twinnies

The big one's friends came round today. They are twins. Ros and Ella.
They are 2 weeks older than the big one and started nursery at the same time. They have been friends ever since. As luck would have it they are also super clever and got into the same grammar school as JodiePie. So they can stay friends for ever. I still don't know which one is which. I just call them both Rosanella. 
They don't seem to mind.

school uniform

Ah the joys of school uniform shopping! 50 quid for a blazer...and it's BROWN! And the poor man in the ONLY shop to stock the big one's uniform looked in serious need of a large glass of wine when I went to pick up the "training top", which had been initialed, today.
We were the lucky ones, we got all our requirements in one visit a month ago. Others weren't so fortunate. The stuff they ordered at the start of summer has still not arrived. There was a long queue of irate parents waiting to shout at him. How hard can it be though? Everyone knows August is school uniform month. Everyone except the man in the shop. And his rubbish supplier. 
At least he had one happy customer...The big one's initials are JW so now she's pretending she got her training top from Jack Wills.  

george at asda

Filipa spotted my design in Asda... Shove one in your trolley!

How it looked when I designed it....

birthday boy

It was the little man's birthday today. He is 8.
He had the best party ever at Krispy Kreme. They got to make donuts, eat donuts and design donuts. He had a birthday cake made from a million donuts. Then he got to choose 12 donuts to take home. The big one got to pick 6 for designing the best donut. We came home with 22 donuts altogether. Guess who feels sick now?!

summer on the sofa

My friend is a teacher.
She has had a lovely summer.
Her kids are old enough to entertain themselves.
Her house is spotless.
All her jobs are up to date.
She has sat on her sofa a lot this summer.
She is nice and relaxed.
I am not a teacher.
And my children don't entertain themselves much.
So my arse has not even touched our sofa this summer.
I have juggled the kids and work... and my house is a tip.
I am knackered.
I can't wait for September.
I'm not diss-ing the kids.
They are lovely.
I'm just saying...
Six weeks is too long.
Thanks.

new website!

Well, never one to give up.....here's my new website...

It's not the greatest website in the world. I used a site builder 'cos I don't know the first thing about web design. 
I hate the ugly frames around the pictures in the gallery but I can't get rid of the damned things. Also not keen on the gradient shading. Can't get rid of that either.
And after neatly putting my pictures in a fabulous order THREE TIMES only for the stupid thing to randomly mess them up again I gave in.
So it's gonna look like this till I employ some whizz kid geek, who doesn't do naff picture frames, to design me a proper one. Which could be never. So learn to like it people!

MinnieDog birthday

Today is Minnie the dog's birthday.
She is one in human years. Whatever that means in dog years.
Actually it might not be her birthday. We weren't actually there when she was born. We only met her at 7 weeks old. The breeders said she was 7 weeks old so we did the maths. But it could really be tomorrow. Or yesterday. I don't think it matters. She's not really all that fussed. She's a dog.
Happy Birthday anyway MinnieDog x

this weekend I....

had a lie-in
went to Tesco
cleaned the bathroom
got the big one back
went to a sunny barbecue
got drunk on Pimms
stayed up VERY late
had another lie-in
got p**s wet through in the park
made a Sunday Roast
started creating a website
got annoyed with it and packed it in

talk talk

I have just spent 2 days with the little one. OMG that kid can talk! He never shuts up!!! And every sentence he utters begins with the word "Mu-uuuum?" to which I have to respond with "Yes dear?" or "What darling?" or "ForGodsSakeWillYouJustShutUpForABloodyMinuteChild?" before he can continue.
The other half has got him today. He has taken him swimming. To give my ears a rest. And enable me to work in daylight hours.

seaside

We had a little day-trip to the seaside today. We took the two big ones. They plodded along behind us tweenager style while the other half bored them with his bird spotting wisdom.
Then we hot footed it over to my mum and dad's caravan and swapped the tweenagers for three loopy nutters. 
My Mum's first words were "Thank God you're here". 
They'd clearly overdosed on the fighting and the arguing and the smacking-each-other-round-the-head-ering that they'd been doing since Saturday. 
Maybe next year they'll just take one kid at a time on holiday?

twitter

Actually I joined Twitter in 2009.
So the fact I never looked at it till yesterday means nothing.
I was always down with the kids. Ok.
I was just pretending not to be interested.
And busy.
Doing other social networking.
Anyways I'm on it now.
Find me here.

Lisa Martin

Hot foot it over to Lisa Martin's blog. She's a fab designer who just graduated from Leeds College of Art in sunny Yorkshire. Her work is ace!
And she stuck me on her blog today. Cheers Lisa x

armchair sport

The little man has gone caravaning with Grandma and Grandad and my sister's 2 little ones. We have taken possession of my sister's big one. Good swap. Me and the other half took them swimming to Barnsley Metrodome. We didn't even have to get wet. We sat and read the Sunday papers and they went in on their own. The beauty of big kids.
Sooo I've cracked open the Peroni to watch the Olympics closing ceremony. I like a bit of armchair sport. With a beer.

having it all in the school holidays

Been all hands-on-parent and everything this week. Been to the park for the day and the school uniform shop and some kids party and horsey lessons.  Done all kinds of hoovering and ironing and cleaning and butternut squash curry making. 
Also done a lot of working till after flipping midnight to catch up after days off spent faffing about with little people.

Yeah...the pic has no relevance to my story, soz. Can't have everything.

made with love....girls

....And here's the new stuff for the girlies... Buy it HERE...

made with love...boys

Nipped into Mamas and Papas yesterday and saw the new Made With Love stuff that I did the graphics for. As usual they made it look fabulous.....snap it up people, you don't need to be a baby to have this in your bedroom. Well. Maybe you do actually.

another day another walk

Me and my sis and the kids and the dogs did our usual Saturday....chips sat outside the chippie followed by a long walk in the park. We haven't done it for a few weeks but my kids moaned their heads off about going. No pleasing some people. Think they'd prefer me to be one of those sit-on-your-arse and-watch-telly sort of mums so they could sit on their own little arses. Hard lines kids. I'm not a do-nothing kinda chick!
Anyway they had an ace time jumping in muddy streams in their wellies and they moaned when we had to come home. 
Lucky I don't listen to them, our lives would be so dull.

walkie talkie

The little man and his friend William from across the street have hatched a plan. They each have a walkie talkie. They take the walkie talkie to bed and hide it under their pillows. When everyone is asleep they communicate secretly. Ace plan. But you gotta stay awake for it to actually work boys!