What I Ate Wednesday {Bit Late!}


Sorry this post is a day late - I felt so bad about not blogging yesterday but later that afternoon I got a terrible attack of hayfever (*sobs*) which was most likely due to the beautiful weather we've been blessed with lately.  Oh how I hate you, allergies!!  So off to bed I went. :(  I'm feeling a bit better today but I need to pick up some stuff at the pharmacy.  Anyway, I still took WIAW pictures so here's what I ate yesterday!

Breakfast (10am)
Same ol' same ol'....organic porridge with light soy milk (we were out of almond), 1/2 banana and cinnamon.  I also drank about half of my coffee as we were in a rush!


Lunch (12:30pm-ish)
We went out to BT's restaurant (Table) for lunch and I ordered the same thing I always do - the goat's cheese salad.  It's sooo delicious!  They make it with dark greens, candied pecans, pickled beetroot and filo pastry?  I think that's what that sheet thingy in the middle was...ha ha ha :)


After lunch I had a cup of black coffee, which I didn't finish (again!!) because Emilia was kind of fussy.  I need my coffee fix...arghhh! ;)


Snack (6pm)
This was a ridiculously late snack as I was out all day at the hairdresser's and only came home at around 5 o'clock.  By then I was starving so had a juicy pear & one of Emilia's baby fromage frais (the apple & pear flavour).  These are so yummy!  Emilia likes them too...it's the one thing she will allow us to spoon feed her!


Dinner (7:30pm)
I didn't even really get to enjoy dinner as this was when the hayfever kicked in :(  But Jonathan made green thai chicken curry with brown rice & asian style veggies (this is a favourite so it's been featured a few weeks in a row!).  Usually we have it with brown noodles but this time we had it with rice.

...and I didn't have any dessert!  I felt so sick & my allergies were killing me so I just went to bed ;(  I even had an unopened pack of Hobnobs waiting for me in the cupboard but alas, it was not meant to be!

What did you eat yesterday?  I hope you're all having a lovely Thursday...it's almost the weekend!

Stay Stylish!

Beauty Tuesday: April Glossybox 2013


Initially I was very excited when I opened up last month's Glossybox - the novelty packaging designed by Pearl Lowe made it all the more special and I look forward to displaying this in my makeup room!  However on further inspection (and a little bit of research on other blogs/online reviews) I was left feeling quite underwhelmed and, well...disappointed!


The first thing I pulled out was the Richard Ward Couture Hair Optimiser Style Reviver.  I do like getting hair products in my Glossybox and although I wouldn't describe my hair type as normal or fine, the promise of delivering a frizz-free, shiny finish appeals to me.  This also claims to boost volume which you guys know I'm a sucker for...so we'll see how this goes!   


The Nip + Fab Mango Smoothie Dry Skin Fix Body Butter smells delicious and I love the packaging so I'm keen to try this out next time I pack my travel bag!  


This product did peak my interest as I'm always on the hunt for a good facial sunscreen that doesn't break me out.  I will definitely give this a whirl and repurchase if it's a hit with my skin.  The SunSense Daily Face SPF 50+ is a tinted oil-free moisturiser that gives a matte finish.  Could be a winner!  


One of the more underwhelming products was this Yves Rocher Nutritive Vegetal 24H Comfort Nourishing Cream for dry to very dry skin.  I think I found this mostly disappointing because I had already received the body butter, so it was a bit too similar to seem anyway special in this particular box.  I'm also still unsure of whether this is meant for the face or body...if it's for the face I definitely won't be going near it as my skin is the opposite to dry!  


My least favourite item in this month's box was the Etre Belle Collagen Aloe Vera Face Mask.  I couldn't find much information on this on the Glossybox website as it seems to be a bit of an after-thought product.  In its place I think most people got a full-size Essie nail polish which (at the risk of sounding very "high-school") I was very sad not to have gotten! :(  That appears to have been the favourite of this month's box and I was disappointed to have missed out.  I also felt like the products I received were mostly all skincare items and while that is very nice I do like a few make-up items to break things up :)

What did you guys think of this month's Glossybox?  Which was your favourite product?  If you'd like to sign up to Glossybox you can do so for £12.95 a month here.  They do ship to Ireland and now also to the US.  

