Alice's Wonderland

For my birthday last year I received lots of lovely gifts from my friend Alice.

Throughout our time at school I was in awe of the way she could find fantastic bargains, and her knowledge of everything beautiful and lovely.

Whenever we began a new art project she would bring me endless magazine clippings of things to place in my research file. Especially when I did my 60's project, Half the images in that book came from Alice's personal magazine collection! I will always be grateful for all her help <3

Last year on the first of June I excitedly opened up a parcel that I had received through the post. I found a gorgeous seletion of gifts, a beautiful notebook "For all the Secrets" She had written.

A Dawson's Creek diary, which was just amazing.

I think we are the only two people that understand each others love of this show!

Along with a few other surprises - including some lip-gloss with Ariel the mermaid on (amazing right?) came a selection of magazine clippings and pages.

These really excited me! She had included the following pages, which I can never get enough of.

In college she had first shown me these, images of Ann Shore's home. I instantly fell in love!

I think her house is so beautiful!

Along with these were many more pages, some to indulge my guilty pleasure of reading about Katie Price!

I think Alice knows my love of things better then anyone, we seem to have very similar interests. This includes our love of Jacqueline Wilson's writing, which we believe we can never get to old for no matter how many birthdays pass <3

xxx

Tough Love

I thought I would post a little Millie update as it's been a while and a lot has happened!

Out next trip to the vet confirmed our fears that the operation hadn't gone as we had hoped, the grape size lump turned out to be filled with nasty things. The vet decided to take out the stitches and sort her out leaving an open wound.

We went back two days later to have this cleaned, and fingers crossed she is good again! The vet didn't end up even having to clean it as it had scabbed over and begun to heal nicely. We are having to bandage her foot in the mean time so she can't scratch!

Today we were changing the bandage which proved impossible, she didn't like us for it and would not hold still! We eventually got a bandage on although not as well as I would have liked due to the wriggling! We decided to try re-doing it in half an hour after she had calmed down a bit. 

Sure enough in that time she had managed to bite it off and scratch part of the scab, making herself bleed. Eventually we got a bandage back on but she didn't like us for it... That has to be the worst part of pet ownership. I hate having to do these things!

She is back to her old self now though, jumping around all over the place a squeaking for food every time she hears the fridge door or the rustling of a food bag!

She has become quite affectionate, often licking and gently nibbling when she is happy. But as I discovered the other day, do not let her do this after you have been handling her food - she may mistake you for it!

My birthday treats have been arriving all week and the majority of these are Millie orientated!

So expect a Millie filled birthday post!

xxx

You got me addicted

Ok so now my degree is coming to an end I am VERY much looking forward to some time to relax! Despite my love of all things creative scrap-booking/reading/writing/ my main past time is releasing the inner geek.

I don't see many lifestyle blogs include game reviews etc and was wondering if anyone else has an interest in this?? I know it's not something many people talk about but I have a few followers who I know for a fact geek like me!! So I thought I would do a post about my most played game of all time THE SIMS.

Right from the original I have been hooked, setting my alarm for 5am to get up and play without my mum telling me my hourly time slot was up! (Yes I actually did this, sneaking back to bed at 6.30 so she would be none the wiser!) When she introduced the hour a day rule me and my brothers would fight over who got the first turn... luckily this rule did not last for very long!

During my time at school me and a friend were talking about play-station game Vice City, a game my mum soon confiscated from our household. We were talking about being girl gamers and how we played these games, I must admit I was one for stealing cars and money, but she told me she used to buy a tractor and drive up to the hills armed with her camera to photograph the sheep. Excellent! As soon as we found the game I told my brothers whenever Mum enters the room simply play the game a different way and she will never know! Of course this did not work. (My brother left the game case in plain view...) However I found my friends story quite hilarious at the time!

My favourite Sims game has to be the Unleashed and Seasons expansion for Sims 1 and 2. After playing the game my usual way, creating long and complicated family trees and focusing on career tracks it is always refreshing to add a new expansion.

During the first Sims when Unleashed came out I played a pre-created house and character, an elderly lady living in a tiny cottage. She had a veg patch in her garden and had a gypsy-ish look about her. I adopted two pet cats, which soon produced a litter making them four. I had a lot of fun making her as self sufficient as possible and training her cats, who soon became loved companions.

