Investing in the classics with Marks and Spencer

Lately I am loath to admit that though I harbour dreams of looking as effortlessly stylish as some of the ladies I follow on Instagram, for me this just isn’t a reality right now. My days (and nights!) are busy and I would love to have the time and energy to spend my mornings browsing through my closet pulling together outfits, but the truth is that the same jumpers and jeans are on rotation for many’s  a day. And that’s ok because I need to be warm (for walking to school) and I need to be comfortable around the girls. Continue reading

Pregnancy after miscarriage – 5 tips on how to worry less and enjoy it more

This is one of those posts I’ve had in the back of my mind for, quite literally, years now but October is National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month so it feels right to publish this now. I haven’t really spoken much about what we went through because I’m not a total oversharer despite having a blog! That said, if you know me personally I am more than open about it. Miscarriage is a strange one, it happens for most very early on, before the 12 weeks when you’ve had a chance to tell anyone about it. And then if it happens it is so utterly shocking. I couldn’t even say the actual word, miscarriage, until long after Lucy was born. So it’s hard to just bring it up, hard to talk about it with friends when you need to. I think sometimes people feel then that it’s a taboo subject, like it shouldn’t be talked about but for me personally it wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk about it, I just couldn’t.  Continue reading

My Autumn wardrobe staples for busy Mums from M&S

Ah Autumn is finally upon us, I absolutely love the Autumn and the Spring, I love the transition between the two more slightly extreme seasons. I adore the frosty cold mornings that Autumn brings and the cosy nights in in front of the fire. I’ve come to realise I tend to rely on similar versions of the same outfit for Autumn and Winter – skinny jeans or jeggings and cosy jumpers. I’d like to think I will wear dresses and skirts 

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Wallpapering a bathroom….some tips from my experience

wallpapering tips smallbathroom diy

Our downstairs bathroom was one of those rooms I had a notion I wanted to make it a drastic contrast to the rest of the house. It’s small and really any mistakes made there wouldn’t be the end of the world. We have no wallpaper in the house so I wanted to see what it would be like to give it a shot and there are so many beautiful designs out there it was a DIY I was itching to try. And I wanted to see how much I could transform the room Continue reading

Social media for small businesses and working with bloggers

I get asked quite a lot by small companies and start ups is advice on their current social media strategy and for advice on working with bloggers. It is wonderful see so many people setting up businesses now, but the very nature of that venture is that you need to wear a lot of hats and be proficent in so many areas of expertise from the finacnes to the marketing. And social media is a wonderful thing for small businesses, it means that they can access a huge audience of people for a relatively small spend but there is more to social media than meets the eye. I want to go through some of the most common questions I get and the most common suggestions I give so that it may help another small business owner to perhaps step back from it all if they are lost in the fog. Continue reading

Cows Milk Protein Allergy – our experience

I’ll kick off this blog post by saying that this is going to be purely about our experience with Lucy and her allergy to cows milk protein. I’m not a dietitian, we haven’t even been to one yet with her so I’m mainly going to talk about how we came about figuring out Lucy’s problem and what we are doing based purely on advice I have picked up Continue reading

5 free printable worksheet ideas to keep the kids entertained and educated

I won’t lie, our playroom is filled to the brim with colouring books….but since the girls discovered that my laptop has the wonderful ability to pull up any picture they can dream of to be coloured in they have me hounded. Terrible for the poor auld trees but great for my sanity. People often ask me how I find the time to get all the DIY things done around the house and I’m about to let you all in on a secret. Firstly, its not television that occupies the ladies while I’m busy creating my next Pinterest fail success, Continue reading

An easy and unusual DIY idea for getting lots of memories up on the wall

I find with the house inspiration comes in fits and bursts, I am either brimming with ideas or have none whatsoever. The girls started off in separate rooms but it’s a joy to see them so close that they decided themselves they wanted to share a room. We had bought triple bunks for both of their rooms and so I decorated accordingly but over Christmas they decided they just wanted two single beds in their rooms so that they could look at each other when they chatted, so adorable. Therefore I was left with rather ridiculous looking gaps on the walls where the bunk bed had been as I had hung pictures above the bunks in the assumption they’d be in place for years to come. Continue reading

10 tips for protecting our kids online and ensuring internet safety in the home

I went to a talk recently given in my daughters primary school which was all about internet safety and primary school kids. There is no doubt that technology will play a huge part in our kids lives going forward but there is a huge difference between educating kids in how to use a computer versus giving them free reign with a phone or tablet and fooling ourselves into thinking they are learning. Continue reading

Put down your phone and read a book!

We have a rule that I ‘generally’ adhere to in our house – no phones beside our beds. And you know I have to say I think it’s a great idea (it wasn’t mind it was my husbands, he’s literally allergic to social media – well they do say opposites attract!). Lucy used to wake a LOT at night, actually it’s probably remiss of me to write that in the past tense because she’s only just figured out how to sleep through so I doubt we’re out of the sleepless woods yet. Anyway, I digress, I used to find myself picking up my phone once I’d settled her, you know to check all the incredibly important social media happenings that just simply couldn’t’ wait until morning….!! But for sure the bright light of the phone really messed with my ability to go back to sleep and it used to set my mind racing with ideas or thoughts. Continue reading