Those of you who have been following along on socials will have seen me mention that I was doing a fundraiser in July and thus I quickly wanted to give a little update now that I’ve completed it.
In July, dad and I took part in a fundraiser for Point North, which is one of our charity partners at work that supports our local communities at a grassroot level. The fundraiser was to complete 38.7 miles in July to help raise awareness and funds to support the 38.7% of children who are growing up in poverty in our wider area of County Durham and the Tees Valley.
Every mile completed helped to provide: food, uniforms, bedding, holiday clubs, lessons, and more. If you’d still like to make a donation, our fundraiser page is still open for a few days:
As proof that I did complete the 38.7 miles, I made a little compilation of all the walks and gym trips I did in July, and so I thought I’d share it as a nice round up of the fundraiser challenge.
I’m so glad I signed up for the fundraiser, as not only did we mange to raise some funds for Point North, but it also forced me to get out more. I get so nervous venturing out on any journeys which are further than about a 20 minute car journey or walk (I might delve deeper into the why at some point), but to get my steps in I have had to push myself to overcome / deal with my fears. Although my anxiety spiked at times, I overall had really positive experiences and ended up enjoying some wonderful longer walks exploring new places. Now I just need to keep pushing myself to head out and not fall back into letting my nerves get the better of me!
So we’re over half way through the year and I thought I’d do a little roundup of my top 5 books of 2025 so far. I read about 18 books between January – June and quite a few of them weren’t actually originally on my To Be Read pile. I ended up adding quite a few new ones through 99p kindle deals or the 2 Audiobooks for 1 credits on Audible.
I was initially just going to chose my top 3 books, but as I have quite a few 4 Star books (no 5’s yet as I am very stingy with my 5’s haha), deciding on only 3 books was too difficult and so I ended up picking a top 5 instead.
Anyway let’s get to it – here’s my top 5 books of 2025 so far (in no particular order):
Something a little different, but I wanted to talk about the fundraiser I signed myself and dad up for with work for two reasons. One, to raise awareness of what we’re fundraising for but also two, to talk about how it’s been helping my anxiety which is something I’m really proud of.
At Kaffeehaus Coffee Roasters giving back to our local community is very important to us and we’re proud to already be regular supporters of Point North, but we wanted to do more, and by participating are hoping raise more awareness for this amazing charity supporting our local communities!
So, dad and I are stepping it up and taking part in Point North‘s fundraiser completing 38.7 miles in July to help raise funds to support the 38.7% of children who are growing up in poverty in our wider area of County Durham and the Tees Valley.
“Thousands of children in our own communities are falling behind through no fault of their own. As the cost of living continues to rise, more families than ever are struggling to get by. The need is urgent and growing. This challenge gives all of us a way to do something about it,” – Michelle Cooper, Chief Executive at Point North.
Every mile helps to provide: food, uniforms, bedding, holiday clubs, lessons, and more. And any donation you can give, no matter how small, will help to make a difference To donate or follow our progress please follow the link below
By signing up to this fundraiser I have also ended up forcing myself to face my anxiety which has been an unforeseen bonus. Essentially, I get very nervous venturing further than a 20 minute car journey or 15 minute walk (I might delve deeper into the why at some point, but not today), but to get my steps in I have had to and still am pushing myself to overcome my fears. So far I have had some really positive outcomes and endend up enjoying some wonderful longer walks exploring new places. The repetition of positive outcomes and experiences, is slowly creating positive reinforcements to counter my anxieties which I’m really happy with.
Below was my first 4 mile walk. I pushed myself to drive up to the Pennines, about a 30 min drive to a place I’d never been to before, and go for a walk around a reservoir I’d previously known nothing about. It turned into such a wonderful morning. The Smiddy Shaw reservoir along the Waskerly Way ended up being such a wonderful expedition for me. It was a quiet path and we barely bumped into another soul which was fab and just how I like it. The path was well paved and easy to walk, and although a little overcast at first, the clouds soon cleared giving way to tow a warm and the sunny atmosphere and stunning views all around.
And yes, my anxiety did surface at times, but I was generally having a good day and feeling more positive and so I managed to keep it in check and ende up having a wonderful morning out. It may seems like nothing to those of you who don’t suffer for anxiety, but to me this was a pretty big feat and I felt very proud of my achievement. It made me want to go out more straight away.
