Just a quick post to share this beautiful nail polish with you. It's colour 300 'Spring Tulip' from the NYC In a minute quick dry nail poish range. If I ever feel the need to expand my collection of nail polishes then I always make the NYC stand at Superdrug my first port of call as they are, in my opinion, the best value. They are £1.79 online and by memory the same in store and the big seller for me is they are very quick to dry although I have now started using Seche Vite which is utterly brilliant.

I'll have to show you my nail polihes more often!

Sophie

I do love to wear a variety of styles and being a country girl at heart I have to say that the heritage look is one of my favourites. These River Island superskinny fit trousers remind me in no small manner of jodhpurs so naturally I couldn't resist wearing them with my riding boots, perfect for a wander in some local woodland (I took so many pictures that I have been putting off editing them but hope to soon, as the flora was so pretty). This thick cotton shirt is an absolute delight, being both cute and practical, yet has only made it on to the blog twice before; once with my favourite bright tartan skirt and then again with my treasured Jaeger jacket. I'm sure it was only £1 from the Crack-on Foundation (which is an interesting name), the quality is really good.

Apologies for photo overload but I was really pleased with how this set turned out; I actually look happy in quite a few. One of the things that over three years of taking pictures of myself has taught me is that I have such little awareness about my face. I think “I'm all smiley today” but on reviewing the pictures I seem to be expressing no joy at all. So I try a full out grin, to show just how happy I'm feeling. looks at pictures to find I have the merest hint of a smile. Heaven forbid I forget to smile, talk about face like a slapped arse, I look soooo miserable. Note to self: don't even bother to take pictures if I actually feel miserable, the camera wont be able to deal with that.

At least grin lines will be the least of my ageing woes...

Trousers – River Island, shirt, necklace, ring and boots – charity shops, bracelets – gift, sunglasses – forgotten

Have I ever shown you a close-up of my owl thumb ring? Another charity shop find. I like to wear it often as it's the only large one I own and quite unusual even if the eyes are a little weird.

Thanks to Chris for his patience taking these pictures, he did good! I helped out at the allotment in return. Both happy.

Sophie

I can't lie, this is all Chris' doing. He's been beavering away for the past few months (to my general disdain) working on the fence and sorting out the rest of the plot.

The main plan is to get a lot of fruit trees and soft fruit bushes established this year so as to take up an area of the allotment that wont need to be worked year in year out. I'm pretty chuffed as I'm a fruit lover and the trees include several varieties of apple, pear, plum, apricot and cherry trees, soft fruits; strawberry, raspberry (includes yellow ones), blackcurrant, blackberry, tayberry, redcurrants, whitecurrants, red gooseberries and red & white grapes, rhubarb... good grief the list goes on.

Anyway, over Easter I thought I'd play the role of a good wife and help out with the spring chores necessary for a successful allotment so ended up preparing the ground for some growing action. I also planted some potatoes (which were late first earlies apparently) even though I hardly eat potatoes any more

Check out the cute fence Chris erected single handedly. I'm impressed. Maybe I was a little harsh by making him do it alone.

There is still plenty of planting to be done and I'm trying to be more supportive by helping our for a few hours here and there but the nature of the allotment site means that it is always really windy there which makes me feel ill (for some reason if it's on that cusp between warm and cool I feel quite poorly) so wrapping up is always a must. There is a phenomenal amount of stone in the soil as well which only adds to the workload as areas for carrots need to be sifted to be made suitable.

Chris has also put together a raised bed in which we are going to grow salad leaves.

I just need the temperature to notch up ten degrees, a good windbreak and a cool beverage then I'll be there full time. Until then I'll be hunched up in my puffa jacket and blowing my nose every five minutes sowing the seeds and dreaming of summer.

