Silver Bedroom Wishlist

We've just got the keys to our new house and it needs total redecoration. I've been thinking of a silver grey and white theme for our bedroom with a possible little splash of pink in there! Here are some of the items I'm looking at...

Bed

Lamp

Mirror

Bedside Draws

Sparkle Heart

Pink Flowers

x

Motivation - Losing the Baby Weight

Summer is coming!

Baby J just turned 7 months old yesterday and I would like to finally lose my baby weight. To be honest I'm not a fitness kind of girl.. I love swimming when I can find the time but always hated PE at school. If I planned to have another baby close in age to Baby J I probably wouldn't bother trying to lose this weight as its mostly on my tummy. But because I would ideally like a few years until I have another baby I'm hoping to lose this bump that's clinging on.

I follow Joe Wicks The Body Coach on facebook and have noticed his hiit training sessions - the other day he did a live one from New York.

You don't need anything apart from a bit of space to do it. You can exercise at home, get the video on your phone/laptop/ipad and it's done in twenty minutes. So even I can't think of an excuse not to do this.

Yesterday I tried out his beginners session for the first time.

I found it on youtube - here.

It was such hard work! I actually really enjoyed it though and I'm aiming to get these sessions in a good few times a week. I'm so achey today so I guess I did something right.. There are four rounds of exercises in this video and I have to admit I only managed the warm up, three rounds and then cool down. I think this was ok as it was my first ever attempt. Tomorrow morning I will aim to do all four. Or at least three and a half :-)

My husband wants to get Joe's Lean in 15 book that goes along with the workouts for healthy recipes but we don't have it yet. I would definitely like to try it and find some healthy meal ideas as so far I have just tried to cut down on chocolate and treats.

I'm aiming to feel nearer to the old me by the time baby is 9 months old. I took my "before" photos when he was 6 months old. I've heard the saying it takes 9 months to grow a baby and 9 months to feel back to normal again. It will be hard work and I've never had to really lose weight before, so I hope I can keep this going and be successful.

Have you tried the Body Coach's hiit workouts?

x

Back to Blogging

It's been a long time since I've posted - it might be just six months but for me it feels like so much longer. Baby W who I will now be calling Baby J - he has a real name at last :) - arrived 11 days late and I just haven't had a minute to think about blogging ever since.

We sold our house just after Christmas and have moved in with my mum while our next house goes through. It's a little bit of a squash but lovely to be here :)

The house we are buying needs so much redecorating. I was really excited about this but we've just had our survey back and unfortunately it has a few more expensive problems that we didn't know about.. it's disappointing as we don't know if we can afford to sort this house out so we are having a think about what to do next.

I hope I can find some time to get back into my blog as I'm still on maternity leave. Life changes so much when baby number one arrives so I hope I can start enjoying blogging again whenever I get 5 minutes (not very often!) so that I have something easy and fun that I can enjoy like I used to.

x

Baby Boy Outfits: F+F clothing at Tesco

 

 

With Baby Williams being due TOMORROW I've been enjoying browsing baby clothes online for a while. He has been very lucky and received lots of gifts at the baby shower which has meant that his wardrobe already has lots of cute clothes inside. 

 

But it's still fun to sit and look at all the different outfits that are around for babies/kids!

 

I'm sure that for the first few weeks of his life he will be mostly just wearing his sleep suits, and I'm not the type of girl who would spend loads of money on a baby t-shirt. As you know, I love a bargain! This is why I've been so interested in the ranges of baby clothes available at the supermarkets. There is a lot of choice and the prices are great!

 

These are a few of my favourite items from Tesco's F+F clothing range at the moment. Baby W has a similar bear hat already, but other than that I just need/love everything that I found here...

