Journeys Are My Diary

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Getting ready for “Back to School”

August 26, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

There’s still one week left in August but already I’m beginning to think about the kids going back to school. As much as I love having them around for the summer holidays (and I promise I’m not sick of them and looking forward to sending them back again), I do dread the expense of “back to school”. For some reason, Summer seems to be that one time when they need loads more school uniform, new shoes and then a leather messenger bag , lunch boxes stationery etc.

School Uniform

With Lily’s school uniform, I’m very lucky that a school jumper or cardigan with the logo on, is not compulsory. As such, all her uniform tends to get bought from places like Asda and Tesco, who have tops, skirts, trousers etc. all around £4-5 mark. These are also great places to get PE kit, socks, underwear etc. Megan on the other hand, wears school uniform that is all very specific to her school and is quite regulated too.

Last year, when she started in Year 7, I spent almost £200 on new school uniform and that was only one blazer, one pack of shirts, one skirt, one trousers etc. Luckily this year I purchased these “girls school trousers” and they’re amazing for her and both of us are loving it.

 

Shoes

Ever since the girls first started wearing shoes, I have always taken them each year to get their feet measured at Clarks and then buy a pair each to last the year. While I’m all for shopping on a budget, £35-40 is well spent on a pair of Clarks shoes, given that they do last the whole year. Today I took the girls to get their shoes and funny enough the girls ended up with the exact same pairs as this time last year (except in bigger sizes of course). Megan is now fitting in a 3.5, while Lily is in a 1.

Backpacks

As well as the obvious school uniform necessities from Smiggle, there are plenty of extras that are needed for the school year. Last year Megan had a backpack from Asda Living which was really cute, but unfortunately it lasted about 3 months before one of the zips broke. In the end, she made her way through three backpacks during the whole year and we’re anticipating similar this year. That said, all the backpacks we bought previously were fairly cheap and so after quizzing her on what friends seem to have, Jacks Wills seems to be a brand we could try. Luckily Lily bought herself a Joker bag during the middle of last year and she is very keen to continue using that, along with her every growing collection of pom pom keyrings.

Stationery

Last but not least of course, is all the stationery, notebooks, calculators etc, that are needed – especially for Megan at secondary school. For the most part she has everything from last year,  last week gave us a top up on some mechanical pencils and Otto Hut pens. To be honest there was a lot more there that we could have bought, but we behaved ourselves for the time being. Megan did join the Smiggle VIP club however, so no doubt we’ll be back there before too long.

Filed Under: lifestyle Tagged With: Asda, back to school, books, Clarks, jack wills, kids, school, school uniform, shopping, smiggle, stationery, Tesco

38/52

September 18, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

photo-16-09-2016-08-03-05 photo-16-09-2016-16-47-42
Lily had a Roman dress up day this week and looked really sweet. She was supposed to be a goddess but wasn’t keen on any of the white dresses and instead picked this black one. Megan got changed after school that same day and since she had something aggravating her neck, I put her hair up for her. I couldn’t get over just how grown up she looked.

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Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 38/52, at home, blog project, growing up, Lily, Megan, photos, romans, school

July AND August Round-up

September 1, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

july
Can you believe it got to August 21st before I actually got around to writing my July round-up? I had remembered earlier than that but with one thing or another, I just didn’t find time to write it up. However by that point it seemed a bit random to post so late in the month and I decided to save it and do July and August together. July will be far more vague but here they both are anyway!

Watching: Fringe (Season 4-5), Vampire Diaries (Season 7), Wayward Pines (Season 1-2), Sleepy Hollow (Season 3), Grimm (Season 6), Suits (Season 6), Transformers – Age of Extinction, Bones (Season 6+)
Reading: Cinder.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): A few more ears, some bunting, an Anna skirt, along with the usual orders of bows, pencil cases and clothes.

