A Catch-up, A Baby, and Spring is On It's Way!

I can't quite believe that it has been over a month since I last blogged, or that we are now coming towards the end of March! I have said it before but it really is crazy how time flies, so I have a bit of catching up to do with you all!

Firstly the end of Feb saw the start of me having a week and a half off of work, which was both relaxing and jam packed in parts. It started with me getting stuck into a number of overdue jobs that needed doing around the flat, the first being that of repairing the faulty valve in our toilet.

However after spending some time trying to locate the stock cock by checking under the sink, pulling out the washing machine, taking off the side of the bath and looking in every cupboard and space that we could think it might be, we typically ended up finding that it was in the cupboard where we originally thought it was, just it didn't look like a stop cock!

The next problem that we had was that the stop cock was seized, so I ended up taking a impromptu trip to Homebase to get some WD-40 to try and solve the problem. Unfortunately and annoyingly it didn't, however whilst over at Homebase I ended browsing about like you do and found a absolute bargain on some bathroom flooring which was reduced from £39.99 per pack down to £7:00 all because the packaging was damaged so it was definitely too good to miss, especially since our bathroom flooring along with the rest of the bathroom was another thing on our to-do list to rip out and re-do!

So this then led me to me going straight home and laying a new floor having never done anything of the sort before. After seven and a half hours, a lot of cutting and slotting together, and a very knackered me, we finally had our new flooring which actually turned out pretty well, but to be fair it couldn't have looked much worse that it did originally! It wasn't exactly what I was expecting to do that day, but hey it was another thing ticked off the list! I won't be doing it again anytime soon though as I found a million muscles that I never knew I had and ached for day after, so it was probably a good thing that I was off for the rest of that week! Below you can see pic of it before, during, and after!

The pic on the above left shows the flooring before. This picture doesn't really do justice as to how awful it really was, but there was badly laid lino that didn't fit the edges of the room, didn't stick properly, and was generally horrible and dirty. The pic on the above right shows the ancient lino tiles that I found after pulling up the top layer of lino, plus another layer that it had been stuck onto. 

Above left shows the flooring after the lino tiles had been pulled up, and the above right shows the final finished floor! I just have the rest of the bathroom to do now but it's a start! (Oh and the leaky toilet valve was sorted by my hubby's dad once he had un-seized the stop cock for us!)

So once I had finished and recovered from fitting the flooring I spend most of the rest of my week off getting stuck into sorting out more of my years of hoarding from the boxes in our spare room, which I am happy to say is looking more and more like a room now!

I did however manage to take some down time though, especially since the weather happened to be lovely and crisp but bright throughout most of the week. So on one of the days when I had to drop my hubby off on work duties and was at a bit of a loose end as I had to wait around for him to finish, I seized the opportunity to go down the road and visit a lovely little millpond that I had remembered visiting years ago when we were in the area with his and my parents planning our wedding. It was a good decision to make as it really was the most glorious day to be down there. There is also a lovely pub/restaurant that has a lovely patio area that faces the millpond, so I took the opportunity to sit outside with some sweet potato fries and take in the scenery. It was soo gorgeous there and being a cold weekday it was also lovely and quiet, so it definitely swept away a few cobwebs! Below you can see some of the pics that I took.

 The stunning views over the millpond from the pub/restaurant patio

 Another late afternoon view and my yummy sweet potato fries!

 The Canada Geese and rushes around the edges of the millpond

 The crisp skies contrasting against the winter trees an more of the pond and rushes

 A lone little flower among the hedgerows and some winter berries

 The late afternoon sun peeping through the trees and a Cormorant spreading its wings in the distance on the millpond.

 More of the Cormorant spreading it's wings whilst sitting on a buoy

      The evening sun approaching over the millpond

So all in all I had a pretty productive and relaxing week off that was finished with a trip to visit my Nan in Chichester with my mum and sister, where we had a girly day of retail therapy complete with a fry-up to keep us going!

The weekend after my week off fell on the Mother's Day weekend, so on Mothering Sunday my hubby went up to Croydon to visit his mum whilst I went home to visit mine. Both my sister and I treated my mum to a DVD, book, flowers, sweets and cooked her a chicken roast, which turned out pretty well considering that I have never cooked a proper roast and my sister hadn't for years. It was enjoyed by all and was a lovely rare family day. Below you can see our efforts!

