Sunday Snippets - 10th April 2016

Thankfully this Sunday I’m feeling a bit more human, after spending the week recovering from my operation. I’ve been trying to find a balance between getting enough rest and pushing myself to try and move things forward, which hasn’t been particularly easy and I overdid it on Thursday. It’s been nice to see a bit more sunshine, although April is definitely living up to it’s name – one minute it’s been glorious sunshine, then the next the heavens have opened and it’s tipping it down with rain! But it is starting to get me excited for the summer. Apart from our two family weddings, I don’t actually have any plans and could really do with a holiday, but I think I’m just going to have to get creative and have a staycation instead.

Last Sunday was pretty quiet because I was still feeling rubbish from the anaesthetic with exhaustion, dizziness, nausea and a pounding headache. I managed to do a bit of blogging in the morning (as you will have seen!) When my parents and sister got back from church they presented me with these beautiful flowers. Our local florist had brought a few bouquets in to the service, and the congregation decided I should have one – how lovely of them! The blogging really wiped me out, so my afternoon was just spent resting and sleeping on the sofa. In the evening I decided to wash my hair, and although it knocked me out again, it was nice to get it done and feel a bit more human.

On Monday I still wasn’t feeling great, so just had a quiet morning. My sisters and I then went over to Lisa’s (my brother’s fiancé) parents’ house to do some arts and crafts in preparation for the wedding. It was good fun and it’s nice to see things starting to take shape now after months of planning. I was wiped out by the time we got home, so had a bit of a nap. I then had an appointment with my GP – we chatted through a few issues and she gave me some advice for an upcoming appointment, which was useful. These gerberas have been sitting in our lounge for a few days, and they always make me smile when I see them because they look so bright and happy!

On Tuesday I felt a bit brighter, so spent the morning writing letters to some of my penpals. I’m determined to get back on top of my list! I had to wait in for a phone call, which came early afternoon and was quite interesting. My Mum then suggested we get out of the house for a change of scenery and some fresh air, so we decided to go to Homesense, as she needed another storage box. She pushed me round in my wheelchair but we didn’t buy much apart from the box. We popped into the post office and Waitrose on the way home, and then I crashed out on the sofa. I opened my monthly box from Veronica Dearly, which always makes me smile.

Wednesday was a completely free day, which is always nice, but when I woke up I was still having problems with my breathing (it’s been getting gradually worse since my operation) so I rang my doctors and they asked me to come down in 20 minutes. I was still in my pyjamas, so did a quick change and my Mum took me down. I saw the nurse, who asked lots of questions and did my peak flow reading (which was too low, as always). She gave me a Ventolin inhaler to see if that helps alongside my other inhaler, but if it doesn’t then I need to call them or the out of hours doctor. I spent the rest of the morning doing some blogging and watching Family Guy (a guilty pleasure!) In the afternoon I did some Uni work and sorted a few things out on my laptop. I’ve noticed that this last week I’ve taken a lot of photos of flowers, but these gorgeous tulips in my bedroom have really been making me smile. You can’t beat fresh flowers as far as I’m concerned!

Thursday was meant to be a full day at university, but after talking to my lecturer I decided that a whole day was going to be too much for me while I’m still recovering. So instead, my Mum and Dad took me in at 11am so I could just finish off the newspaper that we’ve been working on, and they went into Farnham for a look around the shops. Thankfully I got my pieces for the newspaper finished, and at lunch I decided to celebrate with a Starbucks with some of the girls. It was so lovely to have a proper catch up, and they have these beautiful spring cups at the moment. I wish they did a reusable version so I could keep one! My Mum and Dad met me in Starbucks and brought me home, where I crashed out on the sofa for an hour or so, as I was completely shattered. I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out some things for posting and replying to Facebook messages.

On Friday I had a fairly quiet morning – I was going to try and get tickets for my youngest sister and I to see Louise Live (Sprinkle of Glitter), but after working it all out I realised getting across London to the venue in my wheelchair was either going to be a complete nightmare or ridiculously expensive to get a taxi/Uber. So that kind of sucks – I try not to see my disability as a negative, but sometimes I just get really fed up that it makes doing fun things so hard! My Dad took me to my appointment with my CPN, which went OK, although she told me she won’t be at my review with my psychiatrist next week. On our way home we popped into B&Q and I picked up some bits to use for blog photography. I ended up sleeping for a lot of the afternoon – I was starting to feel a bit brighter from my operation, but I think I overdid it on Thursday. My Birchbox arrived though, which cheered me up, as it’s so pretty! It’s only my second box, so I’m excited to see what future boxes will be like.

