Earlier this week wrote about the start of my West to East holiday, which kicked off in Blackpool over the Valentine’s weekend. I shared photos of my long awaited trip to The Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the amazing seafront hotel that we stayed in – if you missed the post, please check it
Okay, so even though this is a cheeky Valentine’s Day post, I want to start out by saying that relationships can be serious at times. Work and family commitments can end up taking you away from each other and what with paying the bills, saving for a wedding and raising
It’s the first Pieday Friday of 2015 and, rather than sharing a recipe this week, my blog post is inspired by an idea I heard about on the Celebrity Cruises website: the #tasteoftravel. As someone who loves food (I literally wait for meal times to come around each day!) I
I have a lot of clothes yet I hardly ever have anything to wear. In fact, I probably wear the same 5 or 6 outfits over and over again and rest of my clothes continue to hang in pristine condition in my wardrobe. Does this sound familiar? So many women
Last weekend I went to a wedding fair and it completely changed my outlook on life. Yes, I know I’m already married and, in truth, the wedding fair itself didn’t have much to offer me. But while I was at the venue I had a nosy around the honeymoon cottage
Have you noticed that the days are already feeling shorter just by the evenings being slightly darker than usual? I’ve actually felt more rushed than usual in my work, and I feel like it’s taking up all of my day and I just don’t have the time to relax in
Yes, I’ve been baking again – What, two recipe posts in one week? I hear you cry – but for two good reasons. Firstly, it is National Afternoon Tea week and I couldn’t let a celebration like this pass me by without baking some cookies to dunk in my cuppa,
Today’s Tuesday Shoesday blog post is dedicated to the shoes we’d love to own. The ones that got away. Whether it’s a pair of shoes you saw in the sale but didn’t buy, to your first teenage pair of heels that have got lost over the years. Did you secretly
This week marks the birthday of my cats Cookie and Muffin. Okay, it’s not actually their birthday – I have no idea when they were born – but it is the anniversary of when we adopted them, so I always like to call it their ‘birthday’ and mark the occasion
Glastonbury has dominated my life for the past month: I’ve been researching it, I’ve been writing about it (see my festival footwear, one-pot cooking and Glastonbury hair care articles!) and watching it. But I’ve not actually gone to it. No, I didn’t spend my whole holiday fund on tickets and I haven’t
No, I’m not suggesting some dodgy take-your-dress-back-to-the-shop-after-wearing-it scheme! I’m taking about dress hire. Remember in the Sex and The City Movie when Carrie’s PA Louise has the best designer handbags on her arm and an assistant’s wage in her purse, baffling Carrie into asking how she has got hold of
Last week my attention turned to the state of the flooring in my bedroom. After inviting my friends to stay with us for the weekend and offering our bedroom up as a guest suite, I began to look at the bedroom with fresh eyes – was it even suitable to
Do me a favour? Have a look in your wardrobe and tell me which pair of shoes are your favourite and why? That’s exactly what I’ve asked my lovely readers to do over the past few months and I’m pleased to report that lots of you were able to tell
It’s a special occasion dilemma. We want to wear nice shoes with our special outfit. We’d prefer to wear heels because it makes us taller and our legs longer. But we know we’re going to be on our feet all day and don’t want to suffer blisters and aching feet by lunchtime. Whether
If you’re planning a celebration for your husband, brother, uncle, father or friend, here are some handy gift ideas for ‘the man who has everything’…
Did you know it’s the National Blog Awards this week? Did you know that I’m a FINALIST?! Have I mentioned it before..? 😉 Going to an event of this magnitude – the ‘Oscars of the blogging world’ – has got me excited and worried in equal measure and now that
If you’ve not heard me shouting about it already, I’m a FINALIST in the National Blog Awards 2014! I’m going to the awards ceremony on Friday night and it’s been described as the ‘Oscars of the blogging world’ so I’m expecting a fabulous night out in London and looking forward to
Today we are taking a rare look at menswear. I know I should focus on fellas footwear more often so I’m starting today with a look at smart mens shoes and hopefully inspire men all around the country to smarten up for special occasions! I’m specifically targeting this blog post
