You know it's been a while since you last posted when someone takes the time to comment and ask if you're OK because you've been quiet on the blogging front (thank you Kezzie, you're very kind to ask).
Grab yourself a cuppa, this is going to be a long one.
February was a busy month, there's a lot going on, all of which takes up head space and energy. I miss the blogging world when I'm away but it's the thing that sometimes has to be put on the back burner when real life becomes all consuming. Life seems to have returned to a more normal level of activity, and I'm very grateful for that. They say 'things come in threes', and if there had been just three things to deal with I probably wouldn't have disappeared for a month. The saying should be changed to 'things come in multiples of three', as that would be more accurate.
I had wondered at the beginning of the year if I would continue with my Weekend posts, and wondered if I would post my Photo An Hour photos here as well as on Instagram, and life seems to have made that decision for me. But there are things that I'd like to document because whilst things have been hectic and trying at times, they've also been rather lovely.
The first week of the month I was busy making items for a Valentine's Cake and Craft sale. My Mum, a friend, and I hold these sales three or four times a year at our local hospital. It's the first time we've done a Valentine's theme and we didn't leave ourselves nearly enough time to make everything we wanted to. When we planned it we thought 11 weeks would be plenty of time to prepare, but we (stupidly) didn't factor in Christmas and all the time that would take up, and then we took a while to get going once the new year arrived. The date got close very quickly and we were left in a mild state of panic.
So, for a week, when I wasn't working, I was knitting, or making pom poms. This, of course, coincided with work picking up a little after the Christmas lull, and for a while I didn't know if I was coming or going. The sale went well though, we raised £500, which surprised and delighted us as it didn't seem as busy as usual.
I allowed myself a little 'playtime' one day as I'd promised myself that I would see the Kiss & Tell exhibition at Christchurch Mansion. I had an appointment in town and took the opportunity to go and see it. The star of the show is Rodin's The Kiss. When I arrived there was a gaggle of small children on a school trip with all the noise that that entails, but it wasn't long before they left and I was alone and free to enjoy the sculpture. It's bigger than I thought and beautiful. I really wanted to lean over and touch it but I resisted. I wonder if it was because I wasn't allowed to touch it that made me want to?
For Photo An Hour, on February 16th, I only managed to post four photos on Instagram but I had a lovely day. I went to see Calendar Girls at The Theatre Royal with Andy's Mum, aunts and cousins. The play was fantastic, definitely worth going to see if you get the chance. We met beforehand with plenty of time for lunch and a look around the Norfolk Makers Festival. I now have a hankering to try whittling, and making a mandala, and have a funny story to tell about seeing a policeman, naked, holding his truncheon (not a euphemism). (It's fine, he was knitted and in a stop motion animation).
Then it was half term week which meant Andy's sister was home with her family. I like to spend as much time with them as I can when they're home as we don't get the opportunity to visit them very often, at the same time work shifted up a gear meaning my week was hectic.
My niece asked if she could come for a sleepover. She's six and it was her first solo sleepover, she'd only been on one before and that was at Granny's house with her older brother. She was very excited but also a little apprehensive so I wanted to make sure she had a lovely time. I have a small floral two-man tent that I put up in the bedroom and made cosy with pillows and blankets, framing the door with fairy lights and adding a little lightbox that said 'hello [name]'. I thought this might help her to feel safe in a strange environment.
She was very excited when she saw it and kept telling me she couldn't wait to go to bed. We played all sorts of games, had pizza for supper, and three bedtime stories. She did have a little bit of a wobble at bedtime but a FaceTime chat with Mummy made her feel better. The next day she woke up ridiculously early, but luckily Uncle Andrew was already up and willing to play until I got up at a more sociable time of 7am. Her stay also meant I had a legitimate reason to buy, and watch, Finding Dory on DVD. She needs to come again so that I can buy, and watch, Moana.
Later in the week I went on a night out with some friends I hadn't seen for ages. The last time I saw one of them was at my wedding reception! We went to a steakhouse, followed that with cocktails and then ended up in a club that we frequented a lot in our 20s. It's called something different now, and only takes up the ground floor of the building, instead of the three it used to inhabit. The DJ was playing some of the same tunes, and the place smelled exactly the same. And of course there was a drunk girl sitting on the floor in the ladies, just as there always was. She told me I was 'cool' which just goes to show how much she'd had to drink.
We ended the night in a bar, which was quieter and had somewhere we could sit down (showing our age here). I dropped into bed at 2.15am. The next day I felt fuzzy and not particularly inclined to do very much at all. But it was a really good night, and great to see everyone.
The following weekend, after another busy working week, I decided that I would ignore my to-do list and do exactly as I pleased. I went to Bury St Edmunds, getting there early enough to have breakfast in a lovely little cafe called The Bay Tree, before going to see Museum of the Moon.
Artist Luke Jerram created a 7m replica of the moon. It's internally lit and uses detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. You're encouraged to lay down beneath it for the best experince, and of course I did amid all the small children, watched by all the adults that obviously didn't fancy being horizontal. I had a wander around the charity shops (I won't mention the trip to a tea shop where I had a slice of cheesecake and a chocolate brownie), and on my way home I decided to pop to my local charity shop too, that's where I found the gorgeous leather bag.
The next day (Andy was working all day again) I continued to ignore the housework and decided to make a start on making some items for our Easter Cake and Craft sale. I found a pattern and instructions on Pinterest to make some cute carrot shaped bags, which I plan to fill with Easter treats.
Whilst I had the sewing machine out I decided to mend on old pair of jeans. They've been awaiting repair for years, I just couldn't decide the best way to go about it. I'd recently started following the #visiblemending hashtag on Instagram and when I saw this post, I knew I'd found my solution.
