Jaume Plensa

Great Sunday last weekend spent at Yorkshire Sculpture Park with 2 sets of close friends that we don’t get to see nearly as often as we would like. I’ve known Brian & Fiona pretty much since I’ve been with my hub and Sam & Alice we met through Brian and Fiona when we were both heavily pregnant about 5 years ago. It was a meeting of music minds!

So anyway we miraculously managed to all have the same day free with no prior plans… amazing! We all made it to the same place at the same time and what a great place! Definitely a place to go and visit. Expected to stay for maybe 4 hours but only left after 6 plus hours and still didn’t get all the way around! There’s a reason to go back again. It was free to get in and just £5 to park all day.

As well as lots of magnificent sculptures and things to see there was a great cafe and a fabulous little shop that I could have spent days in!

As soon as we arrived I knew my hub would love it and it just got better and better. I took far too many photos which I’ve uploaded to my website for private view but if you’re interested you can see them here.

Here are some of my favourites…

Henry Moore

The views and lanscapes were phenominal

We had a bit of a wander around the grounds and then had a picnic on some outdoor benches. We were pretty lucky with the weather. It went from rainy to sunny in a matter of an hour or so. It was a little windy whilst having our picnics but once we got moving again it soon warmed us up. There was lots of fun and silliness and we all had the best, most relaxed day we’ve probably all had in a while.

Amber over the hahaha bridge

Piggy back boys

The kids were incredible and all behaved so well. It’s certainly easier when you know the kids get on and Amber, the only girl, was really great playing with and looking after them. It meant none of us really stressed about where our kids where as we all seemed to naturally take it in turns looking out for the kids and also being able to catch up and chat properly made for a great day.

Autumn leaves

Gargoyle Sam and my boy

Uncle Sam is a true sport for letting me take this pic and for letting my boy do that to his ears!

Ste’s turn for a piggy back…

‘Come on Thom Thom fair is fair, my turn now.’

My hub… handsome

It was a lovely day spent with my family and I love to see you enjoy playing with our boy and how the other kids enjoy playing with you, or should that be torment?

Magdalena Abacanowicz

The sculptures and art were amazing and are set in beautiful grounds. Even if you had no interest in art, how could you not, you would still have an amazing day.

Amber and my boy having cuddles

The kids in art

They were just so comical all day and it was just a pleasure to be around them all.

Thom Thom

My boy

Amber

Me and my squid

As the camera holder I rarely have my pic taken so the hub decided to get one whilst he could… just to prove I was actually there too. As much as I hate my photo being taken it’s nice to have them for the memories of spending time with my family.

Jaume Plensa

Eerie sculptures hanging off the wall

These were really quite eerie but there was something I kind of liked about them. It was hear, see and speak no evil and hung on 3 separate walls. Lit from inside they glowed like they were living. The were larger than life and very compelling… I didn’t want to leave the room.

Surreal heads

I think these were the weirdest thing I’ve seen in  while. The dark room and the thin long heads made you feel kind of spacey. Like you were on drugs or really over tired and hallucinating. They were made from marble and the material looks like resin and almost fleshy.

Jaume Plensa poetry in steel

Through my husband I’ve gained a little knowledge and excitement of type. I’ve referred to my hub as a type nut and font geek in the past and true to word him and Brian were discussing the font used throughout. I love simple fonts and always prefer sans serif which was why i was drawn to this WordPress theme. This curtain of poetry was magical. You couldn’t help but run your fingers over them as you walked down the length of the room. The sounds were magical. I may have to use this image as my new updated avatar and my reception portrait at work. That’s a little something I haven’t told you guys about yet but hopefully in a week or two I can give you an update on some major news.

Me in poetry of steel

Alice in Jaume Plensa

A pleasure as always, let’s do it again real soon…

Family breakfast…a healthy start

A little sad?

