My latest craze... playsuits!

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm a big fan of playsuits at the moment. I always thought they'd look unflattering on me and that they'd be uncomfortable because of the shorts element. I have several issues when it comes to shorts... maybe that's a topic for another blog post. However, I've bought two playsuits in the last few months and they're actually very slimming and very comfy. They're not restrictive at all and there's loads of room in the leg area, so you actually feel as if you're wearing a dress rather than a playsuit.

I bought the playsuits with the intention of wearing them on holiday, but they also look nice with leggings and my Ugg boots so I can wear them in this country too without flashing too much bare leg. Bonus!

The first is from New Look and the second is from Debenhams

Has anyone else discovered playsuits this spring/summer? Can anyone recommend any more nice ones for me?

Too many teddies?

I have a small obsession with teddies. This refers to all cuddly toys, not just the bear variety. I've been collecting them since I was tiny, and it's definitely not a hobby I've grown out of. Also, a substantial percentage of my collection has actually been given to me by other people as my love of teddies is so well documented.

I usually buy a teddy (or two) as a souvenir when I visit a new place. Consequently, I have teddies from Florida, New York, Kefalonia and Edinburgh to name just a few. I'm particularly fond of collecting Disney teddies... This should come as no surprise to those of you who know me well or are regular readers of my blog.

I keep a few teddies on my bed and a few on my sofa, but they're mostly just on display for me to look at and to make me smile. Some people might think teddies are silly things to collect, but everyone has different tastes and different things they like to hoard. My hobby is quite cheap in comparison to others I know of, especially as a lot of my teddies have been given to me as gifts.

My teddy collection, excluding those I left behind in my parents' house...

My favourites at the moment are my giant Pluto, the Nemo cushion/pyjama case, Bolt, Dumbo, Mr Pricklepants, Lotso, Duffy, Eeyore... I should stop there before I end up naming them all. 

Disney teddies I'm still trying to afford/track down include Thumper from Bambi, Lady from Lady and The Tramp, Todd and Copper from Fox and the Hound, Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Flounder from The Little Mermaid and Gus from Cinderella. A few trips to Florida should hopefully go some way towards finding these additions!

Does anyone else (my age...) love teddies as much as I do? Please share!

Frantic about Florida #3

This is the third post in my Frantic about Florida series - you can read the first two posts here and here. I get a little bit more excited every time I write one and look through all my photos from last year. Eep!

Here are another 5 things I'm looking forward to:

1. The Magic Kingdom night show

This show was well worth queuing for and gave me goosebumps! 

Brilliant parades, atmosphere, lighting and fireworks. 

2. Eating a churro 

Cinnamon and sugary goodness!

3. The tigers in Busch Gardens 

Up close and personal!

4. Hogwarts at Universal's Islands of Adventure

There's also a brilliant ride inside the castle, as if the visual element wasn't enough!

5. Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom

Amazing ride which sends you hurtling backwards down the mountain!

Hope you enjoyed the third instalment... look out for the fourth one in a few weeks!

McFly rock my socks

Regular readers of my blog will already know that I was given tickets to see McFly last Friday night as a reward for passing my exams in December. Definitely the best reward I've ever had for passing exams... I think I should take exams more often. The gig was almost worth all the stress! Almost. It was the eighth time I'd seen them, and they just keep getting better. Amazing, I tell you.

Do you like my McFly tshirt?

They opened with That Girl, an amazing song from their first album, and finished with The Heart Never Lies. My throat actually hurt for two days after the gig because I sang and screeched so loudly. Always a sign that you've had a good time!

Seeing McFly is always a great experience as the band members are all very funny and enjoy chatting to the audience. Don't you just hate it when you go to a gig and leave feeling as if you could have just listened to their album and it wouldn't have been any different? McFly always go the extra mile to get the audience involved and to make sure everyone is having a good time. They even attempted to mimic the Welsh accent (badly) and commented on how much they love the Welsh flag... 'All the other countries thought a lot about design, sat down and decided logically which colours would look best in each stripe. The Welsh just said, "Sod it, we're having a dragon!"'

All grown up in waistcoats and dicky bows!

The tour is called 'Memory Lane', and was basically a summary of all McFly's greatest hits over the last ten years. I know... TEN YEARS! It was a good indication of how much the band's music has changed over the last ten years, and I loved hearing the old favourites like Room on the Third Floor, Lies, Obviously and One for the Radio. They really have got an impressive back catalogue of tracks. They even had to leave some out (such as Party Girl and Baby's Coming Back) because they couldn't possibly have sung them all. 

Has anyone else seen McFly on their Memory Lane tour? What did you think?

Bank Holiday Monday

I still can't quite believe that we actually had some sun on Bank Holiday Monday. I put sun cream on and wore flip flops for the first time this year, which was highly exciting. We had a barbecue at my boyfriend's parents' house, then went for a walk around Cosmeston Lakes. We stopped for a lollipop on the way back, then went back to the house to book lunch reservations at the Plaza in the Magic Kingdom ready for our holiday in September. Super organised, I know. We then watched two episodes of Castle before I drove back to Carmarthenshire to visit my parents and my nephew. Lovely bank holiday Monday!

Here are some photos of the beautiful Cosmeston Lakes:

What did everyone else get up to on Bank Holiday Monday? I'm already looking forward to the next one!

