You Got Mail!

It's nice getting post isnt it? I NEVER send letters anymore- how sad. I always mean to buy those cute postcards and send off to a friend I've been thinking of but just never seem to get round to it. I just send a whatsapp with some sort of naff emoticon instead. I want to work harder to change this laziness actually. I think how happy it makes me when I receive something unexpectedly and really, I should try and bring that joy to someone else. Should, should, should, the story of my life.

Anyway, this time I mean it. I am going to start trying to send things in the post again- letters, cards, whatever.  I have recently happened upon a lovely shop on Etsy that sends things like these (and readers, if you think you disappear into a cruising abyss on Instagram, Etsy is a million times worse)  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/kimslittlemonsters?ref=l2-shop-info-name :

I know, it's just a match box with a shmandry in it, but still.... how happy would you be get one? Coming to a postbox near you soon friends!

You scream, I scream, we all scream

ICE CREAM.

Growing up, going out to eat was a big deal. When TGI Fridays opened in Cheadle, it was used as the best ever bribe for months on end. Never mind a weekly sticker chart ending in a kinder egg. My parents used a meal at TGI's as a reward for a whole year's good behaviour. Cut your sister's barbie's hair off and that banana split is going to have to wait another 300 or so days. Nowadays- times have changed. My little girl isn't even impressed by a sushi conveyorbelt.  But darling, your food's moving around on a track! Maybe if, as promised, restaurants start using drones to deliver food she might be more non-plussed/oui-minussed.

Anyway, I know deep down why she's so whatevery about it. Because we spoil her with dining experiences. And I'm almost too ashamed to write this recommendation because it stinks of such excess but I'm here to service my (5 or so) readers so here goes. On Sunday my sister and I and our hapless husbands took our 5 kids to the ice cream parlour at Fortnum and Mason. https://www.fortnumandmason.com/restaurants/the-parlour

It was AMAZING. Fortunately we couldn't get a table so the cost remained in the £ instead of £cubed. The girls all had an ice cream and cone and chocolate sauce and goodness knows what else and it was brilliant. I think one scoop of ice cream (pick one girls. Just one. Just one. Only one) was about £3 pounds each. Which compared to the cost to my conscience is very good value. 

The Weekend Edition

It's been a busy week in the news apparently. I can't comment really because my focus has been on which of the Oscar dresses will be replicated the best by Boohoo so that it can bought with the last desperate dregs of my maternity leave budget.

Here is this weekend's dingbat. Put your answer in the comments section below. CLUE: once again, it is someone who has been in the news over the past 7 days and there is an extra point if you can tell me why.  The lucky first correct guesser from last week is now on her prizewinning vacay right here in Finchley. Like all of the classiest lottery winners, she has asked not to be identified in the press. 

I just don't get it

I'm finding fashion a bit weird at the moment. Everything in the shops looks like its time-travelled from 1994. Mum jeans, sorry mom jeans anyone? What, you don't want to look like Blossom? What about a silk slip dress, no tights, no bra and a faded denim jacket? Cropped baggy culottes? Shall I go on? If none of these take your fancy either, I suggest you give Zara and actually most of the high street a wide birth for a couple of months and head online instead. For those of you that, like me, are terrified at taking fashion and making it their own, Hush could be a total winner. Its online only, sells really nice, good quality basics, plus other more exciting things like lots of different shape dresses but nothing madly random that puts the fear of god into you. 

https://www.hush-uk.com/

Put another way, buy from Hush and no-one is going to question whether you're in fancy dress. 

Atishu atishu we all fall

Down

This is what I get when I have a cold:

Nothing 

This is what my kids get when they have a cold:

Saline nose spray 
Nasal aspirator

Raised bed/cot

Olbas oil all around room 
3 x 10 minute per day steam room/hammam sessions in the bathroom

Steamer on full blast with (more) olbas oil infused

Tesco's finest Soft tissues 

Vicks or snuffle babe (whoever devised this name deserves to be snuffle babed to death) on feet and chest 

Onion under the cot, changed daily 

Fresh sheets after every nap/sleep
Bowl of boiling water in the corner of the room with (more) vicks smeared all around the bottom of it

Calpol or even better up the bummer suppository

Nurofen

Shh shh white noise machine on repeat 

Love 

Affection

Sympathy

Parenting is humbling. Sniff.

Paleo

Shmaleo

I was at my sister's house earlier today flicking through the first Hemsley and Hemsley cookbook whilst munching on a cold processed sausage from her always full fridge.  Have you read it? Their glossy hair is rather mesmerising but their recipes just aren't. 

Fickle as ever though I went home and made myself their raw courgette salad for lunch. It was as alright as grated courgette saturated in balsamic vinegar could be but didn't really hit the spot. What I wish I'd had, and what i wish I could eat every minute of every day is THIS: 

http://therecipecritic.com/2013/09/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-bars/ 

I've made it twice and it is criminal. And because it is entirely raw, I believe it is also suitable for those following a Paleo diet/way of life. 

"The time is long overdue to encourage more women to dream the possible dream" Sheryl Sandberg

Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.' – Rachel Zoe
Read more at http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/542820/the-40-best-style-quotes-of-all-time.html#822D057xmDUw9mJc.99

Sheryl and the like tell you that you can be anything you want to be, do anything you want to do.  Believe! Lean in! Sit at the table! Feel the fear and do it anyway. Yes, yes, yes thank you ladies; we know the drill. I am all over it. You need to talk to my 3 year old though, not me. Despite my motivational patter, when I ask her what she wants to be when she's older, she says she wants to cook and clean the castle like Cinderella. Oh right. I shan't be on the proud parent bus to NASA then?
In a funny way, I think I would rather the servant dream than her wishing she could just marry the bloody prince like all the rest of those lazy, drippy, ambition-less early princesses.  Snow White basically naps until she marries her step-brother. And don't get me started on Sleeping Beauty. With this in mind,  I've decided to help her towards fulfilling her lofty goals by giving her some work experience in the playroom with this lovely set from Melissa and Doug. Have courage, be kind. Sweep, collect, sweep, collect. 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Melissa-Doug-Lets-House-Sweep/dp/B00HWHNQA0