Catching up...

Good news! Finally getting around to posting some of the lovely things I've bought recently! Hooray! So let's get straight to it... First of all my lovely lovely underwear from Debenhams (Floozie by Frost French) Apologies for the fact that they're sideways, haven't worked out how to rotate them...

Both so utterly gorgeous and comfortable I have to hurry them through the laundry just so I can wear them again.

Secondly, my boots, these were a sale buy, there was only one pair left, £9 reduced from £35, and in my size. I couldn't not buy them really...

Nextly, it isn't hugely clear in the picture but it's Barry M instant effects gold foil nail paint. It actually looks really nice. I've tried proper gold foil nail art sticker thingies but you have to blow them with a hairdryer and then file the paper down and it's awkward, time consuming, and if you get it wrong they last about half an hour before falling off, in my case in the salad I was preparing for a BBQ with the in-laws... Fortunately at a BBQ virtually no one eats the salad so there were only a few moments of blind panic...

I also bought silver instant effects and one of those nifty magnet polishes. Problem is I haven't succeeded in making the magnet one actually work and produce a pattern just yet... So there's no sense in publishing a picture of that just yet... Once I get the hang of it I shall post about it, but currently no success...

Next up is my playsuit, it doesn't look much on the hanger but it's lovely on. Not sure how clear it is but the pattern is butterflies, very nice indeed, it has little sleeves to the elbow and the shortsy bit is nice and long, cos I tend to notice that playsuits are stupidly short, or I'm a bit too long, and you end up showing that little ridge at the bottom of your bum cheeks that is just really not all that endearing... but not so with this one, hurrah!

So all sorts of bits and pieces here, very pleased :) I went back to work today after the Easter holidays which are never ever long enough whether you're a student or a teacher! Although it was a little strange (read: blissful) to be at home during an Easter holidays and not be revising for exams or writing essays or doing coursework etc. It was so calm and not having to write out two units worth of notes a day or similar. This was replaced by half termly planning, but that is just much less pressurising as I won't fail at anything if I'm a bit slow with it...

Today's reasons to be happy, as I haven't done these in a while...

Number one, it's April! Already! 244 days til Christmas.

Today, the 24th April, is National Stationery Day. Now, I don't know about you, but I love stationery, I love a good trip to Staples and I always walk out with a snazzy new notebook or pen set whether I need them or not :D

I received a blog award from the lovely Ali who I went to uni with and am rather sad I didn't spend more time with as via blogging I appear to correspond with more than most of the people I went to uni with combined! She also has a really lovely blog :)

Finally I thought I'd end with a picture of Milly, just chillin'

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Bunny bunny bunny!

I hope you all ha a fantastic Easter. I most certainly did. Instead of an Easter egg this year I was surprised with a beautiful little bunny! She was eight weeks old when my lovely fiancé presented her to me, and she's the reason this post is slightly delayed, she's such a distraction, with already a whole array of lovely little habits already.

This was our first Easter away from home so no obligatory egg hunt this year, which was very sad, but still very exciting. What have you all done for Easter?

Also a quick weight loss update, 18lb :) ever so pleased. Its been painfully gradual, about a pound or so a week and there have been times where id have shanked an infant for an entire enormous pizza... But I've not stopped myself having anything, I've just been on a strict count. I can eat whatever I like to make up the calories I'm allowed but then that's it unless I manage to drag myself out for a run! And my BMI is still in the upper half of healthy so don't be concerned :)

I will post about all my lovely new clothes very soon, promise, but I couldn't do a post without making it about my lovely new addition to the family!

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Happy Easter!

Firstly a big sorry that this is such an overdue post! I've been on Easter Holidays this week so keeping busy with all sorts of bits I can't do during term time. Fortunately this includes an awful lot of shopping so  lots of things to put in here!

First of all, I had such a wonderful response to the photos I put up last week I thought I'd put a few more up...

 This is my Gerbera. An anniversary present from my lovely fiance, grown back for the second year running by my wonderful Mum who can just grow anything.

 That's it for the flowers, I have millions more but I thought just a selection would do... for now...

These next few are Saltburn beach in the North East of England, it was a freezing windy day spent perched on top of a cliff taking photos... Worth it though for some of these gorgeous ones...

As for my shopping, I haven't had a chance to try it all on yet... So I'll have to take some pictures and upload them soon, I promise.

This week has been ever so hectic, my Mum works in a school as well so we're both off at the same time so we take the opportunity to keep each other busy and spend lots of time together. So far we've been to the Garden Centre, planted lots of flowers, been shopping, been to the doctors, been to the opticians, made lemonade, made apple crumble, been out for lunch and generally updated each other with everything we've been up to this term, and in amongst all this Rachel-Mummy time I'm having to squeeze in half-termly planning for next term and trying to spend as much time with one of my sisters before she buggers off to the Ukraine for the ENTIRE holiday period. 

