Winter Wonderland

Harrogate got an unusual amount of snow this weekend, leaving a beautiful winter wonderland behind. Luckily the streets near me are well-taken care of, and I don't have anywhere to be, so I can just sit back and enjoy. I hope your weekend is going as well as mine!

New Blog Pages

With more than 230 blog posts to-date, I thought it was time I do a little organizing on the blog. I was inspired by Katie Bower's project catalog page and decided to create my own. After doing a bit of research, I found a tutorial online that used simple HTML to create a look similar to Katie's.

I created two new pages: Travel Archives and Pregnancy.

You can access these pages from any other page on my blog. Just click the Pages button on the top right side.

Have fun exploring!

17 Weeks!

This was both an exciting week and a frustrating one. It was a huge growth week for both me and the baby, which was exciting (I literally grew 1.5 pounds overnight!). But the combination of a rush of extra hormones and the stretching of my ligaments meant that I was pretty uncomfortable all week. I just didn't really feel like myself.

On the plus side, I am definitely feeling the baby move. I feel it mostly when I am sitting or laying down, and it is usually a couple inches below my navel on the sides. It only lasts a second and happens irregularly, but it is so cool! I still can't feel anything from the outside yet though.

How far along? 17 weeks

Maternity clothes? I'm pretty much down to one pair of leggings and jeans that won't button. It might be time for maternity clothes.

Stretch marks? No

Sleep? Great

Best moment of the week: Exploring the Azure Window in Malta

Miss anything? Not really

Movement: I am definitely feeling the baby move now. It's so exciting!

Food cravings:  None

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Have you started to show yet? Yes! This week I definitely popped

Gender: We don't know yet

Belly Button in or out? Neither? It's pretty level with the rest of my belly now. 

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time? Moody :( 

Looking forward to: Seeing Dina and Ed next week!

Christmas-Time in Northern France

Over the summer we met a great couple on our Baltic cruise. Jeff and Stephanie are native Canadians who were living in Boston for years before moving to England. We immediately hit it off and made plans to stay in touch after the cruise. We had our chance to meet up over Christmas.

Jeff, Steph, me and Dan in Aug 2012

We decided to take the ferry from Dover in south England to Calais in northern France. We spent one night in Lille, which is close to the Belgian border, and another night in Boulogne-Sur-Mer. We also spent a couple of nights in Jeff and Steph's lovely home in Cambridge.

Lille, France

Lille was so much better than than I expected. It felt very "French" but with a huge Belgian influence. Almost no one spoke English, so it was great that Jeff is fluent in French. We were lucky enough to be in Lille during their Christmas market. It was delicious beautiful. The whole city was decked out for the holidays.

The Wazemmes Market was really fun too. It was filled with delicious fresh fruit, fish, cheese and baked goods. We bought a bag of fresh clementines and enjoyed it over the next few days.

Dan and I decided to be adventurous at the cheese stand. We asked the cheese monger for the most typical French cheese. She pointed us to this one, nicknamed the "Lille stinker." It tastes a whole lot better than in looks!

We spent a few more hours wandering around Lille before heading to Boulogne-Sur-Mer.

Boulogne-Sur-Mer is a small town near the English channel. We got in at night and were treated to this view.

The town was cute and it was nice walking around at night. The real highlight was in the morning when we drove along the coast on our way back to Calais to catch the ferry. The views were stunning! It was very windy, but we made the most of it.

After a very short trip France, Jeff and Steph graciously hosted us at their place in Cambridge. I really loved this town. We got to see some of Cambridge University, the Cam river, and the pedestrian-only city center.

Overall it was a great, but short, trip. It was fun catching up with Jeff and Steph and I was thrilled to eat pain au chocolat, baguettes and waffles! Check out my post on all my sweet-tooth adventures on TripWolf. 

Great Grains Crunchy Pecan Cereal

Have you tried Post Great Grains Crunchy Pecan cereal? If not, may I suggest you drop everything and run to the store to grab a box? Ok, you're right. That's a bit extreme. You can wait until you finish reading this blog post first.

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This cereal is perfect. It's crunchy and filling. It has a bunch of different textures with the pecans, multi-grain clusters and flakes. Sure, it may not be the healthiest breakfast choice, but I eat well overall (despite what my travel posts might lead you to believe). I guess you could file this under the non-compensated product endorsement category. I love it that much. 

What about you? What's your cereal of choice?

16 Weeks!

This week I am feeling much better than last week. Being pregnant meant I couldn't take any medicine, so my cough lingered much longer than I would have liked. On the plus side, I think I've really "popped" this week--I'm starting to actually look pregnant. I love it!

Dan and I also got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time today! It was so exciting! The baby is doing great and his/her heartbeat nice and strong.

How far along? 16 weeks (4 months!)

Maternity clothes? Not yet, but probably soon. My pants are leaving marks on my stomach

Stretch marks? No

Sleep? Pretty bad for the first half of the week. My cough kept me (and Dan) up at night

Best moment of the week: Hearing the heartbeat for the first time

Miss anything? No, I'm doing OK this week

Movement: I think I may have felt something!

Food cravings:  Reeses Pieces, which is sad because they don't have them in the UK

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Have you started to show yet? I think so

Gender: We don't know yet

Belly Button in or out? Half in, half out...this is getting serious

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy

Looking forward to: Finding out the gender soon

I Can Finally Check the Chairs Off My List

Way back in September I brought you my kitchen design dilemma. I still love my purple kitchen chairs, but they don't fit in well with my other cherry wood chairs. Since I have four of the wood chairs and only two of the purple chairs, the purple ones have to go. Don't worry, they won't be gone forever. I'll find another spot for them someday.

Current kitchen chairs

New kitchen chairs

Though it took me months and months, I finally recovered the wooden chairs! Well, two of them at least. I completely underestimated how much fabric I would need for this project--I only had enough for two chairs. Oops! More fabric is on the way, so all four chair should be done soon.

I used the same process I did when I reupholstered the purple chairs. Fortunately the cushions were in excellent condition. I laid out the fabric and wrapped the cushion like a present, making sure the corners were nice and tight. Dan helped me staple the fabric in place. It required all four hands to get it taut.

 

I really love this fabric against the cherry wood chair and the gray table. It even works with our crazy kitchen back-splash. I'm calling this project a success!