September 2015 Goals

Blimey, where are the weeks going??? Once again, we are in the middle of the month before my goals are going up and it’s been four weeks since my last post again! Time seems to be galloping ahead without me at the moment but I’m desperately trying to rein it in and get posts up more frequently! But for the meantime, here are the outcomes of my August goals, and the goals I have set myself for September.

August Outcomes:

Once Upon a Time Sampler – In August my aim was to get the two remaining frames stitched in as well as the design for the month and I completed this so I was thrilled that it is almost up to date! I even managed to make a tiny start on the banner at the top…can you see it? Also, a sneak peek of the September design there too – this month is Black Beauty!

Cut Thru’ Caravan – I also managed to finish the page of the Caravan pattern that I was working on! It is coming together nicely but I am starting to realise that meeting my deadline of Christmas doesn’t look likely to happen – especially with all of the other presents I still need to make!

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Our Yorkshire Dales Escape!

Hello!

You might have noticed that I have been a bit quiet around here for the last few weeks and in all truth…I was ready for a holiday! Luckily, last week was my chance for a break as me and James made our way to the Yorkshire Dales for three nights to celebrate 4 years of being together.

My Grandparents used to own a static caravan in the Yorshire Dales, so every school holiday while I was growing up involved a trip there. James, however, had never been before, so I planned out a little break for us to revisit some of my favourite places.

Tuesday 23rd June:

The first day of our trip was the day of our anniversary so the ideal day to begin our trip…and the morning that I woke up with a migraine! I wasn’t happy about it but I wasn’t going to let it spoil our trip! Because of the migraine, I didn’t manage to get any photographs of our first two stops but I’ve linked up the websites instead so you can take a look if you like.

Our first stop was the furthest away, to the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes. We didn’t spend very long here as we had a busy day ahead, but we had enough time to sample the Wensleydale cheeses that they make in the factory and pick out one each to supply our picnics for the week ahead!

From Hawes we travelled on to The Forbidden Corner, which is a completely bizarre place unlike anywhere else! James quite aptly described it as a combination of the world in Labyrinth (the 80s film with David Bowie), Wonderland and Oz. When I was younger I loved spending hours looking for all of the weird things in the guidebook! Unfortunately our visit was cut pretty short due to my migraine, but we did manage to see most of it in the hour that we were there and we will definitely make up for the short visit by going back as soon as we can!

Our next stop was where we were staying; Mason’s Campsite. I hadn’t told James where we were staying as I wanted it to be a surprise, and what a surprise it was when we turned up and he found out we were staying in this cute little VW campervan! I’m a big fan of VW campers and when I discovered that you could hire one to stay in, I knew that it was perfect for our getaway.

Bank Holiday Shopping, Cocktails and a Catch-Up!

Hello! Did you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend? I had a great time! Particularly on Saturday when I was having a much needed catch up and shopping spree with a couple of my school friends!

I’ve known Becky since primary school, and we met Catherine when we were in the same form at high school. We saw each other on and off throughout University but the three of us haven’t all got together for almost 5 years! Me and Becky now work in central Leeds, so Catherine made the trip over to West Yorkshire for us to all get together for some retail therapy and cocktails! We had lots of fun with lots of gossip and some good food…we were all shattered by the end of it…we need some more practice I think!

And here is a sneak peek at my shopping:

Happy Birthday James!

Hello!

You might have noticed that I had a bit of a break from blogging at the beginning of last week, that was because it was James’s birthday, so we took a couple of days off work to relax and to celebrate his birthday. We decided to head out for a trip on the day, and for his birthday last year I bought him gift vouchers for the North York Moors Railway to travel on a steam train from Pickering to Whitby and back. James loves trains and when I was younger I always visited the National Railway Museum in York ( I think this will be our next day trip!) to travel on the steam trains, but James hadn’t been on one so it seemed like the perfect present. Life got a bit hectic between last April and now though, so this was the first opportunity we had had to use the vouchers, so his birthday was a great excuse for a visit.

Choo-choo! Here is the steam train that took us from Pickering to Whitby, posing for a photo opportunity at Whitby station! Doesn’t it look impressive!

Our Valentine’s Weekend!

Hello! Did you all have a lovely Valentine’s weekend?

Because Valentine’s Day was on a Saturday, me and James decided to make the most of it by having a relaxing Valentine’s weekend!

I kicked off my weekend plans by taking a sneaky half day holiday on Friday afternoon to go home and bake James a Valentine’s cake. I bought a wonderful Wilton Heart Tasty Fill Tin Pan Cake Non-Stick Baking Tins Create Filled Cakes to bake a cake with a filled heart shape running round the cake. I opted to make an angel cake, as it is mine and James’s favourite, and filled it with a strawberry marshmallow mousse and covered it in white chocolate butter cream and white chocolate ganache. As I was pushed for time, I didn’t manage to get it looking quite as neat as I wanted, but for what it lacks in presentation, it definitely makes up for in taste! James was really surprised to find a cake waiting for him when he got in!

