June recap // Weekends Away, Food Festivals & Birthday Celebrations

What a month its been! Its gone by in a flash and full of lots of exciting times. Not only was it Tim’s birthday but it was mine too and I got myself a new job! Woooooohoooo! 🎉

June is a busy month for me and I had to turn down a girl’s trip to New Orleans because work is just always choca with lots of deadlines. Excited to say though that this was my last month as an external auditor so now I’ve got June out of the way I can start ‘winding down’, actually doing the hours I should be doing and enjoying the summer. Those who know me will know I haven’t been enjoying my job for a while now and I’ve finally taken the plunge and got myself a new job. Honestly it was much harder than I thought it would be and its so demoralising when you get rejected. Suffice to say it was all good practise and I’ve now got a job as an internal audit manager for a large food group! Something new but still will be a little familiar to me. The pay is good, the hours much better and a new challenge. Hopefully it means a happier me! Just got to get through the next 3 months which will hopefully fly by being the summer.

A lot of my spare time this month was spent prepping for interviews or working to meet deadlines. But at the weekends we managed to squeeze in some nice things!

During June its both mine and Tim’s birthdays so its always a month of celebrations. We don’t usually have proper birthday bash until August when the weather’s nice and warm and people are well and truly in the summer spirit. As we’re heading off to Australia in December we held off on big birthday pressies and got each other something small. I got Tim some Hotel Chocolat chocolate liquor and made him a tasty dinner. I made the most delicious raspberry soufflés (see here for recipe and pics) to try and replicate the ones we had at Le Manoir.

My birthday is later in month and Tim got me a bunch of cute pineapple things! We have an inside joke and always send him anything I see with a pineapple on. He got me the cutest pineapple pjs from Sainsburys (see here) as well as a pineapple key ring and a pineapple car freshener. I love the pjs and would buy more if they had them in more colours. They’re a steal at £16! Tim’s making me a late birthday meal tonight so I’ll report back on that!

Tim’s currently revising away for his final 3 accountancy exams which are in a couple weeks so I’ve been trying to not distract him too much! As a birthday treat we ventured out to Solihull and went to Digbeth Dining Club which had set up there for the day in the park. Solihull is only a 10 min drive away for us and is such a nice place. We’d love to live there one day but atm its just a littttttle pricey… So… what did we eat I hear you say?!

If you’ve been to the normal Digbeth Dining Club its fairly similar and has a number of different food vendors to try. We wanted to try so much but ended up going for halloumi fries, samosa chaat, moroccan lamb flatbread and finished it off with a flat s’mores doughnut. Omg it was all amazing! Only downfall was that it started raining not long after we got there and we didn’t have an umbrella so spent most of the time running between stalls and sheltering under a tree. Was still good fun!

Halloumi fries mmm

Samosa chaat deliciousness

Moroccan lamb flatbread

Smores flat doughnut – freshly made in front of us YUM!

I’m so glad I’ve gotten back into painting again… I find it such a relaxing thing to do and takes my mind off things including work! I’m so bad when it comes to working in the evening when the TVs on and I’m trying to do my best to stop this especially now I’ve handed in my notice.

So here’s what I’ve painted this past month…

Perfect for this rainy weather!

Think this would look lovely as a card!

Did this for a friend who’s just had a little girl!

Next step for me is to learn how to digitise these so I can make them into prints to give to people.

With it being Father’s Day this month we managed to squeeze seeing both parents into the weekend to ensure we saw them both. I managed to work from home that Friday and finished early and went for a swim. It’s so nice going to the gym/ pool during the day as they’re literally no one there! Definitely love having a lane to myself. Makes swimming that much more enjoyable I find. As soon as Tim was back we jumped in the car and made our way across to Tim’s parents in the East Midlands.