Yesterday was a very quiet and slow day. I didn’t feel that well and really struggled for motivation, which always gets me down a bit. I try to reassure myself that it’s OK to have days like that and that I don’t need to be busy and productive every single day, but I can’t seem to help but be hard on myself. I did spend the morning doing some editing for a new YouTube video, which I’m hoping will be up soon. In the afternoon I cuddled up with Freddie on the sofa watching YouTube videos, and caught up on my blog e-mails. The highlight of my day was the postman coming – he brought something quite exciting, which I’ll reveal to you at some point soon!

If you haven’t read my blog before, I just wanted to let you know that I have a second blog, which mainly focuses on my health in more depth than I talk about it here. It’s largely for friends and family to follow and keep up with what’s going on, but if it’s something you would be interested in reading as well, you are more than welcome to follow me over there. I’ve actually changed the name from Unicorns and Floral Crowns to ‘Zebra Crossing’ and you can find it by clicking here. I’m trying to keep it updated fairly regularly, so hopefully there will be something there for you to read! I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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Paul's Boutique Handbag

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I organised a blogger meet-up last November (if not, you can find the post here). As well as meeting local bloggers, we also had a raffle with some awesome prizes kindly donated by some of our favourite brands. One company, who gave us an amazing prize of £100 to spend at their store, was Paul’s Boutique. Now, my memories of Paul’s Boutique go back to when I was in my early teens and their handbags were a range of neon colours with cute trinkets on the zips, as you can see in my rather old photo below. So, when I was lucky enough to have my raffle ticket drawn, I was so excited to check out their website!

My retro Paul's Boutique handbag

As I scrolled through the bags, I was so impressed by their range of beautiful pieces, and was pleased to see that as well as the bright and whacky colours, they also had some more toned down bags to choose from. I was in desperate need of a new handbag, and wanted to find something that would go with most outfits. After much perusing, I decided to go for this gorgeous little number.

I’m a big fan of leopard print, and as soon as I saw this bag I knew it was the one. It’s made with soft black leather, so looks very professional, but still has a bit of a twist with the bold print and neon green trim. I was quite surprised with myself for going for the green actually, as it also came in pink (which is my favourite colour) but for some reason the green just really stood out for me.

It has the Paul’s Boutique logo embossed in gold at the bottom of the bag, with gold hardware and little gold feet on the bottom. I love it when bags have these feet, I don’t know why; I just think it makes them look more ‘premium.’ Plus it stops the bottom of your bag getting dirty every time you put it down, which is always good!

The inside of the bag has a sort of nautical blue and white striped lining, and the neon touches are carried through around the small pocket and the rim. It’s lovely and spacious, which is good for me, as I seem to carry just about everything with me! And I love the fact it has the small zipped pocket – I always like to keep valuables in these such as my phone, keys and so on, as I feel they’re a bit more secure (and it makes them easier to find!)

Smaller bag - £32.50

Unfortunately I can’t seem to find this exact bag on their website any more, as I think they’ve updated their stock since I bought it. I did find this smaller bag in the same colours though, which is think is really cute.

Ashley Shoulder Bag - £80

Or if you’re looking for a bag of the same size and shape, they do have this Ashley Shoulder Bag in beige and black snake print, which I think is a lovely update for spring.

I must admit when I’ve been looking for bags in the past, Paul’s Boutique didn’t really cross my mind. But I’m so glad to have rediscovered them and will definitely be adding to my bag collection with some of their new summer range!

Have you bought anything from Paul’s Boutique? Or can you recommend anywhere else that sells beautiful handbags?

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Sunday Snippets - 3rd April 2016

I wasn’t sure if I would get today’s post written (and I’m still not sure if it will make much sense!) because I’m recovering from an operation and still pretty wiped out from the anaesthetic. But I wanted to put something up, so fingers crossed when I’m more ‘with it’ and read it back it makes some sort of sense! I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself – sore, achy and shattered – and I’m just trying to allow myself some time to rest. I’m not very good at it though, I don’t like doing nothing and feeling lazy, but I just keep telling myself that I’m allowed to have some time off to recover. With general anaesthetics they never seem to warn you about the emotional affects – every time I have one I end up an emotional mess; crying, anxious, really low – it’s not much fun! But I’m trying to see it as another reason to practise some self-care. Hopefully over the next week or so I will start to feel a bit more human again.

Last Sunday started with going to church with my Mum, Dad and sister. It was jam packed, which is always lovely to see, although I do get a bit anxious with so many people there. It was a nice service though and I said hello to a few friendly faces. When I got home I ended up falling asleep on the sofa for a while, which was not what I had planned! I spent some time blogging when I woke up, then spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Simpsons back-to-back and finally getting my ‘Good Things’ jar updated. We had an early dinner as my brother and his fiancé were here but needed to leave early so my brother could go to work. We all exchanged Easter goodies and I also received a few nice bits from some friends. In the evening I had a Lush bath and a bit of a pamper.

