Currently, its nothing, and that’s probably not a great idea for the major sponsors at the event, or my self esteem.

I have done my nails, and that……is…….all.

I am wondering if I am in denial and I know that I actually have nothing to wear as:

a) I am writing this blog post instead of looking in the wardrobe

b) Looking at what everyone else is wearing on the Domestic Goddesque fabulous linky which is showing all the Britmums lovely outfits in all their glory, and realising that I haven’t got a clue whats going to work

c) Its Wednesday and I am going on Friday and well, no-one wants to see my naked.

So here we go; this is what I am wearing for Britmums Live 2013:

Just kidding…really do need to get this sorted though…what’s the betting I shall be packing my suitcase at 8.00am on Friday morning – Helen, get your s**t together NOW!

This really is getting serious….

Image above courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

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Well, actually, they think they love it, then they see if and they run a mile, hide behind mummy, or whimper sheepishly. But then my little Stuntboy wouldn’t watch all of Cars because he didn’t like it when Lightening McQueen got lost….

However, what they do like it the science behind the blood and guts! My daughter loves learning, and anything that seems to be related to “work” she is happy with, even if it involves otherwise squishy stuff. And that’s why we wanted to experiment with the SmartLab Squishy Human Body. We got ours from HobbyCraft.

Its a jigsaw of the human body.

There is a clear skin, with bones, and organs from inside the body, and you have to put it all together according to the instructions in an accompanying wee fact book. And they even have an organisation sheet to help you out too. It gives you little pictures of everything, and the kids loved laying the body out rather gruesomely in their correct spots… *body parts removed to protect the weak of stomach*

It’s a great idea  - yes the part of the body are a bit squishy and squelchy, but they LOOK right, and they even seem to be going in the right place within the body.

More importantly though, the book that they come with explains a bit about each of the organs, so while Stuntboy was pulling the guts to pieces, his demure and intelligent sister was reading out loud to him about what the stomach and small intestines actually did….

Which was nice…

It is a tad fiddly to put things together, and little fingers did need a bit of help, but it is aimed at slightly older than 6 (7+), so its no real surprise that Stuntboy struggled.

However, I can see this being really helpful in the years to come when Mummy gets asked lost of awkward questions that she knows her Biology degree should be able to help her answer, but erm, it doesn’t….

An excellent toy, and a cool idea too – we give it 8/10, with a few mark downs because its a bit fiddly…but practise makes perfect I guess.

Mummy even liked doing it, but then I did do that Biology degree after all….

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It’s probably not a master piece. It is, after all, my first attempt. So it may not even be very good; and if its not, I will be a wee bit bothered by that, naturally. I am a perfectionist, so like to do things properly. I have tried to do this properly too.

BUT

It won’t be a disaster if its pants, because I enjoyed writing it.

It took two years, a lot of late nights, a slightly annoyed (but terribly patient Brad), plenty of red pen, and a few minor tantrums.

If it IS rubbish, then I know this writing lark might not be for me…

If it is only a bit rubbish and needs a few tweaks here and there, then this writing lark might be for me, I just need to try just that little bit harder…

And if its not rubbish at all, well WHOOOOO-WHOOOOOOOOOO *faints, raises glass of champagne, then realises she is actually dreaming*

I finally sent that book to a literary agent you see, not so she could sign me up, but so she could give me feedback on it.

I am prepared to be told:

“Helen, it’s crap.”

Though I suspect she would be far too polite for that.

But if crap is my best, then at least I have tried. I will just have to stick to the blogging lark, and forget the serious author lark.

What I am NOT prepared for is to be told about it is that it’s actually OK, needs a bit of work here and there, but you might just have something….

That WOULD be amazing, but it’s not gonna happen.

So there.

The post I’ve only gone and done it…. appeared first on stickers stars and smiles.

