Monday 30 September 2013

OOTD: Stripes & Splits

Trying to get back on the OOTD Bandwagon this month as i've got quite a few clothes i'm really loving at the moment and i'm starting to feel more comfortable with the 'wobbly bits' i've gained from having Millie (or just learning to cover them up more)


I bought some A/W things from H&M the other week (see what I bought here) and the below sweatshirt is one of my faves! Its so versatile, you can dress it up or down and it's super comfy too! You can't beat a comfy jumper in the Autumn. When its still quite warm but too cold to go jacket-less... Its perfect





Sweatshirt - H&M £7.99
Maxi Dress - Newlook (summer collection, no longer available) 
Chelsea Boots - H&M (last years A/W Collection) Similar here £29.99
Midi Rings - Primark £1.50
Necklace - Primark £1.50
Lipstick - MAC Just a Bite (Limited Edition) £15.00

Saturday 28 September 2013

How to save money when Christmas Shopping Online!

Yes, sorry! That 'C' word again! Well it is only 87 days away and if you're like me, you're already starting the Christmas shopping so... Here is another dose of my money saving tips, this time, to help keep your pockets a little fuller, a little longer!


1) Start as soon as you can. If you can afford to take out a chunk of money from your wages each month/week, then do so and put this aside. Or, if you're rubbish at putting money aside, by gifts now and get them delivered to a family members house (as long as its not for them). That way, you're cutting down your to-buy list, the item isn't sitting staring at you waiting to be wrapped and it's also giving yourself a little extra lea-way when it comes to counting the pennies later on in December! If you spend now, that last pay check of the year can be spent on you rather than everyone else! 
2) Buy in bulk from the same store (online) if possible! You'll find that on websites like Tesco Direct, Argos etc, if you spend a certain amount you can qualify for free delivery or even money off. At the moment, if you spend £75+ on Tesco you get £10 off - not bad! If you prefer to shop from the comfort of your own home though, beware of delivery charges. Delivery costs for 5 or 6 presents could have paid for 2 more presents for someone else! 
3) Don't forget to use your points cards when making purchases. Nectar cards, Clubcards, Boots and Superdrug are a few of the money rewarding store cards that will pay you a little back the more you spend. If you have a Boots card, remember to sign up to Treat Street too! And don't forget that eBay now let you redeem Nectar points too!
4) This one isn't just for online shopping but for offline too... Assign a certain amount for each person you're buying for. If you have a big family, this will be a great help! If you all give yourself a limit of say £20, you know what your budget is and you're not going to feel bad when you give your sister a bottle of bath salts and she brings out the Pandora bracelet you've been banging on about for months! 
5) Don't buy unnecessary items! I know it sounds like common sense but I fall victim to this. I literally can't stop myself when it comes to present buying and gift giving that I buy anything in sight and always find someone to give it to! Just because you can it's easy enough to 'add item to basket' when you're online, remember, you have to pay for it! Just because your fella having those t-shirts in every colour will last him a lifetime, doesn't mean he needs them all now! 
Christmas is my favourite time of year by far but it's a scary time of year, financially, for everyone. Follow these simple steps when you're christmas shopping and hopefully, it'll be a happier time for all! 
*sponsored by Spreaditfast

Friday 27 September 2013

Benefit Lipgloss

A few weeks back, I won a competition with Benefit to name their new Carnaby Street Guard. My name of 'Gino Bernardo the Benefit Guardo' won and I won a lovely little bundle of Benefit goodies (take a look at what else I got here). 

Benefit  is a brand i've only recently branched out to this year as it's always been a little out of my price range but since i've been able to control my money a little better than what I did when I was a student, I can afford a few treats every now and then! I must admit, even though some of their things are a little on the expensive side, they're definitely worth it! When I purchased Fake Up, my heart pounded as I pressed 'checkout' and when I realised i'd just spent £18 on a concealer, I thought I must have gone barmy. But, it come and it was worth every 1 of those 18 pounds! 





The Ultra Plush Lipgloss* I got is a really light, subtle pink colour 'Fauxmance' and when applied, it doesn't really have any colour at all (which is what I like in a gloss). I'm more of a matte kind of girl normally but applying this with no other colour on gives your lips a nice, natural finish as opposed to not having any product on them at all. And now the cold weather has set in, my best friend are lip balms because my lips chap SO MUCH and i'm a bugger for picking them too! 

It comes out really easily and doesn't squirt everywhere, unlike some other tubes of gloss i've tried and the smell is amazing! When I first applied it, I was like 'OH MY GOD, GIMME MORE' it smells super sweet and it doesn't taste too bad either. I know you're not meant to eat it but every now and then, you lick your lips and there's nothing worse than a foul tasting lipstick or gloss! 

You can buy this from Benefit for £14.50 in a variety of 6 different colours! 

Have you tried any of the Lipglosses from Benefit!? I'd love to know which one! 

Thursday 26 September 2013

What's Millie Doing? #4

And so here we are again. I'm a little late on this one as i've been meaning to write it up for a while but kept forgetting to upload the pictures of her so now we're at the 21 week mark, 5 MONTHS OLD! Wow. 
 
