A little honeymoon extra

Weight unfortunately. Despite months of trying to lose weight before the wedding (admittedly probably not hard enough) I managed to lose a couple of pounds if that. Then a couple of days before the wedding I realise some usually quite tight jeans were feeling rather baggy. Perhaps they just need a wash I thought, turns out I had been so stressed and running around like a crazed woman the couple of weeks before the wedding that I'd forgotten to eat very much. Or rather hadn't had time for my usual comfort eating! Very much unlike me which demonstrates the stress levels involved! So I'd actually lost half a stone or so. (Thankfully the dress still fitted!) Very good news indeed I thought as I headed off on my honeymoon, to America, I'll just eat so I don't put more on rather than trying to lose weight, keep myself level I said to myself. Easy peesy! Wrong! I've been to the US many times before and I know my eating habits over there consist of fries, M&Ms, ice cream and more fries so I'm not sure why I kidded myself that I'd manage not to put on any weight but I often have these stupidly unattainable beliefs that things will be fine!

Fast forward amazing honeymoon of lots of delicious fried and sugar filled food and I've come back weighing as much as I did a few weeks before the wedding, which isn't so bad for a whole month of 'more fries please', but I was uber pleased I'd gotten under a certain stone and now I'm back well over it. Eurgh!

So the exercise regime has started again. To tell the truth, the only thing I was looking forward to about coming back from honeymoon (Monday back at work was one of the most painful days ever!) was getting to do some exercise again! I'm one of those weird people who genuinely enjoy running. Not just because it means I can eat more bread, chocolate, cheese once I get home from one, but actually enjoy being out there and pushing myself. However, my leg got injured in May/June so I'd had to stop running (the panic that ensued is another blog post entirely!) then there was the wedding, then the honeymoon so I'd not run in about 3 long months. I think the longest I've not run in the last 7 years was for a two week holiday so this was torture for me! Anyway, I've wandered from my point. So I went running at lunchtimethe first Tuesday back at work for a short 30 minute run to get back into it and boy did my legs hurt the next day. Hurt like I'd done a half marathon when in actual fact I did a loop through a park and onto a footpath for 33 minutes! So my running needs work but it was so fun being able to run without my leg being super painful and giving way beneath me. (This time last year I was walking around with super painful legs but basking in the glory of completing the Great North Run in a new PB so I really have a long way to go to get my fitness back!)

The last couple of weeks I've been able to get back on my jazzy new road bike (wedding present from husband, which I may have gotten a couple of weeks early due to severe trauma of ex-bike involving metal brackets snapping) and cycle to work rather than the train, cue more legs-that-haven't-been-used-in-so-long-pain. But good pain, feel like you've earned the pain type of pain. Kinda sore backside though!

Unfortunately because I'm exercising my subconscious then thinks it's fine to eat my weight in nuts, crackers and biscuits once I get home, and then eat dinner, so I'm pretty sure I'm balancing out the calorie burning with my calorie intake. Dam it! Maybe I should just give up and put on weight and stop shaving, that's what you're supposed to do once you get married right?

xXx

Wanderer returns

I've been away. Both physically and mentally, in a parallel universe known as weddingdom. It was fantastic, stressful, amazing and all consuming. I started this blog last winter/spring naively thinking I could blog whilst planning the sh*t out of our August wedding all at the same time. Everyone else seems to do it so why can't I? Um because work and wedding planning was more than enough to try to balance for me (not that that worked out so cleverly either), let alone adding a blog to it. So it fell by the wayside.

Not that it left a huge hole in the blog world, or indeed a hole at all but it was something I was excited about doing, so is something I'm going to pick back up on now that I've returned from the the parallel universe I've been existing in for the last few months and from honeymoon (which was it's own kind of reality escape in itself!)

Thing is I now don't have any exciting wedding news to share with blogland or fun trips to suppliers, wedding dress shops etc. So it's just me and the simple (perhaps often a little dull) life that I'm glad to be able to get back to. Raw and uninspiring as that is, I love my life with my lovely new husband in our little house in the country, I just wish we could be on honeymoon forever...



Quadruple layer chocolate cake

I made a four layer chocolate cake last weekend and it was so delicious (if I do say so myself!)

It had blue, yellow and red buttercream inside (I bought food colouring at Tescos and went a little crazy) and then was covered in chocolate butter cream, yum yum! 

I love making cakes but have to limit myself and try not to make them very often because when I do we just want to eat our way through them until we feel sick! 

I had to cut two cakes in half to make a semi-circle 4 layered cake, which was probably wise for our calorie intake as the slices were massive and we'd still be eating it this weekend if I'd made a whole one!

The Cadbury's fingers were a last minute addition as we'd bought some on offer when making a dash into Sainsbury's for our dinner last Saturday. The problem was we then ate our way through the rest of the packets too! 

Bad weekend for our wedding diets. 

Royal Wedding

Oh my goodness I totally looooovvvveeeeddddd watching the royal wedding. It was even more exciting and fabulous than I'd prepared myself for! I know I'm a week late in commenting but I felt I still had to express how magnificent it all was (yes royal wedding haters, I just used the word magnificent). I was so happy for William and Kate/Catherine, it was a wonderful wedding and I was so glad we got to watch. You can really tell they are so in love!

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Oh and the dress was perfect!!! So elegant and yet understated. So Grace Kelly-esque with the dress and flowers. An excellent role model I'd say.

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I also particularly loved her evening one just as much and the fab little cardi. And didn't William look so handsome in his uniform?

One of my favourite parts was when the happy royal couple came out of Buckingham Palace in the Aston with all the ribbons on - a great tongue in cheek moment and fab to catch another glimpse of them!

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I wished, after watching it all on the TV, that I'd gone down to London to see it and soak up the atmosphere. Can't see myself camping on the pavement though. I'm so glad I did get to watch it on TV though, it really did feel like watching a piece of history be written and made me proud to be British.

Oh and I was completely in love with the trees in the Abbey, they looked awesome. Even though I know all other brides in the country (and probably across the world) will be doing the same, I'm still very tempted to try to replicate the effect for our wedding in August. Only with much smaller trees.

xXx

Best laid plans...

The best laid plans always go array as the saying goes. (I think). Or in my case the best laid plans to plan. I'd been looking forward to the Easter break for the last few weeks as an opportunity to get some proper wedding planning done and get some things decided so we could feel more on top of everything with about 3 months to go (eeek!) rather than drowning beneath them! Unfortunately the weather intervened and instead we spent our time enjoying the sun in the garden and going for cycle rides exploring the countryside around us. And now the weekend has disappeared, dam and blast! Sunny Easters don't come round often though so I supposes we were within our rights to enjoy it.

And look how pretty...

Now I'm making plans for this long weekend but that is going to be taken up with royal wedding viewing (actually really excited about it now!) and seeing family, so I guess I'm going to get very little done again. Story of my life.

Finding new blogs

I found a new blog today.

It's all about wedding flower inspiration. I'm a new fan and will be heading to it for ideas while I try to figure out what flowers I want for our wedding. My mind basically changes everyday.

I love finding new blogs, especially when they are full of wedding inspiration. Coming across a new and interesting blog is one of the best things about blogland. There are so many blogs out there that that you will always be able to find a new one and find out about someone whether it be their job or hobby or likes etc, it's always fascinating to get a glimpse of someone's personality.

One third of the way through the short week already, phew!

xXx

Happy Easter!