Trying to kick the habit...

Oh, how I love chocolate! The thing is, dark chocolate (the only kind I eat as a vegan) is rather good for you.... in small amounts! I, however eat FAR too much of the flippin' stuff. I have a really unhealthy attitude towards food; an 'all-or-nothing' approach to being healthy, and it is Not Good. I've tried going 'cold turkey' with the chocolate. I hasted about eight days, and believe me that was HARD! Lol. So anyway, I'm taking stock of my health and trying to develop a healthier approach to eating. I've heard of the 80/20 rule and I think it's a great idea and very sensible. I'm never going to be a health freak who can stay away from all foods that aren't good for you. I so wish I could be, but I have no other vices, chocolate is my one weakness! So; eat healthily 80% of the time and the other 20% will not matter so much. It has to be better than the way I've been eating lately; as though every day is Christmas!! (or Easter, lol.) Here's the fruit basket to remind/tempt me every time I go in the kitchen :)
The only thing is, when Romy and Tansy went to their Grandparents' house last night whilst Colin and I were at our watercolour course they made one of these... EACH!!!!! Oh the temptation of the Mafia-style horse's head cakes!!!
Colin bought me a really funky cow-print 'old-ladies' shopping trolley from The Range the other day. However, I can't fit much shopping in it as this is what tends to happen wherever we go... Hee hee hee!!! It's just the perfect size for Tansy to sit on and watch the world go by (backwards.)

Colin and I have decided not to carry on next term with our watercolour class. A couple of reasons really; foremost is the price - at just over 60 squid a term each it's a dear do!! We just can't afford it. But also I'm thinking having a tutor is fine to show you techniques, but it's stifling my creativity! Lol. Quite often I've been happily splodging on my paint nice and brightly (which seems to be my style) and she'll come over and say it's too bright. Then I end up hating my painting! Not good for the soul. Here are the last two paintings I did. Both of them she said were too bright. She does lovely pale watercolours and I'm sure they're tons better than mine, but I'm just starting out and I like bright pics! I got an 'F' for my GCSE Art at school, so it kinda takes a lot for me to get out the brush and have a go.... A very wonky doorway. You see I'd never choose to draw this, but that's another thing about the class, you usually get a set piece to do every week.
And this one was adapted from a stone circle by day. I tried to turn it into a sunset picture. The tutor took one look and said "Don't worry, we'll do some work on tone next week." LMAO!!!

Anyway, we're going to make a concerted effort to take it in turns to do something with Tans once a week for a couple of hours so that the other parent can sit with Roo at the table and do some painting. Roo was desperate to join the class, but it was over-16's only.

I forgot this....

Oh how I adore them. xxx

Wild wanderings.

I had a funny 'experience' the other day. I went round to my new friend Janette's house who lives out in the wilderness (compared to me) as we'd decided to go for a nice evening walk. Romy stayed to play with A and Colin took Tans off to the nearest Tesco for some bits and bobs.

Off we set with our water bottles and a spring in our step. Through a field of sheep, over a stile (eep!) and up mud tracks. We joked that it was getting dark awfully quickly and erm, there were no streetlights. Never mind, I said confidently, I have my mobile on me *checks pockets* OMG, where's my phone???!!! Is it in the field of sheep? We can't go back and see if I dropped it as there is now just a thin sliver of red in the sky and the rest is black.

It's about now that I started wishing I'd bothered to go to Girl Scouts and learnn survival techniques; such as how to make a working radio from a squashed coke can, a dog poo and various pieces of carrion. (That was all we had to hand.) Between us we had a grand total of 60p, so refreshments and S.O.S call at the pub we passed were out of the question. "Never fear" says Janette. "Our friend Susan lives five minutes up this road" Great! Off we trudge up the mud path, me slipping on unseen mud in my stupid wellies, underused calf muscles complaining with each step, both of us huffing and puffing like a pair of old women (but me moreso!) Half an hour later we rejoyced to find a light on at Susan's house. She lives in the middle of nowhere and her poor husband must have wondered who the heck these two windswept wild-looking women were knocking on the door in the pitch black.

Making grateful use of his phone I rang my mum and asked her to ring Colin to tell him to knock on Janette's door and ask S to pick us up erm... whre are we again? Anyway, turned out I'd left my phone in the car (doh!!) and we got back safe and sound. Romy had been a bit worried, but we were all ok. When I go this week for our walk I shall make sure I have my phone. Oh and a torch! We had such a good laugh though. Alternately giggling like schoolgirls and cackling like witches throughout. Definitely an adventure :o)


Tansy is looking forward to her ballet lesson tomorrow, even moreso than usual as my wonderful mum made her this gorgeous bag for all her kit. Thanks mum. You're a star :) Inspired by something I saw on my friend's blog a few weeks ago I thought I'd give Tansy a treat. I made a tray up for her with lots of things fom the kitchen for her to mix and play with. Of course you're never too old for a bit of messy play, so Romy had to get stuck in too :)

Anyway, they got a bit carried away and the vacuum cleaner had to make a little outing afterwards! Rofl.

