A Particularly Lazy Sunday

The problem with having a fashion-y blog (and I say fashion-y because these days it's much more lifestyle, food and fitness, but anyway), is that sometimes you want to blog but you don't have an outfit to post. Today, for example, I am wearing my University of Birmingham Dance Society trackies and hoodie, and my Liverpool shirt. I don't have a scrap of makeup on and my hair has been in the same ponytail since my run this morning. But I still want to blog.
Some of my favourite blogs are no longer fashion blogs, but belong to former fashion bloggers. They're blogs that don't have pictures, or at least pictures aren't the focus. They're blogs about real people, about life. I love both Michelle's blog and Maggey's blog, and sometimes I want to write like that - to just blog about whatever I want without having to think of something inspiring to wear when the reality is I've been wearing the same jumper for the last three days.
But today, I just wanted to blog. 
So I am.
I've had a particularly lazy day today which has been a bit of a challenge. I crave having a full day to myself to do whatever I want, but the reality is I have a huge intolerance to boredom. Even though my to-do list for today seemed epic, I was done by 3pm and climbing the walls. If I'm honest I'm stressing out completely about all the free time I'm going to have when we move. Because I get up at 5am every day to exercise I'm in bed most nights before 9.30pm, but when we move I'll be getting home at a bout 5.15pm. Even if I go to bed at 9.30pm that's still 4 hours to fill! I haven't got any freelance work to do this week, I finished my TEFL course a few weeks ago and I got my 5 mile run in early this morning. I'm already thinking about online courses I can take to stop me going insane! If you saw what I'd done today you'd think I was really busy but I was bored out of my box, despite all these things. I just suck at relaxing and I love being busy!
So what have I done today?
I got up and had some toast, watched an episode of Parks and Recreation while it went down and headed out for 5 mile run. I haven't had a long, slow run for a while but I was reading the other day about the importance of a slow run, so I dropped my pace to 60-90 seconds a mile slower than I usually run today, which felt unnatural, and also scary (I'm scared of running slow in case I forget how to run fast!). About a mile and a half from the end, however, I got into a fight with a prickly bush and it ripped off my headphone extender! I completed my last mile and a half in silence and promptly got straight to Amazon to order another.

When I got home, after a quick shower, I started making an incredible brunch of sweet potato hash with kale and a fried egg, topped with feta and avocado. It was so good.

I used this recipe and added avocado and feta

Then I got baking. It's my turn to bake at work in a few weeks and I had the idea in my head to recreate Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits. If you've ever been to Red Lobster, you know what I'm talking about. However, naturally, there were dozens of recipes online and while I usually wing it and make something new when it's my turn to bake, I decided to have a test bake. I ended up using this recipe, using whole milk with lemon juice to substitute the buttermilk. They were a bit tricky to make, but when they came out of the oven, oh my days, the smell! They smelled just like Red Lobster. A brushing of garlic butter and a bit of cooling later and I was dying to try one. Oh my god. They are incredible. Just like Red Lobster! I can't wait to make these for my bake!

So once that was done I decided to prep food for the working week. I cut up 5 apples, prepared 5 baggies of nuts and cut up enough vegetables for 4 days. Then I made a big salad to last me at least 3 days, and made a big crustless quiche for 4 day's worth of breakfasts. Then I watched two more episodes of Parks and Rec.

This crustless quiche is filled with mushrooms, spinach, feta and sundried tomatoes

After that I was really, really bored, so I decided to do a task I'd been putting off for weeks. I gathered up all my copies of Runner's World and a pair of scissors and started going through the issues for the articles I wanted to keep and file so I could recycle the rest. I did a quick arms and abs workout halfway through and made a green smoothie. 

After getting through three magazines, and basically reading them cover to cover, I took a break to make some dinner. We usually have a roast on a Sunday but my parents decided not to bother and had sandwiches instead, so I made a yummy bowl of beans and rice. And watched one more episode of Parks and Rec.

In one respect I feel like I've had a bit of a wasted day, but I know I'll appreciate what I did do when it comes to rushing out the door next week and realising I don't need to pack my lunch. I've actually had a really nice weekend - on Friday Phil and I went to see Foxcatcher and had some dinner, yesterday he came to Parkrun with me and then my friend Ellen came to visit. We went into Manchester so I showed her where out flat is and we mooched around the shops and had lunch. She was really excited to buy a leather jacket and I was really excited to buy two cushions from Primark I'd been looking for for weeks!
I've got a really busy week this week so I think I'll appreciate having a quiet weekend! Tomorrow I'm going to London for work and I have our last choir practice before our performance on Saturday and this week we have our New Year party at work! Technically it's our Christmas party but obviously a bit late. We've all been planning it in the marketing team so I'm excited to see the end result! Then Saturday I have an absolutely crazy day - I have a family meal at 3, then at 8 I have a choir performance then I'm going straight to my oldest friend's engagement party! 
I hope your Sunday has been great. I enjoyed writing this but I'm not sure if this kind of post is interesting to anybody but me! Hopefully I'll be back soon with more outfit posts!

Charlotte x