Currently...#32

Hello Lovelies!

I am very happy to be joining in with Ot and Et and Harvesting Kale and also Colleen over at The Mommy Panda again and to be co-hosting the Currently link up this week during Randalin's Maternity Leave - wooo wooo!  If you don't know the drill essentially you just use our themes for the week or create your own and let us know what's Currently going on with you!


This week's themes are: Owning, Wearing, Thinking, Drinking, Dancing...

So in time honoured tradition I'd like to let you know what I have been Currently up to...

I'm killing so many birds with one stone this week, I'm just going to power on through and squish pretty much every theme into one sentence.  This week's themes were juts MADE for me (quite unintentionally) and I like that a whole lot.

This week I have been totally owning being lost in the world of a Nun, following a 70's themed party we went to at the weekend...

Me and Impressive E, rocking the 70's

I was wearing a rather marvellous blue habit which I had largely made myself, after thinking about what Nun's actually wear and googling them for what could be considered an indecent amount of time.  I really hope no one ever checks my search history, I would look the completely the wrong kind of weirdo.

Unfortunately for some of those in also attendance at the party I was drinking copious amounts of 70's cocktails - Harvey Wallbangers, Pina Colada and Tom Collins to name but a few - which in turn led me on to dancing.  I have a thing about dancing, I am really not a good dancer.  I know this, the rational, sane side of my brain is quite at home with this fact and I'm quite happy to never ever dance.  HOWEVER  stick just the right amount of boozy booze in me and a different part of my brain takes over.  The irrational brain.  Party brain.  Evil dangerous party brain.  Party Brain that thinks I am an AMAZING dancer.  That my crazy moves are ground breaking, and that's why people are staring.  Me and dancing, we have a love/hate thing.

Next week: Watching, Saying, Losing, Admiring, Making...

So come on, if you haven't before, why not give it a go!  Join in? 

The Week That Was - Biffer Babies, Blue Nuns and Bras...

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - At 8.45 am, just as we were about to leave the house to walk Biscuit to school, we received a text to say it was closed for the day as they'd no heating. An unexpected day off, interesting! After watching Monsters University (again) we walked the pug. I say walked, I had to carry her a good chunk of the way as she's a little scared of traffic. Biscuit held the lead and she did wonderfully, she was so proud! After lunch we had a quick trip to the shops forced upon us by a distinct lack of squash and dishwasher tablets! We raced back to take Biscuit to a new dance class being held in our village. She loved every minute. Although Wiggles was too small to join in, she tried her best! We enjoyed a leftover tea of roast beef hash and I was completely astounded at how much Wiggles managed to wolf down!! 

Tuesday - What a busy day! Mr Husband had the day off (yay!) but had a cold so felt like poo (boo). Wiggles and I went to Toddler group, but we left early as she doffed up ALL the other babies. A definite backward step. After lunch I nipped to Impressive E's house where she helped me with the final stage of fancy dress outfit making. She is waaaaay more creative than me. After that I whipped over to Biscuit's school for her School Memories afternoon. In which lots of mummies and daddies discussed their school days. They were so interested, bless them, particularly if you were naughty at school! After that we headed home. I spent the evening in a crochet blizzard. Mr Husband wedged tissues up his nose. 

Wednesday - a very busy day at work. My lovely work chum Ell was taken into hospital with a grumbling appendix poor boy. I fretted about him all day. More crochet in the evening. Which is good because it helps me snack less! 

Thursday: Tea and cake in the morning at Impressive E's house with all the babies. Wiggles seems to have taken an irrational dislike to Em, she kept biffing him and no one else. It was rotten of her. Supermarket run in the afternoon where I bumped into a lovely old friend of mine that I haven't seen for  yonks, it was lovely to catch up. 

Friday - My poor old Mum was poorly so couldn't look after the children so Mr Husband and I arranged a childcare tag team. He went into work for the  morning, came home at lunchtime and I spent the afternoon at work. 

