Try...

I watched the wedding yesterday and I loved it. Yes there are questions about need for Royalty and some people disagree about things but I enjoyed it for what it was...two people, in love and solidifying that bond. When I think back to when I was younger, I always expected to be swept off my feet and married and feel like a Princess. However, life happened and in life, even with the most love in the world that situation isn't generally the way things go.

Myself and Miss Faux Fur were chatting the other day about how naivety wears off and thoughts about love begin to be jaded the older you get. Not always I may add but in our cases it does. She puts it down to having her heart broken and realising that everything isn't always perfect (even if you think it is). I suppose it's the whole putting up walls that we, as humans do, after being hurt. Those walls are pretty tough to break down.

The wedding however has given me a little bit of my wide eyed naivety about love back. Being swept off my feet and feeling like a Princess is something which I want and should believe in. Things aren't easy, we all know that but that's the challenge I suppose. Maybe myself and Miss Faux Fur will get our Prince's? I don't know but at the end of the day we are gonna keep trying.

Plus, I hear Prince Harry is still on the market...

I thought I'd add this song. It's a personal favourite of mine and kinda fits this post well.

So there's this wedding ...

As you probably know the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton is tomorrow and if you don't know...how? In the UK it is literally all over the news, there are constant 'breaking news' items relating to a dress bag being carried here and a royal appearing there. As much as one tries (notice my use of RP English...see, it could've been me) one can not avoid the furore!

Miss Twin has decided to mark the day off wedding with a alcohol sophisticated BBQ. This is where she calls upon my service, not only to attend but to bake for said BBQ. I am renowned as being a bit rubbish in the kitchen. I can pretty much make either: mince pie (savoury) and vegetables, mince and dumplings (yum!) or sunday lunch. I even find things to grill a bit of a stretch. I am not the type of person to say, "Surprise!! I've cooked you a lovely meal." Now why has she asked me to bake you may ask... well my secret weapon is my cupcakes (yes- this sounds wrong but it stays haha). If I am consistent in baking anything then it's cakes, they were once described as 'taste sensations' and that wasn't by me before you ask!!

So I have spent nearly 3 hours baking away for Miss Twin and others. Here are some of my 'kitchen pics':

Baking time...notice the slight 'flour incident' (top right)? I thought the mixer would stand up in the bowl...it didn't...

The finished products (I know, the C kinda looks like a G but after 3 hours I was starting to lose concentration)!!! 

I just hope that my 3 tierd red, white and blue cake doesn't fall apart before tomorrow. For some reason the blue layer just didn't bake evenly and is creating some slidage...oh dear!!

I hope whatever you do tomorrow that you have a great day!! I am sure I will be rather merry on vodka and sugar by late afternoon!! Oh, I want to give a shout out to Mollie at OK in UK and say..."Have fun in London!! I will keep an eye out for you!!"

The sun is still here...

What do you love about sunshine?

My new favourite...

I love clothes...a lot! I go through stages of wearing an item of clothing to death and matching it with various tops/bottoms. I think I have found a replacement to my old faithful body con skirt however which I love. 

I have shorts... I hunted high and low for a nice pair of shorts before the fashion show in NYC and these were the last pair in my size and I knew I loved them from that moment. As you can see, I am also in a little chunky sandals and socks phase. Alexa Chung inspired? Yep!

I love the pretty top too...

I am not saying this will take the place of my body con skirt but I think I'm 'on a break' with it for a short while. Change is good every now and again!

Have you got a favourite item of clothing for nights out?

Egg rolling fun...

My family has a bit of a tradition of going up to a local monument and rolling decorated eggs down the hill on Easter Sunday. We like to say it's for the kids but I think some of the adults enjoy the egg decorating more!! So I want to share some of the designs from the day:

Miss Twin's eggs- Rabbit and 2-Pac!

Cousin's eggs- Ballerina and The Hulk!

Mine- Justin Bieb-egg and Sir Reginald the Peacock.

Brother's egg- I couldn't remember the name but it's cute!

Nephew's egg- A little guy with headphones!

Justin Bieb-egg didn't make it up the hill :-(

The hill....

