I couldn’t decide which picture was funnier, so I’ll leave it for you to decide. Caption either one, or both, whichever you prefer.
Saturday is Caption Day: An Empty Glass
Posted in Saturday is Caption Day
Tagged empty glass, hunting pinks, huntsman, National Brewery Centre, seaside pictures
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My Cybher Day
Lots of people have done posts about the sessions at Cybher and I did consider writing an article like that, but on reflection, I’ve decided to just give you a flavour of my day; cover some of the off agenda things that I got up to and tell you what inspired me.
My day started early on the train to London from Birmingham. It was 
obviously a fairly early train, but not early enough it seemed as everyone else from Birmingham seemed to be on the train before me. Note to self – next time coordinate travel plans before booking the tickets.
On arrival at the very grand venue, I did fear for a moment that everything was going to be pink. I’m not really a pink 
kind of a girl, so I was pleased to find out that it wasn’t as pink inside as I thought it might be.
During one of the breaks I wandered round the sponsors stands. Like many bloggers I found (much to my surprise) that I was a) wearing the wrong bra size and b) my size seemed to be one that I’d have previously associated with a page 3 girl. I also had a look at Disney’s stand and had my picture superimposed on one of their publicity photos.
At lunch time I found out that I had been picked out of the hat to go in the cash cube to catch the money
flying around (think Crystal Maze). Here I am with my winnings which helped cover my expenses for the day. Paying them into the bank proved a little problematic at first (I had 65 one dollar bills), but I stood my ground and the cashier decided that perhaps she would check with her manager and lo and behold, they were accepted.
One the way back, I did get on the wrong train and didn’t realise until after my train was due to have left. Thanks to the cows of Leighton Buzzard wandering onto the line, I was able to catch my correct, but delayed, train and get back home nearly as planned. This time I had booked myself on the right train to Birmingham with three other fellow bloggers.
It was great to meet up with so many bloggers and learn so much that I want to put into practice on my blog. As well as learning a lot, it’s become apparent that there’s lots more still to get to grips with in the blogging world. I’d really like to go to Brit Mums Live and find out more, but to do that I’ll need a sponsor. So that’s my mission for the next couple of weeks to see if I can get the sponsorship I need to attend. If anyone knows of any opportunities or can offer any advice on the how to get a sponsor, please get in touch.
Posted in General
Tagged 2012, cash cube, cows on the line, Cybher, delayed train. crystal maze, disney, once upon a time
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A Study in Pictures
This post has been inspired by a portrait photography workshop at Cybher that enthused me to work harder at my photography. Portraits don’t come that naturally to me, but I felt the session helped me improve. As a result of confronting something I’m not that good at and seeing an improvement, I decide to challenge myself to capture a wider range of images.
The actual prompt for this post though came from Andrea at the Tales from Mount Pleasant blog. It was her idea to study a single item in depth through a series of photographs. That said, I think I’m too much of a story teller to allow the pictures to simply speak for themselves so I’ve used them to tell a sort of a st
ory and introduce you to my garden through the plants in it.
This is a favourite jug of mine that I purchased from a craft fair shortly before I bought my first home. It was acquired with that first home in view, but before I had found the right house, so it wasn’t intended for use with a specific property. I just loved the shape of it then and still do. It’s very simple, is a beautiful, earthy, natural clay colour and looks great. Currently, it’s lending its beauty to my third own home that we moved to in October last year.
So I decided to fill the vase with flowers and foliage from my new garden. Wh
en we came to view the house we had the impression that the garden was nothing but hedges and lawn, but it’s obvious this spring that there is a little bit more to it than that. There is a lot of hedge, mostly privet hedging, but with ivy, holly, sycamore, maple and even horsechestnut mixed into it. Along the bottom of the hedge, there are lots and lots of bluebells and some whitebells too. Plus inevitably there are some weeds, mostly dandelions, but other things too: ground elder, bindweed, etc. I collected together a representative sample, flowers, foliage, weeds and all.