Saturday - we spent doing very little, all together.  I did a lot of sitting on the sofa and crocheting, Mr Husband did a lot of reminding us that he has a cold and wasn't feeling well.  Eventually we went out in search of ibuprofen to give him and he stopped complaining after that!  In the evening Mr Husband and I went to our lovely friend's 40th Birthday party.  In keeping with the 70's theme, Mr Husband, being rather a large fan dressed himself as a Doctor Who alike and I, refusing to go with the norm and wear a giant Afro and some brightly coloured spandex went as a Blue Nun.  Not much more seventies that that, right?  It was a great night!  

We walked the two mile journey home in the dark so Mr Husband could enjoy a little drinky (a rare occurrence for him).  Unfortunately, by this time a certain Blue Nun, egged on by Impressive D dressed as Mr Ben thought it would be a hysterically funny idea to swap clothes.  I apologise to any passing motorists that may have spotted a male Blue Nun wearing a black bra and a lady Mr Ben waving a pineapple in the air and laughing. I still have no recollection of where the pineapple came from!

Sunday - largely a day of recovery from the night before, I'm not as young as I used to be, but amazingly my head really didn't hurt that much.  Which is good because I drank a lot of gin.  Mr Husband made a red velvet cake, we ate delicious self indulgent things and I had to go round to my friend's house and ask for my bra back.  Hey ho!

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

4/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

4/52

4/52

Wiggles has a new obsession with brushing her teeth and Biscuit has a faraway look in her eye.  I'm not sure she even knew I was taking her photograph here....

Happily joining in with Jodi, now in her new home at Practising Simplicity.

Currently...#31

Hello Lovelies!

You know I love this linky, right?  It belongs to the, frankly marvellous Lindsey from Ot and Et and the lovely Randalin at Harvesting Kale.  Randalin is about to have a gorgeous new little baby so needs a break to concentrate on Mummying.  These kind and generous ladies have agreed to let me join in with a spot of Currently-sitting!  I am very pleased to say that I will be co-hosting for a short while together with the delightful Colleen over at The Mommy Panda and I will be trying really very jolly hard not to mess up this beautiful game up even a bit.  Serious guys, thanks so much, I can't wait!!

This week's themes are: Reading, Loving, Cooking, Avoiding, Laughing...

So in time honoured tradition I'd like to let you know what I have been Currently up to...

I really miss reading, I used to do it so much more before I had children. I used to love spending an afternoon laid on my bed reading a brilliant book until my arms went numb. Somehow it was just what had to give when I had the babies. I'm an all or nothing reader, I throw myself into a book and do pretty much nothing else until it's finished. Can't do that with mini humans wreaking havoc in the background. Lately the only thing I seem to find myself really properly reading are Biscuit's school books! 

I've been loving spending unexpected extra time with my darlings. Somehow, when you get a day together that you weren't expecting it makes it twice as special. My crazy little family.  I've also been loving eating chilli lately, mouth meltingly hot, burn your lips chilli, it could be because I'm strange...I can't get enough!

We've been cooking up a bit of a storm lately, a pretty flippin' yummy roast beef on Sunday. Some stonkingly good cherry flapjack and a lemon and raspberry cake to name but a few. I think my love of cooking, in part, comes from living in a village with no shop, if you're peckish, you might as well whip it up, it takes half the time a trip to the supermarket takes!

It's fair to say I have been avoiding the pile of ironing that's lurking in my utility room, ugh. I've also been avoiding buying a new kitchen bin. We need one desperately, the lid loudly plops off ours every five minutes, but I can't face spending actual hard earned cash on a bloomin' bin. There is nothing duller. No wonder I've been avoiding that one, eh?

My day at work yesterday was so manic I reached the point of hysteria and ended up laughing.  Seriously, there was nothing else I could do without going completely insane.  I also made my delightful colleagues jump by yelling triumphantly when I finally cleared my inbox.  Thankfully they were laughing too, rather than gleefully strangling me!

I've also got to mention Wiggles' new trick is to press her nose and shout "Beep!" Then burst out laughing, which in turn makes everyone else laugh. I'm not entirely sure where she gets it from, but I completely love it! Never fails to make me smile like a loon. 

Next week: Owning, Wearing, Thinking, Drinking, Dancing...

