Stewarts garden centre - Wimborne

Going to Stewarts Garden centre is soon becoming a holiday favourite trip for an hour or two in the last few weeks running up to Christmas. 

With festive decorations around the shop, two live reindeer and a Santa's grotto. It's very popular with children and adults to visit.

 TJ unfortunately this year has decided he doesn't want his picture taken with a santa look a like and is waiting to catch the real santa Christmas eve.  

On display is this fantastic restored vw camper with elves and santa dotted around inside and out. An electric Thomas the tank engine which children or adults alike can push a button to make it go around the vw camper on its track.

Christmas decorations are throughout the shop and although slightly higher priced then some shops it's peaceful and relaxed atmosphere create a lovely shopping experience.

When visiting the tea shop, a pot of tea for two was plenty - we managed six cups out of the two pots that were provided.

We choose to sit next to the back door although a slight draft coming from people going in and out the door it was the best seats. The reindeer were just outside the door playing and tossing the straw across their paddock area hunting for food, which TJ found hilarious. 

Long Johns Fish & Chips

I'm up there among the seafood lovers of poole, and for me this chip shop is the best around.

With sit in and take away services, whether your in a rush or just having a wander through town this is highly recommended place to eat.

In the picture above I've ordered the skippers meal deal. I can eat with the best of them and this meal deal is more then adequate for myself and my mom. 

The fish and chips come out fresh from the fryer and on to the plate. As with all the food it's not to greasy.

The restaurant staff are always happy to help, friendly, on the ball and always smiling.

Secondary school and the beginnings of bullies

How cruel are children now a days?
Recently I've learnt how going from first to secondry school all about how nasty and bad mannered the children are in higher years.
Maybe it's just me but I believed in santa till I was at least 12 :/ yes I believed for many years. Perhaps it was just cos I always hoped for a puppy to be left in my stocking, perhaps for other reasons. But I never once remember an older child telling me he wasn't real and I never once told another child that I didn't believe,or that they shouldn't either.

A few children in the year above TJ have made it their mission to upset as many 1st years at their school by telling them at lunch time that santa doesn't exist.
For one of the families I think they need a lot of Christmas spirit with everything that's happening since they've had their daughters been born. Life has been very tough.
For me it's been hard watching from the sidelines and not being able to help. But hearing what I've heard about the older children and how cruel they are its just infuriating that they are allowed to get away with it and the school can't do anything.
Am I being over protective??

Does your hot drink often go cold??

In my house there's a lot of cold tea drank due to other things, mainly an 8 yr old demanding time or the door bell or cooking... well you get the idea.

As I'm sure a lot of other people find it hard to drink a nice hot cup of tea as well.
Whilst shopping in Wimborne, Dorset what a lovely little town I'd like to add. I stopped in at a rather small but crammed shop with everything you could possibly want for the kitchen from Orange peelers to cookie cutters to cake tins and cups.

I came across these small daisy rubber mats that grip to the cup as you lift it up.
Now this could be my mind but I thought these could be amazing for putting on my tea cups to keep the heat in!

I have a winner !!

After testing these daisys I can confirm my tea stays hotter for almost another 10 minutes giving me more of a chance to drink a hot drink.

Although not cheap but they are worth the amount of money due to wasting cups of tea and milk. I personally think they are worth it.

They came in a few various colors but unfortunately all in the shape of a daisy.

The daisys are dishwasher and microwave safe. As well as being a fat splatter guard when cooking.

So not just one use there are several.

Christmas shopping

When trying to shop for my eldest nephews Christmas present I've found it so hard this year.
I like to get him something he can build as he's such a clever young man. Over past years I've brought him science experiments such as the build a volcano or make your own crystals. This year I wanted something a little different so I opted for this really cool mug.

I like this mug for two different reasons :

1. Because it's heat activated
2. Because it's the solar system

I had to test it to make sure it worked, and I'm actually tempted to go and get another mug for myself.

The packaging itself is sturdy and in the shape of a small shortened rocket.

The mug is chunky but not to heavy. It's black with small white dots on which represents the stars in the sky.
One the boiling waters been added to the mug it takes a minute or two before it activates, the middle area slowly disappears and reveals constellations.

