No more plastic bags!

Before I got given this bag by Ellen, I was using loads of plastic bags to fit in various projects. Now though, I have this beautiful bag which can fit in so much it's brilliant. I'm sorry about the quality of the photos. I didn't realise how bad the lighting was in these pictures until they were uploaded on here. But you can see what the bag looks like so I it'll do.

Anyway, Ellen made the bag very sneakily and managed to have me believe that she wasn't making anything for me. As it was our 18th, we both agreed to make something special for eachother. But what with Ellen busy with A levels, I thought that she was just buying me something instead.

The bag has been hand stitched which is a real labour of love seeing as Ellen hates hand sewing. So all the hexagons were sewn together which I can imagine must have been pretty tedious. Then she attached the inner green lining along with the wooden handles. I love the combination of colours that she has used. She knows the sort of colours I like...well! She is my twin after all!

Thank you very much Ellen!

Twin Travelling

I realised in my post yesterday that I mentioned going travelling. This is a pretty exciting prospect so I thought that I would go into more detail about it in this post. Now that Ellen has finished sixth form, she has decided to take a gap year whilst she figures what it is she wants to do next. Going off travelling has been something that has been lightly discussed for a while now and so hopefully it will happen sometime next year. No plans have been made yet but as we have family in both New Zealand and Australia we'll stay with them. As well as going down under, we're thinking of maybe getting one of those around the world tickets. It will be great to see other countries too. No idea which countries we'll go to but if you've been anywhere exciting then let us know!

I'll admit that when Ellen first proposed the idea of going travelling I was a bit unsure. For the people that know me, I've been through so much in recent years that being so independent and going off travelling by our own seemed such a big step for me. But I figured that this is a brilliant opportunity and one that cannot be missed. It will mean that I'll be leaving Jenna behind but Mum and Dad have been encouraging me to go so much that they say they're more than happy to look after her.

So yes. Watch this space.

Ellie the knitted Elephant

This little elephant here has been patiently waiting to make her starred appearance on my blog for quite a while now so I thought it was only fair to grant her wish as she'll never forget it if I don't!

This was the knitted project I was telling you about in a post a while back. She took I would say about a month's worth of solid work to make. My sister Ellen was made up with her when opened up the present on our birthday.

Ellen made me something too. She made me a knitting bag which tied in nicely with my present didn't it! I would show you a picture of the bag now but I'm so tired that I cannot be bothered to get up and take the photo. It's hot today so I'm feeling happily drowsy! I'll show you photo tomorrow maybe.

Whilst we're on the subject of cute animals, I thought I would show you my most recent picture of Jenna. She's almost fully grown now but I think it will take a while for her to lose the puppy look. She's doing really well although has built up a bit of a reputation of being a cheeky monkey! I only found out the other day but she's actually been digging a hole in the garden! We think that she's preparing for when I go to Australia with Ellen on her gap year. She's trying to dig a hole that reaches down under so she can join me!

Birthday and comedy

Well it's been a brilliant but busy week here.

So get this, I'm now officially an adult! 18 on the 5th May which meant that I just made it in time to vote the next day. All very cool!

I got this beautiful guitar from my parents. It's an electro acoustic and of course left handed. (The picture here is what I found off the internet so this is it's right handed version.) So far, I've played it everyday and actually have blisters on the tips of my fingers! I'm thinking of doing some videos of me playing but I'm not sure. I'm not the best singer so if I do then bear with me!! From my twin sister I got some awesome presents including a night out to see Jason Manford. You might recongise him. He's a comedian who regularly appears on tv mainly on the programme 8 out of ten cats. He was doing a warm up gig in our local cinema last night. It was a very good night and he was so so funny! Dad and Ellen even said he was better than the time they went to see Michael Mcintyre. I had my first legal drink aswell much to mum's disapprovement. I'm not meant to drink as I'm on some medication but I thought, to heck with that!! Thing is though, I hate the taste of any alcohol except smirmoff ice so I wasn't that wild as it's really just like lemonade! oh well!

Stranger danger!

That's what I'm starting to fear all you followers of my blog are starting to shout everytime I make an appearance! I know I know. I keep saying that I'm busy and all that malarky and there's only so many times I can tell you this without boring your brains out but well...it's the truth!! The annoying thing about my extra sudden busyness is that I'm beavering away making presents for people. Why annoying? Well this then means that I can't blog about it for the fear that the people I'm making the gifts for will see it! Don't want to spoil the surprise for them now do I!! All I can reveal is that one project is being crocheted and the other knitted. Both are coming on well and I should be able to show you the knitted one in the next week or so. Oh dear!! My mind is all over the place at the moment. The reason being that it's my birthday in exactly a weeks time!!! 18th! How scary is that!!! (I know that was a lot of exclamation marks just then but I think on this occasion they need to be there!) We're having a birthday barbecue on Sunday with family members travelling up. Should be good and I really can't wait! Then on our actual birthday, we'll be going out to have dinner and our first legal drink! Mind you, I probably won't drink for a couple of reasons. One is that I'm on some medication at the mo and secondly, I really hate the taste of alcohol. I know I'm weird right?!