Stay Stylish!

Mommy Monday: Matching Outfits!


Emilia and I matched our outfits (kinda) last Friday!  Well, what actually happened is I thought hers was so cute I decided to copy it...ha ha ha!  Her little cropped jeans & stripey bee top are both from Next, the yellow socks are Trumpettes and her headband is by Layniebug Designs.  My top is by Boob, jeggings are ASOS, shoes are from Zara and the scarf is from Accessorize.  Aaaand my hair is in desperate need of a root touch-up and cut but that's okay as I've made an appointment for this week (finally)!  

We have quite the busy week coming up as we're going to a family wedding and another event in Dublin so I'm a little bit nervous about packing for Emilia as it's going to be our first time staying anywhere overnight with her.  There are so many things to think about with a baby...and I thought packing for myself was stressful enough!  I am already making lists, ha ha.  That's me, the eternal list-maker who spends more time writing down all the things I have to do than actually getting things done ;)  

I also plan to post Mon-Fri this week as I realise I've been really neglecting my blog lately.  I honestly don't know where the time goes!  Hopefully I will stay true to my word and not let you guys down.  I will be back tomorrow!  

Stay Stylish!

Mommy Monday: Emilia's 8 Month Update!


Emilia is 8 months old since Saturday!  It's so hard to take a clear picture of her anymore since she moves around SO much, ha ha ha!  The entire time we tried to take these shots she was doing her crazy rocking back & forth dance so almost all of them came out blurry!  

Height/Weight: This month we had her developmental check with the public health nurse so I actually have some proper stats to share!  She is weighing in at exactly 9kgs which is about 19lbs 14oz and her height or length is 64cm.  The nurse said everything looked perfect but she does want to check her height again after her first birthday as she is in a very low percentile for her age...aww!  We have a little shrimpy baby, he he ;)  She did also say that she's not worried about her as she looks perfectly proportionate and sometimes babies' bones only start to grow a bit more when they start crawling/moving around more.  As I've said before, Jonathan is only 5'5" and I'm 5'4" so we are expecting her to be quite petite!  

Routine: Emilia has started napping for shorter periods of time now, so she will typically either take two small ones or one longer nap in the afternoon.  She usually sleeps for a bit after her first milk feed (around 11am) but this only lasts about half an hour or so.  She also only nurses 2-3 times a day and then again at night time.  Our routine looks a bit like this:

9am - Wake up & play with her toys in the co-sleeper or our bed while I get dressed/makeup/hair etc.
10am - Watch Peppa Pig in her exersaucer while I make breakfast.  Eat breakfast with me.
11am - I bring her up to her room, she plays in her crib while I tidy up & put away laundry, etc.  Then I dress her for the day, bring her back downstairs & give her a milk feed which usually sends her to sleep for about half an hour.
1pm - Eat lunch with me.
2pm - Plays on playmat.
4pm - Short milk feed followed by a nap.
5pm - Plays on mat or exersaucer.
6pm - We start preparing dinner and she usually sits in her highchair to watch.  
7pm - Eat dinner with us.    
8pm - I bring her up for her bath and get her ready for bed.  Change her into pyjamas and bring her down for her bed-time feed.
9pm - I feed her to sleep on the couch then settle her down.  She normally wakes again right before we go to bed at about 11pm and then goes to bed with us where she "dream feeds" to sleep (this is the same as last month!)


Sleeping: Emilia is still sleeping with us for the most part although she does nap in her co-sleeper or swing and I have put her into the co-sleeper at night but she doesn't last very long...the longest has been about half an hour.  I'm slowly getting her used to being in her own bed in our room.  She's definitely not ready to sleep in her crib in the nursery yet!