 

 

Bear Hat  /  Contrast Sleeve Sweater  /  Baseball Bodysuit  /  Socks  /  Joggers  /  Letter Sweater  /  Coat  /  Hug it out Top  /  Shoes

How cute are the joggers...Hug it out top...Baseball bodysuit...?! Ah I just need them all for him! x

Home Style: A Lilac & Silver Update

 

Peony Jam Jar  /  Wood Rose Heart  /  Mirror Photo Frame  /  Mosaic Mirror  /  Pillar Candle  /  String Heart Lights  /  Table Lamp  /  Scented Tealights 

 
I've recently freshened up my living room with some new curtains, a rug and accessories. For the first two years of living here, I filled the room with orange, wooden and gold accessories with thick cream curtains. The room felt lovely and cosy, but this summer it was time for a change. I decided to go with mauve/lilac and silver.

I have a couple of the items from this wishlist, but the table lamp is something I really need to buy! It's from Next and is really pretty. I also stocked up on a couple of the plain mirrored photo frames from Wilkinson's as shown in the photo. These are really cheap (I think only £2 for the 6x4 size) and look pretty with more detailed frames next to them. They keep the silver theme running nicely!

Most of the accessories I bought are named "mauve" in stores - I wanted to keep the purple shades quite light...

We picked up this rug in Dunelm and it's lovely and soft whilst also looking pretty and bringing a good chunk of colour into the room (again my carpet is just plain cream). 

 

 

I don't think it's quite as dark in real life as it looks here. It feels good under your feet though, and there are lots of colours to choose from :)

 

Find it here.

 

What colours do you use in your favourite room?

x

 



Decorating a baby's Nursery

As soon as we found out that Baby W is a boy I started to think about how we should decorate his bedroom.

I knew that I wouldn't be having blue walls - my house has lots of plain walls/carpets and I use things like rugs, accessories and curtains to add some colour. This is because I get bored easily! I think if I used pretty wallpaper I would want to change it quite often.

We had his room painted in a creamy magnolia with the skirting boards and radiator spruced up with some good old white. We picked out a nice thick carpet in a beige-ish colour called "pancakes" to create a nice blank canvas to accessorise.

I found a complete bargain furniture set on bargaincrazy.com. It's an East Coast nursery set with a cot bed, wardrobe and changing unit/cupboard and was reduced down to around £270. I was also really lucky to discover a 30% off code, so even with the delivery cost I only paid about £200 for the lot. I love a bargain so this was perfect.

Here's the changing unit that came with the furniture set. I found the navy and white storage basket in the bathroom section at Tesco for just £5. It's handy for bits and pieces and fits in nicely with the rest of the room.

I had looked at lots of baby bedrooms on pinterest and decided against traditional baby blue. I wanted to go for navy and white :)

Bedding was next on the list and I found what I wanted on Mothercare's website. The range is called Whale Bay - I fell in love with it and so the nursery theme started there!

Bear  /  Changing Mat  /  Cot Spiral  /  Jersey Blanket  /  Teddy Blankie  /  Crib Bale

 

I've used navy and white accessories to complete his room. Baby W has some Whale Bay blankets, a door stop, changing mat, the cot spiral and teddy bear. You can find them all here. 

Mothercare sell wall stickers to match the theme, however at around £29 full price I found that these were a bit too expensive for me. I decided to hit Hobbycraft to make some basic whale and fish decorations of my own to use above Baby W's cot and changing mat. I'm keeping it simple but sticking with the under the sea/navy and dark blue theme! I will post them in a future post.

What do you think of the Whale Bay collection?

How would you decorate a child's room?

x

Baby Update!

Blogging has definitely taken a back seat throughout my pregnancy - I've just been so busy planning and sorting things out! From choosing a pushchair, car seat, clothes and nursery colours to working out how many first size sleep suits you need to buy, being pregnant takes up lots of your time!

I've been very lucky throughout, I haven't suffered with any sickness and time has flown by... there are now only two weeks until Baby W's due date and I am so excited to see his little face.

I cant believe how quickly it's gone!

Now that I am off work and my long list of baby things to sort out is pretty much done I am hoping to get back into blogging  at last :)

x

Bargain Online Shopping - New Bag & Boots.

