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.

Dot-to-dot and colouring - Fox

Wow! I forgot how much I really enjoy blogging for you guys. It's also a really good way of keeping some good memories for myself too.

Just over a week ago now, I wrote my first blog in ages and I had really enjoyed writing again for you guys so I actually started writing this one straight afterwards as well.

It was a little over a month ago now, I had a small amount of money spare and I had had a pretty horrible week at work so on my way home one Friday lunch time my husband told me to go out and treat myself. So I did!

I stopped at a supermarket on my way home and treated myself to some new PJ bottoms which could not be more perfect for me really. They're covered in sheep! and they're really colourful. I love them! I bought an adult dot-to-dot book, some colouring pencils and a packet of my favourite biscuits.

I just really needed some time to escape from the world for a bit so I went home, all phones and social media were turned off. I just had some relaxing music in the background, a nice cup of tea made ready to dunk my biscuits and I had a go at the dot-to-dot. I did have Henlow around for a bit of company but that was ok - about all I could cope with really, being sociable with him isn't exactly difficult!

He must be getting bigger than the last time you saw him.

Sorry, I went off on a little tangent there but hey - back to the dot-to-dot. I know this is going to sound ridiculous but it was actually not that easy. I'm not going to say it was really difficult - at the end of the day, my job is working with numbers all day - but it was't always that easy to find where to go next to make the pattern.

The first picture of the book was of a fox. I quite like that you don't know until you are part way through the drawing what it is actually going to be.

I really like the way that it turned out. I know that it's not exactly difficult to draw when someone else is telling you where to move your pencil from and to but I still like it. I always want to be able to draw and think that it should just be something that I should be able to do until I sit down with a blank piece of paper and then I have no idea what I'm doing.

It was really good but definitely needed some colour and at the end of the day, I think thats probably what I went in the shop looking for was a colouring book but I just couldn't find any with pictures in that I liked.

I was't 100% sure of the exact colours of a fox so google came in really handy with the photo that I found to copy.

He turned out looking like this!

I know that this was completely the part that I was waiting for - the colouring in. I used to love it as a kid! But if I do say so myself, I am really pleased with this one. It was a bit of a practice attempt really to see how the shading would work with the pencils that I have and everything but I loved it and am more than happy with the outcome.

If you haven't tried it yet - I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, "I just don't have time for that" or "colouring is for kids" but I have to say that it is a fantastic escape for an hour or so. You don't even have to be able to draw - you can start with a colour book or even just a page full of dots and create whatever you want. I could have coloured this in a luminous green colour if I'd have wanted and I'm sure it would have looked totally different. All that stops us is time and our own imaginations.

If you can then this week try to find yourself a little bit of time, even if it's just 15 minutes and completely escape from the rest of the world. You can, write, colour, draw, knit, sew, anything but just make sure you concentrate on you and only you for that little bit of time. And if you feel you can then please share with me what you create - I would love to see/read! Take care of yourselves and I'll see you next time,

Happy Easter

Hi again everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and managed to spend time with family and of course most importantly that you ate copious amounts of chocolate.

This year I just happen to be one of the really lucky people who loves chocolate and isn't on any sort of strict diet stopping me from eating it and therefore I think I have done quite well out of it.

I had my annual Easter egg hunt around the living room and hallway. There were a few new hiding places this year and conveniently as I had birthday cards up in the living room too these came in handy for hiding places. There were also a few of the old standard places too which is always good.

I got a pretty good haul over the weekend, supplemented hugely by the bunnies that my hubby brought me home from work. They had all been given one each on their desks in the morning on the Thursday before the Easter break and also later in the day had a chance to win a second by answering a quiz question correctly.

Adam answered the question and so did his mate at work. I have done really well by this friend over Easter as he is on a diet as is his wife so he very kindly donated his winnings to me! On Tuesday there were yet more prezzies from what is turning out to be one of my favourite people! Another egg! Adam's mate (the same one again) turned up to work with yet another egg for me and not only that but it happened to be my favourite chocolate.

I love white chocolate and above all Milkybar chocolate. At Easter it is always more special to me than any other time that I have white chocolate - This is mostly because every year I would always get a Milkybar egg from my Gran.