Several colours of cotton and about an hour later I was finished, and very pleased with the result. Knowing that it takes over 1,000 gallons of water to make just one pair of jeans means I want to get as much wear out of my jeans as possible. One pair I have needs to be repaired a little more after almost every wash but I'm not getting rid of them just yet...
So that's what I've been up to. If I haven't paid your blog a visit and left a number of comments in the past few days then expect a visit soon, I've got some catching up to do.
xx
Grab yourself a cuppa, this is going to be a long one.
February was a busy month, there's a lot going on, all of which takes up head space and energy. I miss the blogging world when I'm away but it's the thing that sometimes has to be put on the back burner when real life becomes all consuming. Life seems to have returned to a more normal level of activity, and I'm very grateful for that. They say 'things come in threes', and if there had been just three things to deal with I probably wouldn't have disappeared for a month. The saying should be changed to 'things come in multiples of three', as that would be more accurate.
I had wondered at the beginning of the year if I would continue with my Weekend posts, and wondered if I would post my Photo An Hour photos here as well as on Instagram, and life seems to have made that decision for me. But there are things that I'd like to document because whilst things have been hectic and trying at times, they've also been rather lovely.
The first week of the month I was busy making items for a Valentine's Cake and Craft sale. My Mum, a friend, and I hold these sales three or four times a year at our local hospital. It's the first time we've done a Valentine's theme and we didn't leave ourselves nearly enough time to make everything we wanted to. When we planned it we thought 11 weeks would be plenty of time to prepare, but we (stupidly) didn't factor in Christmas and all the time that would take up, and then we took a while to get going once the new year arrived. The date got close very quickly and we were left in a mild state of panic.
So, for a week, when I wasn't working, I was knitting, or making pom poms. This, of course, coincided with work picking up a little after the Christmas lull, and for a while I didn't know if I was coming or going. The sale went well though, we raised £500, which surprised and delighted us as it didn't seem as busy as usual.
For Photo An Hour, on February 16th, I only managed to post four photos on Instagram but I had a lovely day. I went to see Calendar Girls at The Theatre Royal with Andy's Mum, aunts and cousins. The play was fantastic, definitely worth going to see if you get the chance. We met beforehand with plenty of time for lunch and a look around the Norfolk Makers Festival. I now have a hankering to try whittling, and making a mandala, and have a funny story to tell about seeing a policeman, naked, holding his truncheon (not a euphemism). (It's fine, he was knitted and in a stop motion animation).
Then it was half term week which meant Andy's sister was home with her family. I like to spend as much time with them as I can when they're home as we don't get the opportunity to visit them very often, at the same time work shifted up a gear meaning my week was hectic.
My niece asked if she could come for a sleepover. She's six and it was her first solo sleepover, she'd only been on one before and that was at Granny's house with her older brother. She was very excited but also a little apprehensive so I wanted to make sure she had a lovely time. I have a small floral two-man tent that I put up in the bedroom and made cosy with pillows and blankets, framing the door with fairy lights and adding a little lightbox that said 'hello [name]'. I thought this might help her to feel safe in a strange environment.
She was very excited when she saw it and kept telling me she couldn't wait to go to bed. We played all sorts of games, had pizza for supper, and three bedtime stories. She did have a little bit of a wobble at bedtime but a FaceTime chat with Mummy made her feel better. The next day she woke up ridiculously early, but luckily Uncle Andrew was already up and willing to play until I got up at a more sociable time of 7am. Her stay also meant I had a legitimate reason to buy, and watch, Finding Dory on DVD. She needs to come again so that I can buy, and watch, Moana.
Later in the week I went on a night out with some friends I hadn't seen for ages. The last time I saw one of them was at my wedding reception! We went to a steakhouse, followed that with cocktails and then ended up in a club that we frequented a lot in our 20s. It's called something different now, and only takes up the ground floor of the building, instead of the three it used to inhabit. The DJ was playing some of the same tunes, and the place smelled exactly the same. And of course there was a drunk girl sitting on the floor in the ladies, just as there always was. She told me I was 'cool' which just goes to show how much she'd had to drink.
We ended the night in a bar, which was quieter and had somewhere we could sit down (showing our age here). I dropped into bed at 2.15am. The next day I felt fuzzy and not particularly inclined to do very much at all. But it was a really good night, and great to see everyone.
The following weekend, after another busy working week, I decided that I would ignore my to-do list and do exactly as I pleased. I went to Bury St Edmunds, getting there early enough to have breakfast in a lovely little cafe called The Bay Tree, before going to see Museum of the Moon.
Artist Luke Jerram created a 7m replica of the moon. It's internally lit and uses detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. You're encouraged to lay down beneath it for the best experince, and of course I did amid all the small children, watched by all the adults that obviously didn't fancy being horizontal. I had a wander around the charity shops (I won't mention the trip to a tea shop where I had a slice of cheesecake and a chocolate brownie), and on my way home I decided to pop to my local charity shop too, that's where I found the gorgeous leather bag.
The next day (Andy was working all day again) I continued to ignore the housework and decided to make a start on making some items for our Easter Cake and Craft sale. I found a pattern and instructions on Pinterest to make some cute carrot shaped bags, which I plan to fill with Easter treats.
Whilst I had the sewing machine out I decided to mend on old pair of jeans. They've been awaiting repair for years, I just couldn't decide the best way to go about it. I'd recently started following the #visiblemending hashtag on Instagram and when I saw this post, I knew I'd found my solution.
So that's what I've been up to. If I haven't paid your blog a visit and left a number of comments in the past few days then expect a visit soon, I've got some catching up to do.
xx