Sophie

I was sent a parcel from Katie of Hook Line and Sink Her which was accompanied by the sweetest card! I received: Haribo jelly bunnies and eggs, Cath Kidston rose soap, a fluffy chick, a friendship bracelet to use as bookmark, a yellow nail polish, ‘Chocolat ‘ the book and a lovely notebook too.I was so pleased with the amazing parcel I was sent and really grateful.
It’s great to take part in swaps and although I vow never to do it again because the postage costs are ridiculous I can’t resist signing up.
Sophie

The yellow stuff, my favourite crop of them all; oil seed rape has the most phenomenally bright colour and never fails to lift my spirits. In terms of scent I would describe it as “sneeze” flavour, not everyone's cup of tea by all means but one which immediately morphs me back in time to pre-teens when I would hack around the countryside on ponies with my best friend. Ah, this crop certainly takes me to a happy place.
The dress....THE DRESS! It's a beauty, isn't it? The niftily titled Elegant Keyhole Neckline Polka Dot Sleeveless Chiffon Maxi Dress from Sammydress.com was one that caught my eye as being something so different with it's gathered neckline and flowing fabric.
I was a little worried that the 'one size' fitting would mean it wouldn't look right but the nature of how to wear the dress means that it will comfortably fit the smallest of frames up to at least a 12 for the same loose fit. It goes over the head, you tie the neck and belt up; the belt is completely loose so you can place wherever feels best which is great. I'm around 5'4 and the dress looks far shorter on me than the model but I quite like the length on me.
Aside from the delicious frill to the neck, great shoulder reveal (not sure I've ever worn this style before but loving it), wonderful swoosh to the fabric there also happens to be the price £8.11 is the selling price (plus postage) and I can't really believe it! Perfect for daywear, evenings and occasions and as a beach cover-up too, it's pretty versatile and also comes in wine red. Everything else on their website is priced really low too, there are loads of pieces I have my eye already.
I went out solo to get these pictures a week ago, armed with the big lens, remote and tripod after earmarking this spot the day before. What I hadn't banked on was that to get the pictures I had in mind, I would have to be further away from the camera than the remote would work at. The old '10 second self timer' came into it's own, with me setting it, doing the 8 second dash and waiting for the shutter then head back to repeat. The exercise did keep me warm in the cool breeze so I guess all was not lost although I sincerely hope nobody saw me running back and forth like I was on a bit of elastic for the best part of 15 minutes by a field.
Dress & belt – Sammydress, sandals – TK Maxx, bag, bangles and ring – charity shop, sunglasses – forgotten already.
One of my favourite set of pictures in ages, I think everything just works. Are you a fan of the dress too?
Sophie
Thanks to Sammydress for sending me this dress to review, all opinions my own as always

I'll be honest, Easter to me is a rare luxury of 4 days off on the trot but little more. As I neither worship God nor chocolate there is just a treasured four day weekend with Chris and Lincoln to look forward to.

The weather has been a bit of a mixed bag but I mustn't really complain, hardly any rain and a few hours of sunshine with mild temperature although more of a breeze than preferable. We've not been overly busy yet at the same time I've found myself with plenty to share with you (coming soon, if I can ever get round to preparing posts!).

It's been a greedy weekend of course; a reckless purchase of two four-packs of hot cross buns was just asking for trouble, especially as Chris wont even eat them. Toasted is best in my opinion, with plenty of butter (ok, light spread shhhh).

Lazy; snuggles with my little possum Lincoln.

Munchy; steak sarnie, beef hash and funky bacon beans plus roast lamb. Snacks galore, don't even ask!

Lengthy dog walks for Lincoln (and me in the sun)

Pub dinner and a few drinks although it was extremely quiet on Thursday considering most people would surely have the Friday off. Some drunk woman stopped me to compliment my dress but later appeared to be taking the mick, c'est la vie. I had a lollypop to keep me happy after the most succulent burger I've ever eaten. Mmmm.

Cooked breakfasts – food fit for a queen

Best discovery ever goes to a Poundland purchase of these peanut butter flavour malteasers. Chris was so miffed I ate most of these, I'm just hoping I can stock up again.