Us scavenging for our eggs!

View from the very top.

'Wildlife' grazing around the monument haha!

It was Miss Twin's egg which survived the most throws with Sir Reginald coming a close 2nd. As you can see Justin Bieb-egg suffered a cruel fate before the rolling commenced. I had a fly land on my hand which I thought was a spider and unfortunately in the panic I flicked my hand and sent him flying  :-( It was a sad moment to me but one of great amusement to the others. 

After our hill fun, we all got together to eat, talk and laugh. It has been a lovely Easter Sunday! Hope you have all had fun too!!!

Follow me with Bloglovin

Dirty QWOP...

I was recently introduced to the game of QWOP (or as I call it Q-WOP...Don't ask why, I just do) on El Grande's blog ; click on link and give it a go- be prepared to find it funny and hate it at the same time. It has frustrated me for some length of time as I am not very good at it and also think it's pointless (mainly because I suck at it). However, that doesn't stop me from being addicted to the thing.

I was showing Miss Faux Fur it and while we were looking at something else we heard a 'doing' sound as the runner fell over and when we clicked we were confronted with this ... 

It made us giggle a bit....well a lot!

My Road trip with VLOG...

As it was Good Friday myself and Miss Faux decided to go on a sunny road trip. As you are all aware, we have been having some unseasonably nice weather in the UK this week. Therefore it was summer outfits, sunglasses and a trip to Whitby which we planned. All I can say is that it was a major FAIL. 

There was no sunshine in Whitby, there was fog...in fact so much fog that we couldn't see anything. What kind of day trip was that?We had lunch to decide what to do and my animal attraction continued. In the pub we went into the were at least 6 dogs. I like to think it was the place itself was a little weird as there was a man who looked like Santa (on his off time) and also a discussion about how many mushrooms someone had stitchedtogether (it was 9 if you must know).Needless to say we didn't really feel like sticking around so we decided to drive up the coast to Scarbourgh and visit a friend who assured us there was sun there. 

By the time we arrived, Mr Sunshine had been chased away by more fog! We made the most of it and persisted...we made it to the fair and it became a little sunnier...woo!! I thought I would share a few pics from our trip.

Isn't the weather glorious?

Us with Sir Reginald and his mates...

BOO!

Yea...I'm loving this....

On the way home I manged to get lost after I pronounced proudly, "Woo... Just a straight road and we're home now!" Typical! Before that little 'mishap' of mine me and Miss Faux Fur decided to film the fog (just in case it swallowed us and we died, then people would know our last movements). Just want to let you know that I was actually paying attention to the road and not just pointing out awful looking buildings...

Our day trip ended with me serenading Miss Faux Fur with various pop/rap songs till we arrived home. Lucky isn't she? Needless to say none of those serenades are VLOG worthy haha!

What's on my mind Wednesday...

* Why are there so many wasps this early?

* I don't like how they are dive-bombing about ALL the time :-(

* I love the sunshine at the moment.

* I think I will 'work' in the garden today but hope the wasps take a break.

* I must dig out some sun lotion or I will turn red.

* I can't wait for my day trip with Miss Faux Fur on Friday.

* I must get road trip appropriate food.

* Oh, I also need to figure out which way to drive so I don't get lost.

* I would like a new dress to go with the sunny weather.

* Where do wasps go at night time? Do they sleep?

A day of animals...

I have been out and about today and either I have been a lot more observant than normal (I am generally always in my own little world...it's fun) or I have completely forgot what it is like to be on public transport and wander around during the day time (28 kids kinda stops me from doing that). I decided to park and ride into town today...this was because there is no where to park in town during the day I felt like I would cut down my carbon footprint ever so slightly.

As I was parking, I had to stop and do a double take, there was a giant cat with its head in an exhaust pipe!! It wasn't stuck, don't worry. I don't know what it was doing, either a mouse ran into it (which is impossible because it would know that the cat would sit and wait for it), it looked fun or it was just a bit silly. Either way it was strange! The cat itself was just a bit shabby looking bless it, wise looking (maybe not as it had its head up an exhaust) but shabby.

A giant cat...

Then while I was walking to the metro, I saw a horse tethered in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea how to explain this one either.