My parents are celebrating their 30th Wedding Anniversary over the Jubilee weekend so they're having a little party, so obviously my first thoughts have been along the lines of 'what on earth am I going to wear?!' Shortly followed by a shopping spree and now that dilemma has been sorted by a butterfly playsuit from boohoo.com (picture soon on here and probably on my What I Wore Today...) and although I'll probably change my mind 100 times between now and then, I definitely have plenty to choose from!

I have to have a little rave about my new underwear, I'll post a picture of that too, it's from Debenhams and it's from a range called Floozie by Frost French and it is just the most perfect fit for me, I have trouble finding bras that fit that are a little bit interesting looking but here they are! Unfortunately the collection is quite small at the minute, but I still plan to buy every single one they do in my size...

Have a wonderful Easter my lovely readers and I will post pictures of my enormous haul as soon as I get the chance!

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Flowers

Today's post is all about pictures. I'm by no means a pro but I've done my best :) let me know what you think.

The red and purple are poppies that I planted in the flowerbeds in front of our house, they've all come up fantastically considering I'm such an appalling gardener

 This daffodil is in a huff. Since it flowered it has faced the wall the entire time. I took the picture so I could see what colour the trumpet was...

Just a quick one today. I might upload some more pictures in a later post if I get the chance, I'm really proud of some of them and have a printed portfolio that I like to whip out for anyone who'll sit still long enough :)

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Peach

I went on a minor spending spree this weekend, I haven't been on one in a while so I thought it was due. Also, as the clocks are going forwards very soon indeed it means I have the perfect excuse for restocking the summer wardrobe. So I'll start with some little bits from that, Firstly my Peach jeans, I am having a complete love affair with peach at the minute, its such a beautiful summery colour and whoever decided to make jeans with it is absolutely inspired. They're from New Look and they're of a SuperSkinny variety which means I'd definitely advise going for a size bigger than usual (I went for a 14 rather than a 12) if you plan to be able to move in them. One size bigger I found they still look skinny but you can actually move a bit. The denim is also quite stretchy in itself which is helpful.

Lovely. They go rather dynamite with a pair of sea green espadrilles which I also got while I was there, 2 for £10 so I had to get a navy and white striped pair as well. Super comfy but quite small sizes. I'm usually a 4.5 to 5 when it comes to shoes but a 5 was only just big enough with these

Final clothing item is a vest, it doesn't look yellow in the picture but it's actually a lovely sunny colour. It also doesn't come with the underlayer, it's just lace, I'll just wear it with a bandeau or a bikini top under for the summer, should look lovely provided I keep up with my diet... I *will* have a beach body this year.

While I was on my spree, I also bought some wallpaper. Strange, I know, but I was watching SuperScrimpers last week and they suggested using it on wardrobes and tables to spruce them up. Theirs looked a little too 1978 for my bedroom but I thought If I put some paper that co-ordinates with the room on just the side of the wardrobe, and on the side of my chest of drawers it might look quite nice. The problem is that my wardrobe is a very dull one, not particularly wonderful wood etc, which wouldn't bother me if they weren't stood next to my fiance's beautiful hand carved oak drawers... The shame. Photos to follow when I finally get round to actually sticking it on.

Speaking of photos, apologies for the last inter-post gap. My internet at home has been so shoddy recently we've decided to bite the bullet and get a phone line installed so we can have our own. Until now we've just been using the Landlord's (he knows, he gave us the password, not stealing) and we're right on the very edge of the signal so it's always been a bit wobbly, thought we could put up with it, but we can't. So this means I will actually be able to post from HOME! Meaning more time and better pictures. Hopefully.

Nail polish of choice this week is 17's Mint Choc Chip, The name would indicate that it's green, but it isn't, it's more of a pale blue, which is still lovely. It's quite an old one, I bought it while I was on a quest for a cheaper version of Chanel's Jade. Turned out it was actually a lovely colour and I now use it all the time.

I'm afraid my next thing is a whine. I don't want this blog to become about whining so I'll be quick. It's people on adverts for food who PRETEND to eat it. It will show a yummy shot of the food, then the woman (always a woman, children and men on adverts really eat... Interesting) bringing it to her mouth, then a random cut to something else, then the woman holding an empty fork going 'mmmmm'. I'm thinking, you haven't even tasted it! It looks DELICIOUS. What kind of skinny crazy culture do we live in where a woman on an advert cant take one miniscule bite of pizza or eat a spoonful of breakfast cereal... not naming names... we'll call it Smalpen. The Smalpen one is the worst, don't ever try to hide it, you've seen it, the one where the women are doing aerobics on a hillside while 'eating' (and the voiceover actually uses the word eating) the cereal, you can see the bowls are empty, you can see the spoons are empty, you see no chewing, yet the farce continues. There's a chocolate advert where the model does actually put a square into her mouth, but she doesn't chew it, she puts it in, then smiles. I reckon she spits it out once the cameras stop rolling. I'm not a cynic.

I'll balance that out with something happier. The daffodils that are everywhere, so beautiful, so undeniably indicative of warm weather. Hooray.

Finally, I'm starting to use face masks more and more recently, can't beat the feeling after washing it off, all clear and refreshed. The one I use at the minute is the Mudd Original one. I'm often reluctant to try new skin products as I have very sensitive skin and a fair few allergies which make finding effective products difficult as the most effective are often the harshest. So any suggestions at all?

