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Another New iPhone Cover!..

A new iPhone cover has made it's way on to my phone this week and this time it's from Cath Kidston. I am having a bit of a 'thing' for Cath Kidston products at the moment, they're just so pretty and girly. I'm surprised I've only just discovered Cath Kidston properly. This is from the Apple Store and cost around 20 pound. It's a little on the expensive side but considering I use my phone pretty much all of the time, I think it's worth it and the quality of the case makes the money seem worth it too! What do you think?

Home Decor: Flyaway Home


If it’s good enough for Christian Lacroix, it’s definitely good enough for me! In the summer of 2013, he came up with some amazing fabric featuring a flutter of brightly coloured butterflies on a turquoise background. It was called ‘Butterfly Parade Lagoon’. A large furniture retailer had some sofas upholstered in it, and the result was eye catching, breathtaking, and any number of other clichĂ©s you might like to apply here. 

Now, you may not be able to find anything quite so wonderful this year in a random range of sofas (please let me know if you do), but butterflies and birds have been a design trend for a few years now, and there are plenty of other, less gobsmacking ways of incorporating them into your home. 

How to settle down in your care home


Moving away from your home in any circumstances will be heart wrenching but moving into a care home can feel even more painful. It’s a new experience that neither yourself or your family wants to consider, but under circumstances might need to.  Moving into a care home you may worry you are losing your independence or your dignity, this does not have to be the case. If you prepare yourself and settle in, you will find a home that will give you the correct amount of attention you need and perhaps you’ll gain more independence than you had before. 

Home Decor: Going Girly Without Overpowering The Men in the House


Living with my Husband, there obviously has to be some sort of male influence in our home decor. Particularly so as children are quite susceptible to these things, and I would like Ethan to feel he can express his masculinity appropriately as he grows. However, I’m finding myself drawn more and more to lovely girly accessories for our home.

Blogs and design stuff that I’ve been reading recently have been wearing off on me, and my shopping trips seem to be producing more than just clothes and food these days!

There are some lovely design tricks to make your home look really well-thought-out, so I have decided to share some of the things I've picked up lately with you.. 

Foster Carers.. Why are they so Important?



There are 87,000 children in care homes in the UK and with children coming into care at a rate of one every 22 minutes, the foster system in Britain is at breaking point. Right now, 62,000 children live with foster carers and at least 9,000 more foster homes are needed immediately.

Number of foster homes on the increase

The case of Baby P, who died after suffering 17 months of abuse at the hands of his at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and her boyfriend's brother, has meant that local authorities are acting with much greater speed to remove children from potentially dangerous family situations. 

In addition to authorities being more vigilant, the global economic recession has contributed to an increase in the number of family breakdowns, which could explain why more children are finding themselves in care homes and living with foster carers than ever before.

Fostering solutions

So what are the fostering solutions available to help ease our creaking system?

Provision of foster care relies on people from all walks of life and all backgrounds offering a supportive home to a child who is no longer able to remain in their birth home.

Fostering can take many different routes, and it is up to the fostering agency or local authority and the potential foster carer to arrive at the solution that works. Some children will need long-term foster care, while others will need support for just a few days, before returning to their birth family.

A foster carer becomes part of a support team around the child; other members of the team include the social worker, health workers and education officials.

Who can foster?
  
On paper, most people can foster. Religious beliefs, culture and sexuality will not prevent you from fostering, although every effort will be made to place children with carers from the same cultural or ethnical background.

Age is not a barrier: legally you can become a foster carer from the age of 18, although most authorities will stipulate you be older. You can even be retired - the only stipulation is that you are healthy and able to cope with the demands of being responsible for a young person. 

You will need to go through extensive checks to ensure that the home you are offering is one that will give a child a stable, supportive and safe environment in which to grow. 

Becoming a foster carer is not always an easy task. You may be dealing with children who have complex issues and difficulties and may well have been raised thus far with very different values and had different cultural experiences.

Preparing for fostering

If you feel that fostering is for you, then it is advisable to establish a network of support by telling your friends and family all about your fostering plans. 

