{Gardening}

Are we ever going to get a summer, I ask??

Hanging basket inspiration from Pinterest

Anyway, I decided to get a few plants to brighten up my garden. I'm being savvy here and purchased a few terracotta style pots at £2 each (bargain!) from Dobbies... and the bonus is that they can come with me when I move house.

I love my garden and will really miss it. It still needs work and is a bit bare in parts, but there isn't much point continuing with it now as I won't benefit from any investment due to the house move (which will hopefully be soon!).

Last week I joined Dobbie's Garden Club. You may think that this is really sad, but I have to say I'm really pleased I did. My sister and I each got a free tea and I got a 10% discount on the plants I purchased. I've already nearly recouped the price of the membership itself. What's not to like?

Littlest looking tired

I filled my car boot with brightly coloured plants and we headed home to pot them all. Ali ended up doing most of the gardening as the kiddies were being hard work at the time - sorry Ali! We created two hanging baskets for the front door and I'll take a photo once they're in bloom. We also potted two Pericallis - one a deep blue that my son chose and the other a magenta colour for my daughter. As plants go I think they were great value and have made a real impact. Each plant was £4 and the pot was £2.

The back of my car... 

A plant for each of the little ones, plus a lavender for me - smell is amazing

For the hanging baskets we potted:

• Hot pink trailing Petunia,
• Pink Geranium,
• Deep rose Gypsophilia,
• Soft pink Geranium, and
• Pink trailing Centradenia.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they work out ok (I tend to kill most plants, not on purpose of course!). It was Ailsa over at Perth Mummy that inspired me with the hanging baskets. I thought she was mental when she made hers as they looked rubbish initially but they turned out really well. 

How many of you have green fingers?

PS I've just discovered a very cute blog called 'Little Green Fingers' and Dawn has some lovely ideas for things to encourage your children to enjoy gardening.

{Sunday Roundup}

An uber quick Sunday Roundup for you all... I'm just back from seeing Gosford Park at Pollok House as part of the Southside Film Festival, and have to be up early in the morning for work! It was an excellent evening... a pre-film drink in the library at Pollok House, followed by the screening of Gosford Park in one of the grand rooms upstairs in the house after which we were whisked downstairs into the staff quarters for a 2 course dinner with wine... all for just £25 per person. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Anyway, here's my pics from this week:

I tried out a new hairstyle... :-)

My sister arrived on Tuesday - we had a wee drink at The Bungo on Tuesday night

Lunch on Wednesday at Naked Soup followed by a browse round the shops

Lots of laughter in the garden - making the most of the sun!

I became a member of Dobbie's Gardening Club and we potted some hanging baskets for the house!

Ali & I watched this movie. I was scared.... she was not!

Chilling in the garden.

Eldest loving the sun lounger!

We made a Victoria Sponge with cream, raspberries and jam!

My daughter's first commission... a canvas for Auntie Ali & Uncle Chris' house

How was your week?

{Smitten Saturday - Quilt}

This week I am smitten with the quilt that my dad's wife Jo hand made... it's beautiful. I'm delighted that she decided to gift it to me as I love it & it is perfect colour-wise for my bedroom.

The spotty reverse

The floral stitching around the edges

The centre sunrise block

The leaf detailing

What are you smitten with?

Each Saturday I'll be featuring one thing that I'm loving, whether it be food, make-up, an activity, a person... you get the idea!

Please grab my button (over here somewhere) & join in --->

And do keep spreading the word - I'd love to get a few more bloggers joining in :-)

{Sunday Roundup}

Here's my week in photos:

I spent a lovely Bank Holiday Monday in Edinburgh... had pancakes and ice cream at the chocolate lounge in Harvey Nichols. Service wasn't brilliant, but the food was yum.

I discovered a lovely gift shop in Broughton called dragonfly - I may have even made a few purchases (including a wee something for Bex over at Olive Dragonfly!)

I couldn't resist the packaging on this M&S mojito. It was quite tasty, but did make me slightly hyper!

I finished Project 333 and have introduced a few more pieces back into my wardrobe

We had a buffet day at work and I brought in my #RecipeSwap tiramisu, this time with raspberries over the top.

Finishing off the Ice Delight... a mix of blackcurrant and strawberry (again, was yum!!)


I felt I deserved a wee glass of wine after my run... still in my running capris!!


