CHILDREN OF THE WORLD & AROUND THE WORLD

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD & AROUND THE WORLD, originally uploaded by sophie4sophie.

here is a dress i made for a customer, but accidently used the wrong colour way of the "around the world" fabric!
So now this dress is up for grabs!!!
if you'd like to buy it, please get in touch with me on hello (at) Sophie4Sophie.com 
its in age 9 months - 3 years and costs £28.00 with FREE P&P! 

also, have a look at the other dresses i have available in the "buy me, buy me!" section on my flickr page!

I Adore this fabric, im currently in the middle of making Sophie a bed set out of the "around the World" fabric. its amazing & has such wonderful details and famous monuments detailed on it!

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The REVEAL! (of my 1st Gallery Post!)

hey everyone, thank you all so much for the guesses!!
here it is! (in non macro!)

it is my favorite gift from my mum! she was on holiday in Devon & bought it as she said it reminded her of me! (dunno what she meant by this, but i'm happy with that!!)
whenever she does go on a holiday, either in the UK or abroad, i always ask her to bring me a tacky gift!
the one of the leaning tower of Pisa, she found in a tourist shop in Italy when she was touring the monuments!!
I love it! she even bought me the postcard with the "real thing" pictured on the front!!! 


I really enjoyed this 1st attempt of the Gallery! and thank you all so much for stopping by my entry!
here's to next weeks!! i hope its a Goodie again!
:-)

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The Gallery: my macro attempt!

this is my 1st attempt at joining in on "The Gallery!" im not sure if i have met the brief, but this was about the ONLY interesting (to me!) thing i could think of to "macro in on!"


what do you all think?!

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The Marlets Lottery!

last week I had a door to door salesman stop by, it was about 6:30pm and i was VERY Stressed with kids.

He'd asked me if i would like to support the Martlets Hospice by joining their lottery?! 
I didn't know what this meant, and i wasn't in the mood to find out, so politely told the guy that i would take some information about it and have a read. he said he would call back next week. 


I glanced at the leaflet, then put it into the box of "stuff" (on the stairs, where all important things go like School letters, free newspapers, takeaway menus.. etc... the stuff you "really" want, but don't ever chuck out! ahem, i mean recycle!)


I never thought the guy would come back, but today he did!


again, it was about 6:30pm and again... i was VERY Stressed! he said, did i remember him, to which i said "oh yes.. of course" (which i didnt!)
he asked if i had had a chance to read the leaflet he left (I lied and said Oh yes!!) and he asked if i would like to take part.
(I hate on the spot "needs an answer" questions, esp. from door to door salesmen)
so i said, "yes, i would love to help, how much will it cost me?!"


£4.34 a month.. 


thats not bad, so I was happy saying yes! I spend more than that a week on Diet coke!!


as i was filling out the form, he asked me if i knew what the martlets was all about. 
I didn't?! 


he then said, "oh WOW, you do not know what we are and you are still willing to help?"


me - "why yes, its only a small donation?"


guy at door - "WOW... you are the kindest person i have met! (i am????) i am actually blown away right now!"


me- (in thought) HUH????????


guy at door - "today, i have walked about the whole day, and not one person has offered to take part in the lottery/donation scheme, and here you are, not knowing who we are, willing to give up some of your money to help"


me - (Again in thought) WOW.. he is really passionate about this Martlets Lottery??


"Ok, so what is the Martlets Hospice? and what do you do?"


he then told me all about the Hospice. OMG. I had no Idea.....


they are a Wonderful charity, who look after people coming to the end of their lives, their Slogan being - "life is precious... right to the end"


this is the 1st line on their website - "We provide end of life care services to adults with life limiting illness including cancer."


I was so glad i had now said yes, as this is a service very much in need & ALL of the donations to the lottery go directly to the care of these patients.
in fact the guy doing the door to door sales, was in fact a worker/carer for the charity. he said they get NO NHS funding and they simply rely on the generosity of the community.


the guy gave me a receipt for the direct debit info i had just given him & said 
"I am still in shock, you are really really kind. I have had such an awful day, but you have given me hope, given me some gusto to try getting more people to join in"


he left with a smile on his face, but he left me with a lot more. 


