New puppy checklist

2020: The year of the puppy! 

I know there was a considerable rise in puppy prices and the whole 'bad-breeder' thing but my little boy has provided so much love and joy over the last couple of months, I wouldn't have changed a thing! 

Meet my puppy, Merlin!

I spent weeks doing research and making sure I had all the right things prepared for bringing my puppy home so here's my checklist of things I couldn't have lived without during those first few weeks. 

New puppy checklist:

• A crate (A controversial topic for some, but I chose to crate train)
• Play pen - for when you can't keep an eye on him
• Blankets - get a few, you'll be washing them a lot!
• A bed
• Food and water bowls (and a non-slip mat)
• Treats
• A treat pouch for walks
• Food - make sure to find out what the breeder has been feeding them
• Chews! - my pup was a chewer, so plenty of these will save your fingers and furniture!
• Puppy-friendly wipes
• Puppy-friendly shampoo
• Towels - especially for the UK weather!
• Poo bags
• Plenty of toys - ranging in texture and complexity to keep them fun e.g. kong, rope toys, teddies
• Collar and tag
• Harness 
• Lead
• Training lead - this will allow your pup to run around in the park without worrying about recall!
• Car restraint - wether you choose a seatbelt or car seat, just make sure pup is secure in the car
• Puppy pads (Not for everyone but your circumstances may require them)

It can be overwhelming looking at all the bits you need to buy for your pup and knowing what the best thing to get is. In my opinion, it's all trial an error - what works for one pup might not work for yours so just see what your little bundle of joy loves most!

Most importantly, enjoy your puppy xoxo

5 things I learnt from buying my first home

Being in a position to buy your first home is both incredibly exciting and nerve-wracking. I've been lucky enough to have loads of people around me that have either been through it themselves recently or work in the industry and have the knowledge to advise and help in most situations! 

So, although my experience was maybe 'easier' than most, i've compiled a little list of some of the things I learnt from buying my first home.

1. Don't get disheartened

Throughout the process of buying my flat, I experience my share of disappointment and upset. I'd gone through the process of putting an offer in, getting it accepted... as far as I was concerned everything was going swimmingly. Then I got told that it failed the mortgage valuation and I wasn't going to be able to get a loan on the property because of 'severe structural movement'!
I was back to searching for another flat, I quickly found another one that I fell in love with, just to have an offer declined and it taken off the market.
Finally, despite all that, i've ended up with a flat I love - i've always been a believer in "everything happens for a reason" and I think in this case that's definitely true.

So my take away: Don't get disheartened when things don't go your way straight away, something better will always come along. I truly believe that.

2. Find someone you trust that you can ask loads of questions!

I was in a very privileged position when going through this process, particularly during the mortgage side of things. My best friend is a *fantastic* mortgage broker and so I was able to go through her for everything, ask loads of questions and not feel stupid for doing so. Even questions that didn't relate to the mortgage obviously being in that line of work she had more knowledge about the process in general than I did and was able to offer solutions or at least point me in the direction of someone that might know the answer! I definitely think my experience would have been very different had I not had her to lean on.

3. Speak to a mortgage advisor before you start looking

This probably isn't something everyone would recommend but personally i'd say this is a big one!

I was so naïve when I first starting looking, i'd used one of the online calculators to find out how much I would be able to borrow and took that as gospel. Obviously, those online calculators can give you a ball-park figure but they don't take into account all your committed outgoings and finances etc. For me, it meant that I found myself looking at properties completely out of my budget and setting my expectations way too high!

I'd definitely recommend having the conversation before you get carried away on RightMove like I did.

4. Gather inspiration!

This one may be a little trivial but it's probably the most exciting part of the whole experience! Well, at least for me it was. One of the things that i've always been most exciting for when it comes to moving out was being able to decorate and kit out my own place any which way I wanted. But, I think the most important thing is to not get blind-sighted by what you think you want! I went into the process open minded but with a vague idea of what I thought I wanted each room to look like... grey!

