Joules Summer Sale Picks

This time last year I was not enthusiastic about buying any clothing for myself as I didn't like the way I looked and only felt comfortable in clothes I was 'used to'. If I did try anything on I'd usually be left feeling miserable and rubbish about myself.

This year I'm much more excited about buying clothes for myself, since May I have lost 1st 10lbs and feeling blooming great for it! And now that we seem to finally be getting some Summer weather I've been enjoying some online browsing and making a wish list for myself.

I love the Joules Sale clothing range and have been adding some gorgeous bits to my online basket! Here's what's caught my eye.



 Amelie Dress

I am a huge fan of floral prints, especially in the summer and I just adore this 1950's style dress with capped sleeves. I love how feminine it is and how well the colours work together. I know this type of fit flatters my figure too so already feel confident it would look great. I would team it up with some summer sandals for a day out, if I had any weddings coming up I would definiyely wear this as I think it's perfect!

 Iris Top

As you can see I'm definitely going for a floral theme, I just love the print and the pastel colours on this sleeveless top and think it would be perfect to dress down on a hot summers day like above or it could be dressed up for an evening with some heels. 



 Helena Floral Dress

This caught my attention as soon as I saw it, I like that there is cross over at the bust and think this fit would be flattering too as it's fitted at the waist. Again I really like the colours and think they work well together.

What's caught your eye in the sales?

Our New Bathroom

Back in April, I wrote about our excitement about having a new bathroom fitted, it was something that had been on our 'to do list' ever since moving in. Our old bathroom had not been looked after by the previous owners and appeared to be much older than it actually was. It was a room that that my other half did not like to use and would frequently say 'it creeps me out'.

Thankfully since our new bathroom has been installed he is much more relaxed and we can have a bath (we wouldn't use the old bath!). It really has made a massive difference in our day to day lives!

Apart from the tiles, which we bought from Homebase we purchased everything from Victorian Plumbing.

My inspiration can from a variety if sources, browsing showrooms, other bloggers new bathrooms, my friends new bathroom and of course Pinterest!

From the outset I knew I wanted the brick tiles, I've always loved these and think they look fabulous. I wanted black grouting to give a bit of a contrast and not have too much 'white'. 



 We also wanted a built in toilet and sink, with a modern rectangular sink. After much browsing I found that Victorian Plumbing had the best value products that had caught my eye and I liked the fact there was a choice of delivery options.

So I went ahead and placed our order. We went for the Barmby Shower Bath with a hinged screen, even though shower screens can be a bit of a pain to clean I personally prefer the look and finish over a shower curtain.

I was immediately attracted to the Milan Thermostatic shower when I saw it. I love the large 'fixed' square shower head and equally love the smaller moveable shower head. It's so easy to use, you simply turn the bar backwards for the larger fixed shower head and forwards for the other one.

We ordered the Turin High Gloss White Vanity Unit Bathroom Suite, I couldn't wait to be able to hide lots of the bathroom bits in the cabinet.

To coordinate I ordered a bath and sink tap together which was the Milan Modern Basin Mixer and bath filler.

To ensure the bathroom had a more modern feel I also wanted a heated towel rail and went for the Diamond rail.

We also ordered radiator valves, the bath panel and bath waste.

We are all thoroughly enjoying our new bathroom, although it took Eliot a couple of baths to get used to the new one, he was asking for the old one back!

We still need to do a couple of things like paint the ceiling and get a blind fitted, which will be easy enough to sort quickly.

After that our next 'house job' is to get the downstairs toilet sorted, we had that ripped out over a year ago and had an idea of making it into a utility room but have decided it will better off as a toilet. Then we'd also like to sort the ensuite in our room but that won't be for a while.  

In my excitement of having a new bathroom fitted I also bought lots of bits to go in our new bathroom, you can watch the haul below to see what I purchased!



Have you had or are hoping to have a new bathroom makeover soon? I'd love to read about your ideas/see finished results!

Daily Mail Shoot Photos

Photo Credit Juliette Neel

If  you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may remember back in February I posted a photo of a lot of make up as I was having my hair and make up done for a newspaper article. We were also sent clothing to wear for the shoot which I wasn't overly happy about as both dresses sent for me did not suit my shape at all and made me look like a pretentious 1950's housewife! I couldn't wear my own dress as the only one I had that would have worked was black and you couldn't wear black! 

I was very happy with my hair and make up though that was one thing that turned out well!

When we were told what day the article was appearing I was dreading seeing how I looked in the photos as how I was dressed simply wasn't me. However when I looked at the article online there were photos of another family but none of us. We were referred to in the article but none of our photos were included.

At first I was slightly offended, what was wrong with us?

Then as I read the comments underneath the article I was quite relieved our faces weren't plastered all over a page of The Daily Mail.

The comments were mainly negative, some personal but the ones I did read (I stopped after a while) were about the family that had been pictured. Their article had gone in to much more detail about the in's and out's of their relationship. I was very relieved neither of us had shared that much information!

