Celebrating our Sweet Sixteen

On Friday 22nd June Tom and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary (and also the 18th anniversary of our first official date). Those years seem to have flown by and at times our big day feels like it was a million years ago yet there are so many parts of the day I clearly remember and that makes it feel like it was only yesterday. I had a days annual leave so we spent the morning relaxing at home and exchanging gifts and cards. I bought Tom a day at Discovery Cove for when we are in Florida and Tom bought me a Mickey Mouse shaped locket from Pandora.

To celebrate we took a trip over to Watford to do the Harry Potter/Warner Bros studio tour. Now this is something that we have wanted to do for a very long time but we just never got around to it until now. We watched a few You Tube vlogs before we went and these made us even more excited to see it all for ourselves. We took the train from London Euston to Watford Junction and then hopped on the shuttle bus that takes you to the studios. After a quick security and bag check we were in and ready to start the tour. At this point there is a coffee shop, cloakroom and toilets and access to the gift shop.

The tour starts with a couple of short film clips and some details on what to expect and then the doors open and you are in the great hall. Its a pretty amazing sight to see, there are tables laid up down the side with all the Hogwarts House uniforms and at the front are some of the main characters.

After this you are free to wander around and look at all the different mock-ups of various scenes, there are also hundreds of props and costumes on display. You can also walk through the Forbidden Forest, just look out for the hippogriff and spiders!! You then come to Kings Cross where you can see the Hogwarts Express in all its shiny and pristine glory. You can even try your hand at pushing your trolley through the platform wall!!

About halfway or so through the tour there is a café where you can get drinks and something to eat, you can even try a butter beer if you want to. Tom bought one and really liked it, for me it was a little too sweet but I didn't mind it (we both thought it tasted like cream soda though!). The next part of the tour is outside and there is where you will find the night bus, Privet Drive, the wooden Hogwarts bridge and a few vehicle's from the films.

For us the highlights of the tour come towards the end when you get to walk along Diagon Alley and see the amazing model of Hogwarts. The amount of detail on it is truly spectacular and I could have spent hours wandering round taking it all it.

We had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the tour, I am so glad that we finally got around to doing it. Its also made us even more excited for our trip to Universal Studios in Orlando and the whole Harry Potter world that is there.

FYI, I bought our tickets online from the official website which you can find by clicking here. All the photos on this post are my own and were taken on my Canon 750D.

We continued our anniversary celebrations after with a meal at one of our favourite restaurants, I am going to do a separate post on that so keep your eyes open. If you dont already please feel free to subscribe to my blog, that way you wont miss any posts.

Jane

Five Fave Things - Feb 2018

I thought I would use this post to share with you a few things that I am currently loving, the idea for this post came from Penny over at A Penny for Them, she has a fab blog so why don't you pop over to take a peek and say hello? Anyway I think I might try and make this a regular monthly post, let me know what you think?

1. Crochet
There has been a bit of a flurry of new babies recently so I have been busy creating crocheted blankets to gift to them. I follow a very simple pattern called C2C (corner to corner) which is basically the same stitch repeated over and over again which creates a triangle shape. Once you have reached a width that you are happy with you carry on with the same stitch but instead of increasing at the start and finish of each row you decrease to fill in the opposite side of the triangle to create a square blanket. I started making these blankets about a year ago after getting frustrated with the more traditional granny square style crochet. I had seen a friend use this pattern so I found a You Tube video by Bella Coco and hey presto within a very short time I was up and running. I am now very confident in using this stitch so I am planning on trying to teach myself something new in the coming months.

2. Vlog Watching
This is something I mentioned before in one of my Florida planning posts and its since become a firm favourite in our house. Tom and I don't watch much television at all as there is hardly ever anything on that we want to watch. We are not into reality type programs, soaps or crappy Saturday night tv (in fact anything with Ant & Dec is an absolute nono for us - don't hate me!! lol). There is the odd series, documentary or film that we will flag up but other than that we tend to just have music on in the background. We started watching Florida vlogs last year and have now built up quite a list of people to follow, at present our faves are The Tim Tracker, That Florida Guy, Damian & India, See Shaun Vlog, Krispy S'Mores, L&R Dreaming and Louandhan. There are also a few new additions to my playlist that we have yet to start watching, just waiting for current selection to finish before we start
getting to know Joe and Donna, The Reeves Family Adventures and Will & Lelly. I follow most of these people on social media too and what a lovely, friendly and helpful bunch they are.

3. New Camera
I had been hankering after a new DSLR for quite some time and I had my eye on the Canon 750D although I had been a little reluctant to take the plunge as it was somewhat out of my budget. I did some research and was considering a cheaper camera but I kept coming back to this baby time after time. Originally I had seen it vastly reduced in the lead up to Christmas but of course afterwards it went back up in price. Anyway I had been watching online for a deal to come up and lo and behold last week Currys came up with an offer that was too good for me to resist. I have yet to give it a good try but my first impressions are that I love it! Now I just need to find a good tutorial on how to get the best out of it, could do with some better weather too!

4. Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish
I am a bit of a skincare junkie and over the years I have tried loads of different products, from High St chemists to high end designer brands you name it and I will have probably tried it. Like a lot of people I was rather taken with wipes and micellar waters, being so quick and easy to use they fast became somewhat of a staple bathroom product for a while. However I started to notice that my skin was looking a little dull and tired and I realized that whilst wipes and waters may be quick and easy they are really not good for your skin (or the environment) and neither will effectively remove all the daily grime and make up that can build up. I decided that I needed to invest a little more time into my skin so I reverted back to a routine that includes using a cleansing balm to get rid of make up followed by a cream cleanser to remove the last of everything (FYI on days when I have little or no make up I don't bother with the balm). At present my fave cleanser is the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, its something I have used in the past and I have to say I now have a whole new love for it. Thanks to the naturally active ingredients my skin is looking and feeling so much better, its radiant, hydrated and nourished. Yes this kind of routine takes a little longer but its totally worth it to have a happy and healthy face.

5. Life
This one feels like a bit of a cliché but as I am getting older I really do feel like I am starting to appreciate everyday life a whole lot more than I ever did before. Life is not always a bed of roses nor is it full of the perfect Instagram shots but on the whole I am healthy and happy and I have a fabulous husband by my side who loves and supports me in everything I do. I used to get upset and stressed over the smallest things but not any more! I now try not to let things get on top of me or stress me out for no reason. Things that I have no control over or people that cannot be kind or supportive are not worth the energy and upset they can cause. Life is too short not to be happy and whilst I appreciate that we cant all be happy and jolly all of the time I do try to find something positive in each day. I refuse to let other peoples negativity get me down anymore, this is MY life and I will live it doing the things that make me happy.

Love and hugs, Jane x