Hello! So, i’m beginning to settle into my new flat. My flatmates so far are quite cool :) Happy to report that i did a major grocery shop yesterday and got lots of very deliciousss and nutritioussss things :D My favourite thusfar being the vanilla chai tea …mmmmmmmmmmmmm
i still have some work to do putting clothes away, but after that i’ll be ready to decorate which i’m very excited for!!!

i just ate a very delicious lunch ( two mini spinach, hummous, red pepper and onion wraps, a small portion of vanilla soy yoghurt with blackberries, and some raw broccoli :) ) but have yet to get things moving on the exercise front. I’m thinking i’ll try going for a jog either tomorrow or monday morning and continue throughout the week,and hopefully get an idea of when the gym will be available for use :)
currently my scale is still at my old house, so i have to make some time to go get that. Once i do i think ‘ll take new progress pictures for my starting point and report my weight back to you guys! Since i’ve been here (arrived wednesday) my eating has been kinda weird :P after being on the plane i felt icky with no appetite so i didnt eat much for a couple days. Then i ate some things here and there but some of it was junky/not very healthy so meh. It’s also the brink of shark week so i’m feeling a little larger than normal! in any case i’m not really sure where i’m at weight wise but for now i dont mind. I know it’s only going to get better from here :D

Hopefully i’ll be doing some cooking experimentation soon! It’s a little harder for me to post pictures this year cause there isnt any wifi in the building, hence i cant just post from my phone as i usually do. But good news for you guys, just means i’ll have to use my good camera to take pictures and stop being lazy! I also intend on starting to track my food, probably will start doing so tomorrow. 

anyway that’s my update for now. Thanks for being patient! 

p.s. picture is me with my new eco bottle that my halls gave me <3

So! yesterday didnt quiteeee go as planned…because i fell of twice :P that’s okay though, it was my fault. besides that though me and leaf did quite well considering what we were up against! We got a few fourths and a fifth or two so i was pretty pleased :) Had to say goodbye to everyone cause i wont be seeing them till december so that was kinda sad! :(
To recharge after a long day of horses i had a massiveeeeee salad (romaine lettuce, spinach, kale & some onion!) with some Chick n’ thrown in for a little extra protein/deliciousness. i forgot how much i loooooooveeeee leaves and green things :) makes me excited to get back to Manchester and veg out my kitchen. which in turn makes me excited to really jazz up my blog with all the stuff i’m gonna cook! I’m on the committee for the veg and vegan society this year which is so awesome :D it’s the first year our uni is having one and i can’t wait to be a part of it and really contribute to the kinda stuff we get to plan. My role is somewhat undefined for now but hopefully it’ll become more clear where my niche is as time goes on. I’ve already been recommended some new veg cafe’s to try out, and have a big book of recipes begging to be tried (veganomicon, anyone?) 
on the fit front, as i’ve been cheering about all along i cant wait to get back and start running again, and also get registered for the gym that’s in my halls :) my goal for now is 5 days a week of at least 30 minutes of exercise.
Mini goals : hold a 5 second handstand (kick up, away from wall), continue progress with my tucked planche (eventually handstand raise) , and when possible start cranking out some pullups. That goal is to be able to do more than one first of all :L 
all of these are very upper body oriented, but that’s where i’ve always been weakest so may as well get to work. Will probably adopt my 20 pushups a day once again! I’m also gonna look into maybe making a schedule of pop pilates workouts to incorporate each day to work on my core, cause sore abs are always a plus!

i got sooo many cute new clothes that i really wanna show you guys, it may have to wait until i move in to school though. but srsly they are so motivating to workout and eat perfect, they already look great on me [/conceited] so i cant wait to see how much better they will look once i start getting into a healthy routine :D 

anywayyyy i’ll quite rambling and get to packing! 

Me at my competition today!!! i came first overall for the individuals AND our team came first even though we were in last place after the dressage!! what a comeback :D

It’s been a long time… i shouldn’t have left you

a long time it has been indeed. we’ve got quite a ways to catch up on my tumblrian friends, and i am finally in the mood to begin this process.

i will begin with the fantastic show that EMA and Zola Jesus put on in Manchester on the 24th of november. Sadly i forgot my camera so i have nothing to show for this :( Was really amazing all around though, of that i am certain! EMA was mesmerizing and played a few tracks i hadn’t heard before- and i loved them! She seemed really cool and down to earth, and was very tolerant of one of the boisterous crowd members up front :P I’d see her again in a heartbeat, and i think Luke would say the same.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Zola. Her albums were awesome, but i didn’t know them very well for the short time i’d been listening to her. 
i can say that i was very very happily surprised!! Her performance was nothing short of hypnotising, and her voice sounded exactly as it did on her record- completely amazing, if you’re not familiar! Her energy filled the room and got everyone moving- especially when she jumped down into the crowd and danced with us :L It was surreal. Overall it was a great night, worth beyond what i paid- which was around 10 pounds or so.
here’s some video clips from the night :D 

