Sentimentalities part 2

At the weekend my Mum brought over for me something very special indeed. I remember this being with my Gran all of the time since I was really really tiny. She would always wear it. I don't think she ever took it off - she wore it day and night and it was something very special to her.

It's this locket.

The outside still looks exactly as I remembered it from when she would wear it all the time. It's a bit grubby and looking slightly closer at it its actually bent across the middle but I think it's perfect. I really love it and can't believe that I have actually been given it.

Inside, I remember there was always a photo of my Grandad that she would hold so close to her. From what I remember it was always a lovely photo of him standing just outside their patio door at their house in his garden which he was always so immensely proud and fond of.

When I got the locket I have to admit I was ever so slightly disappointed as you could only vaguely make out the outline of my Grandad in the photo. It had acquired so many years and years of muck and dirt which formed a layer over the picture and made it difficult to make it out too well.

I could still tell that it was him and that it was definitely the photo that I remembered as you could still make out the patio door in the background but it seemed such a shame that it looked all scratched and scraped to pieces. Realistically it's almost impossible to even see that it is my Grandad in there if you didn't know that it were.

I know that it can't be helped and I was just pleased to have the locket to be honest. I guess it is lots of years old so I can't expect it to be perfect.

Just as I had put the locket away, my hubby had an idea that it might actually not be the photo that was damaged and that it might just be covered in a layer of the years and years of dirt and grime that it has probably gathered, especially as my Gran wasn't too well for a number of years before she passed away.

He asked if I wouldn't mind and I said that as long as I had the photo above, before he did anything with it, then I was happy for him to give it a gentle go at trying to clean up the picture a little bit. He actually used just a tiny amount of my facewash to clean it on some little cotton buds. It's fairly gentle so we hoped that it wouldn't damage the photo too much. After such a gentle clean, it has turned out pretty well. I couldn't quite believe the difference it had made when I saw it.

There he is! That's my Grandad!

I am so pleased with it. You can see that there is still some dirt around the edges but I would never be too sure with something of this age if that was all that was actually holding the photo in! I daren't clean too much off it for now. Maybe I will have another go some other time if I am feeling brave.

I have thought about cleaning up the outside too. I might give it a gentle clean as we have done with the photo but I don't want to clean it properly with silver polish or anything like that and make it look too good. I love that it looks a bit battered and well loved. It really was!

I'm so pleased now as well that it can be well loved again. I know that I probably will never actually wear it but I like that I have it and can look at it whenever I want to. It's got to be better than it being stuck in a box in someones loft and never being looked at or appreciated.

Do you have any family heirlooms that you have received or that you know will be passed on to you?  I would never wish to have any of these things as I never want to think of any of my friends or relatives not being around but I do love that in this instance I really have something very special to remember my Gran and my Grandad with.

Sentimentalities part 1

Recently I have been becoming a little bit sentimental. I'm not sure what's brought it on really - perhaps I'm just getting older or I am seeing some changes in people that make me really appreciate what I have and how lucky I am, or something, I'm not sure. But anyway there have been a few things that I have wanted or got recently that I have acquired for sentimental reasons.

I think there will be a series of posts about the sentimental bits that I have acquired but here's the first instalment for you today.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to take a day trip up to Yorkshire - our favourite place. I had an appointment up there mid afternoon but that gave me just enough time to pop into the best pub in the world as it opened for a drink and my lunch.

I got to see the Moors at their best with the heather out which I had never seen before. I couldn't believe how purple it was everywhere. The camera really didn't do it justice at all but it's the best that I have that I can show you.

I started off with the whole pub all to myself. Unfortunately as I made the trip on my own I was on soft drinks.

 I got my lunch - definitely the best butties in the world.

And well and truly stocked up on sweets from the shop next door before I set off back on my travels.

My appointment was in Pickering which is a small town not too far away. I got there in plenty of time and got parked up leaving me still with some time for a wander around the shops. I'm not sure what it is with this part of the world but there seems to be a good second hand book shop in almost every village and town.