Monday was my youngest brother, David’s, 23^rd birthday – I love looking through old photos of us all! I had a bit of a slow morning, as I just couldn’t get myself motivated and felt really shattered. So I just pottered around and took things slowly. I’m trying to help myself believe that it’s OK to have quiet times and days when I don’t really do anything. I think it’s all related to accepting I’m chronically ill and that I can’t necessarily do things like healthy people do, and that that’s OK. My afternoon was more productive though, as I managed to film three videos for my YouTube channel. I didn’t realise quite how tiring it was though, especially as one of them was a try-on video so I had to keep changing! Both of my brothers and their fiancés came over late afternoon and we watched David open his presents.

My Tuesday morning was fairly quiet and I managed to write a blog post, which I’m happy about, as I really want to start getting more posts out again. Things then got a little crazy when Freddie managed to escape, so we had my Dad running through our estate, my Mum going round in the car and me standing at the front door in case he came back. Thankfully my Dad found him and brought him back home. I then went for a massage, which was definitely needed after Freddie’s antics! My neck and the back of my head are causing so much pain and I’m desperate to find some more permanent relief. My appointment with the neurologist has been moved twice and isn’t until May now, which is so frustrating. When I got home, my Mum and I made some Easter nests (better late than never!) and also some muesli that’s suitable for my diet.

I had my last session of bereavement counselling on Wednesday morning, which felt quite sad but it was my choice. I don’t want to take away support from people that really need it, and I think I just need some time to process things on my own now. She’s left things open though, so I can ring any time if I need to talk again, which is nice to know. I rested for a while afterwards and caught up on emails. In the afternoon my Mum, sister and I went over to Lisa’s (my brother’s fiancé) parents’ house for a bridesmaid hair trial, which was good fun. I came home and opened a couple of parcels, one of which included these cute Paperchase notecards from a swap I took part in. I was feeling pretty anxious all day about my operation, so just tried to find things to distract me as much as I can.

Thursday was operation day. I had to be up really early so I could eat some breakfast before 7am. I got my bag ready for hospital, which included some magazines to keep me occupied, and also sorted out a bag of all my medications (which I’m sure weighed more than my personal bag!) I spent the rest of the morning watching YouTube videos and trying to keep myself busy so I didn’t get too worked up. My Mum took me to the hospital and we made our way to Day Surgery. I said goodbye to my Mum and was shown to my bed, where I had to change into a gown and some sexy stockings! After being seen by the anaesthetist and surgeon, I read for a bit and was then taken down to theatre. There’s not an awful lot I can say about the rest of the day, as it was just spent having the operation and then recovering enough to be taken back to the ward. Thankfully I felt well enough to go home the same night, which I was so happy about as I’m usually kept in. I did spend most of the evening crying (the joys of anaesthetic!) but it was nice to be in my own bed.

Friday was a very quiet day, as I was still completely wiped out and sore from the operation. I managed to get myself up and dressed, but then spent the day sleeping on the sofa. Freddie kept me company all day, which was lovely as he just snuggled up next to me. I was feeling quite anxious and down, so having him lying next to me on the sofa really helped to keep me calm. I watched a bit of TV (Big Bang Theory mostly) but kept dozing off, so didn’t manage to watch a whole episode of anything!

Yesterday was pretty similar to Friday, as I didn’t feel much better. I slept on the sofa all morning with Freddie by my side again. In the afternoon Nanny McPhee was on the TV, and I managed to watch most of that, although kept falling asleep so it’s a good job it’s an easy film to follow! In the evening David and his fiancé Emma came over and had a take-away with the rest of the family to celebrate David’s birthday. I didn’t feel up to having take-away with them, so rested while they ate. But I did then sit up at the table while we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and David blew out his candles.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I just wanted to let you know that I have a second blog, which mainly focuses on my health in more depth than I talk about it here. It’s largely for friends and family to follow and keep up with what’s going on, but if it’s something you would be interested in reading as well, you are more than welcome to follow me over there. I’ve actually changed the name from Unicorns and Floral Crowns to ‘Zebra Crossing’ and you can find it by clicking here. I’m trying to keep it updated fairly regularly, so hopefully there will be something there for you to read! I’m also trying to post on Snapchat a bit more, so if you fancy following me, my username is Jennycole44.

What have you been up to this week? I always enjoy hearing about your news and adventures!

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