Photo - Dragonflies...

I am not an insect fan. No particular reason why not other than I have always felt that something with more than four legs is going to be a little unpredictable.

Like spiders and wasps... There is something a little vindictive about them.

But after saying that, I do love dragonflies.


I have my dragonfly tattoo and I think that sparked my interest. I now have all sorts of dragonfly items such as my paperweight, my necklaces, my notepads and my hair clips.

But what I really want is a painting, a huge dragonfly in fantastic colours to adorn our kitchen wall.

I figure I will either have to hunt one down or paint one myself... What do you think I should do? :) xx

- Posted in bed while the husband is out hunting for diesel. ..

Musings - DVD snap shot...

I realised this week that I am very behind on my DVD watching. Having the Amazon app means that I am able to order cheap and intriguing DVDs but now I never get the chance to watch them.


I think over the Easter holidays I might try and set some time aside...

After I have fixed the car, baked a cake, organised a birthday party, been to the in laws and done some cleaning.

Hmm, me thinks not. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Supplies...

Tonight o am spending some time doing a bit of research and purchasing on what I will need for Katharine's first birthday cake... Any suggestions gratefully received. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Mummy's fault...

Okay, yeah, I hold my hands up... I was the one that gave her chocolate Angels Delight. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Musings - G for Get yourself in order...

No one keeps their USB memory device all neat and organised, if you say you do you are lying or completely anal and clearly have too much time on your hands. My memory stick, my external HD as my netbook calls it, is a disgrace.

Photos are misfiled all over the place meaning that there are potentially several copies of the same ones.
I have a folder for each project I am working on yet most of them are still empty because I haven’t gotten around to filing all my project bits in them.

Every time get a new computer or laptop (I seem to kill them on a regular basis) I simply copy all the ‘my documents’ into a folder on my HD and label it OLD LAPTOP or TO SORT. I currently have three to sorts, an old laptop and a ‘FROM NETTY’.

I have this fear though, however irrational, about sorting out my stuff. Because I know that I will remember that I once had a certain about of dedication to my writing, my blog, my life… I will read through my musings and laugh, and then feel sad because I am no longer funny. Sigh. I will look at how I used to love documenting my existence, my dreams and how I was so readily inspired.
When I first started my blog I had grit and depth… now I am falling asleep by 9pm.

I used to write a diary, once a week, summing up what had happened in the last seven days. It WAS humorous! It WAS a good read! But back then I had interesting things to say. I had wit, damn it. I would put aside the time to write 600 words on what had occurred and I loved doing it.

Now I have to put time aside to remember to make a packed lunch for an almost one year old.
SO… to the point of this post… I am reinstating the diary! It might not be every week but I am gonna give it a try.

So let me start in a format that always warmed me to follow…
This (last) week has been about three things…
1. Falling all over again for one quarter of McFly
2. Walking in the sunshine and feeling marvellous for it
3. Worrying about the fact that there are only poor schools near our house.

And my advice for next week… Love thy neighbour for if they move they may just sell to someone really horrible.

And get that memory stick in order!
:) xx

Photo - Almost Easter...

Today Kieran bought Katharine a little Easter chocolate from the local sandwich shop...


It is so cute and Katharine set to gobbling it all up...


Luckily we thought to rescue the little chick first...


:) xx

- Posted on the move...

Photo - Sunday sun...

Today the weather was glorious. We went for a long walk around the water and Rohan managed to do a little basking. :) xx



- Posted on the move...

Musings - Game show / five things / past men...

Last night I had a very bizarre dream... It involved a Game Show, Five men who have cropped up at some point during my thirty one years and five objects.

The idea of the game show was that the men had been asked to provide:
- A flower
- A book
- A trinket
- A dress
- A song
...with the idea in mind that they were trying to pick each item in an effort to show that they knew me best.

I was then presented with the five flowers, five books etc and had to pick one of each that I felt most represented me and my tastes.

Then if it happened that any man did not get any of his items picked he was automatically out of the competition. Following me so far?

I can remember clear as day picking out my items:
- Dyed mauve Gerberas
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- A pewter bookmark with a ruby and Angel pendant
- A duck egg blue dress in a similar style to the red dress that Julia Roberts wears when she goes to the opera in Pretty Woman.
- Colours by Amos Lee

And every item I picked had been presented by one man... a man who seemingly knew me more than I knew myself...

