Thursday 30 January 2014

Advice...

The minute we started telling people we were pregnant we started being bombarded with advice…for the most part this was well meaning, some was very useful, but it also became overwhelming and sometimes a little personal.   We managed most of the time to smile sweetly nod our heads as though in agreement, but sometimes the advice was just too much.  One of my favourites was ‘you’ll have to move, there is no way you can bring a baby home to a one bedroom flat’.  As lovely as it would be to be in a family home where we could decorate a nursery it is just not financially possible at the moment and comments like that really made me sad.  The very best piece of advice we had though was…listen to everything, take what, if anything, you need from it and ignore the rest. 

So for now that is what we are doing…But I’m sure in 11 weeks’ time this will all change and I’ll be begging for any and all advice and trying to remind myself of this…



Via Pinterest

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Shoe Love is True Love...


Hello, my name is Stephanie and I am a shoe addict!  If there were a 12 step programme for shoe addiction Mr O would definitely sign me up.  There are so many reasons I love shoes, but the key one is how swapping your shoes can change up a whole outfit.  I have far too many shoes, yet I can’t help adding to my collection on a fairly regular basis and I’m not fussy where they come from I am very lucky to own a few pairs of Jimmy Choo’s (my favourite!), a pair of Louboutin’s (beautiful, but sooo painful!), some Miu Miu’s (run very small!), but then I also have Topshop, Zara, Aldo and Primark.  As long as they are pretty I’m happy! 


A very small selection of the full collection!

 And now I’m even happier as I have a little person to buy shoes for…Baby O’s collection is coming in at three pairs at the moment, but I have no doubt that will at least double before April, tiny shoes are just so cute!





 These are the shoes that are currently on my wish list…

Chambray High Tops For Him - Tesco's £5

Nike Free 5.0+ - Nike £85

Weathered Brown Moccasins - Freshly Picked $60

Abel Pump - Jimmy Choo £450
A fitting replacement for the pair I left in the back of a taxi…wishful thinking!

Tuesday 28 January 2014

29 weeks...

How is it not the end of January yet!?!  Seriously it feels like the longest month EVER.  I’m not one to wish my life away, but when you are counting down the days to April 15th (77 in case you are wondering!) the never ending month of January really is a drag!





This week I started back at pregnancy yoga with the lovely Alexa Dean.  Due to various venue issues we have ended up with a very small group of girls in one of my friends living rooms…perfect!  I think the last class I attended was in the middle of December so it was interesting to see how much I needed to adapt some of the moves to accommodate my growing bump - child's pose I'm looking at you!

I’ve had tons of movement again this week, I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of feeling my little man squirming around.  Apart from being crazy tired I’ve been feeling pretty good…no real cravings, although I am super thirsty all the time.   Still no stretch marks…yay me, or should that be yay Clarins!  I’m still managing to wear a combination of maternity and non-maternity clothes…although I’m not sure the shape of the non-maternity clothes will return to normal after this amount of stretching!



Looking forward to it being February and hitting the big 3-0 next week…

Outfit: Monsoon Dress (old, non-maternity), Topshop Jumper (old, non-maternity), Marks and Spencer Boots (old), Marks and Spencer maternity tights

Monday 27 January 2014

Weekend Round Up...



Lots of baby preparation this weekend which didn’t leave much time for exploring, but I’m not too worried as we now have all of our big ticket items for Baby O sorted. Whoop whoop!

The last big thing on our list was the car seat so this weekend we headed over to John Lewis to pick up said car seat.  With Mr O having previously worked in car design a lot of research was undertaken into which was the safest car seat out there.  After looking at all the evidence we settled on the Be Safe iZi Go with an iso fix base.  I personally think it looks pretty nice too!


 Be Safe iZi Go


We were lucky enough to be able to buy a second hand bugaboo bee+ from a friend saving us a fortune, so this weekend we took it to bits and gave it a really good clean and it now looks as good as new and by total coincidence I painted my nails to match it!




