I´ve just watched an article on tv saying that more and more couples are postponing or cancelling their wedding due to the massive expense they cause.

Granted I had a big wedding for my first one, but the second one I did on a budget (I´m trying to beat Liz Taylor in the marriage stakes).

It´s nice to have that big dress and the lovely venue with the gorgeous food, expensive wedding car, fireworks maybe?

But if you are determined you want to get married and you love each other you should be able to have a lovely wedding whatever your budget.

This is what I did:

Wedding dress: 30 pounds - British Home Stores, this was a cream lace silk shift dress, not a fairytale princess but if you want something more outlandish try eBay, there´s always wedding dresses for sale, they´ve hopefully only been worn once so why not?

Suits for the men, either just wear a suit that you have in your wardrobe or hunt around for reasonable hire shops. Ask your best man to pay for his, most of them will because they will be honored that you asked them, the same for Bridesmaids, same for the little Bridesmaids there are more and more department stores stocking fairly cheap dresses.

Wedding cake:  This was my favourite, there is something called a Festival Gateau sold at Morrisons supermarket, it´s a large round dome shaped green marzipan covered sponge, cream and custard cake, it´s my favourite cake, why should I pay a fortune for a cake I don´t like and most of it get´s left anyway?  I went to a local cake decorating shop and bought a little statue of two frogs getting married and put it on top of the cake, everyone loved it!  Cost?  Altogether 5 pounds.

We got married at a registry office, so that worked out to be cheaper than a church venue, I thought it might not be as nice, but having done both it didn´t matter, the staff were lovely and we laughed all the way through, it was more relaxing and we had a great time.

Reception - This was at our local pub, the Landlord put a spread on free due to extra customers we generated, the food was lovely with the big green frog cake taking centre stage.

We had Karaoke during the day and a disco in the evening, everybody had a ball, the kids were entertained with the singing and some were still up and dancing in the evening. Cost 70 pounds

We then had enough money to spend on ourselves to go to Florida from England for 2 weeks with believe it or not my in-laws and my son, oh and of course my new husband.  I´d prefer to get married the cheap way, it´s alot more informal, it´s fun to find new ways to enjoy a big day and you don´t end yourself up in debt for the next 5 years, which can put a big stress on your new marriage - one thing you really don´t need!

Since the blog about the plastic bags, I´ve been thinking about the other thing that really annoys me and that is excessive packaging.

Many times I have come home with the shopping and thought how on earth do physically handicapped people go on if I can´t even open the package and I have two capable hands.

I often wonder how I would go on if I only had one hand, simple things like making a cuppa (I´ve got an answer for that one - Tassimo coffee maker, it´s easy even with one hand, can you tell it´s my favourite machine? The best Chrissy present I ever received).  Why can´t everything we buy these days have a bit of thought put into it?

The only thought for most products is: "Is it eye catching?"  It´s ok being eye catching but if you have to bash it against the wall to open it and then it bounces back and gives you a black eye, it gives "eye catching" a new meaning!!!

For the last 6 months I´ve been trying to grow our own vegetables, I am not having much luck.

I planted some tomato plants about 3 months ago, they didn´t even bother seeding so I thought maybe I had planted them too early I am still getting to grips with the different seasons over in Spain.

3 Weeks ago I planted more tomatoes, lettuce and peppers, we then had some awful weather and the whole lot has been decimated with the terrible winds we have had.

My geraniums, nasturtiums and sunflowers are doing well though, but don´t taste half as nice as tomatoes!

We´re hearing so much about the use and the damage plastic bags are causing us and our environment on the news and topical programs at the moment but what are WE as individuals doing about it?

Governments can play a big part like Ireland, they introduced a tax of 15 euro cents per bag 5 years ago and are increasing that to 22 euro cents, the usage has dropped to 21 per head each year for the last 5 years, so why aren´t other countries following their footsteps?

Until then, why aren´t we doing more about it?

I remember when I was little, I went shopping every week with a lady that used to look after me in the holidays while my mum worked and she always would put her big cloth bag in the car with 5 or 6 plastic bags she had saved and used these over and over.

Why are we not doing this?  Me included, I make a concerted effort to save the bags, put them in the cupboard for the next shop or use them for rubbish, but when it comes to going shopping, I forget to take them and end up coming home with more shopping bags, hence a bulging cupboard of plastic bags!!

Maybe if supermarkets charge more for their bags or even sell cloth bags, it might give us an incentive to use the cloth bags that we´ve spent extra money on and reduce the pollution that plastic bags cause.

Fact:  A plastic bag can take up to 1000 years to break down!

I know it might sound a bit weird giving a tip for shaving, but I´ve just had a young woman stop with us complaining that she kept getting sore spots and rashes under her arms and legs when she shaved and it reminded me of a tip I use.

