Oaks Boutique Blogger Event

What better way could there possibly be than to spend a Thursday evening sipping prosecco, nibbling (or rather inhaling...oops!) delicious cupcakes, mingling with lovely ladies and browsing rails and rails filled with stunning clothes, all in very stylish surroundings, and all at my very own leisure?

I'll tell you what - nothing could be better.

Nothing as far as I can see anyway, and very luckily for me, this is exactly how I spent my Thursday evening this week at the very classy, the very welcoming Oaks Boutique in Leeds.

As we entered, I was struck with how coordinated everything was - the clothes were put together with other colour complementing pieces, and it made for very lovely, striking arrangements.

We were made very welcome indeed by the lovely Oaks ladies, and were plyed with beautiful cupcakes and drinks galore, whilst being encouraged to browse the rails, and try the clothes.

I was in my element.

Naturally, I initially homed in on all of the beautiful sparkles and all of the statement necklaces first - they were very pretty and hard to resist.

I fell in love with so many things - I can't actually believe I walked away resisting the urge to buy anything...but I was strong and said "No" to everything...although I am beginning to regret my decision to leave the beautiful black coat behind....it was just so blooming gorgeous....

*Sigh*

If I had to whittle down my "Wish List" from the evening to just three things - well, it would take a while, but I think I would choose the following:

The stunning, very classic, very "go with anything" back belted coat just has to head the top of the list - it was so very nearly mine too - damn you sensible head - it was just fab!

I would also pick this beautiful, but quite dangerous and very sharp black Alexander McQueen style clutch bag - it was very "Rock Chick" and I love all things studded and spiky.

And last but by no means least, these beautiful, very sparkly nude pumps would have to be mine too - I mean who doesn't love a little bit of bling, and these certainly ticked that box perfectly yet without being too over the top - they would definitely add a touch of glamour to the most casual of dress-down-jeans-days - and I just love 'em.

Not that there weren't another ten things that could have quite easily been added to this list too, but I'll stick with a top three or this post could become v-e-r-y lengthy.

Oooh but I simply can't leave out the accessories.

Oaks had some ah-mazing statement rings, bracelets, necklaces and shoes on offer - they really are a little "one stop shop" for that whole, complete, perfect outfit.

There were beautiful dresses in abundance, all very striking and extremely classy - not things likely to be found on the high street either - and they were really reasonably priced.

I fell in love with these pleated skirt maxi dresses - each could be dressed up so differently using different variations of belts and accessories, and this feather bottom dress caused quite a stir between the blogger ladies - it was just so cute and so different.

It was lovely having the opportunity to catch up with all of the fab bloggers too - many I have met before, but meeting new girlies always makes for a great evening too - Oaks really did have everything covered.

Photograph shamelessly stolen from the Oaks boutique's Facebook page - sorry if anyone objects, it's such a good pic!

What's more - yes there's more - we were each given a crammed goody bag to take home with us as well.

Yay

How beautiful!

And how generous were the Oaks Ladies to us

Sweeties, a beautiful scarf, a gorgeous purse and this amazingly delicate, sparkly, simply stunning bracelet.

!Woohoo!
I got my sparkles after all.

Thank you Oaks Boutique for inviting me to this wonderful event - it was great.

Make sure you pop along.

I can safely say - I shall be back

The National Media Museum Meets Skylands

Today I visited The National Media Museum in Bradford for their Skylanders exhibition.

Now, whilst the museum is great, it is very local to me, and it is free, my son really doesn't like going all that much these days.

He's eight

He's very easily bored

He likes to do things that are different - all of the time

And visiting places that we've been to before is unfortunately not his idea of fun.

But - he does love all things Skylands and he has all three of the games and goodness knows how many of the interactive figures for each one, so, still slightly reluctantly, we headed off for the afternoon.

Once inside the museum, we were confronted with all things "Skylands" and my son's curiosity very obviously won him over, and he couldn't wait to explore everything.

