Frump to Fab 2016 - Lets make it AWESOME!!!

Ellsbel

Ah, chanie, I sympathise with your feelings on getting rid of the baby stuff - mine seem to have grown from babies to young men in the blink of an eye!
I too need to have a good clear out; I did have one when I first read the Kondo book but I think it needs to be an ongoing thing here; we seem to accumulate so much stuff! I'm hoping we move in a couple of years so I want to make sure we only take with us what we actually love or use; I keep saying to OH that we need to start the process of clearing out now rather than leave it all till the last minute, otherwise we'll need about 6 removal trucks:D
Going out later to a local National Trust property where there's a lovely long walk to be had. Will probably wear jeans, T-shirt and trainers with my sunglasses for a bit of glamour - although the sun is hiding at present!

lessonlearned

Good Morning lovely ladies.....

Ah. Babies, they grow up in the blink of an eye.

Chanie you are just about to enter what I called "the quiet years" - the exhausting baby years are over and done with and the teenage traumas are In the future.

Having said that although I struggled a bit when they were babies I found the teenage years an absolute doddle. My boys were easy going and we had no major dramas.

The eldest grew out of The worst of his early asthma attacks and was a naturally gifted academic who adored school and was Mr Popularity, always surrounded by mates.

The youngest was quieter, dreamy and arty. He found school more difficult because he had mild dislexia and dyspraxia. He also lacked organisational skills and suffered some short term memory issues. However once he had been tested and diagnosed then we were able to help him a lot more.

Apparently, according to the dyslexia institute, he has an IQ "off the chart" so he had managed to deceive everyone by finding his own coping stratagies. School had always realised he was smart but they just assumed he was lazy and obstructive and a lot of the teachers gave him a hard time.

However once We got to the bottom of things they couldn't have been more helpful. He went on to develop in the areas he was really good at and went on quite happily to tertiary education.

Now he still often astonishes me with the stuff he comes out with. He has a photographic memory and only has to read something once. He continues to do his own research into anything that interests him and spends hours trawling on the internet learning all sorts of fascinating and obscure things.

He's currently teaching himself all about construction methods, green building, sustainability, alternative energy and renewables ready for our next building project. He will save me a fortune.

The only issue I had with him was that when he hit puberty at 14 he grew 6 inches in six months - a very expensive time.......:rotfl:

Shandy.....what a story. My heart was in my mouth as I was reading. Thank goodness for your wonderful and courageous husband and his friend. What heroes.....:T:T. That lady must be so grateful. I can't imagine what you all must have gone through.

Well I've had a couple of very lazy days and I feel much better now, both physically and emotionally. Much more my usual positive upbeat self. I think a lot of it was down to being overtired.

I know we journeyed by train but I almost felt as if I was suffering from jet lag. Anyhoo I'm "ready to rock".

Got lots of ideas buzzing around and a to do,list as long as my arm. :rotfl:

Weather a bit iffy so will just crack on with some indoor stuff this morning. Got some paperwork to wade through, phone calls etc.

Hope you all have a great week. Nearly bank holiday already, summers nearly over.

Where does the time go. :eek:

maman

I'm another that had my heart in my mouth reading the recue shandy. It could have been so very different especially with what's been happening all round the coast this weekend.

Ellsbel wrote: »

Ah, chanie, I sympathise with your feelings on getting rid of the baby stuff - mine seem to have grown from babies to young men in the blink of an eye!
I too need to have a good clear out; I did have one when I first read the Kondo book but I think it needs to be an ongoing thing here; we seem to accumulate so much stuff! I'm hoping we move in a couple of years so I want to make sure we only take with us what we actually love or use; I keep saying to OH that we need to start the process of clearing out now rather than leave it all till the last minute, otherwise we'll need about 6 removal trucks:D
Going out later to a local National Trust property where there's a lovely long walk to be had. Will probably wear jeans, T-shirt and trainers with my sunglasses for a bit of glamour - although the sun is hiding at present!

