Hello 2025!

Let us not start as we mean to go on, at least, on Missy's behalf? 6 days in and we're nearly over the worst of a paw injury. It's partly my own fault, I was caught out by the bad weather and hadn't shaved her paws in time, and I know from past experience fluffy paws attract salt and grit and cause sores.

Still. Thorough washing and bed rest and she's almost as good as new. So a minor hiccup to he new year.

It's been good otherwise. We started the year sledging. And I've finished my first project of the year - I put the rest on hold for a "me" project and, whilst quite loud, I am pleased with how it's turned out. 

Here's a little sneak peek:

I've almost finished rewatching the classic 90s Gargoyles and I've blown the dust off my knitting needles and have started a jumper for Missy. If I am to embrace my inner grandma, then my child needs knitwear!

And that's me. I've also started a cross stitch journal, that I aim to share on here each month as a way to hold myself accountable. I feel a good crafting year coming up!

And hopefully a good year for adventures too, we have lots of plans in motion - but let's wait for the snow to pass first!

Until next update!

An Unexpectedly Magical Weekend

It's our first proper snow of the winter, which makes everything look more magical, and helps with the Christmas spirit. I'm having an odd year with Christmas. Usually I'm all for it or just a apethetically following along, whereas this year I feel like I'm there, it's Christmas, let's be jolly and oh, uh, yay, I suppose?

This weekend started out the latter. For reasons I won't divulge, my long anticipated, steal the oldest neice and nephew, I'm the best-aunt-ever(tm) weekend was cancelled. Cancelled very last minute, as in, Friday morning last minute.

Thankfully, I had not bought or booked anything, otherwise I would. Have been too cross to be as understanding as I was. But nonetheless, less said the better. 

With my rather unexpectedly free weekend, I decided to shuffle the dog walk with my mum to the Saturday and go along to the Jollyes open day. I had never heard of this pet superstore before and, as the radio promoted that thier chosen charity was the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, I instantly had to find out about it.

It was more a soft launch open weekend rather than any extravagant grand opening. Well, the unicorn was a bit grand, but more on that in a moment. 

We did spin the wheel before entry and won a free toy. Great start! Then we got handed a free dog goodie bag. Even better! And was that birds I hear?!

So, whilst I would put it on par with Pets at Home in terms of ranges and products, the bird section was phenomenally larger (at the expense of the fish section, I suspect, that felt a bit small). So we got to pick out a nice new perch for the boys. As we were discussing what seed offered the best value, the photographer popped over and asked us how our dog was around horses.

Yep. Missy got a photoshoot with a Unicorn. 

OK, so we had to be there to wrangle, but it was absolutely Missys moment to shine. I can't wait to see the official press photos! 

Missy was allowed to pick herself some dead things from the doggy pick'n'mix as a reward for her outstanding behaviour and we picked up a new pink coat for her (first photo). 

Then it was off to my mums for lunch and a walk in the snow around the quarry. 

Today we swithered on ideas. We had a free day, an absolute rarity, so should we invite friends round for bonus free cheese? (The Magic Circle social night was on Thursday. Hubby and I were rewarded a bunch of spare cheese and chocolates as a thank you for staying back to tidy up.) Or should we have an elusive quiet day and spend it on the sofa eating chocolate and watching Christmas movies?

I'll be honest, neither happened. Duvet days are a thing of the past as Missy insists on a solid wall despite the snow (and I was happy to oblige taking her photo on her cute new coat). After a brisk walk to get the cobwebs out, I was in no mood to sit about. Hubby wasn't either, and he beat me to the punch of starting the big pre-Christmas clean and tidy up. After clearing the place too to bottom, I made tiffin and tear and share to go with the ill-gotten camembert. 

Missy was besotted by the cheese, but alas, had to make do with her advent calander instead! 

Unexpected, but not a bad weekend all told.

OK, OK, one more photo of the unicorn! 

Until next week! 

Snowy Days and Lazy Mornings

A short post this week. Weather has been really changeable - we G 8ot our first snow of the year, had an overnight of -5C and then it's warmed right up again to a drizzly 7/8C.

Not Missys sort of weather at all!

We've been pushing on with the last dregs of the DIY (namely that horrible bit where everything needs rehomed and you start doing the Big sort out for charity shops etc).

We have managed some nice walks when weather has permitted, but Missy has seemed to enjoy a bit of a duvet weekend. There's been lots of cuddles on the sofa whilst sorting through boxes, and long mornings where she has stolen the bulk of the bed as we have tea and organise the battle plans of the day. 

