Personal | Goals for 2015

New Year is fast approaching. "New Year, new me" is something we will hear all too often. We all make resolutions we are never going to keep as that's the done thing. I'm not one for resolutions, but last year I set myself a few goals (read me). I told myself I'd look back on these goals to see what I had achieved. Here goes:

Find a Permanent Job

In April this year, I finally found a permanent job, albeit only being there three months before I went on maternity leave. I'm looking forward to going back and feeling part of a team again.

Read More

I managed to get back in to reading this year, although, understandably, since George has arrived it has taken another standstill.

Make Wedding Plans

Peter and I have decided on a rough date and I have my wedding dress ! Now we just need to find a venue we like. Best get a move on really.

Be More Healthy

I got pregnant which meant this went straight out the window, I binge on McDonalds more times than I care to say.

Looking back on the goals I set myself, I think I was pretty successful. 3 out of 4 isn't at all bad and I've pleasantly surprised myself. This year, my goals are:

Improve My Photography Skills

Pete's always telling me I'm rubbish at taking photos (he's right) and I want to make the effort to improve my skills (or lack thereof) especially now we have George and for the purpose of my blog. 

Cut Out The Three C's (Chocolate, Cakes & Crisps)

I know, another healthy eating goal but this time I mean it, I need to fit into my outfit for my little man's Christening. I've not been happy with my weight for a while but I've not made an effort to change that. Bye wobbly belly and double chin.

Stay Organised

Becoming a mum has definitely made me more organised and I'm a lot more blog organised recently too. I want to improve on that and keep on top of it. It's very easy to neglect my blog and that's something I don't want to do, I want it to continue to grow.

Spend Less Time on my Phone

I probably spend most of the day on my phone, I'm a self confessed social media addict and there's absolutely no need for how much of my attention it gets. I'm too easily distracted by it when watching a film or I'm out to lunch.

Same time next year!

What are your goals/ resolutions for 2015?

Rachael xo

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2014 | A Summary

I know I've harpered on about how good 2014 has been but I just wanted to summarise my 2014 with a list of my favourite things from the year. 

Favourite Song:

Probably Shake it Off by T Swift, I know, I know, it's just so catchy.

Favourite Album: 

Taylor Swift - 1989. Such a good album and I'm not normally a fan of Taylor either! (There's a theme here isn't there?)

Favourite Gig: 

Watching Funeral for a Friend play Hours in full in Leeds University this year was pretty awesome. My favourite band and one of my favourite albums. Perfect. 

Favourite Restaurant:

Almost Famous - eating burgers topped with pulled pork and loads of chilli cheese fries is my all time favourite thing to do.

Favourite Fashion Trend:

I've loved pastels this year which is surprising because I hate colour! Especially pastels, but this year I've become a massive fan of them. Even throughout Winter.

Favourite Beauty Product:

I've been loving my eye palettes from Makeup Revolution. Give Them Nightmares is amazing.\

Favourite Clothing Item:

Tweed coat from Primark

Favourite Nail Varnish:

Chilli by Barry M (it's such a gorgeous shade)

Favourite TV Show:

Revenge didn't come out in 201, but I've just started watching it and I love it.

Favourite Moment: 

Of course George being born was the most perfect thing that happened to me ever, so it was bound to be my favourite moment!

What are your 2014 favourites?

Rachael xo

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OOTD | Thigh Highs & Blanket Scarf

++ FEATURING ++

Blanket wrap: New Look

Jumper: Primark

Leggings: Primark:

Gloves: Primark

Hat: eBay

Boots: H&M

Bag: Vivienne Westwood

Since Peter has been off for Christmas we've spent most days home in our pyjamas being really lazy, after all that's what Christmas is about! Yesterday we had to go out to run some errands so off we went to Liverpool. We did what we had to do, popped into Next to spend our gift voucher. We picked up the cutest little Christmas jumper for George for next year in the sale, as well as a little Star Wars tshirt for when he's a bit bigger. Adorable, I know. We then went to Costa to feed George where I had an orange hot chocolate complete with cream, it was pretty great. It tasted like melted Terry's Chocolate Orange. Mmm. After that, we went for some food and drink in The Shipping Forecast where I had a pulled pork burger, pretty good, but where doesn't do burgers these days? 

I have been after these boots since thigh highs and knee highs came back so they went on my Christmas list straight away. I've been dying to wear them for weeks so they deserved a day out! I paired them with my shiny leggings and a long jumper too keep the look quite casual. I was so unsure about wearing a blanket wrap, despite seeing a lot of people wearing them because I was scared I'd look like a sack of spuds but I really really love this outfit! 

What do you think of my outfit?

Rachael xo

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Christmas | My Favourite Gifts

Some people think once Boxing Day has finished, Christmas is over, but for me I still feel festive right up until New Year's Eve! Telly is still good and you have lots of new gifts to appreciate! To be completely honest with you though, I think it's just an excuse to eat as much as possible until the "New Year diet" starts!

