Doing Your Part for Local Charities*

Charities are important services and while we look to them for support, we don’t always acknowledge the assistance which they need.

Both local and national charities require support from fundraisers and here we look at a few things you could do to help. From understanding their role in the community to highlighting their cause or simply looking into fundraising opportunities, there is always something you can do. No matter how little it might seem, it is always worthwhile to help a good cause.

Is It Just Me: Who Feels Schools Are Trying to Bankrupt Us All?

My fricking God people.

Can you remember the days when going to school meant learning about Annie Apple and Bouncy Ben, when it was Biff Chip and Kipper and a wonky old TV on wheels for wet breaks? The simpler times when an after school club or Lunchtime activity was run by a teacher with a tape recorder, and cost about 50p. The days when the most a parent would fork out per year aside from uniform was a fiver?

Me too.

Well, it would appear that those days are well and truly over my friends. Or they are if The Brat's school is anything to go by.

Comic Relief: What's in My Bag?

I love Comic Relief, and have done for many years- it started when I was three, and I look back fondly on campaigns like The Stonk amongst others. There was always something daft you could do for Comic Relief, and happily, there still is.

As my regular readers will know, I also love any excuse to own a new bag. So, when Comic Relief asked me to take part in a "What's in My bag" post using their rather nifty, Emma Bridgewater designed, shopper bag, it would have been rude not to.

What I didn't factor in to the testing of the bag was Mini.

You see, my lovely daughter has inherited my passion for handbags, and the second it popped through the letterbox, well, that was that- she had pinched it!

So, this isn't so much what's in my bag, but Mini's!

Tuesday is Mini's swimming day at school, and she likes to change bag regularly.  Not because she has to, but because she wants to. 

She needs a bag roomy enough to fit in a towel, swim suit, swim cap and goggles, which is splash proof and which has room to put her uniform in when she's in the pool. She doesn't like zips or buttons, and velcro is a pest for her as she never manages to shut it properly. Of course, something bright and eye catching is a must too for any fashionista aged nearly 6.




The Emma Bridgewater bag fits the bill as it is bright and colourful (with "Roll Up For Comic Relief" on it as well as the obligatory red nose too), there are no fussy zips and its a lovely size too.

So, my bag is no longer for me, it has been claimed for swimming!

If you'd like to Roll Up For Comic Relief, you can find a selection of Emma Bridgewater designed homewares and your own Bag For Life like Mini's at TK Maxx and HomeSense Stores throughout the UK.

The money raised will all help Comic Relief to continue the much needed work they have been doing since 1985, helping those less fortunate than us in Africa.

The Bag costs £9.99, with at least £4 going straight to where its needed.

You can find out more and view the whole range at TK Maxx or Homesense online.

Bloggers For Vision, or Why I Blame Glowstars

When the MADS were announced, and Victoria from Glowstars wrote this lovely post here, I told her I owed her one.


How foolish was I!?


I meant I owe you one in the sense of a large glass of vino. Or a cake. Or similar.


I did not realise my "owe you one" would transpire to mean that two of my "words most likely to fill me with dread" would be uttered as a direct consequence:

#Twat Relief- Ditch The Price Woman, For Charidee!

No I haven't gone mad (again, cough cough).

The brilliantly brilliant Mocha Beanie Mummy, Typecast and Mums Rock have decided to slightly alter Comic Reliefs "Twit Relief" campaign (whereby you pay a celeb to follow you. But they are mostly C listers, cos if Robbie was on there I'd so be buying him...) and instead are asking us to nominate who should be unfollowed instead.

You can read Jay's post here which explains in a bit more detail.

So, now you wondering who I think should be unfollowed?

Step up to the chopping block, Ms Katie Price-Andre-Reid(inator)-Price of Jordan (not the country).

Where do I start with the Patron Saint of ridiculous Bosomage? 

Well, for starters she can't spell for toffee. Honestly, she is really poor. 

She surprisingly never appears to drunk tweet, which to me is a pre-requisite of following a celeb such as Katie as she seems to spend most of her life either having her already huge boobs/lips/ego inflated on camera, getting married or falling out of clubs trolleyed. So whereas guys will love the nip-slips (and worse), us girls want drunken tweets. 

She also brings up newspaper type scandals/arguments with her ex and soon to be ex-hubbies up all the time. Yawn. The problem with that is that soon, her kids will be able to read and access the net, and not only will they end up with a plethora of unsavoury imagery, but all the dirty laundry of rants at their Dad. That and other kids will be able to regale them with those as well, which of course they will, as that's what kids do.

I just really hope that, in the name of charity, if everyone simultaneously ditched her from Facebook, Twitter and her ITV2 programmes, then finally she will disappear forever. And I for one think the world will be a better place.

Face it, if she is allowed to continue with people watching her every move, (I add Katona to this list), whats next? 

We've had the dubious pleasure (yeuch) of watching her give birth, get naughty (In such a faux way as to be laughable) with Pete filming an ad for the series, the upset and heartbreak (Kerching) of their marriage break up, and then her "love" (kerching kerching) for cross-dressing, cage-fighting ex-Gladiator's contestant Alex, there's not much left. 

Which means it'll get worse- What Katie Did Next, the Bowel Movement Series can only be mere months away. Horrors.

I beg you, for a good cause, relieve yourself of Katie Price.

You know it makes cents. Or pounds. Or Euros.

You can give generously to Twat Relief at http://www.justgiving.com/twatrelief

(PS. I was going to have Cheryl Cole. But she has no Twitter. Grrr)

*******
EDIT:

Elder has also asked that I add BONO of U2 to the list for Twat Relief related charity ditching. Being that Elder is Irish, and has every album that U2 ever made, this is quite a shock.

He has summed this up with this:

Whats the difference between God and Bono?   -                             - God doesn't think he's Bono.

I think thats pretty good! DITCH!

Make Mona Lisa Smile-Here's How!

Ever get the feeling that Mona Lisa was a Mum?

Why?

Cos she has that wry smile that we all practice- the one that says "yes, my toddler is causing mass destruction in your shop/playground/living room, but, hey ho, I'm going to smile a half smile as if to say, "well, I bet your kids are just as bad".

Know the one I mean?

She also wears no make up, and has on something that, even for the period in which the painting was painted, is serviceable and covers any lumps and bumps on her previously flat tummy left behind by pregnancy- and her hair, well looks like that hasn't seen product for a while.

So I know everyone will ask why I am questioning the Mona Lisa, but I'd like you to help make her smile properly for once.

And here's how

Head on over to Dave, aka Mister Good Guy, who deserves this title fully. He is trying to achieve the mammoth task of raising ONE WHOLE  MILLION for Haiti.

He is asking people, bloggers, brands, anyone with a pocket deep enough, to buy a small square of the Mona Lisa, in return for a mention on the blog. Simple, but oh so affective. I've already staked my little square, as have Tara at Sticky Fingers, and Sandy at Baby Baby too.

So what you waiting for? Go and have a look!

I'd like to ask as you open your chocs and cards on Mothering Sunday to think of the Mum's in Haiti, and Madiera, and Chile too, and how they must be feeling right now. Those who lost homes, belongings and in some cases children of all ages too. So have a look and see if you can give just a little to help Dave out. 

Thanks, and to all you out there

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!