Monday 23 April 2012

A Weekend in Surrey xx

I had a lovely weekend. So lovely that returning to work this Monday morning seems even more of a travesty than normal (and normally I'm pretty reluctant) this morning even more so!

The weekend started with a very lovely birthday party at my friend Lovely Liz's house, it was a 'Sugar & Alcohol' party, and as the name suggests, there were lots of lovely sweet treats & a constant flow of alcohol. I behaved myself in terms of calories...I drank a bottle of low calorie tonic water & I chose two things from the sweet buffet table, a chocolate trifle in a teacup, followed by a mini cinnamon whirl! I thoroughly enjoyed the night, so did Liam, great company, great food, great night!

Then on Saturday I headed down to Surrey & spent the weekend with my lovely family. My sister, my mum and me headed to Richmond-Upon-Thames (one of my favourite places ever!) and we saw BIRDS OF A FEATHER: LIVE at Richmond Theatre. For those of you who loved Sharon, Tracey & Dorian from Chigwell in the 90's, you absolutely must go and see this. With all three original actresses, and humour just as it was in the 90s the show had us in stitches. They have of course all moved on with their lives, but they are just as funny & have so much chemistry on stage. From the moment I heard the nostalgic theme tune I was hooked. So nostalgic was the music that it choked me up a little!

"What'll I do when you are far away
And I am blue what'll I do?
When I'm alone with only dreams of you.
And I am blue, what'll I do?"

It was such a lovely girlie day out & bought back memories of me and my sister as children snuggling up on the sofa with mum to watch it! Fab!

We also hit the shops in Richmond, and my sister and I both got new dresses in the designer sale at House of Fraiser. My dress is a cute designer floral tea dress £70 reduced to £35, and my sisters was a really unusual prom style strapless dress with pink & grey stripes £220 reduced to £65. We do love a bargain! Both in size 16s too, go us!!

We had a lovely Italian dinner in a beautiful little trattoria on Richmond High Street called Rustica. Which rounded off a very lovely girlie day in style!

On Sunday I had my first trip to Ikea in about 10 years (I never get to one as I don't drive!) it was fab! And not just because of their yummy meatballs we sampled for lunch! I bought a beautiful glass cake stand and dome for £14.99, and lots of other lovely cute bits at such a reasonable price! It was a great place to have a wander, and gave my 16 year old brother lots of interior design inspiration for when he is older & has a place of his own!

On the weightloss front I had a good week...I resisted lots of temptation last week & walked every day, even doing some extra. It paid off! Another 2lb loss, which brings me to my 3 and a half stone loss. 7lb to lose until I reach my initial target of a 4 stone loss. I want to achieve this by my dress fitting at the end of June. So onwards and upwards with another good balanced week this week.

Such a nice weekend, and now back to the grind!

Love Lucy

Xxxxx

Random pics from this weekend...

Friday 13 April 2012

Thin-spiration!

It is when I see stunning dresses like the one I'm posting below that I am truly inspired to continue on my weight-loss journey; to push on harder - to keep up the exercise, to keep down the calories, and only have treats few and far between.

There's been a lot of treats this holiday what with Rome, meals out & yesterdays Dacquoise cake. Still, I have not gone overboard (as I would have done in the past), and I've tried hard to counter-act the calories with exercise too. 

Back to work next week - and back to a much stricter regime, lots and lots of walking, at least two cross training sessions and back to Pilates.

The weeks are now slipping away and before I know it the wedding will be here...I have exactly 11 weeks until my final dress fitting. So 11 weeks left to lose as much as I can before I have to maintain my weight to ensure my dress fits perfectly. Im determined to at least get down to my 4th stone off -  9 lbs left to go! I know if I put my mind to it & try really hard I can achieve more than that - but that's a healthy and achievable amount to aim for - any more will be a bonus! :-) 

Dresses  as stunning as this one which I found on my friend Liz's Pinterest Page are absolutely the sorts of things that spur me on & make me even more determined. I would kill to wear a dress like this & feel happy & confident in it. Stunning, just stunning!


Thursday 12 April 2012

Another Food Post.... :-)

Okay, so yet another post about food! :-)

I have my lovely friend Gemma and her boyfriend Rod coming over for tea & cake this afternoon, and wanted to make something new, that I'd not done before. Recently I've come back across the pecan & maple flavour combination, and remembered how much I love it - so I found a new recipe for a Dacquoise (basically a variation on a pavlova)....and I'm so pleased with the results! 

Its made up of layers of pecan meringue, with masala and maple syrup infused lightly whipped double cream, with crushed pecans and maple syrup drizzled over each layer. :-) YUMMA! 

Not very diet friendly....but one small bit instead of lunch won't do too much damage! :-)






Delish! I hope it goes down well! :-)

Lucy 

xxxxxx

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Lovely Roma!!

Me and The Mr-to-be have just had the most amazing trip to Rome, Italy. It was a place that we both said we wanted to see together before we have children, and so booked it up ages ago, and had almost forgotten we were going...so when it was suddenly upon us we were pretty excited about seeing this new awesome city together. 

