Dressing the Bump

I had a pretty sizeable bump during both of my pregnancies. In fact this photo was posted a year ago today when I was 33 weeks pregnant with JBoy.

I never felt the need to hide my bump. In fact, strangely enough, I had more body confidence when I was pregnant than I have ever had in my life. I wish I could bottle that! I think it is important to still dress well and take pride in your appearance as much as possible during pregnancy. I mean, we all love to slob around but there are times such as work and nights out in those 9 months which call for more than an oversized t-shirt and leggings, comfy as they are. 

Although I believe in dressing the bump, I do think that that spending a fortune on maternity clothes is completely pointless. I loved George at ASDA for maternity clothes. They not only stock the basics but some on trend items too. At the moment they have a beautiful maternity summer collection for those poor souls carrying around a bump in this heat. Here are some of my favourites . . .

£10

Who doesn't love zebra prints. They are everywhere! I love this cute little summer dress, a steal at £10 in sizes 8 - 20. 

£12

£18

I love their floral dresses too. Great for day through to evening wear. They wouldn't look out of place in the office or in the bar (with a soda water and lime!) 

£12 for this pink and black sleeveless dress is a great price. Even though the price is cheap, doesn't mean the product is. I always find the quality is very good and the durability is far better than other discount clothing lines. 

Was £14 - Now £5

Get your money out of this dress if you are thinking about breastfeeding because wrap dresses are a girls best friend when you are trying to whip out your boob in public whilst balancing a newborn on your knee and trying to maintain your modesty. The plunging neck line is great for those oversized pregnancy/breastfeeding breasts and the pattern on this particular one is very flattering. I love this dress, a steal at £5 down from £14. 

Overall I am extremely impressed with George at ASDA's maternity range in terms of price and style. A tip though, you need to be quick when ordering online, as certain sizes often sell out which is testament to the appeal of these items. 

Check out the full maternity range here. 

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post but all information is factual and all opinions are my own. 

A House or a Home?

When we decided to move to a bigger house we really struggled to sell our old house due to the decline in the market. In the end we decided to keep hold of the house and let it out. After we went through the process of registering as a landlord, sorting things out with the mortgage company and selecting from our home insurance comparison list, we were all set and ready to go. What I hadn't quite prepared myself for was how I would feel emotionally.

This was our first real home together. The house we left from to get married. The house we first owned pets in. The house we set up for a home birth that never happened. The house I walked the floors of through the night with a screaming baby. The house that my son took his first independent steps in. The house where the kitchen floor was constantly covered in the remnants of JC’s dinner during the weaning phase. The house we laughed in, cried in, screamed in and smiled in.  So many memories held within the walls. It felt uncomfortable to let go.

The handing over of keys to the new tenants was a really hard day. As I passed them into their hands, I felt a lump building in my throat as I said “enjoy it”. On my first inspection visit to the property I felt a sense of joy as I walked through the door to find the property had a new feel. There were new memories being made there. No more or less loved than when we lived there but just different. It had and always will have a special place in my heart.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post but that does not mean it wasn't fun to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Make a House a Home

Disclaimer - this is a sponsored post but that doesn't mean it isn't interesting to read!

We moved into our new house on Friday and we have already starting thinking about ways to personalise the new house. Although our new house is move in condition and nicely decorated, we still have loads of ideas and would probably need to consider whether we can afford a loan to fulfil all our ambitions for the place. The biggest issue for us is the extra rooms as we will need more furniture to fill them so that the house doesn’t look like an empty shell.

What I have realised is that that I really want my new house to feel homely. The house we have just moved from was nice but I have purposely didn't put my mark on it too much as I guess I have always felt that it was simply a stop gap. We didn't let ourselves get too comfortable as we always knew that another move was imminent.

I’m really excited about taking my time over making this new house my home and I am trying to restrain myself from jumping in at the deep end. I intend on taking my time to think carefully about each room, planning out it’s space and function, considering the colour schemes and giving myself the permission to make it ours. Watch this space!

Ella's Kitchen - The Orange One

JC loves his grub, especially his fruit! Sometimes when he is teething he won't eat much of anything but especially solid foods. To make sure he gets his 5 a day in even when he is teething, I often give him fruit packs straight from the fridge. Ella's Kitchen have released a new fruit smoothies which are available from Sainsburys. They sent JC an Orange One sample to try out. The ingredients in The Orange One smoothie are bananas, oranges, mangoes, guava and a dash of lemon juice.

Here is JC enjoying his

I trust the quality of ingredients in Ella's Kitchen products, they comes in handy packaging, each pack contains 1 of your 5 a day and they are a great way of getting children to eat fruit.

JC's only complaint would probably be that there isn't enough of it. This was his reaction when he finished eating it . . .

And the Oscar goes too . . .

Disclaimer - this is a sponsored post but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy writing it and hopefully you will enjoy reading it. 

Our dogs should each win an Oscar for the best 'sick dog' performance. It's just as well we have pet insurance or we would be rooked! Tell me though, why is it that they seem to be terribly ill when you phone and make that emergency appointment but the minute your foot steps over the threshold of the Vets they instantly spring to life, bright eyed and bushy tailed? 

Being pedigrees, their breed has quite a few 'common ailments' attached. Ours seem to suffer from quite odd problems though. Kaiya has a terrible wasp allergy and comes out in awful lumps all over her body if she is stung, although as previously mentioned, she does like to play it up for her audience. Ruby is slightly hardier but has problems with incontinence, poor old girl. You don't get Tena Lady for dogs and those stupid looking pants you can buy in pet stores would do nothing for our Ruby and her JLo bottom. 

Although Kaiya wins the best actress award, Ruby comes a close second. She got what can only be described as cramp in her leg when she was out for a walk one day and she started holding her paw up and refusing to walk. My Mother in Law, who was out walking her, thought she was going to have to carry her home. She had a wee stretch and managed the rest of the way home. Funnily though, every time she gets into trouble now the 'limp' reappears! 

Boxers may be the clowns of the dog world but they certainly know how to wrap me round their paws!