Bridesmaid dress shopping doesn't have to be painful

As today is our quarter-year anniversary I thought I'd entertain you with a wedding - based blog update!

We got engaged in April of last year and by June we had our registrar booked, our venue and date sorted and I had bribed five of my dearest ladyfriends to be bridesmaids. 

To be honest I did lay awake in bed many nights going through colour combos for bridesmaid dresses. I was trying to figure out how I could convince them that stripes would look good. I even contemplated denim at one point and was met with a 'what, like B'witched?' reply from a friend who I have since thanked from saving me from a potential fail.  

So when these off-white dresses caught my eye at TK Maxx in late June I had a lightbulb moment and took the proverbial bull by the horns.  I bought six in various styles and the total cost of the dresses was less than £90.  Thank goodness the hardest part of the whole process was deciding which ones looked worst on each girl. I had them all try all of the dresses on and by process of elimination over the course of the summer the dresses chose their owners. Job done! Here's some pics of the frocks and my bestie's trying-on session in my bedroom.  

Holiday Roundup, New Year, Janathon, and Yellow Tights.

It's 2013! Are you still there? I woke this morning with a slightly sore head which was more due to the overindulgent four-course meal we devoured last night, than the accompanying drinks.  With back-to-business day tomorrow it seems the transition from horizontal position to vertical position this year has been much easier, partly because my family Christmas took place in a very small rental house in the midlands (my Ma and Pa are the proud owners of a business in the North of France. More on this shortly.) which meant there wasn't room for spreading one's legs and arms akimbo without actually lying on another human being - and partly because I know I have a marathon in April and have thus maintained my running despite attempts by chocolate covered pretzels and Christmas TV specials to thwart my efforts.  And talking about efforts, I also decided to sign up for Janathon in further crazyness, as if I had no other things to be doing for the month of January.  Not that I need an excuse to do more exercise, that's not the hard part - the challenge will be to find the time to blog about it!

Anyways, check out these chocolate covered pretzels I created and gave to people (to myself) as part of their Christmas gifts.  I spent a little too much time on the labels. mmmm. pretzelly chocolatey goodness.  

So my holiday season started like this: finished up packing orders and posting and saying goodbye to my friends at the post office.

Drank rum at work-related Christmas dos and treated everyone in my studio to a delicious fry-up to recover (everyone being JUST ME)

Dressed up as Milhouse for our Nike Run Club fancy dress holiday run and won a sweet Nike Running coat.  I did no doubt wear yellow tights on my arms which did no doubt get very hot during our run! 

Went to visit my good friend who lives in Yarm.  It's pretty there.  Started 2013 race-planning. Where to go/which ones to try/totally nerding out. 

Got a 6 miler done did on Christmas eve, a very brisk mile and half jog on Boxing day, 9k (4k to Parkrun, 5k of puddles & mud at Platt Fields) this Saturday, 2 mile yesterday and 2 mile this evening. 

Best part of Christmas was being asked to be bridesmaid at my brother's wedding by my future sister-in-law.   (Little does she know I shall be asking the internet what this job actually entails as my knowledge in this area is based loosely on a handful of chick flicks and what I've made up in my head.)

I also was given some beautiful jewelry, amazeballs footwear and a sweet Dualit mixer which will no doubt be whipping up some doughs, mashed potatoes and batters, and looks nice on our countertop to boot.  

Speaking of carbs, here's today's bits of exercise: a hike up Alderly Edge with our good friends from Singapore and my evening run to buy two pints of milk.  Happy New Year.