30 before 30 .. Update!

A couple of years ago now I wrote a post called "30 before 30" which was basically a list of all the things I wanted to do before I was 30. Now I am 30 I thought I could re-visit the post and see how many of them I achieved. It's amazing looking at the list and seeing what I wanted to do. There is so much more I have achieved that I didn't write down, for example having a baby!

1. Get married – should be pretty easy this one!
Done!

2. Go abroad with James, we have never had a holiday abroad with just the 2 of us.
Done – We headed to Rome in 2019 for our Honeymoon!

3. Finish decorating the house – Only the bathroom, kitchen, porch, hallway and spare rooms to go!
Wow - this didn't happen hah! We did get the spare room done for our baby however. Our Kitchen was supposed to be in process pre- Covid!

4. Sort the garden out to a reasonable state.
Jamed has done a good job of sorting one area of our garden out and it looks nice and tidy now complete with a new gate but there is still the larger section to go - but it's costly!

5. Host a garden party/BBQ – Could even be an idea for my 30th!
We had my Baby Shower at home in the summer of 2019 and it was actually lovely weather and a lot of people spilled into the garden which was nice. Obviously due to Covid this halted any 30th birthday plans for large groups!

6. Try a food challenge  - you know like the giant burgers or eat 1200 chicken nuggets? Yeah I wanna attempt one of those.
Oh man I have not done this but I have eaten a lot of food in the last 2 years!

7. Run 100 parkruns. I have currently done 27 so only 73 to go in 100 weeks!
I only got up to 56 but I did have a baby so had a lot of weeks off running, and then Parkrun shut for a while. I hope to go back once it re-opens of course!

8. Run a marathon. At the start of the year I set myself the challenge of running a whole 5km without stopping and have already smashed that and ran 10km! So I would love to take part in a marathon before I am 30. I am doing a walking Marathon in a couple of months so to complete that will be fantastic.
I walked a marathon! Does that count? There is no way I would want to run a marathon, the more I think about it the more impossible it seems. I don't like running for that long! If I was faster maybe I would consider haha.

9. Run a half marathon – one step at a time hey!
Done – Run Windsor 2018, 4 weeks pregnant! Then I did the Norfolk Ringland Half Marathon in March this year, and have since ran another on my own.

10. Get a tattoo. I have no idea what, it’s just been so long I feel I need another.
Nope .. Fail!

11. See more of the UK. We have some amazing places right on our doorstep, I would love to travel more locally.
We became National Trust members so we have gone on a few trips locally which has been nice. If I had the money I would do more!

12. Read 30 books. I really got into reading last year but have completely slacked off after being put off by an awful book. I want to pick this up again.
I totally failed at this one too. I have joined a book club however and hope that this year I will be able to smash this target!

13. Host a dinner party.
We hosted Christmas - does that count?

14. Have Christmas at home.
See above  - hah!

15. Try something different from my local Chinese. (you know instead of chicken balls, chow mein, chips and sweet and sour sauce)
I have branched out and tried Sczesan chicken, Cantonese style chicken, Crispy chilli Chicken.. Cripsy Chilli Beef, and a different curry! Wow I am adventurous.

16. Learn to Salsa. I have been attending Salsa classes recently but have no rhythm and would love to one day find that natural flow.
At the start of 2019 it just clicked for me and Sophie, my salsa partner. It may have had something to do with me becoming a ‘man’ and taking the lead role but we just knew what we were doing. Then I went on Maternity leave and all was forgotten.

17. Go glamping.
No :(

18. Finally get to my ideal target weight.
No :(.. but I had a baby!

19. Win at Bingo (I’ll even take £5, I just want to win!)
Still No!!!

20. Treat myself to one really expensive item of clothing or accessory.
Hmm.. no?!

21. Visit a cat café.
No!

22. Get a new front door.
No!!!

23. Own a houseplant that I don’t end up killing after a few months.
Yes!! I got an Orchid for my baby shower over a year ago and it's flowered again and still going strong. Proud plant mama.

24. Get a new pet. Ideally I would like another cat, but will settle for a goldfish if needed to complete the goal.
I got a baby does that count?

