Well I'm very giddy tonight. After planning it for what seems like years I've finally bought my new kitchen! That's this months buy something new for the house sorted then.
I've not actually got any of my new kitchen here yet. I had the guys come out to measure up on Thursday, got a price on Friday so tonight I've been to order it. The lovely Garry (he's practically rebuilt my house for me!) is going to start work on it a week on Wednesday and I can't wait. I've wanted my range forever and now I'm going to have it in my lovely new kitchen.
As if the giddiness of the kitchen isn't enough I've also got christmas to get giddy about. Less than a month to go people!!! I've been reading Kerry's blog, all about her gorgeous makes for the christmas travelling box and her day out at Birmingham Christmas Markets. I had the christmas fair on Saturday and it's all left me feeling very festive. I'm driving Dan mad with my giddiness - don't think he was too impressed with my rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at silly o clock this morning!
With christmas just around the corner it's time to make a start on another challenge - hand make 5 christmas decorations. I need inspiration though, I've got some lovely little cross stitch designs but I'm not quite sure what to make them up into. Time for a trawl of the old tinternet - any recommendations of sites would be great.
Well I'm off to look at kitchen accessories and christmas decs. Goddy, giddy, giddy :-D
Monday 26 November 2012
Sunday 18 November 2012
A Weekend in York
So I've not blogged for a little while and it might look like I'm not doing anything with my challenges but I've got quite a few that are in progress at the moment. Just because I'm quiet, doesn't mean I'm doing nowt.
Me and Dan have been away this weekend for Dan's birthday. His birthday is actually in April but that's another story! We've been over to York and had a really lovely time. We just went to relax and have a good time but if I can make progress on a few challenges while I'm there, even better :-)
I've made good progress on the Betty's challenge. They have two cafes in York - the big one on St Helen's Square and a smaller one on Stonegate that used to be called Little Betty's but is now just Betty's Stonegate. It's really no great hardship to eat at any of them. I really love Betty's, what's not to love about gorgeous food and cream cakes? I suppose the challenge bit comes from getting to them all - the others are in Ilkley, Harrogate and Northallerton. My mam loves Betty's too though so I'm sure if I smile sweetly she might be persuaded to help (Hello mum, fancy afternoon tea sometime?)
We had dinner at Betty's Stonegate yesterday. I had mushroom pancakes and as they're on the autumn menu at the moment I had to have treacle tart for pudding. Well it'd be rude not to really!!! This afternoon we went to big Betty's where we were booked into the Belmont room upstairs for their famous afternoon tea.
Mmmmmm, it was so good. The butties were lovely - chicken, ham, egg and salmon but really they just get in the way of the cake. They give you two scones and three cakes so that's obviously a perfectly reasonable amount to eat and not greedy at all.
It's not all been eating while we were there though. I've also added another two museums to my museum challenge. It was almost three but we decided The Chocolate Story was more of an attraction than a museum. I loved it though, they kept feeding me chocolate :-)
We spent Saturday afternoon at the Castle Museum. I remember going there as a kid. In my head we went loads of times but it was probably only about twice. I remember loving the Victorian street and being frightened to death of the prison and it was the same this weekend. Although I managed to get round the jail without crying this time.
This morning we went to the National Railway Museum. I didn't really want to go but Dan did and as it was officially his birthday weekend I thought I'd better do something he wanted to do. I actually enjoyed i more than I thought I would. I enjoyed the station hall looking at all the royal trains - they were like little houses on trains and there was a display about post offices and trains which I found really interesting. I love post office stuff and letters - just call me Mrs Goggins! The great hall wasn't as interesting for me - once you've seen one big engine you've seen them all. Some of them were huge though - the wheels were taller than me!
Anyway I've had a really lovely weekend, back to normal now though. Need to get back on with the Nanowrimo, not done any for a few days. And I'm planning my next way of raising money for my £1001 for charity challenge, more details soon!
Me and Dan have been away this weekend for Dan's birthday. His birthday is actually in April but that's another story! We've been over to York and had a really lovely time. We just went to relax and have a good time but if I can make progress on a few challenges while I'm there, even better :-)
I've made good progress on the Betty's challenge. They have two cafes in York - the big one on St Helen's Square and a smaller one on Stonegate that used to be called Little Betty's but is now just Betty's Stonegate. It's really no great hardship to eat at any of them. I really love Betty's, what's not to love about gorgeous food and cream cakes? I suppose the challenge bit comes from getting to them all - the others are in Ilkley, Harrogate and Northallerton. My mam loves Betty's too though so I'm sure if I smile sweetly she might be persuaded to help (Hello mum, fancy afternoon tea sometime?)
