Christmas Gatherings & A Florrie Update!

Wow I'm not quite sure where the past few weeks have gone since I last blogged, but it seems to have passed us by like a whirlwind and we now find ourselves at Christmas already!

I hope that you are all now well and truly in the Christmasy spirit and that you are all prepared for the festivities that are very nearly upon us! I am all sorted now having done my wrapping yesterday as I knew that I had a full days work today which I finished late this afternoon, so I am now in my Christmas jim jams and slippers ready to chillout for the evening.

Below you can see the before and after of my wrapping efforts which took me many hours yesterday evening! But having my first Christmas movies of the year "Santa Clause Movie" one and two playing in the background did help!

However I would really love to have a proper Christmas break like my hubby gets one day, as having worked in retail since I was 16 I haven't had one in years! I don't think that that it's going to happen anytime soon though! But could be worse as I do at least have Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, and I very much looking forward to spending time with our families over Christmas, even though like I said it does seem to have crept up very suddenly!

I tend to find these days that I get into Christmas quite early on and then it all seems to tail off a bit and seems ages away, but then suddenly it seems to appear from nowhere! So until yesterday I hadn't had the chance to watch any Christmas films or anything, as we had been so busy throughout most of December!

Firstly we had our nephews birthday back in the first weekend of December where we joined a lot of my hubby's side of the family around his brothers house for a big celebratory gathering and meal, which was lovely if not a little hectic! This was then followed the day after by my work Christmas meal which was very scrummy, and also my first festive meal of the year!

You can see that yummy meal below!

The following weekend I had the birthday's of both my best friend and another two close friends, for which we met up around one of the girls houses where she cooked us a gorgeous meal before we spent the rest of the evening playing games and chatting until the early hours of the morning, which was lovely as we don't get much of a chance to all meet up like that regularly. Then on the day after this we then had our annual family meal with my dads side of the family, which again was lovely as it gave us all a chance to catch-up and get into the festive spirit.

By this point it was mid December and I would have liked to have had our tree up and decorated by this time so that we could have chance to properly enjoy it, but with us being so busy it sort of didn't end up happening. Instead I ended up going to buy a tree with the hubby one evening, which then proceeded to sit in our front room naked for a good week before I finally got a chance to decorate it!

Below you can see the results of when I finally got around to decorating both the tree, the room, and even our bunny and her hutch!

This weekend just gone was another busy one as being that I had a rare sat off of work I went up to see my Nan with my mum on what was a very foggy day! From ours to us getting over the South Downs there was very bad visibility, as you can see below!

However once we got the other side it was a lot clearer and by the time that we got to my Nan's the sun was even out! It's amazing how different the weather can be from one side of the downs to the other! Anyway once at my Nan's we all went into Chichester where we spent a lovely day browsing the shops and getting our last few prezzies, as well as having breakfast in our favorite cafe. By the end of the trip I think that we were all well and truly in the festive spirit which worked out well being that I has drinks with the work girls that night, which was then followed by our annual secret Santa meal around the hubby's sister the following day with all of his siblings.

So that pretty much brings you up to date with a rather hectic few weeks!

We have also had some lovely sunsets over the last few weeks even though the weather has been relatively unsettled with it not being able to decide whether it wants to rain, be mild, or freezing cold. But thankfully apart from some pretty blustery weather we didn't really get hit by storm Barbara that has swept across the north of the UK over the past few days! I hope that none of you got affected too badly by it either if you are in that part of the country!

Below you can see a lovely sunset that I captured a few weeks back both looking down our local high street and then overlooking the town from the top of the town car park.

 

On the Florrie front she had continued to settle in well and is such a little character! If any of you follow me on my Bobby Bunny and Friends Instagram you may have seen the video that I put up a couple of weeks back of her racing around the sofa!

She still continues to love the sofa now and has got even faster running up, down, and all around it. She has also grown so much in the month that we have had her that I have had to move her water bottle up three rungs! She can now also jump from the bottom of the sofa to the top without having to use us as a platform even though she still does! She loves to jump about more than sit still for cuddles, but she will still jump on us and say hello for a stroke, even though she is now too big to be able to nestle her bum in my neck anymore. She is also very well trained and very rarely pee's when she is out, instead starting to scratch at her cover on the sofa to let us know when she needs to go!

