So the other things that I've forgotten to mention that have happened over the last few days are these.....
Saturday, whilst the boys and dd1 were all in the shop, Julie , dd2 and I headed back to the house, so dd2 could run riot for a while. Whilst there Julie, the brave woman that she is, attempted to show me how to crochet and do you know what, I think I may vaguely have it! not that I've had chance to do it since mind. I was up till 10.30 last night doing the accounts, followed by dd1's school application. Still it's a start, I may have to go and find a lighter ball of wool than the one I was using though (kidnapped from ss's room, his dark blue ball of wool from his knitting that he keeps starting and giving up on) .......
dd2 on the other hand, had other ideas about me going to bed last night. I'd nearly finished dd1's online school application, when, mummmmmmyyyyyyyy eminated from dd2's room, followed by her in person at my side (11pmish)
I put dd2 back into bed. Thus ensues 15 mins or so of us messing around, me putting her into bed, her getting out. So eventually I say, right that's it your back in your cot if you do it again. Dd2 says no, and settles for 5 mins, then gets out again.....I put her in cot, retire to her screaming....dd2 then re appears at my side in 2mins flat. Hurumph, I guess I can get rid of the cot then........eventually she settled when I sat with my back to her for 10 mins, slowly edging out of the door, sigh, we're at that age now!
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Halloween Preparation
Seeing as its the Sunday before Halloween, I thought it would be nice to do some fun things with the kids, so this morning ss, the dd's and I have been busy hollowing out pumpkins and carving faces in them. We made soup with the insides.
Pumpkin Soup:
Sweat a small chopped onion, in some butter or olive oil, in your saucepan for 5 mins or so.
Add the Innards of two chopped up pumpkins in our case, use what you have available though.
Peel, chop and add two potatoes to the mix
Chuck in 1.5ltrs of veg stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook for 20mins
Add cream or creme frache to taste, or even a bit of Chilli!
So even dd1 ate some soup, after I threatened to cancel her birthday party, if she didn't try it! (evil mummy) anyway she decided in the end it wasn't that bad (triumphant smile from me!) We also did Candy apples for desert decorated in orange and black sugar strands. It turns out these turn most peoples mouths black, mwah ha ha, and indeed the smallest family member black from the neck down to tummy too!
To top our pre Halloween feast off, we've also created with the help of Super Cook, some gummy sweets, which I'm sure will taste horrible, but the kids can't wait to try them, so seeing as we're off to try out the local fair in an hour or two, I shall insert these just before we go out, so they can run all the energy off!
Dh is in the shop at present, so we shall shortly be heading over to see him, and pick up a few bits for Sunday dinner from coop on the way back. I'm thinking mainly parsnips and possibly broccoli/cauli, we have carrots, hmmm oh and milk and some cream, as my mother, kindly, has taken pity on my new busy working lifestyle and sent me an Apple Crumble home with dh on Friday night this week! So better get cream to go on it, right?
Pumpkin Soup:
Sweat a small chopped onion, in some butter or olive oil, in your saucepan for 5 mins or so.
Add the Innards of two chopped up pumpkins in our case, use what you have available though.
Peel, chop and add two potatoes to the mix
Chuck in 1.5ltrs of veg stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook for 20mins
Add cream or creme frache to taste, or even a bit of Chilli!
So even dd1 ate some soup, after I threatened to cancel her birthday party, if she didn't try it! (evil mummy) anyway she decided in the end it wasn't that bad (triumphant smile from me!) We also did Candy apples for desert decorated in orange and black sugar strands. It turns out these turn most peoples mouths black, mwah ha ha, and indeed the smallest family member black from the neck down to tummy too!
To top our pre Halloween feast off, we've also created with the help of Super Cook, some gummy sweets, which I'm sure will taste horrible, but the kids can't wait to try them, so seeing as we're off to try out the local fair in an hour or two, I shall insert these just before we go out, so they can run all the energy off!
Dh is in the shop at present, so we shall shortly be heading over to see him, and pick up a few bits for Sunday dinner from coop on the way back. I'm thinking mainly parsnips and possibly broccoli/cauli, we have carrots, hmmm oh and milk and some cream, as my mother, kindly, has taken pity on my new busy working lifestyle and sent me an Apple Crumble home with dh on Friday night this week! So better get cream to go on it, right?
