January Life Update; Welcome 2019!

Hi readers and welcome to a new year!

I'm currently full of a cold which I've had mildly for awhile but it seems to have turned into a bad cold now. Plus, I've been sleeping on the sofa and not been getting much sleep. Family have been staying over and sorting my old bunk bed out was too much for me.

At least my dog, Patch, in the photo above has been cosy in her bed with her new soft penguin toy.

Christmas and New Year for me has been full of family, fun, food and busy activity. We've had our normal 3 day Christmas and then I went over to my boyfriend's and had a second Christmas. I spent new year's at his then come back and joined my family for a homemade Chinese fest. I got lots of awesome Christmas presents too!

On Christmas Eve we had another year of wearing crazy hats whilst playing board games and doing the present lucky dip. Here's me wearing one of the favourite hats of the night.

It's hard for me to pick the best present I got, must my stuff is still half packed up or stacked up as I've not had time to sort much out. Not in the mood either. Below, is one of the presents my boyfriend got me. He has been into Warhammer and 40K again for a good few months now and we have been playing battles against each other with his different armies. 

My favorite is the Nurgle. At first, I wasn't keen on them and I found them about gross but they have grown on me and I feel I have a good connection with them now, mostly due to being ill and Nurgle like to share illness with everything.  

I've been bugging my boyfriend for a Beast of Nurgle for awhile now because they are like big puppies. I got to design it myself, and mine doesn't look like the one on the box. I've to paint it now and when I've done, I'll post it up.    

Another of my presents were some balls of soft, super fine, mohair wool which I was going to make a knit snood out of but my mum did it instead whilst I was away. Having seen the wool and finished snood, I'm not sure I could have knitted it as it's really fine and I'm not good with anything less then double knit. With more wool left, I might give it a go at some point.    

In my last post of 2018, I should my current knitting project which was a colourful scarf made out of 100% pure wool from Norway, see photo below. I finished it around Christmas eve and it turned it really well. It's super long and warm! Though the winter weather in in the middle of England has been mild so far. I've been feeling too hot due to medicine side effects too. 

My current knitting is finishing off another patterned wool baby blanket. I still have a neon colourful baby jacket to complete too but it's taking forever and I've not had the motivation for it. 

My mum has now started me off on another thing, which is a super chunky sleeping bag. It was meant to be a mermaid/fish tail sleeping bag/blanket and she knitted one for my brother's girlfriend and it turned out great. I didn't fancy the fish tail though but the sleeping bag was prefect for using when I'm at at my PC. So, mum's done the top rib and I just need to knit the rest of it now.     

So after those three projects, I have another lined up! I want to make four of these 'square' dog soft toys below. One for myself, one each for my two brothers and one to give to my best friend's baby for her first birthday. Making this dog will be a huge step in my knitting as this will be my first teddy toy. I've made a knitted baby cube, but this will be different and I get to work with blending two different wools together too! I'm looking forward to getting going on this soon! 

Last knitted thing to share is this awesome sheep my mum made! He is so warm and fluffy, made out of the same wool as my scarf. The big story here though is that 29 years ago my mum made a sheep like this one, only he was a bit bigger and I called him Baa. I still have him, though he is in a right state! When I do some tidying, I'll dig him out and do a side by side photo of old Baa and new Baa.  

I've been also colouring a lot over the holiday. I got two sets of colouring pencils and both have been really good. I'm not great at creating 3D effects and shading - it's actually connecting to my learning disabilities and the way I see things. I don't think bad art should put anyone off and you don't have to show it to anybody, it's enjoying it that counts the most. I thought I would share on my recent colouring, though I not that happy with the hair but it was a good practise. 

I've also been playing lots of games with my family and we played a new one my younger brother got called Ticket To Ride. I had heard of it before but didn't realise how easy it was to play! It can't take me awhile sometimes to get into new games and remember the basic rules, but with Ticket you just have to build railway tracks. It was lots of fun, my mum won and I'm hoping we can play again soon!

Lastly, I wanted to share this website with you that sales jewellery and other things to support animals. They have a page were they give items away for free and just charge postage. I have ordered lots of things over the years and have only had one issue with missing items but I was refunded and also sent the item. They have good customer service, though shipping to the UK takes forever! It's worth waiting as the necklaces are so nice.   

https://www.helpinganimalsatrisk.com/collections/free-animal-jewelry?fbclid=IwAR3Pkwzydpe4xAfNXQW5LRX7W01pwmheotOQfg38F44c0kze-20svlmaR54


(Photos from Facebook, Amazon or my own).

December Life update Part 1: Christmas Is Nearly Here!

Hi readers! 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that to everyone! Christmas is now only six days away and I, like everyone else in the world, have been super busy. So, today's blog is very photo heavy, but I've so much to share. Actually, this Monday I'm pressed for time as I've to go to work later and I still have today's story to write and it's half past two all ready! Let's make a start then.

The Christmas decorations have gone up and the above is a photo of my tree. It's not great because it's stuck in a dark corner of the living room like it normally is, but there's no other space to put it. We had to move my dog's bed and she was totally not happy about that. The house looks okay, but it doesn't seem we've put up many decorations this year. Still though, it feels Christmas-y enough. 

