Friday 24 June 2011

The Evolution of Elvis...

Yikes, it's been far too long since I was last on, but I have a very good excuse! We just got a new addition to our family....a kitten!! (no babies yet thank you very much!).

He's been very poorly so every spare minute I have I've been using to tend to my little boy. Here is his story...(the pics are all taken on blackberrys so apologies for the poor quality)

My friend works for a recycling company doing office management and one of the truck drivers came into the office a few weeks ago with a box. When they looked inside they saw 2 little kittens! He had been about to send his cargo through the shredder when he heard a little squeak and looked a bit closer, only to see 2 tiny balls of fluff. Luckily he had a heart, unlike the scumbag who dumped the kittens there, and rescued them from a truly horrific death.

He brought them into the office and my friend immediately called me to see if we would be able to take one, as the other one had been taken right away. I was so saddened by his life so far, but because we have Betsey already I wasn't sure how she'd handle having a little brother or sister, but i asked her to send me a picture anyway. As soon as i saw him i knew he was mine and i bombarded husband with texts telling him the horrible tale and how this little baby needed a home. He thought the same as me, Betsey really is like our daughter and she's so spoiled we were both worried she would be upset with a new addition.

My friend brought the kitten home and i went round that night to help her feed him and look after him. When i walked in i squeaked because he was the tiniest thing i have ever seen! I've owned guinea pigs that were bigger!! He looked so ill, his little eye was sealed shut and he was sneezing.

My friend brought him round to my house the next day after a lottttt of convincing with husband. We took him in on the premise that we would look after him until he got better, and see how him and Betsey got along, but always with the idea that we may give him up to the Cats Protection Society Belfast if Betsey wasn't keen on him. Once we had him at home we kept him and Betsey apart because we didn't know what was wrong with him, or if it was infectious etc. After some googling, we figured out he had cat flu, which is mega contagious and quite dangerous for kittens, so much so it can kill them. Neither of us wanted to risk Betsey so i phoned the Cats Protection to see how we go about handing him in. The lovely woman told me they were full and to make sure he got better we could take him to Cedar Grove veterinary and get him treated for free!! I couldn't believe it, because i phoned the vet first and they said for just a consultation and an antibiotic it would be a minimum of £40!

We took him to the vet and she said it was cat flu and he would get over it, but he might lose his eye because it had blood ulcers from being uncared for and not cleaned for dear knows how long! After a quick clean up, antibiotic injection and some eye drops, he was already looking better!



Its been 3 weeks now of nursing him, syringe feeding him until he was strong enough to ear himself, giving him eye drops every 2-3 hours, midnight feeds and general cuddling and he is so much bigger, better, fatter and stronger!!




We are most definitely now a family of 4 and he is ours forever. Nursing something so small and vulnerable it was impossible not to fall in love with him. We named him Elvis just before we got the great news that his eye is all better and although there is some scar tissue visible on his eye, he can see out of it perfectly clear!!



It just sickens me to think anyone could do that to any animal. Surely it takes as much effort to drive a cat to a sanctuary as it does to take them to a dump where they know they will die. It's the same feeling i get when i hear of people raised on farms where drowning kittens or puppies was just a run of the mill task. Any human capable of killing an animal in that way is more than capable of killing another human being in my opinion. To take the life of another living thing is intense, especially domesticated creatures who put so much trust into us.

I'm just glad this little man is safe with us now and although he hasn't been introduced to his big sister just yet, i think she'll be just fine with him. We've had to keep him in quarantine until he's fully over the flu, but we should be letting them meet properly in a bout a week! Betsey knows there's something going in but isn;t quite sure what and when she has seen him in passing she's curious but not angry or aggressive! 

The evolution of Elvis has been hard work, but rewarding and long may it continue!!

Friday 6 May 2011

Easter brings chocolate and picnics...

Easter has always been a traditional family time for us and i was so excited to not only have a few days off, but manage to blag a whole week with the help of a royal wedding and clustered bank holidays (the only thing i will ever be grateful to the royal family for i suspect...)

