The Gorgeous Week That Was

What a beautiful weather we've been enjoying this past week!
Since Monday, Britain has been basking in the beautiful sunshine.
 An average of 25C all  day long  (as sometimes it can be sunny yet windy or it suddenly gets cold towards the later part of the afternoon, but not this time though).
The evenings on the otherhand,  are  just very warm. Little Girl's bedroom  night temperature is around 27C so it really makes her so uncomfortable. I have to leave our windows open whole day and night.
It is such a pure delight to see people all dressed up in their summer clothes -  for a while I thought we were in the Philippines!
We've been out and about since Monday and Little Girl still manages to jump and splash  in her paddling pool after a long day out  while Mummy watches over her with a glass of port wine. Just fantastic!

Here are some of our outfits of the day:
(We  couldn't manage any photos on the weekdays as Mummy is lousy on the camera unfortunately.
 We  have to wait on weekends to exploit Dearest Husband, lol!)

I'm wearing a jumpsuit and gladiator sandals from Tesco's f&F clothing.
Rado Original Diastar watch  I've got for about 20 years now    
 Accessories from SM  Davao
Little Girl on her Strawberry on Faire kids summer dress and Lelli Kelly sandals

I'm wearing shorts and white top from H&M  

Michael Kors logo jet set travel tote  

Hush Puppies brown wedge

 Little Girl on a  Rocha.Little Rocha white shirt  

Zara pink shorts 

 Lelli Kelly sandals

I've promised myself  I am  going to take a break from shopping especially as we are going to Paris and I am getting myself  a new phone which is not in the plan/budget.
 Unfortunately, I happened to drop by Gap and managed to get Little Girl these:

Butterfly Pink Jelly Sandals and baseball hat from GAP

and this gorgeous grey dress from H&M at £5. 

Mother-in-law came round Friday morning and left 2 dozens of Dahlia seedlings.
I was especially thankful as:  1,  Dahlia's one of my favourites, 2;  saves me plenty of money from buying them  from the garden centres instead and 3;  saves me time from growing them.
It came from my father-in-law's cousin.
I had time to plant them this afternoon. I just could not believe that I was in the garden till about half past 8pm.
The weather was just truly fantastic.

Dahlias at borders

And at pots

In about a month or two, they will start flowering, just can't wait. They are lovely! I will update you on this.

I had a good look around my garden and realized  if only we have a regular normal weather,  imagine what the sunshine can do more given the progress it can  in just a week's time.
.

The petunias from last week's planting

I also noticed the Lillies buds are already coming out. In a week or 2 it will start flowering. Hmm,  they are so lovely.

Our weather forecast says sunshine will be with us until tomorrow and back to wet and gloom on Tuesday, oh no!!!!  I hope it will turn around before Jubilee celebrations next week.
We are going to the Rugby Club and the theme is 1950's. I have no idea how to arrive on a 1950's outfits but I still have a week to plan.
In the meantime, I find it urgent to help Little Girl do the  Father's Day cards for her dad, 2 grandads and great grandad. That is more urgent and important.
Anyway, I got to sleep now.
I just consumed a bottle of port wine while watching Desperate Housewives. It said we are only 2 episodes away from its finale. Think I will be crying!!

Good night everyone.

Glorious Monday

We are having a very lovely weather outside.
The forecast is finally right. And I hope it does not end today.
Little Girl had a fantastic time splashing in her paddling pool while Mummy was also enjoying her afternoon glass of port wine. I've finished the remaining half of the bottle from last night.

Where am I Mum?

She always drinks the bath water

And still runs back inside the house to check her Cbeebies show

And mummy's afternoon delight - a glass of port!

The afternoon was still great despite me feeling so stupid.
I accidentally threw my cellphone in Little Girl's paddling pool filled with water.
I forgot that among the other things in the bucketful of her bath toys was my beloved phone and I just threw them straight away into the pool.
Too late. My phone is now dead, gone forever.

Happy Monday everyone.

Sunshiny Sunday Still

And the sun is still with us today,  just pure heaven !!  A very  unclouded Sunday still.
19C of sunshine but slightly breezy.
Not complaining though,  in fact very grateful and just enjoying it.

I did another load of washing, again  (sorry to bore you off but as I said I am just simply taking advantage of drying my washing naturally).

But we did have fun in the afternoon. We went to Hatton Country World.
I just love this place especially its Shopping Village (garden centre,  toy shop, kitchen shop,  antique shop  and a lot more).
I like the excitement of  finding crafty and good quality things rarely available in the High Street.
There is also an area for children called Farm Village - from animal adventures to play areas.

an array of shops 

and the children's piece of heaven on earth 

Of course Little Girl could not wait to start joining in the fun

While I indulged  myself with some ice cream.
Rare  beautiful weather like this deserves an afternoon of frozen dessert.

Afterwards, I have to begin with my big must do - check all the shops.
I started with the Antique shop. I love this shop although I could not afford most of its items.
But I did manage to buy  a jar before,  now happily sharing its beauty in my dining room.

My next stop was the shop called The Outlet. It is a department style factory outlet for the whole family. Shoes, clothes, gift ideas, footwear, children and menswear, garden things, name it and they surely have it.

 We bought Little Girl some items from her favourite Cbeebies show the  In the Night Garden

An Upsy Daisy Hat. Oh,  how she loved  it and wore  it most of the time we were there despite the wind constantly blowing it away. I was even very surprised as it is always a big challenge to put anything on her hair/head.

An Upsy Daisy short pyjama set

I also bought some personalized birthday cards.

