My Instagram life

I sometimes joke with my husband and friends that I'd quite like to live my Instagram life. Its a world were life is pretty, i go to lots of nice places, i craft, i make delicious meals and cakes! It's idyllic!

I am not saying I don't do these thing, I do go to lots of nice places and walks and take pictures of amazing views and pretty things I see, I do like making things and even though I do say so myself I do make delicious meals and cakes!!

But I do make a conscious effort not to put anything that on that would sully my lovely photo feed.

 If I take a picture of somewhere in my house, its sometimes staged, I keep out any clutter, only taking photos of the parts of the house (which is very few) that I am happy with.

When I post pictures of crafts that I do you don't see the constant turmoil of balancing the things I have to do e.g. housework and the things I want to do, how do people do it??  

 It looks to the Instagram follower looking at my photo feed that our house is nice, it seems we live in a lovely area because of the photos that I take of taking the dog for a walk to the country park that's just down at the bottom of our street...sounds beautiful doesn't it....looks beautiful from the photographs, meadows, woods, a stream running through, a wooden bridge, wildlife and birds aplenty.

In real life it is beautiful, but its right next to a council estate (on the other side of the river I might add!!) and the residents who think its a dumping ground and a place to come and enjoy the sun - by all means but then they leave cans and litter lying around and thrown into the stream. It annoys me obviously they like it there because as soon as the sun is out they are there in droves, but they leave their mess as if its not their responsibility to pick it up! It makes me sound like a snob I am a bit I suppose but only because I feel so strongly about it, its a beautiful place which should be enjoyed by all but there are people who just want to spoil that. Anyway rant over.. needless to say I don't have any photos of shopping trolleys or sofas that are dumped in the stream from time to time!

          Not a shopping trolley in sight!!

When I was joking with a friend about this she said " yeah but why would you take a picture of that??, you're not going to show the parts of your life that you hate".

And shes right when I post a picture on Instagram I want people to see me and my life in a good light I don't want them to see the messy, lazy, emotional side of me I want them to see the creative, happy, motivated side of me and that's OK, isn't it?

It is.

And here's why.

Sometimes life can be rubbish, I mean really, really crap, sometimes I  feel so sad and bitter if  I'm being honest of not being 'normal', not having that what others take for granted, the fact we can't have children, the fact that money is a big issue in not carrying on with IVF, the fact that in order to have the last IVF we had unfunded we had to do an egg share which meant that my half my eggs went to someone else and that was because we couldn't afford to pay more.The fact that bad, really horrible people (see Jeremy Kyle.. the show not him although thinking about it maybe him too!) can have not one but bucket loads of children but me and Matthew who would have been A-ma-zing parents can't. The fact that we don't socialise with other people because most people we know, our age, have kids and are busy with them.
 I don't talk about it because people don't talk about things like that and you try to be strong because whats the alternative? You let it consume your life and spoil the things that are good.
I have to remind myself daily to focus on the good in my life and things that I am thankful for Matthew, Max, my family, my house, my job, the time we spend together the things we do and see, so in some way  my  I suppose that's just what I do on Instagram - focus on the good because it makes me feel better.

And its cheaper than therapy.

Thank you for reading xxx

Craft swap part 2

I could hardly contain my excitement on the swap day, the #colourmeprettyswap had me worried for a bit I had got to the swap day and I still hadn't received my parcel, but it came later on in the day so I was able to open it.

 It was from @_katiekookaburra and here it is :

I got a very large and pretty bag, a cute bird candle and another candle, some lovely nail polish and a nail file, cupcake cases and a very pretty card. I love everything especially the bag which I have filled with my wool stash. The only thing that I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything hand made in it. 

And this is what I made/bought for my swap recipient @donna_marie74 : 

I made a pin cushion jar filled with pink, yellow and green buttons and a crochet hook holder, I bought ribbons, fabric tape, 2 note pads and a little pad of stickers, a bag of rosy apples and a sewing kit. I really enjoyed doing it and I was so glad that Donna loved it too, part of the excitement was seeing what she thought of the gifts. 

Today was the birds and flowers swap and I was up at the crack of dawn to open my swap stuff! 

It was off a lovely lady called Beth @crossstitch_gal but she's just changed her Instagram name to @bethslc and here's what I got:

A really nice handmade card, a beautiful photo frame, 3x Cath kidston tissues and washi tape, some lovely pegs and a hanging bird and 2 fantastic cross stitches made by Beth herself, I think we are very alike because all the things that she's got for me are things that I would get for myself. I was so pleased I felt like it was Christmas! 

This is what I sent to my swap recipient Isobel  @isobelcupcakes79: 

I was quite worried about this because my handmade items don't look like much, I made a cross stitch and 4 granny square hearts, I bought a personalised notepad from funkypigeon.com, a little hanging heart and a lovely bird mug and Cadbury's bubble bar. 

Isobel posted the picture saying "what fabulous, thoughtful gifts!" So I was absolutely made up that she liked them.

I am definitely hooked on doing these swaps, its really nice to meet new people and make things with a focus, its such a brilliant atmosphere on the swap days seeing if your gifts have gone down well and seeing what everyone else got.

