Well this week hasn’t gone quite the way it was meant to!

Last Sunday I was supposed to have been jetting off to the sun for 5 days with my Mum, Kathleen and Katy (my Sister)  but instead of sun, sea and a couple of cocktails, I was faced with snow, ice and a cup of peppermint tea!

Having monitored the ‘snow situation’  for a week before we were due to go, we made the decision to stay at the Radisson Blu Stansted  the night before we were due to leave to ensure that we were at the airport in plenty of time for our flight – well it’s a real shame BAA Stansted didn’t make the same provisions, as a lack of staff (security was manned by Police due to shortages!) and a 5 hour queue to get through to departures resulted in us missing our flight (it took off with FOUR passengers!!) and ultimately our whole holiday!!

Ever the optimists, we tried to make the most of the ‘break’ and my Mum and Kathleen came to stay with me for the week which was lovely so it wasn’t all bad!

Day 36

Having been up since 4.30am and then loosing out on our holiday I didn’t think anything could make me smile today! It was one of those days where anything that could have gone wrong – DID! Even the vending machines at the coach terminal were working against me, I paid my pound for a packet of McCoys and instead was treated to a Double Decker – eurgh!!

After finally getting a coach back to Colchester from the airport, we became a bit stuck as there were no buses running and I couldn’t get through to any of the cab companies so we had to brave the walk up the hill to Marks & Spencers where there is a cab rank (and a hotel if worst came to worst).

Trying to pull our cases up the high street through thick snow wasn’t quite what we had planned for today (We should have been laying in the sun, reading our books!) and all of a sudden I had a hysterical giggling fit! I think it was the disbelief of what had happened and to be honest was probably one of those moments where if you didn’t laugh you’d cry – I managed to capture the moment on camera and I think you’ll agree that Kath’s face just says it all…..

Day 37

After getting home at 4.00pm yesterday afternoon and then sleeping from around 5.00pm through till 11.00am the following morning, I had one of the best sleeps I’ve had in a loooooooooooooooong time!!

The good kip was desperately needed and after our first tea fix of the day (I’m becoming quite obsessed with the peppermint variety!) and a more positive head than yesterday, we decided to cheer ourselves up by booking another holiday (well 2 but who’s counting eh!!)

We have now rebooked this cancelled holiday for end of May (get myself a nice healthy glow for when the hubby comes home!) and our usual winter break in November.

Let the countdown begin – AGAIN!

Day 38

The main reason we chose to go away when we did was to celebrate Kathleen’s birthday and so Mum and myself decided to bring the ‘party’ to my house instead – although there were a couple of changes as the dolphin cruise and beach restaurant were quite hard to replicate so we settled for steak and chips and a game of Trivial Pursuit instead!

It’s nights like these which just go to prove that it doesn’t really matter where you are just as long as the company is good, a fab time can be had!

Day 39

After popping into town earlier today we somehow got round to talking about our favourite films and I couldn’t believe it when I found out that neither of them had seen The Notebook!

This is one of my all time favourite films (Noel and myself went to see it at the cinema on our second date) so with plenty of tissues at the ready and a large bag of Maltesars, we snuggled up on the sofa to watch it.

We were going to watch P.S I Love you too but we ran out of Kleenex!

Day 40

I was a bit late this month with getting my copy of Wedding Ideas Magazine but oh my was it worth the wait!

I ♥ this magazine so much and I was never without a copy when I was planning my wedding which now seems so long ago! Since starting MWD, I have found I still buy this religiously as it’s a great way to keep up with all the trends and news but these amazing guys have also been such a HUGE support for which I can never thank them enough!

I got THE best suprise when I got to page 199 to find a mention regarding the Special Recognition Award AND picture of Noel and myself on our wedding day – bought a tear to my eye!!

Day 41

Well it looks like we might be getting a refund for our flights!

After sending a strongly worded letter of complaint to BAA Stansted on Monday, I today had a response from them acknowledging the issues were due to the problems some of their employees experiences getting to the airport following the heavy snow and that on this occasion they are looking at refunding flights.

A bit of good news to end the week eh!

I’m keeping me fingers crossed for a much better one next week.

Much love,

Emma xXx

Day 29

Going to see my Godchildren – Oh I ♥ these little boys so much! There’s Archie (he’s 3) and although he’s technically not my godchild I still consider him to be, and then there’s Stanley who’s 5 months and he IS my Godchild (well nearly lol). They are the most adorable little men and a complete joy to be around.

