Matilda Mae: Come on Get Bidding!

You know what I love about the little circle of blogging mates I am proud to be part of? When we put our minds to something, boy can we do good.

Matilda Mae was tragically taken from her wonderful family at 9 months old, which is hard for any parent to deal with. But what is more remarkable, more awe inspiring than how many lives this beautiful angel touched is that her Mum, the equally beautiful Jennie Edspire has turned a grief inducing loss into giving her energy and channeling her grief to campaign, raise awareness and fund raise for the Lullaby Trust.

Along with Ghostwrittermummy, they have set up an Ebay Auction and some great brands and bloggers are involved, so there are some great items to be had. Some are ending very soon, so if you have an Ebay account- or if you don't sign up now!- pop on over to the auction and dig deep.

You can find the auction at UniqueGeekChic, and there are items from Thorpe Park, Stork, Nuby, Kurio and many more to snaffle up.

You can think of it as treating yourself or your loved one and, at the same time, you can donate to what is such a brilliant cause.

I have so much admiration for the strength that Jennie has had, the woman is a super hero frankly.

So, off you go, and get bidding now!

Is It Just Me: Who Would Definitely Sell Their Torch?

Every so often, the country goes so mad about a topic, you'd think that something really pretty terrible had happened. Something so far reaching and catastrophic that life, if not the world, will never be the same again. So many people are so incensed (and not just in a Daily Mail way), that you can almost see the steam coming from their ears.


Its that kind of moment.


Over the weekend, another of these "why do you get so miffed over something so petty" moments erupted as the Olympic Torch relay began in the country.

Coloured Denim- What's That All About?

Over the weekend I have been continuing my quest to replace all the heaps of clothes I threw out of the wardrobes and sold on EBay with new ones, mostly from EBay too.

It was the turn of that staple of everyone's wardrobe, jeans, as I have but two pairs I wear all the time, one pair of skinny jeans which, due to their lack of Lycra or stretch are very hard to get on or off, so which I wear on nights out only, and a pair of very old black stretchy boot cut jeans which I re-dyed as they were going charcoal, but which are fraying.

The Love List

Yes, its time for a list which I will start off trying to do once a month and then will completely forget about (until someone asks me when the next one is coming on Twitter), or I will get bored by. Come on, help me out here, I have such a crap boredom thresh hold that I find films hard to cope with- by 45 minutes in unless something really captivates me I get up and grab a book. Don't even ask me about subtitled films, Elder has tried several times to get me to watch Amelie, but I just can't be bothered to read whats going on and my french is very poor.

That said, if anyone wants to join in with The Love List, feel free! I may even make a badge. If I can remember how to.

Anyway, here's what I am offering a big thanks for to whoever makes good stuff happen. The nice stuff in life.

1) The Bratlings and what they say:

In my house, Action Man is not Action Man. He is Action Dude. He even has his own song, which is loosely based on the old 80s ad theme, which went "Action Man the greatest hero of them all", but ours is " Action Dude he is a Dude who is a Dude". Yes it needs work. The cutest thing is Littlest's way of really elongating the dude bit, so its exaggerated. Bless.

2) Sunshine!

I know its only been here for two days (well it has in Maidenhead), but yay, its sunny. Not warm, granted, but fine enough for me to disregard my parker and buy sandals. I hate wearing shoes, boots or trainers, so the buying of sandals marks a change in my general mood. More up beat.

3) Twitter

I hate to say it, but I am a certified (or certifiable, perhaps) Twitter addict. However, I'm not big on the whole following celebs. The only interest I have in them is when they look fat in Heat (tee hee, Cheryl Cole in this weeks edition). No, what I love is the power of the thing, to help raise awareness of new musical talent, new authors, new ways of thinking. When Japan got hit so badly, and we would previously not known what to do to help, within minutes everyone was reposting and linking to charities you could donate to. Also, it was an affective way of people caught up in the disaster to let worried loved ones know they were safe. I follow a Japanese blogger, who happens to create cheats for a game I play on Facebook, and was worried that she may have been hurt (or worse), but within a few hours she was able to let us know she was safe and well.

Whenever I feel like the day is just that little bit too long, I can guarantee that I can log in and there will be something to make me laugh.

4) Babies

Everyone is having babies, I know its spring but blimey! However, being of the mind that 2 is quite enough, its lovely to see all the ickle baby pics on Facebook. Looking, mind you. That'll do me!

5) Freedom!

After the chat at Christmas with the Sisters in law,(OK I chickened out and told Elder to have a word. And he chickened out and asked his eldest sister to have a word) we've been able to go out without the kids. I love the Bratlings so much, but when you're with them 24/7, you need a bit of peace, a bit of time to be a couple again. Not just Mummy and Daddy. And its not like we go out clubbing until 3am. In fact, when it was Elder's birthday this weekend, we went out, had a game of pool (I nearly beat him), a few drinks in a few bars, then decided to jump in a cab and get a take away delivered. If you don't like the music they play in the pub, I say go home and play your own!

