Want one?

I'm selling these on ebay.




Yes I've been making Owls. Deam me Owl girl.

I also have a selection of ethnic/ boho bangles, brand new, Some shabby chic home items, brand new, Shoes & accessories never used and some second hand stuff going up.





here's a linky
Click :)

The Week In Pictures...

1. I made over my once brown living room mirror. it's amazing what you can do with some old dried flowers and a glue gun. I like my glue gun, it makes me feel like a super hero :)

2. Two for tea and tea and cakes for two, except really it was three and three had a lot oops. Yes Cora had a friend over to bake and bake we did.

3. Said wears we did bake.

4. New lamp to replace the one I knocked over, although did have my eye on it for a while and was a bit pissed off actually as Morrison's had them in the clearance isle for 5 weeks already with a reduced to clear £10 sticker on them, I come in to get one and they are back on the 'Home' isle £12.99 a pop. Reduced to clear my ass. Gutted. But now has one.

5. My HUGE Tomatoes in the garden.

6. My new tea set, Yes I have a tea set, I can't help myself, I'm oldskool. £2.50 the British heart foundation, four cups, four saucers, one big smile.

7. Yesterday's harvest Out of my garden for today's Sunday dinner, Sausage, Mash, Gravy and Atlas Carrots and Peas, I know random Carrots but cute as :)

8. New rugs. It wasn't enough that in order for me to pass and be put on my tenancy for another year I had to correct the flooring to an adequate flooring solution (moving my downstairs carpets upstairs and getting better insulated ones for downstairs), thus skinting me until this September. But on getting the new carpets, it's been ruined in a few months by a rather able four year old. So needs must Bargain from Netto. £12.99 each.

9. Vintage spice jars, half off. Thankyou Wilkinson.

I have never done a week in pictures before but I got so behind on blogging I thought I better had.

Oddly I don't know where the person in me came from who is all about objects and stuff because I didn't need all this while I was living rough a few years back in London. A bag and a bench did me.

...I think I really now feel settled and that's a good thing, I think...

100th Post! Bargins & Wonder

So yeah I'm skint but not because I've been spending huge amount of money I do not have, I have just snapped up a few unscheduled cheep finds that I had to have, or so I told myself.

First up, this wonderful ex-Primark leopard swing jacket, £4 British Heart Foundation.
Had to move a button to get the bazumas in but worth it I thought.

Secondly, Some much needed bling and also because my other new grey pumps split again due to all my crazy walking.
5 weeks they lasted so a replacement was needed and I thought these £3 in the Peacocks sale were splendid.

And thirdly this pretty ex-Primark dress, £2.99 Red Cross.
It's more a-line than the photo promotes and is a tad too short as in it doesn't cover my fat knees, but I did have something I could attach to the bottom that would make it a good length

That however was black, so I'm in the midst of some fabric beaching.
I have never done this before and have a feeling maybe it's not going to get any whiter than that, but I'm game and we shall see.

If not its leggings ahoy for that dress, what colour I don't know since autumn is on it's way rapidly!

I also bought a blue baggy sweatshirt top in the sale from peacocks in a size 14 for £4, however that baggy style was not so baggy when I got it home and on, I hate it when that happens, so today I took it back.

There was no 16 and they wouldn't refund me because it was a sale item so I was left drudging the sale and found nothing. Then I found myself circling back to those red shoes again.

They sung out my name! and for £14 which was gunna be £4 off with the return, I did it.
I think I'm in love.

My Obsession : Ronnie

STICKAM!



* LOVE hearing his voice *

Where's Wolly?

*or Waldo depending on where you are, always thought Wolly was better though*

Anywho..I am still here, kinda.

Lets just say after the old week of thinkage and then birthday blunders, I came to the conclusion I've let myself be consumed by how my life is now and I'm doing stupid things...

..like, buying clothes but not wearing them because although they are me, my style, a t-shirt and jeans drug on in the morning suits my day of unriviting tasks better...

..like, living in a house that still isn't reflecting who I am and isn't how I want it too be because slapping some paint on here and there will make do...