People have been asking me, ‘will you cry?’, ‘are you feeling sad?’, ‘have you been worrying?’. To be honest, no! I have no doubt in my mind that he’s well and truly ready for school. He and I can’t wait for him to start to learn to read. He sits with his books and makes up stories from the pictures. He gets sad sometimes that he can’t read the words. He will have a whole new experience when he can read those words himself and make some sense of it all. I’m also ready for him to go to school. I’m needing to move on with stuff in our lives. I’ve completed my course, I have other opportunities opened up to me in the last 6 months and I’m ready to get going. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog a big explanation in the next month or two as I don’t want to jinx things.

Getting himself dressed

Looking so grown up

I’ve not been particularly worried about Lucas going to school as just over a year ago we moved him from childminder near the hubs work to a local nursery. He’s met lots of the local kids, and 4 of them, are at the same school and we know their parents so it’s not like he won’t know anyone. He’s the type of child, like I was and probably still am, ok not so much the child bit, who will go in and be on their own for a day or two and watch. When ready he will make those important bonds and friendships. In the meantime he will just be silly and try to make people laugh or pretend he’s not clever. He’s a bit of a comedian and people like him. On the downside he can be ‘told’, by other kids, what to do but he’s also got a stubborn streak where if he’s not interested or doesn’t want to do it anymore he won’t be pushed. I don’t yet know how he’ll settle in but I think he’ll do far better than I ever did.

My cheeky chappy

I spent 2 years at infant school and about 5 months at junior school before being college schooled abroad where my dad worked. It was definitely a shock when I returned 3/4 years later to finish the last 3/4 months in junior school. I didn’t enjoy the hoards of people because I wasn’t used to it. I was in a class, with at most, 5 other kids for 4 years and thrived but I never really settled into school in the UK. I’ve always been kinda shy meeting new people although as I’ve got older I find it easier. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who can talk to ANYONE. I have to be in the right frame of mind and believe me that’s not as often as I’d like. So long story short, I was more worried about how I’d fare with the other parents than I was about my cheeky chappy son fitting in to school.

Walking to school…daddy took the day off

The book we had to make all about Lucas!

We live in a fairly small village where most of the folks are elderly and lived here for 20 years plus and all know each other. We are part of the new younger families that are moving in to the village but we weren’t born here, nor were we local to this village as kids. My neighbours are great on both sides. We have a young family like us, attached, they have an older girl and she is friends with Lucas and they come over for spur of the moment tea and drinks and the hub plays squash and goes running with the chap. He’s a much more friendly, sociable, likeable person than I am so he makes friends easily. He’s one of those genuine types. Me, well my shyness came across as arrogance when I was younger so now I just try to be different rather than compete with people. I was an awkward child and very emotional but unfortunately I didn’t understand myself. Luckily I’m getting better and sometimes, when I’m brave, I will approach people off the cuff.

Lunch time in the coffee shop across the road from home…a treat

I think we’ve been very lucky moving here. My hub is just a lovely bloke and people really tend to warm to him, you couldn’t dislike him if you tried! Me on the other hand…   We’ve got to know a small number of people around here by taking Lucas to the park, which is less than 150 yards down the road. Luckily one of the couple’s son goes to the same school and just by being in the playground we have met a couple of of other mums and dads. There are still faces familiar to us from the village who give a friendly smile and hello but we have not yet stopped and introduced ourselves but who knows, maybe once all the stuff going on in our lives is settled and sorted I might be more in that frame of mind and just sod it and grow up and say, ‘HI my names Cat, I’ve seen you for the last 2/3 years around and thought I’d introduce myself.’ I’ll probably wait until they’re on their own first though! Why are we so afraid as grown ups? I’d be happy for someone to come and say hi yet we can’t bring ourselves to do it as easily as kids do?

There will be many visits to the local park on the way home

For this reason and many others we decided to attend the first PTFA meeting. Ok, so there wasn’t a lot we could do at that meeting but we have shown our face and we can offer skills that perhaps other parents and teachers can’t but most of all I want to be involved with my son’s education and if we can add a different dynamic to the PTFA group then we’ve achieved something, however small it may be. So that’s my first experiences of school and oh my there are so much more to come…BRING IT ON!

