I'm Home! And a Giveaway!

   First of all, I don't want you to think I didn't enjoy myself, because I did, but one of the best things about going away, is coming home. Sleeping in your own bed, using your own toilet, raiding your own fridge. It's comfortable, it's familiar, and you don't have a plane to catch as soon as you've finally settled in.

   But being away was a nice break. Seeg got another wisdom tooth out (two down, two to go), and it went better for us both this time because we knew what to expect, and because we had gone away for an extra couple of days to give us time to do things. The highlight was Burger's Zoo. It was magnificent. The zoo was enormous, with a load of indoor exhibits, which was great since it was raining for the first couple of hours, as well as great outdoor ones. The zoo was the most interactive I've visited so far, with a waterfall you can walk up to, bridges and streams to step over, and it really felt involved, and a lot more wild than it was.

   There were animals I'd never physically seen before, like manatees - and let me tell you, they are big - skunks, a lynx, hammerhead sharks, bears. It was awesome. And a lot of the animals I'd seen in my own zoo had bigger and better enclosures than in Bristol. I also had the best tomato soup of my life there, too. It was an amazing day out, and I'm so appreciative to Seeg's parents for buying all of the tickets.

   We also saw a friend of Seeg's twice, once he just came over, and the second time he accompanied us while we tended to final fun things on our last day (printing boarding passes, buying chocolate gifts, extra World of Warcraft booster packs and so on), before going back and playing card games.

   It was lovely to see Seeg's family, and I'm also thankful that they happily let us stay with them. The sofa bed was actually very comfortable, but being an unfamiliar place, I didn't sleep all that well.

   While Seeg was recovering from the breaking out of his tooth, we watched the program 'Avatar: the Last Airbender' - I'd seen the movie, which was shit, but I have thouroughly enjoyed the program. It's hilarious, it's sad, and it's so imaginative. I love it. And I love Iroh, he is the best. "I know you shouldn't cry over spilt tea, but it's just so sad!" I'm also making myself a t-shirt with Appa on it, because, while I wasn't fond of him at all in the movie, I've grown to love him in the program. It's just a bloody shame that stuffed toys of him (cartoon version, not movie version - they have different faces) are so bloody expensive. There's a lush 18" one in Nickolodeon Universe, but with shipping from the US, it brings it up to £30. It's still buckets cheaper than the 20" one (£79.99!!!!!) on Amazon and elsewhere, though, but it's still not something I can afford.

   We got through seasons 1 and 2 in a week. We had to take it slow because we never brough the third and final season with us, thinking 2 would be more than enough.

   Oh, we also went into a supermarket and I managed to speak three different languages to the woman at the checkout, none of which were Dutch. She just kept speaking to me in Dutch, I think I confused her massively, so she just carried on xD I knew what she was saying, and she knew what I was saying, but it was a most comical exchange.

   I'm happy to be back, though, and I've brought with me some ideas for new products, and a giveaway, as promised, consisting of a few things I picked up while we were away, and a special version of one of my new products inspired by the Netherlands.

   The giveaway is open worldwide, and can be entered using Rafflecopter below. There is only one winner, and the prize is: a peanut-shaped pencil eraser (seriously, it's so awesome), a wooden, hand painted clog keyring, and a handmade necklace by yours truly featuring a row of typical Dutch houses. Yes, the majority of buildings do look like this, atleast everywhere I've been, and it's really quite awesome.

   Necklaces of individual Dutch houses will be up in my shop shortly! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

   It's great to be back, and normal blog broadcasting will now resume. I enjoyed my game posts, even if you didn't (in fact I notice I lost a follower, but I won't cry over it - I don't fake my blog, and if someone doesn't like what I talk about, then that's absolutely fine. I wouldn't follow a blog I didn't enjoy, either), but I've picked up a few ideas for tutorials while I was away that I'm looking forward to trying out and sharing, if it all works out. There's also likely to be a post soon of photographs from the zoo, if any of them came out well.

   Keep your eyes open for some new tutorials. Hopefully. They might all fail miserably. And, of course, if they do, and fail spectacularly, I'll let you all know how badly I failed (once I'm over it).

   I really hope you're all well and happy, do let me know if anything interesting or exciting has happened for any of you! And a special thank you to Marieken Hoefnagel of Invisible Crown for notifying me of the expected temperature of the Netherlands just before we went away. I packed a t-shirt, and I'm so glad I did, because I didn't need a coat that day at all, and even long sleeves would have been too much.

   My shop is running as normal again, with orders being posted out in the usual time frame, but no more orders will have free gifts included as of Monday the 22nd.