New Home for this blog

I have now moved to http://kisto.co.uk/

 

Cleanliness is next to impossible.

My Henry and my daughters Little Henry! Partners in grime…dust bunnies beware!

So…inspired by this picture of our Henrys I thought I’d post a couple interesting Henry stories!

1) According to Manchester Evening News:

A dwarf  accidentally glued his penis to a vacuum cleaner at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

As part of his stage act Daniel Blackner pulls his Henry vacuum across the stage, attached to his private parts. Sadly he had to repair a broken attachment and didn’t wait long enough for the glue to set hard.

2) I posted about this story from The Sun last year.

A HOSPITAL builder has been sacked after being caught having sex with a Henry the hoover.

The Polish contractor – who was supposed to be locking up the site – was found naked and on his knees with the smiling cleaner in the staff canteen.A horrified security guard at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital told him to “clean himself and the hoover” before kicking him out.

The shameless builder later told bosses he was vacuuming his underwear – “a common practice in Poland”.

 

Childhood toys

Tonight whilst stumbling I came across this website that has brought back so many childhood memories.

I love my Fisher Price ‘Little People” and played with them often. They were solid well constructed toys designed to last. Once my brother and I had outgrown them they were passed onto my younger brother and sister. I don’t believe that Fisher Price make these any more.

I know that I had set 663, 875, 725 and 761. The toilet in the ‘725′ set caused much amusement to ‘little me’! It was hilarious to put the dog (the black figure in set ‘663′) on the toilet or to have it driving a car (the dog….not the toilet)!

I also had this camper van which I considered simply brilliant – it was my favourite addition to my Fisher Price Little People collection. It had so many removeable parts. The boat came off the roof and it had little seats to fit the people in. I seem to remember the boat did float and was often used in our bath.

There was a space for a sink and toilet at the back of the camper van. The van unit lifted off leaving you with just a truck. I believe the truck made a clicking noise as it drove along….or was this just a fault with our one? I know that the arms on some of the chairs did get broken…possibly stood on when left in an inappropriate place. OOPS!

The hospital was quite a substantial and muched loved addition to my set. It came with lots of accessories including a set of weighing scales…and the dial even moved when you place the figure on them , an xray machine and as you stood the figure on it the display changed to an xray image. The ambulance had a stretcher that fitted in the back and you’d have to strap in your patient using the velcro strap! The stretcher would often become a make shift car. Downstairs in the hospital there was a ‘theatre’ including an operating table (this was used as all sorts of other weird things by me). The best bit about the hospital was the lift. You turn the handle and up (or down) goes the lift. I believe there may well have been a bell that pinged when the lift reached its destination too! This was the height of toy technology!
I used to have ‘gatherings’ on the roof of the hospital too. The spacing on the roof (around the convenient carrying handle) was just enough to stand the figures in. I also vaguely remember (selective memories!!) that sometimes, ‘Little People’ “accidentally fell off” the roof..Sometimes there would be nasty accidents involving the lift and squashed little people…but at least they didn’t have far to go to hospital!

 

Roller skate memories and madness!

I can remember my first pair of ‘proper’ roller skates with great fondness although I can’t quite remember how old I was, probably about 8? My dad was a lorry driver at the time and he knew a place to buy some cheap in Leeds (iirc). So the next time he had do a drop there (bearing in mind we lived in Somerset) I travelled along with him. My pocket money was burning a hole in my pocket. All my friends had roller skates. I was so desperate to own my very own pair of roller skates it felt like it was eating away at my innards!! I was well past the “Fisher Price” extendable skates by now! The first place I got to try out these newly acquired skates was in the back of my dads lorry, parked up in a car park in Leeds!!

I loved those skates and I like to think I got pretty good on them. My friends and I used to build little ramps and skate like demons down our hill and jump off the kerb at the end. HOW COOL DID I FEEL! During my early teens my brother and I used to attend the local roller disco at the guildhall. That was so much fun and a good chance to hone my “skillz”! During my mid teens I migrated from roller skates to roller blades and then onto a skateboard. I have also tried my hand at ice skating with a good level of success too.