This year, Peter and I spent Christmas morning in our own home. We woke up bright and early (thanks George) and went downstairs to open our presents (after feeding George of course!) After we opened our presents, we had a cooked breakfast which was pretty amazing, after all Christmas is for eating right? 

Instead of a Christmas haul I wanted to share with you some of my favourite gifts that I was lucky enough to receive this year:

Did you have a good Christmas?

Rachael xo

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Christmas | Wrapping Up

Merry Christmas from Rachael and George

The first year Peter and I were together, he went to his mum's in Stockport for Christmas and I stayed at home (we hadn't moved in together then). Since then for the past two years, we've stayed at my parents' on Christmas Eve ready for Christmas Day! This year, we're staying in our own home for Christmas Eve which means I won't be opening my presents at my parents' house for the first time ever. So despite living with Peter for three years, I've never actually spent Christmas away from home. It all feels very grown up! Although I'm sad to leave my former traditions behind, I'm so excited to create new ones with my gorgeous little family! Of course we'll go to my mum and dad's for Christmas dinner, we don't need any stress of cooking ;)

This Christmas has been quite stressful for me, having a new baby and organising everything on your own is pretty hard work! I went shopping for all the presents and wrapped all the presents this year (thankfully my parents had George when I did my wrapping). After ranting to my mum this morning about how stressed I was, she reminded me that I'm mum and soon to be wife so Christmas is now my "thing" if you like. Hopefully next year will be less stressful (I'm starting my shopping in January next year!)

I guess the point of this post was just to say I'm taking a break from blogging this Christmas (not that I'm an avid blogger).  I'm looking forward to spending time with my family, eating all the food and of course George's first Christmas! It's so exciting having a baby around even if he's too young to understand what's going on. 

Merry Christmas

Rachael (&George) xo

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OOTD | His & Hers

On Sunday, Peter and I had family come to visit and exchange Christmas presents. I bought George this amazingly cute onesie from Asda and couldn't resist buying myself these cute penguin leggings from Primark to match. We spent the day eating pizza, listening to Christmas songs and opening presents. I'm writing this while I'm extremely tired with a banging headache (having guests is tiring work) so I'm going to keep it short and sweet. I just wanted to share our matching outfits. 

Rachael xo

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Personal | Be More You

In the short time I've been blogging, I don't think I've stayed true to myself. All this time, I've been conforming to normal blog standards if you like. I've compared myself to other bloggers and tried to keep my blog in line with these, regardless of the fact, I'm not a beauty blogger. I've read advice on being a blogger which reads "don't swear on social media" or "don't express yourself too much on social networks, keep your blog and personal life separate." And that's all well and good, but sometimes you need to swear, sometimes you need a rant. Even though I consider Jegz Loves Tea a lifestyle blog, and it is about my life and what I do, I don't think my personality has come across because I've tried to comply with these "rules" and be someone I'm not. This has been a rookie mistake on my behalf. 

If you've read some of my recent blog posts, you'll see my writing style has changed from earlier blog posts, this is because I want to inject more me into my blog. It's my blog, it's a lifestyle blog, it should be more personal. 

I recently read a post by Zoe London saying to be yourself and she's right, you should be yourself. We're not all perfect. We shouldn't compare our lives to other bloggers and we certainly shouldn't compare our blogs to others. Okay, I'm not the most experienced blogger, I don't have hundreds of followers and I do realise it's easy to get caught up in other people. With more and more of us over sharing on social media and posting photos of those little things that make us happy, it's easy for others to become jealous and compare their own life. I'm guilty of this myself. I will scroll through someone's Instagram, blog or Twitter and feel a pang of jealousy. This is completely normal. I wouldn't dream of posting a photo of my messy house, chipped nails or of myself with no makeup on! To tell the truth, most days I don't even bother getting dressed, however this is something I want to change as I do want to start incorporating more outfit posts to my blog. 

As the New Year approaches and people make their resolutions which they're not going to keep, I'm going to vow to keep up posting regularly and to be more me. 

Rachael xo

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Personal | The Year Everything Came Together

Being proposed to at Radstock 2013 during The Blackout's set. x

If you read my blog, you may have noticed I've mentioned how 2013 was a pretty shitty year for me, but I've never really gone into the reason for this. Okay, I got engaged, it was pretty awesome, but that was probably the only good thing that happened. After moving into a gorgeous apartment, we found out the landlady was selling and had to move six months after moving in. I was devastated because I absolutely loved that apartment! After months and months of working for an agency, doing temporary jobs, I found a permanent job working for the Yellow Duckmarine (scousers, you know what this is), which was also short lived because one of the boats sunk during my time there. Peter and I moved out of the city centre to a house 10 minutes away by train, which was all well and good but it was 10 miles away from my mum and dad, which meant, although close to the city centre, I felt really isolated. Then I was diagnosed with poly cystic ovaries (PCOS) meaning it would be harder to conceive (Peter and I were trying for a baby). All this was on top of looking for more work. I got stuck in the temping rut all over again and needless to say, I was feeling pretty fucking low.

