Swabsploshingly great

When English writer C.S Forester asked Roald Dahl for some details relating to his wartime adventures he replied with a story. Forester sent it to be published in the weekly magazine, the Saturday Evening Post. He then sent a letter to Roald, which ended like this:

'...the Post is asking if you will write more stories for them. I do hope you will.

Did you know you were a writer?'

 

view original here

 

Source: Parker, Vic - Roald Dahl 2003

Paint fumes and excitement

Just to warn you I may still be a little high on paint fumes so if this post wanders off at a tangent you can't say you weren't prepared!

So you know that I hate wallpaper, or I guess more specifically the removal of said overly sticky and infernal wall covering device. I am also not overly keen on home improvements in general; the disruption, arguments and overall chaos caused!

Flash back.....why am I doing all this again?? Oh yeah I remember because such is the love I have for my babies! In the fairy tale land inside my mind my two angels exist together in perfect harmony, looking out for each other when the evil butterfly comes to eat them alive (transalet - they fight like cat and dog at the moment and were only united tonight in their freaking out whilst me and the other half removed an unwanted house guest from their bedroom in the form of a butterfly). However I am an only child and my view of how sisters co-exist could be a little skewed! The reality....if we don't separate them there could be a serious case of sororicide.

Therefore our box room and general dumping ground (we all have one of those rooms, right?) now needs to become a bedroom, fit for a girl a hop skip and a jump away from teenagedom!

There has been demolition, discoveries that elicit certain expletives (various were used so take your pick), followed by the removal of the devils own decorating favourite, repairs, plastering, the clean up and now....now the fun starts.

As much as I hate wallpaper I love painting!

The colour has been picked by the eldest, with more than a little guidance (I was not looking forward to having to paint over deep purple in a few years time!) and her personalisation theme is in the planning stage.

Oh, I love personalising rooms, I always have. As a teenager I had a night sky look in my room, complete with gold suns, moons and stars (oh yeah and bark blue paint - hell to paint over!). Having babies has provided many opportunities for fun murals and cuteness! So far we have had; a Winnie the Pooh theme complete with fluffy clouds, a fairy tale theme complete with frog princes, fairies and butterflies (it even had a blue sky with fluffy clouds, a green carpet for grass and stars and moons lighting) and finally a fully personal effort with names and hand prints.

view original here

I am getting a little excited about what I can create in two little girls bedrooms. My brief; book characters. The eldest specifically wants Roald Dahl characters the youngest has yet to decide. I am just a little giddy and that is definitely the fumes talking because I am no artist. The reality; how the hell do I create wall size versions of our favourite book characters?? I am sure it will work out ok (seriously need to get some fresh air!!)

So did you have a personalised room as a child? How would you decorate your room if you could go back and create yourself one?

Motivation: Day 4 Change of Plans

So I was just logging on to type my post today, all about giving yourself a little break and not worrying about making a mistake. While waiting for the computer to warm up my other half had the Olympic athletics on in the background. How inspirational!!!

Jessica Ennis won the Heptathlon by a country mile. Even though team GB getting a gold medal is great, that is not the inspirational thing for me. Jess went into the last event (800 meters) only needing to finish within so many seconds of her rivals. She set off ahead of the pack and then was overtaken, 'its ok' we were saying, 'she doesn't have to win to get gold'. Yet as the finial stretch came you could see the determination on her face, if she was going to win gold she was doing so by winning the race and promptly overtook those ahead of her, winning without seeming to break a sweat.

This doesn't exactly gel with the day I have had. Don't get me wrong I have had a great day at a local food festival; trying foods I shouldn't really be eating, helping the kids make loads of Roald Dhal inspired treats (Mr Twits beard cupcakes, lickable wallpaper, sherbet slurpers, square sweets that look a round). The moral to this post, if you fall off the waggon for the day don't worry, it will be ok. Tomorrow I will be remembering the determination on Jessica Ennis' face and keeping my head in the game!!

Yummy local foods for tea. Mmmmmmm

See you all tomorrow ;-)

Motivation: Day 3 I built a tree!

After waking up to some of your lovely comments this morning I left for work in a really good mood and motivated to tackle the day ahead.

I managed to avoid the cakes at work (why is it always someones birthday?), I opted for the ham salad from the shop for dinner and ignored the cookies and cream brownie winking at me from the cabinet. Score one for the eat healthy motivation and all thanks to your support, so THANK YOU!

On top of this I have ideas for at least one other post on motivation, which is unheard of for me I am more a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl when it comes to blog posts. Unless of course I get home work, and no that wasn't a hint Miss Stevens!!! With blogging every day apparently comes forward planning, yay!

I thought I would leave you with some little bits of inspiration, I hope your projects are keeping their momentum!

The over the hill way to work.

The road from the other side of the hill, what I see on the way home.

We have birds in our library :-)

I built a tree in ten minutes today :-)

(ok so the tree was already made I just had to put it together and put 32 screws in)

It will look amazing tomorrow with James' Giant Peaches on!

Happy thoughts, sweet dreams and bring on day 4!

Nice words

Do you ever find your self drawn to something just because of the way the name or words sound?

We have been having this discussion today in relation to place names. I always found my self wanting to visit the place Roald Dahl lived and worked, partly because I love his work as an author but also because I love the way 'Great Missden' sounds. Similarly I always wanted to live in a place called Giggleswick which is local to us. Wouldn't it be great to have Giggleswick on your postal address, it never fails to bring a smile to my face. Or even Wigglesworth, that would be equally great

Take this a step further, it even affected me when shopping for an e-reader. I would have loved to buy a Nook (unfortunately not practical in the UK), just for the way it sounded, fortunately my new Kobo sounds just as good!

Is there a word that you love the sound of? Do you find yourself affected by the sound of something when shopping, or am I just strange?