A Letter To My Sixteen-Year-Old Self

This post is inspired by 'The Sleep Is For The Weak writing workshop prompt.'
For all your newbies here’s how it works… you are given 5 writing/blogging prompts. Pick one, pick two, or do them all if you’re really keen – it’s up to you. How you respond is your choice. You could share a real-life story, or make one up. You could write a poem or just free-write without thinking too hard and see what happens. It can be funny; it can be serious; it can be emotional. It can be whatever you want it to be. The only rule is to have fun with it! Find more details of this workshop at Sleep Is For The Weak.

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Dear 16 Year Old Me,

I know you don't like your mothers advice at the moment and think that she is your worse enemy but in 4 short years you will realise why she does the things she does. Your independence scares her and despite wanting you to grow in to a woman, she wants you to have a safe journey in life. Try to remember that being a mother is not easy, especially when she still mourns for your father and the advice that he could have provided. Don't argue as you will soon come to learn that she will become one of your best friends in the entire world.

Enjoy your freedom and embrace the wonderful man you will meet on 10th October 1998 with all your heart. He will become your world and make you endlessly happy. When you fall out with your school friends through important exams, this doesn't matter. The only thing that will matter is that you have met the most perfect man ever for you, and he will love and protect you and make you feel the most special person on earth.

Be glad that your grief is subsiding for your dad and that your love is growing and deepening every day for your one day husband.

Your life is now going well and be thankful for what you have and love who you love! Just try to be a bit nicer to your mum!

Love Me xx

Winter Fashion with La Redoute and Verbaudet

Brrrr! The weather is getting cold and it's time to wrap up. Say goodbye to baggy, unflattering clothing with La Redoute and Verbaudet. You can be sure that with these two French companies you will always get great quality, value for money and speedy service.

With the credit crunch requiring most people to tighten their purse strings, La Redoute enables us all to splurge and get more for our money with their unique 'Mini-price' range. All clothing designs are up to the minute and are made out of fabulous materials.

You are guaranteed to feel full of confidence wearing these lovely clothes and you get that glow of pride when people comment on how cute your little ones are looking.

I have ordered quite a few of the winter items from La Redoute and Verbaudet and what I found was that the delivery was speedy and that the clothes were accurate in their sizing as nothing had to be returned.

So here is my roundup of the favourite fashion items for this winter:



Clothes for lounging around.The first key look for this Winter is the baggy jumper, leggings and slouchy boots. La Redoute provides this with the light grey tunic-sweater £79,purple T-shirt£29,taupe leggings £29. They have a fabulous range of boots for you to choose from to complement this style.
Clothes for a winter stroll. If you fancy a nice winters stroll in the countryside you need something cosy and warm. Get this look with Long ecru duffle coat £79, Sweater roll neck £35, Belt £29, Jeans Tipster £35, Boots £149.


Clothes for looking chic. Get this look with the checked dress £59, black tights £9, taupe topstitched boots £85.



Clothes for Christmas shopping. Get this look with Ivory coat £109, Standard knit hat £9, Grey Rounded bag £109, Leggings £13.

Clothes for girly girls. Get this look with cardigan in fancy knit from£17,dusky pink roll-neck t-shirt from£8, embroidered flared skirt from£21.
Clothes for smart boys. Get this look with the khaki roll-neck sweater from£23, beige herringbone combat trousers from£19 .
Clothes for cute adventurers. Get this look with padded coat + gloves or mittens from£35,orange t-shirt from£8, beige cardigan from£21, beige corduroy trousers.

Clothes for winter walks. Get the look with aubergine hooded coat £25, clover beret + scarf£13, taupe trousers £13, plum high-cut padded trainers from£29.
Clothes for looking cute. Get the look with hooded cardigan,green,£11,denim trousers,stonewashed blue,£13,pack of 2 pairs of ankle socks,assorted,£6

Hope this provides you with some Christmas inspiration.