Me and my precious little man

New Year's Eve came and went, I was back at work in the temporary job, doing late shifts (13:00 - 21:00), I hated it. I complained to my mum about having sore boobs (I never get sore boobs) and she advised me to take a pregnancy test, which I shrugged off because I honestly thought it was going to take forever, as I had not long started to take the medication I was put on because of my PCOS. Some part of me thought I should just do it, so I decided to take a test. The results weren't appearing (it was late at night and the tests were cheap hospital ones from my mum) so I went to bed, taking the pregnancy test with me. 

The next day I woke up, of course the first thing I did was check the pregnancy test, not expecting anything and I got the biggest shock of my life to see it was positive! I woke Pete up crying and shouting "I NEED ANOTHER PREGNANCY TEST!" He didn't even know I'd taken a test so he was confused to say the least. I rang my mum, there were tears. We went the doctors. My mum met us after our appointment, there were more tears. 2014 definitely started off with a bang! 

George and Georgia

After the baby news, Peter and I decided we were going to buy a house and move closer to my family (it made sense) and things just started falling into place! We found a house round the corner from my mum, which was really lovely and well loved if not a bit old fashioned and not really to our taste. It was perfect, we had the opportunity to make the house into a home. After years of renting and not being able to decorate, it was great to put our stamp on somewhere. We also found out as well as becoming parents, we were going to become an auntie and uncle to the gorgeous Georgia. I also gained a new baby cousin, when my uncle had his first baby, Charlie. Lots of babies! I'm so glad because now George has two cousins his age to play with. 

Mark and Charlie

I found myself a full time job, which was a massive weight off my shoulders. Even though I was pregnant, everybody there was so supportive and the stress of finding work was no more. After two years of agency work and temporary jobs it was definitely a relief. I could finally be part of a team (even though I went on maternity leave not long after starting). 

I also got rid of some poison in my life this year. It's so important to have people in your life who are genuinely happy for you and there for you when you need it. It was the best decision I have ever made and I certainly never looked back. If you surround yourself with negative people, it will effect you. I would highly recommend it to any of you who have got a friend that just brings you down all the time to get rid of them. Yes, it sounds heartless but you will feel better for it in the end. 

Being back in my home town means I get to see a lot more of my family and friends too which is brilliant. It's so nice just having people pop in for a cuppa and being able to just nip round to my mum's or my nan's without a 20 minute train journey and a week of planning! 

To sum it up, 2014 has been pretty amazing for me! I'm not entirely sure 2015 will be able to top it off, but we have a lot of firsts to look forward to with George and a wedding to plan to keep us busy! 

How did your 2014 pan out?

Rachael xo

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Tag | Soundtrack to my Life

"You used to be all good and emo, now you just listen to musicals"
- Peter Walker 

Yes, that was a quote from my loving fiance on my music taste. I used to listen to a lot more bands than I do, but that's because I'm too lazy to search new bands on Spotify and listen to them. I prefer to just stick one of my playlists on. Anyway, enough of me rambling about my current taste in music. I came across the Soundtrack to my Life tag by Zoe and Lily (here) and figured I'd give it a go in the hope it makes me remember some of the amazing bands I used to listen to. I wanted to a video for this post, but I have no makeup on, my hair is a mess and I'd scare all my followers off by singing the songs for every single answer. 

Song you listen to when you're happy?

Anthem Part Two by Blink 182. They're such a happy band, I just want to run around jumping all the time when I hear them. 

Song you listen to when you're sad?

New American Classic by Taking Back Sunday. 

What song will you have at your wedding?

I really want Love is Easy by McFly as my first dance because it's cheesy and Pete took me to see McFly for our first date. I know, cringe. 

What song do you dance around the house to?

At the moment, it's Shake it Off by Taylor Swift. I know, I know, but I can't stop listening to it, it's so catchy.

Song you play on your headphones when out and about?

I think this depends what mood I am, but normally anything by Brand New. Deja Entendu is normally on my headphones when I'm out, so I'm going to say I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light.

Song you listen to when you're angry?

The Devil Inside by The Blackout. It just makes me want to stomp about. "The way you fuck to feel is so degrading" is the best lyric in the whole song. That whole album actually. 

Song you'd have at your funeral?

No One Mourns the Wicked from Wicked "THE WITCH OF THE WEST IS DEAD. GOOD NEWSSSSS!!!" 

Song that makes you lose your shit at a party?

