The Help - A Review

This is a guest post from the very lovely (and ever so slightly lippy ;-) ) Actually Mummy who was treated by Disney to a fab night at the movies courtesy of Britmums.


"Mummy has been treated well this week, and me and the Bug have been abandoned children yet again. Her blogging friend invited her to a glitzy film screening of "The Help" in London, but couldn’t go at the last minute* and gave both her tickets to Mummy. She tried to get another blogger to go with her, but for some reason none of them were free (maybe it’s her reputation for drinking and talking rubbish – I’ve told her people like to get a word in edgeways sometimes).


Nor could she get a babysitter to allow Daddy to accompany her. Do you know what she did? She made our regular babysitter (who could only manage until 7.30) rope in some of her friends for the later stints, engineering a kind of babysitting relay of girls we (and she) had never met! Off she trotted with never a backward glance for ‘pre-screening drinks’. Oh yes, I know where Mummy’s priorities lie!

So, did she think the film was worth the weekend of reproach I have doled out? Well, she read Kathryn Stockett’s book a while ago, loved it, and has discussed it at her book club, so it wasn’t boding well. You know how it goes, love the book, hate the film and vice versa. (Although personally if they made a film of all 113…114….115…Rainbow Fairy books I would promise to love each and every one of them!).

Well, she came home happy, and it wasn’t just from the wine at the event. She says "The Help" is a great watch, although probably one to watch with the girls. Emma Stone as Skeeter was way more beautiful than depicted in the book, but was so engaging as the would-be journalist with a bee in her bonnet about the shoddy treatment of African-American maids at the hands of white homeowners in Mississippi during the 1960’s. Viola Davis shone with the dignity of Aibileen’s character in the book, but Mummy was surprised that Octavia Spencer as Minny was not as feisty as her literary counterpart. Even so, this is a great story, with some tears along the way, as well as a couple of wine-snorting moments of giggling. I would have liked to see that: 40 bloggers snorting wine must be an interesting sight! It seems that Mummy and Daddy had a great evening, and must surely owe Five Go Blogging a lovely treat sometime soon!

And how did our evening go? Pretty well, actually. We wound up our regular babysitter with the usual fun and games, and then conned the new girls into the belief that it is entirely normal to need warm milk and a packet of raisins an hour or two after going to bed!"


Thank you for the great review Actually Mummy. I hope daddy wasn't too bored and that the babysitters have recovered! I look forward to seeing Mummy very soon when it is highly possible more babysitters will be required!  

*I'm still narked about that!

Silent Sunday

One picture, no words to sum up your week.

Go and search twitter for #silentsunday for loads more photos, one picture, no words, summing up your week.
There's bound to be one at Mocha Beanie Mummy too :-)

Saturday is Caption Day

All you need to do is come up with a fitting caption for this photo!
Write your idea in the comments box and I will randomly pick a winner.
No prize except for the glory of knowing your wit rises high and shines above others!

What's a fitting caption for this?

Over to you!

You can see lots more captionless photos on Mammasaurus's blog just waiting for your funny ideas.

I Have Won The Liebster Blog Award

I know! Hold be back because I am about to explode with sheer joy.

I HAVE WON AN AWARD!

*Pauses to figure out what a Liebster Blog Award is*

*Fails*

So anyway, I won it so I am jolly well going to shout it loud and proud.

I HAVE WON AN AWARD!

And it is all thanks to the marvellous, hilarious, biscuit loving and gorgeous (I assume gorgeous, as I haven't actually met her in person. Blimey, I suppose it is a her. You never know do you. This whole cyber world stuff. She could be a man, an old man, an old man with not many friends. An old man with not many friends and a laptop. Obviously likes biscuits) Motherventing.

I am following her instructions here because aparently you can't just walk up to the podium, give a gushingly sycophantic speech, bask in the applause and then dab your (fake) tears. Oh no. Move over Kate Winslet.

In order to claim and then display your award in your trophy cupboard, you need to follow the following steps:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog. Check
2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you. Check
3. Copy & paste the award onto your blog. Check
4. Nominate 5 blogs to receive the award. See below
5. Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog. Next on the list.

So I move swiftly on to nominate 5 blogs that I believe are worthy of this award.
The rules are that they are should be new bloggers with not the largest number of followers imaginable (<200) but have one very important follower, namely ME.

So here they are (in no particular order)

DorkyMum - Just discovered this blog through the marvellous LoveNewBlogs (double hit of links there) and she is very funny and worthy of a real proper LOLs


Crummy Mummy - Another very worthy nominee who had me when she blogged about a papier mache gazelle (as you do).

Bye Bye Birdie because give her a camera and what she can do with it has be awestruck all the time

Mum of One - Inspired by her Day Zero project and I love her rubber duck

Flossing The Cat - because you cannot read her blog without weeping with laughter.

So from this award winning blog writer, bye for now.

Ooh Ahh Orange - The Gallery

Tara's prompt this week is 'Colour' inspired by OwnAColour.com raising money for Unicef.

So of course I clicked over and found my perfect colour, Ooh Ahh Orange which I now own. I can see it as the hot 'on trend' (according to moi) colour of the season. So expect plenty of Ooh Ahh Orange on the High Street and in those interiors magazines. Remember you saw it here first!

Ooh Ahh Orange was in abundance as I looked around Grandma's house. From the fruit bowl, tablecloth, garden and hall, my suspicions were confirmed. Grandma is a trend leader in colour and the juiciness of orange was spilling out everywhere I turned.

Glowing in juicy orange :-)

Sticky Fingers has lots more colour so go and take a look.

The Artful Alphabet - Martina Jirankova-Limbrick

I am a bit of a charity shop addict, trawlling the shelves waiting for something to catch my eye. I have picked up a few clothes recently that are the perfect addition to my Autumn wardrobe (when it is cold enough) but I mainly buy books. Just plain old common paperbacks, normally off the Amazon best sellers list because I am not that adventurous and my window of opportunity for reading is pretty slim on an average day.

I also like to pick up classic childrens stories, with a particular attraction to anything Ladybird. I managed to pick up a box set of Roald Dahl for the princely sum of £7 albeit that The Twits was missing. No matter, I'm sure I'll find The Twits on one of my forages.

Anyway, to the case in point (finally). This gorgeous book screamed out to me with it's beautiful cover and when I started to flick through the pages I was hooked.

A small girl, a dog and a magic hat create amazing alphabetical scenes that come to life. 

Each page tells a story, full of animated characters and letters.

The fun, lively and enchanting illustrations draw you in, only revealing themselves a bit at a time.

I love the style and colours of the illustrations.

Each time I look at the pages I spot something I hadn't noticed before. I can't imagine ever tiring of them.

It's the sort of book that just leaves you happy :-)

And no, the children aren't allowed it. It is just too wonderful.

For more Magpie Monday finds go over to Me and My Shadow.

Silent Sunday

Go and search twitter for #silentsunday for loads more photos, one picture, no words, summing up your week.
There's bound to be one at Mocha Beanie Mummy too :-)