Day out in Durham

Boyfriend and I ventured out to Durham last week with my Mum on a visit from down South. We could only grab a couple of hours with her squashing in time to see friends and the rest of the family, but it was still an awesome afternoon! The Boyfriend and I try and get days out together when we can as it's rare we both have a proper day off together and/or go mad together on the evening with both of our shifts and my Job-outside-of-the-normal-one, so it's always a big deal and we always make the effort if we can.

I love Durham to bits as it was one of my favourite haunts as a teenager - alongside Middlesborough & Newcastle. The Family and I used to hit In Shanghai on the rare occassions we had a day out together, and I even had a Modelling Shoot at the Cathedral at the beginning of the year. I usually make a day of Durham, rummaging hamster-style in the many Charity Shops and popping in to The Angel for a few post-bargain pints.

We popped into Fizzylicious (Not too hard to sniff out!) where Mum bought a Heart-shaped red Dream catcher. Matt treated me to a Chocolate Orange candle (Not a patch on Lush's Whipstick lipgloss mind, but still scrummy!) and a Pentagram Incense burner. I also got the Raspberry Rave candle, which is far too pretty to light, and I'm keeping it in theme with the Cupcake wall in the Living Room ^.^ I can get excited about Fizzylicious in a way without cheating on Lush because all of the Bath Bombs look like Cupcakes ;) Howay Lush, I'm not getting it at home!

I got a beautiful Cat Eye necklace from Scarlet Ribbons - a small shop jam-packed with all sorts of unusual clothes & accessories and I've happily welcomed it since Concept Skate Shop closed down a few years ago (Back when Punkyfish was *good*!).

We went to Head of Steam (One of Matt's favourite Pubs!) for dinner:

HOS is Stabby-Approved!

I had a BBQ Bacon Burger - the sort you wear up to your elbows and eat with a pitchfork and snow shovel. It was bloody gorgeous and came on a Slate plate with homemade chips and a little pot of red cabbage coleslaw. It was also lovely to discover I knew one of the Bar Staff from one of my circles of friends whom I haven't seen for a very long time ^.^ 

Will definitely be treating Boyfriend/Stabby there again at some point! The Staff were really lovely and went above and beyond to make you feel welcome. They were also quite reassuring to an IPA amateur and recommended various beers based on what I already liked, and pulled 'Sippy glasses' before I bought anything. I hope they get lots of tips because they're great at what they do ^.^

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BAD INFLUENCES, BEER, BAKING, BOXES OF STARS & BURGERS!

Stabby is a proper bad influence:
"You look tired Kimbles, let me run you a bubble bath and crack a bottle of wine open!"
"Cheers Stabby"
"Nee bosh! Come on, I'll do your back..."

Boyfriend has slowly but surely converted me over to the dark side of Indian Pale Ale's & Craft Beers. I've been saving bottles from different varieties and wanted to make a bit of a display for them without being sticky‐bottled scruffy cluttered College chic, so I cleared a shelf on my bookcase in the Living Room, added pearly fairy lights, a decorative perfume bottle, my pine cone collection and my new Halloween candles.
On another note, he's been an absolute Star when I've had to sneak into the Craft Room to do a bit of last minute printing - contentedly playing my Guitar and coming up with new songs whilst I'm stressing about Crutch measurements Haha! He's The Grind Gentleman on Soundcloud if you'd like a mooch!

I bought this daft Solar System kit from Wilkinson's for £3 last week to put in the Craft Room. Now, I want to paint the walls and ceiling black and daub galaxies in purple, pink and silver everywhere <3 Might be the next decorating project when I get a bit of time and spare cash :)

I made these rainbow walnut muffins with rum & vanilla frosting, mini lovehearts sweets and grated chocolate. The rainbow inside didn't *quite* turn out like the tutorial showed, but they are still super-yummy <3

Matt showed me how to make Burgers last week and I was quite determined to give them a go and put my own spin on them and made Spicy smoky bacon, cheese and peanut butter burgers. It was super-easy - just four slices of bacon cut into little strips, two handfuls of grated cheese, three shakes of allspice and two heaped tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter handsquished into the mix before shaping and grilling :) Quite like this savory stuff!

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