Marianna is so close to walking. She has taken a few steps unaided even! It's just building up her confidence now more than anything, because she's still really reluctant to let go when standing up. Another milestone this week has been saying her name for the first time. It's my fault for choosing such a difficult name - and then not shortening it - but when she does give herself a name it's usually 'baba'. We've been working on each syllable of Marianna and this week we got something approximating 'Ma-yi-ah-ah'. So cute!

In other news, work was pretty quiet. I had planning committee and did level 1 safeguarding children and young people training. We've been out with Marianna quite a bit instead, to the boating lake, town, etc, and I've been working hard on clearing the board on the competition database. Fingers crossed I'll win something.

Check out my Top Ten Travel Tips, a guest post for The Rare Welsh Bit - www.therarewelshbit.com

A photo posted by Jessica Powell (@plastigffantastig) on May 24, 2016 at 7:46am PDT

Suitcase shot for my guest post for The Rare Welshbit - Ten Top Travel Tips.

☆ READING: The post that got 'Mommy Bloggers' everywhere talking - Josi Denise's essay on why all parenting blogs suck. They're all boring, fake, money grabbing and lack real engagement. Her own mommy blog gained her nothing... bar the thousands of dollars she raked in each month from sponsored posts and sugarcoated reviews.

My heart bleeds.

I don't know what marks parenting blogs out as especially naff but, unlike some viral flouncers, Josi is going to keep blogging to show us how we should be doing things. Meanwhile I'll continue sharing my boring sucky life with you all - if I've got to live it, the least the rest of the world can do is listen to me complain about it. ;)

☆ WRITING: 10 Things Every Blogger Should Know About LinkedIn. I've been spending lots of time working out LinkedIn so you don't have to.

☆ WATCHING: The Simpsons. It may have been going forever, but it's still good!

☆ LISTENING: Individuality by Area 7.

☆ WEARING: Bangles. At least until Marianna appropriated them.

☆ EATING: Chocolate cake.

☆ REVIEWING: Nothing this week.


This week was so disappointing. The Tots100 parent blog chart finally updated - and I dropped 80 places. :( It's not the be all and end all, I know, but it's still not the kind of statistic you want to see.

Still, other posts this week included The Mummy Tag and editorial calendar ideas for June.

Throughout the year there are so many awareness days, commemorative days, special days, celebrations, holidays, observances, etc, etc. These can be great as blog post inspiration, or just for getting a bit of extra traffic to an existing post by promoting it as a tie-in.

Read on for a list of notable dates for June - if the day has its own website or wiki page, I've linked to it. A lot of the weirder ones are USA based unofficial 'national days'; I've included them in the list if they've crossed the pond, or had a fair number of media hits when I googled them.


1st

☆ Children's Day. [Various]
☆ Gawai Dayak. [Malaysia + Indonesia]
☆ Global Parents' Day.
☆ Global Running Day.
☆ Go Barefoot Day.
☆ Heimlich Maneuver Day.
☆ Madaraka Day. [Kenya]
☆ Mothers' and Children Day. [Mongolia]
☆ Neighbours' Day.
☆ Pen Pal Day.
☆ Say Something Nice Day.
☆ World Milk Day.


2nd

☆ Children's Day. [North Korea]
☆ Decoration Day. [Canada]
☆ Leave the Office Early Day. (or nearest weekday)
☆ Republic Day. [Italy]
☆ Rotisserie Chicken Day.


3rd

☆ Chimborazo Day.
☆ Chocolate Macaroon Day.
☆ Mabo Day. [Australia]
☆ Repeat Day.

4th

☆ Butterfly Education and Awareness Day.
☆ Cognac Day.
☆ Hug Your Cat Day.
☆ International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression.
☆ National Flag Day. [Estonia]
☆ Old Maids' Day.


5th

☆ Constitution Day. [Denmark]
☆ Constitution Day. [Faroe Islands]
☆ Indian Arrival Day. [Suriname]
☆ National Fish and Chips Day. [UK]
☆ World Environment Day.


6th

☆ Applesauce Cake Day.
☆ Drive-In Movie Day.
☆ Gardening Exercise Day.
☆ Memorial Day. [South Korea]
☆ National Day of Sweden.
☆ Queensland Day. [Australia]
☆ Russian Language Day.
☆ Yo-Yo Day.


7th

☆ Chocolate Ice Cream Day.
☆ Flag Day. [Peru]
☆ Ludi Piscatorii. [Ancient Rome]
☆ Sette Giugno. [Malta]
☆ Union Dissolution Day. [Norway]
☆ VCR Day.


8th

☆ Best Friends Day.
☆ Bounty Day. [Norfolk Island]
☆ Upsy Daisy Day.
☆ World Oceans Day. 


