Category Archives: Five on Friday

Five on Friday

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{I went for a morning run with my boys on Tuesday. Two laps around the block followed by some lunges, situps and press-ups. Not enough to burn off all the chocolate I’ve been eating but it’s a start…}

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{By mid-week Clemmie had recovered from the flu and was ready for a short outing to the playground}

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{I went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel at the cinema with a friend.  If you haven’t seen it, I would really recommend it: a really cute, quirky film with a stellar cast, funny but with a tinge of sadness.}

Fruit salad

{At his request, Cameron and I made fruit salad, with a mix of apples, grapes, bananas, clementines, strawberries, melon and kiwis. I had it for breakfast the following day with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, a squeeze of honey and a generous sprinkling of my homemade muesli. Yummy!}

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{I popped into Waitrose to get some milk this morning and they had some great bundle deals on magazines. I got five for only £10, a pretty good deal considering that they normally cost around £4 each! That’s my reading material sorted for this month}

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! X

Five on (ehrm..) Sunday

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I’m a couple of days late with my Five on Friday post. It is all very well having a posting schedule to follow but sometimes life just gets in the way (as it should, I’m sure you would agree). The best laid plans as they say…

We’ve had a busy weekend, celebrating my mum’s birthday and also finally starting in earnest on the spring cleaning projects I’ve been planning for weeks. It is a mammoth task so we still have plenty to do but at least I’ve bagged up lots of old clothes, toys and crockery, ready to go to the charity shop. Some of the nicer bits that I cleared out from my wardrobe were dropped off at a ‘Labels for Less’ dress shop yesterday so hopefully I will make a little bit of money out of my old purchases. We will be tackling the loft and the garage over the next few weeks…

Last night my husband and I were supposed to go out to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The babysitter had been booked, the present bought and outfits (mine anyway!) decided upon, but again things did not  turn out quite as planned. Just after we had finished eating the birthday cake at my parents’ house yesterday Clemmie suddenly came down with a temperature of 40 degrees and started complaining of a sore throat. She has had several bouts of tonsillitis in the past (a couple of times she has even ended up in hospital – once her tonsils got so big and inflamed that she struggled to breathe and turned blue, and another time her temperature soared to over 42 degrees) so I wasn’t prepared to leave anything to chance. The babysitter was cancelled and we made an appointment to see the out-of-hours GP at the local hospital. Luckily it turned out to be a virus and after some Calpol and a lot of sleep, her fever was almost gone this morning. My husband went to the party on his own for a couple of hours while I put the kids to bed, had a glass of wine in front of Revenge and then went to bed myself. Such a shame, but the main thing is that Clemmie is OK and rather than dwelling on the missed party, here are some good things from the past week:

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{The walk home from preschool takes twice as long now that there are flowers to pick!}

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{It’s rainy today but we had some lovely sunny days last week so I grabbed a moment to sit outside with my coffee and magazine}

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{I’m enjoying having a new bottle of my favourite perfume. The kids were very generous and bought me the large size of Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb for Mother’s Day. After years of switching between different perfumes I think I’ve finally found my signature scent.}

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{School’s out for Easter! Cameron’s school celebrated by holding their annual Eggstravaganza – a chocolate fueled frenzy of raffles, tombolas and fun games.}

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{Clemmie and I in matching stripes on Friday. I love this jumper from H&M, it was only £7.99 so I have just ordered it in a couple of other colours.}

Hope you’ve had a great weekend! X

Five on Friday

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{A Monday afternoon treat – vanilla latte and a slice of chocolate cake at Costa}

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{New arm candy! Two bracelets in rose gold – my new obsession – from Stella & Dot. Perfect for summer and will look even better with a tan.}

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{That time in the morning when there is still peace and quiet before the rush to get ready for school and the arguments over who used up the last bit of milk start..}

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{Casper VERY carefully carrying a cup of milky tea for me at the Beavers’ mothers’ day tea party. I’m hoping for even more treats on Sunday!}

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{As I said in the previous post, our house at the moment is far from tidy but at least there is one spot which is looking good so I will concentrate on that. While I love fresh flowers, I normally just place them on the kitchen table but this week I put a bunch in our bedroom and I really like it. Incidentally, my husband bought me these flowers from the supermarket (where they were reduced – he always has an eye for a bargain), two weeks ago! They have lasted much better than the expensive flowers I normally buy}

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend! xxx

Five on Friday

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Happy Friday! I know I say this every week but hasn’t the time just flown by? I had a midweek meeting up in town and somehow spending three days instead of four working at my desk, made the week seem much shorter. For starters, I hardly had time to take any pictures but here is a quick recap of what I managed to pull together for the weekly Friday post.