..like not recognising myself in anything anymore.

Enough.

Step one: Back to basics

Q: What kind of a Mum do I want to be?
A: The kind that teaches. The kind that makes fun out of nothing. The kind that passes things down.


Q: What's the one thing you know you should do but haven't done recently?
A: Spoiled myself for a change.



Q: If you could pick any interior style that screams you, which would it be?
A: Shabby Chic



So I've been asking the right questions and trying to kick myself up the arse and figure out who I am now. Which I think is ample enough explanation as to where I've been hiding.

In other news...

A guy asked me out. I kid you not.

I told him I'd love too but for the fact I was skint and sitterless I would otherwise say yes, to which I got the response that he couldn't believe I had to look after my child all of the time. Followed by him telling me I sounded arsey and to forget about it.

GOBSMACKED.

I mean how hard is it to put together, single mum = one of me, one parent, one person with the responsibility of a child. It amazes me that so many guys are shocked that it's a 24/7 thing!

Clueless wonders.

Anyway the fact that I'm going through some changes and didnt want to come off as arsey, even if I so didnt and he obviously had a hole in his head where his brain should be, I decided what the hell and so the next guy that asked me out, I said yes.

He however stood me up for our date.

MORTIFIED.
* hence the Wolly bit*

It may only have been a home visit date, because of lack of funds and sitter, but the fact all of my neighbors knew about it and witnessed a lack of car pulling up and lights out early meant I couldn't tell a little white lie to save face.

..and to be fair it sent me into panic mode and when he asked if he could come the following night I couldn't breathe. Brain went whiz pop and I convinced myself out of it.

I honestly think I'm really not ever going to be ready to date. More broken than I thought there. Shit.

oh and...I'm taking a break from slimming world.

I did 2 100% weeks and came in with losses then a 3rd week with a cake slip that was covered in my syns, plus uber walking and came in with a gain!

Then Eccles festival + McDonalds + Birthday takeaway + one missed group because Cora was ill and I came in with a loss of 1/2 lb !!!!!

the randomness plus lack of money stressed me and so for a while, until Cora's back in school I'm not going to groups and will have to rejoin when I do go back. However I will be staying on plan ish.

One muffin, One candle, One wish..

That's all I do on my birthday.

I've never really had a big deal made of my birthday, I mean when I was a kid I was always told that 'just wait till your 18th, we'll have such a big party, we'll make up an album of embarrassing baby pictures and shame you, all the trimmings'.

I'd never had a 'do' as a kid just a few ham butties and a game of musical chairs in the back room of my family home, my sister however had quite large party's in clubs with a DJ. I never got it, but always thought when they get round to it mine will be big enough to make up for it.

My 18th hit and it was the day after my fiance ripped out my heart. Seen Newmoon?..think Bella after Edward leaves and you about have how I was. I couldn't speak, I was in pain and I got dragged out to a BBQ of a strangers on my birthday and told if I 'didn't snap the fuck out of it I would be launched from the car', good old dad.

Soon after I left Manchester for uni, I wanted out and thought it would be the making of me, fresh start, of course when returning for my birthday the pitiful fact was my friends had moved on and no one turned up for my 19th.

My parents got divorced while I was away at uni, I didnt have anywhere to come back to for my 20th.

My 21st turned into the first awkward meeting of my dads girlfriend, who previously had told my dad she wanted nothing to do with his kids. In front of my boyfriend, best friend and her boyfriend and another close friend I was faced with embarrassment that turned to upset that turned to excessive drinking so later when we went into the hard rock cafe in Manchester me vomiting and being asked to leave was nothing.

Since then I've given up. Well I did have a change of heart last year but plans were ruined because I got swine flu and had to stay in doors for 14 days, when I was finally better and had cash my then best friend ruined my birthday plans with her lazy arsed attitude which subsequently on my appeal ended our 16 year relationship.

People laugh when I talk like this, they assume I'm putting a spin on it for funny effect but sadly no, this is and has been my life.. and I'm only talking about my birthdays here, just imagine if I added the rest.