If you already have children, then talking them through every stage is vital so they feel fully involved - but enlist the support of the wider family, too. There may be times when you will need a supportive shoulder of your own to lean on.

Fostering is a noble profession. And if it’s something that you feel drawn towards, simply click here to find out more about the process and begin making a difference in the lives of children in need of support, today.

Mummy never stops!

It's funny.. everyday I aim to get pretty much most of the general house jobs done. Sometimes it takes me all day and all evening but I usually get them done. The hope is that I will be able to perhaps have one hour to myself in the evening to sit down and relax with my Husband and usually we get that. Not that an hour ever really feels like enough. 

I also try to get as much as I can done so that it takes the edge off of what will be waiting for me when I wake up the next day. Somehow though, it never does. There's always as much to do. The list never goes down. 

I suppose having four very messy cats doesn't help my dilemma. Their muddy paw prints that I chase around after with a wipe in hand every 5 minutes.. their moulting hair that gets everywhere, (literally everywhere).. their cat food that they dot around the house (maybe for later?) and the leaves and thorns (yes, thorns!) that my fluffy cat Sooty brings in and leaves all over the floor. The number of times that we've come down in the morning barefooted and stood straight onto a thorn or two is an actual joke. 

Then factor in the nine month old.. and his mess. And the mess that awaits me every single second of my life when he begins toddling. Oh and there's the Husband of course. So yes, Mummy never stops!..

No Playroom.. No worries!.. 3 Tips for Creating the perfect Play Space

9 months old, play space, toy storage solutions,

If you're lucky enough to have a designated room for play, then go wild with it, have fun creating the perfect fun-brightly coloured room of your childs dreams. But if you're like me and you don't have a room that you can designate solely as a playroom, then no worries. We can still have great fun creating a little space for our babies/children to safely mess about in.

Here's just three ideas that I'd like to share with you..


1. Start with the flooring


I have laminate in my living room and one day when Ethan was around 5 months old it suddenly occurred to me that I just had no where soft to put him down when I needed to. Before then we'd used blankets on the floor and a baby play mat. But as he grew and began rolling off of the soft areas we'd put down for him, we decided to take out our rather large coffee table and put down a lovely soft big rug. It opened up the space instantly and it literally is the best thing we've ever brought. Now Ethan pays on the rug and the laminate is no longer an issue, in fact it's great because he has the option of the soft rug area to lay around on and also the laminate to pull along his toys and scoot around in his walker. So the first move in creating a successful make-do play space is to tackle the play area flooring.

A Sick Baby, a Museum and a Birthday.


I'm a sucker for personal blog posts, I love writing them for myself and my own blog and I love reading them on other blogs. So when I get the chance I like to do a sort of weekend-round up, and write about what I've been up to. I think these sort of posts are lovely for when I look back through my blog and stumble across old memories from times gone by. 

So what have I been up to lately? Well, Ethan has been unwell. :( I'm pretty sure that he has some sort of stomach bug. He was tired all of the time to begin with, along with the all of the normal (rather gross) symptoms often associated with a stomach bug, but he's not longer tired. In fact he's back to his usual self - happy, laughing, alert.. but the sickness etc.. that's all still going strong..  :( We've been lucky enough that this is actually the first time that he's had any sort of illness, but because it is the first time, I've got that new mum worry and it's at it's height. I may give the Doc a call tomorrow.. just for some advice. 



Valentines Day Inspiration



We're really not far off of Valentines Day are we?! And as with most of life lately it seems to have come up pretty quickly! You all know how much I love to create little wish lists and present ideas for different holidays across the year. So here's a few ideas I've come up with for Valentines Day 2014. Please let me know what you think. :)


First up is Ted Baker's 'Ella'. A beautifully packaged purse spray that comes in a black bottle with notes of cassis, floral mid notes and a heady base including amber and sandalwood. A lovely gift any girl would love to receive I'm sure. Priced between £10-£15. 