However, by trolling through instagram and Pinterest (for hours and hours), i've ended up with a teal sofa and pink curtains! You never know what will work in the space or tickle your fancy until you've spent the time looking at all your options.

5. Be patient

I guess this one is kind of similar to number one but my god it's a big one! I can honestly say that the process of finding the perfect flat right through to actually moving in is one loooooong process. (I've been told it's even longer for flats because of the leases / management companies etc)

And, the worst part of the whole thing is when the solicitors are doing their bit and you hear nothing for weeks.. it honestly feels like nothings happening and there's no progression and then all of a sudden you're completing and moving in. It's a crazy journey and unfortunately one you just have to sit and ride out, it'll be worth it in the end!

Please note: All of the above information is based on my experience of buying a flat in the UK.

Spinal fusion update - 2 years on

It's crazy to think it's been over 2 years since I went under the knife to have my spine straightened and re-aligned. I'm fused from T11 to L3 with 8 screws and 2 titanium rods and I feel great!

I've been blessed with a relatively straight-forward recovery since my surgery and thankfully don't struggle much with pain. Don't get me wrong, it's not been plain sailing but when I read about the pain others have to deal with, I count myself as one of the lucky ones.

Occasionally I get an 'aching' pain down my left leg, it's always been my left leg that's taken the brunt of my weight and thus is the one that struggles with the pressure. Back in 2015 (maybe) I had a nerve-blocker epidural to help block the pain I was experiencing in my leg which worked perfectly for a few years but it's recently been making a reappearance!

Other than that, I get the odd twinge in my lower back but that's to be expected and watch what i'm doing at the gym rather than thinking that i'm invisible and a little niggle will just go away.

Raspberry & Chocolate cookies | Recipes

One of my best friends has recently moved out in to her first home and whilst I was over there visiting recently we decided to bake together using her ‘Bake-off oven'! We chose a recipe from Janes Patisserie (of course), her White Chocolate and Raspberry cookies. 

Initially we were going to attempt to use frozen raspberries because that’s what she had in the house but we decided that the 5 minute walk to Sainsbury’s was worth it, to avoid ending up with a soggy cookie. We also added less chocolate chips and less of the freeze dried raspberries because we didn’t want to buy any more! ha! 

6 week post-op update

Today marked the first return to the hospital since I was allowed to go home 5 days after undergoing major spinal surgery. I was quite nervous about going back but actually quite excited to finally see my x-ray. It's hard to explain but I personally found it really frustrating walking out of the hospital after my operation without having seen the x-ray, there was something about the fact that I couldn't see what he'd done that really bothered me!

We got the hospital a little earlier that my appointment, 'checked in' and were told to sit in the infamous waiting room. The white board showing who was holding each clinic today was saying there was a delay for the spinal consultant.. typical!

Thankfully, I was called pretty quickly and sent off for an updated x-ray which I was called for almost instantly too. The usual "I just need to check you're not pregnant" questionnaire filled out and the x-rays done, I was sent back to the waiting room before being called in to the consultants room.

Recipe | Eton mess cake

One of my go-to websites for recipes is BBC Good Food, each time i've tried one of these recipes i've always been impressed with how they've turned out. With being off work for 5 weeks, i've done a lot of baking recently - we had a couple of meringues left over from the other weekend so that was the basis of my search for this bake.

~2 weeks post op

When I finally received the date for my operation I was so convinced that it would get cancelled that I didn't allow myself to get excited for it. It seemed like i'd be waiting forever for the operation to come round but it went so quickly!

I had to be at the hospital for 7am on Friday 28th July, by 9am I was in the anaesthetic room being poked and prodded with needles ready to be wheeled through the double doors into theatre. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous at all - I think because it had been such a long time coming I was just so relieved to finally be there.