So this year was even better! On Easter Monday the whole clan went to a place called Peatlands Park in Dungannon. It's a relatively unknown little spot but is brilliant for family times because it has so much greenery, forest walks, picnic tables, a pond with ducks to feed and more importantly a little train that takes you on a tour around the park. Not one of those trains designed into tricking kids they're off on an adventure, this is a proper little train that goes for a good long while and has lots of interesting facts and beautiful scenery to travel through!

We started off with our picnic which i was probably a little too eager for, mainly because it gave me the chance to show off my very cute picnic basket. I bought it a good few years ago, but my Dad is chief food provider on family outings and never normally asks us to bring anything, so i never got a chance to use it before. However husband and I are both vegetarians and can sometimes be left with not much choice in the food he brings so we thought we would bring our own, which also included the excessive amount of fruit we both eat on a daily basis!

This is my hamper in all its pink glory! it originally came with plastic cups, plates etc, but i replaced them with vintage style blue melamine ones and bought hot pink plastic cutlery that were designed with a retro feel.



This is my famous couscous salad! Nothing hugely special about it, but the combination of flavours makes it really tasty and the addition of a little balsamic vinegar and side serving of  homous with pre-toasted wholemeal pitta bread makes it a firm favourite at every dining occasion!


After our food we got an ice-cream, (naturally) and headed to the train station! My 2 nephews were with us, Ethan (4) and Caleb (2 months). We really have been spoiled with 2 such well behaved little dudes and I'm sure when we get round to popping out some babies they will be a nightmare in comparison. Plus my sister takes pride in pointing out that she makes very cute children, and by jove shes right, they are gorgeous (no bias honest!). 




The train is so much fun and Ethan is obsessed with all things locomotive so he had a blast. He says his Uncle Mark is his best friend, so they were stuck together like glue all day. I enjoy nothing more than watching the 2 of them play together, or Mark trying to teach Ethan all about transformers, or the best way to combine lego. It does make me broody, if I'm honest...and then i remember my sisters tales of child birth and the moment passes...quickly!




 This is my favourite picture from the day. Just us and our favourite little man!






Ethan didn't want to get off the train as you can see from the picture up there! But we had cricket to play and ducks to feed so we had to go! It was such a sunny day i had to take the opportunity to take some pictures of the blossom on the tree. Pink is my favourite colour so to have beautiful apple blossom trees every you go this time if year makes me a very happy girl indeed. 










We headed to a little farm near by for some more animal feeding and then with an exhausted 4 year old we headed home. I LOVE spending time with my family, especially when i feel like I'm not cramming in time to spend with them, like i do every Saturday, which is the only time i ever get to see them really. There are a few more bank holidays coming up in July (in Northern Ireland) so hopefully we can fit in a trip to the seaside to show little Caleb the sandy shores of Portrush!


or to me and Mark thanks!



Lovely, lovely times were had.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Age Rage...

A friend and I started up a little cupcake company a while ago called Ani & Lulu's,  taking personal orders, birthdays weddings and all manor of events where cake is required (which if you ask me, every day is a cake day!).  We do a lot of festivals too, but we get a lot of orders via word of mouth or referrals from people who've tasted our lovely cakes and want more more more! 


Recently a friend of my mums asked me to make some cupcakes for her daughters 18th birthday. I also volunteer for a kids club and the birthday girl used to attend when she was about 6-10 years old so hearing she was turning 18 made me feel ancient! Nothing makes you feel old like seeing someone you used to think of as a child in drunken pictures on Facebook or hearing they've graduated from Uni, sometimes from a course you never thought they would be able to comprehend or with a better result than you got!








It got me thinking about my age. I'm 27 now and turning 28 in November which absolutely terrifies me. I know it isn't that old technically, but maybe because I've been with my husband since I was 17, moved out of my parents house pretty much as soon as I hit 18 and I've had a job since I was 13 i feel a lot older than i should. I guess I've just generally been a little more grown up than i should be all my life, not necessarily maturity-wise, just in that I've taken on responsibilities most people leave until a little later on in life, like rent, relationships, budgeting money to be able to buy food, volunteering for activities, getting married fairly young and buying a house fairly young. I don't regret any of the choices I've made in my life, but man do i feel like an old lady! It probably doesn't help that most of my friends are younger than me, my best friend is only 23 and she thinks that's old!


