Author: Scottish Mum

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Happy Birthday To Me

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to myself,
Happy birthday to me.

I have a problem. I forgot to buy myself a birthday card for the kids to give to me. I now have to find some time to sneak away from the Peg, find a shop and try to bring one back without them seeing it. Then I have to make myself scarce so that they can write out for me.

This is going to be tricky. My husband is card averse. He won’t buy them. His sister would never get one if I didn’t buy it, write it and send it. I usually get my mum to sit with the kids and write out my card.

As we are away in the Peg this week, I need your patience with my uncorrected spelling and grammar, as I am using the wordpress application to post with. Apologies now for any glaring bloopers in the next 7 days.

It’s tax relief day today, and I am older than I want to be, but I am strangely looking forward to what the day is going to bring. I may not have any presents, (and if I get one, believe me, I will blog it) but I will have my boys around me, and I intend to spoil them for the day.

In other news, it is very windy and we are in our tin tent. This kind of weather always makes me breathe a sigh of relief that the walls are not canvas.

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My Home From Home

We have a caravan.  Yes, we are one of those families, who you see hogging the inside or middle land on a motorway, dawdling along at 50, and holding up the traffic.  Five years ago, Mr Scottish and I were of the opinion that the average caravanner was put on this earth to be the scourge of all other motorists on the road.  Mr Scottish would happily shake his fist, and rant that caravans shouldn’t be on the road (ala Jeremy Clarkson and James May style).  Now he is the one that everyone else is shaking their fist at.  It always makes me laugh.

Special needs children meant that they couldn’t cope with crowded airports, long queues, and being away from their own beds etc.  We tried camping in France and it was an instant hit.  Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, we tried it again via hired caravans in Scotland and yahey, the kids loved it.  The outdoors, being at the bottom of mountains, and just riding their bikes all day, or playing with other outdoorsey type children was what they enjoyed.

We tried a couple of commercial sites, and although Mr Scottish liked the evening pint, and the kids do like a bit of entertainment now and again –  I absoulutely detest those sites.  I agreed to compromise with one week a year where I suffer the holiday camp style entertainment.  The rest of the time I love.

We ended up with a caravan as I couldn’t cope without my hairdryer, or my straighteners (frizzy hair).    The last straw was having no cooking facilities, nowhere to sit, no heating, damp bedding, and no toilet and watching all those nice and comfortable in their vans.  I decided that if everyone in the family was going to enjoy this lark, and we were going to go away every school holidays for now, then it would have to be in comfort.  I was not prepared for how much I would love the kick back in the middle of nowhere type of holiday at home in Scotland, but I do.

Introducing the Peg.   You might just hear quite a bit about her this year.  Who else braves the UK weather in canvas or tin tents?

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Earth Hour 2011 – 26th March 8.30pm – Join Up

Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Earth Hour began in Australia in 2007.    Over 2 million people and around 2000 businesses turned off lights for an hour to make a statement and stand up to climate change.

Within a year, there were more than 50 million people taking part.  Global landmarks were switching off their light, around the world.  Eg, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Rome’s Colosseum.

By 2010, 128 countries joined in the action.

This year, Earth Hour will take place on Saturday 26 March at 8.30pm.    Aberdeen will be switching off the floodlights at the Wallace Monument, the St Nicholas Kirkyard facade, and St Marks Church.  Many children will be hoping to use candles to follow Earth Hour, and do their bit for the planet and climate change.  Many other cities will be following along and joining in with it.

There is a map which shows the public sign up commitment to Earth Hour.  You can also sign up, and show that you are comitted to taking part, and will be added to the statustics.  You can find it at:

We can all sign up to take part, and do our bit to help with climate control.

I’m in, how about you?  My children are really looking forward to putting on the candles and sitting in the glow for an hour to support the cause.  We signed up yesterday.  My children learned about it at school, and have been asking me to do it with them.  As I wrote this post at 10.20am, Shetland Islands were at the top of the table, and Aberdeen is 15th in line.   Where are you in the league?

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And The Band Played – Believe It If You Like !

That was one of my mothers favourite sayings.  Whenever she thought I was not telling the whole truth, out came the stock sentence which I knew meant that she knew I was fibbing.  

That’s how I knew I was in trouble when I was supposed to be at college, and when a pal and I were bunking off to sneak to her house and puff our lungs black, way back when smoking was trendy and all the cool girls puffed away.  We’d been dobbed in by her mother who came home early and found us on our second pack of lung bashers.

Mum – “where have you been today?”
Me – “college.”
Mum – “and the band played believe it if you like.”