The next thing I remember was waking up in HDU with an oxygen mask on a wires coming out from every part of my body. They'd put some kind of vaseline or something on my eyes too so I couldn't see properly. It wasn't pleasant. Although, it's not the norm, the staff allowed my parents to come in and see me when I was brought round (for about 5 minutes) - I don't remember much of the first day, and very little of seeing my parents.

The next morning I was taken down to a ward, it was just me and 3 other, older ladies. It was a really pleasant ward, the staff were all lovely (particularly the good looking, Spanish nurse!) and the other ladies were all very friendly too.

On the Sunday, I was sat up and took my first couple of steps into the chair next to the bed. At this point I still had the morphine drip which was an absolute god-send! The day that came out, I definitely knew about it!

I was surprised at how quickly everything happened once I was moved to a ward, the catheter came out within a couple of days and I was able to put my own clothes on pretty quickly too. Throughout my entire stay at hospital I had no appetite and very little energy. I napped a lot during the day but never managed to sleep through the night - the pain always woke me up! It's hard to explain how painful/uncomfortable the whole experience was/is.

I had a slight reaction to the gauze too!

Since the operation I've only had 2 days where i've regretted going through with it. One day being when I was given an enema which resulted in me developing a temperature and breaking out in a cold sweat not sure if I was going to pass out or vomit or both! It was a horrific experience!
The other day should have been a happy day, the day I came home - I was fine all morning and even on the journey home. But once I was home and without the comfort of all the hospital staff and the reclining bed I really struggled to get comfortable and just had a bit of a breakdown!

But all-in-all I'm really glad i've had it done. I came home on the Wednesday morning following my operation and since being home i've improved massively. Everyone I've seen has been so surprised and impressed with how far i've come in such a short period of time. Everyday i've increased the distance i've walked and how long i've been sat up for.

Last Monday I had to go to the local nurse to get the dressing changed and the wound checked, she was happy enough with it to remove the steri-strips and sign me off to shower again (a massive relief!) However, since having the steri-strips removed the wound has weeped a little and we had a rogue internal stitch make it's way out which I had to go back to the nurse to have removed.

I'm still a while off returning to work and have an appointment back at the hospital at the beginning of September with my consultant to check the wound and hopefully we'll be able to see the x-ray finally! I'm hoping that appointment will be with my surgeon as we haven't actually seen him since the operation, i'm really intrigued to see how he thinks it went. Currently all we know is that he managed to achieve 90% of what he wanted to achieve but didn't managed to get as many screws in as he would have liked because there wasn't enough room...

So here's to the next 4 weeks.

Scoliosis update | The pre-op

I celebrated the end of the Easter holidays with a trip to NOH for my pre operative assessment, a 6am alarm and 5 hours later we left with more information and another few weeks of waiting!  

I was given a checklist of all the people we were scheduled to see during the day and a form to fill out about the conditions of your home in preparation for release from the hospital post op. First up, I was taken down for an x-ray, my consultant had ordered a bending x-ray so that he could see how flexible my spine was and thus which surgery (posterior or anterior).

We had a long discussion with my consultant, where he went through all the risks associated with the operation, what he was planning to carry out and how much of my spine he was going to fuse. (T11-L3 ± L4) Thankfully, my spine is still flexible - my curve reduces from a 42º to a 14º when bending meaning that my surgeon will be able to carry out a posterior surgery, rather than anterior and my surgery should only be a few hours. My consultant also told us that he’d requested another MRI as the one i’d had previously at Royal Berks hasn’t found it’s way to him! 

After the chat with my consultant I was taken for an ECG, blood pressure checks and blood tests. The nurse said that they don’t normally do ECGs for people of my age but because of the length of the surgery and the fact that it’s the spine, they were going to do one anyway. I was told I had a “text book” blood pressure but that my veins are wiggly and shallow. It took 2 nurses and about an hour for them to get enough blood to fill the little tubes they needed. I don’t have any visible veins in my “elbow pit” so they tried my hand to no avail. As a last resort, they tried the other hand and managed to get just enough.. the nurse said I was being “stingy” but it would have to do!! 