Secondly, back in November though I've waited till now to write about it, I adopted a polar bear with the WWF. I've always said that as soon as I get a good income I'd give back to a charity and since I all ready give back to one that works with children (I work, volunteer and donate items to the youth center) I decided to pick an animal. I guess I went with the WWF because its one of the most well known ones and in return for adopting an animal you receive good things. Below is the welcome pack I got. It had stickers, bookmarks, a soft toy and books covering all kinds of things.  

My cute little polar bear doesn't have a name yet, but she's been living on my desk and keeping me company. I've been sticking with the polar bear theme now and been buying a few different things, including this huge and awesome mug from Asda! It's great for hot chocolate and the spice teas I've been drinking. It's too big to use at work though, but that's okay. I'll have to find another mug for that. 

Over the last few Decembers, I've taken to hand making presents for friends and family. It's great as it saves money, everyone gets something that is more special and it gives me something to do with my spare time. This year, I decided to makes some awesome Christmas soaps for everyone. Sadly, the photos I took have gone missing. I thought I saved them to my computer, but it doesn't look like I did and I deleted everything off my camera's memory card because it was almost full. They were very pretty and didn't take long to make. 

I used all ready made soap that you melted in a microwave and poured into moulds. I added some scent oil and food dye before I did that and then I also added glitter. I made snowflakes, snowmen, pine trees and Santa. I've all ready decided to make them again next year and try some different things with them. So, hopefully photos then! 

I also made lip scrubs which are so easy as they are just honey and brown sugar. I've been knitting scarfs too. I didn't want to spoil it for people I've given them too who might read my blog, so the below photo is of the scarf I made for myself. It's totally different from the ones I made for my friends and mum because I wanted mine chunky. It was really cheap to make as it was buy 2 get 3rd ball of wool free. It took 6 balls to make this and the balls were only £1 each, so it cost me £4 and a few hours to make this scarf.  

I also made these cute felt trees. The pattern came from a craft mag and I also made them with the kids at the youth center. They are not hard to make, but it took me awhile to get the pattern size right. I've got like two still to make, but I don't think I'll have time now. 

For about three or four years now, my mum has switched out the chocolate advent calendars we always had as kids to these present advent bags. You get a small present every day and I'm sure I've written about these before. I do think they are a good idea. I made mum one again this year. This photo is of the things I've gotten so far. I know there's two things missing; a little purple bear and another candle, but I think there's more. I got a lot of usable items this time; like socks, lip balms, snacks and the note book at the back. 

Another thing that is now happening as that my mum gives up wrapping some of my presents and just leaves them on my desk for me. On Sunday, I came down to these four coloring books, packet of Twizzlers and fragrance oil. I've given the spiced apple one ago and it's really nice, but I put too much in and I've had move my burner to the other side of the room! The house now smells like sweet apples, which isn't that bad. 

Before I move on to the main part of this post, I wanted to share this plant with everyone. It's a Christmas cacti and anyone who's been a reader of this blog for awhile knows I love cacti and have a collection of them. This has to be my second favorite because it really goes to town on flowering! Plus, it only flowers this time of year which is great when every other plant is looking bleak. I have two of these plants, as the offspring of this one ended up in my jasmine plant pot. It doesn't actually live on my bookcase like that, but in the kitchen on a vase beside the sink. The other one is on the opposite side. I had to take the photo here though because it was a lot better.  

This December life update wouldn't be complete without talking about my trip to the Manchester Christmas Markets. I go every year twice- ish; the first with friends and the second with family. This year though, I had a meet up with my old uni housemates and friends. It was great because I'd not since some people since we left uni 6 years ago! I don't know why we waited so long, because we are awesome together. I hope we can all meet again next year now. 

I always enjoy the market and it makes me feel like Christmas is nearly here. It's always a highlight, even if I don't buy anything. I took a lot of photos, but I picked only the best ones to put here; 

This fudge stall is one of my favorites. Look at all those different kinds of fudge!

This huge Santa always sits above the doorway to the town hall. 

This Christmas tree looked really cool. 

A row of stalls at the town hall square. 

Cool Father Christmas figures. 

These wicker like things are cute. 

If you buy enough of these wooden houses you could make a village scene!

Nativity wind mill.

I really like these beech trees. 

Really cool big Merry Go Round. I didn't get to go on it though. 

My new boyfriend and I with a giant polar bear statue.

That's done and now I've got three things left to share. So really quick. I know I've said this before, but the Jingle Bugs book is my favorite Christmas book. It's always meant the Christmas tree is going up and it's almost time to celebrate. 

My favorite Christmas movie is The Grinch. It's great fun, but serious and for me it just holds the true meaning of Christmas within it. I do watch it every year, mostly on Christmas Eve.  

Lastly and I know it's more Halloween then Christmas. My mum and I got this pumpkin jumper for my dog. She's been cold lately and we thought it'd help. I'm not a fan of dressing her up, but she's really taken to this jumper. We've brought a Christmas one for her, but that's being kept for Christmas day! 

I hope everyone has a great time and I'll see you all next Monday for my final post of the year! Thanks for reading!