So heavy red curtains opened to reveal four rejected men, I could not see their faces but I FELT that they were people I had known. Then I had to walk down the grand staircase to meet this magical mysterious man, dressed in a tux holding out a bouquet of mauve gerberas.

And just as his face was about to come in to focus, to reveal my soul mate... I woke up!

Absolutely typical! :) xx

Photo - Proper lady...

I found it hilarious today that my daughter decided that she preferred to sit on her little car side saddle... What a proper little lady she is. :) xx



- Posted on the move...

Photo - Ewan's a sweetheart...

This Mother's Day was my first official one that includes a baby that is not the Rohan. :)

And with a little help from Kieran I was presented with an amazing baby blue pot mixing bowl, a funny card and a bookmark that says 'Mum's Book'. Perfect.

But I was also given another card from my nephew Ewan, which he made himself with a giant beautiful flower on the front. This is it...

It's great, it even says Happy 1st Mother's Day inside. I think he was covering all bases in case Kieran and Katharine forgot. :) xx

Musings - Like any good woman...

I have pondered all day about what this post should be about. I set myself a challenge last year to write a post every day for a year, this is the first day that I have not been able to come up with anything. My mind is blank.

You see... I don't want to write another post about Motherhood, even though I love it, or randomly take part in one of the writing challenges I have found recently, even though I love that too. Or post a photograph which is often a cop out.

You see (bare with me)... today I feel discombobulated and I wanted to tell you about it. You, the random public who I know so little about yet feel I can often spill my heart to.

You see (still there?)... by discombobulated I mean I am ill at ease with myself, I feel itchy in my body, my mind refuses to sit still and every few moments I sigh. Sigh like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders and an icy fist squeezing at my insides. It sounds fanciful but I am feeling fanciful.

Like any good woman I have the need to be alone. To curl up with a blanket, a soppy movie, a mug of hot chocolate and a good cry. And like any good woman I don't really know the reason why. Or rather I do but won't admit it, not to me or you my random public.

Sigh... See!

"Oi with the poodles already!" Yeah, I said it for you! :) xx

Photo - Score one for Mummy...

The most amazing thing happened this evening... Katharine brought her book to me for me to read with her. It has made my day. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Besties...

Going crazy over Danny from McFly... Even though she is my best friend I will fight her for him. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Musings - Part 3 Year of Adventure...

Last night saw March ticked off our list... last night we went to see the mighty MCFLY!

It was the third time I had seem them and I must admit that each time they get better and better and better. We were at the 02 venue in Leeds, small and intimate which meant that we were really close.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera and had to use my iPhone which means that the videos I took are out of this world but the photos not so much, especially with the lighting. iPhones are not meant for zooming in which meant my photos looked either really far away or that little bit grainy.

But that doesn't matter because we had the MOST AMAZING TIME!!!! The boys looked stunning, sounded stunning and played old favourites and some new material.

It made me remember why I love them... so here are a few of the many many photos that I took and I promise at some point I will figure out how to upload the videos. :) xx

 

Photo - Start of Part 3...

This weekend we are undertaking part three of our year of adventure... But I will report more on that tomorrow.

For now, while we count down the hours until the opening of the doors of excitement, we are having a few cheeky cocktails.

A Raspberry Daiquiri...


And a Bison Berry Mojito.


:) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Full of giggles...

When I got to my parents house this lunch time I was met by a little face... What you can't see is my father hidden from sight but still, how adorable. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Musings - Mama Kat's Workshop (15th March 2012)

This week Mama Kat has given for the offering a number of prompts that could take my fancy but as I have never been to either of the Disneylands and Katharine is a little young to know about the birds and the bees...

I have chosen... 1) Share your favourite part of your child's bedroom.

When we were deciding on the theme for the Nursery we fell in love with two characters called Zeddy and Parsnip, a little Zebra and his best friend the Bunny. The colours were pale coffee browns and light lemon yellow.

When Katharine was born, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I decided to make a sign for her wall with her name on it. Let's face it, with KATHARINE LORELAI as a name she is going to need a little help learning how to spell it.