I had a chat with another nurse afterwards about the health of my lungs, heart and general health - questions about smoking, previous ailments and any medicines you take etc. After that, was a chat with another nurse about being a part of the British Spine Registry, which I joined - I think it’s just signing up to become a statistic essentially! 

Following that was another chat with a different nurse that went through more questions regarding my health and the suitability of our home for returning to, she carried out a MRSA swab and then gave me a bottle of antiseptic wash to be used the night before and morning of surgery and also a tube of cream to be used 3 times the day before and once the morning of! 

Finally, a little hallway chat with the Occupational Therapist about returning home and getting back to work. (essentially everything had already been covered throughout the day) It was a quick chat that concluded a very long day. 

All-in-all it’s a pain-free and relatively easy process, one that goes on forever but answers a lot of questions! I’ve been told to stop taking my pill (which you have to be off of for 6 weeks before they will operate) and to swap vodka for water! I’m still waiting on a date for surgery but have had the updated MRI, it’s now been 6 weeks since my pre-op and considering they only last 12, i’m hoping to hear soon. 

But for now, we wait. Again! 

WHAT I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS!

I hope you all had a lovely christmas and spent lots of time with your loved ones. I sure did, despite waking up with the weirdest stomach cramps on christmas morning (although it didn't stop me chowing down on my christmas dinner!) I really enjoyed my time off.

On Christmas Eve, my best friends came round to our house and we all exchanged presents between each other and had the best buffet dinner. Buffets are definitely one of my favourite kind of meals, especially when pigs in blankets are on the menu!

I was spoilt beyond belief again this christmas by my family and friends. I'm completely over the moon with all my gifts and have been making full use of all of them already! I've not included everything I got in the pictures, "fluff" and stocking fillers i've left out. I've also not included a picture of the box light my brother got me because I was using it to take the photos!

Disclaimer: I'm not gloating. Incredibly grateful for everything I received, just love reading this posts so wanted to do one of my own.

Those caramalised pecans in the back of this picture, sound delicious right? Well! They're definitely an acquired taste. They've got a "hint" of black pepper in them.. those mother fuckers, are loaded with the stuff. Completely underestimating in the first time I tried them, my mouth was on fire!!

I'm yet to try out the brush pens, but i'm super excited. The trend of brush script grew so much towards the end of last year and I absolutely loved it. Fingers crossed, with a bit of practice i'll be able to create some lush hand written stuff too.

Okay, so i've heard tons about the Garnier Micellar cleansing water from different YouTubers and bloggers and have been desperate to try it out for ages, so was super happy when I opened this. I've been using it religiously since Christmas Day and I love it, removing my make-up has never been so easy.

The Venus Swirl razor, a little random some might say but honestly that thing is like shaving with a cloud, it so soft!

My main present from my parents was the GoPro Hero 4 Silver. I'm really keen to start making videos, especially of little trips and holidays and I cannot wait to give this a proper go! Watch out for video updates on my scoliosis journey too!

My girls got my the MAC palette and Real Techniques brushes which I can't wait to use this year. I used them on New Years eve and a few other nights out already and I love them! One of my goals for this year is to learn how to do my eye make-up properly so this is literally the perfect gift. Girls did good!!!

So that's what I got for christmas this year. What did you get?

CHRISTMAS FAIR | STONOR PARK

With a massive hangover, I met up with a couple of girls that I used to work with and headed down to Henley to the Stonor Park Christmas Fair.

It's the first time i've ever been to a christmas fair (other than Winter Wonderland) and I was really impressed. It was all really well done. Stonor House is a beautiful big manor house which we were able to walk around. We were restricted as to where we could go when we were inside, but they're decorated it all christmassy an historic. It was stunning.

