Jubilee-cious

I have to admit that the confusion of events being organised for the Jubilee along with the drizzly weather (although my dad, who took part in the Coronation back in 1953, assures me that the weather was very similar as he marched down the Mall to Constitution Hill) has made me feel a little less inclined to wave my Union Jack.

I did, however, bake some cakes which my willing assistant helped me to decorate. Blue and red food colouring only managed to tint the butter icing pale blue and pink but nobody minded.

My older girls had been playing a Best of British set on the bandstand at a local 'Party in the Park' event.

When they all arrived home, cold and hungry, I had a Veggie Sausage and Chip Curry ready for them. The chips were leftover from yesterday's dinner  (my husband had miscalculated how many portions to order from the chip shop when I was too tired to cook). The curry did have an alarming yellow glow due to a measuring mishap with the tumeric and our tongues did take on that same hue when our plates were emptied but everyone raved about it. Veggie Sausage and Chip Shop Chip Curry has now earned a place as my quintessentially British signature dish whenever an occasion warrants such a thing.

I did insist that everybody join in with a rousing rendition of God Save the Queen (although shamefully Taylor didn't know the words) before cakes were served - on union jack paper plates.

I had also made a madeira cake decorated with strawberries and blueberries to represent the colours of the flag. I didn't have long for my fruit positioning but then it didn't take my girls long to demolish it, either.

It was so lovely to have the family together, relaxed and happy and well fed. For me, this was a perfect way to spend the start of the holiday weekend.

Squeak and Grunt

I love to hear my girls sing, whether it be at a music festival, busking, a pub gig, studio recordings or just at home.

When Charis and Taylor disappear to Taylor's room to 'do homework', it is never long before you hear the muffled sound of them singing behind the closed door. They have a special playlist on their i-tunes that they sing along to. Charis sings high and Taylor sings quite low so they have called it their "Squeak and Grunt" Playlist. Far from squeaking and grunting, what I hear are perfect vocal harmonies. They are always happy to perform for me if I have any requests.

For my birthday this year, Charis had the idea to put together a list of some of my favourite songs and let me pick which ones I would like to listen to in my own private little concert. A lack of rehearsal time and the unexpected arrival of Ivy who wanted to join in, meant that the concert was not as polished as it could have been - but it was the best birthday present I could have wished for.

The video is Charis and Taylor's brave attempt to sing I Dreamed a Dream.... with plenty of mistakes!

Holiday Inn, Heels and Hangover

My Friend Rose got married this weekend. There is no mascara waterproof enough to cope with the tears I shed as I watched  Rose take to the dance floor for the first dance with her new husband.

Rose has not had an easy life - I honestly don't think I could have coped with half of what she has been through - yet here she was, swaying blissfully, completely content, brimming with love for a man who clearly felt exactly the same way too.

This perfect moment (aptly played out to Kelly Clarkson singing A Moment Like This) was touchingly beautiful and one I think I will remember for ever.

You've got to love happy endings!

The wedding took place at The Holiday Inn Swindon. I wore impossibly High Heels. I drank enough to have suffered a minor Hangover. Although this was never meant to count as our H date, it was a wonderful weekend and thanks to my fantastic daughter, Charis, volunteering to turn in early and stay with the sleeping little ones in the Hotel room, I got to spend a lot of time dancing with my Husband. I think it qualifies.

Other Wedding Weekend Highlights included:

• My girls singing for the entrance of the bride

• Getting through my 'Father of the Bride' speech without mishap.
• Enjoying my girls performing a band set for the evening entertainment.
• Seeing Taylor looking so grown up and partying. For the first time, I could really imagine her as a University student.

• Spending time with all my grown up daughters.

• Sleeping Babies

• I've mentioned them once, but I love them enough to mention them again - my shoes!

In search of the perfect mince pie.

I never used to like mince pies. How mad is that? Mince pies are little pieces of Christmas that you can hold in your hand .

