Day Trips in England (365 Challenge!)

I visited a lot of places when I was in England. I missed so many of the small places that I spent a lot of lazy summer holidays visiting with my mum. It's so easy to take for granted the area you live in, that is, until it costs $1000+ to revisit them. I find that you usually get over the taking it for granted at that point. 

I visited Hebden Bridge with my mum on a rainy day. We drove to Nottingham. My sister and I went on a quick trip to Bridlington on what turned out to be a really cold and awful day (at one point, we lost the feeling in our fingers!) but it was worth it for the fish and chips. 

We visited York and ate at Jamie Olivers very snazzy restaurant. I explored Manchester again with my beautiful friend and revisted Halifax whilst enjoying British public transport. It was really an amazing trip filled with some pretty awesome memories and a lot of Pizza Express food! 

I also reorganised, donated, saved and photographed my childhood memories. I took photos of my art work as a record of how artistic I used to be, only to discover that I deleted the photos, thinking I had already backed them up onto Google Drive. Very bad, but I'm sure that just means that I need to go and visit again, or encourage one of my family to visit me with my art work in their suitcase.

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

Garden Times in England: 365 Challenge

For some reason, it decided to snow in England. It was pretty impressive, even by my new 'Canadian' standards. I didn't get chance to take many photos of it, mainly because I was complaining about the cold! I genuinely didn't think that I would require warm clothes for England in March! Turns out that I am not as smart as I thought I was. Very sad times. 

On the other hand, since I was in England for 6 weeks, I quite literally experienced all the weather of all the seasons. There was snow, gale force winds, ice, hot sunny days that called for ice cream and rain - oh the rain! It was a perfect way to make up for missing three years of British weather.

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

England Visits

I am in England.

Pinching myself because it doesn't feel very real.

It took so long to get here. It's been such a crazy visit and trip.

First there was a snow storm in Ottawa, which meant my flight was cancelled, which led to a whole host of events including:

- queuing for an hour to get a taxi
- the taxi driver leaving me at the end of a driveway whilst I pulled one 28kg suitcase and carried two 10kg bags through 2 feet of snow, all while wearing canvas shoes
- I spent more time in an airport and eventually managed to get to Frankfurt where it became evident that someone had forgotten to book me on the connecting flight to England. So, I waited, only to discover that I wasn't booked on the second connection either.
- There may have been a scary look on my face because I was quickly put on the second connection.

By the time I landed in England I was beyond tired and grumpy but I'm glad to be here! The downside of this is that I haven't been as attentive as I wanted to be with this blog, my services, and my part time job. I think that eventually that will get back on track. Thanks for being patient.

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

365 Photo Challenge Days 48-54

Things have been pretty hectic around here recently. I am planning a big trip and it turns out that I organisation has not been my friend. As such, I've been running around, collecting supplies and watching endless amounts of Doctor Who with The Canadian, who it turns out, enjoys British geek fests. Bonus points for him. 

It also turns out that my mother in law likes me quite a lot! During the week, I received a phone call asking if I'd had breakfast, I was then instructed to open my back door. What did I find? A basket full to the brim with cookies and scones. 

I then received a gift in the form of a little kitty brooch, apparently there was some concern that I would miss my cats whilst I am on my trip. Now, obviously, there is little to fear. 

I will miss taking pictures of them, especially as they are so CUTE! They have just discovered that sleeping on top of one another is warm. Personally, I think it's because they are both so cute they can't help hugging one another.

I also love the craft sales on at the moment. All the gorgeous ribbon was only 12c a role! Crazy stuff!

Finally, for last weeks photo challenge, I give you my final treat:

I'm hoping that by this time next week I'll be up to date with all my photos. I'm at 54 out of 56. Eek. :)

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

365 Photo Challenge Update

365 days of photographs and I only (just) made it to 18 (here). I have been so busy of late. I have started designing mood boards of blog designs, making contacts and learning lotsa stuff, like vector imaging and drawing pasta.

I've also been organising my fabrics and arranging a big holiday. I didn't even realise how much fabric I have. I need to pull out my much neglected sewing machine soon.

We were hit with a lot of snow.... 

