Charity shop finds!

 Thomas and I went to spend the day with my parents and whilst we were there Mum wanted to pop to the Co-op.  In the village center there are a few shops including a Marie Curie charity shop which we like to have a look in whenever we go to the shops there!  I have been on the look out for some jeans to customise into shorts as I can't seem to find any with a high enough waist that are not the 'high waisted' style! I just want some easy to wear denim ones that I can tuck casual tshirts into for every day wear, if we ever get the weather!

I didn't find any clothes for us this time but in the toy section I found these lovely book ends!  These were only £2.50 so I was really pleased with the find and also picked up 4 books for Thomas at 25p each!

Have you had any good charity shop finds recently?

OOTN

I went out for a pub dinner last night with my friend and this was what I wore:

The shoes are from Primark and I believe they were £7.  I got the jeans in February from New Look for £22.  The tshirt is a recent purchase in H&M this week and was £7.99 and I love this as it is comfortable and casual for every day and I really like the lace detail at the neckline.  My bomber jacket was from Zara about a month or so ago and was £29.99 and I have worn this sooo many times since I got it.  I got the cute bag from ebay, I can't find the exact seller but loads come up when you type in 'Fox Bag' I saw this first on SprinkleofGlitter (link to post http://sprinkleofglitter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/fox-bags-feeling-foxy.html )and wanted one right away, I think it adds such a cute edge to my outfits!   For jewelry I just had on my wedding and engagement rings, my flower pendant and usual watch but you can't see an of them in the pics!  You may be able to tell the pictures were taken just as I was about to run out of the door!

Here I am again with a little cutie sneaking into shot! xx

Naomi's Nails

My sister Naomi came to stay over the weekend and wanted me to do her nails whilst she was here.  As a mobile beautician I use Gellux and she usually manages to keep it on her feet for about 6 weeks between visits.  She was having a hard time deciding which colour to choose and said she always opts for the safe pink or red nail polish shades so I suggested she have a different colour on each toe, which she decided to go for after a little bit of persuading!

                                                                          Who would have thought that a girl with cupcake tattoos on her feet would be concerned about choosing a nail polish colour that was too 'out there' haha! 

What do you think of this pretty rainbow look? I think we matched the colours in her tattoos to the gels well!

PS The little toe is peach, it just doesn't show up in the pics!!

How to make use of a day at home!

Thomas and I are not very good at staying in all day, so whilst I was excited to be getting a new phone yesterday there was a bit of standing at the door, screaming and trying to get out going on, and that was just me...
To try and keep us entertained & not too miffed about missing the nice weather (no garden at the flat) and at the same time not waste the day watching TV I decided to combine lots of playing with some round the flat chores that I had been putting off.

After the usual washing up, clothes washing and ironing whilst Thomas has his breakfast start to the day I rolled up the rug and got out Thomas' painting things.  This might sound like I am a mean Mummy but as we don't tend to spend much time at home and painting can be quite a messy affair I try to keep this as a treat, so Thomas had a great time, mainly painting himself!  This was also a good opportunity to sweep under the rug!  

 We then moved into Thomas' room so that he could play with the toys in there at the same time as I sorted through his clothes.  He is only 16 months but some of his 12-18 months clothes are looking a bit tight and some just a bit too stained and we have a stock of the next size up waiting so this was a job that did need doing.  We then went into my bedroom where I straightened out my wardrobe.  I managed to pick out a few things for the charity shop however I have so many things that I never seem to wear but don't want to get rid of, so I decided to try AThriftyMrs' coat hanger tip and have given myself until Christmas, anything that is still on a coat hanger that is hanging 'the wrong way' will be out!  As you may be able to see I already hang my clothes in colour order so this type of thing really appeals to me!  Here is the link to athriftymrs blog post.  http://www.athriftymrs.com/2011/11/organising-wardrobe.html

Then Thomas had a nap so I decided to tackle my oven.  This is a job that I have been putting off for far too long to tell the truth and I am not really sure where I got the oopmh to do it from, but I am glad I did! It took me a looooong time and I think we will be having microwave dinners for a week now to avoid it getting dirty again!

Finally, we had a packet of cress seeds which Thomas got as a freebie in his children's activity pack at the Slug and Lettuce so we planted those in a little pot.  I was really excited by this freebie even though Thomas has no idea what they are!  I love having pot plants in the flat and have a chilli plant in the kitchen from which we do use the chillis in our meals so hopefully we can have egg and cress sarnies in a few weeks too!

So all in all maybe not a mega exciting day, but I feel like we made good use of the time we had in the flat and good use of things we had around for activities!  What do you do to make good use of time waiting for deliveries etc?  Have you had any good freebies recently?

Superdrug BB Cream

I have just returned from a fabulous week in Corfu, which was actually our son's first holiday abroad and experience of flying!  Wow, what a difference being on holiday with a small child makes, we knew he would be hectic but I don't think we realised just how much! Desite the lack of relaxation we had a great time and Thomas had a whale of a time running round with all the other children!