Source: Wimbledon YouTube

Aren’t I a lucky girl – I got to hang out with the head groundsman from Wimbledon this week in the build up to the competition which starts in less than 2 weeks time.

I was with Thinly Spread and Rosie Scribble too, and we were chatting grass, players and rain – not surprisingly.

Come join us if you have a spare 10 minutes or so, and you too can find out the secrets to maintaining those stunning courts

The post Hanging out before Wimbledon…! appeared first on stickers stars and smiles.

My handbags – I know its pathetic isn’t it…and ons more of a clutch isn’t it…

I have another crappy woman confession – in the vein of me being a crappy woman I mean…

I don’t get handbags.

Well, I just don’t get this obsession with having lots of them; of course I get them, I have one of them myself, but that’s the point…

I HAVE ONE OF THEM.

If I had my way, I would have lots of pairs of shoes

But handbags? Erm no…

Are we either handbags or shoes, but you can’t be both? In fact – come tell me in this poll on Facebook, I am now intrigued…

http://www.facebook.com/questions/483338971740489/

My handbag is lovely, but it wouldn’t make we drop my wine if someone walked in carrying it on their shoulder. Though very little would make me actually want to do that…

It was a lovely gift from Brad, and he knows my tastes – its big, its practical, and its got a lining that isn’t black, so I don’t loose my bl**dy phone in it.

End of.

Its huge. It has to because currently it contains:

• A Katsuma Super Moshi cape and mask, coz that’s what I do in my spare time – quick change into the phone box obviously
• Some cards from a YoYo packet which the kids told me they wouldn’t throw away about three weeks ago
• Emergency playing cards for when the kids start playing up, which is, erm, never of course
• Various pens that definitely don’t work
• A plaster and an umbrella, my nod to trying to be the practical mum
• Anti-back gel, because a mother shouldn’t leave home without it
• My son’s spare glasses, which will get lost if I don’t put them somewhere other than my handbag soon
• Business cards, coz you never know
• Numerous junk mail crap
• And NO MAKE UP, my other Epic fail as a woman…

I am not sure there is a designer handbag in the world that would fit all that in…

This is my one handbag. I feel I should have lots of them. I probably do have a few more, but I don’t use them very often. I think I might have a black one and a rather snazzy red one that I bought last year for the MAD Blogging Awards, but THAT IS IT.

What the hell am I missing?

Somebody save me – are you a shoes or a handbag lady…or even both…?

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This is a collaborative post with icelolly.com as per our disclosure policy.

This week we started talking about our holidays this summer, we have booked a fantastic camping (ish) trip to Europe, because we figured that this was cheap, cheerful, and getting out of the U.K. meant that we could at least guarantee some sun.

Our chatter about holidays for families has resulted in my daughter’s wonderful imaginative play moving into overdrive.

If you read regularly, you will know how much I love observing and watching my children when they are playing – I can’t get over how amazingly their little heads work. The times I have listened in on my kids, hiding behind the door when they are busy acting our their latest escapade, are THE most amazing times for me as a parent.

And this is no different, I have watched my daughter pack her suitcase, climb into a plane/train/rocket (?) and go away on holiday, with her imaginary, and probably far better behaved, family.

I was particularly chuffed to be invited onto the rocket to view the planets on an excursion she was managing. Even her brother was invited; and I think her school would have been rather impressed by the fact that we were observing Ganymede from the safety of our cockpit….

I did have to duck at one point due to the approaching meteorites, but thats the peril of space travel really, isn’t it…?

The simplicity with which she packed left me insane-lessly jealous too – doesn’t it usually take about two weeks to pack before you go anywhere? It does in this household, and its going to be worse this time around as we are driving – so we have far too much room to play with….

But the most notable thing was how little money she decided she needed.

Alongside the books, the special cuddle cat, the Moshi Monsters she loves so much, and the all important glittery stone that she can’t bear to be parted with, I asked her what money was going to take with her

Perhaps she would need a handbag with her pocket money in, but apparently we didn’t need more than 50p on this holiday. I think she must have searched out one of the cheap holiday deals to die for.

