Jubilee Shubilee, I'm staying home and eating cake!

Everyone has gone Jubilee crazy! Myself included. All that I have been hearing about for weeks is "What are your plans for the Jubilee weekend?". You almost felt as though you have to had to have something planned otherwise you will be frowned upon.

However, I have been looking forward to the celebrations, street parties and the whole build up to it all.Let's face it, it is a huge achievement for the queen of our country and the silver Jubilee was celebrated 35 years ago when I was born, so I especially wanted to do something this time around.

But then, the weekend began and it started to rain a bit. Then it rained some more. Then (excuse my French) it pissed down! Bank holiday weekends have such reputation for having crap weather and this was no exception. Cold, wet and miserable! My daughter made some flags and a crown at her nursery in preparation for this weekend and we were really looking forward to enjoying a day out.

Looks like we have to run the phase two or three back up plans, which is to stay in or go to a close-by friend/family/neighbours house if they are celebrating at home. I'm in front of the TV watching the queen about to board the boats on the river Thames and then it dawned on me. I get a better view of this day being at home than watching from any cold and wet river bank.My heating is on and I'm just about to put the kettle on too, to have some tea and Jubilee style gingerbread men that I got from Tesco's (I'm so classy lol).

If you decided to stay at home today too, I'm glad to hear it. Put the kettle on and raid the snack cupboard just like me or you may prefer to get cracking on your Jubilee style treats.

1. Jubilee style cupcakes
2. Jubilee cake
3. Jubilee biscuits

Enjoy your Jubilee weekend, whatever that you decide to you :)

What a crafty one!

I've been hit by a bug that I never saw coming. It came totally out of the blue. No warning signs or anything like that. Now that I am infected, who knows what will happen from here. I have been hit with the craft bug! Oh yes, it comes to us all eventually, but it appears that it is officially my turn to be struck down with this infectious bug.

 I was never the most academic of children at school, but I did enjoy my home economics and art classes as it was better than sitting through a boring history or maths lessons. Being quite a quirky teenager, I loved the way that I could be as creative as I wanted to be, as thankfully for me, that was always acceptable in those sorts of classes. Clay modelling, jewellery making, sewing and paper crafts were among my favourite things to do back then. Being the quirky kid with the big Deirdre Barlow glasses and retainer braces wasn't cool when I was growing up.  I was very into the vintage/retro thing back then, which hard for my peers to understand as they were the typical teenagers who liked modern 90's style and culture. I really just wanted to fit in and end up doing a respectable career that was "normal" and acceptable. Had I have gone home to my parents and said that I wanted to my some sort of crafter, I doubt that would have gone down too well.

Before I knew it was time to head to college. Time for pastures new and to set the wheels in motion for what I wanted to be when I was a fully fledged adult. It was such an exciting time for me....................until I actually got there. I loved the socialising and meeting new people, some of which are very close friends up until today. But, during my lessons, I was bored stiff!  In fact, I hated it with a passion. It was a huge culture shock to the system, and unlike school where I had craft lessons to look forward to, there was nothing that I felt could keep me there and interested in going to college. I eventually passed my boring courses (god only knows how) and then done the really clever thing of getting a job that had nothing to do with what I studied for in the first place! The years went by and I hardly ever did any crafty stuff at all. In fact, it became non existent. "Wonder Web" would sort out any loose hems and the dry cleaners would do anything else that I would just find too difficult. Even sewing on a button was seen as being a bit of a chore. What had happened to me?

More years rolled on by, I became a mum and I got my first year of not working since the age of seventeen. It wasn't quite "not working", as I was on maternity leave, but all the same, it was bliss. Although the first few weeks were tough with sleepless night, stitches and sore nipples to contend with, things soon settled down and I had a lot of time to think/reflect. Having all this time on my hands on maternity leave, I got to check out all the crafty things that I missed out on and re-lit my passion for it all. I have collected many books and have spent a quite a bit of time investigating all the different sorts of craft techniques out there. Initially, I was scared out of my wit as I haven't done anything crafty since leaving secondary school. However, I'm so excited and rearing to go that this time around, I'm not going to let anything put me off. I've been bitten by the craft bug and there'a no escaping it now.

Here are my top three craft books, that are easy to follow and I refer to regularly:

                          

 Now, I'm not going to leave my job and start a craft business, but I will make a promise to myself to follow my heart and do things that makes me happy. Look out for up and coming blog posts dedicated to my love for all things handmade, vintage or darn right weird.  You've been warned.............

Are you a Handbag Contents Hoarder?

So here is the scenario. You are in a supermarket, queueing up to pay for your goods. The lady in front of you is being served by the cashier. She promptly goes into to her handbag, locates her purse and pays for her shopping. It's now your turn to be served. You pack your bags while having idle chit chat with the cashier, yet try to be as quick as you can as a queue is forming behind you.  And then it happens. The cashier tells you the cost of your goods and that rash begins to flare up on your neck that only happens when you are nervous. You have to go into your bag and locate your purse. Yikes. Ok, "don't panic" you say to yourself as you trawl through the mountains of receipts, tissues, make-up and god knows what else has been residing in your bag for months on end. The lady behind you sighs, gets impatient and starts to look to the ceiling as you continue to rummage.  Not long after that you have success and you find your purse. Yes! You whip it out to pay and just then a stray unwrapped tampon that has been a lifelong bag dweller, gets caught onto your purse and lands right in front of the cashier. Great!

Some people may find this situation difficult to comprehend but for many people this is a reality.
So many us of carry around so much crap in our bags that we don't even need. When we go into our bags to find what we do need, it is such a difficult task as the stuff that we don't need takes over the whole bag!