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Those of you who follow me on Instagram will have already seen this picture of my eldest son, taken on our trip to the woods last weekend, but I love it so much I wanted to share it again. I find it hard to believe that he will turn 11 this year but I’m also deeply proud of the kindhearted, sensitive yet fun loving young man he is turning into.

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This week’s clearout at my parents’ house unearthed this little gem which I wore to my high school prom at the age of 16 or 17. I remember I wanted to wear it with my Dr Martens (or DMs as we called them) but my mum persuaded me to go for more traditional black pumps (probably a good thing! Sometimes mum really does know best.). The dress then accompanied me to university where I wore it to quite a few college balls but after I graduated it was stowed away at my parents’ house and forgotten about .

I bought the dress from the now defunct Hyper Hyper, a huge retail space populated with stalls run by independent young designers, on Kensington High Street in London. At the time it was my favourite shopping haunt along with the slightly seedier Kensington Market across the road. I haven’t been to High Street Ken for ages – is it still the go-to place for teenagers who consider themselves a cut above the identikit chains?

This is definitely a piece that I want to hold onto for Clemmie although I have to admit that it has seen better days. Despite having a dry clean label pinned to it, it shows signs of having had a few drinks spilled over it and it’s slightly faded around the edges.

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Fingers crossed, we are finally booking our summer holiday this weekend. The pictures are from our holiday in Mallorca two years ago. We had such a great time and the kids still talk about it but sadly we won’t be going back there this year. I can’t imagine not going to Sweden in the summer holidays and, with building work planned for later this year, our budget doesn’t stretch to two trips abroad.

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I’m not a huge fan of self help books but I was intrigued by this one when I read an interview with the author in Red Magazine. Gabrielle Bernstein promises to help time-starved readers clear stress and find peace using practical in-the-moment tools. Definitely sounds like something I could do with!

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It’s a good thing that I didn’t succumb to the temptation to put away all the winter clothes at the first sign of spring. In the last couple of days the temperature has plummeted by several degrees and today I actually wore gloves on the school run. But yesterday was the official start of spring so I decided to celebrate by ignoring the cold snap and buying some beautiful tulips (and turning the heating up!)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! X

Five on Friday

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{Clear blue skies and pretty blossoms made me smile despite the runny nose and sore throat}

I sat down to write this post and suddenly realised just how tired I am. The weekend really couldn’t come at a better time and for once the diary is quite empty so hopefully we can fit in some proper family time. I’ve been battling a horrible cold all week so it will be great to get a chance to recharge the batteries and just chill out at home. On the plus side we have had some fabulous weather – isn’t it lovely to reach for the sunglasses rather than the umbrella before heading out the door?

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{I’ve been trying to stay healthy and boost my immune system with a daily dose of Spirulina. The boys have dubbed it ‘alien juice’ because of the green colour! I have to admit it does taste pretty awful and is just about bearable mixed into orange juice or a smoothie. But if it keeps the cold symptoms at bay it is definitely worth it.}

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{I promised Casper that I would include a picture of him dressed as a Viking for his class assembly this week. He did really well, remembering all his lines and the words to the all the songs, and there were quite a few. Strange to think that his next assembly will be the leavers one, before he and his classmates move onto the junior school.}

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{My ballerina pumps had their first outing this week. These are from H&M (last year) and so comfy but I need to buy some more – in black, silver and maybe pink.}

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{Despite feeling like death warmed up I made it to my rescheduled hair appointment this week. I had a good couple of inches taken off the ends – as I use hair straighteners every day without fail (I know, slap on the wrist for me..), my hair was quite damaged. I love the shorter length though and the lighter colour. I’ve only been to this hairdresser a couple of times but she’s definitely a keeper! Incidentally, while I was there I read an article which argued that taking selfies is good for your self esteem. Not sure I agree with that, it took me about 20 attempts to get one that I was vaguely happy with and I don’t think I’m exceptionally vain.}

Happy Friday everyone! Mine was made even better by the fact that my husband brought me flowers when he came home from work. That doesn’t happen every week, believe me! X

