New Year Resolutions

I don't usually make New Year resolutions, but for 2012 I decided to set myself some goals.  I am going to set them into three categories, the first group is a must, the second is I will try my hardest and the third group will be I will try my best to do.

So the first group of things I think are a must for me this year are:
1. Lose 30lbs, I have gained quite a lot of weight this year and I want to get back to how I used to be.  The first thing I will be doing is cutting out the fizzy drinks which I have been drinking a lot of and the take aways.
2.  Pay off one credit card.  I only have two credit cards but they are always hanging over my head.  My aim is to pay off the one with the smaller balance first.  I don't think I will be able to pay off both as I don't get much money. 

This is going to be my second group:
1.  Try and blog daily for a year.  I don't know if I will be able to stick to this but I am going to try.
2.  Learn to use Photoshop elements 9.  I have had it since August and have been collecting magazines that give you lessons but I haven't got around to doing it and it's something I've always wanted to learn.
3.  To cook from scratch more often.  Most of the time I will admit to being very tired and lazy when it comes to food as my youngest daughter never sleeps well.  I have been researching recipes that look easy and quick and will have at least some form of meat and veg in.

Last but not least my third group.
1.  Take a lot more photos of the girls, I don't want to miss their growing up and it seems I keep forgetting to take pictures of the most important things.
2.  These two coincide with each other, so I will list them as one.  Get life insurance and make a will.

At the moment these are my goals, they may change as the year 2012 goes along but I will try and achieve as many as possible.

I hope everybody has a happy new year. 

Earning Money on the Internet

As a stay at home mum, I am always trying to find ways of making some extra money so I am not relying on my Fiance all the time.  I use to do a lot before my second daughter was born 16 months ago but haven't done much since.  I am hoping to start again this month.  I got reacquainted with the old websites I used to do this week.  I'm hoping to spend at least 3 hours a day on various survey, review and writing websites to earn my money.  I'm also hoping to get rid of some of my bits and bobs on eBay.

Some of the websites I use either give out money or vouchers, but would love to know of any other ways people know of to make money.

Motivation

I have had no motivation over the last few months to do much of anything.  This is mainly to do with a lack of sleep as my youngest daughter who is only 15 months either wakes during the night for up to 2 hours and refuses to sleep past 5:30am.  I have been lucky the last four nights though as she has slept through til 6:00am,  I am hoping we can stick to this pattern.

I really want to get my motivation back as there is so much I want to achieve over the next few months.  It will be my 30th birthday at the end of May and I feel there is so much more I could be doing.

My top few things are
1. Get down to 130lbs. I am currently 156ilbs.
2. Pay off A £1000 off my combined total of my credit cards.
3. Blog daily
4. Learn to use photoshop and take better pictures

Starting from Monday I am going to make myself do as much as I can to accomplish all these things.  Fingers crossed all this works.

Loose Weight and Get Fit

After realising that a lot of my clothes are all of a sudden getting on the tight side I decided last week to go on the scales.  I was shocked to find how much way, it is the heaviest I have been except when I was pregnant.  Now it may not sound a lot to some but it does to me, so I way 148lbs which is 18lbs more than I like.  I am 5ft 3in which makes my clothes size a 12/14 in England.

I am now looking into healthy recipes and figuring out ways to work out.  The working out is going to be the most difficult as my partner works 60 hours a week.  I will try to use the EA Fitness on the wii and when my partner starts his new job next month he will have Sunday nights off and we plan to go to the gym those nights.  Hopefully my Mum will look after my girls one night a week as well so I can go at least twice a week.

I also tend to walk everywhere, so I now need to find my pedometer so I can calculate my steps.  Hoping to do about 10,000 a day.

Now to eat less of all my sweet treats and cola.  This is what has made me gain the weight as well as now living close to takeaways.  Where we lived before, all we had was a fish and chip shop.

It's time to get motivated and lose the weight and get a rockin body.

Easter Weekend

Hope everybody has a wonderful Easter weekend.  Mine was quite quiet, on Friday I was in all day potty training my eldest which was quiet eventful, lots of little accidents but I'm sure we will  get there.  On Saturday we had a lovely family BBQ and the girls had a great fun with there grandparents.  I think some of them are bigger kids then the little ones as they were jumping on the trampoline.  A lot of fun was had eating, playing and a little drinking.

I had a quiet Easter Sunday as my partner was at work, so it was just me and the girls.  We had a lovely lunch and ate lots of chocolate and played in the garden.  My eldest even fell asleep on the trampoline which was very cute.  We must of tired her out.  Monday was a nice easy day of going into town and doing some shopping with my mum and the girls.  Although we did try to avoid the fair and we managed but there was a little sulking involved when my daughter realised that we had bypassed it.

All in all a lovely weekend and I hope everyone else had fun and ate lots of chocolate.

Potty Training Madness

Well  we tried to start potty training my daughter when she was two.  Then we had a big mishap when my partner got a little stressed when she weed all over the carpet.  She therefore refused to go on the potty.  She is now 3 and I have been trying on and off over the last year to get her to use the toilet.  Now she is going to start nursery in two weeks and I need her out of nappies.

So now I have made the decision not to put her in nappies at all during the day and only at night.  I don't know if this is going to be a wise decision but the pull up nappies haven't worked.  Plus the cost of nappies is very expensive even if you buy the cheapest brand.  We go through 3 - 4 nappies a day and a pack costs £3.75 for 20, therefore the overall cost for her a month would be £22.50 a month and I also have a 10 month old too.

If anybody has any tips I would be very grateful.  I just hope we can get this done in two weeks otherwise I don't know what to do.