Update: It’s been a hectic couple of weeks settling into the new routine but he’s doing fine. It’s a shock to my system having to get him somewhere every day before a certain time but I’m doing it. I have made some new mummy friends and the boy is making friends, mostly girls?! And every day my boy is getting nearer to being able to read. He’s brought home a new book every day for the past week and a half and he’s already beginning to recognise some words…I’m a proud mummy!   In his words, ‘I like school.’

The boy was born shortly before 6 in the morning on Sat 9th June 2007. It was a fairly straight forward birth. Into labour about 11pm Friday night and, although the midwife said it would be at least another 12 hours before I needed to come in, I was in hospital by 4am. Have some rest and try and sleep she said… yeah right! I had no idea that he was coming so fast but boy am I glad he did. Within a couple of hours I had him in my arms and we were overjoyed. Most of it was a gas and air blur and I saw baked beans on the ceiling and traffic lights changing from red to green but it was an amazing experience. It’s true what they say about the pain fading from memory to some degree. The midwife who delivered my bundle said I could probably be home by lunch! Fab I thought. Then it started…

I made a decision, mainly because I brick it if you come anywhere near me with a ruddy needle, to not have an epidural or the needle in the thigh to speed up the placenta removal. I had a brilliant water birth in a small local midwife run unit and I would do it all over again. The problems came whilst waiting for the placenta to come away. It never happened. So in the needle went to help it on it’s way. Still nothing. It was like trying to give birth all over again but this time it was painful. Sorry for those who are squeamish, they pulled on the cord, I pushed, nothing! After a couple of hours they called the larger local hospital as I had to be transferred so they could do a removal procedure in theatre. All pretty intense and I’m so glad my mum was there. She turned up from work just after Lucas was born. Thanks mum I can’t thank you enough for what you did that day. So long story short… they tried again to pull it out and then I heard a pop, yay it’s out no need for surgery. No it turns out they snapped the ruddy cord off the placenta. So spinal block and manual removal it is… woohoo. I’ve never been so effing scared in my life. Procedure went well but felt pretty shit as had no sleep since the previous morning, hadn’t fed Lucas and my poor hub thought he was going to lose me. It all sounds pretty dramatic but remember I was on gas and air throughout most of this so I was non the bloody wiser half the time. Very surreal experience. Not something I want to re-live but there is a high chance of it happening again if we decided to have another child. The moral of this story is that we are all safe and sound and happy and that that was just a small blip in our lives which we’ve had to come to terms with.

The last 4 years have been filled with lots of fun and laughter and I wouldn’t change anything as my little boy is just brilliant and funny. We celebrated his 1st birthday with a big party with practically everyone we know and he had chickenpox.

His 2nd birthday was spent at Chester Zoo just the 3 of us and his 3rd birthday was home made pizza at home with the grandparents. As this is the last birthday before he starts school we thought we should go all out. Once he gets to school we have no say in who he invites to parties and it seems tradition to have them in these horrific play centres that I hate so much. We wanted it to be special and as we have a large enough garden we thought we’d have it at home with a few of Lucas’s close friends and their parents. Luckily the parents are nearly all friends of ours so it made for a nice day for all of us.

First things first, we had to decide on a theme. Lucas liked the idea of monsters. He also wanted a dragster too, so a monster dragster party it was. That’s, almost 4 year old’s, for you. The hub designed the invite and did a wonderful job. Then we had to plan the food and activities. We scoured the internet and found some great ideas. We wanted the majority of it to be made by us and not bought.

Delicious butties, ham and honey mustard, chicken and sweet chilli chicken & Lancs cheese & chutney

Choc dipped breadsticks (some with sprinkles)…in the fridge to set

Smartie topped, choc dipped marshmallows…don’t think I even got one!