Once you get married people tend to expect you to get preggo and pop pit sprogs right away. The fact of the matter is we never had that plan. We got engaged when I was 17, i doubt anyone thought we would be together this long, we got married when I was 23 even though i would have married him the week i met him, but winning over the folks and having all the family present for the wedding I'd always dreamed of was the best idea ever because my wedding day was literally the happiest day of my life, all cliches aside! We always agreed we would be married and enjoy being with each other for a while before having kids, but now I'm approaching 30 and hubby is 6 years older than me, it sort of limits the time we have to start planning our family, because although i want to wait to have little ones, i also want to be young enough to enjoy it!


Ah the perils of the aging process, and the most ridiculous part is there's nothing you can do to pause time, even just for a little while. I've been joking about not celebrating my birthday this year, but maybe instead I'll celebrate all the things i have done up to this age and learn to relax more because I've already achieved quite a lot so far!

Wednesday 23 March 2011

New Love...

I had a little free time before work today and was on the hunt for a new eyeliner, so popped into Boots in the Shopping centre near the Studio. How was i to know i would meet my soul mate...



A beautiful shade of browny/gray/dark nude nail varnish by the wonderful Bourjois!
I love bourjois make up, especially the nail varnishes with the big thick brush. I'm a lazy, impatient nail painter so to find one with a bigger brush that dries in 1 second in a scrummy colour = DREAM!


Looks delicious on and no chipping for agggges! Ah how little amuses the simple innocent!


Monday 21 March 2011

Button-Fest

I admit it...I have an addiction...an addiction to...BUTTONS!



I have sought no help for this condition until now when i found myself buying lots (both auction and plural) of buttons on eBay and charity shops! I love a good old traditional button, 2 -4 holes round and brightly coloured, but i also love the funny little buttons like animal shapes and funny printed ones too. Nothing beats an over-sized button to be honest. I used to work in New Poo Look back in the days when it still smelt a little like wee, and when an opportunity arose to nab a few free buttons from clothes for sale, I was there. One day I was caught in the act with a particularly massive shiny red button. This was when I met a fellow button lover, and now good friend who, still to this day, remains in my phone contact list as "Button Twin". She didn't judge, she simply asked for one too and I love her for this.

I love when you have an odd habit or fascination and you find someone of equal oddness to share it with. It's like finding a long lost relative or realising there's much more to a person than you first thought because they have a curious obsession with some oddity. Come to think of it I share at least one quirk with each of my friends, perhaps this is a good thing, it makes me more selective!

My latest horde includes a number of new favourites; a pink lace heart with tea party written inside complete with tea cup and sugar jar buttons to accompany, some glittery flowers and lipstick pouts, a few beautiful nautical numbers in shiny gold and blue, some retro roller boots in a few different colours, a few different animals ones, but i adore the Meow button with the fancy lettering and the texture is almost a matt pearl, i don't know how to describe it exactly! Almost like a really smooth, wave battered pebble you find on the beach, lovely! What could be better than combining buttons and cats?!



It's a silly addiction to have seeing as I hardly ever use them to adorn clothes for fear of losing them, which again is a bit of an irrational fear seeing as i can count with the fingers on one hand how many buttons i have lost in a lifetime! However i was at a vintage fair just before Christmas selling cupcakes and came across a wonderful jewellery and accessory maker, Peggy Button. I have searched the internet and can only find a facebook page for her, but i think she only does it as a hobby so no website as yet! She made the cutest earrings, necklaces, hair bands, hair clips and brooches from old buttons and ribbons and i pretty much spent all the money i had made that day on her offerings! I got my dad some cuff-links she'd made from old 20p pieces too which were awesome. He loves things that he can tell a story about, like the pencil he bought that was made from recycled northern bank notes from the time millions were robbed from it and they had to change all the bank notes. I have inherited this quality among many others from him and this makes me happy.

So back to buttons then. I love the look, feel and usefulness of them, now to get cracking on making something out of them...

Sunday 13 March 2011

Why call people by their given name, when you can create your own...

