That time when I yelled

The other day I yelled. A basic exasperated 'arghhh!!' rather loudly, aimed directly at my son. It's the first time I've ever done this to his face and we both took a second to be a bit shocked. I then left the room to compose myself and tried and failed to return with renewed patience. Mothering a two year old can be hard sometimes.

Don't me wrong I've certainly used stern words, told Wilf off or repeated exasperatedly that he needed to 'hurry up' 'not throw food' 'give me a second whilst I complete a task' but I've never really shouted like that before. 

In hindsight there were lots of things I could have done to have stopped myself getting frustrated to a point where I couldn't stop myself yelling. Trying to pack orders, reply to emails, get a suddenly fashion conscious boy dressed and ready to leave the house and make a picnic! I need to remember that something has to give and I don't want it to be my patience. Those order's should have been packed in the evening, the emails could have waited another hour and maybe I shouldn't have given in to a request of three shoe changes and two T-shirt changes before 8am.

As it was we had to compromise and yet we still left the house on the sunniest day of the year with Wilf demanding to wear his wellies and not his sandals. He also left the house having drawn all over himself, the table and his play mat in the blue sharpie that I was using to write on orders and that will.not.come.off.anything.

And so what do you do with a morning like that? Well you go get a coffee for starters, lovely lovely coffee. Then you meet up with some good friends, their adorable/frustrating toddlers and you give them an Easter egg hunt in the park (because chocolate is just what they need ;))

As usual what we both needed was to get out the house and do our own thing for a little bit. Whilst the kiddo's ran off together to play on the slide and sandpit the mamas compared notes on how contrary a two year old can be. Then we gushed about just how wonderful they are too!

This parenting thing is always going to present new challenges to overcome, every so often I am going to feel frustrated or a little out of my depth but for the most part I just feel thankful I get to experience it all, even the difficult parts! Whilst I may roll my eyes at the tantrums I also cannot wait to tell Tom each evening of all the amazing, wonderful and funny things we did together too, me and my little boy.

P.S Hope you all have a lovely Easter sunday!

I use *RedLab to edit all my photographs

DIY Glitter Eggs

A special Easter egg DIY on the blog today from the lovely Christine from Just Bella. Do check out Christine's other DIY's I adore her kiddo crafts!

There is something about easter and spring that just makes me crave bright, happy colours - throw some glitter into the mix and I think you've got yourself a pretty happy easter! These DIY glitter eggs are the perfect last minute craft (I can't believe easter is already this weekend!) to add some sparkle to your table. Seriously, they're so easy, here's what you do:

Supplies:

- craft glue

- glitter

- styrofoam eggs (available at most craft stores this time of year, I got mine at the dollar store)

Step 1: Use a paintbrush to completely cover your styrofoam egg with glue. 

*tip: I stuck a toothpick in mine to hold so you didn't get so much goop all over your fingers.

Step 2: Roll egg in a small bowl full of glitter. You can use shake the glitter over top the egg too and let the excess fall into the bowl. Don't be shy!

Step 3: Shake off excess glitter and set aside to dry.

That's it! I hope you enjoy the sparkle because you're likely to be finding glitter all over everything after this craft - but that's all part of the fun, right? Happy Easter! Thank you so much for having me, Fritha!

A Spring Spruce

It's officially Spring (incase you hadn't noticed) and my gosh didn't it feel like it took it's time to arrive! I feel like now the sun is actually creeping into my home I'm realising it's time for a spring spruce. I want to shake up my living space a little and let the season into my home. 

Glade asked me to come up a few ideas to welcome spring and I was more than happy to oblige, this season is one of my favourites! When it comes to refreshing your home a little, bright colours are my default go-to for an uplift. Adding a new lick of paint to your walls would be the obvious suggestion but without going through a major re-haul there are some really simple things you can do to brighten up your space. 

Update your pillows and cushions

I'm addicted to cushion covers and pillow sets (no really, if it wasn't for Tom I would be drowning in them) so any excuse to indulge in a little cushion shopping is going to be right up my street. Picking bright block colours of graphic prints and stripes is a great way to make fun refreshing changes to your home. 

Same goes for your bedspread and pillows, is there anything nicer than getting into a fresh clean bed? (preferably after a nice bath and some clean pyjamas too). The same feeling applies to a new bedding set, I would recommend a light colour, lots of pastels, floral prints or simple white will make you feel bright and fresh for the day ahead rather than dark wintery colours.

Adding spall additions to small spaces

If you have small space or a small budget doing something simple like adding some new coasters to your coffee table or a patterned tray on your kitchen side can make all the difference. A vase for some freshly picked daffodils on the windowsill can uplift your mood dramatically. Floral scents are such a great way to reminisce, and if your holiday this year is going to be UK based then you could still use the scent of a tropical mist to take you there.

One of the simplest ways of bringing spring into your home and shaking up your living space is to just move things about a bit. Spring is great time to try new arrangements and by simply moving a chair here or there you can really feel like you've re-invented the space.

I always feel that scent plays such a huge part in reviving your home and freshening it up for the season ahead. Floral scents are instant mood boosters for me and make me think of spring picnics, playing in the park with my son or afternoon drinks in our garden. Seeing and smelling that first daffodil of the year always gets me excited for Spring to arrive.  

What do you do to welcome Spring into your home and shake up your space?

Some pictures from way back when

Tom and I are having one those moments where we are being ruthless with the amount of junk we have in our home. I mean it is the time of year for it isn't it.

Our bedroom is the second largest room in our house and consequently we fill it with lots of stuff, cram it everywhere, under the bed, on top of wardrobes. It's kind of hilarious that people think we have this beautiful home when in reality I choose to show only snap shots of our home when the piles of dirty laundry and bits and bobs are just out of shot!

We dug out all the boxes under the bed full of wires and random notebooks and set to really sorting them out. I found three disks marked 'old pics' and this is what I found on one of them.

A few peeks into a time I went to spain with a uni friend for a few weeks. We stayed with a family friend and travelled around Malaga (not the touristy bit but the campo in the mountains) and Tariffa, road tripping between the two on hot dusty roads and learning really quickly how to ask for a bottle of beer.

Unfortunately me and said friend fell out quite spectacularly after day three and so the next few weeks were at times quite fraught! Travelling and sharing the same bed with someone you are barely speaking to is not something I really would recommend to anyone, sheesh!

Regardless it was quite nice to look at these pictures and remember a different type of me, from almost ten years ago now! I've always been quite a homebody but recently I've been day dreaming about travelling with my little family. Not long adventures but I'd love to see parts of the world with my two favourite people by my side. I wonder if that's what was always missing from my adventure bug gene I was just waiting for the people to do it with?

These pictures were taken by a family friend named Gavin who kindly let us stay in his home and travelled with us also to Tariffa. I'm kind of regretting not visiting Morocco when we were so close but maybe that's for sometime in the future :)