Eating: Last month we switched entirely to baby-led weaning (which basically just means self-feeding).  It was a completely natural progression and we actually just went along with our instincts on this one...Emilia hates being spoon-fed and only wants to feed herself so baby-led weaning suits her down to the ground!  In the last month she has become such an amazing little eater...we almost can't believe it!  She now loves food and will try anything we put in front of her.  She has tried all kinds of things such as olives, eggs, avocado, cheese, chicken, duck, rocket, noodles, pasta, rice, baby corn, peas, carrot sticks, fromage frais, ham...the list goes on and on.  But her favourite food by far is cherry tomatoes.  She LOVES them so much, she likes to suck the juice out of them!  She now pretty much just eats whatever we eat (although obviously considerably less) and we stick to 3 meals a day. 


Sizes: Emilia is now fitting into 9-12 month clothing and her last box of real "baby clothes" which I got quite emotional about!  I can't believe how fast the first year is going...it seems like only yesterday she was a tiny baby :(  So many times I see clothes for her age and think, god that looks huge...she would never fit into that, but she does.  And then I want to cry.  Ha ha ha!  In terms of nappies she still wears size 4+ in Pampers Active-Fit.

Milestones
  • She can now say "mama"!  I'm soooo happy!  I love hearing her say it, it's like music to my ears...ha ha although it also makes it a lot harder to ignore her if she's calling out and I'm trying to get things done.  Whereas before she would just recite "dadadada" over and over and I could convince Jonathan she was calling him, now the tables have turned!! ;)
  • A few days ago she played "peekaboo" with me herself (as in she pulled the bed covers over her face, then pulled them down and giggled when I said "peekaboo!").  That was amazing to witness, and not to mention so sweet!
  • Teeth!  She is sprouting teeth like there's no tomorrow...ha ha ha!  I swear, one day she woke up with about 4 new ones.  It's insane!  Her two top front teeth are almost down and the two top canines are also visible.  Eek.  Thankfully they don't seem to bother her though, so that's good!
  • Picking up tiny objects - she practised this a lot last month too but has just recently gotten really good at it.  She will notice the tiniest crumbs or speck of something on the table and attempt to pick it up with her thumb and forefinger.  I even saw her once try to pick up a slithery piece of banana off the table, then when that didn't work she put her mouth up to the table edge and tried to scoop it in!  I thought that was quite clever of her actually :)
  • Standing with support.  I mentioned this last month too and she is still doing it!  She has not really crawled properly forwards yet but she can go backwards...I wouldn't call it real crawling though...more like wriggling! 


She also loves her fairy princess mobile as you can see! :)  

Mother's Day Outfits!

Blouse/Zara, Pants/Zara, Blazer/Vila, Shoes/ASOS, Belt/Zara, Clutch/ASOS

Blazer/Vero Moda, Pants/ASOS, Shirt/Zara, Shoes/ASOS, Belt/Zara, Bag/Koret, Scarf/my mom's

Blazer/Vila, Blouse/Vero Moda, Pants/Zara, Shoes/River Island, Bag/Vintage, Belt/ASOS

Here are three outfits I styled for my Mother's Day Lookbook!  I actually wore the last one to my mom's birthday lunch last Monday.  Let me know which one is your favourite!  And hope you enjoy the video ;)  

Stay Stylish!

What I Ate Wednesday!


Breakfast (9:45)
Organic porridge oats (Flahavan's) with almond milk, almonds & cinnamon.


Emilia had some shredded mini wheats with milk.  She also had her 8 month developmental check this morning and passed with flying colours!  Yay!  The health nurse was very happy with everything and I was interested to hear that she believes baby led weaning is the way of the future!  This method of eating seems to suit Emilia so well as she is very independent and only wants to feed herself.  She never fails to amaze me with her food choices though as she almost always tends to reach for brightly coloured veggies over anything else!  


Lunch (1pm)
We had lunch at The Bagel Bar again.  This time I got the Bangkok Bagel which consists of a poppy seed bagel filled with chicken, red onion, peppers and sweet chilli sauce.  Delicious!  It's quite low-cal too...I think maybe about 350ish.


