Monday Obsession: Cute things

Every Monday I want to do a post on my latest obsession. This will be anything from a beauty product, pair of shoes or piece of jewellery, to a book or film. I have a weird and wonderful list of obsessions, so am quite interested to see what comes out here! 

Here goes...

This weeks obsession is CUTE THINGS!

I love looking at cute things. Mainly animals to be honest. It just warms my little heart to see a puppy in a jumper, or a penguin being tickled. 

My mum's dog (although let's be honest, he totally loves me more so is basically mine!), is the most amazing creature. Whenever I go home I just want to squeeze him, he's that damn cute! My favourite thing to do when I'm home is take him to the beach (my Mum lives by the seaside), and watch him run around in the sea. 

Because he's a big dumb idiot, he runs up and down the shore barking at the waves for getting his feet wet, and then trying to eat the sea foam. It's frickin' hilarious! If you throw a stone in for him to catch, he'll spend ages with his nose in the sea, getting completely soaked by the waves, looking for the stone. Then he picks up any old rock and brings it back with a stupid proud look on his face. Honestly, I could cry with how cute it is! 

On my Pinterest I have a whole board dedicated to cuteness. Here are some of my favourite pins...

He's scared of the vet, aaaaaaw!!

Look how big this baby bunny's feet are. Soooooo cute!

The rolls, look at the rolls! Oooooo I just wanna eat him!!

There are just no words. He's like a character from the Rats of Nimh!

I'm dying, it's so cute!

My friend once said a sloth is her favourite animal. Looking at this I can understand why. "Look at him cuddling his cute little stuffed animal. Ooooooo" #babyvoice!!

For more random cute things feel free to wander on over to my Pinterest board:

http://www.pinterest.com/allykins235/cute-things/

～X～

Oh how I love birthdays...

So last week my good friend Kelly turned 30. The big THREE OH! She was actually in Croatia on holiday, so spent the day there, but my friends and I wanted to do something special for her when she got back. 

Whilst she was away we set to work planning...

Now, my full-time job is as a Media Planner, yet in my personal life planning does not come easy to me. I'm a little bit scatty you see!

I once planned a friend's birthday lunch; I booked the restaurant and then attempted to pre-book our food over the phone, using another restaurant's menu! The poor Waitress was very confused and kept telling me that they didn't sell 'four cheese gnocchi', but I insisted that they did. 10 minutes later she realised I was reeling off dishes from Bella Italia, not Strada and I had to apologise profusely and start the whole process again! Once the food was successfully ordered we all turned up expecting a lovely meal...except I'd forgotten to order the Birthday Girl's food. Needless to say, I am not the most reliable event organiser!

However, my friend Esen is extremely good at organising things (she organised her wedding this year which was the most amazing day!) and got the ball rolling. 

The plan was to have a girly high tea and birthday cake at my flat during the day, then head into Soho to meet friends for a nice dinner, and then onto some bars for cocktails and dancing. 

Phase 1: Operation birthday cake!

I love to bake. It's a fairly recent hobby of mine, and I try to make cakes for all of my friend's birthdays. But I like to experiment so never just make a simple sponge. For Kelly's birthday this year I decided to make a shoe box with a shoe alongside it, and I enlisted Esen's help to create said cake! We spent about 6 hours on Friday evening, mixing, tasting, baking and icing. My kitchen was a disaster zone! We finally finished at about 1am. This is the end result...

On Saturday we got up, made lots of cute finger sandwiches and put them on white plates along with lots of little cakes and scones. We also decorated my living room with balloons, birthday banners and lots of A3 sized photos of our friendship group. It looked amazing! 

At 3pm (it should have been 2pm, but I forgot to let Kelly know what time to arrive...I told you I'm hopeless at organising!) everyone came over and we had a lovely afternoon. 

During the week we had agonised over which restaurant to go for but finally decided on Aqua Nueva on Regent St. It's a stunning Spanish restaurant, with a roof terrace that has beautiful views of London. So at 8pm we descended on Central London, ready for the celebration to really begin! 

We met more friends at the restaurant and got stuck into some truly gorgeous food. We ordered a selection of tapas, and then some mains. I had pork loin; it was delicious! It was all washed down with lots of rosé champagne. At the end of the meal our waiter brought out a desert with candles in it and 'Happy Birthday Kelly' written in white chocolate on the rim of the plate. 

It was such a lovely day and Kelly really enjoyed herself. I have birthday blues now. Can't wait for the next one!!

～X～

Welcome to the world of Little Miss Cherry Belle...

My name is Ally and welcome to my Blog. Now why do I want to write a blog, I hear you cry...

Basically, I need a more robust diary than a paper journal, and as a 21st Century girl, I thought I'd give blogging a go. Let me explain. 

I am one of those girls who has always tried to keep a diary. 'Tried' being the operative word! I would spend hours looking at pretty little diaries in WH Smith as a child, debating which one would be the best host for my most private thoughts. I would spend vast amounts of money on the perfect coloured pens to record my memories. I would write for 2 weeks straight...and then I'd give up. 

You know how it is; some days just aren't interesting enough to write about. 

But then I would have blank pages. Disaster! It would break my little heart to have empty dates. So every time I missed a few days I would have to go through the whole process again - finding the perfect journal, making it pretty, writing everyday...and then stopping! 

I then turned to blank notebooks. But the next drama was having to print pictures, forgetting to buy glue etc. It all got a bit to Martha Stewart for my liking...I'm just not that kinda girl! 

So a blog seems like the perfect solution...no blank pages, no need to be an arts and crafts guru. Just a keyboard and my thoughts, whenever I happen to have them.

PERFECT!

In summary (after a long-winded ramble about my failings as a romantic journal-writer!), I am writing a blog to record  the greatest influences on my life. Things that I want to look back on and remember. The places I've been, the products I love, the people who make me who I am. All of it will be here, ready for my future self to review. And for you too, if you're interested. 

Let's get blogging!

～X～