What I Wore 13th September

In the middle of September I had lunch with my friend Sarah. We hadn't seen each other in over two months, since we got tattooed together! That's a long time for us! We had planned to meet at Yo Sushi in Meadowhall as we like it there. I was planning to just lounge in bed in the morning and read my book, which I did for a bit, only then Sarah said she was going to go to Hobbycraft first, so my eyes lit up and I said I'd see her there.

I haven't been to Hobbycraft in ages! I had a nice wander round. I had seen someone in a Facebook group post that they had planner stickers in stock, but I couldn't find any in this one. I ended up buying two other stickers sets and a sparkly purple tackle box that is now my sewing box. My old one had broken so this, at £6.50, is perfect!

We went to Meadowhall itself and made our way to Yo Sushi. I really enjoyed what I had - they've got some new vegetarian and vegan bits on the belt which I really like - but Sarah thinks they've changed some of the recipes of what she likes to have, so didn't like it as much. We sat there for ages chatting; it wasn't busy so we weren't taking up space.

I went into M&S on my way out and, as I had a voucher, I bought some nice alcohol. The buck's fizz I've had before, it's quite sharp and citrussy. I've no idea what to do with the elderflower liqueur but I'm sure the internet will have some ideas!

Finally, I was wearing my new rainbow top. My cousin's girlfriend Beth dyed it for me when we were tie dyeing, she was really good at getting it so good. I love it! i decided to put it on to show Sarah. I found it quite odd that my sleeves were different colours but I got used to it. I think it's perfect!

I got two bottles of buck's fizz, a bottle of sparkling rose Cava, a pre mixed can, and elderflower liqueur

Some paper and the stickers I bought, on the sewing box

I love how sparkly it is! They had a few different colours, I think I might need to buy another

Sarah took this of me while we were eating

And here's the top in full! We didn't have any orange dye, and the yellow and green look pretty similar here but they look more different in person

What I Wore 1st September

As I said, we went to the theatre in York at the beginning of September, and I debuted the top that my mum had bleached for me the weekend before when we did all the tie dyeing at camping. My mum was really good at the bleaching so I left her to it as I was doing the dyeing.

As I said, my cousin Peter had brought this cog off a bike with him to use. He did his first, spraying bleach over the cog and leaving it until he was happy with the shade that the bleach bleached the fabric to. I think he went quite white with his. I liked the effect so much that I asked my mum to do one for me.

The top was a basic one from Simply Be, I bought a bunch and they were all under £10. My mum sprayed the bleach - she said it was better to spray the air for a bit to make sure the bottle wasn't clogged, and then move towards the cloth.

I washed the bleach off when the fabric had faded to this coppery colour, because I thought that was quite cool. I love the effect, I really do. I like the bigger spots of bleach, too. I wore the top to the theatre tucked into this skirt that I am wearing a lot at the moment.

These leggings are from Simply Be and the seam on the right leg is twisted somehow, meaning that when I wear them they end up looking twisted like this. It's fine but kind of annoying!

I will definitely do more tie dyeing and bleaching in the future, because the effects are really good and I like wearing something unique.

The Tempest and Twelfth Night in York

You may remember at the end of June I went to the pop up Rose theatre in York to see Henry V. We went last year too, and were really excited by the programme this year. At the beginning of September we - me, Jacqui, Sam and Jodie - decided to do a double bill. It was the Tempest in the afternoon by one company, and Twelfth Night in the evening by the other company.

I did both these plays at school - Twelfth Night in some depth - so I knew the stories unlike with Henry V which I didn't have a clue about. We took our seats - high up on the second tier but facing straight on to the stage, so we had a great view. The staging for the Tempest was pretty steampunk in nature, so it looked really pretty.

I enjoyed the first half, but lost the thread of what was happening, so in the intermission I looked up the synopsis of the plot on Wikipedia. That really helped and although I'm far from stupid I sometimes can't understand the language. Shakespeare is hard! I enjoyed the second half a lot more than the first, and thought it was really well done.

We went over to 31 Castlegate for food. We went there in June, too, and had quite a strange waiter, but the food was nice. They have a set menu for £19, which has plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, which I do appreciate, but this time we had an even stranger waiter and I've been quite put off going again. Weird!