Anyhoo, on to the reason for this post, Superdrug's BB Cream.  I have read many reviews on BB Creams and thought it would be the perfect answer to a base make up on holiday, my tan can look a bit patchy, especially around my forehead so I like to put on something in the evenings but I usually feel like a full on foundation is way too much in the heat.  I saw both the Superdrug and Mabelline versions and lumped for Suerdrug's own purely because it was on a £2 off deal and you got more product (20ml is my memory serves me correctly!)

Here are my 'before and after use pics', these were taken before we went on holiday but as we tried to keep out of the sun with Thomas we didn't get super tanned anyway!

As you can see Thomas loves to 'say cheese' and sneaked into my make up free picture!  The 2nd picture shows me with just the BB Cream and no other product on, as these creams claim to include a moisturiser, primer and concealer I wanted to try it for the week without the use of any of these other products, although I did moisturise as well while on holiday as we had been in the heat sweating all day!  My first imressions of this cream were good, okay my eyes my still be a little bit dark around the edges and it certainly isn't full coverage so blemishes were toned down rather than hidden but I think it does enough of a cover up for me to feel confident about the way my skin looks.  I also like the way it gives a dewy and almost glowing look to my skin, which is especially nice on holiday with bronzer!

 And here I am with a all my other make up over the top! 

I choose the shade light as I thought the medium looked too orange for me and it was a good choice, there are only 3 shades (also dark, obvs) to choose from and the product is adaptive as it worked just as well over my (slight) tan!  I found this blended nicely and I was able to build it up lightly on my chin, which decided to have a little breakout whilst we were away!  I do tend to always have a few spots and red blemishes and I still found that this cream worked well for me and at £6.99 I am really impressed, I will definitely repurchase even at the £8.99 full price, I would also be interested to try the Mabelline version which is £7.99 and have seen an MUA cream for £4 on the Superdrug website which may be worth a bash, the have some more that are a bit more expensive so maybe if I am feeling flush I will try those too!  If you are looking to cover every dark circle and red mark this probably isn't for you but if you are happy with lighter coverage, maybe for the daytime, then I would definitely recommend that you give this product a go!  I consider myself a fan!

Freebies with Instyle Magazine!

I was planning to get myself a magazine or 2 to take on holiday in the vain hope that Thomas may let me read one by the pool for 1/2 each day and had seen on AThriftymrs that there are lots of freebies on magazines this month, yay!  So I headed out to Tescos and had a look to see which one took my fancy and went for Instyle, which has a Bodyshop mascara included, (you can also pick one up that has two eyeliner pencils, in black and French Navy).  I was pretty happy with this as I needed a new mascara and I gave it a whirl yesterday with these results, shame about the odd angle I managed to take the photo in!! I have only worn this once and think that as a freebie it is fab, if I am being picky I would say that it makes my eyelashes more spiky looking than my usual mascara which is the Maxfactor False Lash Effect but overall this mascara coats well and didn't smudge under my eye and I had it on from 10am till about 12pm!  So I was impressed with that!

However the most exciting thing for me was the shampoo sample also in the magazine!  I had somehow managed to stockpile so much shampoo and conditioner that in January I decided that I was not going to buy any more until it was all gone and I am just now on the last bottles, which actually don't match, the shampoo being Herbal Essences and the conditioner Supersoft, but they seemed to be working just fine and I have been using different ones all year anyway.  The samples are of  L'oreal Hair Expertise Everpure and the bottle looks like it is a light pink with a darker pink cap.  I decided to use the samples yesterday because I don't like to have stuff lying around and it was soooo nice! The was the shampoo lathered up felt so luxurious and the bubbles felt really thick so I was instantly impressed!  The conditioner felt nice, nothing out of the ordinary whilst it was going on to be honest but lovely all the same and the scent of both was lovely.  When I dried my hair I was again so impressed, it feels so silky and looks really shiny plus although there are no claims on the packaging that say it helps split ends I feel like the ends look a lot healthier!  The blurb on the pack of both packets is the same and says: ' Colour Care System with botanical oils.  Respects the hair fibre.  Non sulphate cleansing system.  Specially designed to leave coloured, weakened hair looking shin and nourished.'  and I have to say that from the one wash I think it does what it says on the tin for sure!  I will definitely by purchasing these products in full size and look forward to seeing if it continues to do such a great job!

Have you had any great samples or freebies recently?  Make sure you check out www.athriftymrs.com, it is a fab blog!

NOTD!

We are going on holiday next week, whoop, and therefore I am starting to get prepared! 

  It may be a little (read a lot!) bit early but I have such a hectic life that I thought I would seize the opportunity of a quiet hour to do my nails!  I have ended up with 2 mint dresses and 2 coral dresses to take away with me, along with a black dress and 2 multi coloured skirts so I decided to use coral and teal (closest I had to mint!) for my nails.

Being a mobile beauty therapist I am lucky enough to have the Gellux system at home so the colour should last until the end of my holiday.  I plumped for a simple look as I thought I would be pushing my luck with the baby if I tried to do a design on the nails!

Hope you like them!

PS Can you see where I snapped my middle finger nail really short?? This is weeks on from the snapping incident, ouch!