So come on, if you haven't before, why not give it a go!  Join in? 

The Week That Was - Wanton Sex for a Bad Back?!

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - after dropping Biscuit off at school Mum and I whizzed straight to the pet shop to buy provisions ready for our new addition. Afterwards we went to the supermarket for a few bits for lunch. I came home to meet Impressive E, Baby Beetle, Lucky, Dinky, Tilly and Em who all came for lunch in honour of Lucky's birthday. It was very nice. Lots of cake and wine! In the afternoon I had a call from the Eggheads production team, I had applied to he on the quiz show a little while ago with some work colleagues and was startled to discover they hadn't ruled us out straight away! Watch this space....

Tuesday - after a quick trip to our Toddler group to say hello, off we went to collect our beautiful new addition Pearl The Pug. 

She is, as you can see, pretty flippin gorgeous! The rest of the day seemed to pass by in a blur of dog fur. Pearl has settled in well so far, she spent the evening sleeping in her fluffy bed by my feet. Lovely pug.

Wednesday - work for me. Fun with my lovely friend LB.  Not an exciting day particularly, nothing of merit happened at all really, but it was nice to see her again and to catch up.  Mr Husband came home from work with a note from his First Aid person at work.  Honestly!  He's so cheeky!

This is what it said:

Just in case that's completely unreadable:  Dear Kate, Mr Husband was complaining of a bad back, as his first aider at work I prescribed for him lots of spontaneous wanton sex.  He said he does not normally like treatment, but is willing to give this a try.  Hope you can provide the necessary, Many thanks, Graham, FAAW (which apparently stands for First Aider at Work) not sure about the others, any ideas?  

Of course I replied!

Dear Graham, Thank you for your kind note regarding poor Mr Husband and his hurty back.  I note your suggestion regarding "lots of spontaneous wanton sex" as a possible treatment.  I confess, at first I was alarmed at this suggestion.  However, after consideration I thought "What the hell!  I'm a modern lass" and have concluded that you should go for it, if you think it might help.  Very noble of you.  Remember though - No Glove, No Love!  Kind Regards, Kate :)

Honestly!  Boys eh?  What are they like!  Hahahahaha, that'll teach em!

Thursday - started with the usual school run followed by a trip to the vets with Pearl to make sure she is ok.  Wiggles screamed all the way there, all the time we were at the vets and all the way back.  It turned into a bit of a nightmare, I had take her out to the car because she ended up furious with me for not letting her stick her hand in a used needle bin.  Being stuck in the confines of a car with a screaming child is not my idea of fun.  I am never taking her there again!  After a good nap she was in a much better mood.  In the afternoon we took a trip to the Post Office, sent some cards and walked to school.  Strictly speaking we didn't have to walk to school as Biscuit was going to her ballet class with her Gran, but it was Lucky's birthday and I wanted to make sure I handed over her present on the actual day.  It was in a massive box, I think she was more embarrassed than anything, job done!

Friday -  another day at work.  In addition to getting curry at lunchtime, I was also tasked with finding my lovely Mother In Law a birthday present.  I end up in this situation every year, half an hour to find a perfect gift - no pressure!  Every year I tell Mr Husband off for nothing thinking about it sooner.  Grrr.  In the end I found a lovely glass cheeseboard, that I would be pleased with. Not sure if anyone else will, buy hey!  I tried!

Saturday - Mr Husband went to the football so Wiggles, Biscuit and I spent the day doing crafty things at the kitchen table.  A nice quiet day, although at some points it was carnage with all the paint that seemed to spread itself around.  Three changes of clothes and lots of hand washing, but we now have a beautifully painted tea set and a picture of a pink flower for the walls.

Sunday - My MIL's birthday so she and my FIL came over for lunch.  Mr Husband cooked which was nice and all in all it was a lovely day.  We don't see them all that often so it was nice for the children to spend some time with them.

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

3/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

3/52

3/52

Biscuit throwing herself into a winter walk, quite literally.  Trees blown down by storms became her playground.  She was braver than usual, encouraged by Woolly to clamber all over and to overcome the caution which might normally hold her back.  The sheep thought they were bonkers.