For more info go to www.laredoute.co.uk or www.verbaudet.co.uk

Personalised Christmas Plate

I bought this gorgeous personalised plate from a seller off Ebay. http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/kaz_pete4d3o

When it arrived it looked simply magical! Will look great on Christmas Eve with a carrot and mince pie on it. At the moment it is a centerpiece on my dining table.

Simply stunning!

Things that made me smile today!

• My son telling me he has pulled his incisor out!? Do you think he might be a dentist when he grows up?
  
• The fact that my baby stood for a few minutes by himself yesterday.
  
• My son taping a sign to the door reading 'Do not go for poos.' He had used all the toilet paper!

I love my kids!

Simply Colors personalised clothing

In a multi-coloured box, wrapped in multi-coloured tissue paper currently resides a fetching personalised turquoise sweatshirt; from Simply Colors. This sweatshirt feels like heaven against the skin as it is made of 100% supersoft cotton. Aside from the softness, you won't find Simply Colors on the high street. The unique range of clothes is available only from the most select part of the Internet.

Simply Colors is a baby and kids clothing brand that was launched in 2005. When a lady named Keeley Edge received a personalised t-shirt from her sister in Spain for her son, she loved the quality so much she wanted to buy more. Alas, it wasn't available in the UK; so she quickly signed up to be the UK manager. This is wonderful, as us lovely Brits can now buy these clothes.

When I first logged on to the website I was overwhelmed with the array of fonts, colours, images, sizes and array of clothes that were available. So much choice! I loved the fact that all the products came with an affordable price tag as well.

After giving birth to my second son in December 2008, I was keen to embrace the fact that my oldest son was now a big brother. He had waited 6 long years for this. After searching the high street stores for something commemorating this life change and finding nothing, it made me realise that most high street stores didn't expect kids over 5 to be welcoming the fact that they were a big brother.

So when I logged on to Simply Colors website I was most excited to see that I could literally personalise a clothing item in ANY way I wished. There's not much more that pleases a mother than being able to kit her offspring in luscious and enviable clothes. It's even better being able to do that in a credit crunch. What is wonderful about these clothes is that despite being personalised you don't see a hike in product cost when comparing them to plain sweatshirts on the market. The personalised hooded sweatshirt I ordered for my son cost just £20.85. It's more than personalising them though, as you are not just simply adding a name. You can add your own slogan, add your own image, choose your own colour. It's like being a fashion designer.

For Internet security issues, I won't be able to show a picture of my personalised sweatshirt for my son. But here are some fabulous examples of the designs:

Love this one! What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of your child!

How's this for a festive one? Humorous too.Simple but classy. Acknowledging that all important fact.

How cute will your little one look on Christmas Day sitting cutely in this one?

Any negatives about this product? Nope.
So why do we love this again?

• 100% supersoft cotton
• 10 vibrant colours to choose from
• Almost every item can be personalised with text.
• Choose from 17 different fonts in 21 different colours.
  
• They are affordable.
• THEY LOOK FANTASTIC!

I now have a very happy son!

Would be ideal for a Christmas present!
For more information visit www.simplycolors.co.uk

It's Official! Time to Put up the Tree!

Warm Wishes

Warm Wishes collection from RAZ: Large Knitted Ball ornaments; knitted wired stockings that can be gently shaped; knit reindeer and monkeys; warm caps and snowmen - make this a cozy Christmas tree, perfect for family rooms and dens.

Lakeland Christmas table ideas!

I am now officially in love with Lakeland! It has so many gorgeous offerings for Christmas! Everything I have ever bought from them as been quality! So in a bid to make my Christmas table look a bit more festive I scoured their website www.lakeland.co.uk

That's when I found these gorgeous items and ordered them straight away! I've now received them and I am ever so pleased!

The Christmas Reindeer Mats and Coasters instantly gleamed as I pulled them out of their packaging. Because of the unique foil design, when you look at them from a certain angle they have an iridescent glow about them that makes them look very magical. It's a simple design which works well; reindeer, trees and snowflakes holds an element of mystique as there are no detailed faces to be seen but just a red shadow effect. It's very magical indeed and we think Father Christmas is going to love them. At least I don't have to worry about him tipping mulled wine or mince pie crumbs on them though as they are cork-backed making them anti-slip and are melamine coated so they are easy to wipe clean.


