There’s all sorts of new things in the works over here at Casa MTW, and I’m trying to do some market research for a project at the moment, so if you could take a minute to fill in the survey below, I’ll be your BFF forevs.
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Husband, Sausage and I popped into town today for a bit of a browse. We were having a mooch round TK Maxx and they’d walked off ahead of me but as I caught up, I saw Sausage do something that I found really disconcerting. As she noticed herself in the mirror, I saw her frown deeply and then turn away with a look of disgust on her face.
I mentioned to Husband what I’d seen and we both proceeded to question her on why she’d frowned like that, however she clammed up and started to get upset. My mind was racing with a combination of scathing indictments of modern society and the pressure placed on girls in terms of appearance, positive affirmations that I could give Sausage which both reassured her but stopped short of piling too much importance on aesthetic and blackout-inducing rage at the thought that someone may be responsible for damaging her confidence.
Husband was still trying to extract an explanation from her when she looked him straight in the eye and said:
“I don’t like my reflection Daddy, because it always copies me”.
If you read this post, you’ll know that I went back to full-time work a couple of weeks ago for the first time in Sausage’s life. It’s not been entirely without event but that’s a different post for a different day. I’ve been trying to make the most of the evenings with my little family but once I’ve battled my way home through rush hour traffic, got changed, had dinner and watched an episode of The Simpsons, that’s basically it.
Up until now, and especially since we got our car, we’ve very much been able to please ourselves. Obviously, once Sausage started school we had to follow a routine to an extent, but with Husband working from home and me being unemployed since April, my time has been my own. I could go to the supermarket when everyone else was at work, I could run any errands I needed to run or I could simply sit on my arse and watch Jeremy Kyle and eat crisps if I so desired. Boy, how things have changed!
This weekend, we’ve had shopping, a kids party, family stuff and various other things to do, all on top of trying to catch up with a week’s worth of washing, tidying a house that looks like several small bombs have gone off in it and keeping a dog and a 4-year-old stimulated enough that we don’t end up with a riot on our hands. Usually, I wouldn’t sweat it, I’d think “It’s okay. I can do stuff while Sausage is at school next week” but now I simply can’t.
It’s been a real eye-opener, if I’m honest. I think I’d forgotten how busy places can be on a Saturday and even a Sunday. We made a trip to Ikea and Lakeside on Saturday and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a busier shop than the Swedish furniture place. And don’t even get me started on how rude everyone was. It’s like they get to the weekend and forget their manners (if they ever had any in the first place!).
We enjoyed our dinner, at a restaurant called Strada, which is a chain of Italian eateries. The food was absolutely lovely, I had the lamb shank which was served with a rich tomato sauce and fell off the bone. Husband and Sausage had pasta and pizza, both of which were freshly made and delicious.
I know we’ll get used to having to do things at the same time as everyone else, but at the moment it feels totally alien and a complete chore I’m honest. Any tips on how I can learn to cope with it all would be gratefully received!
For discounts at Italian restaurants check out this netvouchercode
The lovely folk at Daxon are offering the chance to become one of their VIP fashion bloggers and bag yourself a £50 Amazon voucher in the process. Just visit this page for more details and to grab your very own Daxon Blogger Network badge. But hurry, it’s only open until TOMORROW!
Here’s what you need to know about Daxon:
We are part of Redcats, which is the 3rd largest home shopping organisation in the world. We specialise in top quality clothing, for all occasions, to give you effortless style. We aim to find the perfect fit for you. We don’t believe in compromise when it comes to fashion!
I’m starting my new job on 14th January and they have some great workwear on the site. I’m thinking of treating myself to this gorgeous tailored dress, which I think would look absolutely FAB with the shoes below:
My good friends at Baby Allsorts are having a clear out and they have a ton of gorgeous designer kids outfits and Huggalugs on sale over there at the moment.
They also have a brilliant new product called the BabyDam, a bath-insert which allows you to section off the bath to make a smaller section for baby, saving you time, energy, money, effort and so much more! We’ll be bringing you more info on that next week, but you can click on either picture to head over there now to take a look.
A list of maternity essentials that I created for babyhuddle has been featured as list of the day and I thought you lot might like to have a look.
Just so you know, this is in no way, shape or form a sponsored post or a review, it’s just a genuine shout-out for something we love, totally unsolicited.
I tend to find it a bit difficult to find summer dresses for ladies who are slightly larger of bust. Cotton dresses have no give in them and never fit over my chest and anything that is big enough for the girls is usually like a sack on me everywhere else. During our recent trip to Lakeside (the day after we got our car!) I dragged Husband and Sausage around the massive H&M in there and found these dresses:
It’s as though someone made them specially for me! They aren’t too low cut so you don’t get major boobage on show, they’re a perfect length (I can put Sausage in the car and not show the world my bottom), they have a tie round the middle which gives you a bit of shape and they’re cool and light. They also come in loads of colours, I think there are yellow, orange and white in addition to the ones above and can be dressed up of down, accessorised in a million ways and are just generally super versatile. But do you want to know the best bit?
They’re £7.99 each! I have the five above (and I only don’t have the others because the yellow and orange don’t suit my colouring and I have issues about fat girls in white!) which will basically see me through the whole summer for less than £40!
It gets better.
Got a little girl?
£2.99 EACH! The pictures don’t do them justice, they are really pretty little dresses, a great length and perfect for summer. The prints are gorgeous and at less than three quid each, Sausage can roll about in the mud in them for all I care! They actually wash up very well too and have withstood some serious stain-remover soaking! Sausage teams hers with leggings on cooler days and if it was really cool you could every put a t-shirt underneath. They look great with trainers, Birkenstocks, all sorts!
Hennes have properly sorted us out this year and I think Husband is secretly glad to have been dragged in there as, in the long run, we’ve saved him a small fortune in more expensive summer clothes!
A little while ago, I did a Silent Sunday post featuring a pair of sparkly shoes. What I failed to mention (what with it being Silent Sunday, and all…) was that I got these shoes from Ellos.
In case you haven’t heard of them, Ellos are an online catalogue that sells clothes for women, men and kids and the have some absolutely gorgeous items (sparkly shoes = case in point!). They were kind enough to let me have £50 to spend, which covered the cost of the shoes and they even threw in a gorgeous pair of mittens and matching leg warmers . They came in very handy over the past few weeks, I can tell you, though not worn with the shoes…that would just be silly!
I highly recommend having a look at what Ellos have to offer, the clothing for women is lovely, but there’s loads of stuff on the kids section that I want for Sausage too. The delivery was speedy and their customer service was totally brilliant.
A big Mum’s the Word thumbs-up for Ellos!
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