I’ve had a really nice few days.

I love this time of year – this is when I start secretly looking forward to the coming events of the next few months: The Bloke, my mum, The Bloke’s sister and I all have birthdays, the Frankfurt Market comes back to the city and I start getting my Christmas presents together. Normally I’m a lot more organised than I have been this year, but the numerous blog activities and various employment opportunities that have appeared since January have meant that my time is less than it was before, albeit much more fun! And (although I’m not going to discuss most of it yet on here), the next twelve months will mean huge changes (all for the better) for me and my family (no, I’m not pregnant, nor am I planning to be, before any of you get excited!).

The wedding planning continues – my friend, her fiancé and I went to a vintage wedding fayre at the Town Hall in Birmingham (which after 15 years of living in the city I was able to see inside for the first time and it’s every bit as impressive as I expected). My friend and I made a morning of it, going for savoury and sweet crepes at Crepe Affair in Grand Central. I’m always first in the queue when Nutella and banana crepes are on offer, but I’ve never had a savoury one before – a mozzarella and basil one in this case – and I enjoyed it every bit of it as I do the sweet ones. We also spent some time checking out the new Apple Store on New Street that has moved from The Bullring. The Bloke was a bit gutted as I was gleefully sending him pictures as he’d missed the opening, but aside from a rather fabulous BB8 Star Wars thing there wasn’t anything that was anywhere near my budget. It’s Apple – there never is.

The Bloke and I have also been to a wedding fayre at the NEC to look at even more things that I didn’t know I needed. It’s been a positive experience, although I was less than impressed at some of the comments made by various men throughout the day who implied that 1/ I was spending The Bloke’s money (I’ve never relied on a man for money in my adult life) and 2/ that The Bloke had been dragged there under duress (he wanted to come with me and enjoyed it as much as I did).

Still, I had a great opportunity to see what is available for weddings of all kinds, and I was able to approach some of them from a blog perspective in the hope of working with them in the future.

Generally, life is pretty good at the moment. I had my second supply contract of the year so far, which I did last week, I’m continuing to do some freelance music workshops, and I’ve been either delivering or preparing for further blogging workshops that will take place within the next month. I’ve also been able to start reconnecting with the community again, putting out some Blog of the Days and reading lots of posts. I’ve noticed that there seems to be something in the air – many bloggers appear to be re-evaluating their direction and cutting out lots of the unnecessary extras. It’s quite fascinating to watch – there are certain points in the year where lots of people, without prior discussion, focus on the same things.

And one evening, we were treated to the most beautiful sunset…

What about you guys? What have you been up to lately?