The hub making jam thumb print biccies…late into the night

Unfortunately by the time the food was ready I was so busy I forgot to take a photo before it all went and believe me it ALL went. I didn’t want dishes filled with sweeties and wotsits and the like so we had to think of interesting things to eat for kids. We had rainbow fruit kebabs drizzled in melted chocolate, breadsticks dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, marshamallows with a bit of chocolate topped with a smarties, homemade pizzas, homemade jam thumb print biscuits, cheese and ham on bread or rolled wraps for the kids and lovely deli baguettes for the grown ups, tyrells plain kettle chips, bowl of strawberries & veggies and dips. We were up till late the night before and up early in the morning. I made the cake late at night and really glad I did as it was lovely and a great success. I borrowed the idea from the internet which was a rainbow layered cake. As I only had one cake tin of the same size I had to bake each one individually so I only managed 4 layers otherwise I would have been up all night! I just used a simple sponge recipe and added colours, then melted a bar of chocolate and spread it all over and topped it off with a pack of smarties.

The cake…oh so proud

The colourful party bags…took an age to source these

Monster softies…handmade by moi

On the theme of making it all ourselves I wanted fun gift bags so decided to make my own handmade monsters. They went down a treat. The kids were really happy as they thought I’d made each one specifically for each of them. I wish…first time making anything like this and I was 90% happy with them but would change how I did some if I did more.

The next thing we had to organise was games. I’m not good at this sort of thing so again we scoured the internet and got some ideas. Pin the tail on the donkey… my hub already had the idea of stick the eyes on the monster. More web scouring found us a bean bag game with a monster mouth, so using an old computer box, we designed and stuck it on a large opening for the mouth and got some soft round monster water squirters to use to throw in. We found some monster stomp feet and used those for racing and we had pass the eyeball with wrapping paper again designed by my hub.

Stick the eyes on the monster…who needs a donkey?!

Chuck the ball in the monsters mouth…this had much use as gave it to nursery after the party

Monster stomp!!!!

My great friend Moraen did face painting bless her..thank you you’re a star!

And what more do you really need than a trampoline?

We wanted the kids to be able to do some of the activites with their parents as and when they felt like it rather than us having to be on the ball and running around making the entertainment, so prizes were all placed in a big basket and could be collected when anyone had completed a game. It all worked out really well and Lucas loved his cake especially when we cut into it. Everybody had a great time and stayed way past the 3pm slot we gave. We were lucky with the sunshine so we could all be outside and we borrowed 2 large gazebos from the next door neighbours so we had cover if needed.

It’s certainly a day I will never forget and I hope Lucas remembers it always. Not sure I would be in a hurry to do it again soon but it sure beats chicken nuggets and chips at an overcrowded, ship ‘em in ship ‘em out play centre. Problem is we’ve set the bar now so we’ll have to get our thinking caps on for next year !

Monsters made by Sophie his cousin. We strung them together and made bunting…beautiful

Lucas and his best friend Aoifa at the end of the day

Aoifa, her sister Mali and mum Moraen & dad Rick stayed till after midnight! The kids went to sleep in our bed…it was a full on but fun day and the boy had so much fun and he was really good about not winning games. Maybe that was down to the treat bowl which had little gifts in it that the kids could take a prize if they did a game by themselves or with an adult. Well whatever it was, it worked and everybody had a great day. Thankyou to all our friends.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MY BIG BOY.

MUMMY & DADDY LOVE YOU LOTS!

Ok so I’ve had this great idea…start a shop selling some vintage pieces but until it’s up and running, which, come on, knowing me, could take like forever! The idea was to start with a few of my own handmade sewn goodies but where to start. Decorations, bunting, monsters, bags?

Well on a little trip to the local sewing machine shop, which by the way is actually not that little, to buy some fabric dye to try and dye a sofa cover, rather unsuccessfully I might add, I spotted these lurking about.

Oooh what are they I hear you ask…Well they are a clever little company called Hamble&Jemima. They give you everything you need to sew you’re own little bag, cushion, phone case, travel bag etc. Really bloody clever if you ask me. I have a friend who has made some bags and they look fab. When I asked her for a pattern she said all she did was copy one she already had. Well unfortunately for me I’m not that clever/brave yet.

