100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups Week #7

I have to say I was thrilled when I read the prompt at The Head's Office and couldn't wait to get writing!  Hopefully this will be a lighter piece than my previous two efforts.  I'm not going to tell you the prompt, see if you can work it out for yourself!

Bamboozled!!! 

Ceri stared at the canvas in disgust.  She'd completely foozled her attempt at painting the cat.  However much she tried to convey his smugness, all she'd managed was to make him look constipated!  Mind, it was hard to concentrate with the brabble from the twins in the background.  She wasn't sure what it was about this time, probably whether Dr Who or Chuck would be a better ally against an army of CIA robots.

She stood up with an air of determination.  "That's it!" she thought.  "I need a growlery for all my projects!  Somewhere I can hear myself think!"

Car Crash TV and Bitch Fights - What's the attraction?

Celebrity Big Brother got me thinking tonight - what is it that makes us watch something that is absolutely rubbish, or follow a bitch fight thread, or see what's gone off in a real car crash?

I first started thinking about this when a certain blogger got shot down in flames on a certain mum forum for the entrance she made, and as soon as I heard it was 'all kicking off' I had to go rushing over and read the entire thread to find out what was going off.

Tonight, I knew CBB was going to annoy me - but there's something compelling about watching something that's really awful.  As it turned out, it was a bit of a misnomer - 'Celebrity' Big Brother it ain't!  But that's beside the point.

What about you?  Are you a rubber necker?  Can you ignore a car crash?  Either the real kind or the TV kind?  Do you have to know all the details behind a twitter fight?  Or am I just nosey?

Lip gloss and baby wipes

Whilst trying to find a new name for my blog I came up with the name: Lip gloss and baby wipes, which for some reason sparked off a creative streak in me which lead to the story below.  I just wanted to convey why those 2 items are of such importance to a mother.  I'd love any feedback on my writing!  If you don't like it I won't plague you with anymore of it!!


Lip gloss and baby wipes.  She always had them around her somewhere.  The wipes to mop up the inevitable spills, mucky fingers, sick, blood or tea.  The lip gloss in an attempt to look like the yummy mummy she longed to be without drawing attention to the teeth she wished were straight and bright white instead of slightly crooked and stained.

Not that there was much chance of that happening.  3 pregnancies had taken their toll on her body and her belly sagged like an apron over her trousers.  No amount of dieting was ever going to get rid of that souvenir.  And she was certainly never going to be seen in a bikini again.  She had stretch marks on her stretch marks reaching up to her bust.  No, motherhood had left its indelible marks on her body and there wasn't much she could do about it now.

Magazines in the supermarket aisles taunted her: 'X lost all her baby weight 2 days after the baby was born!'  'See Y's post baby figure!'  "Sure", she grunted to herself.  "I could have looked like that if I didn't have a baby permanently attached to one boob while trying to chase after a demented toddler and cook tea for a grumpy husband.  I could have looked like that if all I had to do was worry about looking good!"

Her one solace was her nail polish and lip glosses.  Her husband had no idea of the amount of money she spent on make up but she was careful with her budget and that was her one indulgence, her treat to herself for whenever she was allowed some 'me time' - which was once in a blue moon.

She'd never been 'pretty'.  Cheap, ill advised NHS glasses and a natural lack of style had made sure of that.  But she loved pretty things.  Sparkle, glitter, glamour - secretly she longed for it all.  The gorgeous dresses in the magazines that fitted a size 0 model would never look right on her, but nail varnish would always look good, no matter what size she was.  And it made her smile to see a bit of glitter on her fingers.

She had a love/hate relationship with lip gloss.  She loved it and had hundreds and wouldn't go out the house without it.  But she hated how sticky it could feel and how, when the wind blew, her hair would stick to her lips and then leave a slimey trail across her glasses.  And she also hated the fact that it wouldn't come out of bed linen or off wall paper when the kids had got hold of it and decided to smear it everywhere!  But applying it made her feel more like a woman and less like a cow/chef/all purpose maid so she ensured she had some on her at all times.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups Week #6

The Head's Office has set a new challenge for this week with the prompt: …the sun shone but….  So here goes!  Please view the other entries at the above link as well.


The sun shone but the strong breeze coming off the sea was chilly and she wrapped her cardigan tighter around her.  The wind tossed her hair and blew it against her mouth, sticking to her lip gloss, but she didn't notice.  A dog ran up to her, panting, pressing its cold nose against her hand but ran off as it's owner whistled.  He gave her a puzzled glance as he passed her, wondering why this woman stood there at the same time every day, staring out to sea. A lone tear ran down her face as she turned and walked back to her car.

Deuce Beauties 100th Post Giveaway

The lovely Deuce Beauties is running an amazing giveaway with the chance to win a stash of OPI nail polishes, to celebrate her 100th post.  You can enter here.

I'm not sure I should really be sharing this with you as I have my eye on the Pirates set in particular, but it's such a fantastic giveaway it would be rude not to!  The giveaway is open internationally so fingers crossed!!!

