A month of firsts

December 2013 for us has meant...

 

Our first Christmas together in our own home. Being able to wake up together without feeling guilty about having picked one set of parents house to wake up in is going to be a great feeling

Our first Christmas as a family. Me and Luke and Beau. He is just going to love all the wrapping paper and his new toys

Our first Christmas tree together. Usually Luke says Christmas shouldn’t start until after his birthday on the 14th, but he let us buy a tree on the First of December! And let us put it up the same day too!!!!

Our first attempt at making scotch eggs

Our first [and only] Christmas as fiancé and fiancée. I still am yet to get used to calling Luke my fiancé. I expect that once I begin to use the phrase naturally we will be married and he will be my Husband. Eek.

Beau's first training session with the whistle

The first December where I have been sad to see this year end. Well the latter half of it. We have been through some tough times together at the beginning of the year, which really tested our relationship, but we have come out strong and the last 6 months of this year have been brilliant. So easy, full of laughs and happy times. But next year is full of more exciting times for us and I just can’t wait. For want of a better phrase ‘2014 is our year’.

Wedding and Absences

I've sadly neglected my blog recently. I seem l have lost my inspiration for unique posts and I haven't wanted to conform to the usual 'Christmas is Coming' posts that I read day in day out. Not that I don't love reading them, I do!

Naturally wedding planning has taken over my life, but I haven't wanted to blog about it and bore you with the details. Which I am about to do now ;)

I apologise for the formatting of this post, clearly blogger hates me for neglecting.

My life these last few weeks have revolved around dogs, weddings, and Christmas. I did all my Christmas shopping back in October, but until last night hadn't wrap a single one. We've had Luke's parents' dogs to stay with us so our house has been like a kennel. Beau is getting ever so tinkerish, biting and chewing everything in sight. He even took over the remote control last night! He loves the bath, so much so that I have to schedule my hair wash for when Luke is around to distract him from jumping in. 

I also took on the mammoth task of making all the wedding invites. I wanted them to be handmade but look professional so naturally they've become time consuming and my poor little cuttlebug is feeling the strain. Then there's the prospect of demolishing the house in the new year and thinking 'how are we going to build a house and plan a wedding at the same time?' so I have been trying to plan as much as possible before demolition to ease the pressure. 

So, after a stressful, tearful, exciting 5 weeks, we've set a date, picked the venue, booked the church, booked the caterers, arranged a tasting session, picked and booked a band, cut out 230 birds, 115 squares of lace, bought 25 rolls of double sided sticky tape and made a grand total of 7 invites. Out of 70. We'll get there ;) I have also picked my dress and am going back this weekend to hopefully buy it! There is a list as long as my arm of other things to do. You cross one off, and add on 3 more! I'm just so grateful for Luke and his helpful nature, bless his socks he has spent a fair few hours cutting out birds for the invites!

We've spent a lot of time together [making invites] but we only realised last week that we hadn't celebrated our engagement on our own, so we had Dad round to dog sit and hopped into Birmingham for some christmas market fun. 

There have also been many tears [all on my part, obviously]. Who said planning a wedding is the most exciting time of your life?! Obviously I am SO excited, but I have learnt some things whilst planning. There are certain people that have to be invited. The family you've not seen for years but who cannot not be invited. The friends you haven't seen for years that you don't feel you should invite but have to to save a ruined friendship. The plus ones of people you've never met, so their other halves don't feel lonely. I have written the guest list out so many times, there have been many promotions and demotions. I tried to take a stance of 'if you've not bothered with us then I won't invite you' but even that can't work. So my guest list is bulging at the seams and I don't even know how!! Any other wedding planners having this problem?

On a Christmas note [it would be rude not to], I persuaded Luke to let us buy and put up our first ever Xmas tree on Sunday as he usually won't allow it until after his birthday. It, together with the cinnamon candles we've had burning, have made the house feel so cosy and festive. 

Wow I didn't want this to turn into a moaning post so I'll leave it there with a few snapshots.