9th

☆ Coral Triangle Day.
☆ Donald Duck Day.
☆ Jerky Day.
☆ TM -Transverse Myelitis - Awareness Day.


10th

☆ Ballpoint Pen Day.
☆ Iced Tea Day.
☆ Portugal Day.


11th

☆ Corn on the Cob Day.
☆ Kamehameha Day. [Hawaii]
☆ Miners' Memorial Day. [Canada]

This week's host theme is favourite quotes. I include a quote each week as part of my weekly overview posts, so here are five of my favourites:

I've seen this tag on a few blogs now, so figured it was time to give it a go myself...

1. Are you a Stay at Home Mum or a Working Mum? 

I work part time as an elected councillor for Torfaen County Borough Council. I've just increased my hours a little by becoming deputy mayor too.


2. Would you have it any other way? 

If I had the money, I wouldn't work - but that doesn't really have anything to do with Marianna! ;)


3. Do you co-sleep? 

No, we never have. Hopefully it will stay that way even once the sides are off the cot and she can wander about in the night.


4. What is your one must-have item for your baby? 

The best thing we bought was the Tippitoes Mini Bath, I can't recommend it highly enough.


5. How many kids do you plan on having? 

One. You can read more on why HERE.


6. Date nights? How often do you have them? 

Somewhere between rarely and never. My mum has Marianna overnight occasionally, but that just gives me time to watch TV and go to bed early!


7. Your child’s favourite show?

Rainbow. It was my fave when I was little too, so she clearly has good taste.



8. Name one thing you brought before you had the baby and never ended up using? 

Baby monitor. I think we used it once, possibly twice at a push. All our walls are paper thin so it was pretty pointless.


9. Your child’s favourite food? 

Mango, plums, strawberries. And chocolate, of course.


10. How many cars does your family have?

None. We can't afford it, and it's only Anthony who can drive anyway.


11. Weight gain, before pregnancy, during, after and now? 

Yes, yes, and yes. I put on about three stone and ever since it's a cycle of lose some, put it back on, lose it, put it on again, etc, etc, etc. I'll get there, eventually.


12. Dream holiday with your kids? 

Disney! Marianna will be my excuse to act like a big kid myself.


13. Dream holiday without your kids? 

Japan. I'm sure we could fit in a visit to Sea Disney too.


14. How has your life changed since having kids? 

Completely. It's changed my priorities, what I do, and even what I think about. I have trouble remembering how I even filled my time before Marianna came along.


15. Finish the sentence “It makes my heart melt when…” 

Marianna gives me a big cwtch. Or, she does her best to deny all by shaking her head and saying 'oh, no'. It's so cute!


16. Where do you shop for your kids? 

Supermarkets, mostly. Once she's walking I can see myself spending a fortune on stuff from the Little Bird range at Mothercare. It's all just so adorable.


17. Favourite make-up and skincare products? 

I bought an Urban Decay Naked palette a couple of months ago and I wish I had taken the plunge sooner. I also use a lot of Stargazer, Soap and Glory, and Leichner foundations and face powder.


18. Huggies or Pampers?

Neither. We've tried both, but they weren't a patch on Mamia.


19. Have you always wanted kids? 

Yes. We didn't plan to have Marianna exactly when we had her, but I was always certain I wanted children.


20. Best part of being a mum? 

Watching your baby become their own person. It's incredible!

This week has been really busy. It was the council AGM on Tuesday and I was made the new deputy mayor. Even though it's a role you basically get because no one else wants to do it, I am pretty excited about it! It will be nice to see more of the nice side of local office - visiting community groups, attending events, and generally seeing all the good work that goes on in the borough. You can read more about it HERE.

On Wednesday it was the Community Council AGM. Marianna came with us to that one and looked adorable - but defied all attempts to get a nice photo. THIS is the best one we managed! Thursday we had labour branch, then Anthony's mum and dad came over on Friday evening. Cue lots of house cleaning and tidying!


Another photo taken by Hannah - she has the magic touch!

☆ READING: Back over my blogging guides so I could put together a masterlist.

☆ WRITING: Images 101 for Bloggers - everything you need to know about blog images.

☆ WATCHING: We've been watching House of Cards again. Frank Underwood is so bad - but you can't help but love him!

☆ LISTENING: Video by India Arie.

☆ WEARING: Long sleeves - for more on the associated problems, check out this week's Life Hack themed Friday Frivolity.

☆ EATING: Pringles. Once you pop...

☆ REVIEWING: I reviewed Wishing Well Dollshouse Miniatures, and put together a masterlist of everything I've reviewed on the blog.


It's been really quiet this week. I had two guest posts go live; one for Cuddle Fairy's Happiness Series, and the other for Tiggy Poes and Flutterbys' Parenting Series. There is some cool news too about a really awesome brand I reviewed a while back, One Third Stories. Their kickstarter is now up and running! You can check it out HERE.