Not just for christmas… #motivationalmonday #mondayclub #magicmoments

I was struggling with what to write for this week, especially something about christmas, not being the best planned for the festive season. I generally don’t think about christmas until much closer to the season. So thinking about it that little catchphrase that has been used by the RSPCA  ‘a dog is for life and not just for christmas’

A little over a year ago we were embarking tentatively on our first steps towards purchasing a little doggy companion for our family. My eldest daughter had been banging the ‘can we have a dog’ drum for a long time. She told us that she used to dream about having a dog. She was pretty relentless. Her enthusiasm wasn’t the entire reason for us considering it. Although i did say after having a rabbit that was begged and begged for and then largely ignored by all except me and the OH, there was no way we were having another animal that I, personally, didn’t want. Seeing as I ended up doing most of the looking after!

So we started thinking about it…we had dogs in my family from when i was about 10 so it was a pretty easy decision for me, the OH took a bit more persuading. 😉

When i was growing up we always had golden retrievers, which are fabulous family pets but they are big and hairy and our requirements were small and not hairy at all. One of our kids has a slight allergy to animal hair and so it was really important to get a dog that might reduce the possibility of this happening.

So our criteria for what we wanted in a dog was:

1. small – we have a 7 seater car, so there are no ‘seats’ available for a dog, its the foot well or nothing so the dog has got to be small

2.no hair – well obviously hair, as in not a naked, no hair dog, but a dog that doesn’t moult

3. a very very calm and tolerant

We did some research and we came up with this little guy:

He is a miniature schnauzer, a breed that is well known for its calm, even character and laid back approach. I wanted a dog that didnt NEED tons of exercise. Sure we wanted a dog that would run with the kids for miles and miles if needed but i also wanted a dog that would be happy with a walk round the block to ahem ‘make himself comfortable’ and that would be enough without its excess energy frying its head and tearing up our floorboards in its boredom. This isnt because we aren’t active every day but sometimes we just cannot fit in a long walk.

There was much agony over what we were going to name our dog. We got him from a breeder in Lancashire and on the way back there was much discussion. Names flying about ranged from sublime to ridiculous but it was an impass. Wondering if we were ever going to get to a point of agreement as we were driving past a truck i noticed the name O”Reilly on the side and i said ‘ooh what about Riley?’ and in a moment of harmony everyone agreed and that was it. We weren’t going back. So he was named before we got him home.

Initially having a puppy, I did wonder on a couple of occasions if i have completely taken leave of my senses. I had a baby of 18 months, a 3 year old with very sketchy success in the number 2 department and an incontinent dog….

It felt like i bought a LOT of cleaning products!

Not to mention the fact that my youngest took great delight in trying to get in the dogs bed, food, water..anything to do with him really…and puppies are snappy as you probably know and we had a few little nipping incidents and i sent Riley scolded to his bed with a bewildered look on his face..

She still does lie on him, drag him about and if she can get hold of the lead she ‘walks’ him around the house for hours and hours and he incredibly puts up with it with such good nature. He knows no different, he was a tiny 7 weeks when we got him. His life is a merry band of brothers and sisters that may just have 2 less legs than him but eat much more interesting food than he does!

Despite my initial panic about our decision, having a dog has really bought a lovely dimension to the family. The kids play with him a lot, he plays endlessly with them, happy to just follow them, waiting for them to throw a ball. He loves each of them and is always thrilled to see him. When we are out he is always wanted to be near whoever is in the front of the group. He is, like ive said, super tolerant and sweet natured whilst being rolled on and pulled around by any of the kids.

Best thing though is that thrilled, enthusiastic reception you get from a dog when you come home. With fail. He is the first at the door and the first to make a fuss of someone coming home. Way to make you feel wanted pup!! 🙂

All growed up!

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Early christmas planning for the camera lover! #motivationalmonday #mamarazzi

So many people ask for camera’s for christmas. Its that time of year that you might be getting a lovely big present and also that time of year where you start to think about capturing memories. You might be seeing family or having a big party and they want to capture a few moments.

Ive put together a few ideas for some fabulous camera accessories that will make great presents for the budding photographer and also looks pretty good under the tree on christmas morning. If you click on the images they will take you to the website where they are listed. You can probably buy cheaper options of them if you shop around. The large montage of the fun camera-geek gifts at the bottom is all at Clickinmoms, which is an american website but the stuff can either be sourced here in the UK (etsy is a good bet) or you can order from them and the postage actually isnt too bad! Have a shop around!

