An Update....

In list form, this is my life:

1. Underwater Swimming- every day.
2. N is in England, I'm alone here in Portugal.
3. Everyone now knows our "news" (You're next I promise!)
4. Flights are booked to Indonesia.
5. Itinerary needs to be booked for Indonesia- no idea where to begin.
6. We're leaving Portugal is less than a month.
7. My surfing lessons start next week!!
8. I'm desperate to go shopping.
9. I'm also DESPERATE to cut my full fringe back in.
10. I am pinning like a mad woman on Pinterest (follow me pinterest.com/milyrenee)

I'm tired and need a hug.

Hope you're having an awesome weekend?

x

The picture above is from the lovely indoor pool at The Marriot Hotel, Praia Del Rey. Usually empty and well worth the membership fee.

This week in photos

I think all the Royal wedding malarky must have gotten to me this week because as of Saturday I was as sick as a dog with some kind of stomach bug. I'm trying to ignore the fact that I ate some dodgy leftover pizza and blame it entirely on jet lag from the beastly travelling week before.

Fully on the mend now though and back to eating full meals without struggling. One lovely discovery of our little Portuguese adventure is that I can actually cook decent meals and I'm now allowed to use the big boy knives after years of being banned from the kitchen I'm loving cooking!

N is an awesome cook and has been super sweet teaching me, being very patient and supportive if things aren't perfect, what a doll.

Portugal is still beautiful, life is too.

Good Friends

Send you things you miss in the post...

The other day I put a post on Facebook saying how much a missed my magazine fix (junkie) next thing you know my darling friend Leah had sent me a stash in the post, angel!

x

Before the Storm

The weather here in our little part of Portugal has been very kind to us these past few days, N has been out surfing with our friend visiting and I've been able to laze on the beach with my book and sunbathe (I am now beige which looks promising for the rest of the summer).

The weather forecast for the rest of the week look TERRIBLE so whilst I can get some more lovely sunny pictures in here's yesterday in pictures...

The view from our kitchen.

Beautiful Baleal- taken from the island, right hand side you can see the Surf Castle :D

Sunset at the cafe.

One of the many stray dogs (sob) watching our friend take a photo of the sunset.

A friend who brings chocolate is a friend for life.

x

Project Portugal Continued...

Greetings from Portugal!

No, no I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, just been busy finding a little routine of happiness here in quaint old Portugal, well whatever can be classed as a routine when you don't have anything to do all day expect pray that there's some sun ;)

N and I are absolutely settled and loving our new life in Portugal, days are filled with good food, adventures in our pirate mobile and evenings watching True Blood which is totally addictive and keeps us up until sometimes 3-4am. It's so nice for the moment not stressing about getting up for work at 6am, rushing to catch the commuter train or sitting on the stuffy tube getting elbowed in the face by bankers.

Right now we have our first guest at our little home, a friend from work has come out to stay and surf for a few days, rumour has it too that he loves a cocktail or two (actually not a rumour I'm in bed with a sore head after mojitos last night)

More lovely photos from the past few weeks...

Rock Face

Beautiful houses in our village

Hiding from the wind in a sand dune.

x


I have a secret and I'm RUBBISH at keeping them. Normally I would spill my guts out before this post is over but this is a biggie and sadly it has to stay that way for a little while longer **rahhhh I wanna tell :(** hopefully I'll be able to spill soon as it's HUGE!

MY Polaroid Wall

Ever since N bought me a Fuji Instax 210 for Christmas it's pretty much been everywhere with me. Social events, work, holidays, it's been an instant hit with everyone too, complete strangers would stop and ask me where I got it, there's something so magical about instant film I've always loved it and feel so lucky that N knows me well enough to buy me one.

So after creating a massive pile of prints and lusting after every polaroid wall on the net I created my own after a few days of arriving in Portugal. We found a large enough canvas for the heart shape and I set about creating...

What do you think?

x

Project Portugal

Good Morning!

I'm eating my breakfast, sun on my back and feeling ever so slightly groggy but in a "I'm so happy I don't have to work" way, why? because I'm in Portugal.
Not just on a 2 week holiday I'm living the Portuguese lifestyle for another 5 months- WIN.

I wanted to have an adventure this year, make new friends, meet interesting people so I gave up everything to come here with my boyfriend and start a new chapter together on the basis that life is simple.

So far in pictures things have gone like this...

Exciting times, lots of pictures and time to blog and pick up a few new followers I hope.

Big Love x

Today I would most like to be...

an Olsen, but perhaps I'm too old *sigh*

Important things to remember.

On My Mind...

Things that are on my mind presently, in random order...

* Moving to Portugal in 2 weeks

* How to pack for a seemingly never ending trip to a foreign country- any tips on packing...any?

* These shoes for a certain secret occasion

* I need these glasses (I'm convinced I need them) the round ones will be perfect.

Big Love,

E x

Resolutions

Now we all know that making these little internal pacts with ourselves are a load of hooey and by the end of January we'll have broken most of them. Case in point last year I vowed on my NYE Happy Meal to give up Mc Donalds, come February 1st I was on my 4th Double Cheeseburger....Ces't la vie.

So this year I've chosen a few that are easier to keep (I think)

Take a photography course- I love photography, it's about time I honed my skills with a course or two especially as I now have a beautiful collection of cameras.

Make new friends- not as easy as it seems, this one will be tough as I don't make friends easily...

Learn to swim underwater- I'm petrified at the thought of this, so far I can't find any classes and I'm considering letting a friend dunk me under just to get it over with. Maybe it's the thought of being without make up that scares me more?!

Have an adventure- a few of these are in the pipeline, I WISH I could write more about this my vault is closed for now.

Generally I just want to continue on with this amazing feeling of love and happiness that I have at the moment, life is good.

So....I went to Paris part 1

To fully describe the amazing trip to Paris I have to split this up into 3 parts...

35mm photography first..on my beautiful new (old) camera Olympus XA2

With no agenda other than being Parisian cool, Nilesh and I stayed in St Germain, explored Paris by taxi and walked around this beautiful city amazed by how friendly all the Parisians were to us.

These are my favourite shots from the day film and cross processed film Nilesh gave me, I'm so pleased with how they turned out, also I've forgotten how fun it is when you get film developed : )

(Top picture is the view from our hotel balcony-St Germain)

Exciting Times

I'm stupidly excited about work tomorrow....This man is coming in to take portrait profile shots.

I'm going straight to bed to get as much beauty sleep as I can, god I hope the man has time to airbrush...

x

Lists for the unemployed.

Lists, I love them and in 9 days time I shall be officially unemployed (by choice)and my list of things to do is ever increasing. I actually think I'm just petrified of being bored so in preparation I've started my "list for the unemployed" and it goes a little something like this....

Make a quilt

Start gardening

Re-do our window boxes (more pansies)

Finish the dining room with charity shop/vintage pieces

Paint our bedroom

Keep on running

Volunteering

Teach Spencer to "high five"

Research and prepare for teaching interview.

After several years of shift work I think this list should really have catch up on sleeeeeep as the first point, but making a quilt sounds like fun : )

I wonder how long it will take me to stop waking up in a panic every 3am thinking I'm late?

Of course there are more important things to worry about like bill paying and not being able to go within a 5 mile radius of Topshop but I LOVE a challenge.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

E x

Speaking of bangs, I've got some (fringe to everyone else!) will post pics tonight.