A simply wizard summer

"Harry Potter" woke me up this morning, complete with scar, glasses and a cape. I was rather speechless - the Princess is completely obsessed with all things wizard. 

She used my black Biro again but I guess this is an improvement on the Amy Winehouse makeover she gave herself a few months ago as that took AGES to remove all the ink...

I will keep this photo for her 21st.....

I survived this morning's madness when loads of kids descended, despite waking up with the headache I still had from yesterday.

Yes that's Bungle and yes I'm wearing a pirate hat...

I felt like Frauline Maria with the Von Trapp family. Well, a mini Von Trapp family anyway. And sadly without Georg Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), his grey suit and his whistle. Ooh, I love that man. My sister and I had a crush on him and still do!

The 8 week old baby was sleeping downstairs. Peacefully. Through the noise.

There was a fair bit of bickering but the toddlers played nicely and I caught up with my friend Charlotte which was lovely. We met when we used to weigh our baby boys, then kept bumping into each other and hit it off. We don't see much of each other but it is always very nice when we do.

The Prince with a VERY cheesy smile. His friend refused to be a fake grinner.

Onto all things Cherry Tree, I bought this vase from Helen & Douglas House Hospice for 50p and love it. It had literally just been donated. I've given it a lovely new home and filled it with a few fresh flowers.

Then I decided to treat myself to some stunning pink gladioli too. I find them so gorgeous, I love that they have a mind of their own after a few days and droop where the hell they like.

 

Oh and the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector??? BRILLIANT. It is now my fave cream ever. Eve Lom? Whatevs. I don't have great skin but this stuff does what it says on the tube.

Ignore my brows, am growing them before a wax and ignore the piercing in my nose.
Don't wear nose rings any more. Kind of miss them though.

And there we go for a Friday night. Am off now to eat a chocolate mousse and then go to bed, it's been a loooong day!

Thankful for lovely people

Isn't it funny how some days are destined to be bad days (ie waking up at 8.30am when I have to do the school run at 8.30am and then forget packed lunches and miss the train that I needed, it's pouring with rain when I didn't remember the raincoats etc etc.)

But then in return, some days are destined to be good days and I think today is the day of fine things!

Firstly, the postman brought me great joy, even if he is not so full of joy himself. A beautifully wrapped package from Pink Milk, which was the prize giveaway I won this week.

I am a person who is naturally easily pleased at the smallest things, so imagine my excitement when I opened this little beauty. I nearly spontaneously combusted.

I love the gorgeous packaging

Getting tres excited

Never has there been a truer phrase

I have always been mad for the colour pink. Always!

"Oooooooooh!"



The nicest thing to have arrived in the post for ages!



The piece de resistence

Utterly stunning (note to self: use handcream more often)

Heather added a couple of extras including this gorgeous ring

So that was a beautiful start to today. I then opened a letter containing a cheque for some freelance work I wrote in April and hadn't been paid for.  It finally arrived after weeks of chasing.

And THEN my sister called to tell me that we are hitting a spa together on Tuesday as a little treat! I have Tuesday to myself all day after the Bon Jovi gig the night before. The husband has the kids and I have time, I love the sound of that word, to myself. We are then going shopping and then having dinner at our parents' house and my lush Dad then said he would drive me all the way home. He is brilliant, always willing to go the extra mile (literally this time!).

I am feeling a little jaded today though. My beautiful friend Missy came to stay last night from Somerset with her little boy. Our children were born on the same day and although she was in the year above me at school, we only met properly through our children.

We get on very well and don't stop laughing from start to finish. The children all stayed up until 9pm and then Missy and I drank a leedle bit too much wine, scoffed waaaay too much bad stuff and had a generally silly time.

The Princess and her birthday twin

On a school night too, tut tut. (Her son has inset day today though)

Very sober. Very very sober.

Getting our second wind

Missy: "Let's smile nicely for the camera, Gem"

Very silly. It looked so much funnier last night...

My dear girl

Still quite sober, I am a terrible lightweight.

A rather messy end for somebody. Who drank far more than me!

And finally, onto my favourite topic. Cherry tree shops. I have picked up this Laura Ashley cardie for the Princess. £3 from Helen & Douglas House Hospice. It is so cosy and she loves it.

This weekend I shall mainly be watching Glastonbury on TV, although secretly part of me is wishing I still lived so close to the festival site that we all got cheap tickets. The weather is going to be scorching, mind you I don't fancy all that mud.

The reason Missy came to stay last night is because her son's school has an inset day today due to the festival. So many are going, it's not worth opening the school apparently!!! How hippy is that?!

I've just heard it's over knee deep in parts. Yuk. Been there, done that, think the comfort of my sofa is more preferable this year!

Time for Tea (Pot)

I can't see any of my followers. Haven't been able to for weeks. I know there are 20 of you, somewhere, out there but I can't be sure who you are.

Do leave messages and reveal yourself to me so I can be sure to follow your blogs too.

Teapot Clare emailed me today. She of the 40th party "dress up as an indie kid" shenanigans. Poor thing was mortified to read my blog about my "party experience". Can I set the record straight - there were TEN people out of 60 who were dressed up. I missed this. Maybe I was too wrapped up naval-gazing in true indie form by this point or too busy stealing the tattoo sleeve from the banker.

I am dying to see more pics of the night so I can put them on my blog if she allows me to. You there Teapot? Email me some if you have any.

Poor Teapot thinks I am a little offended by the "lack of shapeless band t-shirt on woman" situation. I am not at all. We had the lushest time once I'd pulled myself together (thanks to wine and a mean chilli) and I'm over it*.

