Healing HEARTS

 Since my last post on Heart Photography and Visualization, where I told you about my "heart challenge",  I have continued to photograph even more hearts and post them on my Instagram account (For those of you who don't YET follow my Instagram you can see some of them when you scroll below) 
I mentioned that It all started out as a way of "intentionally looking"  but ended up with each heart being a message to me of:-

Two years and counting....

 Henibean is 2 years old today! 
I know I've not been as diligent at writing over the last month... it's been a difficult time... and I haven't felt much like sitting and tapping out my thoughts on the keyboard ....but hey this blog is about balance ... and you have to cut yourself some slack sometimes don't you? 


A lot has happened in the last two year and today I wanted to

Sanity Space - Heni's birthday mural (Part 2)

I'm so glad that you could join me this week for the second part of Heni's 21st birthday "surprise project". As you have probably guessed by now, it's an outside mural which is going to brighten up a dreary deck and be an area in which Heni can go explore some of her toys and sensory bits and pieces.
 Last week in part 1, I showed you how Hubby and I made the huge picture frame that was to become the canvas, and I  also gave you a sneak peak of the flamingo  below...

This week I am going to show you some of the various stages and changes to the project so that you can see how it progressed and took shape throughout the 7 afternoons that it took to complete! 

21 today!

 21 Today! 

I thought I would just quickly add a few pictures from the beach yesterday (of the birthday girl in her early birthday pressie hat) for you to take a peek at. 

Sanity Space - Heni's 21st "Surprise" Birthday Project (Part 1)

It's  going to be Heni's 21st birthday next week..... a very special milestone in hers, and our lives...... AND it's  also a day that I never pictured or envisaged we would ever reach.  To celebrate and mark the occasion, one of the things I wanted to do was to give her a gift in to which had gone a little thought... something that required some sweat equity, some time and a lot of love.
 ......and so for the last few months I have been dreaming up ideas, planning away and working on a project that I thought she would really like. 

Last year we transformed an old trampoline in to a swinging teepee tent, and this year I had ambitions to make over another section of the garden that has been unloved and neglected.... a deck at the back of the house that hardly gets used and has a boring brick wall at the end of it (a by product of our neighbour's extension). In my minds eye, I had a plan to hide the ugly wall and in doing so make it a fun bright area for Heni to go outside and use and enjoy on nice weather days.

Hubby helped me with the first part of the project (today's blog post) and a friend of mine helped me on part 2 (coming real soon!)

I enlisted Hubby for his wood working skills (and of course his state of the art power tools and truck to collect materials!)

Blog birthday.... 1 Today!

One year ago today, Henibean was born.... it all started with my Hello post.  At that time I had a goal to reach 100 blog posts in a year and I am happy to report that goal was accomplished on Friday last week... so today, on Henibean's  first blog birthday, it's just  the cherry on the cake with post 101!  

Eating "In" with food intolerances - The Hungry Boy's Birthday Cake

The Hungry Boy turned thirteen yesterday and he wanted to have a celebration cake made out of his favourite flavours....chocolate and mango! Yesterday morning I set a few hours aside, donned my apron and rolled up my sleeves and got stuck into having a go at making a gluten free/dairy free cake good enough to eat for his birthday. Luckily we have introduced eggs  back in to our diets every now and again and so the prospects of it turning out OK (and not falling to pieces) were hanging in my favour.
I decided to use a Mary Berry's chocolate cake recipe and change it around to accommodate our food intolerances. You can find the original recipe here.

These are the cake ingredients that I used below. 

Birthday project - Heni's Hanging Teepee

As you read this post I will probably be mid air on my way to Italy for a respite break with daughter number two and won't be back until the end of next week.... while I'm away I will be computerless and so this will be my last post for a week.  
Today I  thought I would leave you with a post that tells you all about a project that we completed recently for Heni's 20th birthday.  

I had seen a really fun looking hanging teepee swing on Pinterest that I really liked and thought that Heni (and the other kids) might enjoy having one.... (another cool area to hang out in the summer other than her swing). However, I didn't want to pay the extortionate megabucks that they cost and knowing that the boys are always up for a project AND we had a whole week where we had Niamh around to provide some respite... we decided to have a go at making one ourselves.

Incompatible with life?.........Happy Birthday.... 20 today!

Twenty years ago today we were waiting anxiously... wondering if we would ever get to meet our little Henibean....alive.... as we had been warned by doctors that trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) was incompatible with life.

Today we  have been celebrating Heni's 20th birthday...

We never would have imagined  at the beginning of those 20 years that she would be here right now and that she would still be gracing our lives with her presence.
Today my post is a tribute and a birthday wish to our little Henibean....