So, a few days later I headed out for my second 4 mile walk through a more local Nature Reserve. I completed this walk before work one morning and there were a great number of paths to meander through and explore; although some ended up being quite overgrown and narrow this time of year resulting in a fair few nettle stings and bramble scratches haha!
All in all I have really been enjoying working towards completing this fundraiser and I’m generally feeling more hopeful for the future with every new step I take.
The other day I was nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Sarah from Vintage Tea Rose – so firstly I’d like to say a big thank you to Sarah for nominating me! And secondly, if any of you don’t follow her already you should definitely go check out her beautiful blog!
RULES
Thank the person who gave you this award and link to their blog.
List 7 things about yourself.
Nominate 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
7 THINGS ABOUT MYSELF
I am quarter German, quarter Austrian and half Northern Irish. I was born in Germany and lived the first 11 years of my life there; which means I am fluent in German, although admittedly somewhat rusty.
I have 16 piercings and 11 tattoos, here’s just a few:
If I could travel back in time I would choose to visit the roaring 20’s with all the fabulous music and dancing in all the speakeasies or I would go even further back to the times of Jane Austen in the regency era, the fashion and the accomplishments ladies had to have in those days are right up my street. They had to be musical, artistic, enjoy reading… I mean those are my main talents, so what’s not to like?! (and I know I know it was only the upper classes who had those privileges, but you know, one can still dream hehe )
I graduated with a BA in Fine Art in 2016 (if you’d like to see some more of my art click here or follow me on Instagram @carinaroxannenausnerart) I love working with many mediums from photography to painting, printmaking and mixed media.
I am pretty much the same height and shoe size as my mum and sister which is 5ft 2in & size 5 / 38
I have never travelled outside of Europe, something I mean to change as soon as I have saved up some dosh!
About 3 years ago I shaved all my hair off for the Macmillan charity. I went from beautiful long red hair to a level 2 buzz cut!
It’s that time of year where inspiration is found around every corner and motivation fills my pores driving me to succeed. I don’t know if you enjoy making resolutions, but I personally love this time of year. Although every day can be seen as a new start, there is just something about the new year specifically that fills me with hope, a belief that this will be the year I succeed, that this will be the year I work towards my dreams.
2017 was good to me, although it had it’s bad moments and threw many learning curves my way, when I look back on last year there is so much for me to be grateful for and with this positive mindset I am excited for the year ahead and have made some resolutions I hope to fulfil; here goes:
Turning Vegan – I have reduced my meat and dairy intake in the last year and have felt soo much better for it. I have toyed with the idea of turning vegan for quite some time now, but always put it off making excuses thinking I’d miss certain foods such as eggs (eggs are definitely going to be the hardest part of turning vegan for me) however every time I watch a vegan documentary and am reminded of all it’s benefits and positive impact on our health, the environment and of course animal welfare it fills me with a deep longing to be a part of this movement and thus I decided that this year is my year to make the transition.
My Health & Weightloss – Last year I lost 2 stone and then slowly and annoyingly put 1 stone back on again. I always begin the new year on a high and then bit by bit get comfortable again eventually falling back into old habits. I am hoping that eating a Vegan diet will help me loose some more weight, but I know that the main culprit for me is sugar which I can still eat on a vegan diet of course! What I need to work on this year is curbing my sugar addiction. Now I know diet isn’t everything and thus upping my exercise is another thing I need to work on. Getting into a regular gym routine is back on the menu as well as making myself walk to work again rather than just hoping on the bus – this will also save me some pennies. So all in all, my resolution is to loose 2 more stone this year and keep them off.
Work On My Mental Health – I want to take more time for myself this year to work on myself. I know from previous experience that meditation works well to start my day on the right side of the bed and give me a more peaceful nights rest, so one goal is to start meditating in the mornings and evenings again. Another thing I want to work on is my anxiety, I want to learn to not let it hinder me from fulfilling my dreams.
Re-learn To Play The Cello – For Christmas I got the best surprise present ever, a cello on loan. I haven’t played the cello in over 6 years and so I want to make the most of this opportunity and re-learn how to play the cello maybe even take some lessons and really enjoy being able to make music again
Minimalise – Another big goal for this year is to become less attached to my possessions and slowly de-clutter and minimalise my belongings.