I could have written that about me ellsbel (although sadly not the bit about visiting a NT property today). My DDs are grown women now but I still worry about them and I definitely need to make MK an ongoing process. After my venture into gardening last week I'm going to try and do a bit more. The garden rubbish bin goes this Thursday so I want to fill that and I've decided that our household waste bin which is almost empty every week could also be filled with random stuff from the garage. Then the indoor MK can be left for the winter months.


On reflection, I might try and drag DH off to a NT property one day even if it's our local one where they have a Beatrix Potter exhibition for the summer.


There's 25% off Tu in Sainsbury's at the moment (not sure if it finishes today) and I bought myself what looks like a copy of your denim dress chanie. It's not showing on-line yet and it's a denim look jersey rather than cotton. I think it might be OK with leggings but have yet to try it on properly.


I know there's a separate thread for this but I'm getting some pleasure from finishing things off. I had to cut into my tube of hand cream today so that's almost gone. Then I'm going to use DH's Body Shop hemp cream. I like the earthy smell. Tomorrow I plan to go into the city and replace my moisturiser, really didn't fancy braving the crowds over the weekend.


I've done some fabbing today. I thought of you when I was defuzzing LL. Execept on one occasion when I had sugaring I've always done my legs myself with one of those ladies' disposable razors and had no problems at all.

lessonlearned

Ha ha.....yes i did some fabbing this morning. Deep cleansing face mask and de fuzzed my legs. I used cream this time. . Not risking a razor again, my skin is still bruised and scratched from my last attempt. My skin is getting really sensitive in my old age, going to have to take much better care. Don't want to end up with leg ulcers like my poor old dad. I stopped waxing and sugaring for that reason, it was just too rough on my skin. My legs bruise so easily now.

I am just having a break from the paperwork and then I'm going to blitz the bathroom. TBH the whole house needs blitzing so I'm going to try and tackle one room a day.

I have just had a delivery of a grey "shabby chic" wicker ottoman. The last one got damaged so I got rid and tried to do without. However as this house doesn't have an airing cupboard and storage is a bit of an issue I decided to replace it.

So this week I shall do a major sort out of linen and towels etc I agree MK does still seem to be something of an ongoing process. I do it , think it's done and then a couple of months down the line I find the clutter starts to pile up again. Maybe I'm not being ruthless enough. :rotfl: however the MSE in me really hates waste and I do find it hard to part with perfectly usable stuff.

I'm really cross with myself - burnt a joint of beef yesterday - don't ask!!! It's burnt to a crisp......not sure if I can rescue it. What a waste. I might try and cut off the worst and then casserole it, not sure that would soften it enough.

I can be such a ditz at times, especially in the kitchen. :rotfl:

maman

lessonlearned wrote: »

I'm really cross with myself - burnt a joint of beef yesterday - don't ask!!! It's burnt to a crisp......not sure if I can rescue it. What a waste. I might try and cut off the worst and then casserole it, not sure that would soften it enough.

I can be such a ditz at times, especially in the kitchen. :rotfl:

That's really spooky!


I don't know about you but I do my beef on a really hot oven for 15 mins and then turn it low for the rest of the cooking time. I always use a timer to remind me. Yesterday the timer went off, I reset it for the remaining 50 minutes but forgot to turn the oven down.:eek: I realised with just 12 minutes to go and turned it off PDQ. Fortunately it's very well done on the outside but OK on the inside so edible. I was so angry with myself but now comforted that I'm not the only one:).

Carmen

Good morning ladies,
Feeling a little brain dead (third sleepless night)so I will keep this brief.
....brain still not in gear so I will try again once I have had some sleep!

Carmen x

sugarbaby125

Hello Ladies,

On Sunday I went to The Theatre Royal with my oldest son to be in the studio audience for the Michael McIntyre Big Show, which was being filmed for the BBC. We had to collect our free 'guest list' tickets at 3 pm for the show which did not start until 6.30 pm. My son lives in Basingstoke but he was on Annual Leave from his job as a chef so he was able to travel to London for the day. I do not get to see enough of my son, so it was lovely for me to see him on his own.