My love of Pinterest

Pinterest is absolutely brilliant. It's a combination of organisation and categorisation, along with pictures of food, lovely places, home decor, crafts, clothes, and anything else you can think of. What's not to like? I treat it as an online scrapbook where I can 'pin' recipes I spot on various websites, keep photos from places I've been to or places I want to visit, and just generally store photos/ideas I like.

I have 26 different boards at the moment, and the Food and Dessert boards are the most populated. I bet you're not surprised by this. My Animal, Things I Like and House boards are also very full of a huge variety of different pins. Here are some of my favourite pins:

I don't actually use Pinterest as often as I use other social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, but it's very satisfying and difficult to stop when I do decide to have a 'binge'. It's very addictive... don't say I didn't warn you!

You can also use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, by 'pinning' all the images from your blog onto your Pinterest boards. Every pin on Pinterest directs you back to its original source, so it gives you some extra exposure on a different channel. I love a bit of streamlining. 

I'll be researching Pinterest for businesses over the few weeks and would be really interested in hearing from anyone who is already using Pinterest as part of their organisation's social media strategy.

You can view my boards and pins here. Enjoy!

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May's wishlist

There are lots of items I want at the moment which I can't justify buying, so I'm compiling a wishlist to keep track just in case I suddenly find some spare money. Unfortunately, this is unlikely when grown-up things like rent need to be paid. I did the same thing in February, and still haven't bought any of the items featured on the list. This doesn't bode well for May's wishlist... never mind. I can dream!

Cath Kidston bag. 

This is in the sale but I still cant bring myself to pay £30 for a bag!

Superdry hoodie

This hoodie is just beautiful... but also very pricey.

Silver Linings Playbook DVD

Brilliant film!

Dress

So pretty...

Shorts

Pretty shorts for my holiday

Coat

Wrong time of year, I know. But look how nice it is!

There are plenty of other things I could add to the list, but I'll keep it to a manageable length for now before I give in and start buying things. I will now continue in my endless hunt for a money tree...

Frantic about Florida #2

This is the second post in my 'Frantic about Florida' series... I know I said in the first instalment that the series would be monthly, but I might actually post more frequently than that as there really are so many things I'm excited about.

The photos I'm posting are all my own photos which I took on my holiday last year... I took well over a thousand.

So here's Round 2 of things I'm looking forward to!

1. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios

Brilliant ride, brilliant soundtrack!

2. Earl of Sandwich

Best sandwiches ever. Even better than the New York Deli!

3. The Magic Kingdom daytime parade

Beautifully cheesy, with a High School Musical-esque soundtrack. 

4. Disney buses

Free for anyone staying in a Disney resort. Makes everything a bit more magical!

5. The killer whale show at Sea World

There aren't enough superlatives in the world to describe this show.

Eeep! I'm already thinking about instalment number three...

Restaurant Review: Pizza Hut

This is a very delayed restaurant review, but I've been super busy for the last few weeks. We went to Pizza Hut in Cardiff Bay Retail Park a few weeks ago based on a spur-of-the-moment decision. Although I love the pizza there, it never springs to mind as the first choice when we're deciding where to eat. We tend to eat in Pizza Express rather than in Pizza Hut, but the former is a bit more pretentious at times. The Pizza Hut restaurant in Cardiff Bay is always far less crowded than the one in the centre of town, and I find that the atmosphere is more relaxed. The one in the centre of town is always full of noisy teenagers, whereas the one in the Bay is generally full of families. Families will always be preferable to noisy teenagers in my book.

Seeing as the salad bowl now comes free with every main meal, I started with that. I'm always disappointed with the salad in Pizza Hut, mainly because I compare it with the salad bar at the Harvester. No contest. Unfortunately, on this occasion there was even less than usual to shout about when it came to the salad bar.

Slim pickings!

There's never anything wrong with the salad itself and it always tastes nice, but there's just not enough choice. However, I did capitalise on the opportunity to eat lots of bacon bits with thousand island dressing. Salad of kings.

Our pizzas came just as we finished our salad bowls. I ordered the Veggie Supreme with a thin Italian base and, as usual, it was very tasty. To be fair to Pizza Hut, their salad might be rubbish but their pizza has never disappointed me. I also liked the black slate it was served on... I'm easily pleased, I know. 

So many vegetables... I could almost convince myself that it's healthy. Almost. 

Another satisfying experience at Pizza Hut! I'm not sure why I don't choose it as my first choice more often, but it's definitely a good back-up plan. What do other people think of Pizza Hut? Salad bar aside...

Belated tribute to My Chemical Romance

I know this is a bit late, but I was gutted when I heard the news that My Chemical Romance were splitting up. I haven't been a fan since the beginning, just because I hadn't come across their music, but I've been listening to their music for the last five or six years and own all their albums. I went to see them in February 2011 and thought they put on an amazing live show. Gerard Way is a fantastic front man and vocalist, and the rest of the band are brilliant too. All the albums tell their own story when you listen to them in sequence, and a lot of the lyrics really resonate with me. I love a bit of emo music. Is that even what it's called these days?

Anyway, as a belated tribute, here's my MCR top 6. Some of these are live recordings, so they take a while to get going!

I'm not Okay (I Promise)

It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Death Wish 

This is How I Disappear

The Sharpest Lives

Bulletproof Heart

Planetary (GO!)

What's your favourite My Chemical Romance song?