I remember when I was a kid my Nan loved Rupert. She used to save me the comic strips out of the news paper every day/week until I would go in the school holidays to stay with her and we could read them together.

I know that she did have at least one of the annuals as well, I am not sure if there were more. In the little shop in Pickering I had a look through at the annuals they had. They had several different Rupert ones so I couldn't resist buying a few.

It's the one in the middle of this picture that I definitely remember Nan having and me reading with her when I was really small. I don't recognise the other two covers so I am not sure if Nan would have had these or not. I'm looking forward to having a read through these. I think it will just be a nice chill out time and it won't matter really how long I have as they are all really short stories with lots of pictures. The joys of comics! I've not really read comics much but I am looking forward to it.

While I was there I also found this series of books - His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. I remember reading these as a young teenager and I know that the final one was the first (and if I remember correctly, the only) book that has ever made me cry at the end. I remember being in absolute floods trying to hide from my mum and dad and get through the final chapter, struggling to read it through the tears that were streaming down my face.

Again, I am looking forward to re-reading them. I guess I'll see if they still invoke the same emotional response in me at the end as they did when I was younger.

Have you ever read a book that you have been so engrossed in that you actually are brought to tears?
Do you have any memories similar to mine of your grandparents that you will treasure forever?

I want to make the most of my Nan now while she is still around and make some more of these kinds of memories with her as I guess I will have to admit at some point that she will not be around forever.
Treasure every moment that you have with your friends and relatives as you never know what time you may have. We all need to make every day count. Take care and I hope you're having a good week.

It's all over / half way done

Well, last night I finally gave in and we watched the last few episodes of Awkward. It was a good ending and everything finished as it should have done really. There were no silly outrageous plot lines made up just to try to finish everything off. It was all tidied up very nicely but you were left guessing a little bit but also left to believe that the right thing would happen eventually and everyone would be happy.

There will be that gap in our lives now tonight - I'm not totally sure what is really going to fill it as we were so invested in those characters but I'm sure there will some new characters and therefore new people that we feel like we will get to know in whatever we decide to watch next.

So last night was a little bit emotional. I knew that I would be upset anyway just that it was over - I know I'm pathetic like that but there was also the soppy ending (or nearly soppy ending that turned out good anyway) that I wanted. To distract myself just a little bit, I picked up my crochet and at some points had to REALLY concentrate on what I was doing with it (not at all a distraction to stop me crying, honest!)

I have been wanting to catch up with this for a long time now and I wouldn't say that I am fully there but at least I am half way. I managed to catch up with the rows to the end of June and that means to the end of this piece at least. For those of you that haven't ready my blogs from the beginning, or at least for a fair while, the last few years I have been crocheting a row a day with the colour depending on the temperatures for the day. The post that I have linked to later on explains how I have worked out the temperatures but here also is a picture of the page in my BuJo that I record it all.

For 3 months, I use the high temperature of the day, 3 months the low temperature and the remaining 6 months I use an average to determine which colour to crochet my row. Once I have done my row for each day I then colour in the corresponding square in my book too to show that I have done it.

I think the crochet's looking pretty good so far this year. This shows up to the end of June.

The colours really have changed from the beginning of the year with the purples and blues to June being a lot of red (we had a really warm week) and orange.

Let's see how it compares to last year. Here is the same blog post basically but from last year which also explains the scale for the colours too if you're interested.

I guess I didn't finish the ends of the runner off in quite the same way last year - there is more of a white border this year but otherwise they are looking pretty similar. I guess we had slightly more really cold weather this year (less than 0) as there is a bit more purple in this years runner, although having said that last year it maintained the cold for longer periods when it did get down that low.

There seems to be a bit more green in the middle this year so perhaps it was slightly warmer around March/April time this year. The summer is looking pretty similar too really. Again maybe slightly warmer for longer this year as there is a bigger red block I think but only slightly.

I love the way that they turn out and both look very similar but also that little bit different too each time I make them.

