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Need and want…

~ Fridgesays ~ Leave a comment

 This quote comes in many variations and has been used in a variety of contexts.

When this popped up on my fridge I found it ironic – seriously December is a month of indulging, luxury and pleasure for most. However, after some thought it made sense and I realised its timing was perfect.

A reflection on Christmas gone by reminds me of family traditions and memories made…I don’t remember many of  the gifts – just the thoughtful ones, and the board games and laughter…and I need them.

My son is bombarded with questions of what he ‘wants’ and at two and a half it changes daily and is often whimsical and without thought. He has all he ‘needs’ and although we will indulge and create memories as a family I know that this is what counts and what we will all remember.

Now before I re title this post ‘bah-humbug’ I should probably confess to over spending on loved ones, I’m definetly planning on over eating (ohhh I love a buffet) and trimmings will be purchased and admired – crackers, napkins, twinkly lights, the tinsel is up and the tree looks awesome, presents will be wrapped with precision and love…and glitter gel pens! 🙂

My fine line: I will remind myself that it is just one day, that I am blessed and that after the day I am still blessed. We will go for a walk on Christmas Eve and absorb the colourful lights and snuggle indoors to a cheeky drink of something that warms the soul (for once probably not tea) and watch the same film we watch every Christmas Eve…the indulgence of family and the luxury of time, balance is what makes my fine line.

Things I’m loving #4

~ Fridgesays ~ 2 Comments

Writing from the heart is always effortless and although highly indulgent I do like reflecting on the little things in life that make me smile.

November was a month when the temperatures in the UK dropped and winter slithered in from under the floor boards and overhead.

It was a month of new experiences and a month that tittered along at a nice speed.

As my previous post updated you I enjoyed the new experience of a fashion show emensely.

1.Clothes show live 2015

IMG_3206One of the aspects I most enjoyed was Libertys Histrorical stall, it reminded me how talented we are and how gorgeous the fabrics are (I do love a good print) and how eras alter and react to the world around us.

2. I’ve just finished reading Charlottes Web by E.B White.


Before you start questioning my age, I should let you know that back in September I wrote a post and set myself the goal of reading the top 100 books and this little piece of historical children’s fiction captured my heart – it was like slipping into my seven year old Mary Janes. Magical 🙂

Which leads me on seamlessly to my third item.

3. This lovely image.

 And in the spirit of Christmas shopping chaos, it was like a little yoga session to my soul that reminded me what is important to me and what I really need (unless you are Father Christmas in which case those Topshop earrings are still a major ‘need’). I’m not sure where I originally saw it, but I certainly am grateful for this image, it some how lifts my heart.

So take a deep breathe and a moment to enjoy the festivities that December incompasses us in, a step back can sometimes be the step up you actually need.

image

Don’t forget to play 

~ Fridgesays ~ Leave a comment

 Sometimes in life when we least expect it, you have to say ‘yes’.
I took the school trip opportunity to experience the clothes show live 2015 and I loved it! As always the pupils I went with were amaze and the staff were fabulous!

So what can you expect? Lots of #madeinchelsea celebs, a lot of gorgeous and healthy looking models – seriously it was abdominal central (sigh) and so much more.


I shopped till I dropped and paused to watch Andy Jordan (MIC) perform.

I was so impressed by the Textile and Fashion Uni’s section, Great Britain should be very proud – we have so much talent coming through.
  I paused by the doggy fashion stand (but none of it fitted me 🙂

Liberty (as always) blew me away. I’m a classic chick it would seem…and then we prepared for the live show and (see below) the storm troopers stole the show for me. Star Wars fashion is now a thing?  

It was an amazing show and I’m so very grateful ‘to play’.

Inspired or feeling like you need to play…prioritise this weekend some time to play!

Sparkle and pixie dust

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 Quote by from the cinematic sensation – Peter Pan.