Next for some arrangement of the raw materials. I’m not noted for my flower arranging skills, although to be fair I’ve had no training and 
precious little practice. In any case I prefer a fairly natural sort of look (probably just as well) and I think it suits the wild flowers, so I kept the preening to a minimum.
Once I’d got the finished arrangement to my liking, I took it indoors to bring some of the spring flower freshness to the living room. Here’s the arrangement on the mantelpiece.
Posted in General
Tagged bluebells, dandelions, flower arranging, foliage, jug of flowers, photography, vase of flowers, whitebells, wildflowers
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Week 19 Project 366
This week started with a weekend with my husband’s parents. Henry was very excited about seeing his grandparents again. On Saturday we went out for lunch at an 1950s American diner. It was quite an experience: the mystery machine in the carpark; the costumed staff (and quite a few of the customers); and American cuisine (I tried sasparilla for the first time – I wouldn’t bother). After lunch we went onto the 
National Brewery Centre, a museum about the brewing industry, in Burton on Trent.
Sunday saw us still with the grandparents. Here’s Henry on a trip to the local park. He’s quite familiar with this park as we go there quite regularly when we are in the area visiting. There’s a great climbing frame, slide and activity structure with a bit of a nautical theme going on. Henry’s on look out duties here. After lunch we went home and Henry had a nap in the car. Next up to a friend’s house to play for the remainder of the afternoon. With hindsight this may have been a step too far for a boy still recovering from a virus.
Monday was supposed to be the day that I took Henry and my mother to Malvern to see my grandmother in hospital and help clear out her house (she transferred to an old people’s home this week). Henry was not well enough to go. At 9am when I left, he was already having a nap and had a bit of a temperature. I had to leave him behind and go with mum. As it turned out conveniently in some ways as we had more room in the car to transport stuff back with us. Here’s one of the things we brought back: a Kilrush Pottery vase that I found a new home for in my 
bedroom.
Tuesday was back to school day for Henry and catch up on jobs day for me. It started that way at least. At lunchtime though I had a phone call from the school saying Henry wasn’t feeling well. I went to collect him and he didn’t seem to bad (in fairness to the school I know he’s been up and down this week often quite quickly). 
I got him home and he had a 2 hour nap, so he clearly wasn’t well.
I didn’t try to send him to school on Wednesday even though he seemed bright enough first thing. A day’s rest will be good for him I thought and part of me couldn’t face having to pick him up from school early, for the third time in a week, because he was sick. We had a quiet day at home which went 
down very well with Henry and the feline members of the household.
Henry still seemed to need a nap or a rest in the afternoon and had a terrible cough at night,so I took him to the doctors on Thursday. The doctor put my mind at rest and Henry just needs a little while to get over what may have been a couple of viruses back to back. On Thursday I did manage to 
escape the sick room for a while as a kind friend minded Henry while I went to my yoga class.
Friday was one of those days when Henry probably could have gone to school, but if he had he would have been tired out by home time. We’ve had a nice few days at home together which have involved some snuggles on the sofa, some naps, quite a lot of TV watching (I had to break out a DVD from my rainy day stash) and a bit of art.
So for once we didn’t have such a busy week, although we did have a busy bank holiday weekend.
Posted in Project 366
Tagged American diner, mystery machine, National Brewery Centre, playing in the park, sick child
9 Comments
Saturday is Caption Day: Cake
I’ve been out on Saturdays quite a lot lately and again this weekend for Cybher. Henry has been having some days with his daddy. One of their regular boys’ days out activities is going to one of the coffee shops in Birmingham city centre for cake and a drink. Here’s a picture of Henry stuffed full of chocolate muffin cake.
Publishing a bit early this week as at Cybher tomorrow.
Posted in Saturday is Caption Day
Tagged chocolate cake, chocolate muffin, coffee shop, eating cakes, full on cake
13 Comments
Week 18 Project 366
This week has been a bit of a whirlwind. I like to pack my weeks full of things to do and this has been typical in that respect.
