Natural woman

Why hello!  Sorry blogging has been sporadic of late and I know I keep going on about how I feel too sickly and knackered to create anything let alone blog.  But I reeeeeally have been feeling sickly, and somehow as the first morning of the second trimester dawned there was no miraculous shift to "blooming".  Blooming nauseous more like.

*sigh*

That said, I have been feeling slightly better.  I have managed to muster the energy to indulge in some of my favourite past times this weekend - namely being a bit hippyish, baking and crocheting.

I've always loved natural remedies, I am a bit of a tree-hugger at heart.  I've battled illness for all of my adult life and I am a great believer in homeopathy, and as far as bath and beauty products go I always pick the natural option and I am huge fan of Lush.  I also love aromatherapy.  And wine is natural, right? Big fan of wine. So when it comes to dying my hair things are no different...

This is henna.  If you've not heard of it before it is a type of mud that dyes skin and hair.  It is VERY messy, it involves lots of mixing, mashing, hot water and elbow grease, then a lot of black towels, rubber gloves, cling film and plastic bags...

You leave it on for about five hours, it smells divine but it pretty much confines you to the house for the day unless you don't mind going out looking like a lunatic.

And when stuck indoors one needs to find things to do to amuse one's self.  Hmmm, maybe Nigella can help...

Yum!

Going...

...going...

...gone...

A lovely relaxing weekend eating cake, drinking tea, hanging out with my family, and creating fabulous hair.  Oh and of course a spot of crocheting, natural crocheting no less...

But more on this tomorrow! 

:)

x

A spot of crochet

Just dropping by very quickly to say that some crafting activity has been resumed! 

In the last couple of weeks I have been able to pick up a crochet hook and start hooking away again, something I have been just too queasy to do before.

Granny squares are always a good easy start aren't they?  I cna happily hook away at these without feeling too sickly. 

And also a little thrifting has been happening!  Oh yes, this little cupboard was an eBay bargain at, wait for it, £6!!

It won't be staying dark and woody of course, it is destined for sanding and white paint and pretty drawer liners!  I am hoping this won't take me two years to get round to doing, I'll keep you posted!

Hope everyone is enjoying a sunny crafty Friday!

x

Secret Post Club - May

I have been LOVING the Scret Post Club so far.  Kudos to Heather of Notes from Lapland for being so darn clever and organising the whole shebang.

May was my second month as a member and I received a fabulous mix of goodies all the way from Canada.  Here's my loot (do excuse the piccies in this post, I couldn't be bothered shifting upstairs to get the proper Nokia camera so the ickle one had to do, that's pregnancy for you)...

I got a seriously lovely parcel full of lovely goodies.  There was a real handmade and natural feel to all the gifts with lip balm made with natural ingredients, organic moisturiser and gorgeous natural soap ...

I have the cutest little tinned candle to light whilst I am soaking in the bath (using my new soap of course) and that crayola shaped soap?  It's made with goat's milk and is from Etsy! Lillia was delighted with that as she stole it from my stash!  Though I am pretty sure it was meant for her anyway :)

She also included something called "Fiesta Mix" - a spice blend that you mix in with sour cream and mayo to make a dip.  Hubby whipped that out of my hands pretty quick!  Can't wait to try it.

My sender, Audrey, didn't include a note or any clues to her blog so I'm afraid to say I googled her.  Sorry Audrey!  She has a beautiful crafty blog that is definitely worthy of a cup of tea and a good half hour on the laptop, I just hope she forgives me for outing her!

Now please excuse me, I have some dip to go mix up...

Thinking frocks

My good friend Lottie of LottieLoves put out the challenge to me and many others last week to wear a dress on bank holiday Monday. Not one to shirk a challenge I happily obliged, besides my jeans don't fit me anymore so drastic measures were required.

Here is a picture of a complete moomin...

Ok, it's not a moomin, it's me in a dress, and despite the fact I look a bit daft and uncomfortable I actually wasn't, in fact I was more comfortable than I had been all week.  Hubby took this picture on the morning of bank holiday Monday at my Dad's house.  After this my dress and I undertook a spot of geocaching with hubby...

I must at this stage mention my boots - I love them, they are from Monsoon and cost £90, making them the most expensive item of clothing I own.  They are incredibly comfortable and don't look out of place in a restaurant, nor standing in the middle of a Berkshire field like above!