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since I've posted - the excitement of having a baby on the way has taken over my life a little!

This week is my last week in work thanks to having a baby due in September and working in a school...summer holiday time! As a result I'm hoping to keep up with blogging a little more as I do miss it.

I just wanted to share two lovely bargains that I bought last night while online shopping. One of my handbags is about to give up due to the weight I've been carrying around. I can see one of the handles is starting to pull away from the bag! So I wanted to treat myself to a new black bag that wouldn't be too expensive. Every penny I can save counts these days.

Here's my new black bag. From Asos - just £21 instead of £35. Find it here.

 

I'm excited for it to arrive, it will go with lots of my outfits and the price tag makes is even more attractive :-)

...The next purchase was an accidental find when searching for bags on New Look's website (the sale section of course).

I found a pair of black boots that will be great to wear with leggings in the winter, reduced from £39.99 to just £15. I didn't tell my husband about them yet but at that price I couldn't leave them there! find them here.

 

 



Both of these will be great throughout the winter and I know it's only July, but why pay £40 for a pair of boots in October when I can get some now for just £15 :-)

I love to save a bit of money!

Do you buy out of season to save? x

Some happy baby news x

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I last blogged.

I've been a bit distracted as I had some happy news... me and my husband are expecting a baby this September :-) I'm currently 13 weeks pregnant.

I feel so lucky as I haven't been sick once. I really went off food and just looking in the fridge made me feel unwell, but no morning sickness at all! I'm also exhausted every evening and am asleep by 9.30 on work nights, but I've read that that should improve soon for a couple of months? Feel very lucky as these are my only symptoms so far!

The 12 week scan was such an amazing experience. Baby was wriggling and we could even see his/her fingers! I was like an emotional wreck.. oops! 

I'm currently looking for lots of #pbloggers to follow! I've found a couple but if you blog about parenting/pregnancy then please leave me your link :-)

I'm surprised I haven't been completely un-followed with my lack of posts recently so thank you for that!

Hope you are all well xx

  

Sims 4 Extras Part One

I've been a big Sims fan since I was about ten years old and still love it now! My sister and I have been playing the Sims 4 since it first came out and I'm very excited to hear that new things are on the way for this game.

A Game pack has just become available to purchase, and in April we will see the first Sims 4 expansion pack.

The game pack that is available now is called Outdoor Retreat. It's priced at £14.99 and is not quite an expansion pack, but brings new items and opportunities for your sims, along with new outfit choices for adults and children with a few new hairstyles also thrown in! There is also a new location called Granite Falls. It's where the camping takes place and looks really pretty :)   

I've watched a review on this game pack on youtube so have had a little preview of the new items and objects that are available. I think it's always nice to have some extra outfit choices, and there are a few new ladies' hairstyles that look really nice.

With outdoor retreat you can take your sims away from their busy everyday lives to go on a fun and exciting camping holiday. Sims can stay in a log cabin (some more luxurious than others) or a sweet tent. They will be able to relax, go fishing, play games, watch the stars together, enjoy a camp fire and lots more! This game pack also brings new objects that can be used at home, including cute log cabin style furniture.

I think that I will definitely end up purchasing this game pack to enhance my Sims 4 - there are lots of fun extras to improve the game, and I feel that £14.99 is a good price for what's included. The game definitely needs some extras by now - we've been playing for a while!

I will be watching the Sims 4 Get to Work expansion pack reviews as soon as the game comes out in April before deciding whether to purchase that, too. I'm sure I will end up with both! 

Any other Sims fans out there? x  

Saying Goodbye to 2014

2014 has been an interesting year. I've been lucky again and am grateful for everything I have experienced. It's nice to feel so positive on the last day of a year.

There have been ups and downs, dramatic change of plans, and some upsetting news stories. In my own life, I got married in Greece, continued to improve my house and have really been appreciating my lovely family. I've been counting my blessings as a family member was taken ill in October, but has made a fabulous start to recovery. 