I have signed up to two more both summer related and hopefully I will get on another swap ran by @kellysmellysharpe who organised the birds and hearts swap when she posts details about it soon, I also maybe organising one with Kate @the_happy_hooker who lives in America so she will coordinate swaps for US swappers and I will do the UK swappers side which will be good if we can sort that out but a bit nerve wracking because neither of us have done it before! 

Thanks for reading! 

Abigail x

My very first craft swap -Part 1

As you probably all know I'm quite obsessed with Instagram I especially like to follow other people who enjoy crafts, quite often they will give me inspiration for new crafts or patterns to try. 

They are a very friendly bunch who share patterns and ideas, recipes and pass on books which have been read, there is a great community feel. At Easter I noticed that a few of the people I followed were involved in a craft swap and I was intrigued to find out more, it is set up by one person who coordinates it all, there is a theme and you must sign up to it agreeing to send a parcel of goodies based on the theme, some of which must be handmade by yourself, a card should be sent with the parcels and everything prettily wrapped, the parcels are then opened on the reveal day and everyone shares the photos of their goodies on Instagram. It works in a sort of circle where one person sends to you and you send to another person- its a huge amount of coordination needed these women who organise it deserve a medal! There is a great atmosphere leading up to it as everyone posts pictures of the swaps they send,it's such a lovely way of getting to know new people, it's great and I was eager to be part of it. 

I have really jumped in at the deep end signing up to two swaps, one by @kellysmellysharpe were the theme is hearts and birds and one by @hunnypothouse which is colour me pretty, where I had to state 3 colours that were my favourites and things I liked eg, birds flowers etc to help with ideas to make/buy. I chose duck egg blue, pastel pink and pastel green, and said i liked hearts, birds, flowers, Cath Kidston style. Likewise my swap recipient @donna_marie74 favourite colours were light pink,light yellow and light green and she liked flowers ( another thing to remember is not to tell you swap recipient that you have them so its a surprise - I can say Donna's name because she got my parcel this morning! ) this swap reveal day is this Friday, although I have not received my parcel yet I know that there are lots currently in the post so hopefully I'll get mine soon. The birds and hearts swap reveal day is 1st June so there is a bit longer to wait for that one. We have had about 3 weeks to make things and for me who always has good intentions to do crafts but never get around to it, it has really given me the incentive to do them the only problem is its been absolute torture not being able to post pictures yet of the pretties I have made! The worry I have is if the things I've made and bought are good enough and liked, having not done it before I have nothing to base it on, but I think they are pretty and I would like to receive them so hopefully they will too! *fingers tightly crossed!* 

Look out for part 2 where I open my swap package to see what goodies i receive and at last get to show what I have made for my swap recipient...ohhhh excited!!!!

Thanks for reading, 

Abigail xxx

                  

Cool camping!

And when I say cool I mean it in both senses of the word. At May Day bank holiday we went to Anglesey, North Wales, in what was our first camping trip in 2 years. We went to Bagnol caravan park on a recommendation that Matthew had got and it didn't disappoint. We met up with my sister Christiana and her boyfriend Matt there and they stayed in our tent along with their dog Max.

 The campsite was very close by to Trearddur Bay just 5 mins walk, we hadn't been to this part of Anglesey before and it was lovely and peaceful and the campsite itself was really nice.

Bagnol Caravan Park

Trearddur Bay

 Unfortunately the first night temperatures were below freezing so we all ended up sleeping in our clothes and hats. The next day we set out to explore Trearddur Bay in our coats and hats but soon the sun came out and by the end of the day I had a sunburned face. Talk about one extreme to another!

Our view from the tent

This last weekend, 'Jubilee weekend' we went for our second camping adventure of the year this time on our own, we stayed at a campsite called 'Middlewood Farm' which was ideally located for Robin Hoods Bay which I had heard about a lot but never visited before. 

The campsite was good, the only down point was that because we were on a field that they'd opened up for the bank holiday, we were 3 mins walk from the facilities and if you've got a bladder the size of a pea like me this is a difficulty! 

 The campsite was on a real working farm so from the tent we could see horses in one field, cows in another and sheep too. I have also never seen (or heard) so many different types of songbirds! 

The walk to the bay from the campsite was great, first through along a path at the side field of beautiful big eyed cows, then through an enchanted woodland before opening out to a lovely quaint town with cottages huddled together then out to the beach. 

Walk from campsite to Robin Hoods Bay

We had a fantastic weekend even though it was a bit cold at times and cloudy but it was definitely fun filled.We had walks along the beach and rocks. We did some rock balancing sculptures on the beach and when one fell and smashed we discovered some fossils,took pics to go on instagram (abbiefh) we went for a walk and did some geocaching (matt_n_abbie) which lead us to this beautiful little National Trust cove called Boggle Hole, We went to Whitby stood under the whale bone then climbed all the steps up to Whitby Abbey. We ate fish and chips (or Whitby scampi and chips as I had) on the seafront, ate '99' ice creams, had fresh crab sandwiches and barbecue food and had lots to drink. I loved it!

Our last night in Robin Hoods Bay