Lifestyle - A Quick Catch Up

Its been rather longer since my last post than I intended, sorry! I have been rather tired and have been spending time doing other things than writing. Mainly reading and making those loom band things all the kids are wearing nowadays! 

They're really easy and colourful. My two favourite things, frankly! 

Madam has settled somewhat from her manic outbursts and life is less about yelling at each other. Which I wholeheartedly prefer. We had a great trip to the beach last weekend to try out her new 'kini and soak up some sunshine. 

This is England after all, you have to make the most of these things :-) 

Whilst at the beach we were sitting under a colony of sand martins which proved impossible to photograph, sadly. I didn't really get much in the way of photos at all, really. It was so bright and I couldn't see how they were coming out. I have got this splendid shot of madam making a sandcastle... 

This Thursday just gone madam made her promise at Rainbow's and is now the proud owner of a badge and certificate to prove it. She is so proud that she read her promise out without any help and is committed to being an active Rainbow. 

In case you don't know, Rainbow's are the youngest members of the Guiding movement and are aged between 5 & 7. She has been desperate to go since turning 5 in October, but it's taken ages for a place to come free! 

Next week it's the school half term holidays and we're planning a couple of trips to keep madam occupied. One of which will be to the Sea Life Centre in Scarborough because we have a voucher :-) We'll be making a day of it and will also be taking a trip through Peasholm Park on the miniature railway. Perhaps not in the splash boat though... 

So, I think that's us all caught up now. Hope you've all been well... It's nice to be back again... 

Love, Pearl. 

well, that was unproductive!

Today I have sent madam to school with her new Christmas jumper on as it's non-uniform day. The payment was a donation to the Christmas hamper they're raffling off. Judging by what I saw going in to class this morning it's going to be a rather biscuit heavy hamper this year! 

I am genuinely fed up of being ill now. I have had a cold for over a week and in particular a chesty cough. Even though I have had antibiotics for the cough it seems to be getting worse. It's really putting a dampener on my mood. Also, I am constantly exhausted so have achieved nothing in the last few days despite having access to a car :( 

My plan was to dump a whole load of stuff off at the tip and take a bit more control back in my house whilst we weren't living in it. Total fail. I haven't even managed to get to the gym (I should be there right now, but as soon as I start exercising I can't stop coughing (or breathe)).

We have been at mum and dad's house this week as we've been cat sitting for them whilst they've been away. But, due to the storm that's been going on for the last couple of days, they got stuck in Edinburgh for an extra night. This also meant that the stuff I thought I would do last night at home I also haven't done because I wasn't there :( I feel bad for everything getting so behind.   

I was hoping to avoid another bad go with a cold this year after I ended up on pneumonia meds because of a cough. But I think I really am going to have to go back to the docs and ask for further drugs. Though I quite want different ones as these ones have not really agreed with me, leaving me with headaches and other side effects.

I have guides tonight which I am quite looking forward to. We are doing Christmas crafts at the moment and I am quite keen to finish off my Christmas pudding pom pom :) Also, it means the guides will not be too loud and exhuberant! I don't think I could cope with them jumping around too much tonight... 

scavenger hunting

I had ridiculous amounts of fun with the guides last night! We went on our scavenger hunt around the town and they solved all the clues and found the leader :)

 

We started at the usual meeting place and then from there they had to solve a clue which led to the start point and then headed to town. They were then sent on two different routes and worked really well as a team solving their clues and hunting for the things they were looking for. As the final clue they were given a sum to do and a tracking symbol to follow. Our team came in first and so they were awarded the challenge cup.

 

a jesters hat

an eel

celebratory marshmallow (yes, that is just 1 marshmallow)

 

 

Actually, it's a mug I bought in Morrison's! So, more of a challenge mug.

 

We're going to let them write their patrol name on it and then will let whoever wins the next challenge have the privilege! At the end of the year we'll determine which patrol gets to keep it and we'll start another one in September. 

 

We've also decided it's time to reconvene the patrols. They have been working as just one patrol for the most part, but as they worked so well in those teams they will be their new patrols. I will be challenging them to get a full patrol asap as well! So we are disbanding the dregs of the patrols and giving them completely new ones.

 

We did have 6 when I first started so there are 4 emblems in the box that are going begging. We've also split up a couple of the guides as one was being very dominating over the other. 

 

I have decided that I will sew all my badges on my hoody and then the guides can see all the good things that we've got to do and they'll keep pushing for us to join in with things locally. Because, badges...