Now that me and my sister are older, I feel that we have really become best friends! It's lovely to have a sister who is your best friend - the most loyal type who will always be around :) What more could you need?

Every one of us has had tough times this year - that's just standard in life! Looking forward and concentrating on all the good things in my life (no matter how small) has really helped me get stronger this year. It's so important to appreciate the little things if you are feeling a bit down.

I'm really looking forward to a family night in at my mum's for NYE tonight, lots of positive thoughts to start 2015!

Happy New Year :) x


   

High Street Bridesmaid Dresses #2

I really enjoyed writing my last post on high street bridesmaid dresses, and although my wedding is over now I thought I would put together an updated version :)

The other day I was chatting with a colleague at work and she was telling me all about the bridesmaid dresses that she has ordered for her wedding next year. They are plain but pretty maxi dresses with one flowered strap.   

When she told me that they were £300 each and she had bought six I had to hide my shock - I'd never be able to afford to pay that for dresses that would never be worn again.

My sister's bridesmaid dress for my wedding was a simple but pretty maxi and cost less than £40 in Debenhams. She looked gorgeous :)

So I wanted to share some new high street bridesmaid ideas with you. Links from left to right:

Navy Maxi  /  Bright Pink Short Dress  /  Pink Pearl Maxi   /  Green Maxi

The navy maxi is less than £40 at House of Fraser. Gorgeous and total bargain.

This cute short dress is such a gorgeous colour. I love the combination of bright pinks with grey and silver shades in weddings. Also just £40 reduced from £80 at BHS!

The pretty pink pearl and diamante maxi is by Quiz clothing, and is currently reduced to £39.99 on Debenhams' website. It is also available on the Quiz clothing site. 

I wasn't looking to only find dresses at less than £40, but as it goes this green maxi is also down to £33 on House of Fraser. It seems like now is the time to buy your bridesmaid dresses! :)    

What do you think?

 

Would you splash out just because it's your wedding day, or have your girls in high street dresses?

 

x

Wishlist: Pink Princess

 

Nail Polish / Coat / T-shirt Dress / Yankee Candle / Phone Case / Disney Boxset / Purse / Fairy Lights

 

Love these pretty things :-)

 

I'm still on the hunt for some cute battery-run fairy lights and these look perfect.

 

The Asos coat was £80 last week and is now in the sale - bonus!  

 

This Barry M nail polish is a gorgeous girly colour - I love shiny & girly nails :-)

 

 

My New Love of Pinterest

When planning my wedding a few months ago I started a Pinterest account so that I could search for inspiration.

I have to say I was happy with what I found. What a beautiful website :)

You can totally escape the real world and enjoy spending hours admiring pretty things, getting ideas for your own home/wedding/recipe file and saving them to look back on at any time. I've pinned wedding dresses, cake recipes and gorgeous living room inspiration, garden seating areas and clever storage ideas.

It's like storing all of your favourite parts of a magazine without taking up space in your home. I really enjoy browsing, pinning pretty pictures and good ideas. It's like a fabulous space-saving scrapbook!

I will look back at my pins when considering redecorating a room or moving house. It's so useful!

I don't really get the whole following thing - I don't follow anybody and nobody follows me (lol). I think Pinterest is different to Instagram and things, I just see it as something useful for me. 

Here are a few of my favourite pins... 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos are from Pinterest. Not my own.

 

That last picture is on my travel board as a hotel to stay at if we ever win the lottery ;)

 

Do you love Pinterest?

 

x

 

When Wearing Glasses gets Boring...

Ohh glasses glasses glasses. Love them? Hate them? Lots of us have to wear them...

For those of us who do have to wear them, I think most would agree that at some point we've all considered that it would be nice to not need them.  

When sticking a contact lense into your eye isn't an option for you, it can sometimes feel like your whole outfit has had to change so that you can see properly...

I wear distance glasses and my eyesight isn't too awful, but because I need them to drive I therefore feel the need to wear them at work, which makes it harder to be confident without them when you would really like to ditch them for a few hours.

