An Autumn Poem - Center Parcs and Tots100 Challenge

An Autumn Poem

Autumn walks are so much fun, fresh air and leaves on the ground.

Its amazing, the interesting things you see when you stop to look around.

Apples falling from the tree, giving a helping hand we sneak a bite to try.

You can tell from the face they're a little sour but perfect for a tasty Autumn Pie.

The rain can't stop us playing outside, coats and wellies on in a flash.

Because muddy puddles come from rain and who doesn't love to splash?!!

The beach is a great place in the autumn, less busy than the summertime.

So much space to run or treasure hunt and some rocks that we can climb.

It may be a little colder now but it isn't winter yet, It's still great to go out exploring

So wrap up warm, embrace Autumn's colours and ways but most of all.....have fun and don't be boring.

This is my entry to the Center Parcs and Tots 100 November challenge. 

If I’m chosen, I would like to visit Longleat Forest, lots of our friends have been and say it's great fun there.

Whinfell forest's resident nature expert, Emma Tapp gave a few tips to help us get inspired to write our Autumn Poem, our favourite tip was number 4

'Your Poem doesn't have to be a literary masterpiece, as you're all having fun and enjoying yourselves that's the main thing.'

You can probably tell from reading my poem that its definitely not a literary masterpiece but I also hope you can tell from the pictures that we did have a lot of fun getting inspired.

Just getting started, then another break occurs......so did Halloween

Just getting started, then another break occurs......so did Halloween

I was so excited to have started my new blog, so desperate to get blogging again, so whats happened and where have I been?! well my last post was almost a month ago and once a month was not what I had in mind so I'm coming back with a couple of new posts and competition entries, well that's my plan.

There are a few fantastic competitions out there and ones I really should do more of are the Tots 100 competitions, the prizes they have up for offer are usually amazing, and its such a great site to visit in general when finding new blogs, I always manage to find a great read over at Tots 100.

My issue seems to be time at the moment, my life seems to be busy again, I no longer have a sleepy newborn baby to feed, I have an extremely active toddler!
I don't blog in the day because Archie has my attention, we try to get a lot done in our days together and before you know it, the bedtime routine is starting, once hes in bed and settled, I get on with housework and chill for a bit with the hubby so when I sit down to blog, I find time has whizzed by, its almost time for the whole thing to start again and I haven't written down a word.


We did manage to get a few halloween comp entries in, we had a go at the pumpkins but we're not master carvers so not much luck there with wins, they did provide us with excellent fun for a day though.
One competition I really, really wanted to win was a pumpkin carve which ended on Sunday 10th November and they are announcing the winner this week, we should know who has won by Friday 15th, its a long shot as I'm not great at carving and a couple of people pointed out a rather disappointing flaw in my design grrrr ( it actually looked like I'd carved a rude word into it!!) but I'm still keeping everything crossed.........Wish me luck.



We entered a few fancy dress comps with Archie's little devil outfit, it was our first go at face painting which was really fun and different for him, he doesn't quite get the idea that it would look better if he sat still though.
It was really great how interactive he was this year compared to last and amazing how much hes grown and changed, definitely not such a little baby anymore.
I also had a go at any tiebreakers I could find, we had a little bit of luck and Little Man has a new spider umbrella on the way thanks to a tiebreaker on facebook from a company called Kidorable, we can't wait to receive this, it will be much needed for our Cornish winter.



We also had another fantastic surprise as we were awarded 3rd place for our Spooky Fruit which emerged from our fruit bowl, we were so grateful to alexandalexa for our lovely runners up prize and were delighted with a top 3 rank, totally unexpected.
Here's the runners up post to find out what they thought of our entry and you can access the winners post via the runners up page after you've finished enjoying the spooky fruit collections.
We now have a whole bunch of spooktacular party supplies safely packed away ready for next year, thankyou so much alexandalexa :)

Talking of parties, we were invited to a local village Halloween party where a lot of the children from playgroup were attending, as I love meeting my neighbours and introducing Archie to the children he will be going to school with, we decided to attend.
One of the requests was to bring a plate of scary food, think this counts as my first real 'Mummy duty' I was trying to decide what to take as I'm a little rubbish at baking and didn't want to take biscuits or cake as I thought lots might take them, we finally decided on strawberry ghosts and spooky sandwiches.
I was pretty happy with the result and really pleased to see lots of children eating my sandwiches and ghosts, I really enjoyed the task and can't wait to get stuck into more 'Mummy Duties' now :)

A party goer took a photo of my food!
* chuffed mummy*

Hope everybody had a fun Halloween

Who would I most like to interview......

