2018-12-17T15:37:41+00:00

A Christmas Update

December 17, 2018February 9, 2019/Judy E Martin/33 Comments

As some of you may have noticed, I have been pretty quiet lately! In fact, it has seemed so long since I’ve written a blog post, it feels weird, especially as there are some changes to WordPress which I am getting to grips with.

Anyway, I thought that I would give you an update as to what has been happening with me. firstly, I am nearing the end of my 2nd year as a student nurse. It seems unbelievable that the time has passed by so quickly (well at least it has for me)! I just have one more placement to do, a couple more assignments, oh and an exam, but by the end of March, it will all be done and fingers crossed, I will be ready to enter my third and final year!

In amongst all the stress and madness of studying, we decided to move house as well! I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love being near the sea, well I am now living in a little seaside town and am only about a 10 min walk from the sea. One of my sisters has also moved to the coast around a 10 min drive away to the same town (where this photo was taken) as one of my brothers, and my other sister lives a further 10 mins down the coast in Folkestone. Despite it being the middle of winter, I am already feeling the benefits of the move and feel much more motivated to go for walks and enjoy the fresh air, even if it is a bit, well…fresh at the moment!

I have tried to keep my hand in with blogging now and again, particularly my collaborations with Daffy. There will definitely be more Silly Saturdays to come. I truly do not know where the time goes and have got so behind with everyone’s blogs. I will be trying to catch up with you all over the next couple of weeks to see what you all have been up to. I have really missed you. I am also going to try and write a few posts during that time as well, I am sure there must be some poems inside me screaming to be let loose!

#Sillysaturday Randy Reindeer

December 8, 2018February 9, 2019/Judy E Martin/27 Comments

I have teamed up again with the talented Sandra (or Daffy as I like to call her), from Wild Daffodil to bring you another bit of silliness this Saturday. Sandra is incredibly artistic and creative, and I just love the images she has created out of shells, stones and flowers.

One of the nicest things about Sandra’s blog is that you never know what she is going to get up to next, from beach art to knitted wigs, and mandalas to making spirals in her garden.

We haven’t done a Silly Saturday for a while, but I couldn’t resist joining in when Daffy showed me this brilliant photo….

Randy was now in disgrace

At Christmas he got ‘off his face’

Whilst pulling Santa’s sleigh

He went the wrong way

He was lurching all over the place

He’d been partaking of too many beers

Which isn’t good for reindeers

Turning up for work plastered

Could only lead to disaster

As it affected the way that he steers

He is hoping to go back to work

He promised that he will no longer shirk

With his lopsided antler

He can expect plenty of banter

As he looks a bit of a berk!

My Favourite Fashions

March 29, 2018February 10, 2019/Judy E Martin/33 Comments

[social_warfare buttons=” “]This post is one from the archives of my now defunct blog Edwina’s Episodes.

I came across the Daily Posts Prompt for today which was to write about fashions that you love, and what era they come from.

I am sure most of you know by now that I love the 80’s! Now, I actually like the music from that era, but at the time, I embraced the whole lot. The clothes, and the hairstyles, I even tried the make-up too, but I have never been skilled in that department, and the 80s makeup called for a lot of colour and a few hours to spare!!

The one thing I have always loved (and still do) is a bit of sparkle. If it has glitter and/or sequins then I am going to love it. At Christmas in particular, I would probably end up looking more garish than the Christmas tree fairy! As you can see from the photo, I was decked out in top to toe gold! The long, pleated skirt and vest top was made of this kind of smooth, slippery material. My hair was the result of a failed ‘spiral perm’ that was popular in the day, and the colour seemed to match perfectly with my outfit!

I seem to remember wearing a lot of shiny dresses in the 80s of bright, vivid colours, banana yellow being a particular favourite. There was a lot of variety around at the time, as I also used to love my frilly shirts, jeans and pixie boots. The jeans had red piping down the side, and we used to have these canvas belts of all colours that we would wear too.

Of course, there were ‘ra-ra’ skirts too. although I did have one of these I was not too keen as they didn’t seem to flatter anyone, and certainly made me look pretty dumpy.

