July 2011

Archive | July, 2011

Macrophotography.

By Mum's the Word on July 31, 2011 in Photos

Thanks to the lovely Jay, Sundays have become synonymous with photography for much of the blogging community and I just wanted to write a post with both words and pictures about how I feel about it all. I’m the first to admit that I’m not very good at photography, but I love my camera and I enjoy snapping away, trying to improve my (lack of) skills. One of my favourite settings on my camera is the macro. I don’t know if it harks back to when I was a kid and I got bought a microscope, but I have a fascination with seeing the minute, almost cellular detail on small things. Also, I have absolutely terrible eyesight, relying on very thick glasses or contact lenses at all times, so maybe being able to see fine detail is like a little luxury to me.

Anyway, I was hanging the washing out earlier and this little dude landed on my vest….

I love the way some insects have markings that look like a face! Sure, it’s not David Bailey stuff, but I was proud of the shot, I had to get my head between the lines in the washing line to get it and I think it was worth it. I was going to save it and use it for next weeks Silent Sunday, but we’ve got Sausage’s birthday next Saturday and I’m almost certain that’s going to give me more than enough Silent Sunday material, so I thought I’d get it in early!

If any of you have any awesome photography hints or tips for me, I’d love to hear them. I was on the verge of buying an expensive DSLR but was advised by lots of people to improve my photography with my compact before spending a ton on new equipment. So, along with my blogging, working, parenting, wifeing, degreeing and, you know, having time to breathe in and out, I plan to get better with my camera. Oh, and I’m thinking about taking a cake decorating course too, but that’s another post for another day.

Comments { 3 }

Silent Sunday

By Mum's the Word on July 31, 2011 in Silent Sunday

Comments { 10 }

A Matter of Perception.

By Mum's the Word on July 30, 2011 in Parenting, Personal

Isn’t it amazing how your kids can completely change the way you look at things, without even meaning to, how their wide-eyed wonder at the most mundane item can alter your perception? Yesterday, while we were walking along the street, Sausage and I walked past a particularly unkempt garden outside a block of flats. Most people would turn their nose up at the laziness of the council or the impact that the garden had on the look of the rest of the street. Most adult people. My daughter exclaimed, with genuine delight, “Mummy, look at all of those fluffy flowers! Aren’t they beautiful?“. Obviously the flowers in question were dandelion clock, which the majority of people would consider a weed and a pest, but my daughter looked at them with her eyes and her heart, unaffected by social convention, and found them beautiful. That, right there, is the answer to world peace, I’m sure of it.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to look at things in the same way. It’s like therapy. Take the time to see the beauty in things and the world really will start to look like a better place. Or at least, that’s the theory. It’s like that thing where they say if you force yourself to smile, even if you don’t mean it, it releases certain hormones and will eventually actually make you feel genuinely happy. If I take the time to view things through the eyes of my daughter, the world will seem like a different place. Instead of moaning about the rain, look at the beautiful shapes in the clouds, or the way the rain makes everything look shiny and new. Instead of being cross when the foxes rip the bin bags up and I have to pick up the semi-rotting detritus, think about the fact that the fox and maybe some fox babies managed to have a lovely dinner and won’t go hungry tonight.

And I’ve found that if I FORCE myself to do it, like stand in front of a pile of rubbish and make myself think of something nice to say about it, it starts to come more naturally at other times. Maybe it’s like cognitive behavioural therapy, I’m kind of retraining my brain, but if you can walk along the street and have ten positive thoughts rather than 15 negative ones, surely that would make a vast difference to your day and your mood? And in turn, an upturn in your mood might mean you don’t snap at your kid for something which is quite minor, or you might smile at a stranger in the street and make them realise that neighbourliness and community spirit isn’t dead. All quite minor things that could have a cumulative effect and make the world a better place.

And it all started with fluffy flowers.

Comments { 8 }

The Fairy Hobmother

By Mum's the Word on July 25, 2011 in Sponsored Posts

Well it’s finally happened. After months of my commenting on blogs and general self-promotion on Twitter, the Fairy Hobmother has landed at Mum’s the Word. For those of you who aren’t in the know, the Fairy Hobmother waves his magic wand (or is it a handheld blender?) and the lovely chaps at Appliances Online, who sell some rather ace washing machines, bestow us with a lovely little gift, (in my case it was a £15 Amazon voucher…that’s Hubs’ birthday present sorted then…;-)) and then extend that to our lovely readers. What that means is, anyone who comments on this post could be in with a chance of getting their very own Hobmother visit. Tantalising, isn’t it?