Saturday was another daddy day for Henry. I was helping out at our local NCT nearly new sale. We hold them twice a year and I help out with the organisation. The day kicked off with setting up the room at 8.30 and finished about 3.30. At that point I returned home, the baton was passed and the rest of the day was a mummy day for Henry. Here is Henry doing a dance for me so that I can take a picture for Saturday is Caption Day (we decided not to use this one in the end). Henry loves to look at the funny pictures that people put up for that meme. Like most children his age he 
really likes the idea of telling jokes, so I think the whole concept appeals to him.
Sunday was a quieter day in contrast and we spent the day mostly at home. It was very wet so we just ventured out to mum’s for lunch. Henry had a friend round to play in the afternoon to relieve the boredom (and relieve mummy and daddy). Here’s Henry playing with one of his current favourite 
toys.
Henry has had a busy week of after school activities. He’s been doing lots of arts and crafty things. Here he is doing a rainy day picture (I like to make it topical). It’s a wax crayon train picture with a dilute blue food colouring wash to add rain.
Another of Henry’s creations is this four eyed, cardboard, hand puppet. The eyes came off an easter egg box and the basket is part of the packaging too. To be fair this idea is largely based on the suggestion on the box.
Wednesday was a very eventful day for me this week. Henry went off to school as normal and I set out to the Birmingham Blog it for Babies event. It was great fun, but while I was there I got the phone call from the school: Henry wasn’t well and could I come to collect him? He had complained a bit about going to school and had a bit of a cold, but hadn’t seemed ill in the morning. 
The trouble was that the event was on the other side of Birmingham, so getting back to school wasn’t so easy. Luckily my mum was able to collect him and I returned home shortly afterwards. I’ve already blogged about the Blog it for Babies event so I won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say that it was very enjoyable. The other news that I had while I was there, was that I had won a ticket for Cybher in London next weekend. For those not in the know, it’s a blogging conference. The tickets had all sold out so the only way to get one was to win one. I’d missed out on 2 other competitions, but won the third. So now Henry will have another daddy day next Saturday. Eyebrows are being raised at this, in our household, as 
this will be the 3rd daddy Saturday out of 4.
Thursday was Henry’s first sickie. He’s got to the summer term without having any time off sick, which I think is pretty good for a boy in Reception class. Indeed we got praised for his 100% attendance record at the last parent’s evening. Henry had a day at home with lots of cuddles, quite a lot of sitting on the sofa, more TV than he’d normally watch in a week and generally taking it easy. By evening he seemed to have bounced back.
Pirate playmobil continues to be a popular play activity. Even a few minutes before school can be used to good effect. Henry was well enough to go back to school on Friday, but it did seem to take it out of him and he was complaining about being ill again on Friday evening. It’s difficult to know what to do isn’t it? Do you send them back as soon as you can or do you keep them off until they are absolutely 100% better?
Review: Mike the Knight
Henry has been a fan of Mike the Knight since it started on cbeebies. Knights are a passion of his anyway and he loves the stories and the characters of the TV programme. So he was thrilled to get a Mike the Knight toy to try out ahead of the launch of the toy collection.
Setting Up It was a little difficult to get out of the packaging. It had the usual bendy ties, but I’m not sure that the screw in holders were necessary. Unpacking went on hold while I went in search of a screw driver.
In Play We first got Mike the Knight out when Henry had his best friend round to play. They were both super excited about the new toy and couldn’t wait to play with it. They enjoyed exploring what the toy could do: the trap door that leads to the slide; the secret hiding place and the treasure chest with a bit of a surprise. Then the imaginative play kicked in and Mike the Knight and his trusted stead Galahad got up to all sorts of adventures.
It wasn’t just a one day wonder. Henry has played with it a lot and on return visits his friend has been keen to have another go. In fact his best friend declared it ‘the greatest toy ever’.
What stopped play? The only downside was the over zealous packaging.
There are other sets available in the Mike the Knight range. They are the Glendragon Arena for jousting competitions, Hairy Harry’s Horse Stops for Galahad and the Viking Boat.
Posted in Children, Review
Tagged cbeebies, glendragon castle, mike the knight, review, toys
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