In:

days of snotty noses and no sleep

Little Pip has had another cold. The poor little mite has been grumpy for a few days without outward shows of anything at all apart from a tiny little tooth peeping through. 4am wakenings were put down to that. But at the weekend, the snot came. and came. Still coming on Monday. He's lots better now and much more obedient in the sleep department I am gald to say.

Friday held a wonder of delights - the school Quiz Night. I had been before with some friends and had a good time. I laughed loads and argued loads too about obscure questions and probable answers. This time I did much the same except with more alcohol. We came 7th out of 23, as I keep saying to anyone who will listen 'none to shabby' - what a total arse I am.
Sadly the after effects of drinking the alcohol hit me hard on Saturday, throwing into disarray many of the normal Saturday things - me going to footie, me looking after Pip whilst the boys go to tennis, the bigger boys going to Luton footie - I awoke from uneasy slumbers after several attempts at normality at around 12:45. Hubby was downstairs in a maelstrom of disorganised activity trying to plan around my absence, he did brilliantly. After 2 horse pill ibuprofen i started to feel normal, vowing to never let a drop of alcohol touch my lips again.

Sunday saw the crop - lovely to get away from the four walls and look at another four walls, actually got something done and more plans on the way.

no photos, just whitterings today.

I have a flickr account though - user name is toniann, there are lots of photos on there.

In:

avoidance strategies

I have a book full of avoidance strategies for when I know things really need doing. You know like when the house needs tidying or the lawn needs mowing or the ironing doing. The PC is my main avoidance tool, it calls me siren like when I pass the room it is in (and it's not really a room that you pass, more one that you spot). And here I am again, checking blogs, re-reading forum posts and today I am searching for cheap tamagotchi. Tomorrow who knows what I will be searching for.


We had a decents nights sleep last night and Pip is asleep now after much persuasion. I think he's moved on from his morning naps, but sadly for him I am not ready for him to move on from them. So sleep he will!!


We went for a walk on Sunday - probably ill-advised but never-the-less a walk it was. My photos are rubbish but here is one anyway - they posed for this, I so hate poses.

In:

what to do with a spare afternoon

take cheesy shots of the kids in the house who have not gone to footie. The light was appalling and everywhere was a mess but the lure of the Xmas booties & hat were too great.





Yup that's a baby on the table
I'm off the learn how to do a Gaussian Blur on the background so I can blur out my pigsty of a house.......





In:

big plans thwarted be sleeping baby

It was a gorgeous morning today - lovely soft blue sky, brilliant autumnal light, Hubby even went and got a Santa hat out of the loft for me as I was planning a Xmas photo of the kids to send in the as yet unmade Xmas cards.

Little Pip had been up since 6:30am so by the time I was ready to think about taking pics he was so screamy and cranky he had to be put to bed. That was 10am and it is now 1:40pm. Methinks one tired little Babba.

So the clouds have come, one kid at tennis then off to watch footie, one kid downstairs on a mission to eat until he explodes, one kid asleep about to get a rude awakening. Gotta say though, mucho better than yesterday - ugh it was a horrid whinging day (and that was just me).

I have decorating plans, well not decorating as such, more corner improvement. I like all the colours we have on the walls here but have never really like how we've put up the pictures and mirrors. I always thought Hubby had staunch views on what was on the walls so never ventured further, however, after a brief conversation with him about it I discovered he could not give two hoots about what I do as long as it's not expensive (this last bit was unspoken but obvious). So me & the Pipster are off to Ikea next week to fufill some dreams.


It's 1999 and Tiddly is 16 weeks and getting his first experience of the pants machine, note his suprised expression. And look at me! don't I look the boss-eyed dream?

In:

what was I thinking (again)

I went to the gym today, I walked and ran for 25 minutes - my god what must I have looked like? better than sitting down and eating cake I suppose.


Very tired here, tired cranky baby, tired cranky middle kid, super-hyped-up-on-star-wars-lego-pc-game eldest kid and to top it off tired woken-up-at-4:30am-Mummy-who-should-be-in-bed-not-surfing-or-blogging.


I am going to start another footie newsletter (I have created a monster - each issue has to be better than the last) and then call it a day.


But look see what I am going to offer to the footie parents, should they so desire - a framed portrait of their kid in their football kit....

I just thought this was so fab for a little football player - a commemoration of their first year in competitive football and so so cheap (the frame is from Ikea and was £2.50 or so, the prints were 20p each), it will also help with my portraiture under pressure!

And a lovely piece of news is that Marja will be able to use all her pink stash on girly layouts, as she is expecting a little baby girl :)

oh and Sharon may soon have an up and running website for her photography - will keep you posted (all you hundreds of readers ;) )

In:

a tough day in baby world

Not sure what was wrong with Pip today, whatever it was made him sob really heartily whilst waiting in the queue to pay at Matalan (I may have expensive taste but that doesn't extend to actually buying expensive things!). And it really was sobbing, not crying or whining, but as my friend Ruth would say, big ploppy tears and sad eyes - not a good look on an 8month old.