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Lots of things

Lots to talk about today, best thing first... I found out that my Barry M Jade nail polish that I thought had dried up wasn't the only bottle of it I had, so in with the Jade! Also, in with the nail art... My mum got me some lovely lacy style nail stickers from Sally's for Christmas so I had to try them out, Sorry for the poor picture quality, the lines are a bit too fine for my phone camera to pick out...

But I think it looks pretty lovely anyway :)
Speaking of lovely, I have two new-ish perfumes that I can't get enough of. My official favourite is Chanel No 5 but at £60 a bottle it isn't one for wearing to work, so for my birthday I asked for some new ones to try. My fiance's Grandma got me Sarah Jessica Parker's 'Lovely', which lives up to its name. I'd smelled it on a tester strip before and thought it was a bit sickly, but actually on is really nice.

The other one was from my mum, Ghost Luminous. Lovely and fresh, with a hint of fruitiness to it. Unfortunately it's quite a little bottle so I'm trying to be a bit sparing, but she said it wasn't too expensive so replacing it shouldn't be too painful for my bank balance.

As it was so beautiful yesterday I immediately brought out the summer clothes, one item of which I am particularly in love with at the minute. The picture doesn't really do it justice and it doesn't look brilliant done up, but I just wear it open over a vesty and it looks lovely

I've been on a bit of a health kick these last couple of months, moving out of my parents' house has led to an inevitable slight increase in poundage so I thought I'd start running again and try to shift a bit. I've lost 12.4 pounds so far and my BMI is back in normal range. Which I'm very pleased about.

I've done my good deed this week. Having watched a BBC documentary on bullying and finding some of it hitting a bit close to home I decided to look into becoming a CyberMentor. It's open to anyone aged 11-25 and it's just to provide an ear and a bit of advice to people who might be struggling particularly with bullying, and they're low on volunteers so feel free to find their website and sign up. They will email you and offer you a training day somewhere near you to give you the low-down on their policies and procedures but other than that you can do it from home.

Finally, I am not a huge fan of Cher Lloyd, I'll say it now, but has anyone else noticed that 'Swagger Jagger' is most definitely sung to the tune of the 'Found a Peanut' song? Someone reminded me that it's actually 'Oh my darling Clementine' but I have to say that every time I hear it (infuriatingly often) all that goes through my head is 'found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peaaaanut yesterday'

Today's reasons to be happy:

I know it hasn't been a lovely day today, but it was just so gorgeous yesterday the gorgeousness can be transferred slightly to today

It is NO SMOKING DAY on Wednesday, so don't light up for one day and let the rest of us enjoy some nice clean air :)

It's Mother's day on Sunday! An excuse to buy nice flowers and sit on the sofa with your mum all day eating Jelly Babies and generally just appreciating her for everything she's done

Today it will not be going dark until five past six! The night has officially moved back past six o'clock!

Have a lovely day

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Rather a long weekend

This weekend started with a very long night... I babysat on Friday, starting at 7:30, finishing at 3... Which is rather a long time... particularly as the children were in bed by 8:30!

Anyway, the positives of this meant that the weekend felt much longer, and because of the lovely weather I decided it was time to break out the pastel shades of nail polish and where better to start than with my favourite one of all, Barry M Peach Melba

I love this shade so much! It looks quite pale in the picture but it's actually much more orangey on. Needs two coats, but still lovely.

I also took the opportunity to break out the florals. I have a favourite floral top that I bought in Primark for £6 about three years ago but I plan to wear it until it falls apart. I can't find a proper picture, but the pattern looks a bit like this but the colours are slightly brighter...

The other thing I absolutely love at the minute is Man v Food, the only problem is it makes me despicably hungry, and every time he doesn't make it through a burger that looks like it was made to feed a starving military regiment I can't help but think... I'd finish that. The food all looks so delicious! I'm going to have to go and visit some of these places...

On the subject of men, my personal Man performed quite the heroic act on Friday. At work we have the most ancient bird table, well, calling it a bird table is a bit of a stretch, its a pole with a bit of wood on the top, and we want it taking out, so we can build dens, and it's getting in the way, the groundspeople said that it would be difficult, they'd need a jackhammer etc. it would take a while... Man came in, leaned on it, gave it a wiggle and it was out in two minutes... den building and barbeques just got pushed up the agenda, hooray!

Today's reasons to be happy...

According to my app, sunset today is at 5:55. Almost six, which means it will be conceivably light outside when I leave work! On the same note today the sunshine reached a balmy 13 degrees here, virtually flip-flop worthy.

I learnt a new word today, absquatulate, it means to flee or abscond, and it's a fun one to say

One of the girls in my class called our Music teacher "Mrs Pretty" today. That isn't her name, it rhymes, but it was such a lovely mistake I didn't have the heart to correct her.

This week is National Sleep Awareness week. As such I plan to sleep as much as possible. Respect for the cause.

Anyway, must absquatulate

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