Well, it’s been a while since I posted.. I’m sorry! A week ago today I was in Blackpool, being soaked to the bone. Literally! We headed up there for a family vacation, with Tim’s Dad and his Dad’s wife, his sister, his Dad’s wife’s two daughters, their husbands, and their four children. The plan was to go explore/see the illuminations on the first day, and go to Pleasure Beach (an amusement park) on the second. We ended up getting mostly soaked for the entire weekend, which was a downer. Tim didn’t even get to go on “The Big One” (some rollercoaster), because they shut it down due to wind. I didn’t go on any rides, I can’t stand rides! I did get some cotton candy though, to make up for being a wet rat both days. It was fun, to me the most enjoyable bits were the ones where we were in the warm, and preferably eating!!

The week was pretty uneventful.. yesterday was Halloween but this is England sooooo.. haha. Our flat definitely does not get any visitors and we didn’t even carve a pumpkin. Oh well. One day I will have a nice house in Ontario to decorate like mad :P I ended up spending my Halloween evening playing Zuma and Hexic HD on the xbox.. :)

Today Tim and I got soaked again when we went into Oxford. I ended up getting some cheap skinny jeans from Dorothy Perkins - £15! Tim also bought me a new nailpolish - Dior’s Black Sequins! I am impatiently waiting for my nails to grow out so I can start polishing… :)

We have friends coming over for dinner on Tuesday night, so the plan is to clean clean clean all day tomorrow! November is our “Save Money” month, so we won’t be doing much.. I foresee lots of nights spent on the xbox :)

I used to love when I lived at home, showing off all my new purchases to my Mom :) So I decided, to indulge myself and do it on the internet now instead - hah! So here’s some of my new stuff :)

Lacy bubble top - Primark, £4

The elastic doesn’t look like it’s very stretchy in the picture, but it does indeed fit tightly around my hips, covering all the bad parts in nice jersey fabric that doesn’t touch my chub!

Cable knit cardigan - Dorothy Perkins, £28

Love this cardi, it’s actually a size 10 and it fits good.. I usually wear EUR size 16, but the 16 and 14 were so huge and frumpy.

Bomber jacket - Dorothy Perkins, £40

I have been looking for a cute, casual winter jacket for a while. I have a peacoat that I love from Benetton but I don’t always want to wear it cos it was $300+, so I needed something more “everyday”. It was a bit more than I had originally wanted to spend, but in the end I only paid £37.75 shipped - £5 voucher and £1.25 back through Quidco! Saved the gas money + parking charges if I went to Oxford to get it :)

Flat boots - Dorothy Perkins, £45   Fake Uggs - Primark, £4

My new winter boots! The ones from DP were an impulse buy, but totally worth it as I am in love with them and they will be perfect for any winter activities that involve lots of walking (like, perhaps.. shopping! :D) The fake Uggs from Primark were too cheap to pass up, they’re always good for running to the grocery store or to get takeout or whatever. And I wanted dark brown ones because EVERYONE has tan.

Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion, Clinique £27   Kaleidoscope nail colour - Chanel, £15
Diorshow Blackout mascara, Christian Dior, £18.50

This was my little Selfridges spree, on two different days. I needed new moisturiser, decided I was going to go back to Clinique for skincare. I wanted the new Superdefense moisturiser but they didn’t have it yet so I’m using Dramatically Different again until next time :) I also picked up Diorshow Blackout, which I have been lemming for over a year :D And also, of course, the coveted Kaleidoscope polish :) Not pictured, but ordered and on it’s way: Essie First Base base coat, Seche Vite Dry Fast top coat, China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea nail polish, China Glaze Midnight Ride nail polish, Misa Candy Girl nail polish.