EMA - Anteroom

Zola Jesus jumping into the audience …you can actually see me and luke behind her at ~2:19 xD  here’s a screenshot:

After that adventure, we went back to my place and Luke mustered up the courage to go with me on skype to my family :D which turned out quite successful. he was quiet, but my family is talkative and loud anyway so it was hard to get a word in :P

The next day Luke was lovely enough to accompany me to my lectures before heading to the supermarket to get ready to make our day-late thanksgiving dinner. Completely vegan =o it was a slightly daunting task to make the menu at first but it ended up working out decently. We slaved away cooking for a few hours and ended up with:
-nice bread rolls with soya butter for appetiser/snack while we cooked
-Lentil and Rice Loaf as the main attraction. This turned out kinda meh and bland, but wasnt gross or anything. just not the most exciting thing on the plate!
-Fresh cooked vegetables, including carrots, peas, and green beans.
-Mashed potatoes with a bit of pepper, garlic, soya butter, and soy milk to make them nice and creamy :) and a hefty serving of salt courtesy of Luke :L
- all with a bit of (watery, woops) non-meat-derived gravy drizzled on top

and finally for dessert…..a freshly made vegan apple crumble :D

i felt like i was gonna explode when we were done. in the best way possible. it’d been ages since i had a big proper meal like that, and it felt good…in a slightly gross but satisfying way. maybe it’s an american thing :L

Friday night we ended up going out to a club, weird as that sounds. And it turned out being pretty decent, despite not being what we came for xD it was a small place with 3 different rooms -a lot of funk and old school hip hop (Luke was delighted) and then some random oldies-ish songs on one of the other floors, and on the top floor was house music and such. The cocktails were very nice but very expensive >_> expensive for a cheap student like me, anyway. nevertheless we got quite happily intoxicated and had a nice night :) originally we were looking for a Mod night, which was what this was meant to be, but it seemed that we were lied to and/or went to the wrong venue :L alas

since then i’ve booked my flight home (20th december) and have been to Luke’s place in Doncaster this past weekend. He took me to a surprise place, which turned out to be a cool wooded area with trails and stuff :D it was really fun! i filmed some stuff for him and played around on the trees and logs and stuff, and even went for a little jog :P We listened to a lot of beatles over the weekend as well, and i got a 100% on the music test that Luke administered on friday evening :D somehow….ha

Being vegan has been going pretty well, if you dont count the weekends… </3 i know i’m bad :( need to crack down. i ammm going to be veggie for christmas and holidays just as a bit of a cheat so i can enjoy them a bit more :P but besides that, full time vegan. Luke lent me a recipe book and we’ve tried some new things which i’ve been adding to my own personal vegan cookbook. It’s been really fun, and i’m learning to enjoy cooking quite a bit! We are currently working on our christmas dinner menu :) i’ll post it when it becomes finalised ;)

i’ll post some pictures and maybe a video clip or two of this past weekend :) beyond that stuff, i cant think of much more to add. School is going well, just preparing for the dreaded exams :P i can see my breath in my room every night…sucks. might get a space heater. Have to do so much xmas shopping ;_;

speaking of i asked for a new camera for christmas so hopefuly it’s really nice <333
guess that’s all for now from me anyway!
peace 

Anniversary in Sheffield :) Luke and Lacey one year and counting ^_^ look how cute he isssss
city is pretty great too ;) 

that’s right

back.

So it has been an enormously stressful first week-ish back in the land of the Mancunians, but i am finally out of the woods. After 4 sleepless nights, a shitton of biology, an anxiety attack/mental breakdown, a week of waiting nervously and some mitigating circumstances forms, i am officially a zoology student at the University of Manchester. thank fuck for that.

In between the anxiety and the mitigating circumstances i spent several days with my lovely english boyfriend. The reunite went wonderfully and all of tumblr can b’aww when i tell you that he took me out to dinner at an adorable little italian restaurant where we ate pizza and sipped cappuccinos and talked about learning french (among other things) :) My days spent with him were stress-free and left me floating on cloud 9 despite all of the scary things i was dealing with at the time.