It was the same when the seasons expansion came out for Sims 2. The focus on gardening and the garden club was a great new addition.

When apartments came out I was THRILLED to discover a trailer park! In no time I made a gypsy community, with a large veg patch and outdoor fire-pit. They spent many nights roasting marshmallows, stargazing and sharing tales around it. I had never had more fun playing the game!

The Sims 3 has yet to provide me with the same entertainment although I have really been enjoying the game, some of the expansions were a let down. I HATE world adventures. The previous holiday sets have been my next most loved expansions and this game just doesn't cut it! The glitches erasing some of my game slots have driven me crazy, but John won't let me install the Sims 2 and 3 at the same time! So for now I will continue my Sims 3 story and hope that the expansions improve!

xxx

Degree Show Time

Ahh! Tommorrow is the day I start to display all my final pieces! Fingers Crossed it turns out ok! Here are a few of my early samples for my collection:









A lot of this is hand stitched, I really don't want to sew again for a few months...!
Good luck to all the textile crafters out there!
xxx

Stylish Blogger Award

Eeee! Never when I started to blog did I imagine I would get one of these! My lovely friend Erin Jo awarded me with the Stylish Blogger Award! I have discovered some great new blog's through this, and will share the love with a few of my favourites! Thank you Erin Jo!



This award requires you to name seven facts about yourself so here goes...

1. I have a huge addiction to cakes, especially banana, orange, carrot, cinnamon etc... you get the idea <3 I can't resist cake with ice cream!

2. My degree is coming to an end! The hand in for my final major project is the day before my birthday (1st of June!) And tomorrow is the day I hand in all my final pieces! Although I will still be going with presentations and the degree show until July...

3. When I was younger I was a lot more confident and a huge chatterbox, these days I am a little more shy and keep to myself a bit more.

4. I am the proud owner of a little guinea piggie called Millie, I can't stop blogging about her because she is all I think about these days! Today was her fourth trip to the vet in the month we have had her, but I would not swap her for the world! She has helped get me through the most stressful part of my degree and makes the thought of possibly moving home a little easier.

5. Coming to University was the best decision I ever made, I met my man <3 who is everything to me. We have spent the last four years of University living together and I have never been happier!

6. I am secretly a huge geek! I seem to go between 'The Sims' and 'Animal Crossing' depending on my mood. I also love 'Harvest Moon'...

7. One day I want to live in a little fairytale cottage in the country, or near to the sea. Somewhere that is cosy in the winter with a big fireplace! <3

I pass on the Stylish Blogger Award to the following blogs:

Alice from An Alien World
Sarah from A little less disenchanted
Beth from boatshedchic
Claudia from Wish you were here
Sara from Sara Louise Evans

xxx

Wishlist

Does anyone else have trouble buying for their boys??

It was John's birthday last week and I always have such a hard time thinking of gifts! This year I had a brain wave, we are always going to places like Costa and Shake and wishing we could make drinks like they do at home so this year I decided on a smoothie maker as the main gift with a few extra treats. We have had a great time blending pretty much everything in our fridge and seeing how it turns out!



Now it's my turn, my birthday is in June and he has been asking me for idea's! I really have no clue what to ask for. Usually I have a wishlist of items but can't think of anything this year except a large run for Millie (Which seems like more of a present for her then me!) and a cinema date - I am dying to see Water for Elephants.

What items are on your wishlist?

xxx

More like mILLie

Well not only have I been trying to make myself work but I have also had numerous trips to the vets recently, it seems we bought a poorly piggie. :(

Only two weeks to the day of getting Millie she was under the knife having an abscess removed which has been very traumatic! Fingers crossed she will recover well but there is a lot of swelling and bruising at the moment. The stitches look quite nasty too but seem to be healing.

The lump we had removed was the size of a pea, now the swelling is the size of a grape which is very big on such a tiny piggie!

The night after the op John and I set an alarm every 3hrs to re-heat the water bottle she was sleeping on as she was shivering constantly. I didn't realise what I was taking on with this one, and at such a crucial time in my degree! That said I wouldn't give her back for the world I just hope she recovers soon!



xxx

Millie

Well after waiting what seemed like forever John and I finally decided to introduce a little friend to the flat!

We call her Millie <3



She is still a little baby at the moment between 6-8 weeks and has been receiving lots of attention!



xxx