We had dinner at Betty's Stonegate yesterday. I had mushroom pancakes and as they're on the autumn menu at the moment I had to have treacle tart for pudding. Well it'd be rude not to really!!! This afternoon we went to big Betty's where we were booked into the Belmont room upstairs for their famous afternoon tea.
Mmmmmm, it was so good. The butties were lovely - chicken, ham, egg and salmon but really they just get in the way of the cake. They give you two scones and three cakes so that's obviously a perfectly reasonable amount to eat and not greedy at all.
It's not all been eating while we were there though. I've also added another two museums to my museum challenge. It was almost three but we decided The Chocolate Story was more of an attraction than a museum. I loved it though, they kept feeding me chocolate :-)
We spent Saturday afternoon at the Castle Museum. I remember going there as a kid. In my head we went loads of times but it was probably only about twice. I remember loving the Victorian street and being frightened to death of the prison and it was the same this weekend. Although I managed to get round the jail without crying this time.
This morning we went to the National Railway Museum. I didn't really want to go but Dan did and as it was officially his birthday weekend I thought I'd better do something he wanted to do. I actually enjoyed i more than I thought I would. I enjoyed the station hall looking at all the royal trains - they were like little houses on trains and there was a display about post offices and trains which I found really interesting. I love post office stuff and letters - just call me Mrs Goggins! The great hall wasn't as interesting for me - once you've seen one big engine you've seen them all. Some of them were huge though - the wheels were taller than me!
Anyway I've had a really lovely weekend, back to normal now though. Need to get back on with the Nanowrimo, not done any for a few days. And I'm planning my next way of raising money for my £1001 for charity challenge, more details soon!
Sunday 11 November 2012
Derby Day
When I was a little kid, I was a bit football obsessed. I blame my dad - he loved United and made sure I did too. We used to do crazy things like go to Glasgow on a Wednesday night for a friendly. If there was a team playing in a red shirt we'd be there. Sometimes we'd do three games in a day - A Team at The Cliff then on to Littleton Road for the B Team before heading to Old Trafford for the main event. We'd watch the Youth Team and Reserves as well and used to clock up crazy amounts of games in a season.
So looking back on how I used to be, I'm not that football obsessed anymore. Still love it though and can still be found travelling to crazy places on cold winters nights to cheer on my team. Since I've been watching FC though, I haven't clocked up quite so many games. I've only really watched the first team. They've also got a youth team and a womens team so I thought it was time to go back to the old days with a challenge of watching all levels of FC United home and away at least once in a season.
The first team wasn't a problem. That's just one of those things that will happen without any effort. Watching FC is just what I do on a Saturday. Really I have no excuse for not getting to home Youth and Womens games as they both play about ten minutes walk away from my house, although I suppose I do need to do the housework at some point, I can't spend all my time watching football.
So today was my first FC Women's game. It was also Dexter dogs first ever football game. How cute does he look in his scarf?
It was all a bit much for Dexter. The combination of footballs (his second favourite thing after sausages), other dogs to play with and lots of people who might think he was cute sent his giddyometer off the scale. We had to go right down to the far end of the pich and stand on our own and he was still a giddy mess. He only calmed down a bit when he finally got hold of a football.
Anyway, the match....We were playing City. And I don't care what level it's at, derby day is derby day and I always want to see the bitters get beat. And today I got what I wanted. We were 2-0 up at halftime after goals from Olivia Greenhalgh and Amy Vyas. There might have been a handball in there but ssssh I didn't see anything.
After hot vimto at half time (love the stuff!!!) there were another three goals in the second half. Unfortunately only one of them was for FC but hey, it's still a win - always nice but even nicer against City. They scored first, then Claire O'Reilly scored our third with City getting a goal with more or less the final kick of the game. 3-2 to FC :-)
I can't really tell you much about the game. Not because nothing happened, I'm just useless at remembering it after the match. The referee was pretty funny, he insisted on counting out the ten yards every time he gave a free kick even though we were always in the right place and at one point he actually told us to move forward!!!!
It was a great turn out for a Greater Manchester Women's Football League match. There were 290 there (wonder if that's just people or if they counted the dogs too - there were a lot of dogs!), thats more four of the games in the Evo-Stik Premier League yesterday and all but one of the games in the First Division! Pretty impressive. Oh and talking of impressive, did I mention we're top of the league? Check out that goal difference!!