The cup stays warm for a good 10 minutes so if your a slow tea drinker it would be perfect for you.

Personally I think I made the right decision with this present but we shall see Christmas day.

Shoe box appeal number one

Over the next 3 weeks I'm aiming to donate to two different shoe box appeals.
My first shoe box appeal is to the local animal sanctuary that houses cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, ducks, chickens, horses, goats and other various animals.
I love my animals and I'd do anything I can to help if and when I can. So this year I will be attempting to send in 5 complete dog boxes and 5 complete cat boxes. As well as various animal bits and pieces.
For this challenge I have given myself 2 weeks to get as many shoe boxes as I can and fill with as many animal bits that I can.
I already have tennis balls for dogs and a variety of different treats for dogs. I would like to get a few chews and things for the dogs though before wrapping up their shoe boxes and handing them in.
For cats now cats are a little trickier to shop for, I have cat sachet pouches and I would like to get some of those cat feathers on an elastic which is attached to a stick. Or little ping pong balls or something similar. I don't own a cat and the cat I did have ran away to a house down the road ( obviously didn't like being fed the food it was given or could've been the puppy and Tj ?? )

Have you ever given to a shoe box appeal?
This will be my second year running and I would love to continue as myself I think the best gift is to give to those less fortunate then ourselves.

Putting life on hold

I found out the hard way of how much I've liked someone for years, in fact I've secretly had a crush on him throughout middle and secondary school.
Now this person has never known how I've felt until recently when I told him, yes bad timing on my behalf but at the same time I couldn't keep it bottled in.
Needless to say we're still friends and now he's a little less informative about him and his girlfriend. No more upsetting details for me.
It may sound silly at the same time I want to know that he's OK and that things with him and his other half are going well. No matter what my feelings are for him I would never want to see him upset or hurt nor would I want his other half to be upset by our friendship.
I am very reluctant to let guys near my son or family as we've had a lot happen in the past to us. But no matter what he is there as understanding as always.
He is usually the one I message or call when I am having a hard time at home or with my son. No matter where he is whether at work, out to sea or at home I know he will always reply or call me back as soon as possible.
Don't get me wrong said guy also has his bad side, such as being cocky, annoying and very big headed. But he's always been honest with me throughout everything.
My mom treats him like he's part of the family and no matter what abuse he gets he's always gotta come back with something one step up.

Recently I've been finding I want to settle down, I want to have myself a nice guy, and so I've decided to start seeing someone. Whether or not it will last only time will tell but, I for one don't think I've met my match with this young man.

Christmas calander

How much is to much for a chocolate filled calender?
Well this year instead of paying upto £5 for a chocolate calendar I brought TJ a playmobil one. Although all the boys calenders that were on sale weren't Christmas themed, we agreed on the girls one for one reason. It has a light up tree!!! I can't wait to play with the set day by day.
Perhaps I'm a bigger child then TJ but I'm looking forward to him opening them each day.

Cutting back the lavender

So this week other then being at work, I decided to take on the big challenge of sorting out parts of the garden for winter.
I managed to cut the grass which seemed to take forever and a day as it was damp. As well as cutting back the lavender. Now I've never cut the lavender back before now so I'm not sure how low I shouldve gone, but I still have some green showing on the top so I gave it a shorter at the sides and a little longer on the top kinda cut. It looks so much neater but hopefully it will survive.

Next on the task was to burn all the lavender. It was damp when I started burning and not to windy, so I checked the neighbours gardens to make sure no washing was out and I let loose on the burning bin.

Flashing dog collars

I've not seen flashing dog collars in use before until last night when I was on a dog walk. 

A lady a few doors down has them for her dogs and one of them is black. We live with a bridal path behind us, so every cyclist in the world seems to use it when they finish work. Although my dogs have never been hit I could understand how people cannot see the dogs whilst in the dark. It was nice to see that even in the dark the cyclist still saw the dogs and missed them.

My mom's birthday at the Glassblower.