The little baby girl we bought home 5 months ago is slowly growing into a little person, a proper little girl with a huge set of lungs! We've tried to make a few changes this last month and if you've seen my updates on Twitter, we're very tired because of it... We used to give Millie a dummy. Not all the time, just to go to sleep with. Once she was in a deep enough sleep, she'd spit it out but then at night, she'd wake up crying for it realising it was no longer in her mouth. We'd have to get up and give it her 3/4 times a night and the one night she woke over 10 times for it and I just had enough so, from then on, we took away the dummy and tried Timed Comforting (I will explain this a little more in another post). It was hard and took a few days to break but once we did, it worked. For a while. We're now back to square one and feels like she's a newborn again. Waking 2/3 times a night crying and sometimes won't settle. It's really starting to take its toll so we hope it's just a phase and she'll get back into a good sleeping routine soon! 


Other than this...


  • She has 6oz at each feed, 7oz in the morning and we try to give her 7oz at night. Although, this week, we've started to dreamfeed her at 10pm to see if  that will help with her night waking. Will update you later on this.
  • She has Banana cereal at 11am (breakfast) and Carrot or Sweet Potato Puree at 5pm (dinner) and loves it! 
  • She now weighs just over 13lbs. Teeny tiny compared to some babies younger than her that I know of! 
  • She definitely knows our voices now. If we're talking whilst trying to feed her, she has none of it. She's so nosy and wants to see what's going on around her!
  • She can roll around so well. We can put her on the floor, turn our back for 10 seconds  and she's in a completely different place / postion!
  • She is now sleeping in her cot although, it's still in our room until we find a house and move out!
  • She absolutely LOVES having a bath. I swear she knows when its time for one. She gets super excited, kicks her legs and giggles and screams when we carry her into the bathroom!
  • She is getting really strong and can support herself easily without flopping forwards or backwards, or to the side for that matter! 
  •  She enjoys watching Waybuloo and In The Night Garden. It keeps her quiet whilst we're preparing or eating dinner! 
  • She's found her feet and every opportunity she gets, they're in her mouth! 



  • That's pretty much it for major changes. Stay tuned as i'm going to be popping up a 'Dummy vs. No Dummy' post and would love to hear your opinions on it! 


    Wednesday 25 September 2013

    Christmas is coming...

    Yes, its the 'C' word. It's been thrown around now for a few weeks and if you're like me, you'll get excited as soon as people start talking about it and it is only 3 months away! 




    Because I have to wait all year for Christmas & My Birthday (29th December) I get overly excited, literally like a little girl. I always have done and I think I always will. Like I said, I think because I have to wait a whole year for the presents to come, where most people get birthday and christmas a few months apart, it makes it all the more anxious and exciting for me! 

    Now, this year is going to be a whole new story. We have a new addition which means more presents, more christmassy decorations, more everything pretty much! I'm not too sure how well she will understand what is going on as she'll be 8 months come Christmas day but I hope she gets excited when she sees all her new toys and the lights and decorations on the tree etc! 

    If you're a super organised freak like me, you may have started writing christmas lists, looking at buying / reserving presents or even already bought presents but, if you're not and you like to make a day of it, why not take a trip to the Capital and make a weekend of it. At the moment, St Georges Hotel London are offering 10% off stays and based on Regent street, you wont have far to lug those bags full of presents. Doing it early also means that it's out of the way and you can enjoy Decemeber, stress free! Go and drink Beer and eat Frankfurters at the Christmas Markets and not have to worry about buying a present until next year! 

    So, have you started Christmas Shopping yet? Do you plan on making a weekend out of it?! 

    *sponsored post

    Tuesday 24 September 2013

    Mini Haul

    So this weekend, Me & Adam had a weekend in Birmingham. We had a few hours shopping on Saturday, went for some yummy tapas at The Green Room and then went to see The Lion King at the Hippodrome. We stayed over in a travelodge too as it's a nice change from being at the flat. We did it to celebrate the fact we've been together 2 years this week, crazy! 


    I had a few items in mind that I wanted to get but because Brum was so busy (if you go on a Saturday often enough, you'll know what I mean) I only got the things I could be arsed to look for which meant my MAC items were forgotten about as it's like a playground full of kids there on weekends and i'd rather wait to go elsewhere for them! 




    Vintage Cosmetics Co Eyelash Curlers - £7.00
    Babylips - £2.99
    17 Phoar Paint - £5.49
    Real Techniques Stippling Brush - £10.99
    Happy Hippy Shower Gel - £4.95
    River Island Black Cami - £10.00

    Adam tried a bubble tea for the first time too but was a little unsure about it. He couldn't quite understand how it was ok to eat the little balls in the bottom, haha! I went for a frozen yogurt which wasn't all that as the plain was broken so I had to have vanilla and it just didn't taste the same :( 

    There are still a few items I want to get so when I go into Leicester on Saturday, I plan on getting these and then for shopping for myself, that's it until after Christmas! 

    Have you done a spot of shopping lately? What did you buy!? 

    Friday 20 September 2013

    H&M A/W Haul

    If you follow me on Twitter, you would have seen that recently I got a few bits off H&M and although they took nearly 2 weeks to arrive, the delivery was definitely worth waiting for! I normally end up sending half the stuff back but this time, only 1 thing didn't fit properly so i'll be taking it to store on Saturday and just exchanging for a bigger size! 

    If you also didn't know (I did previously mention this on twitter and the response was insane haha) H&M online do a Pay Monthly scheme so if you can't afford to pay it all at once, you can choose to pay it off monthly with a minimum payment of just £5.00! How good is that!? 

    I got a few jumpers, trousers and leggings in preparation for this cold winter we're supposed to be having... 



















    Have you bought anything from H&M recently?!