We bagged ourselves a few caches, here's me with the first we found...

Caches typically require a lot of rummaging around in order to find them, here I am investigating the undergrowth, rather like David Bellamy in a dress, but without the ginger beard of course...

Found it!

So there you have it, proof that a girl can feel comfortable, look great, trudge around fields, rummage around in bushes and be a geek all whilst wearing a frock!

If you fancy taking up the Friday Frock challenge click on the button on my sidebar, the one that looks like this...

Now I have a little problem.  That dress that you see me wearing above, well that's about the extent of my dress collection.  So some shopping may be required, bit difficult whilst budgeting for maternity leave though. Hmmm...ebay perhaps?  Anyone got ay thrifty dress-shopping tips?

The Cupcake Cafe

After a day out in Margate, collecting shells on the beach and enjoying shell mosaics at the grotto, we needed a place to sit down and get some grub.  After a short tour of the old town I spotted the Cupcake Cafe.  Hubby refused to go in at first, saying that the toasties it offered would not be enough for his manly appetite.  But with Lillia on my side (the chairs outside were pink which was reason enough for her) I soon won that particular argument.

Inside it was delightful, exactly my cup of tea - quiet, quirky and neat...

With little finishing touches like paper lanterns...

After some extremely yummy cheese toasties for me and the little one, and a manly sized portion of beans and cheese on toast that nearly defeated hubby, we moved onto the house speciality - cupcakes!

An oreo cupcake for hubby...

And a lemon cupcake for me...

Yummy yum!  Oh dear now I am drooling...

Shell Mosaics

Aw, thanks all of you for the lovely comments on my last post :)  I am beginning to feel a lot better thanks, baked beans don't make me heave anymore, must be a good sign!

In the absence of any crafting activity recently I thought I would try to make my return to blogging with some tales of my adventures this past week.  We took a little "staycation" and did some fun things close to home.  On Thursday we went to Margate where we visited the Shell Grotto.  At £3 per adult and £1.50 for the little one it was very reasonably priced, the entrance and the shop were modest and relatively low key, so all-in-all we didn't have massive expectations.  But it turned out to be pretty special indeed. 

(Be warned the rest of this post is about to descend into pure mosaic geekness, if you are not into mosaics, shell mosaics or the like then look away now.)

As you go in you are greeted by a massive commemorative shell mosaic, created more recently than those mosaics in the grotto itself...

 I mean, seriously...wow.  It's made of shells! Look at the colours, incredible.

Then it's down some stairs that lead you under ground and to your first glimpse of the mosaiced grotto...

According the the information we were given the mosaics depict the journey of life, from birth, growth, death and then a celestial afterlife.

The detail is amazing, look at this shell rose...

There are flowers...

 And hearts...

The whole place, despite being dark and small and under ground, feels very calm and safe.

It was discovered in 1835 and nobody is quite sure how long ago it was actually created.

It was an extremely inspirational place to visit and I am now itching to get started on my next mosaic.  I have been collecting white pebbles and sea glass for a while now with the intention of making a mosaiced mirror and now I think I will get started.  Just as soon as I stop feeling too nauseous :)

If you are ever in Margate I can highly recommend a visit, they even have the cutest little cafe and the shop sells beautiful shells and decorative shell items and none of it carries a hefty touristy price tag.  Well worth a visit.

A little time off

We have had a beachy week.

A little time out from work and routine.

It's been a lovely break.  But not the entire reason I have been absent from blogging, or rather intermittent in my presence at least.  No the main reason is that I have been too sick to look at the computer screen for the length of time required to edit photographs and write text, or concentrate on reading all my favourite blogs.  Plus I have had every shred of energy sucked out of me so by the time I have worked, commuted, mothered and eaten I am usually straight off to bed.

Sound familiar to anyone?  Yes, I am pregnant.  10 weeks to be precise.  Having miscarried last November we have been really anxious, so we had a private early scan last week to confirm all was going well, which it was.  We will have another scan in two and a half weeks so we have all fingers and toes crossed. 

It is a worrying and exciting time, so for now we are enjoying a little beachy sunshine on the shores of Kent.

More on our adventures to come this week I promise!  I have been too sick to do any crafting, but I am slowly beginning to feel a bit better so I am hoping normal service will resume shortly.

:)