The big one needed new jeans.
It is no longer acceptable for me to order her a nice pair from Boden or Next. Any suggestion of this would be met with incredulous disapproval and a few snorting noises. These days her jeans have to be Topshop.
Which meant that not only did I have to shell out 40 quid on the damned things but also that we had to go shopping in the last week of November. Prime-Christmas-shopping-frenzy-panic time. (Don't get me started on my irritation with people who do their Christmas shopping 3 months early then show off about it in a smug manner on every form of social media!!)
The 40 quid jeans are hanging in her wardrobe now. But I know that this will be their only visit.
From now on she'll store them on her bedroom floor. Screwed up with all her other clothes, clean and not clean. She says she prefers it that way...
The little one doesn't like drawing. He doesn't like writing. And he cries if you make him colour anything in. So I was a bit amazed when a Christmas pic popped out of his school bag. They must have forced him to do it. It's only the third picture he's ever done. In his life!
I saved him the horror of colouring it in...
I saw this LOVELY pink sequin dress on ASOS the other week and fell in love with it (I know it sounds YAK but believe me, it was a lovely dress) So knowing I had loads of Christmas bashes to attend I ordered it. In a very organised manner. And of course I threw in a couple of little black numbers on my order. To be on the safe side. In case I decided pink was too....pink...
Anyway, it arrived. It fitted. It looked fabulous. Yay.
I decided to wear it to the first bash on Saturday...the mums of Birkenshaw annual Christmas meal.
Well not so yay actually. Try finding shoes to match a little pink number. In winter. And a bag. And a coat.
I'm ok with black. I have a multitude of black shoes, black bags and black coats.
I have nothing to match pink. And nor do the shops. And I searched ALL the shops. I was happy to arrive at the nude-patent-court-shoe party a little late in the day but couldn't even find any of them that I liked. (Actually I did rather fancy a pair of Manolo's but my budget was stretched and it wasn't happening for 40 quid)
Add to that the stress of finding a bag and having to go out in sub zero temperatures coatless (who owns a winter coat to match bright pink sequins? Not me!) and I was swiftly going off the little pink dress....
Then my mother arrived to put the final nail in the coffin. When I took it out of the bag all the sequins had squished the wrong way. She pulled a face and said that if I sat down I would end up with a bum shaped mark at the back so I would be best standing up all night.
That was the point at which I decided that pink was not for me. I parcelled it up and sent it back.
So....little black dress it is for me on Saturday night. For a change.
Anyway. Black is the new black dontchaknow dahling.
Nothing like a deadline to spur me into action. I got an email from Moo offering 25% off all printing till midnight tonight so I stopped faffing and rustled up a Christmas card. Just did one design this year. I figure no-one on my list is gonna get together to compare cards so really there's no point in doing loads of different ones.
Here it is...
Suppose I should get my arse into gear and design this year's Christmas card.
Truth is Christmas design isn't really my fave. I find it a bit dull. Same decision every year. Shall we have Santa or a reindeer or a snowman or a penguin? Or how about all four? Radical! Or a bauble? Dull. Blah.
But I never seem to find any cards I like in the shops. Or I like one card in a pack of four and then I have to pick out the chosen people who will receive the good card...and all the people I don't like as much get the crappy ones.
So anyway....I started sketching, hoping to be struck by inspiration. And enthusiasm. Not really happening yet. Same old same old. Here are a couple of pages from my sketchbook...reindeers, snowmen and trees...zzzzz
Spotted by Lizzie whilst mooching around Sainsburys...my little dog characters on all kinds of goodies...
Buy now while stocks last people!
So the week before last was half term and as I had the kids hanging about all week and couldn't do very much in the way of actual proper work I thought it would be a great idea to paint the living room. Cos I'm full of bright ideas. And I worked out it was like 9 years ago when it got it's major makeover and we haven't done much to it since. Apart from add mucky fingerprints to the wall. And wreck the beige carpet.
Of course once the walls were a lovely shade of bright white the carpet looked even worse than it did before. So we had to buy another. And the blinds at the window were in a right state. So we had to buy more. And Stuart the joiner had to come to shave a bit off the bottom of the doors to make them fit over the carpet. And put the new blinds up 'cos we are incapable of such things. So the little paint job turned into a major overhaul that took 2 flipping weeks.
Anyway....it's just about finished and I was sooo looking forward to sitting on my arse tonight to watch some crap tv surrounded by lovely new living room.
Till the bloody telly conked out.
It has died! It's just fuzzy lines. No picture. No sound. So now we need a new flipping telly.
It was kind of old....one of those tellies that they don't make any more. A telly from a previous era. Practically vintage. But still...it would've been nice to watch it tonight...in my new room...
I'm not really a fan of those massive organised bonfires where thousands of people turn up in their wellies and stand about in a cold field. You can't get anywhere near the fire for a kick off. The queue for pie n peas is at least a mile long. The kids demand to spend a small fortune on whatever tat/fairground ride/crap food is available. And the fireworks always start an hour later than advertised.
However.... as the alternative involves having to find a pile of wood to burn, building an actual fire, lighting the damned thing (never easy in November when everything is covered in rain), destroying part of the lawn, cooking your own pie and peas, buying a fifty quid box of fireworks that lasts three and a half minutes and the kids getting bored after ten minutes and going back inside - in their wellies.... tonight we will be going to one of those awful organised bonfires. With the masses. Yay. Can't wait.
Well anyone feeling sorry for me not getting to go trick or treating needn't worry. My sister's kids weren't happy at us dumping them. It's rubbish for trick or treaters where they live so they always come with us. So I put the wine back in the fridge, delayed the curry and put my big coat on. Me and my sis had a good old moan-and-walk and her boys went home happy and full of sweets. Life is full of happy endings round here.
Anyway that's October over in the blink of an eye. Here it is in one handy pic...