Day 30

Archie’s bath time – This little man has a whole bath full of toys (It’s no suprise that he enjoys bath time so much) but on Monday the only thing he wanted to play with was a teeny weeny bit of fluff which had come off his jumper on Sunday! He loved this bit of fluff so much he named it – Mr Fluffy!! The game was so simple – I had to save Mr fluffy from drowning, give it to Archie and then he would chuck it in again. Who could have though a bit of fluff could cause so much entertainment – this really made me smile!

Day 31

Avon Maxi Tan – I was looking for some new suncream for my holiday and came across Avon Maxi Tan which they had on special offer for just £2.80 a bottle! I normally get a great colour while I’m away but everytime without fail, last day of the holiday I peel!! This cream you apply before you put your sun protection on and with seven 5* reviews (all saying no peeling!) and a saving of £4.20 it seemed silly not to try it! I ordered it on next day delivery (it arrived this morning) and all I can say so far is that it smells GORGEOUS!! Will do a full review on this when I am home.

Day 32

Met up with the lovely Steve Hooper and Hayley Oats. Was so nice to see them both and very kind of Steve to treat us to a fab lunch at The Old Siege House, Colchester – I had the steak (which was perfect) and came with the most amazing homemade chunky chips!!

Day 33

A good nights sleep – Now those of you who know me will know this doesn’t happen often! This makes such a HUGE difference to both how I work and generally feel and today I felt like I was ready to tackle anything!! I am hoping to get the same again tonight (fingers crossed!)

Day 34

Holiday Shopping & Phone call from the hubby – I’m off on holiday on Sunday for a few days and Kathleen came down to stay with me for a couple of nights before we go so we could go do a bit of shopping. Managed to get a couple of new vest tops so I was happy!

Day 35

Had a lovely phonecall from Noel today! He sounded brilliant and we’re both crossing the days off until he’s home for his R&R!! So excited already! I have got lots of fun little things planned for when he’s back and just really can’t to spend some time together.

Day 22

I went to the fabulous Alternative Wedding Fair today and met up with the gorgeous Amanda and Joyce! To top off a really lovely day, I also got to meet Charlotte from Restoration Cake (who looked AMAZING!!) and got to sample her cake. Oh gosh, it was out of this world!!

Day 23

I finally heard from Noel about his R&R dates – wooohoooooo!!!! The countdown can now officially begin! Before he went I didn’t know when I was going to be seeing him again but now being able to cross off the days and see an actual date get closer – well there’s nothing like it!! I am so excited already and just can’t wait to see him!

Day 24

Pintrest

I love this so much and I have always said the same thing! While my friends would all want to be Doctors or Fashion Designers, for me, the answer to that question was always ‘to be a Mum and just be happy’ – well one out of two isn’t bad eh! It’s the simple things in life that make me happy and those are the things that I treasure and that I’m grateful for everyday – my family, friends and health (well most of the time lol!). I may not have a huge financial fortune but I’m rich with love & happiness and to me, that’s all that matters xXx

Day 25

My sister is doing an acting course at South Bank University and today I went to see her in a production of Antigone: Remixed. Katy had the main part and was VERY nervous so she had needed lots of ‘sister’ hugs in the lead up. I really don’t know what she was worried about though – she was blooming amazing!! On the way out I overheard a conversation from a group of three girls saying how brilliant the girl playing Kreon was – Now THAT made me smile!!

Day 26

Going home – since Noel went away (been nearly 5 weeks now – scary!) my friends and family have been brilliant at keeping me nice and busy and it really has helped the time go quickly but sometimes, there just isn’t anything like your own home and walking through your front door, sitting on your sofa and doing your thing! I got to watch the Hollyoaks omnibus from the previous week without feeling guilty!

Day 27

My to do list – now, this is something that normally make me freak out as it’s so blooming long  (currently 3 pages!) but as I was reading through it this morning, I was getting very excited about all the amazing things I’ve got coming up over the next 6 months. First thing is the new post schedule which will be starting 1st February and there will be a post on Tuesday telling you all about what you can expect.

Day 28

Holiday countdown – Mum, Kathleen, Katy and myself normally go away for a bit of winter sun each November but this year, it was really difficult to get everyone together and a date sorted so we decided that we would postpone it until February. It seemed so far off at the time so I put it to the back of my head – but now it’s just a week away and I’m starting to feel quite excited!! I am going to be ordering my books next week so any recommendations (chick lit!!) would be most welcome.

Pintrest

Day 20

My pink Filofax Folder! Noel got me this for Christmas (fab bargain in their 50% sale – only £12.00!) and I have been dying to use it but just haven’t had the time so I’m going to add this to my ‘To-Do’ list before I go to bed! Here’s a pic for anyone who missed it on Twitter…

Oh and this is another think that made me smile today too – I bought myself the cutest Oyster Card holder from Marks & Spencers and it was only £3.50 – total bargain eh!!….

