Happy Christmas, Proper Crimbo, Joy Noel etc

Happy Christmas everyone it's finally here. I have one baby asleep in her bed absolutely zonked from all the excitement, a happy Mr man playing Golden Eye Reloaded on his Xbox and i'm just going to write a quick blog update before I settle down with my new Kindle and read a lovely relaxing book.

Ok so above I have already mentioned that this year Mr Lilly Belle got me a Kindle for my Christmas present and not only is this a generous gift in itself and I am thrilled but it was the actual thought behind the present...ation of it that had me speechless.


Instead of just wrapping the generic Amazon Kindle box it came with in festive wrapping paper with some kind of snowman or reindeer face on it he went above and beyond the creative call and set a total present enigma.


It began with him saying the usual things like "don't come upstairs" or don't go in such and such room and the reason for this was that he was making something??? Having no idea what i left it a surprise or more likely he managed to keep it a surprise as he was dieing to tell me what he was up to lol.


He had been a bit later home from work towards the end of the week and turns out he had been scouring book shops and charity shops far and wide searching for a GIANT book. 


With this giant book he cut out the middle and made a secret hole for the kindle to go in so when i opened the book thinking that was my present inside was the kindle. The idea was he wanted to give me a book inside a book. AMAZING!


Not only was this a great idea to do with any book but he was beginning to give up on the idea until he came across a book "(The Vogue Sewing Book) that was perfect as me being a sewer myself made it even more credible that the book was my present! 
Was so impressed that he spend so much time and effort on my thoughtful present and making it special there was also the sweetest loveliest message in my card and I was a bit emotional tbh.


At first I couldn't help feeling sad when Kindles first came out because i thought it might lead to the extinction of paper books. I love the smell of books and the whole turning the page physicality, nothing beats getting stuck into a good read and the escapism it brings.


Weighing up the pros and cons I decided I did like the idea of the Kindle especially when you run two business's from home and have a little toddler space is valuable so the fact that it can hold thousands of books is a big winner for me! Also i think it's a great idea for people that travel a lot perhaps commuters that have lengthy dreary journeys on trains etc. So all in all you really can't fault it on practicality so I am now a Kindler and proud.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

Eeeeeeek how quick is the festive season going this year?! I can't believe the christmas weekend is already upon us and today uber excitement as our tickets came for Paris.

Definitely time to start planning the itinerary for our little mini break. We're staying at Disney Paris and having never been as a child looking forward to seeing what it's like. 

I've got my fingers crossed to see a little bit of snow but nothing too chaotic to disturb our plans.

My daughter being nearly 3 is at a funny stage of toddlerness where one minute she's a tough cookie, fearlessly ready to take on the world and other times well.... she's a bit unsure lol.

Her latest obsession is Mickey Mouse so hopefully she loves it all. 

Planning on doing a bit of sight seeing too in Paris and hunting down some local fabric shops so looking forward to that.

Birimingham Frankfurt Christmas Market

On monday we went to the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market and if you've never been before it's well worth a visit.

We decided to go on a weekday to avoid the crowds and chaos and it was such a lovely day out. My favourite part of the market is how traditional it all is. Handmade toys and jewellery, personalised biscuits and the best chocolate you'll ever taste!

The market is like walking onto the set of a christmas film, all the stalls are in quaint little wooden cabins and it has an amazing atmosphere. There is even a carousel for little ones along with German beer, German mulled wine (Gluhwein) and grilled sausages (white or red) red is a bit spicier and yummy!

All round a great family day out we might even go back and get some more choc and see the christmas lights in the dark.

Visitations To Saint Nic

We took Lilly to see santa for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it's safe to say she was petrified, can't really blame her who knows what is hiding behind all that white beard lol.

 

Look at the amazing decorations of the elves making the toys!

It was so funny before we went we prepped her as you do... telling her father christmas will want to know what you want for christmas you'll have to tell him what you want. When he said what's your name are you going to tell me your name she clung to me and said noooo and I said go on Lil whats your name and she shouted out "I want a present" it was like nervous tourettes ... made a speedy retreat after that but she got her tea set as a present lol.

After that we saw some beautiful reindeers and went on a lovely little walk.

Christmas Shoppers Rant

Oh wow time is flying by lately, Christmas is upon us great for those like me that love it... not so much for the humbugs of the world but it does get just a little bit manic doesn't it?!

Funny enough Mr Lilly Belle and I headed into town to do some Christmas shopping not so long ago and as we were walking in we passed two women that were saying to each other how it was the busiest day of the year for Christmas shopping!

We both jokingly turned on our heels and pretended to walk back to our car, undeterred we did our shopping on that day and it was OK. Luckily we both have the same toleration of shopping anyway and we're very much the kind of people that never dawdle, know exactly where we're going and are in and out accordingly.

The question I always ask myself is WHY does shopping turn perfectly normal people into zombies it's like they loose all sense of direction and physically find it hard to leave the shop let alone navigate themselves around it. Nightmare!

Remembrance Day... Lest We Forget

The poppy appeal and remembrance sunday has always had a place close to my heart.

When i was fourteen, ten WHOLE years ago (now i feel old) believe it or not I was a roughy toughy army cadet and therefore we were taught the significance of the day and a select few of us had the privelage to represent the ACF and take part in the Royal Albert Hall's Remembrance Parade.

As you can imagine this was a huge honour and very exciting to be asked we had lots of dress rehersals and measuring up for our number two dress uniform to look the part as it was going to be on television.

Our job was to stand in a V shape on the very cente of the floor of the Royal Albert Hall while the Chelsea pensioners walked out onto the floor and up onto the stage. I can remember the lights being so bright and trying to stand as still as possible and not faint under the heat of the lights lol.

The Queen and Tony Blair was there and i kept thinking the Queen could be looking at me right now.

It was such a great experience to have had a small part in something so monumental and something I will treasure forever.

This year I thought it would be nice to design a handmade poppy brooch and i was so pleased at how popular they were. Thank you so much to everyone that bought a poppy.

£1 from each sale was donated to the British Legion and Mr Lilly Belle also donated £1 from each of his xbox repair fix kit sales and combined we raised £116.25

Here is a pic of my poppy brooches i made for the cause, hope you like them :)

 And my 2001 performer's pass from the Royal Albert Hall itself, just click on it if you would like to make it bigger.

Halloween and our continual pumpkin tradition

We kind of raised the bar a bit early with our pumpkin carving and since then we've got to strive to maintain the standard alreay set each year.... uh oh long gone are the days of just doing a smiley face we're talking the works lol.

My daughter was 2 and 1/2 this halloween so she's really at the age now where she can get stuck in and get involved with things that are going on.

She LOVED helping out with this, what kid wouldn't like getting their hands stuck into a bowl of slimey pumpkin goo and making a mess right?!

This year we made the mistake of not choosing our pumpkins ourselves we got a home delivery shop because we've been so busy and one of the two pumpkins was a bit dissapointing so we just did the one and chose drum roll............ a cat not quite the haunted house of a different year but Lilly chose it and it was a great all round family team effort.

Here's some pics of our little pumpkin making a pumpkin, let me know what you think?

These were 2010s bad boys.

And 2009 my personal favourite the haunted house and baby witch well you've got to dress them up cute as much as you can before they get old enough to turn around and say no lol ....