About that trip...

I am feeling so refreshed after our trip to Scotland. I love the new, less grouchy me LOL.
It was fabulous to spend some quality time with my sister because for so many years we didn’t get on...and I mean that in the same way that potassium doesn’t get on with water. We were quite frankly an explosive mix! I won’t go into personal family stuff here out of respect for my family and their privacy, but let’s just say that I wasn’t a happy camper when I lived with my parents. My sister and I did nothing but bicker, but more so than the usual sibling rivalry I’d say. At the time, neither of us could understand the other siblings position and problems were just magnified by the fact that we were twins and everyone would compare us. FYI – if you have twin please (for the love of God) do NOT dress them in the same clothes and make sure they’re in different classes at school, or different schools. There is NOTHING more soul destroying than constantly being compared to your more talented, better looking, more gifted sibling!

Anyway, we both left home a few weeks after our 18th birthday – her to Scotland and I moved to a new county a 3 hour train journey away. I loved freedom and the opportunity to grow up to be who I wanted to be, but sadly my sister and I never did reconcile our differences until years later. Personally I think we’ve both missed out on an important part of each others lives, but we finally got our acts together in our thirties...better late than never.

We have been to Scotland every year since we made up and gradually we have been getting use to each other, although it was still a little like walking on eggshells sometimes. However, this vacation was different. This one was spent making new, happier memories and it was wonderful! There was lots of hugging, crying and poor hubby probably thought we’d gone mad at times, but it wasn’t strained at all and I really didn’t want to leave!

I’ll share some pics at the weekend :)

Sill on vacay - but here's some pics

Just posted a couple of pics on Facebook...more later :)

And we're off!

Suitcases packed...check
Cat sorted...check
Hotel booked...check
House sitter sorted...check

Well it looks like we're finally ready for our trip to Scotland! Remember this is our annual trip to see my sister? She lives about 6-7 hours away near Stirling - and is lucky enough to live nestled in rolling hills and beautiful fields. See here - this was taken on our last trip. Beautiful isn't it?

The eagled eyed among you will have noticed the Wallace monument on the top of the hill...well worth a trip if you're ever in the area, as is Stirling Castle.

Anyway, onto other things as we're only at Stirling for 2 days...we're actually staying near Loch Lomond...another beautiful place. This one was taken on last year's trip. Hard to deny that God produces the most beautiful handiwork isn't it?

So anyway, once I get back from this trip I'll be super busy as I'll be re-starting the blog designs, albeit with different conditions and in reduced numbers. I just can't keep up with the number of makeovers that I was doing in the past, but in some ways that's good - instead of getting a production line kind of layout, customers will be getting one that I've taken my time with and produced something that truly fits the individual and their needs. Quality over quantity I always say :)

May 11th is going to be a scary day for me too (in terms of commitments at least). A Masters has been on the cards for some time now, since I graduated with my last degree anyway. However I've been kind of non committal about the whole thing. I've wanted to study but been enjoying the designing too much, but basically I can't get out if it any longer! On11th May work are sending me to meet with tutors of a Masters course at university. Eeeeek! Places are very competitive so I'm not holding my breath, but if I do get on, then the designing is going to have to be confined to vacations :(   Will cross that bridge if/when it comes to it. It's just scary thinking about how to free up the time and the finances to do it. It's not like work contribute much in terms of either of those and yet they reap the benefits....which kind of makes me wonder why they have so much leverage over me doing the course really. Once I'm finished I'll have about another £10K on top of my current £30K student loan....maybe that's the scary bit! You younger ones out there make sure you go to uni when Bank of Mum & Dad are paying for you cos it's sure expensive when you're paying for it yourself! LOL.

Ok well I'll see you all in a week!

Garden fun!

Today was a fun day, it was our annual seeding of the patio planters LOL. I don't know about you but I love fresh salad veggies and I just adore proper home grown foods. Sadly I don't seem to have had much look growing my own veggies since we moved here a few years ago. One year we had too much rain, the next year too much wind and the year after a white fly infestation. I'm hoping for fourth time lucky!

So I bought these 2 cute planters for the patio and I've filled one with stripey tomatoes (tiger tomatoes), golden pearl tomatoes and marmande tomoatoes. The other one I've filled with little gem lettuce and mixed chilli peppers. This is about the sixth year I've grown chillies and only 1 year were they successful...not a great track record, but I'm optimistic that this year will give me a good crop. Wouldn't it be great if we got so many we could feed the neighbours too? I won't hold my breath for that one perhaps :)

new planter

I've also bought a chilli pepper plant too, so that I can have fresh chillies while I'm waiting for my new ones to grow. Just look at those juicy fruits!

I'm not sure you can see the tiny white flower on there, but those flowers eventually die and then the chilli grows from the centre of the flower. Good eh?

I also got some herbs for the kitchen and these cute delicate flowers for the wall along the front of the garden. I just hope the neighbourhood kids don't pull all the flower heads off!

 Oh and look, I even made a new friend :)

So there you go, this explains my absence in blog land today. I'll keep you updated with my veggie progress :)

Still alive!

Just in case you were wondering, I am still alive! I know I have been strangely absent from this blog recently but I have a really good excuse! Unfortunately it isn't because I've been resting...it's because I've been working harder than ever. I'm working 2 full time jobs at the moment...soon to be 3 (when the blog designs pick up again) so my life has become a juggling act yet again. Really need to sort those priorities out again before I get swamped!

At the moment I'm busy setting up my digiscrapping blog and forum - I'm almost done and should be back shortly :)