She also seems to love bells and music which tend to send her into a bit of a playful frenzy when out, but most of all she loves her food and chewing everything so I have to watch her carefully when she is out to make sure that she is not getting hold of anything that she shouldn't!

She likes to chew the wooden buttons on my cushions, the daydo rail, my pajamas and anything edible withing her hutch. She has chewed the tops off of her carrot toy meaning that she now struggles to pull the wooden carrots out of it, she has chewed her ladder, and has pretty much destroyed her sea grass hidey hole. However she prefers to lick rather than chew the sofa, my hubby's pajamas and her little fluffy outdoor bed that she sits in on the arm of our sofa.

Below you can see the trail of destruction that our little monkey has left so far!

She has now also been introduced to fresh greens on top of her hay and pellets which she loves, plus dried dandelion leaves which she loves so much that I had to wrestle the packet of from her the other day after she got hold of it. She also has a rabbit food stick which we feed to her sparingly. I say this, but we keep it onto top of the hutch or at least we did until she figured out that she was tall enough to reach the roof and try and eat it through the bars, to which she and proceeded knock it off the top of the hutch in the process where it smashed all over the floor. At this point I then got another out for her the following day and put the packet underneath the stick on top of the hutch, but the little monkey pulled the packet through the bars and chucked it down her ladder so that she could get to it. So at this point we decided that we could no longer keep the stick on top of the hutch and moved in out of her way. That was until I fed it to her the other day and decided that I would put it out of reach at the back of her hay rack on the outside of her hutch, which was fine until my hubby did the same thing and we then went for an evening out with friends. On our return I asked him where he had put the stick and he said back in the back of the hay rack but I couldn't see it. I then delved into the hay rack and realised that our clever little monkey had realised that it was there, and being that she couldn't reach it she proceeded to pull enough hay out of the rack that it then fell against the bars so that she could eat it or should I say devour it! The funniest thing is that she had been up at the bars when we got home acting half starved as she hadn't had her pellets so I had given her more food, which then got taken out as soon as I realised what she had done! Thankfully it didn't seem to upset her stomach, but needless to say she wasn't allowed anymore food stick for the rest of the week after that! So yes like I say she is definitely a little character!

Below you can see a photo that I took of her just as she realised that she could reach it!

Oh and she also sleeps in a number strange and comical positions too as you can see below!

My hubby thinks that she is crazy, and has spent quite a lot of time at home with her recently as he has had a lot of holiday from work that needed to be used up before the end of the year. Which has meant that he's had the time to go and buy her yet more toys! Proof that he is a big softie really and loves her as much as I do!

I also get up an hour early before work to let her out now which wears her out for most of the day, before then getting her out for another hour or so once I am home. We are also looking at getting her a run to attach to her hutch now that she is getting bigger too.

When I say that she has grown she really has and isn't really a baby anymore! I would say that size wise she is probably heading more towards the size of a Lionhead than a Netherland Dwarf, which I thought when we got her may be the case! However I didn't think that she would grow quite so quickly! I think because she was 12 weeks when we got her rather then the 9 that Mill and Moll were that she would grow just a bit more, but in the first week and a half she had a massive growth spurt going from 800gms to just under 1.1kg! I was a bit concerned at this point that I was over feeding her but it turned out that I wasn't and her weight has leveled now. But even though she had grown all over she is still quite a ling skinny bunny. Anyway as you can tell, now a month in we are very much smitten with her and I already have hundreds of photos and videos of her which I will share with you in my next post! But for now I will stop rabbiting on about her before I bore you all if I haven't already!
 
Anyway I hope that you all have the most amazing happy and healthy Christmas wherever you are and whatever you are doing! x       

A New Bobby Sketch and A New Arrival!

Hi everyone! I hope that I find you all well and that you have had a good few weeks, and a good start to this weekend!

