Crimbo Limbo!

Hello!

This is my usual post at this time of the year where you just feel a bit strange.

All the madness of preparing for the main event is done, however ours was very relaxed this year due to there only being the four of us. Presents, breakfast, listening to music whilst the kids played, TV not on till much later, a few drinks, I think you get the idea. It was just lovely.

On Boxing day we took Jake for a run on the beach but he didn't get nearly as wet as my youngest when he was playing chicken with the waves! We picked up some fab pieces of drift wood which are currently drying out in the cellar - sorry haven't the energy to put photos up just now - but planning to use it for some projects around the house including the base for a set of coat hooks at the front door.

I don't know about you, but I'm done with the food thing. We had a fab piece of ham from Morrisions for £14 which we roasted for dinner on December 19 and it had done us proud! We froze the second part of it and had it cold on Boxing Day. I've finished making pea and ham soup this morning with the last ever bit. However, my niece is coming tomorrow to stay for four days so you just can't have soup and bread every day, which would suit me just fine! I'm sitting at the kitchen table just now trying to plan some plain, but tasty, food and have got as far as beef stew and dumplings in the slow cooker for New Year's Eve. I do still have my yummy pork pie in the freezer and that is for New Year's Day.

I sorted out my papercrafting things from the cellar onto the shelves in the office yesterday. I used to have box upon box of things but gave away a lot before we moved. I kept lovely pieces of paper, some stamps and embellishments I have collected but that is about it. I was pleased that I found some Kraft card blanks and then I covered my diary that I bought a little while ago. I like to buy a plain, one page a day type and make it look pretty - picture later!

I also have had my calendar since about October and that is sitting with dentist appointments, dates for school and a couple of other things already on it ready to go up. 

I made a decoration a couple of years ago which I hang in the kitchen from January 1 for a couple of weeks just to remind me of how I love the possibilities and positivity that comes with the New Year, yes, picture later.

Well I hope there is some relaxation going on in blogland and I'll maybe catch up before New Year.

xxx



 

1 sleep to go 'till the Big Ho Ho!

Ok I think this will be my last post before Christmas Day.  I am just catching up whilst finishing the cranberry sauce and baking the stuffing cake which is in the oven and should be done in time for a photo.

We have bingo and Elf scheduled for this afternoon following a simple lunch of baked potatoes before it all gets a bit over the top.

I always want to do last minute decorations so have switched things around a bit in the kitchen on the dresser, oh my cake is decorated. Didn't have any icing and didn't want to buy the only big pack I could find so improvised as you see!

Oh and I'm really quite chuffed with my new hadnmade sign for the front door. Passing motorists must have thought me quite strange taking photos of my front door!

 

And here is the suffing cake, nom nom!

Once again, best festive wishes to everybody for a wonderful day tomorrow with family and friends.

Louise.xx 

Oh so grateful!

First of all I'd like to say thank you for all the lovely things everyone has said since the house properly became ours. Very grateful for the support during the stressful times and kind words now all is well.

I should have posted this yesterday but there was a bit of celebrating to be done. Hubs brought me two lovely bunches of flowers.

My celebrations began with a sneaky Irish Cream and a mince pie....

then in the evening we made the most of the Christmas drinks sideboard, particularly keen on this part of the house decorations especially the cocktail feature from Pretty Nostalgic I have used as a decoration.

We finally broke open the bubbly to celebrate the house being ours - I am going to stop going on about it now, promise. 

Probably will be a couple more posts but just in case not may I wish all my Welsh blogging friends Nadolig Llawen and Merry Christmas to everybody. 

Lou.xx

Why we did it.

Hi.

Now I am able to write from our new home I thought I would tell you a little bit about why we have found ourselves in wonderful Wales. We began looking at moving from our previous home in Greater Manchester about 18 months ago I think. Our boys were still young enough to take on the challenge of changing schools and making new friends, be it all in a very different location and with a different language but we hadn't always intended to move to Wales. 

Our aim was to find what we were looking for wherever it happened to be. It was not about the location itself but what the location would afford us, what it would allow us to do and what we would gain from it. Some of you may not know that we took a very long and arduous trip to Lewis in the Western Islands of Scotland last year because we saw something which might have been what we were looking for. It wasn't, but there are some things you just have to do when you are on a mission.

We found our new home on the internet initially, as most people do, and were so eager to view it that we cancelled an already arranged viewing to see it. I can honestly say that with one foot in the doorway and one look to the left at the gorgeous, blue Rayburn in the kitchen I fell in love with the house and it had to be ours, whatever.  As you probably know we had to deal with numerous problems and issues before finally making the house ours, but that is thankfully all behind us now. 

As I write this I'm looking out of the kitchen window and can see the Church and Community Centre, the school bus stop my boys will soon feel very grown up using on their own and through the top kitchen window I can just see the far hills dotted with sheep. I hate to sound smug and describe it as so idylic but for us it is perfect.

We have plans for the future, a business, growing our own, having our own chickens and the boys still being able to have a childhood surrounded by such opportunities. I would never say we are wrapping them in cotton wool or shielding them from life elsewhere but I have a postcard which is a poster from the second world war and it reads: 

Children are safer in the country.... leave them there.

(With recent events around the world we have been thinking about a summer holiday and for the first time we have really had to consider locations. I would be more than happy to stay here and enjoy the Welsh summer but I think this year will have some time away and then next year we will hopefully have lots going on that will keep us at home!)

We think at the age they are, and for the time we have whilst they are young, we are very happy for them to be in this environment. I should say at this point they have been learning Welsh since the beginning of September and they are doing amazingly well and we are immensely proud of their efforts and hard work.

I hope to share some photographs soon of our home and the surrounding area. xx

Welcome To Our New Beginnings.

Oh my goodness, Mrs H has a new home!

Finally, and I mean FINALLY, I am able to write my first post whilst feeling we are here in our own house!

Thankfully all the pain, frustration and anxiety is over -  and now we are able to begin making it our own home!

I am so looking forward to sharing our new home and new life with some new online friends I have recently made, as well as some old ones. I have been around the house and taken lots of before photographs so I can look back and see how things have changed in the past months.

We have lots of exciting plans which means sometimes I can hardly breath when I think of what we will do first or how fun it will be when we have the chickens and can really see what we can do with the garden etc. 

One last thing. Here is a post I would like to share with you. I wrote it on January 16th 2014 and it makes me feel all fuzzy inside to think about the things I wrote, where we are now and where we are going along this journey with our boys. 

(Apologies about the banner photo but a tad excited to change it just now! xx)