It's Christmas!

I just wanted to pop by quickly to wish you all a very Happy Christmas! I hope that wherever you all are and whoever you are celebrating with that it is everything that you want it to be. x

Christmas Is Coming!

Another month has passed since I last blogged, and another busy month it has been!

Starting back at the end of November the hubby and I had a rare week off together, as we usually do at this time of year in order to celebrate our 4th Wedding Anniversary. During this time apart from spending the week together we don't usually do anything in order to celebrate but this year was different!

We have been saying ever since we got married that we need to go back to stay at our reception venue one day, but after spending the first three of our married years together saving for a deposit for our first home we haven't really been able to do so. But now that we have our home we decided that it was the time to go, and a lovely time we had too!

We arrived to chocolate coated strawberries, and a bottle of champagne that was kindly ordered to surprise us by my hubby's dad. I made use of the pool before we went down for a gorgeous three course dinner, which was followed by us getting to stay in the Honeymoon suite and having breakfast the next morning. It was a lovely treat for both of us especially since we don't usually do anything like that, having never been on honeymoon or on holiday together. It also bought back many happy memories of our day and just renewed my love of the venue that we fell for as soon as we saw it. Below you can see some images of our time there.
 

Following our anniversary the weather very suddenly began to get rather much chillier than it had been, bringing us some lovely cold and crisp days as well as our first frost! The morning that it arrived I was out early to visit my girly friends and it really was bitter compared to the weather as of late. But I have to say that it was a lovely morning to be out in the cold, as well as being my kind of weather! It also meant that I got to try out my gingerbread man bobble hat for the first time, that mum had bought me a few weeks before when we were out shopping with my Nan. Now I'm not really a hat person and don't generally suite hats! Originally I tried it on as a joke, but then as I started getting some nice comments from shoppers passing by about it I decided that I actually rather liked it! It's a little ridiculous as you can see below but hey who cares it's Christmas!

The first frost of the year on the fallen leaves and grass

 

As ridiculous is my Christmas hat may look it is however  not half as ridiculous as the Christmas jumper that I found whilst doing my annual Christmas garden center wreckie with my mum, sister, and hubby. Again it was tried on as a joke but they all decided that I needed to have it so my mum bought it for me, whilst my sister found an equally ridiculous one! Below see my elf jumper and hat.

 

Unfortunately the colder weather didn't last for more than a couple of days, and it has now been wet and windy here for the last couple of weeks. Thankfully though we have not experienced the awful flooding that has hit parts of northern England in the past week. If you are up there I do hope that neither you nor your families have been affected by it.

On another note the 26th November marked one year since we moved into our own home! I really can't quite believe how quickly that year has passed, or the fact that we are still decorating and un-packing boxes! It really is crazy how time flies! It seems like only yesterday that the dream that we had held for so long of owning our own home finally came true as we walked through our own front door for the first time. I don't think that I will ever forget that feeling or the stress, hassle, and endless issues that we had waiting for our mortgage and with solicitors and the HMRC. But despite it all I don't have one regret and it was all worth it in the end! The many troubles that we had to put up with at our old rented flat whilst we were saving are now far away, but I still often look around our new place and have to pinch myself sometimes to believe that we are here and how lucky we were to find it.

Talking of our new place we are very slowly getting there with doing it up and making it our own, and there have been a few changes this month that can be finally ticked off of our to-do list!

Firstly the replacement of our front room light, which has been hanging precariously from the ceiling since we moved in! It was however not replaced quite as we would of liked and sort of got taken out of our hands as to when we were going to do it, after the hubby walked into the front room one morning to see me doing my workout DVD and decided to take the mick by doing some star jumps and accidently knocked the light down from the ceiling in the process! Cue a little bit of panic from me as to what we were going to do as my hubby by stood there holding the light with the wires hanging from the ceiling!

