I Dream in Tangerine

I have really enjoyed getting up and running with my blog, however the more posts I do the more I realise how stupid the title is. When I was trying to open a blog I was getting really frustrated that all of the names I wanted had already been taken, so I ended up typing in something long winded and awkward. Which is fine when you are just messing around, but I found that when I got to a point where I wanted to tell friends and family I was too embarrassed. 

So I have started a new blog "I Dream in Tangerine" which is much more me. Most people that know me already know I have a slight obsession with the orange spectrum so this name fits. I am also attempting to make it a little prettier and a bit more me as well as making use of our super duper new camera.

Hope to see you there as I put "Best Intensions of a Serial Procrastinator" to bed. I will still be blogging about the same things just with better pictures and a less wordy title. Laters.

Knitting!

Finally managed to finish my cardigan that I started months ago, don't think I've touched it for about 6 months. I can't remember why I stopped, because I was so close to finishing. 

I just have to pick out some buttons, but it's done! I did mess up on the button holes, not horribly, they're just not in the places specified by the pattern, but you know, other than that I am well chuffed. Fits pretty good too, snug and warm mmmm. Boyfriend was so impressed he has demanded I knit him a jumper of his own. Not that easy to find boy patterns amongst my existing books though, found one so I'm just going to go with it.

Started these beaut's too, I think I'm on a roll. My first proper attempt knitting in the round with 4 needles, I usually try to avoid those patterns but it wasn't as hard as I thought, so next stop socks... after I knit the left one of course. I don't want to look like a jazzy, woollen, rave safe kid.

Have you rediscovered a passion for anything recently?

Running Roundup #2

Feeling a bit more positive about my runs this week, I didn't manage to improve on frequency but I did manage to increase my distance, which I'm really pleased about. It is so dark when I set off though, I make a point of not turning on my music until I'm at the main road, just in case.

So this week I managed my first 3.4 miles which is equal to about 5km, yay. This was my target for my morning runs, so now I know how far 5km is on my route I don't have to use my phone app anymore, I can just listen to my music uninterrupted.  

Wednesday 18th September 3.4 miles

Friday 20th September 3.4 miles

So my plan from now on is to run at least 3x 5km per week, and once I have my routine going I will hopefully start to add in a long run at the weekends. I don't really have the time in the week for a longer run, but if I can continue with my 5km, and improve on my time maybe I can add on a little distance in the future. So onward and upwards.

How do you feel about morning exercise?

Yoga Eureka!

There is nothing quite like a good stretch, and yoga for me is just that. I have to admit that my stretching routine after my run attempts is poor at best, it mainly consists of collapsing on the floor and checking instagram. So I really look forward to my yoga class.

I can feel myself getting stronger and find it easier to ease into deeper and deeper stretches. My only issue is that as I improve and get a bit more bendy, I feel like my body lets me down, in only that there is too much of it. I am not slim, I have been working on it for the last god knows how many years, but as of yet, slim I am not. But now I am finding that this is causing me issues in ways it never has before, and maybe this is the eureka moment I need to change.

It's strange I have my wedding in a year, and am desperate to tone up the bingo wings before then. But it still seems so far away so it feels like I have stacks of time, and I know that feeling will continue, until it's too late, because I've done it before. So now I am hoping that if getting slimmer means that my yoga will improve, I should be able to actually see it on a weekly basis, and those tiny, minute, improvements only noticeable by me will spur me on. That is the dream, but for me knowing what I have to do, and actually doing it are still poles apart. 

Watch this space....

How do you feel about yoga?

Running Roundup #1

Typical, the week when I have decided to start my weekly posts recording my running progress, is the week I seem to have to decided to regress. I haven't done this on purpose and in all honesty am really quite cross with myself. I did consider putting off starting the posts until next week, but ultimately this is supposed to be about my progress, and deep down I know this won't be the last time I have a week like this, I just wish it hadn't been this particular one. I just seem to get those few days every so often (a little too often) when it seems to be all to easy to make an excuse, and lose all motivation. Oh well at least I have an easy target to improve upon...

So I only went out twice this week, I was all set to go out on Thursday too, even got up early and put my running stuff on, looked out of the window, saw rain and my resolve deserted me. Usually I don't mind the rain but for some reason on Thursday rain stopped play. I was even more annoyed with myself when I looked out 10 mins later and it had stopped, by which time I had decided it was too late to set off. I did do some yoga instead though so all was not lost. The rest of the week was a write off though, motivated Chloe had left the building. So I spent the weekend knitting.

Monday 9th Sept 2.7 miles

Wednesday 11th Sept 2.9miles

As you can tell by my distances I am still very much at the start of my journey so hopefully there is tonnes of room for improvement, just need to do something about my commitment issues.

How do you stay motivated?

