I am so pissed off.............

Okay good stuff first then I'll get to my moan of the day!!

I have new labels! OMG they look sooooo fantastic! I should have taken my camera in to work with me today, but I forgot ... my bad - I'll take pics tomorrow! I had created a new design for the labels based on the new logo. I showed L ... who suggested I tweak it slightly by changing one little thing and all of a sudden they look properly "branded" rather than generic and "samey"

It's funny --- whenever I have new packaging, all of a sudden I love doing the "monkey work" .... hehehe I'm sure the novelty will wear off!

Okay so the moan.

I am so utterly pissed off at home right now. I'm working my proverbial backside off daily and I feel that I get very little support for it from hub. He claims to be supportive and will stand there and argue the toss with me about how he is being supportive ... but he isn't! His salary puts a roof over my head and food on the table ... but it doesn't mean that what I do isn't important!

I don't have the luxury of being able to leave early in the morning and finish at 5pm. I have to fit my working hours into the time that the children are at school, then I go back evenings and weekends if I have to. I am working my backside off to try to build the business back up. I've invested hours and hours of my time to build it into something for the future - for my future and for the kids.

Hub has been complaining about HIS LACK OF WEEKENDS!!! It makes me so angry. He expects it to be absolutely fine for me to just not go into work for an entire weekend and either have to fit more into less hours or fall behind with orders ... just so that HE can go and do HIS stuff.

How is that supportive???

The latest one??? AFTER we had already had an argument about how unimportant my work is and how he doesn't get time at weekends ... he told me he wanted to go out on Saturday 26th - some bike or canoe thing - I didn't really pay much attention to the "what" because I couldn't believe it - not only did he blatantly not listen to me earlier in the day about how I need the weekends ... the 26th is the weekend after his daughter's birthday ... the weekend I have got 3 of her friends coming over to all go to the cinema and then pizza and a sleepover! Yeah okay hub, what do I do with Nathan while you are off doing whatever it is you want to do while I am with our daughter and her friends?!?!!

Is that selfish of me? Am *I* being the selfish one? Should I just cause myself MORE stress and MORE worry by having to work harder and faster during the day while the children are at school just so that he can have a weekend to do whatever he wants to do??

On the upside I wore new shoes today - so at least the bad parts of the day had a bit of sparkle to them.

Mama got new shoes today!! Piccies too! I love being a girl!

I went on a "birthday shopping spree" with my mum today :-) It's become a bit of a tradition that instead of buying me a gift (although she does get me something to unwrap on the day too!) we go out together shopping and she treats me with some cash to splurge.

I had £50 to spend and I did soooo well!! I love wearing the strappy vest tops as they go with pretty much anything - they can be casual or dressed up ... found a pack of 3 for £8 - bargain so I got a blue & turquoise set and a pink & purple set too, so that's 6 tops for £16! I also got a turquoise coloured wrap cardigan for £6 and these purrrrrty silver flip flops that were THREE POUNDS in the sale! LOL

I still had some cash left when we met up with my sister and her hub for lunch out in town and they brought my birthday pressie with them... I'd mentioned to Sis about my self imposed shoe buying ban a couple of weeks ago and said if she were stuck for anything to buy for my birthday then sparkly sandals were the way to go!!

Loooooooook what I got from my sis!!!!

HOW gorgeous are these! I mean seriously if she could have got inside my head and pulled out a picture of exactly what I wanted then these would have been right up there! PINK and SPARKLY and COMFY!! Ohh I love them!!

I still had some cash left and went into Brantano on the way home and found these ....

They were a teeny bit over budget ... they were £32 and NOT sale ... and I only had £25 left from mum, but by the time I'd seen them - before I had even tried them on I KNEW they were mine! I even tried on others first ... slightly cheaper and in budget shoes ... that were pretty and that I liked ... just not as much as these!! I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them! HAD to have them!! They go beautifully with the new turquoise top I bought (that I'd changed into!) and of course I had to wear my new shoes out of the shop! LOL I had so many compliments from the other customers about how great they looked!

God I love being a girl!!!

Soooo all the effort I've been putting in at work has been worth it ... I finally got paid in shoes today :-)

I WAS gonna buy shoes ... but ...

I had to go to B&Q to get some nuclear style bug killer because my aubergines are getting seriously attacked. I've been struggling with wanting desperately to stay 100% organic over the fact that last year's aubergines DIED thanks to bugs ...and my organic method just isn't working.

