Mirror Mirror

An exciting start to a very big week.


Last Monday the twincesses and I were invited to a screening of Mirror Mirror. As this involved a trip on the train to London there was a huge amount of excitement!
It also required a rather early start, hence the less than enthusiastic faces.

The screening took place at London Soho Hotel, sounded easy enough to find but having enough to contend with being alone with the girls, google streetview was scrutinised the night before. Does anyone else do this before going to a new place?

The hotel is incredibly chic and the girls were really fascinated by the most enormous cat in the entrance. As we walked in I actually wondered at the sanity of holding an event for small children somewhere with such immaculate surfaces and beautiful art. As it happens we were directed into an equally beautiful, slightly less daunting room, laid out with a colouring table, soft drinks, balloons and biscuits.


The girls both had their faces painted, "with lipstick Mummy" and Bunny Lashes bagged the Prince for his first dance. And his second and his third and his fourth...



I think he was mighty relieved when it was time to watch the film, poor chap. Although he did get 'twinned' before we left.



The film was a very modern but charming take on Snow White. Julia Roberts as the wicked Queen is superbly vile, scathing and has crinkles. Lily Collins is picture perfect with more than smidgen of modern day kick ass who saves the hapless Prince.
Not before he is bewitched by a potion of puppy love; the girls laughed all day about this part.
Fiesty leading ladies, beautiful costumes, lots of laughs and a scary dragon; we loved it! It will definately be part our of ever growing collection.



Happily full of cupcakes, goody bags in hand we made our way down Oxford Street in the scorching sun. Our balloon hats didn't make it very far *sad faces all round* but a much longed for trip on the top of a double decker bus (at the front no less) soon brought the smiles back. Honestly, it was sweltering on there; you could barely breath but they sat there beaming as though they were enroute to the flipping moon!

A few more hours pottering topped off by a Mr Whippy in the park where we very gratefully took our shoes off and it was time to brave the underground again to go home. For me it was the first of three trips to London last week. The next one was very, very exciting.

Business Mums Unite - at last!

October last year I was lucky enough to attend to the launch of Business Mums Unite.
I don't mind telling you I was a more than a little apprehensive as it was my first ever large event of this type. As it turns out I had a really super day.
The Venue was very easy to find, very impressive, the staff were friendly and the buffet lunch provided was scrummy!

In the morning there were some truly inspirational women speakers including Elaine Hanzak Gott. I am sure I am not the only person in the room to be moved to tears by her incredible story. She came across as such a warm and upbeat lady that you would have absolutely no idea of the personal trials she has endured. The fact that she chooses to help people whilst at the same time dealing with the things that life has thrown at her is truly amazing.


Rebecca Jones made a wonderfully humorous speech. Her style was so animated and she seemed to have so much energy that you couldn't help but be captivated. She gave some really valuable pieces of advise; in particular doing less but doing it better and scheduling time more effectively in order to appear more professional - even if you are working from under your stairs. She also wore the most gorgeous red shoes.



Noami Temperley also spoke about her path to success with Baby Loves Disco and how she entered and survived the Dragons Den; brave and incredibly down to earth.

After a very yummy picnic lunch on the carpet (lots of fun) and far too much cheesecake I attended two workshops. The first one held by Becky from Baby Budgeting on how to generate income from your blog. I took a great many notes and learnt a lot so thank you Becky for all the fab tips.

The second, small business accounting was run by Georgina from Starfish Accounting Being horribly mathematically challenged shall we say, if ever I needed a notepad it was now!
Georgina managed to make it sound not quite so scary and explained the important parts in, what I should imagine are to her very simple terms. She patiently answered all our questions and I definitely came away with a clearer understanding of what is required. Thank you!
Shall still be using an accountant though, really cannot face it on a regular basis...

As well as meeting some truly lovely other ladies I also met one who I think will continue to be a life long friend. I entered a twitter competition for mentoring from The Mother Factor
A.K.A Sally Petitt. Since then she and I have had many conversations and are planning a girly day out. Sally is one of the most generous and kind ladies I have ever met, if you are a Mother in business or thinking of starting one I highly recommend her services.

The whole event was planned by the lovely Charlotte Pearson. I have no idea how you manage to plan something on a scale such as this and still look so utterly unfrazzled but she pulled it off perfectly.



I know that Business Mums Unite 2012 is in the planning, not only that but she also runs Mummy Fever which is launching on the 17th February. Thank you Charlotte and I am so very sorry it has taken so long to get this written up for you, I truly had a wonderful day!

Love,

Oh There You Are 2012

Hello there!

Am afraid I have been absent from this little place for yonks now; it's months since I wrote anything of any note 'sigh'.
It's not that I have had a lack of material, I have a couple of posts outstanding, one of which is a promised one. Quite awful of me really. I've had lots of ideas for posts too as I whizzed round wearing myself to a shred over one thing or another.

2011 will not, unfortunately go down as one of the best and I am not sorry to see the back of it frankly. There has been the odd highlight. Going to my first ever blogging Conference in October and meeting some very lovely ladies was such fun. I was rather nervous but ended up having a smashing time, more on that to come.

But fun was thin on the ground sadly. I spent the majority of the year chasing the proverbial tail. Hours on end were taken up with caring for my Grandmother. She moved into a nursing home in January, picked by the local caring services 'cough'. It turned out to be the most awful place.

She endured all manner of indignities which I wont go into in public. Needless to say I made a great many official complaints. Numerous visits, letters and telephone calls were made to various officials to try to force the place to comply with the rules but it was such a huge waste of time.

Unfortunately, whilst all this was occurring she was in a huge amount of constant pain, not having some of her basic needs met and was distressed a great deal of the time. Anyone who has been responsible for an older relative will know how draining this is. I was constantly emotionally and physically tired. Frequently in tears and struggling to cope with the normal household work and the demands of Home Schooling the girls, sorting her personal correspondance and financial affairs and just life in general.

Add to that a huge change in our financial situation, my general lack of organisation and a rather choice falling out with my father 2011 wasn't the best.

It stank.

So I face the New Year with resolve.

I will try to get more than four hours sleep a night.
I shall open all the envelopes that lie waiting for me.
I shall endeavour to sort my wardrobe into some semblance of decency.
I shall definately go out to meet more people.
I shall try to develop more confidence in myself when I am not behind this screen and stop fault finding and not trying for fear of failure/judgement blah blah blah.
I would very much like to learn to drive and I absolutely have to lose some of the weight that tiredness and poor diet has made me gain. Five years on and I cannot go on blaming the twins.
I shall try very hard to be the very best that I can be and to count my blessings - often.
Most importantly I am going to take better care of my health. Having been pretty resilient for most of my life the last year has given me a couple of very loud warnings that I do not alas, have a cape. 'lights fag' I will give that up too!!!

My Grandmother is now in a new nursing home. It is within walking distance so I can pop in and say hello whenever I like rather than having to drag out Mr Bunny and the twins to take me three miles and sit in the car whilst I see her. This is huge relief and makes life much easier for all concerned. The fact that it is beautifully clean with such marvellous staff and doesn't smell like someones dog dropped of its mortal coil in it is also a plus...

To anyone that I promised to join in with a linky, didn't leave enough comments, wasn't very chatty on Twitter, didn't write that post yet I really can't apologise enough. Across the road is the local mind centre; there were points in the year where I wanted to knock on the door and check in for a few days.
Most of all I promise to try my utmost to be a better, happier and more reliable and productive blogger in 2012.

Hope everyone is having a good start to the year!

Love,