We tried out a few different buggies in various stores and the bugaboo bee+ was the only one that seemed to fit all our needs…compact enough to fit in a little flat, easy to manoeuvre, light enough for me to be able to get it in and out of the car and of course look nice.





Can’t wait for April to try the Little Man out in them.

We also popped into ASDA to pick up our bounty pack (I'll share a little secret with you…if you pick your pack up from ASDA you'll get an extra freebie!) and while there we spotted that they have "mum to be" parking spaces, how cool is that?! Shame they were all full!





Saturday 25 January 2014

Its The Weekend...




Via Pinterst


Here’s this weeks round up of some bits and pieces from across the internet that have caught my attention and/or made me smile this week…

This made me chuckle on a slow Friday afternoon…so true!

As our one bedroom flat starts filling up in anticipation of Baby O's arrival I found this post on Cup of Jo particularly interesting.

This beach in The Bahamas has been added to my travel wish list…swimming pigs!?!  Enough said!

Image Via Wikipedia

Finally a 100 years of fashion in 100 seconds…which is your favourite era?




Friday 24 January 2014

This week I've been...

…wearing…

Pink suede, cashmere and a bump!

Grey marl, nikes and a bump!

Pink Barbour, pink Chanel nails and a bump!

Converse, coral stripes and a bump!

Biker boots, stripes and a bump!


…celebrating Mr O's birthday with Father and Son presents and pizza with friends


Pressies!



…shopping for Baby O

Amazon order



…painting my nails at my desk!


.


…going on treasure hunts set up by my amazing husband!

.

.



…and finally feeling very sleepy, I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with my bed this weekend and hopefully getting some good sleeps.

Via Pinterest

Thursday 23 January 2014

Operation Organisation...

At the beginning of every year I have a compulsion to organise and de-clutter my flat and this year that urge has been heightened by the need to 'nest'.

I decided my first task would be to tackle my out of control handbag collection…they were being stashed in boxes under my bed and in the wardrobe (and any other bag shaped nocks and crannies!).  I wish I has taken before pictures so you could see the improvement.

I pulled out all my bags and laid them out on the bed, from here I bagged up all the bags I knew I would never use again to give to family, friends and the charity shop and then set to work on what was left.

I sorted all of my clutch bags into magazine files so I can now clearly see what I have.




I popped these on the shelf in my wardrobe and boxed up all my remaining bags in a much more orderly fashion.






Much more organised and I even found a few bags I had forgotten about along the way…result!


Wednesday 22 January 2014

28 Weeks, Yesterday...




I’m not sure why, but 28 weeks feels like a big milestone.  Maybe it’s the fact that we are no officially in our third trimester and therefore on the home straight.  I can’t quite get my head around the fact I only have 7 more Mondays at work!

Yesterday saw me see the midwife for my glucose tolerance test and 28 week appointment.  I had built this up into something more in my mind than it turned out to be…I think it was mainly the thought of not being able to eat for 12hours, but the bottle of Lucozade I had to down got me through it.  Baby O passed all his other tests with flying colours and Mr O got to hear his heartbeat for the first time since his 20 week scan…I’m sure a couple of tears were shed on that side of the room!

Still lots of moment with is great.  The midwife could tell that the area that I can feel the majority of movement is where the little man’s hands and feet are!  And still no stretch marks…whoop whoop!

I’m still not sleeping great, so by 4pm I’m ready to finish up work and head home to bed…I guess I should just see it as training for the future!



Outfit: H&M Maternity Jeans, Jack Wills Top (old, non-maternity), Converse & New Specs

Monday 20 January 2014

Half and Half

This weekend was a weekend of two halves…my half great and lots of fun, poor Mr O’s not so much.

He spent most of Saturday making boxes to house Baby O’s expanding collection of stuff (more on those another time) and then yesterday spent to whole day unblocking the kitchen sink, mending the broken toilet and fixing a leaking bath.  All instead of going to the gym or getting out on his bike.  What a legend!  It’s his birthday today so I’ll be sure to spoil him more than normal to show my appreciation of all things DIY he does around the flat.