25. Continue blogging and get back into a consistent schedule.
No. Total fail.

26. Have an actual skincare routine – any tips?
Again .. no. I am lucky if my make-up gets taken off at all.

27. Cut my hair short again – currently I am growing it for the wedding but I want a really good chop after.
Literally as soon as Salons re-open I am chopping at least half of my hair off. It needs it so bad!

28. Learn to make pastry from scratch.
No.. why was this a goal??

29. Have the living room feel more homely.
It's full of baby toys and I never knew that was what was missing to make it feel more like a home.

30. Write a list of 40 things to do before I am 40!
So I don't have 40 things for my list but here are some off the top of my head. Let me know if you have anything on your bucket list?

Complete our family
Finish the house
Go on a family trip
Go to Disney World
Do Run Disney
Get a Half Marathon PB

Living DNA Test and Results - Review*

Have you ever wondered about what your past was like? Where you've come from, or where your ancestors originated from? I have always been curious, however never acted upon wanting to find out. Late last year I was contacted by a company called Living DNA who can provide a home DNA test which gives you an accurate view of your ancestry.

I couldn't wait to try this out and eagerly awaited my test kit to arrive in the post. I received my DNA testing kit and it came with everything I needed including clear and simple instructions. I made an account and linked my test to it so that I could be updated when it was received.

I had to take a swab of my DNA from the inside of my cheek, all instructions and kit was provided so it was really quick and simple to do. I sealed my sample and popped it in the pre-addressed envelope. Results can take up to 8 weeks to arrive so I posted this as soon as I could.

Christmas came and went and I finally got an email saying my results were in, and I logged onto the website straight away to see what they said. The results were well worth waiting for.

This kit costs £99 and can be purchased over on the Living DNA website. Are you curious to find out where you came from? Living DNA give detail on your family ancestry stretching back 10 generations with a breakdown of countries and regions. As a female, I could only see my maternal ancestry (the motherline) and the migration paths going right back to when the first humans migrated from Africa.

As expected, my results showed that I am 100% from Great Britain and Ireland, which confirmed what I knew about my family history already. The exciting part is, the Living DNA test breaks this down into regions, which again, matched up to what I know about some of my direct relatives, including where I come from too, as you can see on the below map. The sub-regions included East Anglia, where I am from, Ireland, Yorkshire and Cumbria!

Screenshot obtained from Living DNA 

I then had a look at the Motherline ancestry map, which proved very interesting indeed. I don't know a lot about my ancestry, or how far back it goes and where people originate from so I cannot confirm if these results are exact but I still thought it was fascinating.

My motherline haplogroup is a collection of related family lines that I am connected to through my MtDNA. I share a common ancient ancestor with all of the people who also share this haplogroup. These can be associated with geographic regions and the map below shows where this group is most commonly found today.

You can also check out your migration map, which shows the journey your ancient ancestors could have taken as they moved across the globe. 

As you can see, there's quite the variety of regions in my map! Some very surprising results and really makes me want to delve further into my family history as I could uncover some amazing information. Overall, I am really pleased I took this opportunity on as I have uncovered some amazing things and feel like I have only scratched the surface of what I could find if I put some time into doing some proper research. 

If you'd like to embark on this journey yourself, head over to Living DNA and order your kit today. The sooner you get started, the sooner your results will be back.

*I received this DNA Kit free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

My Surprise Hen Party

Well where do I start with this post – I am still in shock! So a couple of weeks ago was my surprise Hen Party. Remember in my Christies Love’s Box review I mentioned that Kim had given me a Save The Date for a blog event in September? Turns out this wasn’t a blog event after all and in fact she had been plotting a hen party for me with some of my friends and family.

The day of the ‘blog event’ arrived and I had packed my camera, purse, phone and all the essentials. I was told the event was overnight so I had an overnight bag and I was also told to bring my passport too but turns out this was all to throw me off! I spent ages picking what to wear in the morning and waited for Kim to pick me up. Usually I wait for Kim in my garden and lock the back door, but this time Kim called ahead and said she needed the loo and to fill up my water bottle so I waited indoors – again, all part of her plan!