I'm very ignorant to the services our community provide. I've "touchwood" not had to utilise any of them though.
but that doesn't mean i shouldn't know. I should know. and i should "help" and am so glad he did come back.
Cancer has been on the forethought of my mind recently, My Elder sister has (HAD.. touchwood is in remission) Pseudomyxoma Peritonei and here is her story. its a very rare form of cancer.
my younger sister Izi did the race for life in name of her last weekend, SO PROUD OF HER! (she's a complete couch potato, so was amazing she ran it!!!)
my granddad died of bowel cancer when i was a teenager, and i never said goodbye, something I won't ever forget.
also i have been talking to a wonderful friend on twitter who has just lost her mum to cancer. 
Cancer affects everyone i think, either you know about someone who has it, someone close to you has it, or you yourself may have it & a lot of people don't/can't recover.


the service the Martlets Hospice provide, is the last port of call to a lot of these people in the Brighton & Hove community and to the people involved it must be such a relief (i don't think thats the right word??) great support for all involved! to have these resources available to them.


I'm so glad this guy came back. I'm so glad i make him happy by making such a small but generous token of help and im so glad I now know what they do, as i am definitely going to be making more of an effort to help.


in the leaflet it says the TOP prize (weekly) is £1000. if i ever win.. (2nd prize £150, 3rd prize £100, 4th prize £50 and 40x £5 prizes) any of these. the money will go RIGHT back to them. 
they deserve it/need it more than i ever will.

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THE JOKER

THE JOKER (LEGS ROLLED UP!), originally uploaded by sophie4sophie.

I've been neglecting my Blog for a LONG time!
I'm hoping to fix this! as im missing out on sharing a whole load of Life with you all!

hope everyone is ok?

this weekend I have been trying to revamp my Flickr (Sophie4Sophie) account!

my workload is up to date which is Amazing & i've had some free time to get working on my "ready to wear" one off pieces.

and here are some: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sophie4sophie/collections/72157624111394554/
this is the "buy me, Buy me" section where i will be putting them once they're made!

today i finished a couple of pairs of "the Pants" which i've been wanting to make for AGES.
this pair which are pictured are made using a T-shirt which "The Joker" from Batman!!
*this is the view of the back of the pants*
the front are plain.
made to fit babies aged 6 months - 18 months (possibly up to 2 years!!)

if you like these and would like to buy them, please contact me through my blog, Facebook (search Sophie4Sophie) or on twitter (@Soph4Soph)

they cost £20.00 and P&P is £2.95 (recorded delivery)

thanks so much for reading my Blogpost today!
(which im doing through Flickr!! how cool is that!!!!!!!!!)


FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT "THE PANTS" PLEASE READ ABOUT THEM HERE!

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"Memory Monday" (sorry for stealing your title Sian!)

Taken in November 2007. this is my favourite photo of the boys, it was probably the BEST day we've all had together and we had so much fun together! we rarely have days like this and it really brings happiness to me, when i think about how happy we can all be. This year i'm promising myself and them, we WILL have more days like this.

This photo is of me in 2006. It was just before i started bodybuilding and I thought i was FAT! (god if only i had known what being "fat" really was!) I am desperate to be this thin again, i felt so much more comfortable in my body. I looked amazing! (after havng the 3 boys!) please mind the mess of my bathroom!! as you can see, i've never been good with housework! hahaha!

My memory monday wouldn't be complete without a picture of Sophie. So here's one no has has seen before. this was the 1st time i saw Sophie when she was born! i was So shocked with how chunky she was! then we found out how heavy she was.. a whopping 10lb 6oz!! I loved her instantly.. but that expression she's pulling.. Classic sophie face!!!

and this last one is of me (Again!!) its my favourite photo of myself. Don't ask me why.. but it is.  I think it sums me up completely. if someone asked me how I felt, this photo would be my answer!
(I just wish I still had that face.. its lost under a few layers of CHIN now!!)

Thank you to everyone for nominating me to do this post. It was fun looking through old photos. I have so many though!!!

I would love to pass this on to other's to blog about, but I think i'm probably the last to do it!! (i'm so slack when it comes to blogging, emailing, replying...... Sorry guys!!!!!

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WINNER!

thank you all so much for entering the Competition!!

We have counted all the comments and emails, but sadly not the twitter reTweets, as for some stupid reason Twitter decided it can't go back further than a few days when doing a search now, So a HUGE apology if you retweeted the comp for extra entries.

anyways.. using Random.Org.. we have a WINNER!!

lucky number 17

who according to our emails, from 1st upwards... the winner is

Amy (twitter ID @and1moremeans4)

Well done!