So after about eight months I finally had it finished and up on the wall.

And it is this, my love painted and stuck on to canvas, that is my favourite part of my daughter's room.

So come on... join in at http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/  :) xx

Musings - Trifecta Writing Challenge (TRAIL)

Trifecta have gone with the tried and tested challenge this week of a word and its third definition...
trail verb \ˈtrāl\
3: to move, flow, or extend slowly in thin streams
Here is my offering...

I had the audacity to signal ‘goodbye’ with the wave of a raised palm. I watched, dispassionate at my actions, hearten by the sequence of events about to unfurl.

From the space at my feet the glimmering rainbowed stream trailed out; made a tacky ribbon of fume and fluid.

Tyres crunched gravel and clouded dust as distance was coursed.

Taking from my pocket the final gift from my misplaced father, I studied the cold titanium design of the flaming sword. Like Uriel I was to be guardian, to banish from this earthly paradise the unjust.

With the flick of my gloved thumb I brought warmth to the titanium through its sparked flame.

I raised my eyes, still dispassionate, and tipped the flame and housing from my hand. I heard the crackle of a well marked landing, the roar as fire consumed its trail of fuel.

I turned away, walked away without even a flinch as moments later the silence was broken by the blast.

You can find out more about this challenge, past challenges and those that have yet to take the stage at http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/

Photo - The Beast...

For those of you that don't know, I am a huge fan of all things Beauty and the Beast. I even bought my less than a year old daughter the Disney figures for Christmas.

So you can understand how excited I was when I spotted this giant teddy at the Disney store last weekend.


Shame it was so expensive or I would have bought it for sure... For Katharine of course! :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Sensory learning...

This week Katharine and I have been learning about flowers.


We have a bunch of daffodils which we are watching grow. We have learnt to touch gently, smell with a big sniff and how the colour yellow looks like sunshine.

Or rather I have had fun and Katharine has looked at me as usual like she already knows all this but is taking pains to humour me anyway.

Next week we will be learning about hair brushes. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Musings - Table matters...

I inherited a little table from my Grandad when he passed way, ooh about fifteen years ago now. As a teenager I had big plans for it and so I sanded it down... But like everything else it never got finished.

This weekend at age thirty one I finally did something with that little table and it makes me grin to think that my cantankerous old Grandad would have been horrified.

You see I bought a roll of really ugly but utterly fantastic plastic sticky back covering.

It looks like this...


And now that little wooden table, once naked and dignified, now looks like this...


And I just love it... Even if old Fred would have turned the air blue about it. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Let the fun begin...

Katharine is still insisting she feed herself... :) xx

- Posted on the move...

Musings - Trifecta Writing Challenge (EXCLAMATION!)

Trifecta have given we writers an exciting challenge this weekend!

You can find out more on their website http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/ but let me tell you what it is...

"This weekend's challenge is to give us a story or snippet of a story which includes, in exactly 33 words, a justified exclamation point.  Make us believe that your exclamation point simply needs to be in your story."

I found it quite difficult. I use exclamation marks all the time, in my blog / texts, but never in a formal setting, and I know for a fact that very few of them would ever be classed as justified.

So I pondered, taking in to account my burgeoning characters and this is what I decided up on...

I took aim; string taut and arrow poised.

Hands steady; no tremor, no hesitation.

Pupils dilated; no blink stirred my amber lashes.

I released; whoosh, crack.

Wood splintered; relief, I still had it!

***

So, what do you think? Justified? :) xx

Musings - Mama Kat's Workshop (8th March 2012)

This week Mama Kat has given me the perfect prompt.

Since having Katharine and since meeting an extremely inspiring individual who has refused to let cancer beat him, I have thought more and more about what is important to me. So this week's prompt put a smile on my face and made it so easy for me to take some time and complete it.

THE PROMPT: On The Bachelor a rose is given to the women he could really see himself spending the rest of his life with. What six things in your life would you like to give a rose to and why?

And my six...

My Baby - Because she is my life. :)

My Man - Because he is my monster. :)

My Pooch - Because she is my furry hot water bottle. :)

My folks - Because they made me who I am. :)

My BFF - Because she listens and laughs in all the right places. :)

And my books - Because, let's face it, they are my first love ha ha. :)

So what would be your six?

