10 Things I learnt at Blog Camp!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend BlogcampUk arranged by Tots100 and the lovely Sally Whittle.
This is what I learnt;
Lesson 1: Four flights of stairs gives you a good cardio workout. Seriously I had to wait 5 minutes until I could breathe normally again when I finally arrived at Blogcamp on the second floor of The Studio in Birmingham. Now, I'm not an unfit person (really?) but I have been glued behind a pushchair for the last six years and therefore always use a lift, so stairs are a bit of a novelty for me.

Lesson 2: You should read your schedule as soon as it is given to you. If I had done this I'd have known that the first talk started at 10.30am not 10am and as I am quite obsessive about being on time I did spend 1/2 hour wondering when everyone else was going to come into the room and park their bums. I would also have realised that the talk I most wanted to go to had been cancelled :-(

Lesson 3: It's ok to change your blog if that's what it needs. I'm not good with changes and in the past I've been known to start a new blog rather than change the one I've got (probably why I have four blogs now). Change is ok, change is ok, change is ok.....I get it, one blog already revamped. Did you know you can even change your blog name and url on Blogger without losing your hard work? I also learned that it's ok to have more than one blog...phew! Thanks Bangs and a Bun!

Lesson 4: I don't drink as much coffee as I thought. There was plenty of coffee at Blogcamp and it was good. I always thought I spent most of my day sat on my bum gulping back coffee (ha, if only) but with a cup of coffee at every opportunity left me all coffee'd out and I actually reached my max!

Lesson 5: Don't be a Dick! This was the most talked about slide of the day, and in fact was so important it was shown twice. As a person who worries about what people say and think all the time I thought the talk on How to be a Snark would help. Stu Heritage, snark tiger, looked like a little pussycat in front of a room full of oestrogen (his term not mine) but he still gave us a very amusing and informative talk about how to get away with being a snark, and when to back out. Glad I didn't miss this one, and he was rather nice looking (or is that just the oestrogen talking?)

Lesson 6: Lunch was free! And it was rather nice too with plenty to choose from. In fact we were really looked after all day with coffee on tap, water (in bottles), pastries for breakfast, buffet lunch, biscuits and yummy cakes.....quick break time for a cake pic!

Lesson 7: I learnt what all those buttons mean on a camera and picked up some good tips on how to take a good photo. My daughter will be pleased, I only said the other day that I needed a new camera and she retorted 'no mum, you just need to learn how to take a photo!' Well daughter, lesson learnt. Thank you Daddy Pig, aka John Arnold from PhotoWalkthrough

Lesson 8: I discovered Pic Monkey an online photo editor and how easy it is to use. Yes, we do have photoshop, I bought it for my daughter (yes, I bought it!) but I can't use it. I have tried. PicMonkey is a great little tool and I think my boring bad photo's will be getting some tweaking done very soon.

Lesson 9: PRs are actually quite nice, when sat meekly in front of an audience of 100 bloggers with fire coming out of their ears! I've only just recently been getting approached by PRs so I was a little naive in this session but learnt lots and next time I get an e-mail from a PR I'm not going to delete thinking they've got the wrong person, I might just give them a chance.

Lesson 10: You can't fit in everything and are likely to miss the most buzzed about talk of the day. I did, I missed the Follow, No-Follow talk which really created a stir. However, from what I picked up from talking to others it was about this http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=96569 which I think explains it fairly well. And if you are on Blogger and want to no-follow a link there is a handy little box to tick, whoopee!

Finally, I learnt that Bloggers Rock! (when they are not being dicks!)

I'm Going To Blog Camp

Only 100 tickets were available and I managed to get one, so on Saturday I'm off to the wonderful city of Birmingham to meet up with other Bloggers at Blog Camp Uk.
Ok, I live in Birmingham so it's only a short bus ride away, but I'm still excited. So This is me,

so if you are going too you will already know what I look like.

I have this blog which is for more personal stuff, sometimes I share too much but I find it easy to share on my blog. I also have a blog for my babies Baby No5 yes, I have five of them, but they are not all babies, but they are still all at home. Then there is my business blog Bump To Bundle which is linked to my baby shop which I started up while pregnant with baby no 5. Finally, well not really  but more about that in a mo, there is my reviews and competitions blog because I like to write reviews and enter competitions but didn't want to to clog up my other blogs. And Finally, finally, this blog is currently in hibernation but I wanted to mention it because it's a great hobby of mine. I've not been Geocaching for a while but I am hoping to get back into it very soon so Finding Boxes will be revived.