Emilia had a plain bagel toasted with butter.  It's a pity that The Bagel Bar has stopped doing their kids' menu with mini bagels...they were so cute!  She only ate about 1/4 of this and kind of sucked on the other 1/4 before digging into some peppers from my bagel :)


Snack (4pm)
Natural yoghurt (Glenilen) with raw almonds.  Very filling and keeps me satisfied till dinner! 


Dinner (9pm)
We ate dinner really late as we all took a much-needed nap this afternoon!  Jonathan and I have been working super hard on videos for TheStyleDiet and his JonathanJoly channel lately...and although it is definitely very rewarding the more effort we put in, sometimes we both end up getting extremely drained and burnt out.  I think especially when you work from home, the line between personal life and work can become very blurred so it's important to take a break and realise when you're overdoing things!  For dinner we had a very yummy chicken dopiaza stir-fry with basmati rice & veggies (broccoli, mangetout & baby corn).  Emilia had some rice, veggies steamed seperately and a few pieces of chicken.  Her favourite was the broccoli & mangetout.  I also gave her 3 cherry tomatoes and a babybel cheese before dinner because girlfriend needs her tomato fix!!   


Dessert (10pm)
...if you can even call this "dessert", ha ha ha!  I had a bowl of Mini Max (basically a smaller variety of Frosted Wheats) with low-fat milk.  I loooove having cereal for dessert for some reason, which I know I've mentioned before on my blog!  I had planned to have popcorn but it got burnt :(  Waah!  

What did you guys eat today? 

Fashion Friday: Ready for Spring!


Emilia & I both went for pastels & soft peachy pinks in our outfits today as we are ready for spring!  Emilia's outfit is a 3 piece set from Cherokee (a gift from her aunty Charlotte) and since we received this I could not wait for her to wear it!  It comes with a striped long-sleeve peach & cream onesie, a peach & gold polka-dot tutu and some cream leggings with gold sparkles in them.  Her socks are from Tesco F&F and the headband/bow is from Layniebug Designs!


At first we tried to take outfit pictures outside but it started to rain and was very windy :(  


My outfit consists of these beige capri/cigarette pants from Zara (2 years ago), a pale pink ruffle camisole top also from Zara (last year), dusty pink cardigan from L.K.Bennett and some nude/pink ballet pumps from LoveClothing.  My belt is from Zara and earrings are by Accessorize.  The lipstick I'm wearing is MAC's Angel!  I also curled my hair a little with my GHD which I've rekindled my love for now that it's a bit longer!  I'm debating whether to cut it again or not...I think I like it this length but I don't want it to go much longer as it's sooo manageable and low-maintenance right now!  

Nuvola says hi ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  We are spending it with my little sister Erika, who is staying with us this weekend.  Yay for sister-time! :)  

Stay Stylish!

What I Ate Wednesday


Breakfast (11am)
Organic porridge quick oats with almond milk, cinnamon & almonds.  I also had a cup of black coffee, as always!  


Emilia had two milk-soaked Weetabix biscuits and a few spoons of peach & banana fromage frais.


Lunch (2:30pm)
We went out to the Bagel Bar for lunch and I had the chicken Caesar salad and a bottle of water!


Emilia had half a bagel with some butter, ham and cheese.  She loved it!  It was a pity they were out of mini bagels from the kids' menu though...those are so cute!


Snack (5pm)
Cottage cheese with almonds.  I don't know why but I was really craving almonds today...ha ha!


Dinner (8pm)
We had dinner at my mom's house and ate crab cakes from The English Market with some potatoes and her amazing cucumber salad.  As far as I remember she makes this with natural yoghurt, dill, feta cheese and salt & pepper.  I think that's it!  


Emilia had cherry tomatoes (they're her favourite food!), some peeled potatoes and a little bit of cucumber.


Dessert (8:30pm)
My mom is truly amazing...she made rhubarb crumble and it was SO delicious!!  Topped with some vanilla ice-cream this made a perfect end to my day :)

What did you eat today? 

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