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups Week #5

I've joined in with The Heads Office 100 Words Challenge for Grown Ups.  This is the 5th week but the 1st week I've joined in.  This was the prompt this week:

Panic

I clung to the floor like a fly to a window pane as I felt the familiar waves of panic wash over me.  The floor moved under me, as liquid as the sea, yet the people staring at me as they walked past seemed to have no idea that the ground beneath them was so unstable.  Blackness engulfed my soul like a suit covering every inch of me.  I barely heard the man who came up to me: 'Miss, are you ok?'  I heard a scream, then realised it was my own voice uttering the same word over and over.

What I Learnt Today - FREE OPI!! (kind of)

I read a fab post today at the lovely Diamond Solitaire about her latest OPI haul.  Apparently you can double up your Tesco Clubcard vouchers to spend online at Beauty Expert, including their stock of OPI nail polishes!

Being a nail polish freak, having recently been introduced to OPI (is it just me or are their bottles extra gorgeous?) and having nearly £60 of Clubcard vouchers stashed away I think I deserve to treat myself to some 'free' OPI polishes!  Of course they also stock other great beauty ranges but I'm really into my OPI at the minute (despite only owning one bottle!) so that's where it will be going!

Also, mucho gracio to the lovely missielizzie at her blog Me and My Shadow for her very helpful post about reclaiming lost clubcard vouchers as I found I had quite a few that had got mislaid!

Nails Inc Haul!!

I recently discovered nails inc and had a little spending spree on their website!  However, thanks to a discount code, the Lucky Dip and free gift I ended up with 14 nail polishes for less than £4.75 each - not bad for full size nails inc polishes!  I tried to photograph them all but some of the nudes didn't photograph very well but here you go anyway:

I'll try to come back and name all the different shades later.  The pink one in the middle is a much richer colour than it shows on this photo and actually looks better applied than on the bottle.  I've tried 5 of the colours already and am pretty happy with them, although one of the glitters peeled pretty quickly, but I'll do a blog on the individual colours later on.

I'm hoping to get better at photographing nail polish to give a better true representation, although photos never really show colours as well I think.

Only 9 more shades to get thru lol!

Blog Makeover - Help Appreciated!!

Having now decided what direction to send my blog in I need to makeover my blog and I also feel it needs a new name.  This is where you come in!

I'm looking for a name to reflect my interest in beauty products, especially nail polish, and that I'm a mummy, without having 'beauty' or 'mummy' in the name!  Something along the lines of:

Nails and Nappies

Milk to Manicures

Lipstick and Pushchairs

You get the idea!

Please enter your suggestions in the comments box, and if I use your suggestion there might even be a little reward coming your way, probably in the form of a bottle of Nails Inc.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

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I'd Do It All Again - Would You?

I've read alot of posts where women have been so traumatised by giving birth, for various reasons, that it's something that they remember with horror, and for some of them, the though of going through it again is more than they can deal with.  I also have friends who had such bad experiences that they were unable to bond with their children straight away.  And I know many have suffered Postnatal Depression as a result.  In fact the idea of enjoying childbirth is so alien to them that when I have mentioned it they've looked at me like I was mad!

But I love giving birth!  I'd do it again if I could but I really can't cope with having any more children.

Admittedly, Girl's birth wasn't the birth I'd planned.  She was late, so I was induced, because of the induction she had to be constantly monitored, she hated the monitors so moved away from them, ended up back to back with me and got stuck and had to be dragged out by a huge doctor!  Meanwhile I'd had an epidural.  So no, it wasn't the best birth experience and I couldn't think about it initially without crying, as I felt I'd failed her by being induced and having an epidural and needing an assisted birth.  But I loved the feeling when they placed her on my tummy and those precious first few days when she was so tiny and so new, this small bundle which needed so much care and attention but defined me as a mother and produced such a big feeling of love, more than I could have imagined.

After I had Girl I knew I had to do it again.  I couldn't wait to have another baby and when she was 11 months old I got pregnant again!  After 'failing' at my first birth I really wanted a 'natural' birth this time, no drugs, no assistance, nothing.

So with Boy, although I had several sweeps to set me off, I did it all naturally.  I used a birthing pool tho came out of the water to actually give birth, gas and air and no drugs.  I remember as he arrived saying 'I did it!  I did it myself!'  I had doubted my body's ability to do what should come naturally.  So I was delighted that I'd done it all by myself (so to speak!).

With Bug, I'd done it both ways so all I wanted was for her to be safely delivered.  So I was open to what I would need.  I didn't fancy a water birth again - no real reason except you can't wander around in a pool!  So I stuck with gas and air, had a shot of diamorphine, spent most of my labour hanging over the bed and delivered her with one push!  Of course, although the delivery was easy, the placenta got stuck so I ended up going off down to theatre to get it removed which sort of marred a 'perfect' delivery, but that's another story.

With the other 2 we'd known what we were expecting, but with Bug it really didn't matter so we didn't find out, and having my husband tell me she was a girl was a magical moment.

So although I'm not particularly keen to go through labour again, I love those first few days after the baby's born.  They are so small, so loveable, so dependent on you for everything.  I also seem to get a rush when I give birth so for the next few days I feel on top of the world.  I am never so happy and so bright - until the baby blues kick in.  Then I hit rock bottom.

It's not worth a pregnancy and having another kid just to experience those few days of absolute wonder and joy but I treasure the memories I have of those 3 times I've experienced it, and am extremely sad that some mothers have a much different experience.

What about you?  Would you do it all again if you could?  I would.