Fashion - AnnaTheApple

July 10, 2014

Things lately

Things are plodding along quite nicely round here. Though I’d hate to look back at my life and think of it as a “plod”. Rather that though than a sprint I suppose!

I guess you could call this an ‘odds and ends’ post of stuff that’s been happening lately:

Ben making carrot cake

This is big, big news people. For so long Ben has been promising to bake for me. But these promises have never materialised to actual calorific-dense baked goods (despite me buying him ingredients and everything). I’m the one who cooks, he’s the one that apparently bakes.

Last week he had the week off as he was starting a new job so he had no excuse. Being a typical man, he left it to mid-afternoon Friday to begin his task. I got regular text updates as to the progress of the cake…

Apart from a minor zest grating related injury (and a lovely photo of it sent my way – in case I wasn’t fully aware of the sheer hard work he was putting in), it all seemed to be going swimmingly.

That is until I got a bit of an urgent phone call: “Anna, I forgot to add the carrot in before I put it in the oven. What do I do??”.

He even sent me a selfie to adequately express how he felt.

Luckily he was able to get the cakes (there were two) out of the oven asap and stir in the hastily grated carrot (no further grating related injuries here thank goodness). Whew. Rectified. But amusing nonetheless 😉

Ta da! How good do they look? As the loaf tin was a little small for the batter, he made a mini round cake as well…with a better cake to icing ratio if you ask me 😉 It tasted divine and it was all I could do to not consume the entire two cakes in one sitting. And yes, there was carrot in it 😉

New mattress

Ben’s above selfie could also adequately describe the feelings we felt when our lovely new mattress was delivered the other day.

“Pants” would be one word to describe this situation. There are others I could use. Thankfully we can swap it (and pay the extra) for the correct mattress size. Not sure how we got this so wrong really…I don’t know how we both survive in this big wide world pretending to be adults.

Trips to London

Getting up at stupid o’clock to get the train to London for a meeting is no fun. Especially when it means eating my porridge in the car while my dad drives us to the station.

Lots of things in my life change and new habits form, but eating porridge for breakfast will never change.

And I’m sorry all you lovely Londoners but I detest going there. It’s stressful, busy, crowded…and dirty. Yes I realise most cities (and places in general) are dirty. But I freak out.

Essential requirement for me!

And just randomly, a mini escalator. For all those lonely people who have no friends to stand with…

Room for one only

Or people who are so so busy they need to use the mini escalator to hurry up them quickly, by-passing the more normal sized busier escalator (I found this out as I was dallying around taking photos of said escalator while a man tried to hurry past…).

Birthday trip to Chichester

On Sunday Ben and me went out to Chichester to go shopping for a belated birthday trip. Rant alert: I got a little bit angry in one of my favourite shops (Oasis) when I realised they didn’t stock my size is anything I liked (bar one dress). It’s not an obscure size either – a normal size eight. The lady in the shop just shrugged and went “yeah I know” and after a long pause “look online”. Gargh!! I like trying stuff on and I’m there willing to buy stuff NOW. I understand that they can’t stock masses of every size but they had about three size 20s in everything. Your loss, Oasis, was FatFace and New Looks’ gain.

We stopped at one of my favourite restaurants for lunch as well: Trents.

We had a sharing platter (hummus, sundried tomato dip, beetroot dip, stuffed peppers) to start, followed by a Caesar salad for me (of course) and a club sandwich and curly fries for Ben, followed by crème Brule for Ben and chocolate brownie for me.

I had run 10 miles in the morning and I was FAMISHED. Sadly my salad didn’t quite cut it. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t one of the best I’ve tried (no croutons and no anchovies). Ben was struggling so I helped him out with eating some of his sandwich filling (bacon and chicken) and his fries. Win.

That pudding. Oh wow. It could have done with vanilla ice cream to balance it rather than hazelnut ice cream but it was pretty damn amazing. Afterwards I was like “pft, that was easy. Three courses done and dusted.” After leaving the restaurant for a shopping continuation the fullness hit me like a ton of bricks (literally in my stomach). I couldn’t bare to even look at people eating or drinking. I couldn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day and required an hour long nap when I got home. Whew. Pretty good day I’d say!

Alfie

Kids (and adults) all over the globe are obsessed with Frozen.

Apparently so is our dog, Alfie. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what he does all day when we’re at work. He just wants to build a snowman…

Do you prefer online shopping or going into the actual shop? I like to try things on because invariably things that I think will look nice look awful. And it’s the whole faff of sending stuff back that really annoys me with online shopping. But it annoys me when a shop is seriously under-stocked in my size for pretty much everything.

Ever ordered a large purchase that turns out to be very wrong?

What’s your worst baking disaster? I could write a book for mine so it was nice that Ben, ‘Mr Baking Pro’ got something wrong 😉

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

Weddings, cake and apple

Hello! We’re in that awkward spot of half way between last weekend and next weekend (and a Bank holiday on Monday, wahay!)