So yeah, I stopped celebrating and I mean whats the point? I'm getting older even though my mind is still in the same place it was when I was 18, the worlds leaving me behind and another year has gone by with me hardly doing anything to talk about.

I may not celebrate, but I do have a tradition.

One muffin, One candle, One wish..and reflect on how far I've come since last year, even if it is at a snail pace.

Still single, Still skint, Still jobless, Still existing. Lighter though. One more person who walked out of my life, but looksee..I'm still standing. That's something :)

Just over an hour to go, I've just opened the wine which resembles something like drain cleaner but I'm drinking it regardless. Less than an hour left...Dance with me?

Track one:

Track two:

Track three:

Track Four:

Track Five:

A mixed bag but all EPIC :)

My Obsession : Ronnie

So I went to get some paper to make my shopping list for tomorrow..
... and Bam!



The mind wanders! quick Biro squiggle of lord Ronnie Radke.

Yes I am obsessed, but it's OK, I'm single, I need the distraction :)

It's nice to know I still know my way around a pen anyway, not that I'm tooting my own horn as such, it's just I haven't drawn anything in a very long while.

I haven't mentioned Ronnie in a while either, in fact I was supposed to write him again like 6 weeks back. My heads been somewhere else though. I don't know where it's been but I've been doing nothing, literally.

If only zoning out was a good excuse!

funnily enough my dreams of him stopped about 6 weeks ago too, until last night :) and no, no mucky dreams here. It's weird I fancy the arse off him but there's this thing in my head saying, be realistic it'll never happen and so I think I've banned myself from it. I should slap myself!

Patty Cake Patty Cake..

So I got all mumsey this week, it may have had something to do with a bit of silent goading, I bit to do with this whole pushing myself/ new boundaries thing I'm on..or this slightly scary nesting thing I'm going through but never the less it was Eccles festival this weekend and me and Cora were entering in the 'Bake a cake' contest. My slimming world is wrecked.

I have never baked a cake from scratch before, and only previously made one once in my entire life from cake mix, when I was in uni...and I vaguely remember the bottom dying on it, but students aren't fussy.

This was whole new ball game and we were ready! We are Hughes women and we are a force to be reckoned with dam it!


Victoria Sponge cake with a twist

Ingredients

225g/8oz flora light, softened at room temperature
225g/8oz splenda
5 medium eggs
225g/8oz self raising flour
Skimmed or 1% milk, to loosen (not always needed)
A dust of icing sugar
Strawberries
One tub of reduced fat creme fiche
Strawberry Jam
Paper for stencil

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper or use rubber cake tins
as i did and no need for all the bother.

Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, a little at a time.

Fold in the flour, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter
with a soft dropping consistency.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.

Bake for 20-35 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into
the middle comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and
peel off the paper. Place onto a wire rack.

Place jam and slices of strawberry on the bottom slice, add the creme fiche and
Sandwich the cakes together.

Cut out a stencil with paper into any shape you like, place over the top and
sieve on some icing sugar, decorate as wished.

TADAAAAAA!

We went to the festival and got rained on! and also made some cool free stuff, check out my badge EEEE


We came on second, but it was so a fix as the organiser won and also she's my neighbor and told me she had used a packet mix. she won £40 of HMV vouchers and I was gutted.


We were supposed to win chocolates and wine and a cook book, in the end we just got the books I have no idea where the other stuff went so someone somewhere had robbed me of a very indulgent Saturday night in! Tisk!

*just as I typed that there was a knock on the door and said winning neighbor handed me a bottle of wine with a scowl on her face saying because I'd rubbished her all over facebook for cheating maybe I'd feel better with the wine...I couldn't work out if she was joking or being serious. She said she hadn't used a packet mix in the end, she'd made it, it fell apart so had to make one from scratch..funny she never mentioned that yesterday after the contest when I mocked her as a cheater in all good humor...it was a very odd conversation..I think fences are now broken, shit*

My Birthday Wish List

Usually when someone asks me what I want I say 'nothing' honestly I never have anything I want or need or think that I can't get myself and on a different level I kinda don't celebrate my birthday all that much.