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Chaos Ensued
We're open! we did it!! on Thursday at 11am I finally managed to open the shop. Dh only called me every 2 hours or so, to see how it was going, sigh. He was very excited too and thus very upset not to be here himself, but someone has to pay the bills whilst we get on our feet and he volunteered to, so there you go! It could be said I have the sympathy of Miss Piggy :-)
The result of the last month of my hard work, is showing on the link from here. Just in case its not http://www.chimeraccg.co.uk/ In fact the website is Richards hard work, so much thanks should go to him, once again for bailing me out! as my technical ability is appalling as he will attest. Today I've also knocked up a blog http://chimeraccg.blogspot.com/ to link to it, so we can post latest updates, and keep the world upto speed with what's happening in shop. I'm hoping we will have our sign up on Thursday, and the a-board to put on the street, then we can look at advertising and progress to selling our grand opening to everyone. Saturday 24th November is the day, just in case you were wondering.
So its all been a bit mad really, Richard kindly came in and played Saturday girl at the weekend, as Meridian is in the USA and we'd reserved that position for her if she wants it?!
The response so far has been good. People are happy to see a decent shop in Ripley :-)
Dh even opened the shop on Sunday, and surprisingly we sold lots. Guess being opposite Wilkos helps, what with them being the only other thing in town open on Sunday, oh and next door but one to the Church, so when people leave there, they come here! hurrah!
This week we also bravely moved dd2, aged 19mths into a new bed. H, dd1's friend has got a new bed. I don't think he knows this yet, as he's on his hols, but his mum and dad kindly said dd2 could have his old one, so we got it on Sunday, just before his dad flew out to join them. The bed went straight into dd2's room, with the cot shoved against the window, just in case the bed didn't work out, but we needn't have bothered. The worst bit was dd2 discovering that her dog had dropped off the bed and she couldn't get him back by herself. So once he was retrieved, she went to sleep like a dream. She only got up at 6.30 am because dh accidentally woke her, this morning she slept until gone 7am! hurrah!!
The result of the last month of my hard work, is showing on the link from here. Just in case its not http://www.chimeraccg.co.uk/ In fact the website is Richards hard work, so much thanks should go to him, once again for bailing me out! as my technical ability is appalling as he will attest. Today I've also knocked up a blog http://chimeraccg.blogspot.com/ to link to it, so we can post latest updates, and keep the world upto speed with what's happening in shop. I'm hoping we will have our sign up on Thursday, and the a-board to put on the street, then we can look at advertising and progress to selling our grand opening to everyone. Saturday 24th November is the day, just in case you were wondering.
So its all been a bit mad really, Richard kindly came in and played Saturday girl at the weekend, as Meridian is in the USA and we'd reserved that position for her if she wants it?!
The response so far has been good. People are happy to see a decent shop in Ripley :-)
Dh even opened the shop on Sunday, and surprisingly we sold lots. Guess being opposite Wilkos helps, what with them being the only other thing in town open on Sunday, oh and next door but one to the Church, so when people leave there, they come here! hurrah!
This week we also bravely moved dd2, aged 19mths into a new bed. H, dd1's friend has got a new bed. I don't think he knows this yet, as he's on his hols, but his mum and dad kindly said dd2 could have his old one, so we got it on Sunday, just before his dad flew out to join them. The bed went straight into dd2's room, with the cot shoved against the window, just in case the bed didn't work out, but we needn't have bothered. The worst bit was dd2 discovering that her dog had dropped off the bed and she couldn't get him back by herself. So once he was retrieved, she went to sleep like a dream. She only got up at 6.30 am because dh accidentally woke her, this morning she slept until gone 7am! hurrah!!
Monday, 15 October 2007
The quest for shelves
I've been attempting to obtain shelves for about a week now, out of stock has been the stock phrase, but wait! possibly in???? so I went to the hallowed halls of Blue and Yellow.......
Then I lost my rag. Had a nice breakfast there for 95p! and then made the mistake of joining the throng, in an attempt to get served in the shelving department. The girls and I, formed a nice que just before 11am at an information point, along with about 10 other couples. Eventually someone in 'customer service' dragged themselves to the area to say, oh, no staff here yet (11.08) you'd better go and join the que at the sofa department. Took one look, 30 deep minimum. Left in a huff along with several other people. So my search for shelves for the shop window began in ernest elsewhere, having waited a week in vain.
B&Q we're not far away, so we payed them a quick visit. Very quick, as they had no free standing shelving at all........why not????
