Quirky and 30: Paris, Disney & Rollercoasters

In one of my previous blog posts, I mentioned that I'm turning 30 this year. I also mentioned that a few years ago I made a list of 28 things I wanted to do by the time I was 28 and tried to achieve them all in about 8 weeks. 

This year I decided that I wanted to revisit that idea but spread out 30 new achievements, new adventures and new skills across the year rather than try to squash them all in....solid logic considering my birthday is just over two weeks away! 

I'm crap at uploading blogs regularly so since the last time, I've added a few things to the list. It's a work in progress list rather than a tick off list, although the ones below were pre-planned.

Disneyland Paris

A few weeks ago, James and I went to Disneyland Paris. It was pretty amazing. I went to Disney in Florida once when I was a kid and loved it but there was something about going as an adult that made me soak in every second just that little bit more. 

I loved seeing everything from the Castle, to Mickey Mouse, to the rides. Even though my knee eventually started complaining about how much walking I was doing, there wasn't one moment I didn't enjoy.
I even managed to find a quirky skirt!

On the last night before we headed for our train to the airport, we stayed to watch the illuminations and I cried. Yep, nearly 30 and cried at the animations projected on the castle/music. You're never too old for Disney to hit you right in the feels!

Paris

We took one day out from the Park(well early morning to late afternoon) to head into Paris and did some sightseeing.
We had a lovely breakfast in a cafe that I'm annoyed I've forgotten the name of! 

It was raining pretty heavy so we paid for one of the tour busses and got a ticket where we were able to just hop on and off at the sights we wanted/had time to see. We started with Notre Dame which is an exquisite building to walk around - I did resist the urge to bring out my best Esmerelda wander around singing God Help The Outcasts, as much as I'd have loved it, it may have been a little invasive to everyone else's morning.

The Eiffel Tower was bigger than I even imagined and a little surreal to see up close.  The Arc De Triomphe is in the middle of a super busy road so we just stood across the road and took some pictures! 

Rollercoasters

I'm pretty militant at never going anything that scares the crap out of me just a little bit but I figured I couldn't really spend the week looking in shops and hoping to bump into characters so I'm put on brave face and got in line for the rollercoasters! I'd say my favourite was Indiana Jones Temple of Doom, it was outdoors and I could see all of the twists and turns coming. The other ones I went on were indoors and while I was perfectly safe, I didn't like being in the dark. I made a point of trying not to say no to any of the rides, so I was pretty proud of myself for feeling the fear and doing it anyway. 

30 Things Total: 4

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Quirky Reads: The Joy of No

It might be February already but I said I wanted to read more books this year than I did last year so here is my musings on the first book I've finished reading this year! 

Quick Review

Genre(s): Self Help/Motivation 

Who Wrote It: Summerdale Publishers

Did I Dig It?: Heck yeah!

2 Second Summary: Some sound advice on saying no.

Quirky Queen Rating: 👑👑👑👑👑 

5 out of 5 Crowns from me on this occasion.
Every once in a while I need a reminder that saying no is not only acceptable, but necessary. 

I also read it while my neighbour was having carpets fitted and it distracted me from the loud hammering!

Extended Musings

I think I've mentioned before that I struggle when it comes to saying no.  I'm aware of the word's existence and can use it, I just don't like doing it. 

While reading through some of the advice in this book, I found myself nodding along at alot of the section titles because I struggle saying no in those situations. 

My biggest problem is I get 'decliner's remorse' I'm not sure if that's even a thing or if I've just stolen someone else's term but I'm gonna roll with it! Every time I say no or consider saying no, the pangs of guilt are never far away, I worry people won't like me, I worry I'll be letting them down, I worry that if something goes wrong or they have a miserable time - it will be my fault.  In reality, I really need to get over myself.  Someone might be mildly put out that I said no, but they'll move on pretty quickly and find someone else to go see that film I won't enjoy or help them do that thing I'd be terrible at helping with. They might not even give it a second thought. 

Politeness, Firmness and Honesty were recurring words I found throughout this book. I reckon these are positive intentions to have in mind when it comes to saying no.
Be polite about it, be honest about it but also be firm with it.

I'm a terrible one for getting myself stuck in a Vicky Pollard trap of 'No but yes but no but yes' - I start with the intention of saying no but I dance around in a circle not wanting to be unkind and end up either committed to something I don't want to do or committed to something else as a result. As long as I'm not being rude, saying no really shouldn't be the big deal I turn it into.

I'm going to try and keep this book in my mind in situations where I feel myself about to execute a yes when I want to say no. I'll also try and change my view on no being a completely negative thing. 