Start Saving – For the past few years I have had a deep urge to travel the world, but never managed to scrape quite enough together for a lengthy trip, so my last goal for this year is to begin a travelling fund!
Make More Time For Friends – Sadly so many of my best friends do not live close by, they are scattered across the UK from London to Edinburgh or even further afield like Germany and France. This means I rarely see them and I miss them greatly so I want to make a conscious effort this year to call more and hopefully actually visit them too.
Well there you have my main resolutions for 2018! I’m excited to start working on all of them and shall update you throughout the year as to how I am getting on! Did any of you make any resolutions for 2018 – I would love to know what goals you are working towards?!
I have seen a lot of these posts circulating and really wanted to write my own. This Christmas I wrote a letter to my friends and whilst updating them on what’s been going on in my life within the last year I realise how many wonderful events actually happened in 2017. I often allow the few bad spots to overshadow the good, but reminiscing has filled me with a happiness and positivity I now want carry into this new year. So anyway here are a few of my favourite events summed up through some photographs:
A trip to the Peak District with my German bestie
My best friend Emily’s Hen Do
Newcastle Pride with my work family
Having my French friend Nadia and her fiance visit me!
I’ve had a lovely couple of days off celebrating Christmas with friends and family. Being both German and Irish my Christmas traditions are a mixed bag and I love it. Here’s what I got up to.
I have always celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve – that’s the German tradition and I love it! This is the first year I have my own place and am not just home from uni for the holidays, so it was the first year I didn’t have a family breakfast on Christmas eve with my parents and sister. Instead I made a yummy brunch for Jessica and myself and we had a relaxing morning watching Santa Claus, drinking coffee and enjoying a cheeky sausage on avocado & egg toast.
After a lazy morning I packed all my things up to take to my parents later that day and got ready. I enjoyed the routine of glaming up and putting a full face of makeup on whilst listening to Christmas songs and feeling more festive with every song I sang along to. I decided to pair my LBD with a wine coloured polo neck as my parents house tends to be on the cold side compared to mine and then went for dangly earrings as a statement piece and dark lips to match the polo.
Just after 2pm my mum and sister picked me up and we went into Durham to go to the 3pm 9 lessons and carols service at the Cathedral. We didn’t stay for the full thing however as sadly being right at the back we could hardly hear and had to stand; however we did enjoy belting out some descants to our favourite carols before we left. As we’d left a bit earlier we decided to grab a coffee before heading home to give my dad a bit more time to rest because he wasn’t feeling great. We popped into Flat White in Durham and treated ourselves to some nice peanut butter bar thing too.
Finally it was time to head home and for me to see our Christmas tree for the first time!! I love our Christmas tree; we always get a real one and the pine just smells wonderful. After adding my presents to the pile under the tree I finished painting my nails (as I’d totally mis-planned my time getting ready earlier) and then we all sat down together for our Christmas Eve dinner. It was time for another first this year as we changed up our family traditional meal for some salmon with rice and salad. It was very tasty but I have to say I missed our usual Christmas eve meal.
After dinner we read the Christmas Story and sang some carols together in both English and German before sitting around the tree to open all our presents. We always take it in turns to open gifts so everyone sees what the other received and also so the process of opening gifts lasts as long as possible. About half way through we usually pause to make some tea and enjoy some Lebkuchen and Stollen some of our favourite German Christmas goodies. I’ll do a what I got for Christmas post soon, but for now I’ll just share my best present with you. I got a cello on loan!!! I haven’t played the cello in about 6 years as I’ve never owned my own instrument so when I stopped lessons after 9 years I had to return the cello to the music school. I’ve been itching to have another go at the cello for years now and so to finally be able to do this was the best present I could ask for – and it was a complete surprise! What made me even happier was that I remembered a lot more than I thought I had!
Eventually we were all tire and crept to bed, but not before filling each others stockings. You see with also being British we still get stockings and Santa on Christmas Day, even though Christmas eve is our main celebration. The last few years we started a new tradition where everyone in the family was responsible for one persons stocking, this year I had my mum. So the next morning I got everyone out of bed at around 9am – no more 6am wakeup calls like when I was younger, although I ma still always the first one up who gathers everyone together so that we can open our stockings together. Once opened we made breakfast and enjoyed a lazy morning. In the afternoon we went to pick up Jessica who was joining us for Christmas dinner and some games. It was a lovely afternoon which we ended with snuggling up to watch the Call The Midwives Christmas special before my sister drove Jessica and myself home.