 

And in other news, there is a new post up on madam's blog: Cats and Dogs

chocolate, guides and harvest

Last night, at Guides, was chocolate night! The Guides had all remembered to bring a bar of chocolate in with them. And they had all ensured it wasn't made in the UK. We even managed to have no two bars alike which I was really pleased by.

 

The Guides were busting to taste the chocolate so obviously we made them do a couple of other things first, including introducing them to a new leader who joined us last night for the first time. I'm thrilled to have someone else joining the team as it'll be a lot less pressure on me to always be there every week! So, for example, madam's birthday is on a Friday and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a bit late. But knowing I won't be leaving QM on her own means I don't have to rush as much to be there on time.

 

I have a feeling madam will want to come to Guides that night, anyway!

 

I am kicking myself for not taking photos of proceedings once we got started on our tasting. We had everyone sit around a big table and then had everyone try a piece of their own bar to see if they liked it. Then, without me having to persuade them, they decided to go round everyone with one bar of chocolate at a time so that we all tasted the same thing together.

 

Then they had a quick discussion about whether they liked it or not. (the nots were mainly reserved for the dark chocolate!) and some idea of why. And once all 9 bars had been sampled we concluded that amongst our group the milk chocolate was more preferred than the dark, but that no-one necessarily agreed on which had been the best bar as everyone had their own favourites.

 

The Guides learned that different countries and companies made chocolate that tasted quite different from each other and they all agreed that it was good to have had the chance to try something new.

 

For example, my favourite turned out to be the Peruvian milk choc that one Guide had brought in. I usually prefer darker stuff. And a couple of the Guides surprised themselves by liking the Asda dark chocolate with orange as they liked the bitter/sweet flavour combination.

 

I also asked who would be around the week we broke up for half term. Normally we don't meet that week as we don't book the hall. This is because in a larger company if you have a couple from each patrol who can't come then it really changes the dynamic. However, the small group makes that easier as they're still all working as one patrol. But, likewise, if more than a couple were going to be missing it wouldn't be worth the effort!

 

Anyway, we established that they were all available and have told them we will be doing a scavenger hunt type thing around town. In the dark. You have no idea how exciting this made it for them! Now that we have another leader we will also be able to divide the girls into teams (patrols) for it. This will make it more fun, I feel...

 

Now I just need to devise a route and some clues ;) I shall have to keep it to the town centre and try and use either the Merchants Trail or the Elwell Trail which are both dotted around and about in the centre. They may well have seen some of the things around, but I'm hoping having them solve clues for it will make it harder.

 

Also, our new leader is not local and so won't be able to help them very much! This is quite cruel of me... Obviously, I shall pair her with a unit helper who is local, but still... Mwah ha ha! And the Guides all know I won't help them.

 

So that is Guides for me to be organising.

 

Today, with madam, I am going to the Viking boat launch at her school. This is not as odd as I think it sounds. They have built a boat shaped bookshelf in the library along with a snake shaped one and they are getting their official unveiling today. There is apparently going to be some games and activities for the kids to do as well, so might as well take madam along to keep her occupied for an hour or so.

 

We will be taking her scooter with us as it has been living at my parents house since the start of summer but she now wants to be able to scoot to school like most of her friends do. She will still have her bike for playing out with the neighbourhood kids, so it'll all be good.

 

The church has their Harvest festival tomorrow morning but I am in two minds about whether to go. My first objection being that its at 9.30 in the morning, which is a bit keen even for me! And also, madam has her school harvest service on Wednesday to go to. I don't think she probably really wants to go twice. The advantage of going to the service is that we would get to then go and have a look around the food festival in town (which is why the service is so early). We've missed it the last couple of years, which has been a shame. Its got to be quite a big event for the town and this year has been combined with the real ale and cider festival! :)

 

I couldn't find a harvest picture, so here is the cutest pumpkin ever!

 

I think madam would probably enjoy finding all the free samples on offer, she is an expert at it on Saturday mornings around the market. This morning she got her usual free lolly from the sweetie man, a bit of lamb and mint sausage, and some Japanese crispy chicken stuff! She's not gong to need breakfast on a Saturday soon!

 

 

 



round the world with an apple

Last night was Guides again and they were finishing off their clothes alteration projects. We also talked a bit about how their energy saving plans have been going. Quite well so far, but they still have another 3 weeks to keep it going.

 

 

 

They have to do another section on Our Food and we're starting by looking at food miles. I found a website that has a calculator on it which we might be able to use on my phone at the meeting. I have already been using it as we were interested in just how we get fresh apples from New Zealand and how far they have to travel.