Swimming swimming in a swimming pool

My dad and I have started up swimming a few times a week as a way of getting fitter. I love swimming and having been in a place where I was unable to exercise for quite a few years, I often dreamed of the day when I was able to get fit. I promised myself that I would get myself the fittest I've ever been.

So hopefully by swimming I can kick start that aim in good fashion. I had a good session today swimming 28 lengths of the pool. But what made me really proud was that I swam two lots of ten lengths without stopping and I felt good for more!

My Dad has also given me a proposition. He proposes that we both do the Great North Swim together which is a a mile long. As sensible beings that we are, we're not doing it this September but rather next year! But it's a good thing to aim for though isn't it.

Whirlwind of a week!

I always find that school holidays make me feel a bit out of sorts and this Easter hasn't been any different! Where's the time gone?!

This has been the first time I've actually been able to concentrate on my blog for about a week now but at least I have lots to tell you.

As I mentioned previously, my dad and I were going to the gadget show live. Well, the date has been and passed and I can literally say been there done that got the t-shirt! It was an awesome day out and it was great to spend the day with my Dad too. As I thought would be the case, my bank account felt the full brunt of the trip out!! I've bought lots of gadgets which you can imagine isn't cheap but hey! I rarely have a big splurge like this so at least that justifies it a bit...yeah...still trying to convince myself of that too!

The live show bit was great fun too. The video above is just a short footage of when they came out on stage at the beginning. It's not great quality I know but it gives you a feel of the atmosphere doesn't it!

The only gripe I had about the gadget show though was that there were no mp4 players. I went to the show expecting to come away with an ipod touch but believe it or not, they had no apple products there at all. Well actually I tell a lie they had this really old apple computer there!

But peace is restored on that front and I now have been out and bought an ipod touch!! So exciting!!!

"Bow ties are cool!"

Oh exciting times! As the brilliant Doctor Who returns to our screens finally for a proper series, I can't help but hear the unmistakable sound of the nation sigh with relief that they approve of the new Doctor!

Were you one of the 8 million viewers who watched it last night?! I know I certainly was and call me sad but I actually watched it a second time because my twin was out and had missed it. She asked me if I wanted to watch it with her and I thought, why not!! So there we were at past midnight last night watching Matt smith and even though both of us were tired beforehand, we were so glued to the screen that we didn't feel it once it was on!

Matt Smith I felt was brilliant and the perfect replacement for the equally brilliant David Tennant. And of course, Rachel Gillan was great too! Feisty, funny and she'll no doubt be the centre of lots of new crushes out there!!

I think it was wonderful the way The Doctor and the new assistant met! Very clever!

It's not just new faces in Doctor Who though. Practically everything has changed! The TARDIS has got a swanky new makeover which produced a new sonic screwdriver for The Doctor. There's an interesting new title sequence and soundtrack and the head writer is now Steven Moffat. Prehaps risky to have so many changes but personally I think it paid off!

Bring on the next twelve episodes I say!

Crocodile boy!

I did a drawing yesterday of this little guy. For some reason, I suddenly had a yearning to draw a boy in a crocodile costume. Don't ask me why this image popped in my head but my mind seems to work in weird ways at times! It's quite a big day for me today actually. For those of you who know that the past few years for me haven't exactly been plain sailing, it's actually been a whole year since I left hospital for home! I felt quite funny when I realised this actually. I guess it's because so much has happened in twelve months but even so, it's felt like a long year. I always find it fascinating the way your mind seems to warp all sense of time when really it always stays absolutely fixed!

Mini chicks

These are the chicks that I had to make for a special order. The lady wanted mini ones rather than the 'big' chicks so she could hang them better on her Easter tree. I still need to make one more girl chick and then add loops on them so they can swing on the tree to their hearts content!

I thought that because they were mini they would take half the time to make but I was wrong! They actually took the same amount of time if not longer due to the fact that they were so fiddley in their miniture forms. But I got there in the end and I think they'll be perfect as decorations.

I took the picture of them in my hand so that you could really see just how small they are!!