My handbag would be 50% lighter if I got rid of a lot of the the useless stuff in there. Time after time I would tell myself that I will tackle my handbag and clear it out but this just normally seems to be put on the back burner.

Here are my main offending bag contents.

• Tampons

Although useful to have in your bag they can be a nightmare when they become unwrapped and start to swim around in your bag like tadpoles!! They also seem to have a life of their own and can find their way out of your bag when you least expect it!!!

• Tissues

It turns my stomach to think that I actually do this, but I often find stiff used tissues in my bag. How gross!

• Receipts/Leaflets/Miscellaneous paper

This has got to be one of my worst offenders. I'm embarrassed to say how far back that my receipts go and as for other bits of unnecessary paper.............let's not go there!

Why do we hoard our handbag contents and why do we find it so difficult to clear out, organise and stay that way?

Can you relate to any of this? Are you a HCH or a recovering one?
I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions that I can share with anyone who will find it useful.

I have set my iPhone reminder to remind me to clear my bag out over next week. Wish me luck.................

Let's hear it for Amy Winehouse!

At 20 years old, Amy burst onto the scenes in 2003 with her first critically acclaimed album Frank, which sold in excess of 600,000 copies and was nominated for a Mercury prize.

Frank is a beautiful soulful/R&B album, which touches on the trials and tribulations of relationships in a very open way – hence the album title. One of the most memorable songs from this album is called 'stronger than me' which Amy sings about being with someone who wouldn’t take a leading 'man's role' within the relationship, and therefore she felt that she was supporting him, where it should be the other way around in her eyes.  Amy sings this song with so much passion in her voice that as a listener, you really do feel what she is vocally expressing. Although not hugely successful in the British charts, the song went on to win Ivor Novello award for ‘best contemporary song musically & lyrically’ in 2004.

Her second Album Black To Black was released in 2006 and had a more grown up feel to it. Amy took influence from Rock, Ska and Soul, and then combined it to make some of the most recognised songs from the Album. The Album sold over two million copies and had won five Grammy awards. There are several memorable songs from this album, for example ‘Rehab’ and ‘Back to Black’, however, one of the biggest 'cross over' songs for Amy was ‘Valerie’. If anyone had not heard of Amy Winehouse before that song was aired; they certainly did by now.

Valerie was a song which was first sang by the English Indie rock group The Zutons. They had a fair amount of success with their version of the song, but nothing to the scale that Amy had. Thanks to Amy and Mark Ronson, people wanted to hear the original song again to compare the two, which briefly put the Zoutons back in the spotlight again.

Although Amy was in the press for the majority of times about her personal life, not too much was mentioned about the good that she did. Amy supported breast cancer awareness charities throughout her career and even posed nude for a magazine that supporting the campaign. She also donated her song 'Back to Black' to the Global Fund's 'Born HIV Free campaign, where she allowed her song to be used as a soundtrack to a film which was in aid of raising awareness of babies being born with HIV.

Sadly, on the 23rd of July 2011 at the age of just 27, Amy had passed away and Britain had lost one if their brightest stars.

Love or loath her, you cannot deny the impact that Amy Winehouse has had on British music. Her distinct singing voice, talent and individual look made her stand out from the crowd.

RIP Amy Winehouse, gone but never forgotten.

Is the glass half empty or half full?

My very first blogger blog entry. I'm so excited to be doing this and I thank you for visiting my blog. I'm honoured.

Thought that it would be good to share my interesting weekend with you. I went on a free personal coaching course which was held on Saturday and Sunday in London. The course was more or less geared towards people who obviously wanted to make a career out of being a life coach, but you could attend for your own personal learning too.

The whole weekend had a strange kind of feel to it, but in the best possible way. It was a real eye opener and I went away feeling that I had some of the tools needed to stick to goals that have been set and achieve whatever I set my mind too. It also made me realise what the barriers were that was holding me back and what I can do to get over those hurdles. I learned so much about the life coaching process, as well as how to apply some of the theories to my everyday life.

It was also felt so good to have met so many interesting people, some of whom were fabulous mummies from all walks of life. I felt as though I already knew or had met the trainers and the attendees before. They all seemed really familiar for some reason. Maybe we knew each other in another life (if you believe in such things of course), who knows, but it felt good being in their company. Then coincidently, when we were introduced to the last trainer of the day, realised that I actually did know him, as we had briefly worked together going back over 10 years ago! It was really good to see him again and to see how far he had come in life - a Master NLP coach and trainer. He quite literally appeared to be a different person in regards to confidence and demeanour, but I could tell that inside, he was the same lovely person that I knew all those years ago.


The highlight of the weekend however, was fact that it was gay pride day on the Saturday and the procession was marching past the building that we were in. You could hear positive songs like "You're free" by Ultra Nate pumping out of sound systems as they went past cheering and clapping. Bearing in mind that the course was about positive thinking and being the best that you can be etc, it just felt so appropriate to what we were learning.

At times their cheering and music was so loud, one of the trainers had to shout in order for us to all hear and she was wearing a microphone! It did put a smile on everyone's faces at the time and you could hear fits of giggles coming from various parts of the room. At our lunch break some of the ladies and myself went outside to video with our phones and take pictures. I'm ashamed to say that some of the men in the parade could strut better in their high heels than me!

I've added a small snippet of the video clip for all to see on my Tumblr blog.  I hope that it puts the same smile on your face that I had when I captured it Fabulous Mummy Life Tumblr Blog

Enjoy!