I was amazed firstly at how effing enormous this little local sewing machine shop was. My hub bought my beautiful PFAFF sewing machine from here about 6 years ago (my God have I really had it that long?). He’s a bit of a shorty and needs all his trews taking up and shortening and it was getting a bit pricey, what can I say he like shopping. His brain wave was to spend £90 on a sewing machine for me to do it. He remembered me telling him how much I loved it at school…come on that was nearly a quarter of a century ago! (Shhhhh!!!!) This little shop actually goes a long way back and goes into the next 3 shops which sells craft, fabric, t-shirt printing and embroidering. They have just about everything you ever need and it’s been right under my nose all these years. It’s 2 minutes down the road from hubs business. Me thinks I’ll be visiting rather frequently?!

So one day he pops off to said shop and comes home with the funkiest little machine I ever did see. My man has some serious taste, well he married me didn’t he…anyways I digress. So he comes home and says I bought you a present, Impressed? You think I would be but being me just thought what a tight arse he just doesn’t want to pay more money for doing his trews. Well needless to say some years later I’ve managed to do many pairs of trouser shortenings, as well as my own, and I’ve made a pair of curtains for the boys bedroom and a duvet cover and pillow from a double Orla Kiely duvet on sale in orange, as well as my boys birthday monsters. It’s really helped me get back into sewing…albeit a slightly long winded journey.

Anywho to cut a slightly rambling story a tad shorter, we came across these little boxes. Intrigued I took a peek inside. All you need to make your very own little bag, including pattern…bingo. I now have a couple of bag patterns and projects to get my head around the idea and then it gives me the knowledge to do my own ideas and designs…wooohooo! (No I won’t be blatantly ripping them off…it’s research dahlinks!) And it’s my lovely mummy’s birthday tomorrow and she adores Radley, so I bought her the little sling sac with dogs on. I’m going to make it but I have warned her that her present may take a few weeks/months/years to get around to.

I’m really excited about making these but I may just switch out some of the buttons supplied to ones from my own vintage collection.

I’ll let you know how they go.

Have a happy sunny(?) weekend everybody : )

Lucas on the day of his actual 4th Birthday

I’m now back and getting on with the stuff I’ve been building up to for what seems like years.

I just wanted to say hello to those few good people out there that so kindly come and check out my blog of nonsense. I also want to say Thank you to those who leave comments to let me know you are there. I really do appreciate that you keep coming back and now it’s time for me to give you something to read.

I’ve been finding my feet for some time now in many ways. Since having my son 4 years ago I sort of lost my way and lost my identity…I’m sure some of you know what I mean. My photography career took a bit of a bashing, not to say I don’t still love photography, but with most people owning a point and shoot and/or mobile phone with camera capability and most budgets being slashed I was just not getting the flow of work I was used to. It suited me to work around my newborn and then toddler but something changed in me. I lost a little confidence and direction and wondered just who I was. I started buying items for our home from thrift shops and car boots and really enjoyed the thrill of having a house which had different things in to my friends and getting a bargain to boot. I have a love of DIY and love that I can learn how to tile or change door hinges etc. A mummy friend said she was going to try and get on a local college’s interior design course and I thought I’d pop along to the open day with her. I was sold. It wasn’t the swag curtains, pelmets and cushions I thought it would be. I could learn the history of interior design and use some of my old Graphic Design skills as well as my photography. It seemed an ideal way of passing the time until my boy started school. Well that was almost 2 years ago and I just received my results this morning and I now have a certificate for a BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design (3D) Interiors with a triple distinction. Not bad considering the first month or two of the second year I didn’t attend due to delays with build work and then missed quite a bit of time near the end of the 2nd year due to my hubs business issues. I only just managed to get all the work done necessary for the end of year show.

