Oof Oof's (Monkey's to you and me!!)

The weekend before last me and Tim took our 2 year old niece to the Monkey Forest at Trentham Gardens.

It's near where I'm originally from, but it wasn't there before I moved - it's such a cool place!

Our niece really likes monkeys, she takes a toy one to bed - he's been named Oof Oof by her (think of the noise that you make to try anf copy monkeys and thats how is pronounced).
Oof Oofs is also her word for all monkeys, just to confuse!

Here's the blurb from the website (because it explains it so much better than me)...

Get up close and personal at Trentham Monkey Forest set in 60 acres of beautiful Staffordshire woodland and meadows where 140 monkeys live in total freedom. You are plunged into the fascinating world of the Barbary macaques as you hear rustling in the trees, chattering in a strange language and see the monkeys crashing through branches.

The three-quarter mile winding forest path takes you through the monkeys home and gives you a great insight into this fascinating primate and how they live in their native Morocco or Algeria. Guides along the path will give you information on the monkeys and what they are getting up to and don’t miss our hourly feeding talks to see some more monkey antics!

All of the monkeys have a really large area of the forest to range in, and their only restriction is a perimeter fence.

Humans aren't allowed off the pathways, and you have to giveway to crossing monkeys!

Here are some of the monkey's...

Feeding time

Part of their woodland home

a comtemplative monkey elder 

teenagers just hanging around

Despite the blue sky in that last photo it was throwing it down with rain for most of the time we were there. We were prepared for rainy weather because its always rains in that area!!

Our niece had her croc shoes on and was loving splashing in the puddles until she stepped into a particularly muddy one and her feet got stuck. We had a change of clothes for her, but the socks were missing, so we had to make a trip to the gift store for fresh warm socks :) 

It was a really fun day, and we ended up having dinner at Frankie & Benny's - yummy Calzone for dinner, brilliant!

(I have some very sweet pictures of our niece but I've not asked her parents for permission to post them, so don't feel that its right I should share them x)

Day 9 - Weekend Plans

Weekend Plans...

Friday
- Make Sloe Gin (start it off) - which means mixing up Gin, Sloe's and Sugar, then waiting 3 months!
- Relax with Tim

Saturday
- Pick up dress for formal 'do' with work
- Visit Nanna and take her shopping
- Look for jewelry to go with my dress

Sunday
- Visit Brother-in-Law and his family
- Play with 2 yr old niece for the day
- Probably draw lots of cats for my niece (she loves them!!)

Day 8 - Things that remind me of my childhood

- The smell of paint (my dad was a painter and decorator and the smell of paint always reminds me of him!)

- 'Tomorrows World' & 'The Krypton Factor' TV shows

- Stationary (I've always been obsessed with it) all of the desk drawers in my bedroom were full of stationary and I would quite happily spend hours in Partners!

Day 7 - I'm not very good at...



- Singing - I so so bad at singing, but I still sing aload in the house and sing so load in the car that I end up with a very bad throat after a long journey!

- Finishing craft projects

- Telling Jokes - I can never remember the punch lines

- Mornings - I really hate the getting up part! Once I'm up I take ages to actually wake up and my husband is banned from talking to me in the mornings for atleast half an hour (weird I know but I've always been the same. Once I'm awake I love mornings, but the waking up bit is hard!

- Being tidy - I'm good at tidying up, but then the tidyness goes wrong very very quickly.

- Watching programs I've recorded on sky plus - Tim insisted I add this one

Day 6 - Favourite Colour Combinations

- Autumn Colours

- Deep Pink, Chocolate Brown & Green

- Purple & Brown

- Natural shades of Green

- The colours of the rainbow (but they have to be in the right order, they can't be mixed up!)

Day 5 - I need an App for...

- Doing the housework

- Cooking healthy meals that are also delicious!


I really struggled with this one as even though I have an iPhone i don't relaly have much use for a lot of Apps.

Firstly - I'm on catch up here, I've been writing my lists through the week, but I've not had chance to get online at home. may I should have added an app for blogging to this list.

Day 4 - Things to do on a Sunday

Things to do on a Sunday...

- Snuggle
- Read a book
- Eat a yummy lazy breakfast
- Watch Sunday morning TV

After I took the photo I also added Visit Family x

I hope everyone has a wonderful sunday x

Day 3 - People I Love

- My Husband, Tim
- My Mum
- My Nanna
- My Closest Friends
- My Family

- Neil Gaiman - for his amazing imagination and skills as a storyteller
- People who create - anything no matter how big or how small (that creation is)
- People who choose to share their knowledge with others


Although we are only three days in I'm really enjoying writing these lists.

Even though we got the prompts quite early I've been waiting until the daily list is announced to write my particular list, as I want these lists to really show how I'm thinking on a particular day.

If you are joining in with 30 Days of lists, how are you going about the writing of them?

30 Days of Lists - I'm happiest when...

This was a bad choice of pen colour, I'm happiest when...

- I'm with my husband Tim

- I'm learning new things

- I'm reading

- I'm with good friends

- I'm snug-a-bug warm

- colours are in the right rainbow order (especially pens and pencils) - just to clarify this Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, blue, Indigo, Violet!

- crafting

- watching a good film at the cinema

I don't usually think about this conciously so it was really nice to do so :) 

What makes you happy?

30 Days of Lists - Day One

September is here and with it the start of 30 Days of Lists which I've really been looking forward to!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyones lists, I've just been having a look at everyones lists and I'm already inspired by them!

Here is my first list...

1. Start making some christmas presents - I have the supplies for several things that I'm making this year (I've been on a mission to start early for this christmas, I usually leave it too late to give as many handmade gifts as I'd like!)

2. Read atleast 2 of the books I've borrowed off friends and family - I have a mini stash of such books, and at the minute this stash is building as I'm doing most of my reading on my kindle.

3. Return the books to friends and family once they are read! - I usually end up keeping them for ages, in fact I have one outstanding return at the moment that I need to get to my friend

4. Settle into my new work routine properly - I'm in my 3rd week of my new job now, and the change has really thrown me! All of the learning I'm doing is really fun, but very tiring and I'm doing next to nothing with my evenings. I want to get into a new routine that means I can enjoy my evenings without being too tired for work the next day!

5. Do some things to customise my blog - it's all template-y at the moment, and I have a plan for a banner and a few other things which I want to update on here!

6. Make at least one of the free kits that I get with my 'Mollie Makes' subscription - this is a relatively new UK based crafting magazine which I fell in love with straight away and subscribed to. There is a free mini kit with each issue and I haven't made one yet!! They are too cute to be left in their packaging un-used.

7. Carry on my healthier eating start to my new job - healthy eating is something that I'm not great at, and I get into bad habits really easily! Starting my new job has helped me change a lot of bad habits and I really want to keep them up with the hopeful side effect of loosing some weight!

My list book was originally going to be handmade, but my Mum randomly brought me this cute book and its perfect for lists so my 30 days will be within this...

I hope you enjoy reading my lists!

g'night x