Update, camping, moving etc

So....I've been a little quiet of late and that's partly to do with how hectic my life has been. Hubs mum got very ill to the point we thought we were going to lose her! She's alot better now. I got a promotion at work and we had our offer accepted on a house. Fast forward 11 months and we are still waiting to get the keys...fingers crossed it will be in August (this August!).

We have started the six weeks holidays here and I'm very fortunate that I don't work the school holidays so I get chance to get our house decluttered, organised and packed.
We have a camping trip planned! yes you know me I love camping and can't understand why some people dismiss it so much!

Anyways...I'm back to it now and will be doing some camping blog posts along with some packing/moving posts.

The neglected 'me'

When I was younger and lived at home I would always say to my Mum....'Mum why don't you get your hair done at the hair dressers, why don't you go and buy yourself some new clothes/shoes. My Mum was always putting herself before everyone else.
Since having Munchkin I turned onto the woman my Mum was....putting everyone and everything before me. I neglected me and as embarrassed as I am to say it I haven't had my hair cut in about 5 years. I don't get my nails done, I don't have several perfumes....actually I own two at very most and a only buy a new one when my existing one runs out. Continuing on the embarrassing side of things.....most of my knickers are at least 5 years old! Yes I know I know!! Basically I've lived by the fact that if I have something and it does the job.....why buy new.

When it comes to buying something for Hubs or Munchkin I don't think twice! I will happily pay £15 for jeans for munchkin but wont spend that on myself. Hubs is constantly telling me to buy whatever I want but I just feel like I have better things to spend the money on.

Its not just fashion that I have neglected myself with its my health. I bite my nails (horrible habit I know!) Its something that I've always done. I get embarrassed going to get acrylic nails because if the state of my nails. My skin has been neglected also.
I hadn't been to the dentist for years as I just saw it as an expense that I didn't want to fork out on so about a month ago when I had to have a tooth out my Hubby said enough is enough and signed me up to a private dentist. Of course before you can get signed up you have to have any pre existing issues sorted first resulting in a £1500 bill for bits and bobs. Since having Munchkin 6 years ago yes I brushed my teeth but used the cheapest toothbrush/toothpaste I could find and just gave them a quick brush before I dashed off to do the next thing on my list.

This blog post isn't a 'poor me' post but its me realising that I can spend some time and money on me and not feel guilty for it. A lot of my friends go to the hair dressers once a month, have a tan, eyebrows, eyelashes and nails done very regularly as well as having all the top brands...(Not that there is anything wrong with that) while that will never completely be me, I am going to make an effort now that I've turned 30 to look after 'Me' a bit more. I know that there are more people out there like me who have neglected themselves because they think the money is better used somewhere else within the house/family. Let me know in the comments if you have neglected 'you'.
#dontforgetaboutyou

Happy campers Part 1

So if you read my last post then you would know that we bought a family tent in an attempt to create good family holiday memories with a back to basic (ish) feel. Rather than pitch the tent in our garden for a test run we decided to book and pay £26 for a 2 night stay over a weekend. We had a fab time and learned a lot regarding things we would have done better.

I would tell any family to give camping a go! I think that camping is becoming much more popular. I wanted a chance to get back to basics as munckin constantly wants the ipad so I wanted to get him back to basics so he could find his own entertainment and so we could

just spend evenings playing games together as a family rather than having Ipads and tvs.

we enjoyed laughing when cooking our food on a BBQ, playing bat and ball, going for walks and listening to the campfires as we fell asleep each night. (I have included a few photos of our little set up below)

I don't think there are enough blog posts out there regarding family camping, the benefits and the lovely campsites that are within a stones throw of us! So I'm going to be reviewing campsites and giving tips on camping as a family within my 'Happy campers' posts.

Happy Campers?!?

Well....Hello! Long time no speak! Life has been a little crazy but in a good way!

We got to thinking about our next holiday but everything seemed so expensive! we looked at holidays abroad and holidays in the UK but everything seemed so out of our price range as we are saving for a house deposit. I quickly gave up and realised that there would be no holiday on the cards for this year. Well that was until one Saturday I laughed and said to hubs.... 'how about we go camping?' We laughed about it but later that day we found ourselves in the 'Go Outdoors' near us.

we browsed the tents that were available and munchkin insisted on going into each tent. We quickly realised that a lot of the tents weren't the cramped tents just for sleeping in (unless you want them to be of course). A lot of these tents had separate bedrooms, living rooms and kitchen areas.

For the first time we actually saw this as an option! It just seemed to be our answer. We could have cheaper family holidays and enjoy a more back to basics fun.

On our way out we saw a family tent that was on offer and we loved it! yep we bought it! It came with an awning which adds on another room at the front (shown in the pic) so on long weekends we could just take the actual tent (bedrooms and living room) and for longer stays we could take the awning to have more living space!

