April 11th 2010

19. Have a picnic in the park.

Woo hoo! It's sunny!
For Charlotte's birthday I decided to invite a few friends round and have a little teddies bears carpet picnic. Our house is teeny so it was to be an intimate affair and not much chance of letting the children play outside in our courtyard garden *cough* as the weather was predicted to be grim (when I decided to host there was supposed to be snow on its way!). If only I'd known that the weatherman would be so wrong. It was a glorious weekend so a quick change of plan meant we headed off to the park.
Our local park used to be rubbish, only a year ago I blogged (in my rather neglected park blog) about how rubbish it was. 2 swings and a rubbish slide thing. And lots of dog poo and broken bottles. Oh how it has changed! There's park benches, lots of little children's equipment, a deathslide, some big swings. Fab.
We threw down some blankets and cracked open the sandwiches. The children had a fab time and so did we. I think we needed wine though. Must plan better next time.
It's such a shame that the weather can't be guaranteed, it would have been lovely to invite everyone but I couldn't risk that it might rain and we'd all be wedged in our front room!

April 10th 2010

16. Bake once a month

Continuing the 'Birthday Weekend' (I thought you only got those when you turned 18 or something. 2 is little, hope we're not setting a precedent) I made baby owl cakes to go with the now deceased mummy owl. Poor orphan owl cakes.

April 9th 2010

89. Visit a farm

April 9th was my baby's birthday. Not so much of a baby now, a big number two girl who can talk, and is starting to count, surf the internet and browse you tube on an iphone and spending most of her time arguing and fighting with her sister. Bliss...

Anyway for her birthday we decided to go to a farm a few friends had recommended, Park Fold Open Farm in Bolton. I've always been a bit wary of open farms, there's quite a few big ones around here where they seem to want to bleed every last penny from you by having animal themed bouncy castles and huge entrance fees.Not that I've ever been to one, that's just the impression I've got when I've looked into it. I wanted something a bit more like an actual farm. But clean. No stinky pigs for me! Park Fold is exactly that, it was lovely. Because of the time of year there was chicks and ducklings, lambs and piglets. Lydia got to feed a lamb (Charlotte wouldn't go near, she wouldn't even stroke one) and we petted rabbits and guinea pigs. The girls played on tractors outside (we had a fabulous day, the first of a few days of lovely spring sunshine). We even went on a tractor ride (This was a bit hairy and at times I imagined overturning into the pond and how our horrific deaths would be reported in the Daily Mail. I'm a touch melodramatic.)

Much fun was had by all. Even me.

April 8th 2010

17. Make birthday cakes for each of the girl's birthdays

So, here it is, the first of the birthday cakes!



Charlotte turned two on April 9th. At the moment we have a bit of a thing for owls, I seem to be subconsciously drawn to them, and we have lots of clothes with owls on. A while ago my lovely friend spud made one for one of her megaboys and I fell in love with it. It looks fantastic but was so simple to make and it tasted quite delicious too. Sadly there wasn't much to taste. After a birthday tea at my parents I carefully put the cake into the tin, using the lid as the base so the sides wouldn't get squashed when I was getting it in and out. I then carefully handed it to my husband, explaining that the tin was supposed to be upside down so not to turn it the right way. Then he carefully carried it outside and dropped it on the drive. I might have had a small breakdown.

March 13th 2010

25. Buy 10 bunches of flowers

I bought Paul's mum some tulips for mothering sunday and whilst I was there I picked up a bunch of dafodils for myself. They've not opened yet, I'll take a photo when they do as they're very spring like!

March 16th 2010

5. Have my haircut every 6 months

I went in and told her to do what ever she wanted. I'm not sure I'm feeling the love atm, I'm telling myself it will grow. My fringe is already doing my head in, and as we speak I have one of Lydia's clips clipping it out of my eyes!

March 15th 2010

16. Bake once a month

Last month I bought a new cupcake book, the Primrose Bakery cookbook. There are some gorgeous cakes in it, the peanut butter ones were lovely.

Today I made coffee cakes with coffee buttercream. Yum!

I am a bad, bad blogger!

I have been keeping up with the list though, honestly! February was a little bit hectic and Lydia was off school for 2 weeks after she developed chicken pox part way through half term! So, I'll catch up here the things that I've done.


10. Send 10 cards, just because
I sent Dawn a fab card with old ladies in a social club on the front to let her know I was thinking about her.

16. Bake once a month
This month I made themed chicken pox cupcakes with Lydia!



25. Buy 10 bunches of flowers
I bought myself some gorgeous tulips

35. Throw away 10 things from each room
I had a clear out of some of the junk in the kitchen, I think it might take a few goes to make it look clutter free though!

52. Get curtains for the lounge
I did it!! We've lived here almost 10 years now and have never had any curtains! We're up steps and not overlooked so it never seemed like a priority but when I saw some nice ones reduced at Tesco direct I decided to go for it. The window is huge so all the ones I really like are very expensive so I just got some plain ones.

55. Dance around with the girls once a week
I love doing this! Lydia calls them slipper parties as I get them ready for bed and we have a last minute burst of energy before milk and stories. Paul's just got Just Dance for the wii so I expect that will be brought out regularly now!

65. Text or email a friend every month
Text my lovely friend to let her know I was thinking of her.

87. Get an iPhone
Wooo! I got it the minute my contract was up! Love it, currently boring everyone with photos of every boring detail of everything, just because I can!

See, I have been productive. Kind of! Must update more in March!

I failed!