And it was an awesome city! So much heritage and history, which just made every road, every building, every park just so beautiful. The architecture is stunning, and so imposing - you quite literally stand there in front of these awesome buildings thinking - how on earth were these made? how are they still standing? 

My favourite sights were The Colosseo (The Colosseum), The Trevi Fountain, and just the general ruins that you happen upon everywhere you go. 

The Colosseum

The Trevi Fountain





^^ Beautiful Italian buildings...^^

Italian Food - oooh yes! 

So...a major highlight of the break to Rome was the absolutely amazing foods! We ate SO much - but we did walk around 25 miles in the 2.5 days we were exploring the city. I was proud of the fact that we didn't get on a single metro train or bus, and we walked our way around Rome - which I'm sure helped to counter-act the calorie intake. 

The food was simply stunning - here are the things that I think the Italians do best....

- Pizza
-Pasta
-Coffee
-Bruscetta
-Ice Cream (Gelato)
-Bread
-Tirimisu
-Pana Cotta

Let me share some of our very decadent food pics with you... 

***warning....these pictures will make you hungry!***

quattro fromaggio pizza & fries

pistachio and strawberry gelato

Peanut and Tirimisu Gelato (peanut was best ice cream I've EVER tasted!)

italian cakes!!!

Mount Blanc - meringue, fresh cream and chestnut paste (made to look like spaghetti)

bruscetta

caramel pana cotta

Spaghetti Carbonara

Tirimisu

cakes & coffee for breakfast - yes! 

Pizza! 

fillet steak, rosemary roasted potatoes, and a tomato/mozzarella/basil salad

Gelato for breakfast on last day - cherry ripple/rum 'n' raisin/chocolate/pistachio

As you can see we ate VERY VERY well - and were totally spoiled by what we were served up. We found two amazing restaurants in Rome (both recommended by the Lonely Planet guide) one was called Pomadoro in the student district, and the other called Le Tavernelle, which was more central in location. Both serving up some of the awesome food above. 

We were also spoilt as we had the oldest and most famous gelato factory on the same road as our lovely hotel (InternoRoma Hotel - which I would recommend to ANYONE wanting a very reasonable, very clean and modern, friendly and just generally lovely hotel!) ... so this warranted an excessive amount of ice cream eating during our trip! 

I came back worrying about what the scales might say about all the food we scoffed - and I was pleasantly surprised- no weight gain, I stayed exactly the same. Which means that the walking definitely counter-acted the calories! Phew! 

What an amazing place

amazing things to see

and eat

and drink

fab!

Love Lucy

xxxxxxx




Wednesday 4 April 2012

Fundraising for Breast Cancer Care xxx

Dig Deep You Lovely Lot :-)

Hey my lovely blog-followers! 

I'm posting today to spread the word about a challenge I've set myself in order to raise some pennies for the amazing charity Breast Cancer Care. 

In June, Me and my lovely boyfriend Liam, my sister Jojo, and my bestest buddy Carmi are walking a 10 mile Ribbon Walk in Richmond, Surrey. 

Now, 10 miles might not be a marathon, or even a half marathon, BUT for me, its a big deal. Those of you who read my blog will know I only really started exercising properly in September, so doing 10 miles all in one stint will be a big achievement for me. 

Our group name is 'BREAST FRIENDS' and we'll be walking in our bright pink t-shirts, and maybe some funky pink accessories! :-)

Breast Cancer Care is an AMAZING charity, who are working as hard as they can to aid treatment, care and research in Breast cancer, and I'm sure we've all been affected either directly or indirectly by this awful disease! 

So this is my plea - PLEASE, please, please give generously. I would so appreciate any support anyone can show me. Every £1 makes a huge difference! 

You can give online on my JustGiving site, its really easy and only takes a few clicks! 

http://www.justgiving.com/Lucy-Moon

Happy donating! 
Thank you lovelies! 

Lucy 

xxxxxx


Monday 2 April 2012

What a Wonderful Weekend... :-)

I've had the most wonderful weekend with fab friends, lots of scrummy food, some successful shopping & gorgeous sunshine!! What more could a girl ask for? 


SATURDAY


Saturday started well, as I was in such a good mood due to the fact that it was the start of the easter holidays, and the thought of no work for two weeks is a very good one. :-) We woke up late and walked to the local M&S garage to get lunch, and we took it to our friend Rhiannon's house, and had lunch with her and her gorgeous baby daughter, Alexandra. 



Gorgeous baby Alexandra, laughing at Liam! x




On Saturday night we went to my lovely friend Kerry's house, and had dinner with her, and our equally lovely friend Josie. Kerry cooked some scrumptious food, we had baked camembert with some of Liam's homemade granary bread (which we bought with us for Josie, as she loves bread, and suggested a swap of bread for beer, which Liam most gladly obliged to!) and some yummy onion bread, then we had sausages, chicken fillets wrapped in parma ham, a gorgeous potato salad, roasted garlic baby new potatoes, and salad. It was delish!!! Then Kerry revealed her masterpiece - she'd made a ginormous Chocolate & Guinness cake, and it was seriously tasty! In fact, I've just had another rather generous slice (on Monday eve) as Kerry gave us a great big chunk of cake to take home with us too! She'd also made some homemade after dinner mints which were in the cutest little mini chocolate teacups! Soo sweet and just lovely! It was a fabulous night from beginning to end. 



