My 30th Birthday

I was lucky enough to spend my milestone birthday in tropical paradise with my new husband on our honeymoon.

Jamie got up early and went and got me coffee and pastries from the restaurant, and i opened my cards whilst sitting on our balcony.  When we got back at the end of the day, housekeeping had decorated our room, it was such a lovely surprise!

Today i experienced what i have wanted to do ever since i was a little girl, i got to swim with dolphins.  It was magical.  The whole experience was out of this world, they are stunning and intelligent creatures, they make you feel so calm when you are in the water with them, like nothing else in the whole world matters.  I didnt want the day to end.

We purchased some amazing photos to record our day with them, i would recommend this experience to everyone, simply amazing.

 

In the evening we went to the world famous Coco Bongo - what a night!  We had VIP Gold tickets, where we were seated and had waiter service all night so we didnt have to queue at the bar, it was the best night out i think ive ever had!  The show was incredible, they had acrobats, midget The Mask and Beetlejuice, we spent the evening listening to MJ, Beyonce, The Rolling Stones, Queen, The Beatles and much much more, the acts taking on the artists were just phenominal, it could have been the famous artists in the room!  The night went so quickly, the show started at 11pm and finished at 3am, with a disco from 3am til 5am.  We left after the show and went and got a Mexican kebab!

 

The Birthday Girl!

 

I love my husband so much!! x

The amazing acrobats on the ribbon

Outside the famous Coco Bongo at 3am!

 

 

What a 30th Birthday to remember!  All thanks to my lovely husband x

 

Jx

Our Mexican Honeymoon

What a holiday!  Well honeymoon!  The best first 2 weeks of married life ever!  We had such a fantastic time!  The weather was so hot the whole time we were there - 37 degrees every single day.  It rained twice, but only for a few minutes at a time.

Our hotel was amazing, lovely spacious clean rooms, super food, delish cocktails, swim up bar, although we spent most days at the beach as the view was just to die for.

The hotel had loads of wild animals, monkeys (i didnt see any of these however) cats, iguanas and these things called Coatis - they were so cute, but very timid, and the biggest scroungers ive ever come across!  The hounded you for food, but the baby ones were just the sweetest things!  We fed them on the sly all the time, even though the hotel didnt like you doing it! Oops!

 

I celebrated my 30th birthday while we were in Mexico too, but i will blog separately on this, too much to write about in one blog! :)

We visited one of the 7 wonders of the world, Chichen Itza.  I have to say that it didnt blow me away, but i'm glad we can say that weve been, Jamie however loved it!  It took 3 hours by coach to get there, and it was so hot, there was no breeze, i thouht i was going to die.  On the way back we did stop off at a natural Cenote, it was incredible, so cold so refreshing just what you needed after an afternoon of sight seeing!

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza

At the Cenote

 

 

We literally spent 2 weeks chilling, sleeping, reading and spending some quailty time together as for 4 days at a time at home we dont see each other as Jamie works nights, so it was amazing to spend some real time together, everything was just perfect, i loved every second of Mexico, and we would love to go back in the future.

 

Jx

 

Our Beautiful Wedding Day...x

On Saturday 01st September 2012 at 12 noon, I married, my gorgeous man, my best friend, my prince charming and the love of my life.

Jamie and I had such an amazing day, everything was absolutely perfect, we could not have wished for anything more, the whole day just blew me away and was everything i could have wanted and more.  Everything was just how i imagined it would be.  The colours were beautiful together, the flowers were stunning, the weather was spot on, all my sisters hard work with our wedding stationary was everywhere and all those tiny details that i had spent ages putting together made our special day perfect.  Everyone was happy and had a good time (i hope!). 

The day just went to too quickly, we were having so much fun!  I didnt want to take my dress off!  I adore my dress, and i've only just moved it out of our bedroom.  When i got to Jamie when he was waiting for me at the "alter" he said to me "You look amazing" and it made me melt.  Later on he said i know that i moaned about the price of your dress, but it was worth it.

I got some amazing presents from my husband on the morning of our wedding.  A trip to Paris, a pandora bracelet with an ingraved heart charm, a journal and a photo album so i can document our first year as Mr & Mrs.

I literally didnt want the day to end, Mr Reynolds, you have made me the happiest girl in the world.  You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your Prince, and i have found mine, and its totally worth it once you do.

I love you.

Jx

The back of my beautiful dress

The new My & Mrs Reynolds x

Our gorgeous wedding party x How wonderful did the colours look together?

Me and my stunning bridesmaids.  L-R: Chloe, Amy, Me, Laura, Alexandra

Me and the husband

My beautiful sister and me

Jamie made me laugh when i put on his ring. We've been watching Lord of the Rings, and as i was putting the ring on his finger, he whispered to me "My Precious" and i just got the giggles!

Love this one x

Me, Jamie and my parents x

Had to hitch up my skirt when going up and down stairs!

 

Love this one of us cutting our amazing wedding cake

My Family Hen Do

Because i'm such a lucky girl, i got to have not one but two Hen Do's!  The second one was with my lovely family.

We all met round my Mum's house for some bubbly before we headed off into Wallingford town for a meal.  We went to Pizza Express, all wearing, wait for it.... Bunny Ears!  However, i had additional get up of a veil and a sash and a helium balloon.

