Weekends were made for...

Exploring with friends...

Running through gardens...

Swimming in rivers...

Lounging in the porch...

Starting a new project...

Bonding with family...

Enjoying a 'double-yolker'...

Scoffing cake...

Pulling funny faces.

This weekend has been the best.

Things are not as they seem...

I've gotten a lot of lovely compliments from people/family about this photo saying how terrific it is, which is nice, but unfortunately we do tend to put our nicest photos on Instagram and Facebook.

They are usually carefully filtered, altered, and uploaded with appropriate tags such as 'love' 'family' 'cute' 'candyfloss' 'fucklookathowperfectweare'

Sometimes it's lovely to look at photos like this... on other occasions (usually where you look like shit and are having a rough day because your daughter did a sneaky poo in her nappy and you didn't realise until she'd spent the morning bouncing on it happily) you feel like shaking these perfect photo-taking people and shouting

'Shut up with your perfectness you dicks!'

So I thought I'd be honest, and reassure you that this picture is far from perfect...

~

The picture is artistically cropped because my Husband failed to point out that my pants were on show. They weren't nice pants either, they were comfy, well-worn pants with frogs on them.

I look like I'm about to sweep Nahla up into my bosom for a loving embrace, I'm actually pushing her away in an attempt to get her to stop pulling my hair.

The grass was soaking.

Nahla hated Daisies and showed her dominance over them by eating one.

We had walked for half an hour, in the heat, through a building site, for something to do whilst we waited for my Husband's car to pass it's MOT.

The car failed its MOT.

I had a blister the size of a terrier and the wind kept catching my dress so people got a good view of my frogs.

Here is an unedited photo from this scene that didn't make it to Instagram...

{You're looking for the frogs aren't you?}

The Funny Farm

'If we're going to be a family that eats eggs, we need to know that we're getting them from Chickens that are treated well.'

This noble statement was how it started.

'It'll work out cheaper.'

we convinced ourselves.

'Chickens don't take up much room'

we said, surveying the landscape of our back garden.

'Chickens are friendly and funny to watch.'

we chuckled.

'Nahla can learn about where her food comes from.'

Yes, excellent idea. It was decided.

Going to the shop to buy eggs is a really difficult and costly task... much more difficult and costly than measuring wood to modify a rabbit hutch to fit three chickens in...

...it's also a lot more difficult to pop to Tesco to get eggs than, say, driving up and down random country lanes to try and find a farm 'with no name' to pick up three chickens from a man wearing a string vest. Especially when said man briskly walks your husband away into a barn, closes the door to the deafening sound of squawking and you don't know if you'll ever see him again.

Eggs are hard to come by any other way, you have just HAVE to have your Husband open the box and let them out all at once so you have to shout 'Just put your hand on their backs!' at him until he's succeeded in rounding them up like cattle.

You could always get your eggs in neat little cardboard trays, but I find it simpler to have to search for them amongst hay and Chicken poo, or sometimes conduct such a search then have nothing to show for it at the end because one of the Chickens keeps escaping into your neighbor's garden, despite you being assured by 'Scary String Vest Man' that "They're nay good jumpers, Lass, ye ken?"

Gloria, Hermione and Leia seemed like cute names, but clucking them at 7am sounds ridiculous. 

After spending money buying (and altering) the biggest rabbit hutch you could find, thinking that it would be cheaper to house Chickens that way than to buy a fancy coop, you then realise that you've purchased one of the largest breeds of Chickens that require the most roosting space.

Your fancy hutch is no longer enough, so instead you have to transport a neighbor's beaten up, old Wendy house that belonged to their daughters (it was full of High School Musical posters) over two 7ft high fences. 

The Zac Efron Chicken Palace is too heavy for your husband to chuck over his shoulder, so he has to draft in the help of not one, but four other men, all of which look like they want to kill your husband at the end of the ordeal, despite your promises of beer and your eager cries of 'You're so strong!'

Then you (YOU), with your stupid 'everything has to look nice' brain, has to paint the Zac Efron Chicken Palace, in the rain.

Then your Chickens roll in the paint and brush up against the wood so that they're no longer glossy and pretty, instead they look like extras from a Panasonic HD TV advert.

(pics to follow)

So, if you want a really SUPER easy way to get eggs, follow our lead...

...Derpcat doesn't like the noises they make either.

Sorry about your face Harry Styles...

I am 24 today so it made sense to celebrate by looking at some fish!