Surely we all get bored of them now and again?

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate them or hold a grudge that my eyesight isn't perfect - there are far worse problems to have. But it does bug me that we unfortunately are taught by friends and peers from a very young age that glasses are geeky and uncool. 

I tried contacts once and just didn't get along with them. It's probably my own confidence issue where just I feel that I personally would look better without my glasses - maybe most people don't feel this way? 

Topshop/Topman have sold clear lense glasses recently, and the trends in glasses frames seems to be changing. But when you have to pay a lot of money for prescription glasses, it can be hard to change frames just to fit in with the latest trend and get a pair of glasses that make you feel confident.

I would love to have a good choice of glasses at home to choose from but unfortunately the prices of prescription glasses just don't allow me to. Lots of bills to pay, etc!

It seems like the only answer is to accept that this is just us, find a pair that makes us feel as good as possible and wear them with pride!

To cheer myself up I decided to share some photos of celebrity ladies looking gorgeous in glasses...

Jennifer Aniston

Kim Kardashian

 

Emma Watson

 

Keira Knightley

 

Rihanna

 

Victoria Beckham

 

 

Do you wear glasses?

 

Do you get that tied down feeling on certain days, where you just wish you could go without them?

 

x

 

Wishlist: A Winter Outfit

 

 

T-Shirt / Blanket Cape / Boots / Jeggings / Bag / Earrings

 

I am absolutely loving these blanket capes that are all around us! So cosy for winter - this is one of my favourites from River Island.

I actually already have these boots from New Look - they are lovely and comfy and go with so many outfits.

My husband has picked up this bag for me as a Christmas present, so it's safely tucked away in his wardrobe where I can't get to it!

I also really want these earrings. I think they would go with lots of clothes - day or night!

What do you think of this outfit?

x  

Bargain Bubble Bath plus Yankee Tealights

I don't usually do beauty posts but really wanted to share this delicious bubble bath.

A total steal at just 89p from Home Bargains, this Possibility Strawberry Soufflé is a "rich shower gel, shampoo and bubble bath".

Personally, I just use it as a bubble bath. You don't need much to make lots of bubbles and it smells really good. This bottle will last me a while.

I love to use Yankee candle summer scoop tea lights when taking a strawberry soufflé bath for extra strawberry-ness! They make a whole room smell amazing and cost around £6.70 for 12 tealights.

 

 

 

 

Have you tried any of these?

x

Wishlist: Winter night in

 

 

Yankee Candle / Slippers / Cath Kidston PJs / Fairy Lights / Tangled Blu Ray

 

Spotted Throw / Tealight Holders / iPad mini / Cosy Socks

 

 

So winter is definitely on it's way with the nights and mornings both getting darker!

 

I'm sure that staring at my holiday photos at the beautiful blue sky is as close as I will get to nice weather now until at least next June...

 

While there's the usual Christmas nights out and meals to look forward to, I think there's nothing better than spending a freezing cold Saturday night at home relaxing.

 

I absolutely love these Cath Kidston pyjamas that I found on Asos, plus these cosy pink slippers would look lovely with them.

 

I have one of these BHS microfleece throws myself (but in a different colour without spots) and I find it really soft and cosy. Perfect to keep extra warm.

 

I'm getting a bit obsessed with fairy lights ...and what little candle doesn't make a room instantly cosier??

 

And of course a good film is essential - I love Tangled & of course Frozen. And your iPad to keep up with your blog :-)

 

Perfect winter night in!

 

x 

 

 

Loving Ourselves: Looks

I'm sure that lots of us are guilty of NOT loving ourselves enough.

I definitely think that I sometimes forget to look after no.1!

Just this week I was wondering if I should go blonde. I'm not pretty enough. Will nice blonde hair make me look better? I hate wearing my glasses - would blonde hair improve that?

