A day out at the seaside: Weston-Super-Mare – 13th June 2017

The vlog is back-ish. Take a look at what we got up to on our recent day trip to Weston-Super-Mare here:

Diary: Cr*p Friend – 12th June 2017

Today’s plans involved heading into town to pick up some bits and meeting friends for soft play. Neither of which were great successes.

Our trip into town was delayed, partly because I was that kind of tired where your brain isn’t working properly this morning, which meant breakfast seemed to take forever to prepare; partly because Elliott flat refused to wear the shoes I put on him as for some reason he doesn’t believe they belong to him (!) and partly because Elliott then decided he wanted to walk into town which kind of slowed things down.

I did manage to get to the Post Office, Waitrose and Home Bargains before heading to soft play though, so at least that was a few things ticked off the list.

Soft play was fun. However, catching up with my friend was nigh on impossible. We literally could only keep our little ones in the same area for about two minutes, so we stole snatches of the briefest of brief conversations. I also totally forgot to give her her little girls birthday gift. I took it along and everything and it was only when I got home and found it in the bottom of the buggy that I remembered. I felt awful when I saw it. Elliott loved dashing around and playing in the ball pits. I can’t tell if he lacks a bit of confidence, or just enjoys the novelty of me playing with him but he does like to keep me close by at all times. Kindly he let me know when he was ready to go by walking over to his buggy and picking up his shoes.

Elliott’s nap time was my #mumboss time and it’s been a productive day indeed. A cheque came through from a project I completed a few weeks back, I’ve had interest in some freelance articles and I managed to get a pay out from some online survey sites. Plus, I actually got around to recording and uploading a little life update video.

After lunch we headed back into town for part two of our shopping expedition. I paid my cheque into the bank, got Elliott a stand-by toothbrush from Wilko (I always have to keep one in stock as he chomps on them so badly) and then headed to Tesco.

So a kind of successful and unsuccessful day rolled into one.

Getting my #MAMAHUSTLE on on eBay – 11th June 2017

Today has been pretty boring. In my bid to get my #mamahustle on I have decided that Sunday’s are a ‘work day’ for me whilst Mr H looks after Elliott. I’m currently hidden away in our bedroom and can hear the two monkeys squealing with fun in the living room. Sob! The only consolation is that I get a full day of fun with Elliott tomorrow, followed by two full days of fun with Elliott and Mr H on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Today has mostly been about eBaying. There’s been a few pitches thrown in, but it has mostly been eBay based. There’s very little that I can say about eBay that will be interesting, so here’s a video of everything I listed today instead. If you want to purchase anything I’m 6662samantha over on the land of eBay.

Elliott went swimming this morning and really enjoyed it again. I was having a chat with him about it when he got back. So cute!

Operation #MAMAHUSTLE – 6th June 2017

Operation #MamaHustle is officially underway and I have to say it’s as exciting as it is exhausting. Last night I was up until 12:30am pitching articles to magazines and looking out images, my alarm then went off at 5:45am this morning. Needless to say countless cups of coffee have been consumed today.

Part of me feels like ‘calm down woman’, but another part of me is powering me on. I’m already starting to see some results from the work I’ve put in so far and, after all, nothing comes for free in this life so, for the time being at least, it’s all about burning the midnight oil and taking out shares in Nescafe!

My new #MamaHustle plans are one of the reasons that this blog has been so ignored of late. I’m hoping to incorporate the blog into my bigger plan, but at the moment I have to focus on some quick wins to start getting some extra income in. And on that note I will bid you farewell and start planning out my money making activities for tomorrow.

Tantrums and Cuddles – 5th June 2017

Bloody hell, Elliott has been cute today. A pain in the ass at the times too, obviously – he is nearly two after all, but super-cute to go with it.

 

It started this morning when he decided he didn’t want to sit in his highchair to eat breakfast. Rather than force him I thought I’d try him on one of our dining chairs with a cushion as a booster so he could reach. He loved it and as a result was really well behaved at breakfast and again at lunchtime when he sat there again. Less so at dinner time, but hey – you can’t have everything, right?

I snuck a quick shower and dry shampooing in after Elliott was ready for the day and entranced with Twirylwoos. Result!

Then, as it was pouring with rain, the plan was to do some painting, or make some krispie cakes. However, Elliott was so hyper that neither was going to be a practical option. So instead we took the cushions off the sofa and created a mini assault course! Elliott found jumping up and down on the cushions hilarious, especially when I joined in.

