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.

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,