Day zero project: my top 50 films

I'm really, really enjoying this Day Zero project (first mentioned here,  and here is my full list)
For the first time in a very long while, I have finally found some purpose in my life! It may seem like nothing much to some, but to me, having something that I can work on, instead of always watching tv whilst waiting to get better, is such a revelation!

Here's one of the easier challenges, name my top 50 films - should be a breeze, as I love watching movies!!
As I 'm terrible at picking my most 'favourite of all time' anything, these are in no particular order ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice (the series on a film! Maybe not 'technically' one film, but hey, Colin Firth as Mr Darcy - no contest and had to be included!)
2. Persuasion
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Mansfield Park
5. Sense and Sensibility
6. Little Women
7. Guys and Dolls
8. Hello Dolly
9. Singing in the Rain
10. Seven brides for Seven Brothers
11. Annie Get Your Gun
12. Calamity Jane
13. Thoroughly Modern Millie
14. Mamma Mia
15. Hairspray
16. Tinkerbell, Secret of the Wings
17. Rio
18. Tangled
19. Despicable me 
20. Happy Feet
21. Elf
22. Spaceballs
23. Beetle Juice
24. Pirates of the Caribbean (can't pick which, love them all!)
25. Robing Hood, Prince of Thieves
26. A Knight's Tale
27. The Twilight Series (I love 'em all and I don't care!)
28. The Mummy Returns
29. Thor
30. Prince of Persia, the sands of time
31. Avatar
32. Knight and Day
33. The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King
34. The Crow
35. Interview with a Vampire
36. Practical Magic
37. Love Actually
38. 10 things I Hate about you
39. Dirty Dancing
40. Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights
41. Pretty Woman
42. 27 Dresses
43. Sweet Home Alabama
44. Chocolat
45. He's Just Not That Into You
46. French Kiss
47. Never Been Kissed
48. The Wedding Date
49. The American President
50. Stardust

I'm sure I could list loads more!

As you can see I have a wide range of genres that I like, though I can't watch horror films (except vampire ones - weird huh?!) all other horror films give me nightmares ;-)

Movie night!

Another Day Zero challenge complete!
As my ex-husband now has the kids one night a week (alternating between Fridays and Saturdays) I was trying to think of something in-expensive and fun that I could do with Little Man on the Friday nights that I have them. As he loves watching films as much as me, Movie Night seemed a perfect idea! Thankfully, Little Miss, has now almost settled into a good bedtime routine, so is usually asleep by the time movie night needs to start. Though if she decides otherwise, she just joins in the fun too!
We have loads of child-friendly DvDs as I am a complete kid at heart! I have been buying Disney and Pixar films for ever, and now that I have my own kids, it just gives me more incentive to add to the collection :-D
Luckily, Little Man loves Disney and Pixar films too - at the moment, his favourites are Cars, Planes, the Toy Story series, Madagascar and Rio. My favourite is Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings!
To make it a little more of a special occasion, I get Little Man bathed and into his jammies early, I quickly change into mine (I'm a morning shower kind of girl) and then we both snuggle under a blanket with a huge bowl of popcorn (which we also shared with Grannie and Grandad!)
So far we have had Planes and Rio on our Movie Nights. Can't wait for next Movie Night! Maybe I'll be able to persuade Little Man that Tinkerbell would be a great choice ;-)

My 'selfie' of our Movie Night - I'm still not great at them ;-)

Listography: Simple Pleasures

Yaaaaaay! Listography time again! I think I now have a bit of an obsession with Listography, and get just a teeny bit excited when I see that Kate from Kate Takes 5, has posted a new list (I know, small things, heehee!) 

Anywho, this weeks theme is Top 5 Simple Pleasures, so here we go:

1. Hugs

image from google

I absolutely LOVE hugs!  and am a very huggy person!

Such a simple thing that can make you feel so much better, in seconds!

What's even better, is that hugs have sooo many uses. There are hugs of friendship and of love. Hugs to make hurt feelings or 'owies' better. Hugs to greet when you meet a friend, or farewell hugs to see you though the whole day. I'd better stop now, before I go too 'hug-listing' mad ;-)

I love hugs with close family and friends. Little Miss will let me hug and kiss her forever! Sadly, Little Man is now far too old for kisses now - at the oh so 'grown-up' age of 4 1/2 ;-) but I'm still allowed my daily hug fix! We have now advanced to the ultimate hug - 'skwudges' which are just the longest, tightest, bestest hugs ever ;-) My favourite hugs are those last hugs of the day, as I put my tired little kiddies to bed. That final gesture of love and protection, to see them safely through the night. *happy sigh*

2. Chocolate

I have a need for chocolate. Nothing more to say on this ;-)

3. A tidy, organised room.

I love it when a room in our house of 'organised chaos' finally gets a good tidy and sort out. I'm not into the whole minimalist look; where it looks like you're constantly waiting for a style magazine to drop by for a surprise photo-shoot, or worse still the 'museum home' where you just don't touch anything, ever! But I do like the sense of achievement, when you've bust a gut to clean and tidy everything into its place, and it finally looks organised, but lived in!

