Celebrations

We've been kept occupied the last week with celebrations. T's PhD graduation on Thursday, at which my bag made its debut. We went to a lovely restaurant afterwards and spent the afternoon feeling full, sleepy and happy at his parents' home.

{Marching trumpeters on loan from the Queen for the graduation ceremonies.}
One of the girls I used to live with stayed the weekend which was wonderful, and we spent Saturday at Lulu's wedding, celebrating as she and her lovely new husband got married. The sun shone. Everyone smiled. We played with balloons and caught up with old friends. It was a very happy day.

{Clockwise from top left: Wedding feet, tables, bridesmaid's bouquet, cup of tea, name cards, roses in the courtyard.}

Catching Up

The weekend by the sea was just wonderful. It wasn't even a whole weekend, we drove down to Eastbourne on Friday evening. The weather had been sizzling all day, and even the evening as we sat and drank wine, ate dinner and caught up on the last few months of life the heat was still hanging heavily in the air. We got to bed late, and slept til about nine in the morning.

We were visiting E and B. E didn't quite live with me at university but it was close. We always say that she was our almost housemate. She and B got married just before last Christmas. E took us out on the South Downs in the morning for a walk along the cliffs, and then we all met up for a lunch in a pub garden. Then we carried on for another walk along the seafront with ice creams. B had to go, so the three of us wandered along at a leisurely pace before heading back to the flat.

We had dinner and watched Hancock, which if you haven't seen it is really quite funny and a good film. It appeals to boys and girls, and in my book that's a winner. We went home late Saturday, sunburned, tired and happy. The icing on the day was that we drove off into the sunset which was gorgeous and not too blinding for driving. Just perfect.

You may have noticed the lack of photos. I charged the camera battery and then left it at home at the last minute. It's been a long time since I was in a new (oh so pretty place) without my camera. On the one hand it was lovely - I just enjoyed the weekend in the moment, spending time relaxing. On the other hand - I'm a little sad not to have photos of the weekend, and to have missed the chance to take them - no shells, no sand, no waves, no windswept hair, no happy faces. I'll just have to look back on those things in my memory. Until the next time we visit them of course.

This week is busy. After the relaxed weekend (we stayed home on Sunday and listened to the church service online - I have to admit that the sunburn was a little painful!) this week is just go go go. Busy days and evenings, until Friday when we are taking another trip to spend the long weekend with my family. Can't wait!

Sandy Plans

Today - packing, shopping and tidying. We're heading off to the seaside this weekend to visit some friends, and I can't wait!

Squishy, Nemo and the Big Blue

I met up with some school friends this weekend in London which was great. I'm so terrible at keeping in touch with people so to actually see these girls was fantastic. Although there were a couple of "have we not seen each other since your wedding" moments, it was actually Christmas 2008 the last time I saw some of them. Which is still way too long ago. But anyway, we caught up and it was fun. Five years since our school days. We ate way too much chinese food, giggled our way round the London Aquarium (looking out for the pretty and the weird fish), and then ate five donuts and a huge bag of candyfloss between us while reminiscing about sports day ice creams, Paris and reunions.

The cameras were out in full force in the aquarium so here are some of my favourite fishies...


The jellyfish tanks were lit up with pretty colour changing lights which really made them look lovely. Their movement is so smooth and elegant, they're quite hypnotic to watch...


The sting rays were fun to watch, they would come right to the edges of the tanks so you could see their mouths right under their bodies. I have no idea why this frog was in a sea life centre but his colours and pattern were so bright I couldn't resist including him. Also, he was tiny, about the size of a 50p coin. Assorted other creatures...

{Sting ray, hammerhead shark, fish and light, starfish, spiky fish, seahorse, frog, tank, ray.}
My favourite of all were the two green sea turtles swooping around the main tank. At one point they touched noses as if kissing, and then swished off again to carry on swimming...


They were hard subjects to take photos of - let alone the fact that they're fast, darting here and there, and a lot of the pretty fish are quite small, the lighting was also dim, and the sides of the tanks were sometimes scratched. But it was fun, and I was pleased to get a few good shots - this kind of thing is where being able to take two hundred photos is fantastic. You end up with maybe twenty you love but it is worth it in the end.

Birthday Round Up

We're relaxing today after a great weekend of celebrations and fun. We started on Friday with dinner with T's parents. I had made birthday cake, and cooked duck legs for dinner which were lovely. It was a new recipe but it's one we're already looking forward to having again, and it has gone in my book.

{Dinner table, flowers, banner, balloons and cards, wine, present opening, champagne, candles, cake.}
We saw friends on Saturday and went out for dinner for a joint birthday celebration - a lovely meal at a chinese restaurant. Then cake and a walk home in the rain which was more fun than it sounds. Sunday meant church, lunch with just the two of us and then more games and fun with our friends (and some holiday planning thrown in for good measure).

