A Weekend To Re-Energise

Hello there lovelies! I do hope you are all having the most splendiforous week?

The sun has finally started to visit here in Stuttgart, which means I'm certainly starting to feel that Spring is right around the corner!
I love Spring, it's one of my favourite times of the year. I love that the sun starts to shine, but also being able to enjoy the splashes of colour that start to appear on a somewhat grey canvas. Spring is when everything starts to come alive again, for me Tulips are a real symbol of that.
Coincidently, my other favourite time of the year is Autumn, I love the colours that appear as nature takes it's toll. Lots of reds, oranges and golds...divine!

Anyways.... enough about the weather...

I've had a really good week so far. Work is going well, I've got a crafting project (or two) on the go, plus I'm feeling rather energised from having a weekend at home with my family.

I got to a point about three weeks ago that I felt like I just needed to escape. I needed a break from work, a break from Dennis and Poppy (I hate writing that as I love them both so much), a break from the normal rut of life. I also knew that I needed to be at home with my parents and family. I don't get this feeling of needing to be close to my family that often, or even needing to be in my home country. Calling and speaking with my family tends to be enough and knowing what they are up to and that they are all healthy is enough to keep me content. However, every now and then the urge creeps up on me, that I have to go back home. A feeling of needing to be close to family and being in my home country.

With that feeling weighing down on my shoulders, I booked a weekend off from work and arranged a flight back home to England.

I told my parents that I was going to pop by for the weekend, but asked them not to plan anything, I just wanted to be at home and not turn it into some big "coming home" event.

I packed my bag on Friday night and after a frantic search of not being able to find my passport, I set off to the airport early on Saturday morning.
I made sure to pack the baby blanket that I am currently working on and joined the "Crochet Mile High Club", as I got my hooking action on during the flight.

Once I had arrived in London I got a coach to Reading, where I was meeting up with my parents and sister.
We grabbed a coffee and caught up a little, before strolling around the shops. It was so nice being back in England!!
I love living in Germany, but nothing can replace that feeling of familiarity when you walk into a shop and recognise the packaging of the products you were brought up with.
After we spent a good few hours walking around the shops, we made our 45 minute trip down the motorway back to my parents house in Malmesbury.

It was so nice to be back at home in the house I grew up in. Sitting around the dining room table as we ate dinner and chit chatted about EVERYTHING!

Sunday was also a rather nice day.
We went to visit my Nan quickly in the morning (in Bristol), before heading out for a Sunday Roast.
We ate our roast dinner in a pub in the center of Bristol, the pub was so quaint and had that homely old fashioned feel that English pubs seem to have.
We all ate roast dinners, Dad had a pint of Guinness and we finished our lunch of with apple pie and ice cream! YUMMY!!

After spending the perfect Sunday with my family, Monday morning arrived and I said my farewells and caught the train to London.

London was just a stop over on the way back to the airport.
I made a point of catching up with some friends. It was so good to see people that I hadn't seen in a while and realise that we were still great friends and living in different countries hadn't altered our relationships.

Of course being in London, I took the opportunity to look around some shops and treated myself to a rather lovely collection of books. I love buying books, but only really like to do it when I can browse through them in the shops, so going to Waterstones bookshop on Piccadilly Circus was a real treat!!!
I'll talk more about the books I bought in a later post, but here's a sneak peak!

I also had to buy Dennis and Poppy a little something. I bought Dennis a mould for his soap making and Poppy a London themed bandana.

On Monday evening I cought up with some more friends and was lucky enough to get some cheap tickets to go and see Kinky Boots the musical!! What a great show that was! Fun and camp and touching all at the same time. Well worth seeing if you get the opportunity.

Finally, Tuesday morning I was flying back to Stuttgart. I had one final stop that I wanted to make.
That was to visit the yarn shop Loop, in Camden Passage.
The shop opened at 11.00 so I had time to grab some breakfast. Eggs Benedict and a smooth milky coffee at the Breakfast Club.

Breakfast was awesome!!
I then went to Loop and had a good browse around the shop. The yarns were GORGEOUS!!!! So much choice and variety in not only the types of yarn, but also colour!
I did however, leave Loop empty handed. I didn't have a project in mind and couldn't justify splurging out on expensive yarn that I didn't have a purpose for. I know what I'm like and it would end up in the yarn basket gathering dust. So I decided to wait until I have a project in mind and then will definitely stop by and get some yarn from Loop.
Similar to my book buying, I'd much rather purchase my yarn from a shop, rather than online. I prefer to be able to see the colours and to feel the yarn before I make a choice on what I'm going to buy.

So that was my rather nice weekend back at home in England. It was just what I needed! A little me time and a chance to reconnect with my friends and family. Just having three nights away made me miss Dennis and Poppy though and I was really excited to see them both when I returned on Tuesday. Poppy showered me with licks, which meant that she had missed me also. Dennis missed me also, I could tell :-)
A little time away to reconnect and gather my thoughts, as well as make me realise how special my life in Germany is. Being away from Dennis and Poppy, made me realise how special my little family is!
It was a great weekend!

I hope you have also had a good week and that this weekend is shaping up to be a cracking one?!

xxx