Happy Birthday, Mom!

My Mom was 60 last Friday. She's on a cruise in Dubai with my Dad for her special birthday, and although I found it very difficult to not see her on that day, I spoke to her which was brilliant, although very emotional for me and I did have a few tears when I put down the phone!! My sisters and I arranged for her to have some champagne and chocolate covered strawberries in her cabin, and for it to be decorated with happy birthday things to make sure she knew we were thinking about her, even though we couldn't be with her which I know she loved!!

Anyone who reads my blog will know that my family are the most important thing in the world to me and my parents have been my rock during pivotal points in my life, from petty fallings out with school friends when I was a kid, to the amazing birth of my baby, and the awful time I had when my husband left me and P when she was 6 months old and my consequent divorce and the hard times, both financially and emotionally that accompanied that. Throughout everything, they've put their own life on hold to make sure I was supported, loved and cared for, from taking 10 minutes out to dry my tears whilst sitting on my sister's bed in my school uniform, to cancelling major holidays and making unbelievable personal financial sacrifices to ensure that I didn't lose my mind or house during the worst times. For them, I know that these things are second nature. They would do exactly the same for all 3 of their children, and love us all equally and unconditionally. It's not even a question of whether they would do anything for us, it's a question of how soon they can do it for us to make it all better. My dad's famous quote is "You're only as happy as your unhappiest child." Something any parent can associate with, I'm sure. (Wise old bugger, my Dad...)

I was thinking this morning about how my family knows we love each other and my conclusion is that we show and tell! All the time. When we leave we say 'I love you' and hug and give each other a kiss, when we text we say 'I love you' when we're done, when we do things for each other, the silent 'I love you' is always there behind the action and for me, those acts and words mean the world to me. I know if anything happened to any of us, we would all feel like we'd been totally loved by our family for our whole lives, and I'd have no doubts that my parents, my sisters and my daughter know how I feel about them and how much they mean to me, even if we have disagreements! Our love as a family has no barriers and that's the way I like it. We're not overly exuberant, we just have this energy that says that no matter what, we'll be there for each other.

My parents have taught me a lot about how to be a good parent and it's something that I'm constantly trying to emulate in my role as a mother. My Mom has been the best mother I could have ever wished for. She's my friend, my confidante, my sounding board, my cooking instructor, my childcare, my role model, but most of all, she's my Mom, and I couldn't love her any more if I tried. She means the world to me, and I don't know what I'd do without her constant support, advice, love, guidance and understanding.

Happy 60th Birthday, Mom.

I love you more than you could ever imagine. And then a little bit more. :)

N xxx

Happy Birthday P!!

My P is 6 today! I can't believe it's been 6 years since I went through a 26 1/2 hour labour to meet my little girl. The first words I said to her were "where have you been!" because she'd taken so long!

We've had a lovely day at the Butterfly Farm in Stratford, the butterflies are amazing, a picnic by the river, and dinner out at Frankie & Bennys. We're all exhausted, but here are a few shots from the day. More soon.

Happy Birthday to my best girl. I love you! xxx


New friend


Picnic by the river

Happy Birthday!

Mommy gets a love in the garden on the new trampoline

Birthday Greetings...

My amazing Daddy is 64 today! Happy birthday, Dad. You are, and always have been my hero, and I love you more than words can say. In fact, Lennon and McCartney sing it much better :)



P made Grandad lots of presents today which he unwrapped at our house before we went out for breakfast. He also got a water pistol for the summer, of which P has an identical one... I see lots of shouting by me and my Mom as the gruesome twosome do some dastardly soaking of both of us!


We went out to the Safari Park today with P's friend and her Mom and brother. Lots of great animals out and about, and as it was the first day of the holidays and the weather wasn't brilliant it was quite quiet which is fab! We fed lots of animals and some even tried to get into the car to come home with us...




Rhino... obviously

Feeding a giraffe

This was a small giraffe! I love this shot!


And this was a HUUUUGE one!

P makes a new friend in Pet's Corner

Happy days...

I posted 2 fascinators today. This one is a Jane design in chocolate brown and went to the UK, and I also posted my Rachael design in red out to the US but forgot to take a picture!



N x

I GOT IT, I GOT IT!!

YES! I finally got my FIRST ever Etsy Treasury. For those of you who don't know, these are like gold dust. You have to wait until the Treasury list drops below 333 lists and then Etsy opens the portal and allows more people to make their own lists to submit. Due to the time difference (Etsy is American) I am either out, or the portal opens in the middle of the night here so I never get to nab one but last night... BINGO!!

