My 2016

This year was amazing, so many wonderful things happened. A lot of not-so-pleasant things happened too, but I rarely mention them on my blog as I don’t want to take the time to write about the negatives, it’s enough I’m thinking of them from time to time (more often that I should). I usually make collages of pictures and last year I’ve made a collage each month. So, I’ll do that again. It was fun.
From May to November we’ve been away with the caravan every month, twice in October. We’ve planned to go again in December, but had to cancel in the last minute because something came up.

January was a busy month with work, so we didn’t get the chance to explore as we usually do. I’ve started my farm-of-the-month series, I cooked interesting things like baked houmous and backlava. I also received that beautiful vegan-leather jacket from my husband.
I blogged about The Best Thing About Being Vegetarian (food, of course). I was asked to review Jamie’s Italian and it was lovely. Beside this, my life consisted in work, work and… well, work.

February is another very busy month. We’ve been to London and to Birmingham. In London we went to Shoreditch after finishing the work commitments. That month I made a review of the Bed Head shampoo and conditioner, received as a gift from Secret Santa. I’ve been using it for almost 1 year and I love it. It’s the best shampoo I had, can’t be happier. I did try another shampoo this year, but I was so disappointed with it, that I stopped using it. Now I’m using Bed Head for coloured hair and it’s just fab. It’s a shame I can’t tell my Secret Santa how amazing the shampoo was for my hair, I hope she is reading my blog and sees this.
I made a fashion posts about work outfits and I admired the beautiful deer at Charlecote Park. I also made up a 5 min workout that is quite basic, only push-ups, but it’s so efficient.

In March we’ve celebrated Easter and we went to Croxteth Greenhouse to see a special kind of flower. I’ve been to a few cocktail events for bloggers, that I obviously love to attend to. I also went to Vapiano for another blogger event that was hilarious, we had to taste our food blindfolded. It was a very interesting experience.
Another highlight of March was Crufts. As a pedigree dog owner that showed the dog a few times, I know about Crufts. It takes such a huge commitment to show the dogs and I fully appreciate their efforts. It was amazing to see all the dogs and I also got a few things for Festus. As I mentioned, we said we are not going to spend a lot of money, but ended up buying a £23 toy in the first 5 minutes of being at the show. It proved to be a fab idea and I’m going to buy another one if we’ll attend Crufts next year.

April was great. We bought our caravan, but at the end of the month, so the first trip was in May. We went to the park to feed birds, the flowers in my garden started to grow beautifully again. I got another handmade vase to match the first one I got a couple of years ago. We’ve been to the Maker Faire UK in Newcastle upon Tyne and it was fab, it’s a really different thing to do in a weekend.

In May I had a makeover at Sassoon in Liverpool, Metquarter. It was the first time I tried a fringe and I like it. I will have a fringe next year too, but slightly different. We went caravanning and we both enjoyed it a lot. As we got an old caravan, we’ve spent some time replacing some things and updating the curtains. I loved Anglesey, it’s a fantastic place to visit and Holy Island was one of my favourite places.

In June we’ve been to London and to the Knaresborough Bed Race for the 2nd year in a row. It’s a fun event and as there are different themes each year, it’s very likely we’ll go to see the beds next year too. I got to see Paul Hollywood and even had a brownie he made, going to the BBC Good Food Show is a must for every foodie. We tried an escape room in Manchester and it was so much fun. We had a short holiday in Essex and I bought flour milled at a Victorian mill and I baked bread with it.

In July I’ve made a guide for a fancy afternoon tea at home. We’ve been to the Color Run and it was fun. I blogged about the toy I got Festus from Crufts. It’s still a great toy after so many months. I’ve been to a fab blogging event. We also went to London and we’ve visited Bank of England and the Twinings shop. A day out in Yorkshire meant we stopped by East Riddlesden Hall. Pick your own fruits was another thing I loved doing. As a city girl, doing stuff like this is really special. We’ve spent a weekend away in Cumbria.

After a weekend away in Cumbria in July, in August we went again, to visit Hadrian’s Wall, Chesters Roman Fort (posted in September) and many other locations. The Puzzling Place was so much fun, an interesting and different attraction. We did go to London, to Portobello Market and the Museum of Brands.

In September we’ve spent 10 days in London and we were able to see so many wonderful things, like the Sky Garden, Freud Museum, Home of Charles Darwin, a local farm, an abbey. I went to Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium by myself and it was lovely. Next month my husband and I went to the cat cafe in Manchester. That month I’ve been to the second BlogOn event, as fab as the first one.

I already mentioned the Freud museum the month before, when we’ve visited it. In October we’ve been to Kensington Palace, to Kew Gardens in London. The second trip we’ve made was in Edinburgh and beside Edinburgh Castle, we’ve also been to see the Kelpies at night. As we went at the end of the month, I posted about the things we saw the following month and one of the most exciting places was a small mansion, where Outlander is filmed, called Lallybroch in the movie. We went to pick out pumpkins for Halloween from the farm and I got a little too excited because I was picking my own from the fields that I got more than I intended.
My husband and I celebrated our 14th anniversary of the day we’ve met. I was lucky to win a bespoke card and it turned out to be amazing. My husband loved it too. We had fun for Halloween, we had lots of kids over, so many that I ran out of sweets, we had funny costumes and a lovely time.

November is always amazing because it’s my birthday and I’m one of those people who love their birthday. This year we’ve been to London, my husband prepared something very special, he got tickets to the Ceremony of Keys at the Tower of London, after I’ve tried for a long time, but when I was looking they were sold out. I had a look on their website and today it says that it’s fully booked until November 2017, it’s that hard to get tickets to it. We also had a drink in an igloo on the river Thames, near the Tower. All this after I drove an F1 simulator. It was the best birthday!
Another highlight from November was the opening of Shoryu Ramen, a new restaurant in Manchester. It involved hearing a lovely story about the one behind the restaurant, seeing a sake ceremony and being offered sake by the Mayor.

December is a busy time with work and celebrations. We had St. Nicholas Day, we went to DreamWorks Lights Lantern, we tried the new vegan menu at Vapiano and a Corsa as our courtesy car while ours was fixed. The Christmas tree is decorated and gifts are underneath the tree. Now we are waiting for Christmas, but before that we’ll also celebrate getting Festus 7 years ago. I’m sure the NYE will be fun, even though we had to cancel our initial plans.

How was your year?