Things have been getting rather exciting lately, topping 300 Bloglovin' followers and 10k comments on the blog (woah!). I have quite a few posts coming up that I'm feeling really good about including a super – exciting giveaway coming this week that you will not want to miss FOR SURE! Thank you to all the old faithfuls that have stuck around for years – ever supportive (you know who you are) and any newbies who have recently found me. I really can't express how grateful I am that you've dropped by.

Ok, so I did eat two little bars of chocolate. Shhh.

Sophie

Not often is it that I find myself deliberately wearing the colours of the season but I found myself doing just that on a day trip to Wells-Next-The-Sea a few weeks ago. I know it's usually quite breezy along the coast so I knew tights would be essential but I didn't want to bulk up with a massive jumper so I went for a lighter knit and my trusty leather jacket. This cute little bag is such a lovely pink, bright and cheerful but not overly girly for my liking and seems to work particularly well with the dazzling blue jumper and made for a bold yet simple colour combination. This pleated polka dot skirt can be relied upon oh-so-often these days; it's long enough to be appropriate for every occasion, loose enough to eat a good meal and monochrome which is something of a rareity I my wardrobe. White tights! I have never worn these before and I'm not massively sure they suit me but for the outfit in question they were my favourite choice, worn of course with my Yull Chelsea boots which are always topping my list of practical footwear for every day.

Jumper, bag, necklace – charity shops, jacket – Ebay, boots – Yull, tights – Primark, sunglasses – QD

Have a lovely weekend!

Sophie

I've been thinking of how to create simple, healthy and quick budget friendly meals lately and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I've been going back to basics. Our Tefal Optigrill has really come into it's own recently for grilling meat on the quick; we've used it for all the bacon and in fact I'm eating more bacon as it's far easier than getting the oven grill going, foiling up the tray, watching it..... turning my back just for a second and letting it burn.

My problem with meat has always been the timing – I can never figure out how long anything will need or being able to identify when it's cooked right. The Optigrill system of timing the cooking with the colour changing light is perfect for me! I waxed lyrical about the wonderful features before in my mini review of the Optigrill so I will try keeping this post brief.

So what have we used it for so far?

Steak! You will notice that the steak is served with celeriac mash and steamed vegetables with a dash of gravy. Don't get me wrong, steak and chips is my favourite but a few portions of vegetables is a far healthier choice and of course the steak is pretty lean as the fat that drips off is channelled away during cooking.

 

Burgers (not pictured as I got carried away and ate them before my camera got a look in, sorry!). The really noticeable benefit was that the burgers stayed perfectly in one piece as they weren't balancing on a grill rack nor having to be flipped over multiple times. By far the best way to cook burgers is from frozen – fact. Chris was most impressed with the speedy cooking time and accuracy of the heating; he used our digital thermometer to double check they were done when the Optigrill said they were ready.

We sourced some local skin-on chicken breasts and liberally sprinkled on fajita spicing then popped them in the Optigrill. It turns out the spicing was really hot but the chicken skin was beyond delicious, this shall be reserved for a treat and next time we'll be using the skinned fillets as usual. The chicken stayed moist unlike every other time and way we've cooked it before so once again we'll be sticking with the Optigrill for cooking chicken. Obviously you cannot cook anything with bones on this grill as the timing sensor wont take bones into account so timings will be incorrect but I think that's just logical anyway.

The Optigrill has been sat on the worktop since it arrived as we use it so often that it's not worth hiding it away in between uses. It's sleek design and compact size mean that it hasn't got in the way but equally would be easy to pop into a cupboard to free up more worktop space. We keep it right by the extractor fan as some meats do produce a fair bit of steam depending on water content (bacon is the worst) but near a window would be fine. The plates are a doddle to remove, clean and reattach (dishwasher friendly too).

I can imagine this would be ideal for small families, single people and especially the elderly as you can cook so much on the Optigrill at worktop height, completely avoiding bending over to the grill or bottom oven with a hot or heavy pan. We're loving ours and are getting plenty of use out of it; I want to toast a bruscetta on it and also get some fish grilled on it at some point too.

Sophie

Thanks again to Tefal for sending me the Optigrill! All opinions and content are 100% my own as always.