Biscuit surrounded by technology.  I think she was feeling pretty grown up, being allowed to wear her big sister's headphones and hold her game.  In truth, I think the thing which pleases Wiggles most in the whole world is a sneaky biccy, like the one she is holding.  That kid LOVES a biccy.  She do anything for one, unlike her sister, she's happy to go on a brave adventure climbing table tops and the like to get to them.

Happily joining in with Jodi, now in her new home at Practising Simplicity.

Currently....#30

Hello Lovelies!

Once again I am very happy to be joining in with Ot and Et and Harvesting Kale and their marvellous "Currently" series...

In the middle of winter I often find myself missing the warm feeling of the sun. During every season I start to look forward to the next. These last few days the sun has shone. It's such a difference after all the rain and makes me feel happy and positive. 

I'm not the kinda girl that does a great deal of wanting. There are a lot of things I would like, but not much that I need or want. I do want some blue tights. I seem to have misplaced every single pair I have.....how dull is that?

Our new puppy arrived at her forever home this week. Pearl The Pug. She has stolen my heart with one wrinkly look. We are all enjoying loving her up. 

We are all busy preparing our allotment ready for this year. It's decision time! What do we want to grow, what do we want to move. This time of year sees us mostly digging over the soil and getting things sorted.

I am regretting my terrible diet at the moment. I seem to have been bitten by the winter bug that makes me crave stodgy rubbish food. I am an eating machine. And yet every day I say to myself "you shouldn't have scoffed that, kid" and regret my poor decisions. I'll get back to it. I will. I will.

Join in?

My New Baby!

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce my new little girl; Pearl The Pug! She's completely gorgeous :)

I think she's beautiful :) What do you reckon? 

The Week That Was - Dresses, Pugs & Wellingtons...

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Biscuit's first day back at school following the Christmas holidays.  The weather was so bad this morning that I decided to leave Wiggles at home with my Mum whilst we walked to school. I got back soaked to the skin! Spent the morning with Wiggles doing the post-weekend tidy up, then we went to the supermarket. They were selling off all their Christmas gifts super cheap, so bought masses for my presents drawer for the year. I was really chuffed. I should probably have photographed what I bought, bit of a blogger fail there! Made bean chilli for tea, then we finally caught up on watching the second episode of Sherlock in the evening. 

Tuesday - Wiggles and I went to our first toddler group of the New Year. It was lovely to sit and have a catch up and a cup of tea. Nothing else that was remarkable happened, apart from my new dress arriving from the Boden sale. It is gorgeous! 

Called "The Kate Dress", so I had no choice, right? It was reduced from £129.00 (ouch) to a much more bearable £38.70 and I bloomin' love it! It's such a beautiful heavy fabric, it feels like an expensive well made dress. I can't wait to wear it.  

Wednesday - Work for me. I was running late on my way in and a five minute delay in setting off turned into being twenty minutes late. Not an amazing start to first day back of the year! My Mum, my Dad and I have been considering getting a puppy so I rang a breeder at lunchtime and arranged to see a pup on Friday after work. Very excited! 

Thursday - In the morning it was Biscuit's monthly school assembly held in the church. Wiggles and I went allow to show our support and to do a lot of waving! Everything went well, but suddenly I realised that as she was leaving she was in tears. I rushed over to give her a cuddle and ask her what had happened, but I couldn't get any sense out of her. It was horrible, her class were all filing out on their pairs so I knew I couldn't keep hold of her and calm her down) even though I desperately wanted to). She had to go with her class, with her teacher. I hated having to override my maternal instinct and let my baby be taken care of by her teacher. I had to ring the school and ask them very nicely to check she was ok. She was fine, sat with her chums listening to a story. Wiggles and I felt awful! WI in the evening, a talk on quilts. 

Friday - An uneventful day, then a visit to see the most gorgeous little black pug. She had googly eyes and a little chubby tum. I had a pug once before, many years ago now and I loved him to bits. Am very excited at the prospect of getting another one. 