Nahla hadn't seen a fish before today, so it was a pretty hilarious to witness her expressions...

 {...the majority of which were fish-inspired}

Lara and Lee were tip top companions in our quest for undersea knowledge, they were dedicated enough to fill out their 'Fish Finder', mine ended up in the bottom of the pram.

 

Nahla did NOT like the Rays.

Rock pool mischief with the boys.

These chaps had the most amazing dance moves.

The merriment ended with my Husband cutting Harry Styles' cakeface in half.

I had such a Happy Birthday, I got some excellent presents and am now overflowing with the knowledge of Pollocks.

MIA!

Oh my goodness, life has been non-stop recently, I can't believe how tired I am!

I've been a bit sparse on the old blogging recently because I've been visiting relatives, then, upon coming home, I've just been caught in a spiral of projects and routine-setting!

I just thought I would drop in quickly and tell you what will be coming up on the blog soon...

Terrariums!

These were so cheap and fun to make! 

D.I.Y Chalkboards!

Chalkboard paint is all the rage at the moment, and I jumped on the bandwagon!

Organise your life!

Raising a 5-month-old and keeping a home is more difficult and time-consuming than you think, it's often 11:30 before I'm able to crawl into bed, so I've had to get my life organised! 

So can you!

Like I mentioned earlier, I recently visited family down south and flew, by myself, for the first time with this chirpy bird!

I'll be blogging about the journey and my stay at home, along with tips for traveling with babies!

I've been such a Foodie at the moment!

I think I've got about 5 recipe posts lined up, all Vegetarian of course.

These posts WILL be coming soon, Nahla's down to one nap a day which has left me no time for blogging, but I'm determined to figure it out!

March Haul

Yesterday we had a lovely trip into 'big town' to spend a 'small' amount of our hard-earned pennies. We all need a lovely bit of retail therapy every now and then, especially if it's clothes that make you feel Summer-y!

I loved this pillow as soon as I saw it.

I'm not jumping on the dwindling mustache-popularity wagon, I'll have you know I was a fan of the mustache in secondary school and everyone thought I was rather WEIRD, those people are now running round drawing them on their fingers, whilst I'm sat here quietly seething.

It's lovely a plushy and takes pride of place on my sofa, where it will soon be covered in baby sick.

A trip to Lush was a must, their Easter selection is unreal! So many lovely smells!

I picked up my husband's usual 'Dirty' soap, which has sort of become his signature smell and three new kinds of Lush products that I haven't tried before.

My bathroom smells so 'lush'.

Another mustache.

I love the text on this vest, I wish I could download it to use on the blog.

This is going to make my bingo-wings look so good in the Summer!

I love anything with gold and mineral stones on it at the moment, so these rings were a must-have!

I bought a little 'N' necklace so I had something to wear for my little Nahla-Bug. It's very pretty and delicate, so she'll probably destroy it soon.

Q: Why does Topshop put its nail polishes at the till?

A: Because they want you to panic buy...

'Is that everything for you today?'

'No! Wait... I'm looking, please don't rush me, I need to think... just let me THINK... ok I need this.'

And now I'm the owner of another nail varnish that I don't really need.

My lovely husband was brilliant enough to let a YSL make-up lady let me try on their beautiful new luxurious lipsticks, and was even more lovely by letting me buy one!

It was rather expensive, by far the most costly purchase of the day, but I was so excited to get it...

...blog post coming soon, I have BAD things to say about this lipstick

:( :( :(

However, I have good things to say about Primark's dress range at the moment. There were a lot of lovely Spring/Summer dresses to choose from, I picked out this pretty blue and cream printed dress and can't wait until it's warm enough to wear outside.

My husband spotted these and I thought they were just gorgeous.

So comfy too!

I wasn't the only one who was treated!

Simon got a new pair of jeans, sweatpants and a new hoodie. Little Nahla got three new babygrows, new vests, headbands and a little bunny toy.

It was a lovely day and money well spent!

Love, 

Laura xxx

Mother's Day

This is Nahla.

(Otherwise known as: Pops, Nahla-Banana, Nahla-Bee, Nahla-Bug, 'Dingus', Wet-Pants & Pinga)

 Nahla has just entered her fourth month of being a little Human and I've just realised that I've hardly blogged about her at all!

Where to begin??

Nahla's birth was pretty pants, but she is AWESOME. I've never been a very gushy/sappy/sentimental person but this girl just brings out all of those emotions in me!

