Happy Halloween!

I have some news on the wedding front – Judy and Dimitris have come over all romantic and decided put the wedding back to February 14th – Valentine’s Day! It was Dimitris’ idea – he’s such a big softy! I’m quite relieved as it gives us more time to prepare for the big day and save up for the trip to Greece. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve had such an enjoyable week or so I can’t tell you. First, I was out trick or treating with my three youngest on Halloween. They all wore scary masks and carried little trick or treat buckets and we went around the neighbourhood pestering the neighbours. (There’s nothing I like better than pestering the neighbours - it’s a hobby of mine!) Instead of calling out, “Trick or treat!” (as I instructed) Crissy kept calling out, “Treat or treat!” When I tried to correct her she said that she was doing it on purpose as she didn’t want to play any tricks, she just wanted the treats! She’s a girl after my own heart! Most of the neighbours were great (as always) and we managed to fill the buckets with treats in less than an hour. And I’m sure the kids managed to empty them again in even less time!

We then went to Judy’s house where she was having a kids fancy dress party. All the kids looked amazing in their cute little outfits. Dina, Judy’s daughter looked adorable dressed as a fairy! She wore a: diamante glitter communion alice band (which looked like a little fairy crown), pink leotard, pink frothy tutu skirt, girls pink party shoes and she carried a droopy little homemade wand! It was so lovely watching her running around waving her droopy wand casting pretend spells on the other children. When I asked her what spells she was casting she said, “Good spells!” How adorable!

My eldest boy, Keith wasn’t feeling so well and stayed home watching telly with his dad. But his brother Simon and his two sisters Crissy and Sarah all attended and had a great time.

Simon was dressed very formally, wearing: a white boy’s formal shirt, black patent leather shoes and boy’s black bow tie. His best friend Stuart (who was dressed as a cowboy) asked him why he hadn’t come in fancy dress as he had promised. Simon replied that he was in fancy dress – he had come dressed as a party pooper! That’s my boy!

The girls both wore matching girl’s special occasion dresses with a black top and red bow. They got them for a friend’s birthday party a few months ago and I was determined that they wore them again before they grew out of them. It would be such a shame to wear such beautiful dresses only once.

Talking about beautiful dresses, Jenny (one of Crissy’s friends) came dressed in an absolutely stunning ornate pink and white dress. When I asked her mother about the dress she told me that it was a Marie Antoinette Dressing Up Set from Cachet Kids. She also told me that it was only a little over £30, which I found hard to believe; but when I looked on the site it was true! I think it must be a misprice.

There were lots of great costumes at the party. One of the best was a homemade costume of a giant frog worn by one of Crissy’s friends. Another was a homemade costume of a scarecrow worn by one of the children I didn’t know. The problem with the costume was that a piece of wood ran through the arms and across the shoulders of the jacket to keep the arms stuck out like a scarecrow, but the poor child was then unable to use his arms to eat and drink. And it was very funny watching him trying to play party games with his arms stuck out like that.

My brother Ed brought his son Ashley dressed as a miniature James Bond. He wore a boy’s shirt with tie, a small black boy’s suit, small black patent leather shoes and he was carrying a tiny black toy handgun. He slept through most of the party and Ed took him home early to put him to bed.

Anyway, the party was a lot of fun – there was lots of food and drink, lots of games (like pass the parcel and bobbing for apples) and Dimitris put on a very funny magic show, in which most of the tricks went wrong to the great amusement of everybody.

Then on November 3rd the whole family went out to a local bonfire and firework display which was absolutely amazing. (It’s always held on a weekend, even when bonfire night falls during the week.) The event went on for about two hours; there was a massive bonfire and hundreds of fireworks. The kids all had sparklers and we all had burgers and hot chocolate to keep us warm. It was a great night – the kids loved it.

A Wedding Preparation

I’m so excited – it’s Judy’s wedding soon and she’s asked me to help out with the preparations! Well, what are big sisters for? She’s already picked out an absolutely gorgeous ivory wedding dress and she’s dieting like crazy to make sure she’ll fit into it on the big day. She picked it out many pizzas ago!

She’s actually getting married in Greece – her fiancé, Dimitris is from a town in northern Greece called Giannitsa, pronounced: ‘Ya-neet-saah’. He says it’s situated a short drive from the mountains to the north and a short drive from the sea to the south and so you can go skiing in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. I’m not keen on the idea of skiing, but I love Greek beaches and can’t wait to get there.

