Return of the Princess...

When I started blogging, I wanted to tell women everywhere that we all deserve a little time for ourselves and that when we look our best, we feel our best.

I am ashamed to say that I haven't been living up to this ideal and as I survey my dodgy hair (that should have been cut weeks ago!) and my chipped nail polish I have decided that urgent action is required.

Luckily I am not alone in this feeling and so a group of princesses has been convened.

My mission is to get myself ready for summer! I've lost all of my baby weight but my stomach needs some toning work. I am really tired at the moment (just found out I am anaemic) so I need to boost my diet with lots of good food to improve my skin, hair and nails.

Due to time constraints (a.k.a the realities of work, family and home) I am going to undertake a slightly smaller challenge this time, 6 steps in total.

1. Improve the amount of fruit/veg in my diet.

2. Start taking my vitamins again to ward off anaemia. Also resume taking cod liver oil for my dehydrated skin.

3. Body moisturiser- every day!

4. Do 30 mins of exercise three times a week (I know this falls short of the recommended targets but I need a goal that's achievable)

5. Ensure my feet are flip flop ready by exfoliating, moisturising and polishing my nails!

6. Increase my water intake to 8 glasses per day.

In preparation for the challenge, I decided to have a final blow out, see the (shameful) pictures below...

I ate...an entire box of biscuits (oops!)

I drank...gin and tonic

I shamefully gazed at...my chipped nails

I am officially a lapsed princess...

In the midst of colds, teething, vomiting bug and sleepless nights, I really have let go of the Princessing challenge lately.

I haven't taken my vitamins in nearly 2 weeks, have spent more time sitting down than exercising, my nails are chipped and messy and I haven't applied body moisturiser for weeks.

The worst is that I have gained about 4kg- and it's not even Christmas yet!

So what am I going to do? Ask you to pass me the Quality Street as I stare at my rhino like feet? Oh no...I am going to give the challenge a final push in the run up to Christmas.

Today I have slathered on body cream and foot cream. I am going to apply a face mask before bed and paint my nails.

Tomorrow I think I will head to town and get my eyebrows threaded and may even consider changing my hair colour!

I am keeping track of my calorie intake using the Myfitnesspal app and hope to lose some inches soon!

Boredom in the bedroom

Hi everyone,

You've been reading for a little while now so I don't mind showing myself up a little bit.

You see, things haven't been so great in the bedroom department lately....no I don't mean like THAT!

I've taken some pictures, you'll see them at the bottom of the post. While I have been trying to make myself look like a princess, my bedroom has been looking more like a pig pen.

I'm bored. I can't repaint or carpet because its a rented house but this room needs a makeover.

We have decent foundations- the furniture is good quality and the bed linen is Egyptian cotton. I love the bedside lamps (a bargain on eBay!) but we are lacking that luxe feeling. There's not much personality, no mirrors and I hate the cheap bookcase.

So I have a budget of £100, now lets have some fun (yes, there's a mood board coming on...)

I plan to learn new skills, buy cheap and up cycle as much as I can. I will keep you posted with regular updates! My first step came today when I found two giant faux fur cushions with large shell-type buttons in the local charity shop. They were a bargain at £4 each and I can't wait to use them in the new room.

Today I made some yummy Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup (yum!) and had a lovely play-date with my friend Jane and her son Arthur. I haven't been much of a princess today as I've been short on time so I have booked a hair appointment for next week and I am going to get my eyebrows threaded tomorrow to try and make up for things. I have done my nails tonight (Leighton Denny in Forbidden Territory) and I am about to put on an exfoliating face mask (Elemis Papaya Enzyme Peel as always) and slather on some body moisturiser (Body Shop Shea Body Butter at the moment).

My little one has been sleeping really badly lately, the past few nights it's been after 9pm by the time I get her settled and she is up every 2 hours to feed. It's making me think that maybe it's time to think about weaning as she is 5 months old now and very interested in food. I want to resist until we are as close to 6 months as possible but I have to admit it's getting harder, especially when most of my friends are weaning their babies now. I would love to hear your weaning stories as quite honestly I don't have a clue what to do!

Finally today I want to share with you some exceptional customer service that I experienced. In York, there is a shop called "Expecting" who specialise in maternity wear and nursing bras. I measured myself for some new nursing bras today (I have been wearing totally, utterly, the wrong size and shoe-horning my giant boobs into bras that give me that awful "double boob effect, not to mention the near black eyes if I walk too fast!!). I ordered some new nursing bras from Expecting online and awaited their arrival next week. I had been putting off going to get measured as I had no-one to look after my little one (her daddy is on night's this coming week) and I was worried she'd get bored and kick off.

Within minutes the owner of the shop had e-mailed me and offered to drop them round today on her way back from work! She called round in the afternoon with the items and said she would give me a full refund or exchange if they didn't fit and also that if I was struggling with size she would easily give me a fitting if I went into the shop. Amazing, amazing service, great products and the chance to support a fantastic local business.

The day in pictures:

I wore my new Merino wool jumper from Uniqlo (until it got baby sick on it), toasty and soft!

I applied Aloe Vera Gel to the blisters on the back of my heels which were burning like mad after an allergic reaction to plasters....

I cringed at my messy bedroom with it's pile of maternity clothes ready to be packed away.....

The "office chic" shredder.....

And rather boring (but admittedly very comfy) bed.....

