Time for a baby shower!

Hello, I'm back again!

I'm sorry that I didn't blog after Tuesday last week... it kind of went a little crazy after I posted the blog. Tea happened and I started the crocheting.

This is how far I got before I started to nod off!

So, Wednesday was my "do nothing but crochet day". Well, on the whole this was quite successful. I crocheted a lot and I had to take a few breaks to give my hands a rest but I made the head, body and ears so was well on my way and in my head I thought I'd be well in for a crack at getting it ready for Hannie's baby shower on Saturday (24th).

The top of the head

The bottom. I love how the wool changes colour!

Then Thursday Happened!

Dan had planned to be off work so I decided that we should spend the day together and do the usual Saturday stuff on Thursday instead. I knew that the weekend was going to be busy as we were going to Bedford on Saturday and then a planned trip out on Sunday. We (Dan) was helping Mum and Dad with some furniture manoeuvring ready for a new floor to be put down at their house and then we did our shopping with a little trip to Meadowhall thrown in to get my Dad's Father's Day pressie. While I was in Meadowhall I went to Waterstones and got a copy of Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. I told Mum about it and she asked me to get two more copies (one for herself and one as a gift). I am yet to start mine but it just looks sooooo fun! They were on an offer in store which were buy one book and get one half price so I got The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. He's a youtuber that I've watched and I watched the day he announced the passing of Ester Earl. She was and still is such an inspirational young lady and inspired John to write the book.

After such a crazy hectic Thursday, I felt awful on Friday and scared myself that perhaps I had overcooked myself before a busy weekend so my plan for Friday was to just do nothing! - I had an appointment to have my hair done and although I haven't had it done since my wedding (over a year ago) I do love having someone do my hair! The reason I haven't been for so long is partly to do with my health and partly because I can never decide what I want doing - reference to my first blog post there! I managed to get some crocheting done but I just knew that I wasn't going to finish it in time for the shower and I am someone who would rather send it looking well made and complete than rush it and it look rubbish just because I wanted the piece to be finished. Hannie had no expectation at all for it to be done ready for the shower.

This is how it looked in time for the shower.

Saturday 24th May - Baby Shower Day!
My lovely man woke me up early and he was going to take the car to the car wash while I got ready to go to Bedford. When Dan was checking the oil levels he noticed that the pipe that he has only just bought has split all the way through so instead of the car that we would normally use for longer distances, we had to use my teeny tiny car that is more of a town car and didn't have a full tank of fuel so instead of getting a clean car we had to deal with a shop that sold a dodgy part and a change of cars. It normally takes about 2hours from here to Bedford but it was literally the nightmare of all nightmare journeys!

On my way to Bedford - a bit sleepy 
but VERY excited!

I know that going "down south" on a bank holiday is tricky but we literally hit EVERY single bit of traffic we were in a shoe box too so we eventually arrived in Bedford at about 1.30 and after diving for the loo we were both ready for a spot of lunch! We had a lovely meal at the Harvester. The waitress was so lovely and her baby girl is due the day before Hannies little blueberry so we told her that she might see our friend at hospital when she has her little visit from the stork! Dan went to Milton Keynes with another friends husband and we arranged that we would meet them at Tesco later.

THE BABY SHOWER WAS BRILLIANT! Hannie and her mum had put out some BEAUTIFUL cakes! I chatted with some of Hannies friends and with Hannie and it was just soooo exciting seeing her perfectly formed bump knowing that when I next see them, I can have a cuddle with the little perfect bump! I got a little emotional really. Hannie was the first person I spoke to from my course at university. I was away from home, on the opposite campus to my course and I didn't have a clue what to do! As Han is from Bedford she just seemed really confident and we pretty much got on from the get go. Fast forward three years and I was in her Mum and Dads house applying her make up and telling her she wasn't allowed to cry once the look was complete (when her Dad walked in the room) and then fast forward to 2014 and here we are 7 years later, her mum saying I remember you putting "our make up on Hannah, I seems only yesterday" and she's about be a Grandma for the first time! I watched some of the present opening but I had to leave at 5 because the friend I went with and her husband had plans so Dan would have been on his own (he doesn't know Bedford) and without a car. As I was leaving I said my goodbyes and Hannies mum AKA Mummy S, Hugged me and it just took me right back to the days I spent at their house prepping Hannie and Chris' Wedding and how much I just loved being there. It was a real mum hug! And soon her daughter will be giving REAL mum hugs too! I still get goose bumps when I think about it. In a few weeks I think I will just burst! When we got home I started to sew the face onto the monkey that I'm crocheting and then I decided that as I'd needed medication to get through the day, it'd be better to get an early night because we were going to the milk race in Nottingham on Sunday. My next blog will be about that.

This little monkey is coming together now. 
Just the limbs and a tail to go

I'm sorry that I crammed all of this into one - I think I need to sort some kind of schedule out for it to fit and then add "tag blogs" in or something - we shall see! Thanks for being patient. I'm good at waffling and not so good at editing! That's it for today. I hope you've all had a fun Bank Holliday weekend if you're in the UK and if not, then just a fun time wherever you are. Please remember to comment and I will always comment back!

Until next time!

Toodles Noodles :)

Han.xxx

Stop! Oh yes, wait a minute Mister postman!

