#52weeksofhappiness-Week 37

 Hello there! How are you? And how has your week been? The weeks of essay writing and exam revision are all starting to blur into one for me, which probably isn't a good thing. On Monday I went with a group of my friends to revise in the library, which actually went quite well! Until we'd all had enough and had already consumed copious amounts of biscuits that is. Even though we were revising it was just so nice to see everyone again, and I can't wait until we all go out for a meal on Tuesday to celebrate Megan's birthday! (there will also be the celebration of finishing my exam in there too). 

 Aside from revising, I went out with a mixture of old flatmates/their housemates/coursemates to the Balti King Indian restaurant. I of course had the chicken tikka korma, what a surprise! This was the first and only time that I ever been asked before my meal to 'not steal their paintings/glasses/cutlery'. I know we're students but we're not that desperate! Even though I love living where I do now, and the people I live with, I do miss seeing them on a daily basis, so we're making it our mission to meet up more regularly this semester! 

 Snow decided to hit Sheffield again this week, and so on Thursday Tom and I went out for a walk in it. It was so deep! Here are a few snaps that I took; it may be cold, but it is ever so pretty!

 

 

 I completely forgot to mention in last week's post, but Tom and I started up our alphabet date nights again. For E it was my turn and I had no idea what to do! In the end we had an Evening off from Essays and Exams (see how many E's I fitted in there!). For F Tom decided that we should have a 'Fun' evening, which ended up with us watching Homeland. I had bought the series for Tom as a part of his Christmas presents as it was meant to be a really good programme, and neither of us had seen it before. We ended up watching the first 3 episodes and it's so good! It's quite intense, and it wouldn't be a programme that I'd be able to do something else whilst watching it, as it does need your full attention. For 'G' we had a game night, which meant playing the Pointless board game and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics on my DS! We ended up having date H last night which was 'Hugs & Homeland'- we're addicted! It's honestly so good, and we both love it. I can definitely recommend it as one to watch, and I can see it being up there on my 'February Favourites' post!

What made you happy this week?

Love Jess xxx

January Favourites

 Hello there! How is it now that time of month where I do my monthly favourites? This month has seemed to whizz by. So let's get into it!

Hozier

 I have been a big lover of Hozier's album for a while now, but while I was at HMV at the beginning of the month his CD was on offer so I just had to buy it! I had an email a few months ago from Spotify recommending him to me, and I am so glad that I had a listen! If you haven't listened to him before, I'd definitely recommend it. My favourite tracks are 'Jackie and Wilson', 'Someone New', 'From Eden' and 'Foreigners God'. (It was actually really hard picking my favourites- I love them all!)

The Hills

 This month I have been a massive lover of re-watching the reality TV programme The Hills. I used to watch this on MTV back in my teenage days, but my lovely friend Will bought me the box set for my birthday as he knew that I really wanted to watch them again! I've really been enjoying watching them in order, as I only ever saw them in a jumbled order when they were on TV. The best thing is that the episodes are only 20 minutes long so it means that you can watch more!

Country Living Magazine

  As I mentioned last week, I am a devout lover of anything to do with homeware. As my mum knew this, she bought me the subscription to Country Living magazine a while ago now, and I still love it. My housemates may take the mick and say that I'm old, but I don't care- it's great. I love all of the pages where they're focusing on a room, and the articles are really interesting too! I have started a scrapbook of house inspiration (I told you I was obsessed) which I really enjoy doing, and the majority of things that I cut out and stick in are from Country Living.

Mac 'Patisserie'

 I bought this lipstick at the start of the month, and I absolutely love it. It's such a good 'your lips but better' shade. After the sparkle filled month of December, I really wanted to get back to a more natural look, and this has been just the thing. It's super nourishing and is so easy to put on- you really could put it on without a mirror and it would still look great.

Fruit and Greek Honey Yoghurt

 I have been a big lover of having fruit mixed with Greek honey yoghurt with fruit! I am really bad at having breakfast, but this is so quick and easy to do, and is a good way to ensure you're getting some of your daily dose of fruit. My favourite Greek honey yoghurt is actually the Tesco own brand one, but as I can only have this when I've done an online shop, I thought I would try out the Yeo Valley one. It will do for the weeks in-between a Tesco shop, but the Tesco one will remain my favourite!

Salmon and Dill Philadelphia

 I like to try different things for lunch as opposed to just having a cheese sandwich everyday. I don't like the Philadelphia that has no extra flavourings, and I've tried the chive and the sweet chilli ones before which were nice. However, the Salmon and Dill one is my all-time favourite. It's such an easy lunch to get a few rice cakes and spread this on top. It's also great with crumpets or as a part of a toasted sandwich.

