Bumpy bookends!

Yesterday was my lovely mum's 60th birthday! We went to see the fabulous Beautiful Burnout at Northern Stage  in Newcastle. My Dad has been itching to get a photo of his two grandsons 'in transit' and so here is Kim and I with our bumps at the theatre. Kim's 38 weeks and I'm 26 weeks now! How the time flies! Can't wait to snuggle my little nephew.

PS- Taking my mum to Harrogate at the weekend, any suggestions welcome!xxx

A super easy felt craft (heart created by hand)

Though I love crafty things, I'm afraid my skills in the 'crafty' department are somewhat, mmmmm, none existent simple.

That said, I was a little bit smug pleased about how this turned out. It's not going to fill you with awe but, if like me, you're not the most talented craftster (and yes, I did just make up that word) on the block, it may offer a little inspiration:

A Lovely Little Heart

You need:

• felt (about 50p a sheet from Hobbycraft)
• thread
• buttons (I got a giant bag for 99p from Hobbycraft)
• ribbon
• stuffing (pulled from one of Ben's old soft toys)
• fabric glue (again, Hobbycraft, £2.99)

1. Cut the your desired shape. To make two either fold fabric in half and cut at the same time of use the first shape as a template. You may want to pencil sketch onto the felt first.

2. Using fabric glue, stick buttons on (this holds design in place while you stitch). Once glue has dried (about 20 mins), stitch buttons on with thread. NB- it can be tough pushing needle through glued area so you may want to use one of those little rubber thumb protectors. 

3. Glue the two shapes together and leave about 20mins. Leave a gap to add the stuffing.

4.Stitch round the edge, don't worry if it's not perfect- the glue should hold the stuffing in and it all adds to the charm (at least that's what I told myself).

5. Stuff it- poor Spongebob!

6. Tuck a little piece of ribbon in the top, glue the gap where you inserted it and, when dried, stitch over that. 

Done! It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish but I found the whole experience really relaxing.I've since had a go at making bits on my friend's sewing machine and, I'm not going to lie, it's far easier and the results much more professional! I'll share those soon...

Take care and hope you're all having a lovely weekend.xxx

Sunday Summary (Life lately)

This isn't strictly restricted to Sunday but hey ho! Here's a summary of our half term escapades:

{A rare date night at a local Lebanese restaurant} 

{Tree climbing}

{Horse riding- how cute are the little ear muffs to keep the flies out? NB- Ben didn't have a helmet on as it was only a short guided walk}}

{A terrifying friendly scarecrow}

{And to think he's the father of my children!}

{On the farm}

Photos taken from both the Lakes and at home. Seriously don't know how the time crept away from us!

Hope you're all enjoyed the holidays if you were lucky enough to have half-term off.xxx

A walk in the clouds...

Literally! We were over 1500 ft above sea level for a walk in the Lakes. As we got to peak, the clouds drew in around and we found ourselves in the middle of a snow storm. There were a couple of hairy moments but we made it back down alive and it'll be one of my best memories of our time in the Lakes.

{Ice with that?}

{The brave explorers}

{Oh so cold! Ben has giant sleeves as he's wearing my jumper on top of his own layers; don't worry about me, I had my bump radiator to keep me warm! Believe it or not I only had a t-shirt under the coat but was still warm}

{Touch the sky! The tiny white pub bellow was where we warmed up in front of a lovely log fire afterwards}

{My boys}

{A little mountain hobbit Ben}

I treasured every moment of this day as I realise the chances are it'll be a couple of years before we'll be doing this again but I'm sure we'll enjoy buba-friendly walks instead!

Stuff I wear... for 'drinks' with friends (pregnancy)

And by drinks I mean diet coke and fruit juice! Excuse the poor photo quality, the room was pretty dark.

Necklace- Warehouse {old}

Shoes- Zara {old}

Lippie- MAC Girl About Town

Dress- Blooming Marvellous {bought in Mothercare store in sale recently for a mere ten pounds}

Next time I promise I'll take the photo in better light!xxx

I've been putting off this post...

...but I really want to update on all the other things that we've been up to, but felt I couldn't without doing this update first as you've al been so lovely.

It was bad news: Gizzy has cancer. We were absolutely devastated and I'm just about coming to terms with it now. It is stage one and it wasn't all removed but, after talking to numerous specialists, we've decided it would be wrong to put a three legged, elderly dog through a serious operation on his other leg (a large amount of muscle would have to be removed, leaving him incapable of walking for weeks)- and there would be no guarantee it won't reappear elsewhere.

Instead, we've decided to leave him be and spoil him rotten- even more than we normally do! We may just have months but the vet said there's also a good chance we could have him longer and he may even leave us through old age.

Strangely, the thing that helped me come to terms with this was when somebody (trying to comfort me) said: "Losing a dog is like losing and child." and, though I didn't say anything, I just thought no, it's not! I know people very close to me who have lost a child and it tears your world apart. Losing a pet is devastating, but simply not comparable. We've had the pleasure of having the wonderful Gizzy for over ten years and he's around twelve now, which is great going for a dog. So, we've tried to make the selfless choice and rather than put him through the trauma of an operation that may not work, just so we can have him longer, we've opted to allow him to be happy and enjoy as long as he's here and pain free. 

So, now that I've got that horrible post out of the way, some lovely posts will follow... I promise!

Feel like it's been forever but I'm sure you can forgive me when I show you the sorry little face I've been looking after:

I say I've been looking after him, he's been looking after me too as I've had a rough couple of weeks but we're both gradually beginning to feel more human/doggy again.

The operation to remove his lump went well and at his first check up the vet was really pleased with the way the stitches were healing. His next check up is Saturday morning when hopefully they will have the test results to let us know what the lump was; I don't think we'll rest peacefully until we know that our hairy first born boy will be okay.

I'm hoping to post more fully towards the end of the week, hope you're all well.xxx