10 Things to do in February 2011

Gonna try and do a listography with I need curtains for the window in my head  its her first attempt of creating a linky tool so thought I would support her.
10 things I am going to try and do this February 2011

1) well my first has to be to deliver my photos to their first exhibition next week - ooooo getting excited!

Thought you might like to see the three photos which were chosen:

"The Strip - Las Vegas" (c) mummyrella 2008

"WINTER" (c) mummyrella 2011

"Resting" Clearwater, Florida (c) mummyrella 2009

2) putting my form in for Voluntary Redundancy.

3) come up with ideas to help raise £100k for my local Church Roof.

4) make Poppy dog a doggy Birthday Cake - she will be 5 on Valentines Day,

5) exchange Christmas Prezzies with Cousins - yes I still have some to receive too!!!

6) try not to eat too many sweet things of an evening,

7) be postive in looking for a new business venture,

8) GO and VIEW my photos at the exhibition see TIN website for more details

9) sort out new business cards ready for cybermummy11,

10) start organising my Street Party in the Village for the Royal Wedding Day

Yay I've done it - 10 things wow I'm going to be busy busy busy in February and only 28 days to do it all in.

So I Made Cup Cakes

So 3 1/2 yr old daughter was having a tantrum on a Friday afternoon, banging her bedroom door, screaming shouting, "No I Won't ...." so whilst it was going on, I decided to make a batch of cup cakes and try out my new icing nozzle [ooo a lovely word nozzle].  In between mixing, baking and icing went back to daughter to console but it was no good.  Held and held her but her pain was too great she pushed me away, so I took to my first attempt of trying to ice cup cakes like they do in the shops!

What do you think?  

(c) mummyrella 2011

I have to say that i'm quite pleased with the result and Daughter thought they were very yummy double bonus!

3 things to be cheerful and Poppydog licking is not one of them!

So this is the week when I have a mixture of news and I have been bugging myself to take part in metalmummy 's listography's of some kind and realise this blog could take part in the 123 things to be cheerful! which was set up by mummy from the heart so here goes

My first listography:

1) three of my seven photographs got accepted and I will be exhibiting in my first ever exhibition - yay!!!! wooop wooop! So I would like to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement through the Gallery link last week.  The "Winter" picture was one of the accepted ones.

(c) mummyrella 2010 - "Winter"

2) My second achievement of the week was finishing my second assignment for my Open University Course - it was nothing special just a 1500 word essay but it's done and dusted no use worrying about it now, just got to wait until mid march for my final mark.

3) My third accomplishment is that I managed to listen to a webinar and book some web design training ready for when I hit the big wide world of Redundancy!

Final thought for today is that I am still trying to work out what I want to do - think I want to go freelance not sure what in but I am enjoying my new hobbies blogging, twittering and photography.  Not forgetting of course being a mummy but I think I do need to have time for myself and this maybe something I can do and enjoy at the same time.

 

Oh and I have agreed to help my Church raise £100k for a new roof so looking for lots of fundraising ideas.  A BIG challenge me thinks. 

 

Finally I will leave you with this lovely thought caught my lovely son licking Poppydog's tongue!!!! he reply was "well Poppydog started it first" OMG yukkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!! 

Mother Nature - The Gallery

Well I've done it - I've entered some of my photos into a local art exhibition! they have to be reviewed so here's hoping that they get selected.  And I am giving YOU an exclusive taster of a couple of my entries which also reflect Mother Nature which is the theme for Sticky Fingers - The Gallery Topic this week.

The photos were taken around The Village.  One was taken just a couple of weeks ago when we had the Big Freeze and the tree one was taken in November 2010.

WINTER
(c) mummyrella 2011

Tree in The Village
(c) mummyrella 2010

click the link below to see other entries

 

Flying High

It's taken me all day to get to write this short blog today, what with the distraction of work, tweeting and lunch meetings......... 

I had a nice drive in to work today and shared some of it with Mr Barn Owl. 


