"Mammmmy we're bored!"

Day two of the 'fabulous' six and a half weeks school holiday. Hoorah! ....

So those famous words were muttered, moaned, whinged and stropped on more than one occasion. The weather is pretty bland and I don't have the energy for huge day long outings just yet so I fell back on my bag of face paints. An hour well spent, you see, they can't talk or move when I'm painting their faces, that's the rule ;o) Bliss.

As I was painting The Eldest I heard an excitable voice "mammy look at me!". Turns out The Terror is taking fashion to another level and she stood beside me in her straw hat, bracelet, and her 'Build a Bear' shoes... It was one of those "DO NOT MOVE whilst I get the camera" moment!

I have a bit of a reputation in my neighbourhood....

Yesterday as I sprawled on the sofa in my flu-like stupor, Lemsip in hand and about to doze off, there was a knock on the door. My neighbour's mother-in-law stood in front of me beaming with excitement. "Our <enter name> says you do up old furniture and I have an old telephone table that's just going to the tip, its yours if you'd like it". Needless to say those words worked faster than any Beechams and I was following her out to the parking bays faster than you can say "Bless you"!
I didn't have the heart to tell her I had just recently sent my telephone table to the charity shop after deciding it didn't match the decor, but it wouldn't harm to take a look.

OMG. This was nothing like the piece I threw away with sagging fabric seat, flimsy legs... This was amazing! Solid dark wood, a carved lion arm, a huge storage box under the seat (ideal for Barbies!), shelves and a mini pull out desk. The tip?? It was going to the tip?? No way! Now all I have to decide is whether to leave it dark wood, scratches and all, as it matches the TV unit (a half Ercol dresser base) or whether to sand and paint it. There is something I'm loving recently with these dark wooden pieces and the pistachio coloured sofa as a contrast.

So it just goes to show, in the last 3 years of living here, the neighbours have watched me drag random bits of furniture from the car, I've sat outside in all weather sanding pieces (by hand! ouch...) and painting them, my kitchen looks like a furniture warehouse with numerous unfinished projects (hence no blog pictures in the kitchen...), and it has paid off. I'm the nutty girl who takes everyone else's junk whilst they fill their homes with the latest Argos additions.
 
Does anyone know anything about this piece? Is it really old or just a look a like? Not that it matters to me, this little fellow is here to stay.

Lazy Bones...

Cheating a bit today. This is an outfit picture from Friday daytime, but as I wore the 60s dress that night I chose to post those pictures instead.  Yesterday was spent mostly in joggers whilst laying on the settee. I made a slight effort when I took The Terror to her swimming lesson this morning and I pulled on my favourite maxi dress, along with huge sunglasses to hide most of my swollen and tired eyes. As this damn cold made a huge effort to make me feel really rotten I decided to have a 'nap'. Only to wake up 4 hours later and missed most of a beautiful sunny day! It worked though, and besides having a sneeze-athon I'm starting to feel not so bad.
This picture is a far cry from how I really look right now, think joggers, vest, nil make-up, Rudolph nose and a stylish (ha!) slanket....

Deja Vu

Twiggy - 1966

Twiggy has appeared again! I'm feeling so inspired by her at the moment and yet again I have found myself grabbing a 60s Mary Quant style dress out of the wardrobe.

Last night was yet another meal out followed by drinks at the local pub. No doubt after my little 'rush' of social events, that will probably be it until Christmas now! I had the usual moment of "what will I wear?", but this time I refrained from pulling out the whole contents of my wardrobe. My hands fell straight to a shift dress that I made for my GCSE textiles exam 13 years ago. I can't believe I've never actually wore this dress before, and now I'm hoping my mam still has the pattern I used as I quite fancy making more in this style!

Dress - Hand made by me, Boots - Faith, Ring - New Look, Pearls - Gift

Woke up this morning feeling rough! Wish it was alcohol inflicted but unfortunately it's just time for that summer cold.

Twiggy



Yo-Yo

Up down, up down, pretty much sums up today.