We stopped for snack – breadsticks and almond butter and then Elliott ran into his nursery and pointed to the cupboard where his painting equipment is kept. How did he know? I set up a painting area in the lounge (think plastic covering over the carpet) and we set to work. Again, Elliott loved it. Or at least he did until he got over tired, then I was left wrestling the sponges and brushes off him and trying to stop him from smearing paint up the sofa. He then had a massive tantrum as I had to drag him to the sink to wash his hands. One of those tantrums that hurts your soul, so he got lots of cuddles afterwards. It’s so difficult. On the one hand you can’t pander to their tantrums, but at the same time they’re still so little and not in control of their emotions…

I was then planning on starting lunch but Elliott looked shattered so I tried to settle him down for a nap. He wasn’t keen on going down in his nursery and quickly ran to the lounge and pointed to the TV. I made a compromise of putting the radio on, quickly switched it to Classic FM and swayed with him a bit to calm him down and give him some cuddles (as much for me as they were for him). He then decided he wanted to take a nap on the sofa, so I settled him down with a blanket and cushion and he happily napped there for a couple of hours whilst I ran around like a mad thing getting housework done.

After lunch (pizza toast) we headed into town. Elliott did a sterling job of helping me get him ready and then insisted on taking a small Fat Face carrier bag with a pack of baby wipes ( which he had put in there) out with him – so cute! We bumped into his Nanny in the supermarket which was nice considering Elliott had been asking for her throughout the day.

There’s been cuddles and smiles and lots of chatting – so much chatting! It’s been lovely. Elliott, dude, I love you more than you will ever know and I love spending time with you.

Worcester – 3rd June 2017

Ah! Today has been a contented kind of day. We had originally planned to visit Worcester on Bank Holiday Monday, but rain literally stopped play. Fortunately, today’s sunshine meant we could go!

This morning was a bit of a mammoth mission, what with simultaneously preparing breakfast and lunch, but so worth the prior preparation.

Worcester is one of my favourite places to visit. There’s some brilliant shops, the iconic view of the Cathedral presiding over the impressive, River Severn and some fantastic outside spaces. Today there were also buskers aplenty (but like, really good buskers, ones that should be getting through to bootcamp on Britain’s Got Talent) and a fabulous street market.

We browsed a few stores. Mr H spent some of his birthday money on a T-shirt from Fat Face. Then we headed to Cripplegate Park for lunch. The ground was still a bit too soggy for a proper ‘picnic blanket’ style picnic, but we found a nice bench overlooking the tennis courts and settled down for some soggy sandwiches (an English picnic essential, non?), crisps and jelly. Elliott roared at the lions on the fountain in the centre of the park and then we headed to the children’s play area.

I love the children’s play area at Cripplegate. There’s just so much to keep little ones entertained. Elliott was in his element and once he found his confidence was happily running around from play thing to play thing – driving the boat and demanding that Mr H and I be passengers, inviting us in for tea in his little house, repeatedly sliding down the huge slide even though it was super-fast and he kept sliding off the end, bouncing on the trampoline. He was so happy.

A bit more browsing and then we headed to one of the cake stalls at the market and purchased two of the biggest slices of cake you’ve ever seen. I opted for Strawberries and Cream and Mr H had Black Cherry Sponge, we picked up a coffee and a smoothie and headed back to the car with the intention of sitting down by the river to eat our cake, but it was a bit blustery so we decided to have an in-car picnic instead. Oh my word! The cake was delicious.

Cake, fun at the park, a mooch around the shops, a well-behaved and now napping toddler, sunshine, people watching people attending Worcester races for Ladies Day (oh the outfits!!!), picnics – this is the life!

Now we’re on our way back home. We have a wedding party to attend tonight at the same venue we got hitched. It’s going to be a late one and we’re taking Elliott with us, so who knows how it will go, but we thought we would give it a try! Even if we have to leave after half-an-hour the rest of today has been so perfect that I wouldn’t even care.

Holiday – 1st June 2017

Alas! Nope, we’re not jetting off to foreign shores. Not even taking a UK mini break or a staycation. Instead, today I booked a day off work and popped Elliott into nursery just so I could catch up with life. And I did I catch up? A little.

Finances were checked and reconciled.

Emails were checked.

Messages replied to.

Money making schemes were researched and carried out.

Face and hair masks were applied.

Robbie tickets were put up for sale.

A long shower was taken.

Make-up was applied.

Hair was styled.

Nails were painted.

Episodes of Keeping up with the Kardashians were watched.

Phone calls were made.

Cards written and gifts wrapped.

Lunch was eaten.

Shops were visited (mostly to get my freebies from my Shopmium app and another cashback app that I will tell you about soon).

More research was carried out.

Coffee was drunk.

Tea was cooked.

Duplo was played with.

Tidying took place.

eBay feedback was left.

Future actions were scheduled.

Gift ideas for Elliott’s birthday were researched.

