Christmas bargains

Well hello

Today, Jake was picked up at 9am by his mum, and I headed straight out to do some much needed Christmas shopping. I contemplated going to Lakeside as it has a big Primark, but then I realised I wanted to go to Poundland and 99p Store, so I decided to go to Bromley instead.

I started off my day with a Caramel Latte and muffin in my favourite coffee shop... Starbucks :)

And I was loving the Christmassy feel to all the decorations in the shopping centre :)

Then it was shopping time! I started off in the 99p Store, and here is what I picked up...

Love, love, love the reindeer 'Merry Christmas' sign! So good for 99p. And I have always wanted a big plate for Christmas. I plan to use it as a centrepiece for our dining table with some baubles on.

Then I got a few bits in Wilkinson....

Not Christmas related, but for our wedding tree wish tags, a photo album for £2. A ready cut, decorated Christmas paper chain kit (can't wait to do these with the kids). And lastly, glitter to decorate some of my handmade Xmas decorations I have been doing over the last few weeks, and only £1!

And lastly, after going back to my car as I had so much stuff to carry, I popped into Poundland and realised I had left my debit card in another shop............ Luckily they had kept it in their safe!

2 white chocolate Toberlones (for me and Mike) :) and some mini baubles for putting on my red plate from 99p store. Then some snowflake stickers for my windows and a hanging paper 3D snowman, so good for £1!

I got SO much more, but mainly Christmas presents for the kiddies.

I am in love with the reindeer sign and can't wait to decorate on Saturday!!

Have you got any good Christmas bargains recently?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Snowy :)

Well hello

I got this idea from Pinterest and it looked so cool :) Some great indoor decorations for Christmas, and great to do with the kids.

You will need some flat wooden lolly pop sticks (I had some laying around that we had bought previously from EBay) a hot glue gun, scissors, a protractor, a pencil and a ruler.

Start off by cutting 12 of the lolly sticks in half, and then keep 9 still whole. Firstly, we need to make a six pointed star with 3 of the whole sticks. Make a marker on them half way along so you know where they need to join. Using the protractor, you need to put the sticks at 60 degree angles from each other, so you get something that looks like this...

 

Then you want to take 2 of the halves of stick and go round and join up the points, as follows...

 

 



Then you will need to take 1 whole stick and 2 halves to make a chicken foot shape (the only thing I could relate the shape too) ....

Or i guess a stick man without the head or legs..... anyway, that shape. Then, to put it all together, glue these onto the star, but onto the tips of the original sticks, like this...

And there you have your snowflake :) They will look good once painter, I've just not got around to painting them yet. They look good in the traditional snowflake white, or even red or green, and I think I'll paint one to match my living room colours. It's up to you!

 

I've made two of these size and then one double the size, so I used all whole sticks and 2 in the place of where I used one in this tutorial. Here is a comparison...


Would you consider making decorations for Christmas? I love doing it :)

toodle pip!

Beka x

Humping!!

Well hello

Happy hump day!

Now, if you think I am being weird, I'm not! It's a scientific way of describing that we are half way through the week. The best way to describe this is in a diagram....

So..... Monday you are at the bottom of the hill, dreading the week ahead and wishing you could jump straight to Friday and for the weekend to begin.
Tuesday is getting a bit better, you have got one day out of the way and that means one day closer to the weekend. Still working hard though....
Wednesday - HUMP DAY!! You are at the half way point of the week, and now you are just one more day away from the weekend!
Thursday, you are nearly there! You are one sleep away from the end of the week.... then it's....
Friday and you have conquered another week at work/school and its time to relax.

So I hope that has cleared up Hump day for everyone :) Spread the happiness and wish all your friends Happy Hump Day!!

toodle pip!

Beka x

Bootiful

Well hello

I hope you are all well. Today I am reviewing some make-up brushes from Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman. Now I need to fill you in with the back story about these....