I proceeded to turn off the electricity and the hubby then managed to unwire it and make it safe before calm was once again restored! Luckily we still had some up-lighters that we could use around the sides of the room until my dad was able to come around and fit a new light for us later in the week, otherwise we really would have been in trouble especially with the nights now drawing in so early now!

Our old light fitting and the new one, along with it's lovely lampshade that I have had squirreled away since well before we moved!

Secondly after the light drama I built and put up my first ever shelves in my slowly forming studio room!

I have to say that having never done it before I was quite impressed that they 1. Stayed on the wall and 2. That they were actually straight (even though they don't look in in the angle of the photo!) They are now housing my collection of cuddly bunnies that I have acquired over the years! Including the rather threadbare looking bunny un-orininally named "bunny" that you can see below in the middle of the bottom shelf, which was one of my first and favourite childhood cuddly toys. Maybe that is where my love for bunnies steams from!

 

Thirdly we had our new corner sofa arrive on my day off the other week which we were both very excited about. To be honest I didn't really want to get rid of our old sofa as we had only had it for four years, plus we had bought it with some wedding money. But unfortunately it hadn't worn very well and was a little small for us and our home now.

So after I struggled a little to get the old sofa out of our front room myself and into our spare room I eagerly awaited our new one, until it arrived! It went through the front door fine, but the delivery drivers couldn't get either half through the front room door! So I was left with a hallway that I couldn't get through, and a front door that I couldn't open!

Cue a slightly panicked phone call to my hubby as to what we were going to do if we couldn't get it into the front room! (I stupidly assumed that most doors were standard widths! So note to self measure the doors as well as the space the sofa is going into next time!)

But after two hours of struggling I finally managed to get the sofa in literally by the millimetre by taking off the cushions, legs, wheels, and the front room door! I'm still not exactly sure how I got it in, but one thing is for sure we or it are not moving anytime soon! It does however look and feel lovely as you can see below.

 

So after all of that I seem to be slowly becoming a bit of a DIY wiz these days! Having decorated the new place myself, plumbed in the washing machine, built numerous flat packed furniture, put up picture frames, re-sealed the bath, fitted shelves, and pretty much taken apart and put back together a sofa and a door!

To be honest it is probably a good thing as my hubby is more of a tech rather than a DIY wiz, and has no patience for it what so ever! I have always liked fixing things though and knowing how things work, which I think that I get from my dad as he is a mechanic and a bit of a perfectionist like myself! I also took Design Technology at GCSE, and attended a girl's construction day at school which I think also fuelled my interest.

So that brings us into December and my favourite time of the year with the run up to Christmas!

As usual mum bought me a lovey advent calendar, which once gain features my name and The Snowman and the Snowdog! (Because you can never be to old to have an advent calendar, or one with your name on it!) It also happens to have white chocolate in it (my absolute favourite chocolate) which is a first, so I am very much enjoying opening it each morning as you can see below!

  

We are also getting festive in the sense that our tree and decorations went up last week!  Which is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas, as going and choosing it is something that I always did with my dad when I was little.

The tree that I ended up getting this year is rather bigger than I was intending but I really loved the proportions of it, so risked it not fitting into the front room. It was however a risk that paid off as I only had to cut a little off of the top to make it fit, and I am so pleased with it! I spent hours decorating it whilst the hubby watched on telling me that he thought it was a spectators sport for him, to which I replied that most things within the home are a spectators sport to him!

I did have a minute where the lights decided not to work, and then were flashing even though they weren't meant to! So I decided to put on one set of white lights and one set of coloured lights in case one set died on me! So far so good though and they all seem to be working! You can see the result below in a little Gif type video that I was experimenting with.

Christmas Tree - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

I am also a little bit in love with my Christmas jumper garlands that you can see in the background of the video. They are a new addition for this year, and are made up of lots of little knitted jumpers!

  I do like a knitted jumper and am starting to get into Christmas jumper mode with some of my semi-festive bunny jumpers as you can see below.

