Tuesday 13 March 2012

Family First xxx

What a week!! 


Stressful as a description doesn't cut the mustard - its been hard. 


My poor poor Mumma fell ill on tuesday, and it was so scary! 
It turned out that she has had a stroke. :-( Our whole family were absolutely gutted, and so shocked, as it was only 7 months ago that my lovely stepdad also suffered a stroke (weirdly, the same part of their brains were affected in each of their strokes, the part that controls balance.) Thankfully, the hospital were fantastic, and acted very quickly, and have managed to get her home within the week, and she's now resting and taking at least a month off of work & driving. Her side affects from the stroke are pretty horrid - she's very dizzy, and her balance has been affected, so she's a bit wobbly! She says it feels as if she has the hangover from hell! I'm hoping with lots and lots of rest she'll be back to her lovely healthy self as soon as possible. Get Well Mumma! 


Mum being so ill this week has been such an eye opener, and just really makes you re-asses your life, your priorities etc. Things pale into insignificance. And it just made me realise how much I love my mum, how much she does for me, and how awful things would be without that constant love and support in my life. It's pretty apt that its Mother's Day on Sunday... I can spoil her rotten and let her know how much she means to me.


While she was in hospital she remained so upbeat and brave and positive, as she always does, so that we wouldn't worry too much - she was fussing and looking after the poor old ladies on her ward, caring as always, and putting others above herself. She also retained her wicked sense of humour - she sent me a photo message her first night in hospital...it was this...






The message read "shall I steal this for your wedding?" hehehe! Cracked me up! Not quite the beautiful vintage china I've been collecting so far! Haha! :-)


I've realised over the past week just how amazing my family are, each and every one of them have been so amazing, such strong supports, and full of so much love for my mum, for me, my sister, brother and stepdad. While mum was in hospital she had to have her own room just for visitors, one night there were 16 of us!! We have a big family, and mum has a lot of good friends - seeing them all in one room like that, all there out of love and concern really gave me such a warm feeling. I can't imagine living in a world where you have nobody, it must be so terrible. I am so thankful for each and every one of my family, and all my wonderful friends. What would life be like without such beautiful people around?


A country walk...


On Sunday, I decided I needed to get out for a little while, as we'd been in and out of the hospital for days, and I felt like i needed some air and exercise, so i dragged Liam and my little brother out for a walk in the countryside. We walked for 3 miles, through fields, woods, over streams and up hills, and although by the end my back was killing me, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it really perked me up after such a mad and draining few days. 


Me on the walk! :-)

Countryside loveliness

a very sweet dog we met while we were walking

Vintage Loveliness with Lovely Liz

Its been so mad I've not had the time to blog about my lovely vintage shopping day with my friend Liz. A few saturdays ago we ventured over to Milton Keynes for a 100-stall Vintage Fair, and it was amazing! We literally shopped until we dropped, and we hurt sooo much by the end! I spent over £60, and got lots more beautiful china, teapots and bits and pieces for the wedding. :-) We indulged ourselves beforehand with a glorious lunch of tea and cake at the beautiful Fancy in Bedford, it was my first visit to the gorgeous tea-shop, and it will definitely be the first of MANY visits. The cake was delicious, as was the tea, the decor and the lovely company! Thanks Liz! :-)

My vintage purchases! :-)


Chocolate-making....

I've been wanting to start chocolate-making at home for a while, and have been picking up moulds, glitter and cellophane bags over the past few weeks so that I can get going. 

I made my first batch last night, for my lovely friend Lola's birthday (today!) and I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. I used a heart shaped mould, melted white chocolate and put a hazelnut in the centre of each. Then I dusted each one with some very girlie pink edible glitter, all wrapped up in a bag with some lovely pink ribbon! :-) I found it very therapeutic and satisfying - a fun and easy thing to do, very yummy bowls to scrape after, and a lovely gift for someone as the end product = win/win situation. 

My finished choccies!

Ta'dah! 

I've been doing some more chocolate-based creating tonight, but the finished products are in the fridge, so pictures to follow later this week. :-)


The Working Week...

So, after the stresses and strains of last week, and with my back still giving me a lot of pain, I'm finding this week hard work. 

I literally cannot believe its only Tuesday! INSANE! Some weeks seem to last a lifetime, and some just race by! 

Pain is one of those niggly things that makes everything seem a bit worse, drags everything out and makes normal things so much harder. It's also stopping me from doing things I really want to do, like my lovely sewing course with Janet over at Kitchen Table Sewing (http://www.kitchentablesewing.blogspot.com/), and using my new cross-trainer. :-( Am hoping with some more physio, and maybe some rest (at some point...!!) my back will begin to mend. At the moment that seems like a long-shot. 

I'm hoping the rest of the week will go quickly, so as I can get to a lovely weekend with my family back in Surrey. My evenings for the rest of the week are filled with all-sorts...I have my first Pilates class tomorrow night (in a bid to help aid my back), a WI meeting on Thursday night, and a physio appointment followed by travelling back home to Surrey on Friday night...so it might just fly by - if I'm lucky! I'm all about living for the weekends at the moment. 

On the way home tonight I called into The Works bookshop in Bedford town centre, and got some WI-based loveliness for £5. Two books, one on preserves (jams, pickles, marmalade etc) and one on breads. :-) I'm a sucker for cookery books, especially on specific subjects I'm not used to tackling - breads is something Liam wants to get into making, so I saw the book and thought instantly of him, and jam-making is something I've never done, but am desperate to try, and for £2.50 per book, who am I to resist!? 

So expect some jam-based blogging in the near future! :-)

one for me :-)

one for Liam :-)

Thats all for now my lovelies! 

Lucy

xxxxxxxxxxx