Our Day by Design

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY ENZO (Image from here ) Its my nephew Enzo's 2nd Birthday today; I cant believe how quickly this last year has gone since he was one and now he has a little sister and a little cousin on the way! We are spending the day at Battersea Children's Zoo in London to celebrate. For his birthday we got him a trunkie for him to take on his travels, a number 2 t-shirt, a Thomas book and a very hungry caterpillar colouring book. He also got an extra present of Winnie the Pooh duplo. We are going to see them again in just 3 weeks when we all go to the Peak District for a week.

I recently made two punch collages to give to my sister for her baby girls nursery. Since they already have the room ready from having my nephew I thought it would be lovely to have something new and girly to add to the walls. I first saw the idea on Ali Edwards blog (not sure how I ended up there in the first place) where she had made a version with a Martha Stewart classic butterfly  punch then a  heart  punch. Since I already have the Martha Stewart 3-in-1 classic butterfly punch I thought it would be a lovely thing to make for our future nursery. Since we hadn't yet found out what we are having, and butterflies are more suited to girls, I decided to make one for my sister first. I thought they would look better as pair or trio so when I was searching for patterned paper pads I liked, I also found an elephant punch , which will work for a girl or a boy. While searching on eBay I also came across a ladybug punch and a seahorse punch ,...

It only took around twenty minutes to go further out of the city to our next hotel. We spent the remaining four nights of the week at the Sirayane Boutique Hotel & Spa .     After being welcomed with mint tea and homemade biscuits, we were shown around the gorgeous hotel before being taken to our room, which was lovely with a massive bathroom.   We had booked one of the 8 rooms with a private terrace, situated in the main building, which I think was a good choice as some of the private garden rooms could be seen from the pool. However, they also looked lovely so I don't think any room would have been a bad choice. The suites with the private pools would be perfect for a honeymoon but were a little more expensive than we wanted to pay.   We spent all of our time there just doing nothing, sunbathing and reading by the pool, relaxing and sleeping. Instead of individual sun loungers the pool was surround by large beds ...

... BOY! I am currently 20+1 weeks {in my 21st week}, just over half way and the baby is apparently almost the size of a banana! W e had our 20 week scan on Friday and all was well, its a boy, and we could see him drinking and moving around touching his knees! I'm growing now as well and have a definite bump, as you can see from the photo below. I think I'm going to try and keep a record from now on. At my last midwife appointment my blood tests had revealed that I'm AB negative which means I'm rhesus negative and will require an anti-D injection at 28 weeks. This is to make sure that if my blood mixes with the baby's, I wont produce any antibodies against it if he is positive, a possibility since we know that Graham is. Apart from that I have still been feeling fine, I have had to buy some more maternity clothes as I was stuck for options when I didn't want to wear work trousers or baggy jeans! We have also received some lovely gifts from my siste...

...I had just arrived in Flagstaff Arizona, off the overnight bus from Las Vegas, the morning of September 11th 2001, which I will remember forever. Its hard to believe it was that long ago. I was 19 and travelling around the states with a friend from home after spending the summer working at a camp in New York state. While we were checking in to our motel we saw the fire coming out of the first tower on the news. No one was sure what happened and we spent the rest of the day just watching the news in disbelief. We watched as the second tower was hit then they both fell before being able to find a phone and email access so we could speak to our family. Remembering all of those who suffered and who lost family, friends and loved ones on that day 10 years ago.

We arrived in Marrakech on Saturday evening, following our afternoon flight direct from Edinburgh. After customs taking forever, and another stamp in my new passport, we found our taxi driver that had been arranged through our riad. He dropped us off at a parking area near to our riad {no cars are allowed within the Medina} then he asked a young boy to direct us to the door. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was literally only five seconds away from where we had been dropped off so there was no real need for a guide, especially when we then had to give him some money for carrying my suitcase! For the first three nights we stayed in the Medina in the Riad Marrabahia . Although it had 8 rooms arranged around the central courtyard with the pool, we were the only guests staying. The room was lovely and had everything we needed. After we had got settled it was quite late so we asked for directions for somewhere to eat and were directed to Kosybar for our first taste of Morocca...