A sunny day and Jumping Clay

My daughter loves to make things whether it be baking, sticking, painting or dough. The messier the better. I love making things with her (although I develop a nervous tick when all the different colours of play dough get squished together - my personal pet hate! I don't think it's any fun otherwise though!) In order to further satisfy her love of all things messy, today we went off to Jumping Clay (www.jumpingclayscotland.com) and she absolutely loved her (suprisingly unmessy) class.  The class started with a story (The Hungry Caterpillar), she then made her own caterpillar and lollipop out of air drying clay, then coloured in some more food for him. The class cost £5 and was well worth it as she has been talking about it ever since. The lady that runs Jumping Clay, Meabh, was absolutely lovely and even made me a cup of tea. If food is the way to a man's heart, tea is the way to mine so I will definitely be going back! The only drawback was that we were inside for an hour on such a nice day. My daughter was so excited about going though that a suggestion of the park would have been met with outrage.

On the subject of kiddy crafts, below is a link to a really good article on 50 ways with play dough. Who knew you could make so many different types!!! We have made some before and it is a fun and cheap thing to do on a rainy day. Hope you like it.

http://pinterest.com/pin/184929128421536998/

By the way I would like to point out that this is not a sponsored post. We simply had a lovely time at Jumping Clay!

An "Empty"

Yesterday morning I had "an empty". I am not sure if this is a Glasgow thing or not but if you are a teenager and have "an empty" it means parents are out,  party (and chaos) at yours. My husband and his Dad had taken the kids to see Ben and Holly at the Theatre Royal and I had the house to myself for a whole morning. The possibilities were endless. I could do a Homer Simpson and run around in my pants, I could eat chocolate without trying to pretend I'm not when the kids catch me, I could take a shower without a couple of mini Peeping Toms barging in, I could read a magazine cover to cover, I could watch whatever I want on tv... In the end I decided to "just quickly clear up" this turned into a two and a half hour marathon. I am very disappointed in myself. I did manage to have a shower in peace. I was just settling down with the Hollyoaks omnibus when they all arrived home.  Apparently Ben and Holly was good but expensive.

It has been a lovely bank holiday weekend in the sun.

Vic x

Ps. Does anyone know what to do with ten million carrots? I have made carrot muffins, about to make carrot soup. I am then off down the street to try and find some hungry rabbits. I think they have been multiplying in my fridge (the carrots - not rabbits - that would be awful but solve my problem). I feel I can't throw them out as I have my mum saying "think about all the starving children in the world" in my head. I was a fussy eater as a child and heard this a lot!

Bingo wings and a Rant

Hi, I am starting with my rant first. Why oh why do advertisers think it is ok to target little children with their ads for plastic rubbish? I am actually fed up with seeing all the trash on tv and filling little minds with the idea that they simply must have x,y or z to make them happy. I am not turning on kids channels with advertising any more. My daughter has declared that she simply must have a blanket that doubles up as a puppet(?!??!!!). What is she planning to do? Practice ventriloquism when in bed at night? I also don't like the "happiness comes in a box" McDonalds ad - I think it's a bit sinister!

Rant over, bingo wing update! I have completed the Tracy Anderson DVD twice so far this week. If I can do it again tomorrow that will be three times in a week which is ok but not as good as I would have liked. Tracy suggests doing it six times a week along with her cardio dance workout six times. She is obviously not a mother from Glasgow or else just doesn't go to bed! It is horrible but I already feel a bit better as I am "re-engineering my muscular structure" according to old Trace. There is a standing abs section which makes me feel like I am at the Shed (Glasgow nightclub) slightly worse for wear and throwing some shapes. I don't look elegant. Food wise I was doing well until last night when I had a Dairymilk shaped epic fail! Never mind! It is a bank holiday after all. I am sitting with a glass of wine at the moment. What would Tracy Anderson say???

Hope you all have a fabulous bank holiday.

Vic x

Mrs Bloom I ain't!

The washing pile could touch the sky.
The toddler is crying - I don't know why.
The sun is shining, exposing smears everywhere.
There is something sticky in my hair.
I am tripping over toys everywhere I turn.
I have forgotten to check dinner and I can smell it burn.
The garden is a jungle - weeds everywhere.
I really wish I didn't care!

Yesterday was manic Monday and the above chronicles exactly how I was feeling. I was having an Upstairs Downstairs kind of day - I was working downstairs! Housework sucks!!!

