I've had to update the way my blog looks because something went wrong and I had sad emoticons all over it instead of my header and what not. I enlisted the help of the amazing Stepan ... who listened to me, heard what I was saying and even more importantly, what I wasn't. He was patient and probably pretty annoyed at my really slow response time - but he never showed it!
Thanks to him, my blog has been saved and has a new look!!

If you need Stepan here are his contact details - highly recommended if you're in the market for a blog makeover!

Stepan Jakl, Bohemica Studio www.bohemicastudio.com Stepan@bohemicastudio.com

Get in touch with him, he’s great! What do you think of the new look? 

In April this year, I did something I've never done before - I solo travelled with a baby. That's right, I went on a plane with baba and we flew all the way to Canada for my best cousins wedding. It was simultaneously amazing, terrifyingly frightening and a tiny bit liberating - that small sense of achievement and independence.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare but spent so much time trying to get a different seat (one more suitable for myself and baby) that when I went through security they said if I didn't go now, I'd miss my flight. The woman checking my flight details demanded to know what time I had arrived and why I was there so late... I told her we've been here for ages. I explained that I was with the airline people, not just lounging about killing time!

I sailed across a sea of marshmallows!

If you're thinking of doing it, my advice - just do it. Deal with things as they come, for me that's the best way. And try and stay calm. It'll work out - that's what I keep telling myself!

I've always wanted to have a go at baby wearing - I love the idea of carrying your baby close to you, and it always looks super comfortable when I've seen people do it. I knew I wanted to baby wear before I had Baby B so had been looking around for woven wraps - that's what I had hoped to carry baby in.

Our Ergobaby in Canada

There is a plethora of woven wraps out there and they come in all sizes and many different prices. At first I didn't realise how expensive hand woven wraps can be but it wasn't until I talked to my lovely friend over at March Hare Handwovens that I came to understand why. So much work goes into making a wrap. So much love! The wrap is designed, materials are chosen, dyed and woven and I'm sure that isn't even everything. What I do know is that the process involves time and dedication and therefore I completely understand why some of them are expensive. I also understand how you could spend so much money on one - they are so beautiful and you can ask for them to be made in whatever colours/pattern you like. You can be picky and base the wrap on you.

Unfortunately for me, I, at the time, wasn't able to buy an actual hand woven wrap from March Hares Handwoven like I Diva Milano wrap - a pretty one!
had originally wanted to, even though she offered me a really good price. Instead I was fortunate enough to have been gifted a

I Googed how to wrap and when the time came, I did wrap Baby B a few times with help, but I wasn't confident enough in myself to do it. I even went to a sling library but it was so busy that they weren't able to help!! So in the end, I decided to see if there were other ways I could carry baby. I know now that had I persevered and built up my confidence, I would have been able to wrap Baby B without a problem!

There were plenty of other ways to carry Baby B and I ended up buying an Ergobaby 360. It was between Ergobaby 360 and Tula Explore - as with both these carriers you can carry babies front facing whilst they are ergonomically positioned (basically the baby is supported well). The Ergobaby was easier to find so for me, it was the best buy! And let me tell you, I haven't looked back since. Of course given the chance I would use the Tula Explore and wrap again for sure, but the Ergobaby comes everywhere with us! Everywhere!

I'm not even kidding - even if we've taken the pushchair, the carrier still comes.

Do you have a must have item you take everywhere with you? What is it?

So turns out trimester three is not the last hurdle ... there is actually something called trimester 4. Trimester 4 is the first three months after your baby is born. The same amount of time a baby is classed as a newborn! 

Baby B arrived exactly on the day the midwife told us she would. The due date. Her due date. Our little girl seemed to have no interest in coming out and waited patiently the whole time. Finally when she did arrive, it was surreal. I remember looking at her during the night and thinking 'she's mine, oh my!' She slept so quietly the first few days, waking up to feed and then slipping straight back into a deep sleep. That's how the first week has was, and for a very short while she stayed like that, eating and sleeping. 

My mandatory foot photo

This year has gone both fast and slow. There have been times where I've waited for the weeks to pass and others have gone too fast - so a mixture I'd say - good nonetheless. There haven't been many blog posts this year - you'll have noticed that I've been on and off with the posts, less consistent, sporadic and slightly annoying, both for myself and for you as my readers. But I have tried to post wherever I can - honest! I'm hoping that I'll get better with consistency and timing - in both life and blogging :).

2017 has been a big year in the life of F, maybe not so much for That Delete Button but definitely for me personally. Some of these events, milestones, whatever you may want to call them have been blog worthy but because I haven't had much time, I've not always been able to blog about them. So, I'm going to do a mini reflection of the past year instead so you can know what the heck I'm rambling on about!

If I had blogged about a few of these reasons, I think my blog would have been doing a little better. Maybe I'll blog about these things soon!

Things I've done in 2017:

• Tied the knot: So I got engaged and religiously married in 2016 but had a bigger, more formal-ish wedding in 2017. That's right, we had a few too many parties - too many dates to remember - but I wouldn't change it. That was the highlight of my year - our wedding. It went fast but I loved how family and friends all came together and had fun! I'm contemplating making a blog post with photos of it...thoughts?