I'm fascinated by how much she changes every week, it seemed like only yesterday that we were so careful and ginger whilst holding her and now she's trying to jump up and down on my tummy and is almost sitting up by herself.

She has the most beautiful big eyes, soft mousey hair and this gorgeous unique smell that I inhale like I'm desperate for oxygen!

I put so many pictures of her all over the place, and talk about her constantly, it must drive people insane but I don't care! This girl is my absolute world. At first I was worried that I would be too selfish to take care of a baby, too independent and headstrong; but as soon as I saw her I was overwhelmed with the desire to protect and nurture her.

Nahla's laugh is the most hysterical thing I've ever heard and her smile is infectious, she loves smiling at people and is ridiculously chatty for her age, I'm told.

She does something new everyday so it's never a dull moment!

This man has done so much for me over the past few months; everything from holding me up in the shower after my cesarean, injecting me in the stomach to stop blood clots, feeding Nahla at 2am whilst having me wail into his shoulder at the same time. I owe him so much, yet continue to bark and shout at him whilst simultaneously purring and cooing at him ... thus is marriage after the birth of your first child!
 
Nahla and Pops are two peas in a pod when it comes to wanting to sleep in in the mornings, both of them are so lazy! I'll often be up and about long before they even start rubbing their eyes sleepily.

She smiles and laughs at Simon more than me, just the sight of him reduces her to fits of giggles and huge beaming grins... it must be something to do with his face, I tend to laugh at it from time to time too!

I find it so strange to see my husband holding a baby, it used to be pints of beer that he cradled but now he seems full of this new found wisdom. He picks up on her cries and knows what they mean, he can make her smile whilst she's in the middle of a tiredness-induced tantrum and makes her laugh by a mere flick of an eyebrow.

He tells her he loves her, and has affectionately nicknamed her 'Dingus' a name that I find quite endearing and that I know will be used to embarrass her on her wedding day!

To me, there is nothing more attractive than a man who dotes on his daughter, who reads her bedtime stories and bites her toes, puts her to bed and kisses her cheeks.

 I have changed so much since having her!

Naievely, I thought I would sail through this motherhood-business but it has been no easy ride. A traumatic birth, a difficult healing process and the onset of PND has seen me feel the most helpless and sad that I have ever felt in my life.

Simultaneously, my heart feels like it's going to burst with happiness!

Nahla is my daughter, my teeny little munchkin who nuzzles into me, who blows bubbles on my cheek, dribbles on all my clothes, pulls my hair and stamps her feet, and shares baths with me, being around her can snap from stressful to utter bliss in a few seconds.

Being a Mama is EXCITING.

I look at her and often think of what sort of woman she will turn into, I hope to nurture her into a strong, kind, driven Girl who has aspirations, intelligence and can hold her own.

As a Feminist, I want her to recognise and defend her rights as a woman and a person, I never want her to feel that there's something she can't do simply because of her sex.

As her Mama, I want her to succeed in life, for her to have a good job, a family of her own, an exciting hobby... these things are fine, but just knowing that she's happy would be satisfying enough.

I am loving her at this cuddly, teeny-weeny, adorably chubby stage, but also can't wait for the next milestones; talking, crawling, eating real food, walking etc, it all seems so exciting but happens so quickly!

In conclusion: Motherhood is a job and a half, but completely rewarding, especially when little girls like Nahla are involved!

Love,

Laura xxx

Marital Make-Up!

The pictures speak for themselves really!

Last week my husband and I attempted to film a quick video of ourselves having a little make-up sesh. It was actually SO much fun and I laughed so much I cried and snotted everywhere, I managed to escape with both of my eyes still intact, not prodded out with eyeliner.

Unfortunately, little Nahla cried throughout the whole 15 minute video so I thought it would be better to do it again another day, when she was fast asleep in her cot.

That's not to say it wasn't fun though, he did a good job with my foundation, but I did end up looking like a clown.

(The above photos are a few of my favourite stills from the footage!)

So watch this space, 'My Husband Does My Make-Up' video will be coming soon!

Love,

Laura xxx

My House...

Welcome to my little pink kitchen. I love it and everything that lives in it; from the hand-made hanging hearts to our washing machine that sings when it's finished!

These are a few of my favourite nooks and crannies of my kitchen...

(I suppose this would be the bar!)

Every Kitchen should have a Cat!

Love, Laura

xxx