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 !!!