Today we are enjoying our extra day of weekend. The sun is working hard to break through the clouds. Here goes May...

Birthday Sparkles

I was so excited last week when one of my school friends came to stay. And it was so lovely to spend two days talking and laughing and catching up.

I remember giggling through lessons, trying our hands at volunteering. Playing cards in study sessions. Snowball fights. A group of us travelled to Paris after school finished. We met up throughout university, took in the sights of London and threw sweets around. She was a bridesmaid at our wedding. And today is her birthday!

{Paris trip.}
Happy Birthday Shiv! Thanks for coming to visit and for all the fun!

Life Update

We've been lucky enough to share quite a few dinners with friends and family recently. Some of them are people we see almost every week at church and yet never really catch up with, and we've really been appreciating the time to spend together. Today we had friends over and even managed to get out after lunch for a walk in the sunshine and a long chat which was lovely.

We've been making plans for the future as well. Looking at various houses, thinking about buying our own place. It's such an exciting idea, and something we'd both love to do. Our current place has been perfect, but we would love to get started on decorating and furnishing our own place - somewhere with a garden and room for our little family to grow. It's a daunting prospect - whichever house we decide to commit to won't be perfect and there will be things that we can't change about it. Equally, it's such an exciting adventure to be starting out on.

I've been offered a place on a masters course next year, which I'm really excited about. It's great to have a plan. The only possible hitch is that it is quite a small course so I'm just praying they will have enough people signed up to run it.

I'm loving my childminding job - I've been looking after three children for a family from church. They are wonderful kids and so much fun. I've had some lovely conversations with them, especially when reading with the littlest one. And the older two make fantastic hot chocolates.


I have so many dreams in my mind at the moment - houses and decorating, craft and painting, dates and trips, studying and business. I also have a lot to look forward to and be excited about.

Life is good and it is exciting to think about what is coming. I feel like we're rounding a corner and bits and pieces of the future are coming into view. It might all change, and that's fine but sometimes the glimpses are reassuring and tantalising.

Winding Down

On Wednesday night we had our home group over for a Christmas party - food and games and much merriment ensued. We even made hot apple punch (inspired by some friends a couple of weekends ago) which went down very well.


Last night we went to T's work Christmas party - my first experience of the infamous do. And we enjoyed it. It was fun meeting some new people, talking about life, books and food. And when we walked out of the door it was into swirling whirling snow that was actually settling! It was so exciting. I should have taken some photos when we got home but by that stage we were so freezing we just wanted to get inside and curl up in bed, so here's a few from this morning as it melts.


Today: a squillion jobs to do before tomorrow. Packing, laundry, cooking, present wrapping, tidying, cleaning, organising, crafting. This morning so far has been mostly spent wrapping and ribboning to a background of the Little Women DVD. Which has resulted in a warm fuzzy feeling and blinking away tears at the really sad bits I'd forgotten. (I'm also rapidly running out of paper and ribbon, and have forgotten gift tags as usual so things are on track for a late night and busy Saturday morning!) Nevertheless - loving the prospect of Christmas holidays.

Have a good weekend lovelies.

The Last Wedding

This weekend saw us going to our fifth and final wedding of the year, and it was a wedding high. Although we only really know half the couple, it was such a special and fun day.


The food was amazing - after the church they served hot mulled wine (great for wrapping chilly fingers around) and mince pies fresh from the oven. For dinner, we'd decided to go for one of each option on the menu between us as it looked so good. Which meant that by sharing, we got to try starters of duck and salmon, mains of pork and guinea fowl (like chicken, but with a meatier, richer flavour), and for dessert white chocolate torte and the creamiest lemon cheesecake ever.

Aside from the food, seeing how happy and relaxed the bride and groom were, and how thankful to God - made it a totally wonderful day.

A Christmas Weekend

Good friends. Mulled wine and mince pies. Walks. A pine tree hung with lights and shimmering decorations. Sitting on the floor to play games. Laughter and catching up. This all added up to a lovely weekend for us.


Aren't these word decorations (made by our lovely hostess) beautiful?


Christmas is on it's way...and I'm loving every day of the build up.

November...

...started and ended with a wedding.

...was rainy.

...meant time spent with friends.

...brought adventures - like this one.

...got me excited about Christmas and shopping and buying gifts.

...saw me wearing my new boots almost every day.

...introduced me to new ideas and plans for the future.


November was GOOD. So I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of it with T. See you all in December.

London Calling

Last night a group of students and "real people" jumped on a train and headed up to London. It was dark before we even met up, so by the time we got to the Eye the city was glittering with all the lights. I'd never been on it before, and I enjoyed it even more because I got to try out my camera on the sparkling landscape...






I don't really like London, but last night? It was beautiful.

Autumn Goals Update

1) Add all my favourite summer photos to the digital photo frame.