Although my school was pretty strict, especially with regards to uniform, I did manage to get away with wearing a pair of grey corduroy trousers that I had taken in to make them even more of a ‘drainpipe’ style than they already were. Other than that I wore a pencil skirt, but me being me, got told off for ripping the split that was in the back of it even higher. I never was ladylike, always running up stairs two at a time, with no thought for the confines of the skirt! This led to more sewing when the teachers noticed and I got told off.

Looking back, some of the fashions seem so ridiculous now, but at the time I was in my element!

#JusJotJan 2018. January 2nd Boisterous

January 2, 2018February 12, 2019/Judy E Martin/12 Comments

I love that Linda has the Just Jot it January Challenge to start off the year. This is the 3rd year that I have taken part, and it is one of those challenges that I actually look forward to. It is not only because it gives us all to kick-start our writing, but because it is something of a community effort, with regards to all of us being given the opportunity of suggesting the prompt words. Poor old Linda still does the hard work though of posting the prompts daily and keeping us in order!

Anyway without further ado, here is today’s prompt word.

Your prompt for January 2nd, 2018, brought to you by Dan Antion, is “Boisterous.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Dan at his blog, “No Facilities,” to read his post and say hi! He’s very friendly. ? Here’s his link: https://nofacilities.com/

On Christmas Day afternoon Me, Miss Hap and Mr Grump went to my sister (Mrs Masterchef) and brother-in-law’s (Mr Musician). We were lucky in that they hadn’t dished out the silly ‘table presents’ that they like to wrap up. My brother (Mr Entrepreneur) and his girlfriend (Ms Glam) were there too, and we all chose a random package to unwrap.

Things got pretty loud and boisterous as we tried on some of the wacky wigs and weird masks. The ‘fart extinguisher’ I unwrapped came in handy with the amount of wind produced by the Brussels sprouts and stuffing balls we had all consumed during our respective Christmas dinners!

Mr Grump looked rather fetching in his ‘pearl necklace’, but Miss Hap seemed unimpressed with her nasal hair trimmer for some reason. Mr Musician’s ‘beer goggles’ went well with the George cross wig.

Then it was time to play the ‘Beat The Into’ quiz. We played in our respective couples with Miss Hap supposedly helping Mr Grump and me out. This was great fun despite the inevitable arguments about rules, counters getting ‘accidentally’ knocked off the board and partners falling out over a difference of opinion on answers. Not that any of us are competitive about our musical knowledge of course. As it happens, I won, (Sorry, my team won), as the quiz was mostly around 90s music and earlier which is right up my street!

Round 2 of the game was even more boisterous due to everyone trying to beat us, and Mr Musician and Mrs Masterchef (cheated) won the 2nd game!

Miss Hap was probably the best behaved – and that is saying something!

A Look Back at 2017, in Blog Posts.

December 31, 2017February 17, 2019/Judy E Martin/25 Comments

On this last day of 2017, I thought it would be fun to look back over the year at what has been going on in my life and sharing some of my favourite as well as most popular blog posts with you.

As some of you may know, I had another blog Edwina’s Episodes, which had just reached its 3 year anniversary. I was proud of how I had built that blog up, and the number of people who enjoyed it and interacted with me. Well, at the beginning of October, I decided that I could no longer use it as there were so many technical problems with it (mostly from me buggering about with it). Sadly, the site was down more than it was up and I even managed to get myself locked out of it, as well as delete most of it, so it has been retired for good now.

Luckily, I had already set up this blog in my own name, mainly for writing my poems, but as I ended up posting everything on the other blog anyway, it got rather abandoned! It is now fully up and running, but of course, does not have as much content on it, although I am doing my best to rectify that. I won’t be able to link to all of the posts I wanted to over the past year as they are on the other blog, but I have brought some posts over here, and you can click on the links to read them.

Anyway, back to 2017. Starting the year, I was anxiously awaiting getting accepted for a university to study for a BSc in Adult Nursing. After a series of tests and interviews, I finally got the news I was waiting for on my birthday in February that I was accepted, and started in April as a Student Nurse. Being a ‘mature student’ was harder than I expected mainly because I have quite a lot of experience in nursing already, but I have to apply it from a different perspective!

