A Birthday Dinner

Yesterday evening me and my friends went to Smith and Western to celebrate my friend Becca's 16th birthday!!

 

 

Smith and Western is a American, wild west themed restaurant. There are six restaurants in total across the south east of England. As you walk through the doors you are greeted with authentic ranch styled décor and memorabilia along with the cowboy waiters! It is such great fun, and perfect for families.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having Soooo Much Fun ;)

 

There's a great selection on the menu from burgers and ribs to a whole Mexican section. We didn't actually have any starters but my families favourite is the onion ring stack- definitely for sharing! Yesterday I had the chicken fajitas. It's served with about six tortillas, a chicken, pepper and onion filling as well as salsa, sour cream, guacamole and cheese. This means you can have it just as you like it (I completely avoided the guacamole!).

 

Chicken Fajitas

 

As well as the main menu there is also a good drinks menu available. Some of the cocktails look great, but since I'm underage I can't actually say if they're any good. My mum seems to be a fan though!

 

 

My favourite thing about Smith and Western is that they do birthdays in style! Becca was presented with her Birthday Belly Buster, topped with fireworks! The birthday girl was crowned with a sparkly cowboy hat and the whole restaurant say happy birthday to her, accompanied by cowbells! But since we are such goods friends we couldn't make her eat the belly buster alone!

 

The Birthday Belly Buster

 

 

 

 

Howdy!!

 



The Birthday Girl!!

 

The evening was so much fun. We talked for ages and caught up on everything we've missed since we've been on summer. Once we were completely stuffed we went back to Becca's for a sleepover, where the chatting continued of course!

 

 

Seeing as today is Becca's actual birthday I'd like to wish my bestest chum a very happy birthday! (although she won't see this until after!)

 

 

Liebster Award

BONUS POST!!!!!

I'd like to start off by saying a big thank you to ParagonDaisies! She's nominated me for The Liebster Award. She has a fabulous fashion and lifestyle blog, and let me tell you she has some great posts so go and check her out!

For those of you that don't know The Liebster Award is a blogger award for bloggers with less than 200 followers, and is a great way to build the blogging community allowing people to get to know bloggers more! Here are the rules of The Liebster Award: 

1. You have to link back to the person that nominated you.
2. You must answer 11 questions given to you by the person that nominated you.
3. After completing the questions you must nominate 11 bloggers with under 200 followers and give them 11 questions of your choice.
4. You must not nominate the person who nominated you.
5. You must let your nominees know that they have been nominated and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.

And here are my answers to ParagonDaisies questions:

 

1. Where would you like to travel to and why?

I would love to travel to Australia! I've wanted to visit for as long as I can remember and one day my friend Ellen and I plan to live there ;) Hopefully after my A Levels I plan to take a gap year and travel loads, Australia is top of my list! I think there is so much to see and do in Australia. I can shop, sunbathe and experience culture. Also I love water sports and I can't think of anywhere better to do water sports than a gorgeous Australian beach!

 

2. What are your top 5 beauty brands?

 

Okay, this is a tricky one for me...

1.Maybelline- Affordable and fab quality

2.Rimmel- Also affordable and very good quality

3.Estee Lauder- Luxurious in packaging and quality

4.Benefit- I'm a sucker for their packaging and cute names

5.Revlon- Affordable and long lasting  

 

3. Where do you get your style inspiration?

 

Honestly it's mainly Pintrest! I waste hours on there looking at allsorts. Feel free to follow my Pintrest Fashion Board here. Other than that I think I'm inspired by my friends style a lot and they encourage me to try stuff I wouldn't even think of. All of my friends have great style-particular shout out to Becca and Imogen ;)

 

4. If you could live anyone's life for 24 hours, who would it be and why?

 

I love this question! Some people may think this is a boring choice but I would live the Queen's life. I adore the royal family and particularly the Queen! Although I love her I don't actually know much about what she does apart from attending various events so I would be really interested to find out more.

 

5. Who are your favourite bloggers?

 

My favourite bloggers at the moment are Milk Bubble Tea, Mammaful Zo, Sprinkle of Glitter and Lady Smart. There are so many blogs I love but I'm the sort of person who goes through phases and my favourites change all the time.

 

6. Why did you start your blog?

 

I started my blog once I'd finished my GCSE exams. I decided it would be a good way to make sure I don't waste my summer as I know so many people do! Also it means me and my friends can look back at all the fun things we've done together and this way we'll never forget, cheesy I know!

 

7. What future blog post ideas do you have in mind?

 

More of my summer adventures!! I've got some really exciting things coming up in August that I can't wait to share. And I'm thinking in September I could do a few back to school posts.

 

8. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?

 

10 years time? That would make me 26. I honestly don't know. I'm still debating the whole university idea so this could vary a lot! If I have gone to university... working in my subject area. Either way I want to be happy in my job and building a career. Hopefully I will have moved out but still living in my local area (I'm a home girl!). I also want my own dog!