About a year ago I was looking on YouTube for Halloween makeup ideas and came across a lady called Nicola doing a tutorial on how to do 'Corpse Bride' makeup (you can find it here) Now that was more work than I wanted to do, but was amazing to watch. I then subscribed to her channel Pixiwoo. I then found out the channel is run by her and her sister Samantha. So I was spending my evenings watching their videos, in awe of 1. how beautiful they are! 2. how they do lots of different types of styles and 3. how they make it possible for people like me to have a go at home.

So I had been keeping an eye on their tutorials and had seen that Sam had spoken about a range of brushes she was bringing out, and they sounded amazing. I had been toying with getting some for a while, then, whilst out birthday shopping with my husband, I saw them in Boots and he bought them for me :) It was great as they were on offer, buy one get one half price, so I was even happier to get them. Now don't get me wrong, they are a great price, both for the sets and for the individual brushes.

So that's the story, now here are the brushes...

 

 

So from the left....

Starter set - this is a set of 5 brushes - amazing! I use them all on a daily basis, mainly for my eyes and eyebrows, and the one in the very left of the box, is AMAZING for applying concealer, especially under my eyes.

 

Stippling brush - this is a individual brush. This is great for applying all different products to your face. I've used it for moisturiser, foundation, bronzer and blusher. A wonderful all round brush.

 

Shading brush - this is an individual brush. I use this everyday for adding definition to my eyes and for applying highlighter. Another good brush that can be used in different ways.

 

Core Collection - this is a set of 5 brushes. I mainly wanted this for the buffing brush (far right) which is good for applying foundation and blusher. Also, the brush in the left of the pack (the name escapes me...) is great for applying contour as it is a graduated brush - the tip applies the bronzer, then the rest of the brush helps to blend it in.

 

So, overall, I am so pleased with them and I even used them on my wedding day :) So worth the money, not that they are too expensive. From memory (as I bought them in August) the sets were about £22 and the individual ones were between £8 and £12.

 

Have you tried these brushes, or another range you would recommend?

 

toodle pip!

 

Beka x

Hair stuff :)

Well hello

Today was a day of being adventurous, not to mention being busy too! My day consisted of lots of meetings/school stuff/shopping and general busy stuff. But i managed to find time to have a little play with my hair :)

A little while ago, I watched a video on YouTube of someone who I love, Louise (Sprinkle of Glitter), and noticed her hair. She had the 'ombre' look, where the ends of the hair are gradually lighter than your natural colour. So I had been looking at stuff online and trying to decide whether it was something I could pull off...... So I was out shopping this morning and stumbled across the L'Oreal Preference Wild Ombre kit. I had seen this advertised on the TV and thought that would be the best way to do it.

 

So, I built myself up to it, made sure I read the instructions properly, and even looking at some reviews of the dye kit online. I went for the darkest shade which was for light to dark brown hair (which I have). I had a couple of hours to spare...... so I went for it!

It was relatively easy to do, separate my hair into two halves, left and right, and then apply the dye using the special comb that came in the box. You are told to put the cream mixture onto the comb, then working from the back, comb it through the hair.

You are told to leave it on for between 25 and 45 minutes depending on how light you want your hair to go. I left mine on for about 35 minutes. You rinse off the excess with hot water, then add the conditioner they give you, and wash it through thoroughly.

 



Not a great photo I know, but I'll update a better one in some natural light! But I am pleased with how it turned out. I have gone from being unsure about doing it, to maybe accidentally buying the next lighter kit on my way home from Bluewater tonight :)

So, I'm really happy with the look, and I think I'll give it a week and maybe go a bit lighter :)

Have you guys tried this kit? If so, what did you think?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Poochie :)

Well hello

We are lucky enough to have adopted a gorgeous dog called Lulu from my best friend. She has her from a puppy, but after the end of a relationship, she had to move into a flat and not a great place to look after a dog. So we took Lulu in and she was with us for around 8 months, then my friend moved to a house with one of her friends and took Lulu back :-( We were very sad to see her go, but we knew it would happen at some point.
After about 6 months, my friend had to move again, and she ended up in a flat again, so she asked us to take on Lulu again, but this time for good :-) She realised that it wasn't fair on Lulu and her and her flatmate were out from 7am til at least 6pm, whereas we had the kids and I was at home most of the day.............

