2013

And we reach the end of another year. I have missed blogging since September, having no access to my desktop has not been productive. I've hardly taken any photographs, written very little and become somewhat down about it all. Hopefully though it will only be a matter of weeks until we get the date our house will be ready! I know we have to go through the hassle of moving but I really can't wait to move into our first house that will actually be ours. Anyway, now is the time to have a look back at some of the highlights of the past year. As usual January was pretty quiet, we enjoyed our days off wandering around town going for hot chocolates and keeping warm 

I discovered the joy of Crafty Creatives this year and am still a fan. My Tatty Devine collection also started in earnest in 2013, I've shared some of my favourite pieces on the blog this year and will do once I have a few more! In February we went to Manchester for a short break and enjoyed the delights of Blackpool once more, much to my husband's happiness. This time the weather was much nicer though.

I really enjoyed capturing blossom in the spring and took a few nice pictures too 

In March Holly came to visit us in Aberystwyth for the day, despite the downpour we had fun in the National Library and in Andy's records. April saw a trip to the Black Country Museum, it was bloody freezing too. 

We also took a trip on the Rheidol 

May saw trips to Tywyn, Fishguard and St Fagans. 

This year we spent a fair amount of time over at the allotment capturing progress for my dad, all in all I've taken well over 700 photographs. Here are a few favourites 

They have another plot now so expect lots more allotment coverage next year, I bought lots of seeds as Christmas presents! 

June saw the arrival of two very special little boys, my nephews Rex and Ralphy. I have taken hundreds of photographs of them over the summer. They arrived just after we submitted our applications to leave Aberystwyth and move down here. We spent most of the summer coming down here on our days off as David had driving lessons. Here are a few of my favourite pictures of the boys so far 

The summer this year was absolutely glorious. We made the most of our time being on the coast having BBQs on the beach with our friends on Sunday evenings

We also ventured to Powis for our annual trip, meeting up with the Rangers

I had a play around in the garden during the summer too 

And in July we also went to St Fagans again 

During August we had a week of holiday and we visited London. As we were about to leave we had the news we had job offers! This was good news after we had already decided to go for the house! I really enjoyed our visit, we had a good wander around seeing all the sights and spent the day in Brighton and Kew Gardens. We also saw the Underground Poster Art exhibition in the Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

Once we returned from our trip we had to start the task of sorting our stuff out in preparation for the move as in the end we started our jobs in the first week of September and we couldn't get any time off to move beforehand so we spent most of September going back and forth moving and cleaning up. From the end of September to now as I said earlier I haven't done anything creative. I think the last pictures I took I really liked were these 

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary back in October, we went out to Cardiff Castle for the day with David's mum and dad. Our new shop opened at the end of November and since then we've only had a handful of days off. I did go for a lovely walk up to Wentwood though with my family and captured the last of autumn

Things have been a little difficult here lately but a new arrival just before Christmas has really made things better. Meet Barney, my newest nephew. He is absolutely gorgeous.  

I look forward to taking some better shots of him soon. So that was 2013! A year of great change, moving back and planning for a better future.