As far as blogging was concerned, I decided to introduce my video poems on a Monday as a feature, and team up with Sandra Dorey from Wild Daffodil blog to take part in her #Sillysaturday posts. It started with her making these beautiful little figures out of pebbles, flowers and stones and me telling her that it would be fun if they had a little story to go with them. Sandra suggested a poem would be a good way of telling their story and our collaboration was born! I have to say, I am absolutely loving it and really hope that we will continue this in 2018. My favourite character so far has got to be Maggie the lap dancer.

This all leads to Sandra actually getting some greetings cards printed, some with her artwork on, and some with both her artwork and my poem. What a thrill it was to receive a special package from Daffy, especially as those cards are such excellent quality too.

Throughout the year, I tried to embark on a healthier lifestyle, joining the gym and also trying to adopt a healthier diet. I appreciate that this is still a work in progress but it is something that I am keen to continue in 2018. Hopefully, I will be able to stop myself snacking whilst writing assignments and comfort eating when it all gets too stressful! I will keep you posted of course, on my endeavours.

I wanted to nurture my blog a little more, (before I ended up breaking it) and decided that I needed a little help with some aspects of Social Marketing and Pinterest in particular. I contacted the lovely Suzie from Suzie Speaks who as I am sure many of you know, is a successful Media Management Consultant and she helped me to grow my Pinterest account followers and views substantially and gave me some fantastic advice to boot! Thankfully, she was there to help out when it all went pear-shaped with my Edwina’s Episodes blog too.

Towards the end of the year, I was thrilled to see that my Halloween and Christmas limericks went down really well with everyone. What really made my day though, was when I actually had requests to write limericks about an elf and a mince-pie! That is what I love so much about the blogging community, the interaction that we have. As yet I do not have a particular feature in mind for 2018, but perhaps I could do something like that. Any ideas would be welcome.

Finally, I would just like to thank all of you so much for reading my blog, especially to those of you still with me despite all the glitches, hitches and cock-ups that happened throughout the year. Your friendship and support mean the world to me. I look forward to seeing what 2018 brings for us, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!!

#SoCS Yule, You’ll, Yul

December 23, 2017February 17, 2019/Judy E Martin/20 Comments

This week Linda has given us Yule, you’ll or Yul to use for our Stream of Consciousness posts, which can be used any way we choose. Bonus points though if we manage to start the post with one of them.

You’ll be expecting a Christmas post no doubt as we are now only a couple of days away from the big day.

Well, the presents are wrapped, the turkey purchased as well as the Yule log, and the decorations are up. Now all that is left to do is another huge tidy round, oh, and a nice bath for Roxy! Now, she is not going to get dressed up this year as she doesn’t seem to like it for some reason as you will see on Ani’s post here, but I wanted her to look (and more to the point smell) her best.

She was not exactly keen to get in the bath, and tried to escape, but the mission was accomplished and she looks all clean and pretty.

That leaves one less job to do tomorrow so maybe we will get time to chill a bit and watch some Christmas telly. They always drag out the old favourites, I particularly love ‘White Christmas’ with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. I wonder if they will put ‘The King and I’ on with Yul Brynner? Another classic that gets trotted out during holidays!

A Christmas Project

November 26, 2017/Judy E Martin/20 Comments

I have been pretty busy at the moment with studying and I thought that this weekend I would take a little break from it all and do something that I enjoy, (apart from blogging of course).

As some of you may know, I enjoy sewing and dressmaking, and although I am by no means an expert, I am definitely improving the more I do. I particularly love making clothes for my little great-nieces and have made quite a few outfits, for them, especially in the summer months. Here are some of my projects on Pinterest.

Last Christmas I managed to make a skirt and trousers in fun Christmas fabric. You can see little Molly modelling her skirt that I made.

I didn’t know what to make this year but I wanted it to be a little bit more adventurous than what I had done before, as well as something practical.

Mr Grump was busy watching the rugby so I cracked on with it. It took a little longer than I expected, but just after midnight I had finished my project and was pleased with the results. They are not perfect, but they do look cosy and warm!

#SoCS – Psst

November 18, 2017/Judy E Martin/4 Comments

This week Linda has given us psst or another word that grabs reader’s attention, to use for our Stream of Consciousness posts. I will stick with good old psst as I like the sound of it.