1. Camera bags!

There is a HUGE range of camera bags out there, you might want to get a super slim, fit only the camera in, type bag. These are really useful for small, point and shoot cameras, that although pretty robust really benefit from having a bit of protection as they bump around in your bag.

My personal favourite is a bag made by an american photographer who bucks the trend of the boring, beefy camera bag and has produced a line of beautiful, stylish handbag style bags.

2. Tripod

Tripods are not just for the professional photographer. Once you get the hang of a tripod and the benefits it can be to you it will become and essential bit of kit for you. Tripods help to minimise the amount of movement (camera shake). This happens regardless of how stable you think you are when you are holding the camera. You have to breathe in and out right?…thats movement..and if you have your shutter slow then that movement will effect your camera. You dont need to spend a lot of money and you dont need to have an enormous tripod. There are little mini-tripods that are good value for money.

 

3. Lenses

Whoop whoop! My favourite! These can totally change the images you are taking, its a subject that i go could on and on and on about and i have written a post about lenses that if you want to know more do check it out. These don’t need to be for a dslr at all. You can get some cute little lenses for smartphones  now that are fun and worth checking out if you want to play!

4. Memory Cards

Not the most exciting of presents but to a photographer a large storage capacity is massively important and also the speed which you camera can write to your card once you have snapped the shutter. If you are planning to do a lot of post processing on your image you might want to shoot in RAW and this will effect how many images you can store on your card. Look for over 4GB for good performance. I have a 16GB card which takes nearly 500 RAW files. Thats a lot of images but it means that im rarely in the situation that i will need to change my card mid shoot

5 Camera Straps.

No you dont have to stick with the boring, manufacturer supplied camera strap. There are  many options for different ones. Pretty girl, decorative ones. Often available on Etsy. Or you can go more ergonomic and think about your back especially if you are toting a large camera around for long periods of time. I use a fabulous camera sling made by Blackrapid and it is by far one of the best investments i have made. It would be tough for me to go back to having a strap around my neck now as this strap goes across you like a satchel strap. It also screws into the tripod stand bit at the bottom of your camera so you it is perfectly positioned to go when you need it!

6. Flashes.

Until you get to the higher end of DSLR, most cameras will have a flash built in. There are many options for boosting your light if you are taking portraits or inside a lot. Having a flash that you can point in a different direction or have a diffuser attached to it will make your flash photography much less harsh.

 

 

Shopping for camera accessories is a LOT of fun!

Here are a few more fun ones to have a little look at!!

There is a great giveaway this week that myself and pinkoddy are running together! Would make a fabulous christmas pressie for those early planners! Just follow the rafflecopter. Winners for previous competitions will be announced on my facebook page. Be sure to follow!!
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BritmumsLive #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

This last weekend i went to Britmumslive along with 500 other bloggers. Mostly women but a few very notable men. It is conference organised by and for the mummy bloggers of this country who regularly put ourselves out there to own our little corner of the internet. My little corner was nominated, short listed and made a finalist in the Brilliance in Blogging awards. I didn’t win in my category. Which is okay. But the awards ceremony bit made me feel ill. I hadn’t thought about it through most of Friday and then suddenly remembered! had to almost sit on my hands to stop me chewing them down to the nubs.

But i didn’t win, it was okay. SIGH. huge relief and then on with games.

Friday was a bit of a strange day for seminars, we formed a little secure pack and gravitated towards the ones that we all jointly thought we would like. Safety in numbers. The seminars were maybe aimed at people new to blogging or with a greater attention span than a mother of 5, freed for the weekend into London! .

These ladies (3childrenandit, the 40year old domestic goddess, hello wall and a strong coffee) were my homies for the day and we chuckled and messed around like naughty school kids. One of my friends noted how wonderful it was to see people realise that the complete stranger standing before them was actually someone who they have a pretty in-depth relationship online. Putting a face to the avatar…that moment was awesome,  arms flung wide and hugging each other like the friends we knew we already were.  Although inevitably it took a lot of staring at name badges, trying to discreetly peer at women’s chests is not a talent i have and again, like last year you got to the end of the weekend and pretty much gave up doing it. Its far to stressful and awkward and little bit odd. 😉

My highlights of the weekend were:

A lovely hotel room (by myself) squuueeeeee….i didnt have enough time to enjoy it really but it was lovely having space that was mine and no-one elses..just for a little bit.