My sister gave me the most wonderful book which she had crafted herself detailing my life from when i was a baby up untilnow, she is so clever - take a look at her blog: http://carolescraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk/ she really is so talented.  She made all our mine and Jamie's wedding station, its fabulous, she could go into business and make a fortune, but she will not :(

We had such a giggle, everyone had a lovely time.  The poor waiter, "are you touching my ears?!" !!

We also discovered that in most of the pictures there were glow in the dark willy straws in most of them eh em!

Although i'm a bit delayed on my blog as i've so busy, this event took place a week before my wedding, it all went so quickly...

Jx

Bride to Be! x

 

The Girls x

 

Me and My niece Alexandra x

 

Me opening my book x

I bloody loved it! x

Me and my Sis x

The willy straws, me my sister in law Ellie and my Mum x

My Hen Do in TOWIE Land

Bit of a delayed blog on this, but I feel compelled to write about my Hen Do!  It was literally the best night EVER!

My best friend Laura May Wheable organized a sensational job!  My sister-in-law Ellie and my friend Kim all travelled down to Brentwood in Essex for the celebrations. We arrived at our hotel and when I went up to my room it had already been decorated and I had loads of pressies on my bed waiting for me!  It was so exciting, I felt so special that all this effort had been made just for me.

After a quick removal of my wonderful sleeprollers http://www.velcrosleeprollers.com/ I had big beautiful bouncy hair ready to start celebrating!

We made our way to the Slug & Lettuce and all my lovely friends were there waiting for me!  I felt so giddy with excitement!  There was pink Lanson waiting for me (my favourite) and I have to say I think I was a bit tiddly after about half an hour as they were making me drink through a straw!  We played some brilliant games, I got even more pressies and had a yummy lunch.

After consuming even more bubbly we made our way back to the hotel and got ready for our night out in Sugarhut!!  How I managed to take my makeup off, have a shower and put my makeup back on I will never know!  We went to one pub first then made out way on to the Hut.  It is fantastic!  The only bad thing I would say about it is that it is really really busy and I think that they let too many people in, would be better with a few less.  Also the drinks are really expensive, £40 for 8 shots and £55 for the cheapest bottle of bubbly. And plastic glasses, not ideal!  And not enough loos, we queued for about 15 mins for the loo.  But, the music is brilliant, the atmosphere is great and we did not stop dancing.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Mick or Kirk so a little disappointed but I did manage to get a photo with Little Chris from TOWIE, what an absolute gent!

Evening complete with pizza on the way home and I woke up with a sub woofer hanger over that lasted 2 days.  All in all a FANTASIC night and what a brilliant send off from my girls, amazing, thank you and I Love you all.

Jx

Me with my rollers!

Me & my Chiefy B Laura and the youngest Hen in our party, Ava x

I'm getting married!

Winners of a game! L-R Tara, Jenn, Ellie

Me & Laura x

Kim, Me, Morgs

Kim, Tara, Me

All about the Donkeys

In Brightwell-cum-Sotwell near to where my parents live there is a Donkey Sanctuary with the most amount of donkey's I have ever seen!  The sanctuary is lovely, vast open fields, lovely stables, they even have some other farm animals that they have acquired over the years including goats, sheep, ducks, geese, chickens and a rather mischievous Shetland Pony!

Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary is run mostly by volunteers and they all work so hard to keep the donkeys happy.  It is a registered charity which cares for and protects abused and ill-treated donkeys and other animals. I read in one of their news letters that one of the donkeys was recused before she could be used for meat in salami - I will never eat salami again now for as long as I live.

They are always looking for help and ways to raise money to help keep the donkeys and rescue as many as possible.  They put on table top sales and jumble sales and craft fairs, and you can even adopt a donkey which both me and my Mum did last weekend.  I adopted Brewster and Mum adopted Jack.  I pay my contribution on a mnonthly basis and Mum gave them a lump sum cheque.  All proceeds go to keeping the sanctuary going.

If you are ever in the South Oxfordshire area it is definately worth a look, a great place to take the kddies for an hour and all donations are appreciated.

Jx


http://www.donkeyrescue.co.uk/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary Old Didcot Road, Brightwell-Cum-Sotwell, Wallingford, Oxfordshire. OX10 0SW Telephone: 01491 833938 Fax: 01491 833938 mail@donkeyrescue.org.uk

Revival

I have been completely inspired this weekend to revive some old furniture. My sister threw out a set of stacking coffee tables to go to a charity shop and I rescued them. I thought at some point I may want to paint them and apparently today was the day I decided to do so!

I started off by sanding them down, just enough to break to varnish, then gave them a wipe over with some white spirit, then I began to paint. So far I have only done the undercoat as I am trying to decide what colour I want to paint them, but so far so good! I'm quite pleased with myself, I think I may have found my new vocation in life...

I'd love to own a shop that sells reinvented furniture and little gifts. Mum and Dad make some fabulous cake stands made up of old plates, I think we may be onto a winner! I was on a bit of a roll with the tables that I decided to give my old French dresser a face lift too.
It had always been very 'shabby chic' and needed a bit of tarting up, so I have given this a new undercoat and will paint it the same colour as my coffee tables when I decide what to go for. My dresser also has a beautiful reddish marble top which is buried somewhere in the garage.

I will post a photo of it in its complete state once it is finished. Anyway see below some pics of what I have done so far. Not to bad for an amateur?

Jx