I told you I share too much ;-)

Just one more thing, I've hear there will be cake at Blog Camp.......here's one I made earlier

Yes, another hobby of mine is baking and decorating cakes......there may even be a new blog on the horizon. (First I need a few more hours in the day)



See you Saturday :-)

Birthday Cake

As I've said before, I like making and decorating cakes so I was thrilled to be given free range on a cake for my niece's 20th birthday. I know she's a pink girl so the dominant colour just had to be pink, and I know she loved the feathers on her sister's cake that I made last year so I got some pink feathers for the topper. I decided that I'd have a go at making a two tier cake for the first time. The bottom half chocolate and the top vanilla. The chocolate cake stuck to the pan and I lost half of it (me and Graham had the pieces with custard later) so I had to make another half a cake. It turned out to be a pretty good size in the end. And I learnt a lesson, you still need lining with silicone cake pans. The top half came out well but after putting it all together I was thinking maybe I should have gone for a smaller but taller cake. Something to keep in mind for next time.
So I thought about the top cake sinking into the bottom one and I knew you could use dowels but I thought I'd give it a google to see if there were any alternatives. I discovered that for a two tiered cake you could use drinking straws so I gave them a go. I think they worked pretty well, there was no sinking anyway.
The bottom cake I covered with pink icing and decorated with lilac stripes. My eldest complained that I should have had them all symmetrical but I wanted slightly larger gaps between the lines at the front so I could fit on the greetings plaques. I'd been asked for a long greeting so decided to split it over two plaques. The top cake I covered with a darker pink and I wanted to put lilac hearts around the side but it turned out a little too short and they wouldn't fit, so I embossed a pattern and put the hearts on the top. (Hence my thinking a smaller and taller cake would have been better)
The topper I made with silver foil coated thin wire, diamante numbers and the pink feathers. It cost me about £12 to make and took me nearly 3 days.

Mothers Day

yep I'm late :-)
I don't really like Mother's Day. It makes me feel sad because I no longer have a mother, but it goes back longer because I have also spent five years in the past estranged from my mum. Those were awful times, I missed her so much but felt so let down and deserted by her. Every Mother's Day I would browse the cards in the shops and the sentiments inside them made me feel empty and lost. Then in 2005 I picked up a card with no long poetry or soppy sentiment, it just plainly stated have a lovely day. In it I wrote, 'I miss you mum' and I gave it to my auntie (because I had no idea where my mum was living) Two weeks later I had a letter from mum and then we shared a phone call, and eventually, just a few days before my daughter was born I met up with her at a summer fete.
I'm glad I had those few years making up with mum. Of course losing her was twice as hard, but I think it would have been difficult in a different way if we hadn't made up, and not something I'd like to dwell on. So this year mum got her usual bunch of flowers and we had a chat by her grave side.

As for me, mum of five...well, it feels kind of mean to say it but my family let me know on a daily basis what they think of me so why should I expect anything different on Mother's day? At least the girls made me cards at school. On Mother's day they were oblivious, which I don't mind, they are so young. I suppose when I hear friends speak of their children the same ages having a go at making them breakfast, or choosing flowers with their daddies it stings a little, but not much. The eldest found the day difficult. I think he wanted to get me something but hadn't organised himself enough to do so. He was very out of sorts all day and I got lots of hugs. The eldest daughter said nothing, did nothing. So what! I'm used to it.

I guess the most hurt came from G. I woke him before going to church and he said he was going to get up and do all the housework. Nice thought. I'd been up four hours already, done housework, put washing on, prepared dinner and finished the icing on his mum's cake I had made. We got back from church after a little shopping at 12.30pm. He was still in bed. He got up and went around his mum's by 1pm. He didn't come back until 3pm. I was livid, but said nothing. What's the point? Then he told me how a neighbour had collapsed and he'd called an ambulance and she was so ill he didn't think she was going to make it. I made all the right noises but struggled inside because I couldn't believe him, I just felt it was another of his 'stories' to excuse him being gone so long. All day I felt truly terrible for our neighbour and guilty for thinking that I didn't believe him, not a good feeling, very mixed up I guess you could say. Anyway, the rest of the day passed, just one little outburst from eldest which I was waiting for because I could tell he was worked up.