 

I was quite disturbed by just how far they do travel as I always try and buy British so hadn't really thought about it. The guides are checking their cupboards and finding where the furthest thing they own comes from. We also asked them to find out where the country actually is so that they can explain it to each other.

 

And then we are going to eat chocolate! We have challenged them to bring in chocolate from as many countries as we can. Then, obviously, we'll have to taste test to see if we can taste the difference. :) I have banned them from bringing any of the regular brands such as Cadbury's and Galaxy etc. So, we'll see what we shall get. I will bring in a couple of South American ones to try, too...

 

We had a discussion about some of the challenges that some of the guides had done before the summer holidays and we agreed that we could set them another challenge with food soon. We're thinking of making chocolate truffles with them :) Or making food from around the world for a bring and share night.

 

We've also been planning some map skill work for them to do. I'm thinking of making them plot a route to a certain place and then being challenged to go to another once they get there. In a sort of treasure hunt type thing. Getting the guides out and about and enjoying themselves is the key to keeping our unit going, I feel.

internet tutorials are awesome!

Guides last night was a great success. We had everyone occupied and so busy that we lost track of the time and had to race to get finished on time.

 

We will be continuing the project next week. And will also be doing more badge work. Last night we had them talking about energy and they made a plan for themselves of ways they could save energy on a daily basis. I particularly liked the suggestion of one Guide who was going to attempt to get her mum to drink the coffee her dad makes in the morning rather than making a second one!

 

We also had the usual suggestions of watching less tv and then there was turning off wifi on the tablet so it would need charged less often. I think I can safely say that is new issue...

 

And then the fun began! We got out the t-shirts and I took some before photos (which I won't publish here as the Guides are in them). Then they were let loose with glue and needles, ribbons and net, and some very large scissors. I went to work on my own project. I cut my t-shirt into one big tube and then cut up through it, leaving a strip at the top.

 

My Guide leader was absolutely fascinated and could not see how it could possibly turn into a scarf. I ploughed on regardless. Next you pull each of the strips to get them to curl in on themselves. Gather the top together and secure it with some ribbon, or whatever et voila... I have one (fairly cool) scarf in less than half an hour :)

 

I like it so much I am actually wearing it today, too.

 

I'm going to re-do that ribbon later...

 

 

Next, I had to try out the whole "design on a piece of sandpaper" idea. The idea is that once the design is complete you can turn it over and iron it on to a t-shirt, or where ever. Again, much scepticism as to how it could possibly work. But it seems to be quite legit. There are loads of tutorials online about doing it.

 

So QM and I gave it a go. I drew a turtle and she tried a butterfly. The crayon seems to stay on top of the sand and I can see how, when I iron it, it'll be transferred. It's quite strange colouring onto sandpaper though, I can tell you.

 

I remembered to write backwards!

 

 

Madam is currently drawing her own design using some of the leftover supplies from last night. I'm not sure hers will work as well though...

 

As for today, well, it's pretty much back to normal. We went to the market this morning. Madam got a book and now we are waiting for dad to make us lunch. Which will be pie and beans, the same lunch he has had on a Saturday practically every week of his life! I did manage to get him onto quiche and a salad over the summer! Progress...

 

This afternoon I have to be domestic and get all madam's school things washed and organised for next week. She is still loving school just as much and had the added excitement of football skills practice yesterday morning. I think the main excitement in that was actually that she got to wear trackie bottoms to school instead of her uniform...

 

 

Upcycling for the masses

As it's Friday, you get the now obligatory Guide related post! And I am really enthused about this weeks meeting. (Well, and terrified we won't have any guides turn up...) But lets stick with enthusiasm, shall we?

 

Oh, before I get started, madam has been to the GP and told that she is doing really well. She is just reducing the amount of puffs on her inhaler slowly now. (My friendly, tame pharmacist (Dad) is helping with that).

 

Ok, so Guides tonight... I found out last Friday that there is a competition running in conjunction with the Clothes Show Live and we could win a trip for our whole unit to go to the show! Brillbobs. All we need to do is take an old item of clothing and take a photo before doing anything to it and then one after we have repurposed/customised it to something we would wear now. Send it in by Sept 29th and Bob's your auntie!  

 

This is the kind of activity that totally excites me! I have spent the last couple of days gathering some great ideas on things the Guides could do including this awesome tutorial on how to turn a t-shirt into a scarf! I love it! I'm completely going to do this tonight with my t-shirt (cause you knew I'd be playing along, didn't you?!)