 What's valentines day without a box of tasty Guylian? And how perfect are these valentines day themed choccies? Individually wrapped in luxurious golden foil within an eye catching red box, these romantic heart shaped chocolates, filled with roasted hazelnut praline are the perfect way to say ‘I Love You’ this Valentine’s Day. The 50g box (RSP £1.49) contains four praline filled hearts is the ideal love token, whilst the 125g heart shaped box (RSP £3.99) makes a more substantial Valentine’s Day present.

Family Generations Photography Ideas

family generation photo ideas,

My Husband, Adam has a very close knit family and our Son is lucky enough to have two Great-Grandparents from his side of the family. 
I always think that if you’re lucky enough to have a few generations in your family, then there's nothing better than showing them off in beautiful photos for the children to look back on when they're older. 
I'm a lover of photography and have been trying to learn the ropes with creating beautiful photographs ever since I got my Canon DSLR.  Recently I've been having a bit of a think and have come up with some (what I think are) lovely ideas for ways to capture family generations through photographs..

Win a Raggy-Tag Comfort Blanket + Matching Teddy Bear!


Raggy-Tag manufacture and retail baby gift products in the UK. Sourcing the best fabrics to make beautiful, practical and cherished baby products.  The renowned Raggy-Tag comfort blankets are very useful in helping to establish self-soothing sleep routines for babies and parents and are their best selling gift.  They also sell complimenting pram and cot blankets as well as quilts, cushions, teddy bears and more and offer a personalisation service for those that prefer more of a personal touch.

The lovely people over at Raggy-Tag were kind enough to drop me an email recently to offer my readers the chance to win one of their popular Raggy-Tags comfort blankets as well as a matching teddy bear. They also very kindly sent over one of their pram blankets and one of their cot blankets to me for Ethan to snuggle up to and I am so impressed with not only the quality but the care that has quite obviously gone into making these.

On top of all of this, Raggy-Tag have also been kind enough to offer a discount code especially for Bump to Baby readers/subscribers.  The discount code is B2B15 and can be applied at their check out to receive 15% off all orders placed on their website until Monday. 

In the UK, a child is reported missing every 3 minutes.

missing children, kidpack,

It's a scary thought, isn't it? 

And as a Mother, it's not one I particularly like to think about too much, but it's not something that I or any other parent can just completely ignore. 

When most people hear the above statistic they think, "That can't be right.Unfortunately, it's not an error or typing mistake. In fact, it means that over 140,000 children go missing every year in the UK. The tiny percentage of missing child cases that receive high profile media attention often gives people an inaccurate view of how widespread and serious the problem has become. 

The best Vegetarian-friendly sweets I've ever tasted.

vegetarian sweets, vegan sweets, gelatine free sweets, fat-free sweets, goodygoodstuff review, gluten free sweets, dairy free sweets

Goody Good Stuff 

Goody Good Stuff is an all-new natural gummy sweet range that is made with a plant derived bio-gum technology, which eliminates the need for animal-based gelatin, which most traditional gummy sweets use. 
After having the pleasure of having tasted pretty much all of their range of gummy sweets, I feel even more inclined to beg the question.. 'Why is animal-derived gelatin still being used to bring sweets to shelves of our supermarkets?'..
When sweets can taste as good as they do from Goody Good Stuff surely there just isn't the need to bring the slaughter of innocent animals into what should be just a simple sweet-pleasure?!

Great vegetarian and vegan sweets

If you haven't already tasted their range, I urge you to, you won't be disappointed I promise. A great one to start with are the cherries, they are my absolute personal favourite. Find out where to buy them here. :)
Oh and they're not just for veggies and vegans, they are also...
  • Fat Free!
  • Dairy Free!
  • Alcohol Free!
  • Gluten Free!
  • Egg Free!
  • Nut Free!
  • Soy Free!

  • .. And oh so delicious, that your taste buds won't actually believe it. :)

vegetarian sweets, vegan sweets, gelatine free sweets, fat-free sweets, goodygoodstuff review, gluten free sweets, dairy free sweets

Win a Braun Series 7 Shaver for your Man this Valentines!



