... is it okay with you if I panic now?!?

If I gave my children everything they're asking for, it would take a year's salary!!!!

Anyone sell money trees?  LOL

This costs about 50p to make, and is SO romantic!

No matter how much money you spend on your beloved, this will be the present s/he will remember and cherish - and it will cost you about 50p to do:



Get a matchbox or similar small box. Wrap it in red wrapping paper and tie it securely and double-knotted with red curling tape or skinny red ribbon.

Copy this (to follow), change it to tiny font and print it on a piece of paper/card. Punch a hole in the card and tie it to the parcel.


This is a very special gift
That you can never see.
The reason it's so special is ...
It's just for you, from me.

Whenever you are lonely
Or even feeling blue
You only have to hold this gift
To know I think of you.

You never must unwrap it -
Please leave the ribbon tied.
Just hold it close to your heart
It's filled with love inside.

I'm like a kid on Christmas Day .... I visited eliteturnkey.com and bought myself a new template set for my ebay stuff.

Okay, so it took me six hours(!) to get the darned thing up and running, and so far only three items are using it, but my About Me page is done, so is my logo and Shop Front.

This is the best £18 I've spent in a long time - I highly recommend them!  Mind you, you need to have a bit of HTML knowledge as the links they provide send everyone to ebay.com and not ebay.co.uk.  And, being American, they spell 'favourites' as 'favorites'.  I got around that by changing the pic in Paintshop Pro and hosting it myself in Photobucket.

What do you think of my pretty blue template?

No, I'm not talking about Christmas ..... the kids are going back to school in two days!!!!

I have been Chief Referee for six weeks and I'm exhausted.

"She started it"

"No, HE started it"

"She hit me"

"He hit me first"

"Either you both shut up or I'll crack your heads together" ... nice to know I can keep my cool ...

I have my schedule carefully planned. Sleep for the first two days, then hire a skip and a bulldozer and clean up the house post-holiday (that really should read post-apocolypse). And is it in a Rule Book somewhere that says kids MUST grow out of their uniform the week before they are due to go back?

Up a size in shoes each, up a clothing size (or in his case, 2 sizes) and apparently it is "stig" to have the same backpack as last year.  Brand names which were so necessary last year (LaCoste, Reebok etc) are a definite no-no this year. New stationery, underwear, trainers ... flippin EVERYTHING!!!

*goes to plant fresh money tree in back garden* 

Awww - shoot me NOW!!!!!

I have to confess, I'm fairly chuffed with myself today.

I'm always open to ideas for new badges (so any brainwaves you have - chuck them my way!) and I've just listed my Personalised Christmas badge "Santa says Catherine has been a good girl".  They're moving quite well on ebay and they're flying out on my website.

Things are looking up!

Drinks are on me!!!  .... Form an orderly queue, please ...