Looking at these does remind me that I really need to get a move on with sewing last years crochet strips together into a cushion cover. I think I have managed to sew in all of the ends already which is an achievement in itself so now all I have to do is to sew the two strips together and then fold it into a cushion cover. I will make that my mission over the next few weeks so that I can show you a finished product and before I end up getting the 3 strips in a muddle. I only have photos to distinguish which is which so the muddling is a distinct possibility.

When I've made them up into cushion covers I think I should sew a year into them or something to show when they are from. Or maybe I should use funky buttons for the years. Ooh - I might need ideas for this one. If anyone has any suggestions then please let me know what I can use to differentiate.

Does anyone else do anything to distract themselves while they're watching TV? I know that I much prefer crafts that I can do on the sofa to ones that I have to go and hide away in another room to do, although I guess sometimes they do have their uses.

Awkward!

Following on from the TV shows and movies post from a couple of days ago, I decided to make this spread in my BuJo.

I added pictures from the series and filled the rest of the space with definitions too. As it's about teenage kids and at that, American teenage kids there are lots of abbreviations used to describe things that without this, I would be far too old and uncool to understand!

They didn't quite all fit onto the one double page spread so I added an extra piece of paper to increase the space for the remaining definitions.

And a second onto this for the final few.

I know I shouldn't be enjoying this show as much as I am but it is definitely a guilty pleasure at the minute.

We have now got to the final series of the show so there are only a few episodes left. I think that we are both dreading getting to the end.

I know that I am dreading it anyway, not only because I still want to know what's going to happen. I feel like I am invested in these characters now and I want to know what happens to them in the future. Do you ever get so into a TV show where you almost feel like you are living a life with them and you are a part of their group of friends? I don't want to just leave it with them going off to college and then not know what happens with the rest of their lives.

Also, when you get really invested in a program and you watch it so regularly, do you ever find that it leaves a hole in your life once that show has finished? I know that we end up feeling a little bit lost and not really sure what to do with ourselves for a while until we find something to fill that gap. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to overcome that gap?

Have a good weekend all.

Nothing better than a good movie night

We have a lot of catching up to do - again, I have left this for ages and haven't managed to write. I have a list so we are all good. I will get there eventually!

I'll start with a really really old update - we made these almost a year ago now when we had a clear out and wanted to make a bit of space around the house. We love our DVDs/Blu Rays and have quite a few.

In their boxes and subsequently in DVD racks in the living room then later taking up a whole book shelf in our spare room, it was just getting a bit silly with the amount of space they were taking up.

Our solution was to throw out the boxes and store all of the actual disks in a big disk box.

We do however loan out a lot of our disks and weren't sure how this was going to work without any boxes so we did keep a few and make them into these.

Welcome to Happy Henlow Crafts rental store!

Red boxes can be for DVDs as that is what we have the most of and yellow for Blu Ray.

We also kept a couple of double boxes for those movies that span more than one disk or for loaning out series'.

So this leads to a few questions that I have for you guys out there:
What is your favourite movie? You know the one that you turn to whenever you need a little comfort watching - the one that makes you laugh and cry and altogether somehow make you feel better about yourself. I have to answer with 2 different films for this question. It has to be Pretty Woman and Coyote Ugly. Both make me laugh and cry, sing and always come out of the other side feeling much better.
What was the last movie that you watched? Mine is Harry Potter - we are working through the full series again at the minute. We have watched the first 3 films so far and number 4 will hopefully be over the weekend.
What are you watching at the minute? Are you watching a series on TV or catchup. We're watching and American sitcom called Awkward. It's a bit of a guilty little secret. It shouldn't be good but I will have to admit, we are totally hooked!

Sometimes there is nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a good movie or TV show. Have a good week and enjoy the time that you have to chill out.

New carry bag for BuJo supplies

I saw this advertised on Facebook of all places. It was one of those things that popped up in the news feed of one of the groups that I follow. Normally I would just scroll past this kind of thing thinking that it is someone just trying to sell something that I clearly wouldn't want but on this occasion something made me stop for a second and look a little closer.

The person who was saying about it wasn't a store and therefore it wasn't his/her product that was being sold. They were actually saying that they were someone who had got this and had liked it independently of the store itself.