That evening we had the most delicious little puddings. I mean look at them! The next day after a lovely lie in we headed to the gym. I’ve been trying to get better at working out as I know it helps keep me de-stressed. During June I managed to keep up the couch to 5k which I was really proud of myself for doing. Since then a friend said she’d been using something called FIIT which she has found is the only fitness thing she’s been able to stick to. Since they had an offer on I thought I’d give it a go too! So I signed up for 3 months and they’ve sent a heart monitor in the post which you wear whilst working out to their classes. I’ve signed up to the beginners improving fitness plan for a month. So you get 2 cardio classes, followed by a strength class and finish off the week with yoga. I’ve enjoyed it so far so lets see how it goes!

Anyways! So while we were at Tim’s parents we had a lovely chill with them. I also baked some chocolate brownies which were very tasty! I’ll definitely have to bake them again and put the recipe up for you to try. Love a BBC Good Food recipe.

Early evening we then got in the car and went down to my parents in Bray. Saturday evening we spent at the Cricket Club near them and had a nice chill. As it was Father’s Day on Friday we went out for a lovely meal at Roux at Skindles. The puddings were delish! I had the strawberry frozen soufflé and Tim and my brother had floating islands. Both were lovely!

The following weekend we went away with some of Tim’s school friends to one of their grandparent’s farms in Boston. It was such a lovely relaxing weekend! On the Friday I had half a day of hols so went and had a massage and had my hair cut. We then got on the road when Tim finished work. It was in the middle of nowhere and it was so nice to switch off. We spent the weekend going on a lovely walk along a river, playing crochet and board games (there was no TV or signal) and sitting outside in the sun drinking all the pimms. I think these pics sum it up very nicely! It was so nice and refreshing unplugging for the weekend.

On the way back, Tim surprised me with a meal as we went past his parents. We stopped by a Miller and Carter which was such a lovely surprise!

For my actual birthday, Tim was away in London on training so I had a chilled evening to myself. I got the most gorgeous flowers in the post which had some pretty peonies in it. Brownie points for the hubby as he knows how much I love them! During the day, I went for some tasty cocktails with a friend from work at Las Iguanas. You can’t fault their 2 for 1 on cocktails all day!

It was so nice when the rain finally stopped and the sun came out! To stop myself working through lunch I forced myself to go for a walk on a few days. As you do when its nice and warm I went and got some tasty cool drinks form starbs. Gotta love an iced caramel latte. I also tried one of their new frozen strawberry and lime drinks. It was ok but was a bit too much after a while – it tasted like a melted twister.

I also got my hair cut nice and short for summer. Think I might go a bit shorter next time and also lighter – miss my blonde hair!

Got my cooking on as well as made this tasty aubergine and halloumi pie (see here for recipe). We’re trying to have more veggie meals and we looooove halloumi. Its something different to just grilling halloumi.  Definitely going to have it again.

We also tried out Jamaya in Touchwood in Solihull – a new Jamaican restaurant. We both had burgers and frozen rum punches. It was a tasty treat and sure we’ll be back!

Give me!

Earlier in the month I was 100% influenced by insta and brought some Mirabeau rose. I had high hopes for it but was not a fan! We didn’t want to waste it so ended up putting lemonade in it to make it drinkable… So sad! Save to say I don’t think I’ll be having that again.

Anyone else been watching Love Island? Love a bit of trashy tv and we’re definitely hooked! We only started watching it last year so had to give this year a go. We had been routing for Amber and Michael but obviously that won’t be happening anymore! Prize position has definitely moved to Tommy and Molly-Mae for us. Who’s your favourite couple? I literally have no self control… nearly every eve Tim has had an ice-cream and I can’t say no! Our recent fav are Magnums cookies and cream. They are soooooo tasty! If you haven’t tried them, get them in your life!

So that’s my month really! Handing in my notice was such a hard decision but I’m so glad I did it and its definitely the right decision for me. Each day that goes by just makes me realise why I’m moving on. The day I handed in my notice I went for some celebratory bubbles with some girls from work which was lovely! Very excited for my next challenge and I’m hoping the next 3 months go by quickly…

I’m hoping the weather we had last weekend comes back – I love the summer and the sun and am  more than happy chilling in the sun! I’m definitely a happier person when the sun is shining down 🌞

Until next time,

Cathers xx