Next up - is another little treasure I found. The Christmas check overcloth. I actually made a mistake with this as I thought I was ordering the tablecloth as a whole. But they actually come in separate parts; an overcloth and tablecloth (hence the labels A and B - silly me). I ordered the overcloth, nonetheless it is a absolutely beautiful. After seeing the quality, I am going to be ordering the tablecloth to make it look 100% perfect as it does in the picture above.

The overcloth is so beautiful and transforms my dining room. I imagine this sort of tablecloth appearing in the book Heidi, as it has that sort of alpine feel about it. It is intricately embroidered with fir trees, hearts and reindeer.

So hopefully this has given you some inspiration. Keep an eye on the blog for ideas for Christmas table centerpieces.

All products available from www.lakeland.co.uk

Roald Dahl 'Stupendous Stampers' by Top That! Publishing.

Stupendous Stampers is a quirky little set which comprises of 17 rubber stamps, an orange and green ink pad and a project idea book. The rubber stamps have Quentin Blake illustrations from Roald Dahl's book on them, so they are quite unique. I was quite intrigued to see what projects we could come up with using this pack, as a keen card maker myself I was full of ideas.

I was pleased to find however, that I didn't need to strain my brain cells too much as the project book contains loads of interesting ideas to create scrumdiddlyumptious goodies to tempt any child to craft. I was so pleased that Master Craftiness showed an interest as he usually turns his nose up at anything to do with stamping.

Being a keen rubber stamper, I was pleased to find that there was plenty of tips on how to rubber stamp properly.

The book is jam-packed full of great ideas. I will give you a round-up of the ideas which I loved:

• Transforming school ringbinders by adding an exciting design to the front. Imagine how impressed the teachers would be! Teachers love Roald Dahl.
• Enormous Crocodile wrapping paper. Every gift will look delightful if you wrap it in snappy wrapping paper.
• Willy Wonka Party Pack. This project shows you how to make a tablecloth, cups and plates all with the Willy Wonka design. You could even go one further than this and make Willy Wonka chocolate wrappers, and how about making a game out of it and adding golden tickets to them? The possibilities are endless...
• Matilda writing paper.
• BFG Balloons. It was great to see the design expand when we blew the balloon up.
• Fantastic Mr Fox envelopes.

If I was to improve this little kit at all, I would have added some more colours to the ink pads as orange and green was a little limited. But this wasn't a problem for me anyway as I have lots of coloured ink-pads. I think at £6.99, this little kit is incredible value.

Anyway, I wanted to show you a project which Master Craftiness and myself came up with.....

It was Autumn Festival in Master Craftiness's school and they ran a competition to compose a leaf collage. We trawled around and the leaves we found looked rather boring. That's when inspiration struck and we came up with our 'Roald Dahl leaves.'

We stamped all the leaves and background paper. It looked really interesting when finished.

The teachers loved it.

But not as much as we loved this kit! There are a few other kits in the range from Top That Publishing.
You have:
Magical Mischief
Silly Scribbles
Beastly Balloons
Fiendish Faces
Ghastly Grub
Terrible Tricks
Build Your Own Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory
Write Your Own Masterpiece with Matilda
Write Your Own Masterpiece with The Twits

They would make fantastic stocking fillers!

All available from what is fast becoming one of my favourite publishers ; Top That! Publishing

Wordless Wednesday

This is Master Craftiness ready for his Autumn Festival. He was met with lots of 'you look funny,' as not a lot of the other kids bothered to dress up. I was very proud of him as he managed to sing in the choir, despite being very uncomfortable in his costume.

Original Gift Company Christmas Express Train

If you are looking for a scene setter for Christmas, then this is it! Place this beneath a Christmas tree or as a table centrepiece and delight all your friends and family. It is little touches like this train that make a house look truly magical. In fact, when you have this in your household it turns your house into a lookalike of Santa's workshop. Truly magical! I found this treasure online at The Original Gift Company.