7. Spend 1 day without internet each month (0/33)

I couldn't go a whole day without logging on. I tried so hard! There were days when I didn't log on all day but then forgot and checked facebook on my ipod. Or I suddenly needed something from Next! I am addicted. Instead of cutting it out totally for one day I'm going to try to stay off when the girls are around.

I watched this very apt children's programme this morning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qp1pm

And this article:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2843636/Meet-single-mum-addicted-to-the-internet.html

February 11th 2010

9. Read 10 books

I've just finished my first book! Not my first book ever, but my first book for a long time. I find it really hard to concentrate since I had babies. I find I need complete silence to read and that doesn't happen often and even when it does I'm glued to the internet.

So the first book was Dear Fatty by Dawn French. I bought it ages ago after someone told me they'd enjoyed it but never quite got round to reading it. I enjoyed it too. It was very funny in parts and also quite sad, I had a good old weep!
If anyone wants to read it I'm happy to pass it on.

January 24rd 2010

21. Go to the cinema

On sunday morning we got up early (too early for a sunday, sundays should be alarm free) and took the girls to the cinema as a treat for Lydia's good schoolwork. Kids AM is only 95p each so if they didn't like it then it wasn't a massive loss. One of the reasons I've not been to the cinema is the extortionate price (that and the fact Dave has fallen asleep during every film I've ever watched with him)
Charlotte was surprisingly good. She's a bit of a menace at the best of times so I was slightly worried about taking her somewhere she'd be enclosed and have to stay quiet. Three packets of raisins and almost a whole tub of popcorn kept her occupied though!

This is what we went to see. I secretly enjoyed it. Guinea Pigs rock.



The girls waiting for the film to start. I didn't get any decent photos as Lydia puts her hands over her face, Victoria Beckham style, when the flash goes off!

January 19th 2010

83. Listen to 10 artists I've never heard of

Today I posted on twitter asking for recommendations of new music I could listen to. A couple of people replied (Nic, Powderfinger are indeed fab but I'd heard of them so they couldn't count). One of them was Blake McKibben. He asked if I'd look him up on iTunes if I had the time. So I did. I listened to the little snippet things and it sounded ok so I downloaded it. It's fab, I love it and have already listened twice. The internet rocks. Sometimes.

Here's the link to his stuff on iTunes if anyone wants to give him a listen
http://tiny.cc/blakemckibben

January 9th 2010

83. Listen to 10 artists I've never heard of

Ellie Goulding
I came across her name whilst reading the bbc news website. She's won the BBC's Sound of 2010. Apparently "her "folktronica" sound mixes a traditional acoustic approach with a more cutting-edge electronic style".

I'm starting to think I haven't heard of these people for a reason and I should stick to Girls Aloud!

94. Watch all the upopened dvds I own

Last night I watched Devil Wears Prada. I bought it when it first came out on DVD as I reallyy wanted to see it at the cinema but I didn't have anyone to see it with (what's that I hear? Is it a small violin ;o) ) As with every other DVD I've bought in the last few years it's been on the shelf, unwatched.
I actually really enjoyed it and it was good to turn off the laptop for a while.

January 7th 2010

16. Bake once a month

Another snow day and I'm starting to go a bit stir crazy. I thought baking with two was a bit ambitious (especially when one of the two is Charlotte) so we opted for something easy. Chocolate Wheels.

Take a sheet of ready rolled puff pastry, spread with chocolate spread, roll up, slice, bake for 20 minutes.

I put them in the oven so it's baking, ok?

January 5th 2010

49. Build a snowman

When my husband woke me up at 7am to tell me that I wouldn't have to get up to get L to school (I know, he could have quietly turned the alarm clock of and left me to sleep!), I knew there was one task I would be able to cross off. There was a bit of snow when I went to bed so I thought I could make a mini one today but no, when I got up it was indeed deep. Wooohooo!

To set the scene, this is the street outside my house. Lydia is lying in the middle of it. The car is parked, it looks like I've thrown her in front of a moving car but I haven't!



This is the side of my house (and Paul building a bigger and better snowman)



And here we are, me and my snowman!

January 4th 2010

12. Put photographs in every frame I own

This might not seem like an important task but trust me, if you could see how many photoless frames i have you would realise I'm not far out with my estimate! There is also quite an imbalance between the photos of the children. Definitely precious first born syndrome. It's going to be quite a while before I can cross this off The List.
So, this is the first photograph I've put in a frame. What's bad is that I don't think I like the frame. I think it needs a plain frame and a mount. There's only one thing for it, I'll have to buy another frame...

January 3rd 2010

83. Listen to 10 artists I've never heard of

A friend suggested that I check out Laura Marling. I looked her up on spotify (how good is that by the way? can't believe I only got it this week). I'm on track 7 and I'm still not sure if I like her or not. I will give her another listen another day, maybe she's a grower.

Please feel free to suggest stuff I might not of heard of. Some of my favorite music has happened on my this way.

January 1st 2010

So here it is. The start of a new year, of a new decade and of a new challenge for me.

I first heard of the 101 things in 1001 days project last year when a few virtual friends started their projects. I tried to make a list then but I didn't get very far and I soon lost interest. I followed some of their blogs and decided that one day I'd join in with them, if I could think of enough exciting things to put on my list. And so today is that day.

Whilst compiling my list I decided that the things didn't have to be huge things, or important things or even very exciting but that they must all mean something to me. I hope they might be of interest to some of you too.

I do reserve the right to change my list at anytime, it's my project remember!

So, here we go...