Vegan supermarket junk food

I absolutely love all the new vegan eats coming out in the supermarkets lately! Everyone is FINALLY realising, it’s amazing! I only wish I didn’t take so long to come to this way of thinking! But we won’t talk about That! Let’s just talk about how amazing and tasty and GOOD for you it is, but also how you can totally snack out on the crap you used to eat like ‘chicken nuggets’ and chips or a good ole ketchup and sausage sarnie 😍
You’ll find most of the meat replacers have plenty of protein in but please check if not that you’re eating plenty of good stuff like nuts (I LOVE Brazil nuts) and adding stuff like Chia seeds to your breakfast or pasta sauces!
Here’s a photo of the Vegan stuff I’ve just bought in today’s food shop at Asda (12th Feb 2019)

So my favourite savoury supermarket vegan stuff is
~Fry’s sausage rolls  (usually only in Sainsbury’s or Holland & Barrats)
~Linda Mcartneys frozen sausages
~Vivera pulled chicken  and ‘steaks’
~Morrison’s own meatless burgers (Tesco’s have egg in them)
~Asda or Tesco soft cheese
~  Most crisps...I’m addicted to walkers ready salted and plain nachos with my cream cheese (mentioned above)
~ Falafels, carrot sticks and cucumber with hummus...sooo yummy, I never thought I’d like it but it was me who was wrong all along, so yummy, so healthy and so so needs to be tried! Perfect for snacking out with a bowl of crisps to dip too! Plus Sainsbury’s  dons reduced fat guacamole that is vegan!
~ Squeaky bean 100% dirty vegan chicken nuggets these are amazing! I found them in Asda, loved them so much I made sure I got two packets the next time!

These are really good to have with some sweet potato fries, which are SO EASY TO DO YOURSELF BY THE WAY! Literally just cut the sweet potato up into chip shapes, add a little bit of oil of your choice (nut oil is lush with them but so is standard olive oil!) then oven bake for like 25 mins and they’re amazing with some salt and pepper 😍

Favourite sweet vegan supermarket stuff is
~Food heaven whipped cream (in Asda and Morrison’s!)
~Swedish glacé vanilla ice cream
~Ben & Jerrys chocolate fudge brownie (which I actually blogged about last year thinking it was amazing that there was a different flavour vegan icecream out AND NOW THERES LOADS TO CHOOSE FROM! But I seem to like to stick to my first love lol )
~Naked protein bars especially the blueberry and orange chocolate ones
~ Oreos of course 😍
~ fruit! All the fruit 😋
~ Lazy Day Foods rocky road squares (I usually find them in Sainsbury’s)

I also make the most amazing vegan cake from the devils kitchen baking range 😍

The milk we always drink is KoKo which is an amazing coconut milk that doesn’t even taste like coconut! Loads of added vitamins and minerals too!
Also the Cadbury drinking chocolate powder you add to milk is dairy freee so add that to  KoKo and you’ll get your Cadbury fix! You’ll also be surprised at how quick you get used to dark chocolate, plus the after 8 style mints are all vegan too 🤤🤤

Also if you’re into protein / meal shakes that sort of thing then Huel makes the most tasty vegan recipe, you just add a scoop or two into water or, do what I do and add a load of other stuff too and make the most tasty and filling drink! Little video below you may have seen in one of my stories!

The only thing about all these amazing foods and new brands is that I seem to have to go around 3-5 different supermarkets to find them all! It’ll all become even more available soon though,
2018 it all started changing so much from the first proper ‘veganuary’  so many high street food places started catching on and then came the Greggs vegan sausage roll that even meat eaters were raving about (and still are!)

Another diary entry

So, first of all, apologies for not blogging for what I didn’t realise until today is 7 whole months! I must admit I got myself in a whirlwind of, ive just moved house 200 miles away, got married and need to start my business up again - eeek/argh/auto pilot mode!

