Spring Catch Up Part 1!

Hello everyone! So much has happened in the last month that I barely know where to start! So much in fact that I think that I am going to have to put it across two blog posts, otherwise you may get bored to death with how long one would be! Especially since my last blog post was at the end of March, so I have a fair bit of catching up to do with you all!

Back to the end of March came an early Easter and the Bank Holiday weekend, for which I managed to get two of the four days off of work. The first of which was Good Friday and what a glorious day that was!

Every year over the Easter weekend we have an annual Italian Festival within our town which consists of an Italian Market, a Mini rally, a Ferrari parade and display of Superbikes. It's always quite a spectacle and seems to draw more and more people in from the local area as each year passes. Unfortunately I don't usually get to see much of it as I am generally working, and I never get to see the Ferrari parade unless I get the chance to stick my head out of the back door at work to have a quick look, as it generally falls on a Saturday! This year however it fell on the Friday that I had off, so my hubby and I made our way into town on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far at that point. We had a few ciders, got to watch all of the parade, and had a good look around the market. It really was the most perfect of days and you can see just some of the amazing cars and bikes that we saw below.

             The blue Ferrari above was apparently the one used in the latest Bond movie

One of the older Ferraris and one of the street performers

The Ferrari above was the only one that was sectioned off and for good reason as it's worth 7 million pounds!

 

Good Friday was then followed by my next day off which was Easter Sunday! This was a lovely family day that was spent with my parents consisting of my mum cooking us a yummy roast before we then spent the afternoon playing Jenga, Ping-Pong, and a game of the Cornish edition of Monopoly! Which after over three hours of playing we all lost the will to live and never finished! Once again it was a lovely rare family day despite the fact that the weather was pretty awful.

I also got plenty of Easter treats too!

I was then working on Bank holiday Monday but this didn't exactly go to plan, as both I and my fellow colleagues ended up spending half of the day in Costa. This was due to the fact that we had quite a storm and very high winds on the night of Easter Sunday that caused the scaffolding of the shop next to us to become unstable, which meant that we couldn't open for a fare amount of the day as half of the high street was shut off. It was a bit unfortunate as the Italian Festival that had had so much planning go into it was still taking place on the day so it did put a bit of a dampener on it, but hey we got to have the morning off so it wasn't all bad!

On the way home from work that evening I also came across a rather large tree that had fallen in the storm just around the corner from us. You can see below just how big it was and how lucky it was that it fell away from the flats just by it! We haven't had a storm or winds like that for a long time and hopefully won't have any again anytime soon!

In the week that followed I started to move onto faze two of our bathroom makeover, which consisted of me conducting an experiment as to how to cover the delightful flowery tiles that we had dotted about in the bathroom.

At this point we had already decided to tile over the delightful avocado tiles below them, but I didn't really want to have to re-tile the whole bathroom as the nude tiles that surrounded the flowery ones were quite unoffensive and in pretty good nick. However I also wasn't keen on the idea of tile paint as I didn't want it to end up looking tacky or streaky, so I set about looking for an alternative and that alternative turned out to be spray paint! I did some research and thought about the look that we wanted to go for and found a product that sprays with a stone effect. It had mixed reviews and I had no idea if it would actually work for the purpose that I wanted to use it for, but I figured that I couldn't make the bathroom look much worse! I set about doing a few test tiles first and was pleasantly surprised with the result as you can see below!

            The left pic shows the practice tile before I sprayed it and right after                            

So the process that I used was to spray the tile with one coat of the spray, leave it to dry for about 6 hours and then paint it with three coats of clear outdoor waterproof varnish with about two hours or so drying time between each coat and voila!

So after the success of the test tile I set about masking off the tiles that I wanted to spray and got to work! I have to say that it was very time consuming process and took quite a few of my days off and evenings to complete, but I got there in the end and after sorting out the grouting to I am pretty pleased with the result as you can see below! Only time will tell how well it will wear but it seems to be pretty good so far!

                                    Before                                              After A Lot of Masking

                          After Spraying                                      After the Masking Came Off

At this point all that remained of project bathroom was to attempt the tiling, plus to paint and gloss the place. This however turned out to be a much bigger nightmare that I ever thought that it would be, which I will cover this in my next post! But for now I will leave you with a new framed Bobby Bunny commission for a 1st Birthday that I got a few weeks back!

I hope that I catch you all well and that you have a fab weekend! Also thank you for bearing with me and my rather long posts, as always it really does mean the world to me to have your support. x

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