Next on the list was Argos, which luckily for me had two of the shelves I settle on and two TV stands as well :-) (small stack on one side?!) Even got a nice young man to help me to the car with the lot, although his manager didn't look very happy about it! I just waved 4 items, a buggy and a 3 year old at him and he told the young gentleman to help :-)
Popped into Homebargins, which was fortuotus for dd1, as they had the last Dora Blanket on sale, so its residing on top of the freezer as her end of week, been good as gold treat! The threat of dd2 getting it if she fails seems to be working ;-)
So that was it really, more trudging than I'd have liked with the kids in tow, but you can't have everything, right?
They're now up in the shop window, ready for opening on Thursday (one day I'll get photos on this blog) mainly with stock on them, although I'm expecting 3 deliveries tomorrow, which should complete our little venture for now! I spent the rest of today putting the GW (Games Workshop) racking together, then getting the stock onto it. I'm getting quite excited now, I even have throwing dice for the first person who tries to rob us, improvised weapon right ;-)
Then I lost my rag. Had a nice breakfast there for 95p! and then made the mistake of joining the throng, in an attempt to get served in the shelving department. The girls and I, formed a nice que just before 11am at an information point, along with about 10 other couples. Eventually someone in 'customer service' dragged themselves to the area to say, oh, no staff here yet (11.08) you'd better go and join the que at the sofa department. Took one look, 30 deep minimum. Left in a huff along with several other people. So my search for shelves for the shop window began in ernest elsewhere, having waited a week in vain.
B&Q we're not far away, so we payed them a quick visit. Very quick, as they had no free standing shelving at all........why not????
Next on the list was Argos, which luckily for me had two of the shelves I settle on and two TV stands as well :-) (small stack on one side?!) Even got a nice young man to help me to the car with the lot, although his manager didn't look very happy about it! I just waved 4 items, a buggy and a 3 year old at him and he told the young gentleman to help :-)
Popped into Homebargins, which was fortuotus for dd1, as they had the last Dora Blanket on sale, so its residing on top of the freezer as her end of week, been good as gold treat! The threat of dd2 getting it if she fails seems to be working ;-)
So that was it really, more trudging than I'd have liked with the kids in tow, but you can't have everything, right?
They're now up in the shop window, ready for opening on Thursday (one day I'll get photos on this blog) mainly with stock on them, although I'm expecting 3 deliveries tomorrow, which should complete our little venture for now! I spent the rest of today putting the GW (Games Workshop) racking together, then getting the stock onto it. I'm getting quite excited now, I even have throwing dice for the first person who tries to rob us, improvised weapon right ;-)
Friday, 12 October 2007
A moment to breathe
and relax.......that's how this evening is feeling. Dh is away running LARP in York, the last Strangehaven event of the year www.ascendencylrp.co.uk there's also a link on the side of this blog if anyone fancies a look! The kids are in bed and have finally fallen asleep, even though dh rang and spoke to them, dd2 still doesn't quite get it and has been randomly yelling dada for approx 2 hrs, bless her. So here I am, with Ugly Betty in the background, taking two minutes to post on here!
The last few days have been hectic, but we're getting there with the shop www.chimeraccg.co.uk. We have signs up in the windows, the shelvings all in, mainly with stock on it too! just 3 final deliveries on monday, then we have the window displays to do, the till manual to read, then once thats running, so are we :-)
As you may guess that's mainly what I've been doing this week!
Very annoyed at my phone today though, found out, totally by accident, why no one has been replying to my texts since Wednesday. I appears something went wrong with the sending? as I turned out to have 3 days worth of stuff in my outbox going nowhere when I looked. V Annoyed, luckily someone called from the shop fitters to check why they'd not received a photo message I'd sent them two hours previously, otherwise I'd still be thinking everything was ok! Had to delete 3 days worth of sent messages, and re message a few people, none of whom had received anything from me, and all of whom were no doubt thinking I was an ignorant git!
Hmmmmm, its rather nice to have time to post on here, quite like a bit of time to myself. Dh doesn't understand that much, he likes my company, but I've always liked a bit of quiet me time, so its nice to get the odd evening when he's away. It also means I can eat what I like, tonights odd combination was noodles, (he hates them) with broccoli and fishcakes (on the cheap pile in shop) followed by cheesecake, which my waistline says I probably shouldn't be eating, but well, its a weekend, right?
The last few days have been hectic, but we're getting there with the shop www.chimeraccg.co.uk. We have signs up in the windows, the shelvings all in, mainly with stock on it too! just 3 final deliveries on monday, then we have the window displays to do, the till manual to read, then once thats running, so are we :-)
As you may guess that's mainly what I've been doing this week!
