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Monday 27 November 2017

Halloween, Fireworks, & Time To Relax A Little!

 Here we are again, another seven weeks have past since I last blogged and Autumn is now well and truly here! The clocks have gone back, Halloween and Bonfire night have past, and we are now starting to get into the Christmas run up!

I always love this time of year from Halloween onwards the best with all of the Autumn colours, bright days with chills in the air, wrapping up warm against the elements, and hibernating with hot chocolates and comfort food! Which there has been plenty of as you can see below!


So lets recap over these last seven weeks starting with the frames that I mentioned that I'd been working on for my brothers and sisters in laws in my last post.

 Below you can see the frame that I did firstly for one of the weddings, and secondly for the 10th Anniversary present.



It's the first time that I've done anything like this and they were inspired by Pinterest, but I enjoyed making them and was happy with how they turned out. My brothers and sisters in laws also liked them too, which was the main thing!

The third frame seen below was then for the other of my brother and sister in laws weddings, but this time featured penguins in love as my sister in law loves penguins!


Again I enjoyed doing it, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out too! It was nice to draw something other than bunnies for a change, and to do a purely water colour piece as well, as it's been a while since I have done either. 

I am also happy to report that my sister in law loved it too! 

Also on the illustration front, back in mid October just after I finished these pieces, I was asked if I could create a bespoke Bobby Bunny & Friends Graduation/birthday card for a friends girlfriend who was graduating the day after her birthday. Below you can see what I came up with, and this card is now on general sale and available to purchase from my Etsy shop!

 
 My graduation design at sketch stage

 My Finished Graduation design

My Graduation design in card form

On the social front things have still been busy both with me being needed for overtime at my little gift shop job, as well as out of work, but nowhere near on the scale that it was over the few months covered in my last post!

Firstly back in the middle of October after a sat spent working overtime I got the chance to meet up with a few of my old work colleagues for an evening filled with a lovely meal, drinks, and good old girly chat! All of which was well overdue as I hadn't seen one of the girls for nearly two years, and that was also the last time that we had all met up together too!

Sunday was then a beautiful day filled with lots of Autumnal sunshine, so I went for a walk with my friend, her hubby, and two boys for their 7th birthday. We had a lovely time having lunch in the park, and my friend and I also got the chance to have a bit of a catch-up, whilst her boys and hubby hunted for horse chestnuts to take home and cook!

Monday was then the day that bought us the phenomenon of the blood moon! For any of you that it didn't hit, it was a very surreal experience especially since we didn't know what was happening at the time. It hit here around 3ish in the afternoon on what was already a very cloudy, dull, and windy day. I was working away on my illustrations in the kitchen when I noticed that it was just getting darker and darker, to the point that I had to put the light on, and then to the point that the street lights started to come on outside. Initially the sky looked yellowish like it was about to snow, but then it ended up turning a very odd sepia colour. At that point I re-checked the weather report as I didn't think that they had forecast a storm hitting us that day or any rainfall, which they hadn't, making it all even more of a mystery at the time. It also felt very eerie, not only because of the unusual colour of the sky, but also because as it happened all of the birds disappeared and everything outside fell deadly silent. The whole thing only took place for half an hour to an hour, but it was very odd! It was then at this point that it came out that it was due to remnants of Hurricane Ophelia dragging in tropical air and dust from the Sahara, and debris from forest fires in Portugal and Spain that had caused it.

Below you can see a pic that I took from my window as it was taking place. The photo doesn't really do it justice but it really was an incredible sight.


The following day was then when the tale end of storm Ophelia hit us bringing strong winds and heavy rain, but thankfully the full force of the storm didn't hit us like it did in other part of the country and across the world. I hope that the same can be said for you too, and that you all stayed safe!

The rest of that week then bought me a few days holiday from work, which gave me some time to catch-up on things and to sort out my studio room in order to make way for the arrival of my new storage unit, which I was to be received from my friend with the twins that I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately they could only fit half of it in their car though so I had to wait a few weeks for my hubby's dad to be able to come around and deliver the top half in his van, but it was worth the wait and it is now sitting in pride of place ready to be filled as you can see below.


Aside from collecting the half of the unit that we could, the rest of that weekend was generally a pretty quiet one, with me being needed to work overtime again on the sat, then us having a chilled one on sat evening, after briefly meeting with some of the hubby's friends and their son after work.  Plus the weather was also pretty awful so even more reason to hibernate!

