Remember me...?

Hello ~ it's been a while! Seven months in fact, so thank you for sticking with me. During my hiatus, I had quite a few emails and tweets from people asking if I was ever going to blog again. In all honesty, I wasn't entirely sure myself, and until I hit publish on this post, I still don't know. I've written and rewritten this post on so many occasions, but never felt ready to publish it. My gut feeling was, as much as I missed writing and interacting, I wasn't ready to continue on with 'Lollipop Loves'. I guess I outgrew it, or lost my way somewhat. After a bit of thinking, I'm ready to dip my toes into the blogging pool again, and am excited to introduce you to my new blog, 'Sweet Like Cinnamon'.

Phew, that's the hardest bit! How do you rock up after seven months and expect familiarity with something so personal, and 'new'? Anyhow, I thought I would kick start Sweet Like Cinnamon with a little update for those of you familiar with the old blog.

I'll start with the most exciting news ~ my fiancé and I have set a wedding date! It's taken us nine years and what feels like a million venue searches, but it's finally booked! We are getting married on 1st December, which means there's less than eight months to go {eep!}, and who would believe that the perfect venue all along was right on our doorstep. Sigh. Still, we are ridiculously excited and keep having to pinch ourselves ~ is it really happening?!

Continuing with the matrimonial news, we have also booked our honeymoon. We are jetting off to New York for seven nights after the wedding. We were debating between the Maldives or NYC, as strangely, a week in one would cost us the same as a week in the other. In the end it was the magical fairy tale notion of being in NYC so near to Christmas that won us over. Neither of us has been before, and in actual fact, I've never, ever flown before. I think it is incredibly romantic that my first holiday abroad will be with my husband on our honeymoon, to a place so enchanting that we've always wanted to visit. I can't wait!

At the beginning of October we had some very sad news that my baby, my dog Holly, had to be put to sleep. It's still incredibly raw for me to talk about it, but it was the most heartbreaking experience and it still gets me teary just thinking of her beautiful eyes, so I'll leave you with a picture of her.

We had an addition to the family at the end of October, as my Mam felt lonely at home without Holly. This is Ted. He is a bichon frise crossed with a lhasa apso, and if you could give ASBO's to puppies, I can guarantee Ted would have one. Such a swine... We named him Ted as he was a cute bundle of fluff when we got him, just like a little teddy bear! He had us fooled though. He is eight months old now, so still boisterous and a lot of hard work. But, we can't help but fall in love with him.

In November, my fiancé and I took a trip up to Glasgow to be on a gameshow! Well, Gareth was the contestant {on the National Lottery's 'In It To Win It' with Dale Winton haha} and he took his sister and I along as his support. The clever clogs won £25,000! Needless to say a big chunk of that is to pay for the wedding, though a few sensible purchases have been made, including a newer, more eco~friendly car to reduce our monthly outgoings. I can't guarantee that all of our purchases have been as sensible though ;)

That's about it on the news front. I'm excited to share our wedding plans and ideas with you, and really get back into the swing of posting regularly. I've been trying out some new vegetarian recipes that I'm looking forward to sharing with you too, so it'll be business as usual but with a more positive outlook.

I can't wait :)

So tell me, what's been happening with you?

Love Laura x