She is coming to a little gathering I am having next week. She could write her own blog about it afterwards judging from the sobriety it offers. I emailed around to see who was bringing what in terms of nibbles and drinks. Most people confirmed they would be bringing soft drinks. Think only two mentioned wine.

Me thinks two words. Drink. And Spike. And not necessarily in that order.

No, not really. But I do hope we can let our hair down a bit and slow down on the Kia Ora. My life is way too sensible at the best of times. I can't remember the last time I did anything crazy, other than trying to impress the kids' entertainer merely because I have the hots for him, and look where that got me.

Cherry tree offerings, by the way, are the below book for £1.50 from Oxfam and Buzz Lightyear from Helen & Douglas House Hospice for £3.

"To infinity..." blah blah blah

The Princess was thrilled when I brought Buzz home. I actually bought it for the Prince but didn't have the heart to tell her and I forget how much she loves boys' toys.

She wants to join the local cub group. Not Brownies. No waaaaay. She plays football for the village team and she reads Horrid Henry. Meanwhile the Prince has been walking around all day with a baby doll. A doll dressed head to toe in pink.

Right off for a cuppa and bed. It's Evil Tuesday again tomorrow. Yikes.

*Think I'll tell Teapot Clare that it's fancy dress at mine next week. Mwwwwwwwwwwwwwahhhhh!

Time is of the essence

Oh good grief. I went to bed at 11.30pm after catching up with Made In Chelsea (my ultimate guilty pleasure. I didn't watch any of TOWIE and not keen on bothering with Geordie Shores but this show about rich London types is addictive).

Anyway, so I went to bed at 11.30pm. By 12.30am I was back up with the Prince who didn't seem to want to sleep. He was crying. I changed him, gave him a drink and a cuddle and put him back down but he went nuts.

This went on til 3.30am. By 3.40am I was back in bed panicking that in four hours' time I would be back up starting the day. Not a nice feeling.

I did the school run; the Princess, her friend and the Prince in tow. Then the Prince and I went to the graden centre where he played and I sank a cappucino and wrote thank you cards for his birthday gifts.

We have two little girls for tea tonight, we have run out of food, the house is in dire need of a hoover and a scrub and quite frankly I just want to go to bed! I don't have a cleaner (unlike many of my lucky friends who live around here), I don't even have a dishwasher. I also don't do an online supermarket shop. Hmm, this could be why I never get time to do other stuff! This isn't so much as a whinge, more of a "Aah, THAT'S why I go to bed so late, I don't get time to go any earlier!" revelation.

I frantically search cherry tree shops whilst en route elsewhere and I write in my spare time.

This aside, I've just landed myself a fab new freelance writing job which I am excited about. This means I need to work even harder on managing my time. Everything is going to have to be regimented (I don't have any childcare either!) but I love a challenge!

I picked up this gorgeous cherry tree summer dress for the Princess. It's originally from BHS and is so pretty, floral and fresh. She loves it and so she should - it was a bargain £2.99 from Helen & Douglas House Hospice.

 
Sometimes I wish I was a little girl again, running around in the prettiest dresses. The Princess is a tom boy but she will still wear a pretty dress.

I am now off for a kip to try to regenerate the brain cells that have seemingly diminished.

xx

Feeling Bookish

Well, another Evil Tuesday is out of the way.  Work at the dental surgery was fine although hectic and then I got home and had a freelance writing job to do straight away. No rest for the wicked but despite being ill still, I seemed to manage today rather well so am hopefully on the mend.

I tried to pack both kids into bed at 7pm last night as also had a migraine kicking in, but whilst the Prince was zonked out within minutes, the Princess couldn't settle. This was despite the fact she read pages and pages of her book to me and then I read to her. She was still wide awake hours later and kept coming down to tell me so. By 10pm I was desperate for bed so decided to let her sleep in with me as the husband wasn't due home from work until 2am.

The Princess and I are currently reading the box set of Malory Towers together. I bought the complete set for £5.99 from Oxfam and was delighted because it's exactly the same book covers I had in my youth. In my youth...god I sound like a pensioner. But you know what I mean, the illustrations aren't the updated ones.

So every night, she reads a few pages of her latest book to me (currently Diary of a Wimpy Kid which we saw together at the cinema last week) and then I read a chapter of Malory Towers to her. We are now on the very last one. The Princess thinks she IS Darrell Rivers, the main character, and I think it's really helped with her excellent behaviour at school. I have a lot to thank Enid Blyton for!

I wish I'd gone to a school by the sea!

Before Malory Towers, we read the box set of Enid Blyton's The Naughtiest Girl and then before that it was My Naughty Little Sister books by Dorothy Edwards. I love all of these and read them all when I was young(there I go again).

One of our favourite books in the house is The Tiger Who Came to Tea. I bought this from Helen & Douglas House Hospice for £1.50 and it came with the CD. My siblings and I had it as kids but it probably ended up in a charity shop somewhere. It's such a great book. A very random idea but a story I wish I'd written and I love the illustrations.

I want little Sophie's tights. How cool.

Of course, completely normal for a wild cat to pop in for tea and cake

Onto other things, I am having my hair cut tomorrow. Only a trim but it's in desperate need. This means I can't go to my breastfeeding class which is right next to three fab cherry tree shops. But at least I will no longer have tresses like Worzel Gummidge. Which is a good thing.

Can I post a pic of Worzel Gummidge or is that a copyright issue?!