Tag Archives: Weekend

Five on Friday

Posted in Five on Friday by

IMG_6680

{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…}

Clemmie playground

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

movies_grand-budapest-hotel-poster

{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!}

IMG_6711

{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

Enjoy the Little Things

Posted in Daily Musings by

20140404-095807

They say that the secret to lasting happiness is finding joy in the little things and counting your blessings every day. So here is my list of the things that are making me happy right now:

* My sister is visiting from Sweden with her children at the moment. As I’ve been working lots this week I haven’t seen much of them yet but Clemmie has spent three days at my parents’ house and has been so happy playing with her cousins. And we have a big family lunch planned for tomorrow.

* I don’t mind the extra work as I’ve been really lucky to land a job which I love (at a time when I wasn’t even looking for work!) and can do from home.

* Today is Friday, my favourite day of the week, and after collecting the boys from tennis camp it is the official start of the weekend!

* The laundry basket is almost empty which means I can forget about the washing for the whole weekend.

* The sun is shining and will hopefully carry on doing so for the next few days.

* I have a butternut squash roasting in the oven at the moment and am planning to make this dish for supper tonight.

* One of my friends is popping over during my lunch break and I’m looking forward to a cup of coffee and nice chat.

* I got an email from Space NK offering me £10 off just as my concealer and foundation have both run out.

I wish you all a Happy Friday! X

Five on (ehrm..) Sunday

Posted in Five on Friday by

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:

IMG_6655 2

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

IMG_6324

{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}

IMG_6656 2

{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.}

IMG_6660 2

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

IMG_6654 2

{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

The Weekend in Pictures

Posted in Family Life by

We had a balmy, sunny weekend here in the UK and, fingers crossed, this could be the week that I finally put away all the winter coats, hats and scarves. As usual the weekend went by in a flash but we had a lovely couple of days full of family time, which is not always possible with two (soon three!) school-age kids who often have their own activities and parties to go to.

IMG_6609

{Clemmie and her best friend hanging out at the bowling alley}

With three children aged 3-10 it can be hard to find activities that will please all of them but this weekend we definitely found one: bowling. The boys have already been several times, in fact Cameron had a bowling party for his ninth birthday, but it was the first time Clemmie tried it. I’m pleased to say that she loved it, even if I did wince every time she insisted on picking up the bowling ball, fearing she would drop it on her feet.

IMG_6610

{Cameron going in for the strike}

IMG_6611

{No visit to the bowling alley is complete without a slush puppy to drink}

Sunday, of course, was Mother’s Day and, after I had enjoyed leisurely breakfast in bed (or as leisurely as it can be with the kids fighting over the toast and covering the duvet in strawberry jam!), we walked up to Hampton Court Palace. After strolling around the gardens and playing a few games of hide and seek, we enjoyed some yummy cakes in the cafe.

I’m proud to tell you that some of these pictures were taken by Cameron who is developing a real interest in photography. He’s now saving up for his own camera and I think it would be great to have a hobby that we can both share.

 

Hampton Court 1

{Me and my brood}

Hampton Court 2

Hampton Court Lion

Hampton Court Statue

Hampton Court

Pink flowers

{Hampton Court gardens in bloom is one of the prettiest sights around this time of year}

Daffodils

Sorry for bombarding you with so many pictures but on the rare occasions that we remember to bring the DSLR with us, we take A LOT of photos!

Hope you’ve had a good start to the week. ‘Til the next post xxx

 

Happy Mother’s Day ♥

Posted in Family Life by

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mums out there, hope you have a fantastic day. Young or old, married or single, working or stay-at-home: remember you are all fabulous! XXX

Mother's Day Gifts

{My eldest son woke my husband up this morning at 7.30am (it was really 6.30am I suppose as the clocks moved forward today and my husband is NOT a morning person) saying “C’mon Daddy, it’s mummy’s day, we need to get organised!”}

Mother's Day 3

{And get organised they did! I had breakfast in bed – smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, my favourite – and was showered with gifts and (best of all) lots of kisses and cuddles}

Mother's Day 4

Mother's Day gifts 5

 

Five on Friday

Posted in Five on Friday by

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.

Cameron

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.

IMG_6424

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.

Mallorca-980x490

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.

miracles-now-gabrielle-bernstein-76

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!

IMG_6503

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

If you go down to the woods today…

Posted in Family Life by

Woods1

I’m a city girl at heart and although we live in a village on the outskirts of London, I love that the city centre is only a 30 minute train ride away. But despite my affection for urban living I do sometimes get a yearning for wide open spaces. Now that the weather is better, we have all (especially the children) been craving fresh air, trees to climb, trails to explore and hills to roll down. Luckily, we also have on our doorstep some of the finest countryside the south east of England has to offer. So on Sunday morning we set off early to beat the crowds and drove up to Box Hill in Surrey where we spent a good couple of hours enjoying the great outdoors. We all had a fabulous time and, best of all, come Sunday night the kids were so exhausted they were out like a light at 8pm!

Cam & Clem

Casper

Woods 3

Clemmie

The boys & I

Five on Friday

Posted in Five on Friday by

IMG_6350

{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?

Spirulina

{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.}

IMG_6379

{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.}

IMG_6417

{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.}

IMG_6412

{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

The Weekend in Pictures

Posted in Family Life by

IMG_6321

{I went for a walk on Saturday morning and snapped these lovely daffodils}

Isn’t it amazing what a difference a bit of sunshine can make? We have had glorious weather this weekend and somehow everything seems so much easier when the sun is out, everyone is happier (including the normally grumpy drivers in London!) and even food seems to taste better when it is eaten outside, underneath bright blue skies. I wonder if it’s just because nice weather is such a rarity on these shores. I’d love to know – if you’re lucky enough to live in sunnier climes, does it still boost your mood or do you just get used to it?

IMG_6324

{The outdoor furniture could do with a good clean but it was blissful to sit outside with a cup of coffee and a magazine, listening to the birds chirping in the trees and the children arguing over the football (oh well you can’t have it all!)}

Blue accessories

{Lady in blue: Me up in town this morning wearing my blue pumps from New Look (bought five years ago), a white and blue scarf (bought in Sweden), knitted jacket by Odd Molly, jeans by Paige Denim and sunglasses from Oliver Peoples}

IMG_6284

{We try to go up to the Swedish Church in Marylebone twice a month so the children can go to Sunday school and practice their language skills. Afterwards, there is always coffee and plenty of cakes – during Lent they serve traditional Swedish semla (cakes flavoured with cardamom and filled with almond paste and cream) – sooo yummy!}

IMG_6338

{It looks like it will be the perfect week to fit in a few power walks and trips to the park. No doubt the rain will return at some point so I intend to make the most of it!}

Now the kids are all in bed, the washing up is done, my blog post is written and I think we have time to squeeze in a couple of episodes of House of Cards. We’ve almost watched all of the second series so have to find another one soon…

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend. X

Five on Friday

Posted in Five on Friday by

Nars 2

{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.}

Coffee table books2

{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

Clutch 1

{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.}

IMG_6306

{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.}

IMG_6289

{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!}