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Quirky and 30: Sparkle Sunday

If you've read my blog before you might remember that a few years ago I decided about 7 weeks before my 28th birthday I wanted to do a list of 28 things. It was fun and I got through everything on the list to varying degrees but it was a silly timescale! 

This year, I'm turning 30. I don't like this fact, but I accept it.
I'm 30 in 11 weeks time, so I'm not going to try and cram 30 things into a list to do before then.

I'm going to aim to do 30 things this year.

Not necessarily before my birthday, just throughout this year.
A mix of things I've never done, places I've never been and developing new I've never had.

Today I started small, but kept it quirky.
I went shopping with my sister in law for things that sparkle.

I came home with a very comfy and pretty throw blanket...because I'm eternally freezing. 

A day dedicated to shopping for sparkley things (at a bargain) was a great way to kick off my adventures. I've never really had a structured shopping trip, I tend to just soak things in and see what calls out to me.  It was interesting to go in with a goal and seeing where it took me. 

I saw this and I thought it summed up my approach to life quite nicely - sparkle in your own way and leave a little of that sparkle everywhere you go. 

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My Annual ‘Let’s Do This’ Post

At the beginning of each year I look at my blog, think about what I want to change and then decide I'm gonna have the best year ever creatively and then I get sidetracked and that goes out the window.  Last year was a prime example of that mindset, I changed my blog about, bought a domain and had a nice header image designed and I posted a grand total of 12 times. 

I went back and looked at my blog posts from the first half of last year and I can see the difference in my headspace between then and now. 

I've mentioned before in previous posts that I don't do New Years resolutions but I do make postive tweaks. 

I posted on 31st December 2017 about my thoughts for the year ahead and mentioned that I had some thoughts about what I wanted to achieve in that year and that if they didn't happen then that would be okay. 

A few of those things I wanted to tick off the list actually happened, although I can't take credit for all of them, sometimes things happen because you go out and make it happen and sometimes the universe throws a curve ball in your direction and you adapt. 

Having mentioned at the beginning of the post that every year I fall into the trap of deciding I'm going to have the best year ever blog wise and be super creative....I've decided that I'm gonna have the best year ever blog wise and be super creative! 

That's not strictly true. I've decided that I want to actively pursue my creative interests more this year both professionally and personally. 

My blog comes under that. I spent money on a domain and a header image last year to channel my love of quirkiness into my blog and it's essentially sat all year and gathered dust.  Not this year. 

If you dig lists, I've got lists of things I wanna do this year. 

1. Blog at least once a week.  Whether its a long ass post about nothing but my thoughts like this one or something thats half interesting to read, I'd like to commit to posting something each week. 
2. Plan things properly - Do new things so I actually have content for the things I start like friday firsts, recipes etc. 
3. Outfit posts - I know lots of bloggers do outfit posts and I'm hardly reinventing the wheel but one of my biggest quirky loves is fashion so I might try it. I've never been a big fan of photos of myself so I may not be wearing them.  We'll see. 
4. More book reviews - my brain was consumed by other things last year so reading took a bit of a back seat.  That's not like me so more books will be read this year and more reviews will be posted. 

I'm also open to suggestions of new things to try if you've read something on my blog and think I'll dig something you've heard of - let me know!

I know my mother reads my blog, so mother you have my permission to tell me off if I don't do any of the above.

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Quirkmas/Bakemas - Homemade Ferroro Rocher

I know I said I wasn't going to post everyday and I'm fairly certain I won't but my lovely dad found the mini cake cases I was searching for and I decided to post up my second Quirkmas post! 
I also thought about calling it bakemas - I'm just winging it now. 

Someone I know took this recipe from pinterest and I messed
It's a totally customisable recipe and there are plenty of variations online if you don't fancy the ingredients in this one.

Homemade Ferrero Rocher

I'll get straight to the ingredients because it really annoys me when I have to scroll through endless paragraphs to get to the ingredients......

1 Bar of Cooking Chocolate (Melted)

- I opted for dark chocolate because it contained no dairy, use any kind you fancy. You could also use chocolate spread.

2 Bars of Weetabix (Crushed)
Blanched Hazelnuts (Dipped in Chocolate)
- If you cannot have nuts, the hazelnuts aren't essential, I just added them for experimentation. 

My ingredients are also essentially the instructions!

1. Crush the weetabix in a bowl - I used a wooden spoon to crush it, feel free to use the utensil of your choice!

2. Melt the chocolate - I opted for melting on the stove with a low heat, feel free to use the microwave!

3. Add the melted chocolate to the crushed weetabix bowl and mix until all of the weetabix is covered.

 
If using hazelnuts,Leave a small amount of melted chocolate behind.

No Hazelnuts

4. If you are not using hazelnuts, take a spoonful of your mixture and place it into your small cake cases and repeat this process until your mixture/supply of cake cases is complete! 

