Happy Christmas! In May

I can’t believe Christmas has come on gone! And what a happy Christmas is was. On Christmas morning I was awakened at the crack of dawn by Sarah (our youngest) bouncing up and down on the bed, begging Ben and I to get up so we could go downstairs and start opening our presents. Soon the whole household was awake, clad in dressing gowns and making their way to the living room for the annual orgy of frenzied present opening. I love to see the kids opening their presents, it reminds me of how excited I used to be when I opened my Christmas presents as a child.

Thankfully the kids seemed to like all of their presents. That is, apart from the adult sized black socks that their uncle Jim bought each of them this year. Whenever he buys clothes for the kids he always goes for adult sizes. I once asked him why he did this and he replied that the kids would grow into them and never grow out of them! What a guy!

Anyway, Sarah was particularly taken with her new Barbie dolls and Dreamhouse. I thought she was going to explode with excitement when she opened the wrapping and saw what was inside. She also loved a woodland fairy dressing up set that her aunt Judy gave her and she insisted on wearing it while she played with her Dreamhouse. She looked so adorable!

Simon (our youngest boy) is into Star Wars in a big way and leading up to Christmas kept dropping hints about wanting some Star Wars Lego for Christmas. So it was no surprise that he was overjoyed with the Star Wars Lego kits that we got for him. He was especially taken with the Star Wars Millenium Falcon kit, which he feverishly started to construct as soon as he opened the wrapping. He also likes anything to do with pirates and was very happy to receive a boys pirate outfit with hat and sword from his aunt Judy.

Crissy (our eldest girl) asked for mainly clothes this Christmas and was delighted with the new additions to her wardrobe she was given. She was especially happy with a beautiful mayoral girls sales brown skirt and ivory t-shit outfit that we bought her, commenting on how cute the bunnies were on the front. I love that t-shirt too! If they made it in my size I’d get one for myself. She also took a liking to Sarah’s new Dreamhouse and spent much of the morning playing with it with Sarah.

Keith (our eldest) wanted mainly X-Box 360 games for Christmas and loved the titles we bought for him, particularly one with zombies. I don’t know much about video games so I left buying them to Ben and he clearly did a good job. Keith then spent the morning slaying zombies with his dad.

After a light lunch (saving ourselves for Christmas dinner) we all dressed up in our Christmas outfits. As I said in my previous blog, the family likes to dress up at Christmas and this year we decided to have a ‘red’ themed Christmas. Ben and I dressed in our Mr and Mrs Santa outfits. Sarah dressed in a lovely little red leotard, a frothy red tutu skirt, some red pom pom tights and some red Mary Jane shoes with patent leather double straps. Simon sported a Spiderman costume. Crissy wore a gorgeous red smocked dress by Sarah Louise, some red tights and some girls red and black patent shoes with a lovely bow design on the front. And Keith wore a boys red shirt and tie set, some boys red trousers and some boys red leather shoes. He also wore an Elvis wig, sideburns and sunglasses.

Crissy and Sarah stayed upstairs playing with their presents, Simon continued to construct his Millenium Falcon in the living room, Ben and Keith went back to the X-Box and I started work on the Christmas dinner. I love to cook, especially Christmas dinner. It’s a lot of work, but very satisfying and the meal was very well received when we finally sat down to eat it. And it was great seeing everyone dressed up and having a good time. (If you’ve never had Christmas dinner with Santa, Elvis, Spiderman and a couple of little angels I thoroughly recommend it!)

In the evening the family gathered in the living room, watched Elf on DVD (as we do every Christmas) and then played some Wii games. It’s funny but no matter how many Wii games we get, we always end up playing the Super Mario Cart game. I guess it’s become the family favourite. Simon dominated the games (as usual) and Sarah and I kept coming last (as usual). Eventually Sarah got bored of losing and went back to playing with her toys and Keith got bored of winning and went back to slaying zombies. The rest of us continued playing for a while and then eventually settled down in front of the telly. Soon the kids were in bed and Christmas was over. I can’t believe how quickly it seems to come and go. Anyway, it was a happy Christmas that I’m sure I’ll always remember.

A Romantic Wedding

I’m happy to report that Judy and Dimitris finally tied the knot on Valentine’s Day! Hurrah! I’m so pleased for them. The whole day was perfect and very romantic. They got married in a lovely church in the heart of Thessaloniki (Salonika) in northern Greece. The church was very beautiful, with ornate wooden carvings and gold leaf decorations throughout and wonderful frescos on the walls. And Thessaloniki was simply breath-taking – a jewel of a city on the Mediterranean coast.

I’ve never seen Judy look so happy – I don’t think she stopped grinning all day. She looked absolutely stunning in her stylish ivory wedding dress with a lovely bow on the front, her beautiful bouquet tied with an orange ribbon. And Dimitris looked extremely handsome in his new tailored dark blue suit, ivory tie and orange handkerchief protruding neatly from his breast pocket, standing proudly by her side. As I said in a previous blog, Judy wanted orange included in the wedding colour scheme as it was her lucky colour.

