Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming, the giant Santa's and twinkling lights are in all the shops which has made think I best get started on the Christmas gifts - especially as my sisters and I are doing handmade christmas this year.

The women are easy - I have lots of ideas such as glittered cups and money pots etc, but the men folk are a bit harder. Anyone have any good ideas?

I tried my hand at Decoupage for the first time the other night. It is more difficult than it looks! I will have to photo my next attempt step by step for the blog, I am thinking of doing some comic book shoes!

If any of you are looking for some cute Christmas Eve gifts then have a look at my Santa treat plates. These are really popular ... my girls love theirs!

Available to purchase through my Etsy shop - click HERE  - Special reader 10% code SC100

When September ends

I read a post about hating September the other day and it did get me thinking how can anyone hate a month so much - I mean a whole month? Though as I am sat looking out the window at my wet and blustery garden, I can kind of see her point. It just looks grim out there. It's blowing a gale, rain is battering the window and I have a pile of leaves mounting  up that have been ripped off the trees.

Today is the first day I have put the heating on. Random yes, but to me that means winter is just around the corner... and I hate winter. I hate being cold, the car being frozen in the morning, it being dark when you get up and dark when you come home from work - the only daylight seen from your office window. I hate having to get wrapped up in 20 layers before leaving the house just to stay warm, and I REALLY hate snow!! The way the country grinds to a halt when it appears, like no-one knew it was coming and no-one has seen it before.

Of course, it's not all bad. Soph is 1 in November, a milestone for her and us. So there will be tea party planning and baking of the cake. Then christmas will be just round the corner and although she won't really know what is going on, i'm sure she will love attacking a pile of presents and presume the paper will be more exciting than anything inside!
It also hit me today that I only have 47 days left before D-Day ... yep thats when maternity leave ends officially and I have to return to work. I have been cruising along taking every day for granted and suddenly 10 months have passed before i knew it. I still haven't won the lottery, or inherited a lump sum off a long lost rellie so I suppose i'm going to have to think long and hard what is going to happen. I always said that I will bring up my children, no-one else just the same as my mum brought me up. But I just don't know that is going to be possible. Fingers crossed then that in the next couple of months monkeybear crafts takes off!

So there it is, September you have a new fan. For this year at least, I hope September never ends.

another night out

So we have had a rough couple of days. Poor Soph started crying in the night on Weds and when I tested, the thermometer was beeping and she had a temperature of 38.7. So it was paracetamol and milk with cuddles thrown in for good measure. Then it was back to bed with my fingers crossed she would be a little better in the morning. Unfortunately not, by Thursday night she was really bad, started shaking her temp was so high. It's a scary thing because i've never seen her that ill and I felt totally helpless, I didn't know how I could make her feel better.

A trip to the doctors in the morning and the virdict? ... a virus! It's always a virus,... where the heck do the kids keep getting them from? Thankfully by Friday afternoon she was over the worst of it and had started to make a vast improvement. Good job really because husband had been looking forward to a night out on Saturday to Manchester that had been booked for ages.

To be honest I wasn't looking forward to going and it would be the second night out in two weeks. Gosh I feel like such an old woman these days! I would rather be tucked on the sofa with a film and my slippers than get dolled up and paint the town red. But, it was a work night out (his) and his boss had paid for tickets and a meal at the frog and bucket so I had to go really.

I always underestimate how long things take with a little person, drying my hair involves stopping at least three times to intercept her doing a possible kamikaze down the stairs. Long gone are the days of going from shower to ready in 20 minutes flat!!

We ended up having a pretty good night, the acts apart from one were hilarious. The disco afterwards however was dreadful so we had to drink more to compensate! We found out later that it was supposed to be "classic disco". So come on ladies and gents - when you hear classic disco what do you think? Bit of Abba? - AHA, take on me? Maybe some Spandau Ballet Gold?? ... yep I thought that too - obviously the DJ had a different idea. The play list was dreadful, although we did get the YMCA which I suppose you have at every dreadful party LOL. Our taxi was booked for 1am but seeing as the Frog and Bucket is not really near anything else we had to really stay there. By the time we left there were only 5 other people still sat at the bar, if they were lucky it looked like the staff were going to get an early finish! The verdict? Go for the comedy but escape as soon as the disco starts.

We only ended up getting back home at 2am, far too late when there is a 9 month old who is going to be up bright and breezy at 7.30am and of course it was mummy who had to get up and sort out breakfast.