From the title of the post Friday the 23rd October is my mom's birthday.
So this year I took her out to lunch in Wimborne, near Poole.
Firstly I'd like to say how much I like visiting this little town for its uniqueness.
We shopped in M&Co, this shop always has good quality clothes in it and jeans that aren't those silly skinny leg fit.
Then lunch was at a small pub but it was so lovely and the food was amazing. My mom and I both ordered the mussels and bread.
When the food came our bread was the size of a small loaf, fresh and fluffy.
The mussels were piled high in a large bowl  that probably could of fed two people in one portion but I couldn't see my mom wanting to share to be honest.
The sauce was amazing, most probably one of the best white wine based sauces I've had for a very long time. It was creamy but not over powering. The onions and wine perfectly cooked together.

I'm thinking of visiting again possibly for Christmas just to eat the mussels again.

Homework this week...

My 7 year old got sent home with homework this week. It goes something like this :

You are on a ship and it crashes on on to a desert island. Using only the things you can find from the ship and the island. Design yourself a shelter.

Now I did not know that he had been set homework this week as TJ said nothing but he disappeared for 20 minutes into my scrapbooking area and came back down with this.

I'm pretty darn tooting excited about this box as he's designed it all himself with no help from me at all.
He even drew on paper and designed and labelled it himself with the tools and plants he could use.

Yet another proud mommy moment !!!

Very few words needed today!

When looking around my scrapbooking desk, I found this :

The Grand Canyon tour by papillon helicopter

I loved visiting the Grand Canyon, boarding the helicopter was one of the most memorable days of my holiday. From the speed 140 knots to the  height that we flew at what takes in the car over 4 hours to get to the sky walk we flew past it in 20 minutes.
The view from the sky was incredible on the cloud free day. The soundtrack played through the headphones fitted the flight perfectly.
As we flew across the hoover dam, we were told that the water levels were at 35% capacity due to the draughts in California.  When looking at the water  I could see where the water was at one stage and where it is now due to the white walls which is caused by the water washing the dirt away from the walls of the Lake Mead and the Colorado river.

To see the canyon in person is beyond wonderful and to describe the sights is hard, because no matter how hard  anyone describes it you can not imagine the colors or the hidden depths of the canyons. The Canyon where we flew in was 35 miles wide. 

The Papillon flight pilot was lovely and answered every single question that was asked by the 5 other tourists in the helicopter.
I was lucky to sit in a window seat  whilst my dad had one of the middle seats in the row. The other tourists on board the flight were Australian and Spanish.  The pilot put on a Spanish tape after he explained pieces for the rest of the people onboard.

The company Pappilion provided transport to and from an airfield about 45 minutes away from the Luxor hotel that was included in the price of the flight.

I hope to go back to Las Vegas again in about  10 years time and I will  be going on this flight again when I go back.
I would recommend this to anyone that visits Las Vegas to go  on the tour with Pappilion at half the cost of the other tour operators  it's worth the 5 star score from me.

Viva las vegas!

After a long and very stressful 2 weeks I'm finally off to Las Vegas.
The trip to the airport and check in went really quickly as for the plane journey 10 hours without much leg room (and I'm short) and the middle seat of three.
Have to hand it to virgin staff they were lovely throughout the flight. Very friendly, helpful and up for a quick talk whenever they could.
The inflight programmes were very good and it just so happened the book I've been reading the last few months was one of the inflight movies. So of course I finished my book off and watched the movie. Every second of the movie had me enthralled. And I fell in love again with the main rodeo rider. The movie by the way was "the last ride".
The flight continued and I watched "Spy" which while I found Jason Statham to be hilarious the rest of the movie wasn't that good.
On the descent to Las Vegas airport the sights of the Grand Canyon were fenominal and I could see it out of both windows. The views definitely made up for the boredom on the flight.

Painting a room.... or 2!

This week I have been determined to paint my hallway and living room.
So far so good I'm the living room. As for the hallway I'm on the 4th coat of white paint still trying to cover up that dark dank magnolia!
We decided to paint it white to lighten up the thin corridor and add white accessories in time. It's definitely a lot brighter but until the carpets are down we won't be able to tell how much difference there will be ..... roll on Saturday.

Thorpe park

Out of all the theme parks and places I've visited over the last few months, I have to admit that thorpe park has by far been the best.

From the rides to the (although rather quiet) atmosphere from other visitors. Our day was perfect, we got to the park when it opened and managed to get on several bigger roller coasters without any queue's.