So that pretty much brings you up to date with all of the goings on around here really as the past few weeks have just been filled with work and me sorting out, and reminiscing, over the many wallets worth of photos from over the years that needed sorting and putting in albums!

Most excitingly though my hubby and I became Auntie and Uncle to a beautiful little Niece last Thursday night! It was his middle brothers first baby and our first Niece which makes it all even more special! She was a week and a half early and weighed 6lb 9oz, but it was a smooth and relatively quick delivery so she came home on Sat morning and all is going well. The hubby went up to meet her on Sunday but unfortunately I couldn't make it, as I was at a meet up with my girly friends to discuss my best friends wedding arrangements. She looks gorgeous though and I can't wait to meet her! She looks so tiny and precious, and she has lots of dark hair!  

I hope that I find you all well and all geared up for the Easter Bank Holiday weekend ahead. Hopefully the weather will hold out for it as we have our annual Italian Festival taking place it town this weekend, and spring has definitely felt like it has been on its was over the last week or so, and especially today! It just needs to get a little warmer now and we will be there! But it is already getting me in the mood for summer festivals! x 

Valentine's Day and a Website Re-vamp!

I hope that you all had a fab Valentine's Day last weekend! Unfortunately I had to work all weekend which was a bit rubbish! But after returning from a meal to celebrate one of the hubby's friends birthdays on sat night, he surprised me with an early Valentines present of a dozen red roses! Cue a few tears from me partly because I am soppy but mainly due to the fact that it was totally unexpected, plus romantic gestures do not happen particularly often even on such days! I found it even more touching that not only had he made the effort, but that he said that he had to search high and low to find some that were not frost damaged after our recent cold snap!

Valentines was then properly celebrated by us after I returned from work on Sunday when we had our usual M&S meal deal, which seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition these days! This consisted of a starter of tai fishcakes cooked by myself with a lovely sauce, a main of rump steak coated in peppercorns and peppercorn sauce cooked by my hubby and served with rosemary potato's and mixed veg, then a dessert which consisted of a heart mousse which was half milk chocolate filled with salted caramel and dusted with glitter, and half white chocolate with a passion fruit and sponge filling. We also had a selection of heart chocolates on the side, and then finished it all off with a lovely bottle of white wine. Then my hubby also presented me with a lovely card and chocolate bunny, so all in all it was a fab evening and I was spoilt rotten!

Apart from celebrating Valentine's Day the last few weeks have mainly been quiet and just filled with work at my retail job, especially with this week being half-term. I did however get the chance to pop out on my lunch break to visit a new baby shop that has just opened within the town. It was full of so many gorgeous little outfits and items that I just had to buy a little something for our Niece that is due at the end of the month! I don't normally buy pressies before the baby's arrival, but on this occasion I just couldn't help myself! I bought a gorgeous little floral baby grow and some peter rabbit milestone cards, which were beautifully gift wrapped for me in a little box. To top it all off I also won a 20% discount on one of their scratch cards to celebrate the opening of the store, plus I just had to take one of the gorgeous bunny balloons that they were giving out despite fact that I am not a child! You can see the balloon and bag below sitting in our work staff room, along with the beautiful gift box.

In other news if you follow my Bobby Bunny & Friends Facebook page you may have seen that I have recently updated my website which had been a little neglected and needed a bit of tlc! The actual content and style hasn't changed if you are looking at it on a laptop, but I have now made it phone and tablet compatible which looks much slicker and is easier to navigate. It took me most of my day off to do last week, but I am pretty happy with the results.

I hope that I find you all well and that none of you were badly affected by storm Imogen that passed by particularly the south of the UK last weekend. We had some pretty high winds and torrential rain when it hit us, but luckily the worst of it hit at night and there wasn't anymore damage in the area other than the odd fallen tree and a slight bit of flooding on some of the local roads. Luckily the weather has generally cheered up on the whole this week, with some much colder and frosty but sunny days. The nights are also starting to noticeably draw out a little now and it's almost not dark when I leave work now!

I also hope that you have all had a fab week, and that you enjoy the coming weekend! I am very much looking forward to this weekend and next week, as I am off of work from now until a week Tuesday! So I am hoping to get loads of jobs done around the home and with my illustrating! Thanks as always for visiting. x    

New Bobby Bunny & Friends Product Launch Coming Soon!