Sunday was another chilled one where we spent the evening at my parents catching-up and eating a lovely chilli that my mum had prepared, as well as watching the "Strictly" results, whilst my dad and hubby watched the Grand Prix!

On the following Tuesday I then met up with my mum and sister for lunch and we chose our advent calenders! (Yes mum still buys us one despite the fact that my sister is in her mid 20's and I'm nearly 30!) Before my mum and I then went for a little swimming date, after which we chilled in the pool's cafe which has a lovely view! The weather was pretty dull, but as you can see below it still looked beautiful!


Later that week bought me a few more holiday days from work, which not only gave me time to catch-up on more of the things that I have been needing to get done. But it also gave me the chance to get out, clear a few cobwebs, and get inspired by having a lovely Autumn walk on the beautifully crisp and bright Friday that we had that week. Below you can see some of the pics from my walk.


That weekend bought Halloween weekend. But since the girls were busy this year and we didn't dress up and go out like we usually do, we decided to do fireworks a week early by attending the firework display that was being held at our local cricket club along with my hubby, parents, sister, and her boyfriend. 

We all had a lovely time and it was a beautiful day for it, so we made the most of it by meeting up for a few drinks before hand and having a go on a few fairground rides that were cricket club too, including the carousel and coconut shy. The display itself was just as good as I mentioned in last years post, and once again it was all co-ordinated to music. I also enjoyed a very yummy hog roast bab from one of the food stands and took lots of photos of the fireworks as usual, before we then headed back to my sisters and spent the rest of the evening playing games of Uno with her friends and eating toffee apple cake!

Below you can see just a few of pics that I took that evening, including the gorgeous sunset that greeted us on the way to, and once we had arrived at the cricket ground, as well as the fireworks and the yummy toffee apple cake!

  

After the fireworks on sat, sunday was then a pretty drab and wet day, so we spent the day hibernating in our pj's and catching up on TV!

Tuesday then bought Halloween itself, and even though as I said we didn't do much for Halloween this year I did have a little Florrie photo shoot of course! This time with her sporting a little witches hat! Below you can see a couple of the pics! 


The following weekend was then another chilled affair, with my hubby and I going to the cafe at our local garden center to have breakfast with my mum and aunt on the sat. Before we then had a look around at their Christmas decoration display and head home to chill out, hibernate, and catch-up on on some TV box sets. 

Most of Sunday was then spent pretty much the same way, but I did also head back to the garden center that we had been to the day before to buy a few decorations and a snowy Christmas tree that I had seen! 

I didn't think that I would ever break my childhood family tradition of not having a real Christmas tree, but I really liked this one and just fancied something a bit different for a change! Then in the evening we had our neighbors around for a few drinks and a catch-up!
 
The weekend after that I then spent a lovely day with the girls on the sat, which involved us meeting for lunch, before we then went bowling complete with cocktails, played on the 2p machines in the amusements, and then returned home to get changed and go out on the town! It was a lovely day and so nice to catch-up and do something different for a change! I can't remember the last time that I went bowling prior to to that, and I'm not sure that we have ever all spent both the day and evening together!

The weekend before last was then another chilled affair on sat, with me meeting up with my mum, nan, and sister in town for a lovely light lunch of a homemade sausage roll and a very yummy white hot chocolate, followed by a spot of shopping! 

Then the Sunday marked the 6th Wedding Anniversary of both my hubby and I, and as it was such a beautiful crisp day we decided to celebrate by heading down to Brighton. Where once there we ended walking over 13 miles around the city, including up to the marina and back. Whilst there we also enjoyed a lovely lunch, before we then sat on the beach and watched the sunset whilst drinking champagne. It was such a beautiful sight and just the perfect day for it. Below you can see just some of the many photos that I took that day!
This weekend just gone was then spent taking two of our nephews to the cinema on sat to see Frozen complete with the Olaf's Christmas short movie, which was quite apt as we had our first heavy frost of the year the night before! We all enjoyed the film, and my hubby and I were probably the only people within the cinema who hadn't seen it before! Then after we took the boys to Mc Donald's to end their treat day, before returning home for a chilled evening.