Five on Friday

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{Some of you may remember that I was lusting after the Narsissist eye palette by Nars a few weeks ago. Alas it was not to be – I had planned to buy it with my Space NK vouchers but as the eye palette was exclusive to Selfridges here in the UK, I didn’t feel I could justify the £55. So instead I bought the Narsissist cheek palette which was stocked by Space NK and comes with a blusher, highlighter and bronzer.}

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{I’m loving my coffee table books at the moment. They make great home accents and I like to flick through them for inspiration. My most recent additions are the Alexa Chung book ‘It’ and a beautiful Chanel book filled with images to drool over.}

The best laid plans as they say…

This week hasn’t turned out quite how I wanted. On Monday Casper came home with a sore ear and he hasn’t been back at school all week. We went to the doctor who diagnosed a viral ear infection so antibiotics wouldn’t help, all we can do is try and reduce the pain with Nurofen and Calpol. It’s not too bad during the day but at night it is very painful as the fluid in ear builds up and he has trouble sleeping. So pretty much everything has been cancelled this week – from playdates and after school activities to my hair appointment and lunch date. While I hate to see him suffer, it has been really nice having him at home. With three children it’s not always easy to find one-to-one time, especially with the boys as they are at school all day. He has had to amuse himself with Lego and the iPad while I’ve been working but we have also had time for nice chats, board games and baking.

Hopefully his ear will improve as we head into weekend. The weather is set to be lovely – with temperatures of 17 degrees forecast for Sunday! – so I’m looking forward to sitting out in the garden with a cup of coffee to soak up some rays.

Hope you have a fab weekend! X

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{The clear-out at my parents’ house continues and this week I saved a silk clutch, that my dad bought in Japan for my mum in the late 70s, from going off to the charity shop. It’s not my usual style but I think it will look good with a cream summer dress or just jeans and a simple tee, with gold heels and jewellery.}

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{Cameron looked great in his Sherlock Holmes costume for World Book Day yesterday and I’m happy to report that my Burberry returned home unscathed.}

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{It’s been a busy week but I managed to take a few minutes out to read the interview with SJP in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar. And of course, you can’t have a proper break without coffee and chocolate biscuits!}

Five on Friday

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I went on a spending spree at Space NK and used up the vouchers I got for Christmas and my birthday last autumn. Love that shop! I will do a separate post on the things I bought next week.

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I started putting together a kitchen inspiration folder ahead of our planned renovation later this year. Between that and my Pinterest board I don’t think I’ll be stuck for ideas.

Jewellery

This jewellery tree was on sale for only £10 in a local boutique. Having some of my favourite pieces on display on top of my dresser will hopefully encourage me to accessorize more.

Unisa boots

Honestly, I am not a shopaholic but I had forgotten about these Unisa boots that I bought just before Christmas. Now that I’ve found them, I can’t stop wearing them as they are so comfortable. They remind me of my favourite pair of boots that I had at school.

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I’m also somewhat obsessed with my Star sweater from Hunky Dory (another Sale buy) – accessorized here with my ten-year-old son’s beanie, which I keep stealing – much to his embarrassment I should add (I just tell him it’s pay back for all those toddler tantrums he used to throw in the middle of the supermarket to embarrass me!)

Happy Friday everyone! I hope the weekend is all you want it to be – and more! X

Five on Friday

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I cleared out my old nail polishes and stocked up on a new colour (Smokin’ Hot by Essie – in a gorgeous deep grey with purple undertones) as well as a fast dry top coat by Morgan Taylor called Need for Speed

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It’s half term this week so on a rainy afternoon the children and I made these yummy Daim biscuits (as well as an almighty mess in the kitchen but these babies were well worth it)

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I finally booked tickets to go and see the Isabella Blow exhibition Fashion Galore! at Somerset House. I’m going with a friend next Saturday – the day before it ends, talk about cutting it fine!

Tulips

My tulips from Valentine’s Day are still with us (just about). I saw a tip on the Internet which said that putting them in ice cold water made the flowers last longer. It seems to have worked.

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I’ve also been decanting my kitchen staples like flour, sugar, pasta etc into glass jars (mostly from Ikea) and labeling them with these cute chalkboard labels from Not on the High Street. Looks so much better than lots of half full bags and packets spilling stuff everywhere.

Happy weekend everyone! X