I hope that you are all well and getting in the festive mood too! I can't believe that there are only eleven days to go until Christmas Day, as it seems to have crept up on us all of a sudden! I am feeling ready for it though! The shopping is done although not wrapped, we have had our work Christmas do, started watching Christmas movies, and had our annual family Christmas meal yesterday for which I wore my Christmas elf jumper! Hopefully I will get a chance to pop by again before the big day, but if not I wish you all a very Happy Christmas!  x     

Celebrations and Remembrance!

So after having some lovely and unusually mild Autumnal weather of late, the last few weeks or so have definitely seen a change to more wet and stormy weather. Luckily in comparison to a lot of the rest of the UK we have got away pretty lightly since storm Abigail hit, and have only caught the edge of it receiving little more than the usual wet and windy weather that we would expect for late autumn. As a result though there are now very few leaves left on the trees, a sure signal that winter is on its way.

The change in the weather started to around the time of Halloween. Now I don't usually tend to make much of an effort for Halloween, having never really been bought up with it or ever wanting to go trick or treating, but as I got older and started going out on the town it has almost become a tradition for us to go out dress up and have fun. This year I made more effort than usual as it was our first Halloween in our new home, and an excuse for me to dress up the kitchen table that we never had space for in our old flat.

It had also been a while since I had seen my best friend so I put on a little tea party for us both, made a punch, then we both got dressed up and headed into town together. We had a fab night out and saw lots of amazing costumes, as many places were offering prizes for the best dressed.

Below you can see a few pics of my Halloween efforts and of our night out.

The Kitchen table all dressed up in the light and dark

Halloween cakes which were bought and unfortunately not made by me, and one of the Halloween cocktails that we had at a local cocktail bar

Some of the spooky but effective cobwebs and decorations in the cocktail bar 

A picture that was up in the cocktail bar. I just love the detail on this sketch and the way that the scary skull is actually made up of lovely things like butterflies, birds, and flowers

A skeleton that we saw in a local shop display on the way home, and the major fog that descended that night and did not clear for a good few days after. It was very apt for a Halloween evening though and looked very eerie as you can see!

Halloween was then followed by Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night as it is also known. For those of you that are not familiar with this tradition it is one that is celebrated annually within the UK, to commemorate the night on which Guy Fawkes was arrested back in 1605 for being an integral part of the gun powder plot. This plot was to blow up the then King James I with explosives that had been placed under the houses of parliament, but he was arrested whist guarding the explosives at the location and so the plot was foiled. Since then on the 5th November each year bonfires have been lit, and replica "Guys" are made before subsequently being burnt on bonfires as an act of thanks giving for the foiled plot. In more recent years this has been accompanied by firework displays to symbolise the explosives used within the plot, and torch led parades are often held prior to the lighting of the bonfire and burning of the guy.

Pretty much every year since I can remember we have either attended or watched the local firework display within the village where my parents live and I grew up. It has become a bit of a tradition over the years to watch them and then have my mum cook us hot dogs, tomato soup, and onion rings after.

When we were little neither my sister nor I liked going to the display because of the bangs of the fireworks, but we used to love watching them and eating our little bonfire feast whilst doing so. But unfortunately this year for the first time in 25 years the display was unfortunately not held due to the lack of volunteers, and the increasing bureaucracy of red tape. They are hoping to reinstate it in future years, and I really hope that they can and will as it was a shame not to have it. There were other displays about and one fell on our Halloween night out, but we did manage to see a bit of it from above the trees opposite our window as you can see below.

  
The pics weren't too bad considering that they were taken out of a window, but were not really in the same calibre as being there and taking them as I have done in the past at our our usual display.

Other displays were held on the weekend following Halloween but once again we were busy, this time at the surprise 18th fancy dress party of my hubby's step-nephew. The party was held at his step brothers' house and the theme was things from his childhood. Being that it was a bit of a random theme and that it was being held last minute my hubby and I had to get our thinking caps on for this one! I don't mind a bit of fancy dress but we didn't want to go spending a fortune so in the end we settled for a relatively easy James Bond dress up, which we linked it by the fact that Casino Royal had been released during his childhood. I went as Vespa and wore my sister classic black ball gown that she had worn for her school prom seven years previously (which luckily still fitted me,) and teamed it with a glam necklace, earrings, and a black lace bolero like in the film. Whilst my hubby wore one of his work suits and only required a black bow tie to jazz it up!