This week’s Tuesday Shoesday blog post is all about you. Today I’m featuring all the photos and stories about the lovely shoes that my fabulous readers have sent in after seeing my last article on YOUR favourite shoes. Do you have some favourite footwear that you’d like to share on
Today I’ve found out some great news that I simply must share with you all – the Oxfam Online Shop Spring Sale starts today! More specifically it starts at 12 noon and you really have to ‘be there’ at midday to get the bargains because each item is unique – they
Just look at that sunshine out there! It’s amazing how lovely the weather has been all year so far and after such a mild winter I am certainly looking forward to a gorgeously warm spring and summer. Since December I’ve been telling everyone that it will definitely snow this winter
The shops are full of it. Everywhere you look there are red signs and blue crosses. Yes, it’s sale time again. What is it this time? Mid-season sale, Spring sale, Easter sale? I guess it doesn’t matter, all that’s important is that there are massive savings to be had on
Next month I am going to the National Blog Awards as a finalist! I am so excited to be attending the ‘Oscars of the blogging world’ and I can’t wait to catch up with my bestie Jenna who has also been shortlisted for her wedding blog Glitter Daze. Luckily, we
If someone asked you to show them your favourite shoes, which pair would you pick and why? That’s exactly what I’ve asked my lovely readers to do and I’m pleased to report that lots of bloggers were able to answer that difficult question! I’ve compiled the images that all you
I think it’s quite a difficult thing to talk about the music you love in public. It shows your taste (or lack of!) like nothing else and is something that divides people the world over. I hate that dreaded question ‘what music are you in to?’ that I heard so many
I was watching the Bafta’s last weekend when I started thinking about celebrity dresses and how much effort goes into creating the perfect red carpet look. I’m certain that no celebrities will want to appear in the ‘worst dressed’ column in the newspapers on the day after a big awards
In honour of Valentines day last week, I thought I’d share the recent addition I made to the “book wall” in my bedroom – I added a few pages with drawings of roses. Although I liked the feature wall as it already was, wallpapered with the pages of three books
What did you get up to for Valentine’s Day yesterday? Are you celebrating today instead? I know a lot of my pals are making it into a weekend-long celebration but for hubby and I we did all our Valentine-ing yesterday and really enjoyed ourselves. I was completely spoilt with the
Last night, I decorated the house with paper garlands and red fairy lights and surprised my husband with a Chinese meal to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We ate all the classic and totally inauthentic Chinese takeaway favourites; chow mein, egg fried rice, prawn crackers and sweet n sour chicken. It
As a girl who has been a student for most of her adult life, you’ll remember how I struggled with not starting a course in September this year and how I wrote about the quick U-turn I made when I discovered that I could study a free module from the
This week I got some amazing news: my best friends announced that they would be getting married this year! It will be a summer wedding and I can’t wait. Another of my best friends is also getting married this year in April (you may remember I talked about her hen
January is the perfect time to think about having a home overhaul and clearing the clutter from your house. Like me, you’ve probably made promises to yourself to improve your emotional wellbeing, career and health but did you focus any of your resolutions on your house? I’m thinking that maybe
As you know, I regularly blog about thrifty fashion and DIY fashion hacks on the Oxfam fashion blog. Oxfam has asked me to share my favourite party dress with all their wonderful readers and I thought I’d show you it too: My party dress was bought for me by thrifty mother
I’ve received fantastic news that my little lifestyle blog has been honoured by REXLondon.com as one of their favourite blogs. They contacted me to let me know that I’d won this little award for my crafty sewing projects and that they had shared details of my blog on their ‘beautiful crafting blogs’ page.
Find frugal inspiration for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, hen nights, parties, festive celebrations & more!