Things did not improve and it was a long day for both of us. I didn't get much done and I hate days like that, especially when my plans for the previous day were thwarted. Kind of makes me feel a little trapped & tied down. But it's no-one's fault, 99% of the time I get to do what I want so I should just suck it up for the 1% when the kids take the lead.


I keep wanting to take advantage of what little good light is left in the day and take a few xmas piccies (i have xmas bootees and hats and stuff) - I try to send out photos to family who never see us (all my side, none of whom have even asked how Pip is doing since I sent out the birth announcement, perhaps the evil parents have got to them). This will have to be a weekend job as I need the santa hats from the loft and the boys home during the day.


Gym tomorrow followed by ironing and crafting for sure, even if just a few xmas cards.


Hmmm boring boring post, will make up for it tomorrow by gathering some really bad jokes together ;)


the view out of my back window this afternoon

In:

Oh yes baby, gotta love internet shopping

and so i bought this

in all its French loveliness - it's probably like a Wilkinsons bag for life except I've paid a bunch of cash for it. I'm hoping that the website understood that it was meant to come to good old Blighty - a message pop up stating 'you do realise this is going out of France don't you' or words to that effect never strike a wholly positive note. Thank you for your input ladies :)

In other matters oldest son has scammed a day off school feigning sickness - I even took him to school and stood him outside his class door, but he maintained the sickness bravado so I let him have the benefit of the doubt. He was standing over the toilet this morning complaining of wanting to be sick. Kind of ruined my day though, how inconsiderate of him!! I was going all sorts of places and was also going to gym, have paid for the creche and everything.

Will take a photo of his sick mush later and I'll cast a poll on whether he's a good faker or the real deal ;)

In:

so, which one would you get

Unknown to her, Marja has unleashed the dormant handbag fetishist in me. I completely love handbags, beyond all comprehension and need. I am loving this one from elisalou what colour combinations would you choose?



I do like the one in the picture, but it's not like I can get it - it's $52 incl shipping,





that's the cost of the TTT Kit












or this darling bag from Lamarelle in France.
What is a girl to do?










I am off to wash floors, hoover, make lists, faff, go to Post Office (Marja!), Iron, maybe go to Dunelm, look at the Donna Downey books a bit more (she's the Queen of Mini Albums)

In:

bloody html




I know little to nothing about html. I can refer to a link and that is about it. I did have instructions onhow to change my Title from here but now I've moved the Beta Blogger they've made things a bit more fancy and I simply cannot work out how to get my banner in my title.

So I've put it here in my post.

It's a photo I took the other week when I went to Rushden, the park is lovely, accessible and picturesque. That is Munch with a stick by the tree - quite appropriate really and sums him up almost completely.

In:




so can you see the similarities?

In:

cute, teething or both?



look at this and tell me you are not going 'awwwww'.... either that or you are wondering what the deal is with the one red cheek - no I haven't slapped him (possibly prodded him with a fork to hurry up and finish but no, no slapping), I am pretty certain it's a teething cheek




how about this one then....



I haven't mucked about with this one either - he's sitting in his new highchair -funky or what!
and I am going to scan something in tomorrow and I want you to tell me how spooky it is.....

In:

How times change (trick or treat variant)



I can remember a time when we used to refuse to answer the door and hide from the doorbell. These things still happen but generally only to door to door double glazing salesmen (why do they knock when they can see us in all our white pvc glory?)
Last night was a bit of a Halloween let down really, Tiddly was out with the Beavers getting bored on a scary walk in our local and very dark at night park & Hubby was out firstly at footie training and then straight to the football match. So it was me, Munch and Pip against the world in terms of general Halloween excitement.
One thing I didn't do, that in retrospect was mean and rotten, was get a pumpkin. Every year since Tiddly was tiny I've carved a pumpkin and put it in the hall. This year I thought - 'oh I shan't bother seeing as Tiddly is out' - what about the two other little people in my house? don't they count? Luckily for me they are generous, forgiving and totally didn't realise I hadn't done a pumpkin (well I'd drop down in a dead faint if Pip mentioned I hadn't done one and that I was a meany seeing as is only 8 months old).
So we saw in Halloween with about 10 door knocking and lots of sweeties given away by the Baby Darth Vader. He feels he misses out on so many things being 3 years younger - it's hard for him to accept that he is still too little for a lot of this stuff.
I made some buttons out of Makins Clay and my Cherry Arte stamps last night - the first ones were rubbish but later ones were getting funkier and funkier as time went on. I will def make more, esp as the imprinting using the stamps is such a good idea. I bought some tiny cookie cutters from Tchibo and they should make some wicked Xmas tree decorations. I might get the boys involved to make a 2006 decoration and we'll keep on doing it each year to see how far we get.

I've discovered a site called Action Central where you can get really deeply cool PS Actions that funk up your photos big time. The first pic os the original and the second has had Urban Acid applied to it - love how it treats the colours of Pip's coat.
I am still very into reading Alicia Paulson esp as she sets up lovely little photoshoots of her home. I'm almost ordering from Cath Kidston every time I read it.