Speaking of which:

6) Mad conversations in a cab

We were waiting for quite a while for our cab on Saturday. It was 9pm in the town centre, so no surprise. As we were waiting, a young guy asked for a cab at a bar right near our house, so we let him jump in our cab when it came. Obviously, we got chatting and he had come to try and chat up a girl he really liked, even though he wasn't from  the area. Bless. He asked us our tips for being a couple, which was funny, and turned out his Dad was a Gills fan too. He wouldn't let us pay our share of the cab, so I really hope he got the girl. Bless.

7) Mini will eat!

Yes, the fussiest of fussy mares has finally decided what she likes to eat other than sweets and cheerios. My Girlie has discovered a love for good old fashioned Macaroni Cheese, made with ham (and not macaroni. She didn't think it was pasta so we use the stuff we usually buy), as well as Pizza as long as I make them myself. Her fave is sausage, ham and salami on top with lashings of cheese. I know they aren't perhaps the healthiest of options, but its better than her refusing to eat.

8) Wardrobe Love

Have you ever gone to your wardrobe and hated every single thing in it? I did two weeks ago. I finally managed to ditch the wardrobes of doom, which had gotten so dangerous and precarious that when I wanted to open them in the morning, I had to step back in case they fell on me. Not good. So I bought a pair of very nice new ones, and being that these were smaller, set about having a clear out.

Said clear out resulted in me owning 2 pairs of jeans and a few tops. Not great for a working wardrobe. The thing is, the things I had that I didn't like were still in good nick and perfectly serviceable. So the pile went to the Land of EBay, and I made a tidy sum. It started a mass clear out, so then I had the fun of replacing the stuff I'd gotten rid of with stuff I like. Which means I now have space in the cupboard and a wardrobe of stuff I actually like, which fits.

9) Cybermummy excitement

Its soon people, its very soon, and I cannot wait to see you all. Especially with the party that Mocha Beanie Mummy has promised us for afterwards.....

10) Going to London

I am a lazy cow. I am always getting invited to do's in London, and I wuss it at the last minute. Well, not anymore. I intend to go to the opening of an envelope if it means I can network. I love London, but I get quite intimidated by the idea of tubes and places and I've always thought it was quite a scary place. However, if I want to get somewhere with this here blogging lark, I need to go shake some hands!

Bravery, people, that's the buzz word. Feel the fear and do it regardless.

What are you loving?

IMAGES:
Image: nuchylee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In Search of Rosie

*20SM would like to point out she has not lost her marbles before you read this post. 

She never had them in the first place!

I was burgled in 2005. It was during a period of time before I officially moved in with Ed the Elder, and so still had my own little flat just down the road from his in Kent. I used to call it the skanky flat cos it was so small, it was damp, and it basically had all the furniture in it that Ed didn't want in his home. The only thing I liked about it was it was beside the riverside country park so it had nice views from one window only. Oh and my big over stuffed armchair wasn't bad either. 

Apart from one night a week, I had all my day to day clothes and stuff at the other flat. It was just storage until I moved in properly.

When I first moved in (I had the place for about 5 years), the area was nice. It was mainly for old people and families. Slowly though, more and more people were moved in from the other crappy areas  with their ASBOs and the whole area turned into am extension of Beirut. Literally gangs of kids would steal cars from people's driveways and push them across a busy road, onto the field opposite my flat, and into the basketball pitch which was full of burnt out cars and junk. Lovely. 

Hence why I wanted to live at Ed's nice flat!

So, just before I gave up the tenancy, I went over to collect some post, and found that I'd been burgled. 

Such was the horribleness of the neighbourhood and the downstairs neighbour that they'd forced open one of the windows at the front of the house to get in. I was on the first floor, quite a distance up so they must have used a ladder. Yet no one saw anything enough to call the Police.

I knew something was wrong when I got outside, as the front window was wide open and the curtains were flapping in the breeze.

Well, they'd got in and made a right mess, cushions everywhere, make up and bath stuff all over the place, you can imagine it wasn't nice.

They'd not bothered nicking my TV, as it was older than me, in fact they must have been really pissed off! They had nicked my entire CD collection though, and there were loads, my purple Dyson hoover (so how no one noticed that going out!) and  a denim furry coat thing (so they had no taste whatsoever).

Weirdest thing they nicked though?

Rosie.

Rosie was a doll I had had since I was tiny. I don't recall who bought it for me, but she was always there in my room growing up.

It was one of the few things I brought with me when I left home, and I had kept her as I had wanted to pass it on to my child.

It was a soft plastic doll, with no box, no clothes, nothing. She looked just like this:

So I was quite upset when I realised she'd gone.

Cut to now, and I've been looking for dolls online, for Blythe dolls so I can punk them up a bit, and I saw Rosie! Or a doll very much the same. Its a Kewpie doll, they go or about a tenner, which surprised me no end. 

So now I have gone in search of Rosie, much loved dolly from my childhood, and can now happily replace her. 

God bless the power of the 'net!