The recipe for life at times may seem a little complex. Especially if like me you are short and everything in life’s supermarket seems to be on the top shelf. Dream holidays and opportunities can seem out of reach as we settle for smaller breaks closer to home or live with a ‘make do’ mentality.

Today (it’s 5:35am) I have decided to up the game. This post is one I hope I can reflect on at a later point and say ‘see I did it’. The universe doesn’t like it when we share our goals, so I shan’t explicitly write down what I hope to achieve, you’ll have to trust me that it involves a richer experience of life for myself and my family – both in my bank account and in our memories.

Many mentors and gurus / self help books and such only write once they’ve achieved their success. They write in a reflective tense and I always think it makes it a little ‘top shelf’.

Perhaps you too are not prepared to settle and want to jot down your desires, dreams after all are only a mind set away.

The first ingredients we will need are faith and trust. Luckily I have some already and waiting. I believe I’m worthy of the best life has to offer and there are no blocks in my mind stopping me. Believing (faith) and knowing it has merit (trust) is a potent combination. It’s time to add some action and being a fan of anything glittery I know the pixie dust will appear like magic.

I wish you luck. See you at the successful and happy finish line (be warned the finish line of life has a habit of moving forward and the way there is never straight)

Creative minds

~ Fridgesays ~ 34 Comments

 Quote by John William Gardner.
Sometimes my mind is so full it is literally whizzing and fizzing with ideas and colour. I can’t stop it. When I’m teaching it’s an amazing tool as my creative brain makes even the dullest of curriculum topics look like a Disneyland post card (at least to me).

Most of the whizzing ideas are never used or I’m just unable to focus on one of them for long enough to actually give it a sprinkle of lateral thinking and a dash of reality.

Due to the volume and mess that my whizzing and fizzing head fills up with- it’s pretty messy in there (thankfully visitors can’t pop by) and at times it prevents me from sleeping or focusing when I need to. Why do ideas often appear just as you snuggle down?

If you live with a creative mind – you’re in good company. A creative mind doesn’t mean you go into a careers within the arts, as many successful accountants are creative with statistics and figures (who knew I shared any brain space with an accountant or banker).

Entrepreneurs are the creative thinkers that allow the fully flow of crazy ideas. As we know many have financial success, so I guess its important that we listen to our inner voice – it may just be the next great idea. So how do I control the fizz? I either don’t and just go with the creative chaos or I picture a white mirrored room and try to stop the whizzing by focusing on something clear and that calms my soul.

I guess a little like my previous post Fake a smile #1 listening to chilled music helps too. This is where I skip my Whitney tracks and go for Jack Johnson or Nerina…pure bliss 🙂 another idea that I’d like to share is a magical sparkly water melon book – okay, mine happens to be but I guess any (sparkly) paper pad would do.


When the world is still and sleeping and my mind is preparing for the unofficial Olympic Games of ideas and whizzing, I grab my pad and scribble, it allows my brain to empty and although the next morning I reflect back at my 2am scribble marathon with slight concern, I can usually use most of the ideas in some form or they can stay on the page until a time where they find their place.

How do you chill your whizzing brain, or like me do you secretly like to scribble them down?

Fake a smile and move on…#1

~ Fridgesays ~ 25 Comments

 Another Anon quote…
It’s a good piece of advice that many use until they fulfill their desires. Staying strong internally can be difficult  but if you are able to fake a smile it very soon becomes contagious and resonates helping you to ‘real smile’ and feel good.

Faking it until you make it is a strategy that I was researching for myself, hence I came across this little gem and there is something we can all do to instantly to lift our souls on our darker days and it’s accessible to all!

Okay, ready for the secret…listen to up beat, feel good music. With the right playlist you can’t help but tap along. This morning I ditched the radio (lots of waffle talk, a mixture of music that I don’t always enjoy and miserable news) for a few of my most positive / upbeat tracks that honestly had me singing and car dancing (of course that’s a thing) from 6:45am, I cant vouch for how my mini man (he’s 2 yrs old) strapped in the back of the car felt about Mummy singing but it set me up ready to face a full lesson day and I think it made me happier and more productive.