This is not a toy but a festive decoration. It is made of metal, hand-painted and embossed. As you can see from these photos the detail is really amazing.

It has articulated rolling wheels and is 31" long. I love the detail of the smoke

As soon as December arrives I will be filling up the carriage and train with Cadbury's Roses and candy canes.

Each carriage connects by a hook and loop. The train would look great with some fairy lights draped over it as well. I just love this item, if anyone else has any novel Christmas decorations, I would love to hear from you!

This one is exclusive to The Original Gift Company and priced at £29.95, but will last me forever.

Lakeland Bethlehem Advent Stable

Christmas is coming and what better way to build the excitement and anticipation than with an advent calendar. After evaluating the quality of this advent calendar, I almost feel like substituting the Marks and Spencer slogan. 'Not just any advent calendar, but a Lakeland calendar.' I admired this advent calendar in the Lakeland catalogue for a long while but struggled over the issue of price. It was £59.99, but is now on sale at £39.99, so for anyone who wants a treasure; buy it now. It is most certainly worth it!

Last Christmas I was very ill, I gave birth to my son on the 21st December (induced through having preeclampsia) and on Christmas Day I barely made it downstairs I was so weak. So I vowed this Christmas will be the best ever. SO I decided that meant creating the ultimate Christmas atmosphere, which involved getting the most out of this world calendar. Yes, this one......

So here is my review:

When the postman knocked on the door with the Lakeland package I was immediately surprised by the weight of the box. This calendar is no cheap, flimsy item. It is a heavy, well built, sturdy item that is going to last and last. In fact, I can envision this advent calendar being handed down from generation to generation.

When we pulled the advent calendar out of the box, the whole family gathered around to gasp over the beauty of it. December isn't here yet, and already it demands attention as it is just so beautiful. It has quickly become a centrepiece in my living room.

The whole scene looks like someone has waved a magic wand over a real life scenario, to create this miniature version. That's how realistic the calendar is. The rafters on the roof look real and feel real. You can almost smell the smell of the hay, and see the stars twinkle, as the whole scene is so atmospheric.

As you can see from the below photo, it looks just like the catalogue photo.

Here is the back of the calendar.

Inside the stable. How great is that????The scene is on a revolving base so that you can swivel around 360 degrees for easy access. Inside each of the 24 hinged boxes is a character to make up the Bethlehem scene. Below you can see the quality and details of the characters.

Amazing isn't it?

Whilst I don't see myself as particularly religious, I think it is good for children to know the background of why people celebrate Christmas. It's a lovely way of making Christmas a bit less commercialised and it's great that you don't have to pump your children full of sugar each day! We absolutely adore this calendar, it looks classy, is fantastic quality and drums home the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. Come Christmas Day, this scene is going to look absolutely amazing!

Verdict 5/5

Available from Lakeland

Lifft Sling

When I was asked to review the Lifft sling, I had no preconceptions. Ultimately, I thought that all slings were the same, and were destined to leave me with backache and a rather overheated wriggly baby. When my baby was newborn, I thought a sling would be the answer to all my problems. I thought that I would breeze around the house with baby happily in tow. Alas, after trying the Close carrier and the Wilkinet slings I thought that that would be the end of any babywearing for me. As a member of the ABM (Association of Breastfeeding mothers) I had read so many stories of positive stories of babywearing, which left me feeling frustrated when the slings I used didn't work for me. Too many fiddly strings and a wriggly baby was a nasty combination.

With my first son I didn't do any research, just bought the first sling that I found which was the Wilkinet sling - which was the worst thing I could have done. Struggling with the strings was enough to put me off straight away, and I never tried again until my second son.

Desperate to give slings a second try, I made sure I done my research the second time around. It was a tough decision - I couldn't make my mind up between the Close Carrier and the Lifft sling. In the end I went for the Close carrier because of the fact that I wanted me and my husband to be able to use the sling. The Lifft sling works specifically on sizes. I hated the Close carrier.