(c) mummyrella 2010

Barn Owl at Butterfly Park Long Sutton

He appeared from out of the fog which was hovering just above the black peat of a Fenland field and even though I had another car up my rear end I decided to drive along with him a short while - what an exhilarating experience.  

Swan on Ice at 16 Foot Drain
(c) mummyrella 2010

Then to top it off about half an hour later I had another co-pilot a beautiful solitary swan flying over the 16 foot drain in Manea, Cambridgeshire. 

I am amazed at the speed both birds were flying at and made me apprieciate and feel privillaged that I am be able to have these experiences every now and again first thing in the morning!

Books, Walks, Fundraising and Confusion

So it’s been a busy week in the village, attended as special guest to the PCC, managed a 3 walk day for Poppydog on Thursday, lots of reading, and more enterprising thoughts coming my way.

Its mainly been books, books, books.  I do like a good read particularly just before I go to sleep and this Christmas I got asked the usual question “what would you like”.  The response I gave one friend was that I would like a good Novel to read as the past 9-12 months I have not been able to find a good book to get my teeth into at all. 

So when it came to opening my presents, I had been a good girl.  The friend in question had asked Father Christmas to leave me not one but a collection of eight Novels on Romance and Saga.  Now whilst I am usually into Historical, Espionage or Children’s authors like JK Rowling or Phillip Pullman.  I have been able to enjoy the ability to read a book within 2 weeks! You see I usually take at least 2-3 months especially when I have been so tired that I have fallen asleep after the first paragraph.  But this collection has been great to switch off my mind and get into. 

So it followed by a visit yesterday to my local ‘The Works’ shop and found a couple of bargains in the non-fiction section.  I came away with a book on The Secrets of Reiki by Anne Charlish & Angela Robershaw – something I would like to maybe venture into in the next few months, a book on Writing your Life Story by Michael Oke, to help me put my life into order. And finally a book called :59 seconds by Professor Richard Wiseman, not sure about this one but as my time is limited nowadays sometimes 59 seconds is all I have! I will try and keep you posted how I get on with them.

So me a special guest at the Parish Church Council [PCC] basically we need to raise over £100k to replace the roof of our Chancel and I happened to be in the Church with Poppydog checking on my Christmas flowers when I had found myself volunteering my services to a new fundraising group called “The Friends of Walpole St Peters” so watch this space! If you do have any ideas or thoughts into how to raise funds please use the comment section after this posting.  All ideas welcome.  I’m not too sure I like the term “Big Society” as I believe we all already do it is some small way.

Poppydog Walks, poor Poppydog – since I have become a mummy quality time with Poppydog has been less frequent particularly since also going back to work, but when I do get the opportunity to work from home – I do make use of my lunch break by taking her for walks around the Village,  Poppydog and I more often than not bump into fellow doggie walkers, Village habitants as well as the odd visitor or two or three. But just recently a few new dogs have arrived in the Village and whether Poppydog is feeling insecure she is having a few bad experiences.  I have to say though whilst she does on occasion run away from said bigger dogs – she does run home to the front door step.  So I have signed up to attend an event with a follower of Cesar Millan, the dog behaviourist, maybe I can get a few tips to her nervousness.

Finally Life After Redundancy ... Some may think me positive the approach I am trying to take into my imminent redundancy, but I am getting confused  as I seem to have a new idea every week – maybe it’s the Libra in me – I can’t seem to make my mind up what to do next, so many BIG ideas flowing through this tiny tiny brain that I don’t know where to begin.  Hopefully my session with a Response to Redundancy adviser will be able to help me see the light by the end of this week.

Week 41 of The Gallery - Body parts

BIG FOOT and little Foot ...........

A little bit of a boring photograph some may think.

But this captures a memory for mummyrella spending her first summer with her daughter.

This weeks topic for The Gallery is Body Parts go to see Sticky Fingers for more entries.

KIDS Show and Tell the MeFinder Verdict.

MEFINDER

What a wonderful idea, something to attach to my kiddiewinks so that if they stray away they can ask a safe person to ring Mummy, Daddy or Nanna.