Still no sign of my train pieces for my next little project but I know they have been posted so that's a good thing. Hopefully they will be delivered on Monday so I can get the painting underway - yippee :)

Well i'm just crying out for my bed so off I pop. Sweet dreams! :)

New Ideas

So, although my Toy Savers are doing very well through ebay and word of mouth, I am thinking I need to add something else to my little Enterprise. So I think I am going to start doing name trains.

I've seen them before and always think they are such a nice gift for a little boy, maybe for xmas or a unique christening gift - what do you think? Handpainted of course - not plain and boring like the ones that are mainly on sale. Are they just for a little boy? maybe a girl might like a pink one?

I had initially thought of trying my hand at quilts and even purchased some really cute kiddy fabric .... the only problem is I can't use a sewing machine!! I have asked my mum to come and give me a lesson on the machine I have borrowed from a friend, but we still haven't quite found the time to do it yet. Plus, with the christmas / autumn craft fairs coming up, i'm pretty sure I need more than one different thing on my stall.

The only worry is the initial outlay on materials. I still haven't broke even on the toy savers yet and so hubby doesn't think I should be spending money on another different venture!! He keeps telling me I am supposed to be making money not spending it ... well isn't that historically what women are best at?!! he he

Well I will post a piccie of my first name train for you all to see in a few days.... see what you think! .... in the mean time why not take a peek at my FB page :) .... well I need to promote myself somehow!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MonkeyBear-Crafts/323997971022076#!/pages/MonkeyBear-Crafts/323997971022076

I'm Back!!

Where have I been ?? .. Well lovely readers, I would love to say somewhere exotic and far away ... but no, I haven't been anywhere - just had a blip with the laptop but i'm back and raring to go.

So ... I left off moaning about clearing out the loft in preparation for my first viewing. Well, I spent the whole morning on the Saturday cleaning and tidying - hubby did too. We were like little worker bees. The place was spotless. . . . . I even polished the shower screen and banned all use of water in the bathroom!! We decided to go out for lunch seeing as everywhere was tidy, and kill time untill 4pm when our lovely first viewer would arrive.

Well ... 3.15 arrives, and a phonecall from the agent saying that she had cancelled.

Yep - I was FURIOUS!! Why not phone in the morning if you are not going to come? If nothing else we could have spent the day as a family doing fun things, not ushering munchkin from room to room whilst we cleaned. I was so upset - mainly because of all the time I had wasted. OK OK I suppose you could say that it's done now, but anyone with little children knows it doesnt stay clean for long, much to hubby's annoyance!

So to make up for her having a rubbish Saturday, on the Sunday we took her to a playcentre near us - Monkey Magic. She LOVED it, and is it wrong to say we loved it too? Who knew you were allowed to go in the fun stuff and all you need is child to take with you?! We managed to get her to go down the slide a few times but her absolute favourite was the giant tube to climb in. Seeing as she is still under one it's pretty reasonable at £1.50 so I can see us taking a trip to all the playcentres in the area. I've heard a popular one is Rascals but I think I will wait till the schools are all back before I take her there. Might be a little quieter.

This Sunday just gone we went to the Baby Show in Manchester. Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with it this year. The venue I think was better, it was at the event city behind the Trafford Centre, but the stalls were no where near as good as last year. And there were no where near as many freebies!!

Last year there were people giving away dettol wipes, self sterilising bottles and all sorts of other handy things. This year the best I got was some nurofen syringes for giving paracetamol to babies. It also seemed that alot of the stalls were really only promotional. They had a handful of things on them. By far the best and busiest stall was Nuby - they had loads of good offers on and I picked up some self suction bowls and some cups for when Soph gets a bit bigger.  

The main reason I went was to enter munchkin into the face of the baby show competition. Shes always smiling and laughing and although I am biased, I do think she is a cutie. So that was the one task she had.... to smile for the camera. To be honest, I think she had got bored waiting in the queue for 25 minutes because when she was up..... she was a little monkey!! She wouldn't smile and kept trying to wriggle away. The guy took the pics then moved onto the next little entrant. No sooner had he gone though - she was laughing and clapping away to the lady behind the desk. Typical!! When they upload the piccies to the website i'll put a link so you can all see the shot.

Junk

So our house has been up for sale for 2 months now as we are wanting somewhere bigger with a nice garden to raise the kiddywinks. Up till now no-one, not a soul has been to look.