As I mentioned in my last post both my hubby and I had the week off of work last week which was lovely, so we spent most of the week just being lazy and chilling out after a busy year. The weather was also not amazing for most of the week so that didn't make us particularly pro-active either, but we did venture out here and there; going to see my sister-In-Law in her new home, to have lunch and do a spot of Christmas shopping with my Mother-In-Law, and driving to Kent for the first time to visit my brother-In-Law and our gorgeous niece in their beautiful new home. It also gave me some time to start working on a new Bobby Bunny Christmas design which you can see a sneaky peak of below.

As you can see it still needs the colour and detail added to it, but I am pretty pleased with how it has turned out so far. I was hoping to have it finished by the end of my week off, however I have been rather distracted by a new arrival that came into our lives last Saturday.

It all started on the Friday of my week off when I went to go and look around the garden centers at the Christmas decorations with my mum, as we do every year. Whilst there I went to look at the bunnies as we usually do, but this time was a little different as I fell head over heels in love with one particular little bunny. She was in a litter of four Netherland Dwarf females, but she stood out to me as she was the only white one, and the only one that clearly had some Lionhead in her. There were also two Lionhead males in the next enclosure, but as I say there was just something about her. I haven't felt that way since I got both Dusty and then Milly and Molly and I honestly didn't think that would feel this way again, or want put myself through the heartache of loosing another bunny. Plus after having had my Mill and Moll for so long I didn't want to feel that I was replacing them.

Another factor was also that we don't have a garden and I wasn't sure about how I felt about having a house bunny, plus after having had two bunnies I said that I would never get one on it's one again. However I am also a strong believer that pets choose their owners and that owners don't choose their pets and I just couldn't leave her, and hot quite emotional about the ideas of doing so!

So after chatting to my mum for a while and making her see that it would actually be possible for both the hubby and I to have a bunny, and after seeing a lovely double-decker indoor hutch that would be a perfect fit in our front room I set about phoning my hubby for approval.

In fairness we had talked in jest about the possibility of having a bunny, my hubby he had mentioned before I left about a bunny that he saw with us at the same garden center the year that he loved called Thumper. So it wasn't quite as rash as it sounds, even though I hadn't really planned it.

So after getting the hubby's approval I set about talking to one of the staff members about her, and they kindly said that we could reserve her so that we could sleep on it. I think that they probably though that I was crazy as I had to go back and check before we left that they had definitely reserved her, but I knew that we would definitely be back for her!

So bright an early the following morning my hubby and I went to the garden center to pick her up. Again I think they thought that I was crazy as we were there before they even opened, but I just wanted to make sure that she was still there and to get her settled into her new home!

It was also a freezing morning that day so we opened all of the windows before we left to get her, as even though she had been kept inside it wasn't heated, and I didn't want to shock her system too much with the temperature change. I have to say though that at this point I was glad that she was going to be a house bunny, as I couldn't have put a tiny bun like her straight out in the cold at this time of year!

On getting her home I opened her little cardboard box and let her take in her surroundings whilst I set about building her hutch as quickly as possible. My hubby went over her box at one point and she went and hid her head in the pile of hay from her enclosure at the shop as she was so scared.

Once the hutch was built I transferred her straight over to it and left her to settle in. I tried to make the adjustment as smooth as possible for her by using all of the same bedding, food, toys, and food bowl that she had at the garden center, and mixed in her actual bedding from the enclosure that was in her box. Understandably to start with though she was very scared at every little noise, and got quite spooked by someone walking outside in heels and the sound of the metal bars of the hutch. At this point she wouldn't even let me touch her and would just run away into the hidy hole that we got her. She also didn't like the sound of plates being taken out of the cupboard, but by the evening I tried to gently stroke her as I put her food bowl in to gain some trust and she let me!

Below you can see my little bunny on the evening of first day that we got her home!

After some brainstorming of names the night before we got her originally went with Tilly, but it still didn't feel quite right, so in the end we decided to name her Florrie.