My weekend was less DIY filled and more friend filled.  On Saturday morning I popped to the opticians to pick up my new specs.  I obviously dragged Mr O with me for a second opinion…I’m pretty happy with my choices, although it always takes me a little while to get used to a new look.  From the opticians I headed off the Barnes to meet a friend for a walk.  On our way out we stopped for bacon and egg sandwiches at Barnes Farmers Market…delicious.  If you’re in the area on a Saturday you should check it out.  Its every Saturday from 10-2 in the car park of the Essex House surgery.  From there we headed on to Giuliana for coffees and hot chocolates to keep us going as we walked around Barnes common.  It was such a beautiful morning and lovely to be outside making the most of it.  On the way home I did the decent thing and stopped in to The Ginger Pig to pick Mr O up a bacon and chilli sausage roll!

Sunday followed a fairly similar pattern, I got up early to get my jobs done and then headed off up the M4 to catch up with another friend.  The chosen meeting place was The Crown at Bray, a lovely little pub with roaring fires, that whilst owned by Heston Blumenthal isn’t too weird!  We caught up over roast beef and horseradish sandwiches which we opted for to ensure there was room for dessert.  Sticky toffee pudding for me.

All in all a lovely weekend…

Apologies for the lack of photos, I need to remember to take more, but with the arrival of my shiny new camera I no longer have an excuse not to get snapping!

New Camera & Specs And A Bit Of Weekend Reading...

Saturday 18 January 2014

Its The Weekend...


This post should have gone live yesterday, but I was having all sorts of problems with the site, but better late than never!


Via Pinterest



Here’s a little round up of some bits and pieces from across the internet that have caught my attention and/or made me smile this week…


Like most little girls I dreamt that one day I would become a prima ballerina.  This documentary series narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker show just how hard you have to work to achieve that dream.



This article struck a real chord with me.  It’s nice to think about giving bad habits up  rather than adding more to my to do list



This video freaked me out, I have never seen anything like this, nature is pretty amazing and terrifying at the same time



Last bit of weekend fun…which city should you live in?  I got Tokyo!  Having not been there I'm not sure about living there, but I would love to visit.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleyperez/what-city-should-you-actually-live-in

Thursday 16 January 2014

What I'm Wearing...

I’ve mentioned previously that I have been struggling with maternity wear and to be honest so far I have managed to get away with buying only a couple of maternity specific items – leggings, blue jeans, grey jeans and a couple of dresses.  I’m not in love with the dresses, but the bottoms have been life savers!

This week I’ve been trying to up my game…


Leopard print and classic LV accessorised with a bump
Shoes - Dune (old), Jeans - H&M Maternity, Jumper - Topshop (old), Bag - Louis Vuitton



Studs and stripes accessorised with a bump
Shoes - Primark (old), Jeans - H&M Maternity, Top - from the market on Ile De Rey while on honeymoon!



Bling to brighten up an otherwise dull t-shirt and leggings combo
Top - Maje (old), Bottom - H&M (old)


 Now I just need to work out what to wear tomorrow!

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Happy Birthday Miss Moss...

Kate Moss turns 40 tomorrow and I am assuming she will have the party of all parties to celebrate if her 30th is anything to go by.  There are not many people who can be said to define a generation, but Kate Moss is one of them.  I feel like I have grown up alongside her whilst doing my best to imitate her incredible style…some looks more successfully than others!

Sky Arts were showing a documentary this evening - "Kate Moss! Creating An Icon" - which I am looking forward to catching up on at some point over the weekend, but in the meantime here are a few of my favourite Mossy looks…


Shorts & Waistcoat


Skinny Jeans, Stripes & Flats


Leopard Print


White Dress, Fur & Lots of Leg!



Tuesday 14 January 2014

27 Weeks...

Firstly I’m on time, yay me!



So this week, I am reliably informed that Baby O now weighs the same as a cauliflower, thanks Baby Centre.  I’ve loved using the fruit and vegetables size comparisons over the last 27 weeks.  To think that it wasn’t all that long ago I was having a picture taken with a raspberry!

