Category Archives: Blog

Lately

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When I got started with this blog, one thing that never occurred to me was the opportunities it would bring or the wonderful people I would meet through it. I love seeing familiar faces comment here (thank you for keep coming back, it really does make my day!) and I’ve discovered some of my favourite blogs via having you visit me. Remarkably my analytics tell me visitors have come to the site from one hundred and twelve different countries. That’s pretty wonderful.

On the other end of the scale, I’ve had opportunity to meet some incredibly talented and creative bloggers in person – here in Leeds, across Yorkshire and further afield. That was definitely something I didn’t expect to get involved with but I am so glad I have.

On this subject, I wanted to let you know about a couple of projects I’m currently involved in and to urge to take a look at them and get involved too.

Vegan WallVegan WallVegan Wall is a brand new online community for vegans and anyone interested in veganism. Users can share recipes, photos, videos, interesting links and anything else they think will be valuable to the community; these posts are then moderated through an up/downvoting system.

There is also a map that shows where users are so you can find your local vegan community. A restaurant map is coming soon which I’m looking forward to using for travel planning.

I was invited to test out Vegan Wall just prior to its beta launch to give feedback so they could get everything just right. It was fantastic hearing all about its founders’ motivations and the long months they had already spent on coding and building the site purely out of their passion for creating something useful for the vegan community. The beta version has kicked off so I’d highly recommend popping over, signing up and getting involved here.

Yorkshire BloggersVery much in its infancy, Yorkshire Bloggers is a little project myself and a few other Yorkshire-based bloggers have set up. Our Facebook page (with this beautiful banner created by Jen over at Little Birdie) is a hub to share post from ourselves and lots of other bloggers all about the gorgeous county of Yorkshire.

We also plan to hold regular blogger lunches and meet-ups, not least as an excuse to check out plenty of local restaurants! It’s also enjoyable to just get together with like-minded people, informally, without any PR agenda.

Please hop on over and like our
if you’d like to see more and if you ever blog about Yorkshire then please send me your links to share!

What have been your biggest surprises about blogging?

P.S Did you know I’m now on Instagram?

Tarmigan

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If you’ve been around here for long, you might have noticed my love of animals and in particular, cats. Well, today I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to my new fluffy little buddy, Tarmigan. He became part of our family a little over a month ago and is a very sociable and loving little fellow. Did I mention how handsome he is?

I also wanted to share these as I’ve been making a conscious effort to improve my technical photography skills lately (more on that in an upcoming post) and feel like I’m getting close to capturing his beauty. Luckily, the new house is blessed with far better natural light than my previous place making it much more possible to shoot indoors.Golden Tabby Siberian Cat Golden Tabby Siberian Cat Golden Tabby Siberian CatGolden Tabby Siberian Cat Golden Tabby Siberian Cat

Golden Tabby Siberian Cat

Trying hard to stop me watching my new favourite TV show (Two Tribes!)

Tarmigan also has his own so pop on over and follow him for more cute cat pics!

What are you photographing a lot of at the moment?

The One Where They Watch Friends | Simplyhealth Blogger Event

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Well, what was expected to only be a couple of weeks’ break has turned into much longer. Of course I failed to factor in just how long it takes to get the internet connected in a new house and how busy things would be! Almost all of my evenings and weekends lately have been spent covered in various shades of paint, constructing furniture or hanging photo frames.

I did however manage to take an evening off last week to attend a local blogger event here in Leeds. The team at Simplyhealth invited a group of local bloggers down to the Everyman Cinema in Leeds as part of their ‘Healthy Smile’ campaign with the sole aim of making us, and our plus ones, laugh. We were treated to a private screening of four episodes of Friends to celebrate twenty years (yes, twenty!) since the Friends TV series began and ten years since its finale.The Everyman Cinema, LeedsAt the Everyman CinemaI took along my friend Sarah since she is the biggest Friends fan I know and the evening was guaranteed to make her smile the most. The Simplyhealth team also provided us with a couple of drinks and some snacks to make sure we were as comfortable as possible.

It made for a lovely evening and we can’t have been the only ones who could quite easily have carried on watching way past the four episodes. Laughter really is contagious and a natural way of bonding with those around us, so a night purely focused on that was a perfect reminder to take the time to do things like this when there is so much else going on in life. In fact, we haven’t been able to resist planning our next Friends marathon already.Inside the Everyman CinemaEveryman CinemaThe Everyman Cinema itself is somewhere I’ve been meaning to check out ever since it opened last year. Located in the Trinity Centre in Leeds city centre, the Everyman Cinema is no everyday cinema – replacing cramped seating with comfy sofas and eschewing the usual food offering in favour of freshly stone baked pizzas. I’ll definitely be heading back next time I go to watch a film and finding an excuse to check out their food!Friends TV Series MugOur little goody bag between two also contained a Friends mug which I insisted Sarah take home as I know it will keep her smiling.

To pass on a little bit of laughter (I hope!) and maybe get you in the mood to re-watch some Friends, here are a few choice quotes:

“I’m not so good with the advice… Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?” – Chandler

“Stop cleansing my aura. Just leave my aura alone, okay?” – Ross

“Hi, I’m Chandler. Could I be wearing any more clothes?” - Joey

“Who’s FICA and why is he getting all of my money?” – Rachel

“Whoa. Where you going in those pants? 1982?” - Monica

“Oh, I knew something had to be wrong, because my fingernails did not grow at all yesterday.” – Phoebe

What has made you smile recently?

A Brief Pause

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Yogi Tea Quotes Yogi Tea Quotes Yogi Tea Quotes

These beautiful tea bags are from Yogi Tea. They’ve been a staple in my cupboard for over a decade and I can never get enough of their gorgeous flavours.

What a couple of weeks coming up… Tomorrow I will be heading to Morocco, returning the following week ready to move house! That means it is going to be a quiet couple of weeks on the blogging front but I hope to have a lot of exciting things to share when I get back :)

National Vegetarian Week on The Tofu Diaries

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National Vegetarian Week bannerThis week, May 19th-25th is National Vegetarian Week here in the UK. The aim of NVW is to challenge people to go meat-free for the week as well as to help more of us learn about the benefits and ease of living compassionately and thoughtfully by going veg.

Though I and many of you don’t need any convincing, in honour of NVW 2014 I have opened up The Tofu Diaries to a selection of my fellow bloggers to share their insights, recipes, and some other very exciting things. It’s very exciting to have such a diverse range of posts to share with you all – one guest post will be featured each day (at 6pm) for the whole of this week so be sure to check back! I also urge you to check out and follow the blogs of my wonderful contributors!National Vegetarian Week