So I enjoyed my first Women's game. Need to do an away one now and also fit in the Youth team. I'd forgotten the leagues are shorter though so not quite sure when I'm gonna fit them in. I'll work it out though.
So looking back on how I used to be, I'm not that football obsessed anymore. Still love it though and can still be found travelling to crazy places on cold winters nights to cheer on my team. Since I've been watching FC though, I haven't clocked up quite so many games. I've only really watched the first team. They've also got a youth team and a womens team so I thought it was time to go back to the old days with a challenge of watching all levels of FC United home and away at least once in a season.
The first team wasn't a problem. That's just one of those things that will happen without any effort. Watching FC is just what I do on a Saturday. Really I have no excuse for not getting to home Youth and Womens games as they both play about ten minutes walk away from my house, although I suppose I do need to do the housework at some point, I can't spend all my time watching football.
So today was my first FC Women's game. It was also Dexter dogs first ever football game. How cute does he look in his scarf?
 |
| Dexter ready to cheer on the girls!! |
It was all a bit much for Dexter. The combination of footballs (his second favourite thing after sausages), other dogs to play with and lots of people who might think he was cute sent his giddyometer off the scale. We had to go right down to the far end of the pich and stand on our own and he was still a giddy mess. He only calmed down a bit when he finally got hold of a football.
Anyway, the match....We were playing City. And I don't care what level it's at, derby day is derby day and I always want to see the bitters get beat. And today I got what I wanted. We were 2-0 up at halftime after goals from Olivia Greenhalgh and Amy Vyas. There might have been a handball in there but ssssh I didn't see anything.
After hot vimto at half time (love the stuff!!!) there were another three goals in the second half. Unfortunately only one of them was for FC but hey, it's still a win - always nice but even nicer against City. They scored first, then Claire O'Reilly scored our third with City getting a goal with more or less the final kick of the game. 3-2 to FC :-)
I can't really tell you much about the game. Not because nothing happened, I'm just useless at remembering it after the match. The referee was pretty funny, he insisted on counting out the ten yards every time he gave a free kick even though we were always in the right place and at one point he actually told us to move forward!!!!
It was a great turn out for a Greater Manchester Women's Football League match. There were 290 there (wonder if that's just people or if they counted the dogs too - there were a lot of dogs!), thats more four of the games in the Evo-Stik Premier League yesterday and all but one of the games in the First Division! Pretty impressive. Oh and talking of impressive, did I mention we're top of the league? Check out that goal difference!!
So I enjoyed my first Women's game. Need to do an away one now and also fit in the Youth team. I'd forgotten the leagues are shorter though so not quite sure when I'm gonna fit them in. I'll work it out though.
Wednesday 7 November 2012
NaNoWriMo - One week in
Well it seemed like a good idea at the time - writing a book will be fun right? I suppose it is fun but it's also a lot harder than I thought it would be.
I'm going to use this logo as much as I can as at the moment I'm not holding out much hope of getting a winners logo. To be fair, my challenge said participate in Nano and didn't say anything about winning it but if I'm doing this thing I want to do it properly.
For those of you who don't know about NaNoWriMo, in order to win you have to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. That sounds like a crazy number but when you break it down to a daily amount it doesn't sound too bad. 1667 words a day should be perfectally achieveable. SHOULD being the word here, I've not come anywhere that. I should have written 11666 words by now but so far I've got the grand total of 4681 - nearly 7000 words behind :-(
There are some positives though - I've got another challenge ticked off as I have now officially participated, I've managed to at least write something every day and the last few days I've felt like I finally know where I'm going with my story. Just need to work out how on earth I'm going to catch up.
I'm feeling a bit of a mammoth session coming up this weekend. I only really have an hour to write during the week by the time I get home from work and get everything done so the weekend is the ideal time to catch up. I reckon I also need to treat this as more of a draft and not spend so much time worrying about how it sounds and messing about with it. At this stage its more about getting the words down on the page!!! I can always edit in December.
I'm also thinking a little notebook in my handbag would be good. Too many hours are wasted sat doing nothing on the bus. There's nothing to say my 50,000 words all have to be on the laptop so I'm thinking I might go all retro and hand write a few chapters on the bus. More hours writing = more words, simple really!!!
And the last thing I need to do is just write. Stop procrastinating and get on with it. Which really means I should get off here and back to my novel. I'm determined to catch up and get it finished. Wish me luck!!!