My first mince pie of the year tends to mark the moment when I start to get really into the Xmas groove, so to speak, and as such it is something of an occasion.

My 2011 mince pie moment came during the town's annual "Switching on of the Xmas Lights" which this year included a Farmers Market.

My girls were busking so I went along to support them and see what delights the Farmers Market had to offer.

It was a well organised, well attended event that did put me in the Xmas mood. I bought a lovely hand made gift for my in-laws (always good to find something for the difficult to buy for people on my list) and was well and truly ready for my first mince pie of the year.

There were giant meringues and vegan pate but sadly not a mince pie to be seen. As a last resort, I popped into Greggs and bought a packet of their "Award Winning" offerings. The packaging did not specify exactly what Award these pies had won. It would not surprise me if it had been the award for the Hardest Most Tasteless Pastry or the Goopiest Mincemeat. I did not enjoy them at all. Taylor, on the other hand, said she really liked them. All a matter of individual taste I suppose.

On a happier note, a friend promised me a jar of homemade mincemeat which got me very excited. A jar of "Mrs Murray's Marvellous Mincemeat" was delivered this morning and I can't wait to do some Christmas baking.

Another friend has recommended adding a dollop of Philadelphia cream cheese onto the mincemeat before putting the pastry lid on top.  I am not 100% convinced that I am going to like that but I am definitely willing to give it a try.

I am willing to try anything in search of the perfect mince pie.

Do you have any tips or suggestions? I'd love to hear them.

Not Quite a Music Video

It started with an idea and some charity shopping and a jumble sale.

The idea took shape during my birthday celebrations on the Shropshire Union Canal.

Video footage was shot on location and back home in my garden.

After much editing and the addition of a spinning golden light, the Not Quite Music Video for Moving the Castles was finally completed.

I love it.

Not Quite Famous

My sister may be featuring in the National Papers and Glossy Magazines with her amazing Slimpod diet success but I am every bit as proud of my girls for making the local paper with their band Not Quite.

Although ultimately, their smiling faces will end up in recycling bins across the town, it is a good feeling that for now they are page 2 story.

Today "Market Drayton Advertiser" - tomorrow, who knows, "NME"?

Not Quite at the Blackberry Fair

I was very proud of my girls yesterday when I went along to see their band perform at the Blackberry Fair in Whitchurch. It wasn't an easy venue to play with so much going on all around and little opportunity to sound check. After a few hiccups, they got into the swing of it and once again, received very positive comments from onlookers. If nothing else, it was a great opportunity for them to try out the two new songs they have written recently. I think their songwriting is going from strength to strength and can't wait to see what they come up with next.

As I was watching them on stage and allowing their music to wash over me, I had a bit of an emotional moment remembering back to when each of them came bursting into the world. When you become a parent, you are never quite sure what you are going to get or what you are letting yourselves in for. You love your child with an intensity you never thought possible, you do your absolute best to give them a good start in life. But do any of us really know what we are doing? We muddle through. We marvel at the people our children become.

I am constantly in awe of my children from the oldest to the youngest. I love the journey we are on together and moments like yesterday, watching my four older girls perform, really crystallise the feeling of fullfillment, satisfaction and contentment that being a mum gives me.

Thanks kids :)

Reasons to be Cheerful

Summer is definitely coming to an end but as I reflect back I can find many reasons to be cheerful.

It hasn't all been plain sailing. Depression did raise its unmistakably ugly head above the parapets of my sanity but the fact that I have put that particular episode behind me is a reason to be cheerful in itself. I am still not in possession of two fully functioning ears but the problem is improving and the silver lining to that cloud has been the understanding and empathy I now have with my deaf-in-one-ear husband.

We have worked hard on our home and garden to make improvements. It is always an ongoing process but I am now enjoying the rewards of a better organised home.

As well as working hard, we've played hard too with family outings and a lovely holiday to Wales where the 3 year old thought that caravan living was one big adventure.