The next stage of operation Valentine’s Weekend was to have James’s presents ready and waiting when he got up on Saturday morning. This phase didn’t quite go to plan, as on Friday evening I was exhausted and ended up having an early night, meaning that I had to sneakily (and unsuccessfully) get the presents out of the wardrobe and downstairs at 6:30 on Saturday morning before James woke up. My sneaking skills weren’t up to scratch though and I just ended up waking him up! I did tell him not to look though so that I could still get the presents downstairs without him seeing. This is what he came down to find:

My 23rd Birthday

Wow, my break from blogging really did last longer than I expected! Apologies for going AWOL for a few months, 2014 was a HUGE year for me – moving out of my family home for the first time into a house with James, starting a graduate job, finishing my masters dissertation – just to name a few! Because I had so much going on it has taken a few months to get into a regular routine around working different shifts and arranging a housework pattern, as well as fitting in hobbies and voluntary work. I am hoping that I have managed to strike a balance which is now going to allow me to get back into a blogging routine! I’ve got so many things to share with you since I’ve been away, starting with my 23rd birthday presents ( I’m only two months late, I don’t think that is too bad!)

My 23rd birthday was back in December and I really wanted to share my presents with you but…well, you know what December is like! The run up to Christmas got really chaotic and I never got round to sharing my presents with you but hey, better late than never!

Anyway, to kick it off, here are my crafty presents from James! I picked my first present as I had been eyeing up this adorable Disney cross stitch for a while. After visiting Orlando in 2013 and Disneyland Paris in November I was hooked on anything Disney-related, so what can get better than Disney-related crafts! I really wanted to get a large Disney cross-stitch, ideally of the castle, so when I saw this one of Mickey and Walt Disney I knew it was perfect. The pastel colours are really pretty and I love the level of detail in the design. I can’t wait to start it but I have quite a lot of projects keeping me busy this year! (More on that in a future post…)

Another crafty gift from James! He picked out a sewing kit for me from Liberty when he was recently in London with work (he is well trained!) He bought me this patchwork cushion kit which I couldn’t wait to make a start on – I’d sewn it together before I even got a photo of it in the packet! It is a simple 9 square design with an envelope close at the back. James picked the kit with lovely blue fabrics in it to match our sofa – I couldn’t have picked better myself

Moving Update!

Hello! Sorry for the break in posting blogs and commenting on yours! I am really missing being able to read them! I moved house this weekend, and we are currently have no internet access for three weeks (eugh!) so there will be a delay in my posts I’m afraid! I am going to take the time to get plenty lined up for you though!

I look forward to catching up with my blog and yours soon! x

An Update

Goodness…how long has it been since I last posted??? I don’t even want to think about it! Apologies for the lack of posts…I’m sure many of you will have seen me around still, commenting on your posts and replying to comments, but everything is so hectic here that my regular posting has slipped!

Those of you who read my Spring Blog Hop post will know that we were going through a difficult time, as my Grandpa was taken ill very suddenly at the end of March, before he sadly passed away on Easter Sunday. He had a lovely funeral service on the 1st May, which he had chosen the songs for, and he left me the responsibility of choosing the poems. Somewhere between all of that, April happened, and I’m not sure where it went. Because I lost April during this stressful and upsetting time, I have applied for some extensions on my university work, and right now, that is my main priority; hence the lack of blogging. I’m still desperately clinging to the blogging sphere by commenting and replying to comments, but posts may be quite few and far between for a little while so I hope you can bear with it! I do have a lot of posts lined up though! I have at least 4 book reviews on hold as well as a couple of general posts and several Youtube videos in need of editing. Right now the time consuming bit is the taking and editing of photos and videos, which I can’t afford to do right now. I’m hoping that this hiatus will be over in the next few weeks though, and I may be able to squeeze in a few posts around then!

Happy Spring 2014 Blog Hop: My Relationship with Spring

Thank you for hopping over from Pretty Little Things In A Box!

A little while ago, I saw that Angela from Pretty Little Things in a Box was doing a Spring Blog Hop. I wanted to take part as I love reading Angela’s blog, and I wanted to discover other bloggers who do too! Plus, I have never taken part in a blog hop before and I love expanding my bloggy network!

The one downfall? I don’t like spring.

I know that a lot of people think this is pretty bonkers, but I have a few reasons:

1) I am a light sleeper so as soon as evenings and mornings start getting lighter, I start sleeping less. Even with ‘blackout’ curtains, I’m awake until it gets dark, and awake as soon as it gets light. I do use a sleep mask but that can be uncomfortable, but at least it helps.

February, so far…

It is safe to say that I will be happy to see the back of February. It has just been ‘one of those months’ so far, and now that we are about three quarters of the way through it, I have given up hope for the remaining few days.

It started off with a bout of laryngitis. I should have know there and then that the rest of the month was going to have it in for me too! Because I was ill right at the beginning of the month (my first wee back at university after Christmas) I spent the next week playing catch up on the university work that I missed. Round two of the illness arrived with severe congestion in my head that gave me an average of about two hours sleep a night for another week. This then seemed to clear up again and I was having to catch up with university work again until a horrific cough stopped me in my tracks yesterday. Fed up of the fact that I could no longer remember what it felt like to be well, I spent forever trying to get through to the doctors for an appointment. I had no luck in the morning, but I managed to get through in the afternoon to be diagnosed with sinusitis. I now have some antibiotics to get me on the mend…but they make me feel sick. Oh well, it will be worth it all in the end!