Electric Blanket

 Back in Suffolk I have an electric blanket and this really was something that I missed at uni. There's nothing better than getting into bed and it's toasty warm, especially if Tom's then there taking my heat away! This month I managed to buy myself one to have here at uni and it's just fab. It arrived when we had all the snow and really couldn't have come at a better time!

So there you have it! The things that I have been loving throughout January. What about you? Is there  anything you've been loving? Let me know in the comments!

Love Jess xxx

#52weeksofhappiness- Week 36

 Hello there! How has your week been? This week began with the task of completing my essays and then finally handing them in on Monday! It was such a relief to get them in and to not have to worry about them anymore! The only thing is that now, I feel like I'm free, yet I still have an exam on the 3rd February. Part of me is glad for this break in-between, but another part wishes that I had of had it on Friday and then it could be over and done with. 

 After we had handed our essays in, I went with Will and Reesha into town and then we went for lunch at the Union cafe Interval. I actually then went again on Tuesday with Phoebe, Alice and Katie, and both times were thoroughly enjoyable. Interval is a cafe/restaurant/general place for coffee and every time that I go in, I always think that I should go there more often. I used to go for breakfast last year in-between lectures after a 9am! On Wednesday I met up with my good friend Rachel for a catch up as I hadn't seen her since before Christmas, and so many cups of tea were had! 

 Aside from going to meet up with people, I have started my revision and in the middle of this it started to snow! Last year we were all very surprised, whilst being up north that it didn't snow at all, and we didn't have to endure the ice on all the hills. However, this year there was actually so much that there is still remnants of it about today. I wanted to build a snowman, yet my housemates were revising/had exams/decided to sledging with their other friends (I know right?!), so unfortunately no snowman was built. I'm one who likes the snow when I don't actually have to be anywhere, yet it caused some disturbance to Tom who had an exam!

One of my many meals at Interval. FYI their wedges are to die for.

Snow!

It snowed, so of course we had to take a selfie!

Can I just note that this is my new favourite joke:

What happened to the Italian chef when he died?...

He Pasta way!

I saw this last night and thought that it was absolutely hilarious, Tom on the other hand did not.

What made you happy this week? AND, what is one of your favourite jokes?

Love Jess xxx

Polaroid Display

 Hello there! I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older, but I can safely say that I am now a massive lover of homeware. I had a big space above my heater that I wanted to fill with something- I did try posters but they kept falling down so I gave up with that! I can't quite remember where, but I recently saw a photo where someone had hung up some polaroid snaps and I thought that it looked so good that I couldn't not do it! I am huge lover of taking photos and then putting them out on display. Digital cameras are great, but I think it's such a shame to just keep them in a folder on your computer that you rarely look at; it's so much nicer to print them off and put them about the house!

You will need:

-Photographs (I uploaded my instagram snaps and printed them off through www.printed.com, but you can use any that you like!)

-String

-Drawing Pins

I went for four rows and I then had 3 photos left over so made individual hanging spots for them. This really couldn't be simpler, just put some drawing pins into the wall, cut the string to your desired length, and tie to the pins! I found it worked more effectively if you put a pin in the middle, as otherwise the weight of the photos and pins was too much to stay up.

I bought some craft pegs from Hobbycraft and I also bought some larger ones that say 'Homemade' on them which I have arranged symmetrically. All you need to do is peg your photographs to the string and you're good to go!

I found that it was easier if I did it row by row so I could see where the pictures hung, and I could then place the next row below with enough space.

I think this is such a simple idea to recreate, but is so effective. And what is really good about using the pegs is that you can interchange your photos depending on your mood or what you've been up to recently and want to document!

If you recreate this please send me a snap via twitter @jesslouisekeen! :)

Love Jess xxx

#52weeksofhappiness-Week 35

 Hello there! How have you been? This week has been filled with yet more essay writing (I finally get to hand them in at the start of next week), travelling and complaining about how cold it is. Sunday for me was a essay writing day so there's not much to report on there! Monday lunchtime was very enjoyable for me. My mum and I took my grandad out to Busby's Teahive Cafe in Bungay (which you may remember from another #52weeksofhappiness blogpost way back in the day) as a pre-birthday celebration for him. It's not his birthday until later on this week, but as I would be in Sheffield for it I wanted to do something to celebrate. I always love going into Busby's as they have such lovely homemade food (especially cake) and it's just so cute inside.

 On Wednesday it was time for me to go back to Sheffield, which meant another refusal of goodbyes from Tilly. She knows I'm going away if she sees my suitcase and is then instantly in a huff! Travelling back I've never seen the train so empty before! I normally complain that there's only two carriages on between Norwich and Nottingham, but from the lack of people travelling on Wednesday I can now see why! Tom and Luke came to meet me at the station and I was then welcomed home by my Tesco delivery. We spent the evening together watching a film which was lovely. 