Yesterday was then another cold and bright day with another heavy frost that was spent with our nephews again, but this time we were at their house along with the hubby's family to celebrate their older brothers birthday. It was lovely to catch-up with everyone, see our little niece, and the hubby's sister with her growing bump! As usual we all ended up eating way too much of the yummy food that they had put on! 

On the Flo front aside from her little Halloween shoot we have discovered in the last seven weeks or so that our little one is not keen on fireworks, which knowing her temperament and what an easily spooked little bun she is was no surprise really. My Mill & Moll were never scared of fireworks despite being outdoor bunnies, and if anything I was more worried about them than they were about the fireworks! 

But the problem that didn't help with Flo was that when the first fireworks came it was a good couple of weeks before Halloween, so we weren't really prepared for it at that point! It turned out that they were to celebrate the anniversary of a school that is just down the road from us, so it also didn't help that they were also quite close either! 

I was on my way home from my parents at the time that they started going off and my hubby was thank fully at home with her, but as soon as I got closer to home and realised that they were going off I knew that she would have freaked! Which according to my hubby she did and ended up pelting it down her ladder, stamping her feet, and showing the whites of her eyes. 

Thankfully she chilled out pretty much instantly as soon as they had stopped, but we made sure that we were better prepared for when the cricket club fireworks went off as they are still pretty close to us too! So we left the light on for her, turned up the rock channel which she is used to listening to and doesn't bother her anyway, and made sure that all of the window were shut. All of which thankfully seemed to do the trick! 

In fact by the time that bonfire night was over she had got so aclimatised to hearing firework coming from peoples gardens that she wouldn't even bother getting up from her chilled lying position on hearing them, let alone pelt it!     

Aside from learning that Flo doesn't like fireworks we also learnt that she doesn't like the singing Halloween pumpkins either! As I bought one for Halloween that sings "The Monster Mash" but it had to be banished to the spare room, as even though she is used to music it petrified her more that the fireworks bless her! She is a funny one and hates the sound of rustling shopping bags too, but the sound her of the food bags or her treat bags is just fine!     

We also had an incident towards the beginning of this month with her too, where she decided to sit and pull out a load of fur from her tummy. I didn't see her do it, but saw her sitting on it and it all underneath her. At first I though that she may have been going through the start of a phantom pregnancy, but she didn't seem in distress at all, if anything she just sat there looking rather impressed with herself. She wasn't too keen on me taking it out however and just sat there looking at me like "mummy you have just ruined my nest," but I had to as she was trying to eat it! 

We don't appear to have had any more incidents since though, and like I say she has been fine in herself. I wonder if she was just over grooming like she does, as we have had quite a few incidents of her pooping out fur again recently! Aside from that I'm not sure what else it could have been, I have checked for parasites and can't find anything, and she is also well stimulated so I don't think that she's bored, so who knows! She's just a funny bun!

Below you can see her looking rather proud along side her fur! Plus a selection of photos of her chilling over the past couple of months and doing the funny things that she does, including one of her watching the BBC drama Gunpowder with us!

 Florrie giving her best "Look what I did Mumma, I pulled out my furries and no you're not having it" face!

The fur that was underneath Florrie, and Florrie deciding that Nutbrown needs to face-plant the food bowl! This seems to be a recurring thing with our little Flo! She will play with a toy until it annoys her and gets in her way, and she then puts it in her food bowl! Usually it's her bell, ball or cardboard tube, but this time it was Nutbrown! 

 
I think that Flow enjoyed watching Kit Harrington in Gunpowder as much as I did! Followed by Flo chilling, and then giving us her best "I demand to know why you and Daddy are still up at this time of night face" after we had had our neighbors around. 

Yesterday then marked a year to the day since our little Flo came into out lives! Like I've said before she wasn't exactly a fully intended purchase, but we wouldn't be without her now! She's a nutty little thing, but then so are we so she fits in well here! Below you can see a little collage that I put together of our first year!

  So that rounds up another couple of months, and another long blog post! Thank you for bearing with me once again if you are still reading, and I'm hoping to go back to blogging a little more often as things are quietening down a bit now!

I also hope that you've all been well over the past few months too, that you had a good weekend, and that you are easing gently into the week! I'm finally hoping to get some new Christmas designs done this week, as it's the first week in the last few months that I haven't had any overtime at my little gift shop job, which I am still really enjoying but that has put me a little behind with my designs lately! x