This is a bit of a special (text heavy) post, introducing a very special little dinosaur.
Last month, I proposed to Dan. I should mention now - to avoid any suspense ruining the story - he said yes!
Due to various problems with the postal system, the ring should have been with me last December. So I had a lovely proposal plan all ready for Christmas. But it was delayed. So I had a lovely proposal plan all ready for our anniversary in January. But it was still delayed. I thought at a push, I could make use of the leap year tradition of women proposing to men. But alas, still no ring. (Although I'm quite glad about that one - I didn't like the idea of doing it on the one day Society "allows" women to do the asking!)
Finally, it arrived early May. But how do you make a proposal special in lockdown?
So, I organised a scavenger hunt, with a series of clues to help him find me - I was hiding somewhere inside the house. Now, our house is not very big, it doesn't have built in wardrobes you can hide in, there's no loft, it is not easy to hide in our house. I was giggling for a week before the day, at the super-cunning place I had come up with. Dan was very bemused at all this.
In our kitchen there is a little cubby where we keep our recycling and spare plastic bags etc. But the manic miner curtain you see here is not in fact the back of the cubby - behind that curtain we have the space underneath the stairs to the house above us. Interestingly, I have discovered this space is known as the spandrel - so I was in fact hiding in a concealed spandrel.
So I made Dan go into the front garden for a few minutes while I got into place, with instruction on where to find the first clue.
The rhyming couplet clues led him to a number of lovely memories - the first book we read together, the first stuffed toy he won for me at Chessington and so on.
Eventually, he got the final clue and found me.
I guess I was lucky Dan didn't get thirsty during the hunt and get a coconut milk from the cupboard!
After I clambered out of my concealed spandrel, he gave me a big hug, but I told him it wasn't over just yet. I had one more clue in my pocket - a little harder than the others, but that it would lead him to a special little someone.
When he worked out the last riddle, he found a little felted dinosaur wearing a ring on his arm. Because of supply issues during the pandemic the ring maker had run out of ring boxes, so I thought a dino would make an excellent alternative.
Why a dinosaur, you ask? Because the ring had an inlay of fossilised Tyrannosaurus Rex bone, from this
awesome shop who I highly recommend.
And so, yes, Dan and I are now engaged. Although for obvious reasons, we aren't even starting to think about plans yet.
Anyway, now, let's finally get to why you are really here. For needle felted goodies! This is him a couple of weeks later - he's handed over responsibility of the ring to Dan now.
Look at those dorky little fangs he's got!
He likes sitting here as the flowers really bring out his eyes. Speaking of which, I'm not very good at doing eyes generally and Dan is always encouraging me to push myself on them. So I paid particular attention to them here. I was quite pleased with how they turned out.