(I really, really want to put home, but it's just not realistic yet! Since hubby leaving last November, we have started the 'great big house sort' project and are getting there very, very slowly!)

4. Flowers

bluebells growing in our
front garden :-)

I think flowers are just beautiful! They have the ability to light up a gloomy room, or just to remind me how amazing nature is!

As I have an amazing knack of killing all flowers, potted plants, (even a cactus now!) so I prefer wild flowers or garden flowers ;-)   

I have a love of roses inherited from my Grannie and Granpie, who had stunning flower beds dedicated to them! I also adore fuscias, daisies and bluebells! The only tattoo I have is of bluebells and if I'm ever brave enough to get another one, it'll be daisies :-)

5. Clean sheets!

This might sound completely nutts, but there's just nothing like climbing into bed after another exhausting day, and have the gentle aroma of 'clean sheets' (fabric softener usually!) waft over you as you snuggle down for a good nights sleep! Clean sheets also have that lovely 'clean feel' that just isn't there by the end of the week, and I think that actually helps me sleep better!

So there you go, my top 5 simple pleasures in life.

Now time to link up and get looking at all the other lists :-)

Challenge 1: 'Keep nails painted for a month' completed :-D

Woohoo!
I just had to share, I have finally managed to complete my first challenge on the day zero project Painting nails.
I managed to keep my nails painted for a whole month, changing between the  following colours, depending on my mood at the time ;-)

No. 7 stay perfect nail  'Damson Dream

Revlon nail enamel, 240 'Impulsive'

Revlon nail enamel, 571 'Posh'

Revlon nail enamel, 570 'Vixen'

I had a bright pink colour, but that chipped off in less than a day, so it didn't make it onto the colour choices again. Also, the leather effect varnishes were soooo not for me, so again, no more of them!
I have really enjoyed this challenge so much that I think it's become a bit of an addiction, heehee!

I find taking the time to paint my nails really calming - something I could def do with in my chaotic life at the moment!

Only 100 more challenges to go ;-)
                             

Little Miss; 1 year (and 1 month) on!

Dear Little Miss,
Well, I can't believe a whole year (and a month - bad, unorganised me!) has gone past!
It doesn't seem like 5 minutes ago that you were first opening your eyes and now look how you've grown!

These are just a few of my favourite piccies of you!








You already surprise me on how much you can do now!
You started to try and walk at around 9 months and did a kind of 'army crawl' using just your arms for getting around on the floor. 'Real' crawling happened after your first birthday - and boy are you speedy now!
You now use the furniture to hold onto when you walk, but it won't be long before you're venturing to hands-free!
You have always loved rocking. Your favourite songs (and actions) are still 'Row, row, row your boat' and 'See-Saw'.  You love riding on your rocking ladybird, with me singing a silly song 'rocking baby' (to the tune of 'Rocking robin') which makes you smile!
Everything gets chewed at the moment, as your molars are starting to come through - poor you!
You are also a little Pickle-bum, as any tiny little speck you find on the floor goes straight in your mouth! You're like a little human-hoover! No matter how often we hoover, you always manage to find something!
You love your food and have been doing really well on your 'grown up' solid food. You are very good and only drink water and milk!
You are a total water baby and adore splashing in the bath. We've taken you swimming a few times, but it's something that I will try to do more often, I promise!
You love cuddles and kisses, but hate having your nappy changed - 30 minutes is the longest I've battled with you so far!
You like trying to join in games with Aiden - especially cars. You also enjoy playing with the toys that make noises - rattles shakers etc. There's one that's like a helter-skelter with balls that roll round and down.
You have started to say a few little words, but mostly still babble!
Aiden is 'Ada'
Grannie is 'Aga'
I'm sometimes 'Umma' but your favourite word is 'hiya' with your cute little waves!
I can't wait to see how you grow and develop over the next year!
Love you always
xxxxx

Painting nails

As part of my day zero project, I am going to try and keep my nails painted for a month.
I don't know why, but when I have my nails nicely painted, it always makes me feel cheerful!