Any tips for wedding planning would be much appreciated :)

Puppy Love

These last few weeks have been like having a baby.

Despite getting engaged, Luke and I have had no time whatsoever to ourselves, but the puppy makes up for that and the time we do spend 'as a family' is wonderful

So far this week he has:

- nibbled my toes, slippers, socks, tights

- made friends with Luke's parents' dogs

- fallen in the pond. Twice. [this was through no fault of us as owners, he just got very excited and forgot to look ahead]

I won't write too much more, the photos will tell the rest

Christmas is coming

from here

Maybe it’s the fact that Saturday night TV treated us to not just one but TWO Christmassy adverts courtesy of John Lewis and Coca Cola.

Maybe it’s that I have done all my Christmas shopping  already and it’s all just waiting to be wrapped

Maybe it’s that I have bought all of our Christmas decorations for our first Christmas in our home together

Or maybe it’s that on Thursday the German Christmas market is coming back to Birmingham

It comes every year, around this time, til just before Christmas. The stalls stretch further than your eyes can see and it is packed with people eating German sausages and drinking hot mulled wine. As I work in Birmingham, with stalls directly outside the office door, it gets quite annoying. The ‘quick pop over the road to grab a sandwich’ becomes a half hour session of hustle and bustling and queuing.

Beau had his injections last week which means we can take him for walks soon, so although my days will be filled crowds and noise, it means that Luke can bring him in to meet me after work and we can treat ourselves to some hot toddies and a pulled pork roll (or two), making the hustle and bustle not all that bad.What do you have planned for the run up to Christmas?

A Tuesday surprise

I haven't posted for over a week as I have been otherwise occupied with work, housework, shopping for and sending first aid kits to Uganda, christmas shopping, pumpkin carving and generic house work and cooking. 

But I thought my Tuesday surprise deserved a post of its own. 

Here's some background to the surprise:

I have been begging Luke to let us get a puppy for ages. He has said no. I tried to work on his parents too but they weren't convinced. I gave up asking. 

I've also been dropping subtle marriage hints at Luke but to no avail. 

On Tuesday Luke asked if I could walk home from the station after work as he had to work late. Slightly annoyed (it was dark and the weather had suddenly turned cold) I wandered home, did some housework, still no sign of Luke. 

You've perhaps all guessed from the above what happened but I'll share it with you anyway :)

A while later I hear a knock at the door and I go and see a Luke shaped outline through the glass. 

I opened the door and what did he thrust in my face? Nothing other than a tiny working Labrador puppy called Beau. Naturally I cried. Then he tells me to look under his collar and nestled under the puppy's fat rolls was a beautiful sparkly ring. I cried some more. 

Turns out Luke had planned this for some time. And all my hints had just been a barrel of laughs for him. He bought the ring when we were in Toronto in April. I never noticed. I hid it in the loft for months. Him and my soon to be mom in law drove all the way to North Wales on Tuesday to collect Beau. 

I had little time to believe what was happening, phoned family and friends, cleaned up dog wee, trod in dog wee, and cleaned the house for everyone to come round to celebrate. We ate Chinese and drank champagne. 

29 October 2013 is a date I will remember for the rest of my life. And for perfect reasons. 

Here's to planning the perfect wedding, and embarking on my future with my lovely man and his dog x

Weekend Highlights

•         Luke coming home with a bunch of flowers on Friday. For no reason. They are lovely and injected a little summer back into the house now all the rain has come. The picture above was taken from Pinterest, if only I was that good at flower arranging
•           Getting the great news that an old friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Sadly, they live up in Scotland now so it’ll be a while ‘til I get a munch
•          Being very proactive and getting ALL my Christmas shopping done. I am so proud with myself. I decided what I was buying everyone months ago so Luke and I took a trip down to Bicester Village and bought everything :) I might even wrap them all next weekend. It will certainly save the stress when the German Christmas market comes to Birmingham and it’s impossible to get out of the office door.
•      Having another homely day on Saturday and making lots of things to stock up for when the snow comes. Thai green and red curry pastes, lots of soup and I also made homemade coleslaw, which tastes SO much better than shop bought.
•     The wondrous invention that is peanut butter icecream. But after noting the amount of rubbish pummelled into the shop bought varieties, Luke and I made our own. Chocolate ice-cream (most likely with the same about of rubbish in it by hey ho), with lumps of crunchy peanut butter and Nutella mixed through, then put back in the freezer so the Nutella hardens. Absolute delight in a bowl.

image found via Pinterest

A bundle of joy

Where has this year gone?! 

