Hello Twenty-Twelve!

Happy New Year Peeps!

Hope you all had fun welcoming in 2012?  My boys & me had a super night of miniature food, watching a dozen different fireworks displays from the comfort (& dryness) of our own living room window, & Jools Holland on the tellybox.  Perfect.

And of course there was a little reminiscing on the year gone by. 

Can you guess what's coming next?  Yes of course, it's the obligatory 2011 review...

2011 was a busy old year - a bit of a rollercoaster, but with more ups than downs, so yay.

Highlights included Paul Weller & Kings of Leon at Hyde Park, Bill Bailey at The Brighton Centre, and of course, partying with Postman Pat on his birthday (and mine!)

Short-stuff and I tried our hand at gardening - with reasonable success - definitely enough to convince us to keep it up this year anyway.

Kooky Boutique had a pretty great year - I finally have a site design I love, and the feedback I've had from happy customers makes me allsorts of smiley.

Music-wise, I continued my love affairs with The Arctic Monkeys & Elbow - both of their new albums were amazing.  I fell for Eliza Doolittle, and even learned to love Lady Gaga.

On the tellybox, I continued to be shamelessly hooked on Hollyoaks & Glee, and added American Horror Story to my sky+ box.  (Which frankly, scares the bejeesus out of me - it was Darren's pick, and I hate him for it because now I'm gripped & must see how it ends, despite the fact it gives me nightmares.)

At the cinema, my favourite was The Inbetweeners movie.  I know, I know, I'm not a 16 year old boy, I shouldn't find it funny.  But I do, really a lot.

I've crushed on Noel Fielding and Neil Patrick Harris (yes, I know I'm far too female for him, but he's still delicious), and I'm still holding out for Jamie Carragher, especially since having seen him in real life at my very first football match in September.

We haven't been on holiday, but have had oodles of fun days out here and there.  Time spent with my boys is pretty much perfect regardless of where we go - keeping a toddler entertained certainly makes you appreciate the joy of the simple things in life.  Stomping round the park, paddling in the sea, feeding the ducks... all good stuff.

This year's been a massive learning curve for me as a mummy - toddlers are way harder work than tiny little babies, but they're a whole lot of fun too.  I had a mini meltdown yesterday at the fact we're just 4 months away from having a t-h-r-e-e year old, but deep down, I can't wait.  I'm loving watching him grow up.  He's a little monster, but he's amazing.  So clever, and funny, and caring.  Such a curious little dude - always into something, always smiling, always making me & the tall one smile too.

All in all, life is pretty great, and I can't wait to start another year full of memories like these:

So as far as 2012 goes, I'm excited! I love that feeling that comes with a new year - all full of posibilities and ideas.

As always, I have a whole lot of ideas buzzing round in my head, but we'll get to those in due course.

For now, I'll just wish you all a very happy new year - remember, 2012 can be pretty much anything you want it to be if you put in the leg work - so grab hold of it & make it an amazing year! ♥