When Kim arrived, she told me to come outside. In my mind I was thinking oh god, has she crashed into my car/fence? Ran Biscuit over? Why does she need me to come outside so soon! I’ve barely had time to get my bags! And as I walked out, on my driveway were lots of my friends and family, all wearing matching Bride Tribe Tshirts. They looked fantastic! I was then given my own Tshirt to wear, a veil and a garter. In the front seat of the car was a blow up man too, which I was rather amused by.

We got into 3 cars and drove to a secret location. On the way there Kim mentioned we were running late and my nanny mentioned we had chartered the boat for the day so I then knew we were going on a boat. I assumed it would be one of those little ones you get on the broads, but I was very wrong. As we drove to the location I had to ask who was actually here, because I hadn’t even taken in the faces I had seen and having not given any guestless to Kim I had no idea who had come to celebrate. We got to the location and we were greeted by one of the boat crew. He said to me “ so you’ve never tried water skiing before?” and I started to panic. I thought oh god, I’ve done all my hair and makeup and it will be ruined! Luckily he was joking! We got to the boat and it was massive, not like I expected at all. We all sort of looked at each other and thought where on earth do we sit?! But once we got our lifejackets on and got moving it was really fun and we had great weather.

We played a couple of games on the boat, James my fiancé had answered some questions about me and I had to guess what he had said. We also played a game with underwear in which my guests had drawn a picture on them and I had to describe a funny story that related to it. At around 1pm, we moored up for lunch at The Maltsters at Ranworth and had a meal and some much needed prosecco and shots! After lunch we got back on the boat and headed back again. Chloe even had a go at driving the boat which was funny, then Kim and Daisy helped with getting it back in again.

We then got back into the cars and headed for the final location. A few people went home at this point and the remainder then went back to Kims where she had set out her living room and kitchen with lots of Hen Party décor. There was even a large banner hanging from the house! The kitchen was decorated with balloons, bunting and food. Costessey Cakes had provided a wedding dress made of cupcakes and also some amazing biscuits – including flip flops (an inside joke for me and Kim!). she had even gone to the effort of making sure that all of the food was suitable for coeliacs and was also egg free to cater for everyone who had came back. We had some nibbles and Kim also cooked some pizzas.

I was also presented with a Christie Loves Box – The wedding edition in collaborating with my mum who helped buy some of the items inside.

Back at Kim’s we played some more games, one was called “junk in the trunk” which I was really bad at, and we also played pass the parcel where there was funny forfeits/truths inside. I really enjoyed it. Afterwards, the rest of my guests headed home it was just me and Kim left. We watched a funny film “The First Wives Club” and went to sleep. It had been a really long day, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so nice to see lots of my friends I hadn’t seen for a while and who made the effort to come out despite having children and busy lives. Thank you to Kim for helping to organise and host such a great event, and for all of the other ladies who came along and some of which contributed but didn’t get a chance to come. It was really nice of them!

The countdown to the wedding is officially on!

Alphabet Dating - B

This month’s date was down to James to organise and although admittedly we did them in a strange order, I looked forward to seeing what the day would bring. We started off by going to a Birthday BBQ, completely unplanned but it did fit in well with the ‘B’ theme. It was a lovely day and we ended up leaving after 5pm in the end so I did wonder where James was planning to take me.

We got in the car and away we went. James then told me we were going to Cromer Beach for a walk. We parked up and the sun was low in the sky. It was still a lovely warm summer evening and we walked along the seafront. We hadn’t had any tea so James treated me to some chips (and mushy peas of course!) and we sat and ate them.

We then had a slow wander back to the car whilst the sun set around us and the air started to cool.

I had a really lovely evening and thought it was such a nice idea to head to the Beach after the mad rush and just relax and take in the sea air. I slept a treat that night.

There isn't much more I can really say about this, I think you had to be there to appreciate it. Stay tuned to see what I had in store for date C.

