An Update to my Day Zero Project

Thought I would write a post just to update you all on my Day Zero Project as I have completed 31 out of the 101 challenges so far and it has been 14 months since I began.  Considering some of the challenges I set were near impossible, the ones I have completed I am extremely proud of achieving such as meeting David Tennant and going to a Madonna gig!  Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever believed I could achieve that but it just goes to show if you put your mind to it anything can be done.

My latest challenge completed, which you can read about on my Completed Challenges list, is setting up my own business which has been so time consuming that my blog has been neglected!  But it meant that I could set up another blog to support the business too.

I have a few ongoing challenges that I knew would take a while to complete such as listening to every album I own!  I started this challenge a year ago and I'm just over half way through. I also need to attend 50 gigs, so far I have been to 12 and I need 18 more notebooks to get to my 50 mark!  The challenge of reading 50 books and then another 50 recommended to me is proving a difficult one since having a baby as I just do not get time to read any more!  But I hope to make time and fit it into my busy life!

So I have a year and a half to go to complete the rest of the challenges and although I know I wont complete all of them due to lack of time or money for certain challenges, I know that I am going to have a lot of fun next year achieving some of the more adventurous activities such as flying in a hot air balloon and going to a football match!

Day Zero Project - Have a Baby

Obviously,  I wanted another baby before I wrote out my Day Zero Project list otherwise my son would just be deemed as another challenge to tick off my list which is just wrong!  But I put it on my list because I was hoping to have a baby within the time limit of 101 days, and we successfully achieved this!

Meet baby Matthew Zane!

This was the first picture taken of him so he looks quite puffy and nothing compared to how he looks now!
  Matthew was five days late so I was pretty fed up.  I was huge, being a normally petite girl anyway, and my bump looked so strange as he was lying in an awkward position!
  I woke up on the Saturday morning and it was literally go, go, go as from that point my contractions began and after a very quick, yet extremely intense labour, he was born at 8:30pm.  I found this labour worse than my labour with my other son, maybe because it was so quick but I got through it on gas and air and pethidine.  When I was having contractions at home, I had the aid of my gym ball and a Tens machine but after a couple of hours using both, I gave up and found just leaning over my desk helped more!
  Matthew was a healthy 8lb 2oz which is heavy for me as Jacob was 7lb 1oz when he was born! 
We had to stay in hospital for two nights overall as he was a little jaundice and had a slight temperature, even though the heat in there did not help!

When we finally arrived home, we had visitors from both grandparents and my wonderful friend Kate who was a big help throughout.  I was worried about having visitors so soon as I had bad baby blues with my first baby but this time around I valued the company and have been more cheerier, I only had a couple of days of tears and then I almost felt back to normal!

Now, five weeks on and 3lb heavier, Matthew is settled in a daily routine, and is a very good baby.  He makes us laugh when he smiles, and is up twice in the night for feeds but we are handling the lack of sleep quite well!

I am now about to bore you with what I think are adorable photos of Matthews first month in the world, and the different facial expressions he has!

 

And lets not forget Matthew has a big brother!  Jacob has been brilliant with him, very protective and enjoys trying to entertain him.  He is very helpful but also still enjoys playing on his own or with his friend and asks a lot of questions about how Matthew will be when he is older.

 

 

Matthew recognises mummy, daddy and Jacob now by showing us a big gummy smile which just melts our heart!

Challenge complete!

xxxx

 

 



Day Zero Project - Host a Baby Shower

I have never been to or held a baby shower before and as part of my Day Zero Project I decided to have one to celebrate my second pregnancy. 
  I had to do some research online as to what exactly happens at a baby shower and from this I felt three games would be an appropriate amount to do with prizes.  Game number one involved my guests bringing a baby photo of themselves which we hid in a box and pulled out one by one so we could guess who was who.  This provided a lot of laughs and proved a good ice breaker especially for any guests that did not know each other. Game number two was something I got from the internet, a number of personalised scratch cards where two of them were winners and gained prizes when scratched off.  Game number three was a home made quiz entitled, 'How Well Do You Know Mummy and Daddy?' and I gave the guests ten questions about me, Dean and Jacob such as our favourite movies and how big is my bump?!
 
My two fabulous best friends offered to do my food for the shower and thank goodness they did as they did a much better job than I thought I ever could!  Their theme was Sunday Afternoon Tea including vintage tea cups with sugar cubes, cupcake stands, ham and cheese sandwiches and home made scones!

I was squealing with delight!

Another friend of mine made these unique cupcakes:

They have my 20 week scan picture on which some would say was weird as it felt like we were eating the baby but they tasted good!

My amazing friends also hand made bunting and paper chains:

The whole afternoon was well thought out by them and I cannot thank them enough for taking the pressure off of me as well as all their hard work, whilst holding down normal jobs and university at the same time!