The onset of warmer weather is brilliant but has added "gardening" to my list of chores. I actually quite like doing it but it is time consuming. I have come over all "Mr Bloom" and told my kids they could help. I obviously forgot that one year olds and three year olds don't always follow instructions to the letter - we ended up in a big old mess. I am sure some dirt was consumed by my son. He has previous for chowing down on house plant dirt so he must think that Christmas has come in the garden! The kids enjoyed themselves which is the main thing. Now lets see if I mange not to kill the new plants over the summer (I have previous on this!).

Vic x

Get moving and stop chewing!

I am going away for the weekend soon and, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am feeling like the dough woman. I was doing really well with exercise, then hurt my foot which has been the perfect excuse to stop. This is coupled with the fact that my son developed a severe dislike of going in the buggy (doing that rigid thing so that I couldn't get him in) which meant that I have been driving when I would usually walk. And I have been eating loads of chocolate - let's just throw everything into the ring!

Anyway, time to get moving and stop chewing! I am a self confessed exercise dvd junkie. I have them all - I dont necessarily do them but I have them! I flit about them all the time but I think I am going to concentrate on consistently doing the same one for a while. I have chosen the Tracy Anderson mat workout. My friend did this before her wedding and looked uber fabby on the day (just giggling to myself because the predictive text changed this to uber flabby - the complete opposite of the truth - imagine if I hadn't spotted this and a thirty year friendship went down the drain!).

Tracy works you hard. I am sure she is a laugh down the pub but she doesn't let this side to her personality shine through in the video. In fact she is quite glum. I quite like this about her though. If I wanted a laugh when exercising I would go back to pensioner aqua aerobics. I accidentally attended this class when I was pregnant. I am not sure I felt the burn but the chat was great. And who knew you could get an Everly Brothers Megamix set to the beat! The Tracy dvd is hard, it's horrible but it certainly works if you are consistent.

I am also going to swim when I can and cut down on the sweeties and walk more (son has given up fight against buggy). It's hard to fit this all in but will be worth it. I am hoping that mentioning it on here will help me actually do it! I was also thinking that if I can give up sweeties during the week I might treat myself to a Sunday pudding. Sunday pudding club! Send decadent recipes my way and I will aim to deserve them.

Vic x

# I'm losing my mind!

I recently joined Twitter. I don't have any followers - I merely wanted to follow some celebs. It is as unintellectual as that! The hash tag is big on Twitter. I don't actually really know its full correct use in the English language but on Twitter you can use it for anything. The only problem is that this little thing is infiltrating my brain. I am now thinking in hash tags!!! Here are some examples:

- When taking my sleep rollers out I was left with giant hair. First thought was #haircouldreachthemoon.

- I could hear my kids fighting. First thought was #siblingwar.

- My cat went missing and I was walking the streets looking for her. My head was saying #scanningforroadkill. Thankfully the cat returned safe and well.

I need it to stop! I am worried that my children are going to reach a certain age and start speaking in hash tags. I look back fondly on the days when the only means of communication, apart from good old fashioned chatting or post, was the phone in the hall. It wasn't even portable. Perhaps I should return to this in my house #fuddyduddymumma.

Vic x

An exciting day!

I have had lots of exciting days in life - getting married, having babies, discovering eyeliner and Prince Phillip telling me I had nice teeth (I will explain later). This morning was exciting because I got to be an extra on a new Channel 4 programme with Kirstie Allsopp. The actual being an extra bit was pretty boring to be honest - lots of hanging around- but seeing Kirstie at work was brilliant. She is a property/ crafting goddess, had a lovely cardigan on and was really nice too! She referred to us as her "background lovelies". I love the Allsopp!

The reason I ended up there was super random - I don't want you to think I do this kind of thing all the time. I am usually at Bookbug on a Thursday!

To explain the Prince Phillip thing, a long time ago my sister got tickets to a Garden Party in Edinburgh. My mum, two sisters and I went along. We were picked at random to meet Prince Phillip. I panicked as I was actually a month or so too young to be there and my sister panicked because she hadn't shaved her legs properly! When he enquired as to "what one does" I couldn't tell him I was still at school and give away my age so I told him I was a dental student (?!??) - quick thinking on my part. This prompted him to tell me that I had nice teeth. He was very charming. Random story but there you go. I hope I don't get thrown in the Tower of London for admitting I have fibbed to Royalty!

My daughter is now summoning me to play with plastic ladybirds so I am off.

Till next time!
Vic x