halloween

So after visiting every pumpkin retailer in West Yorkshire we managed to bag ourselves 3 scrawny specimens which we made look fabulous last night. (We had my sister's smallest one sleeping over so we needed one each to avoid a punch up) 
Actually they don't look fabulous. They look pretty basic. I am a bit crap at pumpkins. I only have sharp knives. No high tech pumpkin carving gear. So they just end up with bog standard triangle bits. None of your fancypants shaped teeth and witches on broomsticks carved on our pumpkins...
Then tonight we went trick or treating. In the rain. Came back with enough sweets to last them till Christmas.....unless I get my hands on it first....

pumpkin free zone

We went to buy a pumpkin tonight. The big Tesco had sold out. So we drove through rush hour traffic to the small Tesco. 
They had also sold out. So had the Co-op on the way home.
Great.
There were loads in there on Saturday. But we didn't need one on Saturday. We needed one today.
Why oh why do I always leave stuff till the last minute?
Story of my flipping life.

pub crawlers

So last night my lovely sister kindly offered to have the kids for a sleepover...even though she already has 3 of her own kids and doesn't really need any more.
She's kind like that my sister.
Well me and the other half didn't need to be asked twice and we legged it to the pub.......the pub that turned out to be hosting a flipping kids halloween party. Got rid of our own sprogs and found ourselves surrounded by other people's!
Still... They weren't our responsibility...

mini club at Boots

Spotted some of my designs in Boots last night as I dodged the ChristmasGiftsThatYouReceiveAndPutOnThePileToGiveToSomeoneElse section...
(3for2 though people! You can send really useful bath salts to 3 people and only pay for 2 of them!
I'll be there on christmas eve...)

no more christmas till christmas...

Ok, this is it till Christmas...
I just had to add a snowman. I always do a snowman card. And a penguin.
Maybe this year I'll do a snowman and a penguin and a reindeer and a santa. Just to be different you know....don't want to get stuck in a rut.
Anyways.. I will now put Christmas to the back of my mind and avoid it like I usually do. I will run around like a nutter on Christmas Eve and buy a load of crap pressies which I'll still be wrapping at 2am. As usual.
Christmas in October is for people with too much time on their hands.
Apologies to anyone I may have stressed out with my premature card ideas...

back to the penguin

Or perhaps I might just do a penguin.
Again.
It's become traditional to do a penguin.
Some might say predictable... 
Maybe if the penguin got himself a Santa Sweater...tarted himself up a bit...?

christmas in october again...again

Or maybe I'll go for Santa in a reindeer sweater?
Being all chilled wearing his bang-on-trend character knit?

christmas in october...again

It's everywhere. Flipping Christmas stuff. Shops full of 'handy' gifts, wrapping paper, cards and TAT. Adverts on telly persuading my kids they need even more gadgets and remote control cars. People on facebook counting down the days. And WORSE boasting that they've done all their shopping and baked the chuffing cake. 
So does that mean it's time to design the Christmas card then?
Feeling the need to ditch the usual Snowman/Penguin job this year. But probably won't. It usually ends up as a Snowman/Penguin thing...

...or a reindeer in a Christmas sweater...

doggie style

We've had Minnie the dog for a year today. 
I didn't want a dog. I always said NO DOG. I was out-voted. We got a dog
But guess what? It turned out to be a good idea. Even if it wasn't mine.
The living room carpet will never recover. Nor will the other half's slippers. But I'm glad we got her. I've turned into a bit of a dog lover! 
Well I love our dog. I'm not that fussed about anyone else's ....yet.

in the wild

....and the prize for spotting another of my designs in store goes to.....Filipa.
She spotted this one in George at Asda and wins a trip for two to Paris and a Mini Cooper.
Oh....sorry, no.... she wins a mention on my blog.
Yayyy!

This is how it looked when it was invented...notice how they improved the whole tent thing! Well done George!

hot date

Had a hot date with the other half last night. Went out for a grown up meal. Had wine. And uninterrupted chit chat. Went to a party. Had Peroni. And Cheeselets. And a late night. And a lie in. Went to Starbucks this morning. Had hot chocolate. And read the Sunday papers.
All child free. And dog free.
To make up for it we took the little buggers to the park this aft. We're so kind.

get your grown up growing

So this letter came home from school inviting all four-hundred-and-something parents to a GetYourGrownUpGrowing thing after school. They needed help digging stuff up and planting veg and trees.
I filed it. In the bin. Like I have time for extra curricular activities.

