MARLOW

I know, I've done it again! I always do neglect this little blog of mine, and then make you all promises of regular updates and more effort. Well, this time, I wont be promising anything. Life has got a little crazy. Not only do I have my Monday to Friday job working as a Support Assistant for special needs children in a school, with the added responsibility of some small classes of my own to teach, I now also have a weekend job waitressing Saturday and Sunday nights to pay for this wedding that seems to have crept up on us way too fast and gone a tad over budget! So, between being a mother, housework, planning a wedding and working 7 days a week, I'm not exactly sure how to fit in this blog too. I am going to try, I really am. When I'm not too exhausted to face the computer screen I will try my hardest to put posts together for you. I have so many folders of pictures taken over the summer with the intention of blogging, and it makes me really sad I have so little time for it. Really sad. I miss it. And I miss all of you.

Anyway, on a rare day we had a few hours to ourselves just our little family, we decided to take a little trip to a beautiful village called Marlow. I love Marlow. So so pretty and cute with it's bunting, carousels, little tea rooms and shops. We visited a little antiques fair and picked up a few bits and pieces fro the wedding, we stopped in a cafe for a bowl of chips and a slice of cake, we went to visit the ducks and swans by the river, we played in the park, and browsed the shops. My favourite shop there is one called Susie Watson Designs. Susie Watson sells the most beautiful home ware, but it's the shop that makes it extra special. It is a beautiful, big old house that has been furnished with all of their products, so it looks just like a home rather than a shop! I wish I could just move right in.

How are you all? I feel so out of the loop!

x ♥

ARGOS GIVEAWAY WINNER!

The winner of my Argos voucher giveaway is the very lovely Rachel of Oh No Rachio!  If you haven't had a look at her blog & etsy shop already, you should! She is so talented :) Congratulations Rachel!

Thank you to everyone else who entered. I want to plan to do another giveaway soon, perhaps when I reach 300 followers, which isn't too far away! What sort of giveaway would you all like to see?

Have a lovely Sunday!

x ♥

ARGOS VOUCHER GIVEAWAY!

Birdcage tea light holder* // Clock*

Crochet cushion*

Habitat Deli Large beaker* // Habitat Deli Small beaker*

I love the Argos home ware range- it always has on trend, good quality, affordable pieces. When we moved in to our house, we furnished most of it using Argos! It was just so useful being able to get the styles we want, at prices we could afford, and having branches nearby made it really convenient too. Therefore, you can imagine how thrilled I was when they very kindly offered to send me some of their items from their home ware range to review!

How amazing is the birdcage tea light holder?? The style and the detail is just gorgeous- I absolutely love it! In fact, I love it so much I am considering buying several more to use as table centre pieces for our wedding instead of traditional flowers! I can imagine draping strings of pearls through the bars, and perhaps adding some silk flowers or vintage brooches. I may use little wooden pegs to attach the table numbers written on luggage labels to the bars. I think it would be just beautiful! And at £19.99 it is an absolute bargain. I can't say enough good things about this product. I love it!

I think there is something really elegant about this little clock. It's actually an alarm clock, and I love the simplicity of it. It's a lovely soft grey and I love the style the numbers are written in- I think it's a beautiful font. I like quite minimalist, yet pretty and feminine items and I think this fits this style perfectly!

I think the crochet cushion is another item that could be described as minimalist yet feminine. I really love crochet items at the moment, and this cushion is a lovely shade of cream that will go with anything, with chunky buttons to stop it being too plain.Our bed has rather a lot of floral and pattern going on too (sorry, David!) so this cushion balances it out nicely!

I am in love with these beakers! How retro and lovely are they? The pastel tones are so pretty- I love the hint of mint on the inside of the large one (mine) and the soft pink of the small one (Lily's!). Argos now has a selection of ex Habitat stock at very reasonable prices and these are part of that range. They are just perfect to serve some milkshake in with some pretty paper straws! I know this sounds like such a gushy post, but I actually have nothing negative to say about any of the items, I am so happy with all of them!

Here's the exciting part! All of these gorgeous items totaled at just pennies off of £50- so Argos are very generously offering a £50 voucher to one of my readers!