Amongst my friends, we have a habit of naming people after things that remind us of them. For example a cute guy we used to ogle in college who had a tendency to wear jumpers with stripes was renamed the very inventive "stripy jumper". When we lived in england there was an old man who looked a bit like the living dead so he was renamed Mr Dead, you can see the pattern!


We do the same with animals so currently in our street we have a cat who rips open peoples rubbish and eats the contents, even though whenever i see him he always seems to have found a cheeseburger, thus he has been christened McFatty, there is a very long legged cat who we call Tall Cat and last but by no means least we have a fluffy tabby who looks identical to a cat husband had called Flea, so he is called Fake Flea!


The best cat on our street is a male tabby who is very chubby and has the oddest miaow i have ever heard, but he has the most sarcastic look on his face and he will stare you down, there's no question of that. We've just discovered he is Betsey's boyfriend when we caught her this morning cooing at him through the kitchen door. I don't know what she sees in him though because to me it feels like he's always judging me...perhaps this is a result of my own paranoia, but i took a picture just to make sure, but i had to take it from the bedroom window because he's a bit of a judge and run kitty...

Garden Fever...

Ever since the sun started to rear its head a few weeks ago, we've been talking about what to do with our garden this year! We moved into our house 2 Octobers ago and were probably a little late with getting around to gardening last summer. We've never had our own garden before so this year we plan to research, plant and maintain throughout the summer months (fingers crossed we get some months that qualify for "summer").


The girl who owned our house before us had a keen interest in gardening based on the sheer amount of bulbs we pulled out of the front and back garden last year. Thinking about it now we weren't sure why we dug up all the bulbs, but at the time it made sense. I suppose it has a lot to do with wanting to put your own stamp on your new home, marking your territory in a weird way!


She had lots of basic plants like daffodils and a few rose bushes, but the one thing she left behind which she didnt intend to was our beautiful Willow tree. I remember the last time i came to see the house before we were due to move in she had said she would be taking it with her if she could, but on moving day we were greeted by it in all its pastel green goodness!


Husband isn't so keen because our garden is on a bit of an upwards slope and the tree has started to impose on the shed that was plonked at the top of the garden. This too was left behind and isnt in a great state, but its handy enough for storing our garden furniture in the Winter. I love how unusual the Willow tree is and how delicate and almost feminine it is. I love nothing more than looking our our bedroom window on a sunny morning and seeing Betsey resting in the shadow of the Willow.


This year we're going to get stuck into the garden early Spring, rectifying all the mistakes we made last year and planning what we want to plant and where. When we started looking for our house the only 2 prerequisites were that we needed 3 bedrooms (for the copious amounts of "stuff" we have, i married a fellow hoarder) and the house must have a garden. Having your own little patch of green in a very grey city makes our miserable Summers that little bit more bearable. Being able to have a spontaneous barbeque or even just a nice glass of Pimms on the decking is such a breezy way to de-stress from the work day you've just had.


Our house is a mish mash of styles, but I'm pretty clear on how i want my garden to be. We're lucky to have a little decking area for our table and chairs and somewhere to have the barbeque itself! Towards the end of the summer i bought a fire pit because although it may be sunny it is never warm enough to sit out all night without freezing to death! We didn't get to try it out last year so fingers crossed for this year! At some point i want to have all the family over for a lovely summer garden party. i love being the hostess, making cocktails, finger food and desserts. New years has now become a tradition at our house, but a summer addition to the party rota is definitely needed!


I've been looking for some inspiration on the garden style front and found some cute themes and ideas. We already have some floral plant pots and wooden furniture. i desperately wanted some vintage style white metal furniture but everywhere seemed to be so expensive we settled for a dark wood, which i reckon with some  nagging negotiating, i could convince husband to paint it white! Judging from the rest of our home i have developed a strange obsession with white furniture as my latest purchase was a beautiful white trunk for the living room.


The dream is for French style white furniture, bunting, floral plant pots, old barrels and metal basins, lavender, heather and sweet-pea, beautiful cottage pinks (they smell like sweet cinnamon, yum!), pitchers of iced tea or Pimms and lemonade, freshly baked scones with no raisins in sight, candles in little lanterns, toasting marshmallows over the fire pit and good times with friends and family...all we need now is the sun!