My lovely Liam with Kerry on Sat night xx


Josie and George the cat playing 'who can stare at each other the longest' at Kerry's on sat night x



SUNDAY


Sunday was equally a blooming marvellous day! We met our fab friends Danni & Charlie in St Albans, and went to The Waffle House, which is opposite Verulamiun Park. If you haven't been to The Waffle House before, I would seriously recommend it. Its a beautiful old watermill which has been converted into a restaurant that serves only waffles, with a selection of sweet and savoury options. It was our first ever visit on Sunday, and I was very impressed. The food was absolutely incredible, and the atmosphere just lovely. I had the most amazing Pecan and Butterscotch waffle with vanilla ice cream, and so did my friend Danni, and then the boys had a savoury choice, of a waffle with chilli con carne, which they equally said was really tasty. Liam is Waffle King and managed both a savoury AND sweet waffle! He finished his meal with a glorious Banoffee Waffle.


(visit the waffle house website at: http://www.wafflehouse.co.uk/st-albans.html )



Liam and I, on the train to St Albans





The Waffle House, St Albans


My amazing Pecan & Butterscotch Waffle ;-)


Then the boys went on a pub crawl around St Albans, while me and Danni hit the shops! And a very successful shop it was. I bought a gorgeous dress from Fat Face for my hen-do, and managed to find two matching cardi's and a lovely pair of shoes in New Look, and got the whole outfit for £65. The two cardi's each give the dress a slightly different look; one is light and has short sleeves, so more summery, and the other is bright coral, with long sleeves, so better for a slightly cooler summer day. 



My new dress :-)


Lovely shoes from New Look (£20)


The bright coral cardigan with long sleeves


The light peachy mini-cardigan with short sleeves




I was also very excited as I managed to easily get into a size 16. :-) It was a great feeling, and was something I'd been really looking forward to achieving. I actually managed to lose 5 lbs this week, which I was so so chuffed at, as I had annoyingly stayed the same weight for 3 consecutive weeks. So a big loss this week was the boost I needed. I've done a lot of walking in the past week, and I cross trained, as well as staying well within my calorie limit each day (using MyFitnessPal) - so despite the lovely yummy decadent foods I'd managed to scoff this week, I'd done enough exercise to combat the calories. Balance balance balance. It really does work. 


So after the success of buying the lovely outfit all ready for my hen do, we had a really good girlie wander and rummage round the shops of St Albans. Shopping is probably both mine and Danni's favourite thing to do, so we were in heaven. Chatting away, looking at beautiful things and enjoying the sunshine - fab! I took some piccies of some of the lovely bits and pieces we had a good gander at....



Really stunning china collection that i fell in love with....


Beautiful vase from the same collection


The coolest birdhouses ever, from Cargo


A gorgeous glass Buddha head, which is hollow and can have a large pillar candle inside, which i absolutely loved, and would have bought (it was only £9.99 from TKMaxx) except I knew it would't be Liam's cup of tea, so i resisted temptation. 

I also found (with LOTS of help from Danni's amazing shopping ability!) a couple of really cute bits for the wedding. Firstly, we found a beautiful vintage-style hanging candle lantern made from an old milk bottle, in TKMaxx for £6.99! I'm building up quite a collection  of absolutely beautiful decorations for the barn where we're having our wedding reception now :-)


The lovely milk-bottle lantern :-)

Then when we were looking in Paperchase, Danni found this really cute mini-bunting in the sale at 1/2 price (£3) - and was sure I'd find a use for it somewhere during the wedding, and I'm sure I will - its so cute! 


What a successful day of shopping! :-) (Big thanks to Danni for all the shopping advice and encouragement, I had SUCH a fab day!)

We finished the day by retiring to a lovely pub in Hemmel for some Tapas  - which was absolutely amaze-balls! Me and Liam shared a tapas platter, and it was very yummy! Picture below...of course! (You will quickly learn that I take pictures of pretty much everything I eat out!)


TAPAS - Cajun chicken wings / gooey scotch egg / salt & pepper calamari rings with lime mayo


Bread with Hummus / mixed olives (we actually didn't have the flat bread & hummus. We had actually ordered grilled halloumi cheese with peppers instead, and they bought out the wrong dish & then rectified their mistake, but i hadn't realised at the point of taking this picture! D'oh!)

And despite all this amazing food I have still managed to stay within my calorie goals all weekend. :-) Today (Monday) I've spent quite literally all day doing a big spring clean, and feel so satisfied now that its done. All ready for the holidays! Fab! Plus the cleaning burnt lots of calories, which meant I had enough left over tonight to treat myself to a big slice of Kerry's chocolate & guinness cake - yumma! 

In walking related news, I absolutely smashed my 'most miles walked in one month' record in March - my best to date had been 87 miles walked in November, and in March I walked a record 112.76 miles! Very pleased with that! 

Onwards and Upwards!

Luce

xxxxxxxxxx