I used to buy all sorts of products myself to prevent this until I worked as a nurse and was looking after a young lady who luckily was recovering from a coma, she was shaving her legs and putting normal hair conditioner on before she shaved, when I asked her about it, she said her mum told her and has used nothing else since.

I couldn´t wait to go home and try this and yes it actually worked, so now for the last 10 years I´ve saved loads of money just by using the hair conditioner I buy anyway and it leaves your skin feeling lovely and smooth and moisturised.

Ever struggled with cleaning glass?

For years I´ve tried to find a tried and tested method of having sparkling windows and glass tables.  It always used to amaze me when I visited hotels etc where their windows and glass items gleamed.

Especially now that I´ve moved into a place where there´s loads of windows, I used to get so frustrated with the streaks left with my cleaning.

I tried all sorts - vinegar, brown paper, newspaper, lint-free cloths, you name it I´ve tried it.

Eureka, at long last I found the solution, try this -

I use kitchen roll and any brand of glass cleaner, it really works, no more streaks, so now you know, any chance of cleaning my windows??

Do you ever get that feeling that however hard you try, you never seem to get anywhere??

Sometimes, after trying so hard at a problem and you don´t feel you are getting anywhere, it´s best to walk away, mentally and physically, not for all time but just enough to take a breather and a rest, you´ll find that when you´re refreshed, you may be able to tackle the problem from a different angle, perspective and or fresh eyes, that covers most situations; work, especially computer problems, home, kids, relationships etc, as the saying goes "Rome wasn´t build in a day" and after all "we´re only human".  We are not machines and sometimes I think we wished we were or we treat ourselves as if we were, which often leads to "meltdown".  Then we´re no good to ourselves or anybody else.

One task that you can do everday, morning and night is to look in the mirror and say "I am no better or no worse than anybody else.  I have the capability and the knowhow to achieve my goals, or overcome my problems, I can do this, I will do this, I am doing this".  Repeat this over and over everyday and see and feel the results in no time, it does work!

With today´s hectic lifestyle and stresses it´s easy to get bogged down, especially when you´re trying to find a different job or new avenue to go down and our loved ones don´t tell you you´re doing marvellous or that your fabulous every single day, which sometimes we need just to "buck" us up a bit, so "mother Nevaeh" is here to give you just that to keep you on track!

Have faith in yourself, whichever route you choose, as long as it doesn´t hurt others or yourself, keep going, it´s amazing sometimes when you´re learning new things, that which seemed so hard and complicated, suddenly became easier the more you persevered, try and remember those times when you fianlly succeeded in overcoming an obstacle or situation when you felt you couldn´t seem to jump over at the time.  Eventually an answer will arise through your determination, not only that, a lot of the time other doors or answers to linked circumstances occur at the same time, enabling you to kill two birds with one stone!

Keep going - you´ll get there!

Luckily my children are either grown up or should be doing round about now!

My partner has a 26 year old daughter with 2 children under 2, poor girl.

Her family are coming over to see us from England to Spain so we thought we´d help out a bit with cots and pushchairs etc, so that they wouldn´t have to cart heavy things on the plane, it´s enough with a baby and all that go with him/her.

We were lucky to find a second hand shop and bought a cot, which was no problem putting it up but the pushchair, my goodness, it took me 2 hours and a broken back later to fathom out what to do!

I thought how on earth do mothers go on these days? 

The problem is there isn´t a universal way of every pushchair opening and closing, every pushchair is different.  I spent ages, trying to find a clip, pushing at one thing, pulling at another, it was really frustrating, eventually it was to do with a metal sprocket on the handle.

My moan is:  If we can´t have universal openings on contraptions like these and we are encouraged to recycle things, couldn´t the manufacturers put instructions on the item somewhere?  Granted the pushchair was simple when you knew how, but it took hours to finally know how!

I bought a new computer amongst other electrical equipment when we moved over to Spain, I don´t seem to be having any luck with any of them.  I think I´ll have to go back to England and buy over there and send over here!

The computer is a Fujitsu Siemens with Windows Vista, for 2 weeks everything went wrong with it, everytime I wanted to add a program it would corrode other drives, for example I tried to add a web cam to find that my dvd and sound drivers became corrupted.  Eventually I got this sorted.

One problem that is ongoing though, and I can´t be bothered going back to the "doctors" is that when I type, sometimes my cursor mysteriously jumps back a paragraph or two and continues to type in the middle of what I´ve previously done, any ideas??

I´m noticing that there´s quite a lot of "American Idol" fans on this site!