My handiwork was put into providing favors and prizes for my guests:

They received a baby boy themed toy chest which when opened included two mini eggs and a baby themed charm!  I wanted to give my guests something unique and nothing tacky, I could easily have done a bag of sweets which seems to be the main favor idea but having something to keep and remember the day was a much better idea and made it personal.

My games and prizes table which also including a guest signing book so I could receive messages, advice and words of wisdom from my guests!  I am in the process of finishing the book with photos and items from the day to have as a keepsake.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my amazing friends for all their hard work, spectacular gifts and for spoiling this baby before he has even arrived!

A nappy cake, tons of baby grows, scratch mittens, blankets and teddies were gratefully received but the packaging was so pretty, I didn't want to open or use anything!

Me centred around my guests, caught scoffing my face with cup cakes!

Day Zero Project - Be A Member of the Audience of a TV Show

Thanks to my friend Kyle, and some free tickets from Applausestore.com I was able to accomplish another challenge on my Day Zero list. 
 
Having already been part of Big Brothers Big Mouth a couple of years ago,  I really got the TV bug and wanted to see how other shows were filmed.  I never thought I would be going to a talent show especially the biggest one of them all, the X Factor!

It was a gorgeous, hot morning and as we made our way around the O2, these were the views of London we were lucky to see:

Me and Kyle made our way to the queueing system and prepared for a long wait.  It turned out we waited longer than expected and in this scorching heat, and lacking in sun cream we were getting a little agitated and I had ran out of water!  We met a lovely few people in the queue which passed the time and then we were ready to go into the O2.

The auditionees table

After getting a drink and having our bags checked, we made our way to our seats which were surprisingly good!

Look how close we are to the stage!

After about a 45 minute wait, a warm-up guy entertained us for another 35 minutes as there was a delay and this involved him teasing the audience when they were late sitting down, eating people's food, calling people's mums and getting an audience member to sing on stage!

Then it was time to meet Dermot O Leary!

He was on stage for about 5 minutes and then he introduced the judges which today were Louis Walsh, Tulisa, Leona Lewis and Gary Barlow!  They came from the far left so we did not get a chance to see them until they sat down!

Not the best of pictures but may I present the back of each judge on the X Factor!  From left to right, Gary Barlow in his gorgeous suit, Leona Lewis who was quiet and scared to say no, Tulisa who wore bright yellow shorts and Louis Walsh who was funnier than usual!

The show started with 10 acts then a break and then another 10 acts.  It did not seem many but then each act had a long chat with the judges and performed two songs each so the time moved slowly.  Between each act there was about a three minute break where the judges had a chat, and had their make up touched up.

The acts were a fair mix of wedding singers, deluded people and amazing acts and I thouroughly enjoyed watching the process and having a giggle at some of the bad acts.

However, the time did drag and my friend was getting restless so we decided to leave during the break which I was a little gutted about but at the same time, being 25 weeks pregnant did not help me sitting there for three hours so I was a little relieved too.

I had a fun experience and would definetely do it again.  The auditioness must have been so nervous performig in front of a massive audience so its really put me off auditioning myself!

Day Zero Project - Go on a girly weekend in Paris / Travel on the Eurostar / Visit the Eiffel Tower

I managed to complete four of my Day Zero Project challenges in one weekend!  This was not all intentional but the following were completed the weekend of 17th February:

1. Go on a girly weekend
2. Visit Paris for a weekend
3. Travel on the Eurostar
4. Visit the Eiffel Tower

Talk about killing two birds with one stone!  Now, without trying to repeat the same photos most of you have already seen, I will try and give a brief update of how these challenges were completed!
  My two best friends in the whole world, Jenni and Kate, had been talking about going away on a girly weekend for some time, until one day we just decided to do it!
   I had never been on the Eurostar before so that was one to tick off the list although it was not the most exciting of journeys!  Still, I could cross it off my list and we were in Paris within two hours.
  This was our hotel:

Situated in Gare Du Nord, it was five minutes walking distance from the station and ten minutes from Montmarte, one of the places I couldnt wait to visit.  It was a very basic hotel but we didn't mind seeing as we were not going to spend much time in the room!

We arrived Friday afternoon, so once we dropped our cases off, we decided to explore the area and took advantage of where we were situated by heading to Montmarte first,

It was a miserable, grey sky and rainy day so the photos match the scene!

So, as we walked along the street we noticed on our right some narrow streets which seemed to lead to something.  That something was this glorious building, the Sacre Coure.  We had to walk up a billion steps to get to the top but we managed it and it was totally worth it because the views of the Paris rooftops were beautiful.

Its a shame the day was so cloudy but we were lucky enough to come here again on the last day where it was sunny and bright and these are the pictures I was lucky to take:

What a difference a day makes!

I have a slight obsession love for all things to do with the Moulin Rouge so to visit it was a dream come true!

