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My little loves December

December 17, 2017

My Little Loves for December

So it’s mid December and things are about to get crazy! It’s time to reflect on all my favourite parts of the month so far!

Read

We were kindly send a copy of Binx the Jinx to review. A rhyming story about Binx, an incredibly cute black cat looking for friendship! At first Binx struggles to make new friends and gets bullied by the other cats because he is different. Then he meets Gin who proves that Binx isn’t a Jinx at all but in fact the luckiest cat around! The book is written and illustrated by Michelle Hird, it is beautiful, bright and colourful. Eden really enjoyed the pictures and it was enjoyable to read. We have loved reading this book and have read it several times already!

Watched

We have watched just about every Christmas film this month. Our favourite Christmas films have to be:

Elf, The Polar Express, The Snowman and the Snowdog, The Elf Story & Arthur Christmas.

Heard

Eden told me the sweetest thing, she told me ‘Mummy do you know you’re my best friend? You are my BFF’.

Sometimes that girl is just too cute for words!

Made

This week I finally made time to make my Christmas rag wreath! Using a wire wreath frame and lots of torn pieces of fabric (about 1 inch x 5 inch in size). You simply tie each piece on to the frame. It didn’t take very long, was very simple to make and I think you’ll agree looks very festive.

Wore

Well this week we got lots of snow! This was Eden’s first proper snow that she can remember. The last time we had heavy snowfall was back in 2012 and Eden was just a few months old. So we wore… lots of layers! Unfortunately all of the gloves I’ve bought Eden are knitted and woolly, she doesn’t actually own a waterproof pair. I improvised, popping in one pair of gloves, a plastic bag to stop her hands getting wet and another pair of gloves on top! Sadly they slipped off her hand every time she threw a snowball so a bit of epic fail, lol!j

Ate

This week, I discovered a delightful little tea room in Brentwood Essex called Merrymeade Tea Room situated in Merrymeade House. We enjoyed a scrumptious afternoon tea and because we’re in December it had featured some yummy festive treats. It was brilliant value at £11.99 a head and Eden even had a kids one all to herself. One of my favourite parts of an afternoon tea has to be the sandwiches. The bread was so soft and fresh and had a good selection of fillings. The carrot cake and mini brownie Christmas puddings really were delicious. We can’t wait to visit again soon, we definitely recommend!

Visit their Facebook page for further details here.

And lastly

I have been busy every day coming up with new elf on the shelf ideas. I’ve been trying to use new ideas as Eden would remember if I repeated many of them from last year so the pressure has been on. Here are some of my favourites I’ve used for 2017 so far. They certainly are cheeky elves, Eden is so excited each morning to see what they have been up too!

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My weekly round up with My Little Loves 12/08/17

August 10, 2017

My weekly round up

Well I have to apologise… it’s more like my two weekly round up (possibly verging on three!). Since the school holidays hit I’ve literally been on auto pilot and my feet have barely touched the floor. I’m exhausted to say the least. I’ve been juggling days out, working, the gym, volunteering, parenting, party planning and the odd bit of housework! So with all that going on I have to confess. Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat for the last couple of weeks.

So it’s been jam packed so far. We’ve had my husbands family come to stay for the first week. They travelled down from Scotland hoping for some sunshine sadly, all they got was rain! We soldiered on and went on plenty of days out braving the truly rubbish British weather! We still had a fantastic time.

Week 1

During the first week we visited the Fairies and Elves festival at Audley End Miniature Railway… it was a truly magical day. A ride on the train through the woods followed by lots of fun with the fairies, you can read about it here.

We also got some more use from our Merlin Annual Passes and visited Chessington World of Adventures. The rain meant few queues so was great news for us! Read our review on the Merlin Annual pass here.

We were lucky enough to be invited to the Barbican Centre to meet ‘Buttons’ the animatronic Cadbury Cow. We had a life drawing class with illustrator Rose Blake and stuffed our faces full of chocolate! My kind of day! It was part of Cadbury’s ‘Adopt a Cow’ campaign. You can read more about it here.

I’ve also recently been invited to try out our local David Lloyd club, so have been making the most of it. It’s been brilliant taking Eden along to the kids club classes and I’ve been able to train with my husband in the gym. It’s really taken the pressure off childcare during the school holidays. We even tried out the squash courts and I managed to hit myself with the racquet! The bruise is still going strong after a week. ha ha. Read more about it here.

Read

Well I’ve recently been enjoying reading a new blog ‘whinge whinge wine’. Fran has been making me laugh out loud this week and choke on my coffee. Not forgetting her amusing Facebook posts… the Ta Ta towels were quite an eyeful! I love looking out for Fran’s posts!

Watched

I am volunteer befriender for Age UK and regularly visit a wonderful elderly lady called Beryl. She is 90 years young, just celebrated her birthday this week. We have a lovely bond and natter away for hours each visit putting the world to rights. During the school holidays I’ve taken Eden with me to meet her. Initially I was nervous that Eden might get bored or play up but she has made me very proud. It was so warming to watch the two of them together. Reading books, laughing, joking, colouring in and having a cuddle on the sofa. It was simply magical. Eden told me as we left ‘she is a very nice lady isn’t she mummy’ and I tend to agree with her!