It was only after seeing a few very similar posts that I thought I would look a little closer as it possibly wasn't even the shop owners mate posting about the product.

When I read the post properly, I saw that magical word that everyone likes to see...

...FREE!!!...

Awesome! That had definitely convinced me to go for it.

When I linked onto the website there were a number of products on there that were very similar to this one and that were all being sold very legitimately. They actually all looked very similar if not identical (I guess the sizing was slightly different but that's all I could fathom was the difference) to the one that was at this point in time, free.

So it could all still have been a big scam. It wasn't totally free, I still had to pay postage and it was coming from the states so it wasn't just a pound or so.

I only had to sit with fingers and toes crossed for a few days before it turned up. A lot quicker than I was expecting and it looked pretty good.

Now for the fun part - filling it!

It didn't take me long to figure out that I was going to use it for my BuJo (bullet journal for those who are new to my blog) and all of my writing supplies.

The book itself - well the one that I am going to use to record my 30 before 30 anyway and some spare paper (you never know when you might need it) went into this big central pocket. I was pleased that there was also space in there to store all of my pretty wash tapes that I use for decorating the edges of my pages too. I know it sounds daft but they are a bit of a weird shape to store so I hadn't quite figured out the best way to store them up until now. This doesn't leave quite as much space as I would like for other things - it would have been nice to be able to keep my daily journal, iPad and kindle in here too but I guess there isn't really any need as they will always be in my handbag and with me anyway.

There was a little space in here for me to add my holiday postcards from my trip away the other weekend too. Lastly in this central section, I added a little ring binder clip to one of the handles and made a shorter piece of the plait that I had used to tie the postcards together. Hopefully I can add a different coloured piece for each trip away that we go on as another little memento of the trip.

The zipper sections down each side I used to keep my pens in - one side for the finalisers that I use in my journal everyday and the other for the brush pens that I got for my birthday and so far have just used for the fancy lettering on the front postcard of my last trip away.

It really has filled up fast but is a really useful little bag. It has made it a lot easier to keep all of my pens and everything together. I was quickly outgrowing my normal pencil case to keep these in. I love that it means everything is in one place and it's so easy to carry as well.

Lastly I have stuffed the smaller, outside pockets with the other little bits of stationary that I might need as well as things that are waiting to go in my journal or to be kept someone safe as memories.

I know that this isn't one of my most exciting of blogs so if you have got this far then thank you and well done!

I hope you are all having a good week and I will see you again soon.

Treats from Heather

This is a really delayed blog writing and post - sorry Heather!

It was actually at my Dad's birthday party back in May that I saw an old family friend who I have not seen for a really long time. She's one of those people though that you can not see for years - it literally has been as the last time I saw her was, I think at my wedding which was almost 6 years ago now - but you can still pick up where you left off as if no time has been spent in between.

She is also amazing with all of the things that she makes. I think this might be where I have got a lot of my crafty-ness from. I spent a lot of time, during school holidays etc around at Heathers house making things when I was a kid. There would always be something new to make each time I saw her and she would always have a new toy!

When I saw her a couple of months ago she came bearing gifts! Exciting considering it wasn't my birthday and yes, I did check, they were definitely intended for me rather than Dad.

My first prezzy was in this little red bag.

I wasn't sure what it was to start with but when you look through it, all becomes clear...

It's a kaleidoscope! And how pretty is it too?! Heather has carved the cream surround herself on her lathe. I haven't looked through one of these for years too - this one has little multi-coloured beads inside and is really really pretty when you look through it.

My other prezzy was this.

I think that this has to be the nicest and prettiest pen that I have ever owned. It's really heavy and feels dead nice and posh to write with it. If I'm honest, I never really thought that I would have a "favourite" or a "good" or "nice" pen. I just never really thought that I was a posh pen kind of person - I know some people love their parkers or whatever but I've just never really been into that kind of thing. I have to say though - this might have changed my mind. It is really special.

Here's a bit of a closer look:

It's so colourful and pretty!