Last weekend was a busy one. We had Parkrun in the morning as usual. We had to dash off pretty quickly afterwards to get home, showered and sorted as we had my friend’s wedding later in the day in Bristol.

I do love a good wedding, don’t you? Though it was a little overcast and drizzly at the start, when it was important the weather held out and there was some beautiful sunshine. Though it was quite chilly!

The ceremony was lovely. It’s so strange seeing one of your close friends walking down the aisle with her dad about to marry someone.

I mean I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m a married woman!

I know this is quite sad, but I’m so happy I was actually able to wear my fascinator! My mum gave it to me ages ago and I finally had an occasion and a dress that went with it. The dress is from Warehouse and I love it! I didn’t do anything with my hair because, well, I’m not that creative and it’s quite stubborn in that it just likes being straight. Ben looked rather dapper as well I must say!

I don’t normally drink but I did enjoy quite a few G&Ts and bucks fizzes, but luckily it was over a long period of time so I wasn’t an embarrassing drunk! I don’t usually drink so it was a nice change. My lack of drinking is not really a conscious thing, just that I don’t like wine or beer. I find cake and chocolate help me relax better anyway 😉

The table favours and theme for the wedding were great. The wedding couple are obsessed with Florida and the theme parks so they named each table a theme park, like Magical Kingdom, Busch Gardens and Universal Studios. We were Seaworld. In our table favours there were American sweets (candy?) like Reese’s Kisses and Baby Ruths (what on Earth are they??) and Tootsie Rolls.

The wedding breakfast (though really lunch – isn’t that a strange term?) was delicious: tomato soup, followed by chicken with vegetables and a creamy mash and then the most amazing slice of apple pie.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

How cool is that? An upside-down cake! It was chocolate cake with a white chocolate hard coating.

I had three slices. To be fair they were tiny slices so really I’m sure it was only one ‘proper’ slice 😉

Later there was a lot of dancing and craziness. I missed the second coming of the cake and was a little disappointed (I know, I know…) but had a spare apple in my room in the hotel to tide me over into the evening.

I am too cool for school I know. Can’t beat a late-night apple 😉

Needless to say I felt so tired on Sunday. The bride had booked the breakfast room in the morning for 8.45am for us all to have breakfast together. The day before that didn’t sound too bad, but in the morning I could have definitely had a bit more sleep! I might have had a little doze in the car on the way home…

We then enjoyed an afternoon of doing nothing. We watch the new Thor film (not bad at all!) and just chilled. Normally I hate just sitting down and doing nothing all day but actually it was lovely. A nice way to recharge the batteries.

Have you been to any weddings recently? What’s your favourite part?

Do you know of any interesting wedding themes that people use? At our wedding we used a ‘sweet’ theme, so each table was called a different sweet and the favours contained pick ‘n’ mix.

How do you recharge your batteries after a night out?

February 5, 2014

Fashionably Fit: Look good to work hard?

I never used to care what I looked like when I worked out. For me it was all about just getting out there and getting it done. I had my bog standard leggings, a couple of tops and a jacket. Who cared what I looked like at 6am on a cold Thursday morning?

But after realising how much I loved running, and general fitness really, I started expanding my wardrobe a bit and looking around at the different shops and online sites.

Suddenly not only did I want good quality gear but I wanted stuff that actually looked good. And why not? I like to wear nice clothes in ‘real life’ so why not running? This might sound vain and vacuous but when I feel like I look the part then I feel more confident. Especially at races. That awkward moment at the start of the race when you look round at other people and judge them by what they’re wearing – ridiculous yes, but it can knock your confidence a little if you don’t feel good yourself.

A while ago Katherine Jenkins got a lot of stick for running a marathon in full make-up (check THIS article out). I can’t understand the venom that went her way. Why have a go if it makes her feel more confident? Surely it doesn’t detract from her performance? We have a girl at our running club who runs in fake eyelashes. She’s happy so what’s the problem?

SportsShoes are running a Fashionably Fit campaign and they invited me to ponder this question of whether looking stylish spurs me on to work harder while exercising or are you fully focused on how you feel rather than what you wear? To me this is like good running music, anything that gets you in the zone can spur me on. And looking stylish and ‘on form’ definitely gets me in the zone.

I was sent some cool Nike workout clothes to review to see whether this was the case.

I received this running top which honestly could be my favourite cold weather jacket.

It zips right up to the neck, or you can unzip it to give yourself a bit of ventilation. It was brilliant during my wet and muddy Parkrun a few weeks ago. And it has a back pocket and thumbholes which I love. Definitely more stylish than my usual boring zip up jackets that flap about a bit.

