A-Z Challenge: U

U is for Urges

Here are some of the urges I have experienced recently:

I have felt the urge to laugh at my daughter when she pulls that really stupid face before she bursts into a fit of fake tears and tantrums. I don't laugh (okay I do, but only when I'm in the kitchen and she's sat sulking in the lounge..) Seriously, how can you not laugh at a fake crying, tantrum throwing pudgy little face? It's sort of cute no?

I have felt the urge to punch the living hell out my husband for snoring in my ear hole several times this week already. He snores like a train and that is no exaggeration! I will say though that instead of performing some violent act on him he got moved to the sofa instead *insert big grin*

I have felt the urge to shove scooters and bicycle bells up places that don't see any sunshine. I despise the constant ringing of bells (stationary can I just add) being rung by teens hanging out on street corners and the juniors speeding by on their scooters running over feet and seemingly not even noticing...

* I am in a good mood today I promise*

I have also had the urge to throw things at my TV during Jeremy Kyle, This Morning and yet another episode of Max and bloody Ruby (Little A loves it so who am I to stop him watching it? Besides, he's poorly so wins all battles at the moment!)

I think that's enough urges for today. Have you had any 'urges' to do, go, see anything recently?

CupcakeMumma

Blog Challenge Days 18,19 and 20!

Oops totally late with this challenge after all the Olympic Torch excitement I was too tired yesterday and on Friday I had a blinding headache so decided staring at my laptop screen wasn't such a good idea.
All excuses over with I'll move on to the challenge!

Day 18/31 My Blog Name.
CupcakeMumma really is as simple as that. I'm a Mumma who likes cupcakes! I bake a few here and there but they're not anything amazing and before you say anything, there's always one good one and that's the one that will get the blog fame! I'm just a bit obsessed with them to be honest. I have cupcake books, a cutting board, ornaments oh blimey all sorts!

Day 19/31 What Do You Collect?
I collect postcards so if you're ever feeling so inclined to post one to me then well, I'd be very happy! I have a tin box under my bed getting nicely full with postcards from around the world (thanks to postcrossing.com) some I pick up to remember days out and a few of my favourites have  been picked up from the local market and have been written on years ago, I have some from the 1930's and 40's which I adore.

Day 21/31 A Difficult Time in Your Life
I wrote the other day about my anxiety and PND which are by far the worst moments of my life and the worst for my poor Other Half too who still suffers with my mood swings and pretty low dips. Hats off to him and anyone else who lives with someone like me, it sure isn't easy sometimes!

The most difficult time in my life was when we moved from the countryside to a little cul-de-sac in a town. It felt like things were going to be okay but it soon turned out otherwise. Above us lived a young man who had his mates over every Saturday night, sometimes Friday too. He would play extremely loud music, wouldn't turn it down, his friends threatened Other Half on two occasions and they would smoke drugs throwing their butts and cans out of the window so when I opened the curtain on a nice sunny morning after a hideous night I was greeted to a pit of a back yard. It wasn't my back yard, but I still had to look at it!

This was difficult because it really felt that no one cared. My anxiety, which previously hadn't bothered me for a good couple of years came out of no where and i hated living in my new flat. Because nobody else had to live there they really didn't understand our desperation to leave. We were lucky though that most weekends for pretty much the whole time we lived there I stayed with Little Miss at my Mums place or we all went to Other halve's parents.
The final straw came when, after a lovely birthday dinner i came home and ended up crying down the phone to my Aunt who lived near by. We all stayed with her that night and it was the last time I was going through it. Other Half and I even considered separating, me leaving with Little Miss and my bump, I was a total mess!

Luckily for us, the landlord wasn't happy about the situation at all and got us the 2 bedroom house we are currently living in. The process of anti-social behavioural orders is a very long one and the estate agents dealing with the man above us were not very sympathetic. Needless to say it's all the past now but I really, really feel for those living with nightmare neighbours and I never want to move because I'm too scared of going through it all again!

CupcakeMumma

Adding to Collections:

As many of you know I collect postcards and have been for about a year now. I have a little tin under my bed where I keep them all safe. Some of them are picked up when I visit a new place, some are bought from the same shop as I got one before but the occasion is different and some are really, really old. 1930's old, which is amazing. Most of these are dated and have lovely small written notes to friends or loved ones on. I'm a bit of a history lover and I adore the thought of holding something that was in somebody else's hand so many years ago.

Last weekend I went off around the market and I went to my favourite stall hoping to find some good postcards from years ago. Sadly there were only 2 proper postcards. I have been known to pick up very old photos from this stall too as the old fashion, traditional photography just pulls me in along with the fashion of say a young woman or child.
Anyway, I picked up a couple of postcards costing 75p each. As you can see i'm not the hard core collector just yet. To spend nearly a fiver on a postcard it would have to be pretty special to me!

Another collection I enjoy adding to is my stamp collection. A few months ago my Mum brought over a memory box I made when I was 12/13. Inside was a little pocket of stamps I had started collecting and never carried on. Well, going around the market I came across a new stall full of postcards, medals and yes, stamps. At 25p each I thought i'd treat myself!
I'm drawn to stamps for their artwork and fine detail. This is another reason I using Postcrossing as I love seeing the stamps on the back of my newly delivered postcards from all over the world.