We were keen to see the photos though, so contacted the journalist and asked if we'd be able to view them. The photographer kindly emailed a folder containing all of the photos.

 I was even more relieved that my photos hadn't been used. I really disliked how I looked in all of my individual photos and some of the family shots, the outfit didn't do me any favours at all!

But I thought I'd share some of them here on my blog, . Excuse Eliot's hair, it's truly crazy in these!

 All photos taken by Juliette Neel

If you're interested in reading the article, the link is here.

Let me know what you think if you do have a read :)

A New Bathroom...

Goodbye ugly bathroom

Today work begins on a new bathroom in our home. Something we have wanted to do for a very long time. I'm hoping things will go smoothly and there will be no glitches with all the work that needs to be done!

When we moved in we had the flooring pulled up and had new tiles put down, I actually don't really like them now but seeing as they're still pretty new there's no point in forking out even more money for new flooring. So apart from the floor everything is coming out, the old being replaced with the new.

The new bathroom was delivered almost two weeks ago so has been waiting rather patiently to be installed. We bought everything apart from the tiles from Victorian Plumbing.

We are having the ever so popular 'brick' tiles to replace the current ones and actually tiling out all areas apart from one wall.

I am most looking forward to the new bath with modern taps and a shower screen rather than a curtain. I have not had a bath in this house (not because I'm dirty, I've been having showers!) since moving in so I am REALLY looking forward to a bath and have bought some goodies from Lush to enjoy once the bathroom is complete. I hate the colour of the current panel on the bath, it's just...nasty! I had been meaning to paint it white ever since we moved in but just never got round to it.

We are having a toilet and sink unit fitted as I think they look stylish and tidy and we are replacing the radiator with a more modern heated towel rail. That bathroom cabinet has already gone and I think it will just be replaced by a mirror as we will have the cupboard under the sink.

On Friday we had a new light fitted which looks much more modern than the previous one.

 I have bought new towels and accessories for the bathroom and I'm super excited to start using them once the work is complete. Keep an eye out for a reveal post!



Breakfast With The Easter Bunny

On Good Friday I took Eliot and my niece for Breakfast with the Easter Bunny at the Podington Wyevale Garden Centre. I was really looking forward to the experience and thought it would be a great start to the Easter weekend!

When we arrived we were greeted by a member of staff who showed us to our table which was all laid out ready for us. At this point the member of staff double checked our order which had been placed at the time of booking. There were a few different options. Adults could select a full English, vegetarian breakfast (£7.99) or a hot drink & pastry (£3.99). The children's breakfast was £9.99 which included unlimited squash.

 The children received a kids activity sheet with some crayons and a little bag of mini eggs which Mr Eliot was dying to get into and managed to get one out before breakfast!

 

Unfortunately we had quite a long wait from sitting down to actually getting our breakfast. It took around 10-15 minutes for our drinks to be served and around half an hour for the food to arrive. As well as part of the restaurant being used for Breakfast with the Easter bunny, the rest of it was also open as normal. I think this is what had such an impact on the wait for the breakfast, the staff in the kitchen struggled to cope with the demands of different customers.

Kids breakfast

When breakfast did arrive it looked nice and both Eliot and my niece tucked in without any complaints!

Vegetarian breakfast

I opted for the vegetarian breakfast but wasn't sure exactly what would be on the plate until it arrived, I presumed some veggie sausages would be on there but was pleasantly surprised by the sight of bubble and squeak. However, I did find my breakfast a bit of a let down. The egg was very crispy on the bottom, as you can see in the photo and the bubble and squeak seemed a bit undercooked in places. Nothing major but a let down all the same.

 

Once all the tables had finished breakfast we were grouped together for an Easter egg hunt. The children were told they had to look for eggs on posters which were 'hidden' in different locations around the shop. My niece really got into it but Eliot was probably a little too young so didn't have a full understanding. Still this didn't stop him getting excited each time they found an egg as each child was given a mini bag of Haribo when one was found.

There were three eggs to find in total. Once the last egg had been found the Easter Bunny arrived bearing gifts of cuddly rabbits for all the children!

We then returned to our tables in the restaurant which had been cleared and where a biscuit and goodies to decorate it had been left for the children.

There was a bag of icing all ready to pipe, chocolate, marshmallows and sprinkles in a pot to decorate the biscuits. Both Eliot and his older cousin really enjoyed this and took time making their masterpiece!

A member of staff then came round and asked if the adults would like to make one too which of course I said 'yes' to! It was a good job too as after Eliot had squeezed out as much icing as he could and decorated his biscuit, he decided he wanted a plain one so I ended up giving him mine.

 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and most importantly Eliot and his niece did too. Even though the long wait for food and my breakfast were a disappointment I would still do the experience again and definitely recommend it to others.

 I would choose having 'tea' over breakfast which I had intended to do but unfortunately there was no availability for tea.

 

 

*We received complimentary breakfast with the Easter Bunny for review purposes. All opinions are my own.