January Joy (15, 16 & 17)

Aren't Januarys just fabulous. You'll note the lack of a question mark there. Between the freezing weather, the lack of cash and the fact that you are probably on some ridiculous detox, it is by far the most miserable month of the year. Oh yeah and it's a 5 week month. Nice for people who get paid weekly. Not so nice for those of us who have to pay extra nursery fees, wait longer on our wages, etc, etc.

Just full of the joys of spring aren't I? I can't wait for spring. How many sleeps till Christmas?

Anyway. Some more January Joys for ya.

#15 Read A New Book

I'm still working my way through that Piers Morgan book (shut it). Between my weekly mags and the fact that I struggle most nights to keep my eyes open after 9pm, it genuinely does take me about 6 months to read a book. Even the ones with big writing and lots of pictures. I have The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to go onto next which I'm looking forward to as I have wanted to read it for years. I'm also planning on pinching my boyfriend's copy of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and although I still haven't got round to it yet, I am definitely going to order The Drowning Pool on the recommendation of Penny.

Look At The Budget/Makes A Savings Plan

We won't be drinking very much of this in 2013...

...or eating many dinners like these.

Things are very tight in our little household right now. Apart from the usual slog of making sure the mortgage and bills get paid, we also want to try and move to a bigger place. Add the fact that we need a new roof on our flat (at a cost of about £20,000) and you can imagine how tight things are. So we are trying to make some changes for the better. We eat out less and take advantage of any good Groupon type vouchers that come our way. The nicer bottles of wine are left sitting firmly on the wine rack with the vain hope of a celebratory occasion befalling us now and again and instead we are drinking what is essentially cheap crap. I am a reduced section junkie in the supermarket. As a result we eat things like lots of good fish, nice meat, etc, for a fraction of the price. The freezer however is literally bulging at the seams and you couldn't squeeze a fish finger in there right now. We've also decided to forego a holiday abroad this year in favour of a few nights away up north. Given myself and my boyfriend's love of eating out, cooking with expensive ingredients and drinking good wine, it's going to be a really tight year for us. But if it means we are eventually in a nice house with a garden and driveway and can afford to spend two weeks wherever we want then it'll be worth it.


Get A Haircut Or Try A Wash In/Wash Out Colour

My Ombre still has a couple of inches to go....

My hair grows crazy fast, so at the moment I am trying to do my own Ombre without having to actually do it if you know what I mean. So far I have about 2 inches of dark roots. Not quite enough for it to look proper Ombre'd but if I can keep going for another couple of months, I reckon it will probably look quite good. However it is bugging me and a every so often I get a real urge just to go back to my usual blonde. I've been brunette now for a year and although I think I look better, I know how much the bloke prefers my blonde hair.

January Joy (9, 10, 11 & 14)

Last week was pretty hectic over here leaving me little time to blog. As a result I have decided to compact the January Joys into a few per post. Mainly because I don't really have the time to blog every single day plus I'm starting to worry that they are actually a little boring....

#9 Try A New Exercise

Um, yeah, so one of my New Years Resolutions was to 'get Jennifer Aniston's upper arms'. Unfortunately my upper arms still look exactly the same as they did last year. I think next years resolution is definitely going to be to not make any more new years resolutions. Or maybe to eat whatever the hell I want? Or to drink more wine? They sound like much better resolutions. But seriously, I haven't even done anything - Miss P even sent me a youtube video that I could do that isn't even that long. But I've been too lazy to even try it....

#10 Plan A Getaway

We are foregoing a holiday abroad as 2013 is going to be a seriously tight year. We need to concentrate on moving to a house (our flat is only a two bedroom and I am broody as hell). As a result we are going to try and plan a couple of cheaper getaways this year. Our romantic weekend to Loch Ness had to be cancelled as the hotel we were booked into went into administration. However, we have a long weekend booked on the Isle of Arran in May (one of my favourite places) and we are going to try and get away with Ava's cousins and family for a few nights somewhere during the summer. There will no doubt need to be a couple of baby free nights away throughout the course of the year as well.

#11 Go To The Cinema

This cinema thing drives me nuts. Since A was born we have been trying to arrange a cinema trip for ages but the truth is, that when we do get a sitter and some time off, all we really want to do is go out for a romantic meal and drink copious volumes of wine. So the cinema always gets pushed to the back burner. However there are 3 films I would really like to see right now (The Hobbit, Les Mis & The Wee Man) so I reckon a cinema trip is imminent.

#14 Monday Mani or Proper Pedicure

So yeah, it's Monday and I will probably give myself a home manicure as I always find paying for it a bit of a waste. I must be really careless as my nails always chip within about ten minutes. 

I'm going to stick with this January Joy stuff purely because I said I would do it but I'm struggling for things to say about it.....

Soz x

January Joy (7 & 8)

As I'm a day behind I am doing two January Joys in one post. The first one tells you to 'overhaul your skin care'. However, as my skin is prone to oiliness, I don't really want to break a routine that works for me. So instead I have done a post about my current favourite skincare products.

I use this eye make-up remover as not only is it cheap but I find the liquid type really gets rid of all the liquid liner and mascara that I often wear during the day. 

I am also in love with this Arran Aromatics eye gel I bought while we were there last year. Luckily we go over once a year and I reckon I have just the perfect amount left to last me until our next jaunt over in May.

I've been alternating between the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturiser and Olay's basic moisturiser for years. The first because I love it and it makes my skin feel lovely and the second because I have it on good authority that if you use Olay your whole life then you will dramatically reduce the amount of wrinkles you end up with when you retire. Jury is still out on that one. I'm also testing out a new wheat germ moisturiser at the moment that I was sent to review. 