Bracelet, Christian Dior

My beautiful Christian Dior bracelet, a birthday gift from my wonderful boyfriend! :D :D :D It’s silver with Swarovski crystals all over the Dior logo. You can’t see how much they shine in this picture because I used no flash and it’s inside it’s little box, but it looks gorgeous when it’s on my wrist :D

Well, I am now 28. Two short years away from 30 - eek! My birthday was on Friday, so I had to work.. but it was alright because I spent the first half of the day in bed. :) Well, working while laying in bed. But to be honest, I do that a lot, so it really was no different than usual. :P

That is, until Tim got home from work. We had plans to go out for dinner, so we got all dressed up and headed out to Coco for insanely expensive, strongly alcoholic drinks (on empty stomachs). We had a reservation for 8pm at an indian restaurant in Oxford and I actually turned 28 while sitting at the front of the restaurant, waiting to be seated to our table - 8:06pm here is 3:06pm in Niagara Falls. :) I had my usual chicken tikka masala, but it just wasn’t creamy enough. Other than that, dinner was nice. They even gave us free veggies! After our dinner, we met up with Janel and Jon and went to George and Delila’s. I decided to make a special order for my birthday since I hadn’t had any birthday cake - a huge chocolate brownie, with a scoop of super chocolate ice cream and chocolate hot fudge on top. It was amazing, but I felt like throwing up after. It was worth it though! Then we went to the Cape of Good Hope for drinks, where a bunch of Tim’s work friends had congregated.

We stayed out for as long as I could handle it, then I decided I really needed to get home and open my presents!!!! Tim had wrapped some things he had bought for me when we were out shopping together - a coat and some tights from Primark. He also got me a Chelsea shirt.. I think he wants me to love football as much as he does but I just can’t seem to get into it. It feels like I’m cheating on hockey or something :( haha. He also told me he will buy me a bracelet from Dior, I just have to pick it out.. he didnt know which one I wanted. I’m not even sure, I am going to have to try them on when we’re in London this weekend ;)

I also had presents from my Mom, brother and Aunts that they had sent over earlier in September. They sat in our living room staring at me until I finally got to open them. My Mom and brother got me an xbox 360!! I also got a second controller, 2800 points, Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise, and Uno. I am already addicted to playing Carcassone on xbox :( My Aunt also got me a sweater that is horrendously too big. :) After I opened everything, I called my Mom and talked to her, then talked to my brother for advice and etc on the xbox and how to set it up and everything. I ended up staying up till 3:30am, setting up my xbl account and such :S We still have to get an hdmi cable, so it should look pretty sweet when we get that. It’s running at 1080i now which is pretty nice.

Saturday was a crazy day. I had to get to the bank before 1, which thankfully I did, and then went on a hunt through the shopping centre to find a muffin tin to use to make buttertarts. Went to Sainsbury’s, picked up chips and pop and stuff for the party, then headed home. Tim spent like an hour steaming the slipcovers for our sofa because we had washed them on Friday and they were soooo wrinkled. Then he hung balloons out the windows and blew up tons of balloons that are still floating around the house :) I baked, and while things would be in the oven, I’d clean. It was insanity. At 5:30 I hopped in the shower, and by 6:30 I was arranging the nanaimo bars I baked onto a plate for my lovely spread I put out! Tim and I stood in the kitchen at 6:50, eating pizza - our first meal of the day.

My birthday party on Saturday night went really well. The nanaimo bars were a hit, if only with Mark (who has been to Canada many times and loves nanaimo bars). Everyone seemed to have a good time, and we played some Guitar Hero 3 and Mario Kart Wii. I got some really nice gifts, Heather even got me a ‘Carrie necklace’, except mine says Laura and it’s silver!!!! I have always wanted one of those :)

Sunday was supposed to be recuperation day, but we ended up going for a little bike ride to the pub. That totally killed me, plus the fact that I was up late Saturday night playing xbox again, and woke up at 9:30am on Sunday (no idea WHY that EARLY!) I think I am still recuperating actually, and I attempted to go to bed tonight at 11:30 and here it is, 2am. And with that, I think it’s bedtime. :)