 On Thursday after having bit of a sort out and unpack, I decided to carry on with essay writing. This was disturbed however by the boiler deciding to not work! Luckily it was able to be fixed this morning so we now have hot water and heating again, and I will never take hot water for granted again! On Thursday evening amidst all of this, we were able to meet up with a few friends down at the uni bar which was really enjoyable as it had been a long time since I had seen them! 

Tills <3

Busby's Cafe

What made you happy this week?

Love Jess xxx

Don't Let Fear Hold You Back

 Hello there! I didn't really have this post planned, but I had a bit of a worry the other day about what I'm going to do after Uni. It all boiled down to the fact that I'm someone who likes to be in control of what I'm doing and to have a plan. I've learnt that I'm not one of those people who can just go along in life and 'see how it goes'. 

 It's now getting to the stage in life that soon I will have to step outside of my comfort zone. I'm one of those people who like to feel nice and secure in my squishy cosy comfort. I'm not one for doing the 'extreme', (although weirdly I would like to do a skydive one day?!).  One of the scariest things that I have done is to leave home and go to University. What if all that effort I put in went to waste and I hated it? OBVIOUSLY I LOVE IT. Picking to go to Sheffield was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. I sometimes think how different my life would be if I hadn't of gone to Uni. For me, it's not just about the study. It's about the experiences that you have. I for one would not change it for the world. Had I let fear get in the way of my journey, (and believe me I did freak out before I went- for Christmas the year before I received gifts to be used at uni which completely overwhelmed me resulting in me bursting into tears!) then I wouldn't be the person I am today. 

Source

 This photo and quote sum it up for me. Fear of something shouldn't hold you back. This sort of relates to my 'Saying Yes' post that I did a while back (and if you missed it you can catch up here). I always think that the fear of something is a lot worse than the actual thing. What is the worst thing that can happen if you give something a try? It's better to live a life full of 'having a go' moments, rather than one of regrets. Do as much as you can while you can. It doesn't even have to be big things,  something small can give you that bit of confidence which can help you in the long run. 

 I'm going to try and not let fear hold me back. Worrying about something that could never happen won't help anybody. As Peter Pan says, "To live would be an awfully big adventure".

Is there a fear that you can face?

Love Jess xxx

FYI for my friends in the middle of essays and exams, did you know that 'desserts' is 'stressed' backwards? So go and eat some CAKE!

#52weeksofhappiness-Week 34

Hello there! How has your week been? This has been my last full week at home, as I am back off to Sheffield next week to hand in essays and prepare for my exam! One thing that definitely stands out to me this week is food. I think I've been out for a meal or for lunch at least five times this week! As most of my time in between has been spent through either writing essays, or being at work, I will split my various food outings up and talk about each one!

1. Monday: Bahn Thai- Bungay

 The first food trip was out with my friends Lisa and Belinda from work (who you will have seen before if you've been reading my blog for a long time) and we took a trip to the Bahn Thai. They don't normally open on a Monday, but when we rang up to book (as we weren't sure when they were open) they let us come anyway, so we had our own private function! I haven't had thai food in absolutely ages, but this was really lovely. I can't remember what mine was called exactly, but I know that it was a chicken yellow curry. I even had enough left to bring home and put in the freezer, and that will be what I have to eat tomorrow! I definitely want to try and go to more thai restaurants to try out different dishes.

2. Tuesday: Bombay Restaurant- Beccles

 On Tuesday I went to the Bombay restaurant with my mum, dad, grandad and Tom. I of course had my usual of a korma, but I pushed the boat out a bit and went for a 'chicken tikka korma'. This still has the korma sauce (and I'm yet to top the Bombay restaurant's sauce) but with the chicken having been marinated in whatever makes it tikka. For some reason, probably the fact that it was a Tuesday, we were the only ones in there and so this was my second private function- I felt like I was the Queen!

3. Thursday: Prezzo's- Beccles

 I then went to Prezzo's on Thursday with Tom's dad and his fiancé, Tom's brother and of course Tom. Now last year Tom and I had a bit of an obsession with Prezzo's and went all the time! We haven't been as much this term, as I think we had gone a bit too much before! I had a starter of Mozzarella bites, and then a main of Funghi Gorgonzola with a coffee to finish. This was a really enjoyable evening as I was able to catch up with some of Tom's family before we went back to Uni.

4. Friday: Waffle House- Norwich

 Friday was a day off for me, both from work and essay writing. My mum had taken this friday off work a while ago, to make sure that we could spend the day together before I venture back to Sheffield. We went into Norwich to do some shopping but first of all made a stop for lunch at The Waffle House. There are only two of these restaurants in the country, so I always make sure to go here when I'm back home! I had a savoury waffle (I know it sounds strange, but don't knock it until you've tried it!) with ham, mushrooms and a cheese sauce on top. My mum also had a savoury one, and she had the roasted butternut squash and sweet potato, with a roquefort sauce and onions. If you are ever in Norwich, I would definitely recommend that you give this place a try!