The couple have been together for about five years and have a lovely little three year old daughter called Dina. She is going to be a bridesmaid and I am going to be the chief bridesmaid, keeping all of the little terrors under control! Judy hasn’t finalised all of the bridesmaids and pageboys yet but I’m sure all of the nieces and nephews will have a role. I think she’s waiting to see who is definitely coming before she finalises who will be doing what. But she’s started picking out clothes for them – the bridesmaids will wear cute little girls ivory dresses that match the bride’s wedding dress and lovely little kids’ bridesmaid shoes that were actually used at the royal wedding! (They’re not the very same shoes, you understand – we didn’t steal them or anything!) And the pageboys will wear boy’s black patent shoes, boy’s wing collar shirts, boy’s black trousers and boy’s / baby boy’s bow ties. I can’t wait to see all the little darlings all dressed up!

Our two brothers, Dave and Ed are going to be the ushers. I thought that it would be nice if they were dressed to match the pageboys, but they didn’t like the idea. They never like my ideas. In fact, I don’t think they’re very keen on ideas in general - thinking wastes valuable drinking time! Joking aside, they wanted to just wear their normal suits. The whole family’s had a rough time financially recently, and the trip to Greece is going to be expensive, so I expect they wanted to save some money. The whole family does, which is why we’re planning the wedding ourselves. We’re aiming to achieve a good quality wedding at a reasonable price. Dave’s wife works at a printing firm and is getting top notch invitations made up for us at a discounted price, Dimitris’ brother is a chef and he’ll be taking care of the food and we’re getting top quality, affordable kids’ clothing and accessories from Cachet Kids.

Judy said that she didn’t mind if Dave and Ed wore their normal suits but she did ask them to also wear something orange to fit in with her colour scheme and they seemed happy to oblige. She picked the colour scheme orange because it’s her lucky colour. She wants the bridesmaids to have orange sashes, orange ribbons on their dresses and in their hair and the pageboys to have white shirts with orange bowties. She initially wanted the pageboys to have orange shirts with black bowties, but I managed to talk her out of it. I think the orange shirts would have been too overpowering and trying to find them was a major headache! Have you ever seen orange pageboy shirts? I’m not sure they even exist! Anyway, I think that orange bowties will look OK (if they exist) so now begins the quest to find some. I’ll keep you informed.

Lovely INCHworm Trainers

I just have to tell you about some new children’s trainers I bought for my brood which can actually be adjusted to grow with your children’s feet! (They can be extended by 1 full size in 2 half size increments.)  They’re called INCHworm trainers. It turns out they’ve been around for a while but I’d never heard of them until I saw Julie (my best friend Nikki’s eldest) running around in a pair. As a mother of four rapidly growing sprogs I found the idea of longer lasting footwear very appealing and the price was just about affordable at just under fifty quid, so I decided to give them a go. 

At first the kids loved them and wanted to wear them all the time. Chrissy even wanted to take a bath in them! (Thankfully, she doesn’t take after her father when it comes to bathing! She takes two or three baths a day, he takes two or three baths a week! When I try to get him to bathe more he just says that bathing is for dirty people!)

Anyway, after a few weeks the novelty had worn off and the kids weren’t so interested in the trainers any more. Then Chrissy started complaining that hers felt ‘funny’ and she didn’t want to wear them at all; some of the kids on the street were teasing her about them, which put her off wearing them. I think the trainers look pretty and cool, albeit a little unusual (as you might expect from a new design of trainer) and some kids have a habit of picking on the unusual. 

I have a worry that the trainers may age like normal footwear (which is very rapidly with my little terrors) and so by the time they need extending they may look pretty tatty and I’m not sure how comfortable I am with the idea of my little ones running around in tatty trainers for longer. I also have a worry that the kids may grow out of the shoes as their feet get wider as well as longer.  I’ll have to wait and see.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the idea of adjustable trainers is a great idea, especially for kids with one foot bigger than the other (which thankfully none of my children have) but I’m not sure that these are the trainers for me … or my kids! Only time will tell.

Little Darlings Christening Collection

Little Darlings' christening collection is one of the prettiest christening range in the market. It is part of the Little Darlings Fashion range.

Little Darlings used to be owned by Blue Max Banner Group Ltd, later on it was sold to Michelle de Leon (Mdel) in 2012.

