Relaxing Weekends, Running Updates & Foodie Fixes

Doesn’t it finally feel like Spring? And as of Wednesday earlier this week it officially was! I’m defo not a fan of the short winter days and the cold. I prefer the summer, longer days and warmth! I live for these days! When I was at my parents the other weekend the cherry blossom was starting to peep out and magnolia starting to flower… I love it!
I haven’t done a recap for a little while as not much has been happening to do it weekly but thought I’d pull together ‘all the latest things’ (as Greg James says…) from the past few weeks instead.
Painting:
I’ve cracked out the paint brushes the past couple weeks. I’d seen some prints I liked by Anna Bond at Rifle Paper in the US but couldn’t justify paying $40 per A4 print/ $24 per A5 print and postage to the UK of $18 postage so thought I’d try painting something similar for our walls at home.
I decided to try doing a few of the places we’ve been: New York, Yosemite, Venice and LA. Just need to order some frames now and get them on a wall. I’m still undecided where to put them… I’m tempted either between the kitchen, a wall in the front room or the landing on the first floor. Decisions! What do you think?
I also did this little painting for some friends who have just gotten engaged! I love it! I can’t do faces to save my life so little dots will have to do 😋 What do you think?
I’m tempted to open my etsy shop again and do some of these bits but its so hard to know how much to price things. I saw someone recently charge $350 for a similar engagement heart but thats just way too much! I would obviously want people to be happy with what they’re purchasing and not fell out of pocket. Would £50 be too much? Let me know what you think to opening up the etsy shop again and how much you’d pay for a painting and a personalised painting.
Running:
I’ve been also trying to get back into my running. I’ve been trying to get back to the gym but it can be so difficult after a long day at work but that’s just me making excuses. All I’d be doing at home is either working or sitting on the sofa watching tv!
So I’ve had a look around and found a post from a blogger I follow (Simply Taralynn). It’s running on and off for 5 mins at a time to begin with. I did it this week and managed 5km 3 times which I haven’t done in ages! And I felt so good after like I’d accomplished something. I’m going to give this a go for a month and see how it goes. I’ll report back!
I’ve just started week 3 today and its going well so far – hopefully I can keep it up!
Running is definitely cheaper than therapy 😋
See here for Taralyn’s running blog post.
Weekend Brunch:
One thing I love doing on the weekend every now and again is going out for breakfast. I love Eggs Benedict! It’s just such a lovely start to the week. So the other weekend when we visited my parents we went to Roux at Skindles. I’ve been wanted to go to a Roux restaurant for a long time and this was an affordable alternative. Obvs Roux are known for their Michelin starred restaurants but this is just a restaurant in Maidenhead run by them… I don’t think its that well known yet which is good and means you don’t have to worry about not getting a reservation.
I had the Eggs Benedict and a juice. It was perfect! The eggs were just divine and perfectly runny… there’s nothing better than a perfect poached egg in my opinion!
There’s a lovely looking bar upstairs which looks over the river and we’ll definitely be popping back when it gets warmer to enjoy the lunch menu.
If you’re looking for something a little special, not too pricey and not too fancy this is the one!
Another Sunday breakfast Tim pulled together was bagels with cream cheese with roasted fig and cinnamon – so good! Give it a go if you get a chance! Something a little different but very tasty! I’ll be having it again 😊
Tapas Evening:
Last month I mentioned that I’d cooked a nice meal for Tim, well he surprised me earlier this month with a Tapas evening! I love Spanish food and tapas has to be up there with one of my fav foods. Tim cooked up meatballs, chorizo in wine, pastas braves and then got some tasty bread and meats and olives. He also made a delish Sangria to go with it all. After all of this he then brought out the most amazing homemade paella with prawns, chorizo and monk fish… so good! It was such a lovely treat!
I suggested that we’d have to have some friends over for a tapas evening. Any excuse to have all that again…
You can’t have Tapas without Sangria!
Holiday planning:
Apart from all that things have been fairly quiet on our end. We’re trying to save up money for our Florida trip next week and we’re also planning to go to Australia in December for a couple weeks. We’ve roughly priced it up and we’re going to have to save to make the most of it. It is very exciting though! 
This is what we have so far:
Sydney:
Blue Mountains
Sydney harbour bridge
Opera House
Bondi Beach
Cairns:
Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest
Great Barrier Reef Pontoon overnight tour
Skyrail
Melbourne:
Great Ocean Road
Puffing Billy and wine tour in Yarra Valley
Cricket on boxing day
Neighbours set tour 
I’ve definitely been making the most of pinterest and pinning anything that looks good. (See here for my pinterest to see what I’ve been pining!)
Have you been to Australia before? Is there anything that should make it on the list of things to do?
Until next time,
Cathers x
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