 

But I also found ways to add a design using wax crayons, sandpaper and an iron. And then there are all the normal things I might do, like adding material to turn it into a dress like Tabatha and I did for madam in the summer. Or adding pockets, a collar or an applique motif. Then, of course, there is good old tie-dye and dip dye. (Those will *not* be being done at the meeting!).

 

One of the Guides is going to turn her t-shirt into a skirt, which is a great idea. A couple were asking about customising old jeans and canvas shoes. I love that they all got behind the idea.

 

And, even better than the fact we might win a competition, the upcycling/repurposing counts towards the badge that QM and I had decided on for them to do over the term! How well planned of me was that!? We're doing the first activity from the first section of the badge and then we have to do 3 clauses. Upcycling is one clause covered.

 

And they won't even notice that they're doing it. Although, one of the Guides got *almost* as excited as me about the prospect of a badge! I'm such a badge nerd, and this is a great one as it's from WAGGS so it makes it a bit different.

 

I think the complete over-enthusiasm for it all on my part sort of rubbed off on the Guides too, which was nice. And even better was QM telling me to just plan and run it all and she'd help out if I needed. So I get to mostly be in charge, which I need for my warrant. Excellent.

 

See, I was going to tell you about all this at the weekend, but madam being so dramatically ill put paid to that!

a few of madam's customised things

 

 

I'm still trying to decide on birthday presents for her too, but she has managed to give me a couple of acceptable suggestions. She has announced that she would like some big girls Lego and also some Winnie the Witch books. I can cope with that...   

 



Guides, Rainbows and Birthdays

I'm feeling a little sorry for myself this morning. I have the start of a cold coming with it's annoying runny nose/watery eyes/fuzzy head fun. I should be used to it by now. Every time madam starts a new term at school she brings home a new cold. But it sucks.

 

I have been doing very little with myself in this new free time I now have (technically today is the first time I have *new* free time). But I have got back into doing some proper cooking. I love cooking but loathe doing it just for a small number of people. I have tried to combat this by using a bit of planning.

 

This week I bought a whole chicken and roasted it off yesterday. So we had a nice chicken dinner last night and I have half a carcass (well, plus a wing) left for today. And then I shall make stock with the leftovers :)

 

Now, this isn't exactly revolutionary. But usually I make extra helpings of things and then never really fancy eating the rest of it so it languishes in my freezer. Not really *actually* a money saver. But this technique means I will get 3 completely different meals out of what I bought! Genius. It's something I've been meaning to do for ages and then never quite getting around to it.

 

So tonight I will take the other half a chicken (possibly just the breast) and turn it into a chicken and mushroom pasta bake-type thing. Then I could make chicken soup. Which we can have on Saturday as mum makes tea for us on Fridays.

 

This Friday is the first one back at guides for this term. I'm excited to be going back, though worried there will be no guides left! I need to think of an activity to do with everyone that will be easy to do with a small (miniscule) number of people.

 

Before we broke up for summer we spent an evening making recycling boxes. We had the tables in a horseshoe for this activity. Usually each patrol sits around their own table. But I noticed how much better everyone was when they were closer together and, whilst we are so small, I wonder if we should keep the arrangement. We can always send them off to different areas if they need to work separately.

 

But I get the impression trying to break with tradition might not go down well! I'm also trying to persuade my mum to come in as a unit helper. She could just come once a month even. It would just be nice to have someone who knows how much effort I put in and comes from the same standpoint as me. Not that I'm saying I feel underappreciated, more that I feel impotent.

 

I'm always trying to ramp the guides up, but they tend to look at me as if I have three heads. I also think we need to do some proper planning and have ideas for what we're going to do over consecutive weeks. I know that we seem to have given up letting the patrols organise themselves as they just don't. Or more accurately, some of them do it. But not all. And not every week. There is *always* a patrol with nothing to do. It drives me insane.

 

We also always seem to be a last resort. You know, they have nothing else to do this week so they'll come to Guides. I was under the impression they were meant to come every week... But there is no point in my frustration.

 

They don't come every week as they're not inspired. So to an extent it's my fault. I just wish I could find the thing that does inspire them. I don't want our unit to fold. But at the rate it's going it'll be gone by Christmas. And then where will I be :( Because I have that unit in my heart. I guess I'd have to move to Toll Gavel. 

 

Madam will be at Toll Gavel for Rainbows soon enough! I can't believe she'll be 5 in 5 weeks time... Plans for her birthday party are starting to have to be set into action. We have the play centre booked for her and a few friends. I guess I need to think about what I'm even going to get her for her birthday! 