My girls have been busy with their band, Not Quite, in terms of performances, songwriting and recording. As I type this post I can hear them rehearsing the harmonies on some new songs. They have been invited to 'busk' at a local Farmer's Market tomorrow and want to extend their repertoire.

Here are some of my Summer Reasons to be Cheerful in photographic form set to the music of original song, Draw Me a Picture, written and performed by my lovely girls - Not Quite.

Busking at the Farmers Market

The town I live in holds a quarterly Farmers Market.

It is all fairly low key - a few local producers and craftspeople set up their stalls along the high street and depending on the weather, people turn up to sample something new and buy what takes their fancy.

This quarter, the organisers decided to try and add some live music to the mix. They put out a tweet saying that they were looking for a busker and would anyone be interested. Social media is a powerful tool. My friend @EnglishFolkFan, who has her finger firmly on the Twitter pulse, retweeted to draw my attention to the request. I mentioned it to my musical girls and they were on it like a shot.

Their four piece band was reduced to three because Charis was busy all day with rehearsals for the upcoming play that she has a leading role in. Instrument wise, they were pared back to two acoustic guitars and a tambourine. I wasn't at all sure how well it would work but I went along to see.

The sun was shining and there were lots of people milling around seeing what the Farmers Market had to offer. As I walked closer, I heard the familiar sound of my girls belting out an original song that they had written in collaboration with one of Taylor's friends for a short film raising awareness of the county's Young Carers. It sounded wonderful.

They had been given a gazebo to stand under which somehow bestowed an air of importance and their open guitar case already had a good few coins thrown in.

Lots of people took leaflets that had details of how to contact them through their Not Quite Facebook and Twitter accounts and a local publican threw his business card in, which they took as a very good sign. Their favourite moment of positive feedback was when a little girl toddled by with her parents and said in that honest and heartfelt way that only small children can pull off "I like your music".

They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and as a bonus, they walked away with enough cash to make it worthwhile opening a Not Quite bank account.

Who knows? Perhaps the cost of those music lessons will turn out to be a worthwhile financial investment after all!

Carnival Weekend

In that true British fashion of complaining when it rains then complaining when the sun comes out because it's too hot, it really was too hot this weekend for the Town's Annual Carnival. I slathered the little ones in Factor 50 then found a shady spot to wait for the Carnival Parade to pass.

It was a long wait. Some technical difficulties had prevented them getting off punctually and I think the heat may have slowed everyone down a bit too. The three year old amused herself with some soil and sticks (I sometimes wonder why I buy her toys!) and the Boy amused himself by pulling apart the Carnival flyer with the line up of attractions. Eventually, we heard the unmistakably happy sound of the steel band - a perfect soundtrack to a summer's day - and knew the arrival of the parade must be imminent.

Although it is quite a jolly sight to watch the floats and people parading past, my real interest was to see my daughter Charis who was participating. She and her fellow amateur dramatics group members were parading in costume to advertise their forthcoming production 'Splash'. For Charis, the costume was a sailor suit which would have been reasonably weather appropriate had she not had to wear her band outfit beneath it in readiness for a quick change and a 'Not Quite' performance in the main marquee. She was sweltering but probably not as sweltering as the poor souls dressed as cartoon animals and a gingerbread man to promote various causes.

As it happened, the 'Not Quite' band slot got moved down the timetable of events due to the late arrival of a Children's Entertainer and some ill thought out clashing scheduling. It didn't matter. When they did get to perform, they did so beautifully to an appreciative audience. Their confidence and belief in themselves took another leap as they were approached by somebody asking them if they would be available to perform at a local Beer and Music Festival in September.

As well as thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to perform, they also got to work with the lovely boys from local band The One Hit Wonders. These boys have come up with the fabulous idea of offering people the chance to perform Karaoke with a full live band and have coined the phrase 'bandeoke' to describe it. They have their official launch party on 16th July and of course, Not Quite (and their mum) will be there to offer support.  From the response they got at the Carnival, I'm sure they will have great success with it.