"Neighhhhh...."

The animal sightings didn't stop there. On the metro there was some guy with a dog. Obviously I didn't sit on the empty seat next to it. It's not that I don't like dogs but I f I don't know them then I am very wary of them. However, this dog seemed good. It was pretty much like this one:

"Woof woof!"

He got off and then an Alsatian dog got on the metro and the owner actually let him lounge on the seat! There are a lot of animals?! Well, it doesn't stop there. I saw Mr English Bull Terrier 3 more times!! Well, it wasn't him but they both looked like him wandering around in town. I don't think it was him anyway...hmmm...

All different or a spy dog in 3 places?

Where they all came from I don't know. Maybe the sun brought them out for a wander or maybe it's an in thing at the moment and I'm really uncool?!  I am just thankful that I have avoided a run in with a spider today! Maybe the sun keeps them away!

{image via}

Teachers get long holidays...

Today, as a teacher on Easter break, according to many I would have had a  long lie in, went to do some shopping, had a long lunch with a friend and generally be all round lazy. As many people presume, teachers watch kids play, occasionally teach them how to read a word, watch them play outside, and then get lovely long holidays where we do nothing. Right? Wrong!!

Oh how I wish the above was true. It would be a lot less stressful if it were. I am sure the fellow teachers will agree that they now just smile and nod politely when they get... "But you get those long holidays!" Yes we do and for that I am extremely grateful and I do have days where I will do nothing but others are generally spent doing at least some work.

Today I went into school, yes...there were no kids but I was there (along with 6 others) working away. In some ways it may seem pretty sad but in fact, I managed to get quite a bit done. Being sports coordinator I have lots of responsibilities which kinda take a back seat at the end of term..not today!!! I had a display which was unfinished...not now! I had papers to be sorted and chucked out... done!! Marking to be done...err I wasn't THAT motivated.I will be back tomorrow morning (last time of the break I am sure) to finish that task!

I'm aiming to get a list of work sorted (and hopefully get ahead of myself for next term...keep your fingers crossed that my concentration lasts long enough) then I can have the fun which people assume us teachers have.

I hope you other teachers manage to get SOME kind of a break this Easter!Re-charge...it's the final stretch when we return!

I just wanted to share a couple of my pretty displays (With such small boards there is only so much I can do unfortunately...but they look nice anyway!)

Fairytale fun!

Fantastic Fox reports...

Childhood toys..

It's my first proper day off and I will confess that I have not made it past the settee yet. I am allowing myself a day to do nothing, maybe have a tidy but essentially be boring! That is the reason that I am sitting watching Toy Story. I saw the final one when it was out (yes- I did shed a little tear) but I had forgot how much I loved the original. Whenever I watch the films, I always start thinking about my toys and how much I loved them!

One of my favourite toys when growing up had to be Barbies. I used to love Christmas when I would get some Barbie with a big pretty dress and the little daily dressed Barbies I would get throughout the year. 

{via}

 What a collection!

Then of course you had Ken. Ken was Mr Reliable for Barbie. Me and Miss Twin would spend hours setting up Barbie houses and acting out little lives of them.

{via}

 

 

See... looks good in any era!

I had little families, jobs and favourite outfits for them. As I grew a little older, I even gave them haircuts. Obviously they all looked much better after a hairdresser visit. 

Another toy which allowed me to be creative was Girls World. I would style, cut, restyle her hair as well as change her make up all the time. I have to admit that I kinda ruined her when I asked one of my big brothers to do her make up like the Ultimate Warrior (My favourite wrestler ever) and it stained her face forever with a red tinge. Oh I also learnt that the dolls make up was not made for kids.

{Via}

 

 

 

 

{Via}

 

Yea... as you can imagine, Girls World looked pretty strange amazing painted like the above! 

I could keep going with toys, from the more late 90's to the obscure ones but the last one I am going to leave you with was a firm favourite with me and Miss Twin:

{via}

The one and only Fisher Price kitchen!