By the following morning she let me stroke her again when I fed her, so after I decided to see if she would let me pick her up. I wasn't expecting much, but she let me without a struggle and we had our first cuddles as you can see below.

 

Since then she has come on leaps and bounds! She comes out every day and plays with us on the sofa at the moment, as I don't really want to put her on the floor until she has her vaccines. She likes to sit upright on me, and also likes to snuggle and nestle her bum into my neck whilst facing the tv. Her little personality also is coming out and she is starting to turn into a bit of a monkey, using me as a platform to jump onto the top of the sofa and run along it. Most noises don't phase her now either bar the the hoover, which I didn't try out until late this week. She has also finally figured out how to use the ladder in her hutch which took a good few days after she first trialed out her jumping skills by hopping onto her hay cart. So now she likes to have crazy moments where she runs like a looney all around the hutch. Plus she is a little gannet and I swear that she has already grown somewhat in the week since we got her!

Below you can see pics of her hutch, her chilling in her hidy-tube, and the fist time that she jumped up on her hay cart which was then quickly followed by her finally learning how to use the ladder in her hutch.    

 

Both my hubby and I are very much in love with her, and he has fallen for her much more that her thought he would. He talks to her and even refers to himself as her Daddy! Holding her was also the first time that he had ever held a bunny let alone a baby one! I love having her around, and didn't realize how much I have missed having a bunnies until I got her. It's all of the little things like, the funny thing that they do, the smell of their fur, and being able to shop in a pet shop again. So you can expect a lot more bunny spam and a lot more bunny related blogs!

I hope that you are all having a fab weekend and that you are all getting into the Christmasy spirit now that it is December! x

Wedding Anniversary Celebrations & A Week Off!

Hi everyone! I hope that you all had a good weekend and that you have had a good start to your week today! Also if any of you are based within the south of England like myself I hope that you haven't been too badly affected by storm Angus that has been raging since Saturday night! Thankfully we seem to have got off pretty lightly compared to some places! We were prepared for 80-90mph winds, but what we mainly seem to have had over the last 48 hours is very heavy rain and lots of it! So much so that it woke me last night and when I looked I found not only that it was chucking it, but that there was a very wet little fox sniffing around outside.

I used to hear and see them quite often before we moved, but this is the first time that I have seen one here. At one point he was right under our window, which is probably the closest that I have ever been to a wild fox, but unfortunately it was too dark to be able to get a photo of him plus he scuttled off pretty quickly after that. I did feel rather sorry for him though being soaked right through and generally looking a little lost! Hopefully he found somewhere to dry off in the end though!

Today the weather hasn't been any better and after a brief spell of dry weather this afternoon it is now chucking it down very heavily out there! This combined with the fact that there aren't many leaves left on the trees after this weekend I would say definitely signals that winter is on its way! In fairness though we have done pretty well lately having had a pretty dry summer and a very warm and dry Autumn, so it was going to happen at some point! With the weather the way it was yesterday though I definitely felt like going into hibernation mode, so I spent the day in my pj's chilling with my hubby as you can see below. 

Hopefully the weather will perk up a little though as I have the week off this week and for the first time this year I get to spend it with my hubby too, which is lovely as we celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday so it will be nice to spend some time together especially since I didn't know that he was going to be off this week!

 

 For our anniversary itself I managed to get the day off of work so we decided to go to the cinema to see the new J.K Rowling film Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, which we both thoroughly enjoyed before going for a dinner date after. My hubby also bought me some lovely flowers and doughnuts (because married one apparently! His words not mine!) as you can see below.

Apart from that the last few weeks have been pretty quiet really with the exception of Bonfire weekend when we attended one of my hubby's brothers Housewarming/Bonfire party, which was lovely minus the fact that I don't really trust my hubby and his brothers when it comes to letting off fireworks! Thankfully they all went off ok, but I did nearly get hit by a rather large bit of firework casing even though I was staying well out of the way! 

