Do you wanna build a snowman.. at sea? Frozen comes to Disney Cruise Line
You know me, I adore Frozen. So the news that Anna and Elsa (and Sven and… yes, Olaf!) will be coming to the Disney Cruise Line ships has made me a happy girl.
Archive for month: January, 2015
New experiences: glamping at Yelloh! Village
So this year is all about throwing myself into new experiences and saying yes instead of no. I’ve done pretty well so far, what with the Sainsbury’s advert and being interviewed on the radio, and I’ve also committed to speaking at a big conference this year! Travel-wise, I’m all about doing stuff I’ve never done before and one of the things on the list is getting out into the great outdoors.
On test: Seven Seas new Perfect7 - the results!
So before Christmas, I told you that I was going to be trying out Seven Seas new Perfect7 Woman - it’s a blend of Omega-3 rich marine oils, and vitamins and minerals especially formulated to provide benefits for women in 7 key areas such as skin, nails and air, as well as supporting hormonal activity, brain function, vision and heart health. So how did I get on?
Smitten Saturday - things that have made me smile
Happy Saturday! One of the things I promised myself that I’d do every so often this year is share a few things that have made me smile. As it’s Saturday and you’ve hopefully got a bit more time on your hands, sit back, grab a cuppa and have a look at the things that have floated my boat:
A cupcake and macaron walking tour of London
As you know, every year I try and remind myself that life should be about snapshots, and not about stuff. When we’re old and grey, we won’t look back on our lives and remember that nice sofa we bought in the sales in 2015 (ahem), we’ll remember time spent with family and friends, visiting incredible places and enjoying new experiences.
My top five Canary Island experiences
If you’re planning a family holiday this year, you can’t go very far wrong with the Canary Islands. The climate is beautiful year-round, and around this little archipelago just off the south west coast of Morocco, there’s a holiday, and a hotel, to suit you. Whether you’re looking for peace and quiet, or for a bustling party destination, there really is something for everyone. Here are my top five Canary Island experiences:
Wishlist: kitchen luxe
Happy Monday! Hope yours is going well. I spent most of the weekend dreaming and drawing and planning (oh and making yummy barbecue pulled chicken too). We’ve been working and saving really hard for our upcoming kitchen refurb and it’s lovely to think that this is the year that we’ll actually be able to start making our dreams become a reality. I spend so much time in the kitchen, it’s one of the places that I’m really looking forward to starting work on. We want to knock the wall down between the kitchen and the dining room to recreate a larger, more sociable space - something that really hit home to me during our New Year’s Eve party, when I was stuck at the sink clearing plates between courses, listening to everyone having fun in the next room.
Slow cooked barbecue pulled chicken
I love a feast. A proper, gather round the table heaped with dishes, everyone talking at once, help yourself, kind of feast. My favourite one recently was our huge Middle Eastern feast for New Year’s Eve. when the table was heaving with all sorts of different things ready to tuck into. We talked, we laughed, we drank lovely wine, we stuffed all sorts of different things into pittas, and then into our faces. A real joyful night.
The Gallery: how to train your dragon
My friend Taralara does this lovely photo gallery every week, where she sets everyone a theme and challenges them to find a suitable photo. This week, the theme is ‘Me’. This is one of my favourite photos of us, from Brittany a couple of years ago. I love it because it seems to reflect everyone’s personality so well.
My home wishlist
I can’t believe we’re finally going to refurbish our house! I’m so excited and seem to be spending hours (okay, more hours than usual) on Pinterest and various home websites, planning and plotting and dreaming about how our home could look.
Gorgeous new luxe foodie experiences on board with Disney Cruise Line
As regular readers will know, I’m a huge fan of Disney Cruise Line. DCL’s fleet comprises four beautiful ships: the first, the recently reimagined Disney Magic, originally set sail in 1998, closely followed by Disney Wonder in 1999, both with the capacity to welcome 2700 guests on board. Then DCL launched two larger ships, Disney Dream in 2011 (my first, and favourite - with the incredible ‘AquaDuck’ - the world’s first ‘watercoaster’ at sea), and the Disney Fantasy in 2012, both longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, and with a maximum occupancy of 4000 passengers.
The best of the January sales
Happy Sunday! I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. We’ve mostly slobbed around, eaten cake, signed the contracts ready to exchange on our house (YAY!), splurged in Majestic Wine (this Stag’s Leap ‘Karia’ Chardonnay was buy two, save £10), stroked our gorgeous little furball family and started prepping for our next painting project: Sam’s bedroom (feature wall dark grey, other walls silvery grey).
I’ve got my first trip coming up very soon, a cruise on the gorgeous Disney Dream - one of my favourite ships, so I thought it would be a good time to stock up on some of the summer stuff that’s inevitably in the sales:
‘Prom night’ purple and Tom and Jerry antics
It’s been a mad week here at English Towers. The Sainsbury’s #loveyourfreezer campaign has gone live and it’s been really lovely receiving tweets, texts and Facebook messages (and AWFUL screenshots - thanks guys haha) saying ‘ooh, I’ve just seen you on the telly!’. I’m SO proud of this campaign - Sainsbury’s have been amazingly lovely to work with, and there are loads more exciting things coming up.
My top five fluffy American pancake ideas
So how did you feel this morning when the alarm went off? After all the lovely festive lie-ins, English Towers was not a happy household. I find that what you really, really need on these cold mornings (apart from a hug, obviously), is a mahoosive tower of puffy, fluffy American pancakes. The lovely chaps at Flora were kind enough to share their wonderful recipe for American pancakes with me, and challenged me to come up with some awesome breakfast recipes to help you all through all these ffffrrrreeeezing mornings!
The UK does Macy’s: my top five things to do in Sarasota
So if you pop in occasionally, you’ll know that Mr English and I recently spent a while in Florida, visiting the Macy’s stores in both Orlando and Sarasota. We particularly loved Sarasota - it’s a beautiful area and there’s bags of stuff to do as well as a really cool foodie scene. We whittled our favourite experiences down to five really fab experiences:
Christmas at Macy’s
Ooooh I’m on the telly! The new Sainsbury’s ‘Love Your Freezer’ campaign
So by now you might well have seen me on the telly (I KNOW!). Regular readers will know that I’m a huge freezer fan so I’m delighted to be working with Sainsbury‘s on their ‘love your freezer’ campaign - if you haven’t seen the advert, I’ve got it right here, and it’ll be around on the TV for a while too - I saw it on Channel 4 during Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, which pleased me immensely! Read more →
New year, new plans
Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely evening with your friends and family (or indeed a quiet one at home). We had family round and did a huge Middle Eastern feast, with slow roasted Mechoui lamb, minted yogurt, harissa and sweet chilli jam, all stuffed into warmed pittas with red cabbage and salad. So yummy and a great way to feed a crowd.
