This week has been fairly quiet as the council committees sitting were not ones I'm on. I was invited to go along to Croesyceiliog Secondary's school council meeting on Thursday which was pretty interesting, and highlighted some of the things that might come out of the ongoing school uniform consultation.

Mostly I've been doing lots of crafts and stuff with Marianna, and working out ways to help reach my goal of getting out of my overdraft. I got the food shopping done for £21 this week which I was pleased with, and next week should be even cheaper again. :)

I'm on a money saving roll at the moment, and the blog posts I've written reflect that - there's one about joining the Pony Tails Club (for free), referring friends to get subscription boxes (for free), reviewing a Toucan Box (which we got for free), and our taste journey to South Korea with Beer52 (which I had a coupon to get for £2.95).

I also posted a walk through of my mum's doll house, the Malibu Beach House from DHE.


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Two weeks into January and everything feels well and truly back to normal now after all the festivities.

Monday I had a policy seminar and a Labour group meeting, then on Tuesday we resumed our weekly library visits and I was psyched to see that Vincent the Vixen was on the display shelf. It was one of the titles I reviewed for Truth and Tails in the early days of the blog, so it's great to see them expanding and getting exposure. After that we went shopping for reduced Christmas cards, etc, and picked up a couple of free bottles of raspberry & apple Robinson's Refresh'd through the Shopmium app. Sometimes the new product try-outs are hit or miss but it was so good - I could have drunk a crate of the stuff!

The tail end of the week is a blur already, and I can't remember what we did altogether. On Friday Marianna and I went to help out at the Eastern Valley Foodbank collection at Morrisons, then we went on to 50p Fridays at Maendy Primary. It's great that these things are out there, but sad that people need them when we live in the sixth richest country in the world. :(



Back at the household level, I've made £25 through Oh My Dosh! this week so Marianna got to have her 'Old McDonald's', and I splashed out almost £2 on some magnetic false eyelashes. I've only ever managed to get proper false eyelashes to stick in place twice in my life, but I'm hoping these are going to arrive and work and be brilliant. Time will tell!

Along with OMD! I've been trying out various free trials and services. I wrote a blog post about MyPostcard.com which lets you send personalised cards for free, and I made a start on Mothers' Day with a free card and delivery code at Planet Cards. I also got 10 free prints + free delivery through the Free Prints app. With the trials I've given Graze Box (snack free with YY3P5KFRE), Toucan Box (kids' crafts for £2), and Butternut Box (dog food, 75% off) a go. I shall doubtless blog about them all in due course.

Today I took Marianna to one of her nursery friends' birthday party - she had a great time, except for when Spiderman, Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy turned up. The fear of mascots in all their many guises is still going strong...

Finally, if you missed them, I've got two competitions running at the moment. One for a copy of the lovely kid's book, Morgan's Magic Moon, and another for a little panda money box.



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2019 is flying by already, I can't believe we're a week into it! It has been a fairly hectic couple of weeks though - Christmas, Boxing Day party, New Year's, and Marianna turning four. People talk about the terrible twos but Marianna seems to have been saving it up. She's like that nursery rhyme:

It is amazing to hear her talk though and realise how much she knows. To watch her puzzle things out and start to make sense of the world. A picture came up on Facebook today of her in an incubator at the hospital four years ago, and it feels almost like a false memory, all the worry and the fear that we might never get to bring her home.

So, even when she's driving me up the wall, I'm still thankful for it.



Changing subject entirely, the rest of this week has been filled with getting organised for the new year. I've had a big clear out of clothes and books, and been listing lots of stuff on ebay to make some room. I really want to put my 1/12 scale Mountfield doll house together this year, so I've had to be pretty ruthless to find enough space for it. :) You can read about my other New Year's Resolutions HERE.

My plan is to blog consistently throughout 2019 and work on developing this little patch of cyber space. My rough - and cheesily entitled - weekly posting schedule is looking like this so far:

☆ Miniature Monday - dolls, scale miniatures, the building of the Mountfield...
☆ Torfaen Tuesday - local stuff for local people.
☆ Winning Wednesday - brand collabs, sponsored posts, competition wins, etc.
☆ Thrifty Thursday - money saving and making.
☆ Fandom Friday - books, films, music, TV shows, etc, etc.
☆ I-Haven't-Thought-Of-A-Catchy-Title-Yet Saturday - whatever randomness I feel like.
☆ Sunday Summary - a look back at the week that was.

Wish me luck!

Also, if you missed them, I've got two competitions running at the moment. One for a copy of the lovely kid's book, Morgan's Magic Moon, and another for a little panda money box.



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Our new favourite bedtime story this month is 'Morgan's Magic Moon' by Christopher Parry. It is the super cute story of a little girl who searches high and low for the missing moon, all with the help of her faithful dog Cwtch - a Welsh word for which there is no literal translation, but is basically a cuddly, snuggly kind of a hug.


I absolutely love the stylized illustrations and the bright colour palette used by Jordan Brown. I am notoriously picky about the artwork in children's books - quietly swapping out books for editions with subjectively better illustrations is practically a fulltime hobby these days! - so that's no faint praise.

Marianna tells me the pictures are beautiful because Morgan has red hair just like her. Who am I to argue? :)

The whole book is beautifully laid out, and the text is clear and easy for little fingers to follow.


What really makes this a firm favourite however is the story itself.

So many children's books fall down over awkward rhyme. Even some of the biggest names in the business have problems with sentences which don't quite flow, or inadvertent tongue twisters that have you stumbling over your words. No such problem here! It's a small thing, I know, but a nice even rhythm is an important thing when it comes to a bedtime story.

In conclusion: this is a sweet wholesome story that flows easily and really lends itself to young readers following along.

Another new year, another resolution post! Last year I made five resolutions, of which I managed to achieve three: redecorating the house, writing 100,000 words of fiction (the end tally was more like 400,000), and getting into the top Tots100 - I was briefly ranked at #99 back in Spring.

So, this year is looking fairly similar with another five resolutions, a few of which are simply recycled from last year...


☆ #1. Lose Weight ☆ 

I wanted to lose weight before Marianna was even on the horizon - since then I've only succeeded in putting it on. This year I pledge to eat more healthily, get in more exercise, and stay away from my ultimate downfall. (Crisps!) I managed to drop two dress sizes last year, but there's still a long way to go. My goal is to lose at least two and half stone this year.


☆ #2. Blog Like a Boss ☆ 

I started off well last year, but I lost motivation within a few months. My resolution for 2019 is to blog consistently, and work with a few brands on collaborations. I have one coming up with Simply Be already, and would love to branch out even further.


☆ #3. Write a Novel ☆ 

Well, a novel's worth of words at any rate! I smashed my goal of 100,000 words of fiction last year, so I'm going to aim for another 100,000 this year and see how it goes.


☆ #4. Save Money ☆ 

This didn't happen last year, in spite of best intentions, because Anthony was still without a job and my mental state was only good enough to go to work and not do a whole lot else besides it. I am feeling a lot better now though and ready for the challenge of getting out of my overdraft, ASAP.


☆ #5. Sort Out The Garden ☆

It's nice to have a garden. It's not so nice having to do something with it. This year I want to finish the work I started last summer, transforming the front garden from a mud bath to a lawn, and putting some plants other than nettles in the back garden. I've got a bunch of pots out there now, and a ton of seeds I won on ebay for a penny!


Have you made any resolutions this year? Let me know in the comments! :)




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