In the end there were two ushers, five bridesmaids and six pageboys. The ushers were Dave and Ed (my brothers). They wore very smart three piece suits - one dark blue and one dark grey - and sported orange socks. I haven’t seen them look so smart since their own weddings!

The bridesmaids were: myself, Dina (the happy couple’s daughter), Crissy and Sarah (my daughters) and Eleni (Dimitris’ niece). The girls wore a beautiful special occasions ivory dress with ivory bow that complemented the bride’s dress perfectly. They also wore knee high ivory socks with bows, girls ivory patent shoes with bow and scallop decoration and orange ribbons in their hair.

The pageboys were: Keith and Simon (my sons), Bobbi and Ashley (my nephews) and Elias and Nik (Dimitris’ nephews). They wore three piece boys ivory suit sets, boys white shirts, boys bow ties, cotton boys high quality Spanish socks in ivory and boys black patent brogue shoes.

After the wedding we all returned to Giannitsa (Dimitris’ home town, located north of Thessaloniki) and attended an enormous reception. There were hundreds of guests, lots of singing and dancing and more food than I’ve ever seen in one place before. Dimitris’ brother (and best man) Kostas is a chef and he laid on the food and what a fabulous job he did – it was some of the best food I’ve ever tasted.

In total, we spent a week in Greece: three days in Giannitsa getting to know Dimitris’ family, a couple of days in Thessaloniki enjoying the beauty and history of the city and a couple of days in Halkidiki - a three pronged peninsula south of Thessaloniki where Dimitris’ family have a small hotel close to a beach. It was a great wedding, a great holiday and the thing I liked most about it was getting to know lots of lovely Greek people. They were some of the nicest, most welcoming people I’ve ever met. I will definitely visit Greece again.

Preparing For Christmas!

It’s almost Christmas! Hurrah! I love Christmas – it’s my favourite time of year. I love it more than Easter, Halloween and Summer holidays all rolled into one. And not just because Ben (my hubby) has his annual bath at Christmas! (Only joking Ben, if you’re reading!)

I’ve been feeling very Christmassy since we put the decorations up at the start of December. It took us a full afternoon, but it was fun blowing up all of the balloons, hanging the streamers and decorating the tree. The kids loved it. We have an artificial tree that has seen better days, and every year we say that we’re going to replace it, but we never do.

We’ve been preparing for Christmas for months – stocking up on food and drink and buying presents for family and friends. We have most of the presents now, but there are still a few left to get. (I always like to leave a few Christmas presents to the last minute in order to inject a little peril into the proceedings!)   

Every Christmas we have a theme in our home, just for a bit of fun. Last year we had a Santa theme. Ben (my hubby) dressed up as Santa, I dressed up as Mrs Santa and the kids all dressed up as elves. It was hilarious. The year before, we had a horror theme and we all dressed up as monsters. This year we found it hard agreeing on a theme. Keith (my eldest son) wanted an Elvis theme – he thought it would be fun if we all dressed up as Elvis and acted like Elvis all day. Ben and I quite liked the idea, but the other kids didn’t – they wanted to have a more Christmassy theme. After a lot of discussion we arrived at the idea of having a ‘red’ themed Christmas! Don’t ask me how we started at ‘Elvis’ and arrived at ‘red’, but we did. And I’m still trying to work out if ‘red’ is more Christmassy than ‘Elvis’.

Anyway, over the past few weeks I’ve been sorting out the costumes for the kids and have just about got them sorted.

For Sarah (my youngest girl) I bought a fun ensemble comprising: a lovely little red leotard, a frothy red tutu skirt and some red pom pom tights that will go perfectly with the girls red Mary Jane shoes with patent leather double straps that her aunt Judy gave her recently.


For Simon (my youngest boy) I bought a very cute red and blue Spiderman costume from the online Disneystore. I wanted to buy him a more conventional outfit, but he had his heart set on the Spiderman costume; and if he wants to spend his Christmas dressed as Spiderman then who am I to stop him! You’re only seven once! (By the way, I wonder if Spiderman will be spending Christmas dressed as Simon?)

For Crissy (my eldest girl) I bought a gorgeous red tartan smocked dress by Sarah Louise, some red tights and some girls red and black patent shoes with a lovely bow design on the front. She loves the outfit so much that she keeps telling me how much she’s looking forward to wearing it on Christmas day. And I’m looking forward to seeing her in it!


For Keith, I bought a boys red shirt and tie set, some boys red trousers and some boys black leather shoes. I also bought him an Elvis wig, sideburns and sunglasses set so that he could have his own Elvis theme if he wanted to! He loved the present and told me that I was the best mum in the world. And you know what, he was right!


OK, I’d better sign off now – there’s still lots of stuff to do and only a few days left to do it in. Happy Christmas!

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?