Fast forward to today (some 15+ years later) and I am on the look out for a pair of roller skates again! I must be mad…I’m hardly that adept, agile and fearless 8 year old any more! Can I really come out of the other side of this ‘urge’ without any broken bones (and damaged pride)? Well time will tell. Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to hitch a ride to Leeds in my dads lorry so I have been trawling the internet to see what delights are on offer in the modern world of roller skating!

Here are some of my more interesting discoveries!

Apparently these Landrollers will “get your mojo on”….

According to their website these skates “allow enhanced performance over inline and quad roller skates, providing skaters of all skill levels with an entirely new and improved experience.”

I think that they look like you’ve had a nasty accident involving a passing child’s stablisers!!

How about these for a bit of “Line Dance” roller skating?

Sadly, I don’t have any more information on stockists for these little beauties (!!) but I am sure that LeAnn Rimes will own a pair (perhaps drop her agent a line?)!

Alas, these are not for me.

Next ‘in line’ (!! ha! see what I’ve done there…!!) is a rather sexy pair of boots – unlike any other. Who would wear them and more importantly how they’d use them I do not know but I do know that you aren’t going to get much more blinged up than these:

Bling Bling roller skates!

Rather disappointly – since I broke my foot I have been unable to wear heels so I’m going to pass on these.  I’d love to see some video footage of these in action though!

Moving swiftly on we have a pair of “Booster blades“

Booster-Blades really do Boost, but what are the advantages of Boosting over a regular Inline or Rollerskate?

GREATER PROPULSION; With the aid of the unique chain mechansim, one is able to generate greater self propulsion
BETTER BRAKING; With the brake pad design, one is able to brake quicker
FLEXIBILITY; With Booster Blades the user has more control over acceleration and brakingetcetcetc

Hmmm actually I really just want a simple pair of roller skates!

On to my next discovery….

…No you are not looking at an off road dune buggy. These are actually designer skates I’ll have you know! This is a wonderful offering from Emporio Armani. If Victoria Beckham was on the look out for a pair of skates, this is where she’d go!

Now I don’t know about you but these just completely remind me of the Fisher Price skates that we had as Toddlers? I can’t ever remember a time that ’strap on’ roller skates have been cool. You always tend to look a bit sub standard with a pair of ’strap on’ skates on. Anyway, these have all sold out so my quest for the perfect skate continues….

Holy Moly, even a pair of skates designed for Jesus….and of course if you owned these bad boys you’d *have* to wear them with socks.

The company behind these is called Aircoast and they seem to offer a variety of unfashionable footwear that is modified to skates. Has anyone told them, that adding a set of four wheels to a shoe does not then make it cool?!

Devon is a rural place. Lots of hill, fields and other similar landscapes, so perhaps what I need is a pair of all-terrain skates. Fortunately these can be found at SuperDairyBoy…

The TrailSkate™ all-terrain skate is an evolutionary leap in the advancement of human powered sports. They are easy to ride…and a whole lot of fun.

I’d kind of only really like to stick to flat even surfaces for now!

Hmm decisions, decisions.. there’s just so many skates to choose from. What’s a girl to do??!!

 

Virtual Window Shopping!

I’ve just stumbled upon this fun ‘time-waster’ site called Polyvore. You can create your own style boards. You can scroll through pages of fashion items and drag the ones you like onto your style board. Add fancy backgrounds and text to liven it all up.

Here’s what I have come up with for my ‘Virtual May09 Wardrobe’!

May09 by kipamum featuring Converse sneakers

As much as I love the items I’ve chosen, I can’t possibly afford to buy any of these! …But if Primark or Boohoo has anything similar I’ll be sure to grab them!

 

Shabby chic delight!

Over the past couple of months I have been busy creating a stock of shabby chic styled wall art.

Inspired by my daughters love of all things shabby chic and the wallpaper canvas art I created last year (see here) I decided to set about making some canvases using pretty shabby chic fabric.

Over the past few months I have built up a stock of pretty fabrics, ribbons and embellishments. Some I have bought new but I love hunting out interesting pieces in charity shops.

As I work full time it has been quite slow going. Although it doesn’t take too long for me to create each piece, I rarely have spare time to dedicate to doing crafty things! This bank holiday weekend has been a blessing and I have worked hard to get the items finished and ready for sale.