 

I have younger brother hunting for The Little Mermaid on DVD for her. But I want to get her something more. She doesn't need any more toys. Or clothes. What do I get her then? I guess I'll have to ask if there is anything she wants... Perhaps she'd have Rainbow uniform as a present...

 

This is her birthday last year...

 

new coat, new pushchair, new clothes!

princess cake...

 

And the year before...

 

it was all about pirates when she was 3

yup, that is a snowsuit she's wearing...

 

And when she was two...

 

hello kitty *everything*

 

There's no cake shot from when she was two... I don't even remember what I made!

 

For some reason there are no pictures of her first birthday. There was this though...

   

madam with her one true love: baby

goodbye to the guides until September

It was the final night of Guides for this term/year last night so we thought we would introduce them to a perennial guiding favourite... Tin can cookery :) That's right, the ancient art of attempting to cook a scotch pancake/drop scone on the base of a tin using only a tea-light as your heat source! It is much more fun than you think and all the guides seemed to enjoy it.

Well, except one, who's candle refused to stay lit and didn't get even a single pancake for her efforts!

an actual cooked pancake!

in progress

it was so nearly ready and then the candle went out!

the many matches of abject failure

who'd have thought they could concentrate so hard!

But it was really funny watching them prod at the pancakes and try and guess when they were *actually* cooked! We had brought a couple of spare tins, which turned out to be the only tins anyone had brought with any holes punched in for airflow...

Now, due to the school that most of the Guides attend inconsiderately having their summer production on last night, most of the Guides were taking part in that. So we had 4! Luckily we also had 4 tins, so they got to all have a go and it set up some competition as to who could get the first pancake made.

We had some jam, sugar, and lemon for them to put on the pancakes (I find added sugar is usually the only way to make them palatable!) and they were let loose with their tea-lights and matches to try and cook as many as possible.

As there were so few of us we managed to have quite a good sort of party atmosphere going, there were juice boxes, some sweets (choc orange eclairs, FTW) and some really bad jokes being shared, example: How do you make a sausage roll?

Push it down a hill... It was quite a nice way to finish off the term. Made sadder with the knowledge that two of our group would not be back in September as they are too old to still be guides :(

Slightly sad to say goodbye to them as they started at the same time as me and it'll be strange not to have them messing about and making everyone laugh anymore.

I shall be glad to have my Friday nights free for the next few weeks, not that I will be doing anything exciting with them. Maybe madam and I should do our own tin can cooking in the back garden!   

A design for life

Oh, before I start, this is how the brownies looked once I'd cut them up :) Oh, yes...

 

 

 

Last night I fiddled with the blog (you might have noticed the rather radical redesign). But I'm still not happy with it. Be prepared for me to do more fiddling in the near future. The reason for this faffing about is simple. I'd like my blog to have an identity that matches me. I want it to be completely unique and instantly recognisable.

 

Similar to some of the blogs I most enjoy reading myself. Not similar design wise, distinctive-wise I mean.

 

There's the lovely Tilly and the Buttons, great design. Lets you know instantly what the blog is about. Also, essbeevee who uses her own illustrations to highlight her great fashion blogs. And my personal favourite blog ever Hyperbole and a half who uses her own drawings (again) to personalise her posts.

 

I could go on for hours about unique and distinctive blog ideas. But mostly I'd like some input. What would you think sums me up? I hope you're all drawing parallels with my search for self going along with a blog identity crisis! And I think this is where my issue lies. I am so unsure of who I am and how I fit in the world it reflects on everything else I do.

 

So who am I? I know that this blog doesn't cover anything specific, it's not a fashion blog or a crafting blog. I talk about everything and anything that comes to mind. At the moment I know that I'm going to have to change how dark the background is because although some of my writing probably does come from that dark place within me, it's not what I want to project.

 

I feel like the blog is about growth, discovery, new awakenings, that kind of stuff. But how do I represent that to anyone who might stumble across it one day on their search for something to read. I would like it to really jump out at the reader, though without resorting to the bright citrus colour I've got going on my current set-up! ;)

 

So what can I think of that represents growth and change? What can you think of? I need some serious help! Maybe I should be a bit more open, I'm not sure I've ever shown my face on here, although madam is plastered all over. This is a recurring feature of my life, pushing madam forward and myself back. My college tutor asked if she was more important than me as that's how I seem to act. I didn't have an answer. The logical one is "no", no-one is more important than anyone else, and a child should have respect for their parent (this may be why she doesn't bother to listen to me).

 

But I don't want being a mother to be the thing that defines me. I am so many other things too. Sadly, the first one that pops in my head is "fat" but that's my own insecurities lurching to the fore... I have a nice smile, and beautiful eyes, and a great personality. Nothing else is actually really important.