Judging by the banging noise that my washing machine decided to make mid-spin yesterday, I’m thinking I might be making my very own personal visit to Appliances Online very soon. I also love the fact that they do a free recycling service where they take your old machine away and dispose of it properly. I don’t know about you, but our council charge through the bloody nose for that service.

Anyway, comment below and Ian could be waving his wand over you very soon! (That sounded dirty, didn’t it? I didn’t mean it to, honestly!)

Comments { 12 }

What Would You Do?

By Mum's the Word on July 24, 2011 in All About ME!, Opinion, Review

Since I started Mum’s the Word back in October of last year, I’ve been sent some really fab products to try out and I can honestly say that I’ve not had a bad word to say about any of them. All of my reviews have been pretty positive, but they’ve always been honest (anyone who read this review that I did for BDT will know that I don’t pull my punches if I think something is crap). I take my time, use a product extensively before writing about it and always try to give a well-researched and balanced opinion.

But what do you do when you receive a product that’s so dire that it doesn’t even do what it says on the box? I could quite easily write a review about how it claimed to last five days, but barely lasted two hours, but would this be the right thing to do? My Mum taught me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all, but then surely a negative review is just as useful to my readers as a positive one? I certainly wouldn’t want any of you to waste your money on this product. I also risk alienating the PR who sent me the item, with whom I’ve built a good relationship over the months but firstly, I’m only being honest and secondly, this blog means more to me than a few free products.

What would you do, readers? Would you name and shame without a second thought, would you email the PR and tell them that you couldn’t possibly say anything positive and ask them what you should do, or would you just keep schtum and hope no one remembers that they sent you the damn things in the first place?

I have to say, my instinct is to tell you all. I’m often at my funniest and most entertaining when I’m being scathing about something, and I have a shit load of scathing things to say about this one. I know a lot of my fellow bloggers have been or are in PR, so what would you want me to do, if you were looking at it from the other side of the coin?

If any of you have any advice, I’d love to hear it. In the meantime, do me a favour and don’t buy any new beauty products…I may be sharing a very off-putting story very soon!

Comments { 6 }

Intel Museum of Me

By Mum's the Word on July 21, 2011 in Sponsored Posts

A few weeks ago, Husband called me into the office to show me something on his computer, and I walked in to see a load of our photos playing as though they were in their very own art gallery. I must confess, I did get a lump in my throat as it went through our wedding photos, Sausage’s baby photos and a load of others which meant a lot to us.

What I was looking at was the Intel Museum of Me, a visual archive of Husbands social life, where a simple click of a button arranges your photos, friends and updates and turns them into a kind of ‘This is Your Life’ through social media. It’s three minutes of sentimentality, and that’s got me written all over it! To get your own Museum of me, just go to the Intel site and connect with your Facebook page. Give it a go, it’s well worth it.

Comments { 0 }

Small Steps…

By Mum's the Word on July 19, 2011 in Personal

This is obviously not me....but it will be one day.

So, I’m not going to do what I’ve done before. I won’t put my vital statistics out here for all to see, it’s not productive so it’s pointless. But today, I made a small step toward my goal. I used our new treadmill for the first time, and not only did I do 15 minutes of brisk walking, but I did 5 whole minutes of actual jogging. Now, I’m sure all of you healthy, amazing people who run 5km every day are scoffing at my minor burst of energy, but this is a big deal to me. I am totally unfit, and I surprised myself by even managing to jog for five minutes, I thought I’d manage about 2 before my lungs exploded, but once I found my stride it was easier than I thought it would be.

I also wore my Zaggora HotPants for the first time and I noticed more than one benefit. Aside from the fact, and I’m sorry to have to share this, but I definitely, *ahem* sweated more in the areas that the HotPants covered, which just shows that the fat and cellulite burning magic is in action, one of the other things I liked is that they seem to hold everything in. If you’ve ever been overweight and tried to exercise, you’ll do that there’s an unpleasant and off-putting jiggle that tends to happen if you go over a gentle canter, but the HotPants really eliminated this and gave me the confidence to go for it.

