December BarkBox

I've been neglecting my BarkBox reviews lately - apologies! If you have yet to sign up to BarkBox - use this link https://barkbox.com/r/6YgR2CIKcw/ and you will get $5 off your first box.

This month's box arrived just before Christmas, so I decided to hold on to it and let the pups open it Christmas Day with all their other presents - they were very spoiled pups (nothing new there!).

I think this month's box was probably mine and their favorite one (the last few have been a little disappointing). So I hope this is a sign of things to come.

  







As you can see they were super excited to tear pen the box and get everything out, and make a mess with the packaging!

The treats were were from Bocce's Bakery and contained all natural chicken, pumpkin, cranberries and cinnamon, and both dogs loved them lots!

I must confess I was super super excited when I saw this, I remember watching Shark Tank earlier in the year and  seeing this product featured (sadly none of the sharks were 'in'). I planned to buy some back then but completely forgot about it. The cake mix is from Puppy Cake and is a wheat free mix, complete with frosting.

I always buy oatmeal shampoo for my two as it helps with their skin and calms the itching from their allergies. This came from Fresh Dog and they also do a dry shampoo powder too.

The toy that was included this month is one of the cutest toys I have seen in a while, it is organic and contains a squeaky and my dogs loved it. It came from Simply Fido.








The cupcakes were a huge success and easy to make and the dogs loved them, the 8 cakes lasted less than 48 hours. I will definitely be ordering these again.
 

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from California.

We have had lots of rain recently, but today the sun came out for us, so we headed down to Pier 39 with the dogs.

We spent a lovely few hours walking around Fisherman's Wharf and indulged in some very yummy warm mini donuts, and got some chocolate apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and some special non-chocolate biscuit bones for the pups.  We normally head to Pier 39 Christmas Day, but it's due to rain tomorrow, so we went today, there were definitely a lot more people around today than there are on a Christmas Day morning. Off to the movies tonight, then tomorrow we will chill out in our PJ's all day, and I am going to attempt to make Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner. Looking forward to skyping with family on Christmas Day too, and seeing all the presents our nieces got from Santa.

Have a fun and safe Christmas
Sarah xxx

Cookie Swap

Yesterday I attended my first ever cookie swap. This is our fourth Christmas in the US, and I heard about cookie swaps for the first time last year but never got to participate. So was super excited when I got invited to Shannon's cookie swap.

I decided to be very British and made malteser cake, I also took along a box of jaffa cakes and some M&S choc chip shortbread, all of which were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

I got to enjoy lots of really yummy cookies that everyone had made, and even got to bring some home to share with Dave. I definitely look forward to attending or hosting a cookie swap next Christmas.

New Blog is live

I'm back as promised to share the details of my new blog, this will be where I will blog about my weight loss journey. I will still be keeping this blog and plan to update here too with my more everyday topics that are non weight loss related.

My new blog is *drum roll*

www.losingweightandhavingfun.com

It's only been live a short while, and I'm still tweaking it and plan to add more in the next week. If I haven't mentioned in my links over there please let me know and I will add you. Hope to see you both over there and here. 

Christmas in England

It's strange sat here at home surrounded by Christmas cards and tree and decorations as it kind of feels like Christmas is over - and no that isn't me being a Christmas grinch!!

As most of you will know Dave and I have just been back home to England for a visit and we had lots and lots of fun. Whilst there we met up with all our family and celebrated Christmas early. We had Christmas dinner, decorations, tree lighting, visits to Santa and there was even snow (although I never actually saw it fall from the sky!). I thought I had some photos on my phone to share with you guys, but just checked and I don't appear to have any on there - sorry! So now that we've had all our presents and meals, we don't really have anything to celebrate, although there is one wrapped present under our tree, and we will still be skyping with family Christmas day, but it was strange coming back and everyone talking about their Christmas plans when we have already done it all.

Whilst in England I went to London a few times, went with family to see Santa at Harrods, Ill be honest it was a little disappointing, but I think the kids liked it - I personally thought Santa was a little creepy and his elf was very miserable. I also went with my sister to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, was really good, was free to get into but things weren't cheap once you were in there. We spent a few hours in there and enjoyed the ice kingdom and playing a few of the fairground games. We also went to see The Bodyguard the musical, was really really good, although the big shooting scene I think could have been better done. 

Was great to meet up with friends as well as family, and I'm always amazed at how easily we all fall back into conversations as if we had seen each other the other day rather than many months ago. Guess that is a sign of a good friendship. I think that having facebook helps a lot too as it doesn't feel like you have been away for that long or you are that far away.

Food, food, food. Yes I ate loads even though I said I wouldn't! I made it to Gregg's - twice in fact, the sausage rolls are still awesome. I skipped the curry, egg custard tarts and bacon sarnies this time though. 

Got home Monday after a fantastic time away, was home only a few hours and suddenly got sick, the bathroom was my best friend for the next 12 hours!! I really thought like I was dying.  Not sure if it was food poisoning or a virus I had picked up, it's now day 4 and I am feeling so much better. Today I managed to venture out of the house and eat something other than toast. Plan to resume normal routines from tomorrow. Sadly I had to miss hubby's work holiday party tonight, still quite tired but think that is due to not eating much the last four days. On the plus side I was 6lbs lighter the second day of my sickness than I was before I went to England.

Today I purchased two domain names - this one www.uktocalifornia.com and (name to be revealed shortly). I plan to move all of my weight loss posts/info over to the second blog - so you will see some changes here, as soon as I am finished setting up the second blog I will post with a link to it.

Sarah x