Anyway, the plan was to then head over to Brantano to get me some new shoes ... I had fantastised about new shoes all day ... I knew I was going to be looking for some low sling back heels that I can wear casually with a pair of trousers or dress up for the evening... but I was also on a budget! Yesterday's candle party was actually much better than I'd hoped for, and I figured I'd spend £25-£30 on myself!!

It has been a LONG time since I bought anything for myself and you know what? I just felt like I DESERVED it! Well, I found myself looking around the garden section in B&Q thinking I'd pick up some more herbs .... and look what I found and put STRAIGHT in my trolley!

Uhuh, instead of shoes, I bought a gorgeous teracotta planter filled with herbs! It cost £20 and I know I was probably ripped off as I could have bought the planter and planted it up myself, but it has EVERYTHING I use in it!! There is a very spindly looking thyme on the right of the photo, so I'll see what happens to that - there are actually 3 different sorts of thyme in there so I'm happy to lose one and fill it with my basil that I've grown from seed.

So ummm ... no shoes for this girl today as I spent my budget on something else ... but I have some new herbs!! Pasta with olive oil & fresh herbs served with potatoes ..... mmmmmm

New shoe lust

Dear diary ... it has been weeks since my last shoe purchase. I am writing to confess that I am suffering serious withdrawals

I've been lusting after Mary Jane shoes today

They are just so SEXY!!!

Found the perfect boots (Dee spent money today!)

Ohhh so today was a MUCH MUCH better day!! I'd decided last night to get up early and go into Brighton first thing this morning to try my shopping trip again!! I was out of the house just after 9am and the roads were completely empty ... no trouble parking up and within minutes of being in Churchill Square I was queing to pay for my first purchases!! I bought ....

• A fabby Jane Norman dress in a black/teal/grey all over print. It's t-shirt material, high wasted with a plunge cleavage and makes my tits look fucking awesome!! £40 down to £20
• Funky long sleeve brown & white top (Jane Norman again) that ties around the back. Again very cleavage enhancing!!! It looks great with jeans. £38 down to £15
• Black strappy top - bargain of the day £1.50 from Primark!!
• Brown trousers £25 down to £12
• Few pairs of thick tights to wear with skirts/dresses during the winter - another bargain at £1 a pair.
• Gorgeous long sleeved black chunky bolero style cardigan
• New vibrator from Ann Summers cus I broke my old one :-)

I am really pleased with what I got today! I didn't waste money on things I'll never wear JUST because they were in the sale. I bought things I really really liked ... and of course a girl needs a working rabbit!!

And these!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG OMG After looking for weeks and weeks and WEEKS for the "perfect pair of brown boots", I found them this afternoon in Brantano after I'd been to Brighton!!!

I had been desperately looking for flat brown boots - something I can wear all day long and be comfortable yet still look good!!

These boots aren't technically FLAT - they have a small 2" heel, but when I tried them on I knew that they were the ones!! My other specification for the "perfect pair of brown boots" was no fuss and no frills. I don't want any patterns or fussy bits and again, although these aren't technically plain, they just fitted the bill so well - plus I loved them! There are brass studs around the top and a fake strap with a small buckle just above the ankle ... but they are just perfect!!! Best bit? They are a £65 pair of boots that cost me (drum roll!) £30 in the sale!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!

And then .... THEN I saw these again!!!!!!

I say "again" because ... well, see, these boots have been haunting me for quite some time! The photo really doesn't show them well, but they are a very pale silvery lilac colour - NOT lilac, but not silver either ... just utterly sparkly, totally gorgeous and very me! Today was the third time I'd looked at them in Brantano and they were calling my name! Seriously! They were calling "Dee, DEE, BUY US!" What could a girl do!? They are absolutely fucking gorgeous!! I'd stroked them the last couple of times I'd been in Brantano but not actually picked them up!! I had been reasoning with myself that I shouldn't buy them as I don't really have anywhere to wear sparkly boots... which is why I hadn't ever tried them on before, but this afternoon I broke down and took them off the shelf. That was it really! By that point I'd totally fallen in love with them before I'd got them anywhere near my feet!!! I swooned and admired them in the mirror, but even then I decided to be "sensible" and put them back on the shelf... but they were there for less than a microsecond before I saw someone else look at them, so I grabbed my two boxes of boots and marched myself to the checkout!!!

