Top 5 Highlights

I’m still following Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow’s end of year Top 5 game. I love it as a chance to reflect on the year and put things in perspective.

So here goes – my Top 5 highlights of 201

1. Sewisfaction blogger

A new and budding company, Sewsifaction, put a shout out earlier this year for bloggers that they could work with. I’ve been in awe of all these ‘sponsored bloggers’ I see and in a fit of cheekiness thought I’d chuck my hat in the ring. In no universe did I think I’d ever be picked but not only was I picked she wrote some really lovely comments on my previous blog posts. So now I’m part of a team of 6 exceptionally talented sewists (them not me) who blog for Sewisfaction. Its been such an honor to work with this new and upcoming company and see the results of our efforts. I’ve also seen it as real validation of my sewing and how far I’ve come on since I started sewing in 2012.

2. Holland

We chose our family holiday this year based on price, time spent travelling, and family friendliness. Somehow the Netherlands made it to the top of our list and off we popped in our campervan on the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. We stayed in a Eurocamp site that had an amusement park in the grounds!!! We went on rollercoasters, we rented bikes, we went on a boat cruise through Amsterdam, we went on roller coasters, we went to the beach, we went on rollercoasters, we ate waffles, we went on rollercoasters. You get the message.

In fact we loved it so much we’ve booked the same ferry route for next year and are contemplating stopping at the same campsite for a day or two to…….you guessed it, go on rollercoasters.

3. Getting back to health

Hmmm. Hard to comment on this without upsetting people who perhaps didn’t know. But I’m happy that I’m feeling better and doing well. Nuff said for now I think.

 

4. Edinburgh Frocktails

One day I was doing the ironing and felt bored. Really bored. I’d been reading all these amazing blog posts about the various sewing meet ups elsewhere in the country and decided the only way we were going to have one was to take control. So a wee shout out on Instagram later and I had “Edinburgh Frocktails” to organise. We had some amazing generous sponsors who offered us some brilliant prizes for a charity raffle and as a result we raised a whopping £320 for Marie Curie. It was lovely to chat with people who I’ve previously only spoken to online. It was also awesome to see everyone wearing (and loving) clothes they’d made themselves and talking so enthusiastically about sewing. Some people came as far as Aberdeen for the meet up!

We’re currently planning another meet up for May (hint it involves tea and tea dresses) and hope to make Edinburgh Frocktails an annual thing.

5. Camping in Freda

I mentioned my campervan previously. We actually bought our van in 2016 but hadn’t camped in her before 2017. Our baby just wasn’t the kind of baby who would have made camping feasible. So 2017 was our first attempt at camping with all 4 of us and a dog in our little van. Following a bit of practice in the back garden putting up the awning, we’ve been camping in East Lothian, Scottish Borders, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Perthshire and about 100m from our front door and loved it all. Next year I’m really looking forward to more trips of being a tourist in my own country. We’ve got trips to France and Cumbria planned already and hoping for Fife and potentially a few Scottish islands in 2018.