I love the material that Heather has used to make it - again turned on her lathe - and the best thing. It's called Heather!

Thank you very much to a very special friend and I hope, even though I am now that bit older and don't need babysitting during the school holidays, we can have another crafty day at some time again soon. There will be hundreds of new toys that you've got and I would love to have a play with since I last saw you!

Hold on to those special people in your lives folks - if you have some friends that you've not spoken to for a while - now is the perfect time to pick up that phone and to make that call to them just to say hello. If they're a really good friend then you won't even notice that the pair of you haven't spoken for a while.

A complete collection

So in my last blog post I was talking about collecting things. I was talking about collecting memories really more than anything last time - things that provided reminders of trips away and of things that I have done.

The collection that I am talking about today is a little bit different as it's something that can actually be completed.

I am not sure how many of you have collected things before, when you were a kid - I know I did. I tried to collect the full set of Tazos (I'm not even sure if that's how you spelt it!) and had the collectors book and everything for those. Do you remember them - I think they were out of crisp packets or something and were little cardboard disks basically with pictures on. I know that I never got anywhere near collecting them all though. With all of these collectable things there always seems to be some of the items that are "rare" and are really hard to get hold of. I think they were always shiny ones or something like that in the Tazos. Those that had a kind of glittery, sparkly picture on them.

Oooh - as I'm writing this I'm thinking of other things as well. They were almost the same as Tazos but around the same time there were also Pog's. I don't know if there was ever even a complete list anywhere of all of those. I'm sure there were millions of them. I don't even know if there was a collector book for them either.

So the collectable of the year, at least for me anyway, has been Lego cards. They are little cards, each with a picture of a different lego mini-figure on them. There are 140 in total and have been a big craze to try to get them all.

There is a collector book that you can put them all in - and I have to say that it is a lot more sensible than I remember them being in the past. I'm sure you used to have to stick in other collections like this - when the boys used to collect football cards and things, I'm sure that they were stickers that you had to peel back and stick into the book. This book is really good - it has little slits in the corners where you are supposed to put the cards in so all you have to do is to slot the corners through the holes to keep them in. They can then also be easily removed then if you ever wanted and it doesn't detract in any way from the collection if you stick them in a bit wonky or anything.

The other thing that I love about this collection, is that it essentially is FREE to collect the cards! This is really good for me and my husband - I know it would be really difficult to restrain ourselves from buying more and more packets if we were close to completing our collection. I can't imagine how bad this kind of thing would be if you had kids collecting.

We were very lucky in that Adam's Aunty Sarah actually works for Sainsbury's and was able to get the book for us (and a few cards!) to help us along the way to getting our set, but also we have a Sainsbury's very locally to us that we use fairly often so we have been able to get a lot of cards from doing our shopping there too.

We saved up a number of cards until we got the book and knew what we were aiming for so here is the first grand opening of the packets to start off the filling of our book

We ended up with a number of swaps as we were trying to collect the full set. There were a lot of packets that we got that had the same cards in as we already had got in our book.

This is when you end up starting what feels like a new language. Both me and my husband have been asking our mates (most of who have been collecting the cards for their kids I have to admit!) if they have any swaps for us. We would be sending messages such as "we need 23, 67, 129, 135 and 140, which do you need?" It's all complete gobildy gook really but I guess as long as we understand what we mean then that's all that matters.

It's been, I guess, a couple of months now since we started collecting these and I am pleased to say (probably a bit too pleased!) that we have now got a full set!

The book is looking considerably fatter than when we first got it!

We have quite a few spares as well from where we have opened packets and there were some in there that we already had. This isn't even all of them as we have given a lot away - one of my friends has just started collecting them (for her kid - or at least so she says) so I gave her one set of all of the ones that we had the other day.

I know it is pretty ridiculous but I have got a big sense of accomplishment from completing a collection.

Can you all let me know what you collect? Have you ever got a complete set of anything? Or are you collecting something where there will never be an end to it?