They didn’t have the green one in the shop so I think I may have to invest in one of those too!! At that price, it would be rude not to!

Day 21

I’ve had such a lovely chilled out day that I’ve really been smiling all day but this really made me happy!! I’m can’t quite work out whether it’s because I really like the suggestions in the clip OR if it’s because I have decided to write all 29 suggestions in my lovely new pink pad (see above!) to christen it with something morale boosting – Sadly, I really do think it’s the latter. Anyway, see if there’s anything here that can make you smile….

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

I feel like I spend my all my time apologising on here for the lack of posts but I promise that this time I really did have a legitimate reason for it (see my previous post – eeeek!) and it won’t happen again – pinky promise!!

Day 13

Well, I don’t think it’s going to take you much to work this one out lol!! The thing that made me smile the most today was attending the fabulous Wedding Ideas Awards, meeting LOADS of amazing people, seeing Noel on the screen giving me a message and getting to share the whole experience with my Mum & Aunt – On cloud 9!!

Day 14

Phone call from Noel! I was so excited as I hadn’t heard from him in just over a week. I spent the whole 10 minutes squealing about how brilliant the night before had been and that I was so proud to see him & the message he left too. He was just  so delighted and I think relieved that he didn’t have to keep the secret any longer! I then had my Nan on the phone not long after and she was so excited because Noel then phoned her too! He made her day!

Day 15

Seeing my gorgeous Nan – Oh I love this lady SO much!! She is just so beautiful and the kindest sweetest lady you could have the pleasure of meeting. She is 90 years old and has not got a bad bone in her body! Noel has a brilliant relationship with her too which means the world to me. They adore each other and are great friends! I took my award over to show her and she was so proud. Here’s a picture of her we took in November last year (You can just see Noel in the back pushing her). Never one to miss out on the chance to make us smile (wearing the gorgeous Poppy Sparkle Poppy too!) ….

Day 16

Having explained how much I love my Nan, the thing that made me happy today was that I got to spend the morning with her as I took her to the Dentist to get her fitted for a gorgeous new pair of gnashers and then we went for a lovely lunch after. Love you Nan!

Day 17

The thing that made me smile most today is just watching my Mum & Dad. They are just wonderful!! They are about to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in March and they honestly love each other so much. We were watching a film called ‘The Guard‘ and they were sitting giggling away together all snuggled on the sofa. Just makes me so warm inside to see them like that! Love them both to bits!!

Day 18 & 19

These two days are combined as I took a bit of time out (thanks to my lovely husband!!!) and relaxed with my Mum!! We were treated to some much needed pampering and took advantage of the break to read and sleep LOTS!!! As you can imagine – this made me smile LOADS!!

Back later with more smiley antics!!

Muchos love,

Emma xXx

Today’s been another one of those days where so much has made me smile and I could write a list of about 20 things but I am being very strict with myself and limiting it to just the one, otherwise I run the risk of having to rename the post 124628 Things That Made Me Smile!

I think today’s post has to go to the Apple store on Regent Street…

Being the lovely big sister that I am,  I gave my little brother my Apple MacBook when he went to Uni back in 2010 and recently he had been experiencing problems with what he thought was the charger. Long story short (I’m getting good at doing this now!), after my Mum bought him THREE chargers and it still wasn’t working we knew it was time to take it to laptop hospital.

I booked the appointment online with the Genius Bar and we were seen right on time! The lovely lady who helped us (I am still kicking myself that I didn’t take her name!) found the problem near enough straight away (he hadn’t installed one of the important software updates!!) and that was it all fixed and all free of charge too!

Now that’s enough to put a smile on anyone’s face!

Two things have made me smile today and I couldn’t decide between them so I’m sharing them both…

♥ I had a lovely message today from my husband’s best friend (a big inspiration behind this site!) basically just checking if I was ok and to let me know that he and his wife were there if I needed them.  It’s little messages/thoughts like that which really help turn a frown upside!

♥ The other thing that really made me smile today was coming across this here…

Image Source: thecoastaltheory.com via Pinterest

This picture reminded me of my Dad’s best friend who has a saying which he lives his life by – ‘It’s nice to be nice’ and it’s just so true! A very easy, simple concept and something that I remind myself of daily. It takes much more time and effort to be mean or horrible – just be nice!

Tuesday 10th January 2011

I came across this today…

Image Source: Google.com via Pinterest

I couldn’t have found it at a better time as I’m currently looking into lots of new ideas and sometimes it is easy to frighten yourself, especially when you are going outside of your comfort zone but I am a firm believer that it is better to regret something you have done rather than something you haven’t and seeing this today has given me the extra push I needed!