I'm going to use this logo as much as I can as at the moment I'm not holding out much hope of getting a winners logo. To be fair, my challenge said participate in Nano and didn't say anything about winning it but if I'm doing this thing I want to do it properly.
For those of you who don't know about NaNoWriMo, in order to win you have to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. That sounds like a crazy number but when you break it down to a daily amount it doesn't sound too bad. 1667 words a day should be perfectally achieveable. SHOULD being the word here, I've not come anywhere that. I should have written 11666 words by now but so far I've got the grand total of 4681 - nearly 7000 words behind :-(
There are some positives though - I've got another challenge ticked off as I have now officially participated, I've managed to at least write something every day and the last few days I've felt like I finally know where I'm going with my story. Just need to work out how on earth I'm going to catch up.
I'm feeling a bit of a mammoth session coming up this weekend. I only really have an hour to write during the week by the time I get home from work and get everything done so the weekend is the ideal time to catch up. I reckon I also need to treat this as more of a draft and not spend so much time worrying about how it sounds and messing about with it. At this stage its more about getting the words down on the page!!! I can always edit in December.
I'm also thinking a little notebook in my handbag would be good. Too many hours are wasted sat doing nothing on the bus. There's nothing to say my 50,000 words all have to be on the laptop so I'm thinking I might go all retro and hand write a few chapters on the bus. More hours writing = more words, simple really!!!
And the last thing I need to do is just write. Stop procrastinating and get on with it. Which really means I should get off here and back to my novel. I'm determined to catch up and get it finished. Wish me luck!!!
Friday 2 November 2012
Jezza!!!! :-)
I love the Jeremy Kyle show. Yeah, I know it's rubbish but it is the ultimate in sick day tv. Get yourself all snuggled up on the settee, watch people putting all the private stuff out there for the world to see and suddenly you life doesn't seem so bad.
So when I added be in the audience for a tv show as a challenge, I was always kind of hoping it would be Jezza. I thought it would be difficult to get tickets for any show though so I'd decided I would just settle for whatever I could get. I could only really go at weekends or in school holidays so I suppose it would all depend on what they were filming when. Then late on Tuesday night my penpal Ella posted on twitter that the Jeremy Kyle show were looking for audience members for today. I sent a quick email, they phoned me back Wednesday and told me to come down this morning.
Because it was such short notice I didn't have anybody to go with. It worked well for me as it was half term but my mates couldn't get time off work that quick. I was gutted at first and felt like a bit of a billy but going on my own turned out to be a good thing. They give away more tickets than they have seats for some reason. They said it's because there are always some people who don't turn up and they like to have a full audience. Yellow tickets are high priority and more or less guaranteed a ticket and pink tickets are first come, first served. My ticket was pink....
Doors to the studios open at 10am. I got there about 9.20 and there was already quite a long queue. It was freezing and we seemed to be queueing forever. Eventually I got to the bottom of the stairs going into the studios and I heard a lot of moaning. The studios were full and they were turning people away. I was just about to set off back to the bus stop when a crew member came running down to where I was standing and asked me if I was on my own. When I said I was he said I could go in because there was one seat left. I did feel a bit sorry for the others (there were about 15 people in front of me) but I was well chuffed that I was getting to go in so I ran up the stairs and avoided all eye contact.
I always thought that working in television would be a pretty cool job but I've realised that really it is just a lot of hanging about. They only filmed two shows but we were there from 10am until 2.15pm. It was the usual mix of lie detectors and DNA tests.
I' not sure when the shows they filmed today are going to be shown. You'll just have to keep an eye out for me. Looks like I'll be on the telly though as I was sat next to one of the guest's dad in the audience and he had quite a lot to say.
In between each section Jeremy was much funnier than I thought he'd be. And to say he goes mad at his guests for swearing, he never stopped! Didn't get to meet him properly though and we weren't allowed to take photographs :-( In the break between the two shows they gave us Freddo's and on my way back from the toilet I met Graham. He was lovely, even if I was a little starstruck.
Anyway thanks Ella, for posting the info. I've had a really great day and completed another challenge. And now I'd better stop wittering and get back to writing my novel. Only one day into NaNoWriMo and I'm behind already :-(
So when I added be in the audience for a tv show as a challenge, I was always kind of hoping it would be Jezza. I thought it would be difficult to get tickets for any show though so I'd decided I would just settle for whatever I could get. I could only really go at weekends or in school holidays so I suppose it would all depend on what they were filming when. Then late on Tuesday night my penpal Ella posted on twitter that the Jeremy Kyle show were looking for audience members for today. I sent a quick email, they phoned me back Wednesday and told me to come down this morning.