Who read this and, with raised eyebrow,

realised their spouse would not make the list above chocolate? :) xx

www.mamakatslosinit.com

Musings - Trifecta Weekday Challenge (VULGAR)

This weeks Trifecta challenge is to incorporate a chosen word and its meaning into a section of writing with a word limit of between 33 and 333 words. This week's word is:

Vulgar
3 a : of or relating to the common people : plebeian
b : generally current : public
c : of the usual, typical, or ordinary kind

And this weeks repsonse is this:

“To hide effectively one must hide in plain sight.”

I remembered my father’s teachings now, as I stood unadorned in the market place.

I was anyone in any crowd; a woman merely browsing stalls of over priced scraps. Pastel clothing, skin and colouring. I was uneventful, unmemorable, unrecognisable as intended. Only the man who knew the blue of my eyes and the bittersweet of a final kiss would pick me out, yet he must not.

In the moments, days, since he had presented me with his back, let me leave; against his morals, his teachings and the demands of his badge, I had kept within a raised voice of his portentous presence. I was his protector and I lingered undetected; I had been raised too well to be revealed.

“Find your mark, become his scenery, let him see you,

empty space reveals far more than an overflowing glance.”

So I watched his life, the vulgar repetition and lack of spectrum that came from all that was commonplace. Before our precarious sport of cat and mouse his life had found its well worn trail and deviated little. I cursed my influence, my perplexing existence and its interference to his.

I cursed more the need I felt, the urge to exchange that raised voice for a whisper. My life was a culmination of violence, exile, deception and the outlandish circumstances of a gun for hire. I had known nothing else until I had known him, had needed nothing and felt nothing.

Now, like my broad reluctant saving enforcer, I had a resurfacing soul. I was suddenly conscious of my conscience. He had taken my hand and stamped me with a hidden ultraviolet marker. Some imaginary bolded font that read NOW TYPICAL.

“It is not your aim that makes you sought

but your ability to barricade your compassion.”

Clearly my father, in his forty years of bullion standard butchery, had never been in love.

***

Join in at http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/

Photo - The place I slim...

This is where I get weighed each week... Dark and scary enough to shiver the pounds off. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Carnage...

I am pretty sure I told the pair of them to pick one toy each and leave the rest in the toy box... :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Musings - Trifecta Writing Challenge (The phone rang at 4am...)

This weekend, my second for participation, the Trifecta Writing Challenge has asked for a response with a limit of 33 words. Having the word restriction is absolutely amazing, even after only two weeks I feel like a am training my brain to think again, to love words again.

The challenge set on Friday was to complete the following story in only 33 words... The phone rang at 4am.

Here is my completed, toiled, response...

The phone rang at 4am.

A shrill, repetitive, definitive trial.

Freedom, held, suspended on a thread; love on a whisper. I witnessed indecision, comprehended inner conflict; pleaded, silently, for clemency.

Three words, hope soared unencumbered.

“I lost her.”

***

Why not join in yourselves if you feel like a challenge is just what you need... :) xx

http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/

Photo - Recommendation...

This week I would like to recommend this book for you to read...


'Love Virtually' by Daniel Glattauer.

It's odd and fast paced, electric and incredibly addictive. To say any more would be saying too much but please please believe that you have to seek it out and peruse. :) xx


- Posted on the move...

Photo - Muck tub...

Mashed potato face... :) xx



- Posted on the move...

Musings - Mama Kat's Workshop (1st March 2012)

This week Mama Kat has opened my eyes to how untidy I am.

You see I chose writing prompt 3) Your chair. We all have ‘our spot’ in the house…show us where you plant yourself and what is it about that spot that makes it your favorite?

And this is my spot...


And I love it because...

1. I have a wine coloured leather sofa.
2. My laptop and notebooks are only an arm stretch away.
3. I have a variety of DVDs and books on my shelves for viewing and reference.
4. My iPod and headphones have their own little place.
5. There is space for a cuppa.
6. I am next to the window for some good people watching.

I could go on and on but I am writing this while the potatoes boil, I do so love to multitask, and my aim was to post while I cooked.

I know that it's messy and unorganised but it's my spot and no matter how much the husband nags... It probably will remain that way forever. :) xx