Update to 100 days & bits

Most of you will be shocked to hear that I am actually doing very well on the 100 days no spending :-). I have been avoiding all my usual places for wasting money like comics, clothes and bits for Jemima, if you could see her wardrobe you would see she doesn't need any new clothes!!

I haven't stopped spending altogether but I have only been buying things we definitely need, Mima got a new car seat this week and her new travel bed is arriving next week...  She is going for a sleepover at Nannys on the 22nd so that Gary and I can go to London for a concert :-)))) (booked before 100 days by the way!!!)

Business update: we have someone building our website for us now as well as someone creating our logo for the company.  First drafts of the logo are in and I am looking forward to the second lot this week.  Once the logo is ready I can order the bracelets from China and the website can move forward too. These are some of my tag samples I got this week...

I am getting very excited as my Sis is coming home 2 weeks today!!! She is only home for 6 weeks before she moves off to her new home in Bucharest, I think my 100 days no spending will be put to the test then!!!

Gary's out on his bike at the mo while Mima and I having a quiet morning, she is baking me a pretend cake in her kitchen whilst also screeching out a tune on her piano and microphone every 5 mins. 
Gary is training for the Rocketman half Ironman on the 5th May in Florida, I get a holiday and he gets to do his mental sport, just the way I like it...
Lets hope he comes home not looking like he did a couple of weeks ago...

Nics xxxx

100 day spending ban!!!

Most of you know I have a little tiny shopping problem. OK it may be more as I was asked the other day what I do for exercise and I said shopping...  Apparently it is not officially classed as exercise, who knew!!

Whilst on twitter the other night I was reading someones blog and they mentioned they were doing this 100 day shopping ban and I thought that maybe we (including Gary of course) should give it a go...  Now I know that some family members will find this hilarious but this is serious people!!!

Here's whats allowed and not allowed:

No:
Clothes, Shoes or Accessories (yes that includes bags!!)
Takeaways
Toys for a little person
Magazines
Sports stuff
Junk food
CD/DVDs
Secret Sales (This is a major one for me at the moment...)

Yes:
Race entries
1 meal out a week
Presents/Cards for birthdays etc

This ban starts today and finishes on the 18th April (Thank goodness in time for Gary to get me a Birthday present!!!) and also in time for our holiday too!!  Hopefully we will have saved lots of spending money :-)

Wish us luck and I will update on how it is going.

Baking disaster

I love baking (not so much the clearing up...) but haven't been able to do much lately. One Friday I decided to make Jemima some cone cupcakes before she got home from nursery and we could do the icing together before Daddy got home from work.  That was the plan...

I had made these a few weeks before when Candy, Mark and the kids were over but this time I was lazy and just thought I would try and do them without supporting them in the oven with foil around the base of each of them (a lot of faff!!).  MASSIVE MISTAKE!!

 The cake batter went all over the oven and has stuck on like superglue!! I didnt like good cake to go to waste so decided to try and see if it was any good for cake pops... I trashed the cones taking out all the cake, mixed it up with icing, rolled them into balls and left them to set in the fridge.

I still haven't perfected the melting of candy melts to go over the top (I can't get it to be fluid enough) but no-one has complained as yet... Finish product were LOVED by Gary and Jemima!!

Jemima keeps asking for them, I would make them more often if they weren't so much hard work!  Special occasions or disaster avoidance only!!

Decorating

We are finally getting round to personalising the downstairs after the extension was finished and decorating all done. We had talked about this as an idea for the wall but only after I saw it in a mag on how to do it did we actually go ahead.

It started with lots of different photo frames which I cut the shape out of brown paper and printed labels with pictures of the frames themselves. These it stuck onto the wall with tape to try and work out what was going where...





Then Gary spent a weekend preparing the frames to go on the wall (most of them didn't have hooks only stands!!!) and finally putting them all up :-)
This is work in progress...


And finally the end result...




It is difficult to see from a photo but it looks really good in real life :-)
My next job is to find the photos to go in them, that is going to be a tough one as we have so many lovely ones...


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Mimas FunPod

We have been meaning to get this for Jemima for a while now and wish we had got it sooner... It is called a FunPod and basically it is a box she stands in which lifts her up to worktop height where she can see what is going on. Just recently she has been getting very whiney when I am trying to get dinner ready and end up trying to do everything one handed with her on my hip for sanity sake!!!
Today she helped Me make pancakes for lunch & Gary prepare dinner by peeling the garlic and grating the cheese with him. She was very pleased with herself 😃













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Location:MacDonald Parade,Whitstable,United Kingdom

Blogging

Well here goes I am going to give this blogging thing a go again, hopefully for longer than last time!!!




