Last weekend saw over 500 bloggers descend on central London for BritMums Live! 2014. I enjoyed last year's conference so much that I booked a ticket for 2014 just a few hours after getting home. Once again it didn't fail to disappoint, but at the same time I think I have moved on a bit since then, and my blogging certainly has too. As well as being an excellent opportunity to meet up with other bloggers the conference featured some really useful sessions which I felt that I learnt a huge amount from. My notebook is full of plans for a new blog design, ideas on how to use Pinterest better ... read more
And that was that!
The house is quiet. Little Miss C is finally back at school and her brother is upstairs napping. At my side is a cup of some special tea that the bloke in the local health food shop convinced me to buy this morning. For the first time in about three weeks I'm as close to feeling calm as I have ever done since having children. The Easter holidays are over and despite there being some highs I have to say that boy was that tough! And now I've managed to speak too soon. Master C has magically woken from his nap a whole hour earlier than usual and despite not going to sleep until gone 10 ... read more
Product of the Year Awards 2014
It's fair to say I don't get out much in an evening. Certainly not when it involves finding a posh dress to wear and heading to a swanky venue in London. Most definitely not when it involves an award ceremony presented by a household named comedian and a private gig from two number one artists. Amazingly Thursday night was just that though when I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Product of the Year Awards 2014, held at the stunningly beautiful 8 Northumberland (which bizarrely used to house my old office when I was a civil servant!) Some of you may not have heard of ... read more
2014 – The Year of Thrift
Even if you drank enough over Christmas to spend the last few days hidden under a duvet, it can't have escaped your notice that we're in a new year. 2014 is here and from what I can gather hanging around for another 365 days, so I guess we'd all better make the most of it. Last year I wrote about the resolution to end all resolutions I which I pledged to give everything I do 110% over the year. I tried to do that, but I have to be honest and say that I don't think I always managed it. I did learn that to give 110% to everything it is very easy to forget yourself in ... read more
So that was Christmas 2013…
... and what a damp squib it ended up being! After more than a month of being ill I felt woefully unprepared for Christmas and therefore spend the last few days running round like a mad woman trying to sort everything and make sure I'd done all the practical stuff like send cards, buy gifts, wrap them and pick up the pre-ordered Christmas cake and other food bits that my mum had asked me to provide. All was going well when we piled in the car to head up north and apart from forgetting to pack my slippers it seemed like we'd pulled it off without incident. How wrong I was. On Christmas ... read more
I’m a blogger, get me out of here!
It's been a while since I've done a meme on here so when I was rather keen to join in when I was tagged over on Boo, Roo and Tigger too to take part in this I'm a blogger, get me out of here meme which started on Kate on Thin Ice's blog. The idea is simple, and the rules are as follows: 1. Answer the 10 questions and consider the mission.2. Tag a few bloggers to do the same3. Come back to my original blog post and tell me you have done the questions and answers so I can take a look and promote your post. So, whilst I might not be a fan of the TV show, here ... read more
Things I’ve learnt this week…
Pneumonia is not fun. Modern medicine is fantastic. The new series of Borgen is fantastic. Trying to look after kids when ill is hard work. Daytime naps are great and do aid recovery. Having time to read books is lovely. Sod's law will always kick in when you don't want it to. Series 2 of Last Tango in Halifax is also pretty damn good. It is possible to be too ill to even have the energy to pick up knitting needles. Pneumonia can help you finally shift those post baby pounds. My husband is fantastic. Normal service here will resume once I'm better. ... read more
One Thousand
I'm not one for marking blog anniversaries in any big way, but when I noticed via my blog dashboard earlier this week that I'd published by 1000th post here on Being Mrs C it did make me stop and think. A huge amount has happened in my life since I started this blog over five years ago, and I find it really interesting when I look back at some of my earlier posts to see what I was doing then, and what was making me smile back then. Over that time I've stopped working and devoted my time to looking after our family, but the economic situation here has also changed a huge amount ... read more
What did you really see today?
Did you know that this week (16th - 22 September 2013) is National Eye Health Week? There seem to be so many weeks like this these days where we're celebrating something or raising significance of something else and it's very easy for them to pass you by un-noticed, but this is one that I actually heard being talked about first thing Monday morning whilst getting breakfast for the kids and it is one that does affect all of us, no matter how old or young. So, back to Monday morning. As usual I had Radio 2 on and Chris Evans was doing his amazing job of trying to get the whole country ... read more
A-Z of My BritMums Live! 2013
There's so much I could say about BritMums Live that it could fill several blog posts. So as not to bore you all senseless - here's the A to Z of my BritMums Live! 2013. A is for All Bar One That for me is where my BritMums adventure began. A chance to put faces to twitter handles whilst getting some dutch courage before heading to the venue. B is for Bigjigs My lovely sponsors for the conference and the people who provided me with my very bright t-shirt which certainly helped break the ice with people on day 1. Thank you. C is for Cabbage Cocktails Apparently this is what I was ... read more