Ratatouille

They might not be everyones cup of tea but the fuzzlets numbers have increased again!
After the sad unexpected demise of Frodo and much deliberation I decided to replace him and in doing so acquired Sam's brother in the process so he wasn't left by himself.
I now have a full box of halflings - Frodot (silent T), Sam, Pippin and Merry and what a fabulous bunch of monkeys they are, and get on so well together. No longer will I stick to pairs when I have now seen what joy groups bring to each other as well as me!!
Even grumpy old Fred seems to be benefitting!
Fred rarely comes out of his tent except to eat or poop, or when I drag him out for an unappreciated snuggle on the sofa, so imagine my surprise when I came home from work today to find him downstairs in ratty towers, surrounded by the halflings who were jumping on and round him. His eyes seemed extra bright and sparkling and I'm sure he was smiling?
Who'd have thought it - Fred a babe magnet!!
Me - I love the five smiling faces who now greet me as I walk in the door , eager to be snuggled and scritched - priceless!

Kisses from the Halflings xxx

I'm not sure where January has gone?

It has continued on the shitty work related rollercoaster - no end to that yet, but has also been taken up with the arrival of these little monkeys!!!

Meet Frodo.........

........who sadly is no longer with us. His brief visit on earth was filled with love and cuddles.
He was a tiny little poppet, but sadly went over the rainbow bridge during the night  :(
It's not his fault cos he's a big old lump, but I think Fred might have squished him ??

Sam however has made up for it with lots and lots of kisses to let me know there was nothing I could have done! He is just unbeliveably soft, squishy and mischeivious - he will think his name is "No!", not Sam soon!!!  He is nibbling my ear and trying to bungee jump off the sofa whilst I type this!

Pippin is a little darling, and has bravely taken on Frodo's attempts to snuggle with Fred so that he is not lonely in his tent at night! Fred is still a bit of a grumpy old man towards them but they are VERY wriggly and don't sit still for a moment so I cant really blame him !! We are getting there.
It's also the reason for these dreadfully wriggly blurry phone pics!!

Fred and Pippin sharing a yoghurt pot - always a good bonding strategy!

Then we had some snow and all the wildlife in the garden came out to play :)

And the evenings were cosy and cuddly and kissy some more......

What can I say - our little house is filled with love even if its not everyone's cup of tea!

They may be small little fellas but they have made me smile more than anyone else recently!

January!

And yet another week has flown by............

I just don't know where the time goes and yet I seem to have absolutely nothing to report.

I was proper poorly at the weekend with a nasty cold which I put down to walking home in the rain on New years morning and apart from going to work and not going on a date not much has occurred!

I have managed to keep up with the 365 photo a day project so far.but similarly the photos are not very interesting and I have to try and make every day things appear ever so slightly more interesting than they really are!

I've spent lots of time with this little guy so he doesn't feel so lonely and hope to have some news on that front very soon :)

Pyjama Day!!!

New Years Eve............

So, its the morning after the night before - and what a good night it was!!!

I'm not normally a New years Eve kinda person - haven't had an enjoyable/fun/happy one in about 25 years, so usually I dont bother and try to work it instead.

As you can see, this year was VERY different and as I sit here in my PJ's recovering and eating bacon butties, its kinda making me smile!!

:)

Everything about the end of 2012 has been a bit topsy turvey this year, but don't get me wrong - its not all been bad. 

I might have spent Christmas day sat here by myself, cuddling little Barney in his last few days, but I tried to make it festive. Ok so I didnt make it to the Christmas carol service or the pub like I promised myself but that was more to do with not wanting to go out in the dreadful wet weather rather than anything else.

I made delicious baileys coffee in my posh coffee pot that I'd never used, I had a nice roast chicken with all the trimmings and trifle for pud and I made some mulled wine for the evening.

I may not have had any presents to open but my day was calm and quiet and filled with ratty love, so that was enough for me for this year. Kind of a fitting end after all that's happened really?

Boxing Day was spent here................

Again, perhaps not the obvious choice, but despite the rain it was day filled with friendship and laughter (ok and some more - quite a lot - more mulled wine) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!!

So, to New Years Eve.
 I ironed my hair, put on my best fluttery false eyelashes and partied like I haven't in a very long time. The champagne flowed, the tunes were groovy and new friends were made. I was glad of my decision to leave behind not so good friends this year and the night was filled with fun and laughter, making me forget the grief of the last six months for a while!

It was a good night/ morning - I didnt get in til 4.30am - something that is usually reserved for shifts at work but it was so worth it! Despite pouring boiling water over my hand when I filled my hot water bottle and spilling hot tea in my lap (I wasn't drunk - honest!!??) and slightly aching feet, all in all it was a good end to 2012!

Today I'm at home, in my Pj's and wondering what will lie ahead this year?

Hopefully some new little chums for Freddy? Time spent with better people for me and a big change at work? 

Let's watch this space shall we?

xxx

2012 Review in pictures

It dawned on me the other day that my old blog ran from 2008 until Feb of this year and only really stopped because I was being less crafty, too busy and was fed up of someone reading about me when they really had no business to be doing so!

My New Years resolution is to blog again - I actually quite miss it and all my blogger friends, but I have decided to have a whole new blog because 'In the Zone' was dedicated to my crafty life and I feel this one may be more of an online diary with some random craft thrown in on occasion!!

2012 was supposed to have been the best ever!! I turned 40 and it was all supposed to have been just fabulous! I won't bore you with the details but the last six months have been extremely difficult on the work front and has in turn had a huge impact on my home life, but onward and upward as they say. Surely 2013 cant get any worse???

So, what else did I get up to in 2012 apart from work?

January - we had snow!

February - I turned 40!

March - baby Fred was born (not to me I hasten to add!!)

April - I think was busy with work and not much else? Honestly can't remember but that's old age for you!!!

May - I went to Cornwall for 3 days for work.

June - was my BIG birthday trip to America

July - was quite hot and was spent in the garden and the Olympics came to London

August - involved BBQ's and labradoodles!!

September  -  interesting local finds and Olympic mascots and Cheddar weekend

October - new tattoo and photography weekends in Dorset and Cheltenham.

November - new sofas to replace the nibbled ratty ones and more photography.

December - Mulled wine with friends, Christmas parties and Christmas

and darling Barney went over the bridge to the rainbow :(

And so that brings me to the end of 2012! 

Tomorrow is New Years Eve, not  usually a favourite of mine but am going to go out with some new friends after work which should be fun and am looking forward to seeing the back of 2012!!

I hope that next year is full of new fun and new friends and all the problems and disappointments of this year will fade to a distant memory.

Wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

xxxx