Lazy, long weekend

We have just had a lovely, long weekend catching up with friends, playing in the park, going for walks and having ice-cream. The highlight was definately a visit from the boys Godmother Emma-Louise. She arrived with presents for the boys, new books - Emma is an English teacher so is always keen to develop the boys taste for reading and brought two awesome books this time, Mog - The forgetful cat and Say Hello to the Dinosaurs, both of which were a massive hit with Harry who has been running around making the sound of a Pterydactyl since having the dinosaur book read to him. We spent the afternoon in the sunshine at our local playground and had ice creams. Then, after putting the boys to bed we decided to open a bottle of wine, get a take away curry and Emma stayed for the evening which was lovely, impromptue evenings like that are always the best.

Ever the teacher!

                   

'It makes people wonder what you are thinking'

Happy long weekend x

My current favourite thing...

I am mad about the Hipstamatic photographic app for the iphone 'Digital photography never looked so analog'. You can change the lens, flash and film to create different looks all of them having an awesome retro feel, I love it!!

These are just a few pictures I have taken in the last couple of days to try the app out, there are so many combinations I still have to experiment with.

Sunshine and tummy bugs

The last few days the weather has been absolutely perfect, warm, and sunny with a clear blue sky. On Saturday we spent the whole day outside and had a picnic lunch by the stream. It was beautiful, we paddled in the stream and sat in the sun. Luckily we really made the most of the day and spent every moment outside, as that evening one by one we all got a sickness bug (apart from Luke who never seems to get sick? I have not jinxed you by writing that Luke, its just the truth) so the last few days we have spent in and out of bed and in front the TV, mainly watching the BBC's The Graffalo (I would definately recommend). Now I am trying to catch up on the massive amount of washing and cleaning, yuk! We are all slowly on the mend and I am sure after a quiet few days we will be back out enjoying ourselves, let’s just hope the weather lasts that long.

Poor Ollie has been the most sick out of all of us, not only did he have the bug but his first tooth broke through as well, double ouch!

This week

Ollie has been pulling himself to standing for a little while but he had not thought about doing it in bed, until now! I think he was watching me today while I was reading my blog friend Lindsay's post entittled Bedtime just got trickier and got the idea...

This is how I found him after his day sleep. I think I will have to moniter what he looks at on the internet already!

Harry has been his usual cool self and has taken to wearing his sunglasses all day and not just outdoors.

Luke and I have mainly been playing with the new iphone he brought me, it is so cool and there really is an app for everything.

Whats in your handbag?

A while ago there was a 'meme' going around some of the lovely blogs I read titled ‘what’s in your handbag?’ I never got time to take part in this one, but today I started thinking about it again.

It occurred to me that I never written much about life pre-babies on my blog, when in fact I did do some pretty cool things before my gorgeous boys came along, travelled, lived in Australia twice, different careers... For example after working for many years as a PA in Andersens in London, Luke and I went to live in Australia where I trained as a Make-up Artist and worked for a couple of prestige make-up brands as well as doing numerous freelance jobs. It was so much fun, getting to play with make-up everyday! I was a complete product 'junkie' and had boxes and boxes filled with millions of different creams, potions and make-up. I always remeber while living in Oz every month I would eagerly await the arrival of my British and American Vogues but most of all I would look forward to Allure magazine arriving, pages and pages or make-up and products and would obsess over what foundation or blusher I was going to try next. The reason for me writing about this is so that I can write a post called ‘what’s in my make-up bag?’ and you will know that I really have tried and tested most products on the market. (Also the contents of my handbag is much like any other mum of two in nappies...wipes, nappies, more wipes, nappy sacks, toy cars, boxes for raisins, bread sticks....Make-up is more interesting to me.)

So, what’s inside my make-up bag?

My make-bag is actually an enormous Cath Kidston wash bag full to bursting with products but here are a few of my favourites:

Etsee Lauder Double wear light – the longest lasting tint I have found, will not wear off no matter how many times Ollie touches my face or gives me dribbly kisses.

Estee Lauder ideal light, covers dark circles and gives you a great base for eyeshadow or if like me most days you don’t have time for eyeshadow it covers red eyelids and discolouration.

Revlon Blusher in Blushing Berry,  a great pink coloured powder, used on the apples of your cheeks for a youthful girly look.

