If you've read my previous post on visiting York, it will come as no surprise that this gorgeous city ranks very highly on my list of favourite places in the UK. It's like a larger, fancier version of my beloved Canterbury, and as a bonus is also currently home to my youngest sister while she finishes her degree! So when my uni besties and I were planning a pre-Christmas meet up, York felt like the perfect place to visit for some festive cheer.

We drove up early on Saturday morning amidst the mist and fog, at times feeling as though we were driving through clouds! I took such joy in spotting each and every sign for "the North" - it tickles me for some reason (probably Game of Thrones related). We arrived in York right in time for lunch!





Unbeknownst to us, we'd chosen possibly the busiest weekend to visit - the city centre was heaving while we pushed our way through the Christmas market and perused restaurants for somewhere to eat! We made sure to book a restaurant and the York Cocoa House for Saturday evening dessert (their hot chocolates are what dreams are made of) before retiring to our delightful Airbnb for the night. We stayed just outside the city, surrounded by crisp frosty fields, in the cosiest home we could possibly have found. It was the most charming Victorian house, with a luxury bathroom (the heated floor was very welcome after freezing temperatures!) and to top it all off, the hosts cooked us a marvellous full English the next morning. The cherry on top was their gorgeous springer spaniel Colby, who graciously allowed Stephie and I to give him lots of goodbye cuddles. I would absolutely recommend John and Branwen's home for anyone looking for somewhere luxurious and affordable to stay near York. This is not an ad - we all just really adored their hospitality!





On Sunday, after stuffing ourselves with our delicious cooked breakfast, we attempted to walk it off by roaming around the Museum Gardens, down the Shambles and back up to the city walls, peering into divinely sculpted back gardens and dreaming of owning one of the enormous houses clustered behind the Minster. After a quick bite to eat at Olivia's Café, and a quick detour to the Yorkshire Soap Company to stock up on candles (their Whitby Bay and Cashmere & Cocoa candles are utterly gorgeous, and they have 15% off until 31st January!), we said our goodbyes and started the long journey home.












I didn't think it was possible to fall more in love with York, but I did - it's such a beautiful, vibrant city, with the dreamiest buildings. I definitely want to head back before my sister graduates next year and before I get too big to clamber up the steps to my beloved Gatehouse Coffee...

Oh hi, remember me?

I've been more absent than usual recently and you might have noticed me moaning about being poorly on various social media channels (and goodness, have I whinged!). Well, the thing is, I've had an extremely good reason for all of this.

To be accurate, it's a super cute, bouncy, avocado-sized, baby-shaped reason!




It's the most wonderful surprise we could ever have hoped for. I've not spoken about it much, but for the last couple of years, after experiencing various health issues and talking to some fantastically tactless doctors (cheers y'all) I always thought pregnancy would be something beyond my reach.

When I was eighteen and undergoing cancer treatment I remember the doctors advising that radiation could cause infertility - fine, I said, I need to get better - and I wouldn't change my decision in hindsight because really, who would? It was only a decade later, married with a husband who always dreamed of his own family, that I started to ponder whether my body could actually provide the children he so badly wanted. And then came that lovely NHS specialist who shrugged at me, told me I had polycystic ovaries and an underactive thyroid on top of everything else, and basically sent me on my way empty-handed. I'm probably over-dramatising this in my head but that day I became utterly convinced I'd struggle to conceive. I built a plan in my head, a couple of years to save for treatments, I changed my diet, I watched everyone else around me fall pregnant and I wondered if I'd always be the odd one out.

And then.

One day in October, I cried at an advert on TV (the Lloyds TSB one, where the horse runs in slow-motion through people's lives... I KNOW.) and I thought that was very unlike me, it takes absolute devastation to get me to cry. I put it down to impending PMT.

And then despite having days of cramps, my period had yet to make an appearance. Lateness was not unfamiliar, but the cramps? They were something else. I had stomach pains that were so bad, I had to get off a train on the way to work and just cry on a bench for a bit.

Then one day I cried while reading the news the following morning (although in fairness, the news is bloody depressing). I'm really not a big crier, so it started to set off little question marks in my head. My manager at work and my friend both started asking me questions, saying could it maybe, could you be...?

And then.

And then.

Well, I bought three tests. And I had to google the first one because it was the cheapest one in Boots and I couldn't remember if that faint line had been there before. But the two digital ones that followed were absolutely unmistakable. The impossible had happened. Somewhere deep within me, a baby was coming to life.

It felt quite unreal at first, to think there is a little person developing in my tummy - it's still sinking in now. We had our 12 week scan at the end of November and I have never been so relieved in my life - thankfully baby was measuring fine and appearing healthy, despite bouncing all over the place and making it hard to get a clear picture at first.



So here we are, and we're absolutely over the moon! Our little bub is due June 2017 and I am so impatient to get the next six months over with so we can meet him or her! I'm so happy to be able to finally share this with everyone - I'm the worst at keeping secrets and surprises, so the last two months have basically consisted of me sitting on my hands and trying not to blurt it out in an Instagram caption. It's been SO hard not to shout it from the rooftops! Now I'm so excited to share the ins and outs of my journey with you, while hopefully still staying true to my usual blog content - becoming a mum might be super fun but I promise to still be my usual grumpy self underneath ;)

Lots of love,

Dani xoxo

The festive season seemed to sneak up on me this year - overnight the red cups popped out and Christmas lights were switched on, but my own festive feelings had yet to catch up with the rest of the world.

Until Saturday just gone, when together with my mother-in-law and bestie, we wrapped ourselves up and set off in search of a magical workshop to rival Santa's!

Lily & May are an award-winning florist - just check out their fabulous instagram - who happen to run all sorts of wonderful classes in Essex, just up the road from me! Tucked away in between quietly winding roads and whispering trees, Claire and Jo welcomed six of us to their cabin to create some festive wreaths.

I was a bit nervous going in as my own DIY skills never amounted to much - as a child I used to make advent wreaths with my granny, pinching foliage from the neighbours and liberally sticking it into an oasis ring, but that was the extent of my experience - so when Claire handed us each a simple brass ring I couldn't for the life of me visualise how I was meant to turn it into a gorgeous, elaborate wreath! But we were shown how to wrap moss around the ring, padding it out with spruce (which smelled so Christmassy!), then adding a whole host of decorative flourishes to make each wreath truly personalised and perfect.






And I have to say, I'm quite proud of my gold-themed creation! I chose to add some spiky leaves (I forget the name of the tree...), with ferns dotted around the outside to give it a wild, natural look; then I added (real!) gold apples, pine cones, rosehip, cinnamon to make it smell gorgeous, and finished it off with some sparkly ribbon. You can spray it with glitter as well, or add in your own decorations at any time.







The workshop was such a lovely experience - we spent 3 hours working on our wreaths, lights twinkling around us, Christmas music playing in the background, and a much-welcomed break for tea and cake halfway through! We left feeling so festive and happy with our creations - despite not having a proper front door to put mine on (I live in a flat and these wreaths are just too heavy to hang on an adhesive hook) I've placed it above my balcony door where it adds the perfect Christmassy touch to our living room.

The whole thing cost £55 but you can reuse the moss wreath - just remove your decorations and let it dry out somewhere warm, then spritz with water when you're ready to create a new wreath - perfect! Lily & May do spring workshops too - I actually think these would be brilliant for a birthday or a hen party with a twist, as the classes are so much fun and quite relaxing!

Love Dani
xoxo