We went back over to the theatre and took the exact same seats for Twelfth Night. This time, it was staged like it was the 1920s, all jazz bands and flapper dresses. I know Twelfth Night a lot better. I did it for GCSE and had to act the part of Sir Toby Belch as part of my coursework I think. It was really fun, and funny. It was the last night and the actors seemed to be in a really celebratory mood, which added to it. They broke the fourth wall a couple of times, which was really funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm glad it was the second play of the day.

At the end the director gave his thanks and so on, and he said that the theatre will be back next year! We've already been discussing what we hope comes to it, and I know I'll go back to see more!

Here's my photos - although I'll do my outfit in another post:

The staging for the Tempest - there's Prospero just chilling out before the play started

I loved this Shakespeare quote poster behind the seats. There's so much Shakespeare that people know off the top of their heads

Goats cheese mousse for starter. It was nice, but I had it last time and it was nicer last time

Mushroom risotto, this was really nice

Sticky toffee pudding, it was nice but this is when the waiter was weird

The neon sign for Twelfth Night

Jac and Sam and Jodie and me, on the upper tier. It wasn't that full

And lastly, here's the stage all lit up in the intermission when it was a bit darker

A Roasting Tin Recipe

I bought Lee the Green Roasting Tin book for Christmas, I think, because it looked really good. It's full of vegetarian and vegan dishes that are all done in, you guessed it, one roasting tin. For us that's really useful because it's easy and requires not much setting up or cleaning up. We both went through the book marking recipes we liked the sound of. Some of them are a bit too nutty for Lee, including this one. It's supposed to have cashews on it. However, he liked the sound of the rest of it, so we decided to just leave the cashews off.

It's the sticky Thai rice recipe if you want to look at it in the book. We used sweet potato and broccoli, because neither of us likes squash. The rice is pretty nice by itself, but the dressing lifts it. It's tart, sour, a bit sweet, gingery - it's yummy! I really liked it. We had this with Quorn chicken nuggets.

I've been vegetarian since the New Year. I've had smoked salmon a few times, and tuna once. I think that's fine! I've really wanted it, and have enjoyed it when I have. My friend Chloe told me to stop worrying about it in July, so I did, but since then I've had no fish either. I'm finding vegetarianism really easy, by and large. I'm lucky because Lee is really on board. He hasn't eaten red meat ever since I've known him, but he really likes chicken and tuna. He would find it hard to go completely vegetarian because he doesn't like cheese, but he has tried so many more new things this year. I am enjoying myself currently, so I'll keep going as a vegetarian until I'm not!

We will definitely make this again because it was so nice!

What I Wore 29th August and Lunch Out

On Thursday the 29th of August I was due to meet a friend for lunch so I got up and had a shower. My friend wasn't feeling too well so she cancelled, but I was feeling a bit cabin crazy so still wanted to go out. Lee said he'd go out for lunch with me to Meadowhall. He works from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so could take an hour or so off to go with me. I offered to buy sushi for both of us, so off we went to Yo Sushi.

I've always liked it, but Lee doesn't like the raw stuff, so since they've brought in more cooked dishes he's more keen to go. He had chicken ramen and some other bits. I am really loving Yo Sushi since I went vegetarian as it's made me branch out in what I'm trying. They've got a bunch of new vegetarian and vegan dishes. I had pumpkin katsu, vegetable gyoza, and a bunch of other stuff. There's a new vegan roll that I really liked with vegan mayo and sriracha, and I love their fries (which are vegetarian if you ask for them without the bonito flakes).

After lunch we wandered into Accessorize. I saw some faux marble slides in there back in May when we were in Harrogate, but didn't buy them, and I've been thinking about them ever since! I was hoping they were still in stock, and they were. I also treated myself to some rose gold earrings, I've been wearing them loads since.

I had just put on this dress to go out, nothing really special but comfortable and cute enough for a casual lunch. It was a nice couple of hours!

I love Yo Sushi, it's filling and delicious and fun

Aren't those slides so gorgeous?! They're pretty good even in my fine hair, too

Scarlett & Jo dress, I've worn it a million times, but I do love it

Camping Day 3

On Day 3 of our camping trip we were again up bright and early due to the heat. Neil and co made drop scone pancakes, I had one with chocolate spread and banana and one with golden syrup. The heat was already ridiculous so everyone was under the awning. Some people played a card game that my mum recently bought, she liked it. I was reading my book - A Keeper by Graham Norton, which turned out to be much better than I thought - but sitting at the table being sociable with everyone else.