 

I've mentioned that I used to sketch and this is a collage of some of my old pictures. So could I do some of my own artwork? Design a logo or something...

 

yeah, there might have been a theme to my old past-time...

 

 

I am a crafty type and love creating things in various different ways. I am a Guide leader and enjoy working with that age group of young people. I find them fascinating and so changeable, excited about their lives and what they will be. At that age you can also have meaningful conversations with them! Though I've not managed to persuade any of them just how rubbish One Direction really are!

 

 

 

And that's another part of it. They let me in, I'm not their parent, but I am someone who they can ask about things. I have (finally) been given my leadership training pack and can now work towards my taking over my unit (the current leader has been doing it since I was tiny). I'm quite excited to finally have it as I've been waiting for nearly 3 years! Yes, really...

 

I just need to do my first aid training now...


Update: If you're reading this and thinking, the background isn't dark, she's gone nuts. I changed it again as there were problems with the links!

 

 

Fish are friends, not food

it's Miffy's birthday today!

 

 

Superman was just as good as I remembered! I do love that film. I had forgotten some of the slightly cheesier moments (blocked them out?) though. I think the height of cheese is Lois's voiceover whilst Superman takes her flying.

 

I mentioned I had a crush on Christopher Reeve as a child, and apparently this is still ongoing! Phwoar! I have to say when he gave his statistics to Lois it meant more to me than as a 5yr old...

 

Madam was leaping about doing not sleeping (ostensibly because she was worried about the fishes) and ended up watching the first half before she finally gave in to exhaustion and went to sleep on the sofa. I did debate going straight onto number 2 but thought that might be a very late night for me!

 

I seem to vaguely remember preferring Superman 2 as a child, but again, it's so long since I watched them...

 

So, fishtank update now. It's still not a happy tank. The pump is still working but we seem to have lost more fish overnight. And the water is still murky. It's a relief not to have found them all dead though.

 

I have no idea how long the pump would need to have been off for the situation to get so bad.

 

And tonight is Friday, which means it's a Guide night. With madam in tow... I am hoping we might have a better number of them than last week. I'm debating taking some photos of our activities to post on our twitter feed. But I would have to get parental permissions etc... Stress.

 

On the plus side, we sort of have a ready made activity this week as after much consultation Girlguiding UK have decided to change the promise. So we get to introduce it to them. I shall make attempts at ways to do so...

 

I'm guessing crafts will be out though, whatever we do! I'm also hoping that the weather will improve so we can do a bit of outside stuff. I like getting them to go outside, makes for more fun usually.

 

I shall also remember to buy a return on the bus this week!   

organising is not my forte

I am trying to have a chilled afternoon before the onslaught of guides this evening. But as there are only going to be a few (of our already small numbers) there tonight it could make it really hard. If I have trouble arranging fun activities for two patrols then doing it for just one will be worse.

I was actually speaking to one of the other guide company leaders at a playgroup with madam the other day and she was saying their unit is very small as well. She suggested an amalgamation of our two units until numbers pick up a bit. But they meet on a different night to us and my leader wouldn't go with it...

However, I think that it could be worth considering doing some activities with them. It would make it more feasible for us both as companies to have a bigger group to do things with. For example, neither of us could fill a 16 seater mini-bus, but together we could. And allow for the couple of guides who won't want to come!

It doesn't solve my problems for tonight very much though. I need to do something fun and easy with a small number of guides. I'd quite like to get them to do a bit of running around as I think we're mainly going to have our youngest members tonight.

At least if we have the young ones we can do some crafting as they are much more into it than the older lot... Perhaps not Father's Day cards though, they're a bit old for that now, surely... 

I have been doing some online research and there are some interesting games for smaller groups, but you need about 10 to really play most of them. Though  this sounds kind of fun...

Grab the finger

Get everyone to stand in a circle, with their arms out either side.  Tell people to put their left palm up, and right finger pointing down (touching the person next to them's outstretched palm). 

When you say the word "GO", people need to do two things:

1. Grab the person's finger in your left hand
2. Prevent your right finger from being grabbed

If your finger is grabbed, you are out, and you sit on the sidelines.  The game continues until there is a winner.  

The key to this game is adding a bit of drama and suspense around when you say "Go". eg count down, add a big delay, etc.  You can do it a few times before it gets old :)

But again, sounds like the more people you have the funner this would be! Oh, that game comes from this website by the way.