However this year I do have some wants.



1. The Twilight Saga - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
2. The Gilmore girls Soundtrack
3. A large tea cup shaped herb planter for my kitchen
4. The Twilight Saga - Eclipse Soundtrack
5. Cupcake salt and pepper shakers for my kitchen
6. A man? Sex maybe? at least I asked lol

My Race For Life 2010

So it got to be that time of year again and so dam fast as well! I hit my target Whoop! £100 plus pounds winging themselves toward cancer research. I didn't hit my target last year so I am really happy about that and slightly smug because I think it means I may have more friends than I did last year..which is a good thing to be smug about :)



* Most unattractive photo of me ever, I had just done an uphill stretch and had no energy and this was my response to my mum on the side lines who requested I 'do a funny face', Epic.*

This year I was doing the Race for life for My Nanna Mo who lost her battle with lung cancer in 2009 and who pushed me to give up smoking, slim down and give back. I also did it for a dear friend of mine, who has been a real support recently, who sadly lost her niece to cancer in may.



There were a lot of dog walkers this year and I ended up going over on my ankle avoiding some small black fluff ball on an extender lead, that had been dressed up in pink flowers.

I also moved to avoid being clipped in the heel by a wheelchair ( last year I was in the pushchair pit and had my foot slimmed so may times by menacing wheels ) in doing so, someone took a step into my leg.

With this and a gammy toe before I even started the race, I was impressed with myself, shocked as well at the sudden decision to sprint the last 500m, seriously it was like 'Oh, oh wow OK I'm running, I'm running why? go with it arghhhhh! tallllyyyy hoooooo!'

I actually heard someone in the crowd say 'wow someone woke up!' my time was just over 53 mins, last year I did it in just over 123 mins. Apparently for a beginner a 5 k walk should take about 45 mins, so I'm really happy with that, I mean it's only been my 2nd Race for life!



Other fond moments of the day include, Cora showing all the kids how to play chess ( she doesn't know how to play chess)...

Everyone being attacked by a giant dragonfly in the starting pit, the girly screaming was hilarious, it nearly landing on me, not so hilarious....

Losing my mp3 player...Having a mini heart attack....finding my mp3 player...

Having a picnic in Heaton park and then realising with a sudden gust of wind, 10 meters away from the porta-loo's wasn't a wise choice.

Doing the whole day and not passing out considering some drunken idiot woke me up at 5.16am banging on a door repeating 'I've lost my key, let me in' at volume.

And everyone ignoring the 'I race for' fence in which to put your messages on and pegging them to the tree instead :)



I can still receive donations until august so if you would like to here's the linkage

Click me now and give me money now to save a life!

The day my hair turned pink

So..in one fail swoop I dyed my hair pink to boost sponsors for race for life as well as crossing the 'dye your hair a silly colour' off of my ' things to do before your 30' list. it was a long time coming.

Randomly you wouldn't think a hair colour could do a lot, but I think this pink has magical powers.

Since dying my hair pink I have:

- Noticed other people in Eccles with pink hair, usually you would think this would be something that wouldn've of stood out to me before, but not so much. Since becoming a 'pinky' I have in fact been given the sight it seems, at a count there are 6 of us.

* The guy at the new tattoo parlor

* Uber scally mum, who has gone the full pink angel curls route

* Drunken oldie who sits outside the same pub every day, also a full pink head of hair.

* Random emo girl who usually has her hair a different colour every week , this week interestingly though it was pink.

* the girl who lives at number 17.

..and ME!

- Reached my Race for life target something which I didn't do last year, also this makes me realise I must have more friends than I did last year so grins for that also.

- My tags on a few social sites have gone up, with some actual tasty blokes who as yet at the lines 'I'm a size 18' and 'I'm a single mum' haven't deleted me yet.

..and a few old 'friends' saw me and have now found me worthy of not only talking to me again but planning to meet up soon.

