A day out! Stockeld Park, Halloween 2015

It is currently half term & as I often miss out on doing stuff due to my illness, I decided that I wanted to join in the fun this time. I knew I would suffer badly for it & that I would have a good few days (at the very least) of severe Post Exertion Malaise (PEM). However sometimes, as I've said before, it is worth actually living a bit sometimes despite knowing the consequences will be dire afterwards.

So we decided to have a day out. We settled on a place called Stockeld Park which is about 20 minutes from where we live. It is a truly magical place set in an Enchanted Forest. With this week being school holidays & it being the end of October, they had special Halloween themed stuff going on. I have never really been a fan of Halloween before but this year I seem to have got into it a bit more. Sort of.

We were due to leave around 11am & the weather was not on our side. Heavy rain. Not the ideal weather for walking (or in my case wheeling) round a forest! We set off anyway hoping that by some miracle it would stop when we got there. No such luck!

There are various ticket prices at Stockeld depending on the time of year & the amount of activities you want to do. We had decided we just wanted to go round the forest & go ice skating but the ice rink was closed due to the rain when we arrived! There is also the option to go on the Nordic ski trail & to go in the illuminated maze.  I had found out that carer's entry was free with proof of disability so it didn't cost us that much at all.

We had booked my daughter in for some Witch & Wizard training  (how exciting!) so we pretty much went straight there, getting soaked in the process. Good old British weather!

We were able to sit & watch the training in action & my daughter loved it.

It gave my jeans a chance to dry off too! Amazingly when it had finished the rain had stopped. A Halloween miracle...

I was a bit worried about how the wheelchair would fare on the rough ground but it was pretty much ok. There was a Witch trail around the forest & there were various code words hidden to complete a puzzle as well as witches to find.

My little girl absolutely loved it! She couldn't wait to find each one but there is also so much to see around the forest & lots of interactive stuff too. 

I particularly liked these huge sparkly balls!

I got a bit snap happy with my camera (just for a change) & it really did feel very magical.

When we were near the end, she found the final witch at Grandma's cottage from Little Red Riding Hood.

We were also joined by a rather large wizard & a zombie who scared the living daylights out of me. And because I said out loud he was scaring me, he did it all the more... naughty zombie!

We headed out & went to the cafe for a drink & a snack. There was a catwalk happening for any kids who were dressed up who wanted to join in which was really cute to watch. My daughter lost her hat halfway down the runway when it was her turn, so she had a witch running after her to give it back!!

We decided to leave after that as the ice rink was still closed, but we overheard someone say it would be open shortly. Luckily it did reopen & we couldn't not do it could we? I had already enquired about whether I could go on in the wheelchair & the answer was yes! So it had to be done.

What a fab experience! One of the staff pushed me around the rink & I loved it. My daughter & her daddy looked as funny as each other trying to skate but they soon got the hang of it. It had a brilliant atmosphere & I was so glad we had managed to do it.

Before we left we saw the zombie from earlier staggering around scaring people so I went to ask for a photo. He roared in my face again. I screamed!!

All in all a brilliant day & we are hoping to go back at Christmas time as the forest will look gorgeous all lit up in the dark.  I am, as predicted, suffering badly for it but it was expected & the memories made were most definitely worth it.

Ali 
xx

More Autumn craft stuff!

Following on from my previous post here I thought I would show you a few more craft bits we've been doing.

First of all the leaves we pressed are well & truly flat now! We've not decided what to do with them yet so feel free to give me some ideas...

I mentioned in my other post that my daughter had asked if we could decorate conkers again like last year. So we did!

Paint, glitter & plastic gloves were involved as it was a bit messy but fun. Glitter is my favourite thing so in my opinion you can never have enough...

The end result was very effective. However I've put them on a glass cake stand & keep thinking they are Quality Street when I catch a glimpse of them, so I'm a bit disappointed each time when I realise they are just sparkly conkers & I can't eat them!!

My niece came round last weekend & they wanted to make some leaf pictures. They went to collect some leaves & got to work. I Googled for ideas & gave them some different options but they both went for hedgehogs!

They drew the outline with a face each & just stuck leaves on for the body. 

They finished by cutting out & made them into puppets, then proceeded to do a show for us which was very cute! I made a wolf for them but I won't show you as it's not up to the same standard as the hedgehogs!!!

I am really liking Autumn & despite me being poorly, these sort of things are easily do-able with kids & I really enjoy it. Remember if you have any ideas for the pressed leaves let me know in the comments :)


Ali 
xx

Crown and Glory Glitterati unboxing October 2015

You are already familiar with my love of the Crown & Glory Glitterati boxes so no need to explain!! October's box was another fab one so here is what we got...

The theme was stars & I was pretty excited as I love them. The usual excitement of opening the box kicked in & this is what greeted me.

There is always a card with a list of contents which I save until the end so I don't spoil the surprise!