Very very happy Dee!!!

Failure of a shopping spree!!!!

I decided to hit the sales yesterday as this is the first time in years that I've had some cash to spare! I don't have a LOT, but have SOME and damned well wanted to spend it on myself! Mum also gave me some shopping money for my Christmas present, so off to Worthing I did go with Mum and Megan in tow (ooh that rhymes - unintentional! LOL)

What did I buy yesterday? A complete fat ZILCH!!!! Came home totally empty handed and totally deflated!

I've been after a pair of flat brown knee high boots for weeks now and not found anything remotely like what I was looking for, and I refused to buy something that wasn't quite right as that would just have been a waste of my money! After tramping around Worthing for a couple of hours we kinda gave up and went home!!! I didn't even find any clothes either - the "look" at the moment is kinda punky / emo / gothic and it just doesn't suit me. The other side of what seems to be popular right now is a sexy/chic office style but I have nowhere to wear clothes like that and again - it's not me! I've never really been into high fashion and tend to wear what I know looks good on me and that I feel good in - hence why I came home with naff all yesterday!!!

Who are you and what have you done with my mother????

... were the words uttered by my 9 year old daughter while we were standing in the middle of Brantano (shoe shop) earlier today! She had needed a new pair of school shoes and there was a buy one get one half price sale. You didn't need to tell me twice ... I was off to the ladies size 7 shoes and you know what? Nothing! Absolutely nothing was calling out "Buy me, BUY ME" in the way that shoes normally do and I was really disappointed. There were lots of sandals and party heels but nothing dissimilar to what I already own, and the only pair I actually fancied the look of were £40 .... and I didn't like them that much that I could justify spending £40 JUST to get a £10 pair of shoes for Megan half price!!

She had me in hysterics .... "Who are you and what have you done with my mother?" with a funny put on "evil" look on her face! She KNOWS me! I asked her why she said that and she said "because it's you! Because you love shoes and we are in a shoe shop and you aren't buying shoes!"

She knows me so well! We bought her a pair of slipper socks half price instead :-)

Saturday Shmaturday

If you work hard and do your best,
You get the sack like all the rest.
But if you laze and mess about,
You live to see the job right out.
The work is hard, the pay is small,
so take your time and **** them all!
For when you're dead you'll be forgot,
Don't try and do the bloody lot,
Or on your tombstone, neatly laquered
These three words ... "just bleedin' knackered".

I don't know who wrote that, where I heard it or why I remembered it! I *think* it was on a plaque in the bathroom while I was growing up. Anywhoo, it sums up my day today!

Candle parties are like a cross between the devil and the chocolate cake section at Harrods! I LOVE them as it's guaranteed sales ie guaranteed MONEY, but gawd do they knacker me out! I have to be 100% the hostess and 100% smiles not matter how ratty I am feeling and I have to be sociable and happy for several hours ... and that kind of mental exhaustion just wipes me out for the rest of the day!

Back into work tomorrow to replace everything from today and re-box it all up ready for another party on Monday night! Woohoo mama may get to buy more shoes this week!!

Ohh and I MUST post about what my VERY astute son said to me this morning when I was all stressy and turned into a Fire Breathing Dragon ... but I'll save that for tomorrow when my head is working better!!

Mama got 3 pairs of new shoes today :-)

I love eBay so much! I spent a few hours the other day surfing eBay for pretty stuff and bought a few pairs of shoes -- err and some other stuff but for today the postie bought me 3 new pairs. I left my camera at work otherwise I'd take piccies of them for ya!!

Pair #1 A fabby pair of denim mules with a 4" wide heel on them. They have little bronze studs over the denim ... very "smart/casual" with jeans or would look great with a short skirt!! Pair #2 A smart pair of black high heel shoe/boots perfect for customer facing work when I'm suited and booted! Pair #3 I LOVE these ... wedge heel beige sandals. These are actually designer shoes with a £99 label still on them that I got for ummm a fiver! These will look gorgeous with a long skirt now we're coming into the Autumn.

I didn't know which to wear first after I finished work! It's always nice to have something pretty on my feet when I pick the kids up from school! Anyway .... so what is Dee wearing on her feet right now? My big fluffy slippers! It's cold today!!