Me & Mine: A Family Portrait - August

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August has been far and away our best month of the year so far! It's felt really busy, full of days out and adventures, and we were so busy that it completely slipped my mind that we needed to take our monthly Me & Mine photos until the Bank Holiday weekend. But as it turns out, that was pretty ideal timing, as we'd planned a big day out with a trip to the beach, so we slung the camera (my old one as the new one is still with Canon for repair) and tripod into my bag and headed off. I love the beach - there's something magical about feeling the sand in between your toes and the breeze on your ...

Living Arrows 35/52

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You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth – Kahlil Gibran I love discovering new places and when I heard about the Peace Garden at the Muslim Burial Ground in Chobham Common I headed there for a visit with Max. It was one of the hottest days of the year, but being set in the middle of the woods gave this place a cool feel. Max loved walking around the edge of the garden and exploring the different paths and I loved the opportunity for a peaceful sit down! Can you spot Max in the shot below? He got right to the other side of the garden from me! He's getting more independent all the time!      

5 Happy Things #21

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I've come to realise that I'm very much a creature of summer - I'm made for hot days, paddling pools, ice creams and trips to the beach. It has such an impact on my mood and makes it so much easier to find the my 5 happy things!   01. On Tuesday Max and I went for a picnic with my Mum and Dad. We'd intended to head to Waddesdon Manor, but as we pulled up the driveway in the car it became apparent that it wasn't open on Tuesdays! So we about turned and headed to another National Trust instead, Claydon House. A bit more on the smaller scale than Waddesdon, but we had a lovely picnic and then my Dad ...

#SharingtheBlogLove #9

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Phew, what a week it's been! Just when we all thought summer was over we get another heat wave to enjoy! I think we've had a run of so many rubbish summers lately that I can't get enough of the nice weather. We had a lovely picnic this week with my Mum and Dad and despite the fact that Max pretty much only ate cake and ice cream, we all had the best day (in fact, that may be the reason that Max had such a lovely day!) But on with the linky! I run #SharingtheBlogLove with Laura from Dear Bear and Beany, and it was another great week for our little community last week with 32 linkers. Thanks to everyone who ...

Sharing the Blog Love - Showcase 9

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Welcome to the 9th week of #SharingtheBlogLove and our weekly blogger showcase! It's so lovely to see so many people coming back week after week, and I love that we are building a little circle of linkers who are lovely and generous with their commenting. It's so great to see that the people who comment lots within the linky really see that love coming back to them judging by the number of #SharingtheBlogLove hashtags I'm seeing on our linked posts. I love that each week we get a mix of regular linkers and some new ones too, so hopefully we really are introducing you to some great new blogs to read, which was the whole idea of this linky! On that note, ...

IPL hair removal - a real life experience

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When it came to researching laser hair removal and IPL, I was struck by how difficult I found it to find a review which was not sponsored, or by a salon with a vested interest in a particular technology, and where the person had actually undergone a course of treatment rather than just one session. I'm coming to the end of my course, so I wanted to share my unbiased and real life experience of IPL here for anyone considering this treatment. Hair removal is a time consuming thing if you're a woman. Putting aside the issue of why we feel we need to remove our body hair in certain places, the fact is that most of us will spend a ...

Living Arrows 34/52

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You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth – Kahlil Gibran Max and I took a trip to Nymans National Trust last week. There's nothing he loves better than a long stretch of space to run down - these colourful borders did the trick!    

#SharingtheBlogLove #8

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Welcome to week number 8 of #SharingtheBlogLove! What a week it's been - Max and I have been out and about enjoying the sunshine, with trips to National Trust gardens, feeding the ducks with my Mum and scoffing ice creams like they're in danger of disappearing off the supermarket shelves! But on with the linky! I run #SharingtheBlogLove with Laura from Dear Bear and Beany, and we both loved reading all your posts from last week. A big congratulations to this week's featured bloggers, so many of which are new reads for me this week! I love that running this linky is bringing so many new and wonderful bloggers to my attention. It's so great to read through the posts and see how many of ...

Sharing the Blog Love - Showcase 8

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A big welcome to our 8th weekly #SharingtheBlogLove Blogger Showcase! A selection of our favourite posts from last week's #SharingtheBlogLove Linky. It's so lovely that we are continuing to get so many wonderful posts linking up, and that we are able to feature so many of you here. Without any more chatter, on to my favourite posts!   JakiJellz Like most parents, the nursery drop off is something that I struggled with for ages. My son started nursery when he was 12 months old and took a few months to settle in, and I found the crying very difficult to deal with. Jaki's post, Coping with the Tears at Nursery Dropoff, about the resurgence of the terrible drop offs brought it all back for ...

The Garden in August

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For me, the garden in August is always a time for reflection. It's a little less heavy in terms of regular jobs, so you can look back at what has already flowered in the year, and see the promise of what is still to come. You can see what has worked well and what needs a bit of tinkering with to achieve what you're aiming for. Because gardening is a never completed job - there's always something that you want to tweak here and there. So please forgive this post for it's lack of pretty pictures - it's more a reflection on what I want to improve next year rather than what's gone well this year!   Cottage Garden vs. Natural Planting My ...