Oh, my poor blog. How I have neglected you!

I guess I was a little bit too optimistic when I made my resolutions last year. I should just have followed my instinct and not made any at all!

So this year, instead, I shall simply wish you a very Happy New Year. I hope 2012 is everything you want it to be, and so much more. Thank you for being with me over the last year – I look forward to moving forward with you on this crazy journey they call life!

So, yesterday I posted my first entry for this linky, hosted over at the fabulous Scrapbookerry. (It was late because I only just got the software, so I was just getting caught up!)

This week, however, I am right on time and raring to go!

Here’s my effort:

As always, there is a free kit available over at Scrapbookerry for you to use. It’s a MyMemories Suite kit, but works with whatever you use to do your digital scrapping. Why not give it a shot and see what you come up with? And then be sure to link up to Kerry’s blog so that we can see your work of art, too.

I was the lucky winner in the lovely Kerry from Scrapbookerry‘s competition for a copy of the MyMemories Suite scrapbooking software. I have to confess that I haven’t scrapped in a while – so this is the perfect prompt for me to get going with it once more! I’ve never been a ‘traditional’ scrapper – I don’t have the space to store the finished product, let alone any of the many necessary materials! Digital scrapping allows me to indulge my creative streak without the mess – as well as being able to combine in with my love of photography.

Kerry is running a weekly link up where she provides the link to a free scrapbooking kit and lets you do what you want with it – then post the results on her blog the following week. I was so excited when I won the software and now I get to take part in a crafty link up, too – awesome!

Here is my effort for the first week:

Thanks Kerry – looking forward to many more weeks of crafty goodness!

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

I remember the fifth of November. But not for Guy Fawkes, or Bonfire Night, or firework displays.

For you.

I remember exploring walks and mystery tours.

I remember television and cigarette smoke.

I remember hot meals at lunchtime and too much salt.

I remember playing chess and cheating at UNO.

I remember magic tricks and Sunday night babysitting.

I remember hair-raising car rides and the silver St. Christopher stuck fast to the metal door of the small red car.

I remember endless stories about Ferdy and Freddy Fox.

I remember art.

I remember sparklers and wrapping up warm and, yes, fireworks.

I remember love.

I remember you.

Image Credit: Associated Press

Commemorating 9/11

…I love you

At the end of the last half term, Chipmunk’s school held their annual May Day celebration – complete with parade, flowers, May Pole…tired and whingeing children and their sunburned and increasingly frazzled parents/grandparents/siblings, all willing the day to be over. Fast.

After the event, Chipmunk and I had trekked up the hill to collect our car, when I received an SOS call from Miss Fifi’s mum. Please could I collect her as well? I agreed – obviously – and duly trekked back down the hill, only to discover she wasn’t at the site of the celebrations. Cue a call to the school, who said she came back with a teacher but now they couldn’t find her. Fabulous. (Bear in mind that I had been desperate for a wee since the middle of the afternoon. Not important, you might think, but it certainly made all the to-ing and fro-ing interesting. Still, I guess it was a great impromptu workout for my pelvic floor..!). Back up the hill, and a few minutes later, she was found and safely ensconced in the car.

So what do you do with two exhausted, stressed and cranky eight-year-olds? Why, you take them out to dinner, of course!

Yes, I am insane. How kind of you to notice.

Miss Fifi was definitely in one of her “I’m going to wind you up just to see how far I can push you” moods. She wasn’t naughty, per se – just acting out. A lot. Dinner was stressful, to say the least. I’ll give you an example. One conversation went like this:

MISS FIFI: I can’t have (the free) ice cream for pudding.

ME: Why not?

MF: I have a toothache. The cold will hurt it.

ME: Oh. Ok. <sigh> Well, what would you like then?

MF: Chocolate cake.

WAITRESS: Would you like the cake hot or as it comes?

MF: Hot please!

ME: Um, no, you have a bad tooth, remember? That’s why you can’t have the free ice cream…!

MF: But I want it hot.

ME (through gritted teeth to the waitress, who was wearing a sympathetic expression by this point): Cold. Please.

MF: <sulk>

Argh!

Still, I suppose it could have been worse. I’m not sure how exactly, but I’m sure it could have been! All it takes is one look at their faces and all is forgiven – after all, how could you stay mad at these two?

I rest my case.

But I may not take them both out to dinner for a while…

This is a Sponsored Post

Did you know I had a Fairy Hobmother? Yes, you read that right. A Fairy Hobmother.

Who goes by the name of Ian.

Really.

I think he looks like this:

So I’m a little late to the party with this one I guess, but a while ago said Fairy… aka Ian from Appliances Online… contacted me to offer me a surprise gift. He has been flapping his little fairy wings all over the blogging community of late, and he stopped by to sprinkle a little fairy dust on me (don’t tell Ian, but I think I’m allergic, it made me sneeze) – wasn’t that sweet of him?