I also received these amazingly bright capris and workout vest.I love how bright the capris are because most of my running gear tends to be quite dark and all my leggings are black. These will be brilliant for my parents to spot me at races. They’re also very comfy – I foresee these to be worn around the house…The top is ideal for when I’m strength training or doing Pilates. But it does have the ‘DRI-FIT’ fabric which wicks the sweat from your body, so no embarrassing sweat stains.

And this running vest.

I like this top because you don’t have to wear a sports bra under it as it has some extra support.It’s so comfortable and it wicks away the sweat. It also is a very flattering shape. I did feel a little naked though at the gym in this outfit! It’ll probably be a top I use during the summer racing months as well as it’s so lightweight.

And socks. Because socks are so important! I hate socks that slip down and are annoying or give me blisters. These are ideal for running. Probably more on the functional side of things than looking good!

Call me vain, slate Katherine Jenkins, but seriously I’m in the camp that when you feel confident in yourself and how you look, it makes you feel good about what your doing and helps you keep motivated and working out strong.

What do you think?

Do you like to look good when you work out?

Do you put more effort in for things like races, or if you’re going to the gym and people will see you?

Do you wear make-up to workout in?

**These products were sent to me for free in order to review, but all opinions are my own.**

July 3, 2013July 3, 2013

Running is tough

Yep, that’s right people. I am back to running my usual stuff (albeit building the mileage back up slowly).

My hubby sent me this picture and I thought it was rather cool. I am a very clumsy person so this makes sense. I have been known to randomly fall over without any external influences.

On Tuesday morning I’d planned to do around 4-5miles and after getting up at stupid o’clock 5.40am I took Alfie for his walk and just prayed that my leg would deliver. I was worried I had taken too much of a chance on Sunday with my nine mile long run. But as I headed off on the first mile I felt no pain and no issues. Just a slight discomfort, which I’m firmly believing is diminishing (every time I do my stretches the discomfort is less and less every day).

But it was hard. I was concerned it was my niggle holding me back (I’m referring to my injury as a niggle as it really wasn’t that serious, despite all the moaning and complaining I did). Partly it was hard because of the niggle, but mainly I was held back because my morning runs are always tough. I’m tired, I haven’t eaten since the night before and my muscles, in all honesty, aren’t as warmed up as they could be.

However I managed a great five mile progression run:

I’m so chuffed I got the last mile down to 7.20mins/mile as I was worried I wouldn’t be hitting times like that for a while due to my break.

When I wasn’t running, in my head running was easy, running was amazing, I adored every minute. In reality, running is TOUGH. It is pretty much tough the whole damn time. Even when it’s good, it’s still tough. I would be lying if I said I enjoy every run. I would be lying if I said I fling myself out the door with sheer merriment and joyously hop down the road with exultation of the impending miles.

But, I love it.

I always remember what my dad says to me about running:

I don’t truly believe running is like this but I can see his point. 99% of the time, I always feel good after a run. No matter how tough or how bad it went, I’m always smiling afterwards.

Anyway on to food, and in joining the party for WIAW (thanks, Jenn!) I thought I’d share a couple of meals that rocked my world.

First up was Sunday night’s meal. It was one of those evenings when I just couldn’t be bothered to cook anything exciting. Ages ago I bought some turkey sausages to try and they had been living in the darkest corner of the depths of my freezer for too long. I thought it was time to bring them back to life…and then grill the hell out of them (does that even work…?).

Now, I’m not a big fan of sausages in general. I really can’t stand pork sausages. But I love turkey so I thought I’d give them a go (while Ben had regular pork sausages).

I had two of them and cut them in half to grill them (read: paranoid about eating raw sausages), two fried eggs (devastated when one of them broke. Tears almost happened…joking but it was touch and go), and cauliflower/cream cheese mash (and broccoli). Yum! Big thumbs up for this meal.

Then Tuesday night I made this random concoction:

Grated sweet potato with diced onions, cream cheese and a fish pie mix (salmon, mackerel and haddock). Basically a version of my paprika chicken. Oh this was good. The fishiness of the fish (yep you read that correctly) paired perfectly with the creaminess of the potato and cheese.

I love it when random meals work out well!

And I love it when the sunshine means I get to wear shorts to work!

Shorts: Peacocks//Shirt: Next

I’m embarrassed to say these shorts are soo old (we’re talking pre-university). In fact, there’s even a hole in one of the pockets that luckily the shirt covers. Shhh… I’m too cheap and rubbish to buy/fix it.

But can you believe we’re a 1/3 through summer already? Ha. What a joke.

What meals have been rocking your world lately? I haven’t had sweet potato in so long so it was good to get that back in the routine again.

What do you wear to work/school/college/uni/other in the summer? I’m lucky that I work in a relaxed office, but I do like to keep things relatively smart. It helps keep me focused.