I'm absoutely thrilled to be teaming up with the lovely people at Braun to bring you, my lovely readers, this very exciting giveaway! This is their Series 7 shaver, it's the most advanced shaver ever released by Braun! And it's ranked number one over on top review site Groom and Style within their 'Best Braun Electric Shavers' list! With more computing technology than NASA’s Apollo 11, this shaver is ideal for the man who demands perfection. 

My Hubby recently gave it a try himself and in his own words said it's just simply amazing and that every man should own one. He couldn't believe how advanced the technology was.

Something to hopefully make you LOL this Thursday!



Books, Words and Fantasty Lands.

books, baby blog, uk baby blog, nursery, baby books,

As a child one of my very favourite hobbies was to read and then to write. Books always inspired me, they took me off to a fantasy land that only existed in my imagination. And because of this the words within the books always seemed so powerful. I came to love the words. This reflected on my strengths at school.. spelling, English, creative writing.. I was good at them all. I suppose that's why I like to blog now. I am still very much in love with the power of words and I need that creative outlet. 

What's your Home Decor Style?

I've always been into home decor. I have a slight OCD with keeping the house tidy, although since becoming a Mum and having significantly less time per day this OCD urge has greatly declined. But the desire to have a lovely home with beautiful things inside of it is something that will always interest me. It makes me happy as a hobby, a hobby that can sometimes be a little on the expensive side, but a great hobby all the same. 

When my Husband and I moved in with each other aged 19, our home decor tastes were the exact same.. we loved the 'modern' look. The more contemporary the better. And we still do share that taste in decor, but lately I seem to have really latched on to the whole shabby chic look. You know the one.. the pretty, perhaps sometimes a tad too much floral going on look. I'm also really getting into white.. white everything. The more white the better. Not only does white provide the perfect back drop for photographs, it's clean, fresh, bright and pretty all rolled into one. It also goes with every other colour.. particularly, in my opinion, duck egg blue. But though the Hubby has come around to my recent 'everything white craze' he's not yet convinced on the duck egg blue.

We're still hoping to move.. our chain is now complete so it's just waiting on solicitors etc now so if all does go to plan (fingers crossed) it'll be so great getting to redecorate the new house and purchasing all our new furniture. I'm a fan of places like Ikea and Rodgers of York and will be hoping to pick out some gorgeous white pieces to make the new house a home.

I'd love to know what your home decor style is? And why?


Mclaggan Smith Mugs Giveaway

I was recently sent a very exciting email from the lovely people over at Mclaggan Smith Mugs offering me the chance to review for them. I jumped at the chance because I've seen their mugs before and they are absolutely brilliant. 

They literally do so many different great designs making them suitable for all different people with all different tastes. I opted for their Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear mugs from the Raw Xclusive range. I think they are adorable, especially so when you have both the Mummy Bear and the Daddy Bear. They are priced at £9.00 each, which for such a lovely design isn't bad. They are smaller than I had imagined but I've just seen that there's an option on their website to opt for the bigger size for £2.50 extra. I've also just noticed that theres another option which allows you to add text to the handle, to make it a bit more personal (perfect as a gift) for £5.00. 
The mugs came through the post pretty much straight away and were wrapped with special care, so much so that it was a job for me to get into them.. always better safe than sorry though! Haha :)

Overall I'm pleased with these mugs, the designs you can get are just fabulous. It was so hard to choose!.. And now I'm going to show you just how hard it is by offering you the chance to win your own mug from Mclaggan Smith Mugs. All you need to do is head on over to their website, find and pick out your favourite design and leave me a comment below telling me what it is. You'll also need to use the Rafflecopter form below and take part in all of the entries to be considered as a winner. UK only. 1 Winner, 1 Mug. 

 Best of luck :) x



Applying Make-Up behind the Wheel.