2) Take a photo every day of September and post it here. I'm not nearly disciplined enough to do Project365 but I might just manage a month.

3) Make something new in the bread maker machine.

4) Sew the pretty new buttons onto my winter coat.

5) Finish the wedding scrapbook. Start honeymoon ones or put the photos in an album at least. I have put the honeymoon photos in an album! And I've started putting our wedding cards into an album.


6) Send surprise post to three people. I did this! And it was so much fun. Here are three of my parcels ready to go. And I also sent some extras. It was lovely to surprise people.


7) An arty project.

8) A blog redesign.

Last night we went to a play called Origins and Lemons. It was a very lighthearted take on Genesis chapters 1-11. It was nice to do something different in the evening. And tonight we're off to London to go on the London Eye - something different again!

Round Up, Roll On

Following on from my last couple of posts, this weekend was full of happiness. It was ram packed with friends, games, food and fun. We had some friends staying over, we caught up with others, we planned a holiday, we got excited about weddings. We talked craft, food, games and life. All good things.

On Sunday afternoon we went over to T's parents to put up, clean and dry out the tents they'd lent us for our camping trip. We stayed for games and dinner - delicious roast! On the way home, T pointed out that we hadn't eaten a meal alone all weekend. Dinner last night was special in its ordinariness - we snuggled up on the sofa with our bowls of chicken rice.

This week I am excited about:

New challenges

Seeing Mum and my sisters

Fun things in the mail

I have just started reading Beijing Coma by Ma Jian. I'm not very far into it but so far it's pretty good. I know almost nothing about modern chinese history so I think it will teach me a lot. Has anyone else read it?


On with the week!

Autumn Camping

This weekend was our home group's camping trip. It felt longer than a weekend somehow, maybe because we crammed so many different things into the weekend. I was so happy that it didn't rain. It was cold though, very cold. It's all about layers. And eating plenty. We definitely ate plenty. The only slight downside was that it took about half an hour to heat the water for tea and hot chocolate. But apart from that - the food was good...



Despite the cold, autumn is a lovely time of year for camping. Crunchy leaves and cool air. We were surrounded by beautiful autumn colour. Birds flying south, a grasshopper visitor and a butterfly. Nature is truly lovely.


It was a lovely weekend.



That said, I enjoyed my warm soft bed last night. And my cup of tea.

These Little Things

Life has been made up of lots of very different things this week. The GTP (Graduate Teacher Programme) meeting on Tuesday was good, and more useful than I'd expected. I came away feeling that this was something I really wanted to do, better informed...but still facing the same obstacles.

Hurdle Number One: I need to find a school that will take me to do the training for a year.

Hurdle Number Two: I need to then apply to the university. They get three applicants for each place on the course.

So I've made some enquiries to some schools. I emailed four asking to come in and volunteer, and have heard back a "no" from one. So next week I start telephoning. At the moment I'm working on trusting God with this and trying not to feel overwhelmed and terrified.

I had a fantastic day on Monday with a friend who came up for the day. We talked (almost non-stop) for the seven hours she was here, had a lovely lunch out and a very peaceful walk in the woods. She is getting married in a couple of months and I am so excited for her! I'm also a little excited for me - I get to take my camera to her wedding and take squillions of photographs. Everybody wins.

This week I have been creating, and it has made me very happy...
{Christmas Cards - not because I'm crazy and looking forward to Christmas already. Although I am. Just because I'm anticipating having less time as the weeks go by.}


{Anniversary Weekend Mini Book}


Photos

Photo 16:


Photo 17:


Photo 18:



This weekend
Fun with friends, a relaxed morning with my husband, food, sunshine (please?), photos, walks, church, lunch out with friends. Oh so many good things, which will start in about five minutes when T gets home from work. That's when my weekend really starts.

Blessings

Basil seedlings are growing on my windowsil.


I am spending today at Besom and then having dinner with a schoolfriend in London.

Tomorrow will be spent packing. We are staying Friday night in Dorset with T's aunt and uncle, and then on to Cornwall on Saturday for our holiday with my family. A week of sun, beaches and family. So blessed!

Have a good week everyone.

That's Our V&A Day

Some photos from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is quite a girly museum, full of dresses, pretty silver and swirly curly iron work. Which is why we made it a girls' day out...

Snapshot of an Evening

I spent today wandering around central London and the V&A museum with Lulu - it was a girly day out to celebrate our birthdays and was absolutely lovely. That said, I am very tired and although my feet held out well in their new flip flops they are a little sore. So tonight I will be editing photos and snuggling up on the sofa with my husband. Blissful.

Just a one photo to share today. We had Lulu and her boyfriend over for dinner and games last night (which was lovely) and when I came down this morning I saw...

Wine, friends and laughs make for good times and sweet summer memories.

Picture Post

I love this vase - it was a wedding present from a school friend. Strangely one of our uni friends also gave us the green marbles as a wedding present. They go well together!