I didn’t have to say any more, I knew I was caught.

Fast forward 20 years and I have my own kids.

Me “why were you so late coming out of school.”
Son “it was gym today, and we didn’t get changed until after the bell went.”
Me “and the band played………………..”

Arrrrrgh, I’ve turned into my mother

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Mothers Day Giveaway from Interflora – Ends Sunday 27th March

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I arrived home to find a lovely surprise on my doorstep.  There were the flowers and box of chocolates that Interflora had sent me to review.    When they asked me to review one of their Mothers Day Gifts, I jumped at the chance.  We are all mothers, who have mothers, so it is a fantastic product to have.

I was given some links on their website to browse, and I had a good old root through all the products they have on offer for Mothers day.   There was a huge choice on offer, from hampers in the Mothers day gifts section, through to gorgeous Mothers day flowers, and the  absolutely fabulous Spring flowers.

As a mother myself, and with special needs children, a bunch of flowers appearing in our house is a rare occurence.   The only flowers that I usually see are the ones that I buy for other people.  I decided that, for me, a gift with some chocolates would be appreciated in our house, with the flowers for me, and the chocolates for my children.  It gave me the best of both worlds.  As tempting as the Spring Gift with a bottle of wine was, I think my children appreciated the chocolates a lot more.

I chose the Scented Spring Perfect Gift with Chocolates, which was priced at £31.95.

I picked up the vase, with their box of chocolates and eagerly took it into my kitchen.  I tried to take a nice shot of the flowers, but I’m not a professional photographer, so please forgive the shots if they look slightly amateurish.

Here are my flowers in all their glory on my mantlepiece, and they certainly brighten up my room.

The smells were absolutely fantastic as I walked along my corridor.   Even my husband who is usually florally challenged said that they had a lovely smell.   I was surprised to see the flowers were in the vase, with water already in it.  I am guessing it is to preserve the life of the flowers, and for me it worked.  I loved them just for the smell.    The vase is quite a sturdy, heavy glass, definately a substantial vase.

The chocolates, well, they were lovely, as my boys could tell you.  The box is rather nice, and with the little chiffon ribbon, looks very swish.  Inside the box, the Maison Fougere chocolates for Interflora looked lovely.  With 12 gorgeous chocolates, in a mix of dark and milk chocolate, there was something for all of us.   There was even a competition here for who would get the red heart….You can hardly make out the red heart in this picture, but it really was a vibrant, lovely shade of red.

Apologies for this photo, as the chocolates have now been eaten, and I have no chance to take a better one.

The best part of all this, is that Interflora are allowing me to give away the same gift set that I received as a gift for Mothers Day.     You, or your choice of recipient will receive the same bunch of flowers, with chocolates and the vase, and you can choose your own message to put on it.    You can see the gift set on the website here.

Scented Spring Perfect Gift with Chocolates

All you have to do to enter is:

1.  Make sure you either follow me on twitter, or google friend connect my blog if you haven’t already.  If you want to do both, thats fab by me.

2. Hop on over to Interflora using the links on this post, and tell me in a comment how many gift sets Interflora are selling in their mothers day categories.   These two things entitle you to one entry.

3.  For an additional entry, tweet the following:

Win a Mothers Day gift from Interflora with @scottish_mum Enter at  http://scottishmum.com/2011/03/mothers-day-giveaway-from-interflora-ends-sunday-27th-march/   Pls RT

The competition closes on Sunday 27th March 2011 to allow the winners entry to go through for Mothers Day, which is on Sunday 3rd April.  The winner will have to claim their prize before midnight on Monday 28th March.  If it is not claimed by then, it will be given to the runner up, via selection through random numbers, of the entrants. 

Good luck everyone.   It’s going to be a lovely arrival on someone’s doorstep.

 

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My Old Singer Sewing Machine

This is my old singer sewing machine.  It still works and has pride of place in our extension.   The wheel has to be tied up when its not in use so that they kids don’t catch their fingers in it, but it’s eye catching, and I love it.

I put up the picture as @mmeguillotine on twitter is interested in them, and I offered to let her see my one.  I have great memories of the machine when I was younger.   I remember at age 10 or 11, upstairs in my grandmothers house with it, and sewing away on patches of old material, just to use it.

I think it was bought for my great grandmother to mend the fishermens clothes with, and I am a bit sad that I don’t know it’s complete history.    I wish I had paid more attention as a child.   It doesn’t take away from the fact that I have always loved this machine, or the fact that it has always been in my life, in one way or another.

How many of us have vintage machines in our homes??  I’d love to know..