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Monthly Round-up – January 2017

February 3, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

Watching: I always lose track of everything I watch so I started making lists on my phone. This month I watched; A Series of Unfortunate Events (binge watched the new series on Netflix the day it came out), Bad Moms, London has Fallen, Iron Man 3, Star Wars: Rogue One, A Monster Calls, Now You See Me, Now You See Me 2, Sausage Party, Miss You Already, Allegiant, Five Year Engagement, Mad Max: Fury Road, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and of course keeping up to date with all the various series that I usually watch.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): I thought after Christmas that things might quieten down a bit and they did… but only for a little while. After catching up on orders from the holiday period, I had a quietish week or so where I even got to try out a few new products but it soon got busy again and I haven’t caught up since. I think I’ve had approximately 100 orders for January. As well as all the usual, I made new Infinity Scarves which I hope to list soon and new Travel Wallets which I still want to perfect. I also made a Belle Christmas dress which was for Liv’s birthday at the end of the month.

And in other news…
– This month has been a combination of really dreary and wet, or absolutely freezing cold so the truth is, doing anything has been a bit of a struggle. We went swimming early on (before school started) and managed a trip to Disneyland Paris which was booked a while back, but otherwise I’ve just wanted to huddle in the house!
– Speaking of swimming, this term has been Lily’s class’ turn to go swimming on Thursday. I go with them as they always need parent helpers and last week Lily managed her 50 metre badge which I’m super proud of as she could barely swim last year when they started.
– At the beginning of the month, Chris managed to write his car off which meant rescuing him on the day and then spending a week looking for a new car. In the process we did get to try out a new place called Meat Inc. and we’re hoping to go there again soon! We also had a day out to see Rogue One (which we combined with looking for cars) and had lunch at Yo Yo’s for the first time in a while.
– As I mentioned, we went to Disneyland Paris and on the way home I managed to crash my car in the car park. This meant I had to pay almost £400 to get my car towed home and then another £35 to get it mended in the garage. It was a lot of hassle but it could have been worse I guess.
– Megan got a boyfriend (her first proper one) in December and though they didn’t see each other over Christmas, things are still going strong in January. We took Daniel to the cinema and Pizza Express and she has been invited around to his house for dinner twice after school.
– Also I attended Megan’s first secondary school Parent’s Evening, where I had appointments to see all the teachers separately. She is doing so well and on track for As and A*s in all her subjects. After leaving I burst into tears as I was so proud of her.
– I finally got around to using my new soup maker and made soup almost every day for a week. It wasn’t particularly healthy mind you as my favourite is broccoli and stilton.
– Over Christmas, Lily and I played a lot on the Harry Potter Lego games and for Christmas she got the new Fantastic Beasts set for Lego Dimensions. We spent all afternoon one Saturday building up the portal from Lego and then the rest of the evening playing on the game.
– Finally the end of the month saw Chinese New Year and so we “celebrated” by ordering Chinese takeaway!

Looking forward to in February:
– As far as I know, there isn’t much happening in February. I know we are hoping to organise a games night and give Nat’s fella Dan, a chance to meet our friend’s Jon and Becka.
– Also there is Valentine’s Day, but Chris is working in the daytime (as always) and the girls will have been at their dad’s overnight. I’m planning a lie-in, then my mum is picking them up and heading over and we’re going to play board games. Probably in the evening we’ll have a nice meal together as a family.
– Sing and The Batman Lego movie are both out at the cinema so hopefully we’ll see those. There is talk of a movie marathon day so that would be great!
– It’s half term this month and I love that for so many reasons. Firstly it means I don’t have to turn out on the school run both in the morning or in the afternoon (that saves me 3 hours of my day). Also it means I get to spend time with the kids (Chris is working every day, surprise surprise). Lily and I also have her school project to finish and that means baking so hopefully that will be fun too.
– Otherwise, I can’t think what else will be happening. It’s my sister’s birthday at the end of the month so we may well go out for that.

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Filed Under: monthly round up Tagged With: 2017, A Monster Calls, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Cars, Chinese New Year, Christmas Belle, Daniel, Disneyland Paris, fantastic beasts, january, Lego Dimensions, Lily swimming, Pizza Express, rogue one, soup, swimming

Life Lately – an update (Dec)

December 8, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

So I was going to do my November monthly round up but the truth is I don’t really remember much of it as it went past in a blur! I genuinely don’t remember the last time I felt like I had some spare time to sit down and just blog about life and how things were going. Anyway, today I do and so here I am to give you a little update! November was hectic and the look on Tink’s face (see mug) was pretty much my face for the whole month (and still now really). Since September and October were crazy busy with Halloween, I didn’t start my Christmas Market prep till November and this proved to be pretty stressful. That said, I managed okay and Christmas Market has now been and gone and I can breath a sigh of relief. Orders and CG are still busy but somehow by comparison, life feels quite calm right now.

Aside from the above mentioned preparation, not a whole lot happened in November but there are a couple of things worth noting. First and foremost, things started to get a little Christmasy! We attended Gainsborough’s Christmas Light Switch on, got Christmas coffee from both Starbucks and Costa, plus I had a little Christmas Lush (I hope to have more!). Second, we were lucky enough to see two fantastic movies this month – one being Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, the other being Moana. Both were really amazing in completely different ways but it really was great to have another Harry Potter movie to look forward to and of course a dose of Disney (especially one I hadn’t known much about and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it).

Other than that, there hasn’t been a whole lot of new going on. We did all have a family get together on November 20th as that would have been my mum and dad’s 40th Wedding Anniversary, had he still been around, so that was nice but a little sad too. As I mentioned, life has been pretty hectic but it finally seems to be settling down now. The girls have a fair bit going on at school so I’m coming and going a lot right now but hopefully I will be finding time to blog again now, in between making orders, opening advent calendars and picking the girls up from school discos. This month has Megan’s birthday and Christmas in it, so I’m definitely hoping to make the most of December.

Filed Under: about me Tagged With: christmas, christmas coffee, christmas market, costa, fantastic beasts, harry potter, life lately, lights switch on, moana, movies, Starbucks, update

Hi, my name is Bel!


I’m a forty something, mother of two, self-confessed geek!

Here on my blog you’ll find;
books I’ve read, clothes I’ve made, movies I’ve watched, cakes I’ve baked, products I’ve tried, places I’ve been, pictures I’ve taken… plus lots and lots of DISNEY!!

I’m a lifestyle blogger – covering a little of everything I love <3

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