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!

Champomy

So, yes, I suck at updates. My apologies. I don't make New Years Resolutions but I did say to myself long before New Year's eve that I would at least try and regularly update this thing as well as my other little goals for 2010. I'll not list them as so many of you lovely people have done as they are more personal to my health, happiness and well being but they're all good things. Trust me!

Christmas was spent in the UK seeing my lovely family. I really missed not having the boy with us but I still managed to make the most of it surrounded by the family's love and lwarmth. Seeing my niece really made it feel like Christmas so that was great. I took plenty of pictures but with my film SLR so I'll post real snowey white Christmas pictures as soon as they're developed. I have decided a handy little compact digital camera is on my wish list this year. I love my film photos as the depth of colour is just worlds apart from digital. Plus, I just love the excitement of seeing what the photos will actually look like! I also love holding them. Not sure why but freshly developed photos make me happy.

So, the title of my blog. Champomy! An alcohol free kid's version of champagne. In reality it's sparking apple juice in a bottle shaped like a champagne bottle but it was great! New Year's eve was spent with the boys' sister and partner and a good friend and it was a relaxed but very enjoyable evening. I am one of the few in my new circle of friends here in the Netherlands and although this is a good thing as I made a decision to cut down on my drinking habits a long time ago, it still at times feels a little strange and I qorry about, if I have a glass of wine etc when they're round, is that an issue. I don't think so and I know they all have other friends who really drink but I don't know, it's a little offsetting. So, it was really cool to have a a silly glass of apple juice with exceptionally good company and feel like a real New Year. Plus, everyone was super happy to watch Jools Hootananny so that made me super happy. Havewatched it every year for the last 5 years or so. Glad it will now appear to be a regular New Years tradition here too. :D

We had tons of fun with sparklers and watching fireworks. There's something about acting like children and waving sparklers as if they are fireworks tht really fulfills the inner child in me.

In other news, we have had snow. Plenty of it! But still not enough to be able to honestly call into work and say the weather prevents travel. :( Gutted, especially as friends in the UK have been posting photos of their fun in the snow when their respective employers or the national transport system has advised them to stay home. I can only wish. At least it's not had the chaotic effect here as it has in the UK so that's something to be thankful for.

The boy and I had a fabulous day off yesterday and spent this relaxing with a duvet and movies and also by taking the furry child to the park. His new obsession is chasing snowballs since I threw one a few days ago. I've never seen a dog tear apart a snowball so quickly and literally smile afterwards about his achievement! He is such a litle light in my life. He still has his warm winter coat I bought in the UK and it's been the first year he's really had to use it. My favourite thing is watching people's experessions as we walk past and they realise it is actually a dog version of a human coat. I've seen grown, very burly men reduced to whimpering simpletons over the cuteness!

Other than these wonderous things I have been sewing!

I have made a scotty dog from the pattern as seen here: http://allsorts.typepad.com/allsorts/2006/05/softie_scotty_d.html

The owl as seen here: http://www.qdpatooties.com/bluehowlaiiptrn.jpg

Elephant as seen here: http://www.karensvariety.com/NEWSLETTER/Patterns/Elephant.htm although I was most proud when I figured out how to use what I'd learnt on the Scotty dog pattern to make the elephant a standing one!

I am currently working on a mouse that I downloaded the pattern of but don't seem to have a link for where it came from. This makes me feel bad as it's lovely pattern. Maybe I'll find some type of signature on the pattern download. I'll update if I find something.

I have decided that I really want one of these:

The stories crack me up and part of the money for each purchase goes to a good cause so it's good things all round!

I also love how this couple live and think, http://somethingshidinginhere.typepad.com/my_weblog/ .I read their updates with a happy hear. They have such a great mental attitude to things and they seem like pretty funky people. I love her hand tattoos, GIVE and TAKE. Something for us all to live by I think, don't you?