The party was also fancy dress as my Brother and Sister-In-Laws parties tend to be, but this time it was randomly fruit themed! The hubby and i didn't really know what to go as so he just didn't dress up and I wore a jumper that I have with a strawberry on. There were some fab outfits though including a strawberry costume sported by my Sister-In-Law, a chilli costume sported by my Brother-In-Law, and a couple of their friends dressed up as blackberries and inventively had themselves covered in purple balloons attached by safety pins! There was also a guy dressed up as a banana, a woman in a 50's style dress with a cherry print, and randomly a guy who was dressed up in a hula girl outfit even though we were in the middle of a pretty cold snap at that point! Below you can see a pic of the cocktails in watermelons that were on offer that evening, accept I didn't get to drink any sadly as I was driving!

Have a good week everyone, and thanks for visiting! I am now off to cook dinner and work on a new Bobby Christmas design. x

A New Bobby Design & Firework Fun!

Today I am very pleased to announce that for the first time in two and a half years I finally have a new Bobby Bunny & Friends image to share with you all, which is now available to order as a greeting card from my Etsy shop!

I completed the design a few weeks ago during my holiday from work and the design features Bobby Bunny in Christening outfit which matches the Bella Bunny girl's version, the last design that I completed way back in April 2014.

Below you can see me working on ideas for the piece, the illustration in progress, the finished article and the image mocked .

   

It has been so good to get back into my creative stride now that most of the decorating is finally done and I have a little more time freed up, so I am hoping to start producing a lot more Bobby Bunny work in the near future!

In other Bobby news I also have a new Bobby Bunny Instagram account to share with you all, which I set up to mark my fourth blogging birthday that I mentioned a few posts back! So if you do Instagram feel free to follow #bobbybunnyandfriends.    

Aside from the goings on of Bobby Bunny I must wish those of you that celebrate it a very Happy Halloween! I have mentioned in my blog before that I never really used to celebrate Halloween or go trick or treating as I grew up as it wasn't such a big thing then, but ever since I turned 18 my best friend and I tend to go out for a night on the town all dressed up. It has almost become a bit of a tradition for us over the years and last year I even did a little Halloween party for us, but after having her wedding only a few weeks ago we are having a quiet on this year which feels a little odd! This is especially so as after Christmas, the weekends of Halloween and Bonfire Night have to be my most favourite of the year. So because of not going out to celebrate Halloween this year, I instead skipped straight to Bonfire Night this weekend just gone by going to see our local fireworks display with my hubby and parents.

Usually we go to the fireworks in the village where my parents live and then go back for our traditional hot dogs and tomato soup, but unfortunately the fireworks haven't taken place there over the last few years so we thought that we would try out our local ones instead. Plus repay my parents in the process for the years of hot dogs and tomato soup that they have provided us by having them back to ours after instead.

For those of you that aren't from the UK and are not familiar with it see my blog post last year for a bit of an explanation.

The fireworks themselves were held in the ground of our local cricket club and I have to say that we all really impressed with the display, all of which was timed to music. There was also a fun fair, so both myself and my parents seized the opportunity to go on the old fashioned carousel which we all enjoyed like we were little children!

Below you can see a selection of images that I took on the night:

Thankfully the good weather that we have been having this Autumn held out for the fireworks, it fact not only did it not rain but the ground was had enough that we didn't really need wellies either!

On another note, along with the weather I have to say that I have really been enjoying the colours that this warm bright Autumn has bought for us to far this year!

Below you can see a selection of images that I have taken on my walks home from work over the last few weeks, with the last of which showing the pretty clouds outside of our bedroom window this morning.

 

There have been many gorgeous sunsets on my walks home, including the one above which also shows the spire of the church where the hubby and I got married.

I hope that the weather is being kind to you too wherever you are, and that you have all had a good start to your week! Thank you for visiting as always, and also for all of your ongoing support. x

Three Birthday's, Two Hen Night's, Two Wedding's and A Week Off!