We found an amazing little shop in Ottawa that sells Vimto and Indian sweet cakes. Yummmmmmmy. They are so amazing and I am very happy, it was also an amazing treat for celebrating my FIRST SALE ON ETSY!

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

A Big Thanks

Today I launched The Lemon Hive on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. There was a giveaway, there were Pinterest boards created, there were tweaks made, Facebook pages were published and the fanfare commenced.

So many people got involved, shared kind words with me and made me smile, which is what it's all about. 

I also launched on the exact same day that I got another job. This also happened to be the day that the cat climbed into the cold air return (which is basically a large, 4'x4' space between four rooms, one on the top level, three on the lower, with vents connecting each room - it keeps the air circulating in the house), after the upstairs cover came loose. He crawled in, got stuck, and miaowed through my conference. 

Day 35: I tried everything but pulling him out because, as you can see, we don't exactly spring clean in there (and I am no fan of spiders!). 

Talk about a busy day.

Anyway, I wanted to take the opportunity to say 'Thank You' for all your support in this launch. I encourage you to follow me through one of the many links above my smiley face on the right, we're going to have a lot of fun around here.

Week 2 and 3: 365 Challenge

14/01

This was an accidental photo but I liked it, so it made it onto the list. 

16/01

My mother in law gave me lots of old camera equipment, none of which fits on my camera. It didn't stop me from trying to get it to work with my camera. I kinda liked the result.

17/01

I think we need new windows in our bedroom!

18/01

I also discovered these fun things in the box of vintage camera awesomeness.

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

Week 1: 365 Challenge

It's been a busy week. I've started working on this blog, and The Lemon Hive generally. Getting the ideas going, and everything sorted out has taken up loads of time. So here is a little bit of what I've been doing. I'm hopeful that I'm going to be able to better commit to this soon.

01/01

It says January 2nd (but honestly, it's just cause I finished it on that day!)

02/01

03/01

04/01

05

05/01

07/01

10/01

On a regular basis, I will keep you up to date with my own mixed up version of the 365 challenge. Sometimes there will be dates missing, or, instead of photographs, there will be index cards, but my challenge is still sticking to all the rules, and what flexible rules they are. 

CLICK HERE for more information on the 365 challenge.

365 Creativity Challenge

New year challenges are made to be broken, or at least, all of mine have been! I always find starting mid year is the best time to start. It's not that there is anything special about the middle of the year, but it does take some of the pressure away from the goal. Still, I have decided to do a sort of 365 day challenge, starting on the very first day of 2013, but to remove some of the pressure, I've given myself some very flexible rules. 


I took the 365 and ran with it, I know. However, it is my first 365 challenge and, realistically, I do not have the time to take pictures and edit them every day. I have joined this 'little' Flikr group, which is a lot of fun and really supportive. 

To view all the 365 challenges visit THIS page.

Here are my rules:

1. Take one picture a day.

• The picture can be of anything, preferably something that makes you happy, grateful or smile. Basically, positive photos.
• The picture does not need to be particularly artistic.
• The picture doesn't need to be posted on the same day it is taken

2. If a picture cannot be taken, then use an index card and draw.

• It can be personal
• It can be doodles
• It can be experimental
• Just do something

3. If 1 or 2 are not met, then something creative must happen in it's place.

• This can mean learning
• It can mean designing icons or paintbrushes
• It could be creating a mood board for the basement redesign
• It could even be painting a wall
• It just has to be something that you think is creative

4. Ideally, everything should be documented in le blog. However, this isn't realistic, some of it is going to be super dooper personal and sometimes you don't want to know that I created (see what I did there?) a new system for my knicker drawer. It's a personal challenge, you know if you're sticking to it, and you know what you do and don't want to share. Saying that, sharing is good, since writing this, I've had lots of questions as to why there have been no updates. Eek! It definitely got me going again

5. Don't be hard on yourself if you miss a few days. Yeaaah, it's a 365 challenge...but, erm, no one said it had to be done in just one year. One year is a good aim, but life gets in the way sometimes.

Project 365 (the other part of the inspiration)
Source: peanutblossom.com via Hannah on Pinterest

The Index Card Inspiration

Source: daisyyellow.squarespace.com via Hannah on Pinterest