And now? Now, I am tired and a bit gutted that today went so fast and I didn’t get to tick everything off my to do list. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow.

Refunded Robbie Tickets? – 31st May 2017

I have been in such a brain fug today. I wouldn’t say I’ve been particularly tired, I actually slept really well last night. I’ve just been seriously dopey. Dopey to the point where I’ve actually annoyed myself.

Turns out no refunds are being given on Robbie tickets so it looks like I will have to try to sell them. It also turns out that if you want an answer from Ticketmaster it helps to @bbcwatchdog and @livenation in your tweet. Why they can’t just issue a statement to this effect is beyond me. I wish I could go. I wish I could be brave and put the events in Manchester out of my mind, but I can’t. I know I wouldn’t relax and I’d never forgive myself if something did happen to me, not that I would probably know about it, but you know what I mean.

Elliott was in the garden when I went to collect him from nursery. He was so happy splashing away in some mucky water with a couple of plastic tennis bats with one of his little female friends. The room has been really quiet today with only him and one other child in this afternoon, so he’s been much more chatty. He’s just like his mummy and daddy – fine in small groups but give us a crowd and we’re shrinking violets who don’t have the extrovert nature to fight for our air time.

On the way out of nursery a little lad followed us to the gate (Elliott was in the garden) and tried to escape with us! I was having to shove the walker he was trying to wedge in the gate backwards so he couldn’t get out! In the end I had to let Elliott run off into the church hall whilst I dealt with this runaway child. I obviously didn’t want Elliott to hurt himself but I didn’t want someone elses kid to escape on my watch. Luckily the sight of Elliott running into the hall was enough to distract the older child and I podged the walker out of the way, slammed the gate, quickly locked it and ran into the hall after Elliott.

Tonight was shopping night, brought forward a night because I have tomorrow off to work on some projects and didn’t want to have the ‘big shop’ hanging over me. Another sub £50 weekly shop. Whoop-a-doop-and-indeed-doop!

 

Moving up to the toddler room at nursery – 30th May 2017

“Beeeeeep” went the intercom as the door opened to Elliott’s nursery.

I climbed the stairs to the baby and toddler room, took my shoes off and looked through the glass expecting to see him playing. He was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was hiding around in the comfy corner?

One of the practitioners raced to the door.

“He’s downstairs.” she said.

My little baby, although obviously not a baby any more, was having his first stay-and-play in the toddler room (at our nursery there’s the baby room (0-2), toddler (2-3) and pre-school (3-4)(. I felt an instant and simultaneous tug at my heart strings and ovaries – where’s my baby gone???

If I was in any doubt of Ellitot’s toddler credentials he decided to showcase them by refusing to leave the toddler room. On the one hand, that’s great, at least it shows he had a good time. On the other, I could have done without the tears and tantrums after a full day at work.

It turns out he was only there for an hour this afternoon, but as he’s a delicate petal they thought he might need a few settling in sessions and decided they would get some in whilst the room is quieter during half-term.

Other than that it’s been work, chasing Ticketmaster about my Robbie refund and picking up washing from my lovely mom’s.

How’s your Tuesday been?

A Rainy Bank Holiday – 29th May 2017

Rain, rain, go away!

Oh! You’re not going to? Right…

Screw you weather! What with your being nice all week whilst we’re at work and being blooming tropical on the day I had to stay in and wait for the washing machine repair man who never showed up. Screw you!

Our original idea for today was to head to Worcester. Take a picnic, sit down by the river, do some shopping and maybe head to the gorgeous Cripplegate park. However, after being rudely awakened by an excitable toddler at 6am this morning we received more utter rudeness from the weather which was decidedly of the rainy poury variety.

Long story short, we went to Telford and then Merry Hill instead. There was no river. There was no picnic (jacket potatoes in Debenhams instead), there was some shopping (I purchased some tights, some new summer trousers, some summer clothes for Elliott, a gift and some groceries). There was certainly no park.

As days go it’s been fine. Not massively exciting, but fine. I think there’s always such a pressure to do something exciting on a Bank Holiday and you feel as though you’ve wasted the day if you don’t. This, of course, is stupid – especially given that I don’t work Monday’s anyway. Plus, it’s like the weather gods know and always make it rain when it’s a Bank Holiday.

Elliott has swung between being a little monkey and being super-cute today. He really wants to walk around the shops, which is fine until I actually want to look at something. He also intermittently hides in the middle of a clothing fixture. It’s a challenge, but y’know.

Anyway, gotta go. I feel a little overwhelmed at the moment so need to get some stuff ticked off the to do list so I can calm myself before back to work tomorrow.

How did you spend the Bank Holiday weekend?