21st July 1999, a hot sunny day which started off by a phone call from the hospital to tell us that our Granda had "taken a turn for the worse" and to get there asap. Well we all know exactly what that means. My brother and I were told to stay at home and to call Dad (who had chosen that day after a week off to return to work, only to be given a job down Sedgefield with no mobile coverage!). It was 7:40am. I still to this day do not know how we managed, but my brother and I shocked my mam by turning up (on foot) to the hospital 10 minutes later. Our beloved Granda, our very own party animal, had left us. As weird as today gets, poor Dad got given the same delivery today of all days to the same village he was at 12 years ago. Freaky.

At least the book of remembrance is available online.

Sports day. Again. This time at The Terror's nursery and a far better one than the local school sports days!

 There were fantastic fun races for ALL of the children.  (A far cry from Sports day) A race for parents/grandparents/siblings.

Yep I had to take my heels off. Well I wasn't expecting to race!

The dads get competitive!

We were provided with tea, coffee and ice cream cones! It was a really lovely morning.  Which ended in floods of tears from both the staff and parents as they said goodbye before the tots move up to Big School in September. The Terror is An Angel at nursery and gave her biggest hugs to the teachers, patting Suw and Lesley on the backs saying "there there, it'll be alright".... leading to more wailing from them!

Stylish headwear! I think we've just started a new trend.

Later that day at 3:15 it was a very different story at Big School with teachers looking pleased to see the back of their pupils for almost 7 weeks! My daughter came racing out all prepared to head immediately out for her ears pierced. She turns 9 next week and has finally decided to pluck up the courage and get them done. No longer can children wear tiny studs in their ears at school or elastoplasts covering the earrings so the 6 weeks holidays is the only suitable time to go ahead with the piercing. I was disappointed that the local professional piercing shops won't pierce children under the age of 14 (ears I mean!), as I quite fancied having my navel pierced at the same time. Ho-hum, off to Claire's Accessories we went. The Eldest was so brave and never moved a muscle, nor uttered a single ouch. Which is surprising as she would normally say "oww" and run off squealing if I simply peel a sticker off her skin! I couldn't let the bairn go through it all herself, so naturally I got a piercing too. The cartilage at the top of my ear is now the new owner of a diamond stud. Not sure how long for as years ago my 3rd hole on my ears got so infected I now have an awful piece of scar tissue there. (More likely due to the fact I hid the piercing under my hair for months to prevent my parents seeing it...)

Necklace - Dorothy Perkins

Popped to the crematorium on the way home to see the book of remembrance, when we got there they had changed the opening times to 9:30-3:30.... so anyone who works can't go. Crazy. My children love the crematorium, I know, they're weird, but its something about all the flowers and the fact the sun always seems to shine when we visit, The Terror thinks shes visiting heaven!

Double ring - Primark, Peacock ring - Dorothy Perkins

Ring - Dorothy Perkins

Looking back on the photos from the nursery sports day (which are mostly blurred thanks to a 'sports setting' not actually being a sports setting!) I've realised that A - those trousers look crap, and B - the fabric is awful. As I've said before, blogging is surprisingly helpful! Hopefully my accessories detracted from the attention of the bad trousers, though my mam helpfully informed me that I look like "The Woolworth's Lady" whoever she may be. I gathered from the tone it wasn't much a compliment. Outfit FAIL. I was fully in awe of my best mate's new Doc Martin's though, tartan! She thought she looked like Jo Brand, lol, but I loved her look.



Appearances are often deceiving.

I'm unfit. Very unfit. If I ever have to (I was going to say run for a bus but I take the car) run after The Terror I find myself gasping for breath, heart pounding and red in the face. Worse still, whilst walking uphill and trying to have a conversation on the phone I sound like I could have a job on the premium rate lines! I used to go to Zumba 3 times a week, until just after Christmas then the novelty wore off and it died down to once a week when my motivated friend made me move my ass! I think everyone needs at least one motivated friend to counteract the bad influence friends inviting us for scrummy cakes/coffee or kebab/beer! Anyway the comfy pyjamas and cuppas with dunking biscuits have swapped the place of my zumba classes for quite a few weeks now, so tonight, I'm motivated, I'm going (as soon as I eat this pasta anyway...).