When I was younger, I was obsessed with painting my nails and wearing rings ( I kind of skipped makeup and hair, but I figure I still have time to crack those later, heehee!)
Well, being a 'semi-goth' (my clothes were always black, occasionally navy, but I skipped the pale face and dark makeup bit!) I only picked colours to paint my nails that were matching in tone! The obvious black and navy, but my all time favourite colour was a beautiful dark purple called 'Morticia' - very fitting I thought!

For years, I left my love of painting nails behind. I was always too busy with other things, plus I have an amazing ability to chip the colour off in record time, so it seemed a bit of a waste of time and money.

A few years ago, I was given a bottle of nail varnish in a hen-party goody bag and my love was rekindled! Now, really scary for me was the fact that this colour was bright pink - a colour never before associated with me! One day, I just decided 'what the hell' and went for it! I absolutely adored having bright pink nails! Again, I had the chipping problem, but from time to time, I would wear bright pink nails and feel brilliant!

Well, I got some new nail varnish for Christmas, so I decided that I would make the effort to have nice nails for a while.
This will therefore be a log of the colours and my thoughts on them, for the next month (fingers crossed!)

Day 1 - 25th Jan

 

This is the kit of nail varnished I got given for Christmas. It was called 'leather effect' and I thought I would give it a go. I absolutely hated it! It looked like the times when I got loads of air bubbles in the varnish - all bobbly and rough in texture. It also chipped off the very same day - def not for me!

Day 4 - 28th Jan

I decided that I wold have to invest in some new nail varnish if I was ever going to complete this challenge!
I bought some multi-care base+top coat, plus two new colours to try. (all Revlon,)
This is number 240 called 'impulsive' and I love, love, LOVE it!!
I am still wearing it today (30th Jan) and I only just got the first teeny tiny chip this evening! It is lovely! All smooth and shiny, plus the purple colour is gorgeous!
All I can add is that I wish I had invested in a good base+top coat before, as it is def worth using!
Can't wait to see how long this lasts!

2014, my year for new beginnings

I have decided to delete my final thoughts for 2013, as it was very negative and I'm trying to focus more on my positives and plans for moving forward.

Very long story short, I am now headed for divorce. My husband left at the end of November and 10 days later started a new relationship.
After a few very stressful months where plans kept changing (don't ask!) we have finally settled on when he will have the kids and how much maintenance he will pay me a month.
I saw my solicitor today and hopefully, we should be able to have a reasonably straight forward divorce. The only problem is going to be finding the money to pay for it! (£1200!)

Anyway, putting this aside, a lot of good things have come out of this really sad change.
I have finally been diagnosed with aspects of bipolar disorder (I do the major depression, but never the manic 'happy happies') and have been given mood stabilisers on top of my normal anti-depressants, which have been working amazingly well! I have managed to bounce back from each little 'bump' over the past couple of months extremely fast - so fast that my health professionals can't quite believe it! I was released really quickly from the crisis team, then by my psych person at the mental health unit and now have a mental health social worker who is setting me up for psychological therapy. All  in less than 2 months - yay me!

With the help of my amazing friend Charlotte and her hubby, we have finally started to sort the chaos in out house! We have moved furniture around downstairs, and boxed everything not essential up (my mum is and major hoarder, so things have to be checked before they can go!) but already such an improvement!
Next job is to finally sort Little Miss's bedroom, so that she can move out of mine ;-)

I have managed to lose 2 stone in weight! (I think stress can work wonders, heehee!)
I am finally out of my maternity jeans, which I am so so proud of! My appetite has shrunk to a much better, healthier one - no more stuffing chocolates (except 'time of the month' when I just need!)
I walk Little Man to school and try to power-walk home - though I nearly slipped on my bum today, due to icy paths! heehee!
I'm trying to go for more walks, with the help of Charlotte again - one booked for tomorrow ;-)

We're having more 'family' meals round the kitchen table. This is something that we (mum and I) have really wanted to do for such a long time and finally, now the table is clearer, we can :-)
I think it's really nice to sit all together, with only music in the background (no TV during meals) and share our thoughts of the day. It also helps teach Little Man more table manners ;-)

I've decided to try the Day Zero Project (thanks to Jennifer's Little World!) as a way of sorting and organising my life, and focusing my plans for the next few years - you get 1001 days to complete 101 challenges!

Well, here's to a bright future for me and my kids!