For all of you who entered to become a product tester/reviewer, We will be in touch soon after Christmas with details!!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year

Look out for the relaunch of Sophie4Sophie on the 25th January!!!!

lots of love,

Natalie, Big Sophie and Little Sophie!

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Its competition time.....

November has been a very busy month for the Sophie4Sophie family!

we've had birthdays, Meet ups, and lots of spending money! LOL

As December is going to be an even busier month for us all, we've decided to close the S4S doors from the 29th November - 25th January! (a 2 month break! Whoohooo!!!) so please, if you want to order anything for the festive season, don't wait till the last minute to order!!! as we might not be able to guarantee delivery!

but throughout this break, we will be sitting on our butts working on new ideas! we already have a few but we're after some more! we thought the best way to find out some new ideas would be to ask... YOU GUYS!!!!

so we've come up with a plan.. which we think will work super duper!

A BLOG COMP!!

so here's what you gotta do...

1 - become a follower/reader of our blog. (if you already are, YAY - Thanks!)

2 - become a Twitter Follower (if your signed up already! if you're not.. why aren't you?!!!!!)

3 - leave a comment on this post, saying "hi..."

4 - included in comment, give us your ideas for future Sophie4Sophie products!

5 - let us know if you'd like to become an exclusive Sophie4Sophie Reviewer/tester for our new products! (by contacting us here!)

6 - for extra entries, you can ReTweet this blog post mentioning " Sophie4Sophie " in the tweet.

7 - write a short blogpost and link back to this!

8 - if you're a facebook user, please become a fan here and leave a comment on our wall (every entry counts!!!)

thats it!! (thats it... thats effort!)

Right... for the prize.... for entering this competition, you will be in the chance of winning:

A super cool, Sophie4Sophie Dress of your choice! (if your a mumma to a boy.. you can have some funky Sophie4Sophie pants instead!!) RRP £23-32

2 x Sophie4Sophie kinky bibs (one normal and one Kinky Katcher!) RRP £16.50

and also... a super cool 20% discount to send to 3 friends who you think might like to order from us!

does this sound like a cool competition or what??!!!

all entries will be counted up after the closing date, allocated a number starting with "1" and so on.. depending on the number of entrants! we will then put this into a random number generator. the winner will be the Chosen number!

We will display the image of this generated winning number and will inform the winner by email (if you provide us with your email address!!!) & by posting it on here!

CLOSING DATE IS: 15th December

(we will not be providing the prizes in time for Christmas! sorry!!)

please please enter, We really want to know what kind of things you'd like to see from Sophie4Sophie, even the most crazy random ideas (these are normally the best ones!!!)

thanks so much!

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the shocks of being a sneak

I've been working really hard the last few days, I had such a back log of work which needed to be done. The kids have suffered quite badly, I've been stuck upstairs sewing and they've been down stairs making chaos and going slightly insane from cabin fever!
So when they asked if they could play at a friends house (friend was at the front door) i said ok, I was just about to go into town to post some things and said, I would call the friends mum when i got back. (The friend lives literally opposite my house, i can see his front door from my front room window!)

I spent a good 30 mins in the Post office, there was a cue as long as my street! took ages to sort out which postage options i wanted to use.. scared of overseas packages going missing and not sure if i should trust the normal 1st class recorded! I did send the secret sale things by recorded delivery, so please if your waiting for your clothes, let me know when they arrive & so sorry for any delays!

After the post office,  I went into Boots to collect Sophie's newly ordered toothpaste! guess what flavour???
yup, that's right! In The Blooming Night Garden flavour!! (mildly minty)

after Boots, Soph, 4yo and I decided to stroll around the corner to the Supermarket!.. i was concentrating on Soph, wanting to stop at every shop window and have a peek.. when 4yo said "Hello.. R.... (6yo's name)" I thought.... huh???? "R...." what is he doing in town?? i looked up and saw BOTH of my children, and their friend hanging about outside the supermarket by the benches where all the teenagers hang about.

Well you can imagine what happened next.. I SHOUTED so loudly, the teenagers started leering and mocking me! I was fuming.... What the heck where my 2 kids.. (6yo & 8yo boys) doing in the town????
i said, "where is your mum 'T'??" he said, "Not Here" in a fooking sarcastic voice... *Grrr my blood is boiling* I told 'T' to GO HOME NOW.. and ordered my children to follow me into the supermarket.