Me and Miss Twin would wake up early on weekends and busy ourselves in the kitchen. We'd host parties, serve our family nutritious plastic meals and have lots of fun. We even utilised the sink to create marble effect pictures with water and paint. Yes...we were very cool! I would like to say this kitchen taught me valuable cooking skills but I am the worst cook ever (unless you want cupcakes and cakes).

An honorary mention goes to my older brothers Lego collection. Again, another toy which I loved as a kid. It's something which never falls out of favour...ever!

{via}

 I loved the lego trees. Always made my homes look pretty!

Now I have kids coming into school raving about their favourite video games (one even speaks about Call of Duty and he's 7!) and nothing else.

What was your favourite childhood toy?

Awkward and Awesome Thursday...

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward

- Wandering around supermarket with an empty and realising they don't have what you want.

- Letting a door go and realising someone was behind me.

- When being told by a friend that she had lost 2 and a 1/2 this week at slimming world I asked..."What? Pounds" To which she replied, "Err no, stones! Of course pounds!"

- Being offered an apple pie from a student teacher at work and when saying no having him look crushed. To make matters worse I don't think he bought the while explanation of only liking specific apple pies (apart from the other teachers who just shook their head and laughed knowing me well).

- Tripping over a child in the corridor.

-Seeing The Rangers lost in overtime for 1st Cup game!

Awesome

- My kids dancing to my Beatles cd for their red, white, blue Royal Wedding party.

- My kids writing some amazingly kind and thoughtful speeches about people in the class and reading them during our party.

- Finding bargain boxes of Cadbury's Creme Eggs...mmmmmmmm.

- Miss Faux Furs midday text - it brightened my day.

- Having 1 day left before end of term.

Dancing on Ice...

Last night I had a well deserved night off. Assessments and reports are all finished so I can have somewhat of a lofe again. What better treat than to go and see Dancing on Ice (or Skating with Celebrities). I had the company of Miss Hockey, Miss Twin, My Mam and Miss Twin's potential mother in law.

I have loved ice skating ever since I was little, admittedly I watch more than participate due to lack of rinks, but either way I love it. It was something me and Miss Twin would sit and watch for hours! So much so that I even touted the idea of becoming an ice skater when younger...being able to ice skate is still on my list of things do. In the UK the show is hosted by the legendary Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean who scored 6.0 across the board in 1984 Olympics. If you have never had the pleasure of watching their dance (shame on you if you haven't) then here it is:

A few years back they began their own show where celebrities skated with professionals and eventually one was crowned a winner. Last night I saw the live show of some of the latest skaters from this years show. It was honestly amazing!! I felt privileged to see Torvill and Dean, amongst others, dance live. They make it look easy and just glide across the ice. The celebrities were good but when the professionals skated together it was something else. Here is a short clip (ignore the poor quality- lots of light and phone camera!) of one of my favourite skaters Matt from last night:

Oh and to the jealousy of my cousin and work colleagues I got to see this guy:

 

 

 

He even wears pink well does Colin!

If you watch Skating with Celebrities you must know that he is our Fred replacement, yes you lucky people got Fred!! I think it will be a definite night out with the girls again next year! :-)

4 days and counting...

I am in my final week of school before the two week Easter break and boy do I need it?! I finished reports today and I'm now moving onto assessments. It seems at the moment that something which should take half an hour seems to take 3 times as long and I'm now feeling extremely worn... it's not helping that today I was up at 6.30am working as couldn't keep working at 1 this morning. I actually totaled up my hours work last week and came up with the ridiculous amount of :  68 hours!!!!! 

This is including working through my lunch break, working up until bed and then I accompanied some older kids to a swimming gala on the Friday night and didn't get home till after 9pm!!

I know you're wondering what my secret is to keeping going...I don't know though! When I look at it from an outside view I just have no idea how I or any of my teacher friends manage it?! I wonder if teachers are superheros develop this ability to not need sleep or food the last couple of weeks of term in order to get through assessment weeks (as well as the ability to ignore loud noise). Now I have 4 days left, I can feel my body slowing down wanting to sleep. However, I don't listen to such nonsense and keep on going.