Oh, and a little tip? The HotPants have very specific washing instructions, but if you take them in the shower with you after your workout, turn them inside out and rinse them out with some mild shampoo, then hang them over the shower curtain rail it makes keeping them clean super simple (That’s not endorsed by Zaggora by the way, just my own tip, I’ll probably find out that I’m perishing the material by doing that, when my hulking great ass bursts out of the seams, mid-workout!).

I’m hoping this is the start of something good, and you never know, if I start to see decent results I may just share my new stats with you! (Oh, and if you want some HotPants for yourself, I have a voucher for anyone who wants it giving you 10% off, just comment below and let me know)

Comments { 0 }

We’re Fine.

By Mum's the Word on July 18, 2011 in Maternity Matters, Parenting, Personal

Through my work with Maternity Matters and involvement with the Birth Trauma Association, I read a lot of stuff by women who’ve suffered similar trauma and disappointment to what my family went through when Sausage was born. I read about people who are let down by a lack of care, poor facilities and a health service which treats them like a number. I talk to people who feel alone, like no-one understands their feelings and thoughts and I do my best to let them know that I know exactly how they feel. I know Susanne won’t mind me saying that she does the same and I’ve seen her counselling others through their heartache on many an occassion.

It’s Sausage’s 3rd birthday in just under three weeks and I have something that I wanted to share with anyone who may read this. It’s really important that I get this out there and I genuinely hope that people read this and are comforted by my words.The thing I need to say is this:

We’re okay.

Three years ago, I thought my heart would never stop hurting. I thought I’d be consumed by my rage, feeling at times that I fully understood spontaneous combustion, convinced that it happened to people who spent their waking hours burning with white-hot rage. I thought that every time I looked at my daughter I’d see the tubes and wires that covered her the first time I laid eyes on her. I thought I’d never be the same again.

But we’re okay.

Yes, I’m still angry, I still have huge chunks of my memory missing, I probably won’t ever be the same again in many ways. But I don’t want to be. I wouldn’t wipe my memory of all of the bad things that happened because I’d be doing my daughter a huge disservice if I did. I need to remember. But all of that doesn’t detract from the fact that we’re fine. That doesn’t give credence to the insensitive morons who say that we should just be grateful that our children have turned out okay. I just hope I can give some of you some hope, when it feels as though the black cloud will never clear.You need to know that it’s OKAY to feel this way.

One of the things that I was adamant about in my birth plan was that I wanted to have skin-to-skin contact with my daughter when she was born. Because I was unconscious and she was so poorly, this wasn’t even vaguely an option, but what I need you to know is that it hasn’t affected our relationship one iota. We’re as close and two human beings could possibly be, despite the fact that I couldn’t hold her until her 7th day of life, so anyone who worries that a lack of contact early on will have a detrimental effect on your relationship needs to try to remember this.

I’m not trying to preach and I’m certainly not trying to demean or belittle the feeling of anyone who is suffering the effects of a traumatic experience. I’m just hoping that my experience can help others and let you know that you will be okay. It may never go away completely, but it won’t always be as fresh and painful as it is now.

It may be a cliché, but time really is a great healer.

Comments { 3 }

Silent Sunday

By Mum's the Word on July 17, 2011 in Silent Sunday

Comments { 10 }

I AM NOT A MORON (Or; F*ck ‘The Only Way is Essex’)

By Mum's the Word on July 9, 2011 in Anger, Personal, Rant

I am not a moron. I don’t spend my days shopping and getting my nails done, nor do I go to trendy nightclubs, nor have aspirations to be a glamour model or a ‘socialite’. Yet, thanks to the latest televisual cesspool from ITV, whenever I tell anyone where I live, this is what they assume. Yes, dear readers, I am from Essex. And as a county, we’ve been getting a bad rap for years. I don’t know whether Chigwell-ites ‘Birds of a Feather’ are to blame, or if it’s something else, but the rest of the world seems to have this impression that we’re vapid simpletons.

Continue Reading →