Say Cheese

Look what we got today. I know I said before that we weren't going to look at getting a fancy camera until after we had done our 365 photo project, but we are impatient. Anyway, it seems silly to try a tackle such a large project with the hope of developing our style and techniques with just a basic camera. That's what we are telling ourselves anyway. 

I'm really excited to start our project now, we have both been snapping away already, getting used to the camera and all it's shiny buttons. It will be interesting to see how our styles develop, and how different or similar they become. We have decided to just have a couple of vague rules, so it doesn't start to become a chore, as opposed to fun. 

1. We must take a photo everyday. 

2. Our chosen photo for that day must be something we would be happy to display.

I think they are pretty good rules to have, if we don't take a photo everyday it won't be much of a 365 photo challenge, and I don't want them to just be for the sake of it type photo's of just anything hence rule 2. Hand on heart I am not convinced we will complete it, but we are going to give it a blooming good bash. I'm going to do monthly post on the challenge to keep tabs on how we are getting on.

Have you got any tips for us?

Blueberry Pie!

Oh my, I made my first pie, and it was a complete success! I have never made a pie before so I thought it was about time. I love baking but wouldn't dream of doing it without a recipe, so the Hummingbird Bakery held my hand on this one.

I chose a blueberry pie because it looked fairly easy, and it helps that we love blueberries, I might try a lemon meringue one next time. I made the pastry, by hand not in the mixer as suggested, it was a lot more fun, and a lot less noisy. You have to use a tonne of blueberries so this is not a cheap pie to make by any stretch, but that is not the point, right? I even got fancy and made little pastry leaves to go on top, (that wasn't in the recipe).

It takes hours to make a pie! You have to let the pastry rest for an hour before rolling it out, then you have to let the pie rest for an hour once you have put it together but before cooking. Luckily I had time so it was quite enjoyable. When I did bake it I had to have my oven 20 degrees hotter than the recipe states, and cook it for about 20 minutes longer, because I have a shitty oven. I had learnt my lesson from the blueberry muffin fiasco. But look I made pie! And it was fecking awesome if I do say so myself. We both had seconds, although to be honest that doesn't mean much cause we probably would have had second if it wasn't very good, we are sweet fiends.....but it was good, so so good.

What's your favourite pie to make/eat?

Blog Series

As a relatively new blogger, I am fully aware that I probably have a long way to go before I have found my feet and worked out how to do all the fancy stuff. I'm still not sure how use pictures that aren't photo's I've taken myself, I will probably end up asking a bloggy friend for some help with that, when I have plucked up the courage....

In the meantime I thought I might try and introduce a series of posts, if only to give a little structure to my rambly mess of a blog. I was thinking maybe a ''Running Rundown''? Weekly update on my running training as I prepare for my upcoming Zombie run, half marathon and any others I enter down the line. What do you think?

My other thought would be to do a monthly update on my 365 photo challenge, with some sort of collage of that months pics of the day. What to call it...any ideas?

Don't worry I am under no illusion that there are probably less than a handful of people that actually read my blog, (thank you lovely friends) but it would still be nice to give them something remotely interesting to look through. Anyway, ultimately this is for me, and I am so enjoying writing my blog, more than I ever thought I would. It has really helped my to think about things in my life in a different light, making me more observant of the things I do, and waking up my internal monologue, which is fun.

So what do you think to a blog post series, would you read it?

Weekend in Worcester

Not so much a weekend as a flying visit, we were travelling down on the Saturday, everything was going to plan and then this happened. Didn't even realise at first we just thought the road had got really bumpy, until we saw the smoke... Burning rubber does not smell good. Luckily it was the passenger side so it wasn't as hairy as it could have been to change on the hard shoulder. 

Motorway driving on a spare is not fun, seeing as you are not meant to exceed 50 miles per hour and we still had an hour to go. I have a little more sympathy for caravan towers now, not a lot just a little. We did manage to find somewhere to get a new one at our destination which I was extremely thankful for, I did not want to travel back on a spare, probably would have doubled our travel time.

This was our beautiful hotel, it's looks ever so pretty from the outside, it's not all that on the inside unfortunately, nice, modern and clean but nothing special. We did meet a crazy old lady in the car park who couldn't work reverse on her car, and expected us to push it, uphill!! She managed to remember how to drive it in the end thankfully, I really think some old people shouldn't be trusted with cars... am I wrong?

This beauty was behind our hotel, overlooking the car park! Bit strange but not an unwelcome site.

The reason we travelled all this way was for a 40th Birthday dinner, it was in held in their local pub, literally opposite the Birthday boy's house. I really enjoyed the food, poached duck egg, belly pork and pigeon finishing up with Toffee Holly Hog. As you can probably tell I tucked into my main before taking a picture, it was good though nom nom. The pub also had some tasty ale on from their micro brewery "This", "That" and "T'other".