We all had a fab time at the party and it was lovely to see everyone as we don't all get to meet up very often. There were also lots of great outfits there including; wrestlers, a Teletubbie, Yoda, Shrek, Donkey and princess Fiona, as well as the birthday boy himself who was given a Mrs Doubtfire outfit to wear!

The following day marked Remembrance Sunday both here in the UK and in other commonwealth countries. For those of you that may not know it is an annual event which is commemorated on the second Sunday of November each year to coincide with Remembrance Day or Armistice Day as it is also known, which is held on 11th November each year. This is the date that marks the ending of the First World War and at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of this day a two minutes silence is held to remember the fallen servicemen and women that gave their lives for our freedom, both in the 1st and 2nd World wars as well as all conflicts since. The two minutes silence is also held on Remembrance Sunday at 11am. The silence is started by the firing of a gun to mark when the guns fell silent, and is finished by the sounding of a Royal marine Bugle playing the last post.

Prior to this parades of those in all of the military services, veterans, youth groups, and civil dignitaries march to war memorials throughout the country, along with military bands who play traditional remembrance day music. Once there they lay wreaths made from poppies and salute the fallen. The biggest of these parades takes place at the Cenotaph memorial in Whitehall London where the Queen, Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent, and Prince Harry lay, poppy wreaths on the memorial and salute the fallen. This is along with the current and previous Prime Ministers and other politicians from all of the main parties, the commonwealth high commissioners, representatives from the royal navy, army, royal air force, merchant navy fishing fleets, and the civilian services.

After the two minutes silence a short religious service of remembrance is held by the Bishop of London and the queen's choir sing the hymn, "O God Our Help In Ages Past." The veterans then march to the horse guards parade where a salute is taken by a member of the royal family.  The whole of this ceremony and parade are aired throughout the country.

That evening the Royal British Legion (a charity who provides financial, social, and emotional support to service men and women, veterans, as well as their families.) holds their annual "Festival Of Remembrance" at the Royal Albert hall in London, which is attended by the royal family, government ministers, and the public.

During the festival each year a further two minutes silence is held during which hundreds of thousands of poppy petals fall from the ceiling of the building, which is an incredibly moving spectacle that I first remember watching as a child. Poppy petals are used for this, within the wreaths, as well as being worn by people throughout the country in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day, as they were the  first flowers to grow on the Flanders battlefields where so many soldiers fell. The money raised from the sales of poppies in the poppy appeal each year goes to the Royal British Legion to help others. 

These days are incredibly special in the hearts of the nation, and it is so important that as our veterans pass that we continue to teach the younger generations why we remember and that they should too.

I read a story on Facebook the other day about a military veteran who was selling poppies and asked a woman if he could reposition her poppy. He told her that women should wear poppy's on their right side, that the red of the poppy represents the blood of all those who gave their lives, that the black symbolises the mourning of those that didn't have their love ones return home, and that the green leaf represents the grass and crops growing future prosperity after the wars that destroyed so much. He also said that this leaf should be positioned at 11 o'clock to represent the 11th hour, of the eleventh month of the 11th day, and that he was worried that the older generation wouldn't be around much longer to teach the younger generation this. I don't know if this story is true or not, but even if it is just true to this veteran then I am happy to wear mine this way to carry on his tradition.  

Below you can see the gorgeous crochet poppy that I have been wearing with pride, which I purchased from out local Royal British Legion shop.