What this course has done is help me to regain the confidence I lost after having my boy and also help me understand what it is I love about homes and furniture. We had a great tutor, called Ian, who filled me with even more of a love for Mid Century design. Now I know what I’m looking for at a car boot or in a charity shop better than I did before. I used to buy what I liked but now I buy for a different pleasure. I have been thinking about it, since last summer, opening an etsy sellers account to sell vintage wares but a few other things have happened since then so although etsy may be the starting point I have been talking to my hub about using his reception area as a sort of shop. It’ll be online but viewing of an item can be done in his work place, that’s presuming that other things go as planned.

A sneaky peak at hubs business premises interior

My final college project was re-space planning and interior designing the whole of my husband’s company premises. It seemed appropriate due to the amount of time I have been spending there lately. He likes it so much he’s considering letting me do most of it, if and when the company is bought out by us. It’s all seeming to be falling into place and this scares me a little. I’m definitely negative until proven wrong whereas some people I know…hub included are positive until proven otherwise. I don’t get that because I think you’d feel more let down that way?! Anyways I digress …so from not knowing where to go I now have many ideas running through my head. I started knitting 18 months ago and really want to do more and sewing has really hit me in the head recently. I made some little gifts for the children attending my son’ s birthday party and they went down a storm and the parents suggested I could be selling them. I also have a friend who is a crafty mum and have asked if she would be interested in joining me in this new venture so fingers crossed she’ll be on board too. All of this is to keep finances in the black whilst I help my husband keep his job and 3 staff jobs. We don’t yet know the outcome of this buying the partnership yet so this is really where I need to be for a few months.

Party Bag Monsters made by me

When college finished, the original plan was to set up a company with my friend in Interior Design, we were just working through some names and how to go about it, when it came to light that the hubs business partner was very ill again. Totally unexpected and threw us all into a tizz.

So that’s pretty much me at this moment in time. I hope this goes some way to explain my sporadic posts but I’m hoping from here that things will start to settle down. If not for us then for my boy as he starts his first year at school this coming September…my big boy: (

Thanks for reading and hope I haven’t put those few special readers off returning. x

I love what we have and I’m not complaining, but, as I’m sure with anyone else who’s hired contractors to do the work, there are still little niggles that bug the hell out of me! Luckily most people don’t notice the annoying little things and are just amazed at the transformation. SO, without further ado, let me introduce to you our newest room in the house…

So that’s the ‘Green Sofa Room?!’

This is the new kitchen…

And I couldn’t let the outside go without a mention…

It has to be said I’m the least pink girl my friends know, but I just love this colour on the outside walls. I wanted something that would be far away from terracotta or boring beige, but didn’t want green, or blue as there is plenty of that in nature within the garden.

I designed the garden in about 2 hours with the hubs help. I just looked at loads of garden pics and pieced together elements I liked. The garden has a a bit of a slope so had to work with levels. It actually works rather well and our son loves riding his bike on the ramps and jumps.

This whole space, inside and out, has totally transformed the house but it has mostly transformed our lives in the house. It was definitely worth it.

All I need to do now is shoot the neighbours ruddy dog. Only kidding, it’s a pup in training and barks at us whenever we’re in the garden. It’s actually very cute, but getting really annoying when we just want peace and quite. Don’t think training is going very well… give it me for a couple of hours and I’ll have it trained!

So, in a nutshell that’s our new gaff, or rather, old gaff with new use from an outhouse and outside bog. It’s by no means finished. We still have painting to do and tidying and staining and furniture to build and a sail to put up and the list goes on… but come on, it’s pretty damn nice eh?

After a week of stresses, Saturday was bliss. The whole family needed to get out and have some fun. We crafted at home in the morning and played games like monkey chuck…the boy thought it would be funny to throw his monkey high in his bedroom and see if he could catch it. Mostly he didn’t and sometimes he did. After a little train track building we headed out for lunch. I love lazy days mixed with a little adventure. The weather was rather interesting too. Rain followed by sun, followed by rain, followed by sun… you get the picture.

We ended up at a new place on the map called Brockholes. It’s a beautiful new nature reserve in Lancashire. We expected to pay for parking but as it’s only just getting up and running it was free all day. Now, this is a work in progress but I tell you, when it gets going it’s gonna be a fine place to visit. There weren’t many visitors this weekend but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

Images above taken on iPhone 4 with cross process.

