Our Day by Design

Better late than never I wanted to do a quick recap of last year, just like I did for both 2010 & 2011 . If nothing else it reminds me of all the events I haven't written about yet! We had a fantastic 2012 with the arrival of our gorgeous son Holden. It's also been a busy year including Holden's first big trip!   January My niece Willow was born in Australia! I started my maternity leave . February Holden was born.     March Holden: One Month We celebrated my first Mothers Day. April Holden: Two Months We celebrated our 2nd Anniversary & Holden's 1st Easter. May Holden: Three Months My blog turned 3. June Holden: Four Months It was Grahams birthday on his first Fathers Day. I had a night away at Lucy's hen do, which started with laser quest! July Holden: Five Months My sister and family arrived for 6 weeks and we enjoyed lots of time together including a trip to the zoo. I was a Bridesmaid at Lucy...

Despite saying last year that I wasn't sure 2011 would come anywhere close to the fabulous 2010 we had, have as much excitement in it or that we would manage four holidays again, I think we did pretty well! January I carried on with my honeymoon recaps . February I met some of the blog girls and went to London for my br other-in-laws 30th. March I finally finished my recaps & all wedding related posts! We had lunch at La Potiniere . April We visited both Bratislava & Vienna .     While there, we celebrated our 1st   anniversary ! Followed by dinner at The Kitchin  when we returned home. I also went to a Hollywood Hen do! May We attended a weekend wedding celebration in Perthshire. We made a Travel Map with our paper anniversary gift. My blog turned 2 . We discovered I was pregnant just a few weeks after finding out my sister was too! June We went to Marrakech for a week where Gra ham tu...

My niece has now arrived over in Oz! My sister Ashleigh had their baby girl called Willow at 8.22pm yesterday, weighing 7lb 14oz & 51cm long. I'm so excited to hear about the new arrival and delighted for her and her husband Patrick, as well as new big brother Enzo. I'm just sorry we wont get to actually meet her and introduce her to her new cousin until next summer. Congratulations Mummy, Daddy & big brother Enzo! My parents are still over in Australia until next weekend so they will get to spend some time with the new baby before they come home. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing them all on skype this weekend.

We had a fantastic trip down to London last weekend to visit my sister Ashleigh, her fiance Patrick and nephew Enzo. We hadn't seen them since the day after the wedding and hadn't been to their new flat yet so thought we were due a visit, especially since Enzo is growing every day! Me, Enzo & Ashleigh We arrived late Friday night and caught up with all their news over a few drinks. We told them all about our honeymoon then they were able to tell us about their wedding plans. They are hoping to get married in Gozo next summer and they are going to Malta next week to look at some venues. So exciting we have another wedding to look forward too and Ashleigh asked me to be her bridesmaid too, which I am so excited about; another fabulous wedding next year! So with plans starting to take shape, Ashleigh booked some dress shop appointments for Saturday, since I was going to be there. We started at Tantrums & Tiaras in Putney before meeting the boys for lunch by the river ...

I had a lovely 4 days in London last weekend with my sister Ashleigh, her fiance Patrick and my new nephew Enzo. I was able to visit them in hospital on Friday and help them bring Enzo home which was wonderful to be part of and I got to be chief photographer for the day! My Mum & Dad came down for Saturday & Sunday so I was able to go and stay with them on Saturday night to give the new family some peace and I also made the trip out to Kent to visit my friend Angela, her husband Dave and their baby Jack. There will be a further post to follow, but until I get a chance to write it, and get mummy's permission to post some pictures, here are the fabulous balloons {if I do say so myself} that I got for baby Enzo. How cool is the blue zebra! Can you tell I'm easily amused by helium balloons!

I made baby boy & baby girl cards for all the people that were having babies! I made 2 of each hoping that would cover the 3 arrivals {which I did so now I have a girl one spare!} I sent one to Angela once Jack had arrived, and gave one to Lucy when Emily arrived, but didn't want to share them until Ashleigh had her baby and she had seen her card too. I originally got the idea from this card from Hero Arts , which is where I found the Baby Girl & Baby Boy clear stamp sets I used, as I really liked the announcement bit you fill in. As you can see I just changed the colours and type of ribbon, used cute baby buttons instead of the pearls, added they baby girl / baby boy stamp to the top then I filled in the sections and added the actual babies names at the top. For Jack & Emily's cards, I stamped their first & middle name onto the blank white section at the top, but unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture when they were completed. For Enzo's card...

My nephew has now arrived! Can you tell I'm just a little bit excited! My sister Ashleigh had a baby boy called Enzo at 3.12am this morning, weighing 6lb 14oz & 53cm long. I'm so so so happy and delighted for her and her fiance Patrick and can't wait to visit the new family and see how they are all doing. Congratulations Mummy and Daddy! I'm flying down to London after work tonight for a long weekend until Monday which is going to be lovely and Granny & Grandad are also coming down on Saturday to see the new arrival. I should get to see mummy & baby tomorrow. I'm also going to pop out to Kent at some point to see my friend Angela & her new baby Jack, who is almost 8 weeks old already! So its going to be a full weekend of babies & family. p.s I'm so glad my 101st post could be about the new arrival!

As you know, my sister Ashleigh is pregnant. She was due last Wednesday {9th September} and there is no sign of my niece or nephew yet! Hopefully there will be some news soon; I'm so excited about being an auntie and cant wait to meet the new arrival when I go down next Thursday. I'm sure mummy {& daddy} to be cant wait either! Mum & Dad are going to see them this Friday and I know they are hoping they will be grandparents by then! It was also Ashleigh's birthday yesterday so at least she got to enjoy her day. I made her a card but don't want to share it until she receives it {stupid postal strikes in London!}

Yesterday we went for lunch at our reception venue with two of my bridesmaids, Helen & Lucy, as well as their fiance's and Lucy's new baby Emily. L-R: Nick, Helen, Emily, Lucy, Sam & Me The food was lovely as usual and was great to all spend the day together. Lucy & Helen had not seen the house so they were also able to take a look at the ballroom. We were also able to take a look at one of the accessible bedrooms so we could make sure it will be suitable for my aunt.

Yesterday morning we went to the wedding open day at our reception venue . They hold them a couple of times a year when they allow people to come and look at the rooms set up for either an actual ceremony or wedding breakfast, depending on what is taking place that day. It wasn't like a wedding fair when there are suppliers and examples of layouts etc but you saw the actual wedding preparations. Obviously you aren't able to wander round the tables when the staff / florists are laying stuff out but you are able to look from the open doors at the end. They did let me take a couple of pictures of the ballroom we are having our reception in {since we had already booked the venue}, just so we could remember how many tables they had set up. The wedding below was set for 112 people which is more than we will have and I was relieved to see it didn't look cramped at all and at the same time, no table seemed to be too far away from the top table in the centre. They had 9 guest tables...