Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Monthly Round-up – March

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Watching: Given that it’s mid-April before I write this, I have very little recollection of what I watched, other than what I made a note of in my phone. I watched several Netflix series including; The OA, Friends with Better Lives,
Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, and Iron Fist but I don’t remember which others. I watched the newest Annie movie. I also re-watched Cinderella and Guardians of the Galaxy. As well as keeping up with Bones, Holby City, Casualty, Riverdale, Grimm, New Girl etc. I saw Beauty and the Beast at the cinema.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): March was pretty crazy for orders, always seeming like I had a few more than I could cope with. However I managed to get through them and that’s what counts! I announced a Wonderland Giveaway for the monthly box, plus made LOADS of ears and bows, along with a Belle dress, two Briar Rose dresses, a Boys Woody top and waistcoat and a girls Woody dress. There was also a huge wave of orders for Infinity scarves after Roisin from Disneyfind, shared the scarf I sent her. I think I made 15 in one week and since then the orders dribble in still! Of course there was a technicolour dreamcoat and a pharaoh costume too which you can read more about below! Finally with the upcoming 25th Anniversary for DLP, I designed some ears which have proved very popular too!

And in other news…
– One of the first things that happened this month was Lily’s birthday, when she turned 9. We had a very calm day, making lego in the morning, Pizza Hut for lunch and then chilling out when we got home until bedtime.
– World Book Day was also at the beginning of this month and since last year Lily had gone as Harley Quinn, before it was super popular to be Harley Quinn, this year she went as Dr Harleen Quinzel. She looked absolutely fabulous. Megan didn’t get to dress up now she’s at secondary school, which is sad!


– Megan broke up with her boyfriend – her choice. It wasn’t especially dramatic but she did feel pretty bad afterwards so us three girls went shopping and I taught the girls about retail therapy ;)
– One of the most life changing things that happened this month is that we finally got an offer on the house. March 13th. After having the house on the market for almost a year, and after living here for almost 4 years when we only intended it to be 1 or 2. Fingers crossed it’s all proceeding well as we have accepted the offer since then, the “sold” sign went up on 20th, we had the survey done and started to complete the forms. More info to follow!
– Lily and I went on her school trip, to Cadbury World near Birmingham. It’s always really nice to share school trips with the girls but this time it was especially nice as Lily and I even sat together on the coach. It was a long and tiring day, especially as Lily was full of cold but we both enjoyed ourselves.
– Amy and Liv came to visit for the weekend and although we didn’t do a lot, we seemed to keep busy. We didn’t pick them up till fairly late on Friday so all we did was drink and catch up, but then Saturday we saw Beauty and the Beast, plus went to Meadowhall and had Five Guys. On Sunday we just hung out while I got some work done, until eventually I took them back to the station.
– Chris’ birthday was the 20th and it was nice to spend the day together, even though the girls weren’t around to enjoy it at all. We went into Lincoln in the morning to do some shopping but it threw it down with rain all day so we cut it short and came home. In the evening we met with friends and went to Frankie and Benny’s for dinner and then did an “Escape the Room” game which was amazing. Hopefully I will post about that soon!
– Not really a big fan of Red Nose Day (or Children in Need for that matter) but always happy to donate £1 to non-uniform and a red nose etc. However I did love that there was a “Red Nose Day Actually” short, like an update to Love Actually – and I cried and found it amazing too.
– Then came Mother’s Day. The girls made a mistake with my gift and ended up upset but it really didn’t matter as it was lovely to spend the day with them and then with my own mum too at lunch time. We went out to a restaurant called Meat Inc. that does amazing burgers and I was really hoping to review but completely forgot to take pics! Maybe next time we visit I will remember.
– I can’t remember if I mentioned this last month or not but Lily was given the part of Pharaoh in her school play – Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat. She was really excited (and nervous) as it was a big part but I knew she would be amazing (AND SHE WAS!). I offered to make the technicolour dreamcoat for school and Lily’s Pharaoh costume too. I was the last of the family to see her play (with everyone else seeing it Monday and Tuesday, and Megan and I waiting till Wednesday) but it was pretty decent. I got embarrassed at the end however as I got given a bunch of flowers and a very public thank you, for helping with the costumes.
– One of the last things we did in March was have some friends around for socialising. We played Jackbox all night and it was a lot of fun. I’m really glad we’re finding more time to do that, although I do wonder if moving will effect these nights!

Looking forward to in April:
– Easter Holidays! I love love LOVE having the girls off school – not just for having them around, but also for saving myself three hours in a car for the school run. We don’t have too much planned but you never know!
– We have tickets to see Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat at Skegness on Easter Weekend. After it was announced that Lily’s school would be doing the play, she took such an interest that I suggested booking tickets. I’m so glad I did as she was then given a great part and really loved the play. I can’t wait for her to see it done on a big stage.
– Mum’s birthday is in April. We probably won’t do much but I’ve already bought her present and no doubt we’ll all go out for lunch.

Week 10 – Monday Round-up

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Well it’s been a busy week, I can tell you! I can’t quite believe it’s gone past already! Anyway, here is my brief run down of the week – as I remember it!