I love applying this Clarins serum after I have given myself a mini facial in the bath. It's luxurious and smells amazing and I love how plump and smooth it makes my skin the next morning.

I've just started using this Clarins Cleanser and it's great for getting all my make-up off at the end of the day. It foams really well and my skin feels squeaky clean after using it. 

Because I have oily skin I use an exfoliator regularly to slough off all those dead skin cells. I bought this Olay one because it is self-heating and  you can really feel the heat when you first apply it to your skin. I must admit that I prefer their normal exfoliator though and will probably go back to that when it is done.

The 8th January Joy is to 'Try some new music'. Instead of ordering some new CD's though, I have decided to have a good listen to some of my bloke's CD collection. So far I have discovered that I am a fan of The Cure, The Pixies and The Velvet Underground. All bands I have been meaning to listen to for years but never quite got round to it.....

January Joy (4)

Nice shot of my sister's arse there

As the 4th January Joy was to 'Take a crisp winter walk this weekend', I teamed up with my little sister to take a walk around Alexandra Park.

Check out Ava's face - it just screams 'delighted to be here' doesn't it?

It wasn't actually that bad. In fact I would even go as far as to say I actually enjoyed it.

And given that I would drive to the neighbours if I could, that's quite a big deal.

January Joy (3)

The third January Joy was a pretty easy one as we had already planned on a lunch date to Yo Sushi today. What with it being Ava's first day back at nursery and the first opportunity we've had in weeks to spend some proper time together.

Yo Sushi being the chosen venue because it could be moderately healthy when you made the right choices. And guess what..... 

I actually did. 

While the boyfriend stuffed his face with duck gyoza and and tempura, I stuck to diet coke, sashimi and only the healthy sushi. 

Luckily I bloody love sushi and would eat it every day if I could so it wasn't too much of a hardship.

Sorry for the brain dead post. I am shattered and I still have a recipe to blog before I throw myself in a bubble bath.

Tomorrow's January Joy is to go for a walk. Which should be funny. Because I don't walk any further than the car.

To be continued.

January Joy (2)

So the second day of January Joy is to have a dry week/month. I'm not quite doing this one completely properly to be honest. Having read countless research indicating that dry Januarys aren't actually that good an idea - see here and here, I'm concentrating more on changing my drinking habits as opposed to cutting it out completely.

So the plan is this: 2 alcohol free nights per week and limiting myself to just one glass of red on all the other nights. I have spent hours scouring the internet for validation that a nightly glass of wine is actually good for  you - see here and here. We'll ignore the opposing research that suggests I'll be dead in ten years time from liver failure.

However I do have a lunch date at Yo Sushi on Thursday and it's going to be weird not having my usual glass of vino with my salmon skin roll. And I am also eagerly awaiting the return of my boyfriend who is coming home armed with champagne and notions of celebrating our New Years Eve Thursday night instead....

Wish. Me. Luck.

January Joy

I was having a look at Glasgow Mummy's blog this morning and noticed that she was participating in something called January Joy which I thought looked like fun. I was diverted over to Florence Finds for the deets and decided that I would definitely take part! I'm going to try really hard to post every day (but I think we all know that won't happen). Maybe I should make it a resolution......but then it most DEFINITELY won't  happen.....

I'll do my best.

Today's post is about resolutions. Because I often find hearing about other people's resolutions a bit boring (but not as boring as being told about other people's dreams), I've kept em short and to the point.

There's only 3 so I won't keep you guys too long....

1. To drink less wine. I love wine. LOVE the stuff and drink a glass every night. However since Ava started sleeping through the night a few weeks ago (about time) my nightly glass has sort of crept up to nearer two. And there's probably one night a week (usually a weekend night) where I have been known to drink a wee bit more than that. Don't get me wrong, I don't really get drunk in the house. Not since Penguin has come along but I do want to cut down on the old grapes. So I am going to try and have two alcohol free nights per week. And failing that just a small glass of red a night. We'll see how that goes....
2. To get back to 8,7lbs. This was my goal weight last year (when I was losing the baby weight) and I eventually reached it around the summer time. This isn't a big resolution as I only have a few pounds to lose. And to be  honest I am pretty happy with my body and not that hung up on weight anymore. But I wanna get back to my fighting weight. Which means I need to drink less wine (see above)
3. To get Jennifer Aniston's upper arms. Obviously I don't actually want her upper arms. That would be sick. And I'd probably go to jail. But I have noticed in photos these past few months that while I have been chuffed with my waist and legs (bye bye baby weight), I have been neglecting to admit to myself how rubbish and flabby the tops of my arms look. So you know what that means don't you? No, I'm not joining a gym. I'm just gonna have to start doing some arm exercises in front of Corrie in the evening. Remind me, won't you?

This January Joy stuff looks like fun - if I manage to keep it up. Check out Florence's blog if you fancy doing it yourself and you can also follow the hashtag #januaryjoy on Twitter.

On a separate note, my blogger seems to be trippin'. Although to be honest it could be me. It's ridiculous how rubbish I am at this technical stuff given my complete addiction to the internet. I have basically had to remove all my gadgets like the follower button, blog post archive, etc as they keep appearing at the bottom of the page (even though on the layout I have made sure the gadgets are placed on the right hand sidebar). If ANYONE might have a clue how to help me I would really appreciate it. You can tweet me (@Dawniepopsies) or send me an email (dawnelizabethyoung@gmail.com) and I will love you forever. Honest.