I’m blowing my own cornet today rather than the larger trumpet as I used to play the cornet (another useless fact for you, thank me later) and as I said cornets are smaller so it’s easier to blow your own cornet

I’m joining in with the Sleep is For The Weak Writing Workshop this week and I’m tackling prompt five.

5. Tell us about something, or show us something that you do really, really well and are proud of.

There are many things I’m actually quite proud of, for example my daughter and my marriage. I’m very proud of those things they take a lot of work to maintain but bring me the most happiness and comfort.

On a personal level I’m proud of my mum blogger e-course. I’ve produced something under my own steam that nearly three hundred people want to use, and lots and lots of people have promoted and emailed me to say thanks.

I’m proud that I’m only one 2500 word essay away from getting an HNC in Business Studies, it’s taken a couple of years studying from home but it’s the first step towards that coveted degree I’m after.

Mostly I’m proud that I’m living authenticly. My family get to do what they want to do, both in a work capacity and in their free time. We don’t chase material success as it simply isn’t important to us, the few material things we’ve really wanted we’ve bought (I love you my lovely iPhone). We believe in working to live rather than living to work which can sometimes be at odds with the society around us. Things aren’t perfect, I’m sure my husband would rather be a film director with a range rover sport parked in front of a country mansion, myself I’d like a ‘grand designs’ house with a cleaner and a home office overlooking stunning scenery and a mezzanine balcony where I’d have amazing barbecues, but we’re realists and in less you get very lucky or decide to work 80 hours a work for several years then it’s not going to happen.

I established pretty set views on what I wanted from life after reading the book Authentic: How to Make a Living by Being Yourself. It’s one of the best non fiction books I’ve read in terms of getting you to think about what you really want from life and not be swayed by societal expectations.

If this sort of thing interests you I wrote a series on what I learned from the book, it’s four years old now but mostly still relevant.

What are you proud of?

I took this photo last year when we vistited Bunchrew House in Inverness. The grounds included a wooded area and a large flowering of wild bluebells.

I’m not a flower person but it was so pretty I couldn’t help but take this rather amateur (I’m sure someone more experienced could have focused better on the bluebells and brought out the colour) photo.

Some people say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, I reckon they are the mad ones.

This is an interview with myself.

If you could live with only one cd for the rest of your life what would it be?

Definitely my Ultimate Dirty Dancing, it has every piece of music from the film in chronological order. I love it.

What are you most proud of?

My family and my marriage. Most of us appreciate how difficult it is to be a mum, but many overlook how difficult it is to be in a successful marriage.

What do you regret?

I regret worrying over the things that don’t matter, I’ve spent too much life worrying.

What worries you now?

Failure.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Graduating from university, I’ve always wanted to go, always wanted to get a degree so that’s what I’m going to do.

Where do you want to go on holiday next?

I want to go to Switzerland for a week of ski-ing. I have this romantic idea of ski-ing in beautiful surroundings with evenings spent in a wooden chalet with a ‘real’ fire and fondue for supper.

What would you like for next Mother’s Day?

A lie in, a cuddle, breakfast in bed, and walk on the beach followed by fish and chips

Little Croc’s Purse by Lizzie Finlay

One hot day, Little Croc finds a lost purse.

“Finders keepers! tease his friends, imagining a treat of lemonade and a lovely cool swim.

But Little Croc is determined to find the purse’s owner…

Will his honesty be rewarded? Or will he be tempted to spend the money inside?

Littlemummy: A cute story promoting the ’spending, sharing, saving’ ethos. Good for parent’s trying to teach kid’s about pocket money.

Erin: “I liked the purse and the money. I like money because you can spend it, and save it for riding horses”

Little Croc’s Purse £3.99 on Amazon

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

This book is by the creators of The Gruffalo. I love children’s books that rhyme and flow, makes reading them so much less laborious and they seem to hold the children’s attention longer.

Littlemummy: I’m going to stick my neck out and say this is even better than The Gruffalo (which was excellent)

Erin: It’s amazing but the dragon is a bit scary!

Room on the Broom £2.98 on Amazon

Katie Morag and the Grand Concert by Mairi Hedderwick

Every year on the Isle of Struay there is a Gran Concert, where the islanders play fiddles, recite poetry, and sing and dance for their friends and neighbours. Katie Morag can’t wait to sing her special song on stage – but just as the curtain rises, disaster strikes…

Littlemummy – I liked this one as it is set on a Scottish island and features the song ‘You cannae shove your granny off a bus’. The illustrations are also really interesting and quite elaborate with a map of the island etc..

Erin – “Well, I didn’t like the croaky voice but I liked the baby”

Katie Morag and the Grand Concert £5.39 on Amazon

Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates

Dog loves books about dinosaurs, and Dog loves books about aliens: in fact Dog loves all books! Dog has his very own bookshop, although he doesn’t have many customers. But that’s all right, because when Dog is surrounded by books, he is never short of friends or fun.

And when someone does come into the shop, Dog knows just which books to recommend…

Littlemummy: This book has a nice story but it’s not very in depth and only takes about two minutes to read.

Erin: “I liked the books but not the dinosaurs”

I pinched this one from babyrambles…

When I first started my blog it was very fact based however over the years it has become more personal, especially after I decided to blog about my miscarriages last year, however there are many things I still won’t blog about.

* I don’t blog about friends or family explicitly, ie I won’t slag anyone off or reveal their identities in any way. I may mention a family member but only if it’s really necessary to whatever I’m blogging about.