A year ago today we woke up to the news that our niece was born and what a pretty girl she is. She came at just the right time. 

 

She brings us happiness when we are feeling glum and she lightens up any room with her sparkle. She makes us forget all our troubles and focus on the real things, not the material things. 

Naturally her arrival has made me feel quite broody but right now, she is all we need. So we spoil her and we love her. 

At 365 days old, she has a few little tooty pegs, is a marathon crawler and has taken her first few steps. She loves chicken (especially Nandos), loves throwing strawberries and other red fruit on her mom's lovely cream carpet, points and takes pleasure in throwing her buttery toast on the dogs' heads (they don't mind). She blows kisses, she waves and she is always smiling. 

 

We love you little one, and although the year has flown by a little too quickly for my liking, it has been heartwarming to watch you grow and be part of your little life. Here's to more memories.

 

Luke worked his joinery magic and knocked up this toy box, which I upholstered and painted her name. 



Happy first birthday to our darling niece, Mila. 

 



The Drunken Duck

Whilst in the Lake District for a weekend away, we decided we ought to try out the highly recommended restaurant, The Drunken Duck. Nestled high on a hill overlooking the village of Ambleside, this is a pub ideal for an evening retreat after a long day of walking.

The Lakes

For Luke’s Dad’s 50^th birthday in July, we booked for the four of us to go glamping in the Lake District this weekend just gone. We stayed at a National Trust campsite called Low Wray, not far from Ambleside, and rented some camping pods for 3 nights.

We arrived on Friday night and, after admiring the views, set up camp, started the fire, cooked a chilli, drank wine, toasted marshmallows and chatted until the sun went down.

Saturday meant donning the walking attire and tackling the hills surrounding Lake Windermere. We walked about 8 miles, up and down the hills, went up to Wray Castle and stopped to talk to the cows in the adjacent fields. For the dogs it meant paddling in the lake, chasing ducks and other winged animals and collecting stones. (Ollie can smell a stone under the water metres away, and won't move until he has dug it up, strange dog).

We went for dinner at a nearby pub on Saturday evening and had an early night. Even the dogs were tired after their long walk and paddles in the lake

We spent Sunday meandering around Ambleside, a lovely little town, stopping for lunch and wine and cake and icecream. We also went down to the pier and watched the world go byAs Sunday night was our last night, we got our gladrags on and headed out to a restaurant that I’d read numerous good reviews about. The Drunken Duck. 

I’ll do an entirely separate post on this another day, but let’s just say the food was amazing. The menu was small, but well thought out, and changes all year round to ensure only seasonal food is used. It wasn’t cheap, but it was well worth it. With full bellies, we went back to the campsite and set up another fire and had a lovely chit chat.

Monday morning we packed up camp and filled the truck to the rafters (literally, there was stuff strapped to the roof - we ALWAYS overpack), and headed out to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s house. Another National Trust gem, which has been completely untouched and left like a house, rather than a museum, at Miss Potter’s request. I’d definitely recommend a visit if you’re ever up that way, it’s free to National Trust members (a year’s membership for under 26s is only £26!). She left over 4000 acres of land to the National Trust when she died, and pretty much every single one of her illustrations is a real life depiction of her house, furniture and surroundings. You can read more about it here 

Beatrix Potter's cottage - Hill Top

The gate illustrated in the Tale of Tom Kitten

This was featured in the Tales of Jemima Puddleduck

 A thoroughly enjoyable weekend of spending time with loved ones and making more memories. There is so much to see around the Lakes, that we will definitely be going back next year.