here is my bargain............

i found myself a treat yesterday as we went to tesco to stock up on food for our new years party. before christmas i had my eye on this hello kitty fondue set but didnt think that it was worth £8, there was 1 left and it was reduced to £3.75-i batted my eyelids and the hubby said yes. i will save it for a special occasion...............

december 30th-minkey is guarding a very important letter to be posted. its evidence to help us in our tribunal for court next wed. we are trying to claim disability living allowance and have to go to stoke on wed for our hearing.

december 29th-minkey is feeling a bit sad today as his month of photos are nearly at the end-so he has been playing with his food to cheer himself up......

december 28th-today is the first day that the girls will have a chance to play with their toys-betty hasnt got out of her car yet and maddie wants to play with her vtech motion game.

minkey asked betty if he could have a ride in her car too but he was soon shown the road-poor minkey :(

december 27th-minkey is hanging out with 1 of bettys new toys...........

december 26th-minkey is looking after me whilst darren and the girls got out for dinner. minkey has decided to choose the sweets for today............

december 25th-we had to wake the girls up at 8am and they were overwhelmed by santas presence (pardon the pun). betty got a little tikes cozy coupe car and stayed in it for ages whilst maddie set to on opening her pile of gifts.

meanwhile, minkey was helping with the recycling of all the wrapping and boxes.....

december 24th-minkey helps me to make festive jellies with sweets inside for the girls.

december 24th- we tried to get daisy to wear a christmas hat but it ended up more of a christmas collar.

and here are my 2 little angels getting excited about 2moz.............

december 23rd-i have creating bowls out of records but melting them in the oven (as seen on kirstie and phils christmas)-minkey is checking out one of the creations......

maddie has been drawing pictures of the family and here is her impression of me.

december 22nd-minkey has found some reindeer found ready for friday nite. you sprinkle it on the lawn and with the moons help it will glisten and show santa where to come...........

december 21st-we have had a lovely hamper deivered from a church where some of the men are helping us with financial problems-we were over whelmed with what was in the hamper. so is minkey!............

december 20th-its getting closer to having a hectic house full of fun, excitement and lots of wrapping paper.

minkey has decided to hide away under the tree with his friends as the girls are getting too loud....

december 19th-minkey is enjoying a recent photo of our nephew corey-his first photo from nursery and he has grown so much.

december 18th-minkey is wearing his new ring that was on top of a festive cupcake.

december 17th-minkey is reading the menu wondering what to order for his festive meal 2nite. we took the girls for a meal to celebrate maddie finishing school and perhaps to start a new tradition too. we had a yummy meal and was enjoyed by us all.

http://stvicious.co.ukhere i have a link to a great crafty and talented friend who is doing an awesome giveaway for christmas-www.stvicious.co.uk

december 16th-minkey is looking at the new christmas films that have come through the post!

it began to snow again today and im starting to get into the festive mood now esp with maddie finishing school 2moz. we have planned to go for a christmas meal 2moz after maddie finishes school just the 4 of us to begin the celebrations and we cant wait.........

december 15th-tonight its daddys turn to go and see maddie in her play so minkey is making sure that the video camera has been charged ready............

december 14th-minkey has been to see maddie in her school play and thought she was the twinkliest star ever.....

december 13th-minkey is helping me to find red items for my flickr project "kittys rainbow week" where each day is a different colour. good fun!

today , i have the house to myself so plenty of resting and finishing off my christmas journal are on the cards..........

december 12th-our girls are going to a party and i couldnt resist taking some pictures of them together, minkey decided to be in on the photos too.....

its been long overdue catching up with my crafting buddies, today was our christmas party with a secret santa and buffet. last year the hall was beautifully decorated and some of us used the tinsel/baubles off the tree to decorate ourselves! this year there was no tree or decorations so i improvised and made my own.

december 11th-minkey is helping me to pack my craft kit ready to create.........

december 10th-minkey is helping me to make christmas cards using my stickles....