This has got to be 5,6,7,8 by Steps. Wherever I am, I will do the full routine with absolutely NO shame whatsoever.

The last song you listened to?

Blank Space by Taylor Swift. I've had it on repeat all night. I don't know what's got into me lately, she's just so damn catchy.

Your karaoke song?

I am NOT a karaoke person, but I would probably do Copacabana by Barry Manilow just for my mum. 

What song do you work out/exercise to?

I don't work out or exercise, I do play Just Dance if that counts? My go to song for that is Jump by Girls Aloud cos I'm dead good at it.

Song with the most memories attached?

I'm going to say Save Ourselves (The Warning) by The Blackout for this. Pete proposed to me. On stage. During The Blackout' set. In the middle of this song. So yep. We are so cheesy.

Song that makes you cry?

Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World makes me cry like a baby. It's just so sad.

Song you hate the most?

I really, really hate Year 3000 by Busted. I love Busted okay, they're amazing but this song annoys me so, so much. I always have to skip it. Always. I don't know what it is, but I just HATE it.

Your favourite song of all time?

Such a hard question, but I'm going to go with Kiss and Makeup by Funeral for a Friend. I went to see them last year and they played Seven Ways to Scream Your Name in full and it was the best gig I have ever been to. Although seeing them play Hours in full came pretty close. They're my favourite band, so I'm gonna go with that. 

If you've done this tag, link me in the comments below so I can see what songs are in the soundtrack to your life.

Rachael xo

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Christmas | My Christmas Traditions

With the stress of buying, wrapping and organising presents being over (I got my last two presents yesterday) I feel I can finally enjoy the festive season! I saw this Christmas Traditions post over on Alex at Sweet Dreams and thought what a lovely festive post so of course I thought I'd share my own.

I've said this many times, but Winter is my all time favourite season (it's the hair and pale skin). December is probably my favourite month because I love the build up to Christmas. As soon as December comes around, our Christmas tree goes up, the Christmas candles come out and of course, I start watching every Christmas movie ever! 

Ever since I can remember, my family and I have visited the Trafford Centre during the second week of December. We have breakfast, do a bit of shopping, go to the cinema, eat ice cream, have lunch, followed by more shopping. We always get a little present while we're there as well, it's really cute. This year was our last year though, as Peter and I have George now so we want to create our own traditions.

I normally wrap all my Christmas presents watching Christmas films and drinking hot chocolate. I like to start my shopping as early as possible because I hate shopping in crowds! This year, I started early as August! Yikes! I did most of my shopping in November this year and saved my wrapping until December. You need to save some of the normal Christmassy stuff right?

On Christmas Eve, we have a bath and get into our brand new Christmas Eve pyjamas, my mum normally makes soup so we have home made soup and tiger rolls. It's amazing. After that, we watch a Christmas film on DVD. I never sleep well on Christmas Eve because I'm a big kid at heart, and when Christmas morning comes around, I'm the first up. I wake my brothers up, we wake our parents up and go downstairs, my mum always goes down first and we follow. She always says "has he been?" and we go into the living room to see all our presents. Breakfast comes after present opening. We have Christmas lunch in my mum's followed by trifle. Oh trifle. I don't eat in order to prepare myself for the massive lunch. 

This year, everything is going to change because we have our little man, so even though I haven't lived at home for almost three years, I'll be spending my first Christmas Eve away from home. I'm sad to leave my old traditions behind, but so excited to start creating new ones with my boys.

What are your Christmas Traditions?

Rachael xo

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Friday Favourites | #004

With the run up to Christmas, most people choose to wrap presents, finish their Christmas shopping and relax at home. Not me! I've been to celebrate Pete's grandad's 95th birthday, then two days after that, my gorgeous friend, Jessica, came to stay for three days, so I've been busy! Today I finally did finish my last few bits of Christmas shopping. I thought by starting early (August to be precise) I would have avoided this rush, but alas, no. I now just have a few bits to wrap and I am actually done and god am I looking forward to it. 

Here's what has made me smile this week:

Geoge finally wore his little monkey out fit knitted by his Nanny Sue which is just super cute, even if if it a little bit big for him at the moment. I think he looks cute as a button and I love the fact that it's a one off! 

I was reunited with this little babe after three years (I know, we're terrible). We gossiped, drank wine and watched the Labyrinth. It was lovely to catch up with her, I didn't want her to leave. Jessica also got some good news regarding her health when she got home, so I was made up to say the least.

George and I had cuddles in bed and watched TV together (he stared at the computer while I watched Revenge more like). It's something we never do and I just really loved it. He's a gorgeous little thing isn't he?

After a long, long week, I unwinded with a glass of wine in the bath. There's not much more to say about this apart from that it was much needed. I listened to a lot of Taylor Swift too (I know, I've surprised myself). 

Are you ready for Christmas?

Rachael xo

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