve known you for 20 years and never knew you could do this!” So I guess it can’t have been that bad!  The only thing is, the cat’s out the bag now, so I'll have to invite her round for dinner a bit more often!

Talking of Devon, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas this year and was promptly told that she wanted a new party dress.  As she’s rather erm, selective about what she'll wear and I didn’t want to run the risk of buying her something that she didn’t like. I said to Deb that the next time she’s working on a Saturday, I’d take Devon shopping.  So last Saturday, we headed off to the Trafford Centre (a huge shopping mall about 30 miles away).  Devon hadn’t been before, but she loves shopping (what girl doesn’t ... she’s 9 by the way) so I knew she’d enjoy it. 

When we got there, she was really patient with my while I ran some errands in Selfridges (obv), we then trotted off to Next to look at frocks for her.  When we got there, I said that she could try anything on she wanted, so after about 10 minutes we had a selection of 4 dresses (rather a conservative amount I thought!) and headed to the changing rooms.  The first one she tried on I knew was the ONE ... her body language changed and she went all girlie (Devon is not a girlie girl) and did a little twirl ... it was soooooo cute!  She tried on a couple of the others but the first one was obviously the right one.  We then went on to complete the outfit with shoes, cardi, tights and jewellery.  So with one happy little girl and my bank balance dented somewhat, we headed off for food.

I asked her where she wanted to eat (bearing in mind that there are restaurants of every description in there), where did she want to eat?  “Maccy D’s!”  So MacDonalds it was ... really, she wanted to sit in the ‘boat’ (those of you who know the Traff will know what I mean) and watch the big screen TV ... you forget that those things are exciting for kids, if you don’t have them.  I’d have been far more excited about eating in a nice restaurant!  All in all, we had a fab day and a real giggle plus Devon got a fab Christmas outfit.

As for cooking ... I’m gonna carry on and do much more ... in fact, I did moules mariniere (mussels in white wine sauce for you non cooks! lmfao) and a crusty roll for dinner last night! I loved it so much when I was in Italy and it was surprisingly easy to do ... I may have to post the recipe at some point!  Ohhhhh there’s an idea for my blogs! .... There’s no stopping me now ... Master Chef here I come! lol

Until next time (more dating stuff I think), have fun lovely people.

Lots of love

Jx

PS A most massive thank you for your continued support.  I've had over 600 views now!  Unbelievable ... I'm so pleased ... THANKS!