   
Remembrance Sunday also fell on the day that we went out for a meal to celebrate my Nanny's 75th Birthday and it was a lovely day to spend with our loved ones and her friends. We don't all get to meet up together very often and she had been so looking forward to it, to the extent that she had saved up her loose change all year to pay for it and refused to let anyone else pay! There were 16 of us in all and after the meal we headed back to hers for some tea and cake. She had a lovely time as did we all!

Below you can see her birthday cake that was a present made by a friend, and the balloons that we got her.

Thank you as always for popping by and reading my little blog. I hope that I find you all safe and well and that neither yourselves, nor any of your family or friends, have been caught up in the recent horrific attacks. My thoughts are with all of those affected, and I am sure that yours are too. Keep the flame unity, hope, and peace alight, and stay safe. x

         

Autumn, Moons, A Road Trip, and A Wedding!

The 28th September marked the night that the event of the "blood moon" took place in the skies over the UK, Europe, North and South America, West Asia and parts of Africa. It also so happened to mark the first day of my week off, so being that the weather forecast for such an event was good for a change I decided to get up in the early hours to see it take place. I have to say that it was a pretty spectacular event if not a little eerie, and below you can see a montage of the pics that I took at various points of the eclipse.

The first image is of the Blue Moon that we had back in August, the second shows the yellow moon at the beginning of the blood moon eclipse, and you can see against the first image how much brighter it was that a usual blue/full moon. This image was taken at 12:22am. The third image shows the partial eclipse during the blood moon and was taken at 2:43am. Then finally you can see the full eclipse and "blood moon" that was taken at 3:22am.  

It was odd watching an event like that and quite humbling as it just makes you realize how small our planet is in relation to space, how little we have discovered about it, and how powerless we are when it comes to space, nature, and the elements, and how lucky we are to have it.

Since then I have been taking notice of the moon quite a lot. I took the picture below when the moon was out during the day on a lovely Autumnal morning. 

    

Apart from taking notice of the moon half of the rest of my week consisted of decorating our hallway, which after stripping walls, sanding them, and having a bit of a meltdown in the middle of it due to the paint not wanting to stick to the walls, ended up taking much longer than I intended! So three days later, three coats of paint later, and with a bit of help from my mum that came to rescue me it is now finished and looks a lot better minus padded wallpaper! I would put up a pic, but since we have painted it a vanilla colour very similar to what it was before the difference doesn't show up very well without seeing it in the flesh.

Also within my week off fell my hubby's birthday which we celebrated by going out for lunch with his mum and step-dad, which was lovely as we don't get to see them all that often.

The weather was also glorious all week and has mainly been so for the few weeks since. We have had a bit of an Indian summer with very little rain, but you can tell that autumn is definitely here with the colder days, changing of the leaves, nights drawing in, and acorns and conkers falling all over.

The good weather has meant that we have been having some lovely sunsets and gorgeous skies recently, below you can see a beautiful rainbow that I caught sight of as I was walking back from work the other day. It caught me by surprise a little as the sun was beginning to set and the sky was all sorts of different colours, but it wasn't actually raining.  

I have also caught some pics of the stunning sunsets and pretty skies, once again on walks home from work over the past week or so as you can see below.

As well as capturing the colours autumn within the fallen leaves,

and those still on the trees

The last of the autumn berries, and other winter ones coming through 

The squirrels have also been everywhere lately and have been very actively searching for nuts and burying them. A sure sign that Autumn is here and that winter is on its way! I caught this little guy below outside out front window doing just that.

 

We also seem to have recently acquired a resident owl that seems to be living in the trees surrounding our property and along the nearby river. We were quite surprised when we first heard it cheeping, thinking that it was unusual sounding bird and wondered what it was. Then it let out it's distinctive twit-woo sound which is when we realized that it was definitely an owl! Like I say we were quite surprised as we had never heard a wild owl before, plus we pretty much live in the middle of town. Unfortunately try as I might I have never been able to catch a glimpse of it, but I am pretty sure that it is a Barn Owl.  

Finally I want to mention the lovely wedding reception that my hubby and family attended last weekend. It was the last of six weddings for this year, and involved us taking a road trip up to Norfolk for the weekend.