There are a lot of those kind of websites around, who'd have thought it! I'm still a bit stuck for ideas though!

a jumbly jam of thoughts

Its Friday again. I am being forced to watch CBeebies with madam whilst the sun is out as I promised she could watch whilst I used the rents wifi... It seems a waste of a sunny day though. Mind you, it's rather hot atm and madam would whinge if I took her to the park. Maybe we could go a bit later once I've finished and we've got past 3pm...

I have a dilemma about guides whilst the rents are away. The most obvious being that I have to take madam with me and she's a major distraction. Also, no car... We've had to give up gymnastics whilst the rents are gone as we can't get there and back on foot. 

Well, we can. But madam would be so tired that she would probably never forgive me! She's good at walking as it's our usual method, but not that far! So Guides also slightly comes under that category. Although we can get a bus down to the middle of town and we'd just have to walk to the school. But I don't know if we could get home again. 

I'm going to work on the basis that my Guide leader won't mind throwing us out on the way past our house (which she does drive past anyway).

Oh. Hmm... I was meant to be doing some form of sponsored something over the half term... Ah. I might have completely forgotten about that... I was going to get madam to draw pictures and sell them on FB to raise funds :) I think it could have been quite fun. Oh well, never mind.

We can do it as an ongoing project I suppose. Taking commissions if anyone is interested ;) If you're really lucky she may even sign it for you...

So I've also been trying to decide what to do with madam over the weekend. We quite often go out with the rents somewhere further afield on a Sat afternoon. I might plan a picnic on the Westwood and hope for some nice weather. 

I really wanted to take madam to Burton Bushes to see the bluebells, but I think they'll probably all have gone over by now. We could still go and build a den or something though. I used to love doing that as a kid...

(see, she likes a good den...)

 

I'm more worried about what we'll do if the weather is pants. I guess we'll just do things at home and try and deal with the cabin fever. And we have messy church on Sunday, so that at least will be fun. (We got pizza and cake last time, awesomes!)

I'm thinking we might make another attempt at cheesecake... It worked so well last time and was particularly yummy... Just need to decide what to top it with this time. I do like the idea of lemon curd, but don't know if madam would be so keen. Do you think you could use that choccy philly? And orange juice instead of lemon... Mind you it might not be acidic enough without lemon/lime... 

If you missed the last cheesecake post (where were you?!) then you can find it here, along with the recipe. I recommend you try it at some point, especially if you have small kids. Or I suppose we could experiment with a different cake recipe. Madam is always most helpful when we're cake baking!

I also want to do some kitchen chemistry and try a new a new recipe... I seem to be in a bit of a rut at the moment with my cooking. Although I've also been considering this whole 5:2 diet that everyone has been banging on about. I've downloaded the book onto my Kindle but haven't had a chance to look at it yet.

I think I could just about manage to be good two days a week. After all it's fairly normal for me to be good sporadically. And I seriously need to do something about getting my eating under control. I need to look at the amount of exercise I do at the moment as well. 

So yeah, I walk everywhere, but I don't do anything else... I do have a bike, but I had sort of given up riding it as madam was too big to go in the seat on the back, but as she is now riding her own bike pretty confidently I could get it back out again.

That might be a good thing to do with madam at the weekend...

Guides can do knots, really!

Yesterday was Friday, which means Guides. I had to bring madam with me this week as my mum and dad were doing one of their final rehearsals with the East Riding County Choir, for the concert they're performing tonight.

 

They've got another rehearsal this afternoon, so I'm playing taxi for them in a bit. Madam and I have planned to go for an ice cream before we have to pick them up again. :)

 

We decided on setting the Guides several challenges and had them designing games to teach the rest of the group. We also tried, again, to teach them how to tie a reef knot. Now this is genuinely one of the simplest knots out there, and yet... *sigh*

 

Madam was mostly well behaved and quite enjoyed joining in with the campfire we had at the end. She managed the actions for "blue budgie" just as well as the Guides and was very enthusiastic with her fake vomiting! We also tried to teach our newest Guides how to do the accompaniment that we use for "edelweiss".

 

I don't know whether it's a Guide thing, or just our company, but we have always used a clapping rhythm when singing the song. It's really quite lovely when everyone is all doing it together. And when the new Guides do it again we'll even get them changing directions during the song :)

 

We're going to attempt to teach them some first aid next week *looks terrified* This is where the reef knot will come in. We'll see if any of them have managed to retain the information on how to do that for a whole week. Or do I think I'll be repeating myself!?

 

 

 

Guides can cook (sort of)

Last night's Ready Steady, Cook challenge turned out to have been quite good fun. The Guides all used their ingredients to create some interesting concoctions. And the leaders got to join in and had a good time with our own creations.