When do you find working out the hardest? I love running in the morning but I’m never as fast as I am in the evening or late morning when I’ve had time to properly wake up and warm up.

May 15, 2013

Prematurely dressing for spring

Hello! Thank you for your kind comments about Sunday’s 10k race. I tell you what, Ben and I are experiencing some serious race fever now. We are raring to go with our 5k Parkrun this Saturday (potentially doing another 10k on the Sunday that we can sign up for on the day – but we’re going to see how we’re feeling). And we’ve got the following dates for our diaries:

10 mile New Forest Run – Sunday 14th July
5 mile National Lottery Run – Sunday 21st July
10 mile Great South Run – Sunday 27th October
Gosport half marathon – Sunday 17th November

Whew! And I am SO excited. I am hugely excited that Ben is back into running and keen to do these races as well. It was so lovely chatting to him about Sunday’s race afterwards and comparing notes.

Though I have a slight confession…I am a terrible wife. The National Lottery Run is running around the Olympic stadium and ends on the track inside (very cool in my opinion). So it’s quite an experience and had limited entry numbers and only a small window of opportunity to grab tickets. As soon as I found out about it I knew I wanted to do it. I checked with Ben and he was keen too. Brilliant. Unfortunately in my haste to grab tickets I only bought one ticket. It was such a lengthy process to buy one that I just forgot to do the whole thing again to get another ticket.

And I didn’t realise until the next day. When all the tickets were gone.

Ben is obviously miles better in the marriage department and being a better person than me as he has said that I can do the run and he will merely spectate. I do love him. But obviously feel a) extremely bad and b) extremely stupid.

Anyway, on to the food side of things. It’s What I Ate Wednesday (thanks Jenn).

This is from yesterday (Tuesday):

Breakfast has been the same old same. After the quinoa breakfast fail the other day I quickly went back to what I knew.

Whew, all better. Oatmeal and almond milk in my lovely new bowl from Waitrose. The bowl is tiny so the porridge really piles up in it and also takes ages to eat because it’s like an oatie inferno in the middle (the correct technical phrase I assure you).

Lunch has been my monster tuna salads, popcorn and (frozen) fruit salad with Greek yogurt.

The house smells deliciously of popcorn in the mornings now I’ve been whipping up batches to take to work with me. I love munching on popcorn at work but I tend to forget I’m in public and when I’m reading something I have been known to miss my mouth or drop copious of crumbs on myself. Not attractive or elegant. And apparently sitting next to me while I have lunch is like being at the movies.

Dinner has been more salads recently and we’ve been getting into the spring vibe (ha – though the weather invariably hasn’t).

We’ve been into our steaks with salad and goat’s cheese recently. This is steak marinated with lime, cumin and garlic. Then fried in olive oil with sliced onion, and thrown on top of lots of salad with a good amount of goat’s cheese. Really simple and fresh meal.

Last night’s dinner was a bit of a wing-it meal. I had failed on the meal planning side of things. But I knew I had some frozen coconut milk in the freezer and tinned pumpkin. So I went with an aromatic coconut chicken curry (with pumpkin).

Coconut chicken curry (serves 2)

1 tbs. oil
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp. chilli powder
Clove of garlic
1/2 inch grated ginger
2 chicken breasts, cubed
Small onion, diced
Half a zuhcchini, diced
3 mushrooms, diced
Half a can of pumpkin puree
Half a can of coconut milk (I used light)

– Heat the oil in the pan, then fry the spices to release their aroma. Add in the onion and cook for about 5 mins until golden, then add the ginger and garlic.

– Add the zucchini and mushrooms and fry until soft.

– Add the chicken and coat with all the lovely spices. Then add the pumpkin puree and cook for about 2mins.

– Add the coconut milk and heat through

I sprinkled dried coriander over the top and served.

So what’s with this weather, people of Britain? Seriously depressing. Yesterday I optimistically wore this outfit to work:

Sneaky photo bomber in the back

This is a new dress from Dorothy Perkins, with an old necklace my mum gave me, shoes from Tesco (small heeled wedges) and belt and cardigan from New Look.

However, it started raining pretty much as soon as I got to work and throughout the day. So when I got back home to walk Alfie in the evening this is what I wore:

This is post walk. I was freezing and soaked. So then this is what I wore for the rest of the evening:

Can’t beat pyjamas and a nice loungy jumper. Cozy and warm.

But seriously, what happened to our blue skies??

And lastly before I leave it there…this is the latest chocolate that I have been LOVING.

Lindt, you will obviously always be in my heart as good quality chocolate that I always go back to…But I can’t indulge in a little chocolate affair with these crazy concoctions.

Errr, a piece of heaven anyone??

Have a great Wednesday!

What’s your preference: good quality chocolate, or crazy but extremely sweet chocolate?

Have you brought out the summer wear prematurely like I have?

Are you enjoying summery salads or warming suppers?