The wedding was that of the daughter of a couple of my mum and dads college friends, one of whom is also my sisters godmother. It was lovely to go up there and see them all as I haven't been up to Norfolk since I was about six, and we hadn't seen them since our wedding nearly four years ago. It had been even longer since we had seen their son, as he couldn't attend our wedding due to work commitments. The last time I saw him he was about nine, and now he is a 21 year old grown man! It is just crazy how time flies! We used to see them about once a year when we were younger when we would go holidaying there, but being grown up now and over a three hour drive away we don't get to see each other as often as we would like. So there was lots of remenising and catching up to do! We also finally got to meet the Bride and Grooms beautiful daughter Evie-Rose, who after being born six weeks premature fifteen months ago has now thrived into a very happy, cheeky, and gorgeous little girl.

That night we stayed at the venue, which was held at a local golf club and traveled back on Sunday. We all had a fab time which went far to quickly as these things do! We were all knackered when we got back, but it was worth it. Below you can see a montage of images from the day.    

The wedding also gave me an excuse to try out a hairstyle that I have been wanting to give a go for a while now, which is a hair bow!

I had a kit to help me make it, but even then it was very fiddly to do! Below you can see my attempt! I don't think that it turned out too bad in the end, especially since I couldn't actually see what I was doing. It's not perfect, but I am hoping that I will get better at it with practice!

 

I hope that you have all had a good month, and that you all have a fab weekend! Thanks for visiting as always x

Weddings,Weddings, Weddings!

Three out of the last four weekends since I last blogged have involved us attending weddings, so I thought that I would give you a little rundown of these three beautiful days!

The first was held on the August bank holiday weekend and was the wedding of one of my oldest friends. We have grown up together and known each other all of our lives as our mum's were anti-natal friends, so it was rather a special wedding for me. The ceremony was held at the Bride's parish church, and was then followed by a reception at a beautiful 15th century manor house just down the road from the church. There were two best men one of which was another friend that had also grown up with the Groom and I since we were babies, and who's mum was also within the same anti-natal group of friends. It was also lovely to have my parents, groom's parents, and best man's parents all together as they are very rarely all together these days. I even found myself unexpectedly getting a little emotional over the best man's speech as he reminisced about our childhood and college days together. It truly was a lovely day and minus the odd spot of rain on the way to the reception, the weather just about held out for them so that they managed to get the outdoor photos that they so wanted.

Below you can see a selection on photos to give you a taste of the day!  

 

You can also see the his and hers wedding cakes that they had, as they couldn't decided or agree on just one! The groom has always loved Lego ever since he was a young child so his cake was very aptly themed in this way, complete with a Lego Bride and Groom with wedding scene as a topper. His shoe and handbag loving Bride also had a cake that was equally apt for her, which was very girly and was adorned with her favourite colours, bows, sparkles and frills.  

The second wedding that we attended took place on the Friday of the following week, and was the wedding of my hubby's Best Man. The ceremony took place in a little country parish church, and the reception was held just down the road in a stunning Neo-Gothic Victorian manor house which is now a hotel. You can see from the pictures below just how gorgeous the venue was, with its towering presence, grand windows, chandeliers, and views over the Surrey Hills. My hubby was also the Best Man on the day and did a sufficiently good job at embarrassing the Groom during the speeches! Once again the weather was overcast and threatening rain but the day brightened up as it went on, and they even had a little sunshine in the end. The day was then finished off with the cutting of three cakes, a live band with lots of dancing, a hog roast for the evening guests, and shots with sparklers in the grounds.   