Because it was such short notice I didn't have anybody to go with. It worked well for me as it was half term but my mates couldn't get time off work that quick. I was gutted at first and felt like a bit of a billy but going on my own turned out to be a good thing. They give away more tickets than they have seats for some reason. They said it's because there are always some people who don't turn up and they like to have a full audience. Yellow tickets are high priority and more or less guaranteed a ticket and pink tickets are first come, first served. My ticket was pink....
Doors to the studios open at 10am. I got there about 9.20 and there was already quite a long queue. It was freezing and we seemed to be queueing forever. Eventually I got to the bottom of the stairs going into the studios and I heard a lot of moaning. The studios were full and they were turning people away. I was just about to set off back to the bus stop when a crew member came running down to where I was standing and asked me if I was on my own. When I said I was he said I could go in because there was one seat left. I did feel a bit sorry for the others (there were about 15 people in front of me) but I was well chuffed that I was getting to go in so I ran up the stairs and avoided all eye contact.
I always thought that working in television would be a pretty cool job but I've realised that really it is just a lot of hanging about. They only filmed two shows but we were there from 10am until 2.15pm. It was the usual mix of lie detectors and DNA tests.
- I don't know who my baby's dad is, but I hope it's not you!
- I moved 200 miles because I think my husband cheated.
- Is my wife playing away while I'm working away?
- Double DNA - Have I got a new daughter?
- My daughter stole from me while I was having my leg amputated
- My ex won't let me see my daughter.
I' not sure when the shows they filmed today are going to be shown. You'll just have to keep an eye out for me. Looks like I'll be on the telly though as I was sat next to one of the guest's dad in the audience and he had quite a lot to say.
In between each section Jeremy was much funnier than I thought he'd be. And to say he goes mad at his guests for swearing, he never stopped! Didn't get to meet him properly though and we weren't allowed to take photographs :-( In the break between the two shows they gave us Freddo's and on my way back from the toilet I met Graham. He was lovely, even if I was a little starstruck.
Anyway thanks Ella, for posting the info. I've had a really great day and completed another challenge. And now I'd better stop wittering and get back to writing my novel. Only one day into NaNoWriMo and I'm behind already :-(
Thursday 1 November 2012
Do Not Disturb - I'm Writing a Book!
Pinch, punch, first of the month. But not just any old month, it's the 1st of November which is also known as NaNoWriMo day one.
It seemed like a good idea at the time when I first signed up all those weeks ago but now I'm beginning to wonder what on earth I've let myself in for. 50,000 words in 30 days sounds like an awful lot. I tried to break it down to a daily word target which gets me to 1667 words a day. Still a lot but an easier number to get my head around. All I need now is a story. I've got a vague (very vague!!!) idea of what I'm going to write about but no idea how I'm gonna pad it out into a full blown novel.
Usually I love writing but today I'm really struggling to get started. The dog needs walking, the kitchen needs cleaning, I need to organise my wardrobes - everything is seeming more appealing now. I've become the queen of procrastination. I need to get going though as 1667 words a day aren't going to write themselves! I'm sure I'll be fine once I've done the first couple of paragraphs, starting is always the hardest part.
You can follow my progress through the month on the right. Green days are good, red days are bad. The darker the colour, the better/worse the day has been. Anyway enough wittering from me - I've got a book to write!
It seemed like a good idea at the time when I first signed up all those weeks ago but now I'm beginning to wonder what on earth I've let myself in for. 50,000 words in 30 days sounds like an awful lot. I tried to break it down to a daily word target which gets me to 1667 words a day. Still a lot but an easier number to get my head around. All I need now is a story. I've got a vague (very vague!!!) idea of what I'm going to write about but no idea how I'm gonna pad it out into a full blown novel.
Usually I love writing but today I'm really struggling to get started. The dog needs walking, the kitchen needs cleaning, I need to organise my wardrobes - everything is seeming more appealing now. I've become the queen of procrastination. I need to get going though as 1667 words a day aren't going to write themselves! I'm sure I'll be fine once I've done the first couple of paragraphs, starting is always the hardest part.
You can follow my progress through the month on the right. Green days are good, red days are bad. The darker the colour, the better/worse the day has been. Anyway enough wittering from me - I've got a book to write!
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