Santa Run!

Today I've signed up to take part in a 10KM Santa Run on 8th December in London. I will be running this for Jo's Trust which makes me feel very proud indeed. I was delighted to get Judith, from the charities, email this morning and signed up straight-away. 

Fingers crossed some friends & family will also be joining me as it'd be great to run along-side them but even doing it on my own I'll be really satified knowing I'm raising more money and awareness for my chosen charity. 

If you'd like to run with me, please sign up here, places are limited so the sooner the better, then let me know when you're done & I'll sort out regular catch-ups leading up to the run. 

I was hoping by now to be on my first half marathon but with the knee problems, my progress has slowed down. All being well, I can now start to really pick it up and especially with runs like this in the pipeline it'll really spur me on. And it's only another month until the ballot places for the London Marathon are announced so let's hope that is good news for me. 

If you would like to sponsor me for any of the run's and challenges I'm doing over the coming year, please use the link on my blog to donate as much as you can. 

Getting our Geek on!

As part of my birthday celebrations, I'm having a night out tomorrow with friends. My good friend Gemma, came up with the idea of dressing 'Geek Chic' which I instantly agreed too! 

I'm really excited & having checked with the bars that we're all ok to dress up & most importantly wear our trainers (for comfort & style) we are all pretty much set! 

I have the converse (complete with diamantès to add to chic aspect!), the braces, the geek glasses & t-shirt & not forgetting the frilly socks. I'm set! 

As with most themes or fancy dress the fun is in seeing everyone else's interpretations so I can't wait for tomorrow night. 

Post coming up next week with plenty of photos! 

Some highlights

So this weekend was the long awaited 30th birthday celebrations & they certainly lived up to all the hype. I was spoilt rotten & had the best weekend. 

I'm sure I'll post in more detail about it all but just thought I'd share some of my highlights from the weekend. 

It all kicked off on Friday with a quite remarkable work birthday, photos of my face covering the office with balloons & presents, oh & not forgetting the cupcakes with my face on them! Amazing work by Gemma & Alex! 

Then on Saturday it was the C Party for my family & close friends. As posted before everyone had to come as something dressed beginning with C. The party was a huge success & we had all sorts, crab, crocodile, convict, cat, chefs & even a crayon! Not forgetting the winner of the best dressed, my friend Sam who had actually made a cruise liner which he was dressed in! Amazing. 

I went as a champagne bottle & although I didn't get any votes for best dressed, thought I looked pretty good. 

A good time was had by all & it will certainly be a party we'll all remember. So nice seeing all my family too & them all making such an effort for it. Not forgetting the wonderful presents I was treated too. 

On Sunday (my actual birthday) we had breakfast at the arches in Southend & I opened my presents from mum, dad, EJ & Ash. I was completely overwhelmed by some of the amazing gifts with the highlight being a card signed personally by the Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho! And a letter from John Terry wishing me a happy birthday! As a massive Chelsea fan it doesn't get much better than that! 

For the rest of the day it was off to watch Chelsea at Stamford Bridge with my sister. What a brilliant game we saw too, first game of the season, Jose's first game back as manager & the best atmosphere I'm ever experienced at the bridge. Just amazing. Another highlight was a birthday message for me in the big screen at half time which was pretty cool. 

With such a memorable weekend its hard to pick one stand out memory but one of my favourite things was my youngest cousin, Amelia, deciding that despite her dad being a Man United fan and her mum an Arsenal fan, she is going to follow in mine & my sisters footsteps & support Chelsea! She was even singing the song at my party. Needless to say we've now got her a little Chelsea t-shirt to kick start her support. One day maybe she'll be joining us at the bridge & cheering in the blues.

Thank you to everyone involved in making my birthday so brilliant & for all the messages, cards and gifts. The celebrations don't end until this Saturday when we have geek night with my friends. That should be a messy one! More to come on that! 

Party Planning

With my 30th birthday just days away, I'm in full party planner mode! 

I decided that I'd really like a 'gathering' with family and some close friends. We decided to hold the party at my parents which meant being limited on numbers especially as we have such a big family. So I'm also doing a separate celebration with friends - a 'Geek Chic night', more on that another time! 

All good parties need a theme & we came up with the perfect one 'C' Party. Fancy dress is generally the key to a good, fun party so the idea for this is all guests come as something beginning with the letter C. 

With it being a family party I wasn't too sure everyone would get into the spirit but having had lots of texts & calls over recent weeks, I am really excited to see everyone's costumes. 


To keep in with the C theme, I decided the decorations, invites etc.. would have a Caribbean feel. I got these invites made through Vistaprint - with a week turnaround I was able to send them out with plenty of notice. 

Unfortunately, I had to change the date of the party so for a small cost, I also got some change of date cards made in the same style.  

I brought most of the decorations from eBay as they really are so cheap, especially if you're only going to be using them once it's perfect. 
The garden is going to be turned into a Caribbean party with a Limbo, Giant Jenga & Twister to get everyone involved. A lot of stores where looking for £40+ for each of these but I managed to get great deals on-line. 
We have ordered helium balloons from Sancto in Southend so am excited to get decorating the house. 

There will be plenty of cupcakes & cocktails - keeping with the theme too! 

Being a very organised person, a lot of the fun for me is in the planning and preparation. I have a whole schedule for next week which I'm chomping at the bit to get started on. 

With food & drink yet to buy it's going to be a really busy time but I just can't wait. And seeing all the costumes and having a memorable night with the family & friends will be the highlight! 

Would be great to hear your thoughts on the perfect party?