Pre Christmas Holiday Fun

It's become a bit of a tradition in our household to take a break the week before Christmas just for us to get away and have some fun, it also coincides with the husbands birthday so he also gets a chance to celebrate his birthday and not get his birthday intermingled with the Christmas celebrations.

2006 we went on a boat trip to France, the less said about this the better!, 2007 we had just returned from our honeymoon, 2008 I think is the only year we didn't do anything, 2009 was spent travelling round Thailand, 2010 saw us take a break to Center Parcs at Sherwood accompanied with our newborn baby and this year we decided to go to Center Parcs again but en masse with my family in tow.

We had great fun and I'm hoping that we continue the tradition next year especially as our little girl will then be 2 and will actually be old enough to participate in activities!

Whatever your traditions are in the run up to Christmas I hope you have fun!

Till next time
Mrs B x

To resolve or not?!

So it's fast approaching that time when many will delude themselves that a new year means a new start. I personally don't buy into that principle and believe that if you want to change/do/start/end etc something then there's no time like the present. I find that if you put things off till a certain time you are more likely to fail at your goals as you've lost initial enthusiasm and day to day life has got in the way.

As a result of my views I don't make resolutions as I know I won't stick to them and to be frank who wants to feel like a failure?!

Do you make resolutions and stick to them or are you like me?

Till next time
Mrs B x

3rd Time Lucky?!

It's been a long time coming but I thought I may aswell resurrect my blog (again, for the 3rd time!) with a quick update on my life.

It's been a turbulent 2 years since I last blogged, I've become a full time stay at home mummy and left the comforts of my home town to move to rural Shropshire. A decision I am finding hard to come to terms with.

I've made new friends and said goodbye to those that, for various reasons, I felt were better off out of my life.

I've had my highs and my lows, found new interests, become more passionate about those hobbies I already had and became a stronger more confident person as a result.

I still have my nuances which will probably become clear through subsequent posts but it's all part and parcel of my life experiences

Till next time, much love
Mrs B x

A Winter Wedding

Hey Guys & Dolls,

Ok so the heading is a little misleading as there isn't actually a winter wedding at the moment but I am hoping and keeping everything crossed that within the next couple of years I will get to be a bridesmaid at a winter wedding!

Much of the weekend was spent discussing clothing options for said fantasy nuptials and I have narrowed down my potential frock to two numbers. I know I am a little crazy in doing this but I love planning weddings and it's an excuse to look at pretty dresses.

My criteria for the potential bridesmaid dress was that it had to have a 1940's/1950's silhouette, the dress must be calf length and the colour a rich jewel tone. The suitors are as follows, the stunning Wicked Lady dress in the Kingfisher colour http://www.ablegrable.com/dress/category/custom (Check out the Miss Ann Darrow dress for the colours I mean) and the Vivien of Holloway 1950's swing dress in Dark Green. http://www.vivienofholloway.com/1950s-Halterneck-Satin/1950s-Halterneck-Dark-Green-Satin-Dress.html

Decisions decisions, ultimately I will probably end up buying both and choose something completely different by the time the nuptials come round!

Until next time
VDB xx

Photoshoot Hell

Hey Guys & Dolls,

If any of you ready my blog prior to me deleting it you may recall that I had bought my friend a photo shoot for her birthday and I was to accompany her for the experience.

Unfortunately the experiance was not one that was happy. I wasn't partiuclarly enamoured at the thought of having my photo taken anyway and my thoughts on the whole debacle now are not particularly savoury!

It started off bad (customer service was shocking!) and had rapidly declined by the time it came to having my hair "styled" by the stylist. I don't mean to be rude and those of you that know me personally will know that I am actually quite shy but I was horrified at what the woman had done my hair, and I told her so. She didn't even brush it for god's sake, just randomly started curling sections of hair (those of you with baby fine hair like myself will know that those curls will never last!). She was most put out that I had said that I didn't like what she had done and proceeded to sulk. I ended up styling my own hair!

The photoshoot itself wasn't all bad except that the memory card lost a set of photos half way through and when we came to re-shoot the missing photos the photographer got the outfits and setting wrong so we ended up with duplicates and none of the actual studio photos.

The clincher was when we came to "purchase" said photos. I got home after making my selection to discover that the photos I had paid for were non-exsistent! To say I was furious was an understatment.

I have now spent 3 days trying to resolve the issue. The company have admitted they messed up and when I asked for my money back they turned around and had the cheek to say that the company doesn't offer refunds and you can never prove that we overcharged you anyway! Are all photographers this down right rude? It has seriously put me off ever having anything like this done again if this is the attitude we can expect.

Needless to say I think I have now resolved the issue and I should be in posession of my missing prints by the end of this week however I will never recommend this company to anyone.

On a positive note the rest of the weekend was a blast! Champagne and cocktails all the way plus a fantastic evening spent at the Cellar Door (in it's previous inacranation the bar was a gentleman's public toilet in theatreland and a reputed haunt of Oscar Wilde among many!) with the fabulous Little Beau Peep and Pete Saunders for entertainment.

That's it for now
VDB xx

Back Again!

Hey Guys and Dolls,

I deleted my blog last week as I was struggling to find time to update it every week but was missing having a space to vent about my daily life so have decided to come back for round 2!

Unfortunately I lost all my previous postings so I'm starting again from scratch.

For now...
VDB (Vintage Dolly Bird) xx