Aloha! Don't you just love Someecards? There's always one that sums up exactly how you are feeling! Anyway, as usual here's my weekly post about what I've been up to this week!

1 - Work. You may know that I work in tax and our busiest time of year is coming up with the tax returns due by 31st January. I've got a week off coming up in 2 weeks time, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible just now, so I don't come back to an overflowing in tray! Of course, that means I have no time for anything fun right now. Sad times!

2 - Wedding planning. I wrote my first post on here this week about planning our wedding! We are still on the venue hunt. It was going okay until others started sticking their noses in and telling me what I can/can't do. So frustrating. On Friday I was so wound up by it all that I was genuinely contemplating booking 2 tickets to Mexico and getting married out there with no one present to tell me what to do! I'm sure it will all fall into place eventually...

3 - Dreaming. I am in desperate need of a holiday! I know, I've got a cheek but when we were students, we were off visiting new places about 3 or 4 times a year. Now it seems like we have no time to do anything. In saying that, we are going to Ireland in a few weeks. Mikey has lots of family there which we are going to visit, but for me it will be all new as I've never been before. Hello Guinness factory!

So that's about it for this week! Hope you all have a great week ahead, whatever you are up to!

xxx

BudgetBride // 1

Did you know that the average UK wedding costs about £20,000!? I mean seriously, who even has that kind of money to spare! Call me selfish, but I'd rather spend a couple of thousand on a nice celebration, then bugger off to the Caribbean for a month! And that's pretty much exactly what I'm planning on doing!

I've decided to start this little feature on my blog to document my budget wedding planning and share some tips I'm learning along the way of how to save money. Expect mucho DIY decor posts!

But for now, I'm going to have a little rant about venue costs! 

Of course, not having a £20k budget means we're very limited when it comes to choosing a venue. There's hardly anywhere out there that is willing to let you have venue hire and feed your 100 guests for less than £6000. So it won't surprise you to know we still don't have a venue lined up, although we have viewed 2 and are in the process of negotiating the best price!

I've got an image in my head of what I want from a venue. Ideally, I'd love a relaxed, barn style venue which is a bit of a blank canvas so I can get creative and make it totally personal! Of course, barn venues are trendy now so they don't come cheap. We've viewed 2 different venues which are the same idea, but they are budget friendly. 

The first venue we viewed was a community hall with a difference. It was up in Perthshire, about 50 miles from our home. It wasn't your typical community hall though, it was like a cross between a barn and a giant shed, hence the name The Big Shed. As wedding venues go, the price is extremely cheap. The only issue we have with it is the capacity. It can only hold 60 in the main hall, so that's something we have to seriously consider. 

Our second venue viewing was actually a country house which a family member has recently purchased. It has an old coachhouse in the grounds which is currently being converted into a wedding reception venue. It looks to be a pretty amazing place once its ready, and we think it will be big enough! Now we need to see whether it is going to be within our price range. 

So a couple of tips if you are currently looking for a budget wedding venue: 

1. Have a look at places you wouldn't normally look at. For example village halls tend to have cheaper hire costs and with a bit of love and attention, they can be decorated to look like they cost a million pounds!

2. Don't be afraid to ask around if anyone in your family or group of friends knows someone with a potential venue. That's how we found out about one of our potential venues!

3. Keep an open mind. Some venues might have poor websites, or very little information available. Just email or give them a call for further info. You never know, you might love the place once you get there!

So that's the first of my BudgetBride posts! Hope you enjoyed it and do let me know if you have any tips for me in my search for an affordable venue!

xxx

TheSundayPost - 18th October

Aloha! I can't believe it's Sunday evening already! Where has this weekend gone?!

So here is what I've been up to this week.

1 - This picture sums up this week pretty well. I've been dreaming of better things most of this week, mostly wedding related. Things are slowly but surely coming along on the wedding front. We viewed another venue on Saturday, which I'm pretty enthusiastic about. Hopefully we will settle on a venue soon!

2 & 3 - This week we celebrated 11 years of happiness and purrs with my little furbaby Smudge. It's crazy to think it was so long ago that we took him home with us after he had been abandoned in a forest. To celebrate his 11th adoptiversary, I bought him his favourite food and special cat milk, and wrapped them up for him. Needless to say he's scoffed the lot now! 

4 - I just love Autumn time. The colours are just my favourite. And the fact I can get my layers and cosy boots out again makes me very happy. 

So that's about it for this week! Now it's time to get prepared for another work week. I'm pretty sure I'm in need of a week off now!

Have a fabulous week!

xxxx

Life Lately

Aloha! Time has passed by so quickly these last few months and I've been a terrible blogger, posting zero new posts! But I'm back, and I'd just like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has continued reading my posts, even although there have been no new ones! 

I thought I'd do a little catch up post to get back into the swing of things, so here's what I've been up to lately!

1 - I've been having hours of fun playing around with the new snapchat update. Sad I know. If you don't already follow me, you can add me on katiemccann92 for lots of selfies and food snaps.

