The end of a year... The very best year :)

So it's only 3 hours to go until 2015! Wow! Al and I have been talking so much about next year, we have so many plans and exciting things planned I could burst! But first a look back at our most amazing year ever... In totally random order (sorry about that!)

'the grumpy angel' as he's affectionately known when he sleeps... decorated with the standard
scrapes and bruises of the summer 2014

helping in the office

exploring with daddy

outside all year come rain or shine

watching him experience something new has to be my very favourite this in this world...

Santa at our market stall

dropping daddy at the train, fun for the 5 weeks of the market but the boy and I are sure glad we have him with us every day the rest of the year :)

This years continental market, which was amazing, again. Busy, exhausting, long hours, hard work but we appreciated every second and met so so many awesome new people who are helping to promote a bit of positivity with our products :)

Al and I left Ché Phoenix for the first time in october and stayed at a spa overnight - bliss

one from the summer

happy me :)

the day we met the duke at St.Georges market

wild and free spirited - trying to let him stay that way ;)

spring time family wedding

peeka boo

one from last month :)

summer time strawberries from our local farm stall :)

how our year started - a trip to South Africa, he loved the ocean

possibly the cutest pic of 2014?

just too cool...

my man and me, couldn't be happier than when I'm with him... and thats basically 24-7 ;)

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my beautiful sister (in-law) who i just just couldn't imagine my life without, her and her hubby james have become our best friends, our never failing support and the most incredible auntie and uncle you could ever imagine. This year would have been very different without them...

So thats a random mix of pictures from the last 12 months... 

Looking back I'm really proud of what we have done, Ché Phoenix's 1st birthday was wonderful time for us as parents, we were able to look back and see that for the entire first year of his life we parented exactly how we believed we should, we didn't make any compromises, and that was an incredible feeling, its not often in life you do something exactly how you hope to... We felt so proud :) As he's approaching his second birthday i can say i still feel that pride when i look at him, he is so healthy, so happy and secure in himself, has close bonds with other wonderful people in his life and he is far far to smart, i tell you its incredible! this boy was telling us all the colours at 18 months "blue reea brow yeaow green black paa puuul" lol being his mummy has just been the most incredible privilege this year....

Our business is expanding and still fulfilling us creatively and challenging us to keep learning more, this year we took on a volunteer who ended up being to perfect we're employing her full time come the summer when she finishes uni! 2015 is going to be huge for itty bitty book co and i think we've learned enough this last year and a half to enable that to happen whilst not take over all our time... Delegating and letting go will be key focuses for us i think :)

The last week or so We have been talking more of our dream home, our land and it feels close, almost within reach... tonight we are going to do a online search for land and start putting feelers out... today we lacked about all the awesome alternative housing options people come up with - shipping containers etc and it got us all excited and buzzing... being self employed does cause some problems in the mortgage department but we know where theres a will theres a way and we are psyched to start looking into it properly... who knows, next new year we may be living on our own piece of earth! :)

a few extra points for you guys who've been following my blog for a while...

- i still maintain that its a load of crap how much kids cost lol

- Breast feeding does kick ass for getting back to pre baby shape but it does not work if relied on solely for nearly 2 years *but hey thats what new years resolutions are for lol*

- we still use SFT's sealed pot and have no idea whats in it! will open it next time we're off down south as i know theres euros it it

- my 101 list is very much incomplete but I'm not worried, if i replaced each thing i didn't do with something amazing that i did do it'd be one hell of a fun, varied and exciting list :)

Please excuse the typos and such I'm on my second Jameson and am not gonna proof read tonight, so  signing off for 2014, what a year :) see you all in 2015!!!! Lots of love and wishes for happiness xxxx

Camping in County Donegal, Ireland

We went camping again this summer (for last years camp trip click here ((the photos of Ché Phoenix are insane!!)) this time at Rossnowlagh Beach, County Donegal, a bit closer to home as someone isn't fond of car journeys these days!

We went with my sister Pippa (or Auntie Squeak as she's more commonly known!) and Al's sister Sel and her hubby James - 3 of the coolest people in the world. So it was always gonna be great :)

Ché Phoenix LOVED the beach, I mean look at that FACE!!! I have about 200 photos of him in the sea, rock climbing, digging, and just running free :) In 99% of them he is totally naked (even cuter!) but we'll keep those ones to ourselves I think, infact he spent most of the holiday naked, wild and free, thats my boy <3

County Donegal is on the North West coast of Ireland, its rugged, wet and windy (even in summer)! Luckily we had brought our market stall gazebo to make a communal area to hang out in at the camp and we still went on loads of walks and had an amazing time.

BEST PHOTO BOMB EVER!!!