8yo's wailing commenced, "I'm sorry mummy..... I'm so sorry mummy" (Guilt is a tough thing) I punished them both by making them carry my shopping baskets and purposefully picking heavy items! (hehe)
also at the same time, ramming into them how disappointed i was, how dangerous it was to be out on their own, kidnapper shock stories, etc... the crying was getting louder!

I told anyone who looked at me about what had just happened, just to make 6yo & 8yo feel even more ashamed. they got a telling off from them all. Good I thought.

Walking home, we stopped at the newsagents and bought some sweets, and lollies! (god knows why Soph & 4yo wanted an Ice Lolly??! crazy kids!) 6yo & 8yo DIDN'T get anything, I told them to wait by the door of the shop. here came some even more LOUD cries and faces of guilt.

as we got in the door 8yo said to me, "I guess I've got to go to my room now, as my punishment?"
umm... "NOPE.... i think you can tidy up the whole of the living room!!" (BTW.. you couldn't see the carpet before we went out! so not an easy task!)
all through tidying up though, 8yo was bawling his heart out. but also, complaining of a really really bad foot?
"its hurting so much mummy, i cant stand up... I cant walk... mummy...."
it might sound harsh, but i told him to 'shut up' and just get on with it. he got so bad, he even started chocking on his own breathe (you know those kind of cries that worry you when your baby does it!) but i was adamant, "No.. 8yo, just get on with it"
after about 15 mins of mummy Sargent major laying on the biggest guilt trip and punishment known by my kids, the living room was spotless (almost makes me wonder why they aren't more naughty more often!)

8yo calmed down, I told him, the only reason why his foot hurt was because of his guilt, manifesting as a physical pain.
I know exactly when 8yo is lying, (been taking lessons from sky1's 'Lie To Me' programme! I'm now officially a PRO!!)
his foot no longer hurt and was quite relaxed! (OMGosh, he really is an over the top drama queen!) hew asked for a cuddle and i gave him a great big huge one. i hate being so cruel to him, but i needed him to understand what he'd done was appalling and despicable behaviour. he is NEVER going to play with his friend over the road again.

6yo all through out took it on the chin.. (God.. he's just like his dad!!) he did the cleaning, the tidying, the sorting out, all without a peep! he didn't cry once! I was just as hard on him as I was on 8yo, but Nothing, no emotion or forgiveness. this drove me crazy, I wanted him to show that he knew what he'd done as wrong, but NO... argh... nothing phased him. how could i get it through to him what he'd done was wrong??? without resorting to corporal punishment or extraction of his fave toy of the week?? (which is a stuffed elephant! he even made it a Halloween outfit!!)

so now... the question on my mind is:
"was i too hard on my boys???  and is it ok for them to be outside the house on their own?"

i have let 8yo pop to the local newsagents or at some desperate times, Boots & the supermarket. but all on express terms and he always takes a mobile phone with him, so i can call him constantly!
did 8yo think that he could go? because I'd given him permission to on these occasions? or was he just being naughty?
I asked him why didn't he say to his friend "I'm not allowed to go down town on my own?" and he said, he didn't tell him, as he wanted to go. he wanted to be 'cool' with his mate!
6yo said he only went because the other 2 were going and didn't want to be left alone at friends house?

I then thought about calling the friends mum? should i ring her up and accuse her son of leading my boys astray? (she allows her son free reign, literally.. he's always wondering around the streets till 9/10pm)
I didn't ring her, as I'm a scaredy cat! she's a common pikey gypsy lady  brash woman!

but then, I allowed them to go to the friends house, I was aware of the dangers of them getting up to mischief, but in the friends house!! not on the fooking streets of the town!

what would you do?

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My Wordless Wednesday on a Thursday with Well... words!

A lot of you who follow me on twitter know I've been working my not so little ass off decorating my bedroom in preparation for my new IKEA office which was delivered on Tuesday!

Well here it is... its not completely finished, as the white walls still need a 2nd coat, and the organising of "stuff" will hopefully fall into place as i start to use all the things i've stcked on top!

It was amazing to see how much fabric i'd collected over the months, I kept thinking I hadnt got that much, but when you see it now... OMGosh.... I have LOADS! even under the desk I have another 3 bags, a bedside table and 4 of the holes, FULL of more fabric! 

the net curtains i have tied to the curtain pole are the cut offs from my IKEA cheap £3 nets! which im going to layer and tun into some curtains! can't wait to see how they turn out!!

well anyways.. here are the pics!  

dont you just LOVE the little plaque natalie from www.preciousparcels.co.uk made me!!

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