We went to a nearby Pizza Express for a long, leisurely lunch then returned to the Theatre Royal for the show. I used some of my Pizza Express gift cards to pay for the bill and my son left a £5 tip as I had not intended to leave one. There was only one waitress and she was so rushed off her feet, that she kept on forgetting us, so even though she was friendly and professional she did not provide us with good service. As my son is in the service industry himself he felt it was fair to leave her a tip.

I wore my velour purple M & S Autograph skirt with my black sleeveless top and my purple Kaliko cardigan. I wore my black patent leather sling back shoes with the gold cutouts and was carrying my black patent leather Jaeger handbag. I wore solid gold jewellery and lots of perfume, but no make up.

Both my son and I had an absolute blast watching the show. The warm up stand up comic Andy Bird was in the same league as Michael McIntyre so from the 1st minute of the show we were laughing. I laughed so much throughout the show, that my throat felt a bit sore and my facial muscles had a thorough workout. :rotfl: It will be broadcast in November, so we will have to wait until then to see if we will appear in the audience shots or end up on the editing room floor.

Ellsbel

Maman, I hope you get to see the Beatrix Potter exhibition; sounds like it's worth a visit.
We took out NT membership again recently for couples, having let the family membership go once the boys reached the age where leisure activities all became sports related:D Now we are able to go and visit the properties whilst the boys are off doing their own thing! Definitely worthwhile, imo, as there are some lovely local properties and parks that I never tire of.
If it's any consolation to you and LL, burnt offerings are not uncommon here! I've even been known to burn carrots due to trying to cook Sunday lunch whilst watching my team on TV:rotfl::rotfl:
There was a TV show on years ago called Butterflies, where the Mum would have a disaster in the Kitchen every meal time and serve up some inedible looking dish to her family - to this day OH still whistles the theme tune if I serve up something that's a bit - um - overdone:D
(They don't eat too badly most of the time, I should add!!)
Carmen hope you manage to catch up on that sleep.
Sugarbaby sounds like you had a lovely time with your Son:) We were watching Andy Parsons on TV last night actually, and really laughing at him.
I'm off to shower and fab up in a bit then after a walk with the Dog, we'll pop out for a drive and some lunch somewhere. I fancy browsing some antique shops, but we'll see; maybe it's not a good idea to look for "new" junk when there's so much existing "junk" to get rid of:o:D

maman

Lucky you seeing Michael McIntyre sugarbaby. He really makes me laugh too.


I've been into the city today as I had things to do and replaced my Benefit moisturiser. Whenever I buy anything there I always try and get them to show me something else partly for the product and partly for the application then I feel I'm getting my moneysworth. Today they did my eyebrows with a new pencil product and a highlighter pencil just below. It really made a difference especially the arch which really lifted my eyes.


Unfortunately Benefit are discontinuing the eyebrow pencil I like but I can achieve the same effect with a Maybelline one. I have a liquid highlighter I can use as well but I liked the convenience of a pencil so maybe when I need some I'll buy it. The assistant explained that as it's an American company, if something doesn't sell enough in the USA they discontinue it regardless if it's popular in the UK.


I tried on the denim dress and although I like it, it may be too short for me. It would be fine on a shorter person. I need to try it on with leggings before making a final decision.


Fabulous day here but I had errands to run so no visits to NT yet. If I can't pin DH down for later in the week then I might even go without him.:)

Carmen

Good evening ladies,
LL,Maman, I too can be a little forgetful when cooking!
My DH call my method of cooking 'put it on and walk away' :rotfl: Where our kitchen is, makes it difficult to smell if anything is burning, like the time eggs boiled so dry they exploded :eek:I now put the timer on for everything, even to remind me when to start cooking :rotfl:

LL, my DS also has asthma (since 10mths old) unfortunately it has stayed with him into adulthood!

Sugar, the show sound like fun, we will have to look out for you when it airs.

I managed seven hour sleep last night with a three gap in between. Thank you Ellsbel.

I'm afraid not a lot happened today, just trying to keep cool in the blistering heat, and it looks the same for the next few days!
I'm off to bed now because I need to get up early and get some chores done before it get too hot.

Good night ladies
Carmen x