9th december, its time to get writing out the christmas cards........

december 8th-maddie is back to school, betty is watching toy story 3 and minkey is mingling with some of our christmas friends............

december 7th-all of us r ill so minkey spent the day with maddie.

december 6th-minkeys adventures

today he decided to put his hat ontop of the mini fibre-optic tree, i managed to get the tree flashing too.

december 5th-minkey has decided to help me eat the chocs out of my calendar.

i hate spiders but love how the frost and snow make the cobwebs look so magical-i had fun looking round at the all the different shpaed ones.

4th December, after the birthday celebrations yesterday, darren has got a chesty cough and i al full of cold but we still managed to put up the christmas tree with the help of minkey and eat darrens lemon sponge cake that i made him!!!

3rd december-sorry i didnt update for 2day but it was darrens 38th birthday and we had the chance to go out for a meal just the 2 of us so we went to our favourite eatery "chiquitos". i told the waitress that it was his birthday so we got free crackers to pull, candles on his dessert and they sang to him aswell as balloons.

3rd december- minkeys adventure today are looking at darrens birthday cards:

december 2-minkey is deciding which hat is best to wear to go out in-sorry minkey but the glove is for your hand not head!!

i dont know if i had mentioned that im taking part in a photo challenge on flickr started by my friend kittypinkstars. she loves rainbows so decided to start a challenge where each day you photograph an object of a certain colour i.e monday red, tuesday orange etc.

this gave me an idea of starting my own photo challenge just for the month of december where i can get the girls to help me too. i love the pg tips monkey that comes free with the tea bags and have the original 1 that ive had for years too. each day in december i will try and take a photo of minkey helping us to get prepared for christmas and make the end results into a scrapbook story for the girls.

december 1 -minkey is drying out on the radiator after helping us to build a snowman in the garden.

here are piccies of 2 of my fave things-hot choc with marshmallows and crafting with maddie (well decorating biccies). maddie was too eager to eat her biscuit so her decorating was cut short!
the hoc choc was too keep me warm whilst we iced. good excuse anyway!!!

yesterday we promised the girls that we would take them to see santa-he was at the local dobbies garden centre. maddie was over excited at seeing him and wouldnt let him speak, but betty was the opposite as she wouldnt sit to have her photo taken and wouldnt open her pressie either. we then took them to have a christmas lunch and bought some new lights for the tree. this weekend we will put up the tree as we have a tradition of putting up the decs the weekend after darrens b'day.

i was disapppointed by the line down maddies face on this photo but we couldnt complain about the sun either!!!!

this weekend has seen me making a cheesecake which is a first for me and i was totally surprised by how well and tasty it was- orange flavour, darren loves his cheesecake so i had to make sure that it was up to his standard. it must of been as he polished off two portions out right.

hello monday, another week to begin and another week closer to christmas and being able to spend valuable time with the girls and darren. we are trying our best to make things at home that require little or no money at all so im planning activities to keep the girls occupied throughout the weeks running up to christmas. we have been making lots of our own pizzas and cakes (we have some wonderful egg free cake reciepes).

its darren 38th b'day next friday and i havent a clue what to get him as we have no spare £ for pressies-i will have to make him a choc cake and ?????????????

all these little projects have been keeping me busy and cheering me up-i also tried a new nail technique and am loving the results-kayla from the dainty squid first introduced me to the idea, so i had to have a go.........

it saves £15 from going to the salon to have my nails painted-maddie saw them and said that she wanted hers the same.

finally, i have found a great website called modpodgerocksblog.com and its filled with great ideas.

a monday to me is my day to do whatever i wish as maddie is at school and betty goes to nursery. today i decided that the house is far too cluttered with junk and toys so i began to de-clutter ready for the amount of presents the girls will be getting at xmas. the radio was on and i lit my yankee candle (lemon)-i love to dream away into the flame. my rest period involved a cup of tea and a homemade chocolate cupcake.