I googled famous people who are naturally dark but have gone blonde for ideas. I am pretty dark and that would obviously be an issue - with the amount of time and money it would take to get to the shade I like, very dark roots to keep up with, etc.

Then I realised that my hair colour is really not the issue. I like my brown hair and it's in very good condition - there is nothing wrong with it just how it is... I was just picking on myself unnecessarily!

Aren't we all guilty of doing that sometimes? I look back at photos from last Christmas and think "crap - why did I wear that jumper? It makes me look bigger than I am..."

I'm embarrassed to admit that one as it makes me sound ridiculous. But I think most of us ladies do it at some point!

So how do we learn to love ourselves instead?

I guess this is all learnt behaviour - looking in the mirror and wishing a few things were different - instead of admiring the things that you like about yourself.

Surely we weren't born with an instinct to slag ourselves off - we must have picked it up somewhere along the line.

It could be because of the endless photos of perfect girls in magazines. With perfect style, lovely clothes, a flawless face and perfect body/hair. Of course this isn't how most of them really look on a day-to-day basis...

Or maybe it was pressure from other girls at school? Being a teenage girl can be tough - some girls are true mean girls, and secondary school can quite frankly leave us comparing ourselves to the over-confident "pretty" girls. Were they really any prettier than us? In most cases, no.

They may have had nicer clothes, but we can buy nicer clothes. They may have had better make up, but we can buy nicer make up. 

I really think that if you're very confident in yourself, others will believe that you are as fabulous as you make out.

Which shows that we should all have a little more confidence in our looks, or our decisions, or our beliefs (or our blogs!!)... and tell ourselves that we are doing very well, instead of wishing we had a different wardrobe to "make us look better".

We should look in the mirror and think about what we like about ourselves. It doesn't mean you have to turn into some loud over-confident person who puts others down...just look after number one. 

For example, my hair looks really nice today, I'm happy with it...

Oops - does that make me sound big-headed? 

We've been taught that it's not good to compliment ourselves. Time to change that right now! 

What's your favourite thing about your looks?

 

Eyes? Hair? Make up? Smile?...

 

x  

Wedding Craft 1: Mr & Mrs Letters

I love art and making things, so I knew that I wanted to work on some pretty things for our wedding party which took place when we got back from our wedding in Greece.

I'm a perfectionist so always fussy with things like this...

I'd noticed that Mr & Mrs signs of some type were all over the wedding magazines as decoration for the reception. At first they didn't stand out to me at all, but when I decided to change the colour scheme of the party to gold and pinks I discovered some pretty Mr & Mrs letters on Pinterest.

They were gold glittered letters and were set around the front of a wedding cake.

I loved them and decided that they would be great as a decoration at our party. They would fit in perfectly.

I wanted to make them myself, and discovered the mache letters that you can buy at Hobbycraft. They sell individual letters and numbers so that you can spell out anything you want. You could write your names, or add your new surname onto the end of the Mr & Mrs letters.

These could be used for any party or special event - I guess it doesn't have to be for a wedding at all!

The Mr & Mrs letters that I bought came in a set for just £5. You can find it here.

They are meant as a mache kit so you can buy pretty papers to cover them with. But I decided to paint & glitter mine instead.

First I painted the back and sides of the letters with a tester pot of magnolia paint that I picked up in Wilkinsons. I had planned to glitter them all over but realised that this would get very messy! It would be harder to transport them to the reception venue without ruining them, and whoever had to touch them to set it up would be covered in glitter!

So a bit of paint to break up the glitter seemed like a good idea...

 

Once the paint had dried, I painted the front with PVA glue. I then tipped the glitter into the pot that my letters had actually been in when I bought them, and dipped the glued front side into the glitter. 

 

 

Done!! Easy as that.

I ran my finger along the edges so that the glitter would look neat. Then waited for it to dry.

These letters are great and could actually be used for anything - maybe a "home" or name sign for your living room or even buy the letters to make a Christmas word and use as a decoration for your house this xmas.

Do you shop at hobbycraft?

 

x