Listening to Kirsty Allsopp talk about dog poo and vomit and thinking actually i quite like her…

Some lovely ladies having my back at the awards when i was feeling nervous

The wine

Laughing….and laughing…and laughing

Hanging out in the bar at the end of the day, WAAAY past bed time with the lovely daddy bloggers

Listening to the amazing Katie Piper and being inspired by her strength and her faith.

Stumbling into a seminar on videography and being inspired by a brilliant and knowledgeable teacher and nice guy who was willing to help

Talking cameras.

Getting my blog name on a bottle of diet coke and marvelling at the genius behind the marketing campaign with one of their PR bods, only to find out it started in Australia a few years ago! We are clearly behind the times here!

The keynotes. Last year these were one of my favourite parts, it was like grown up jackanory 😉 Listening to the stories of motherhood told by mothers who are so very gifted at giving their words a voice. It was again, one of my favourite parts of the weekend. Especially as i was thrilled to see online buddy and writer extraordinaire reading a post which i had read on her blog and been transported into her world, hearing her read it was like listening to a movie script. Do go and check her out.  Oldermum 

The dedication to a very special baby whose shares a name with one of my own babies and who i will never forget

Singing and dancing at the top of my voice to firework by Katy Perry to remember a mummy blogger who last year i chatted with over coffee and who sadly is no longer with us

Laughter through tears

Hugging the incredible Edspire. what a brave, brave lady she is.

For me, it was the people who made this weekend. I could have easily done without the seminars, or maybe actually it is more about the fact that my attention span is so short, so easily distracted that as i sat staring blankly into space while someone was talking..i found myself wondering why i was sitting here and not going out and doing some of those things that i always said i would love to do when i didnt have my kids with me. Beacause here i was, without my kids, and i wasn’t doing any of those things.

maybe we just need to organise a Britmums night out, or weekend away?

Anyway i chatted to many lovely folk this weekend, including Alex from Madagascar..who, okay is a lion..but having seen all of the Madagascar movies a MILLION times i feel like i know him.

But some of the folk that just rocked by little world this weekend where….as they say on the X factor, in no particular order…

Hello Wall

A Strong Coffee

3 Children and it

The 40 year old Domestic goddess

Pinkoddy

mummydaddyandme

capturebylucy

mutteringsofafool

diary of the dad

Babberblog

and a bit of a special mention to theboyandme who i have been badgering about the joys of prime lenses for so long and so convinced was i that she would love it that it toted my own 50mm lens to London so she could try it and i think after using it she might have seen my point!! 😉

This week there isnt a giveaway but you can carry on going for the LUSH box and supporting my friends at onepercent. Rafflecopter below. The winner of the Hotel Chocolat goodies will be announced on my facebook page so be sure to go and like it. Thanks lots!!

 

 

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Cycling freedom #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

Having five young children its always been fairly hard to actually be in a place where we can take them all cycling. There has always been one at that in between stage of being too big for a seat on the back of an adult bike but too small to be able to cycle independently without stabilisers etc etc.

Being as my OH is a bit of a bike nut, rides his bike to work every day, all the kids who are school age have been riding their bikes confidently without stabilisers since around the age of 4…it seems crazy that as a family we haven’t at least tried to do more! But the big draw back? I didnt have a bike. Until recently. We took the plunge and invested in a bike for me and so far we have had two bike riding days out with the kids.

Its a great way of getting out and about with the kids. Its cheap, green and you can cover some really quite large distances. So its lovely to make a day of it.

At the moment we have our two youngest still on kiddy seats on adult bikes. But im sure it wont be long before our 4 year old will be wanting a bit of her own independence!

Its easy to find dedicated cycleways and we discovered a long and flat route locally and this week we took off for an afternoon to attempt a little bit of it.

The kids had a great time and the KM just flew by without them even noticing that they were getting exercise! Made a lot easier by the fact that they had a couple of friends with them as well, so there was much laughing and giggling as we rode through the countryside.  We came across a skate park on our route and the kids all had a go on their bikes. Those ramps are steep and probably not the best place for a toddler. She played chicken with them most of the time and gave us a couple of near heart attacks as she dodged the bikes flying towards her!