After an awesome little birthday party for my friend on a canal boat in Leeds in October and an awesome couple of nights at WWE Raw & Smackdown live in November I realised I wanted take control of my social life again, so I planned a few nights out, the first being with my two local (to my new area) friends, first time I had since my wedding night in June! The second being a little trip to Edinburgh in January (something to look forward to after Christmas - which was a lovely one spent with our families) where I stayed over at a friends house and we had a night out to celebrate another friends birthday and tied it in with a tattoo date the next day!
 Below is a little gif my friend made after I went to hers for the afternoon the other week! It’s cute things like this I’m so glad I’m back to doing again 😍

 It’s all me realise how important it is for me to make sure I spend time with my friends too, make dates and plan stuff, not get so caught up with my business and other things that you can just get into doing daily, stopping you from realising you can break down a day into two, or three or four even!

The last three months I have decided to put more self care effort in, self care is really important, to spend more time of the day doing things that you love doing, it’s so easy to get caught up in sitting for hours on social media after work, talking about doing stuff you want to do, or scrolling Instagram,Pinterest getting ideas and inspiration, but then you need to actually get out there and just do it, I wonder how many hours we waste these days winding ourselves up on the internet? It’s still good to talk, network, share ideas etc, but make sure you always are doing too, don’t live someone else’s life through a screen.


Ive also started up my own bath bomb Instagram account to share my love for bath art even
more.... Click here to give it a follow if you like!

For when you need a bit more preachiness in your life 🍑 

Lush and their 2019 Valentines range got me like 🍆 

I’ve also promised myself (and Roxy my Chihuahua - pictured below on a recent walk in the Lake District) that we will go on more adventures rather than just the same walks, I want to explore more, take so many more photos..I think being a photographer you sometimes get that, work and personal thing, your hobby is your job, and I lost that a bit last year. I still took creative shots and star photos but I’m really pushing myself lately and now I’m fully back head over heels in love with taking photos again and I just want to explore my world around me! I’ve got this new feeling of freedom in me.

Below are some Robins I’ve photographed this month, I’ll be going back more now as I’ve signed up to the RSPB and I’m going to be visiting other places and building my own little bird haven in my garden 😍

 It’s as if before I was trapped in my own self guilt. Like I always need to be working because I’m my own boss, moving your business is so hard when you have to leave your clients behind but I’m getting there now again so I think it’s lifted a weight off my mind as well...
Anyway basically I’m back on the whole; We’ve only got this life. We need to live it as much as we can. #positivevibesonly

So if you’ve read all this, (thank you) make sure you plan something exciting to do after work tomorrow, don’t just do the same thing, go do something. Anything. If you want ideas, just hit me up, I’m more than happy to give you suggestions based on your interests and where you live etc, don’t get stuck in a rut

Can’t wait to blog about all this amazing vegan goodness that is coming out in the shops lately too! I’m LOVING it as you can imagine!

Spring & Summer outfits

I’ve been meaning to do this post for ages but I’m the sort of person that always puts things off until I think it’s really fine time I better do it, unless I’m working to someone else’s deadline, my own deadline is ‘when I get a chance’ and sometimes not doing anything takes priority over that 😉
This blog is going to feature my favourite Spring & Summer Outfits and the ones I’ve had most questions about! This is Northern UK spring/summer so appropriate for up to 25 degrees 😆 though we did actually get a few weeks of up to 30 and I was literally just wearing my bodycons and a sheer shirt over in the evenings or high waisted wet look leggings (shown later) and string crops.
As you all know I get 80% of my clothes from BlackMilk and a few other nylon brands such as WildBangarang,  Poprageous and Burnt Soul, but you need other brands of clothing to style with your it all! I’m often on ASOS & DollsKill typing specific things that I’m after like ‘velvet jumper’, ‘black long sleeve crop’ into the search bar to see what I can find so I don’t get distracted spending money on thing is don’t need! I also check the sale section and make sure to check my size so I’m not spending ages looking through sale to find the things I love out of stock in my size! Another thing I do is check out things that might currently be out of my price range in the hope that if I save them in the wish list (if you have an ASOS account this is a great feature!) that they will be on sale the next time you look! ASOS also do points for what you spend and great deals on postage and an amazing Marketplace section! These first two items are sheer layers I’ve put over my BlackMilk, I found them from typing in the search bar ‘sheer black’ and was surprised to find so much choice came up from the shop/brand BooHoo. The first is a longline dipped back hem partly sheer black top I’m wearing over my mermaid BlackMilk catsuit:

And this second find is a sheer black long sleeve shirt that I’ve worn over so much stuff, it’s so versatile I definitely recommend you get one! I’ve found one similar here. I’ve worn it in the first photo open with a little string strap vest underneath and a pair of BlackMilk leggings and in the second photo I’ve worn it tied up over a BlackMilk dress. 

I love taking these outfit photos, I usually try to take them towards the end of the day when the sun is going down, during the beginning of golden hour so that I get that gorgeous sunset bokeh glow in the background of my selfies! So much more flattering on my face in my opinion and just gives you all something else to look at! I used to do all my outfit photos in my studio with a white background but I’m loving being outside so much more and using my surroundings instead. I’m so lucky to live where I do, moving from the city has been so good for my health! 

Next up is this cute sheer black tee I found on..ASOS

 I have tied this one up to the side and layered 

over things to create a bit more of an outfit. They don’t seem to have one that’s completely plain now but I’ll have a good search and hopefully pop a link for you here! 

 As you can see, I tend to wear my Dr Martens a lot! These are my new(ish) vegan Docs, they actually were easier to break in than my others have been and they have endured lots of exploring so far for the last few months and seem to be just as strong if not stronger than leather! Dr Martens have since released many other vegan styles and colours which is amazing, I’m loving how much more vegan and cruelty free things are becoming the norm now! How it should be 💚

The next few photos are some of my favourite BlackMilk pieces that I feel like I can just wear by themselves and feel great. These are (in order shown )  the ‘velvet mulled wine capped sleeve evil cheerleader dress’, the ‘houndstooth skater skirt’ with the ‘matte high neck crop’ and my ‘off the shoulder green galaxy crop’ with the ‘wet look high waisted leggings’ which I think out of all those are the only things still in stock so you can get them here

BlackMilk don’t have this skirt (houndstooth skater skirt - above) 

in stock anymore but if you search through their site they do have other prints in stock and their latest skirts usually always have two hidden pockets! Amazing! I’m wearing this with the ‘ high neck matte crop’ that they don’t seem to have it stock anymore but they do have something similar which is the ‘matte wifey top’ which you can check out here

Below is as I mentioned the ‘green galaxy off the shoulder crop’ with the high waisted ‘wet look’ legs! I love this outfit , and like I said above,the legs are still in stock! 

I’ve also been loving wearing my hair up more recently since my alopeica has given me a break for a bit, which is amazing! (But that’s a whole other blog post! 😉)

And finally here is a little string crop I found on eBay before we went on honeymoon that I have worn a few times with my high waisted wet looks 

I’m going to add more outfits to this soon, I’ll let you know when it’s updated by putting edited in the title and posting in my Instagram story no doubt 

💚

I hope I’ve helped a bit with everyone asking where I get all my sheer layering stuff from and how I find it! Also another good search keyword to use for sheer is mesh. 

Hen do...part 1 of 3: Spa (will update this title when I’ve added parts 2&3!)