Alphabet Dating - A

Alphabet dating is something I came across on Instagram recently (I wish I knew who to credit!) and decided to do a bit of research into it. When looking for answers on google, I discovered that is was quite a common thing and something that I thought was a fantastic idea. I broached the idea to James and he was also up for it and thought it sounded like a great thing to do once a month.

Alphabet dating is where as a couple or even a new person you are just starting to date, you choose a ‘date’ beginning with a particular letter. We decided that one month I would choose and arrange a surprise date and then the month after James would choose one. When March began, we decided to start with A and as it was my idea I offered to go first. You could of course do this every other week, bi-monthly or whatever suits your dating pattern.

‘A’ was a really convenient letter for me as I had already pre-planned an Alton Towers trip for James’ birthday. After recently attending Scarefest with Kim and telling James about it, he mentioned he had never been and would love to go. I really wanted to take him for his birthday weekend but found out that it only opened a few days before and I didn’t want it to be insanely busy. I forgot about the whole idea when an email landed in my inbox telling me about the service day, 2 weeks before the official opening. The service day is open to all emergency services and armed forces at a heavily discounted rate and with free parking. Perfect! I booked the tickets there and then. Unfortunately this then got cancelled due to the weather we had so I had to come up with another idea!

I decided to plan something for a couple of weeks later. We couldn’t make it to Alton Towers the replacement weekend as James had work so I thought I would plan our date more locally. The first thing that came to mind was Afternoon Tea, and to stick with the ‘A’ theme I thought we could have it in Aylsham. It was between here and The Assembly House but due to having been to The Assembly House before, I went for Aylsham and booked us into Biddies.

We both had Afternoon Tea and were stuffed by the end of it. I had to take my brownie home with me as the sandwiches and scone had filled me up. It was really nice just to get away and chill out and enjoy our meals.

We did also attend Alton Towers at a rearranged date and had a really nice time so I am incorporating that into the A date too.

The idea of alphabet dating is to encourage you to think outside the box and have fun and try new things with your partner. There are so many options that could suit so many budgets and I am already plotting things for date ‘C’, it could be anything to a coffee and cake to a curry or even a cinema trip! In the meantime I will await next months ‘B’ date which James will be planning. Let me know if you want me to continue sharing these! Do you have any ideas for ‘C’?

The Christie Loves Box #2

Well when it comes to Birthday gifts, Kim always goes all out and this year was no exception. If you saw my previous Christie Loves Box post then you will know that the box consisted of a magazine, created by Kim and lots of corresponding goodies.

I can tell a lot of time and effort has gone into creating this gift for me and it was filled with everything I love. Even the magazine was put together so carefully with flatlays and photos of some of the products and how best to use them. I am very thankful for what Kim has made for me so keep reading if you want to find out what was inside.

Firstly I opened the book and flicked through the pages to see what goodies were inside. I immediately spotted this T-shirt and recognised it to be similar to one I had shot Kim in on one of our days out from Tricky Ink. I absolutely love the cactus emblem, it is very me. I am hoping that when me and Kim next meet up I can get her to take some photos of me in it. In the meantime, check out Kim's post on how to style simple tees. Following on from the cactus theme I also received this tea-light holder but Kim's top tip was to use this to store a beauty blender. What an amazing idea I thought! Beauty blenders can get mouldy if they aren't stored properly so this is such a genius way to do it!

This next gift has such a personal touch to it and I really like it and the meaning behind it. The words say "nothing shines brighter than the heart of a good friend". What i love about this is the stone in the middle with a heart. The colours match my living room decor too so I can have this on display and it will remind me of our friendship.

This trinket dish has multiple uses and the magazine suggested it to be a great way to apply foundation, by popping it on the dish instead of on your hand. I never thought to do this before and sometimes I mix lighter and darker shades depending on the time of year and this will save me making a mess. It can easily be cleaned. In the meantime I have been using it to store my engagement ring on the rare occasions I take it off.

This has to be one of favourite gifts, the Dusty Rose Melted Clover by Too Faced. I mean, look at that packaging! It's gorgeous. I also got a couple of other Too Faced goodies to try out. I love the consistency and lasting power of the Too Faced melted matte collection and although I only have 2, I know I will have to purchase more colours! I am loving the colour and it looks great for an every day look. 