Hello everyone! I just thought that I would pop by quickly let you know about an exciting new Bobby Bunny and Friends product that I am hoping to launch in my Etsy shop very soon! The new product is something that I have been planning on having in my shop for a while, but that I haven't got around to fully developing until now. The product in question is going to be a framed print which can be used as "nursery art" with the baby's name and meaning on it. I finally got around to putting it together after my sister asked me if I could make something for a friends little girls first birthday, and below you can see the result:

I had to play around with the composition a little and decide on fonts, image placement, and where I was going to add the buttons in order to keep the design consistent with my cards but I got there in the end. Originally I wasn't intending on having glitter, or the name meaning on the print, but when I found out that the little girl's name Esme meant "loved," "to love," or "beloved," I just had to add it. It seemed so apt as this little girl is particularly special having been born at only 26 and a half weeks after her mum developed pre-eclampsia. Things were touch and go to begin with especially with mum, but after nearly three months in hospital Esme came home a couple of weeks before her original due date and has thrived ever since. She is now a gorgeous bubbly little girl who is already up, cruising, and hitting all of her developmental goals, so she needed an extra special first birthday present to help celebrate!

To start with I will just offer this image on my Etsy shop with personalisation, which is already available on there in card form. But in time I hope to be able to add more images and new ones to the range, as well as offering different size options etc for the prints and different personalisation i.e. birth date etc. I may also possibly tweak the frame before I put it on my shop and still need to work out pricing etc, but I am hoping that it won't be too long until it is available.

   

In other news I had a rare Saturday off last weekend and got to go wedding dress shopping with my best friend, and the second of her two Maids' Of Honour (me being the other.) We went to a lovely little wedding dress shop in Arundel that she had already visited with her mum, in order to help her decided on one of three dresses that she had seen. We ruled out one quite quickly, but really struggled between the other two! They both looked gorgeous, but she so slim and dainty that she would look amazing in anything so it was so hard to decided! We also all had a few tears when we saw her in one of the dresses which I wasn't expecting! But we got there in the end and left with one wedding dress ordered, before going and having a hot drink and cake! It was such a lovely day not just because of the dresses, but also because we don't all get to catch up much or have lunch together that often. Plus my fellow Maid of Honour doesn't get much baby free time these days with having a gorgeous ten month old little boy.

Moving forward to toady, well it has been a pretty lazy one! It is very rare that I do nothing on a day off, but after a long week at work today was one of those days! It started off quite productive with me doing my workout DVD, but with the mounting housework from the week not being particularly enticing I decided to hibernate and catch-up on TV instead. Especially since the weather was so rubbish, having returned to being wet and windy after our brief snap of cold days sunny day's, plus the smallest amount of snow. Below you can see me snuggled up with some warning soup! 

 

I did however eventually come to life doing my chores and making dinner at a about 5:30ish! So I wasn't totally lazy in the end!

 

I hope that you are all well and that you have settled into the New Year. I can't believe that we are at the end of Jan already! Have a good weekend! x

My Mill & Moll! x

Today marks four years since I lost the second of my two bunnies Milly at the grand old age of eleven and a half, having lost her sister my Molly just three months previous. Even after all this time I sill miss them so much, and not a day goes by where I don't think about them. But rather than dwell on the bad I have instead finally got around to putting together some of my favourite clips and pics of them, and have made them into a little video which I hope reflects the personalities of my cheeky little monkeys! I hope that you enjoy! x

(Ps. Before you watch it you may need to hover over the video image once it has loaded and press the un-mute button, as it seems to mute the music automatically for some reason.)

Christmas Catch-up, a New Year, and New Horizons!

Hello everyone! Here we are for my first post of 2016 how crazy is that! I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, and I wish you all health and happiness for the year to come! I can't quite believe that it has all gone by quite so quickly, but I did have a lovely time!

The run up to Christmas was rather busy for us as always with work and social events. Christmas Eve Eve saw us going to the hubby's sisters for our annual Secret Santa giving, and meal which we do between us and his siblings. I made sure that I was suitably in the festive mood for this by wearing my Mrs Santa outfit which I had worn to work that day, to accompany the many festive jumpers and reindeer antlers that I had been wearing over the past weeks.