So another six weeks have flown past and we now find ourselves in the month of October already! Last month I was saying about how mild and muggy it had been here this summer and how much I was looking forward to the coming Autumn and winter, and I am pleased to say that within the last six weeks since I last blogged it finally officially feels like we are in Autumn! Whoop! The horrible mugginess to the air has gone and made way for a definite Autumnal chill in the air especially in the mornings and the evenings, the beautiful colours of the leaves are also coming out and are starting to fall here and there, the nights are drawing in a lot now, plus on the whole the weather has still been set pretty fair and bright which has also bought with it some gorgeous sunsets!

Now I will warn you now that the last six weeks have been pretty packed socially so this is going to be quite a long and picture heavy post!

Firstly back in the middle of September I had the first of my best friends Hen Do's! We had already held a pre-hen for her at Download Festival back in June as she had done for me back in 2011, but this hen was held around her parent's house and was organized by her mum! We all had a fab time, the drinks flowed, there were lots of games and dancing into the early hours, and in traditional UK hen night fashion her mum in her wisdom had organized a surprise stripper for her, which may I add she hated! But apart from that she loved it, and if nothing else it amused us seeing her cringe so much!

The weekend after this was the wedding of my manager which was held at a local hotel. My colleagues and I attended the evening reception as we were working during the day, and again we had a lot of fun! We all get on really well at work and are like a little family so we love going out socially together, and ended up making the most of the downtime by mucking around in the photo-booth that they had provided. Again there was also a lot of dancing to cheesy party songs and good times had by everyone.

Below you can see a pic of the first dance and the centre piece on one of their tables.

Following the wedding came yet another weekend of partying and this time it was for the much anticipated main hen night of my best friend, and being that I am the joint the Maid Of Honour with another of our friends it was our job to organize it!

It did initially start out as being a surprise, but by the time we left she pretty much knew everything that we were doing. We were given a brief by the Bride that she wanted club entry and overnight stay somewhere, with perhaps a beach or activity. Based upon this we initially looked as places like Newquay, but decided that it was a bit far to travel for one night plus as the weather can be a bit unpredictable at this time of year we were unsure about the idea of an activity such as surfing. We then looked at Wales and up north but again decided it was a little far so we started looking a little closer to home. We thought about London as it's only about an hour away, but being that the bride works and goes there quite frequently we decided that we wanted something a little different. In the end my fellow Maid Of Honour suggested Bournemouth as it had the nightlife, as only a couple hours away, could be done within budget and has a beach! Plus none of us had been there before!

So once we had our location we set about finding a suitable hotel which is when we stumbled across the "Chocolate Boutique Hotel," which we instantly fell in love with! I mean what girl wouldn't want to stay in a chocolate hotel! Luckily it was available and we also found a decent and pretty impressive looking club nearby too despite not being able to find a decent rock club, which we also managed to get VIP access for. So then we were all set for our first ever girly night away altogether!

The Sister-In-Law to be of the bride also kindly offered to drive us all there and back in her parents Jeep which was much appreciated, as otherwise we would no doubt have ended up having a pretty horrendous train journey! Mainly due to all of the issues and strikes that there have been with Southern rail recently!

When the day came the bride's Sister-In-Law to be also decorated the Jeep inside and out with hen night flags, streamers and pictures which was a really nice touch! She also had some really cool hen night wristbands made in homage to our festivaling antics, and I dished out the personalised t-shirts that I had got for us all as a surprise for the bride! Which being that she is a lover of Jack Daniels had the Jack Daniels logo on them, and were personalised with her nickname from school "Davey" and "Hen Weekend Bournemouth 2016!"

Below you can see both the t-shirts and sashes that I got for the hen night, as well as us wearing our epic wristbands!

Our journey down was pretty good and only took a couple of hours with one pit stop in between for us to stop for bubbles! (Accept the driver of course!)

Below you can see us enjoying our bubbles, the flag that we had on the car, and the gorgeous weather that we had for our journey down!

On arrival we were a little early for check-in so we headed for lunch at a beach side restaurant that we had pre-booked as it looked pretty good! As it turns out it was fab and had just the right vibe for a causal hen meal, plus it had gorgeous view over the beach and pier. Whilst there we also had the final member of our group of six arrive who was a girl that I hadn't seen since school, due to the fact that she had moved to Bristol not long after so it was lovely for us all to have a catch-up, especially since she had just got married too!