This week has been a good week, I’ve settled into a good routine at work and whilst I am still tired it is now bearable, not the bone crushing exhaustion I was feeling at the beginning of last week.

Still no stretch marks and so far no real heartburn to speak of, long may this continue, but I do seem to have gotten myself back onto a pretty poor sleeping routine.  I am tending to wake at about 3.30 and then have trouble dropping back off, which can leave me feeling like I’ve only had a couple of hours sleep rather than the  6 I am actually getting.  Fingers crossed this won’t last too much longer, or if it does that Baby O will stick to this schedule when he arrives!

Lots of lovely movement this week, mainly in the during the morning at work and then when I go to bed about 10.30ish.  I’ve also noticed him kicking a lot when I wake up in the night.  I really do love feeling every little movement, especially when I am in meetings at work…it’s like a little secret between me and my boy!



Outfit: Maternity leggings - Seraphine, Boots - Dune (old), Jumper - Jigsaw (I also have this in grey!), Necklace - Primark (old)

Monday 13 January 2014

Tourists In Our Town

As I start to consider the fact that I am not going to be living in London for much longer it is dawning on me how little of London I know.  To try and rectify this Mr O and I will be attempting to explore a new area every weekend for the coming months.

We kicked off our mission yesterday, making the most of the sunny morning, with a trip to Primrose Hill.  I’m not going to lie on first inspection I was a little disappointed, it was more of a large mound than a hill, but the view from the top certainly did not disappoint.  We were lucky with it being such a clear day we could make out all of London’s landmarks and identify a few new ones (Caledonian Clock Tower I am talking about you!).




We grabbed drinks at Anthony’s Delicatessen in preparation for the hike ahead of us, and while their latte’s didn’t quite hit Mr O’s exacting standards I can definitely recommend the hot chocolate.

Where to next weekend…maybe Hampstead Heath or Northcote Road.  I think I need to start a list of places to visit…

Saturday 11 January 2014

26 Weeks...

A little belated as I was actually 26 weeks on Tuesday, but this first week back at work has been a killer!

I really need to work on my posture!

I've been feeling pretty good this week…lots of movement again which I just love.  I'm starting to be able to see movements as well as feel them which is ace.

I've struggled a bit this week in terms of clothes…I think I might have to give in and invest in a few more maternity options as a lots of my non-maternity clothes are now being stretched to indecent levels!

So far, I still don't have any stretch marks.  Fingers crossed I'll stay this way, but if I do them it will be worth it.   When I first found out I was pregnant I started using Johnson and Johnson baby oi gel, I moved on to Bio Oil in my second trimester and this week I have graduated to Clarins Tonic Body Treatment Oil…a gift from a VERY generous friend.

In this photo I'm wearing old Russell and Bromley boots, Seraphine leggings, H&M maternity top (no longer online), old Gap cardigan and a necklace that I can't remember for the life of me where its from…

Must also work on my hand heart!



Tuesday 7 January 2014

Birthday Shenanigans...

Yesterday I turned 35…35, how did that happen?!

I didn't plan my day very well what with is being my first day back at work and following a pretty sleepless night the thought of going out to dinner at Franco Manca, as planned, was too much to contemplate.  Mr O saved the day by bringing Franco Manca to me, in my bed!  It could not have been a more perfect solution.

I went for the 'No.4' which has Gloucester Old Spot ham, mozzarella, buffalo ricotta and wild mushrooms on the signature sourdough base.  If you're in the Chiswick area I would definitely recommend a visit…not only is it delicious it's super reasonable, can't go wrong!




Monday 6 January 2014

Mr Sandman...

With sleep seeming to be ever more elusive these days and therefore more prominent in my thoughts, I've found myself keeping googling pyjamas…specifically the type my Grandad used to wear! Bear with me hear, I'm thinking practically, they will be perfect once Baby Boy is here for breast feeding.  These are a few of my current favourites…


Marks and Spencer La Maison de Senteurs Pure Cotton Cool Comfort

PJ Pan Luxury Flower Bud Pyjamas

Lets hope these beauties lull me to sleep soon!

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