I did get some sewing done, so my first official project of 2022 is complete! This little upcycle Disney Dinosaur. A good friend of ours is going to be off on a very big adventure soon (for 5 months!) and I wanted to make her something to remind her of home and friends. This is made from old uniforms from the store where she and hubby worked together (and quite a big portion of our friend group really!).

The leaving get together is next week, so we're hoping restrictions ease enough to allow a few of us to get together and have a proper cheerio. 

Until next week! 

Sunday Snoozing

Not a lot to say this week, although it certainly feels like its been very busy! I think Missy is longing for the nice weather - she seems a little put out and generally wanting cuddles with us on the sofa. Her appetite is fine and she's in good health, so my only conclusion is that she's fed up with one day being warm enough walk without hat and gloves, then the next its more a swim and then the next:

My first site visit. Needless to say we ended up aborting early, even in our radioactive neon bright day glow high visibility coats its was getting a struggle to see each other through the sleet. Still, a day out the office is nothing to sniff at, and an early finish just means more cuddles for Missy. Even though we are both sat on the sofa enjoying the late evening sunshine coming through the window, I don't think either of us is ready to quite believe that it may be spring.

Missy scoping out future projects

Its been a good week for crafts, but I cant share any of them yet. I've just completed the nephews birthday present, so will get some good photos and store them to one side until after the big day - his birthday isn't until late May. Other commitments mean I wont be able to make it, so I decided to get it made early and managed to blitz through it much faster than expected!

Next weekend I'm up visiting a friend up north and hopefully we'll get to see the new baby polar bear. If I get any good photos I'll share them! Until then!

Beast from the East

Well...I was clearly speaking too soon last week with my hopes that a hint of spring was just around the corner, that the long dark winter had finally been broken...

Or I am just a massive jinx.

Whatever the case may be, I think it's safe to say that everything this week has been completely dominated by the "Beast from the East" and it hit us in the central belt hard. Tuesday was grim and I managed to get myself home safely from my abandoned dance classes, but I won't lie, it was tough going and I didn't get above 25mph. And then Wednesday arrived. I did actually think about going into work, but then I thought about all the other people on the road being frustrated at not getting to work and...nah. Not worth it.

So glad to have made that call. The hubby had work and braved it in only to get sent home at 2 (the shopping centre was shut down, that shows you how bad it was) and I spent 45 minutes having absolute kittens and desperately trying to clear the drive as he made the journey that we can normally manage in under 8 minutes. The worst. The absolute worst. My sympathy extends to everyone who's family got stuck out in the traffic, I think being the one waiting is worse than being the one in the car just about.

We did the altruistic thing of handing our number out to our elderly neighbours - and stressed that even if it was just for milk, to call us. There's no way an ambulance was gonna get into my estate and I'd never forgive myself if they fell in the snow for something silly. And then we took Missy for what's normally a 40 minute walk that, in all the snow, took us more than an hour (and from which most the photos were are done, I wasn't going to wrangle the dog and the camera at the same time). I had done two short walks earlier with her, but she likes the snow and the cold far better than her humans, so was keen to go again!

On Thursday I was sick fed up of the snow. All I could see was snow - out the window, on the news, on my social media - they wouldn't stop talking about it on the radio. We knew I advance that we were all havibg snow days again so I made the most of my improved "office" view and took some photos of the birds on the feeder during my tea break and insisted on doing the lunch walk in order to battle the oncoming cabin fever. Once the red warning clicked off there seemed to be more snow than there was during it. It just wouldn't stop. By this point the novelty had worn off for Missy and she was fed up wading through chest deep snow and being cold. She merely lay on the sofa staring out at the snow, her eyes clearly bemoaning the terrible state of affairs that prevented her from her life long squirrel destroying quest.

My improved view

Then Friday was another snow day. I'd made the call the night before as, even if conditions meant no more snow, it was so cold that it wasn't going to go anywhere and the car was going to need dug out. Hubby walked to work and it seemed like another day trapped in some bizarre apocalyptic zombie drama but without the zombies and, as I was finishing up for the day, I noticed a JCB rolling past my window - lo and behold, the community was rallying together. I soon joined the rest of the street in digging out what was left behind and the bad mood broke. Everyone was suddenly up beat and talking again. I got out with Missy and even she had a spring in her step, taking the time to play with every dog we met and bounding through the snow.

