Liz Jones - friend or foe? Totally unrelated to craft or baking but I need to have a little rant.
Was anybody else enraged after reading Ms Jones' column in The Mail on Sunday at the weekend? Having attended the Blogger of the Year event with Mumsnet, the ever-present Liz had nothing but scathing remarks to make about bloggers and mums. Is she not a blogger of sorts herself? Anyone who can be bothered to read her piece in the You magazine on a Sunday will surely argue that her tales of woe from her luxury farm (we've now seen the For Sale pictures Liz, it doesn't look that bad to us) are the paper equivalent to an Internet blog about sewing, cooking, travelling or.....well, as we know, the list is endless. Her particular gripe seemed to be that some of these bloggers are mums who, through advertising on their sites, are able to stay at home with their children rather than go out to work. How dare they! The fact that they are interesting enough for people to read their blogs let alone have companies wanting to advertise with them should be cause for celebration. There's no advertising next to your column Liz. And her remarks about mums who, in her words, already get to have a holiday when their children are born (you and I would call it maternity leave) were almost unbelievable. The fact that some people choose to have children whilst others choose (deliberately or otherwise) not to goes to make the world a diverse place. On the whole, there isn't a lot of moaning about the fact that a childless couple gets to lie-in every weekend, can go out when they want, can come home at whatever time they want, has more money, can have an unfettered career (OK, so I may have had a little moan behind closed doors every now and then!). Is Ms Jones jealous? It clearly isn't enough for her that she was able to buy a house in the country, fill it with animals, renovate it, keep a journalism job in the city that many would lose a limb for, manage to retain a "Rock Star Boyfriend". Sometimes she is lonely. Sometimes she doesn't have very much money. Poor thing! Perhaps she should eBay some of the extensive goodie bag she accepted at the Mumsnet event to put food on her farmhouse kitchen table.........

Phew! I'll be back to cushions and cakes tomorrow, promise.
Love Natalie