Monday to Friday was school and work for the girls and Chris. I don’t honestly remember what I did most days but I’ll give it a bash when something sticks out! I do remember that I won a competition on Twitter on Monday, with BooHoo.com – getting me an outfit worth £100 that arrived later in the week. Otherwise I think it was probably just a day of housework and blogging. The girls had singing stars after school and so it was late when we all got home and had dinner. The girls and I made a Queen of Hearts bow before Lily had to go to bed and Megan and I worked on her cake. We’d started it on Sunday but knowing we only had a couple of hours each day, meant we had to do a little bit every day.

On Tuesday again the girls were at school and when they got home we had to fit in two Disney tasks as they were busy the following night. We watched The Princess Diaries and read some of the new Never Girls book, all before Lily went to bed. After she did, Megan and I worked on Lily’s cake again. Next day Chris was off work and the girls were going to their dad’s after school. This meant a really leisurely day because I didn’t really need to be anywhere at any particular time. I don’t remember an awful lot of what we did but I do know we were naughty and had takeaway for dinner, just before the kids came home! Again, after Lily was in bed, Megan and I worked on her cake. We got it finished and I was really proud of it!

Megan wrapped Lily’s presents and then headed to bed, while I also wrapped Lily’s presents and wrote her card. For once I felt pretty organised which is a nice change these days! Thursday was Lily’s birthday and she woke us all at 6.30am. We opened presents in bed before getting up and having breakfast, then getting ready for school. The girls were both going dressed up for World Book Day and they were also both going as Harry Potter characters. Megan was Luna Lovegood and had Ravenclaw robes, while Lily was Hermione Granger and had Gryffindor robes. From what I can gather they had a good day! After school I picked them both up and we went for dinner at Pizza Express. The food was delicious but the girls were tired and I wasn’t feeling very well, so there was definitely a disappointing vibe.

After that we went to Sainsbury’s though and the girls had their savings with them and I’d emptied out my weightloss savings box in order to change the money into dollars. We all did ours individually – Megan having the most, Lily next and then me (no surprise!). We then headed home and Nat arrived for a visit just a little while later. I let Lily stay up so she could open her present and then both girls went to bed. Nat stayed for quite a while but not too late as I was feeling a bit rough and was dying to go to sleep!

On Friday neither girl really wanted to go to school but I packed them off, knowing it was only one more day to get through. At midday I took Chris to work, called at Morrisons and then went to see my mum. She had been away in Israel for a week and a half so it was really nice to see her. I picked the girls up from school but we all had dinner with mum before heading home. When we got back there were quite a lot of parcels waiting for us which was pretty exciting. One of them was my BooHoo delivery which was my outfit worth £100. There was a dress, a handbag, some shoes and a shirt. The next day was Saturday and we had a trip to Leeds and X Factor planned, but in the morning we tidied the girls room and sorted out some more packing for Florida. Another parcel arrived from BooHoo which also went with my parcel from the day before, this time a pair of black trousers. Over lunch we watched Sleeping Beauty and then we got ready for going out. We finally left the house around 4pm but we needed to call at Tesco and also get some petrol. We had a fairly uneventful journey to Leeds and got there around 6pm. However traffic was horrendous and it took half an hour just to do 3 miles. We eventually parked, found McDonalds and had something to eat. Afterwards we made our way to First Direct Arena and settled in for the show.

At first I think it was a bit loud for the girls but they soon settled in and began enjoying themselves. Lily spent most of the second half stood up and dancing so that was lovely to see. It was 10pm by the time we left and we rushed back to the car as we’d been warned it could be a long wait afterwards. Unfortunately we didn’t miss the queues and instead sat still in the car for almost an hour, without even moving an inch. Finally at around 11pm we got out of the car park and headed home. I missed a few turnings and sadly put about 10 minutes on our journey and it was 12.20am before we got back. The girls went straight to bed and Chris and I sat for a while before we did too.

On Sunday we managed a bit of a lie-in but I also had to get up and get on as I was spending the day at mum’s. Chris needed to be at work for 12pm and as there are no trains back in time, I arranged to stay at mum’s and wait for him, while the girls went to bed there too. As such we needed everything to occupy us for the afternoon, along with school clothes etc for the next day. It was a pretty hectic morning making sure we had everything and then we needed to leave around 11.30am. Mum wasn’t in when we first got there but eventually she turned up and we had lunch. The afternoon was spent with Megan doing her homework and Megan and Lily making a Lego Rapunzel tower with mum – all while I dozed on the sofa. Later Lily had a bath while mum made dinner and then we all sat down to a roast chicken dinner. Afterwards Megan had a shower and I put Lily to bed. Megan went to bed about an hour later and it wasn’t long after that before I headed out to get Chris. Together we headed home, watched some TV together and then I blogged while he went on his Xbox. We eventually headed to bed at just gone 12am.

It’s been a good week but its gone by so fast. As of today it’s 23 days until we go to Florida and I honestly don’t even know where the time is going! This coming week and the next are going to be busy so I apologise in advance if my blog posts are lacking!