• Malaysia: We travelled to Malaysia and it was soooo good, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur - I have blogged about this so go read it if you want to know more!

• Rome: another place we explored was Rome. More posts about Rome to come!  

• Teaching: After doing the CELTA I didn't get a job abroad - the timing wasn't right - but I did manage to do some teaching here in the UK. I taught in two different places and both were different. It's weird how different educational establishments can be so varied in their approach - also the backgrounds of the students matter too! The first time round the students were very talkative and the second time, they were focused but made things fun for themselves! People are quite amazing!

• Oh and one final thing - my blog turned five this month! Yes, that's right, That Delete Button is five years old!! FIVE!!!

I promise I'll try to blog about some of the things mentioned above soon - let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to know more about!!

What have you done over the last year?  What are you particularly proud of?

*note: This is the third time I'm writing this post. I had finished it and then didn't save it properly so lost most of it!!!...sigh... Here I go, again!*

After buying the Inayah collection hijabs, my cousin and I decided to order a Pearl Daisy hoojab. They also had a sale on...

So I have to say I was quite excited about this. I've been wondering for a while if I should get one of these hijabs to try out but never had the courage to take the plunge - till I talked about it to my lovely cousin and she said let's order together. I say I never had the courage because these are different from my usual hijabs but they always look so lovely on others. The thing is, I'm, well, how shall I put this without offending myself, lazy. My hijab style takes around two minutes to do and so the idea of having to do something that requires me to think stresses me out!! Hahah, I'm kidding, I'm just super lazy.


Anyway, I ordered and got a really sweet email to say that my package was wrapped with care and waved off by the lovely shop assistants and it was on it's way. Boy was I excited!
It arrived pretty soon after in a pink package with the Pearl Daisy logo on top so I knew exactly what it was and what to expect when opening the package - sweet!

So I opened it and first thoughts on it were: 'woah, it's long'. I'm only little and so the hijab seemed very long. I mean come on, I held the thing up folded in half and it was the same height as I am!!! Imagine wrapping something twice my height around my head -  I couldn't really see how it was going to work on me! So I did what any grown sane minded person would and put it back into the pack and left it for the night. However, I do have to say that the material is super lovely - it's soft and feels great to touch! Bonus.

The next morning I got up and thought to myself, 'right F, you have to give it a go' - and so, I went on YouTube - this tutorial to be precise - and watched it. Then I tried it on myself. It went ok and I have to admit it take too long.

Initially when I tried it I couldn't wrap it around properly as I don't really know how to create folds, but after watching the video it was quite simple. I haven't mastered it properly yet but that will come when I try it a little more. I think these are great because it's really easy to experiment and try different styles using the same hoojab! I haven't taken any photo's of myself but I shall do soon and I'll like them back to this post. :) I got a lot of compliments from my lovely friends who promised me that if they didn't like it they would have said!

Would I buy them again? Well I already ordered a few more after my first purchase so that answers that question. And I'm really looking forward to visiting the Pearl Daisy shop soon!!

Have you tried these? What are your thoughts?

Whilst having a super lovely catch up with my friends last week, this question came up:


Actually, that wasn't the question exactly. The actual question was what would you do if you won the lottery but, religiously, I can't play the lottery - it's ok, I'm actually ok with this so please don't worry yourself too much. Therefore I tweaked the question a little. The question is still the same because the focus here isn't on where the money had come from, it's what you'd do once you had it.

What I'd do if I came into a lot of money, for myself, - is what I've always wanted to do and in actual fact, I don't need money to do this. See, my grand master plan, in an ideal world, ultimately, would be to leave - travel the world. I'd work random jobs, meet amazing people and eat way to much food. I'd volunteer along the way and help in any way I can, hopefully teach and write.

That's it. That's what I want to do. Here's the thing, my answer here, doesn't depend on money. What struck me is that, for myself, I wouldn't actually use much of it.

Ok, granted, if I had more money I'd be able to fund further study for myself and buy a house - which I could then rent out whilst I travelled, but that wasn't my first thought when asked this question. My first thought is to do something that doesn't depend on money, something that I can do already. How stupid is that?!

For sure I'd spend the money - I'd give some to family members or buy investments for them (like a house, flat, fund business/study - something that will help them in the long term). I'd help towards that deposit my friend has been working so hard to save, I'd fund study for my friends, help to buy out the flat one lives in so he can have it for himself. I'd help another start a business and complete her studies. I'd donate to charities - build wells, houses, hospitals, bridges and roads. Give to schools and universities, help to build more educational establishments and I'd pour money into research. And then, the rest, I'd put it into my bank account and save it for a rainy day, use a little where I needed it, just dip into it, it'd be my safety net if, for some reason, I ever has to stop working.

And that's it, that's what I'd do. Only I don't really need all of that money to do what I really want do I?

Maybe money isn't always as important as we make it out to be. Yes, it can buy us things and make us feel good, it can be a step in the right direction towards achieving our dreams, but, we should be our own driving forces. We are the root to our own happiness.


What would your answer be? What would you do if you came into a lot of money?