My lovely Hobmother kindly sent me some vouchers for Amazon. Now, I was going to spend them towards some new camera equipment – but then I had a thought. And I decided instead that I am going to revive the fitness kick that I started a while – *cough* years *cough* – ago. So I bought an awesome yoga mat – those things are not cheap! – with extra padding so it can double as a general workout mat, yay!

And a carry-bag for it. And then I gave in to my geekery and bought a few vital iPad accessories. Like a stylus. You know – important stuff. *blush*

And in the time-honoured tradition of blogging, I am going to share my fitness adventures with you guys. Maybe I’ll give it a title. Like, ‘Awesome Life Experiences of a Yoga Mat’. Or something. Or maybe not.

So, thank you again Ian – my lovely Fairy Hobmother. Sorry for being so tardy in my write-up! Have fun on your blogland travels – and don’t flap your wings too hard, I’d hate for you to do yourself an injury!

Disclosure:  I was provided with vouchers for Amazon.co.uk by Appliances Online. I received no other compensation. The above post is my own. My love admiration for Ian is in no way influenced by aforementioned vouchers. To see my full Disclosure Policy, please go here.

This competition is now **CLOSED**

I decided that the best way to celebrate the launch of bubbleboo.com would be to do something nice for my readers – you. So I was in luck to be contacted by the lovely people at Find Me a Gift asking me if I would like to run a giveaway for them.

Yes, please!

With Father’s Day coming up, there are lots of wonderful gifts to choose from at Find Me A Gift. However, I believe I have picked the best of the bunch for one of you lovely people to receive!

Behold, the Become a Whisky Ambassador Gift Box.

This prize allows you to learn all about how whisky is made, as well as offering the opportunity of a whisky tasting and distillery tour – how cool is that?!

{more product info here}

This set would make a fantastic Father’s Day gift for the Mister in your life. Or maybe a birthday present for the discerning whisky drinker you know and love. Or even as a special treat for yourself – why not?! This is the perfect opportunity to get behind the scenes and become an ambassador for your favourite tipple.

Let’s get to the details – what do you have to do to get your hands on this gift?

TO ENTER: Just leave a comment on this post – it’s that simple! It doesn’t have to be a long comment, or include anything in particular – but a little more than one or two words would be nice! Make sure to include your contact information (e-mail or Twitter) so that I can let you know if you are the lucky winner! {UK Residents only}

In addition to that I am allowing some ways to get bonus entries for this competition.

Bonus 1: Simply Tweet this:  ” I am entering @bubbleboo ‘s competition to #win a Whisky Ambassador Gift Box from @findmeagift http://bit.ly/m9dXAm ” and leave a separate comment telling me that you have done so = 1 extra entry

Bonus 2: Follow me via Google Friend Connect {in the sidebar ➝ } and leave a separate comment telling me that you have done so = 1 extra entry

The competition will close next Wednesday – good luck!

TERMS and CONDITIONS:

• You must be a UK resident.

• You must leave a comment for your initial entry. Bonus entries which are made without first completing the compulsory entry will be disregarded.

• You must leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry (compulsory first, then any bonus entries you wish to complete)

• The giveaway will run until next Wednesday (15th June) at 4pm, at which time I will number all entries consecutively, in the order they were received. I will then use a Popular Random Number Generator to decide the winner.

• The winner will be notified by myself immediately to arrange delivery of the prize. The winner must respond within 24 hours of notification in order to receive the prize.

• My decision on entry validity and winner notification is final.

Well, I guess everything is a little…different, now! I hope everyone has found their way over here ok from what had been The Thought Bubble’s home for over a year.

Firstly, let me try to explain what I’m trying to achieve here. I wanted to migrate everything over to my bubbleboo.com site. Ever since I acquired that domain, I have been trying to figure out how to make it the ‘hub’ of my internet presence – without paying a fortune to achieve it! After much research – and taking a look at the wonderful Pioneer Woman’s site – I had an epiphany.

I think I have finally managed to bring everything together into one place. For the first time, you can access The Thought Bubble, Photography, Writing and Chipmunk’s Story Spot, all from within bubbleboo.com. Autism issues now have their own site, as does Feline Friday, which will be returning this week.

If you would like to discover more about what I am trying to achieve here, please check out my bubbleboo.com About page

In accordance with having several sections of the site, I also have several RSS feeds, to give you a choice of which parts of the site you want to receive in your reader or inbox. If you are already subscribed to The Thought Bubble feed (from the previous site) you will now ONLY receive updates from this part of the new site. You will no longer receive Autism and Feline Friday. There is, however, a feed you can subscribe to instead which covers all of those.

Please visit my Subscription Options page to take a look around and decide which RSS feed best fits you

Things here at bubbleboo.com are not altogether ready, yet. The main parts of the site are very much up and running. Some of the other pages – not so much! Please bear with me, I will try to finish the behind the scenes work as quickly and painlessly as possible!

I’m hoping this will be a new start for me. The massive overhaul, and the achievement of something I have been wanting to do for a long time, will hopefully kick-start my writing mojo again. I miss being here. I hope I won’t be missing it for long.