Then the little one came home with a sad face and said NO parents had volunteered to help.
So I put my name on the list. 
It was tonight. After Celebration Assembly. (I wore my wellies to assembly. Quality.)
Me and Alf and about 6 other parents and their kids and a few teachers did some digging and some planting.
It was ace! I was all green fingered and everything!
AND someone lovely from the PTA had made us all some homemade carrot and coriander soup.
And we got to bring home freshly harvested celery 'cos there was so much that the kitchen staff couldn't possibly use it all.

Put my name down next time kid, I LOVE growing stuff me! 

flick n mix

This week I drew a head which went on a body which went on some legs which was put together by Ilona to make this...

Hot foot it over to her shiny new blog flick n mix to check it out. 
And get your name on the list to draw your own head. Or body. Or legs. It'll give you something to do. Stop you being bored and everything.

modern day harvest

The school harvest festival went all 2012 on us today. None of that fancy fresh fruit and veg this year thanks very much. We'll have tins instead ta. And pasta. And rice. For a local charity giving out food to the victims of recession. 
So all the kids turned up clutching tins of peas and pineapple chunks and jars of pasta sauce and the odd Pot Noodle. 
But no beans. They already had loads of beans apparently.

car park

We went to the Isle of Man as foot passengers 'cos the other half's lovely cousin and his mrs had left their new car for us to use while we were there. (Fools. Don't they know we have mucky kids who have no respect for other people's property?)
Anyway we left Neil's car in a multi storey car park in Liverpool. We dumped it in a rush on Friday. Couldn't find the damned thing when we picked it up on Sunday night. 
Me and the kids hung about with the bags while the other half had to track it down. Finally drove up to the barrier to pay and the already rather grumpy other half says "Where's the ticket?" 
Like I'm supposed to remember where I put it 2 days ago!
An intensive search produced no results. Not in my bag...pocket...purse...bra or any other obvious ticket-keepy-safe-place.
Excellent. 
So we explain to the nice car park man that we appear to have lost our ticket and we've been here since Friday.
And we're expecting him to shake his head and say he'll have to charge us for the whole week and that'll be 200 quid please.
But the nice car park man says "Ah, just give us a fiver"
Nice one!
Found the ticket yesterday in the big one's purse. Who the chuff hid it there?!

mad busy week and a brown fairy

I know I'm always harping on about being busy. And I am. Always. But this week was REALLY busy. Never mind no time to sit on my arse... I didn't even have time to blog!! 
It all started with the big one's birthday last Thursday. In a moment of stupidity and confusion about being a domestic goddess I invited a million people for tea. Spent all day making it and all night cleaning up after it. 
Then on Friday I chucked all the clean clothes I could find into a bag and we went away to the Isle of Man for the weekend. But because the ferry takes longer than it does to get to flipping France we only really had a day and a bit there so we had to cram it all in. Around the Isle of Man in a day sort of stuff.
Got back Sunday night and chucked everything out of the bag to re-pack for the big one's 3 day school trip....ironing labels in all her clothes at midnight. I'm sooo organised. 
Spent the rest of the week trying to catch up with all the work I should've been doing whilst making party food and eating ice-cream on windy beaches. 
And all the time, like a big weight on my shoulders, was the looming first birthday of baby Alexandra.
Months ago, in a moment of confusion about how much time I actually have on my hands, I promised the other half's sister I'd make a picture for her kid's first birthday. She was very specific. She wanted a brown fairy. Baby Alexandra (Don'tCallHerAlexHerNameIsAlexandra) is mixed race and Auntie Tracey is sick of only ever being able to buy blonde fairies. She has a point.
So in and amongst all the other 4000 urgent jobs to do I made this...

I am trying not to dwell on the fact that I rushed round like a lunatic to get it in the post yesterday only to hear that Auntie Tracey and Baby Alexandra have gone out and won't actually be in to sign for it. It will be spending the weekend on the floor of some sorting office. I could've just made the damned thing tonight instead. With a glass of wine.