Other highlights of the Carnival were:

• The juggler who invited people to select random objects from his box of goodies for him to juggle with. Watching him juggle a plastic chicken, a paintbrush and a soup ladle (the three year old's choice!) was impressive and something for Taylor to consider when she hones her juggling skills.

• The Carribean Cuisine  that transported my husband back to his days of living in Sint Maarten

• The fire eaters

• The punnets of fresh strawberries from a local Fruit Farm

• The display of birds and animals that fascinated little ones

• The bouncy castle.

My three year old had desperately wanted to go on the Bouncy Castle from the moment she saw it but we waited for it to cool off a little before venturing anywhere near it. It was actually three bouncy castles - one suitable for little ones, one aimed at older kids with a giant swinging wrecking ball to knock you off balance and an enormous bouncy castle slide.

My daughter wanted to go on all three.

After being flattened twice by the wrecking ball I insisted that she keep off that particular one. I tried to encourage her towards the age appropriate one but she simply loved scaling the heights of the giant slide and launching herself from the top.

It did frighten me. That was my baby up there!! But my husband is a very firm believer in the importance of learning to take controlled risks to develop into the sort of person who is not afraid to have a go at anything in life. And it was all soft and bouncy after all. I let her get on with it.

She climbed, she slid, she climbed she slid and this went on until she climbed and then flatly refused to slide. I'm not sure what caused the change of heart but all my best encouragement from the bottom of the slide was falling on deaf ears. There was only one course of action for me to take. I had to climb up and get her.

The fear I felt seeing my baby girl doing her daredevil stunts was actually quite small compared with the new fear I was experiencing trying to climb up the steps. There didn't seem to be a lot to hold onto or to push up against and it was very steep. Somehow, driven by the maternal instinct to save my baby, I made it to the top. She was all giggles and excitement - perhaps it had been a ploy all along to make mummy climb the big ladder. Once I was up there and had her in arms, I knew there was no way I could climb down. We'd have to slide. Did I ever for one  moment relax and think it was actually quite good fun? NO. Categorically NOT. It was terrifying! I didn't stop shaking for ages.

There was just time for a well earned cup of coffee before heading home.

Reasons to be Cheerful

I'm a little later with this than I usually am, not because I had no Reasons to be Cheerful, rather I had too many and they were all keeping me very busy!

ONE

It is Carnival Weekend in the town where I live and today, at least, the sun shone beautifully on the festivities - festivities that included my girls' band 'Not Quite' doing a live performance of some of their original songs and covers. There where some issues with the sound system but they battled through and were well received. Once again I felt immensely proud. They will be playing again tomorrow in a marquee amidst the main attractions. 

TWO

My first husband took himself very seriously which didn't leave much room for laughter. I am so grateful that my husband now has no such issues. 

If our son wakes up in the night, it is usually my husband that goes to him and tries to settle him - or if that fails, brings him to me. 

My husband prefers to sleep naked.

So as not to find himself in the awkward position of bumping into one of my grown up daughters on the landing with his bits on full display, he usually pops a pair of undies on before going to the baby's room.

We are both suffering a bit with tiredness at the moment for all sorts of reasons (most of them good). When the baby started to cry, my husband sat up and got out of bed on auto pilot. As usual, he went to his  underwear drawer. What happened next changed my casual disinterest in his activities into alert bemusement. Instead of putting on his underpants, he took out a pair of socks and put them on. He then proceeded to go and fetch the baby with his little black ankle socks pulled up high and his manly bits in full  glorious view for all to see. 

Thankfully, my girls were all in their rooms and oblivious to the ridiculous sight of their stepfather.

It wasn't until he handed me the baby and saw the look on my face that he even realised that anything was amiss.

We did laugh.

THREE

I really have to stop referring to our son as 'the baby'. He turned one year old this week which meant (amongst other things) cake. I always love an excuse to bake a cake.