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Location:Tradewinds,Whitstable,United Kingdom

Kenya - Last couple of days

Friday
I tried not to think about going home just yet I wanted to enjoy my last day with the Birds, we spent the morning painting pictures with Jacks feet. We did M&M's when Jack was asleep a bit later as he wanted to help and I think it could have ended in a bit of a disaster, as it was it was a bit of a military operation with just Candy and I trying to get 2 four month old babies to do feet painting!

In the afternoon after finishing off a join effort Carrot Cake we went to a friend of Candy's for a get together with a few craft stalls which was lovely, the carrot cake went down very well and disappeared fast.  Mark joined us later and we headed off for dinner through rush hour Nairobi traffic :-( We got to our restaurant only to find out it wasn't open for another hour, we headed off to another cause it would not have been easy entertaining Jack and M&M for that long.  Unfortunately the next one was closed too so it was back home for a Chinese takeaway instead and feet up on the couch :-)

Saturday morning Mima woke early so I headed off downstairs picking up Jack on the way for breakfast. It was lovely giving jack his breakie for the last time and Mima sat happily watching her cousin from the bouncy chair. After all the bottles and food was ready for the journey I packed up all our bits while Mima stayed downstairs with Candy and Mark.
After a very sad goodbye to Jack, Millie and Mark, Candy and I set off for the airport in the rubbish Nairobi traffic again, even on a Saturday morning it is bad!  The highlight of our trip  was not the fact that we nearly ended up in the middle of a taxi sandwich but the guy asleep in the rubbish truck, seriously!!!!  Needless to say there we enough tears at the airport for Candy and I to clear droughts in some countries but not so bad as it won't be so long this time before we see each other.
We had a good flight home, unfortunately there were no sky cots available for babies so Mima ended up in what I can only describe as her own little throne on the seat next to me made out of lots of pillows and covered in a blanket.  Everyone who walked past commented on how she looked like she had the best seat on the plane! The only bit that was a pain was every time the fasten seatbelt sign came on she had to sit on my lap and of course every time it happened to be when she was asleep!

Gary was at the airport to meet us and I think he definitely missed us both loads as we did him.

Kenya–Bits and Pieces

Monday - Gary's last day :-(

While Jack was at school we went for a lovely breakfast and Candy took us shopping to get an idea of what their idea of a supermarket is, the prices are much higher than the UK for the same products. We bought a couple of bits but nothing spectacular, I now know what Candy means when she says she misses Tesco!
Dinner that night was at a Brazilian Steak House called Fogo Gaucho (www.fogogauchonbi.com) This is by far the best meal out G&I have had in ages, the concept is a choice of about 20 different salads and then the meat is brought round to your table in skewers where they slice it for you there and then. They had every cut of meat including ribs and sausages as well as crocodile, fish and prawns. Let's just say we came out feeling VERY full, every time I thought I had had enough they would bring round something else and I thought one more little piece couldn't hurt surely!  ((Not great pictures but you get the idea))

Tuesday was a quiet day, had to say goodbye to Gary as he had to get back home for work :-( Candy and I ended up in the car from home to the airport and back for 3.5 hours the traffic was particularly bad.  M&M once again were fantastic with me jumping in the back to feed both at the same time while we were still driving at one point, and also one bum change in the boot at the airport too!! Gary only just made the flight, they had closed checkin when he got there by 1 minute but they let him through, 10 mins later he text me from the plane.  Needless to say wee didn't do much else for the rest of the day as we had all had enough of the car.

Wednesday
Candy and I headed of to one of the shopping centres for an African market, I managed to buy plenty of Afro-tat spending all of my money and Candy's too. The bartering with the stall owners was quite amusing but then having a local with me did help, she told them what for! There were a few more bits that we wanted but we would have to go back again as we both ran out of money... (I know that will come as a shock to some of you, hehe)

Thursday
Jack does not go to school on Thursdays so he got to spend the day with us Girls :-) It was a bit of a squash in the car for us all but with Mima in the front and Me between Jack and Millie it wasn't too bad. Jack was happy to have me next to him and M&M asleep as usual we headed of to the baby group.  I got to meet loads of Candy's friends which was great, she has got some lovely friends which I am sure is a lifeline being so far from home.
After dropping Jack at home for his afternoon nap, we headed off back to the shopping centre to get some lunch and more bits from the African Market that we never got the day before. I was quite restrained even though I am sure I could have spent a fortune on stuff I don't need!
That night Candy, Me and Mima headed off for a Christmas Quiz while Mark stayed home with Millie and Jack.  The quiz was good fun, we came 8th out of 12 and Mima was fab she just sat there and took it all in.