 

9. Who is your celebrity crush?

 

I'm not really one for celebrity crushes! But if I have to pick... Theo James?? I only heard of him through Divergent, but he is rather nice :P

 

10. What was your most embarrassing moment?

 

Oooo I've had a few of these I'm not going to lie!! The first one that comes to mind is a PE related one. I've always loved PE and I like to think I'm quite good at it so I tend to get very involved. Anyway I think I was in year nine and we were practising our sprint starts and finishes in the school sports hall. Anyway you know how your meant to push your chest forward in a sprint finish? Well I completely threw my whole head and chest forward while still sprinting very quickly. This resulted in me falling head first and doing a penguin slide half way across the sports hall!! I was able to laugh about it and still do with my friends, however the really embarrassing past was I actually got a friction burn on my PE skirt as well as cutting my knees, elbows and hips :/ There's also a certain cinema incident that I could share, but I'll save that one for now!

 

11. How have you spent your day today? / How will you spend your day today?

Today I began my morning by writing the majority of this post! After having some lunch I went to my friends house to get some summer homework out of the way (how cruel?!). Once that was done we had a good old chat followed by a Gossip Girl sesh! I'm now finishing this post and about to watch tonight's episode of Big Brother!
 

Questions for my nominees:

1. What was your favourite holiday?

2. What blog post of your own are you most proud of?

3. What's your guilty pleasure and why is it guilty?

4. Do you spend or save?

5. What's your favourite season?

6. If you could only buy clothes from one shop, what would it be?

7. Who can you not live without? (Humans only I'm afraid!)

8. What's your go to lipstick?

9. Have you broken any bones? (Please share the good stories!)

10. What's your favourite flower?

11. What's your best memory with your best friend(s)?

 

I nominate:

anasoup

Ellie Gracious

ABeautyRomance

Sunaina

Flowers and Threads xo

AlainaTBF

OFF TO THE RACES

Blushing Daisy

gold glitter diaries

Parties For Pennies

LuxLyfe

Silver Duke of Edinburgh

Last weekend I had my final Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition. What a mouthful! For those of you that don't know D of E is an award for young people that consists of taking part in a sport, skill and volunteering as well as a practice and examined expedition. My school offer D of E at Bronze, Silver and Gold level and I completed my Bronze award last year. The silver expedition lasts for three days and two nights. In your teams you have to carry everything you need.

For my expedition we went to the New Forest in Hampshire. It took a two hour minibus journey to get there and I actually slept through most of...

Prior to my snooze...

The New Forest is well known for it's wild ponies that we saw many of, as well as cows and some stunning dragonflies!

I Made a Friend!

On the first day everything went fairly smoothly and we didn't get lost at all. However we did have to cross a river that wasn't actually marked on the map! We all chose various routes and discovered some of the 'land' wasn't 'land' and you just sank into it! We walked roughly 10K on the first day, which may not sound too bad but just think of those rucksacks!!

The First Obstacle

As soon as we got to the campsite we began to put up our tent, before discovering one of the tent poles wasn't actually for our tent. Thankfully our examiner was able to make us a new pole out of other poles.

Our Very stable Tent

Once the tent was up it was time for dinner. You have to cook on trangias which is an alcohol fuelled portable stove, as you can imagine it's not the quickest way to cook pasta! Although it took a while the pasta carbonara alongside the Mattersons sausage (what a saviour!) tasted delicious after a day of walking. The pasta was followed by our own take on s'mores for pudding, and the evening ended with a good game of Uno before an interesting nights sleep!

S'mores

Day two wasn't quite as successful as the first. We decided a two hour detour was a good way to start the morning and if it wasn't for an inconveniently placed barbed wire fence we would have been fine! I promise. Either way we had good fun until we ended up on another detour. At this point we were all really tired and we just wanted to get to the campsite. But you know, 15K didn't sound like enough of a challenge so we thought "Hey, lets give 20K a go!".

Detour Number 1

Detour Number 2

When we did finally get to camp, we set up, ate dinner and then our teachers said we could take a little trip to the beach! It was a short drive to Milford on Sea where Ellen and I claimed a rock to stand on. It was very cold and we got very wet but I always feel so calm by the sea. I loved standing in the waves after being on my feet all day. Looking out to sea with the beautiful sunset is definitely my favourite memory of the weekend.

Sensa-bus!





Milford on Sea Sunset

Day three was another success. Although we questioned where we were a few times, due to forests being cut down and a several unclear paths, we didn't get lost. I was so happy when we reached the final checkpoint, and we celebrated by putting on our flip-flops!

We Finished!