As a crazy cat lady, I was pleased to see some cat themed coasters in my box. I love the simplicity of these and being black and white they go perfectly with any decor. I have been dying to use them but needed to take this photo first - blogger problems! 

Now this was a great little extra to find at the bottom of my box. My favourite fudge! Now I bought some of this fudge when I was with Kim but it must have been a good few years ago now, and then Kim bought me some more. I can;t believe she remembered that it was my favourite and as soon as I took this photo I ate the lot! Oops!

The last little surprise in my box inside the magazine was a save the date for September. I am not yet sure what I will be doing but I have marked it on my calendar and look forward to whatever Kim has in store!

Overall this was a really lovely gift box filled with goodies and the magazine that went with it was fantastic. I do wish I had thought of such an idea myself! Thanks again Kim for being such a fab friend and putting all this together for me!

My Purrfect Gift Box - 2 Year Anniversary!*

Can you believe it has been 2 years since I first reviewed My Purrfect Gift Box on my blog? Me neither! When I was contacted to review a box as a little Birthday/Anniversary review, I jumped at the chance. I (and Biscuit) used to love receiving this box each month and if it wasn't for the fact we are saving every spare penny for our wedding, I would have carried on with my subscription.

The best thing about this box is you don't even need to have a cat to sign up, as the cat treats are an additional option so purely being a cat lover is enough! This month's box had a Spring Theme and was packed with loads of amazing items.

The first item I opened was this gorgeous necklace, designed by USA artist Krista Smith.  The folk inspired cat art is unique and this cat with flowers design is perfect for Spring. I love the simple black cord too, it adds a touch of class to any outfit and goes with everything. She has a lot of other art and cat prints over on her etsy and I have my eye on some of the ginger cat items. This necklace retails at £18.99.

You cam never have too many coasters and I adore these spring inspired floral cat designed ones by Kim Haskin retailing at £16.99. I love how cute and fluffy the cats look and each cat has a name too which I think is adorable! These coasters are good quality and will brighten up my room a treat. She is based in the UK but ships internationally if you are interested in seeing more of her work.

I love these watercolour stickers from Thailand artist Pennapa Yodhor. The spring colours compliment each other well and I think they will really brighten up my planner this month. These retail at £4.50 and can be found on etsy amongst lots of other designs.

This ceramic kitty planter is the ideal addition to my home as a cat and plant lover. The planter is ideal for a succulent or small flower, and I can't wait to look for something permanent to sit inside of it. It even comes with its own drip tray to keep surfaces clean and tidy. I really love it and think other cat lovers will too. This retails for £12.99.

I have been looking for a little pocket mirror for my makeup bag and this generous sized one featuring Ella Goodwin's Flower Antlers Kitty illustration is perfect for Spring and beyond. This retails at £5.50, you can check out her website here.

The first cat themed item in the box was this handmade 'fiori' (flowers in Italian) toy made by AmiCatToys. I can see why the flowers were chosen for this box as it fits in with the Spring theme perfectly. This colourful toy comes complete with a few jangly bits which immediately got Biscuit's attention.

The second cat item was VitaKraft's cat grass kit. It's a premium seed mix which is ready prepared, a bit like cress. I had to punch some holes into it, add the seeds, mix the soil and then add water. It takes about 3-4 days to start sprouting and I will let you know over on Instagram how I get on with it! It is quite a good thing to have as it can encourage cats to help cough up their hairballs, and I know my fluffy cat gets a lot of those!

I love how adorable this catnip cupcake is from etsy shop Little Miss Delicious. They have a lot of cute food themed jewellery, accessories and home decor that looks good enough to eat. I seriously love the pizza themed goodies they do. Biscuit is sure to enjoy this, and it looks adorable in my home. The cat gifts retail at £16.99 for all three products.

Head over to My Purrfect Gift Box for more information or to see previous boxes. This box including cat goodies is only £39.95 including UK delivery, but if you son't have a cat and would rather skip those items it's just £31.95! You can also make one time purchases which make great gifts. What are you waiting for?

*I received this item free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.