Holiday diary postcards

Again I have been really poorly organised again and haven't managed to blog for a while. I have quite a few things lined up to tell you about but as I haven't written about them in the right order, the people that know what happened and when will know that some things are pretty delayed. Sorry about this but at least I will hopefully get there eventually and they shouldn't really loose meaning by being late getting to you.

One that is the most recent thing to happen really is our little break away last weekend. I thought I may as well tell you about this one first as it is most relevant.

We had a really lovely time away in one of our favourite places in the world and this time we got to share it with some fantastic people as well. We went up to Yorkshire again with Adam's aunt and uncle.

We have been thinking for a while about what we might be able to collect from our travels. We know that some people collect pin badges and others collect magnets but this all seems a little predictable.

We haven't really come up with a proper idea of what we may be able to get and keep yet - perhaps fabric patches... although not everywhere sells these.

What I have seen people do before though is to collect postcards from places that they have stayed. This means that you can write a little bit of a diary entry on each one for each day that you are away and then you also have a nice record of what happened on each trip as well.

Not perfect as far as collections come in so we are still thinking on this one - any suggestions are welcome! - but for now I like this idea of keeping the diary on postcards for each trip.

You all know that I keep my bullet journal anyway as a record of some nice occasions but this seems a nicer way of keeping the special parts of our lives that little bit separate and making them that bit more special than the everyday.

Ok - enough of me waffling - here goes.

In total we were away 3 full days so I had to have 3 postcards. I got one from the place that we stayed - I'm only not sharing all of the details of this as it's so special to us we don't want everyone to end up going there as well! We got one from Whitby with the lifeboat on it as while we were there we went on a little boat trip just out of the bay on the old lifeboat. It was a little bumpy as we went out to sea but we had a good laugh on it and it just gives another perspective to see Whitby from. Lastly, we pretty much just stayed around the pub and cottage that we were staying in for a couple of days and I couldn't get 2 of the same postcards so I turned a picture that I drew (or at least started to draw) while we were away into a postcard. I drew the sheep from a photo that I took - I never got far enough to add the grass so it looks a bit like it's legs have vanished somewhere but I was quite pleased with it overall. I backed it with some dark green card and stuck another cream page on the back to write on so that I could document one of the days on this.

Here's a bit of a close up of the sheep. I am really quite pleased with it. I found it quite hard to do as I was doing it on cream card and didn't have hundreds of colours to use. I love my set of pencils that I have though. This one had a spot of blue on its back to identify it, hence the blue splodge on it's back. The thing I found difficult was identifying where the sheep ended and the background began as the photo I had made the sheep look so similar in colour to the cream paper.

Postcards are a good size to document a day on - a couple of these I managed to even include some small items that we collected on our travels too. The day in Whitby we had fish and chips for lunch so I added a chip fork down the middle of the card. On the back of the sheepy card that I made, the day we just stayed close to the cottage and went for a walk, I included a little amount of sheep wool that we found along the path. We also had a ride on the steam train this day too so I added one of our tickets and also the little dog ticket that we had to get for Thomas who came with Adam's Aunt and Uncle. There is space to include just enough info for each day. It stops me waffling on for too long but gives enough space to make a good record of what happened on each day.

I made my own postcard as a title sheet for the front of the pack, plaited some embroidery thread to tie all of the cards together and attached the train tickets from when we went on the steam train to the thread to display them on the front of the pack.

I hope you all liked the walkthrough of the way that I have documented my trip. I think that this is something that I will keep doing - it could cost me a fortune in postcards! - although it would always be easier if we were doing a trip where you travelled around a lot rather than one based in the same location. As long as we end up going out somewhere every day (or at least most days) then this should work quite well though.

Have any of you got any holidays planned in the next few months? Do you have anything that you like to collect while you're away as a memory? Even if you are not going away anywhere this summer then make sure you enjoy your time at home and make the most of this lovely weather that we've been having. It's almost the weekend folks! Have a good one.

Ice bar

I'm trying to gradually get back on track with this blogging thing so here's another for you. A bit of a delay on this one as well, as this is from the end of April.

Another trip we did while we were away was another thing for me to tick off my 30 before 30 list. A trip to an ice bar!