Possibly that's our fault for picking the cheapest estate agent? They just all charge such extortionate fees and I figured everyone looks on rightmove anyway - but they don't seem do be doing anything else to help sell my house. Anyways literally the day before we had another agent out, we got a call and someone is coming to have a look on Saturday... yipee!! The problem is in the description they have put "useful boarded loft room with velux window". Now when the estate agent came round I sung the prases of the boarded loft, light and airy, could do so much with it, blah blah blah....... the real problem is the 10 years worth of junk that has been hoarded away up there.

Well for the past two mornings when munchkin has been sleeping I have been trying to assemble it into some sort of order so that IF said viewer should want to look ... it will indeed be light and airy. This is no small task - 4 hours I have been up there and so far there is a about a 1/4 of the floor space available. I'm really not sure how two people can accumulate so much - it's crazy!! I have found so many random things stashed up there, carpet offcuts, half rolls of wallpaper and half tins of paint probably all dried up after all these years - why the heck didn't I just bin it at the time, why do we think this stuff is going to be useful!

I'm now thinking i'm going to have to Car Boot on Sunday to try and shift some of this stuff, because we are definitely not taking all this with us when we eventually sell up.

Thankfully the husband is off tomorrow so I might manage to get a little bit more done whilst he is babysitting. Not exactly the start to the bank holiday weekend that I had hoped, and I do hope that yours is not spent cramped up in a grubby loft sifting through junk like mine is going to be. Wish me luck!! x

The Swan Newby Bridge and my first night away

Well the day arrived that I had been dreading for months. Sunday was the first night I was going to be away from my little princess.

Yes I know, it's probably wierd that I have got to 9 months and still not left her overnight. But thats because I am ever so slightly a control freak and like to know that she is safe and sound in her cot with mummy and daddy near. As it was, it was only me that was going away which made me slightly happier ... not much!

It's been hanging over me like a dead weight and all husband would say was "don't be silly, you will have a fab time." Not only was I worried about going away, as it's me that spends all day every day with her, it's only normal to worry "will she be fed on time" "will he remember her water / milk / snacks / cardigan / blah blah blah" ... the list really is endless!

Well 2pm arrived, and cue the tears when saying goodbye (i'm such a damn softy). It took an hour to get to the Swan at Newby Bridge. Its a huge white building set on the river, such a gorgeous setting, and inside is just as lovely. The rooms are beautifully decorated, contrasting wallpaper, lovely comfy beds and the bathrooms are very contemporary with lovely power showers. Also to note are the towels - they were huge and sooooooo soft!!

After checking in and checking the rooms over, we ventured downstairs to the pool. Again, alot of thought has gone into the decor - the entrance to the health club had wallpaper covered in fish!! My only issue with the pool was that it was a bit cold. If you were taking children in there, especially young ones, they would not be able to stay in long. But other than that it was lovely. Some of our party went into the gym but most of us chilled in the pool and sauna and hot tub.... bliss.

A quick video call with hubby before dinner to check everything was ok, and then down we went to the restaurant on site. Dinner was AMAZING!! I must admit, I had already looked at the menu online and chosen what I was having. Garlic bread to start and the Swan Signature Salad for mains..... and it did not disappoint! In fact no-one had any complaints about the food, it was all wonderfully prepared and presented and tasted lovely. Obviously being a hen party the drinks were flowing and the bride to be had a fair few dares throughout the evening. Thank goodness the staff were up for a laugh - one of the barmen even gave her a piggy back across the bar! We did only go down for dinner late and hopefully we weren't too rowdy and didn't spoil too many peoples meals. She did enjoy herself and thankfully there were no greasy strippers to end the night. errgh!!

I did think i was going to have such a good nights sleep, no baby waking up wanting milk, no husband deciding he wanted 3/4 of the bed, and a belly full of wine ... but no. I rekon I had about an hour?? It was awful, nothing to do with the room or the hotel - it's me!! I've never been good at staying away from home and just tossed and turned the whole night. So in fact, when morning came I was more exhausted than when if I had been up ten times with munchkin. It's so typical, all I wanted was sleep. Nevermind, i'm sure I will get a good night sometime before she's 18?!

There was a few fuzzy heads at breakfast - oh and a little bit of celebrity spotting! The guy who plays Ashley Peacock in Corrie was on the table in front of me. It seemed there were no further activities planned for the morning though so I was back home for 11.30, and I was soooooooo excited to see munchkin. I know she missed me as she would not leave my side for the next two hours!! LOL

Did I have a good time? Yes, am I glad I went? definitely, Will I be staying away anytime soon .......... Naaaaaaaah! I've done it once, I survived, but I think I like things just the way they are. Oh dear ... when am I going to manage to let go?!