Using Hazelnuts

5. Dip a hazelnut into the leftover melted chocolate and then begin to assemble your chocolte and weetabix mix around your hazelnut. When you are happy with your assembled piece, place it in one of your small cake cases. 

6. Repeat this process until your mixture/supply of cake cases is complete. 

When you have finished

7. Place your small cake cases on a tray and place the tray in the fridge.

8. Leave your Ferroro Rocher in the fridge until set - mine took about 20 minutes to set, it may vary for others.

9. Enjoy!

My batch certanly do not look elegant and they probably aren't a patch on the real thing but they are very tasty!
The hardest part was the concentration it took to assemble them without dropping them! 

Judges Verdict

Me: "A bit rich but yummy!"

Mum: "A success story!"
Aunt Lynda: "They are lovely, bring some on Christmas Day"I may add other judges as I share them out! 😂

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Quirkmas? Let's try it.

So, a few years ago on my old blog I decided to attempt blogmas and I totally sucked. If you can be bothered going back far enough in my archive I think I still have the posts live and you can see for yourself just how terrible they were. I was in a creative rut and trying to make myself do something creative every day by putting up a post. I was also trying too hard to do the same types of posts I was reading and the vlogmas videos I was watching.
  That was counterproductive as forcing creativity conditioned my brain to be unimaginative and my post were all crap! 

This year I'm going to attempt my own little Quirkmas. I doubt it will be every day and it certainly won't be groundbreaking but it will hopefully be fun or interesting to read. My December has some quirky elements to it, as does my Christmas Day so I should be able to come up with something to write about!

I quite often end up chasing my tail at this time of year, as do most people I guess, so it is quite nice to be starting off the month of December on a day where I've mostly been sat in my room listening to music and brainstorming ideas for blog posts/baking. 

I think I've mentioned in other posts that I play a brass instrument so I'll be doing that throughout the month. Normally I would tire of the repetition very quickly but when it comes to the festive season I actually find it therapeutic to play and read the same music. The sound that comes out of my instrument may not always be exact or consistent, but the process is and I find it comforting. 

I'm waffling now, which is what I tend to do when I'm  veering off plan and just typing thoughts.

Back on plan, I started the gift buying process yesterday, I'd temporarily forgotten it was St Andrews Day when I filled it with Christmas activity but I did spend the day in the city centre taking in all its beauty - admittedly when I wasn't hiding from the rain.

I got a few quirky things for myself, a primark Christmas Tree dress - I'll use that in another post and these little festive flamingo earrings which were from Boots.

Next post, if I remember to do another one before the end of the month 😂, will probably be baking related. 

Until then, Happy Quirkmas to all and to all a good....Saturday.

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Quirky Faves: Autumn 2018

The first time I typed the title of this blog I typed Summer 2017, I'm off to a great start!

I love Autumn. Nature starts charging it's batteries and takes a bit of time out to rejuvinate before bursting to life again in Spring.
That's a really healthy reminder sometimes, to take some time to recharge and not to burn out.

I'm probably rubbish as favourites posts, I think I've made two lacklustre attempts but I thought I'd give it another go, maybe seasonally. Which would work well, as I'm also terrible at having an upload schedule.

Here's some of my quirky faves this Autumn.
I'm not sponsored by any companies, authors or locations I have mentioned below.

Books

  

Yes, I am a 29 year old woman and yes there are two unicorn books in this section. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I dig unicorns.

This Summer/Autumn some of my favourite reads have been

Be More Unicorn: How to Find Your Inner Sparkle by Joanna Gray
When The Curtain Falls by Carrie Hope Fletcher 
The Little Book of Unicorns: Unicornucopia by Caitlin Doyle

You can find all of my Quirky Reads posts here

Monki Midi Skirts

I've built up a steady collection of these since I first discovered Monki last autumn.
I fall in love each time a new quirky pattern is released - I don't buy every one I see but I've been reaching into my wardrobe for these again and again. 

Shoes

Another Monki purchase, I don't normally wear mustard but when I saw these I knew they belonged on my feet.
I don't wear alot of corduroy either but I love these.
They are super comfy and they fit like they were designed for my feet.
Great for walking through crunchy leaves! Not so much on a rainy day but there are other shoes for those days! 

Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Pumpkin Spice Lattes! I don't actually like coffee and I have a dairy intolerance but thankfully this can be customised!
I discovered I enjoy lattes when I can't taste the coffee so I've been having them with soya or coconut milk and the occasional shot of caramel or vanilla.  I discovered a few weeks ago that Pumpkin Spice Latte's are amazing! Another reason for Autumn to be my favourite season!

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