My dad's wife made me a beautiful quilt... I have enjoyed lazy mornings with the kids this week - lots of cuppas in bed watching CBeebies!


I treated myself to a few bits & pieces for my hair from the local pharmacy that were on special offer


Littlest got her hair cut... it's cream from a cake that's all over her face!

{Reminder: Win a set of fairy lights with Blaze On}

A very quick reminder, that if you haven't done so already - please enter my competition to win a set of beautiful fairy lights, of your choice, from Blaze On. I've just also discovered that Blaze On are the creators of the lights for the Harrods Toy Kingdom's Enchanted Forest... absolutely stunning.

The winner will receive a £30 gift voucher to choose from approximately 200 models of beautifully handcrafted designs.

How to Enter:

Visit the Blaze On website here and pick your favourite set of fairy lights.

Head on over to this post and leave a comment with your selection.

There are other actions on the Rafflecopter form for additional points.

The competition ends on Friday 17th May.

Good luck :-)

{Smitten Saturday}

This week I'm smitten with my new Marks & Spencer's Limited Collection lip gloss. I love the packaging, I love the colour, it's easy to apply (I also bought a Max Factor Gloss Cube one & struggle to get the gloss out of the tube!!) and at £5 I think it's good value for money. There are also 9 shades to choose from!

What are you smitten with?

Each Saturday I'll be featuring one thing that I'm loving, whether it be food, make-up, an activity, a person... you get the idea!

Please grab my button over here somewhere & join in --->

And do help spread the word - I'd love to get a few more bloggers joining in :-)

There should hopefully be a linky tool at the bottom to allow you to add your post!!

{Project 333 - Roundup}

I've (very nearly) made it to the end of Project 333 - Living with Less. Basically, I restricted my wardrobe to 33 items for 3 months. You can read about my decluttering efforts here and here is the list of 33 items that were in my capsule wardrobe.

I did have to swap out a couple of items... my grey flower mini handbag broke and I'm yet to fix it, my Salsa bootcut jeans appear to have shrunk in the wash and are now on the short side, one of the buttons ripped off my grey cardigan (& I'm yet to fix it... you'll spot a theme here!) and my grey Baujken dress is now a bit short and tight for me :-/

Instead, I added in a new dress from M&S which I wore to work today and I added in a white shirt from M&S which I also wore for work purposes. I also bought a fab new jumper from Sainsbury's (50% off in the their sale!) which replaced my cardigan.

Approx £11 in the Sainsbury's sale. I love it!

My new M&S dress is very similar to this one... but mine is black and cream stripes and was in the sale for £29. I wore it with black tights and my Russell & Bromley shoe boots today.

Given the weather yesterday, I wore my tan coloured gladiator style sandals from Sainsbury's and bared my legs!! Definitely need to get some fake tan on the go for my 'great whites' (my sister's eloquent description... thanks Ali!).

So there you have it... it can be done!

Am I going to keep it up I hear you ask? Well, no is my short answer. 

I am going to continue to work with a capsule wardrobe, but I'm not going to be as restrictive on the number of items. For example, I have a wedding at the end of this month for which I will be wearing a cocktail style dress. I'll be wearing it just the once, so to have to allocate space on a list for it along with the accessories to match seems to be a bit unfair. 

I also have a number of pieces of beautiful jewellery which have been boxed up for the past 3 months because of Project 333. There are a lot of sentimental pieces that I wouldn't dream of selling, so it makes sense to enjoy them and wear them. 

However, what I have realised is that there are a number of items of my clothing that I will eBay or charity shop because I haven't been wearing them for various different reasons... Now is the time for me to revisit my bag of clothes that I packed away and make some decisions on what I will keep and what can go. As the weather is improving, I also need to pack away the winter jumpers and bring out my summer t-shirts. Fingers crossed for some more sun!!

I want to quickly share with you a new purchase which I bought from M&S... it's a gorgeous maxi dress and is not my usual style at all. But I spotted it in the shop whilst in the queue for the fitting room, and I just had to try it on! I got some lovely comments from passers by, so much so that I had to buy it! At £79 I felt it was a really good deal. I think I could dress it up with heels and a clutch for a summer party, or wear it with flip flops and a casual beach bag for during the day. What do you think, yay or nay?

Per Una Speziale Striped & Colour Block Maxi Dress