The weather warnings are back to yellow and it feels like we're through the worst. An odd week, not exciting but I feel its worth writing down. After all, its not every year that I get 3 foot of snow in two days.

*stops and anxiously peers through window as a lone snowflake falls past*

Perhaps I will leave it that and say no more, just in case...

A Break from the Festivities

Rain, just about sums up the kind of weather we had on Christmas day. It seemed that whoever is in charge of Christmas was running behind schedule as, on Boxing day, we woke up to about three inches of snow. Missy loves snow. So I feel like we did get out in the end for a lovely walk, even if it was a day late! (Queue snow photos for the rest of the blog!)

This year the hubby and I put our foot down and said that no, we didn't want to go visiting, we weren't going to be glorified taxis and we certainly were not hosting. Finally, on the year of our tenth Christmas together, we got to have it to ourselves, just us and Missy. I do enjoy seeing people on the day, but I will confess that to just wake up and gently trundle through the morning without panicking about picking people up for set times or that all the presents had been rounded up and were in the car, was pure bliss.

It's that weird part of the festive season for me - it being the three 'normal' days between Christmas and New Year. Its business as usual in the household as both myself and the hubby are back to work and I will admit to enjoying the shorter commute. Still, with another four day weekend around the corner, its tough to keep your head in the game and keep on top of work, the house and chores. We had our 'resolutions' conversations last night and I think I know what I want to do. Last year I made an effort to see friends and family more, and to ensure that the time spent wasn't just doing jobs for other people, but actually socialising.

So next year? Well, I begin a new job at the end of January. I want to use that as a chance to break bad habits, and to start taking better care of myself physically and mentally. I think it'll be tough to make myself take time out just to relax - there always seems more jobs needing doing, but I think it will be good for me to stop fretting, at least for five minutes. 

We'll have to wait and see how it goes. I've told Missy her resolution is to stay out of trouble (she did well this year, only one big vet bill), but I can tell from that little glint in her eye that her ambition to annihilate the grey squirrel population is still at the forefront of her mind...

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and all the best for 2018!

All seasons for the Otter Party

Well, it is Scotland.

I think we can all conjure to mind at least some version of that classical postcard that shows that as a country, its always raining, or snowing, and that all four seasons in one day is not uncommon. Well, this week started with the promise of spring:

The snow drops are out and the crocus flowers are coming up in swarms. That promises good weather, right?

No. 

Forget Winter is Coming, it just wont go away!

These photos were legitimately taken 2 days apart. Whilst unwelcome to myself, the snow proved to be a great hit with my 3 year old niece who, living on the opposite side of the border, very rarely gets anything that amounts to actual legitimate snow. Whilst she had fun, I think she was rather surprised at the fact that we have many kinds of snow, including, unfortunately, the horrid, driving, soggy stuff that met us on our first outing out! Our second outing was more successful, as it had frozen a bit and wasn't driving down as hard.

With a baby on the way, this visit is the last one we're expecting from my sister before she pops in June time. To make a fuss and celebrate for the sake of having a nice time, I organised an "Otter Cuddle Party" - the idea of course belongs to my niece (I got her the Finding Dory pyjamas with the cuddling otters and a cuddly otter toy for Christmas, which she has now decided is the best thing ever). I don't think my sister expected me to actually go ahead and have one, but we did and it went down brilliantly.

To start the day we got all the cousins together (meaning a 3, 7 and 12 years old respectively) and took them swimming at the local pool which is really a glorified water park. Otters like swimming, right? And I wanted to get those kids tired out!

Next we had an otter magic show which my hubby had organised - as the wizard of the clan, we felt he should do something fun and silly and we picked a trick specifically for each child. The classic egg bag was for the 12 year old, we had some magic appearing (and replicating!) pikachus for the 7 year old and finally the 3 year old got to help make an otter magically appear in the special box (after some difficulties with a floppy wand)!

By which point it was time to eat. I had previously asked my youngest niece what kind of cakes otters like, to which she replied kelp cakes, like the ones in Octonauts. 

My sister sent me this as reference:

And I pulled off:

I will admit to a certain smugness about those otter cakes. The squids were slightly more splats, but you cant win everything. And all the biscuits were rolled, cut and decorated by my niece, and she was very pleased with them. 

After the food it was time for everyone to leave and go on and do other things. There was lots of washing up to do, but it was worth it!

Till next time!