Can anyone else remember the dance that Ant, Dec and Cat Deeley used to do on SM:TV live to The Carpenters Song? I seem to be having another (very welcome) good day today. I woke up with only the "usual" headache that I am now used to and decided to have a shower to wake up properly to face the day. I'm really loving my Pomegranate moisturising shower lotion at the moment by Right Guard. It smells so fruity and fresh and leaves my skin feeling baby soft! My hands tend to react quite badly to a lot of products (even sensitive baby ones) but this shower lotion doesn't affect them so that's a big bonus! As I was drying and choosing a nail varnish (which ended up to be Tanya Burrs Little Duck) I heard someone knock on the door. Not giving it a second of thought I went downstairs and shouted "wait a minute", grabbed my keys and proceeded to unlock the door and open it to... Mr postman with a parcel for meeeee! The poor man that was stood on the other side of the door nearly choked as he said "good morning" amid giggling at me! Only then did it register that I was dressed in nothing but a large blue patterned towel covering my body and a blue candy striped rock effect towel covering my hair in a wrap! I clearly hadn't thought before just opening the door. I mean, patterns and stripes are a HUGE no go! Gah, Hannah sort yourself out, love!

The Nail Varnish...

I applied one coat of O.P.I Start to Finish then two coats of Little Duck followed by a top coat of the O.P.I start to finish. Although I bought the Tanya Burr varnish a few weeks ago (along with £40 worth of other goodies at superdrug - woopsie), today was the first time that I've used it and I LOVE it. The colour dries slightly darker than what it looks like in the bottle but only very slightly and I think that is to be expected when you apply multiply layers anyway so it's not something that bothers me! It's actually a perfect colour match for the tiny flowers on the top that I'm wearing today!

I knew who it was from as soon as I saw the writing on the address label! Hannie! It can mean only one thing... WOOL! (Hannie calls it yarn, I call it wool - I'm not fussy either way - it's fluffy stuff used in knitting and crochet)! The challenge is on to now make a certain little blueberry bump a sock monkey out wool before he/she decides to make an appearance into the world other than in the form of a wriggly bump. I had to wait until about 3.30 to actually open the parcel because one of my old band friends came to visit me and drop off some stuff that I had lent her for university. It was lovely to see her again and catch up. I got little (lot) excited when I opened the box because in my head I was half expecting a jumble of lots of different block colours of wool. To my utter delight I got a pop of this...

OH MY ACTUAL DAYS! The multi toned wools are my absolute favourite to work with. No two projects are the same and I love how the colours blend. I can definitely work with these little balls of beautifulness (yep, you read that right and it is now officially a word - in my world it is anyway). There's a ball in the top right of the pic that is a blend of blue and pink and therefore perfect for a surprise gender baby! I think I will use that for the  main body of the monkey. Here is better picture of my favourite balls of wool...

I will hopefully start my new project after tea this evening and I will make sure I take plenty of photos along the way and I will blog the progress! If you have any crochet related questions please feel free to ask me. My mum taught me initially and since I've not been well I've pretty much covered everything from Christmas decorations to christening shawls. If I can't help you, I might know someone that can. I hope that my blog is easy reading for you and that you're enjoying the content. I'd love to see some comments (preferably nice ones). I will always comment back as soon as I can.

Until next time.
Toodles Noodles.
Han.x

Making A Decision...

Anyone that knows me (and for those of you that want to get to know me be warned right now) know that I am TERRIBLE at making a decision. It is probably one of my worst traits. I am ok when the end result is easy and there is absolutely no doubt or choice in my mind for example saying yes when Dan proposed - it was after we dated for a long time and it was just "perfect" timing. Choosing things for the wedding on the other hand was a nightmare! There was far too many options and I loved so many things. In fact I might even write a whole blog post about my wedding choices one day! - leave me a comment if you would like to see a "what I had at my wedding" blog.

Examples of my bad side of decision making: I've NEVER been good at naming my own teddies from being a child! My parents often had to name them for me or I would have just had teddy one, teddy two etc. I lived next door to a newsagent with my parents and when I was little I used to be able to go and have a 10p mix - not content with the mix as it came, I used to insist on picking my own and spending about 30mins picking TEN PENNY CHEWS!!!! Now, I know it's not hard to do, it's not hard at all but somehow it was an impossible task for me to do yet I tortured myself and my neighbour once a week with the same routine of ums and arrs!

To this day I can't go shopping and get EVERYTHING I need, I always forget something because there's been too much choice and therefore I have gone without... alternatively and frustratingly for my poor husband I have been known to come home with every kind... most recently vest tops - one in every colour because: a) I couldn't decide what colour I liked best. b) vest tops are useful all year round. c) I can never have too many! - I DO have an answer for everything. When it comes to clothes, make up, shoes and bags I do anyway!

So, why on earth am I writing a blog NOW? I have toyed with the idea for years, literally years but I've never felt brave enough to put my fingers to the keyboard to type with the idea that anyone would want to read what I am typing. I'm beyond that now and at this point in my life it is because I want to write. I have decided to do it as a form of therapy, to have some focussed time every day if possible to write. See, I've not been too well for just over two years and although I have many hobbies such as crochet, wall art, music and make up I want something that I can turn to even when I feel at my very worst (even if it's just making notes on paper ready to type when I pick up again). Writing a blog can be achieved in the space of a few minutes and I will feel that I have managed to complete something even on the worst of days! Sometimes that could be my bit of sunshine!

If there is anything that you would like me to write a blog about then please leave me a comment. I will reply to all of my comments as soon as I can!

My friend (also called Hannah, or Hannie to me) helped me so much today from 106ish miles away! Thank you Hannie! You can read all about her blog at this very exciting time in her life over on Hannah Says.

Until next time,
Toodles Noodles

Hannah :)