Our holiday is a tad more expensive than that, and it doesn’t even include a trip to Ganymede. What a con.

Where are you off to this summer, and what one thing would your little one insist on packing?

The post My daughter is planning a holiday to the moon… appeared first on stickers stars and smiles.

…..again.

He is Moshi obsessed, so what did we have on his cake:

I would love to say that this was done by me, however, as I have been trying to instil in my kids that they shouldn’t lie, that would be one hell of a porker – I better fess up.

It was made by a very talented, very lovely friend of mine – who after slaving away making it, then took pictures, and crossed out the name on the cake base so that I could post the wonderful creation on here without giving away Stuntboy’s real name.

Amazing in every way, eh?

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But sometimes, there is a little sadness behind those giggles. This week, my boy was six. Six – such a little word, but this time around it seemed like such a big birthday. So much so that I shed a little tear for it. Alone.

And…erm, in the toilet, which is, of course, the only place in the house, as ever parent knows that you can get a minute to yourself….

I grabbed a flannel afterwards, and faced the world with slightly red eyes, in an unusually melancholy way, not just because my little boy is growing up, but because I won’t be able to experience those early years ever again. Not with any little ones because of last year.

So I look at my beautiful boy now and I remember when…

• I realised that I hadn’t done this bit before, and didn’t have a clue how to actually give birth properly, I never got to this stage the last time…push, sorry, what in god’s name am I supposed to do now?
• I could hold your hand in mine and it disappeared, and now, you don’t sit still long enough for me to even try
• I used to sit and just stroke your head in your cot and listen to your breathing because I couldn’t believe that you were real
• You slept on me, and I could feel your heartbeat against mine, and I would lean down and just take in that wonderful, newborn baby smell
• You stroked my breast as you fed and it seemed like the most beautiful natural thing in the whole world
• You screamed so hard with the pain in your throat that I thought your lungs would burst, and I felt so helpless because I could do nothing
• You found your thumb and how utterly cute you looked sucking it all the time, but how incredibly different it was to get you to stop
• You would hold out your arms to me as soon as I came in the room because there was no-one that felt better than mummy.

I am hoping that a little bit of him remembers too……

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There is a lot to do there for lots, and lots of dosh; museums (though amazingly the big ones are Free), the Tower, Buck House, parks galore…

But we decided to do something just that little bit different.

We messed about for a few hours on the banks of the Thames in a couple of ornamental fountains. Not sure the workers knew what had hit them, and perhaps we weren’t even supposed to be there….

However, we weren’t the only ones with the idea. There were a few other parents out and about, and plenty of kids running around in their pants as they probably didn’t know that these gems were hidden around that corner.

We did – and had got soaked there last time, but this time we took the swimming all in ones, and guess what…?

Free fun in the sun – brilliant!

The post Things to do in London for free – Ornamental Fountain Mayhem! appeared first on stickers stars and smiles.

Not just any fifth birthday party though, one at Moshi Monster HQ; while the wonderfully clever people at Mind Candy think up their weird and whacky next series of Moshis.

I am forty this year, but I felt about 4 and wished to god I was starting my career all over again so I could work in a place like Moshiland. There were so many amazing things for the kids to do; Moshis to play with, a slide PERMANENTLY on site, an inspirational Treehouse for the creative types, a painting wall which my daughter was drawn too, face painting, balloon making, tattoos, a games room…I could go on forever.

It seems as though Moshi Monsters and Mind Candy do parties as well as they do kids toys and interactive websites: awesome.

But don’t take my word for it, you can see for yourself with the pictures…my kids will be talking about it for the next year. Thanks so much to 77PR for the invite, and you have most definitely got a couple more loyal fans after all your efforts

And just in case you don’t know too much about the world of Moshi Monsters, here is a fantastic graphic from them:

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