Thursday 28 January 2016

My TBR Pile

Hey,

So I thought I would let you into a bit more about me today & I thought I would start of by discussing one of my hobbies; Reading.


I like to read but as I've got older I find I have less time to do so. However with my book collection growing by the minute I thought that I should probably organise my time a bit better & schedule myself some reading time.

I have a Goodreads account follow me here. Last year I set myself a challenge to read 15 books & I only managed 7... Oops. Told you I wasn't having much reading time. So this year I will be setting the challenge of 10... Allowing myself at least a month to read one book....easy. I hope!

I have also updated my 'to read' section on there ensuring its books I either own or want to own, I'm hoping this will be better for me so that I am pressuring myself less to read books I don't want to. I sometimes feel the need to read a book because someone has said its good & im the type of reader who once I have started a book I must read till the end.

The type of books I read are mainly autobiographies & chick lit, however I have also got the challenge of finishing the Harry Potter books as D is a big fan & not only is she wanting to take me to Harry Potter world next year, even though she's been before, we have also booked tickets to see The Cursed Child in London. So the Harry Potter Books are on the first TBR pile & then I think I will just work through my shelves.

If you want to see what's on my shelves then take a browse on my goodreads page & my Instagram, links below.

Do you have any favourite books or authors? Are you setting yourself a reading challenge??

Love Coco,


Follow me on; Twitter , FacebookInstagram 





Monday 25 January 2016

St Dwywens Day

Hey,

So I kinda didn't get a post up last week.. I had one planned but it kinda slipped my mind. So my apologies for that firstly. So this week I hope to get two up.

So today most people in Wales who has a partner will be showering them with love for St Dwynwens Day. St Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Dwynwen translates as 'she who leads a blessed life' which I think is beautiful. I may consider it as a name for my future daughter!!!!!

So the story is; The Welsh King had 24 daughters and Dwynwen was the prettiest of them all. Her father had arranged for her to marry someone , However as most love stories go she fell in love with someone else, a man called Maelon.
When she was found out about this arranged marriage she prayed to God to help her. So when she was sleeping an Angel visited her and gave her a potion to erase her feelings about Maelon & turn him into ice. (Cue a Disney Frozen scene here)
With the fact that her prayer came true she devoted her life to God & set up a convent on an island off the coast of Anglesey, which apparently you can still see the remains off. As Dwywens devoted her life to God, he gave her three wishes, she wishes were that Maelon be thawed, that God should meet the needs of all lovers & that she should never marry and that's how the story ends.

So that is the strange story of St Dwynwen.... It's basically a Welsh version of Valentine's Day. As both D & I find Valentines Day is over commercialised these days and it's a competition of whose partner can do better D & I don't celebrate it, instead we chose St Dwynwens day to exchange a gift, although to be honest this is quite a regular thing for us, we are forever picking things up for each other that we see.

So my present off D was a beautiful necklace from Not On The High Street , I've been after a star statement necklace for ages & neither of us have been able to find one anywhere. However this necklace is pretty close & it's so beautiful I am one happy girlie.





I absolutely love it. I love that it's stars, my favs, it also has my initial, my favourite colour purple & is just such a thoughtful gift off my girl.

For my girl I bought a photo frame & put some my favourite photos of us, I bought a metal sign which says 'love is in the air' which I hope we can put up on our feature wall when we live together & then I made a ' Reasons why...' Book which stated all the reasons why I love her. I'm a soppy shit about things like that. I'm 99% sure she liked her gifts.


Do you celebrate Valentine's Day or do you think it's becoming more commercial?


Follow me on; Twitter , FacebookInstagram 




Thursday 14 January 2016

Catch up..

Hey,

I hope you are all well. I just thought I would use this weeks post tour date you on what has been happening and what's upcoming in the Coco house.

So just before Christmas I had an interview for a Nanny job in a town local to me, I've pretty much got the job I'm just waiting on the start date, hopefully1st February, and for some paperwork to come through. Previously I worked as a Nanny for a family & they just employed me & joined a PAYE scheme who did all the work for them. With this family it is a single parent & they have asked me to join a voluntary scheme with CSSIW, Care & Social Services Inspectorate Wales, so that she can have some monetary help from her university until she becomes a qualified nurse. I sent the paperwork off & have now paid for that & am hoping to get the registration complete ASAP.

I've been out of work since August & I am quite nervous about getting back into work as its been so long & I'm worried about everything that is going on outside of that but I'm hoping that all will go well & I'll just jump back into it like nothing ever happened. The things outside of work life that I'm talking about is mainly family. As written previously my grandfather has cancer & is having chemotherapy for it. The chemo is going really well in the sense that he hasn't had any of the side effects, no sickness or anythng like that. He is still as stubborn as always, going to our local towns every day & cooking food for the family every Sunday... I'm glad that he is carrying on the way he always has... He's a fighter and a stubborn sod.

Also written previously is that my Nan is having to have an operation in February for a lump in her salvia glands. This is a three hour operation and quite a bit risky as its near a main nerve. My Nan doesn't give up either, we just hoping that the recovery goes as normal because of her Parkinson's Disease. So a lot of my mind in the beginning of February is going to be worrying about them as I am very close to them & I feel a little like now I've got a job I'm not going to be just up the road as much as currently am.

Went out for a meal for Nan & Bamps 49th Anniversary



I don't think I have any other news , me & D have been spending quite a nice bit of time together & have vowed to do more interesting things this year... We have our own little bucket list & we also have a lot on the calendar for this year;





The only event on here that D is coming to is Little Mix

I've got some ideas what I want to do for D's birthday but I'm not 100% set yet & I have no idea for mine either but D said she already has ideas. I feel like this year is going to be a good but busy one.

Do you have any plans for the year? Let me know in the comments.


Follow me on; Twitter , FacebookInstagram 




Friday 8 January 2016

January's Treat Box


Hey,

Something a little different from me again today, originally I was going to use this blog to talk about my childcare business/work & my craft work however something I've learnt from reading many blogs is that the key to a good blog is to talk about what you are passionate about. So today's post is going to be about a monthly subscription box that I have recently subscribed to.

Since September 2014 I had been subscribed to My Little Box, but lately I feel like it's not as exciting and the products feel a bit repetitive so I decided to try TreatBoxUk by Not Shabby Very Chic. I got my first one at Christmas & I really liked it so decided to try it for a few months to see how they pan out.


So the concept of the box is a monthly surprise through the door, the website says;
'Remember those lucky dip bags when you were younger, well these are like those, a complete surprise but even better because they are filled with gorgeous pieces, which could be; Home Accesories, stationary, jewellery, chocolate, fashion accessories..the list is endless'

January's box turned up at my door and I was super excited to see what was in it.....





This months box came with;

Teapigs .... Flavour tea
A little notebook which will definitely come in handy for me as I like writing lists
A 206 diary
Pencils , yet another good one for me with my art
A wax melt which smells lovely
Cute stickers and memo pad
A case with a lovely quote
A magnet (which I may give to my unicorn loving friend)
Quote card














Do you subscribe to any monthly boxes? Do you recommend any? 





Follow me on; Twitter , FacebookInstagram