Today, I saw seriously ill neighbour at the shops. She was fine. Yes she'd had a scare but it turned out to be nothing serious. From our conversation I gathered she'd not see G on Sunday, but I'm not 100% because I didn't ask her outright.

Just another day in my life.

A Plea for a Good Cause

Since writing this my friend has died. Today it's her little boy's 6th birthday and Sunday it would have been her 46th birthday. Some people say that if there was a God then he wouldn't allow this, but I believe that God doesn't make this happen, it's the evil in this world we live in. God helps us fight against these terrible things and our faith is what gives us hope and everlasting life. I've prayed for my friend from the beginning and I now believe that she is safe and free from pain. Yes, it's a heartbreaking loss for those left behind, her family and friends, and she will be missed sorely. It shouldn't happen to anyone, old or young. I believe that death is not the end, it's the victory against the evil we have to face on this earth. God Bless my dear friend and her family.

Pink Ribbon Walk Just Giving Page

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I have a friend I've known online for quite a few years. Shortly after I had Lucy she had a lovely little boy, her first child. The only time I have met her in real life was when our babies where small, but our online friendship has continued, so have the christmas cards and gifts for my babies. She really is a lovely person and doesn't deserve what has happened to her. She found out she had breast cancer  when her little boy was just 8 weeks old. I remember when she posted that she'd found a lump and we all told her to get it checked but not to worry. So many of us had had lumps which had turned out to be nothing sinister. She was not so lucky. It turned out that her breast cancer was metastatic which means it has spread. Through it all she has continued to be kind and caring and never complains of her plight. She is a very brave lady. Cancer is a very cruel disease.
A group of friends are walking the Pink Ribbon walk, 20 miles in honour of this lovely lady. They are hoping to raise £1000 for Breast Cancer Care. If you can please consider making a donation to this truly worthy cause.
Pink Ribbon Walk Just Giving Page
Thank you.

knocking

Isn't it amazing how one action can trigger a memory that affects you so much. Sometimes good, sometimes bad but our minds are incredible machines that keep things locked up so well, stored away until they are needed, or until some trigger sets them off.
Today on the way home from the school run I saw someone knocking on a door, nothing strange about that, but they looked really desperate to get in, they were knocking the door, ringing the bell, banging on the glass, looking like they might lose it completely at any minute. I walked on, there was nothing I could do.
Then it hit me. The last time I was knocking on a door like that, the desperation I felt, I wanted to kick the door in, it was a porch and I'd have another door to face if I managed it. I had to get in, I needed to get in, the person inside needed me, I'd come to help them, I had to  help them, I had to get in.
 The person inside was already dead, I was about 4 hours too late.

Since He Came Home

You may remember my post recently about my eldest boy going to stay with his dad in France for a while. I missed him terribly while he was gone, but he's been a pain since he got back last week. He has come back with a real attitude, in fact, last year when his sister went to stay with their dad for a month she came back with an attitude too. Well, I'm sorry I don't live in the South Of France near the beach, and I'm sorry our home is overcrowded and there are noisy small children around. And I'm sorry I don't cook at 9pm (blimey I'm ready for bed by then) but I have to feed the little ones and I'm not spending all night in the kitchen. All the years I brought them up on my own while their dad enjoyed his own life. All those years working so they could have the things they wanted, and giving up a job I loved because what they really needed was a mum at home, all the fighting with schools and authorities to get them the proper help they needed. All the worry, all the tears, all the sleepless nights. Then after a few weeks with their dad and suddenly I'm not good enough.
OH well, they are adults now, they can go if they are not happy! I'm sure they'd cope just fine without me.
I don't think big son has had  a conversation with me since he got back. He spends most of his time in his room, coming down only for food. He's even been taking his food upstairs because 'he hates eating with the girl's because they make so much mess' (believe me, he can make just as much mess himself, even now!)
Then last night he left the house around 10pm without telling me he was going out. I heard the door shut and had to check is room to discover him gone. He rarely goes out, and never goes anywhere without telling me first. Maybe he's trying to prove he can be independent? I know I can't treat him like a baby, but he really isn't safe to be out alone without me knowing. He was only gone for about 1/2 hour and when he came back he went straight upstairs without seeing anyone. I did go and ask him where he'd been but he told me he had been in his room all night.
Why on earth do we ever want to be parents?