Tag Archives: This week’s favourites

This Week’s Favourites

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This week's faves 03:10

Hello again! Just a quick one tonight as I’m totally exhausted after Cameron’s 10th birthday party this afternoon for 17 of his friends at a mini golf course near our house. His actual birthday is tomorrow and I’ve just finished making a cake and wrapping the presents (his main present is a bicycle but he’ll get to choose it himself so we’ve just printed out a picture of a cool bike and stuck it in a birthday card).

As I’m typing this with only one eye open, here is a quick round-up of our week:

1. Apart from today’s party, Halloween was without a doubt the highlight of our week. When we went to our local farm shop we ran into this Pumpkin Princess who kindly agreed to have her picture taken with the kids.

2. The Halloween decorations were brought down from the loft and the children immediately tried on the bat hairbands. Clemmie kept hers on for two days and even took it into bed at night.

3. On Wednesday the sun graced us with its presence and we took advantage of the crisp autumn weather with a trip to a nearby adventure park and farm.

4. It has been lovely spending every day with my boys this half term. They have tomorrow off as well but on Tuesday it’s back to school.

5. The pumpkins took pride of place on our doorstep on Thursday as we hosted a small tea party for friends before trick or treating around the neighbourhood.

6. The kids all dressed up in their scary finery.

7. Cameron’s golf themed birthday cake (no I didn’t make it, cake decorating is not a strength of mine..) went down a treat at the party today.

8. My football crazy son holding one of his favourite birthday presents.

9. It’s bonfire weekend so after the party we went to see an amazing fireworks display.

It’s now almost 11pm and high time I went to bed, I suspect the birthday boy will not let us have a lie-in tomorrow morning. Good night to you all. X

This Week’s Favourites

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This Week's Faves 27:10

Wow, two parties in one day! First the Maison Bentley Style Blog Party hosted by the fabulous Kate – such a great idea and I met some lovely bloggers. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by A Spoonful of Style – I really enjoyed spending time with you all and look forward to following your blogs.

Then, it was time for Casper’s seventh birthday bash, a swimming party for 12 of his friends at our local gym. All the kids were exhausted and high on sugar (should be an impossible combination but believe me it is not!) by the end of it so I think we can safely say it was a huge success.

I’m pretty tired now myself but feeling cosy wrapped up in a blanket on the sofa with candles lit on the mantlepiece as a big storm brews outside. So here’s just a quick recap of the week that once again went by in a flash:

1. On Tuesdays and Fridays when Clemmie doesn’t go to preschool my husband takes the boys to school so we can just chill out at home.

2. I am quickly becoming addicted to the Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks and looking forward to the Gingerbread Lattes appearing on the menu in the run-up to Christmas.

3. We went shopping for Halloween costumes and Clemmie decided she would rather be a princess than a witch. Fine by me, the only problem is that the costume sheds glitter EVERYWHERE – the floor, the sofa and my clothes are covered in it.

4. This scary zombie (also known as Cameron) had a great time at his school Halloween disco.

5. A birthday party means lots more presents and an insane amount of Lego sets to build. It will keep Casper busy over half term!

6. Halloween is fast approaching and this morning we went to a nearby farm shop to get our pumpkins. We will be hosting a Halloween party for a few friends on Thursday before we go trick or treating around the neighbourhood.

Next week is half term so all the children will be at home but hopefully I should be able to find some time for blogging as well.

Have a great Sunday night. X

This Week’s Favourites

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This week's faves 13:10

I suppose the title of this post should really be ‘last week’s favourites’…I’m a day late but with all the party preparations last week and then the clearing up yesterday I have a feeling I’ll be playing catch-up all week. Anyway here’s a quick round-up of the last seven days:

1. My thermos mug from Ikea comes in handy on busy mornings when I end up having breakfast on the run.

2. I made another batch of low carb muesli this week (find the recipe here) – my favourite breakfast.

3. Banana bread is great to put in the children’s lunch boxes and as an afternoon treat with a cup of tea. (Recipe here)

4. The week started off very warm and we made the most of the sunny weather with a trip to the playground after preschool. As the week went on it got progressively colder and I think it’s definitely time to dig out the hats and gloves (although I think the chances of finding a matching pair are very slim, given how many gloves were lost at school last winter).

5. Beautiful autumn colours on a crisp, sunny morning.

6. I had been looking for a new ‘smart’ winter coat for a while but not found anything that was quite right. I have a padded coat from Zara which is great when it gets really cold but I wanted a slightly dressier one to wear for nights out. Usually buying coats is a nightmare as I’m small and unless I find one in a petite fit (which means much less choice), the sleeves are too long and it swamps me. But I went into town mid-week to take a few things back and there it was – the perfect coat. As luck would have it there was one left in my size and, being H&M, it was a total bargain at only £39.99! I tried to find it online to link back to for a better picture but for some reason it’s not up on the H&M website, so you’ll have to make do with the picture I snapped in the changing room. The main body of the coat is a black and white tweed type of pattern, with black sleeves and a detachable fur collar which you can of course wear with other coats and jackets as well.