Once you fall out of the scene it's hard to get back in, in my case it was a 'never again' sort of thing, who knew pink hair would put me back on the map, however it's this that makes me think how tragic that is, and so I'm not really mithered haha.

Whats this whats this...TheBCH a scene kid?

Read it and weep.

So yeah.
Let there be pink.

I want this

Penguin!!!!!!!!!!

My penguin jumper finally arrived! I was so happy this morning Eeeeeeeeee!

...In other news...

I test drove the flowery charity shop buy straight jacket, and surprisingly it wasn't so straight jackety. I felt really summery and girly in a good way not uncomfy way, which is usually the only way I ever feel girly lol

..Also..

Me in a dress. Yes it happened.

FIN

Today I have been mostly...

Wearing dayglow birdie charity shop tshirt for the first time with my faux tatty.

Finding and then aiding the removal of some squatters to a home that's not MY bush.

Bought growy stuff from B&Q to put in my 'self made from a dresser' veg bed.

Making one moaning minnie very happy because we now have vegibles.

My Obsession : Ronnie

Come on!

I was overdue some Ronnie love :)

Added to my ideal man list:

- a guy who doesn't take himself too seriously and who's not too uptight to be caught on camera doing something goofy.

* Ronniiiiiiieeeee *swoon* still stupidly skinny mind! *

The Maiden Voyage

So after selling all my clothes on ebay because they no longer fitted and then spending the cash on bills instead of new clothes...

..and then also getting fed up of the same black t-shirt jeans combo, but not being able to buy new clothes due to continuous weight loss and the lack of money to waste on things I wouldn't hopefully be wearing that long...

all lead up to me finding my new obsession...Thrifting!

Always one for a bargin, I'm secretly addicted to poundland and can not leave without buying something! And now I have the charity shop bug bigtime!

..anyway there was a post previously on some things I'd picked up, one being a playsuit, yes you heard me, playsuit.

Now I'm not that comfy in my body at the best of times, even though my personality and tastes scream out I prefer to blend in so I'm not spotted and laughed at.

So today was a push.

I rocked the playsuit.

Black leggins, Playsuit, Tan belt, Tan fringed bag, Long black cardigan, New burkies.

Messy curly hair, Nerd glasses, Bronze swallow necklace, Big bronze wooden ring.

* Not an outfit to wear if you need the toilet in a hurry and the prospect of being almost naked in morrisons public toilets wasn't great also crotch bunching is unavoidable*

Yesterday I was mostly...

Photographing stately homes and discussing imaginary wedding plans with my mother...

Feeding donkeys and ignoring what it said on the signs about that..

Consorting with bush people who have an addiction to the Mexican wave...

Feeding the ducks....

Having a picnic....

Petting the pony's....

Wearing fantastic Necklaces....

Winning Cora crazy snakes on the hook a duck at the fair and forgetting which part of the park we had to exit to find the car....

Squinting in the back garden...

Comparing sneaky ice cream mushes....

Winning at major sunburn fail.

*also realising I have some contortionist type potential trying to take this picture and almost dying on the way home from the park due to mother and her driving fail*

My top tracks of the week

Heaven can wait - We The Kings
Black and Gold - Sam Sparro
Escape artist's never die - Funeral for a friend
I'm so sick - Flyleaf
Dark Blue - Jack's Mannequin
Dancing through Sunday - AFI
Nothing's gunna stop us now - The Starting Line

Today I have been mostly...

In the garden, finishing off bringing some holiday to it because I am not going on holiday myself *grumble*....

Entertaining a cheeky monkey who's off school because of a crappy cough flaring up her asthma...

Goking more stuff, new sale top size 14 baggy fit linen shirt was £14 bought for £10, now taken in to fit me, wore it out today, love it....

Lunch in the garden and watching Cora mess about which was actually kinda cute, she's growing up fast :)....

Sewing ears on things HUZZAH!....

Rocking the sunburned face/ I haven't brushed my hair today look...

Buying new Burkies, well I couldn't afford them but I could afford these lookalikes at £7.99 and there studded up so an added bonus :) *Yes I know I have hobbit feet*

It's been a good day.