The Mefinder is a digital wristband for children and when your child [should read] if your child gets lost, they show the band to a safe adult and tell them to “phone mummy”

It is described as a

Super-lightweight; curved edges; adjustable shorter strap made from very soft, comfortable plastic – this is definitely true  both my children who are 2 ½ and 3 ½ thought the designs where great – we had a lovely pink flower for my daughter and a very cheeky monkey for my very cheeky monkey – he loved it too.

Funky animations, your number is set as default – this took me quite a while to achieve as I seem to have large fingers for the very small buttons and it got a little frustrating when I had to go through the whole procedure a number of times, but the numbers got punched in and the animations appeared, which was quite exciting for a small child to see.

“Child-proof” safety-catch on wristband - whilst this was stated on the literature my husband and I thoroughly examined both wristbands and could not find these safety catches.  Re-reading the Full Instructions and watching the youtube video as well we were still none the wiser with the location of the safety-catch.

Water-resistant – ideal for the beach or pool - yes we had ours in the bath and they still worked afterwards.

Stores up to 5 phone numbers and you are able to select the appropriate number when you go out -  this is an excellent idea and if in doubt the safe Adult would be able to make use of all numbers if required.

The next task was to explain to the children who is a safe adult.  I think this would need to done as a matter of course and something mine are still learning. 

So to test it in the field – off to soft play, all was all going well until my very cheeky monkey at 2 ½ came back to show me “look at all the numbers I have on my arm I have now mummy” and I realised he had managed to press the appropriate buttons in the correct sequence and was in editing mode and the names and numbers were all jumbled and the animations had ceased to appear.  So I tackled the inputting again – I was getting good at this and away he went again, happily playing.

                                            

MY Verdict – Fortunately it was not used in its full capacity – ie children did not wander off!  I will continue to explain who is a safe adult, and will explain we don’t like wandering fingers over the buttons too much, but once in a while is ok to see the little animations.  So we will have another go this week.

A good concept, great colours and designs, maybe a bit pricey at £14.99 but it does come with free postage and packaging – will VAT increase affect this product.

A Big Smiley 7.5/10

Thank You Santa

So now Christmas is over and the tree is down.  There is one more tradition left to do which I am pleased to say that my Mum instilled into me and that is to say A Big Thank You to everyone for our lovely presents.  Whilst my little darlings still are unable to write their own names, they recognise their letters, so its good to start them early and understand that they should be very grateful to everyone [via Father Christmas of course] for all their lovely presents.

And I would also like to thank my Secret Santa present via secondtimemummy who set up the amazing event and a thank you to my Secret Santa who sent me a delicious soap from Lush.  I smell wonderful now.

So I have taken the ASAP Pledge

Following on from today's blog by A Modern Mother  I have taken up the pledge with the BagLady.

Having worked in the Environment and Sustainable Sector for a number of years, I believe that I do try to be a responsible human being, however now that Christmas has passed and I recieved a number of electronic gadgets from good ole Father Christmas - because I had been a good girl all year "winking".  I have decided that my 'give up pledge' is to turn off all my plug sockets when they are not in use.  And my 'Take up pledge' is a combination of meal planning, online food shopping [to stop me buying extra], and to plan my journeys into town as a round trip can be between 14 & 20 miles depending which town I go to!

So it's Friday and I'm not too sure to write about today - this week has been a bit bizare - been to work for one day, friends have left the Village, Poppy Dog was harrassed and ran home! Kids have gone back to Nursery and my first product to view has arrived - Show & Tell MeFinder - hopefully we will be able to review them this weekend and by Sunday give our opinion on them.

I think my darling daughter is becoming a "bag lady" her new buggy/pram that she got for Christmas has become so full of other toys, i'm not sure if her "baby Maddy" is actually in there - see for yourself below!



Safe Journey my Friends

Just a little note to say Bon Voyage! We WILL see you again Mr & Mrs C and B!
we wish you a safe journey to your new pastures. with much love from the Village!