The third and final wedding that we attended took place last Saturday and was that of my Mother-in-Law. Both the ceremony and reception took place at a lovely golf club in their hometown of South London, and having been married before over thirty years ago the Bride decided to wear red rather than a traditional white dress. It was a lovely day filled with over 150 family and friends, and was also a long time coming being that the Bride and Groom have been together for over fourteen years! The weather was beautiful all day, the speeches were also both hilarious and emotional and were given by one of two very nervous Best Men that the Groom had, by the Groom himself, the Bride, and the Brides Best friend. My Sister-in-Law was Maid of Honour, and my Hubby himself also walked down the aisle with our three little nephews as Page Boys, and who looked gorgeously cute in their little suits! Once again it was another amazing day filled with lots of love, laughter, and dancing, particularly from the Bride's mum who despite being in her eighties can certainly still move!       

Below you can again see a selection of images from the day!

So after three wedding filled weekends and having had a very busy time at work lately, the hubby and I are having a quite one this weekend, minus me working, as we are pretty knackered to say the least! So today will be spent chilling with a possible venture outside as it is gorgeous out there this morning, and hopefully there won't be any of the heavy downpours that we have been having between the sunshine lately! Autumn is on its way and there is a definite chill in the air in the morning, even though the days are still warm. I love this time of year though and am glad that the mugginess has now gone! 

I hope that you are all having a fab weekend too! Before I go I just wanted to share with you these beautiful roses that a customer at work gave me a few weeks back for re-uniting her with her lost phone! Working with the public in retail is not always the easiest of tasks, but it is lovely when you have nice customers that acknowledge the work that you do.

 

Also the beginning of this month marked not only my 3rd blogging birthday, but I reached the 100 like's landmark on my Bobby Bunny and Friends Facebook page! So I just want to say a massive thank you to all of you that come back to my little blog and read it post after post, that have bought a Bobby Bunny and Friends card, and for those of you that have liked and shared my page. Especially recently when I have not had the time to blog, post or illustrate much. It really does mean the world to me and your ongoing support spurs me on with my little business. Thanks again and have a good week! x 

A Wedding, A Birthday, Two Hen Nights and a BBQ!

So another six weeks or so have passed since my last post and another packed six weeks it has been!

Firstly back in mid July I had one of my oldest school friends Hen Nights, for which she went to a pottery painting class during the day and then went out for a meal and cocktails in town in the evening. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the day due to the fact that we have now hit out peak time at work with the schools now having broken up, so I was unable to get the time off for this as well as the wedding itself. I did however enjoy the part that I was able to attend, and especially the cocktails! Below you can see a particularly spectacular one that I had!

I wasn't quite expecting it to turn up alight though, and it continued to stay that way for about five minutes after!

The hen night was then followed by the beautiful wedding a few weeks later, which was held at a breath taking neo-gothic manor house that is now a hotel. The ceremony was a lovely intimate affair that was so romantic as well as being rather emotional, due to the fact that the Bride and her family had faced a massive family trauma just over a month before. But this just highlighted how close the couple are and how much they truly are made for each other.

The ceremony was then followed by drinks outside in the grounds which they were incredibly lucky that the weather held out for, being that it had literally chucked it down with torrential rain throughout the day before. This was then followed by the wedding breakfast which was set on one long table rather than lots of individual one's, with candle lit chandelier's that made it feel rather like we were in a scene from Downton Abbey! The wedding party was then joined by a number of other guests for the evening reception, where we danced the night away to numerous different songs including a number from our college days. All in all it was an amazing day that was enjoyed by everyone.

Below you can see some pictures of the wedding as well as those of the beautiful house and grounds:

The week after the wedding was my mum's birthday, which not only fell on a gloriously sunny day but also on my day off. So mum, dad, and myself decided to make the most of the weather by visiting Arundel for the day, which is a place that I haven't visited to for years! It is also very rare for us to go out together without my sister or hubby too, so it was good to spend some quality time together.

We started off the day by having a drink in a little café by the riverside, before going for a walk along the river in order to get to get to a lovely little pub/restaurant where we stopped for some lunch. The pub/restaurant was also situated along side the river and as it was such a nice day we were able to sit outside and watch the world go by, which was lovely minus all of the wasps that kept trying to invade us! (I swear that wasps have some kind of magnetic attraction to me at this time of the year!)