I have managed to create six pieces so far and today I decided to list them for sale on ebay. I’m very nervous as I’ve not tried to sell anything like this before. I normally just make pieces for myself. The feedback I have received from friends/family/colleagues has been really positive (but would they dare say anything different?!!)

Shabby Chic art

These can be bought via my ebay listings [click here]

I have also created a magnetic memo board in a similar style. I only finished it this morning so it wasn’t quite ready to be photographed/listed today. I’ll be adding it soon. Photos to follow……

 

Makeover and photoshoot.

Well it has been a while since I updated so this is long overdue! I thought it would be nice to write about the amazing weekend I have just had.

Last year I won some Virgin vouchers on the MSN ‘Big Snap’ competition. I didn’t think that I would get chance to use them so I passed them on to my sister. My sister decided to use them to book a makeover/photoshoot experience for me, her and her best mate.

It was booked with a company called NewID Experiences at their Cardiff salon.  I had heard that you get quite a hard sell at the experiences so before our visit I decided to do a bit of research on-line so I knew what to expect. I managed to find loads of reviews – all of which were really quite negative.  Reviewers had moaned about a long wait, poor customer service, rip off prices, poor photo quality….This didn’t bode well and after reading all that I had really low expectations about the company.

Our appointment was at 3:15pm, but we decided to leave early on Saturday morning so that we could do a bit of shopping first. For the photoshoot you can take up to 4 outfits.  I had packed 4 but I actually ended up buying 2 new outfits beforehand.

After dumping our shopping in the car we headed to the salon early. We actually arrived about 20 minutes early for our appointment. The staff were fine with this.  We handed in the vouchers and they took our coats and bags off us.  We took a seat in the seating area and they offered us drinks (Bucks Fizz, tea, coffee, squash or water). This was a good chance to have a nosey around at what was going on. The salon was a lot smaller than I had thought but with hindsight I actually consider this a good thing. You are able to see and hear a lot of what is going on, which I found reassuringly honest.

Along one side there was hairdressing stations, at the far end there was make up stations and along the other wall there was the photo studios and viewing rooms. There was about 3 or 4 clients having their hair/make up done whilst we waited. Plus there was a couple people waiting.

A member of staff came over and asked us to fill in a consultation form – which was basically so we could give them a rough idea what hair/make up and photography we wanted. Nothing was set in stone though and you could also just leave it up to the staff to create your look if you wished!

My sister was called over to have her nails done and I went to have my hair styled. The stylist asked what sort of look I wanted for my hair – and I said curls.  She actually had her hair styled nicely with curls so I told her I’d like the same look.  Unfortunately the only available straighteners weren’t heating up so she transferred me over to the make up station. They have 3 looks for the make up ‘Classic’, ‘Glamorous’ and ‘Fashion’. I wanted Glamorous (smoky eyes – cat walk style). Overall I think she did a good job of the make up and it did look nice but it wasn’t what I’d call glamorous. It was very subtle and I did have to ask her to apply a bit more eye-shadow. They do check that you are happy with the look after every stage which is good.

Next it was back to attempt my hair! This time there was a working set of straighteners available. The stylist managed to curl my hair very quickly and she was really good at doing it. I was very impressed. The final look was really nice.

I had a bit of a wait before I was called to have my nails done. Throughout our wait we were regularly offered drinks.

At the nail station there is a wide choice of colours. The stylists gave my nails a quick file and applied the nail varnish I had chosen (silver).

It probably took about an hour for all 3 of us to finish having our hair, make up and nails done. My sisters friend did have to wait a bit longer to be called to get her make up applied as it appears there was a mix up between the stylists. They were very apologetic though.

All made up and looking glam we had to wait around in the seating area. This was a good chance to have a sneaky peak through the door into the photo studios. I could see that there was lots of different backgrounds they used. There were two photographers – one male and one female and two studios.

I’m not sure how long we had to wait to be called in by our photographer. It didn’t feel particularly long – perhaps 30 – 45 minutes? When you’re nosing at what’s going on, chatting and browsing their brochures the time soon flies!

Once in the photo studio the photographer explained to us how it was going to work. She asked how many outfit changes we had – my sister and I had 4 and my sisters friend had 3. The photographer said they usually try and keep to 3 changes. She also asked if we wanted photographing together or individually – and we wanted both! This was not a problem.  She left us to get changed ready for the first shoot.