The weekend seemed to fly by but it was fun, it's nice to get away and take in the scenery of a different town. Still nice to get home though if only to see Molly Moo.

What did you get up to this weekend?

Caterers Done

We met Darren in a Harvester (don't worry Harvester are not our wedding caterers) sat down with a drink and talked about food. 

Just on a side note Darren does look remarkably like Justin Theroux, you know Drew Barrymores bad boyfriend in Charlie's Angels. Which might give some of the girls a good reason to go up for seconds...

Luckily for us Darren has done tonnes of events/weddings including some at our actual venue, which was a huge relief. It meant he already knew the layout so he could tell us where he would set up and suggest how the day could pan out. He is a hog roast specialist, but we haven't gone for a hog roast. Don't get me wrong I love a bit of crackling and apple sauce, as much as the next meat eating fiend, but personally I feel it has been done. We are still keeping it fairly informal, I just want a little more choice for my guests. With a shed load of cheese for later in the evening. I love cheese I do.

Dessert is not being provided by Darren, but will be oh so scrumptious. I'm going to make our actual cake, and some other lovely ladies will be suppling the main dessert. I can't wait!! 

How do you feel about Hog Roasts?

Keep on Running

The worst thing about going for a run super early, is that you are usually the first person to walk/run along those particular pavements that day. Which means you get to clear the route of all the sticky cobwebs made by the busy nocturnal spiders, and for some reason they always seem to whisp around at head height!!! No fun, and I always get just a little bit freaked out thinking that there may have been a rogue spider still attached. OK rant over.

I have still been going running, although I failed my personal challenge of 4 runs a week last week, (only did 3) and I didn't quite muster enough courage to get out there of an afternoon/evening, but I will at some point. 

But I think I need to scale back on the pressure I am putting on myself, I am still doing 3 runs a week and I do manage to go just a little further each time, which is amazing for me, so I should be proud of myself, not thinking myself a failure. I think maybe 3 runs a week is a more realistic goal and any extra will be a bonus. Otherwise I'll just end up getting really cross with myself and forget that I have actually come quite far. I am not a natural runner, not even when I was little, but I think I am finally coming pretty close to cracking it, with the help of yoga and some handy phone apps.

This is what I was confronted with this morning though, not sure if I was early or Mr. Sunshine is getting tardy, but it was dark out there this morning.

Do you ever set yourself unrealistic goals, and have to scale it back?

Blueberry Muffins

Last week after we had planned to get the tandem, I decided to make some Blueberry Muffins for the picnic, so Friday night I did. I got all my shiznit together and picked a recipe from my Hummingbird Bakery book.

Mixed everything together using my not very fancy £15 hand mixer, (I am desperate for a fancy orange Kenwood mixer, but can't justify the cost at the moment...) it did the job. I did however realise too late that I should have put my apron on, my t-shirt was covered in flecks of muff mix, oh well that's what washing machines are for.

My first batch were a complete disaster, so obviously I didn't take a picture. I think my oven my be on it's last legs, or it's just grumpy and temperamental. I cooked them as instructed at 170 degrees for 20-25 mins, but when they came out they were pretty much still cake mix. We still ate them though, who doesn't love cake mix? Don't pretend you don't lick the bowl.

For the next lot I turned it up to 190 and let them cook for 30-35 mins, they looked better but not quite as I had hoped. Anyway lesson learnt, and it's a good excuse to practise a little more to suss out my crazy oven.

What did you last bake?

Two Girls on Tandem

Yesterday me and a friend hired a tandem, we've never ridden one before just thought it would be fun. And it was once we got going it was, it just a bit tricky to actually get going, didn't help that we couldn't stop laughing. My friend likes to be in control, so I let her go in front to steer and I didn't want to take the blame if we crashed. It was both scary and fun, scary because I couldn't see where I was going but fun because I got to take in all the beautiful scenery.

We headed along the seafront using the conveniently placed cycle paths, we took a picnic with us and stopped in Bexhill, to scoff and enjoy the sunshine. Took a few pictures, cute bell on the bike we had one each, both with Mickey on though. We chained the bike up for a bit and had a wander around, got an ice cream, and had a pint of Pimm's before heading back, it wasn't quite a pint but it may as well have been.

  

It was a hell of lot hotter on the way back and the front was a lot busier, but it seemed to be easier on the way back, I think maybe we had just got the hang of it. It's amazing how excited people get to see a tandem, we got loads of smiles and waves from the kiddies, which made it all the more fun, I think so anyway.

When we got back, we took the bike back and headed straight for the pub for a cold cider, nice. It was a great day obviously the weather helped, only down side I have a very sore behind today. Maybe a few spin classes will help me out for next time, because I'm pretty sure there will be one.

Have you ever ridden a tandem?