On Boxing Day it was our turn to host and we invited my family over and my good friend Anna from work for a yummy spread, cocktails and games evening. We got stuck into Cluedo and Settlers which were both great fun!
So all in all it’s been a lovely couple of days relaxing and enjoying each others company with good food, drinks and lot’s of laughter. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!
I have been so excited to share this blog post with you! I am obsessed with homeware and just love decorating the house, so of course I get very excited about Christmas and can’t wait to make the house all festive. I do have a rule though that Christmas decorations can’t go up until December, however as I am now currently in northern Ireland, I did make an exception to this rule and started a little early.
The milk bottle ghosts and pumpkins have been taken down and the Christmas candles and decorations are slowly being put up. Here are some of the Christmasy bit’s and bobs my housemate Jessica and I picked up on our trip to Newcastle the other week:
Tealight holders £1.50 each Tiger – Cookie tin £3 Tiger – Napkins £1 Tiger
These are only the first few Christmasy decorations we bought and I can’t wait to buy some more bits and bobs, put the tree up and finish decorating the house! Have any of you started decorating yet??
Firstly, I am so sorry that I have been MIA recently! I have now finally got the internet back and will be trying to get back to blogging regularly again!
As you know I spent the last month being vegan. I really enjoyed the challenge and only caved once to have a nibble, literally a teeny bite of an egg and of a teeny bite of a slice of salami. However although I managed pretty well I did miss certain things, or rather a month without was fine, but a forever without stresses me a little aha. Thus I have decided for now to allow myself the occasional exception, eg. 1 croissant a month and a dippy egg or something.
You may think well that’s not being vegan and no, it isn’t being 100% vegan, but you know what, I am still proud of myself for the changes I have made so far. Leading a mostly vegan diet is still making a bigger impact on my health, the environment and animal welfare than if I hadn’t made any changes at all! I used to eat a lot of meat and dairy and I do hope that I will eventually become 100% vegan, just not right now.
So here just a couple of my Vegan meals from the last month:
As you can tell from the title this blog post is about dairy, and by dairy I mean milk products, not eggs.
For years I have now been having stomach problems, some bloating but mostly sudden extreme stomach cramps which end in explosive diarrhoea (sorry for the visuals aha but just being honest). These stomach problems have built up such an anxiety in me that I now have a fear of travelling or being in situations where there’s no toilets about in case I get these stomach cramps which I can’t control. This is making my life very restrictive, like when I go to the theatre or cinema I need to have a aisle seat, and even the smallest 20min walks in unknown places can make my anxiety rise dramatically!
Anyway, I have been to the doctors twice and they started looking into things with a blood and stool test, but nothing was really found and then I went away volunteering in November and when I came back in December I moved house, so I’ve not been to continue the testing yet, but I really want an allergy/intolerance test! Yes I know I could lead a food diary and I have tried that in the past, but it’s soo difficult to keep up with and I’ve always given up.
For a couple of months now I have been reducing my dairy intake by substituting milk for almond milk and not eating much cheese or obviously chocolate (ass it contains too much sugar) anymore and I do think it has made a difference. For example, on Easter Sunday, I indulged in chocolate and in the afternoon/evening I got a really bad stomach. Another time I had broccoli cheese and half an hour later I was on the toilet for like 20 minutes aha. So although I have never been tested for lactose intolerance, I am pretty sure I am. My stomach is definitely better when I avoid dairy, so I am taking the plunge and going completely milk free, well mostly aha.
I am now sticking to almond or soya milk, both unsweetened of course to avoid unnecessary sugars, I use dairy free butter/a sunflower spread and I actually rather like the vegan cheese I’ve been using. However I will still occasionally have a croissant or a pizza, luckily shop bought ones are usually not covered in cheese so its not an overdose like it would be on a takeaway pizza or something. I will see how my stomach continues. I definitely think there’s other things out there that don’t agree with my gut either. I will keep you updated!
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