My cousin Peter's girlfriend Beth (his brother's wife is also called Beth, confusingly!) had been working so wasn't able to join us before lunchtime on the Sunday, so she was arriving into Bicester station. I volunteered to take him, so the two of us set off just after noon. It was so hot that the aircon in the car couldn't cope, so we ended up on the country roads with windows down singing along loudly to Fall Out Boy! It was lovely.

We picked Beth up, popped into Tesco, then went back to camp. We all had lunch - barbecue leftovers from the night before - and then it was time for tie dyeing!

I had asked my aunt ages ago if she would do some tie dyeing with me. She's done it way more often than me (I think the last time I did any was on some kind of summer activity thing run by the council when I was about ten years old), she's taught Scouts and Cubs how to do it, so I knew she was the perfect person. She suggested doing it on camp because there would be lots of outdoor space and running water, which seemed ideal. She had bought some dyes and I had a couple hanging around too, so we took all our washing up bowls to the outdoor sinks on the toilet block and got the dyes going.

Some time before camping, my uncle had seen a video on Facebook where people were doing stuff with bleach on dark coloured clothes, using leaves and things as silhouettes. My mum decided she wanted to do that, so she brought ordinary household bleach and two spray bottles, and made some silhouettes that she laminated at work. We took a black t-shirt of Lee's for him to do this.

I had so many things with me. I'd bought a few tops especially, cheap from Crazy Clearance in either white or black. My friend Sam gave me a couple of tops to tie dye for her. Plus I wanted to make some presents for friends of mine with small children, so I'd bought some sleepsuits and stuff from Primark a couple of weeks before camping. Oh and then I'd bought a new fitted sheet for Lee and I that I wanted to dye too, I thought it would look really fun on the bed and we do have a lot of ridiculous bedding. Lee promised to help me and he did.

We ended up with quite a production line! Rob's Beth dyed some shorts, Rob dyed himself a shirt. Peter had brought along a big cog from a bike, so he sprayed bleach around it on to a t-shirt which was really effective. Lee was helping me, I was just seeing what looked cool. Peter's Beth is really good at tie dyeing - she's just finished her degree in costume design, so it makes sense - and she made rainbows for herself. I asked her to do the same for me on one top and for Sam. We were at it for hours - two and a half, I think, all together. The sun was so hot, it was nice to keep putting your hands into the cold water to wash the dye off. I ended up burning my shoulder without meaning to.

We had such a lovely line of bright clothes on the deck around the toilets!

But when we went back to our tents, my uncle strung some washing line up to dry everything on, and my mum fell down the banking and rolled through some nettles. Her left hand side took the worst of it, and all up her arm and bare leg was badly nettled. She put some cream on it and sat down, and we kept getting her a cold compress for it. She said it felt like little stabbing needles all over. It really shook her up, bless her. She felt a lot better in the morning though, and the welts had gone down a lot.

In the evening Lee and I made curry. Well, we had already made it at home, so it just needed heating up and some rice making. The afternoon had really taken it out of me, though, and I was in a lot of pain and completely out of spoons, so Lee did most of it and Neil helped him. I was really grateful! We had poppadums and naans too. Everyone liked the curry - it was vegetable since Lee and I mostly eat vegetarian these days (Lee eats some chicken and tuna, but not much), but we'd put some paneer cheese in too.

It was again a really warm night, but we still set the fire going. We ended up playing Heads Up which was fun.

The next day we just packed up. It was hot, so we all had an ice lolly at about 11.30 as we were doing it. Peter was being Most Valuable Player by helping everyone, bless him. We said goodbye at around noon. I was really hungry, so Lee and I stopped at Leicester Forest services for food. I wanted to try the halloumi burger at Burger King (not bad, I think it needs two bits of halloumi myself) so we went inside, and then I got a phone call from my mum asking where we were, because they had happened to park next to us in the car park and were stopping for lunch too! They had fish and chips and we all sat together, it was unexpected but nice!