So Lulu moved in for good! Now it is very hard to not fall in love with her when you see her, so try and resist yourselves.....

She is a little boring, she sleeps most of the day and only really gets up if she hears rustling (potential for food) or when the doorbell rings (potential for food). But she completes our family - she is always there in the morning to wake us up with a lick, promises to stare at you whilst you eat your dinner in case you feel the need to drop ANYTHING and just makes us smile by falling asleep in such cute positions!

Have you got any pets?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Whoops!

Well hello

I have done it again! I am still getting into the swing of this blogging, but Mike and I were at a party yesterday, and then stayed over my parents house, so my blogging duties were a little lapse...

So we have just got home, thankfully, as it is now pouring down with rain! We are lucky that we love on top of a hill, so being flooded is not a major worry for us, luckily. I have seen the pictures on the news of the poor people who have been unlucky with all this rain. It's such a shame, but I guess there is nothing we can do. If it's going to rain, it will rain! I suppose we just need to be a little more prepared.

So we have had a long weekend. We had a party at my brother's new house as a housewarming/birthday party yesterday, then we stayed over at my parents as they live nearer to him, and we managed to arrange a sleepover for the kids with Mike's parents, so we thought we'd make the most of our time away. Then we did a bit of Christmas shopping before a nice lunch in Chatham. Then, back to pick the dog up from my parents house and off to get the kids.

Now we are home and trying to relax.... well I've personally got a million things going round my head as I have a lot to do before tomorrow morning. I've got a valuer coming at 10am, then Maisie's social worker is coming at 3:30, then I have parents evening for Maisie at 5:40, then the best bit of the day....I'm off out for sushi with my best girls in the evening :)

So that's tomorrow.....for this evening, catching up on some Saturday night TV, then a bit of housework before bed.

I hope you have had a good weekend and haven't been too affected by the rain.

Is it raining where you are now?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Making use of loo rolls....



Well hello

 

Living in a house with my husband and two children, having one toilet is a nightmare! Mike or I will just shut the door and you have a child knocking, 'I need a wee...'. Anyway, my 1 toilet household can get quite hectic sometimes, but that's another issue!

So, somehow they kids and Mike seem to use a roll a day of toilet paper, and there are always rolls left on the holder, or on top of the cistern, or even just left on the floor. So I thought, especially with Christmas coming up, I wanted to make use of them. So I did some research on the Interweb and found a great picture of someone who had used them to make flower decorations for their tree... So here is my guide to making toilet roll flowers. I can't wait to hang them up in a few weeks :)

 

You will need:

1 toilet roll tube

pencil

ruler

scissors

hot glue gun

 

 

Firstly, make sure your glue gun is plugged in, switched on and heating up. Then flatten the toilet roll in half length-ways and, using the ruler, mark it at 1 1/2 cm points at the top and bottom. Then join them to make it stripey!

 

Then you need to, using the scissors, cut along these lines to create 7 strips of loo roll tube. Don't worry about trying to round them back into the original shape, you need them flattened.

 

 

Next, you need to get one of the pieces, place some hot glue along the top of one the folded ends and lay another one on top and squeeze together. Sounds complicated, here is a picture...

 

Once you have glued all of them together, you will have a nice little pile of tubes...

 

 

I personally use 7 pieces, which happens to be the amount you cut out using 1 1/2 cm thick bits, but you can use less, or more, depending on how you want your flower to look at the end. So now, if you let go, you will have something that looks like this....