And in other news…
– Pokemon Go became a big things for Lily. She doesn’t have her own phone and it won’t work on her iPad so I let her use it on my phone. I have to admit I don’t mind encouraging it – especially the walks to hatch eggs.
– Probably the most notable part of July was the girls finishing school for the summer, coupled with Megan leaving primary school altogether. The last two weeks were very emotional with School play, Leavers Do, Church Services, Leavers Assembly, Sports Day etc. However even though she was sad, school ended on a high note and hopefully she’s looking forward to Secondary School in September.
– We had some beautiful weather, actually like Summer for a change. It was really nice but of course didn’t last long!
– The girls washed Chris’s car, outside with Chris. They started on mine too but soon got bored and Chris ended up finishing it.
– Dentists. Enough said.
– Our first camping trip took place at the very end of July. We went to a place called Staxton, near Scarborough for the weekend and actually had a great time.

 

august

Watching: I completely caught up with Bones, right up to the end of Season 10. Criminal Minds (from Season 2-), Captain America: Winter Soldier (finally), X-Men 1, 2 and 3 with the kids. Daredevil (Season 2). Containment, Musketeers and Vikings.
Reading: Cinder, Reliquary.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Harry Potter bunting, loads and loads of pencil cases.

And in other news…
– We went to Meadowhall shopping, to get Beauty and the Beast tsum tsums, shoes for Megan and of course FIVE GUYS! It was Nat’s first time too.
– Nat, Megan, Lily and I went to a Harry Potter convention and ball. We had an overnight stay at the Premier Inn, Nottingham.
– Chris bought Lily a starter set of Pokemon cards and then taught her how to play.
– We took our second camping trip, this time to Chichester, where we spent the day on a boat in the marina and got a brand new tent too!
– We got an ice cream maker to review AND made ice cream. It was pretty amazing.
– Placed an uber Hobbycraft order which was pretty exciting!
– Closet Geek turned ONE! I still can’t believe it really but its actually a great feeling. I love my work more than I ever thought possible.
– Went to see Suicide Squad at the cinema. It was really nice as Chris and I went with my best friend and her boyfriend Dan.
– I took the girls to the beach and we had a really great day. We went to Mablethorpe and the weather was beautiful. We had candy floss, ice cream and the girls got an airbrush tattoo.

Looking forward to in September:
– Megan starts school on 2nd September so that is both terrifying and exciting. I can’t believe she’s old enough for secondary school. I hope her first day goes well!
– Amy is hopefully coming to visit next weekend. I haven’t seen her since May so it will be lovely to see her and Liv again.
– (Not entirely sure I’m looking forward to this but..) Seeing the Halloween orders flood in for Closet Geek. I’m hoping its not as crazy as last year but its nice to be busy.
– Other than that there isn’t much going on this month so we’ll just see how it goes!

Filed Under: monthly round up Tagged With: August, beach, camping, chichester, cinema, Closet Geek, ending school, Harry Potter Ball, July, meadowhall, pokemon, scarborough, school, September, starting school, Suicide Squad, summer holidays

A new journey begins…

July 21, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

If “Journeys are my Diary” is to be taken literally, today is the end of one diary and the beginning of a new one. Though technically a diary entry in Megan’s journal not mine, today’s is definitely something to be CC:d to my life journal too! I’ve spent most of the evening, searching through photos and compiling what I want for this post. In the end though, I’ve decided to let the pictures speak for themselves…

meganschool

The Parties

party party2 party3 party4 party5 party6 party7

The Shine Assemblies

shineyr2 shineyr3 shineyr4 shineyr5

The School Plays

play play2 play3 play4 play5 play6

The Last Few Days

leavers _DSC1245 leavers2 lastday

 

Filed Under: about me Tagged With: birthday parties, end of primary school, end of school, leavers, life milestone, Megan, memories, photos, reception, saxilby school, school, school play, Shine Assembly, starting secondary school, year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4, year 5, year 6

Blogging from the Park!

July 18, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Once again I’m still really busy so I thought I would make the most of this random break to do a little catching up. It’s Monday, after school and it’s 27 degrees, would you believe?

First thing we did after school was grab an ice cream and a drink and now we’re at the park. It’s very rare that the weather is nice enough after school (rain being fairly standard for the school run) and so we’re making the most of it! The girls have only three days left of school this term and after that Megan will no longer attend Primary School – I honestly can’t believe it.