Who would I most like to interview?!

Competition Entry

I've come across a competition on the blog www.iamtypecast.com which I fancied having a go at - click the blog address to see the competition details and T&C's in full.
 It is sponsored by The Job Academy at Total Jobs and they are providing a generous £150 voucher prize for their favourite interview.
The Job Academy is about getting a group of five young unemployed, with the help of experts, the skills they need to go out and get employed into suitable jobs. it makes good viewing, click above if you would like to know more.

They are basically asking who you would most like to interview, why you would choose them, what you would ask them and if you would give them a job at the end of it.

So thinking cap on and lets see what I come up with, first of all, who to interview?!

Well I wanted to choose on impulse rather than think too long and hard about it, not sure why but I guess thinking on impulse can be a strong point in an interview and I'm overall pretty indecisive so quick decisions are good for me.

The first person who pops into my head is Gordon Ramsay, followed by Lord Alan Sugar and Simon Cowell..... I seem attracted to Alpha Males I would say.

I am keen to choose one of these men as I think it would be interesting to see how somebody who is usually so in control deals with being on the other side. 

Not sure what I could employ Lord Alan (as much as I would love to shout 'you're fired' at him when the interview's over) Or Simon to do so I'm going to stick with Gordon, A personal chef sounds like a luxury I would enjoy!

Next for some questions, this is what I'd ask him:-

• I'm a fussy vegetarian who doesn't like mushrooms, can you come up with exciting healthy vegetarian meals every day that aren't mushroom based?
• Are you happy to do a meat alternative also for the men in my house? 
• How will you cope when a toddler throws your beautifully cooked, well presented meal onto the floor? ( we aren't allowed to swear in front of the children)
• Can you work with a weekly budget of £50 for all meals?
• Do you feel 5-A-Day is an important part of diet? (If yes, what ways would you make sure we get them? - If no, why do you feel it's not important?)
• Will meals be served at the same time each day?
• Are you ok for us to be in and out of the kitchen while you work? (since the kitchens part of our home)
• Can you work seven days a week and how soon can you start?

I think that's all I would like to ask him for the purpose of the job.
 I'm sure I could think of a lot more interesting, personal and unrelated questions to ask when hes stood behind a frying pan but that's it for now.

So Would I give him the Job?

Well I would like to say no, just to give his massive ego a knock but I have the chance of a personal chef here and cooking dinner everyday to keep the whole family happy is one of my most frustrating jobs.
So after the interview above, providing all questions were answered to my satisfaction.
 He would get the job
 I think it would be fun to be his boss, I'd love to see how he copes with my demanding orders!
I would also need to negotiate pay, I'm sure he wouldn't mind doing it for free..... Right?!

SPOOKY FRUIT with ALEXANDALEXA

Spooky Fruit 

competition entry

Juicy, Tasty, Refreshing..... some of the words you may associate with fruit!

Spooky is certainly not one of them, so when alexandalexa asked bloggers to create a spooky fruit carving in preperation for halloween we definitely wanted a piece of the action.

We invited up Uncle Joe to spend a bit of family fun time, knowing he would enjoy the challenge as much a Mummy and Archie. Unfortunately Archie at 21 months is a little young to carve so we went with a more spooky arranged rather than carved approach and after a long while of staring aimlessly at our packed fruit bowl, we set to work, by hacking our supplies up in true halloween style!

As well as having fun we used the experience in a slightly educational way for Archie as we got him involved with identifying face parts, colours and learning the different types of fruit, some he already knew but there were a couple of new looking fruits which we got to see and taste such as pomegranate and passion fruit. Eyebrows were a new facial feature which we hadn't talked about before also.