5. Saturday: Market Row- Beccles

 Today I met up with Kirstie and we went for lunch at Market Row in Beccles. I've been here once before (those of you who have a good memory may remember when my mum and I went in the summer) and they do lovely sandwiches. I had a egg mayonnaise with cress baguette, and Kirstie had a Prawn one. We shared a pot of tea and had a good ol' catch up! 

I may look like bit of a chubba for going out to all of these various food places, but at the heart of it (aside from the good food) it was just so lovely to spend some quality time with people that I love in my last week at home!

What made you happy this week?

Love Jess xxx

FYI did you know that you can now follow me on bloglovin? Just click on the heart shaped widget in my social media grouping on the right hand side and this will take you straight there!

Goals for 2015

 Hello there! And a very happy New Year to you all. I'm not normally one for the typical 'resolutions' for a New Year, as I think most people tend to make them and then by the time February rolls around, they've gone out the window. So this year, I'm going to make mine 'goals', as I always think if you don't end up accomplishing your resolutions, you feel a bit deflated. However, if you class them as 'goals' then you've got something to work toward. I think 3 will be enough for me to be getting on with, so here are my goals for 2015!

1. Stay Organised

 I think that I am personally quite an organised person, but I think I can do better sometimes. I seem to have a lot of things going on all at once, which can be quite overwhelming and stressful. So for this year, I hope to be on top of things a bit more, and plan ahead with what I'm doing, and then hopefully if I can do that, I'll be able to actually have some free time!

2. Travel more

 Although I would love to travel the world more, I don't think that on a student budget I will be able to. (Unless I suddenly win the lottery!). But, I would like to see more of the UK. I have been very lucky growing up as my parents have taken me on lots of holidays to various places throughout the UK, but I would like to take advantage of my railcard while I can, and get out there and see more. You may remember my wish list of places that I would like to travel in the UK (if you missed that post you can read it here). I don't expect to visit all of these places in one year, but I hope to go to at least 3 or 4!

3. Save Money

 Now as a student you seem to live for the days that your student finance comes in! This year I would like to spend more wisely and actually start to save for the future! Tom and I were talking about what we are going to do after Uni the other day, and I think we both realised that actually it isn't as far off as we think it is. I think by starting now, through the next year and a half, I can hopefully save up enough so come the end of the third year, I'm not in a panic about having to live whilst looking for a job!

 I took this quote, as always, from pinterest. I think this sums up my point about having goals rather than resolutions, as these are more easy to attain. Big things don't just happen over night- you need to take the step in the direction, and bit by bit you'll arrive at your destination!

Have you made any goals for this year? Let me know in the comments!

Love Jess xxx

#52weeksofhappiness- Week 33

 Hello there! How has your week been? A very happy New Year to you all! I cannot believe that it is now 2015. I've had a fairly busy week leading up to the New Year, which began on Sunday when I went to see my grandparents which was lovely as I hadn't seen them since August! We had a really nice lunch of tomato soup; ham, potatoes and salad, followed by ice cream. 

 I was at work on Tuesday and Friday, and in between this time I have been trying to fit in some course work. Now that it is the new year, I definitely need to get back into the swing of things and find my motivation for work again! I have made myself a day-by-day plan of what needs doing so hopefully I can stick to this. For essays I find the majority of work is in the planning, as if you get this right, the actual writing comes easily. 

 I was reunited with Tom for New Year's Eve, and his brother Lewis came over too. We had an evening of board games, and then a 'Just Dance' tournament (of which I think I won!). We saw the New Year in by watching the London fireworks on tv and then we went to bed. I would say that I would like to see the London fireworks in person, yet I know because of the coldness/crowds of people I would just complain! I think you get just as good a view at home through watching it on the tv, and you haven't had to wait for hours to get a good spot! 

 Last night Tom and I (with the help of my mum) tried out our doughnut maker that my Aunt and Uncle bought us for Christmas! We gradually got the hang of it, and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.
 Today Tom and I met up with our friends Lewis, Ned and Josh for lunch at Jesters. It was so nice to see everyone again- I do miss them when I'm up in Sheffield (hint to you three- come visit!). I had a sausage, cranberry chutney and gouda panini and if you are ever in Bungay I would definitely recommend that you go!
 Something that made me especially happy this week was a parcel from my good friend Reesha. A few weeks ago we had gone into Sheffield City centre to do a bit of shopping, and I found an eyeshadow palette from Barry M that I really wanted. Unfortunately at the time they didn't have it in stock. So as a part of my Christmas present she found the one I wanted and sent it to me! I thought that this was so lovely as she remembered just the one I wanted, and it showed that she had spent time thinking of what to get me.

 

 What made you happy this week?

Love Jess xxx