It was incorporated into a trip around the town of Bergen which was the first stop on our cruise. There was a stop after all of the sightseeing for a visit to the ice bar called "Magic Ice"

It was just as good as I had thought it would be. Colder maybe, although I never dreamt that I would be going into one of these places when it was quite so warm outside (20+ degrees!) We weren't wearing massively warm clothes as we went in - the best I could manage to do was to put my hoodie back on instead of going in the vest top that was as much as I had needed to be wearing when I was outside.

We did also get given on the way in, these fetching poncho's. They were huge and really toasty. They definitely did a good job of keeping us warm for the time that we were in there. I think we only had around half an hour in the actual bar but even with these on, towards the end we were starting to feel ever so slightly chilly.

Some of the ice carvings were really impressive. Very intricate, although there did seem to be an abundance of naked ladies included in the artwork around the place!

 This little block was pretty cool, especially if you shone light through it.

Perhaps the best of all was that the actual glasses that we got our drink in, were made of ice too. They were little ice cones inside a plastic glass so that you could actually hold it without getting too stuck to it. They gave us gloves to wear but even with these on, and the other glass for protection, you could still feel the icy glass through them.

You had to be careful where you put the glasses down as all of the surfaces were so slippy. You could only put them down if it was on one of the little rubber mats that were scattered along the bar and on a couple of the tables.

There was this giant throne to sit in. We were pleased that they put sheepskin rugs on everything where you might have wanted to sit down!

Possibly my favourite of the carvings was this one - the scream!

It was really good fun in there but as I said before, it was really quite cold, I'm not sure I would have wanted this guy's job. I think I'll stick to working in my snowy freezer and making sure I move around a lot while I'm in there.

All of the bar and shelves were even made of ice, it was really impressive. You can see the little ice glasses here on the top shelf, the little cones. I'm not sure how well these would go through a dish washer! Maybe a one use thing, do we think?

It was a really good trip and as I said before, I'm really pleased I have ticked this off of my 30 before 30 list.

Sea Kayaking - the real deal!

Well the holiday was incredible - just so much fun and on the ship you were just made to feel like the most important person in the world, regardless of which drinks package you had and even if (like us!) we didn't have a room with our own personal butler!

One of the best parts of the trip has to have been my sea kayaking trip - mostly because it's something I have wanted to do for so long but also, the weather was just incredible. It was unbelievable weather for the whole trip really. We went to Norway and it was really warm to the point of laying on sunbeds in our swim suits, sunbathing and even getting burnt. I know that that isn't too tricky for me really with the colour of my skin but given that you assume it will be really cold when you go to Norway (it was supposed to be!) we didn't think to take any sun cream or anything sensible. We were lucky really that we had taken shorts for the gym otherwise we would have melted.

Anyway, back to the kayaking trip. I didn't really get any photos of me getting ready or anything as the others all went off at the same time to do their own thing - a bus trip around the town with a stop at an aquarium on the way around. There is this one though which was taken by my hubby through the bus window.

I am somewhere in there in the middle of the group of people.

They were all double boats when I turned up which I was quite pleased about really, especially as I was lucky enough to get in the boat with the group leader who was obviously a really good paddler. It meant that we were always the lead boat so we got to see everything first and it meant that I got some good clear shots on my GoPro of the scenery too rather than of the back of other people paddling their boats. I was also incredibly lucky to have been able to go in the front of the boat, not only for the photo opportunitites (not just getting shots of someone's back the whole time) but also there is a rudder on these bigger boats that you have to control with your feet in the back to keep the boat straight. I think it was really a lot harder than everyone else made it look. I found it hard enough to keep paddling and just do my bit to help us keep going while I didn't have my foot rests in the boat adjusted quite right. One of them kept slipping away from me when I tried to use it.

As we were all getting loaded into our kayak's (me and the guide getting in first) we set off out into the water and started to gather everyone up around us.

Ooh - as we had been lucky enough to have great weather for the rest of the trip, this day was no exception. The temperature was in the early twenties and it was bright sunshine. With the reflection from the water the sun was really strong so I thought it was a really good thing that the kayaking company handed out suncream before we went out onto the water and suggested we use it. I covered my face and ears quite well and I was pleased, it was really needed!