We finished the ride of with hot chocolate on the beach, courtesy of the kelly kettle and it was a pretty good end to Father’s day.

🙂

these two in the first picture are my oldest and youngest…people always say how alike they are. er…yep. some family resemblence!! 🙂

 

My giveaway this week is rolling over from last week as it is such a great one! A fabulous Hotel Chocolat gift box, have you tasted their chocolate? It is amazing! Just follow the rafflecopter and don’t forget you can still enter to win a gorgeous luxury box from LUSH and help out the guys at the incredible charity beonpercent. Thank YOU!

 

 

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Run Forrest Run #motivationalmonday #themondayclub

I had a text message this week from my best friend. She isnt a best friend that i see all the time but i have known her since we started school a billion years ago. She now lives in Port. Lincoln in Southern Australia and moved there a while ago with her family.

Her test message read:

Hi sarah, am thinking of running the London 10K while we are back, would you be interested too? Takes a lot of the Olympic route! See you soon. Mel

Thats one way to announce that you are going to be in the northern hemisphere for a while! 😉

Much as i would LOVE to run a race with my school days friend…if its the only chance im going to get to see her while she is back from Aus. Then my plans would be less in the training shoes and lycra shorts and more towards pub lunch and large bottle of wine. Since she moved to Australia i have seen her one other time when she returned when my now 4 year old was a very small baby.

But pushing that aspect aside it made me think a little about races…you know….running races…

hundreds or thousands of people all lined up to pound a certain distance together at varying speeds and times.

Im just not sure its me.

I do run…

well…probably more like a cross between a run and a jog..

a rog…

or a jun…

😉

Im not going to set any records, except against myself, which i get great delight in when the cheery little voice on the nike app happily tells me ‘thats the fastest yet!” or “great run, go hit the showers!’  ( reassuring to know that they care about personal hygiene too!)

Anyway…I go…I shuffle around some miles or clicks..whichever measurement floats your boat and you know whats the best part for me?

The Solitude….

Being by myself.

I like the headspace. I listen to some music…and try to skip the kids stories that are on my iphone playlist…has to be said that charlie and lola don’t offer much motivation to keep on going!

I also go out at a very early time of the morning when it is quiet and there is hardly anyone around. I love that feeling of space.

Clear roads

Empty pavements.

The faint sound of birdsong.

and a great openness for my mind to trail off to…

might be ‘whats for dinner…’

might be ‘what should we do next’

might be ‘ how incredible is this world we live in..’

But its uninterrupted by distraction except that offered by the silence of a waking city.

Thats what im worried about loosing if i was to run with hundred of others…my sense in running is less a need for exercise (although thats obviously good) but its about finding a tiny moment of peace in my day which can very rarely be described as peaceful.

I think i would wonder whether I would in fact find any motivation in a race, swarming along like a mass of bees…or if i would just stop and pretend to be nursing an injury so that i could hide out at the back amongst the stragglers and see if i can search out some solitude running!

Maybe its the pure lack of competitive spirit i have. I have been passed by other runners while i am out and my pace has remained unchanged and my focus stays on what i am doing. Truly in a world of my own!

I have to say though that there are a few runners that i pass regularly and we often acknowledge each other with a little nod of a wave and its nice, a nano-second of community.

Hmmm…i cant decide.

I have made plans in the past to run in little 5k/10k type races but ive always drifted off the idea. Ive thought about running in a race with headphones and seeing if that would help me to zone out everyone else but i just can’t help but feel that, that would be a little rude to my other fellow runners. Like trying to ‘exclude’ them from this group experience seems like missing the point a bit.

Maybe this invite from my friend is the shove i needed to go for it and at least try.

We tell our kids about trying something at least once before you decide right?

Maybe time to do a bit of practicing what we preach..?

This week i had to include a clip from one of my ALL time favourite movies…

 

Right this week its my birthday and to offset all this talk of exercise I am having an extra special giveaway courtesy of HOTEL CHOCOLAT

.

You can win a beautiful birthday gift box for you or for your loved one. Just follow rafflecopter and then be sure to check back for winners! Also announced on my Facebook page as well. Dont forget you can still enter to win a LUSH box of goodies and support a fantastic charity by clicking on this link

 

 

 

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