I am one of life’s optimists and really like to concentrate on the positives without getting weighed down by any negative energy so when I seen Leah & Kelly were taking part in this project I thought this seems right up my street!

Each afternoon (5.00pm gmt) I will be writing about something that has made me smile that day and seeing as I am a little late in starting this I have a whole weeks worth for you to catch up on this afternoon so here goes…

Sunday 1st January 2012

My hubby phoned!! This was the first time I had spoken to him since he went away. Christmas/New Year is a really difficult time to spend separated from your loved ones and I was really feeling quite emotional that day but as ever, the sound of his voice perked me right up!! Those phone calls are just priceless.

Monday 2nd January 2012

New Year catch up with my little bro! Sean is only 19 (there’s 12 years between us!) but we are so close!! He is one of my best friends and I’ve been lost without him since he went to study in Liverpool back in 2010. He had been away with his friends for New Year so we managed to catch up for a few drinks which was really lovely.

Tuesday 3rd January 2012

I got to meet the lovely Joyce from Brides & Beauty, Amanda from Ardley Weddings Ltd and Sheridan from Ever & Ava.  They are such lovely ladies and I had a really fab night! Can’t wait to see them all again soon – I wonder if we will all have our ClaireaBella Bags next time lol?

Wednesday 4th January 2012

The lovely Kathleen came to visit. Now I feel the need to explain a bit more about this lady as you will probably hear a lot more about her in the future I’m sure. Kathleen is my aunt, godmother and best friend (I have a lot of these lol – you know who you are!!) all rolled into one! She is an amazing lady and a real inspiration. I always wanted a big sister when I was growing up and I certainly got that from Kaff! She is a complete nutter and the life and soul of every party. She’s a very special lady and I’m so proud to call her my aunt!

Thursday 5th January 2012

An email from the lovely Leah at Golden Apple Designs really put a smile on my face today – all will be revealed VERY soon!!!

Friday 6th January 2012

Boots the Chemist in Colchester – Poor Kaff had been feeling pretty ill for most of the day so we wanted to make sure we got rid of it as quickly as we could. We didn’t get into town until quite late and we literally got to Boots a couple of minutes after they closed. Now, I have worked in shops previously so I know how annoying it is when someone turns up late wanting to come in but when we explained to the lovely lady at the door what we wanted she let us in to buy some medicine. They were a really lovely bunch in there and so kind!

Saturday 7th January 2012

All bar One lunch – it wasn’t the actual food that made me happy, it was just the fact that we sat down for a couple of hours and had a good old chat!! The seats were lovely and comfy and the wine was going down too easily! It’s a good job Take Me Out was starting again that evening otherwise I think we would have stayed in there all night!

Sunday 8th January 2012

Bridesmaids – I know this film has had mixed reviews and I can definitely see why it’s a love it/hate it show BUT I must say that I thought it was fab! I really loved the storyline and thought Megan (played by Melissa McCarthy) was brilliant! I so wanted one of those Bridal Shower gifts!! I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t watched it yet but I can see why Megan took 9!!

Monday 9th January 2012

Now, today has been a bit of a strange one for me! I was posting my first big parcel off to my husband (all the others so far have been envelopes so I knew they would be ok – we can only send up to 2kg in each parcel!) so off I goes to the post office with my big box! I kind of had the feeling Noel was going to phone today and typically he does after I have been told that my parcel weighs nearly 4kg so I would have to split it! Luckily Noel was able to phone me back in 40 mins which I thought would give me enough time to sort it out and be back home -eeeeeeeeeeer no!! How wrong could I be!! I spent an hour and 10 minutes splitting this box into SIX different parcels, going from one checkout to another to buy brown tape, cellotape, bubble wrap, and envelopes! Anyway, long story short, when Noel phoned me back I was still in there but was getting more stressed by the minute so by the time he called back I was in tears with my head in the freezer (tucked between the Aunt Bessie Parsnips & Yorkshire puddings) so no one could see me!! This is the first time I have been on my own since he left and it just felt like I couldn’t do anything right! He was brilliant, called me a muppet and cheered me up in a instance but what really made me happy was an hour later he phoned AGAIN!! I have never had two phone calls in one day so I was over the moon! He had just been for a brew with his friend and thought he would phone to make sure I got home ok without any further dramas – Now that put a BIG smile on my face today!

Right, that’s the round up complete! Make sure you check back tomorrow afternoon for more 365 Things That Made Me Smile – and be sure to link to your website in the comments box below if you are taking part too. Would love to have a read.

Muchos love,

Emma xXx