My Cherished Primark Flip-Flops

One of the minibuses broke down while we were waiting for a couple of other groups to finish so the trip home was delayed by quite a bit! However we got home, I saw my gorgeous cat and I slept in my own bed! It was bliss.

If anyone is considering doing Duke of Edinburgh I would highly recommend it. I've learnt so much through all aspects of the award and as you can see the expedition is such good fun!

Party Fit For A Princess!

As I mentioned in my last post, on Saturday I went to my friend Sara's surprise birthday party. It had a Disney Princess theme and was wonderfully organised by my friends Ellen and Tara. They designated everyone princesses to come as and I was Cinderella. They know I was gutted not to be Belle but it's a bit of a touchy subject ;)

Sara's reaction was amazing! Despite the banner she didn't realise we were surprising her! Possibly the funniest reaction there has ever been to a surprise party.


I thought the banner was pretty obvious!




One surprised Sara!

We celebrated with balloons, musical bumps and pass the parcel! Unfortunately I had to leave early so I missed the cake but it was a beautiful castle made by Ellen and Tara...they are clever clogs!

I think you'll be impressed by everyone's costumes! First up the birthday girl herself...


Sara as Princess Jasmine

I was Cinderella

Aurora



Merida

Queen Elsa



Pocahontas

Belle

Mulan

As you can see we had a great time and I think Sara really enjoyed herself! This was a rather early birthday party for Sara as she is actually away for her birthday so I hope she has a fabulous 16th!!! I love you Sara xx

P.S. I know this post is a little early but I'm off on my Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition this weekend and I wanted to make sure it was up before I leave! Hopefully next week I'll write about my expedition...comment if you want to hear about it!!

The Disney Tag

For today's post I'm doing the Disney Tag as I recently saw Ellie Gracious do it and I thought it was great!

Disneyland Paris, taken when I was 9

I haven't been up to much this week so I thought this would be a good alterative. However if you're interested I've been volunteering at a local primary school this week which I have loved and I've thoroughly working with the children. As well as this I FINALLY got to see Maleficent with some friends, and it didn't disappoint. Angelina Jolie was fabulous as ever! I also had a fun day shopping with my brother's girlfriend yesterday in the sun! Anyway onto the questions...

 

A scene in any Disney movie you wish you could experience? Basically all of 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin. I love how Jasmine finally gets to see the real world. Also it is such a romantic and beautiful scene topped of with a magic carpet!

When was the first time you went to a Disney park?
 I was 9 when I first visited Disneyland Paris. I had been nagging my parents since I was tiny to take me, but eventually it was thanks to my godsister who was doing a dance show there. My mum and I were invited to go with her and my godmother.

If you could chose any of the characters to be your best friend, who would you chose?
I like this question a lot! It would have to be Mushu from Mulan, this could be controversial. Although he was selfish at first, I respect him for coming clean about putting Mulan's life in danger. However after this he continues to protect her (something I often need). Also throughout he is comical and confident and I think we could have great fun!

Who are your favourite Disney princesses?
Belle. No question. Always has been and always will be :)

Who is your favourite Disney villain?
After seeing Maleficent this week I really think she's my favourite villain! But I have to disagree with Ellie Gracious, Ursula is super scary!!!

What is your least favourite Disney movie?
Fantasia, I have always been really confused by it to be honest and I know it's meant to be about the music etc. but it is not for me...

What is your favourite Disney song?
I love 'Just Around The River Bend' from Pocahontas. 

Which Disney characters have your personality?
I think I'm similar to Ariel. I like to think I'm kind like her and also extremely curious. I also easily have obsessions about various things like her and the human world. And occasionally I like to disobey my dad, but he's definitely better than Ariel's father!

If you had to get stuck on any ride in any Disney park for 30 minutes, which would you want it to be?
Luckily I've never been stuck on any ride or rollercoaster ever-touch wood! I honestly don't know about this one...I don't think I'd mind if I was with my best friends though. I reckon we'd still be able to have fun!

Name a scene/moment in a Disney movie that never fails to make you cry?
Two of my best friends would be able to tell you this easily! It's not technically a scene but the song 'Tale As Old As Time' from Beauty and the Beast. It's just so beautiful and this is when you see Belle's relationship with the Beast change and my friends Becca and Juliet always sing it to me in an attempt to try and make me cry. Meanies!

What is the first Disney movie you remember seeing?
The first Disney Movie I remember seeing is Beauty and the Beast. I'm sure there were others before this but I remember getting it on video for Christmas when I was about 4 and I was so excited!

 What is your favourite Disney movie?

I have to say Beauty and the Beast again! I'm loyal, what can I say? However along with everyone else I've fallen completely in love with Frozen and love to belt out 'Let It Go' when no ones home!

 

And that's all the questions! I tag all of you to do it as well as I had so much fun writing this. Later on today I'm actually going to a Disney Princess surprise party for my friend so hopefully there will be another Disney type post next week!