night off

We were out last night...we are out tomorrow night....I'm out Friday night....N.Y.E and out-out-out on Saturday night.
Tonight was sit on your bum with a glass of wine night.
Shame then that the kids didn't go to bed till after 9....1 glass later and I'm ready for bed. Hard work these nights off!

dog walk

Yesterday we went en famille to the park avec le chien. We got very muddy. The kids and the dog ran about like lunatics. We met lots of dog lovers. And we had a nice sit down on the new bench dedicated to Ken...he would have liked it lots x

top of my tree

Hope you all had a super smashing Christmas!
Look what arrived through my letterbox last week.....

I was very giddy and put her straight on my tree!

Sarah Alcock sent her to me. What a fab surprise! And what a kind person full of Christmas spirit :-) 

Me and the little people think she's BRILL!

She says she'll make everyone one...all you have to do is email her at  sarah@whistleandstitch.co.uk and send her lots of cash :-) Go on...you know you want to...only 365 days to Christmas.....(leap year people so a bit of extra time for you)

secret santa

I help run a kids charity and every year the nine of us go out for our Christmas meal. Very lovely. Apart from the fact that one year someone decided we should do a Secret Santa. For a fiver. Every year. For the rest of our lives.
Every year I go along with a fabulous gift (fabulous considering the £5 price tag). Every year I come home with a scented candle. Or cheap chocolate.
This year I forgot. The meal is tonight. No time to buy a fabulous gift. My choice is therefore as follows: photo frame from M&S that my Mum bought and doesn't need....or Joseph Joseph fabulously stylish spaghetti measurer. It was actually £7.50. I bought it for my sis after she admired mine but my Mum bet me to it and bought her one too so now it's kind of spare. Would it be wasted on cheap-chocolate-givers I ask myself?

christingle

Been to another lovely Christingle service today.
Strange that kids aren't allowed to play conkers anymore in case someone suffers a serious mishap. But they are allowed to wave a lit candle about in a 300 year old church. Clearly the health and safety bods don't go to church to witness such a dangerous activity!

something missing

Well the tree has been up a week and I've just remembered it hasn't got anything on top. I used to have a rather tasteful and very cool looking star up there. Then the big one made this fab angel in Nursery out of a McDonalds coke cup and a doily. So that was on the top of the tree for years. But this year she said "Mu-uum. You are NOT putting THAT up there!" So now I have no idea where the cool and very stylish star is and the top of the tree is just a twig. 

lots of Christmas stuff....

Got most of my work out of the way so can finally get round to sorting Christmas. Swapped the real life shopping experience for a bit of online this year. Shopping from home with a glass of wine is far more civilised methinks. And very exciting when the postie comes too. I'm getting deliveries left right and centre...much fun!
Tomorrow is the little man's Christingle service in church then that's it, no more school this year.
Just about written all my cards too. Of course whether they get delivered is another question...still had some in my car in February last year. But it's the thought that counts...

This is the fab card that the big one printed at the children's workshop at the WYPW the other week...she printed a grand total of six. Hasn't sent one to me though...

very flipping busy

Aw man I have been so busy! Busier than a busy thing. Stay-up-till-stupid-o'clock-busy. Too busy to even look at blogs. Or Pinterest. Or anything! 
I have been MRS BUSY!
I won't bore you with the details but you'll be pleased to hear that I'm back to my normal amount of busy-ness now.
Anyway in the middle of my very busy busy-ness I managed to win a giveaway from the lovely Karen at Blueberry Park. 

I won this fab load of felt from Seamstar! Yay! Can't wait for it to arrive :-)


And I also bought these super-fab baubles from Elise at Button Box Cards. (This is Elise's photo, the one I took was rubbish!)

I bought all three and they look brill on my tree. (Yes, Mrs Busy put up the tree in a super-organised manner on Saturday with the help of 3 children and 1 dog. Stressful? Oh just a little....)
Get yourself over there and make a purchase....quickly...they are VERY popular and you don't want your tree to miss out.

Pepperbox Clothing

The fab new range from Pepperbox is online now...go and have a look... make a major purchase... you won't be disappointed, I did some of the graphics :-)

And if you get a shifty on you can get 10% off! Bonus!

Posting Woman From Hell

Today I had a parcel to post. Just one little parcel. Nothing complex. Straight forward Royal Mail Special Delivery. It's a two minute job on the walk home from school. 
Unless, that is, you get behind the Posting Woman From Hell!
And I did. 
I knew as soon as I walked in that she was the Posting Woman From Hell because I have been behind her on two previous occasions in the last 6 months.
I don't know what she does...sells slippers on Ebay is my guess...but she ALWAYS has a gigantic sack of parcels. She slowly takes them out of the sack and puts them on the scales. One by one. Slowly. She always causes a queue of Disneyland proportions. She never looks round to apologise to the people who only want a first class stamp. She just pulls out the parcels one by one.
Why does she always go to post her million parcels at the busiest time of day? Everyone calls in the post office on their way home from school. Does she do it on purpose? 
Today she had 33 parcels. Better than last time when it was 54 I suppose.
She is the most annoying woman ever.
And she wears Crocs!
Even in winter!

snow boots

The little man has been nagging for some boots he saw. He really needed the boots. I gave in and bought them on Monday. They are meant to be worn in snow. We don't have any snow. Every morning he looks out of the window to see no snow. And every morning he asks me when it's gonna snow. He cried on Tuesday 'cos I wouldn't let him wear them to school. I don't think it's gonna snow anytime soon. He's doing my head in! 

christmas cards

Uploaded my chrimbo cards to Moo this weekend....did some gift tags and stickers this year too...woo get me!
If you're on my Christmas card list look away now!

relaxing walk

Now that Minnie the dog can go out we decided to introduce her to her new BFF, Poppy.
Poppy is my sister's Beagle. We take Poppy for walks on Saturdays. Now we take Minnie too.
Yesterday was Minnie's first proper walk...
It went really well....Minnie was terrified of Poppy, Alf had a major meltdown 'cos he couldn't ride his scooter and hold the lead, all the kids argued over whose turn it was to drag the pup along and a big Pitbull ran out of nowhere and chased her. 
Very relaxing this dog business.....

things I have learnt this week

If you go for a walk with a dog it takes twice as long as normal 'cos you have to stop and chat to lots of dog lovers!


One night is never enough at the Titanic Spa.


When planning a Christmas meal with several families you're never gonna please everyone.


My local Tesco have started selling Green & Black's chocolate with ginger again after a 12 month absence, woohoo!


I was correct when I suspected that the company who were so keen for me to get the work done on time would not be so keen to pay on time.


Minnie the dog doesn't just bark at footballs, she also barks at men with ladders who just want to fix next door's roof.

time for a Minnie break

Before we became dog owners I booked for me and the other half to go to Titanic Spa in Huddersfield for the night as a birthday treat. We go tomorrow, woohoo!
But now we are dog owners we have not only to find a babysitter...but a dog sitter too. The kids are off to my mum and dad's and Minnie the dog is having a Minnie break at Neil's mum's.
Oooh the amount of packing I've had to do.....