RECIPE | FRANGIPANE MINCE PIES

I love baking and I love trying new things, especially when it's a twist on something I already love to bake. I saw this recipe on the countryliving website and because my family love mincepies and anything almond/marzipan flavoured I knew they'd be excited to try these!

200+ MINCE PIES?!

It's become a tradition at Christmas that my mum and I bake over 200 mince pies each year.

"Why so many?" I hear you ask.

My mum is a caretaker/cleaner for a lot of elderly people and instead of buying them all naff gifts we always bake for them - they always appreciate a home made gift! Alongside that, we've always taken them to family get-togethers over christmas as well as each taking some in for colleagues too. On top of all that, we need some for ourselves too right!!

We don't make our own mincemeat (we actually use Sainsburys own brand) but we always mix a teaspoon or so of brandy to give it a little kick! Funnily enough, we also don't follow a recipe for the pastry, it's just something we've made enough to know when it's going to work and when it's not.

Instead of making 200 of the same mincepie, we decided to make 50/50 (ish) of standard pies with a little pastry star and the other half with the spiced orange crumble that we made last year.

Quick tip: If you sprinkle icing sugar over them when they're cool, it covers a multitude of sins!

These are the little ones that didn't pass QA!

I can promise you now that despite having baked over 200 already, we'll have to make more at some point..

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND

If you follow me on Instagram, (if not then you should be) you’ll know that I bake something almost every weekend, Halloween weekend was no exception of course but with GBBO having inspired me to challenge myself a little more, I decided to try and make something i’ve never made before! 

Chocolate webs!

I’d seen a load of things using piped chocolate on Pinterest lately and as i’m currently really enjoying learning how to pipe, I thought i’d give it a go. I used a tube of white chocolate buttons (You know the ones that come out for Christmas) and melted them in the microwave for just under a minute. Having never done this before I was a little worried that the chocolate was just going to run straight out of the nozzle but it was thicker that I first thought and I swear it went on forever!! I managed to make so many little webs and spiders from just one tube of chocolate!

FOREST HOLIDAYS | ARGYLL, SCOTLAND

This is our second trip to a Forest Holidays retreat and it was just as good as the first. I was anxious that, having been to the Deerpark retreat in Cornwall last October and having an absolutely brilliant time, that this wouldn’t be as good - I’ve revisited places before and been disappointed when they weren’t the same! But, thankfully, despite the 7 hour drive and 6am alarm on a Monday morning we had another fabulous holiday and will definitely continue returning to the Forest Holiday retreats. 

We left really early on Monday morning so as not to waste an entire day on the road, it meant we had a bit of an evening to unpack and settle in (obviously test out the hot tub) and relax before starting our holiday properly on the Tuesday.

STORY TIME | SCOLIOSIS

I've seen a lot of vlogs entitled "story time" lately, as a way for content creators to share a more personal story and raise awareness for a particular issue/condition that they have experienced. So, I wanted to do that same for something that I have had first-hand experience with.

What is scoliosis?

Scoliosis, the abnormal twisting and curvature of the spine, is a progressive medical condition with no cure. It affects approximately 1 in 35 people and often presents itself, or worsens, during the adolescence growth spurt and is more common in females than it is in males. It's not uncommon for people with this condition to experience no/very little pain and require no treatment at all. However, if left unchecked scoliosis can result in lifelong surgeries, disability, chronic pain and in some rare cases it can be life threatening. 

There is very little awareness for scoliosis considering the amount of people that are affected by it, because of that, I wanted to share "my story" to help shed some light on it. 

RECIPE | APRICOT CRUMBLE SQUARES

One of the old ladies my mum works for is always gifting her the most random things! She's the sweetest, most thoughtful lady. This week was a punnet of fresh apricots so as it's not usually a fruit we'd buy, we thought we might as well combine it with this weekends bake. A little flick through the cookbooks and we found a recipe for apricot crumble squares!