   

Here is our creation in all its glory or should I say gory!

Underneath that spooky exterior he is just melon, various berries, pomegranate seeds, passion fruit and oranges splashed with red colouring.

If you are also a blogger reading this and want have a go at carving your own spooky fruit for alexandalexa's competition then click here for more details or T&C's.

They also have a fab range of halloween goodies for sale, worth a look I think!

Toyz World - Outdoor Toys Competition Entry

Toyz World - Outdoor Toys Competition Entry

Photo/Video competition Details/Terms and Conditions

I'm quite excited about my first post on my new blog and its a good one, I'm a little late getting into the running myself but its very simple to enter luckily and entry doesn't take any longer than the email of a photo/video.

Its being run by a company called Toyz World which I have been a fan of  for a while now and they are a great place to start looking for any outdoor toys you may want for when the sun starts shining, if that ever happens and if the sun doesn't shine soon.... well, a bit of rain never hurt anyone so get yourselves outside with your waterproofs on and start playing!
You have until the 18th June at 12pm to submit your entry in.
 You may find a photo or video in your album that you think may be perfect and they are very kindly offering a £100 Storm toys voucher as a prize for the favourite entry so it has to be worth a shot!

My son is a real outdoors boy so I'm used to being out in all weathers, I just love seeing my son experiencing new things outside and one of his favourite things to do is jump aboard his quad and explore the world with extra speed!

So that's where my entry comes from.

He is a bit of a speed freak already at the age of 1 and with so many very cool Storm toys to choose from  over at Toyz World he could be speeding around in style if he's lucky!

To visit Toyz World website, to browse the Storm outdoor toys on offer or read competition terms and conditions, just click on the Bold links in the above post.

WELCOME

WELCOME

Hello and WELCOME to my new blog.

My name is GEMMA.

I have recently been running a little blog about my journey into motherhood for the first time and have loved blogging about my Baby Boy and the fun we are having as we make new adventures together but after thinking about it long and hard, decided I didn't want everything in our relationship to be so public and wanted my relationship with my Son to be a little more personal.

Whilst recording my thoughts and feelings in my previous blog I discovered I actually love blogging and enjoyed being able to talk to my hearts content about anything I like, therefore I am going to continue my blog but in a different direction, instead of stopping altogether.
I'm hoping my family life on this blog will still have a presence but maybe not quite so in depth and it will hopefully be more of a chance for me to express some creativeness and ideas.

I'm mostly going to be basing my new blog about another little love I've discovered on maternity leave, aside from my Gorgeous Son and the world of blogging...... competitions....... I'm actually going to call myself a comper!

I entered the odd competitions for a short while when I was around 16 and amounted to winning a grand total of nothing.
The reason I started to enter a few competitions was when my next door neighbour won herself and husband a holiday to St Lucia, she came back bronzed with her hair all braided and proceeded to tell me about how amazing her holiday was, helicopter tour of the island, fruit and champagne in their room, water activities and she got me dreaming!

I immediately signed up to the magazine which she won her holiday from so I could hear of all these amazing prizes but I was a 16 year old girl with a busy social life, I had exams and was working so couldn't really commit to entering a large quantity of competitions but that holiday has stuck in my head for a lot of years and I have recently rediscovered my interest in comping (as my neighbour called it way back then) again whilst on maternity leave last year.
With breastfeeding and a very sleepy new baby, I suddenly had a bit more of what I feel to be a key ingredient in winning...... A lot more TIME!

Since I've put in the time and also some effort in this last year, I've amazingly had a few wins which I'm going to be recording in my blog, I would ideally like to keep a record of prizes as I find myself forgetting a lot of the fab things I've won.
I can honestly say I've never in my life counted myself as unlucky, I like to think of myself as an opportunist who jumps at chances when they come to me and have found myself in a lot of amazing situations, sometimes surreal but always amazing........ real life experiences.
Therefore I've really always been a lucky little Gem :) hence my blogs new name.