Santa Trains and Sienna ★

so yesterday i got up bright an early (ish...) to head into town to pick up my darling little cousin Sienna for the day

she was all dressed up and ready to go in her candy coloured winter outfit + sweetie patterned welly boots! 

we had a nice little mooch around the shops first though, she helped me pick out a few last minute xmas prezzies for some people so i treated her to a little Hello Kitty necklace for being such a sweetheart!

and she even got to meet Santa outside the local shopping centre!

but then it was time to take her on our annual day out to the fabulous Santa Trains at the local Groudle Glen Railway

we took her last year and had a brilliant day out despite the chilly weather! so we were all looking forward to heading to the glen again this year for another trip on the trains. here she is with my mum aka her 'Auntie Joy'

it was pretty cold when we got to the Lime Kiln Halt so we did some dancing about to the Xmas music to try and keep warm while we waited for the train...

but then at long last, we heard the all too familiar 'choo-choo' of the train as it came chugging around the corner to collect us

then it was on to the Lhen Coan Station to get some mulled wine, a mince pie, and then go and meet Father Christmas!

the Station looked very festive, all decorated for Christmas as the train kept heading back and forth to collect and drop off more visitors

we had a fabulously festive and fun day and i'm sure we'll be visiting the Groudle Glen Railway again next year to take Sienna to the Easter Bunny and Teddy Bears Picnic Trains

for more information about the Railway line be sure to check out the official GGR website here - Groudle Glen Railway

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after the Trains, we popped out for some lunch where Sienna decided to open the little gift Santa gave her at the station 

turns out it was a very VERY awesome little wooden marionette puppet

Sienna eventually decided to name him 'Lenny' and i'm not gonna lie, we had a LOT of fun making him walk and dance about on the table top!

unfortunately we had to drop little Miss Sienna off after that because today she got the boat over to the UK to visit her family for Christmas!

but we had a great day, it's always a fun day when Sienna is around :) x

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in other news, i got a lovely little surprise in the post yesterday as well!

the very lovely Astrid from 'Schwarzie Design' had sent me a cute little bundle of mini print cards and a little note via 'snail mail' all the way from South Africa!

it really made my already lovely day that extra bit awesome so big thanks to her for that!

her artwork are very gorgeous, i'm sure i'll have to run a post about her and her sister's designs on here in the New Year, but until then i recommend you check out her website here - Schwarzie Design

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and i think that's it for now! not many plans this week, i've finished buying and wrapping ALL of my Xmas presents to i'm a bit unsure of how to spend my time other than reading, watching old movies or editing drawings!

but i have something super duper sweet to share with you all tomorrow evening so be sure to look out for that!

and until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Train Times

so once again i find myself apologizing for the lack of posts, i genuinely meant to write a post yesterday night but i ended up playing on the Wii so i forgot... i'm sorry!

i had a gorgeous day today though, met my mum and my godmother for lunch + ended up hanging out with my cousin Mandy, my big sister Nikki + her boyfriend Boris as well, in my fave cafe 'the alpine' (of course!!!)

i also bumped into some old friends from college which was nice since it's been aaaages since i last saw them!

anyway that all doesn't matter nor does the fact that i've been absent for a few days because i'm posting NOW which is the main thing

so on Wednesday i got up bright and early, caught a lift into Douglas with my dear mama then walked through town towards the train station because i went on the steam train to Port Erin!!!!

i'll start from the beginning . . .

it was a truly gorgeous day, the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and for once it wasn't even windy or blustery which is practically unheard of for the Isle of Man!

i'd arranged to meet my friend Jenny for the day since she's home from University at the moment but she had a hair appointment in Port Erin so i thought, 'why not get catch the train down to meet her'

yeah like i need an excuse to go on the train!!!

it was such a nice day though, on my way to the station i walked right along the Harbour and took a few snaps of the pretty boats and the gorgeous blue sky/sea

since the weather was so lovely the train was quite busy so i shared a carriage with an old local man who was on his way home to Port Erin + a lady from England, visiting the island with her little grand-daughter on their way to Port Erin beach for a picnic

the little girls name was Hannah and she pretty much became my best friend for the entire train ride! she was so sweet, she liked to say the phrase 'super duper' a lot (you can see why we got on!) and her favourite colour is pink! she really was a total little sweetie, here she is posing in her snazzy pink sunglasses (note the entirely pink outfit also)

we had great fun counting the sheep, cows, horses, ducks, pheasants and donkey's we saw in the fields as the train carried us southwards towards Castletown and eventually on to Port Erin

i really love this time of year, everything is so green and lush, it was great seeing so much of the beautiful Manx country side

when we pulled into Port Soderick we stopped next to the other train running that day, on its way back towards Douglas

so naturally . . . i took a few more pictures from my carriage window

it was a gorgeous engine, gleaming and utterly super duper + i've always love the IOM railway company logo/emblem

after that we carried on to Port Erin where i said my goodbyes to my fellow passengers + the lovely little Miss Hannah (who gave me a big hug, bless) before heading off to say hi to my other friend Sarah who runs a hair salon called 'cuts both ways'

it's been months since i last saw her so it was nice to hang out for a bit, before we left for her lunch break i snapped a shot of her gorgeous salon, it's full of antique furniture, pretty wallpaper, little chandeliers and baroque style mirrors! love it . . .

Jenny was still getting her hair done in another salon so i tagged along with Sarah to the beach where she was meeting another friend + her three lovely little kids

the sea was just so blue! it was beautiful, i've always liked Port Erin as a town but i really loved visiting it on Wednesday, it was so sublime 

we sat on the beach for a while and i could not get over how busy it was! the place was packed . . . well, it was 'packed' for a Manx beach anyway!

Jenny turned up eventually so we chilled on the beach some more only with the added bonus of delicious Italian ice creams, the weather was perfect and i could have happily spent all day relaxing on that beach (and i'm so not a beach person!)

anyway, we actually spent the rest of the day mooching around cute shops in Castletown + Tynwald but unfortunately my piece of **** camera decided to give up on life while on the beach and it is now completely and utterly 100% broken!

i did NOT drop it in the sea or in fact drop it anywhere at all but despite this and despite 2 years of careful treatment it has decided to give up on me at last!

the good news is this means i get to buy a flashy new camera

the bad news is . . . i can't really afford to get one!

so this means that for the immediate future i'll have to take all my photos using my rubbish phone so apologies for the 'even crappier than usual' quality of the photos in posts to come!

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in other news . . .

Easter times ahoy!

this afternoon my mum called me into the kitchen where i found this delightful little display waiting for me on the kitchen table

these are my yummy Easter treats, an egg from my cousin Mandy, an pretty 'princess' egg, a bag of my fave chocolates + the gorgeous 'Bernie' Bear from my mum

love them all! i haven't eaten any chocolate since January so i look forward to scoffing these goodies on Sunday

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i also had a 'business meeting' today, now i can't really go into details about it (yet) but i can tell you that it's super duper exciting news for me + my arty stuff

the only problem is it's going to create soooooo much work for me i think i'm going to need an assistant!

hhhmm . . . too bad i can't afford to hire one! anyone fancy being my assistant for free?!

anyway it's fun times ahead so stay tuned dudes and dudettes!

ok i'm off to cook some food now, goodbye my lovelies, hope you enjoy your weekend wherever + whatever you're up to

that's all folks . . .

◕‿◕ ★ xX