These are just wonderful! My favourites by far!

 On leaving the market I came across a lady selling bags of stamps. Most of the stamps have been 'stamped' during mailing which is a shame but i got rid of very little and mostly duplicates to be honest. I can still see a lot if not most of the detail on these stamps.

And what do I do with all these old stamps? Put them in a tin of course! I found the perfect one. A vintage quality street tin bearing Major Quality and Miss Sweetly. This tin doesn't have the Quality Street logo which has puzzled me a bit but I think it's wonderful nonetheless! I gave it a clean up and now it's all ready to be loved again.

Major Quality and Miss Sweetly all cleaned up

Lovely designs of the setting 

'Mackintosh's Quality Street'

 What do you collect? I'd love to know!

CupcakeMumma

Holding History:

I've written about my new hobby of collecting postcards a couple of times, but today I have really found my love for it. Holding these postcards that I bought today in my local market is a great feeling. That will sound very odd to anyone who isn't really into history or who just doesn't get that feeling. For me it makes me think about the person writing the postcard. Most people would want unwritten postcards but i love knowing that some of these were written with love and care and posted years and years ago to be received by somebody in their post one morning perhaps over breakfast..?

The first postcard is a photograph from March 1927. I can't tell a lot from it but from the writing on the back I think it may be something to do with a film? I was drawn to this firstly because of the horses to be honest, but then you just start looking at the men and children gathered around watching these three boys (I believe them to be Patrick, Ralf and Lewis)

This is the second one, a postcard called 'Madonna Of The Meadows' This was very faintly written on on the back with pencil which has most likely faded over time. 

If you look very, very closely you can almost see the writing. It isn't much clearer in my hands! But it says

 'To my dear Sammy Easter 1949'

Apparently Easter 1949 in England was the hottest on record...Just in case you wanted to know!

The next postcard is from a lady called Dorothy and it's a real photograph postcard of Chelmsford Cathedral. This one was written 31st August 1956 and was posted from Maldon Essex at 7pm. Amazing.

The fourth postcard is addressed to the same lady but a lot earlier in 1915 (during WW1) It is from WHSmiths (WHS) but I cannot make out the signature which is a shame because I can read the rest of the card. This was sent 4th January 1915 and is a Kingsway Real Photo Series and is a picture of Lord Salisbury's statue & Park Gates, Hatfield.

And finally a postcard I could not find much about but was extremely drawn to was this one below of a lady seated looking very smart. I understand these were quite popular type of photos at some time and this was a portrait taken by Wakefield's Ealing in London but has no date. 

There you have it, that is what occupied me for roughly half an hour in my local market prompting both Little Miss and Other Half to wonder off. I was totally in my element though and you would have been silly to try and distract me! I love history, but I love it even more, no matter how small when it involves seemingly small people from our past in my hands, in my house. Now I will treasure these postcards and add to my collection.

Hannahx

My Collections:

I have stumbled upon a new meme which I am very pleased to get stuck into every fortnight. This meme is called The 'Writing Workshop' by Sleep Is For The Weak which looks a lot of fun.

I'm from a long line of collectors. My Gran collects crystals. She has all sorts dotted about the place and I find her home a very calming place to be. My Mother has collected teapots for as long as I can remember. In fact she has so many that now her teapots are the homes of some rather lovely flowers placed in her courtyard. I notice how she has placed them near the window so as to not feel she has banished them from her collections!
My Dad collects guitars. It started off with a couple of them in their cases, sat abandoned in the corner of his bedroom. One day a couple of years ago he decided to pick them up again and now he has a little row if guitars standing proudly on their stands waiting to be played...

I collect memories. I used to collect stamps, I collected thimbles many years ago but they went to the charity shop when I was 14. Then there are my diaries. I have tonnes of diaries from when I was 10 up till now. I love writing, and what is better than writing about my day, about getting out my thoughts, venting my anger and frustrations?

Something I have always done and will continue to do, especially for my children, are memory boxes. My box is a documents box I bought from W H Smiths at the beginning of the year. Before then it has been several shoe boxes and once I managed to cram everything into a tiny thing, I'm not sure I know how I did that looking at the picture I took tonight!
Little Miss's Box happens to be a very good size and already near the top and she's only 3 and a half! Her box had my artificial flowers in that I am using for my wedding.
Mr's box is a simple shoe box, nice and big as Other Half has size 13 feet!

My special box of memories

Little Man's Box

Little Miss's Memories

As you can see the children have their tiny baby suits which always make you gasp 'You couldn't have once fitted in that?' they have their Christening candles,tiny nappies and cards from their birth. The collection for both continue to grow.
My memory box has tickets from travels, receipts I have kept,photos of me when I was a child, my friends from school, letters my best friend and I exchanged between classes,art I drew,stamps I collected and much more. I love occasionally going through my memory box and  being instantly transported into my past just by reading a sentence or looking at a picture where you can remember exactly where you were when you drew it. It's a wonderful feeling.

These days I also collect postcards. I think they're great and pick one up when ever I go to a different place. Other people also buy me them. My mum came to mine the other week with 2 postcards. One was a lovely one from her recent trip to Devon to see her Brother. The other was one her work colleague had given her whilst away on her trip to Greece! How thoughtful.

A couple of favourites

Cupcake Mummax