Sunny Weekends

I have had a wonderful weekend playing in the garden with my girls. While my mum and her partner Trevor came over to do the gardening.  The only thing missing was a BBQ, it was the right weather for it.  My mum and her partner don't have a garden and I am not green fingered in the slightest, so it is great for them.

We have mainly been jumping on the trampoline which we got last week.  It has brought out the childness in all of us.  My partner has been working all the time and only got to see the girls first thing on a morning.  I am now making a list of things we need for the summer and the garden.  It seems to be getting rather large but we will try our best to get it done before the real summer begins.

YouTube Insperations

I love watching videos on YouTube but there are two that I find very inspiring.

The first is Kandee Johnson and I came across her about two years ago.  She now as two channels the first is http://www.youtube.com/user/kandeejohnson  which is all  about make up, beauty and fashion.  Her second channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/thekandeejohnsonshow which is about her family.  Why do I love watching her videos so much, well first she reignited my passion for all things beauty and make up.  I originally started doing beauty at college when I was 16 but I left after six months as my friends at the time were unsupportive and I felt I was doing the wrong thing.  I am now 28 and plan to go back to college in September to start up the courses again and I am very excited.  The make up she does is flawless and has worked on TV and films and yet she does this with four children.  It is amazing what she does.  She also tries to inspire all  her followers on her blog's and you tube channel.  She did a month worth of costume looks and I was amazed at what she could do, I just hope one day I will be as good as her.

The second person well  family I find inspiration from is the Shaytards.  This is the link to their channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYTARDS.  It is daddytard, mummytard, sontard, princesstard, babytard and rocktard.  They don't give the names of their children which is understandable but he is called Shaycarl and mummytard is Katilette.  They are such a lovely family and are very funny, I hope my family will be like this in the future.  I came across the Shaytards about 6 months ago and have been watching there videos ever since.  They have been daily vloging since he turned 29 which is just over two years ago.  I have been trying to catch up on all the videos but I don't have a lot of time most days.  Its lovely two see a couple so happy and in love and with such special children.  He is a true insperation for all familys.

There are other people I subscribe to on Youtube but these two are my favourites.  I hope I have made any of you reading this interested in subscribing to them. 

Have a Faboosh day.

Furniture, Career and Kandee Johnson

I haven't been on for a couple of days as I have been busy.  It was my partners two days off so we have been doing all the things I can't do when he is at work.

First on Wednesday we went to Ikea and the Metro Centre.  We need some more furniture as we moved in February and our last house had a lot of inbuilt storage where as this house as none.  So we have pretty much started from scratch.  We had previously got some chest of draws for the bedroom but we still needed to get the glass tops and a wardrobe.  The wardrobe we got isn't one I would of chosen but as far as my partner was concerned it was cheap and will do the job.  There is still a lot to be done but I'm sure we will get there eventually.

Thursday was just going and getting the main food shop.  Then my partner must of taken two hours to do his fish tank, which I must admit to be very irritating.  It's time he should be spending with the girls and my eldest always tries to get him to stop and he gets quite annoyed by this, but i mean she is three years old.

But while he has been home I have been able to take some time for myself even if it was only for an hour.  I have also been looking at the courses the local college is doing as I would love to become a beauty therapist.  This will I know take me a while as I can't do it all in one go, but luckily the courses at the college can be done as and when and they but them together for level two and then level 3.  I originally started a hairdressing and beauty therapy course when I was 16 but friends at the time kept telling me it wasn't a career and what was the point.  I got so disheartened that I just stopped going and did office work.  Then one day whilst watching you tube I came across Kandee Johnson and my passion for make up and beauty reawakened and its now all I want to do.

I know this blog will not be interesting to most but I am finding it enjoyable to write somewhere where I will be able to look back at and see what I was doing.

Bye Bye for now and remember everybody is beautiful and always encourage your family and friends in what they want to do.

Sleep, Potty Traing and Eczema

Well, I’m here again, which is surprising to me as I’m not good with keeping diaries.  I have had yet another broken night’s sleep; I should explain that my youngest daughter who is nearly ten months as not slept through the night once since she was born.  Now I wouldn’t mind if it I had a break of getting up but I don’t.  As explained in my previous post my partner works a lot of hours so I get up when he works.  But he is supposed to get up on his days off, which doesn’t quite happen, he maybe gets up twice then the rest is left up to me.  So anybody who reads this and has any tips please let me know.

What else did I do yesterday, well potty training my eldest most of the time.  We have been doing this on and off since she turned two but for some reason yesterday she seemed to get the hang of it so it will be more of the same today.  This will be great as she starts nursery in May and we will be spending less money on nappies.

Also another thing my eldest daughter as all of a sudden got some eczema and we are trying to find the best treatment.  At the moment we are using good old sudocrem, we did try E45 but she had a reaction which seems to happen to most products we use on her.  Again any tips most welcome.

On another note I am trying to sort out my money issues, which you can read on my other blog http://bohosmoney.blogspot.com/

My Life

Well what can I say I am a stay at home Mum to my two daughters.  One aged 3 and the other nearly ten months.  They keep me very entertained.  My partner is a chef and works long hours, mainly 13/14 hour days.  So the five days he is at work I'm pretty much a single parent.

Some people ask me how we can possibly have a relationship when he works such long hours.  I can say it has its difficulties but we manage, although some of the time I do get frustrated that he doesn't spend more time with the children.  It's my eldest who has more of a hard time and when she starts school full time in a couple of years she will see less of him.

I'm not promising that my life isn't going to be interesting but hopefully I will entertain some people.  I will probably be doing blogs on mummy bits, finance as I am trying to pay off my two credit cards and hopefully in September a bit about beauty as I will be going to college.