Psst….you know that Christmas is just around the corner? Well, if you are stuck for ideas for ideas and want to give a little bit of sunshine as a stocking filler, then why not consider my book? It is a book of poems, rhymes and limericks that find humour or beauty in everyday life.

Here is the blurb:

Are you one of those people who barge through life, trying to get through it as best as you can, swimming against the everyday worries and stresses of life? Well, I have found a way to make it much more enjoyable.
Don’t you think everything sounds better when it rhymes? I certainly do. In fact, I have found that everything from doing the housework to growing older, can sound more positive and less daunting when made into a little ditty.
This book is about finding the humour, or raising a smile from the everyday things that we can all relate to in life, and looking at them from a different perspective. Nothing escapes versification; there is even a subject on sex! After all, that is one subject where there is plenty of room for laughter, even if it may not be the right moment!

and here is the link that will take you to Amazon where you can purchase it. Author.to/RhymesoftheTimes

A Christmas ‘Thank you’

December 26, 2015/Judy E Martin/44 Comments

Christmas for me was waking up at 4.30! I had told Miss Hap not to wake me before at least 5.30 am but I couldn’t sleep, so went downstairs as quietly as I could. Not 2 minutes later I heard the galloping of excited footsteps, and she burst into the front room all wide-eyed and excited. Needless to say, we got stuck int to the business of present unwrapping!

My sister (Mrs Masterchef) and her husband (Mr Musician) were our hosts for Christmas dinner, and along with us, my mum and my niece were going to be there.

As always a huge amount of thought and organisation had gone into the day. From the personalised table settings to the egg tree decoration in the centre of the table (my sister had blown some eggs and decorated them in glitter, putting our names on each one, plus one for my niece’s bump) to the fantastic menu (turkey, beef and gammon).

Just before we were to eat, we sat around the table to partake in the ‘silly present’ giving that they love to do. We all get to pick a random present which is usually something funny. As you can see from the pics, Miss Hap had some lovely new ears, and my niece had some rather fetching ‘fly glasses’

I had been a little bit down when I first arrived, due to one thing and another, but Mrs Masterchef went out of her way to make me feel better, as did Mr Musician.

We had a brilliant day. The meal was superb.Not only did we have all that meat but there were sausages wrapped in bacon, home-made stuffing balls, the most massive Yorkshire puddings you ever saw, dauphinoise potatoes as well as roasties, and cauliflower with cashew nuts. To say we were stuffed was an understatement! In fact, there was no room even later on, for the chocolate and maraschino cherry trifle with Kirch.

My niece’s husband arrived around 5 pm as he works on the railways and had finished one night shift, and was about to start another. Mrs Masterchef had plated him up a meal which he tucked into whilst we all chatted together round the table.

Some of us braved the drizzle and wind to go for a walk with Milo their labrador as we needed to burn off a bit of room to be able to sit down comfortably! It was a pleasant walk, looking at all the Christmas lights around the neighbourhood as we went.

Once we got back it was into the front room to play some games. Miss Hap got ‘Articulate’ for Christmas this year from my mum, so we started with that. Well, once we had argued over the rules that is! We had a few laughs with that especially as mum didn’t quite get the gist of the game at first and gave some rather bizarre clues that no-one had a hope fo guessing!

Around 10 pm we were all tired and came home. My sister and her husband must have been exhausted but they never gave any indication of it.

I know my sister reads my blog, and although I have thanked her, I just wanted to share with everyone just how much of a star she really is. Her own daughter and step-children were doing their own things this year, so her and Mr Musician could have just spent Christmas on their own, or gone away, but being the type of people they are, they wanted to share it with family, and make everyone else’s day special which they certainly did.

Christmas Wishes

December 24, 2015/Judy E Martin/37 Comments

I would just like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. I hope your festivities are filled with fun, laughter and lots of love.

Thanks so much to each of you that has been a part of my blog. I am looking forward to sharing in 2016 with you!

Enjoy the holidays, however you like to spend them 🙂

Rhyme and No Reason!

Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

Tag: #Christmas

A Christmas Update

#Sillysaturday Randy Reindeer

My Favourite Fashions

#JusJotJan 2018. January 2nd Boisterous

A Look Back at 2017, in Blog Posts.

#SoCS Yule, You’ll, Yul

A Christmas Project

#SoCS – Psst

A Christmas ‘Thank you’

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