Hello, crafty and sundry!

I realised that I have all but fallen off the face of the planet here. Whups. Things have been delightfully busy here though, so let’s see if I can recap!

Christmas Came Early

Why yes, that IS a New Nintendo 3DS XL

I know that I had mentioned in the past that I wanted a New Nintendo 3DS XL for Christmas. I picked it knowing it would wipe out my entire Christmas budget, as well as most of my birthday budget as well. But that was okay because I actually knew what I wanted, and that was awesome.

Now, we do most of our shopping at Tesco. The husband used to work there, and we would have never gotten on the housing ladder if not for the stock he bought while in their employ (which they then matched). We also like shopping there because most summers, they have what they call the Clubcard boost. That’s where they take your earned credit, and then double it on the purchase of certain objects. As electronics regularly come up in the deal, we’d already pencilled in the bulk of ours to get me a new mobile phone, as the one I had was some five years old. What I didn’t expect to see when I looked as a joke was that the 3DS XLs were also in the deal, already slightly discounted, and with another discount that would take a bit more money off the purchase. In short, I got a new phone and my desired Christmas present for £30 in actual money.

Still Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Suffices to say, I’d doubled down on my Pokémonning, ha ha. I’m in the last 100 Pokémon needed to complete my Pokédex (660 down, 61 to go!). This is the closest I’ve been since Generation One, so yanno, since the 90s. It’s a lot easier now that you can trade globally, and indeed, I’ll be taking advantage of a friend in Scotland to fill in a few gaps in the Legendaries, and any Mythicals if he has any he’s willing to let me momentarily borrow. I’ve still got to paw over my used cartridges to see if there are any hidden goodies on them (like the Arceus I JUST noticed!), but I might manage to trade some of the Legendaries that came for others. We’ll see. I’d love to have a legit complete including Mythicals Pokédex if I can manage it!

In an Octopus’ Garden

I have been on a hardcore gardening kick lately. Now, I had hoped at our old house that I could at least get a few bits of produce growing, but alas, the yard was a never-ending vortex and any attempt we made to put anything up got blown away. It was very disheartening, to say the least. So moving to a house with a garden was something that made both of us very happy. Unfortunately, we had the years of not being able to garden to deprogram, so we started getting caught up on making the garden tidy rather late in the year (aka, last month).

Of course, we might have let the entire year pass us by without doing anything if not for a random kickstart. One of our friends in the village has his own allotment, and the subject of gardening had come up upon seeing his mutant rhubarb. He gifted some of the aforementioned to my husband, as well as some seed potatoes.

Now, my mother-in-law is an avid gardener, and that extends to our garden as well. We’d mentioned the seed potatoes, so she showed up rapidly armed with bags to grow them in, and some strawberries because I happen to like strawberries. Fair enough — we had a container to put the strawberries in. That she’d gotten us for something else years previously. Wha, I did say her enthusiasm extends to our garden, ha ha. So we got those two things planted, and I started buckling down on the weeding. And then I thought about seeds. You can’t get yellow crookneck squash as a regular thing in grocery stores here that I’ve seen, and um… that’s like, a mandatory food for someone who was born and bred in the southern United States (unless you happen to avoid vegetables as a matter of course, then more for me). I was excited to note that the seeds were available online, and that we were in the planting window. So the husband suggested I order them. We had to order more seeds to make up a big enough order, so we picked up sweetcorn (because why not), and lemon drop peppers. The seeds are currently germinating in the garage (’cause warmer and a free window).

Of course, our renewed enthusiasm gave my mother-in-law renewed enthusiasm, so she brought over more tubs, two butternut squashes, and some herbs. I’m going to be sick of squash by the end of the year, aren’t I? xD

Holidays

Don’t let the cute fool you, they’re full of mischief

And to top it off, it was half-term last week. I do love spending time with both of my girls, but it’s very wearying for my chronically fatigued self. They’re actually really good at playing with each other and giving me some reprieve, but it’s still another person in my space for the week, which also distracts negatively when the baby, oh teething baby, needs to sleep, and… well. I knew the mom gig wouldn’t be a walk in the park, hee hee.

Wait, where was I going with that?

So yes, Lilbit was at home with me and Littlerbit, which means that I couldn’t brain much. I just sort of curled up with my Pokémons  and called that my sanity covered. I got to the weekend and about had a panic attack to realise how long ago I’d last posted — sorry about that for the handful of y’all who follow along. The fact that so much was going on at once just sort of let it all build up into this oversized heap, because of silly things like needing to take pictures and not wanting to disturbing children, and so on. Or something.

Still don’t know where I’m going with that, ha ha.

Anyways, that’s sort of what’s been going on. Hopefully I’ll be a bit more on the ball in future again. Oh yeah and knitting is going fine as well. *nodnods*

<3