2 - We had a pretty freakishly hot September here in Scotland. This meant lots of lunches outdoors which I love. My work is behind a church and I really enjoy sitting in the Church grounds with my lunch and a magazine. It's really peaceful and relaxing, especially when my work is so manic! 

3 - I decided to go back to brunette! I was getting bored of being blonde, and my hair grows so fast that the upkeep was becoming unmanageable. I was having to go to the hairdressers every 4 weeks, which is not good for my bank balance, not to mention my hair! 

4, 5 & 6 - I've been wedding planning like mad! We had our first venue viewing at the end of August, and hopefully another one this weekend. I've been practicing my macaroon baking, just in case I decide to bake my own macaroon tower cake (unlikely). And I've bought every wedding magazine out there in! I just can't help it!

So that has been about it since I last blogged!

Hopefully it won't be so long until next my post! 

Have a great week! 

xxxx

Foodie Friday // Lemon Drizzle Cake

Aloha! I haven't done a Foodie Friday post for a little while so I thought I'd show you how to make the lemon drizzle cake that I baked recently! I have to say the Great British Bake Off being back has really inspired me to get in the kitchen and bake my own sweet treats!

You will need:

2 unwaxed lemons

275g granulated sugar

175g unsalted butter, softened

200g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 large eggs

How to: 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (or gas mark 4).

Line the base of a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper and butter the tin.

Grate the zest of the lemons and add to a food processor, along with the butter, flour, baking powder eggs, and 175g of the sugar

Blend until the mixture is combined and is thick and smooth. 

Spoon the cake mixture into the loaf tin and level the surface.

Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Whilst it is cooling, squeeze one of the lemons to get about 3 tablespoons of juice. Mix this with the remaining 100g of sugar. 

Turn the cake out of the tin onto a wire cooling rack, removing the baking paper. 

Turn the cake the right way up and make about 50 deep holes with a skewer.

Gradually spoon half the lemon sugar over the top of the cake, allowing it to coat the top throughly. 

Leave for 5 minutes and add the rest of the lemon sugar. 

Leave to set for about an hour or until the sugar has crystallised. 

Cut into thick slices and enjoy with a tea or coffee! 

Enjoy baking this one! It is one of my favourites!

xxx

Ikea Haul

 Aloha!

Mikey usually plays golf on a Saturday afternoon so this is usually my time to go for a little wander around the shops and see what bargains I can find! So on Saturday just passed I took a little drive out to Ikea! Here is what I picked up!

Lime Plant Pot £5.25 - I actually bought this to store all my lotions and potions in which are currently sprawled all over my bedroom! It's so pretty and an absolute bargain!

Candle Dishes 60p each - I like to use funky looking beer bottles as candle holders but I needed something to place them on so the wax doesn't spill all over my table! These are exactly what I was after and at a really good price too!

Mini Cacti £4.50 for all 3 - I've been after a cactus for so long but I've never seen them anywhere so I was super happy when I found them in Ikea! They also do large individual ones for just £3 (they don't come in a pretty ceramic pot like the mini ones) but they never had any I liked so I settled for these!

100 unscented tea lights £1.75 - I use these in my wax tart burners so I go through them super fast. I was running out of the pack I had so I picked up these. They should hopefully last me a while now!

Full Length Mirror - £1.74 from Dunelm Mill

Okay so this isn't from Ikea but it was such a bargain I has to show you it! 

It's not really the colour I was looking for but I plan to buy a tin of spray paint and spray it a different colour (either white or silver, I'm undecided), then decorate it with fairy lights! I'm really pleased with myself for this purchase! 

I'd love to see your homeware bargains! Leave me a link in the comments below! 

xxx

TheSundayPost - 23rd August

Aloha! So another week has flown by and it's almost September. The countdown to Christmas will be starting soon! (X factor starts next weekend, that's usually a good indication of how close it is!) I just don't know where this year has gone!

Here is what I've been up to this week!

1 - I had a little shopping trip on Monday night which involved buying this cat car freshener from New Look. It's very me haha!

2 - We actually had a pretty decent week of weather! This is the church next door to my work where I have been sitting eating my lunch and catching some rays. It's such a lovely peaceful place to sit, and it beats eating at my desk!

3 - Can't believe this was my first frappuchino of the Summer! It was goooood!

4 - We finally booked flights for a little trip to Ireland! I'm super excited as I've never been before! We are flying into Dublin and hiring a car to travel round Galway, Limerick and Cork before heading back for a night or two in Dublin! Guinness factory here I come! 

5 - Saturday was spent with a trip to Ikea, then hanging around my mum's house waiting for Mikey to come off the golf course! Whilst I was there, Smudge decided to claim ownership of this Amazon box. He's a strange one. 

6 - I made tacos!! They were pretty damn good if I say so myself! Now if only I could teleport back to Mexico...

So that has been my week! Can you believe this post is actually going up before 10pm on a Sunday?! I'm off to bake some lemon and blueberry bread now. Have a lovely week! 

xxxx