I knew I wanted to do mine on felt and that pink is P and my favourite colour at the moment so.... ta-daaaaa... here is PinkTigersDen's Treasury! AND P helped choose these...


This is the link if you want to see it live until Friday .

Today is my sister R's 31st birthday. Happy Birthday little sister! It was a year ago (I can't believe it) that we had her fancy dress surprise party for her 30th birthday. This year has flown and she's had a GREAT year! A big birthday, an engagement on Christmas Day and a wedding in two and a half weeks time to look forward to with a fabulous honeymoon afterwards! Lucky girl!

Here's a pic of me and Rob from last year's party I dug out. It still makes me laugh. My t-shirt was the wrong colour red. That always bugs me! Loving Rob's wig.


On a crafty note, I sent off my Northern Ireland fascinator and it's been delivered so that's a weight off my mind. Those feathers are cranberry in colour and went perfectly with the black sinamay.


I have another order from London to do and an impending one from the States. I'd better get making, but I'm off out for lunch with my Grandad today, he's 82 but acts like he's 22 sometimes. Here he is last Christmas. :)


N x

Oooh Lots!

I have lots to tell you!

We went out to Frankie & Benny's for my birthday dinner. It was lovely. I had a cake at the end and the lights went down and they sang Cliff Richard's 'Congratulations'. It is hysterical. I got balloons too! The cake lasted approximately 3 and a half minutes...


I've finished off R's tiara... I am SO pleased with it. It's the most intricate thing I've done and it's turned out just perfect. She's thrilled with it and we've all had our hair trials this week for the wedding so it was so great to see it in her hair. I'm so pleased that my little sister will be wearing something that I've made especially for her on her big day. It really means a lot to me that she wanted me to make it and that she likes it enough to wear it.

I've included crystal and diamanté butterflies as this ties in with her theme, and the pearl and crystal flowers just look amazing. The best thing was that I really enjoyed making it. I am always a bit nervous when I make things for people close to me. I worry that if they don't like it they won't speak up so I can put it right and end up with something that they're not quite happy with, but I know R and she would DEFINITELY tell me if it wasn't right, so it must be! I will post a pic when I take a good one!

I've had lots of enquiries this week from Etsy which have all turned into orders which is brilliant! My fascinators seem to be a hit in the US and the majority of my business is there at the moment which is so cool! I love America. Rob's gone over to Florida for 3 weeks and we were joking that it would have been brilliant if he could have taken over the fascinator I'm making at the moment for a lady over there. Personally delivered by a 6ft 2 english man. That really would have been so cool!



I've been hand rolling sinamay leaves today for that fascinator, the pic shows them half done. It's a killer. First I cut out the leaf shape, then i spray the edges with water, roll the sides in then hold them tight whilst blasting them with the hairdryer. The sinamay I buy is stiffened which means it's been soaked in a solution of basically watered down PVA glue then dried. When you re-wet it, form it then dry it again, the glue softens then resets into the position you've moulded it into, hence how you get the edges of the leaves rolled so neatly. It takes ages and makes my fingers feel funny after a while but it's a really professional effect which I love.

I sent a gorgous crystal haircomb to a lovely lady in Atlanta, Georgia yesterday. I was in love with it! It just looks SO sparkly and she can wear it either as a tiara or push it into her up-doo and you just see 4 rows of the sparkle. I might have to make one for myself I love it that much! There's nearly 100 Swarovski crystals in this...


I wanted to get JoJo's hair pins done this weekend as she's back home but unfortunately the suppliers were out of stock so I can't get them until monday. She'll have to wait and get a lovely present in the post instead!

Spent the rest of the week playing on our new Wii that Kris bought for P the other day! She's scarily good...

N x

It's My Party!

Well... today I am 34. When I say it, it sounds old. Or at least older than how I feel!

I expected to be doing something completely different to what I'm doing now when I was younger and looking forward but I have to say that my 30's are turning out to be the best years of my life. I am growing emotionally, creatively and mentally and working on all 3 of those areas every day. I feel that I am the best person I can be at this time and that makes me feel really happy.

Things might not have gone quite to plan (well, actually several miles off course) in the last few years, but I'm proud that I've been able to turn lots of negatives into positives and that I feel like I am a good influence and a good role model to my daughter. That's all I can ask of myself and I have lots of good friends and family that have supported me through my hard times and stood by me no matter what.

The saying really is true that you find out who your real friends are at your times of need. So a big birthday thanks to everyone who makes my life enriched and put a plaster on my heart. You know who you are...


N xxx