People often look at me and say "yeah, as if you need to excercise, theres nothing on you". Well for one, I often disguise my mummy tummy and two, plenty skinny people can have heart attacks too! I've seen many a larger man or lady take part in marathons, and well done them! Its a hell of a lot more than I could ever do. So it does annoy me when people assume slim = fit.

I did have a giggle a while back when a male friend asked eageryly "so in these Zumba classes are there lots of fit ladies, and what do they wear?" I helpfully told him its all young sexy ladies and everyone wears lycra hot pants and bra tops. Well, he doesn't need to be dissappointed with the truth ;o)

Hearing things?

I opted for my old style comfort again today as the jeans keep creeping slowly back to the surface of my wardrobe. The good thing about blogging is I can actually see how many times I wear a particular item and how to change my ways. I spent most of the day tidying up, ironing, cooking - domestic goddess? Nope, I haven't ironed anything for the last 3 weeks so you can imagine my ironing basket(s) is now spreading into empty cardboard boxes. Maybe another reason I'm struggling with what to wear, all my clothes are in these baskets!

Top - Next, Birdcage necklace - Avon, Beads - vintage (late grandma's), Rings - Dorothy Perkins

At lunch time I managed to lock myself out of the house. Just at the same time the clouds got angry and decided to open a months worth of rain within the space of 10 minutes. OK don't panic I thought, just go to mams house and wait in there. Trouble was my key to my parents house is also on the same keyring as my house key, inside my house. <sigh> So I drove to mams work and collected her house key in order to get my spare key from her house. If you're still following you're doing well!

I let myself into the house and as I hunted through the key rack I thought I heard a cats bell jingling, you know the sound when a cat runs downstairs to greet you. No, must be my imagination. My mams cat has been dead 7 years (this week!). Jingle jingle jingle again went this sound which seemed to be coming from the hallway, so I followed the sound. Then I heard it a 3rd time from the top of the stairs. I wasn't scared but I must admit I fully expected to see our old cat sitting there. After a quick look around the house just in case some random stray cat had done a mission impossible and scaled the walls and broken into the house I found nothing, so I went to return mams house keys at her place of work. On telling her my tale (shes used to me having my 'spooky dooky moments' as she calls them) she went "ooh Ozzy died around this time and I could have really used his cuddles the other day". We just laughed it off and assumed maybe the wind was rattling the blinds into a cat bell noise. Though we failed to recreate our sound...

Roll on to tonight. Text came through off my mam "you won't believe this! me and your dad are sitting having tea and we BOTH just heard a cat meow twice in the house!". I thought she was winding me up, as dad is a complete skeptic on anything that isn't black and white! But apparently not, they swear they both heard this phantom cat a few hours after I heard its bell. Weird. But comforting.

Top - Next, Jeans - Next, Shoes - New Look, Birdcage necklace - Avon, Beads - vintage from my late grandma, Rings - Dorothy Perkins. (my very 'alive' cat, Lula)



Sports day!

 Cardigan - TK Maxx, Vest - Primark

Earrings - Dorothy Perkins

Well they don't make them like they used to. Sports day used to be an annual tradition regardless of the weather conditions, which funny enough 20 years ago were not as wet as they are now. Races were meant to be won with a title of 1st, 2nd and 3rd not just a measly sticker for everyone who took part and children not understanding the meaning of competition.

Check out the determination to get 1st place!

Egg and spoon races actually meant using an egg, no plastic toys, no potatoes and no bean bags in sight. Yes it was messy, but that was the fun! Sack races were one of the favourite, so you might fall down once or twice, big deal. I've never known anyone break a bone from jumping in a sack.

A traditional sack race (can you spot me?)

