Chickens and Trophies

Well it's only been a week this time since my last post and there's still lots that happened! It's been a bit of a busier week than normal to be fair. The most exciting things are the fact that we've got the house keys (yay)! We've also got Brian's car going which is so good and meant we were able to go to the chicken keeping course yesterday! I have also been given my first ever blog award!!!!
How exciting is that!!?? I can't really explain how happy it made me, I rang my sister and Brian to let them know the exciting news but I'm not sure they completely understood what I was going on about though? :) The award came from one of my favourite blogs who I've written about before, the lovely Emma at Mimi and Tilly and she wrote this about my little blog

" Lizzyloolaa has moved 250 miles to fulfill a dream of starting her own B&B smallholding complete with alpacas. Completely fabulous. Follow her blog as she follows her heart. It's fantastic."

Thank you so much Emma. It's so brilliant to know other people enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it. It's even nicer to get praise from a blog I love reading so much. If you happen to have a bout of bloghopilitus (see last post) then I suggest you hop over to Emma's blog here and read it from the beginning. It will make you giggle and think like never before :)

Well the rules of this award are to make myself a lovely cocktail and choose 4 of my favourite blogs to give this award too. I would have picked Mimi and Tilly if she hadn't given me the award in the first place so now to pick four other blogs...? There are so many lovely one's to choose from? Well with a mudslide in hand (yummy choc cocktail), In no particular order here are the four other blogs that I love for different reasons,

Diary of a Tinyholder : This was one of the first blogs I came across when I entered the blogging world. I sat and read the whole blog over a few nights and love it as much as a good book. It's so lovely to go back and see where Sian has come from and what she has achieved now. I wonder if she realises how far she's come? I recommend this blog for a good evenings reading :)

Faerie Nuff : This is a girl after my own heart living back in my homeland of Hampshire. She even has the same CK purse as me :) I love love love her blog shop Country Charm, especially her fabric snails (which I keep promising myself for the new house). She even has the matching dream of a cottage in the country with animals and land one day. Go and check out her blog for crafting loveliness :)

The Fairyglade : I love this blog for pure creative yummyness which can also be bought in her shop :) This is the type of blog that I like where you really feel like your getting to know the author and feel involved in her day to day life. I always know I can pop over to this blog and find a lovely post to read in the archives :)

The Pigeon Loft : I picked this blog for a few reasons. The first is mainly how much it makes me laugh. I love reading about the adventures of Mr. Pigeon and I would love my own one day. I also picked this blog as it's one of the few on my list that my other half likes to read as well. He loves the shenanigans of Mr. Pigeon almost as much as me :)

On the crafting front I have found my first project and have ordered in all the bits I need from trusty ebay. Here's a sneak peak at them all ready to go.Can you guess what I might be making? I'm really excited about my stroll down the crafting path as I'm hoping I'll have honed my skills enough by the time we have the farm that I can sell the bits I'm making.

On the subject of the future farm, myself, Brian and Cal all went on our chicken keeping course (finally) this weekend and it was brilliant! It was run by the loveliest man called Fenton Simpson. Here he is holding the pretty Pheobe who I got to have a hug from later,he also has the lovely Missy,and Sweet little sugar,
I have to admit, as much as I was really looking forward to the course, i was a bit worried. This was for a couple of reasons really. Growing up in the countryside I've always been around animals and do love them but have always been a little nervous around them. This changed a lot after getting Jessie a few years ago and she taught me a lot about animals. This being said, I was still worried that I would get to the course, see a chicken and go running. This might sound a bit strange when I'm so commited to our small holding dream but it's true. So this for me was my first challenge in our small holding dream and I'm happy to say my worries were unfounded. I loved the girls as soon as we saw them and jumped at the chance to hold phoebe and give her a hug. I'd never have guess chickens were so huggable! I can't wait to get our girls now. Fenton was great and taught us so much. He also took us to his allotment as I had mentioned in an email that Brian would be getting one this year. I real feel like we've started down our dream path now.

My final picture today is the lovely bunch of flowers Brian bought me on Thursday when we got our house keys along with the yummy rainbow trout he cooked for tea. I have a feeling next week will be as busy as this one has been so look out for a giant post then too. Today's has been written in between cleaning the bathroom and cooking a lovely beef stew and now I'm off to watch a bit of Hugh Fernerly Whittingbumble :)