Almost all others taken with a Nikon D2X with 50mm fixed lens.

The first thing we did, after putting on our wellies, was to get lunch. We were all starving and am I glad we waited till we got there. The food, yes expensive, but well worth it we reckon. The hub had steak and ale pie and I treated myself to the veg hotpot with cauli cheese and honey glazed carrots. YUM. I couldn’t move after!

The buildings were also pretty spectacular. I loved the mix of mustard and grey with natural wood and lots and lots of glass. The visitors centre was pretty well designed and interesting for kids too.

We decided, as it couldn’t decide on whether it wanted to rain or not, to go on a small nature trail. To be honest it was just a little wander over some hills. You could take in the view and it led you to the kids play area without heading through the car park.

The views were amazing and the best bit for the boy, and possibly for us, was the play area.

My cheeky little constructionist at work.

He could play on this sort of stuff all day but we fancied a go on the swings and other bigger kids stuff!

He’s getting particularly brave on the swings of late and wants to go higher each time!

Fir me though this was the best… I like having cuddles from my boy and this just made our tummies move like when you’re on a roller coaster. I also get travel sick so I was a bit worse for wear after but it was worth it .

Hope you all had a great weekend and are rested for the week ahead.

After having hubs 1st generation iPhone for the last year and a bit we decided that I should upgrade. I haven’t upgraded for about 4/5 years!!! To use the hubs old iPhone he had to jailbreak it. This meant, for some reason or other, that it didn’t have all the functions. I couldn’t send MMS and internet was a no no on my contract as monthly bill would have been HUGE.

The hub is after upgrading his 3G to an iPhone 5 but I just want one that functions properly without a stupid pineapple appearing instead of an apple. I finally bit the bullet and told my provider I was leaving. Well bugger me sideways if they didn’t bend over backwards. I got a far better deal than they showed online and on Friday this is what I received:

I was literally jumping up and down and clapping like a ruddy seal, I tell you I love gadgets as much as the next woman but I’ve never been this excited. I spent the whole of Saturday tweeting from my phone and accessing the internet… my family practically lost me.

Here it is in all it’s booti-fulness

I love this thing, not as much as I love my family, and ok my friends too, but it comes in pretty close.

I’m loving taking photos with the cross process app and uploading to Instagram. I can’t get enough of twitter.

I have it on a 7 day trial as the reception in our house is usually awful but, unless I do the death grip, it is definitely better than it was. Sold… baby you ain’t going nowhere… except everywhere I go.

It’s slinky in white and, as I’m a total saddo, I haven’t taken the front plastic cover off yet!!!!! So shoot me.

Right, I love my boy to bits, but since he’s been here gigs have been pretty hard to do. But last Tuesday night was an amazing evening with Bonobo.

Firstly I’m amazed that we actually booked it as it was at Leeds Uni, which at best is over an hour away. Secondly it was a ‘school’ night (for the hub and me, not the boy). I can’t/don’t do late nights mid week, I struggle at weekends too! However, for Bonobo, I made the exception. My God, am I glad we did… it blew me away. The venue was small and not too crowded and we had a good little spot where all we were missing was the drummers face. I’d almost forgotten what a venue like this does to the music, it gets right up inside you and you can feel your heart pounding and your guts vibrating A.-MAZING! It was sooooooo good I want to re-live it.

Andreya Triana blew me away…

… especially when she sampled her own voice…

I don’t pretend to know a lot about music. I just like what I like. I can never remember the name of a track and at times my mind is so gone I can’t even remember who the friggin’ artist is (don’t know whether it’s age or having a baby?!) Ok, less of the excuses now. I love music and we always have it on in our house and Lucas is really picking up our appreciation for it too. He loves listening to, Temper Trap’s, Down River, full blast at home and in the car and he sings it at the top of his voice. Note to self…’ I must video that sometime soon!’

