Married life is bliss

We have also settled into our new home having spent an extremely tricky couple of years trying to sell flats in a stale housing market.

So, it’s just great to be able to concentrate on enjoying our spare time and relaxing instead of fretting about legal fees, battling with unpacked boxes and signing endless cheques.

Yes, post-wedding/moving life is fantastic. I’ve been learning how to cook-no I don’t mean my trademark fishfinger sandwiches and I’ve tried my hand at baking.

On the cooking front, so far I’ve mastered lasagne, fish pie and our new slow cooker has proved  priceless as cooking stews has never been so easy.

For Valentine’s Day I made heart-shaped chocolate chip shortbread biscuits (delicious but admittedly corny) and despite the first round going completely wrong forming one huge mass (too much sugar), my second attempt was smashing.

I think my target for March is a meat and potato pie and some sort of indulgent dessert.

As well as having the time to spend learning new skills in the kitchen, I’ve been plotting some pretty exciting things for the garden.

Fortunately for me both my dad ’Gary Greenfingers’ and father-in-law (not forgetting the mums of course) are expert gardeners and have been helping me plan.

I don’t do things by halves either. I’m hoping to create a flower arch, tiered cascading flower border and dot brightly coloured tubs and pots in all corners.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when the snowdrops we planted last year poked through the soil - I made the mistake of not planting them in groups though so the sole stems look a little lost.

There are more shoots poking through as well. I can’t quite remember what they are - I think they are mini daffodils and crocuses. I’ll probably get into trouble with Gary and the garden police for unorganised borders!

As well as trying my hand at gardening, I’ve looked into starting flower arranging classes. Ever since I worked in a florists as a teenager, I’ve had a passion for flower arranging and now I have some spare time out of work I’ve decided to take it up.

Picking the flowers for the wedding was one of my favourite bits and I would love to have the ability to recreate some of the amazing designs I saw.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy a night out-in fact I was partying in Pop and Liquid just the other weekend.

But it’s the things that I never seemed to have time for in previous years that are really making me smile and housewife extraordinaire Anthea Turner better watch her back!