As treat today I was a bit naughty and went to McDonalds drive through after work. I know it's not good for you but sometimes it's all you need. However, the weather then seemed to mirror my feelings: it was bright sunshine but a heavy rain shower at the same time. It's like not even the weather can feel properly happy! However, it did provide me with the following photo which I just love!

It's a rainbow!!!! :-)

So pretty...

I am well aware that this post is a little all over the place...blame the sleep deprivation! I can't keep thoughts on one track on a good day let alone when I'm feeling shattered.

Hope you have all had a good start to the week!

Sunday Sun...

You may not believe what I am about to say but it is sunny in England!! Yes- we have sun and warm weather. Those who are used to hot weather would probably not be bothered by the sun but I am. It's a rare occasion that I get to sit in the sun while working. The sun can turn frowns upside down, it makes things look beautiful and shiny.

On this note I am going to leave you with a favourite song of mine for days like this..

Happy Sunny Sunday!

Check out the blue sky!!!

Introducing Guest Blogger - Miss Faux Fur...

So today I am being even more lazy than yesterday but for a good reason...I want to introduce a 'fab friend' of mine in my everyday life. It's Miss Faux Fur, when I told her about the blog she was very excited and so naturally I asked her to blog for you all. I'm hoping she'll do a blog every Friday but today she's going to introduce herself. Anyway, I'm off to paint my face (not with actual paint of course) and get sorted for a night out! After all I think I derserve and need a drink after this week...hope you enjoy and just to let you know, she will read the comments and no I haven't paid her to say nice things about me!! 

Over to you Miss Faux Fur...

Why Faux Fur ...because faking it never looked so good!! Saying that it's now spring so the faux fur will have to go back into the cupboard till next year. Oh no!!

It's such a bizarre feeling to be referred to as a guest blogger. I prefer to use the 'guest star'. Why? Because I could be famous and you'd never know. Missy is such a character she's bound to know some famous folk. My only hesitation in using the term 'guest star' is the fact that guest stars (in sitcoms shall we say) tend to appear for one or two episodes if they are lucky. Some are even killed off ...aargh!! I need to rethink this blog. What if I get attached and don't want to leave. What if the blog doesn't work and I'm fired after a couple of paragraphs. Does that mean that Missy and Miss Faux Fur can no longer remain friends?

Well to start off I best explain the type of friendship I have with Missy. She's my energetic ball of fire ...and trust me we have photographic evidence to prove it*!! She's the type of friend that makes you smile when no one else can. She always knows how to say the right thing ...if fact I'd go as far to say she'd make a pretty great boyfriend!! She constantly has me in stitches with her crazy antics. But more importantly she allows me to be myself ... an aging fool who refuses to grow up!! 

* Photographic evidence...

Apparently Miss Faux Fur is a 'healer' or so I've been told from a rather intense psychic in NYC. If this is true then I can I totally understand why Missy and Miss Faux Fur have a great friendship. Maybe she needs my 'healing' ability to keep her right ...and calm her down. Be still Missy ... be still!! We definitely balance each other and sometimes that's difficult to find. 

If we evaluate all the friendships we've ever experienced ...what did we gain from them all?

Hey just because I wear Faux Fur doesn't mean I'm fake :) I just secretly like to pretend I'm a fluffy animal!!

Yes...this is what I look like first thing in the morning...cute eh?

Random act of kindness...

Just a short blog today... I have 28 pieces of writing to mark and level, 28 maths to mark and level and also reports waiting to be written. I am not neglecting you I promise...

Just wanted to share the news that I was the recipient of a random act of kindness today. I had bought cups for my kids at school as some forget water bottles and it's getting far to warm in the classroom to have no water bottle. So I paid, left the store and was stopped by a woman who'd ran from the shop to let me know I'd dropped/left one of the packs of cups. The cups were just cheap so it wasn't like I'd spent a fortune but it was such a nice thing to have someone go out of their way to be kind.

I was clearly having another one of these days....minus the cool hat however!

The strange thing was that I was then in another shop down the way and I was waiting to pay for a card and guess what....a lady left her shopping bag next to the counter and the person who went to the till after her chased her to give it back! 

This has brought me to the conclusion that it is forgetfulness and random act of kindness day!

I wonder what your most memorable act of kindness has been?