I was just sat here watching Hollyoaks (Poor John-Paul :(..) and having a little read through this webpage on annoying driving habits. I think that one of the most annoying driving habits is using a mobile phone whilst driving. How annoying is it when you see someone driving whilst talking very blatantly on their phone!? Why do they do it? They couldn't make it any more obvious and it's so bloody dangerous, it makes me angry! I remember I watched one of those police traffic programs a while back now and a young girl around my age was killed on the motorway after her car was squashed from the rear by an arctic lorry.. the guy was messing about with his phone and didn't realise the traffic has stopped in front of him. It was awful watching the police officer turn up at the girls house to go and tell her family and her fiancĂ©. :(

Another annoying thing that drivers do is apply make-up behind the wheel... just why? Is the risk of putting yourself and others at danger worth it?! The answer seems very obviously, no.

We're all guilty of taking our concentration off of the road for a minute I'm sure, through means such as loud music and the like but seriously some drivers really do need to get their act together. 

Pretty in Pink, iPhone Case

So, I just got this new case for my iPhone the other day from eBay for like £2.69 or something like that and I am SO pleased with! So much so that I thought it was worth sharing with you all.

I love the heart shape around the camera lens and the pattern around the exposed Apple logo. The case is high quality, which did kind of pleasantly surprise me considering the price! I've added some clear iPhone protector sheets to the back and the front just to reduce the risk of scratches etc, since the front and a small portion of the back of the phone remain exposed.

I brought the case here incase you're interested in picking one up for yourself.  :)

What do you think of my new case? What type of case do you have on your own phone?

Quality Time


I honestly don't think that there's anything nicer than spending time together as a family. It's literally my favourite thing to do. And today we got to do exactly that. We decided to have a day of shopping and go out somewhere nice for lunch. Which ended up going to Zizzis in High Wycombe and browsing all of the many shops there. The sales weren't that great, I have a feeling that we may have somehow missed them even though it is only the start of January. It seems to me that the sales are now based around Boxing Day, which I believe should be spent with family at home. But hey! Such is life. At least I spent less money! ;) 

Our day was fantastic, apart from the pain in my feet from all of the wandering around, haha ;) I actually may need to invest in some heel supports for sore feet or womens insoles for flat feet as my feet always seem to be hurting lately. We're now sat in our chilling clothes on the sofa together about to watch the second episode of Luther. (We're so behind with it!)

My Husbands also off tomorrow and we're thinking that we might take Ethan swimming, as he literally loves it so much, and Mondays are always a quiet day at the pool. :)

I hope you guys have all had a lovely weekend! I'd love to know what you've been up to! x


 

How pretty are these?!


I am weirdly obsessed with baskets or boxes. I don't know what it is, there's just something about them. The prettier the better! And these lovely little boxes are just absolutely gorgeous! I picked them up in town the other day for just £1.99 each! I couldn't believe how cheap they were! I kind of wish I'd got some more now. I brought them from a store called 'Store Twenty One'. I'd never gone in before because they mostly sell clothes that don't really appeal to me, but tucked away at the back is actually quite a good home section. 

I also picked up a matching documents holder which is currently placed in my kitchen.

 I am so pleased with the boxes! I'm using them to store my nail varnishes in at the moment which is really handy.

I'm really starting to get into the more 'prettier' home accessories lately. 

Have you got any recommendations for cheap pretty homely bits and bobs?

New favourite perfume! What's yours?


The first time I saw this Miss Dior perfume was actually through Kayleigh Couturegirl's blog photos. I fell in love with the shape of the bottle and added it to my christmas wish list, without even smelling it! Haha!

Adam kindly brought me it this Christmas and the bottle in real life is so much better than in the photos! I was so worried that I wouldn't like it, being that I hadn't even smelt it but it's absolutely gorgeous! I've gone from being that person who's not really bothered about perfume to wearing this everyday!

Have you got this Dior perfume? If not, what perfume do you currently use?

P.S Yes, you've probably noticed. Yet another new blog design! I seem to change my blog design more times than I change my socks, haha! :)

Happy 2014!

Happy 2014 everyone! 


I can't believe that this time last year I was 25 weeks pregnant with this cheeky little guy, who is currently running about in his walker attacking the cats food bowls! Haha :|

I don't make new years resolutions so I don't have any to share with you, but I just wanted to wish you all a happy new year! Lets hope it's a good one! :) xx