Simon Green AKA Bonobo

What this man couldn’t do with wind instruments…

These pictures clearly aren’t pro quality but I’m amazed at the zoom on my little camera. It has a 14x optical zoom. I never use these little cameras on automatic settings I always change to manual and play with aperture, shutter speed and flash settings. You definitely end up with better quality images as the flash isn’t so good as to reach to the stage from where we were stood.

Being at this concert has made me want to make more effort to get to gigs again. We did so many before the boy came along and we went all over the UK to see people such as Bjork, Radiohead & PJ Harvey. Prior to this concert I went to see Sigur Ros in Manchester. For me it was a bit of a let down. We’d actually booked tickets for the mega show in London but it all just ended up costing too much with train and hotel costs and we couldn’t justify not taking our son on holiday instead for the same price. In the end we sold the tickets at small loss and bought last minute tickets for the Manchester show. There was nothing special about the Manchester show and I think it was a let down as my expectations were set high.Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a genious and I love his work but we couldn’t get a sitter so the hub suggested I take a friend. I did and boy that was hard. She didn’t really get it although bless her she tried. I was meant to go with the hub and unfortunately the friend wasn’t keen. Hey ho… won’t be doing that again!

Right then, when’s the next gig?… Oh yeah it’s this one! Bring it on!!!!

Popping in on a friend for a brew, after dropping the boy at nursery, I was there much longer than anticipated. The conversation was an interesting one but not one that I need to divulge at this moment. I wanted to get to the booty early, ok well early for me. I actually got there at lunch time so, I thought, all the good stuff would be gone.

Lucky for me I must like the stuff others hate. The first stall was a success and boy it felt good.

These three items cost £1 for all of them and then I also picked up 2 of these:

One was standing and one was sitting. I actually have no i-dea-r, (see what I did there? snorting through nose like a pig! (That’s actually how I laugh?! Unless something really tickles me and then I do the silent shoulder shudder)) why I like these. I’ve picked up about 5 in the last year or so and my hub is a little perplexed at this obsession. I know they are not actually deer, I think they are elk but I’m probably wrong. Actually if anyone knows could you please enlighten me… thanks. At 50p each I ain’t complaining.

Then I found MRS buttons. I love buttons and steal them from everyone I know… no not really! Hubs mum gave me a box full and I have loads from ebay and elsewhere.

I pick them up like a crazy woman but so far have only used them for one project. I’m thinking of doing more but on a smaller scale as this took me hours.

It was a valentines gift to my hub a couple of years ago… yes it takes me that long to get my backside into gear when it comes to projects. It’s been in my head over 2 years and I still haven’t got around to it. But I will!!!!!! More on that later.

Next I just had to have this… it’s West German and a combo of my favourite colours. It’s a thermos style flask with a spout and handle and I figure it’s one way of keeping those summer drinks cool… yeah mostly in looks!!!! Okay so I have those occasions where form beats function, but being German I bet it keeps it super cool! It was a couple of quid but it rocks my world so who cares.

In Sheffield a man showed me one of these in black and, if I remember correctly, he wanted £10 for it? It may have been more but only Fi could confirm that. This cost me 50p and I only spotted it because I’d already seen one. I may not have bought it otherwise although I like it’s form and I love vessels. It has stamped on it’s bottom, Made in ‘good Ole’ England (ok I made the middle bit up) Crown Devon? No idea what that means but hey I like it so there… fpluggggghh!!!!!

Last, but not least was this little trinket.

It was on a stall where everything in this section was marked as £1. The other stuff was a bloody fortune! I did ask what it was and he said it was for a posy of flowers? I have no idea if this is true but, ask me if I care… well go on then. NO I DON’T. I love it and so does the hub… go figure!

So that was an end to my booty stash but it in no way means it’s the end of my booty visits. I’m only just getting started. I didn’t get to many last year with all that was going on in the house but check out some stuff I got in the years before here.

Have a happy Bank Holiday weekend and if you’re gonna watch the wedding… enjoy. It ain’t my kinda brew but I might just have to check out the dress that we’re all paying for. : )