Heard

About million questions every day from my almost 5 year old. My brain needs a rest! Enough said!

Wore

Well I think this adorable outfit with matching headband from Next has to be my ‘wore’ choice this week. I just loved Eden in this outfit with lemon leggings and matching cardi. I think she look so adorable. Doug my husband passed comment that she looked like a little washer woman! What does he know?!

Made

Eden made me the prettiest little friendship bracelet. She also made herself a matching one too. She used up all the heart charms on my one so didn’t have enough for her own! I love it, Eden can be so thoughtful, I will treasure it forever.

We also went on a Scrapbook Safari at Hylands House, set in the Park. Unfortunately it was in the rain so wasn’t a great time to see the grounds! But after getting soaking wet outside we got to go into Hylands House. Eden got to make scrapbook pages about the trail, this weeks theme was ‘under the sea’ and we made a cardboard fish. The least waterproof type of fish!

Ate

We returned to one of my favourite afternoon tea spots, Camelia Hotel in Southend. We were thoroughly spoilt with the warmest, freshest scones straight out of the oven! Served with a huge cup of clotted cream, just as they should be! Read more about my favourite afternoon tea spots here.

And lastly

We have partied hard over the last few weeks. Many of Eden’s friends are turning 5 so we’ve been busy attending all the parties. Best is yet to come though as Eden’s will be next week! I cannot believe that my little pickle will be 5! That went by in the blink of an eye!
So next week I will be busy making the cake, balloon towers, card and a Playdoh surprise egg (oh god help me!). The last one took me about 4 hours… you can see Eden open her last one here! What am I thinking doing it again, I must be mad?! I’ll blog about it and let you know!

Thank you for reading ‘My weekly round up with My Little Loves 12/08/17’

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My Weekly Round Up with Little Loves

July 15, 2017

My weekly round up

So this is my first Weekly Round up. Wow what a week it has been. I feel like my feet haven’t touched the floor and my brain hasn’t switched off. At the start of the week was Eden’s last day in Reception before they moved up to Year 1 for the last two weeks of school. It was an emotional good bye to her wonderful teachers and teaching assistants. They have really made her first year a special one. I must confess I did cry, I knew I would but I feel so sad my little one has finished her first year at school! Where did that year go? I feel like it was just yesterday I was standing at the gate taking her first day of school pics.

The rest of the week has flown by in a blur of school runs, shopping, the gym and lots of working from home. We’ve been making so many teacher gifts this week at at The Candy Bag Shop.

Read

Well Eden has been reading to me lots this week, her reading is really surprising me every day! She seems to be really picking it up and remembering more words without having to sound them out. I love that this is opening up a whole new world for Eden, she has been a book worm since she was just a baby! Even now one of her favourite days out is our local library. It’s so exciting that soon she will be able to read all these books!

Watched

I watched The Labyrinth with Eden, tucked up and cosy on the sofa together. I’m so pleased she seemed to like it as much as I do. Labyrinth was one of my favourite films growing up. It was originally released in 1986 so I wouldn’t have been far off Eden’s age when I first watched this. I love the film so much I even bought myself this little gem this week! The Sarah & the worm Pop Vinyl figure. The little worm was one of my favourite characters in the film, he is too adorable, ‘Allo’!

Heard

This week I heard some lovely words from Eden, she melted my heart! I saw her coming out of class carrying a big cardboard box. Initially my heart sunk, yet another ‘creation’ brought home from school. I thought to myself ‘WTF is that and where the am I going to put it?’.

As she came out of class beaming with pride at her new creation, aka ‘the glitter box’. I was wondering how long I’d have to keep it before it could find its way into the recycling bin! And then she hit me with it….

‘Mummy, I’ve made this for you as I want to say thank you for all the lovely things you do for me’. Well I melted, what a kind and thoughtful little girl she is growing into! Boy, did I feel guilty about plotting the ‘end’ of ‘the Glitter Box’!!!

However when we got home I was allowed to open the box. It contained a half coloured picture and a million pieces of sparkly bits of paper and sequins. She then proceeded to tip them all out onto the lounge carpet!

Sorry to say the box is no more!!!!!

Made

This week I was kept super busy with teacher gifts both with my work and for Eden’s teacher gifts. I made personalised cotton tote bags with glitter vinyl, these cute little retro sweet filled milk bottles and packaged it all up in these pretty little hampers. I had to watch videos on YouTube to learn how to make the hamper bows but didn’t quite like them so just ended up making up my own. Not perfect but I think they didn’t turn out too bad.

Wore

This week I wore a gorgeously bright yellow frill top from Next. It got lots of comments which was nice, so it brightened my day in more ways than one!

Ate

Well I eat low carb and one of my favourite low carb places for breakfast is Creme in Leigh. I often go here with my dad for a coffee and a catch up. I always choose their ‘Low Carb’ brekkie, the steak is always cooked to perfection!

Also love to go there on on a cheat day as their cakes and shakes are out of this world!!

And lastly

I’ve realised that I’m absolutely rubbish at hairstyles for Eden and I need to maybe think about getting myself booked onto some sort of course to learn braiding!

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Thank you so much for reading my weekly round up and Little loves!