Hi! and thank you so much for coming back to the blog, I hope you’ve been enjoyed the monthly round ups so far? I’ve decided to pick at least 3 happy play times from each month and 3 highlights for work related bits - it seems like a nice balance and keeps me from waffling on and on and on and on… so before I get carried away with pre-waffle let’s move on shall we?

Play time

hello Norway

Shortly after my trip to Amsterdam (like 3 days after) I buggered off on another holiday! This time to one of my favourite countries, Norway for The Beard’s birthday We did a Summer trip on the South coast last time we visited, which was brilliant but this time we were aiming for snow and a long awaited skiing/snowboarding jolly!

Norway is a rather pricey holiday destination but Will’s Dad lives over there so we are very lucky to have places to stay when we visit. This time we flew out to Bergen for a few nights before heading off into the mountains to meet Will’s Dad in Røldal.

Bergen is a STUNNING place and the Bryggen, where we were staying blew me away! Bergen is mostly known for being rather rainy but during our three days there we had nothing but blazing sunshine - something we hadn’t packed very well for considering this was going to be a ski trip!

We had a brilliant time exploring the city, visiting the otters at the Aquarium, eating Sommerboller every day (oops!) and riding the Fløibanen funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen for some hiking around the lakes and hills up there. We also hiked the 15km Vidden Trail from Mt Fløyen to Mt Ulriken one of the days we were there and it was a beautiful trail - the steps down at from Ulriken were killer though!

Oh and the sunset views from the top of Mount Fløyen were pretty incredible too. Three days just wasn’t enough in this amazing city and I’m already trying to work out when we can return!

After our lovely, sunny days in Bergen we drove our little hire car through the winding roads and across the fjords (by ferry) and on to Rødal where we met Will’s Dad. We had a little apartment in the ‘Skisenter’ there, which is essentially just a small number of ski lifts and a cafe half way up the main set of runs. It’s pretty small, it was really quiet and it was the PERFECT place for me to learn to ski!

I’ve alway been ‘Team Tray’ after learning to snowboard during sixth form college, and have only ever been on a board in my few and far between snow holidays. Will however, is a keen and rather good skier so this time I decided I’d put my trust in him and his patience and learn something new!

After several snot-filled, hissy fits and tantrums (mainly through frustration of not being able to pick myself up!), I finally got the hang of wobbling my way down the smaller slopes and had a great time! 3 days skiing wasn’t really enough to be able to say I’m now a competent skier but I’d happily give it another bash if I had to - I do still prefer boarding though!

family time in Nottingham

With all my galavanting towards the end of March this year, I ended up missing Mother’s Day (bad daughter!) but to make up for it I planned a cheeky day trip to Nottingham just to spend time with my Mum, little Sister and two nieces.

We had a lovely day, wandering around Beeston to collect picnic snacks (soo many snacks!) before walking to Wollaton Park to sit in the sun. We chatted, wandered, ate ice cream, fed squirrels and climbed trees. It was such a nice sunny day and so nice to spend time together.

We didn’t leave Daddy Sunshine out though and finished off the day, spending time together back at Chez Want! Spending time with my family always puts the biggest smile on my face and I’m so happy I can take these mini jaunts back home to catch up regularly!

Wild camping in Wales

Over Easter weekend we had planned a trip to catch up with our ‘Wedding Twins’ and we all decided we’d head to Wales for some wild camping and hiking fun. We met at Kings Youth Hostel in Dolgellau for the night before we set out in the morning to start our hike.

We carried our tents and backpacks over 30 miles over the weekend and the sun was blazing the whole time. The views and company made the blisters and tired feet well worth it though and my god did I sleep well each night. Not to mention waking up to views like this from our tent…

The route our friends planned was fantastic, we were around Cadre Idris but not on any the tourist tracks so we pretty much avoided people altogether - my favourite kind of hiking! It was crazy really, considering that same weekend hundreds of people had been queuing to get to the top of Snowdon! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47997270

The last day was definitely the toughest, with so many ups and downs, blisters on blisters and one path that was definitely not a path on the side of a rather steep hill. But it was also full of cracking views, laughs a plenty and a couple of interesting moments… trying to reunite a sheep with it’s baby and filtering spring water that tasted oddly botanical for instance (I guess you had to be there to experience the hysteria!)

I love these camping adventures, whether we’re in a proper campsite or camping wild somewhere, you can’t beat long walks with good friends in the fresh air!

Work time

Even though I said I’d pick three work highlights at the start of writing this post I soon realised that actually… that was going to be pretty tough considering I spent most of April out of the studio on numerous trips. Oops! BUT I did do some work, honest!

custom kitties

I had the pleasure of painting up two GORGEOUS kitties, one for a wedding and one as a replacement pin for a lovely customer who sadly lost one I made her a little while back.

I’m happy to report that both human and fur baby were delighted with the replacement pin and when I got the photo below of Yuli’s special Oscar pin on their wedding day my heart did a summersault!

sunshine sale

I had a big ol’ Spring clean of stock over April and had a cheeky little sale in my shop. Lots of pin seconds were sorted out and some extra special Sunshine boxes, which are like big Lucky Dip bags (but in boxes!) and contain over £60 worth of Sunshine for just £25.

I love making up the Sunshine boxes (Pegs likes to help too!) and it’s always nice to see whether the ‘NICE’ boxes or the ‘NAUGHTY’ ones sell best. Often it’s quite even and they sell out at similar rates but each time I wonder if one will win!

playing catch up

Whilst I was in Norway I actually broke my phone (D’oh!) so during most of April I was limited to what I was snapping and sharing with you all. With the whole ‘being out of the studio’ thing too, it meant that there was generally just a lot of boring admin, catching up and planning going on here.

Still, it meant plenty of opportunities to sit down with a brew, making lists and organising my dairy/bullet journal; which often makes me smile when I’m facing so much paperwork type stuff!

There were plenty of other things going on between all of the above, including some of my besties coming to visit for the day, wholesale orders being packed, physio sessions, organising portraits for a wedding and preparing for May’s In Colourful Company x Cambridge Creatives colour walk! As you can imagine, April felt like it was over in a flash but it’s so nice to take some time to look back and appreciate everything I did and everyone I spent time with.

I’d like to say May will be a little slower but with birthday trips, anniversary adventures and plenty of exciting work projects on the go, I think you’ll be in for another jam-packed update next month too!

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