Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
Do you know when's not a good time of year to try and buy a house?
December.
It's actually, quite possibly, the worst time of year to decided to buy the single most expensive thing in your entire life.
And not being in a chain makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. Not at Christmas time. All the usual rules of buying a house go out of the frost-encased window.
Or they did for us when we bought our home ten years ago.
Family time over Christmas is so important, and with time being such a precious commodity in modern life it can be hard to fit in the special events and occasions which make memories.
We were recently invited to spend a weekend at Bluestone National Park Resort in west Wales in order to enjoy their Christmas extravaganza of the Kingdom of the Elves, and it was without a doubt the perfect thing to start off our celebrations over the festive season.
Every woman loves receiving flowers, and particularly during the Winter months when foliage, flowers and colours are seriously lacking in the natural environment. November is also my anniversary month and my husband is very good at buying me a bouquet of the flowers that were in my wedding bouquet.
When I was recently invited to receive flower delivery from the Debenhams collection, I knew instantly that I'd be choosing the Designer Spirit bouquet which contains white roses, spiky chrysanthemums, berries, lillies and silver sprayed ferns.
We've been invited by House of Fraser's toy department to help them finish off their Christmas story about Fraser Bear. Never one to shy away from a challenge or a bit of creative storytelling, we absolutely decided that this required some hands-on storytelling!
Welcome to 365 Photo A Day Project linky. This linky covers round-up posts for the week or one of your favourite photos of the week. I've written a post providing tips for completing the project, always ask one of the regulars for help if you're stuck.
The 365 linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts via comments. I can't emphasise this enough, it's the whole point of the linky!
Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).
I'm really hoping that this isn't one of the last play times outside this year; there's only a few weeks left before 2015 arrives and it does seem to be getting more and more bitterly cold.
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Linking up to My Sunday Photo and the B&W Photo Project
Becoming a parent changes your outlook to things that happen as a teacher. The way you handle situations changes because that could actually be your child. The way a child is encouraged alters, the praise heaped on them, the discipline required; everything changes when you become a parent.
Particularly when your child reaches school age.
A few months ago we went to the cinema to watch a film and The Boy was captivated. Not be the film, I can't even remember what it was now, but by the trailer for the Paddington Bear movie which is released today. I'm not sure if it was the moment when Paddington used a toothbrush as an ear cleaner, or when he surfed the bathtub down a torrent of water down the staircase.
One of the top presents that children ask for every years are bikes and scooters; timeless classics which stand the test of time against the plethora of electronic devices bombarding our children every Christmas. Father Christmas knows this and that's why he's always happy to read letters from children asking for bicycles, scooters or skateboards, even more so because I'm sure he has races with the elves testing them out first!
Christmas is getting closer, and Santa is busy reading all the letters which have been sent to him by girls and boys the world over. So to get everyone into the Christmas spirit, Halfords is hosting a very special competition. Each week they're giving children the chance to win one of four brand new children's bikes, scooters or skateboards.