It had been a really exhausting weekend so I just relaxed all afternoon, but it was a lot of fun too. I can't wait until next year!

Lee and I on Sunday morning. He ended up borrowing a cap off my stepdad to try to keep from burning. I love the sun, but it was a lot

Getting set up to dye. I borrowed the hat off my aunt, I really must buy one

Stirring the powder with the salt needed

Lee was really good at this job. Not sure our spoon will ever be the same, and it took days for all the dye to come off my hands!

Rob's Beth dyeing her shorts

Peter's Beth's rainbow tops underway

Look at that lovely line of bright clothes! I don't want to show anything too close up, but I'll try to remember to take photos when I give things to the mamas

Isn't the elephant outline so cool? I'm not sure who that belonged to although I suspect my mum. The blue and purple top to the left is definitely mine - it was a top that I had stained and kept aside for dyeing

There was not one cloud in the whole entire sky. It was a lovely weekend for weather, but I think 32 was pushing it a bit

Here's Peter on Monday morning rolling on our tent to get the air out of it

And lastly here's his Beth showing off her rainbow top the next day, isn't it perfect?

Camping Day 2

The day dawned bright and early for me when I woke up to go to the loo and my cousin Rob, already awake and eating his first breakfast, tried to engage me in conversation. I shook my head, wandered off to the toilet block, and went back to bed. But it was already so hot - temperatures were over 30 later in the day - and the tent was absorbing it all. It was way too hot to still be in there.

So we were up early! Neil and co cooked breakfast - vegetarian sausages for me and Lee, eggs, beans, and garlic mushrooms. It was really nice! After we'd eaten and got tidied up my aunt and her lot went to Stowe to go for a walk. My mum decided she and my stepdad were going to stay in camp all day - she was enjoying sunbathing. Lee and I decided to go to a nearby fishing lake because the weather was so nice. I was hoping we would be able to paddle, but no doing, so we just sat in the shade under a tree for a bit and enjoyed the view.

Then we drove into Brackley, a little town close by. It had a few independent shops so we looked around those, but it was stupidly hot so we ended up in Costa drinking ice coffee in the air conditioning. It was nice to get out for a bit, though.

We were all back at camp quite early. We had taken our boules set and Rob had a similar game that was Finnish I think? So some of us played that. The campsite had a freezer selling ice lollies for just 30p, they were decent ones too, so we all had one of those. Everyone was tired because of the heat though, and chasing the shade.

My mum's cousin Gary lives quite close to Bicester, so she had invited him and his partner Allie to join us for tea. We had a barbecue; my stepdad ended up cooking most of it. Lee and I had veggie burgers which were nice, and Quorn hotdogs that I wasn't that keen on. We had tons of salads and it was really nice.

We kept the fire going on the barbecue again and sat round it again talking. Gary and my mum were talking about some relatives of ours, and I learnt a lot about them. My mum's dad was born in India and came over here after WWII and just before partition happened, which I obviously knew. Gary's mum was my beloved Aunt Bea, who was also born in India - they came over to the UK in 1952 on a ship, arriving the day after my grandparents got married. Gary's dad, my uncle Dick, was part-Portugese and part-Indian, and he played hockey for India in the 1948 Olympics, I think. Well, he apparently grew up in a village in the foothills of the Himalayas! That's so cool! I love knowing little things like that.

It was another lovely night, and really warm for sleeping (which I like in the tent!)

It was Photo An Hour so some of these photos are for that:

Good morning campers! I love this camping table my uncle brings, it's so nice to all sit around. My uncle had hurt his fingers on the bench the day before though

Breakfast! We end up where everyone's plates and cutlery are just all in one and everyone just grabs one and digs in. On our last day we have to divvy up what belongs to each of us

Selfie in the sunshine

The lake we went to, it was really serene

The high street in Brackley

One of the Costa summer drinks, salted caramel iced coffee I think? 

Lee back at camp trying to keep himself in the shade

Even my mum had had too much sun at this point! You can see her tent in the background

Playing boules. I just sat and read my book, I really needed to just chill out I think

Gorgeous sunny blue sky

There was an ice cream van that came round every evening, Gary ended up getting this ice cream and I thought he looked so joyful with it!

Yay, fire!