A Broken Clock

Two promises. Firstly, that after this I really am off on my holidays. And secondly, this is the last time you’ll see Liz Jones mentioned on my blog. Two posts in two days is more than enough, but I was already half way through writing this when I got Motherventing’s brilliant guest post through. Hers was farking hilarious. Mine is just a bit ranty. Sorry.

Liz Jones Mumsnet Blogfest

Even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day. Even a stab in the dark sometimes finds its target. And even a batty old bint like Liz Jones occasionally writes something that we shouldn’t write off entirely just because it was her wot wrote it.

Attendees of Mumsnet Blogfest (and indeed many non-attending parent bloggers) spent most of Sunday raging about a post that lovely Liz had written in the Mail. Some of them – like Cambridge Mummy and Ageing Matron– wrote extremely good blog posts about it.

But was the post really worthy of our outrage and ire? I’m not convinced.

Continue reading →

What are your values?

positive street art

‘Values’ is such a funny word, isn’t it?

It means very different things to different people.

One summer, a long time ago, I had a part time job at one of the Edinburgh Festivals. It was nothing very glamorous – just some front-of-house work – but I remember overhearing my manager talking about me to another staff member and saying that I had ‘good values’. It remains one of the highest compliments I’ve ever been paid.

I think very often when we talk about our blogs, and question what the ‘value’ of our blog is, we usually mean in a monetary sense. There was a great post about that over at Geekalicious the other week, written by Molly from Mothers Always Right

But I think it can also be useful sometimes to consider the other meaning of the word. Are we blogging with integrity? Are we staying true to ourselves? Does the image of us that our blog projects align with what our values are?

Continue reading →

One Year On…

Last week marked one year exactly since we moved from Edinburgh to Hertfordshire, and I am pretty proud of how we are doing.

DorkySon has settled amazingly well in his new nursery – it has been an absolute delight seeing him grow in confidence, become so much more curious about the world he lives in, and spend the majority of his time as an incredibly happy wee boy. He is a lot of fun to spend time with right now.

DorkyDad is working harder than I have ever seen, learning new skills and absorbing information about a sector he hasn’t worked in before, travelling to parts of the world he never imagined visiting, and trying hard not to let the unpleasantness of a daily commute get him down.

I feel like I have whinged quite a bit about things since we moved – and it’s no secret that we don’t want to live here forever – but it has also brought some amazing opportunities for us all.

So I decided to have a read back through some of my blog posts, and reflect on ten things – big and small – that we would not have had the chance to do if we hadn’t made the move. Continue reading →

Ten in Ten

I’ve been tagged by lovely Angie over at Cakes Photos Life to do the 10 in 10 meme. 

The idea is to write a list of hopes and dreams that you wish to be fulfilled within 10 years. You can make it as simple or as detailed as you like – add pictures, descriptions and how you will achieve these if you can/want.

Start with number 10 and make it the one you think is easiest to achieve, working down to the one that will take the most work, money or just plain impossible.

I found this a toughy… and if I’m honest this is a slightly edited version – some of the things that I really, really want I don’t really want to put up on the blog – I’m a bit daft and superstitious like that! But it has been a really helpful exercise in working out what my personal priorities are.

Loesje poster Continue reading →

Thanks for a MAD weekend.

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve finally mustered the energy to put together a quick post about the MAD Blog Awards which took place in London on Friday night.

It’s just going to be a great big post full of *thank yous* to be honest.

White Stuff Upon a Time dress

Thank you to White Stuff for providing my lovely dress. I really hope no-one took any pictures of me from behind at the awards, because I only realised on Saturday morning that I’d forgotten to snip the big label out of the back. This is just one of many reasons why I am not a fashion blogger.

Continue reading →