We have a couple of other things around as well at Easter. The chicken always comes out for her annual appearance - she's quite happy sat on her nest of eggs and a couple of tiny little chicks in there too. There are even a few yarn flowers in the basket now too. I received them in a craft swap that I did a couple of years ago. Thanks Hannah! - they still brighten up our Easter basket every year

She always seems quite happy sat there in her little basket i always think.

This year she has gained a new little companion to keep her company down on the hearth. We made this little cutie!

We had to add to our lego collection for him! Daft I know but I like him.

Finally and of course definitely not least - I got this last night from my friend that I go to the gym with. It's a little egg hat! Well, it started off as a water bottle hat.

Soon made itself at home when I got back though and made one of my little eggs all snuggled up and cozy for the night

Thank you again to everyone that contributed to making my Easter celebrations special this year. I know it's probably not something that I should really encourage but I am really liking that at the minute Easter seems to be getting bigger. The Easter bunny seems to be making much more of an appearance in families that I know who have kids - he's almost getting to be as big as Santa in some cases. I like that it is a good time to see family too. I would really like to make it a fantastic excuse to be able to see one set of parents for one holiday (xmas) and the other for Easter each year. I would like it to be proper event. I did this year manage to see both sets of parents over the Easter weekend which was nice.

I hope that this week back at work isn't treating everyone too badly - I think even most of the schools are back now. Take care and I'll see you again real soon.

Hello again

Yet again I have to start this blog with an apology that I've not been around for a while again. I have just been really struggling for time towards the end of last year and the beginning of this - other things sort of took over.

It was recently my birthday - last Sunday in fact - and this coming year is the last of my twenties and is going to be a good one!

Part of this is that I have made a deal with myself - I am going to come up with 30 things that I have always wanted to do that I will make sure that I do before I'm 30. Some of these will be small things, some will be slightly bigger but all will give me a sense of accomplishment and hopefully bring some laughs and joy along the way. I can't guarantee that these will all be craft related and in fact I can tell you now that lots of these definitely will be but I would like to bring you along the journey with me if this is ok.

The first of these and the only one that I am going to tell you about today is a deal that I am going to make with myself (and with you guys) that I will make sure I blog at least once a week - or at least 52 times in the current year if one particular week gets a bit manic meaning that I simply can't write for you.

This is therefore the first of (hopefully) many times that I will see you over the coming weeks.

Now comes the tricky bit - what do I tell you about today. There are a few things that I have lined up ready to tell you about so I am not sure what to go with today really...

How about this - something that I was working on for a long time and that you have seen crop up in my blogs many times already but that never quite managed to get finished.

Well here it is - the granny square blanket that I started a couple of years ago.

Seams all finished and ends sewn in and everything!! I'm pleased I chose the light yellow colour to join everything together - it doesn't show up too much and it blends in with all of the other colours nicely.

You can't even see it at all from the "front" or the "good side"! I am quite pleased with myself for getting this done really.

The only thing that I wasn't sully sure of is if it needs an edge...
And really I know that it should be "blocked" (wet and pinned out to stretch it into shape) but you know me I'm far too excited for all of that!

It had to go straight into my crafty room which contains some more exciting news. The corner that I had for a while as a seat to watch DVDs and craft from, had gradually been filled up with boxes and more and more crafty stuff that I had acquired meaning that it was totally unusable. Decorating the hallway including replacing all of the door frames meaning that the insides of the rooms upstairs needed a bit of work and at least a lick of paint anyway meant that I have ended up with this!!!

I got my little snuggly corner back! Complete with fluffy cushions, blankets and everything that I could ever need on hand and easy to get to. I can't wait to get a bit of time to myself to go and hide up here for a few hours/day and just chill out with some movies or episodes of some girly TV show.

When we went out to look for the paint to touch up the wall in the same colour as the rest of the room we discovered that that colour we had used originally doesn't exist any more. We weren't totally sure what to do as it definitely needed something doing to that wall so why not go a little crazy. We picked a bright colour that would go with the rest of the room and made a "feature" wall. I love it! It really does brighten up the space too.

I hope you are all having a fabulous Easter weekend. Make sure you eat far too much chocolate and I'll see you again soon!