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!

You to thank

Yep, I'm completely on a Ben Folds roll at the moment. Things are good, I have no idea why. Some things have changed but nothing I can put my finger on and go aha! That was the moment/thing/person/place where it all changed. All I know is I remain in a happy place. My boy makes me happier than anyone I have ever known. Makes me want to kill him more than anyone I have ever known and loves me more than anyone except a blood relative. But that's unconditional so a little different. :)

I'm counting down the days until Denmark. Maybe see this little lady again, maybe not. See if anyone fancies that trek this time. A whole week with family is going to be amazing. For those who don't know my family are a little global. Me here in the land of cheese, brother in Germany, another in Denmark, sister in England another brother in Scotland and folks in England too. I guess we like being cosmopolitan!

It's about four weeks until we head for Denmark and I have far too much to do before then. I agreed to make a messenger/courier style bag for my mum and decided to be a little eco and upcycle an old bag and also use some new fabric with it that I bought from Ikea. Great idea except I need to somehow design this thing myself and make it pretty yet functional. Within this time scale. Hmmmm, this is gonna be a challenge. Well, fingers crossed I can put something together I am happy enough to give my mum. That's always the problem, everyone else is happy but I look at my creations most of the time and think, 'it could be better'.

I guess a big part of the issue is I spend far too much time on Etsy. I am slowly amassing a large hearts list of the many shops I love. Like this ring, I want this ring so bad but I just can't justify the cost to myself.

These shoes on the other hand are amazingly beautiful and not so expensive except they would be coming from the other side of the world so the shipping ruins the idea and rhe cost. Bah humbug!
What I do love about the amount of time I spending druelling at everything one there, is the amount of inspiration it gives me. I have tons of clothes I don't wear and with seeing how wonderful people's upcycling creations are I'm motivated to recreate my wardrobe. Now if only my newly acquired sewing skills and machine matched the ideas in my head!

I think I may have broken the dog today. I decided to finally pull my finger out, bought a decent pair of running shoes and went on my first run today. I decided as my own conditioning is dire and so is the dog's, we'll improve together. It would seem I recover faster! I am currently waiting for the washing machine to finish so I can hop in the shower and the dog is lying spread eagled on the floor zzzzzing his little head off. Bless! Me thinks he won't be up for fetching daddy at the station tonight. Be interesting to see if he really fancies walking with me tomorrow morning as well! Especially if the clothes get changed. He learns pretty quickly what different attire means. Like my walking boots, he knows that means we're in for a long one or the weather is crap but he loves both so the boots are exciting. Same as an old pair of black cords, he knows these are dedicated walking trousers. I think he may run and hide from the white trainers and cropped leggings in the future! :P

Right, I think the washing machine may have stopped. Excellent!

I forgot to mention, 15 days without a cigarette . I'm very pleased with myself. Fingers crossed I can keep it up this time!