7. It was only a quick trip into town but I did manage to have a wander through our local department store where they were setting up the Christmas display. I know a lot of people complain that the stores bring out the Christmas decorations too early but I kind of like it. The boys’ birthdays are at the end of October and beginning of November but after that I like to start planning for the festive season – I can’t stand stressing about it in mid December when the shops are full of people and things are starting to run out, or worrying about Internet deliveries arriving in time. Only ten weeks to go until Christmas Day folks!

8. Every Friday Clemmie and I go to Gym Tots with my friend and her daughter. The girls love running around, climbing on all the gym equipment and bouncing on the trampolines.

9. As you probably know by now the week culminated with a birthday party for my husband which went on into the early hours of Sunday morning. We all had a great time and he got some fantastic presents – almost all of them golf related!

Hope you’ve all had a fantastic start to the week! X

This Week’s Favourites

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This week's faves 6:10:13

Where has the time gone? It seems like it was only yesterday that I wrote my last ‘Favourites’ post and now it’s Sunday again. Looking back at the photos I can see that even though the week flew by, as usual we managed to squeeze quite a lot in.

1. Because of the building work going on at home, the house was covered in dust at the start of the week so Clemmie and I escaped to a nearby village for brunch. I had Eggs Benedict, one of my all-time favourites.

2. We have finally chosen the tiles to go around the sink in the new downstairs cloakroom. Fingers crossed, it should all be finished by the end of this week in time for my husband’s birthday party on Saturday. I will of course share pictures when it’s all done.

3. I also managed to plant some herbs in two of the pots I bought in Sweden this summer. They were a bargain at less than £10 for three and I love the chalkboard labels on them.

4. I went to two exercise classes this week and decided to reward myself (and my aching muscles) with some new workout clothes from Sweaty Betty.

5. I also bought an early birthday present for myself from Space NK – I just can’t go into that store without buying something!

6. The highlight of the week was without a doubt my birthday on Wednesday and a meal out at Jamie’s Italian to celebrate with my husband and kids.

7. Like mother like daughter. Clemmie seems to have inherited my love of magazines and pesters me to buy one every time we go shopping. This one certainly lives up to is name: I think it has got every shade of pink imaginable on the cover.

8. I made a very exciting discovery this week: they sell Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks in the UK! I don’t know how I could have missed it although in my defence the barista did say they’re new for this autumn. So yummy, especially with whipped cream on top!

9. My husband went away for a golf weekend on Friday so I’ve been on my own with the kids all weekend. I really take my hat off to all the single mums out there, it is bloody hard work! Saturday was spent ferrying them around to various activities (football, swimming, tutor) and then a friend whose husband was also away came over with her kids in the evening. The children had pizza and shared some of my birthday chocolates while watching a movie (although I think Clemmie managed to get more chocolate on her than in her!) and we had Thai takeaway and a glass of wine or two.

Now I’m just waiting for my other half to walk through the front door so I can take a hot bath and then curl up in front of the TV to watch the third series of Homeland. Unfortunately the week has not ended on a good note as someone close to me was admitted to hospital today. Hopefully, it won’t be for long and we’re all doing our best to stay positive.

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend. X

This Week’s Favourites

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This Week's Faves 29:9

A groggy but hungry boy tucking into pizza after his operation; Casper brought in his ‘bravery certificate’ from the hospital to show his classmates; Cameron was proud to win the trophy for good behaviour at Cub Scouts this week; Breakfast x 2 – yummy apple & cinnamon yoghurt and an omelette made in a ramekin dish; This week’s favourite outfit – I love my H&M snakeskin ballerinas; On the train back from London; A tired girl fell asleep in the carseat yesterday afternoon after a late night on Friday; After the train ride earlier this week Clemmie was delighted that the boys’ Scout group had organised a day out at a model railway today.

Bizarrely, I seem to have even less time to get things done since Clemmie started preschool. I think my expectations of how much I could achieve in 12 hours a week were perhaps a tad overambitious. Anyway, once you factor in the time it takes to drop off and collect her at preschool the time easily drops to 10 1/2 hours a week (and that’s assuming I go straight home without chatting to any of the other mums…). I suppose this week has not been typical as I had to collect Casper from school early on Monday before he had his operation. It all went fine – he was such a brave boy and didn’t complain once but that hour waiting for the nurse to come and tell us that he had woken up felt VERY long. Then on Thursday my other son had a (routine) hospital appointment up in town. My husband took him to the appointment but had to go on to a business meeting so I picked up Clemmie early to catch the train into London and meet them for lunch before taking the kids home. As we usually drive into town, it was Clemmie’s first time on the train and she loved it so much she cried when we had to get off. Now I know that if she’s having a bad day I can just buy a Travel Card and go up and down the train track to keep her happy!

So yes, to cut a long story short, I have not really accomplished much this week. I had visions of myself embarking on an exercise regime, doing a massive clear out of all the kids’ toys and clothes as well as catching up with the paperwork and answering all those emails which fill me with guilt every time I open my inbox. But tomorrow is a new start, with seven unwritten days stretching out in front of me, and as I’m booked into a gym class at 9.30am I hope that will set me off in the right direction. If not, there’s always next Monday…