The best thing was that we forgot our iPhone chargers and so were completely unplugged and disconnected for the whole week, a blessing in disguise. I felt so present in the moment and relaxed in a way I know I couldn't be whilst being online and contactable. Lesson learned - holidays are iPhone free times :)

That squished up annoyed face with the up turned hand, whilst saying 'nuu' and shaking his head slightly is our favourite these days. It means 'it's not there anymore, its gone, not sure I'm happy about it!

Note: I may have pulled that face as we drove home from that wonderful family break...

Our plan :)

I've been missing writing on this blog, and the connection with people who know my 'journey' I often think about making time for it and sharing my journey again - we have come so far and there IS so much to share. I am just out of the habit of actually writing... Instagram is good (and bad) like that!

He literally takes me by the hand, pulls me down and pushes my face at the flowers! So cute!

So I'm sorry if this post is a bit all over the place but I feel like i just have to go with it and my flow will come back :)

Back to the beginning - our journey to a dream, I feel that Al and I have been really good at keeping our main goals in our head as this last year has progressed. Our marriage first, happiness of all three of us, family time, work time to be sure we are travelling in the direction of our dreams. We are becoming less focused on the 'dream' and more on the 'journey' lately. Maybe having your own family does that? I saw this clearly when a house round the corner from us came up for sale at a very reasonable price, it has only a small garden and so would have been dismissed by us in the past but we ended up chatting for a long time about it, and deciding buying a house like that would be great for us right now. We talked about how it'd be a good investment - its a great time to buy, maybe sell in 3 years or so, how we love the area where we live, how we plan to concentrate on growing our business over the next few years and how if we have another baby in that time we'd need the time we want away from our business to nurture our growing family :) Buying land to build a home this year and start our dream farm is just not the right focus of energy and time for us... Plus how would it even be possible, at this stage of being self employed? We want to keep working hard on Itty Bitty Book Co, it is bringing us so much joy and fulfilment :) We hope to be in a position to step out of the day to day running of the business and have the time to invest in our smallholding when we find it :)

We're happy with that plan, it feels right :) and its nice to write it down too, to share it with you guys :) I know theres a lot of smiley faces in this post but I really am smiling so :)

A rare shot of the 3 of us (all facing the camera!), at a lovely family wedding last Saturday :)

Ché Phoenix and I went on an adventure to find the sheep - I still love the closeness you get using a baby carrier, when he gets tired on our walks i put him in and he cuddles up to me and 'talks' and points at what he wants me to notice, birds, planes, cars... And I kiss his face every 2 seconds until he looses patience with me and then he starts telling me 'no nu' and shaking his head lol I love him so much... More on him in the next post :) 

Rights of passage start early in our family :)

When I was pregnant I read about other cultures traditions around pregnancy, birth and children. We adopted a few of them for our own family, taking the parts we love out of religions and cultural traditions to make our own traditions. It's something we did for our wedding too :) 

So the one thing idea we loved was to make a big deal of the first time you place your baby onto the earth. How we ended up seeing it was, until you place your child onto the ground he is still more connected with the sky, the universe, and the heavens than with earth. So the moment you place his feet on the earth the ties from the sky break and new ties are created, ones that keep him grounded and connected to nature and fully part of this world.

We have always found the top of mountains particularly spiritual places so we decided to challenge ourselves. To climb Slieve Donard and place Ché Phoenix on the ground at the very top. Slieve Donard is 850m and a tough climb (without a baby!), it took us 4.5 hours to reach the top and 2.5 hours to get back down. We are so proud, the sense of achievement is still buzzing inside us and the hike was nearly a month ago! 

In the car park ready to go!

About an hour in, sandwich and milk time :)

Around half way, you can see the sea in the background near where we started

Looking forward from half way, at the top is the wall which runs along the peaks of the Mourne Mountains, when you reach there you know its only about an hour to the top but it feels like 3!

Giggles with Daddy at the wall :)

A fellow hiker offered to take these next two pics :) 

We made it! The very highest point for hundreds of miles!

The reason for it all...

love this shot! cape blowing in the breeze and everything! Epic!

We sent positive thoughts and love from the top to Nelson Mandela who was in hospital at the time.
We wished him peace and happiness he will always be one of the people who inspire me most to
be the change I want to see in the world.

We stayed at the top for about an hour, I could have stayed so much longer!
But the mist was rolling back in so we headed back down. Slowly, on shaky legs...

The lower half of the hike runs along a beautiful crystal clear water way, which starts as a spring and by the time you reach the bottom is a beautiful river with rocky waterfalls and pools, we sat by it for a while, Ché Phoenix loves to watch water. This was the first time his feet dipped in a natural water way :) On a side note it was shocking and disappointing to see rubbish in such a stunning pace so we filled our backpack with every piece we saw on the way down, starting with the can in this photo...