Below you can see the yummy food and drinks that we had, plus the gorgeous views from the balcony.

  

After lunch we headed to check-in to the chocolate hotel, and it didn't disappoint as it was a lovely small family run hotel with only 15 rooms. They only provide breakfast but there was a lovely personal feel to our stay from start to finish. We had booked three rooms, one single, one double and a suite.

Below you can see pictures of the foyer of the hotel and the suite that I shared with the bride and her Sister-In Law to-be, as well as the chocolate fountain that we had on arrival as a surprise for the bride and the room decorations that we set up once we got there.

Once settled in we spent the rest of the afternoon making garters to wear on out night out, with garter making kits that the bride's Sister-In-Law to be bought. It was a lovely activity for us to do together and for us then to be able to wear them, but they did take forever to make!

Below you can see my garter making kit and the finished result!

After the garter making we proceeded to get ready for our night our night out on the town and played a few hen night games before we headed down to the hotel bar for a few choctails to start us off! 

Below you can see the gorgeous bar and our choctails and cocktails!

Once at the club we were greeted by a fire dancer at the entrance before being taken up to our VIP table which was on a balcony overlooking the dance floor, before we then had our drinks package bought over. The building was beautiful and very impressive, plus there were lots of pyrotechnics throughout the night, so it was a bit of an upgrade from the only small little night club that we normally have to contend with in our hometown to say the least! We laughed, drank and danced the night away and all had a fab time!

Below you can see the fire dancer that greeted us on our arrival as well as views of the dance floor and our table and drinks.

The morning after the night before was an even brighter and sunnier than the day before but quite windy, so we made the most of our morning there before heading home by going down to the beach and paddling in the sea. The beaches are also a lot sandier that the stony beaches that we are used to at home, so it was nice to walk along the beach with our toes out.

Below you can see the sun over the lovely gardens outside of the hotel when we left for the beach in the morning, a sign that I think that we can all relate to that was in the hotel foyer, as well as some of the lovely views and beach antics that we had!  

We were all knackered by the time that we got back, but we all had a fab time together! The bride also got a little emotional about how much effort we had gone to and how spoilt she had been, so I think that it's safe to say that we managed to pull it off!  

The weekend after the hen night fell before my hubby's birthday which was on the following Monday, so after I had work on sat we made our way up to Croydon to see my hubby's mum and step-dad. It was lovely to see them as it has been a fair while since we have all been free to meet up, so we went out for a yummy curry together. The following morning we were also joined for breakfast by my hubby's brother, fiancee and our gorgeous little niece, who again we haven't seen for some time. Then in the afternoon we were then joined by my hubby's sister and her boyfriend for a roast dinner cooked which was cooked by my Mother-In-Law, before heading home in the evening. It was lovely to see them all but we were so stuffed by time that we left having had a curry, friend breakfast and a roast in the space of 24 hours!!

Monday then bought my hubby's birthday and more food as I cooked him an M&S meal after work. I think that he will also love me for life due to the fact that I found some massive bottles of his favourite cider that he didn't know that you could get! The way to this man's heart is def through his stomach!

Below you can see my meal efforts which consisted of pork belly with pork scratching crumbs, shredded veg, rosemary potatoes, and gravy. Then for dessert we had Cornish clotted cream ice-cream with adult pomegranate and berry jelly, as requested by my hubby as he is big kid and still needs jelly and ice-cream for his birthday! 

The Monday of my hubby's birthday also marked the first day in my much anticipated week off! I def felt that I needed it after having gone through our busy summer period at work and having had quite a few busy weekends I needed to chill, which is what I spent most of the week doing as this was the first week off this year where I didn't have to decorate anything! It also meant that I finally had the opportunity to get stuck into some drawing for the first time in over two years! It has been soo good to get back into it, and I finally have a new Bobby Bunny design that I will be able to share with you very soon!