We have our first long weekend book to test out the tent So here is to happy camping!!
speak soon
K

Update - Comping - Weight Watchers

Just a little update for you all as I've deserted my blog recently as work and life just got a little crazy. I'm off work at the moment because munchkin has got chickenpox but he is dealing with it well and hasn't grumbled once! He has had the iPad constantly in his hands and if I'm honest I don't really mind. He is hardly ever ill so I thought why not!

Anyway!! Since losing weight for our wedding in 2015.....I've....um....well basically I've put loads back on. Its completely my fault as we have enjoyed eating out loads and I started a job where I start work before lunch time and finish at 4pm although we can eat on the go I've been grabbing Fatty foods like Chocolate bars, Crisps etc
So I've decided that I'm going to start doing Weight Watchers again but due to us saving to buy a house I'm not going to pay to go to the meetings or do it online. I'm just going to base it on what I know about the old pro point system as I know its changed to smart points. I've dug out my old WW books and I'm starting on Monday when I'm hoping munchkin will be going back to school. This will give me enough time to get the food shopping that I need

I've also taken up comping since being off and so far we have won some slogan t-shirts
~ for me and munchkin, soup and soup mug, rugby shirt, goodie bags and more. I just enter them in the evenings when hubs and I are sat down watching tv.
If you are also a comper let me know!

Speak soon!
x

Meeting Santa at Hamleys

Today we got invited to See Santa at Hamleys toy shop in Cardiff.
We were greeted at the front of the store by a few energetic elves and the excitement began. Each child was given a sticker with their name on it. We were then walked to the back of the store while singing 'Rudolf the red nose reindeer'. We arrived at the back of the store and all opened the doors by shouting 'Hamleys'.

We entered the room and it was beautifully decorated with lots of attention to detail. The children had a place at the table and got cracking on decorating some Christmas biscuits that Mrs Claws had made. Shortly after this The big man himself entered who was an amazing Santa and interacted with the children really well.

The children got to sit and listen to Santa read them a story they also got to play games with Santa. I have to admit every time we have gone elsewhere to see Santa its been the serious santas....but fair play this one was messing around and making the children laugh and getting involved in the games etc which was lovely to see.

The children were then split into two groups. One group sat and wrote their Christmas list and the others got to meet Santa individually then the groups swapped. Before long it was time to say bye to Santa.
Each child was given a balloon and a bag from Santa. The bag contained a teddy with 'I met Father Christmas at Hamleys' on his tshirt, a big bar of chocolate, A book and a Xmas tree decoration. The whole experience lasted about 40 mins. 
We have only ever taken Munchkin to see school Santa and haven't ever paid out for and experience because friends have paid £7+ at local garden centres and come away with a toy from the £1 shop and all they get was 2 mins for a photo and a quick photo.

Before visiting today I probably wouldn't have paid the £19.99 but having experienced it today I would most certainly do it again. Granted if you have more than one child it can get pricey but if you are looking for a good, fun experience then this is the one. Hamleys ask that only one adult accompany each child due to the room not being very big.


You have to book your space so to do so check out the Hamleys website for more info. http://www.hamleys.com/explore-MFC.irs

We got invited to Hamleys to experience this in exchange for an honest review.
 

Law of Attraction and life update

Over the past few months I'm not gonna lie....blogging took a very back seat. Life just got very busy.
We had out dream holiday to Disney World to celebrate our honeymoon and milestone Birthdays. It was such a magical holiday and one that we will always remember.

Then we hit the ground running when we got home, Straight back to work and school. Things got a little crazy between work and personal life and everything seemed to be getting me down. I needed to make a change to improve how I dealt with things and situations.

I happened to watch a youtube video by Emma Mumford on law of attraction and remembered that I had purchased the books 'The Secret' and 'The Magic' before going away on holiday. I had read 'The secret' and decided to start putting the practices in 'The magic' into play.
If you don't know about the law of attraction or 'The Secret' books then I would strongly advise that you read up on them and even purchase them (Please let me know if you would like more blog posts on the law of attraction).

Anyways! Emma referred in her video to someone called Tony Robbins.....This may seem a little dull but I didn't have a clue who this dude was, So I put his name into youtube and I was amazed!! This guy is a total legend. I was mesmerised by him and his words. Go and type his name into YouTube if you don't know who he is!.

So the law of attraction is all about positive thoughts attracting positive things into your life and like attracting like. Go and read up on it ....you will thank me.

Ive only been practising this for about 2 weeks and so much has changed. I already feel happier and able to manage situations much easier and have manifested things that have surprised me.

I challenge you to just give it a go and read about the law of attraction.

GO, GO, GO

Keep your eyes peeled for more blog posts coming up