The photographer was brilliant. She gave really good direction and helped us feel at ease in front of the camera. I think having the photos taken was the most exciting part of the whole experience. We got to choose different backgrounds and we used some props that were in the room too (chairs and a ‘circle wall’).

After finishing in the photo studio it was back out to the seating area to wait to view the photos. It was getting quite late in the day now and the staff were busy tidying up and packing away. I think that this was the worse ‘wait’ we had during the experience. The staff were behaving as if they were off duty. Where as previously we had been asked if we wanted any drinks – no one asked us at all…despite the fact that the staff were back and forwards making themselves drinks.  I was able to see into the viewing room and could see that the salesman was flicking through our photos on screen. Several of the staff members were in and out of the room during this time and it felt like they were nosing at our photos. I began to feel a bit embarrassed but I was also very excited about seeing the images for myself.

After what seemed like forever we were called in to view our photos. The salesman was lovely. Not at all how I had expected (from his appearance and also from the reviews I had read). There was no hard sell, no pressure and viewing the photos was a very relaxed experience. He was friendly, funny and approachable. In total we had 93 photos. He got us to go through them all and say if we didn’t like any – which he then got rid of. We were then left with just over 50. We went through them again until we whittled it down to 4 individual photos each, 1 of me and my sister and 2 of my sister and her friend (15 in total).

At this point prices had not been discussed at all. We were simply having fun viewing the photos and picking our favourites. You do get one free 5×7 photo with the makeover package. Having read their website I knew that a 5×7 photo was £50 and 1 photo on a cd was £100.  I had in my head, that if the photos were really nice then I could probably stretch, at the most, to £150 – so I would get four 5×7 photos (including my free one). As it happens the salesman was able to offer us a deal we couldn’t resist. I’m not able to publish it here but we did manage to get the 15 photos on CD for a very good price. This was the icing on the cake for what had already been a fantastic day.

Even if I had just walked away with the one free photo that comes with the package, it would still have been a brilliant experience. I think if you can go in there open minded, not expecting the glamour &  glitz you see on tv makeover shows and remember that the experience only cost £25 – £50 then you will enjoy yourself.

Here are the photos so you can see the end result!

 

First week of full time employment complete!

On Wednesday 10th Sept I started full time work for a local business. The job is really varied and interesting, but I am on my feet all day long! It feels good to be out of the house and to be off benefits, earning money.  My colleagues are all really nice and I’m enjoying my time spent at work….in fact time flies when I’m there.

The hardest part of working full time is getting life organised at home. The house is a tip, I’m behind on the laundry, I have a stack of paperwork to catch up on….and somehow I need to do an online Tesco shop! I’m sure I’ll get caught up on this eventually!

 

September competition wins update!

I’ve just realised it’s been a while since I updated my competition wins. Today I had a really big win (my biggest yet)…read on to find out what!

Since my last blog post I have won:

5 x Sci-Fi DVD’s     £25.00
Yoga Mat     £125.00
Now 70 CD     £12.00
Another Ambre Solaire SPF30 Suncream     £11.00
Rimmel Sun Shimmer Bronzing Mousse     £5.00
Miss Sporty Studio Lash Mascara     £2.99
Pentel Pen     £2.00
Tricky CDS     £8.00
10 Free mp3 Downloads     £7.50
Magic Tree House 7: Mammoth to the Rescue     £3.99
Bacardi Pitcher     £10.00
X-Files Goodies     £15.00
Mr Gum T-shirt     £7.00
Schuh Fest Aid Kit     £10.00
Montagne Jeunesse Hamper (24 sachets)     £24.00
10 itunes downloads     £7.50
Family Photo Shoot     £50.00
The Painter, The Cook and L’Arte di Sacla     £25.00
Wild wonderful Alaska seafood     £5.00
Wellkid Vitamins     £6.95
Bakushow DS Game     £24.99
Chorlton & The Wheelies DVD     £5.99
Xbox 360 Elite & Madden Game     £250.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Christmas is coming! *only* 119 days to go

Start preparing now with some of these fun Christmas Crafts at http://www.craftbits.com/

Christmas Craft Projects and Patterns

The site has loads of brilliant and original projects to suit all ages and abilities.