Very annoyed at my phone today though, found out, totally by accident, why no one has been replying to my texts since Wednesday. I appears something went wrong with the sending? as I turned out to have 3 days worth of stuff in my outbox going nowhere when I looked. V Annoyed, luckily someone called from the shop fitters to check why they'd not received a photo message I'd sent them two hours previously, otherwise I'd still be thinking everything was ok! Had to delete 3 days worth of sent messages, and re message a few people, none of whom had received anything from me, and all of whom were no doubt thinking I was an ignorant git!
Hmmmmm, its rather nice to have time to post on here, quite like a bit of time to myself. Dh doesn't understand that much, he likes my company, but I've always liked a bit of quiet me time, so its nice to get the odd evening when he's away. It also means I can eat what I like, tonights odd combination was noodles, (he hates them) with broccoli and fishcakes (on the cheap pile in shop) followed by cheesecake, which my waistline says I probably shouldn't be eating, but well, its a weekend, right?
Monday, 8 October 2007
Blinking spanner things?
So does anyone know how I get rid of those spanner things on the links at the side of this page, damned if I can seem to do it?!!
Shop is coming along, if I ever manage to download the photos on my phone, you'll be able to see what it looked like last Saturday!! its come on since then too. Today I have finished fitting all the plastic slats into the slat wall, cleaned them all down, hoovered the shop, brought a door mat and fabric for the window displays and spent ages on the phone to various companies chasing and placing orders! Not to mention putting the new phone onto charge (24 hrs it needs apparently) and firing up the new stereo! music! yeah!!
and on that rather illeterate note I shall go to bed, get some beauty sleep and do it all again tomorrow, deliverys ahoy!
Shop is coming along, if I ever manage to download the photos on my phone, you'll be able to see what it looked like last Saturday!! its come on since then too. Today I have finished fitting all the plastic slats into the slat wall, cleaned them all down, hoovered the shop, brought a door mat and fabric for the window displays and spent ages on the phone to various companies chasing and placing orders! Not to mention putting the new phone onto charge (24 hrs it needs apparently) and firing up the new stereo! music! yeah!!
and on that rather illeterate note I shall go to bed, get some beauty sleep and do it all again tomorrow, deliverys ahoy!
Monday, 1 October 2007
Coming Soon
There will be more coming soon on this blog honest!
I've been rather busy, with my dh, opening up our new comic, games and collectables shop :-)
so apologies for being AWOL, but sometimes that's how these things go......once I'm in the shop, I'll be blogging every day!
So in the big, live, real world, I've been upto the following during Sept and probably a whole lot more as well.
We've morphed from http://www.shardslrp.com/ to http://www.ascendancylrp.co.uk/ so as you can imagine, the larp team have been very busy bees, and I'm very grateful to them all, especially Richard and Julie who have put lots of effort into sorting out the new website for us :-) Many thanks!
Dh and I have been running around like loonies, sorting solicitors, loans, phones, stock, tills, signs etc - Much thanks again to Dave P, for his fantastic logo, which the printers are currently working into a huge over the shop and small in the window type signs. Shop fittings are brought and arrive today! It's all very exciting :-)
I also snuck out for a day, the other saturday and joined Meridian at a 1 day writing course, to kick start my writing again. Much thanks to Daniel Blythe for running it and booting me up the arse to do something, soon, honest....I will be doing more soon, once things calm down a little, shop 1st etc!
No time for any more, have lots to do, but thought I'd get my poor little blog updated ;-)
I've been rather busy, with my dh, opening up our new comic, games and collectables shop :-)
so apologies for being AWOL, but sometimes that's how these things go......once I'm in the shop, I'll be blogging every day!
So in the big, live, real world, I've been upto the following during Sept and probably a whole lot more as well.
We've morphed from http://www.shardslrp.com/ to http://www.ascendancylrp.co.uk/ so as you can imagine, the larp team have been very busy bees, and I'm very grateful to them all, especially Richard and Julie who have put lots of effort into sorting out the new website for us :-) Many thanks!
Dh and I have been running around like loonies, sorting solicitors, loans, phones, stock, tills, signs etc - Much thanks again to Dave P, for his fantastic logo, which the printers are currently working into a huge over the shop and small in the window type signs. Shop fittings are brought and arrive today! It's all very exciting :-)
I also snuck out for a day, the other saturday and joined Meridian at a 1 day writing course, to kick start my writing again. Much thanks to Daniel Blythe for running it and booting me up the arse to do something, soon, honest....I will be doing more soon, once things calm down a little, shop 1st etc!
No time for any more, have lots to do, but thought I'd get my poor little blog updated ;-)
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