 

 

Now, to finish it off, you need to just glue the two end pieces together, just in the same way as you have been, with a bit of glue along the folded part in the middle of the flower. Then you are left with something like this.......

 

 

And there you have it, a flower made from a toilet roll tube :) Personally, I have cut a little notch in one of the ends of the 'petals' and attached some string so I can hang them up, some from the ceiling and hopefully fit some on our tree.

 

 

Would you use toilet rolls to make decorations? Or do you have any other ideas for using unwanted household rubbish?

 

toodle pip!

 

Beka x







Yucky stuff

Well hello

Today has been a bit of a slow one for me. Maisie has had a cough and sore throat for a few days, and, lucky old me has caught the lurgy! I'm at the stage of just feeling pants and my throat is starting to hurt.... bad times.

So my day today has consisted of laying on the sofa watching TV and sleeping. Luckily Jake was with his mum, so I didn't have to get up much! Maisie spent most of her day in her room in bed playing on her ipod and watching TV.

So that's about it for today my lovelies...... I haven't left the house, or done any housework, or made anything crafty. so I'm afraid this is all you are getting!

Is anyone else joining me in the 'i feel poo club'?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Catch up :)

Well hello

I've just sat down to do some emailing whilst Eastenders is on, and realised I didn't put a post up yesterday! So I have remedied that with a film review for yesterday, and this post will be for today :)

I've spent most of my free time over the last week making decorations and crafty bits for Christmas. A few of them you can see on my previous blog posts, and I'll have a few more up for you over the next couple of weeks....

I'm kind of obsessed actually. Even now, whilst I am writing this, I am stopping to make some stars (so cute, will do a blog post soon!) and I can't stop. I am not even kidding! Luckily, ages ago I bought a book of scrap booking paper from Amazon, like 140 sheets, with random patterns and colours on. So that is coming in very handy right about now!

So, at the rate I am going, my house is going to be covered in loo roll flowers, bauble wreaths, and mini stars, but I love it! I am going to get such a great feeling looking at them all knowing that I have made them all myself. I have even put up some of the stars in my hall already.....now before you judge me, they are not completely christmassy! I will show you guys a picture when I have decorated fully for Christmas, and yes, that will be on the 1st December! You can't stop Mike....as soon as it's December, we've got decorations up and Christmas songs on (which I secretly love too)

Anyway, when are you planning on decorating for Christmas?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Testing morals

Well hello

Today, along with making origami stars, I came across a film I had bought but hadn't watched. So, I had the time before doing the school run...

****Spoiler alert - I don't believe I give anything away about the film in this post, but if you don't want to know anything, please click away now****

The film was 'Something Borrowed' starring Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin.
The main plot is that Darcy (Kate Hudson) and Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) have been best friends for years, Darcy is getting married to Dex, who went to law school with Rachel, and she was desperately in love with him. But then along came Darcy....

So six years later and Darcy and Rachel are still best friends and Darcy is now engaged to Dex. It's Rachel's birthday and Darcy throws her a birthday party and manages to make a speech which actually revolves around her....which she is good at doing....then Rachel accidentally admits to Dex that when they were at law school, she had a big crush on him. They end up in a taxi on their own, kiss, and ..........well you can guess what!

The rest of the film is Rachel and Dex trying to decide what to do, especially Rachel, who knows she is best for Dex, but doesn't want to hurt her best friend.

I really enjoyed the film, a true romantic comedy, testing your morals and ideas of friendship and love.
Storyline - 5/5
Characters - 4/5
Ending - 4/5

I give Something Borrowed 4 out of 5.

toodle pip!

Beka x

Chicken risotto

Well hello

I always considered myself quite a good cook. Well, I am good at the things I do all the time, and I never really tried anything new. So when I saw a recipe for risotto, I thought I'd give it go. I has always thought that risotto takes a lot of effort and time to do, but as it turned out, it wasn't too bad, and Mike and I both really enjoyed it. So today, I am going to share with you my recipe for chicken risotto.