Nigel Ross Agency at one stage was the agent for Little Darlings.

Little Darlings usually marketed together with the Coco and Abella brands, as they belong to the same owner.

After the acquisittion by Mdel, there was plan to produce the Little Darlings christening range in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

However, on 30th August 2013, Little Darlings Facecebook page announced that the Little Darlings, Abella & Coco brands had been bought by a new company and AW'13 stock would be delivered soon.

On 11th September, Martin and Chris Edwards Childrens Fashion Agencies announced on their Facebook page that the the deal to buy MdeL and the Little Darlings, Abella and Coco brands, has fallen through and that the winter 2013 stock for these brands would not be arriving in stores anytime soon.

On 12 September 2013, its designer, Tess, who designed Little Darlings for 5 years & Abella for 12 years, announce that she is creating a new brand called "Away with The Faries".

Little Darlings Christening is stocked by leading christening wear retailers. It is a shame that its future is now uncertain.

According to Company List, Michelle de Leon Ltd (Mdel Ltd) was incorporated on 08/08/2012 and has one director. According to Company List, that sole director has also been a director of the following dissolved/in administration companies:

PREMIER ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING LIMITED (dissolved 04/2010) 
PREMIER CORPORATE CLOTHING LIMITED (dissolved 05/2005)
PREMIER BUILDING SERVICES (YORKSHIRE) LIMITED (dissolved 09/2007)
BAIRD CORPORATEWEAR LIMITED (dissolved 01/2011)
RAINBOW CORPORATEWEAR LIMITED (dissolved 12/2012)
NEWLANDS DOOR SETS LIMITED (dissolved 01/2006)
NEWLAND DOOR SYSTEMS LIMITED (dissolved 01/2006)
BELSTANE MARKETING LIMITED (In Administration)

And a director of the following companies:

WMS (UK) LTD (incorporated 28/08/2012 - Active)
WENTWORTH VENTURES LLP   (incorporated 03/10/2012 - Active)

It is intriguing why the long established Little Darlings, CoCo and Abella brands were sold to someone with a history of closing down companies and why Mdel Ltd was set up to take over these three brands and then went into administration just one year later?

A Perfect Christening Day

I went to my nephew’s christening last Friday and I have to say that it was a fabulous day - the sun was shining, the family was gathered and my adorable little nephew (Bobbi) looked as cute as could be wrapped up snugly in his tiny christening gown and miniature white christening shoes. He was like a lovely little doll, but much smellier … well nobody’s perfect (when you gotta go you gotta go)!

I’m not really much of a church-goer, in fact I normally only ever go to church to attend weddings, funerals and christenings and there haven’t been very many of those in the family recently. But I do like visiting God’s house on such occasions – it makes me feel warm and tingly in a way that I can’t really put into words.

The service was held at a lovely little church in Garstang, just down the road from where I live. I can’t remember its name (I always forget) but it’s the one closest to the police station. (I’ve only lived in the town for thirty years, so how do you expect me to remember the name of a church that I see almost every day?) I set off early so as not to be late and ended up arriving way before everyone else. I killed some time walking around the churchyard looking at the graves wallowing in existential angst and I managed to catch the end of a double christening of two boys, which was interesting in a boring kinda way. I can’t remember what the boys were called (something imaginative like John and James) but I remember how ugly they were. Man, when they were born the parents should have been slapped, not the children! It reminded me of the time a friend showed me his ugly new born baby and asked me what I thought. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and I didn’t want to lie to him so I said honestly, “I think he looks a lot like you!” It has to be said that the parents did make an effort – the boys’christening outfits were lovely and their faces were partially hidden by blankets - but I think it was irresponsible of such ugly parents to reproduce in the first place. 

What was I talking about, oh yeh Bobbi’s christening? So eventually the family gathered at the church, the service was lovely and tingly and then most of us went back to my brother’s house for nourishment and nattering; and everything was going smoothly until Uncle Jim started guessing the prices of the christening gifts. (I told my brother it was a mistake giving him free access to the sherry; the old geezer does the same thing every year with his Christmas presents!) His guess for my present (a cute little one piece from Cachet Kids) was way too high, but I just told him he was spot on! I’m generous like that! Anyway, despite Uncle Jim, I had a fab time and I can’t wait for my sister’s wedding in a couple of months! It’s about time she got married – she’s been happy long enough!