After lunch we walked back towards Arundel town and stopped along the way to go out on a little rowing boat on the lake. We left the rowing to dad whilst mum relaxed and I took photos of the many ducks! We then continued our trip into the town passing by Arundel castle. Once in the town we had a little mooch around the shops, bought some lovely fudge, ice-creams, and visited the Arundel Brewery shop, where I bought some local cider for my hubby before we returned home.

Below you can see some of the pics that I took on the day:

Top left and right: The view from the café that we stopped off at in the morning.

Bottom left and right: The view over the countryside on our river walk, and some ducks on the river.



A little Robin that I spotted on our walk and the river a little further inland

Top left and right: The view over the river from the pub/restaurant, and the view of Arundel Castle in the distance.

Bottom left and right: More views of the countryside on our walk, and of the river further inland. 

Some duck pics taken from our little rowing boat. We found the duck on the right rather scary looking with it's red eyes! 

 A couple of signets on the boating lake, as well as another duck! 

Top left: Another duck from the boating lake and top right: The now closed and abandoned trout farm

Bottom left: A closer view of Arundel Castel and bottom right: A couple of signets that we saw further up the river.

Another view of the castle and river  

A preening swan up river along with it's signets

A sleepy little signet, and a Moorhen with her baby



The day after mum's birthday I had another Hen Do! This time it was for my mother in law, and involved a girls night out drinking and dancing the night away in a reserved area of a pub in Croydon. Everyone was in good spirits, we all thourghly enjoyed ourselves, and the DJ was fab and played lots of old records on turn tables rather than laptops as they usually do these days!

The Stag Do for the same wedding also took place that night in London, which my hubby attended and also thourghly enjoyed. Whilst out he randomly bumped into Richard Winsor who play's Dr Cal in the BBC drama Casualty, and ended up having a chat and his photo taken with him! I have to say that I was rather envious of him as I rather like Dr Cal!

A couple of days after the Hen and Stag Do's we had a Blue Moon, which was the 2nd full moon that we have had in a month. During a blue moon the moon appears larger than usual, so after hearing about it I went out to take a look. Below you can see what I saw. I was quite impressed with this shot considering it was only taken on my bridge camera.

Whilst we are on the subject of space and stargazing, there were also meant to be a number of my meteor showers visable over the past week, but unfortunately and I were unable to see any due to there being too much light pollution or cloud cover which was a shame. It's typical since we have had so much nice weather lately, but over the last couple of days or so the weather has definately turned. We have had a lot of heavy downpours and muggy weather with a bit of thunder thrown into the mix, but that doesn't seemed to have got rid of much of the mugginess which I am not a fan of!

Below you can see a rainbow that I managed to catch on a walk home from work during one of these downpours.  

I hope that you are all well and that you had a fab weekend! I worked as usual during the day on Sat, then the hubby and I had a chilled one on Sunday as we were both pretty knackered after a family BBQ in Redhill on Sat night.

It was held a my hubby's step-father's brother house, who sadly passed away after a battle with cancer earlier in the year. He, his wife, and kids used to entertain a lot and would have massive garden party's every summer, but since he got ill this obviously hadn't happened. Due to this it was the first get together that they had had in years, and the first since he passed away. There was a lovely hog roast, and all of the neighbours were there too. Everyone enjoyed themselves and there was lots of fun and laughter. They were also incredibly lucky with the weather as we had torrential rain again once again throughout the previous day. Everyone was saying that it was Alan that had made the weather nice, and that he was looking down on us all.

Below is a pic of the gorgeous sunset that we had whilst at the BBQ. If you look closely in the distance you can see that the garden overlooks the Surrey Hills.     

 

Thanks again for bearing with what has been another long post, and for visiting. I am hoping to start blogging more frequently again in the near future, as well as picking up with my Bobby Bunny work very soon. The work on our new place is getting there now, and my craft room is taking shape! Have a good week! x