Tracks of my years

Many moons ago when I was young and carefree.......Nelson Mandela was being released from prison, Italy was hosting the World Cup and we were all singing the Wonder Stuff's 'Size of a Cow', wearing cut off denim shorts with stripy tights and Doc Martins, I was lucky enough to have a group of about 15 friends. We did pretty much everything together, or in smaller groups comprised of the same people.......trips to the cinema or American Adventure, drinking a bottle of Newcastle Brown between all of us, getting grounded for vastly unjust reason........ we also used to have amazing house parties.

All of our Parents were pretty cool and because they knew everyone in the group they would rather us have house parties and keep an eye on what we were up too (or at least they thought so!!!)  At one of these house parties, where actually I don't remember there being any parents, we partied all night and on the stereo on repeat was this song:

It was an awesome party and since then it has become mine and Nelly's song. Every time I hear it I smile and it makes me feel young again!!!  This one is for her because we miss her very much and I know she's feeling a bit homesick at the mo :-( Love you Nelly xxx

Easter Eggs handmade by Us

Chick has mainly had money for Easter this year as everyone seems to think that she's too old for eggs??? I don't think so but anyways whilst she was spending the money that her Dad gave her (on books of all things.....seriously.....she has a library in her room already!!) we came across some easter egg molds for 59p so I told her that we'd make our own eggs.

The weather has been absolutely glorious but Chick was fed up of the sunshine yesterday, after spending all morning out on her bike, so we thought that we'd have a go. These are our fabulous 59p plastic molds:

Mmmmmmmm chocolate and a helping hand from my girl:

We did have some initial problems with the consistency but I think we figured it out in the end. Once they had set I stuck the two halves of the small eggs together with more chocolate, wrapped them in foil and put them in the centre of the egg. This was the finished product:

A foil and ribbon wrapping and they were all done! Not sure how great they will taste but they look pretty damn good and we are really pleased with them.  I also made a plate of goodies for myself......chocolate dipped marshmallows and mini solid chocolate eggs (left) although it doesn't quite compare to Chick's stash from the Easter Bunny (right)!!!!

With Easter wishes and the hope that you all have a wonderful day.....Love from Me & Chick x

Changing Rooms.....on a budget!

My lovely friend Karen who blogs at All about the Boys has been my inspiration this week. She has 3 boys all under 18 and loves white. Most of her house is white and it always looks immaculate. Just re-read that sentence back to yourself........Yes, that's correct she has 3 boys under 18 and lives in a white house!!!! Also, no, she isn't crazy and she tries to do it all on a budget. Check out her other blog 'The White Approach' to see just how lovely their home is.

I decided last week that my living room needed a bit of a re-vamp but I only had a budget of £30!!! Now before I show you how it worked out there is something that I should tell you about us.......a) Chick and I are both hoarders b) we are both VERY messy c) I hate cleaning and d) our house has NO storage.....like none and it's an utter pain especially when mixed with a, b and c!!!

So these are the before shots of our lounge on a usual evening when Chick has been home for more than 10 minutes:

I refer you to the points above. So armed with my £30 I hit the shops for inspiration and saw these cushions for £4 each in Primark so bought 2 and used this as my starting point:

I also had the throw to go with them which was £5:

On one of my walls I had these pictures which obviously needed changing:

The only pictures that I could find that I loved were in John Lewis but were massively out of my price range on this occasion. I'd looked all over town for something similar but cheaper and couldn't find anything when I found myself wondering the aisles in the Pound shop. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted two cushion covers that would be perfect as pictures, so I bought them and covered the old pictures and I have to say that I absolutely love the way they have turned out:

Not to everyone's taste I'm sure but I'm thrilled with them and the good thing is that if I decide to go back to brown I will still have the original pictures!!! I cut the little love hearts out from my lunch bag and added them to the picture on the left!

So with the cushions as the base I decided to go to B&Q and have the paint mixed to my exact specifications and as I only needed a small pot it was £11.   It was the coolest thing ever!!!!! They scanned the cushion and then mixed it to that colour......I can't tell you how excited I was by this whole process.....sad I know :-)  This is how fabulous it looks on the wall:

The other thing that the room desperately needed was a bloody good clean!!! I got rid of most of the toys that Chick no longer plays with although had to keep one corner of her stuff, threw away crap that was kept around for no apparent reason and scrubbed the whole thing including the couches! This is the finished room:

My total cost? Well I did go over budget but I spent....................£32!!!! Woo Hoo for having a shiny new lounge for £32. I am now saving to have shelves put up in both alcoves so will let you know if I ever get the money together :-)

Tracks of my years

The lovely Jen over at The Madhouse has come a with a great idea of sharing a music track every week on her blog. Part of the reason that I blog is so that when Chick is a teenager (and hates me) she can look back at my little old blog and see that I tried my best with everything that I had. I figure it will also be nice if she can see a little bit of what makes me tick!   I probably won't join in every week but it's kind of cool and as I have quite eclectic taste in music hopefully there will be something for everyone. 

My first track is mine and Chick's Dad song. It isn't romantic but it sums up exactly what we were like at the time and reminds me of one night when we were both head banging to it and dancing around like lunatics:



Feel free to link up if you have a song or a memory that you would like to share :-)