A hiatus of wonder

Again, I have been absent far too long. I can only apologise. It has been a busy time of family gatherings, exciting news, story telling and time off of work spent with my boy and making me the happiest Belle in the world.

Denmark was wonderful and it was truly calming to be amongst my nearest and dearest. Not doing anything major or awe inspiring, just hanging out, going to the beach, eating together and swapping stories.

I even managed to sit on the deck of the ferry to cross over to Denmark from Germany. This for me is some feat as I am terrified of open water. It was lovely though, calm and serene. Especially as we had been traveling on the coach for some 10 hours or so already by then. I can definitively say that I will never travel by coach again. But at least I did it to make an informed choice about the future.

Our family is also growing in the future and I am so happy about this. Gives me plenty of reasons to try and learn how to crochet baby blankets! I have found several patterns, let's just hope I can make them look as beautiful as the pictures! :D

It's the edging that has me concerned. Ah well, I have to develop my skills somehow so this may be the way. Give me a good incentive and I usually do alright! At least I have a few different patterns to choose from so we'll see which seems to work well with my manner of crochet and stick with that one!

Since my last update it was also my birthday! And I have to say I was very spoilt. To the left you will se the wonderful things my boy and friends and family bought me. The little building at the back is a super cute little birdhouse based on a  Bookshop! I also got the Where the Wild Things are soundtrack and film because this has fast become one of my favourite ever films. The boy found a great book called YarnBombing! Look it up if you're into graffiti, knitting or crochet. It's a find. They also have a website with new Yarn Bombs from around the world. You'll understand if you find it! He also found a little sushi place in a town near us that we'd never been to before and although the service was a little on the slow side, the food was divine and even plenty of choice for me as a veggie. The noodle soup was some of the best I've ever had!

I have had two glorious weeks off and quite dreading the return to work Monday. A week on my own to rest, relax and just bring myself back to being me. Then had a week off with the boy where we have done as we've pleased, slept in, gone out, watched TV, cleaned the apartment and just felt like a little family. It has been truly great. Now just to win the lottery so we can live like that all the time!

We're off to blighty to visit my parents in just over two weeks time so I shouldn't really complain about having to return to work Monday. The nice back up thought is that I also still have two weeks of leave I've not used or booked in so will fit those in before the end of the year so I have a couple more breaks.

I think a shower and a dog walk is called for and a little nosey where the migrant workers have gone. They pulled up in a van this morning and set up a little camp on our apartment lawns. Fold out beds and everything for a little snooze. Very bizarre! And now they've disappeared, leaving their great big van here in our car park.

Today's music choice for once is not Ben Folds, gasp! I know! I strongly urge any readers to look out for the Karen O and the Kids soundtrack for Where the Wild Things are. It is truly beautiful!

Evilness

So, today has mostly been about my belly deciding that it doesn't like me. If you have ever suffered, or like me, often suffer the evils of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) you'll have a little sympathy for how rubbish I feel right now. I'm tired of keeping up a happy face when at work to try avoid the discussions about my evil belly. It's strange because when I worked in care I didn't care less about discussing my condition and fellow staff members' bowel movements. I know it sounds wrong but when you work in a supportive care environment with people who can't tell you when they feel unwell, bowel movements become very important.

So, tonight's dinner as a result will be plain boiled white rice, which shockingly doesn't affect me, with some nuts and dried fruit in it. Hope this does the trick so I'm in work again tomorrow, I've already had involvement from the work doctor in the past due to absenteeism because of not being able to leave the house. The annoying thing is, everyone always refers you to take the chemical rubbish that clogs you up but that just makes me feel worse and I've yet to find a GP that actually agrees that some medication just doesn't help. I think we have some green bananas in the house, that might do the trick.
So, for any fellow sufferers out there, what have you tried to calm the cramps?

Not much else has been happening around here. I dragged the boy (near enough) into town yesterday as I needed to get some storage for my crafty bits. The cats have definately decided that my pincushion and anything else I try to hide under bags, bottles etc are their toys for the taking. Annoyingly the exact storage I wanted, which we have in the bathroom, was not in stock, well not in plain colours anyway. All that was left was garish overly bright multi coloured little drawer systems that I thought looked god awful. So, the search continues. I did manage to find two pairs of skinny jeans and a lovely little woven dress for dirt cheap in the sales so that made me happy! I also found two really cute little birds made out of fabric which matches the living room perfectly and would cost me far more to try and make myself so I had to buy a set.

I have finally completed my teddy bear made from a free pattern from McCalls. I will post a pic as soon as soon I can. I made him into a little bit of an odd coloured panda bear in white and red and next time I'll make a few changes to arm lengths etc but overall I'm super happy as he turned out pretty well for something with more pieces than I'm used to tackling.

I also received some great bits and bobs from this lovely store Purplelinda Crafts as an order I placed a week or so ago. The cheapest I found online for safety eyes, noses etc when it came down to additional shipping costs as well. Very happy! I also ordered some bits and bobs for crocheting as I have decided this is another crafty skill I want to learn this year. I have given it a go and fairly happy with the results from some great online tutorials I have found. The only thing I have found is that I have an exceptionally loose tension. What couple of lines I did and took apart again, as I don't want to waste the yarn, looked nothing like the tutorial, even with a smaller hook. I have no idea how I'm going to get a decent tension for Amigurumi projects. These have been my inspiration for learning to crochet and with the loose stitches I'm pulling off the stuffing will be everywhere!! Ah well, hopefully this will improve with time as well. I'm just pretty happy I managed to understand what they meant in the umpteen tutorials I have downloaded, read and watched.

To make me happy, here is a picture of an animal I desperately want as a pet once we have a garden one day. A teacup pig. The most beautiful creature I have ever seen!

Don't you think?