Another feature of our anniversary party was the photo wall. We had a doorway that we needed to cover to stop guests going into the room, so we decided that we would cover it with a sheet of fabric and use it as a backdrop for a photo-booth style photo-wall. So
So you may remember that I had the dull and tired hall venue above to dress up ready for our 10th wedding anniversary party and I’d been looking around Pinterest at ideas for decorating the hall on a budget. I knew I wanted to continue the rainbow theme of our
This week’s recipe was inspired by one of the gifts that my husband and I received for our 10th wedding anniversary. Ten years is traditionally “tin” so we received quite a few items made from tin (lovely cake and biscuit tins, metal jug and even a wall clock!) and we
I was delighted when Lucy from LucyLovesYa.com set such a lovely theme for August by sending in her vintage wedding dress photo as a starting point for our August makes. It was a very apprioriate theme seeing as we were at the height of wedding season in August and my favourite
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that over the last few weeks the wonderful Claire from Lacey in Places blog has been sharing her top tips for planning a hen party (read her first article here) and today she continues to share her experiences of organising a vintage-inspired
This week I wanted to share with you the photos of our fantastic anniversary party cakes so that you can get inspiration for your own celebration cakes in the future. I am very lucky to have a fantastic sister-in-law who is an amazing baker and can make any cake you can
First and foremost, I’d like to welcome all the lovely new visitors from Creative Crafting’s blog tour – I have been waiting for this day for a while now and I’m so pleased to be able to welcome you to my blog. While you’re here please have a good look around
Well, it’s not that much of a tutorial – it’s a fairly simple process to create a cute tea-light holder without breaking the bank. I knew that I would like some rainbow-coloured tealight holders to decorate our anniversary party venue and light up the hall after dark. This project can just
With our anniversary party taking place this weekend, I wanted to make some personal touches to the decorations. It’s easy to find lots of tutorials for creating your own DIY decorations at home, from funky fans to traditional paper-chains, but I seeing as I didn’t have much spare time before the
Mine and hubby’s 10th wedding anniversary is drawing near – the invitations have been sent, the venue has been booked and we’re ready for a good ol’ knees up! The only thing that still needs planning is the party ‘theme’ – what will it look like, what decorations will we have and
We’ve had another fantastic month of sunshine in July but the hot weather didn’t lure our regular inspiration challengers away from their projects. Here’s a catch up on what we made this month on the theme of Maneki Neko – Lucky Cats. Andy Greenacre from art blog AndyGtheArtist tells me that he
In this hen party series, we have been spoiled-rotten with lots of lovely articles sharing ideas for party themes (check out the links below!) and how to plan the perfect hen do. In her article last week, Claire from Lacey in Places shared her top tips for planning a hen
Well it’s officially the summer holidays now and students up and down the country are waiting for their exam results. Whether they have just completed their A-Levels, college course or first year at university, they will undoubtedly be jittery about what the results-slip says, because it’ll confirm the path that
Working out what the hot Summer fashion trends will be each year is never too tricky – after all, magazines, fashion blogs and TV adverts show us the latest fashion themes non-stop for months every year! If you pay attention to these, you can easily choose a summer wardrobe full of exciting and interesting styles –
Frugal Fun <ul> <li> Need inspiration for a fun yet thrifty party? </li> <li> Want to add a crafty DIY touch to your seasonal celebrations? </li> <li> Are you planning your wedding but don’t want to blow the budget? </li> <li> Looking for low-cost entertainment ideas? </li> <li> Planning a
Previously, Claire from Lacey in Places blog shared her top tips for planning a hen party (read the article here) and today she continues to share her experiences of organising a vintage hen party for her friend Becky. This week’s post contains a downloadable budget spreadsheet and even invitation templates to
If you’re a long-term follower of my blog, you’ll know how much I love lucky cats and oriental design, so it’ll come as no surprise that I’ve chosen my collection of lucky animals as the starting point for July’s Inspiration Challenge. And I’m delighted to say that the lovely Joanie