That was until there was a power cut although I'm glad I was waiting in the queue for a ride. I'm glad I was not on it.

Colossus has got to be one of the most mind boggling rides with all the corkscrews near the end making the day and ride one of my favourite roller coasters.

I won't give to much away but yes definitely worth the money and yes I will be going back to thorpe park unlike Chessington, fun was had by all the family!

Saying goodbye.....

Saying good bye to loved ones is never easy. In my case last night I had to say goodbye to my 13 yr old lab cross springer.
When you wake up to find her shaking in pain in the corner of the room, and every time you go near her she moves away. It's the sudden thought that her time on this planet is up.

At 5.25pm last night my oldest girl was put out of her pain by the vet. After a hard decision of whether to operate or not I decided it would not be fair on her.

Have you had to make this hard decision before?
It's the worst part of owning an animal. It's the hardest part of owning an animal.

In the end I, myself know I made the right decision and no matter how hard a choice I know now she's pain free.

So to the vet I would like to say a big thank you for being respectful and patient.

Warwick castle

An almost 3 hour journey from home took my mom, TJ and myself to many adventures in Warwick yesterday.
From amazing countryside (not that I don't see it everyday) to tudor houses.
For myself I love architecture and how over the years it evolved.
Warwick Castle in itself full of pleasant surprises with various collections of furniture dating 100's of years. One of my favourite pieces being the child's suit of armour although this would not have been used on the battlefield, it was amazing to see how tiny the 6 yr old suit was.

Whilst one half of the castle was decorated for medieval times , the other half was decorated early 1800's with models in each room displaying the various clothing that would have been worn. 

I found whilst walking around the castle there were very few notices about the building or information to read about who, why, what, and when it was made. Although there was a time tower which was a little informative on how the castle was passed down from person to person and for what purpose it was made.

Lush, the confession!

Omg I'm in love with Lush's product called 'FUN' .

It comes in various colors and scents Orange, Blue, Pink, Green, Yellow and I recently found out they do a Gold bar.

The product has a 4 in 1 usage. It can be used as play dough, shampoo, bubbles and a soap. 

I have found the Pink smells of vanilla with a slight scent of caramel.

• Yellow smells like play dough.
• Blue smells of lavender.
• Green smells of lemon and lime.
• Orange smells well of oranges.

Tj's favourite is the Green each bath time he covers himself in Green 'fun' from head to toe and acts like an alien.

Myself I prefer the Yellow 'fun' before my bath I break a small bit off and make a small ball and place triangles around so it looks like the sun. before crumbling it up under the tap to give myself lots of bubbles.

Using the product to wash with leaves skin feeling soft and smelling fresh.

I have yet to wash my hair with it as my hair tends to not like anything except Aussie shampoos and conditioners. Tj on the other hand has had his washed and it leaves his hair all fluffy and smelling again fantastic,

I give this product 4 out of 5 a product that I will keep on buying for a long time from now.

The famous Poole Quay bike night

Every week during the summer bike night is held on the Quay. There are has been in the past over 800 bikes on the Quay. Although I cannot ride a motor bike I love to look at them. I find the shapes and sounds amazing. 

I liked this one just for the shape and color and although hearing the engine roar I can understand why its owner wasnt far away. I wouldnt want to leave mine for long if I had something like it either.

When we arrived it was just gone 530pm. The photos were taken just after 9pm and as you can see by the amount of people the bike night is very popular.

View of small part of the harbour 

I love bumble bees !

In our garden we have 8 rather large lavender bushes, that play a role in keeping the bumbles that I love so busy. I know I've posted pictures of them before so dont judge its just for a dying breed that is so necessary in our day and age ( if you don't know what they do then look it up).

The happy little buzzing that I hear all day from the garden and the zipping little bodies in a rush to get somewhere and yet nowhere.

After what seemed to be forever of me trying to convince TJ that the bees will not hurt us we ended up saving one from drowning in the paddling pool.

I asked him to hold it on the peg not just for pictures but to build his confidence up and help him to understand that bees are not built to hurt us,that they are just busy working their butts off to make their Queen bee happy.

Half drowned blonde bumble bee

Honey bee