Ingredients
1 diced large onion
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 vegetable stock cubes
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup arborio (risotto) rice
2 tsp fresh parsley

1. Dice the chicken and cook in a frying pan with a dash of olive oil. Once cooked all the way through, put onto a plate with some kitchen roll on and set aside.
2. In the same frying pan, and without cleaning it out, add in the olive oil, onion and garlic. Cook until the onion turns transparent. Whilst this is cooking, crumble the two stock cubes into a saucepan of boiling water and leave on a low heat.

 

3. Add the cup of arborio rice into the frying pan with the onion and garlic. Give it a good stir around to fully mix it all together.

 

 



4. Now, you want to add a ladle of the boiling stock at a time, and only add the next one once the previous stock has been absorbed into the rice. You don't want to completely dry out the rice, but you need to make sure the most of it has gone....like this....

 

 

There isn't a set amount of stock that you need to use, you go on the amount of time, and you need to keep adding the stock for 20 minutes.

 

5. Once the 20 minutes is nearly up, put the chicken into the frying pan, and also add the chopped up parsley.

6. You are now ready to serve :)

 

I forgot to take a picture once I had plated up.....I was to engrossed in eating it! I'll update with a picture when I make it next :)

 

Have you ever made this? or made a different flavour of risotto?

 

toodle pip!

 

Beka x



 

Science museum

Well hello

 

Today started at 6am for Mike and I as we needed to head into London for a hospital appointment. We knew it was going to be a busy day as we had to deliver some samples to one department, then he needed to have blood taken in another department, then have a scan in a third department, and then his main appointment with the specialist at 1:30. We were quite lucky in that we got to the hospital just before 9am, so we managed to get the first three things done by 10. So with 4 1/2 hours to wait, we decided to take a trip to the Science Museum as it wasn't too far away.

 

So we jumped on a bus and we were there in 15 minutes. It was free to get in, but they ask for a donation as you go in. Being a Wednesday, it wasn't too busy, but there were quite a few different groups of school children on trips wandering about. Even so, it wasn't crowded at all.

 

I don't remember ever visiting the Science Museum before  but I would definitely go there again. We didn't have ages there, so we didn't get to see everything, and mike was disappointed as the 3rd floor 'Future' area was closed off to the public as there was a private eventh going on. So that was a shame.

 

Overall, for a free trip out, I would recommend it to anyone, especially those with kids :-) Here are a few snaps from our trip...

 

 

We were walking back towards South Kensigton tube station (about 5 minutes walk from the museum) and we were getting hungry.... then we saw Chopstix, a noodle house. It smelt amazing, and they even served the food in boxes! I've only ever seen that in movies! So Mike and I ended up with the same thing, chicken noodles, Thai caramel chicken and the staple favourtie, sweet and sour chicken.

 

 



It was sooo yummy :) I highly recommend visting there if you are near South Kensington tube station.

 

Have you got any good places to visit for free near you?

 

toodle pip!

 

Beka x

 

Christmas is coming!

Well hello

I've wanted to make my own wreath for my front door for the last couple of years. I would always see the ones made of baubles and think, 'they look amazing....' so I decided to go for it this year. I bought some baubles in Argos as they were in the 3 for 2 sale on Christmas stuff, and stumbled across a plain tinsel wreath in Poundland.

I decided to go for the traditional red and green colours, with an added bit of silver as its my favourite Christmas colour :) So here it is........

 

 

 

 

I love it :) Hope you do too.

Have you started making any Christmas decorations?

toodle pip!

Beka x

I want to be Elphaba....

Well hello

I popped in The Beauty Store at my local outlet centre at the weekend and picked up a lovely nail varnish for £1.95.

The brand is called 'exposed' and they had a large selection of colours, including some packs of 3 colours as a set. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the packs as I just wanted to pick up 1 colour to treat myself.
I ended up being drawn to no. 55 'Emerald'.....