Fabulous Thursday

I am still very excited after landing my dream job! It doesn't feel real that when I return from maternity leave I will have to start studying again but it's all for a great cause!

This week my mum has been down visiting and we have achieved so many things- on Sunday we did the car boot sale I had planned following the giant de-clutter. It was hard work getting out of bed at 6am on Sunday in the very cold weather but well worth it as we raised nearly £300 selling books, DVDs and costume jewellery. The house is a lot less cluttered (though there is some stuff to go to the charity shop!)

Right now I am loving the good people at Bobbi Brown in York who gave my mum a really great makeover, she looked gorgeous and now has some lovely new make-up to show off! We also snapped up a boxed set of 5 Clinique Chubby Sticks for part of her Xmas present!

Today I managed to make a chocolate fudge cake and my lovely partner made some great minestrone soup. We did have a lot of things planned today but ended up napping in the after ion instead!

I can't believe my little girl is 20 weeks old today. It's been really tough for us lately as she's been teething for ages and waking every 2 hours at nights I have also been diagnosed with post-natal depression so I don't feel like my usual positive self, it's such a challenge just dragging myself out of bed some days.

One thing I will say is that the Princessing Challenge has really helped me feel a bit better. Although it feels like a huge effort, doing little things like painting my nails or slapping on some nice moisturiser really does pick me up on the bad days.

Busy day planned for tomorrow as you will see from the To Do list:

Happy Halloween

Hope you have had plenty of treats and not so many tricks!

I was lucky enough to see the new James Bond film "Skyfall" today. I have to say (as someone who isn't a massive Bond fan) it's incredible! Our local cinema does a mum and baby screening on a Wednesday morning which is fantastic if you can't easily get a baby sitter.

I definitely don't look like a princess at the moment since my daughter had started waking every 2 hours to feed!

Here are the aspects of the challenge I am managing to stick to: exfoliate weekly, use an anti-ageing skin cream, apply eye cream, intensive nail treatment, go for a walk daily, eat a healthy breakfast daily, remove make-up each night, de-fuzz regularly, have one early night per week, give up crisps and finally only have two cups of tea per day.

I really hope these a good "habits" that I will continue after the 100 days is up. It's also led me to think about what other sort of challenges I would like to undertake in a 100 day time frame. My current favourite is 100 days of doing something kind for strangers. Let me know if you have any challenge ideas for me!

Here is the day in pictures...

I ate Lindt chocolate

I applied Ojon hair treatment

I admired my new camera

I wore Mango jodhpurs

Poo, floods, nails and Christmas!

After another night of being up every 2 hours, it was pretty hard to drag myself out of bed today. But my little girl was due her vaccinations so I had to be ready to go.

So I managed to get her and I ready and then the phone rang at 8.30am- the GP cancelled the appointment as the nurse had phoned in sick. This put me in a rather bad mood!

Things didn't improve as baby is teething and spent the morning screaming like crazy and chewing everything that went her way.

Luckily I felt a bit better when I met my lovely friend who is going through exactly the same thing- shared experience really does help give you perspective on things.

I set off home with a new, positive outlook and looked forward to an afternoon of reading a book about baby led weaning and having a herbal tea. About half way home my little one started screaming, thinking it was teeth again I picked her up to give her a cuddle. Strange...the car seat is wet...my hand is wet!

Yes, it was an epic nappy. All the while she was still screaming and I was trying to figure out how to get the baby gro and tights off without covering the poor child who was already wearing poo from knee to ankle!

I caved and am not afraid to admit that I started crying! The combination of being unable to settle her, feeling knackered and having a child covers in poo was rather overwhelming.

I took a very deep breath and ran a bath (she loves the bath!), grabbed a pair of disposable gloves and managed to extract her from the tights and baby gro without too many problems.

As soon as I put her in the bath she was splashing and cooing away like nothing had happened!

Feeling a little better, after I got her dressed and settled in her baby chair I tackled the clothes. I decided to pop them on a rinse cycle in the wash first. And then the kitchen flooded...

Oh dear. It took so long to mop it all up and I felt more sorry for myself then ever. My lovely other half came home from work early and made me a cup of tea and a fish finger butty. Order was restored.

Thankfully I managed to get her down to bed around 8pm so I have done my nails, had a cider and am having a little chill out time before sleeps.

On the plus side I bought my first Christmas present today! I won't say what it is but it's lovely and I can't wait for it to arrive.

Here is the day in pictures.

I ate homemade apple and raisin pie.

I applied Leighton Denny polish in Starlet.

I admired my new Baby-led weaning cookbook.

Tea and cake with lovely ladies and lovely babies.

Today I was lucky to go to an indoor picnic at a fellow mummy's house. We were very well looked after with a lovely veggie frittata, homemade raspberry muffins, crudités, dips and lovely scones!

As you can guess I've had several cups of tea so probably too much caffeine!

Tonight I am being truly spoiled as my sister and her boyfriend are looking after baby while I have a chill out. I've done a lovely Elemis Papaya Enzyme Peel, exfoliated and moisturised my feet and had a lovely play around with my new Leighton Denny winter colours which I am loving!

I can highly recommend the Leighton Denny Miracle Drops which speed up drying time of your polish- unlike other sprays and drops that claim to dry quickly, these genuinely work. A great buy for mums on the go!

The day in pictures:

I applied...Leighton Denny Take a Bow.

I admired...Leighton Denny nail collection.

I wore...H and M cardigan.