Not convinced? Need some more info…

Music therapy combats the negative effects of depression, dementia, amnesia and mood disorders because it’s like sweets to the brain as our neuron activity spikes with familiar or emotive sounds.

Which sounds increase your happiness will vary from each individual – after all we all have specific tastes, ultimately it’s likely that you’ll be more successful with positive lyrics, upbeat if they’re written in a major key, so the big question is what tracks work for you? I’d really like to know and create a playlist that we can all share.

So, let me begin and despite the fact I’m still a spring chicken (ish) I personally find that the Mo town / RnB / or soul makes me instantly smile.

The three tracks that bounce to mind are…apart from anything by Taylor Swift (cringe):

Whitney Houston – I wanna dance with somebody (my childhood jam)

Luther Vandross – Never too much

Lionel Richie – Dancing on the ceiling.

So please get involve and comment below, scribble on fb, #whatmyfridgesay on Twitter and let me know what makes you dance on the ceiling?

If you are a blogger maybe you could post your own thoughts on music to help fake it before December  comes and we are all hiding from Mariah Carey and what she wants for Christmas!

Thank for reading and sharing ideas 🙂

You are traffic 

~ Fridgesays ~ 15 Comments

  I wish people would declare they created the quotes, but it appears this is another winner from ‘Anon’

And I find it seriously profound. I’ve been feeding this little piece of the Internet with quotes and opinions for just over 4 months and in that time a pattern has Emerged – I often end up talking about perspective and trying to turn the negative into a positive, this quote is no different. I wrote about traffic in this post and it did alter my perspective – what is the point in getting stressed when your train is delayed or your car is doing zero miles per hour thanks to some road works…however, I never thought that I was the traffic. 

(Pause whilst my brain explodes with this simple yet obvious concept) 

I wonder how many times in life we are partly, if not entirely responsible for a negative situation we find ourselves in.  

How many times have you moaned about somebody’s behaviour – only to have done a similar thing several days earlier?

If you look at yourself as the ‘traffice’ maybe it’s time we began to enjoy it a little bit more. How? Perhaps the traffic allows you to catch up with someone on your blue tooth that you haven’t seen in a while, that delayed train means you can return to your friends for that drink you didn’t think you could make, or perhaps the next time you are stuck in traffic you turn off the engine, smile at the stressed looking couple next to you, listen to a podcast, get some culture with an audio book, learn a new language or simply enjoy the silences and just be. In this crazy, fast spinning world a few minutes of peace is a gift. Make sure you are positive traffic or at least make it work for you rather than against you, after all it’s your life journey so make it work for you.

I am a Mum who…

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I was asked by a wonderful blogger to take part in ‘I am a mum who’, now before we get into that, I’d really like to thank Mammavsteacher for all the support she has given me, she’s like my very own personal ‘how to blogger’ and I’ve been blown away with her knowledge. Please check out her link here, told you she was good 🙂

Here is my version of ‘I am a Mum…’

I am a Mum who: doesn’t feel guilty for working full time.

I am a Mum who: taught J to say ‘alright Darling’ to our dog when she is scared of thunder

I am a Mum: that constantly has a mental battle with herself about ‘letting him do it by himself’ and ‘mummy do it for you’

I am a Mum: that is blessed with a fantastic support unit and never takes them for granted.

I am a Mum: that isn’t very good at ‘letting go’ but does like to sing the Frozen version very loudly.

I am a Mum: that feels extremely overwhelmed to have such a title.

I am a Mum: that lets him eat too much cake and taught him his colours with jelly beans

I am a Mum: who internally cries with pride every time he accomplished something new (most days)

I am a Mum: who isn’t very good at saying No…sorry Daddy.