RECIPE | BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Confession! I've never successfully made muffins, that both looked and tasted like actual muffins.

So, at the weekend I gave it another go. This time using one of Paul Hollywoods recipes from the BBC Food website.

Serves: 8 muffins

Ingredients:
110g plain flour
110g butter
65g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2tsp baking powder
125g blueberries
pinch of nutmeg

double cream to serve

Method:

• Cream the butter and sugar together 
• Slowly add the eggs and mix for 3 minutes 
• Add the flour, baking powder and nutmeg - stir to combine
• Refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight (I probably left the mixture in the fridge for 1 1/2 hours in total)
• Place a spoonful of the muffin mixture into each case, filling each to just over half way
• Stud each muffin with approx 8 blueberries
• Bake in an oven set at 200ºc for 20 mins or until golden on top

To my surprise they actually turned out okay. I wouldn't say they were exactly like muffins but more like blueberry cupcakes. Nevertheless the recipe works and they taste really good!

When it came to eating them, I reheated mine for 30 seconds in the microwave and then dolloped a healthy serving of cream on top! Delish! 

Do you have any tips for making muffins that look and taste like muffins, let me know in the comments below.

RECIPE | MARY BERRY CHERRY CAKE

My Nan celebrated her birthday last week and it's tradition in her flats for residents to bring cakes to "coffee morning" on the Monday. Mum and I baked a lemon drizzle cake, some cupcakes and a cherry cake for her to take down with her.

This is one of my favourite cakes to make, it's simple to make and super yummy! I always turn to Mary Berry or GoodFood for recipes for anything I make, this recipe is one of Mary Berry's and just happened to feature in the Great British Bake Off back in 2014!

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

BELLINTER HOUSE | IRELAND

2016 marks the year of 21st birthdays, back in April was my best friends birthday and to celebrate another friend and I planned a little get-away for her. We decided on Bellinter House, which is a beautiful country, spa house in Ireland. Originally we’d planned to fly out midweek and return at the weekend but due to me being an idiot and not checking my passport was still in date, it was all postponed by 1 day. (And cost me a small fortune to rectify!)

After a hectic beginning to the break (& a quick dash into LDN for a new passport) we stayed at a hotel near Gatwick airport the night before our flight where we were able to start the celebrations. I ended up with a pretty rotten hangover for the flight out!

Once we got to Dublin, we spent the day in the town centre wandering round and ‘pub-hopping’. We also visited the Guinness Storehouse which was really good fun. There’s was a lot we didn’t get to see/do with only being in Dublin centre for the day. We were limited to how much time we could spend at the Storehouse due to needing to be back at the airport to collect our luggage! But, we did ensure we made it to the tasting session and collecting our free Guinness from the Gravity bar! Although, as it happens none of us were big fans of the drink, so opted for 1 Guinness between the 3 of us!

DEERPARK, CORNWALL

Back in October me and 4 friends headed for the forest for a week long retreat in the good ol’ fresh Cornish air. We stayed in one of the Forest Holidays resorts, it was a bit of a last minute plan and a quite a journey, but it was great fun!

When we arrived, we headed straight for the nearest alcohol-selling shop! After stocking up and grabbing a bottle of bubbly to celebrate our arrival we all jumped straight in the hot-tub, on our cabin’s balcony!!

It was divine, being out in the fresh air but completely submerged in the perfect, hot water! Bliss!

The cabins are super cosy and surprisingly warm – we were really lucky with the weather when we went, it was pretty mild, no rain and pretty sunny most days.

Between us we cooked dinner every night, including one exceptional roast! One night we even ordered curry/pizza to our cabin, they prepare the food in the reception and then deliver it to your cabin!!

As a group we chose not to pay for the TV package and with the very limited Wifi too we were almost completely screen-free for a whole week! It was really nice, we brought a couple of board games and accompanied with drinks and food it was a perfect evening activity.