* I don’t post any photos of family (other than Erin, myself and husband) or friends.

* I won’t post anything that may cause Erin to be embarassed when she’s older.

* I don’t write anything I wouldn’t like a stranger reading.

* I don’t post about other kids I know, for fear that there mum might actually find my blog and kill me

* If I’m writing about something personal I always get a second opinion from my husband. He was actually the one that encouraged me to write about the miscarriages last year and he was right so I trust his opinion.

* I won’t write anything that I wouldn’t like my Nan reading (she reads this from time to time), so erm, extra curricular activities are off the menu

In The News

Glasgow City Council have paid £95,000 for a logo for the Commonwealth Games made up of the primary colours (plus green), the letter G and a few circles, hardly value is it. I’m a big fan of the Olympics and these other large sporting events and don’t usually begrudge the funding at all. I do like a bit of value for money though and this overly simplistic rip off logo (apparently the logo is very similar to the logo of some arts council, shown on left of pic). I’d rather have seen the ‘project’ farmed out to the schools and have the kids come up with something, and give them the ninety-five grand.

Source: The Scotsman

Closer To Home

To the prat that overtook me at high speed, next to a central reservation, metres before a red light which you ploughed through whilst displaying ‘L’ plates thanks for nearly killing me you loser. I hope you got to wherever you were going in such a rush, I can’t imagine you’ll be driving for too much longer.

Write Ideas Down Straight Away

I get a lot of ideas last thing at night and first thing in the morning, regardless of when you get your ideas ensure you write them down or you risk losing them forever.

Write Posts at Naptime

This has always worked for me as it coincides with my best writing time, other alternatives include getting up earlier to blog or as a lot of parent bloggers do, go to bed later (eek!)

Finish Posts Before Reading Other Blogs

Don’t get suckered into reading your 100 blog strong RSS feed until you’ve finished your own posts. This is procrastination blog-stylee.

Write Posts in Advance

A classic tip that works especially well for mums as we don’t know when the next bout of teething will keep us from our second biggest passion in life is to write posts in advance and either schedule them to be published at a specific time using the date stamp in wordpress or publish them manually on the right day.

Don’t Get OSCD – Obesssive Stat Checking Disorder

This is a serious time suck and if you don’t want your blog to become sad and neglicted don’t even go there. Seriously. Beware. Steer clear of over analysing unique visitors and pageviews, spend your time writing good content instead.

Choose Only One or Two Social Media Sites

Choose one or two and focus all your time there, I enjoy twitter and facebook, for you it may be MySpace and del.ici.ous. The old adage rings true it’s quality not quantity that counts when it comes to these sites.

Mum Blogger E-Course

You knoew there was a plug coming Sign up for my free mum blogger e-course. The course is delivered by email giving you one lesson and tasks to work on each week keeping your blog on track and growing.

I went to see Alice in Wonderland on Saturday. So many people have asked me about it on twitter that I thought I’d do a quick review.

The Plot

Well obviously it follows the book which I’ve only read half of. In short (very short)Alice falls down a rabbit hole and discovers an underworld of strange characters. Alice needs to defeat the Jabberwocky to reinstate the White Queen as ruler of Underworld.

The Effects

The effects were amazing, I can no longer tell what is real and what is animated. The combination of computer graphics and 3D create a unique experience that is no longer akin to watching a film, it’s an experience. To me it felt the story was truly alive, like my imagination was playing out in front of my eyes.

The Cast

Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter and does a great job, some of the characteristics reminded me a bit of his take on Willy Wonka but his character in this film was far more exaggerated.

Helena Bonham Carter who I usually don’t rate stole the show for me, I thought she was the most believable as a storybook character.

Alice is played by Mia somebody or other, I didn’t think she was that remarkable, kind of adequate or maybe she was just up against it with the amazing supporting cast. I’d say the same for Anne Hathaway who plays the White Queen.

I very much enjoyed Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and dum, Alan Rickman as Absolem the caterpillar and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, they all definitely do us brits proud. My mum liked Barbara Windsor as the Dormouse.

What’s it Like

Eccentric, a little dark as you’d expect from a Tim Burton film, well executed. In my opinion it’s too scary for younger children (under 7), especially in 3D.

What I Thought

I was blown away by the effects but the story was a little fantastical for me. I don’t think it could have been done much better though.

On Sunday after not ski-ing for ten years we ventured back to the dry ski slope where we learnt to ski as teenagers (and also where Alex proposed to me eleven years ago!).

We’ve long harboured a desire to go on a ski holiday and this was the first step towards that.

We’re fortunate that we live ten minutes away from an excellent slope that costs around £9 an hour including ski hire (much better than the eighty quid a lesson someone tweeted about).

The morning was eventful in that I managed to fall off the chairlift twice, although Alex has admitted to pushing me once. *Twice* I found myself flailing around on my back like a beatle as chairs skimmed my head and skiers avoided me in slalom fashion.

I *cough* also managed to ski into the back of a snowboarder who had fallen into my path, I snow ploughed for dear life but I hurtled into the back of him impaling him on my skis (oops) I apologised but neither him nor his instructor acknowledged my presence (rude). I spent the rest of time huffing about ‘newbies’ being on the main slope and how I have a new found dislike for the fancy modern snowboarder types pffft.

Anyhoo, here’s a wee video of me demonstrating my, erm, skills…