Last week was the start of the wind down, though obviously there have been transition days too. Monday saw School Reports being released, in which both did well and had glowing comments about both their personalities and their achievements. Tuesday was a re-arranged Sports Day as it was cancelled the previous week due to rain and a wet field. Both girls participated and I went along in the afternoon to watch Lily play rounders and Megan play kingball. Wednesday and Thursday was Megan’s school play – Go for Gold. She had one of the lead parts and while probably biased, I thought she was great. For some weird reason she was cast as an Olympic Athlete which is ironic to say the least as she hates sports.

Then came Friday and this was Megan’s Leavers Do. It was basically a disco type party that only the Year 6’s would attend. We nipped home after school to get changed and ready but needed to be back in Saxilby by 6.30pm. Megan looked so grown up that I honestly couldn’t get over it and when I picked her up she looked even more beautiful than when I dropped her off – with a flush of enjoyment in her cheeks and a cocktail umbrella tucked behind her ear!

The busy week didn’t stop there as I had loads of work to do Saturday, plus we were supposed to be going to a 40th birthday party (in the end I didn’t feel well enough to go). Lily also had a birthday party to attend on Sunday and so that topped off a hectic week.

This coming week will be the same, with today as our only calm day until term breaks up on Thursday. We have a KS2 Church Service tomorrow morning, for which I agreed to walk to and from the church with the kids, then Lily has a school trip on Wednesday and Megan has a Leavers Assembly on Thursday morning. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to them breaking up but at the same time it will be the end of an era for sure!

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Filed Under: about me Tagged With: church service, end of school, leavers assembly, leavers do, Lily, Megan, park, school, school play, secondary school, Trip

End of School Year

July 14, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Sadly I’m not here to make a long post but instead to apologise for being a bit AWOL. This time of year is always crazy busy with the kids and end of school stuff and time passes me by so fast. So far we’ve had a transition day, Sports Day, school play, school reports and goodness knows what else. There is another school play tonight, a leaver’s do tomorrow, a church service and leavers assembly next week. This time next week, it will all be over and we’ll be on summer holidays. Megan will be done with primary school and heading into secondary school and that all seems a bit unreal to be honest.

Hopefully I will have time to catch up soon but please don’t think I’ve forgotten you! I just need a moment to catch my breath and then I’ll be back.

Megan in her school play yesterday

Filed Under: about me Tagged With: busy life, end of school, leavers assembly, leavers do, school, school play, school reports, sports day

24/52

June 12, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Photo 08-06-2016, 15 50 20 Photo 08-06-2016, 15 49 46

We had four beautiful days of weather this week and on Wednesday we went to the park after school!

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 24/52, blog project, Lily, Megan, park, photos, saxilby, school, summer, sunny days

22/52

May 29, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Photo 27-05-2016, 09 38 44 Photo 27-05-2016, 09 43 23

Both girls were in assembly this morning. Megan for Student Council and Lily for her swimming awards.

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 22/52, blog project, Lily, Megan, photos, school, school achievements

March Round-up

April 11, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

I thought that doing a monthly round-up would be easier than doing a weekly one but seems instead that months just escape me and I end up so late doing my round-up! It won’t be very accurate, but here is my March.

dji_kidilly_march_c

Watching: Catching up on loads of TV in the evening, as we only did DIY in the day. I/We caught up on SHIELD, Agent Carter, Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Grimm, Dance Moms, The Walking Dead, NCIS, Blindspot, X-Files, Gotham, Catfish, The 100, Limitless, Ink Master, Casualty, Holby City and probably more that I don’t remember. I also got quite addicted to watching old episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA.
Reading: Fantastic Mr Fox, Six Lies, Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn, Fated,.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Several custom dresses with Disney fabric including; Inside Out, Jungle Book and Lion King. Also a Belle inspired dress and an Aurora inspired dress. An adult Alice in Wonderland dress. A Jessie Dress and Pinocchio outfit from my store listings. I made Aurora and Rapunzel bows on custom request too. Closet Geek was closed for 2 weeks for DIY though.

