What Mama Wore

Mama Wore:
Dress: Vintage (a gift from Tom)
T-Shirt - H&M
Jeans: c/o Me&I
Shoes: Cath Kidston 

These silly shoes were so frustrating on Saturday. I had put them in the wash and I'm sure they came out a half size smaller. My feet were dying after my shift at the shop.

Me & I sent me these jeans which I will take better photos of soon (as in not cover half of them with a dress!) I'm very much not a jeans girl but I'm trying to give them another go. I always feel like I have to think that much harder about my outfit when I wear jeans and so for that reason they seem to me much more work than simply pulling on a dress, tights and cardi (my staple). When Me & I asked if I would like a pair of their jeans I thought it would be perfect opportunity to mix up my wardrobe a bit, still I've put them with a dress! 

Perhaps I should be brave and wear them with a shirt? A simple T? I don't know why I find jeans so much hard work, anyone else have this issue? 

The vintage dress is one of my favourites, it doesn't get as much wear as it should as its not nursing friendly and so I only wear it when I know we are not spending a huge amount of time away from the house. I've not yet refused nursing Wilf if he asks (he says 'booboo?' and does the nursing sign) so I'm always I bit worried about being in a situation where he might ask for it and not be wearing the right clothes! 

On that note I'm thinking of writing another breastfeeding post soon (as I seem to every 6 months!) we are approaching 18 months and I thought it might be interesting to cover the ins and outs of breastfeeding a toddler. My friend asked me if I ever felt tied down by breastfeeding still which I think is a valid question and one that I will go into in my post. Do any of you have any questions you might like me to go into? If so please let me know in the comments! Thanks! xo

Our Weekend In Pictures

 

 

Our weekend in pictures

A sunny one, and nothing went wrong! 

We spent Saturday morning on an adventure and for evening I played my take-away card for the month and we enjoyed chip shop chips on the sofa watching old episodes of 'Spooks'.

The goose and the swan on the fourth picture down play this funny game where they walk around the pond together. The swan pretends he doesn't like the goose and won't let him in the pond and the goose occasionally pretends he wants to get in the pond, but really they are just old pals.

Tom turned wilf round forward facing in the Orbit so he could better see the ducks. I ran ahead just to make sure he knew we were still here ;) only kidding. He enjoyed it but I think we would miss our chats too much to keep him that way. 

p.s I home died my hair, ombre like all the cool kids are doing (y'know about three years ago) what do you think? xo

Wish List - High Heels

I am a shoe girl. 

As a student I had no less than 45 shoes in my possession, my friend recently told me she has a suitcase of shoes from our uni days that I didn't even know was missing. I've also been known to buy shoes in the size too big if they are the only ones left so I can stuff with socks or even (only happened once, they were Irregular Choice) just to have on display as they were so beautiful. Don't judge. 

When I entered the working world after my student days I always teamed my work outfit with a good heel, on a dress down day perhaps some Mary Jane's but you would rarely ever catch me in flats. Then something happened somewhere along the line, changing jobs, growing older, have a child maybe, heels are very rarely worn on my feet. Its all about the flat these days. I do still love me a good heel though. 

Running after a toddler in three inch heels is a skill I have not mastered not am I planning on trying anytime soon. 

That being said I do still love to window shop the high streets latest amazing heels. Here are a few I have been lusting after on this grey Monday morning...

1, Chinese Laundry Colour Block Wedges from New Look  - £40 
I think these are my favourite from the above selection! I had seen some Irregular Choice shoes similar to these years ago and loved them (but not their price!) so these are the perfect cheaper alternative.
2, Premium Scotch Leather Loafers - £65
I love that these shoes can be paired with so many different styles of outfit. They are really unusually without standing out too much or being too 'loud'. Plus the peach against the dark wood is the perfect contrast.
3, Camper from Sarenza - £95
Ideal work shoes, pretty and practical. Such a lovely summery colour!
4, Getta by Madden Girl from Sarenza - £40.50
I think I must have a thing for mint at the moment, I am thinking they would be perfect teamed with a floaty white skirt and a vintage blouse?
5, Mint Green and Cream Platforms from New Look - £69.99
I would love them already for the cream/mint colour block but the gold heels makes these shoes just that little bit more special

Are there any heels you are obsession over this spring? Are you a heel girl or do you love a comfy flat? 

We Like To Read

Fredgehog by John Hurford

One of the most surreal books from my childhood, unsurprisingly these illustrations have really stuck with me. The illustrations by John Hurford are so fantastically..trippy (for use of a better word!) when google-ing him to write this post I also discovered he has another children's book A.B.C of Animals, although at £60 that is out of our price range, as wonderful as I'm sure it is.

 

Lovely bonkers book 

I spoke last time about opening this post up as a collaborative project so that we can all share the books we love and are reading to our kiddos. I few of you said quite rightly that it might be hard to not get repetitive (good point!) but perhaps you could post on the books you loved as a child? It doesn't have to be books you own yourself. 

I love the idea of us all sharing these books and the memories behind them or the memories being created with our kiddos!

I've also set up a Pinterest board with the same name so if you would like to we could all post to there as well. If that's your kind of thing then please leave your Pinterest name and I can invite you to the board!

In the meantime I have decided to publish these posts on the first and third Monday of the month so if you find yourself wishing to play along you can add your link at anytime during those two weeks. 

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20/52

'A portrait of my child, once a week, every week in 2013'

Lots or rain this week has sent us out in our waterproofs, jumping in puddles and playing in rather empty parks. You play 'peebuu!' behind trees and under benches and you slide on the slides right down on your front like the thrill seeker you are

My favourite portrait from last week was this gorgeous boy on his second birthday. Such beautiful colours Caitlin!