Once we were all loaded in, we set off towards the first little island just off the coast, away from our ship that we started by.

Once around the first little island, we turned to face the mountains. Look at some of those views! Incredible. If I could have chosen for my first sea kayaking experience to be anywhere I don't think that you could have picked a much better place really.

And we did have a bit of time to chill out on the way around. Is this not like a classic sea kayaking photo that people post on the internet. This is what everyone imagines when they think of sea kayaking.

We stopped at various points on our way around where the other leader man who was in a boat of his own told us the history of the place and of Norway in general. It was really interesting at the time (and a nice break from paddling for a bit!) but I couldn't tell you anything that he said now.

Then we set off paddling back. I'm not sure how far we went in total but we were out for the full 3 hours that the trip was supposed to last.

One last little stop to look at the fish in a little quiet spot between two tiny islands and that was it, we were heading back towards the ship and back to the mainland to get out of the boat and to let our arms recover!

My technique definitely wasn't great on this trip as my arms were killing by the time we set off back. I had that shakey arm thing going on with the first drink I tried to lift to my mouth as I got back to the ship.

I would definitely love to go on another trip like this, however I'm not sure that a little lake in this country would really do anything for me anymore. I have been too spoilt with my first trip being such a pretty one.


This was also another tick on my 30 before 30 list. I have been wanting to go sea kayaking for ages. I'm really pleased that I can finally say that I have done it. Not sure what I would have done in an individual boat - I was grateful for the opportunities I had to take a rest every so often with the guide in my boat.

Sea Kayaking - practice

Hiya again everyone

Sorry I haven't been here much again recently - I have been away on holiday which was absolutely amazing! I had intended on going ahead and writing some posts before I went away to automatically upload but I was't that organised! If I'm honest the holiday itself even kind of crept up on us and we didn't feel like we were completely ready for it even when it got here.

As we got into it I can definitely say that it was needed and was amazing!

We actually went on a cruise which itself was a he huge treat from my in-laws so a massive massive thank you to them!

One of the things that I had booked before we went away was actually on my "30 before 30" list - a sea kayaking trip. It's something that I have always wanted to do. I almost did it a number of years ago when I worked out in Canada but the weather wasn't great when I had planned to go so I never actually got around to it.

I used to kayak when I was a kid/teeneager and absolutely loved it. The only reason I ever gave it up was because I got to the point when school was getting busier and I was having more and more work to do at home meaning I just didn't have time to go any more. I used to have to go quite a long way when I was younger as well so I think my parents were a little pleased when I gave it up and they didn't have to take me every week as well.

I was a little nervous before I went away that I might have forgotten what to do so I wanted to go for a bit of practice before we went on holiday. I was trying to go to at least one of the training sessions with the local club before I went away but unfortunately I was at work each Saturday when the sessions were running so never managed to make it.

The only time we did manage to get to Holme Pierrepont for me to have a go was on the Sunday before our trip and I did get to have a go all on my own - I was amazed really that you could just walk up and hire a kayak without any tuition - you didn't have to have any idea what you were doing to be allowed on the lake! That seems crazy to me really but I wasn't going to complain - it meant that I got to have a go before we went away.

 I got strapped into my buoyancy aid before I set off...

 Climbed in on dry land which felt really really wobbly!!

 And in for the first nervous strokes!

 I started to get the hang of it a little bit before venturing over towards the people on the paddle boards and exploring the other end of the lake.

I thoroughly enjoyed it although I couldn't quite get used to not having any splash deck. Perhaps I should have planned a little bit more that I might be going to go kayaking and should have brought some different trousers and shoes.

It was a lovely warm day and it didn't take too long to dry otherwise I think I would have bottled it completely and not gone but I am really pleased that I did. It made me feel a little bit happier about being let loose only a few days later on the sea in a kayak on holiday.

I will update you on my trip and how the kayaking part in particular went over the next few days/week.