 The three legged race - my favourite! Only because my best friend and I used to win it more often than not. Now health and safety will not allow a child to put trust into their best friend for fear of the parents suing each other and/or the school. All races were taken part by all children. I was surprised when my daughter came home from school last week to say they'd been doing 'practise' sports day sessions (practise? what on earth for?) and only the children who were best at particular races would take part in them on the day. My daughter got chosen to do 2 races, her best friend is down for 5 races, some children take part in all of the races. What on earth are schools thinking of??
Parent races do not exist anymore let alone a piggy back race (MUST dig out these photos!). We used to love nothing better than the Dad's letting male pheromones take over and the real competition began. There were no uniform of colours (team one must wear red, team two must wear blue etc), we wore whatever we wanted to as long as we had sensible footwear. I had never witness a tiny stud ripping someones ear off or a child being strangled to death by a fine necklace. The world quite simply has gone mad!

On your marks.... get set.... 80s fashion show! (Yep, I'm on this pic too!)

 Taking photographs is now rare for the fear of a paedophile parent, so our children's history must remain in their minds, no chance of sharing the photos with friends or grandchildren for a giggle when they are grown up then.
Is it any wonder parents AND children now do a rain dance in the hope sports days are cancelled. They have lost all of the fun.

On the plus side of the day my eldest did end up having fun at the school disco which surprisingly at such a young age has turned more into a fashion show. There will be a lot of tired children tomorrow as it didn't end until 9pm, but hey, if the teachers want to organise it so late let them deal with the consequences ;o)

Jumpsuit - Primark, Headscarf - New Look, Necklace - Mine! Shoes - Matalan

The Vamp returns...

As you've probably already figured out I'll happily try out a variety of styles and don't have a typical signature style. However I often feel my best on a night out in something classic, dark and a bit vampy!

Top - River Island, Skirt - River Island, Shoes - New Look, Bag - Irregular Choice (via TK Maxx)

I'd planned to wear my cream twiggy style outfit again (different social circle!) but as the rain teamed down all day I decided flimsy cream fabric might end up looking like something from a Butlin's wet t-shirt competition. So I dug the contents of my wardrobe out, yet again, in fact most of my wardrobe is now sprawled across the bedroom rather than hanging up, I really should sort that rather than sitting typing this... By-passing numerous florals and patterns I stumbled across this black satin skirt. Its been a long time since I've worn it so I tried it on and was pleasantly surprised to find it still fits like a dream.

I absolutely love the ruching detail on this skirt and the button down top too. Im a sucker for detail.

Then I grabbed the top I bought to go with it such a while back and as the pub I was going to was a goth/ex-punk place and almost anything goes but majority of people wear dark colours, I decided it was perfect. Having worked out when I bought the outfit... it was October 2005 for the evening of my best friend's wedding. Well no chance of anyone in the pub seeing it before.

A pair of shoes still with the label intact after being in my wardrobe over a year made their debut outing (though I must admit I had to walk very very slowly....).

Shoes - New Look

My eldest daughter told me that I "must wear red lipstick!". Bangles on, then back off again as I  decided less is more. Hair clipped back to prevent terrible rain induced frizz and I was ready to go. Oh, along with my new bag I snapped up in TK Maxx for £10. Its an Irregular Choice clutch and the funky lining alone simply sold itself to me. As my friend said last night "it almost wants to make you turn it inside out to use it" and shes right!

All in all I felt like I had a brand new outfit yet only bought the bag, money saving at its best. Please excuse horrendous face pulling, I was half watching for my lift who was about to knock on the door!

Top - River Island, Skirt - River Island, Shoes - New Look, Bag - Irregular Choice (via TK Maxx)

A busy day!

Just a quick post on yesterdays outfit, as I'm about to get ready for another night out. Aren't they like buses? You wait for ages then all of a sudden all the social events happen at once!