I am a Mum: that wipes his nose on his t-shirt (when tissue aren’t at hand)

I am a Mum: that despite loving every second of being a Mum, also has a strong sense of her own identity and is much more than a Mummy.

I am a Mum: that worries she’ll be a pain to her sons future teachers on parents evening.

I will nominate several bloggers to do the same, I have made my selection of mummy bloggers as I have recently discovered their work and would like to get to know them better…(if you’ve already done it, sincere apologises), I nominate:

Admissions of a Working Mother

Something Crunchy Mummy

Wafflemamma

I like people who

~ Fridgesays ~ 2 Comments

 Quotes vary, but all are by Anon.

This is the kind of quote that creeps up on me and makes me smile.

Why? I guess because it’s true, both literally and as a methaphor. First, let’s go literal.

At university myself and a friend called Amy once hit the streets – in a thunder storm, we danced and played, we puddle jumped and we smiled. It was a simple pleasure that we relished and has always stayed with me. How empowering to see pure delight from a natural source that so many see as a negative. (Myself included when my hair is horrendous thanks to Mother Nature)

Which leads me nicely on to the deeper meaning. To always look at the negative from a smiling positive perspective. Or the ‘silver lining’ as my Nanny would say.

On Monday morning I went to work…it was dark when I rolled out of bed, and dark when I got in the car to drive to work (highlighted by my son saying ‘look mummy the moon’) and so I entered work a little sombre. I’m not very good at being negative, so I decided to make ‘the rain’ work for me. The solution was simple, thanks to my lunch.

 I drew a smiley face on my satsuma. It made me chuckle, and somehow this silly little trick shifted the clouds of my ‘rainfall’ to a warmer climate. I then actively looked for things that made me smile and as the day went on the sun shone – well for me anyway.
So literally or as a methaphor my advice is to enjoy those rainy days as even amongst the saddest of times there is always the shimmer and light that hope brings (and always draw faces on your fruit).

You are amazing

~ Fridgesays ~ Leave a comment

 Another cracker from Anon.

This is the kind of quote that makes my mind smile and my inner giggle cackle. It’s uplifting, it has meaning and it reminds me that I’m important too, and obviously so are you.

I was raised on a rather pretty pedestal called ‘only child’ and this has given me enough confidence to know I was loved, adored and important. It also means that in my immediate family’s eyes anything I did, participated in or created was recognised as ‘amazing’. I’m a big fan of being an only child for this very reason, but also for many other reasons. However, I obviously haven’t a clue of the positives that siblings have, and indeed have at times struggled to understand the bond of brother and sister. It’s a mystery that still at times mystifies me as an adult.

Today id like to share with you a conversation with a little (she’s so tiny) year 7 pupil. She is weak in ability and her resilience is non existent, her ability to wiggle off of her chair or be anywhere in the room except at her desk is beyond the talents of Olympic athletes – that isn’t helpful when you need her sat at her desk though…

In the last few lessons we have been (for this very reason) looking at resilience as a class and sharing good practice. This has resulted in some poster work that they are pretty proud of.

Tiny chick was part of a show case last week and as a result was asked to sing and produce some movement material that was shown to parents. Moments before the show began tiny chick cried – she hadn’t sung in front of an audience before and stage fright was taking over, more than this she said “if I don’t do it Miss, I won’t be able to write about it on my poster”, having an inner chuckle to myself I reminded her that she was indeed correct and that resilience was often hard in the beginning, she dried her eyes and of course sung her little heart out.

Today she wrote up her stage experience on her poster using vocabulary such as ‘proud’ ‘won a battle’ and I had a magical moment…as her teacher I was able to remind her that she was amazing. Her smile was the greatest reward I will ever need.

What a gift – to be able to remind somebody else how amazing they are. So this is my task for you, tell 5 people today that they are amazing. I promise you, its a wonderful blessing and one that makes you feel a little more sparkly too.

Oh and did I tell you…? You’re amazing 🙂