Christmas Eve I actually managed to get off work for only the 2nd time in the last eleven years so I was determined to make the most of it, especially since the last one I had off a few years back was predominately spent in traffic trying to get the hubby to work and back due to flooding. So this year I had a lazy morning as my hubby was at work, and then spent a fair proportion of the day wrapping presents whilst listening to Christmas music. I then went off to the annual Christingle Service our local church with my mum and nan, which we have attend nearly every year since I was a child. There is nothing quite like a Christingle service and a bit of carol singing to get you into the Christmas spirit, and it was an especially good service this year too.

We then came home my sister and I helped mum to lay the table ready for Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve night I stayed at my parents whilst my hubby stayed up at his mum's in Croydon. We do love spending Christmas together but often alternate it between him coming to my parents and him going to his mum's, as I have never had a Christmas away from home and have quite a small family in comparison to him. One day I will go with him to his mums but it works for us for now and everyone understands why we do it, so it will remain that way until then.

Before he left for work that morning he surprised me with this lovely white chocolate Snowman and Snowdog, as he knows that I love the animation and white chocolate! We don't normaly give each other presents unless there is something that we really want so it was a lovely thought, and in return I got him a calendar of his favourite football team.
 

Christmas Day came and was a lovely chilled family day! First thing my sister and I opened all of the lovely prezzies in our stockings, (yes we may be grown up but mum still makes us stockings and we love it!) before my friend and parents neighbour popped around with her gorgeous five year twin boys so that I could give them their presents. We then opened more presents from the family, the best part of which was seeing mum open her special present from our dad. He hadn't told anyone including her what it was but it turned out that he had gone and got their wedding video converted to DVD in secret so that they would be able to watch it once again, being that they have been married for 30 years this year! He wasn't sure whether she would like it or not but it is safe to say that he did well, and there were lots of happy tears!

I also received lots of lovely presents and was thoroughly spoilt! Many of which were bunny related of course as you can see below!

After opening all of our presents we then sat down to a traditional turkey Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings, which was cooked by my mum and was as delicious as always! Fun and games where then had around the dinner table before we settled down for the evening shutting out the wet weather and watching "Call The Midwife," as well as the last ever "Downton Abbey."

On Boxing Day the family and I briefly caught up with my Aunty, Uncle, and cousins at my parents local, before I then went off to be reunited with my hubby at his dads which is only a short drive away from my parents. We had another family day there with the hubby's siblings, our nephews, niece, and extended family. There were 21 of us there altogether so it was pretty hectic, but we all had a fab time and the kids loved playing the "Pie Face" game. Which is basically a game with a dice and turner that has a a hand, that may or may not hit you in the face with whipped cream depending on how many times you have to turn the dial on your go! Cue lots of laughter from everyone each time someone got "pie faced!"

Luckily the day after Boxing Day I had the day off, so was able to chill briefly at home with the hubby after all of the excitement! I think that this year has to be the longest Christmas break I have ever had from my retail job, a whole four days! I always wish that I had a desk job of some sort at this time of year as the hubby and most others get a good two week break which I would so love to have, but I was grateful for my four days nevertheless!

New Year's Eve was then welcomed in by the hubby and I first attending our Sister in Laws 80's themed 30th birthday, for which I was dressed in a full on Madonna fide outfit! Complete with lace leggings, black tutu, a black top, sparkly jacket with leopard print trim, and crimped hair with a black velvet hair bow! Needless to say I looked the part along with many others in their outfits, including the birthday girl who was dressed up as She Ra, her hubby as Tom Cruise in Top Gun, a Baywatch babe, two Smurfs, Freddie Mercury and Super girl to name but a few! I then spent the second half of the evening at another house party hosted by my best friend. A fab time was had a both but I was definitely feeling a little fragile to say the least on New Year's Day along with many others I am sure!

So that's that! All of the festivities over just like that for another year!

Whilst I am here I just want to say a massive thank you to you all for continuing to follow my little blog for another year, especially when Bobby Bunny hasn't made much of an appearance for a while! I am hoping that this will change very soon though, with a lot more Bobby Bunny work and products appearing in the coming year! Your support really does mean the world to me so thank you again!

Right I am now I am off to write some Christmas thank you letters in these lovely bunny cards that I found!

Plus to very reluctantly take down the Christmas decorations! Here's to good things in 2016 though! x

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