Then I carried on enjoying the other shops.
I tried staying away from the toy shop especially as Little Girl was with me.
Our last stop was at Liv- Furniture & Things. This is my piece of heaven on Hatton Country World.
It is like stepping into a magical world of home furnishings.
There is no visit here where I came home empty handed.
My house is just enjoying its products.

And here is Little Girl sitting comfortably in a stool she found at the shop.
She was adamant in sitting there and would just  refuse to get up.
She just sat there while I had a good look around although she kept on telling me to sit down in the chair next to hers.

People who have come to visit us at home would notice my wall signs or plaques.
I got this  hanging wooden vintage toilet sign.  Although it is spelled in French, I just could not simply resist it as it coordinates with the rest of my toilet theme.
This is by the way for my toilet downstairs.
Never mind if I already have an existing hanging wooden The Loo sign which I also got from this shop last year.

my very British old toilet sign 

I also got some lovely posters.
These two will be for my kitchen. I just love its vintage effect.
I could only imagine sitting in a Victorian cafe adorned with these pictures.
The paper quality and the way it is printed just made these gorgeous posters seem old fashioned.
I just need to put them into either a distressed or shabby chic frames to totally achieve the vintage effect look.
And at  £2.99 per piece  it  truly  is a must buy.

And another two for Little Girl's room.

Which I hang in the wall by the side of her bed. This way, we can include her ABC's in our bedtime stories.

There were other more tempting prints.
I am already thinking of getting some more to make a statement wall in my toilet downstairs.
I am now just restless and could not wait to start.

Have a very good night everyone.

Sunny Saturday

Finally, we have  a break today from the dreadful weather!
Oh what a joy to have blue sky and sunshine instead of the gloom and wet we have had for the past weeks. It is 15C today of just pure sunshine.
No wind too. Just lovely.

Our day started  very early.
At 4 am I woke up to a very loud thud. Little Girl had  fallen out of bed! She cried of course but only for a few seconds then went back to sleep.
The worrier in me was the one who could not go back to sleep after.
So I scooped her up and put her in our bed. Waited for Dearest Husband to woke up and then the re arrangement began.

This was how her room used to look like. The bed was in the middle.

This is because I have to accommodate her Hello Kitty play house.
It is just so space consuming and no matter where you put it, it really affects the room's space however small or big it is.
This used to be in her playroom downstairs but it helped her feel at ease in moving to her bedroom hence it has to stay.

And this is now the new arrangement. I just really hope this will work this time now as one side is close to the wall.  A friend also advised to get a bed rail guard.

I have to put back the kitchen and piano toys in the playroom.
The play house stayed  and the the  natural brown changing table which I use as a book case now is placed at the foot of her bed.

This is not the only re arrangement we have done. We also did the same to the stair gates downstairs.
We have a total of 5 in this house.:  2 in the second floor (1 at 2nd floor landing  to stop her going to the 3rd  floor and the other 1 to stop her going to the ground floor).
The other 3 were all in the ground floor:   1 to prevent her going to the kitchen, 1 in the hallway to stop her going to the front door and 1 in her play room.
Her playroom is just next to the stairs.  Now, we removed both the one in the hallway and the one in the the playroom and just put one instead at the bottom of the stairs.
It is much better. She can just come and go to her playroom from the  living room and back without me worrying her climbing up the stairs.

 I have also noticed these past few days that the summer bulbs are already starting to come out while the spring flowers are already finished for this year.

Some of my back garden flowers already springing to life.


At about half past 3pm I told Dearest Husband I wanted to go out.
It seems such a waste to just stay at home and do nothing when the weather outside is just beautiful.

Here we are on our outfits of the day:

Wearing a long sleeve K&D  London top

  Fossil black cross body bag both from my shopping last week

Carvella black ankle boots

H&M Sqin jeans in dark denim blue

a very old Giordano belt.

Although I soon realized after I could have just  worn  instead some open toed heels or a maxi dress, or anything summery for that matter. The weather was just really lovely.

Taking a picture of Little Girl was such a challenge. Here are my few attempts.

Little Girl wearing a Mothercare sleeveless dress 

Pumpkin Patch white tights

Clarks  purple shoes

We went to Touchwood Shopping Center in Solihull.
We made the most out of the 2 hours still left on the mall's opening hours.
Little Girl was with me when we went to different shops.
She would always refuse to stay in her stroller and loves walking around and trying on all the shopping.
But most often, she also loves lying on the flower, playing hide and seek, going to the lift to press the buttons so I definitely could not concentrate on my shopping.
I have to give her back to her dad who is waiting for us at a coffee shop.

while patiently waiting for mummy to come back from her shopping.

I did not have much time left to check all the shops.
I just went straight to Zara, Gap and H&M.
There was nothing that appealed to me at Zara and the black maxi dress at Gap was not too convincing either.
In the end, I settled for these jeans at H&M. It is the same with the one I am wearing on the above picture only on different colours.

H&M jeans from their Sqin collection.  Low waist skinny jeans in black and white colour.  They are only £9.99 each.

I am not one of those who are very particular with only wearing a designer jeans or tops. I am more with the fit and comfort. And as I wear jeans most of the time, replacing/adding some more won't be financially challenging.  

Back in the Philippines I am a fan of the Bench jeans. There were several instances before  in my trips abroad (Paris and Las Vegas) wherein I was often asked about my jeans and where to get it from. I could not help but smile as a pair would only cost Php 700.00 (or about £10.00 at present conversion) . 

And this was back in 2006.

 Nowadays, I am into H&M and Dorothy Perkins jeans. I still go to Levi's occasionally.  
Shoes and bags are a different story of course. 

I sincerely wish the sunshine would still be with us tomorrow. 
I still have more loads of washing to do. And I want a beautiful day out with Little Girl somewhere she can really enjoy.
Good night everyone.