Anyhow, I received my Lifft sling and it looked very trendy with the Lifft logo emblazoning the front but I was very dubious and was holding out no hope of it actually working. That was when I was very pleasantly surprised!

I couldn't believe the simplicity of the design and how this design worked so well! There was no messing around; baby was in there within a few seconds. The instructions were easy to understand and baby was instantly contented. This was such a relief for me as I suffer with a curvature of the spine which made my back ache terribly after carrying my baby throughout the day. This was like an instant cure to my problem and my son seemed to love the closeness.

Because of my son's age (10 months) we could only test out the side position, I just wish I had tried this sling earlier.

What do I feel is different about this over other slings?

• The sling operates solely on size. So each sling is catered specifically around your build. Meaning that it doesn't droop anywhere and feels nice and snug. The most obvious difference is there no fiddling with buckles or ties.
• The Lifft sling is the only sling scientifically proven to improve posture whilst carrying your baby.
• The sling looks stylish and sleek

Before actually testing out the sling, I would have complained about the fact that a partner/husband wouldn't be able to wear as well. Now I have used it, I understand the way the sling operates and because it is so easy to get on and off it just makes babywearing bliss.

To roundup, my three favourite things about this sling:

• Ease of use
• It looks lovely wearing the sling; other slings can be quite ugly.
• Comfort when using.

And I loved the fact that when my son fell asleep on me with the sling, it didn't even wake him up when I removed him from the sling! Thanks to Lifft I have now found an element of freedom that I didn't know existed whilst having a baby! Thank you!

For more info see Lifft

Santa in the City Decorations

Lime Green and Pink Dot Balls

 

Dangling Ball Ornaments

 

Glass Cone Shaped Tree

Diva Heels

More to come!

Santa in the City!

 

Santa in the City!

Your whimsy tree! Polka dots, pinks, divas, reindeer, huge lighted balls and lighted Christmas presents. Cheery, fun tree!

Toy Story Mania - Wii

There are times when being a mum of boys is very hard work, particularly when it comes to play-time. We go down the crafty route a lot, but when it comes to playing it usually revolves bashing a few figures around in pretend fights. I don't think my knuckles can take much more in terms of toys bashing against them. So you can imagine my delight in discovering this game for the Wii. My favourite movie in the whole world is Toy Story, so I was more than pleased at the thought of some mother/son bonding time over a Wii game.

Putting it in to the Wii Machine, we set about playing and gathered our verdict..........

Firstly, it was great to be greeted with the familiar voice of Buzz Lightyear. No cheap voice imitations used here. This immediately made me warm to the game, knowing that we were able to interact with some of our favourite characters in a sense.

The game is based on a ride in Walt Disney World. If the game is anything to go by, the ride must be a lot of fun. We had fantastic fun and with over 25 games combining arcade style shooting and various arcade-style games we were spoilt for choice. Up to 4 players can play this game, which I am sure would make a good competitive evening. You also have the choice of wearing 3D glasses which come with the game, but unfortunately we weren't very impressed with this aspect. It seemed to make game play more disorientating.

The game contains over 25 mini-games in which you earn points which can be used to unlock bonus items. Whilst it's not a particularly challenging game for adults, it is a game children will enjoy as goals are obtainable. Choose between 'Story' or 'Free Play'. Story mode involves you completing the required objectives before you can unlock the particular level in free play. Once you have unlocked 'Free Play' mode you can pick and choose which level you want to play.

We particularly enjoyed:

• The range of shooting games which require point and click action. Great for improving hand - eye coordination in children. If you are playing multi-player on this game, this usually revolves you all falling around with laughter, whilst frantically trying to beat each other.
• Trying to hit the most targets.
• Doing a spot of fishing.
  
• Trying our strength with the hammer.
• Hamm's egg toss.
• Bo Peep and her balloon pop.
• Buzz Lightyear's ring toss.
• The Army Men's plate breaking.
• Woody's suction gun shooting.

The quality of the game is excellent and holds the same level of credence as the movie for me. Highly addictive and highly recommended! Would make a great Christmas gift!