As well as cake (oops - there goes the diet again!) it was a time for reflection and celebration and thinking about how much joy my little man has brought into my life.

He is such a laid back, happy little soul, generous with his kisses and cuddles. He loves his food. He is strong and tough and has the softest skin. He loves anything with wheels. He has an expressive little face and a beautiful smile. He is my son and I adore him. What better Reason to be Cheerful?

The Campstock 2011 Experience

I was so tired yesterday that all I could manage to post of my weekend was a Silent Sunday picture.

While all the 'lucky bloggers' were descending on Cybermummy, I was sitting in the impressively extensive gardens of Staffordshire Manor House surrounded by rhodedendrons that must have painted a spectacular picture when they were at their best. I was not there to look at faded blooms. I was there supporting Campstock 2011 - a Charity Music Festival in aid of the local Macmillan Hospice. As suggested on the ticket, I had brought a picnic.

As we arrived, laden with everything we could think of to optimise our comfort and enjoyment (folding chairs, flask of coffee, toys for the little ones, waterproofs ...) the Trentham Brass Band were playing. They were very accomplished but made me feel unseasonally Christmassy. I didn't want to be reminded that we are already halfway through the year and Santa will be making his annual appearance before we know it.

There were lots of people there but they were well spread out creating a relaxed atmosphere. I was not entirely relaxed. Once the Brass Band had delivered their last 'oompah' I knew that it was only moments away from the real reason for my interest in this particular event.

For the first time this year, Campstock had decided to extend their line up to include local acts that were just starting out and possibly had not had much exposure in the way of performing gigs. The organiser, Martin, turned to a man who has inspired youngsters musically for many years in his role as Music teacher at my children's secondary school for help. That man has been teaching my girls piano since we moved to Shropshire and put forward the name of their newly formed band, 'Not Quite' as a possible support act.

After listening to a recording of one of their songs and meeting with my girls, Martin invited them to perform.

The sun wasn't exactly shining (but we hadn't needed our waterproofs at least) as my girls took to the stage.

It was a very strange feeling sitting in an audience watching my girls doing their thing - feeling immensely proud but wondering if it was only a mother's bias that lead to thinking they were fantastic. The cheers and applause they received indicated that it wasn't.

They made a few mistakes due to their inexperience - Ivy actually forgot to plug her guitar in for the first song! - but it somehow added to their charm.

The set was over all too quickly.

The stage had to be cleared of their instruments to make room for the next act so with a little help from boyfriends and a stepdad, they carried everything to load into the waiting car. As they walked through the crowd, they were clapped and praised.

They received loads of positive feedback from the other bands as well who all mentioned them during their own sets, in particular acknowledging how good the songs that they had written themselves were.

It was easy to see how the experience had boosted their confidence and now they feel inspired to do some more songwriting over the summer.

I don't imagine that I'll ever see my girls on whatever the modern day equivalent of 'Top of the Pops' is - they don't have the hunger for fame and celebrity that I think goes with the territory - but I do hope that they will have many more opportunities to perform and continue to love what they are doing.

The video shows a selection of the original songs performed by my girls - girls who give me every reason to be one very proud mum.

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Joiners Gig

My daughters Taylor and Ivy are fairly regular contributors at the Open Mic Night at our local, the Joiners Arms.

Yesterday, they took their performance to the next level by doing a six song set as their band 'Not Quite' with sisters Liberty and Charis. For Liberty it was her 'Joiners debut' and it was endearing to see the nerves showing just a little through her normal enviable composure.

There were plenty of little mistakes and things they could have done better but the set was well received and I could not have been more proud.

They performed three original songs and covers of Grenade by Bruno Mars, Writer by Ellie Goulding and Walk You Home by Passenger.

Landlord, Brian, told me I had four beautiful and talented daughters, which of course I already know - but it is always nice to hear someone else say it.