Wow...time flies when you’re having fun...just over three months (May 15th) since my Mum took me on an overnight spa trip at Armathwaite Hall Hotel & Spa in the Lake District right on the beautiful Lake Bassenthwaite near Keswick. I absolutely loved spending some chilled out girly time with my Mum for the first time in well...ever! When we got there, finally - there was a diversion we had to take around the lake but they were happy to move our spa appointments to a little later so we didn’t have to rush about we went up to our room which was nice, pretty and most importantly- clean, we both bumped our heads on the little balcony door (which said mind your head above it ), I got excited about there being a full television in the shower, but we were so hungry we soon left and went down to the bar restaurant for some food! I had a lovely but very spicy vegetable fajita and my mum had a free range egg mayonnaise sandwich that was huge and I ended up eating half because I couldn’t handle all my hot salsa! After a quick drink we went back up to the room, we changed into our robes and complementary slippers the hotel had put in our room and headed down to the spa! The area the spa is in in the hotel isn’t the best but once you got into the spa area this is totally forgotten!  It completely opened my eyes to going to spas in general! I was worried I’d be self conscious, I was anxious about being anxious, but the spa was so lovely and chilled out I had a great time, special mother and daughter bonding time! My mum went off for a facial whilst I had my toes done (my first ever gel paint, I went for a shimmery dark purple!) by a really lovely girl who was so friendly I felt like we were just mates in a really pretty moodlit private room! After our treatments my mum and I went off for a dip in the pool where she challenged me to a few swimming races, which I won at first but then she beat me in stamina 😂 We also spent some time in the outside mini infinity pool before heading back up to the room to shower and get ready for dinner and drinks! We had some delicious cocktails in their cocktail bar and then unfortunately the dinner let it down a bit! There wasn’t much choice for vegetarians, vegans or my Mum who is a pescatarian. But we made up for it again afterwards with more drinks and giggles!! Breakfast was lovely in the morning and we experienced having our eyelashes tinted before we left! We also managed to fit in a walk down to the lake which was great, we wanted to get our steps in! (Fit bit users!) Thank you Mum for an amazing time! We definitely need to do it again, just need an excuse! I’ll post some pics and boomerangs below of some of the things I’ve mentioned above to break up this part to parts 2 & 3 because as soon as I got back from the spa, I said a quick hi to Roxy who was being looked after by my Dad and set off down south to go sleep in Peterborough for the night before collecting my two bridesmaids at 5am for a flight to Amsterdam!

Wedding anxiety

OK, it's only 9 days away now. My wedding day is coming up far too quickly. When did it turn from being weeks away to just over a week away!? The nerves are totally kicking in now, the not sleeping properly, and then having wierd dreams once I am asleep, the staying up late checking I've not forgotten anything...
We finished honeymoon shopping a few days ago, my mum and I finished the last of our to do list jobs last week which was pinning the RSPB pin badges onto the name place cards and writing inside them what each guest has chosen to eat. I've had my final final dress fitting just yesterday in Bowness on Windermere at Julia Tasker Bridal (photo attached of The amazing Julia and I from my last fitting in her lovely shop added at the end of this post!)
Jason's collecting his and the guys hire suits at the weekend, I've got my final (part 3 of 3) hen do out in my home town of Peterborough.... It's all getting so very real now and I also failed to mention I keep checking the weather and consequently upsetting myself as I’m so worried it’ll rain when we’re meant to be having our outside ceremony. I (think) want nothing more than to be able to have our ceremony outside on their gazebo overlooking the lake and mountains but it's all depending on whether the rain holds off for me! So much sunshine for weeks and weeks leading up to it but apparently it’s all gonna change and go all grotty. But I guess I’ve got to be realistic, and also at the same time just hope that the forecast changes or the weather man is wrong! Or if it does rain, I’m still marrying my best friend in amazing settings and I’m sure my photographer Georgi Mabee will get the most incredible shots come rain or shine. I just wish I hadn’t had my heart set on that gazebo and this part wouldn’t be so nerve wrenching!
I've ordered some dairy free blondies and brownies to be delivered to my room for the morning of my wedding, I'm terrible at eating in the morning so I'm making sure I've got something to eat that won't make me feel poorly! Thank you to Babycakes bakery! I'll probably order up hash brown beans and toast too!
I also keep thinking wow this is it. (especially when I'm all tucked up in bed at night battling my insomnia) Your only time getting married have you included everything you wanted to? Is that really how you want your hair? Is there any little touches you've left out? Do you want to worry about the weather some more?