Life Lately (or our weekend in pictures..)

Last weekend was a bit of a fail.

I was planning on recounting the story of how we visited the Bath Artisan market, ate custard tarts, drank the 'greatest coffee' and pottered at the craft stalls. I was going to tell a witty tale of how, when milling about at the chili stall, I dipped extremely hot chili chocolate into extra hot chili sauce and had to pretend that I was some kind of chili connoisseur and that was exactly how I liked my chili...despite my eyes starting to water.

Instead, when ordering our lunch at the paella stand, I realised I had left all the money I had withdrew for the week at the cashpoint a few minutes earlier. I don't usually withdraw that amount but knowing we really needed to spend as little as possible for the rest of the month I spontaneously decided that withdrawing a weeks worth would help me save. 

Now I know there is no 'good time' to lose money but when you are living on a shoestring budget, oh gosh it's hit me pretty hard. I just can't get over how many things keep going wrong lately. Granted we are all healthy and safe and we really have nothing major to complain about, but all these little things, I can't help wishing I would catch a break soon, c'mon!

So Tom went ahead and bought our lunch and we headed to the park in the rain, me cursing under my breath all the way. When we got there Tom handed me my paella and ran off to watch Wilf. Third bite into my meal and I realised I accidentally had the chicken one and Tom my veggie one (with veggie sausages which is why he made the mistake). Frankly with everything else it was the final straw, even though I'm sure I hadn't eaten any chicken the thought (as a life long veggie) made me feel nauseous and I sat in the rain and just cried.

What a silly Sunday.

Thankfully we bought the custard tarts before all this happened. As soon as we dragged our tired. wet and grumpy selves home, flopped on our bed and stuck on the Emperor's New Groove with a cup a tea, all was (sort of) better..

Wish List (Ask Her Friends)

1,Darjeeling Limited set of 3 Brooches  by And Smile
2,Science of Love Hand Drawn Plate by Inkbandit 
3,The Moths print by Amy is an illustrator
4,Wooden Circle Glitter Necklace by Hello Pushkin
5, Funny Fox handmade brooch by Violin Viola 

I've teamed up with Ask Her Friends for this wishlist. 

The folks over at Ask Her Friends contacted me a little while ago to see if I would like to become one of their new blogger panel. When they explained that they were looking to promote new designers and source handmade products I was immediately interested in getting involved. As an independent designer myself I know too well how important it is to support handmade and champion the small businesses. 

Over the next few months I will be submitting some of my favourite handmade items to their 'Gift Set' competition. The idea being that you vote for your favourite 'Gift Set' and you can win £50 to spend with any of their partners. Also if I win the winning set then I also get £50 (so go vote for me! ;))

I've taken a peek at the gift sets from the other bloggers on the panel and their some truly beautiful products out there! I love discovering new designers, I hope you do too! 

To enter the competition click here and vote for your favourite set. 

The Great British Farmhouse

Yeo Valley sent us their cookbook 'The Great British Farmhouse' last week and I've since made three delicious meals from it. I would have made four but I accidentally added a tablespoon of pepper rather than a teaspoon to the lasagne, and well, there was just no saving it. Still three out of four isn't too bad and you really can't blame them for my mistake. I've found the book extremely easy to follow and love how it uses ingredients you will actually own in your kitchen. On top of that the photography is very appealing and makes you wish you lived a country life tending to your chickens.

On the subject of stupid mistakes (re: the pepper mistake above) in the past couple of weeks I have:
Almost burnt down our kitchen
Locked myself out the house
Smashed my phone
Withdrew money for the week and left it at the cashpoint
Ruined dinner

Honestly don't know whats up with me lately! Anyone else been having a similar time??

As well as having a fantastic cookbook and products I like Yeo Valley as they openly opposed the Badger Cull, a brave move perhaps but in doing so also making a few (like me) loyal customers.  

Pinterest UK

Ahh Pinterest. You have stolen so many hours of my life with your beautiful pins, I've dreamt of floaty parisian dresses, delicious recipes and oh so many brightly coloured craft tutorials. 

Pinterest, (in case you have been living under a rock) is a magical place where you can collect and organise the beautiful things in life. My main use of Pinterest is to collate inspiration, be it for designs of my own, recipes I want to try, or clothes I can daydream about wearing. My favourite Pinterest board is 'Illustrations I Love', over time I have found and collected so many fantastic illustrations and discovered so many new artists. If I'm ever in a rut or feel uninspired its the board I go to to reignite my imagination! If you fancy it you can follow my boards here :)

I also use Pinterest as a marketing tool, as a blogger it is a great way to attract traffic to your site. You can tailor this to suite the subject you blog about be it craft, parenting, illustration etc. I find I get the most traffic from Pinterest when I post about a craft project but I also get a huge amount just by posting about things I find beautiful. 

If you have not yet joined then you can do so here! You should be prepared to loose a huge amount of your time though, it's addictive! 

The lovely people at Pinterest asked me if I would like to take part in the #pinitforward campaign and write about why I love Pinterest so. I was more than happy to take part as I do genuinely love it! I also thought it would be a great way to find other boards and Pinterest peeps. If you are already member perhaps you could leave a link to your favourite board below? I'd love to check it out!

In the spirit of #pinitforward I would like to introduce the next bloggers in this series, Emma from 'Jumbly Mummy' and Otilia from Romanian Mum looking forward to reading your posts ladies! xo 

19/52

'A portrait of my child, once a week, every week in 2013'

'The best hand-me-down yet! I wish I could find this jumper in my size! You Ouma has been visiting too and brought you some more of my childhood toys, Fabuland! One of my favourite toys ever'

My favourite portrait from last week would have to be the beautiful Ruby