Head scarf - Ebay, Earrings - Mam's from 1984 (she reminded me of the exact date for my aunts wedding when she last wore them!), Ring - Dorothy Perkins



So yesterday I jumped at the chance, as the weather took a wet and miserable turn for the worst, to wear my new cardigan that I have a sneaky feeling is going to become the new favourite item of my wardrobe. A hugely busy day starting with a toddler party at soft play, coffee with a friend, my youngest daughters first visit to her big school, an hour in the beer garden with coffee friend whilst waiting for the little ones, a dash to the park when they came out of their visit followed by the 4th school run of the day to collect the older siblings. Of course we had to then go straight to Gran's house to tell her all about the visit, where my brother and his daughter popped in unannounced too, so I finally got back home at 8pm!

Here's what I wore:

 T-shirt - River Island (I think?), Jeans - Next, Shoes - New Look, Cardi - Tk Maxx

Fab sequin detail!

Retail therapy and a night out!

Definitely the best medicine.
Started yesterday with a trip to Starbucks. I've seen hundreds of people walking around with the sudden Frappuccino trend and I've always wondered what the fuss was about. So I ordered one. After going through the million Starbucks questions of "do you want blah blah".... "what flavour..." "what size..." and answering them all with "erm, I'm not sure, just whatever". The girl serving me assured me that a caramel coffee frappuccino is (in some random fake American accent) "totally amaaaaaaaazzzzzing", well I can agree that it is the most fabulous cold drink ever, well non alcoholic anyway!

Caramel Coffee Frappuccino - Starbucks

So Frappuccino in hand I skipped along the row of shops and ended up having a mini spending spree in Dorothy Perkins on their jewelry range that was in the sale (I rarely spend more than £2 on a piece of jewelry) and then I headed to TK Maxx and found a "totally amaaaaazzzzing" cardigan. Hoorah! Spirits were lifting.

Last night I also had a rare night out with 24 of the mams and teachers from my daughters nursery to celebrate the end of term and also to say goodbye as next week is their last week before big school! It was such a hot sticky night, so I successfully managed to try on 10 outfits, pull most of my wardrobe contents onto the bed before settling on a non clingy (sit down meal...) and a cool dress.

Dress - New Look, Shoes - New Look, Ring - Dorothy Perkins, Pearls - Christmas gift

As I pulled it on I decided it was quite Twiggy-ish, so I dug out the dark eyeshadow and black eyeliner and had a go pulling my hair into a different style.

(please excuse semi-dressed, small child in the background!)

You know, Ive had long hair for 28 years of my life and finally after getting it cropped right off I've done more hairstyles in the last 3 months than I've done my whole life! Anyway, turned out to be an 'ok' night, but a better night is planned for Saturday in Newcastle instead!

Black....

Dress - Miso (thrifted £5)

Feeling pretty low today and if I had something like this in black I would've gone the whole hog. Tried to cheer myself up with a retro print and crimpolene type fabric. Moan over. Roll on tomorrow!

A better class of tat...

The plus side of having such a rainy day on our weekend camping trip, was taking the opportunity to hit the local village charity shops. Not a Primark item in sight, which was quite exciting and refreshing for a change. One shop was closing down an hour after we visited so when I picked up a trivia game for back in the tent, 3 retro soup bowls with matching tea plates (4 of them, oh well, a spare if one breaks), an orange glass pitcher, and a small cut glass dish, they insisted it all only came to £3! Well I was not one to argue.

 Across the road was the most bizarre antique shop I have ever seen, books dangerously staggered and  piled right to the ceiling but strangely in order of topic, every piece of antique furniture, glass wear, brass, stuffed animals, in fact anything you could possibly imagine. There were three musty and dust filled rooms filled to the brim with absolutely no order to anything, the corridor had an inviting 'please walk through' sign hanging on the door, and as we battled past cobwebs and flaking walls in the dark dingy corridor we were met with a back storage room full of the less wanted (broken...) items which had been kindly christened by the birds who had found their way into the storage room. As Ive said, bizarre but intriguing! I did manage to pick up a cute yellow glass rippled bottle to add to my  collection for £4. No idea if it is old, or a brand or anything, I simply liked it and it matched our style.

With my other glass items