Source: the123blog.com via Cassiefairy on Pinterest I may have already mentioned a few times on the blog that this year is mine and hubby’s 10th wedding anniversary and we are planning a big party to celebrate! It’s coming up soon in August and all year I’ve been non-stop pinning photos of gorgeous weddings
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been running a series of articles on hen parties – and with the summer wedding season fast approaching, I’m glad to be able to bring you some top-tips from lots of my fellow bloggers. Ellen previously sharing her article on
I’m pretty lucky when it comes to footwear because I have small feet. I don’t mean tiiiiny feet but I have normal adult size 4 feet and although I sometimes think that my feet are a bit small for the rest of me (I sometimes buy chunky shoes and bulky boots in order
My new hen party series is well underway, with lovely blogger Ellen Avants sharing her ideas for personalising a hen party and Lacey in Places writing articles ideas for games and budget planning. Today I’m sharing my own experiences of my hen party and why it’s best to share..! Back when I celebrated my hen
As you know, I’m a thrifty kinda gal and don’t like to buy a whole new wardrobe each season when sometimes just a few key accessories can see us through a season. As Summer 2013 bounds into view, I’ve asked one of my favourite vintage stores Mela Mela to put
It was hubby’s birthday last weekend and, as we are both still big kids, I wanted to get him something fun to play with, so when a new follower ‘Little Posties’ popped up on my Twitter feed (@LittlePosties) with their awesome range of funky crayons, I clicked through to their
You may remember that last week I started my series of hen party blog posts, ready for the wedding season. I hope you enjoyed Ellen’s article last week on party accessories and coming up soon are more posts on budgeting and crafts from my good friend Lacey in Places, but this
With the summer wedding season fast approaching, I have decided to start a series of blog posts on the subject of that most important bridal tradition – the Hen Party. I will be writing a few posts of my own hen party experiences and I am also inviting other lovely
Here’s a photo of my latest attempt to turn a piece of rubbish into something special – a champagne cork cage twisted into a tiny chair. I particularly love this one because the cap had an orange pattern on it ~ ideal for my retro living room! I have previously shared
I took a bit of time over the weekend to try out an idea for getting pretty heart-shapes onto my nails ready for Valentine’s Day. I snapped some pics of the process and I’ve created a bit of a DIY tutorial for making your manicure a little bit more romantic
It’s that time of year again – Christmas came and went taking most of our bank balances with it and a year full of money-demanding events lies ahead. However, never fear – if you’ve been given the heady task of organising a hen party then you’ll be pleased to know that it
Yes, I’ve given in and given it a go. Despite not really understanding why I was signing up (really Pinterest gives you no clue when you first log in!) or how to use it (again, not much in the way of instructions for first use), I quickly adjusted to using
This year I decided to bake a batch of mini Christmas cakes rather than one large one. I find that one big cake often gets left after Christmas and I’m a little fed up with eating it myself after January 1st! So small cakes seemed to be the best solution
I saw this funky retro-inspired photograph when I was recently browsing on artist Mable Tan’s website Happee Monkee and instantly knew it would be perfect for my 50s, 60s & 70s interior design project (here’s my mood board). You may remember that I shared an interview with Mable Tan on my blog recently and
If you’re looking for a professional writer to work with you to create some amazing content or practical DIYs for your brand, you’ve come to the right place!
Whenever my husband and I open a bottle of bubbly (which is unfortunately not often enough!), while I am cheerfully enjoying my drink, he is bending and folding and contorting. Not himself I hasten to add, but the wire of the cork cage – he is shaping it into a
I’ve just found out that one of my professional acquaintances ;o) is going to be exhibiting at the Fairy Fair this weekend too! The talented (not to mention lovely) photographer Katherine Ashdown is having a stall at the Fairyland Trust’s fundraiser to bring her family, lifestyle and wedding photography to
One of my lovely wedding blogging friends recently spoke about the challenges and rewards of being self-employed (although it seems that the challenges often appear to outway the rewards at times!) You can sometimes feel like you’re the only one out there working from sunrise til sunset, but in reality