Nars Bronzer in Laguna, gives a warm glow with out the fake look, I really cant live with out this.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler, everyone should curl their lashes, opens the eyes and makes them look bigger, these are by far the best curlers.

L'Oreal Lash Architect Mascara, no need to buy really expensive mascara this one gives you lushious lashes at a fraction of the cost and it comes in a waterproof formula.

I have so many lip glosses and lipsticks but the only lip product I always use is lansinoh nipple cream, it makes the most fantastic clear gloss, moiturises and protects (I know its a bit weird but I discovered it when breast feeding Harry and forgot my lip balm!).

Normal mummy blogging will resume tomorrow

Ollie's toes

I love his little baby feet and tiny toes.

Happy weekend x

London Elephant Parade

Last week while visiting the Natural History Museum, I posted a picture of Harry standing next to an elephant he thought was Elmer. It occurred to me tonight that I never explained why the elephant was there and the very worthwhile cause it represents.

This is the Hathi elephant, it stands outside the V&A and is part of an Elephant Parade, a conservation campaign that aims to highlight the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. Created by Elephant Family, the event sees over 250 brightly painted life-size elephants located over central London this summer. Each brightly coloured elephant what designed by a different artist or celebrity, with the aim to raise £2 million for the Asian elephant and benefit 20 UK conservation charities.

All of the elephants are for sale by auction, could you imagne how cool it would be to have your very own painted elephant!! Next time we are in London we will be looking for more of 'Elmers' friends.

Happy elephant spotting!

TOMS

Last night Luke came home from work with a surprise present for me.

A new pair of TOMS, how sweet is that?

I have been wanting some for a while but (because of the wonderful English weather) I always seem to buy more Converse. Now all I need is some sunshine!

The cool thing is that thanks to their One for One scheme not only did I get a new pair of shoes I know that a child in need somewhere in the world did too x

Bluebell Photographs

As a child and throughout most of my teens, every May we had a little family tradition of having our photos taken amongst the bluebells in the woods. Last year when Harry was 18months and I was heavily pregnant with Oliver we started our own family tradition of taking pictures in the bluebells. I was starting to get worried this year that we were not going to get a chance to go to the woods near my parents where we usually go as we seem to be really busy at the moment. So when Luke came back from an early morning bike ride and told me about the amazing bluebells right here in the Surrey downs, we went there that afternoon.

I was not disappointed, the bluebells carpeted the floor of the woods and it was spectacular. As you can imagine I took many, many pictures but I needed to as Harry decided he was not going to smile or look at the camera?! Instead he collected lots of sticks and carried around an enormous rock.

Back to School

As anyone who reads my blog or knows me, you will certainly know that I am obsessed with taking photos. I photograph everything and drive my poor family mad in the process with my constant ‘just stand still’, ‘look at mummy’, ‘can you do that again?’..... In fact the main reason I have a blog is so I can post photos and I have never written a post and not included a photo or eight.

So today I have started a short improver’s photography course at our local adult education centre. Every Friday morning for the next 6 weeks I get to play with my camera, chat to other passionate ‘want to be’ photographers and learn how to take better pictures. Fantastic!

Inside the classroom

It was a great morning, I met some really nice people and learnt a few new techniques . We have been set homework in the form of a research project to do this week, so I am going to start that now. I am such a geek doing my homework the day it was set!

Day out in London

We woke up this morning and had no plans for the day apart from spending it together as Luke is off work this week. So we made a quick decision to take the boys in to London to visit the Natural History Museum and I am really glad we did.

I think the Museum building is one of the most amazing buildings in London

Inside the entrance hall there is an enormous dinosaur skeleton, at first Harry was a bit nervous and asked Luke to carry him. This didn’t last long and he was soon off running about.

Both boys found it all fascinating

Ollie enjoying his chocolate chip cookie, I think this was his favourite part of the day.

Harry ran from exhibit to exhibit, there was just so much for him to see. 

The day was completed with Harry getting to meet Elmer (well he thought it was Elmer!).

Jai Ho!!!

Luke and I went to my gorgeous friend Lisa’s Bollywood themed fancy dress party. We had an amazing night! I love dressing up and had never wore a sari so was really excited, Luke looked very handsome in his Kurta.

Before the party all the girls had secretly learnt the dance routine to Jai Ho. So when the song came on we all took centre stage and preformed the dance for the boys. Someone did video us so if it ever makes its way on to youtube I will post a link.