My favourite musical is Wicked. I've only seen it once, but I have the soundtrack and love listening to it when I feel down. So this colour made me firstly think of that, but also, I thought that it would be a good Christmas colour.

The first coat.....

.... did not cover as much as I thought it would, but I thought I'd see what happened after the second coat.

The second coat did make it darker, but still didn't completely cover my nail, I could still see my own nail underneath. So i did a third coat...

....And I am pleased with the colour. It has tiny flecks of glitter in it which is nice, and I will love wearing this at Christmas :)

Not bad for the price, but a little thin for my liking.

Have you ever tried any of the 'Exposed' brand? What did you think?

toodle pip!

Beka x

UPDATE: Love the colour, but it was very brittle, so chipped very easily and didn't last very long. Not bad for a night out or for a day, but wouldn't last a weekend.

thanks! x

Plus size frustration.....

Well hello

This post is slightly being written in frustration, but then I realised it is something that I think a lot of plus size women think.
I was browsing the New Look website for bits from Maisie's birthday/Christmas list and I thought to myself 'I'll have a little look for myself....' and I do like their Inspire plus size range. I only discovered they did the larger sizes about 3 years ago when I ventured in their with a friend, and I was pleasantly surprised. I had only ever been in Evans, which do lovely clothes, but I could only ever shop there when they had a sale :-S

So anyway, back to my point.... I was looking at some dresses for Christmas and I loved the look of some of them, but then I thought about how they are presented. It happens that the New Look website just shows the garments modelled on a mannequin, but without being able to see the mannequin. Hard to explain, here's an example....

Now to my rose-tinted eyes, I think that is how it would look on me. But in reality, its not....It will cling to the wrong places, make me look huge and not even cover my bum (as it is supposed to be a dress). Now I know that this is seen as the best way to display the dress as most people then get the same 'it will look like that on me' feeling, rather than getting someone like me who would actually wear it to model it, so ladies will buy it. I get it, but I don't like it. I love shopping on line, as I don't need to drive for 20 mins, take 10 mins to find a parking space, squeeze into the lift, then fight my way to the good stuff and then queue for 10 mins to pay for it. That's just me. But when I see these clothes online, I know that I'll buy it and be so excited waiting for it to arrive, then try it on to be disappointed. So I have learnt my lesson, and I won't buy clothes online, it just leads to me feeling pants about my body, which I try not to do.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel that if you sell larger size clothes, you need to advertise them in their true look, on a larger size model/mannequin.

Have you ever been disappointed with an online clothes purchase?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Pinteresting.....

Well hello

Just a small post today to give you the link to my Pinterest.

Now you will have to give me a chance to actually work out what I am doing on it, I keep hearing about it, and I have no idea what it is for. But I thought I'd join up :)

www.pinterest.com/bekastuffystuff

Have you got Pinterest? How do you make use of yours?

toodle pip!

Beka x

Bargain makeup

Well hello

Today is a bit pants outside, raining and windy and freezing! So I'm keeping myself busy with emails and card writing :)
I popped to my local town earlier and went into Poundland. About 4 months ago, I noticed they started selling a makeup range called Chit Chat. I was a little sceptical about the products and their quality, obviously as they were £1.... but so far, I am very pleased.

Today's blog post is about a Chit Chat Juicy Lipstick.

I'm not really a lipstick wearer, but I saw this and thought I'd give it a go. And i love it! It's quite a bold colour, but I love wearing it. I bought it in 2 colours, a light pink and a dark pink. I lost the light pink to Maisie..... but I have bought the 'Damson' one a couple of times, and even wore it on my wedding day.

 

 

It is more of a lip pencil style, with a wind up top. but is very nourishing and very pigmented.

So I would highly recommend this product to anyone, especially for £1!!

Have you found any makeup bargains? Please share :)

toodle pip!

Beka x