For the first time there was a personalised item exclusive to The Glitterati. It was a constellation headband personalised to our starsign. It's very vintage looking & very French chic. I'm not sure when I will wear it but it's so lovely!
RRP £20

Next was a starlight comb & I've wanted one for ages so was really chuffed with it. I've worn it quite a bit since getting it. They are so sparkly!
RRP £10

Possibly my favourite item was a Star Print wired headscarf. I've worn it loads & it's so versatile. Because it's on wire it is so easy to wear & goes with everything!
RRP £15

Finally a No Snag Hair Trio which I was very happy about as we got some in an earlier box & I've worn them non stop, so it's nice having some in different colours.
RRP £6

As usual the value of the box was fantastic. I am excited for November's box already. Sophie & Gareth who own Crown & Glory are so creative & I find it pretty amazing that they come up with so many new ideas each month.

This month's box was extra special too because it marked a year since I joined The Glitterati. A whole year of super duper hair accessories & new friendships. There was a special package in the box for me & I think I squealed rather loudly when I opened it to find a Glitterati pin badge & mirror with the Crown & Glory emblem on. I also now get a lifetime discount on all future orders which is just unbelievable! I am very proud to be a member of the coolest girl gang ever!

If anyone fancies joining let me know & if you add my name as your referral we both get a voucher to spend on the website. Go on... You know you want to!!

Ali 
xx

Autumn crafts

As you will know if you read my blog, I spend a lot of time doing craft stuff with my daughter.

Autumn is a good time of year to do fun stuff with all the pretty leaves & things around. Last year we decorated conkers with glitter which I blogged about here & she has asked if we can do it again. Of course anything that involves glitter is a yes from me! We have done a few different things recently so I thought I would share with you.

I saw something on an Instagram account I follow & knew I wanted to do it. Leaf pressing! As we don't have a flower press, we did it the old fashioned way. A few sheets of kitchen roll & a couple of heavy books!!

Little Miss went out on the street to collect some leaves & I was impressed with her haul. Such gorgeous colours.

We laid them out & made sure there was enough space for them all then sandwiched them between the kitchen roll.

We then closed the books & put a bag of marbles on top for extra weight! We need to leave them for 2 weeks to make sure they have dried out so I will update once they have been properly pressed!

Another thing we love doing is making bunting. It's so easy but a lot of fun & you can use pretty much anything. We used my Graze box packaging. If you're not familiar with them, they are a snack box subscription & I get the boxes every fortnight. They are really good for me as I am not very good at remembering to eat sometimes so they are ideal for a quick snack to get my blood sugar up! With M.E where your energy is almost non existent, combine that with not eating & it is not a good combination!

Anyway, the latest box had a really nice leaf print on in Autumn colours so rather than throw it away I suggested making bunting. We drew some leaf shapes & cut them out.

We cut some out of orange paper too so we had more & coloured them in using red, brown, green & orange.

Then we simply sellotaped them onto some string & hey presto... homemade bunting!

It looks so effective & it's now hung in the conservatory against a blank wall so it really stands out.

Would love to know if you try either of them or if you have been doing other Autumn crafts. Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading,


Ali 
xx

A funny old week and the Tooth Fairy!

What a week it has been. I am writing this on Saturday afternoon & the same time last week was a very different story. I must have caught a sickness bug as I was up from 4am throwing up and it carried on through until almost midnight on & off.  I can't remember the last time I was so poorly. Of course once the sickness eventually stopped, it totally wiped me out.  Normal sickness on top of M.E is bad. Very bad! However a week later & I am feeling back to my "normal" so I'm just glad to have seen the back of it.

On Wednesday something exciting happened. My little girl lost her first tooth! It had been wobbly for around 5 weeks but the last few days it had got a lot more so. She was eating lots of apples to try to get it out but to no avail so off she went to school. She went to play at her friend's house after & I sent my friend a message jokingly asking if the tooth was still there, expecting her to to say yes, but she said no!!! It had come out at school... oh the excitement!

When I collected her she was very keen to show me the tooth & the gap! This photo cracks me up....

When we got home she wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy, who's arrival had been very much anticipated for a while! She was so excited about it & couldn't wait to find out her name. I still have some of my Tooth Fairy letters from when I lost my first teeth so she wanted to see if hers would be the same or not!

When she woke up the next day she was super giddy.  The fairy had been & left not only a letter & a £2 coin under her pillow, but she had left a fairy door on the wall!! My girlie had been telling me earlier in the week about a tree at her cousin's school that has fairy doors attached & it means the fairies live there so she was very happy about having one in her bedroom!

She looks so cute with her little gap & the tooth next to it is a bit wobbly too now so that will be next...

She has moved up to the next group in her swimming lessons & I've not been for ages so I went today.  I couldn't believe how well she could swim, totally puts me to shame! Afterwards we decided to pop to a place nearby called Harewood House as we have membership so can quickly go there without having to pay crazy amounts on the door!

There are loads of trees there & they look gorgeous at this time of year.  It's not ideal with the wheelchair but we collected some conkers & the fresh air did me good after being cooped up poorly for a week.  We didn't stay long but it was nice spending some time with my girl.

I do love Autumn so hopefully will get more chance to be out admiring the pretty leaves & spending a bit more time with my girlie. Today has been a good day (despite being shattered now but I'll take it!).

Ali
xx