Happy 16th Birthday James

WOW !! Today is my lovely son's 16th Birthday, really where has the time gone.  He is certainly growing into a lovely young man.

Happy Birthday son, have a fab day and I hope you like all of your presents.

Love you loads Mom and Dad xxx

Happy Christmas to you all

Good Morning,

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, thank you very much for stopping by my little blog over the past year and reading my ramblings, all your comments have been very much appreciated.

I hope you enjoy the day and the rest of the festive season.

Have a good one.

Happy Birthday to me

Yeah!! today is my Birthday and I can start to address my 'Things to do Before I'm 50" List, which I will be uploading in the New Year.

Thanks everyone for your best wishes and my lovely, lovely presents - all very much appreciated.

Happy Christmas Eve to everyone.

Happy Birthday, Jayne

So I have another December Birthday, my lovely friend Jayne

Bendiorm - May 2013

Have a fantastic day sweetheart, love you loads xxx

Harry Potter - Take 2

Oh! yes I returned at the end of November to the Harry Potter Studio Tour with my crafting buddies.

5 of us made the journey down.  This time it was seeing Hogwarts in the snow - another magical experience.

We went on the train, which was really easy and with the Harry Potter Bus stop right outside Watford Junction Train Station getting to the studio was made even easier.

So here are a few photos of our day.

Here we are just before getting on the bus to the studio

outside the studio

What a would have loved was a photo of the whole length of the Great Hall - but with so many people in there it was impossible - but it was decked out for a Christmas Feast - the food looked so realistic

Even the Common room had a tree

Love that I was able to get a photo of the Knight Bus without anyone in front of it.

Then a quick walk along Diagon Alley

 Managed to find Daniel Ratcliffe wand box.

The final model took my breath away again, it was even more magical with a covering of snow ...

Simple stunning.

Now I wonder what 'house' I would go into !!!!

I had another fantastic visit to the event and like last time I want to go back again soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Being a Governor

I've been a school governor for 8 years now, both in a Primary and at a Secondary School, both positions has offered me a challenge to try and make a different to children's school environment and more so being a Parent Governor I want the other parents to know that they have a voice within the school, and school is not just a place only to come for parents evening, but other fun things can happen at a school.

The team of Governors at the Secondary school has had a radical shake up this summer, with old policies being thrown out and new ones coming in to try and keep up with what the different agendas that the Government keep churning out.

Anyway, one of my roles is the try and engage pupils and parents to come into the school other than parents evening etc.  So a few of the Governors got together and decided to hold the schools very first Christmas Fair, the date was set and off we went in preparing to pull off something that we didn't know how well it would do.

We targeted all the local primary schools, the local supermarkets, and even got a local celebrity to open the event.

We even advertised it outside the school.

I collected 80 selection boxes for Santa

and me and my neighbour spent an hour wrapping them up

I've got a friend who makes cakes and she did one for the event, which we did as 'guess the weight'

I put together 4 Christmas Hampers that where also raffled off on the night.

Has I had done the main organising I spent a large amount of the time, walking (or should I say running) around the hall making sure everything was going according to plan.

So I didn't take as many photos has I would have like, but managed to get a quick photo of Adrian Goldberg from BBC Radio WM (who opened the event).

The Head got the organisers some flowers as a thank you.

We had games for the students to have some fun on, and I had organised 16 various craft stall to come along and try and sell their products.  This is very hit and miss - some of the stalls did really well, others not so good, but that the nature of these events you never know how the evening will turn out.

It was very hard work pulling everything together, but on the night I really enjoyed the event.  The pupils where really impressed and wanted to know when the next one would be - lol x.

I really enjoy 'giving something back' even if it is only my time.

We have got a few other events planned for next year, and hopefully it will be an successful as this one was.

A Weekend with my Girlies - Nov 2013

You know when you are feeling down, and you get a call saying 'why not come visit us', at the moment when you need to have your friends around, well this happened to me recently and a date was set to spend a weekend with my friends back in Preston.

I love going 'home' as I still call it even thoughts its been nearly 10 years since I last lived there, but for some reasons this time felt different, it felt like I need to be here, all be it for a short while, it was definitely what I needed to get my head cleared.

This time I travelled up on the train has we had planned a couple of late nights, and I know that I would be tired on the journey back to Birmingham.

The journey up took longer than planned due to signal problems - but I was soon on my way

what is it with seeing green fields and blue skies that just lifts your spirits.

Yeah!!! the Lancashire lass is back …

When I lived in Preston, I never took much noticed of the artitecture around the town, or City that it is now, but Preston Station is beautiful and very Victorian.

One of my friend meet me at the Station and has we where near I took the opportunity to see our old house, we spent many happy years here, and even thought I've now moved on it was nice to see my old house again.

and I just had to take a photo of James 1st school

Then it was time for a lunchtime get-together with my buddies - how I loved these girls and how they made my mood lift in no time at all.

Susan and I have been friends for 40 years.

On Saturday I visited my Mum's grave, followed by a quick lunch before we got ready and had a afternoon and evening in Manchester.

Here we are waiting for the train

We did a bit of shopping at the German Market, which was lovely to see, but not has big as the Birmingham one, but lovely all the same and equally as busy.

We had a lovely meal in Zahia, Castlefield 

The a quick walk to 'The Old Grapes' Elizabeth Dawn (Vera Duckworths) Pub - which was packed and very much a old fashion pub.

And before I knew it, it was time to come home, I love my little visit and it was definitely just what I needed.

Thanks Girls, love you loads xxx

Happy Birthday, Susan

Today is one of my oldest friends birthday, so I just want to wish her a very happy birthday.

We have been friends for over 40 years and even though we don't see each other often we are still  close.  She is James Godmother and I'm her sons Godmother, the boys where born one year apart.

Happy Birthday love, hope you have a great day xxx

Catching up

Well I can't believe it has been several weeks since I last blogged.  As like everyone else, Christmas activities have taken over and blogging had to take a back seat.

Well I'm back and hopefully I can get back on track.

Project Life - Now this is months behind, I'm in the process of printing off my September photos, so has to not put myself under too much pressure - I ordered a batch of photos all 6x4 from Snapfish for September, October, November and December pages which I'm sorting and will try to get all my pages together by January.  I've got big plans to get them all completed over the Festive season - so fingers cross that I can at least achieve 2 of the months.

Journal Your Christmas/Christmas Daily - I've got the Christmas Kit from Shimelle which was packed full of goodies, and of course I had a supply of Christmas stash from over the past years.  I have made notes and cut some of the paper down to size - so that is a start right !

Handmade Christmas Cards - every year is the same, I start the year saying I will do a large batch before the end of November, and every year it never happens - so the majority of my cards this year are shop bought - I did do a few and love how they turned out.

2013 Christmas Card

I'm hoping by the end of this week I will have caught up with my blog posts.