You can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. You must be a follower of my blog on Google friend connect and a resident of the UK (sorry! I will host a giveaway for my international readers soon!). You can earn extra entries by following me on twitter and tweeting about the giveaway. The giveaway will be running for two weeks. Be sure to leave me a comment below and include your email so I contact you if your the lucky winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck everyone!

x ♥

Home

We finally have a house! This is just a quick update to share the news and let you all know where I have dissapeared off to. We wont have internet for a little and I miss blogging a lot, but there is plenty to keep us busy. Our new house is little, cute, old and cosy, oposite a river with lots of ducks as neighbours. It has a red front door and a little vegtable patch in the garden. We love our first family home and I will be sharing lots more pictures and news with you very soon...

        x ♥

Lily Belle Rose Gower ♥

our 20 week scan was today, and we found out we have a very healthy little baby girl!! We are so happy. our little Lily Belle Rose Gower ♥


♥ x

one hundred

Finally writing post number 100!!! although it isn't what I promised- sorry!! no giveaway yet. I've had such a busy few weeks and I'm not quite ready, but in the next few weeks there should be one. Without sounding cheesy, thank you so much to all of your for reading my blog!! I know I'm an absolutely rubbish blogger, as uni and a job with long hours has made posting difficult, rare and a bit all over the place. So for those of you who have stuck with me, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have finished university!!!  wow, it feels weird writing that. It still hasn't sunk in yet. my work for the degree show was one of my animations of my stick man and dog, projected onto the open lid of an old fashioned school desk. It was all about childhood and memory, and forgetting memories ect, and was in a tiny little space in the exhibition. I wasn't 100% happy with it if I'm honest, but I've had good feedback from other people. And one of my external examiners was Mariele Neudecker, which was amazing!! I had to be interviewed by her for my assessment, and was nervous, especially when the girl before me came out crying!! but she was so lovely, and told me my work was beautiful and even gave me some contacts she thought i should get in touch with for galleries she thought would be interested in my work!! it was amazing!! 

I have been doing lots of celebrating with friends and family, and have been completely spoilt too. My mother bought me some new pretty dresses, one with a starry skirt, and one with cat print all over. My Nan bought me a lovely wooden necklace with a triangle pattern sewed into it, and David bought me some beautiful flowers, wine and fudge!

I also recieved a wonderful package from Lyzi over at being little after winning her giveaway!! I was so excited :) I got so many amazing goodies!! I received a print of her beautiful mizu no kokoro painting, one of her really cute sewn kitties, a recipe for raspberry lemonade, some really pretty cupcake cases, a headscarf, some lovely jewelry by ella masters and a 'knit your own ninja' kit!! I finished the ninja last night, and love it!! My David tried to steal it from me he liked it so much :) If you haven't visited Lyzi's blog before, go do it now!!! She is very talented and her blog is one of my favourites!

we have had some bad news though this month. Archie, our kitten, is missing. He's been missing for a week and a half now, and it is awful without him. we are keeping everything crossed that he will turn up soon, but we do miss him. As does Alfie. It's just not right having Alfie without Archie!! Archie is quite silly, and likes to wander into neighbors houses, and get himself into strange places, so our guess is he's been accidently locked in somewhere. But we are desperate to have him back. I know this is a long shot, but if anyone who reads this is in the Reading area, have you seen a black cat with a blue collar wandering about anywhere?? or know of one thats been found?? we miss him :(

since finishing uni. I have been busy trying to set up my own little business. It's very scary and daunting at the moment!! I have been working really hard too produce lot so things to start selling, such as the sewn animals, little woven bracelets, and miniature jars with little sewn characters inside, which will become pendants! Hopefully my shop will be up and ready soon. Once it is, I will have that giveaway I promised. My parents are also building my studio in the garden this weekend, which is so exciting!! I will be in there next week decorating and can't wait!! I have also filled the time with some day trips out to farms and castles, painting my nails bright colours,   drawing and cooking lots, and watching lots of rubbish TV!!  

Also, now I've finished uni and my job in the student bar, I will blogging LOTS more!! I'm hoping to blog at least once a week now, I've been waiting so long to be able to blog properly! It also means you won't have to read huge long posts like this where I try to squeeze a million things into one post!! I've been trying to comment on some of your lovely blog posts I've read and reply to you all, but blogger won't let me comment??! hopefully that will be fixed soon!

take care

x ♥