Welcome

Hi there, I'm Ali and brand new to this blogging thingy so not sure how things work. I decided to start a blog because a very good friend of mine kept saying I should have one, told me it's easy, so here goes.







I have decided to call it Blossom and Grow because over the last few years that's exactly how I feel my life has been. Maybe i'm a late developer. You're never too old to try new
things and life definitely starts at 40 something.



















Saturday, 28 August 2010

DON'T STOP BELIEVING MEMORY BOOK

I have decided to make a memory book about my amazing experience in TV land. I will post a picture on my blog each page I make so all my friends can also relive the journey.

I hope to start at the very beginning which might be hard as at the moment I have not got a photo of us at the first audition in Newcastle. So depending on what order I do the pages my blog might not run chronologically.

Title Page for DSB Memory Book
So the front cover is a title page and hopefully you can see I used different coloured harliquin ribbons and different lettering styles to remind me of the DSB logo. 

DOGGY DAY!

Stella welcome addition to our family
What a calamity! It was time again to take STELLA (our guide dog friend!) for her weekly free run. (free meaning not on her lead not free in costing anything). This is only our second time to be in charge of a black lab and seems we haven't any dogs we are on a learning curve. Not strictly true as I have had dogs when growing up but our kids haven't as they are actually allergic to furry creatures. Anyway back to our doggy walk, Stella is 4 years old and is a working guide dog but due to her owner being poorly she hasn't been able to go for a free run. So hubby volunteered our family to take Stella out. Today was only our second time so we are still apprehensive and just getting use to handling her. Last week she was very timid and wouldn't run after the ball and we just about got her to trot.

This week was so different she bounded after the ball we had bought from our shopping trip with M and co things were going really well kids enjoying Stella's enthusiasm. Until suddenly out of the corner of my eye I could see a brown mongrel come bounding across heading straight for Stella. OH NO we all were scrabbling to get Sella we were not ready for a lively yappy dog to come in and intrude into our tranquil morning. Both dogs got very excited and the little dog was chasing Stella, Stella being so placid I think wasn't quite sure what to do and we being novice dog walkers what reaction to expect, as humans we started to panic slightly. The little dog got a bit too friendly and started nipping Stella round her collar to this I am shouting to the owners to retrieve their dog. They didn't seemed bothered but I didn't want to take Stella back to her owner covered in slobber or worst scenario blood. I think as I said earlier we are on a learning curve a very BIG one at that.

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

GROW YOUR OWN

Well today little D and I dug for treasure in our grow bags and came up with lovely white potatoes marie something and nicola's. Chuffed to bits as they have been growing since March. We had the marie ones tonight scraped (which hubby had to be shown how to do) that made me laugh as I remember my mum showing me how to scrap spuds. Then I thought 'have I not scraped a potato since I was a young girl weird.' We boiled, then mashed them or as little D says 'made fluffy clouds.' They were Yummy with steak pie and veg. So 6 months of growth to get one meal on the table is it worth it. I enjoyed it, didn't cost much and I got a sense of achievement. Plus little D and I spent time in the garden today in the fresh air. SO YES IT WAS WORTH IT! might try different veg next time.

Still waiting for tomatoes to ripen moved them around to a sunny spot that's a joke as we don't seem to be having any sunshine. I think some of the toms are plum tomatoes so I think I will be making some bols sauce seems I am the only one who eats tomatoes raw. Neighbour said add a banana to rippen the tomatoes (7.9.10 still waiting)



Hubby just got back from watching Everton 5 good result against Huddersfield 1 so he's a happy chappy.

Well best get to bed as its 12.07 am
What happened to my early night?

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

First Post

I'm a little bit obsessed with crafty stuff and have a huge stash in our DEN (old dining room) to the dismay of my hubby. I started making cards about 3 years ago for friends and can spend hours on one card. Although I have tonnes this did not stop me today whilst shopping with my pal M and our kids. We spend hours rummaging the shelves in TK Max and Hobby craft and as usual spent a fortune. I have just discovered scrap booking and hope to make a few albums featuring some of the exciting things that have been happening to me lately.

 'What exciting things?' I hear you say. Well I will just mention one thing briefly as its getting late. I am in a choir called SING LIVE and we do loads of amazing concerts, this summer we were privileged to take part in 'Don't Stop Believing' a Channel 5 production. It was an all dancing, all singing competition (not that I did much dancing) and we made it through to the semi-finals 'wildcard'. The whole experience was amazing being on LIVE TV singing with all my best pals. We have little videos of our performances and interviews on their website and I even downloaded our songs from i tunes so I made a CD not bad for 40 SOMETHING.

If you want to view my performance or find out more about our choir I will post the links here (will have to ask 12 year old how to do this)
http://www.singliveuk.com/
http://dontstopbelieving.five.tv/

Brilliant how easy was that. Best finish my first blog before boring you all to death. Good night! xx