And in other news…
– Mum got back from New Zealand! After spending the whole of February away, it was really nice to have her back at the very beginning of March. I didn’t realise quite how much I missed her.
– Megan got accepted into her first choice for Secondary School. To be honest I had expected as much but considering 90% of her class/year at her school didn’t, it made me even more grateful. We took her out to dinner at NYC bar and grill to celebrate.
– World Book day was fun! Lily went as Harley Quinn and Megan went as Wenda from Where’s Wally/Waldo.
– Lily was in Shine assembly and it was also the last week for her teacher before going on maternity leave. It was a really sweet but sad moment in assembly and Lily even got to give Mrs Riley her leaving gift.
– Lily’s birthday happened! She turned 8 and honestly as usual, she just grew up overnight. We had a lovely day with birthday lunch out at Pizza Hut but relaxing for the most part. It’s always nice when a birthday falls at the weekend.
– It was a busy weekend with Lily’s birthday Saturday and then Mother’s Day on Sunday. It was lovely though and I was spoilt by the girls. I got a new Disney Tradition ornament and a new Disney Pop Funko too. We went out for lunch with my mum, my sister, my brother and his girlfriend and son too. It was nice to get together as a family.
– I finally edited the girls’ first YouTube video and it was pretty funny to watch. I have no idea when we’ll get around to doing another!
– Some MAJOR DIY took place in our house during March. We started with the kitchen floor on a day off but moved to finishing off the whole house during 10 days off that Chris had booked (and I closed Closet Geek).
– Chris’ birthday was mid-March. He’s way too laid back about doing anything on his bday so it was hard to figure out a fun day. In the end we played mini-golf in Sheffield and then went to Meadowhall where we shopped a bit and had Five Guys for dinner.
– Chris and I tried Cosmos for the first time. Cosmo is a chain restaurant of buffet food. However where most are Chinese and/or Indian, this one is sort of everything. You do still get Chinese and Indian but you also get English (like roast dinner stuff), Italian (like pizza and pasta), loads of nibbly bits like chips, onion rings, curly fries etc. Japanese (like Sushi) and so much more. On a lunchtime it’s £7.50 for as much as you want so it’s really not that bad.
– The girls broke up from school and we celebrated (as always) with Pizza Hut for dinner. It was nice as Chris was actually off work for a change so we all got to go together.
– We celebrated Easter at my brother’s house as it was also a birthday party for his twin boys. It was nice for the girls to get to spend time with their cousins and other kids their age – not to mention play out in the garden and have an easter egg hunt.
– I finished off the month feeling really ill. I totally burnt myself out with all the DIY and letting myself get tired. I was pretty ill for 2-3 days and then had a bad headache for another 1-2 after that. It sort of sucked after achieving so much with the house.

Looking forward to in April:
– Getting the house officially on the market was my main thing to look forward to in April. Since I’m late writing this post, this has actually already happened. We had the person around to take photos in early April, then the house went on the market and we got a copy of the brochure, then our “for sale” sign went up the very next day.
– Mum’s birthday. She’s actually away for her birthday (and I wish I was going to Storybrooke), but we’ll celebrate just beforehand I’m sure.
– Finding some time to work on new ideas for Closet Geek. After shutting the store for two weeks, it took about another week to get caught up. It’s been nice having the odd time here and there to try new projects and I hope to have some more this month.
– Time off with the girls. Most of Easter hols has been in April and as always I look forward to spending time with them. It’s funny how sad I feel when they go back now, rather than the relief I used to feel when they were smaller and more annoying!
– Honestly there isn’t much happening in April as far as I know so not much to look forward to!

Filed Under: monthly round up Tagged With: chris' birthday, cosmo, decorating, diy, Easter, Easter holidays, home improvements, Lily's birthday, March, mother's day, Pizza Hut, round up, school, secondary school, selling the house, Shine Assembly

13/52

March 27, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

This week’s picture is from the last day of term. It’s become a sort of tradition to end term by heading to Pizza Hut as a family. Luckily Chris was off for a week or so at the same time and so we were all able to go. Lily was feeling very loving for some reason and I snapped this great picture of the girls.

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 13/52, blog projects, Easter holidays, eating out, Lily, Megan, photos, pizza, Pizza Hut, school

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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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