 

We chose to make a selection of bruschetta with various toppings and also a melon boat thing for the centrepiece.

 

 

 

 

Team 1 of the Guides made a sharing platter that went on to become the eventual winner.

 

 

 

Team 2 made the most enormous sandwich and then tried to explain how it would be served. It was quite funny!

 

 

 

We did ask them, just before we judged the offerings, how many of them had washed their hands first (we didn't tell them to). Depressingly only about 4 of them had... Think we'll be doing some basic food hygiene with them next week.

 

I'm aiming to get them all up to date with their challenge badges and to start getting them thinking for themselves a bit more. I'm hoping that I may have instilled some initiative into them by the end of their time with us.

 

I think that's it for today. Been having a fairly lazy day so far...

 



on Guides and their cooking

Apparently I have to start by apologising for my horrendous grammar yesterday! I'm useless at punctuation and was a victim of apostrophe overdose. I do try, but I've never been any good at it. Neither has my dad I might add, but my spelling is usually ok.

 

I have been having a couple of days of butting heads with madam and its getting very tiring/boring. She is refusing to do anything that I ask her to and I'm doing my best not to throttle her. She spent most of today naked as she refused to get dressed. Lovely.

 

I have achieved very little today but I have managed to get the ingredients for the Guides to have their Ready, Steady, Cook challenge tonight! I have got them some French bread, mozzarella, ham, tomatoes and melon. They'll both get the same bags and 20mins each to prepare something with it.

 

We attempted the same idea last week and let the guides bring their own ingredients which was fine to a certain extent, but they did very little with the things they'd brought and we thought they could have put some more effort in. So this week I hope they'll have to think a bit harder.

 

I did also buy them a box of chocolate fingers as a prize :) I totally think the leaders will be knicking some of those. I have got the same ingredients for us to have a go as well! I'm guessing we'll not be allowed to win though :(

 

I'm guessing we'll be going outside to play some rounders as well.

 

I'm watching Pointless whilst I'm writing this and being depressed as usual by the literary knowledge of the contestants. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are not from Sense and Sensibility. And apparently only 26 of the hundred knew where they were from *weeps*

 

This is why more people should read!

 

Or at least watch the TV adaptions ;)

 

I have got a letter from the courts telling me that they're applying for me to be removed from my property in 14 days. This is after I've filled in a form and posted it back. I also can apply to have it extended to 42 days. Yay.

 

Life can be so fun sometimes.

 

 

 

  

 

more dressmaking rambles

I have become completely addicted to the Great British Sewing Bee over the last few weeks and will mourn it's end next week. I have (along with many others) been inspired to get my sewing machine out and have a go at making things again.

 

This has been mainly hampered as I still haven't quite got round to replacing the broken treddle for my machine. I really fancy trying to make myself a couple of things. A jacket is actually my big desire at the moment.

 

Lovely Tabatha Tweedie is a great inspiration too. She makes such lovely things and I have much dress envy. She doesn't like her cute gingham shirt dress as much as I think I do. Maybe if she had some ruby slippers to go with it... ;)

 

I'm also still obsessing over the lovely Tilly and her sewing blog. I have been reading more of it and debated buying the pattern for the cute blouse, but I think I might try something a wee bit simpler for my first go.

 

I also need to try and source some pretty material that I can use and be inspired by. I want to have something that's fairly cheap though as if I go wrong I won't cry too much!

 

I fancy something orange-y or peach-y. They're my new colours of choice this season. I have a very floral blouson top that is those sort of colours and I'm totally in love with it. It's from Asda, as is most of madam's wardrobe!

 

Lauren from the sewing bee is opening a new shop in Birmingham and I would love to go, but it's awfully far. I shall have to settle for drooling over her website instead. I absolutely loved the toddler dress she made for the week 3 pattern challenge. I don't know whether it was just because of the fact I have a little girl or that it was so cute and small!

 

Anyway, this morning I spent a good hour or so going through madam's old toys. We have loads of old ones that we just don't need any more or that are broken. I got one big bin liner full of toys to junk and a storage box full to donate. I also got her old scooter and her old bike to go too.

 

I've done it without her knowledge as she would scream if she thought I was getting rid of things. This way she probably won't even notice as I did try to make sure I didn't take things she actually played with. Of course, I will have got rid of one thing she will be mad about. It's almost guaranteed.

They've all gone down to the Scope shop in the middle of town who were really pleased to get them. Madam will find out later when we get home after I've been to Guides. I've forgotten my uniform today, so I may have to pop home and get it quickly.