I was one happy girl!

And what made it even more amazing was visiting the Moulin Rouge official shop!

I was over the moon and could have easily have bought the lot! Instead I bought a notebook to add to my ever growing collection!

Day Two and we managed to cram in so much in one day!  It was our first trip on the Metro, France's version of our Tube system, and it felt alot bigger and cleaner!

Our first stop was the Louvre and I have never seen an art gallery like it!

It was so extravagant!  It was extremely busy, and this was mid-February!  There was so much to look at and the buildings were so huge, I would definetely recommend a few days here!  Seeing as we had more to see, we decided to check out the famous Venus De Milo and Mona Lisa to really soak up the experience.

I was a little underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa as it was smaller than I imagined!

We ventured outside so we could see the famous glass pyramid of the Louvre and the grounds surrounding the building were neat and pretty, and we really grasped how big the gallery is when we were outside!

We walked through the grounds to get to the Champs Elysses which is one long high street towards the Arc De Triomphe.  On the way, we saw top high street stores such as H&M, Virgin Megastores, (the last one in the world apparently!) and Topshop plus it cost me 2 euros to do my business on this toilet!

Finally the long walk to the Arc De Triomphe came to an end!

We saved the best til' last and the Eiffel Tower was our last stop of the day.

I know this will sound silly but the closer I got to the tower, the more I was shockd by how big it was!  You see this famous image in the media and its always perceived to be quite small but up close it certainly is not!

We decided to climb however many steps it took to get to the second floor, it was more expensive to take the lift anyway!  I had only climbed one flight of stairs before I was out of puff and moaning about how much my legs ached!  But it was worth veturing on for the views!

I must admit, although I really enjoyed completing this challenge, and it was one of the highlights of the trip, the Eiffel Tower is more impressive at night than looking at scaffolding during the day!  The girls and I hung around for a couple of hours to wait for the sun to set and to play around with our cameras!

The Eiffel Tower by night:

We were lucky enough to see the ten minute light show that glitters and shines its way through the tower!  We almost missed it because we were too busy crossing the road with our back to it!

Day three involved even more sightseeing although when I woke up, I was so stiff I didn't think I would be doing any walking!

Our first stop was a famous cemetary where we wanted to visit the graves of Jim Morrison, Chopin, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde.  The cemetary was unlike no other I had seen, full of tombs and huge memorials.

We were walking through the cobbled mazes for so long, it was so big there, it went right up into the hills, starting off with the oldest graves first and emding with more modern ones.

The graves of Jim Morrison and Edith Piaf

It was very solemn and reflective here, ruined slightly by the tourist groups walking around but I highly recommend it here.

We then took the Metro to the George Pompidou Centre, my second favourite place we visited, it has an industrial look on the outside with escalators in tunnels on the outside an a modern feel inside.

It was a very modern art gallery, similar to the Tate but much more exciting and this sort of art is right up my street!

Again, there still wasn't time to see everything as it was so big, but the best bit of all was the gift shop which was a massive library full of art themed books and beautiful notebooks which I almost spent all of my money on!

Kate wanted to see the Notre Dame next which was apparently within walking distance but unfortunately, poor Kate took us to this beautiful buliding thinking it was Notre Dame which it turned out wasnt!

In fact, we had about a half hour walk to the Notre Dame, by which time I was knackered and my feet were killing me!  I was trying to take in the atmosphere but it was proving difficult!  However, we finally made it:

The blue skies really emphasised this beautiful building.  The queue to get inside was really long but it was moving very quickly and inside it was so serene and beautiful.

We were allowed to take pictures in here but without the flash so my pictures weren't very good. I lit a candle in here as a memory for my sons' dad, and enjoyed taking in the scenery.

Opposite the Notre Dame, was a shop I had read about before we came here:

Shakespeare & Company is a quaint but packed bookshop, full to the brim with books on two levels.  The building seemed old and creaky yet full of modern and old books.  There was even a little tea party with a host doing a talk, it was all right up my street!

We were all starting to get quite tired towards the end of the afternoon and wanted to celebrate our last night by dining out instead of eating more junk food!  Our first dining experience was so atrocious, I don't have the time to write about it!  However, it was overshadowed by the next restaurant we stumbled across and my hamburger and chips certainly satisfied me!

Yummy!!

I have to also talk about this suprising part of our trip, a visit to an Erotic museum!  Look away now if easily offended:

There were seven floors of statues, paintings, modern art and other such like, all based on human eroticism, alot of sexual body parts and plenty of sex!  It certainly was an eye opener to say the least!

Overall, this has been a challenge that I have thouroughly enjoyed managing to see absolutely everything on our list plus more!  The girls were the best people to travel with, we didn't argue once and we laughed so much every day!

Im off to pop the rest of my photos into a scrapbook of some sorts which is the most exciting part of all!

Au Revoir!

xxx