I´m from England so I´m used to Pop Idol.  It finished a few years ago and was replaced with the "X Factor" with the same Simon Cowell that you had on "American Idol" and Sharon Osborne (Ozzy´s better half).  Has anyone ever seen it?  It´s really funny especially when Sharon is "on one".  She once chucked a glass of water over Cowell and then in a later edition, over Louis Walsh, does this ever happen in "American Idol"?

We have quite a few success stories which have evolved from the "X Factor"

Steve Brookstein was the first, never heard from him since

Shane Ward produced 2 albums, not heard much from him lately

Leona Lewis, fabulous voice and is doing very well, released an album before Christms

Leon Jackson, the latest winner - still watching "this space"

At the moment I seem to be writing ironic items, it must be the mood I´m in this week.

Since the photo, I have lost 2 stone, but haven´t got a recent photo to upload.  Anyway, I was so suited with losing my weight I thought I´d go shopping, it was just before Christmas and I needed a new coat, my old one was too big.

I´d always wanted one of those Russian style coats, you know  - black, with the two rows of buttons down the front and a belt that nips your waist in.

There it was, finally in one of the shops, just waiting for me, with just one left,  I grabbed it and looked at the size, I couldn´t believe it, it was 2 sizes too big, I was just about to put it back in disgust when I tried it on, because it had a belt I could tighten it and it looked perfect, needless to say I bought it,  just a bit disgruntled that I´d lost all this weight and still had to buy clothes in sizes that should have been too big for me.

Just my luck!

I can´t believe it, I thought I´d had "one of those days" yesterday, I´ve had another today!

The electrician came and mended the electrics, I was able to put the heating on and the gardener came to chop down two trees which I helped him to remove all the branches from our house to the house next door where we could burn them.  I now have enough wood for next winter, typical it was 80 degrees today, if only they could have both turned up yesterday when it was only 5 degrees and  I was burning old clothes on the fire, nearly choking myself to death and stuffing hot water bottles up my jumper to keep warm, typical!

Ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong!

Well today is one of those days for me!

We have nicely moved to Mallorca where the sun is supposed to shine and it´s supposed to be warm.

Today it is cold and the electric has decided to play up, so no central heating.  We have isloated the electric problem and turned that part off, which is for outside..

We have our own wood, so no problem with making up a lovely roaring fire, or is there?

We have a chain saw but my partner has trapped a nerve from using it last time and it´s too heavy for me to use.

I could go out and buy some wood, oh yes, just remembered can´t get out of the gates because the electric is down, fantastic!

We had a call today from someone who is interested in looking at our puppies, we have 17 (it feels like 101), problem - can´t get him through the gates.

I think I´ll go to bed and get up again, see if my luck changes!

I just thought that I´d write about the misconceptions sometimes perceived by people who think that Great Danes are that big that they must need lots of exercise, food and room.

This is not so!

Once the puppy stage is over, which is not as long as some other breeds like Dalmations and Labradors, they will be very content  with a half hour jaunt to their local park or recreatonal site then come back and lie in front of the fire for hours, they just like being with you whatever you are doing.

As far as feeding them, ours are on dried food and we go through 2 bags of 25kg per week, sounds alot?  Not really, we have 5 adult Great Danes!

Before we moved to Mallorca, we lived above the pub that we owned in an apartment and we used to take it in turns with bringing 2 of the Danes in at a time, in all of the 8 years we were there, we just had once accident with a table.  Not bad really.  Our two girlies decided to have a funny half hour whilst we were out and accidently knocked it over, we didn´t tell them off, but they were sorry and sulked for days, bless them.

I was brought up as a child with toy dogs such as Spaniels etc and would never have thought of owning a Dane until my partner bought one, I have never looked back, I feel so safe when I walk them, especially in England it is becoming more and more dangerous to walk in certain parts.  No-one would ever approach me with a Dane.  It wouldn´t be the same with a Chiwahwa!  I´m certainly not willing to own a dog with a name I can´t spell!

The love that they bestow on you, as with all dogs I suppose is unconditional and would walk over hot coals if they sensed any danger, I wouldn´t have any other dog.

Would you believe it, I´ve just got 30 pounds from my bank for moaning!!

I´ve never achieved that before!  Then again I´ve never properly "thrown teddy out of cot" with them before either.

9 months ago, I moved from England to Mallorca but still keep an English bank account.  I gave them my new telephone number but they continued to call offering their services on my English mobile number which, if you´ve been on holiday, if anyone contacts you, you are charged for the incoming phone call.

After several calls, I really lost my temper so I emailed them with a snotty response and I´ve just been called by a lovely man from the bank who couldn´t apologise enough and said they would reimburse our account with 30 pounds!  Nice one!  I´m in pocket with about 20 pounds.

I wonder if I could perhaps moan somewhere else and watch the money pile up??