Before i expand on the french thing, let me just add that i have been staying all by my lonesome in my new house because no one else has moved in yet :P Luckily Luke did keep me company for a majority of this time so it’s all good. People will be moving in Monday so just a few more days of loneliness! i’m sure i’ll be missing the peace and quiet very much once everyone else arrives, though. 

anyway, french! My boy and i decided we wanted to learn a language together. (because we’re adorable, etc) it was between french and italian, and after heavy deliberation, french became the victor. He’s already got quite a bit under his belt so i’m playing catch-up atm :P the goal is to go to paris in the spring and put the french to use. can’t wait! i’ve been really wanting to go to Paris since i started here, as it’s quite close and a relatively inexpensive venture. of course i’ll take a billion pictures and post like 5 on here.

my musical interest has also been reignited for the first time in ages, as i bought 4 CDs for myself this past week when typically i come home empty handed. My purchases include:

Sam Duckworth - The Mannequin (just came out, really enjoyed it! love me some sam)

The XX - xx (recommended by my best friend, chilled out, very sweet, and lovely)

The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar (Prefer the EP ‘a balloon called moaning’, but if you dont mind heavier sounding stuff it’s got some real catchy tracks and abstract but pretty lyrics)

 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (i’ve listened to this for the past few years but never owned the CD. Good, upbeat, fun)

So all in all a successful week for music!

We also visited a shop called Forbidden Planet, which is a geek’s paradise. I loved every minute of it though! The downstairs area had a huge selection of manga and comic books and other sorts of graphic novels. The idea of kicking back with an old school spiderman comic or something really appeals to me, and i’m interested in possibly picking up some manga. The artwork has always interested me but i’ve typically shied away since at home it was always kinda “weird” if you were into that stuff. Even though i’ve been told it’s not real anime, i adored the Avatar the Last Airbender series and still rewatch episodes to this day :L it’s so good! I also watched Death Note over winter break last year, as well as a few other notable series. So i see a lot more of this Forbidden Planet store in my future, maybe get my hands on some comic books and be a proper geek in my spare time :P

Being back in england has been awesome, despite the stressful moments. Loving being in the culture and the accents and just like…everything. I’m a minority again! it certainly brings out another side of me, hard to pinpoint what exactly, but it’s a nice side. Plus the independence is nice.  Just sucks to have to pay for things again! I’m looking for a job, we will see how that goes. “Hi I dont have any UK references and i cant work weekends and only a few hours during the week. hire me?” worth a try eh :P

lastly i miss riding! i saw some signs with horses on them near my house, i might head down the road to see if there’s a farm or something. Would just be cool to pet the horses and stuff, i miss them. Riding for Uni doesnt start until october :(

well it’s late now so i am off to bed. tomorrow i will finally unpack all of my clothes and settle into my room, put up pictures and whatnot to make it less bland. i’ll take a picture when my room nears completion.

p.s. Get cape concert on september 30th yessssssssssssssss <3

That’s kinda what it’s starting to feel like. Unless the impending hurricane throws me off, (please please please no :( ) i’m flying back to manchester on saturday evening.

i’m so mentally unprepared o.o gonna do some studying today, organise my clothes, maybe wash them….i was terrible about washing clothes when i was at uni. i think i have a washer/dryer in my house this year so that will encourage me to actually do some washing. Last year it cost me like £10 each time i did it, and i wasnt a fan of spending the money xD

i dont really believe that i’m going back yet,in my head. which is making it difficult to feel the pressure to get everything done! On the exciting side of things i did some major shopping yesterday with my mum at Kittery outlets in Maine. Finally got my hands on some yoga pants (i was seriously missing out. SO COMFY. definitely wearing on the plane.) a few pairs of tights, some adorable pinstriped shorts from banana republic, and this poncho-type thing which i fell in love with at J.Jill. I’m not really one for brand names, but it was awesome to find some pretty high quality clothing for not an absurd amount of money. Maybe i’ll do a post after this and model some of my finds :L 

i saw these clip-in feather things for hair at pacsun, which i didnt buy cause i wasn’t 100% sure they were synthetic, but it gave me an idea of how to make my own. It’s not all that difficult to find feathers outside, i already have a few. Washed of course. If i succeed in making one i’ll post it with a little how-to :)

anyway, i am very excited to get back to manchester. to be in a city in general, really. I miss the buses and all the busy streets and riding on trains and all my friends…and the englishness of it all :L and i cant forget one of my most missed people, my boyfriend, who will be coming to see me the day i get back :D it has been a much anticipated reunion to say the least. I can’t wait to go to HMV again and start buying some more music! And to move into my new house! And to take my resit exams!

just kidding on the last one. i’m dreading it.

well, i will update as soon as i’ve got some free time back in Manchester. Or whilst i’m sitting in Newark airport crying over my flight and this stupid hurricane.

meanwhile, hang tight for my ‘Lacey models her new clothes’ post :P

yay for riding :) this was a warm up course at the club horse show. we did a relay rae afterwards, but i didnt get that part on video :( anyway, enjoy! :D

the horse i got was sooooo lovely. not to mention gorgeous o.o

Pictures taken and edited by me :) it was through glass so please excuse any strange lighting that might be going on.

oh yeah. i’m gettin good.