All good fun :o)

*Creeps out from under stone*

Bless me people for I have sinned. It's been ten months since my last confession (blog post.) Lol :) I've been hassled by various people (my mum, Nikki, Janette to name but a few) to drag myself out of blog retirement, so here I am! Ta da!!!

So what's been happening over the past year..? Hmm... Too much to summarise in a paragraph, so we'll draw a line under all that and I'll just mention one or two things off the top of my head.

On the home ed front, we were rather helpfully 'referred' to the Local Authority by a SureStart children's centre that I USED to take Tansy to to play. Won't be going there again, the nosey buggers :( We had a (lovely) woman come to the door to introduce herself and request that I send a philosophy of education or just a letter outlining what we get up to. A couple of hours and three pages of A4 later I had it done and I was rather pleased with it. Sent it off and predictably heard nothing until I rang to chase it up. The lady gushed over the phone about how fantastic it was and how she'd just been about to email me to say as much (yeah right! That was a few days ago, still no email.) So anyway, I suppose it's a bit of a weight off my shoulders as I was living on borrowed time with the whole anonymity thing. Wouldn't have minded anyway if I knew the 'Diversity Officer" (yes, that was her title!) was so nice.

We've had a bit of a slow Winter with not much being done particularly. The beginnings of Spring have done us the world of good in lifting spirits and generally getting us out and about flying with fairies and swimming with mermaids ;) At the time of typing our week looks roughly like this: Monday: Spend afternoon with my Mum and neice. Kumon. Tuesday: Free day!! Wednesday: Meet Nikki and Emily at the library. I teach the girls GCSE Psychology and then Nikki does other subjects with them. Tansy's Ballet lesson. Romy's majorette's lesson. Colin and I then go to our watercolour class while the girls stay with grandparents for a couple of hours. Thursday: Our lovely new friend Janette takes us to the Grimsby home ed group which is fantastic as there are lots of girls there Romy's age. Kumon. Friday: Free day!! Walk with friends. Saturday: Various bits and pieces that need catching up on. Sunday: Romy goes to drama club and then basketball (where Colin has started coaching.) PHEW!!! Gives me a headache just thinking about the logistics, especially of Wednesdays!

Romy is doing remarkably well at Kumon. She's amazed us and her teacher by whizzing through many more levels in her first year than she should have. She's loving drama too and this week we got to fight back the tears and feel our hearts swell with pride watching her at the Speech and Drama Festival. She received a merit and a distinction and then took part in an improvisation that had them rolling in the aisles. That's my girl! Don't know how she does it. I'd be a nervous wreck, lol.

The girls are getting on like a house on fire 80% of the time and fight like two cats with machetes the other 20%. Nothing unusual there then ;o) Tansy looks just soooo adorable in her new ballet attire and is also supposed to be taking part in a show soon. She's a baby!!! *Sob* Fast approaching three and looking forward to her Dora the Explorer birthday cake :o)

We've had an explosion of guinea pigs after a mix up from the flippin' pet shop. Alice turned out to be Jasper and here we are a few months later with five baby piggies!

Newborn. Just a few minutes old :)

Aren't they cuuuuute!!??

Right, I'm in a picture mood now. I've been feeling rather arty and crafty myself this last year. I've done TONS of crocheting and did a couple of craft stalls.

A couple of watercolours I've done at my beginners class.
Some of my crochet creations... These were the birds I made for people for Xmas/Yule :) I didn't want to let them fly off to their new homes!
Here's my Edward Cullen. I made it for a Twilight-mad friend's birthday. Did it off the top of my head :)
A little worm in an apple house.
Look at this lush, lovely, almost-edible yarn!! Making a blanket with it.
A wolf for Colin.

A bag for my crocheting-in-progress :) And a cover for a jar to keep all my hooky hooks in :)
A scarf and mitens set for Tans.
Coffee cups and my cat that took hours!!
My craft stall :)
A Hoctopus...
You could almost eat it :)
Bat and aliens.
A blanket for a friend's daughter. Took me about a squillion hours and then some. Was worth it though.
Apple, alive apple, apple with wormy friend!
Skeleton bride and groom.
Cat and pumpkin.
Mario mushrooms. Love these :)
A weird thing!
Mummy and baby spiders.

A lemming!!!
Sackboy :)
Ghost.
Cthulu and car boobie dice :)
Skelly.
Egg friends.
A cactus for Colin's desk at work. No watering needed.
Bunting in my hallway :)
Booooooooooooooooobs :)
The grim reaper!

That's all for now folks! Back again soon. I promise. xxx