P.s I will be doing a blog post about my hen dos, (spa with my mum and Amsterdam with the girls was amazing!) the wedding and the honeymoon in July when I’m back. Then it’ll be onto moving!

Doesn’t Julia make me look tall!  She’s so cute and petite and a super lovely talented lady too! I’m gonna miss my dress fittings! 

Wedding planning, work & tattoos

I'm am so surprised at how many of you have been reading my blogs!
Thank you!
I'm hoping to do another fashion related post soon - and seeing as my Autumn outfits blog was viewed most I'll definitely be doing a Spring version for you all... i have been distracted by wedding planning
.. I can't believe how soon it is that I'll be a bride! (Under 80 days away now!)
So far my mum & I have had so much fun looking & choosing we are in that stage of 'oh wow I think I could be a wedding planner', I keep getting told that it won't last and I'll be stressing soon...but I honestly don't think I will be! I've had another florist appointment recently and loved getting all the final details sorted and in my head, because I love the outdoors and flowers so much I've made sure it's a flower themed wedding! Focusing mainly on sweet peas & roses because my Grandad was very fond of growing both of these and the colour scheme being purple as it was my Nannys favourite colour 💜 (Did you see how quickly I got distracted there?😂)
 It's all coming together in a way I couldn't ever have imagined, and so much easier than I thought it would be and that's all down to my amazing Mum helping all the way, and of course my Dad for putting up with us both! I cannot wait to show Jason the things I've kept secret from him to surprise him with on the day, he's been involved in a lot of choices, but I knew I had to keep some things untold to reveal!
Last night my bridesmaids Sasha, Katie,  & flower girl Bonnie tried on their dresses and shoes for the first time and everyone's fit perfectly, I had to hold back tears! (I'm very emotional I've realsied and cry a lot at happy things 🙄😂)  I'll look forward to blogging all my wedding details in photo form for you guys to check out after the big day!
Once Bonnie had gone up to bed we all got together in front of sashas laptop and got our hen do to AMSTERDAM booked! 🙌🏻 I can't wait to go back there, especially with my girls!
So as you can tell I've been super busy with weddingy things as well as still running my photography business, and I got another three tattoos on my leg already this year - first one in Edinburgh, in February, I stayed with the awesome Joanne Baker (https://www.instagram.com/milky_tattoodles) for two nights, on the second day she tattooed a robin sat with some sweet peas at Semper the studio she works at and then took me for veggie/vegan lunch & cocktails 😋 Later in the month I headed off to Brighton Tattoo convention and got a Polaroid camera & the solar system tattooed on me by the amazing Jules boho from Austria (https://www.instagram.com/julesboho.tattoo) and then finally got my gorgeous peacock butterfly from the beautiful Danielle Merricks at Inkden tattoo studio in Blackpool! (https://www.instagram.com/paintingisntdead)  So I've been all over the place again filling up my leg with gorgeous watercolour styles by three amazing ladies! You'll have to search Instagram for the photos 😉
I definitely love being busy, it keeps me going, it'd be far worse if I had nothing to do, this way round you feel fulfilled and then enjoy the breaks even more.

Photo of my wedding scrap book 📚 🙌🏻😍

The Holiday Season...

Every year I'm well aware of Christmas coming, I even advertise my Christmas mini photo shoots as early as September, yet I still am 'up to my eyeballs' in photos still to edit, presents to wrap, guilty feelings of not sending out enough cards to everyone I know and making last minute to do lists on December 20th!

^^ that's what I wrote on December 20th 2017... then the rest was a complete blur and now it's 00:38 January 4th 😑 Back to booking in more clients and more importantly wedding planning, though I kept having a play today and yesterday with the scrabble app I've recently got back into!  - I've had anxiety flood back into my body so I think it's been a bit of a distraction... I forgot how bad anxiety makes you feel, literally sick all the time, just not feeling right, aching all over, getting frustrated and upset when you don't want to be...
I had an amazing Christmas maybe it's just the January blues hitting me hard. I'm gonna keep being positive and hope it is anyway 💜