Saturday - we spent the morning cleaning and tidying the house ready for guests coming the evening. Followed by a trip to the supermarket for essentials. In the evening Uncle Schubert and Auntie Schubert came over to spend a little time with the children and have dinner with us. The girls were so good, played really nicely and didn't complain when it was bedtime. We are an amazing Korma (even if I do say so myself) we found the most fantastic curry shop that prepares fresh spices for you for any dish you want. It's never failed us yet! We chatted for a long time about the imminent arrival of Baby Schubert. Their excitment is contagious, it reminds me of being a new parent for the first time. All that craziness! 

Sunday - After a lovely long, hot, uninterrupted bath we headed out for a lovely long walk in the crisp bright sun. Biscuit's little friend Woolly came too for a spot of geocaching fun. He was great company, fearless and energetic, even a welly yanked off by the mud did nothing to dampen his spirits! 

Back home for a beer and some fajitas. Mmmmmm. In the evening I made a cake ready for Lucky's birthday lunch tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be nice! 

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

2/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

2/52

2/52

There I was happily changing Wiggles out of her pyjamas when she gave me the slip and wedged herself, sneakily, behind her cot. 

Biscuit calmly sat reading her book surrounded by the chaos of her baby sister's bedroom. A glancing cheeky smile for me. 

Happily joining in with Jodi, now in her new home at Practising Simplicity.

Currently....#29

Hello Lovelies!

Once again I am very happy to be joining in with Ot and Et and Harvesting Kale and their marvellous "Currently" series  This is my first Currently of 2014, huzzah!!

I am not great at resolutions, I tend to come up with something half hearted and keep to it for about a week.  I'm much better at spur of the moment decisions.  However, I have been (informally) resolving to get back to my post Christmas diet, to walk more, to spend more quality time with my children and with my husband.  I think that's about it.  Don't hold me to them, I mean, I'll try, but don't be cross ok?

For a little while my folks have been considering getting a little flat in London.  My Dad is currently working there during the week (he returns home at the weekend) and it would make a lot more sense for him to rent his own place rather than waste money on hotels.  It finally looks like the plan is coming together and I am anticipating spending a long hot summer trolling around the capital doing ridiculously touristy things with my little family.  He had a little flat there once before, long before Wiggles was born, and Mr Husband and I could head up there with luck and a babysitter, for an impromptu performance at The Globe, or something equally fabulous.  We took Biscuit for a week's holiday when she was so tiny and she LOVED it.  She sat in her buggy on the tube shouting "tickets please" at miserable strangers.  Brill.

So SMALL!

I've got a plan in relation to eating!  My theory is that it is pretty much impossible to eat all the boring plain, healthy food that we have in the house, whilst there is still left over delicious Christmas food.  The temptation is just too great.  Therefore, I have been selflessly eating my way through all the naughty food that we still have left, in the hope that once it's all gone I can make a fresh start.  That's not too crazy is it?

Rather excitingly we have been invited to a friend's 40th birthday party in a couple of weeks, so I have been making my costume in preparation.  I wont reveal what it is yet, but the theme is 70's as she was born in the 70's (durr).  I always think that fancy dress costumes should be really obvious, or you get really fed up with people asking what you're supposed to be all night.  I also have issues with sexy fancy dress, it turns my stomach.  I'd rather look like a complete wally than someone who was aiming for sexy.  Ugh. Hence making my own costume, I figure it's the only way I can have it exactly as I want it.

I can't really claim that I have been remembering all that much.  I have been failing to remember Biscuit's school lunch money, to return Connie's bowl left here at New Year, and of course, (as ever) I have systematically failed to remember to get the Thank You cards done and posted out on time.  Hey ho.  I'm nothing if not consistent, hope you've all been much better examples than me!

Join in?

A leathery new look....

Yesterday it was Mr Husband's Birthday.  Happy Birthday my love!  To celebrate we went to Sainsbury's during the day (like you do) and then my dear Mama baby-sat for us in the evening so we could go to the cinema to watch the second part of The Hobbit.