So all in all I had a really lovely chilled week off, which I finished off with a visit and a shopping trip to my Nan's with my mum and her boss, before having a quite night in before I was back at work on the Sunday. 

So that nearly brings you up to date with another packed six weeks with one big exception, which is that on the weekend before last the day of my best friends wedding finally arrived after what seemed like forever! Especially since her and her fiance have been together for 11 years, and engaged for four! 

The day prior to the wedding one of our mutual friends that is a nail technician painted all of our finger and toe nails ready for the wedding, which was lovely as I rarely bother painting my nails as they always chip too easily at work. 

Below you can see the finished design, which was also replicated on my toes. 

 

On the day of the wedding itself I could barely believe that after all of the time and planning that the day was finally here for her! I know that she had been stressing a lot as she like me is very creative and did a lot of the decorations, invites, order of services etc herself, and was just ready for the day to arrive so that she could finally chill after all of her efforts!

We woke up to a lovely Autumnal day on the morning of the wedding, and I set about getting my hair and make-up done before making my way over to the bride's parents house. We were all going to get ready together but I knew that I would get way too stressed with my hair and make-up if I did, and had already been having dreams about being late as I am not the best at time keeping generally! 

Typically despite me trialling my hair a few days before it obviously didn't go up as well as it had done before which I knew would happen, but it looked good enough!

On arrival at the bride's parents it turned out that the bride and one of the other bridesmaids had just finished having their hair done, so we all got a chance to chill a bit and take in the day before the bride did her make-up and the photographer arrived. Surprisingly everything was pretty chilled, we got the bride into her stunning dress and we all left the house for the church on time.

It was weird going to the church that she was getting married in, as it was the same church that I had also got married in nearly five years previously and it was also the first time that I had been back since. It was very weird to be walking back down the same isle again too, which I have to say that I and my fellow Maid Of Honour were pretty nervous about! This was mainly due to that fact that we were walking first in front of the Bride, plus the track that we were walking down the aisle to was quite a hard track to time slow walking to and we didn't do a very good job of it in the rehearsal! We needn't have worried though as we nailed it on the day and everything else went smoothly too! It was a lovely ceremony and I have to say that I did shed a couple of tears as her dad gave her away!

After the ceremony we headed off to the reception which was held locally in a 15th century manor hotel, which is exclusively open for functions only. Unfortunately by the time that we got there it had started to rain, so we only got a few quick pictures outside with the wedding umbrellas before some very heavy rain set in throughout the evening, but luckily most of the main photos had already been taken outside of the church so it didn't matter too much!

The room that the reception was held in was beautiful with wood cladding, a lovely double staircase, a bar, and it was also relatively small which made it lovely and intimate. We enjoyed a three course meal, heartfelt speeches, and watched the couple cut their cake before the evening guests arrived for a night of partying! The groom, brother of the bride, and the father of the bride all play in a rock band together so they played a couple of sets together which were interspersed by a rocky DJ set. We all danced until we dropped that night and my feet ended up blistered and hurting for days after, but it was worth it and a fab time was had by all! My hubby and I also stayed at the hotel that night were we had in a four poster bed to stay in for the first time, which was just gorgeous and so comfortable! We then enjoyed a lovely full English breakfast the morning after with the bridal party before we made our way home.

Below you can see just some of the pictures that I took of their beautiful day! 

We all felt pretty weary the day after the wedding but the fun didn't stop there as we then had my friends twin boys sixth birthday to contend with, which consisted of a Star Wars themed party that was held at our local church hall. It was the first proper birthday party that they had had, and they along with their friends loved training to be Jedi's!

Below you can see some of the pictures that I took of the fun that they had, and their awesome Star Wars cake!

After the fun of the party we went back to the twin's house where we watched them open some of their many presents, before I helped then with their homework and reading which was just adorable, before helping putting them to bed and reading to them.

Needless to say after all of the social events of the last month or so the hubby and I are definitely ready for a few quiet weekends! 

Thank you for visiting and reading my posts as always. I hope that I find you all well and that the start of you week is going well! x