Photo an Hour December and My Aunt's Party

Photo an Hour in December was on December 15th and we happened to be going to Surrey for my aunt's 50th birthday party, so I had lots of fun stuff to take photos of. I'll post my outfits separately, but here's the rest of the day:

Early, post shower

Lee in the car on the way

I was in charge of music which means you get stuff like this, sorry

Stopped for lunch 

Still on the motorway...

Finally at Caroline's and we'd got changed and I'd put my face on. I recently discovered a bunch of Models Own lipsticks that I'd forgotten about so I had pulled them all out to wear. This peachy coral is gorgeous!

Caroline's amazing cake, her daughter in law Beth made it

My younger cousin and me - the hat is mine but isn't he cute in it?

Lee and I 

On the left screen were tons of photos of Caroline through the years, which were lovely to look at

Sparkler and singing happy birthday

Lee deep in conversation

My stepdad checking his camera

A quiz of films that were all released in 1968 - which do you know?

The most amazing brownies ever

Later in the evening, playing Heads Up with my cousins

And a couple of others

Sitting on the sofa in the conservatory feeling quite drunk

And finally... what's left over at the end of a good party!

Photo an Hour 28th April

Saturday 28th April was Photo An Hour again which I like to join in with over on my Instagram. Sometimes you end up documenting the most mundane of days, but I love that too. But this Saturday was quite busy for me, so here we go, I'll just post the photos:

We got up quite late, after lounging around for a bit together in bed. This was around 10

Lee made fried egg sandwiches for brunch, they're so simple but so delicious

Doing some crocheting. This is a birthday present for my mum for her 60th in May, I'll post when I've finished it. The colours are just lush

We've been cleaning all the windows in the house because they haven't been done in forever. The Velux window in the attic had had some glue stuck on it for years, but Lee managed to remove it with nail polish remover, so that's good. You can see me sitting down - this is where my desk lives in the attic. Hi! *waves*

Lee was photographing some stuff to put on eBay

The blanket seems to have really grown recently. I love the stacked shells at the top. It's now big enough to keep me really cosy while I crochet. I'm trying very hard to put some love into every stitch!

Around 5pm. I had been in the shower ready to go out

6pm, we were in Lush in Meadowhall. Lee wanted some new moisturiser for his face and also bought a solid shampoo bar. I love the salespeople in Lush, they're always really friendly and knowledgeable about the products

We headed up to Handmade Burger Co for food because Lee wanted milkshake. We haven't been there in ages so it was really nice

I had a beef burger with crushed avocado and bacon. Lee had a cajun chicken burger, and we shared some fries and some onion rings.

We headed into Sheffield to go to the Harley, because we were going to see Trampolene. I only know them because their lead singer Jack has been in Peter Doherty's band for a while now, so I thought I'd check them out. They're pretty good, they sound a bit like The Killers and a bit like 90s Britpop bands.

With Lee waiting for the main event

Trampolene! Honestly! We sat at the back because gigs make me really anxious, but we still had a decent view from there and I went forward for a few songs. Gigs in pubs are excellent for me because they're often small enough for me to really enjoy myself and not get too anxious

The band sounds a bit too big for such a small space, though, their sound is much more stadium rock. I actually think they'll go really far 

Around 11pm, on the way home

And finally, here's Ivy sitting on my bum in bed! Goodnight!

Photo an Hour - March

March's photo an hour happened to fall on the day that I was going to the Northern YA Literature Festival, held for the first time. It was in Preston at the UCLan campus and it was free! I'd registered for tickets way back in January and booked two for Lee to come with me. Now, Lee and I are currently living apart and have been since the beginning of March. We're still together, but we're trying to sort out some underlying relationship stuff and to give each other a break from the other. But I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with going by myself so I asked Lee to come along. We have been seeing each other a couple of times a week so I thought we would be okay and would have a good time. And we did! Lee stayed over in our house both nights and we had a nice weekend together. On the Sunday we went to the supermarket to stock up on some bits for me, and then we had lunch together before he went.

I think we will be okay and will sort it all out, but we need to just be apart for now.

Anyway, back to Saturday. We got up at stupid o'clock to go to Preston, got to the conference in time for it to open, listened to the first panel, had some lunch, listened to another panel and the author conversations, and attended a bunch of signings, bought books, all that good stuff! We set off home about five thirty, and when we got home we ordered a takeaway and watched Star Wars. I crashed into bed just before 10pm and then woke up about midnight on the verge of being sick. I felt dreadful! I went back to sleep and then woke up about 4.30am with my stomach still really upset. I managed to go back to sleep again and got up about 10. I still didn't feel right! But the clocks had gone forward and it was a sunny day, both of which helped me feel better.

Anyway, he are my hourly photos from Saturday:

7am and I was awake, in a fashion. I was so tired, I hadn't slept well on the Friday night. Also why does my left eyebrow look perfect and the right one look weird?!

8am and we set off, we had to go to the post office first to collect something. This is just as we were leaving our street.

9am and I was playing DJ in the car. We listened to some very weird cover versions, but this one reminded me how much I like the original

10am in the queue for the conference with Lee. 

11am and the first panel, on getting into publishing, was about to start

Noon and I was in the queue for Anna Day (on the left) to sign my book. I enjoyed listening to the other lady, Teri Terry, but I don't have any books by her

1pm. Lee and I went across the road from the venue and were going to go into Subway, but it was really busy so we went two doors away to this falafel place. I had the hummous platter with falafel, it also came with a pitta bread. It was SO GOOD! I really enjoyed it. They had really nice juices, too.

2pm, this was the panel on feminism in YA. 

3pm, ish, kind of, this was another signing queue. The room was pretty well laid out, I liked it

4pm, this was Alwyn Hamilton talking about her books

5pm, I was getting tireder and taking ugly selfies, oh well!

6pm, back in the car on the way home with the sun shining behind us

7pm and it had fallen dark. This was on the M62 on our way home

8pm ish, we decided to watch A New Hope, this is Luke and Obi Wan, I know it's not easy to see

9pm, me curled up in my pyjamas... And like I say, I then headed off to bed!