In honour of Mr Husband's birthday I decided to treat myself to a new skirt, bought whilst at Sainsbury's. I seem to get quite a lot of clothing from Sainsbury's, they do some great stuff. Anyway, this time I plumped for something a little different for me.  I'm used to wearing a pencil skirt and have many in different colours and fabrics, but this time I was somehow compelled to buy one in a kind of rusty red leather-type material.  It isn't real leather, in fact it's machine washable (yay) but to be honest that makes me like it all the more!

Probably one of the things I like the most about it is that it's quite slimming.  Not being a particularly stretchy fabric it can REALLY hold everything in place, in fact, I am pleased to report that despite buying this post-Christmas pig out it's actually a size 12!  My first size 12 for about fifteen years!  Yay!

Here's what it looked like on.....apologies for the slightly fuzzy picture, I seem to be having some issues with my camera at the moment - I suspect a small, sticky fingered person may have gained access at some point....

I decided to wear it with quite a simple black jumper as, in better light, it's actually quite a bold colour.  I'm really pleased with it, a bit of a different style choice for me. Mr Husband says it's quite saucy, but he's a secret perv, so we can't go by what he says....

It was originally labelled as being £22, but is currently on sale for £11, can't complain about that!

So....what do you think?  Any suggestions on colours that would go well would be most welcome!  Anyone else wear leather or leather-look clothing?  I have an image of Ross from Friends in my head, so any tips that would avoid me having to make a talcum powder paste to free my legs would be great ;)

Love, love,



P.S On an entirely unrelated note, and hence not worth an entire post, I've decided to move the buttons of my favourite blogs to give them a page of their own.  Click on the Blog Roll tab above for a little look.  If anyone is interested in a button swap, please shout!  Over and out xx

2014 - 1/52

Each week in 2013 I photographed my children for the 52 project.  I'm not a photographer, I don't claim to be.  I don't have expensive equipment and I don't know anything about the "correct" way to photograph.  But for me, this project was never about that.  It was about documenting change rather than showcasing skills.  In fact, that is the very point of this blog.  Some of the pictures I took, and displayed through the course of the year, were just phone snaps taken on a whim, because that was what I had to hand.  My children aren't great at sitting still or at posing, but my philosophy was not to worry about that and just to snap whatever they were doing at the time, more often than not those are the best photographs for showing their true characters.

I can't pretend that this project isn't a commitment, it is.  But the reward, at the end of the year is huge.  And on that basis I have decided to commit to taking a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

And so we begin...

1/52

1/52

This week, week one, shows Wiggles, round and baby faced, enjoying a peaceful moment. They happen occasionally, this time surrounded by the chaos of new toys.

Biscuit out in the dark, looking down protectively at her little sister.

Happily joining in with Jodi, now in her new home at Practising Simplicity.

Happy Birthday little blog!

It's hard for me to get my head around the thought that my first ever blog post was a whole year ago today.  In a funny way it seems like so much longer, because being here, having this, now feels so familiar.

In my day to day life I would probably say that I'm not someone who tends to stick to things all that often. I tire easily and get the urge to move on. I enjoy the excitement of a new project and idea tend to lose interest when that feeling wears off. It's with this in mind that I can genuinely say that I am truly amazed that this space has held my attention and maintained my enthusiasm for an entire year. I think this is largely because blogging (the way I think about it at least) isn't all just about me. It's about reading what others are doing, keeping up with their lives and stories and about sharing with them.  And THAT really holds my attention.

I am proud of my achievement. Proud of this space. And grateful. For my chance to share, my opportunity to record, for the support from others and for every single person that stops by for a read.

So,  THANK YOU one and all, and Happy Birthday to the good ship Just Pirouette and Carry On! Long may she sail :)

 Love, love,

 

2014: Start as you mean to go on...

To celebrate the coming of a whole New Year we gathered together with some of our dearest friends and ate, drank, danced and laughed together. Midnight struck and with champagne and party poppers in hand the first thing we did in this New Year was wear big cheesey grins, jump about and hug our nearest and dearest. 

So much curry, so much mulled wine, so much fun. 

I wish you all the most marvellous 2014.