He was suddenly swept away with an urgency to complete the Skylanders prize trail, and we ran from floor to floor, rather excitedly, looking for all of the the clues to answer the questions and to try and win a fab prize.

It was so much fun, and it just shows how having different exhibitions can help to keep children interested in the museum culture.

They bring a whole new "newness" to everything, and things that may have been seen a hundred times before are looked at from a totally different perspective.

And if they help to change my son's views, well, they certainly are quite brilliant!

The fun didn't stop there though either.

The two interactive workshops available - again, for free - were brilliant, and the kiddies were booked onto a time slot for the activity of their choice.

We decided that the animation workshop was a little too late in the day for us, but nothing was stopping my son from getting his hands on a PS4 controller and having a quick game of Skylanders Swap Force.

Naturally he loved it, and the computer playing was a huge hit with everyone.

And there I was thinking we were getting away from technology for the day.

:)

It is certainly worth popping into the museum for a visit, and the Skylanders will be around until 2nd March - and everything is free - which is always a good thing.

No wonder the parents were smiling today.

Happy Children With No Cost!

H2WOW And The Gym

Today I think I may have slightly lost my mind.

It's the school holidays, plus my son slept out at his Nana's last night, so this surely should equal a lovely, extra long lie-in for me?

Or not

Nope - non of that - today I decided to set my alarm for 5.30am, to get up, do a little housework before getting myself into the gym and on a treadmill all for 7am.

Yep, I too agree that a lie down right now is required.

But there is a little method to my (very) early morning madness.

I have wanted to get back into the swing of things at the gym for ages now, and knowing that I had my first ever filling booked in at 10am today I didn't quite know how I'd fare with wanting to work out this evening.

So off I went in the early morning.

And there I was, red faced, sweating away, wondering at times what on earth I was doing, yet all the while with my new, pritty fancy looking H2WOW water bottle in hand.

I'm usually one of those gym goers who fills up their old, unwashed drinks bottles at the last second before a class starts - that bottle that's been left rotting in the car for days on end that I forgot to take out and clean - nice eh!

Hardly hygienic.

Or I'm one of those gym goers who'll throw £1.20 into the vending machine without thinking, as I fly through reception and buy a bottle of water to get me through a dehydrating Jump FX class.

But I think things have changed now, now that I've had a little enlightening information to digest anyway.

I was first introduced to H2WOW by a friend, and having a look at their water filter bottles, well, I think they look really quite professional.

They have an easy *pop* dome lid which prevents spillages perfectly, and the plastic of the bottle itself is sturdy and strong, but can also be squeezed slightly.

Fantastic if you get to that point in a class where you just need a whole lot more water than you're getting - a quick squeeze of the bottle, and problem solved.

The bottles also fit perfectly into the holders on the gym exercise equipment - which is a huge bonus - no more scrambling around on the floor looking for the bottle that has lodged under the bike pedal.

However, it's the fancy little water filter design that had me really intrigued, and it made me like this bottle a whole lot more.

The filter attached to the bottle is carbon based and is designed to remove nasty contaminates that can be found in good old tap water, by cleaning the water as it passes through the filter before hitting the mouth, helping to create much cleaner, healthier and better tasting water.

The filter itself has to be soaked briefly before use, and eventually - after about 3 months - it will need to be replaced, but it very easily screws and unscrews into the lid section of the bottle.

Very un-fussy and it means no more un-hygienic, filthy bottles for me.

It could also help to save me a few pennies too.

I for one know how expensive bottled water can be, yet people seem to fall into it's convenience trap (myself included) - buy it, drink it, throw the bottle away.

And this is exactly what another 150 million people worldwide do too...

...daily...

....and only 25% of all of these bottles are ever recycled.

That's a lot of wasted money, and a whole lot of wasted plastic.

A problem when it's pointed out that it takes about 900 years for each and every plastic bottle to fully disintegrate.

Quite alarming stuff.

It certainly made me think twice about my money spending habits and my Looking-After-The-Environment Habits anyway.

H2WOW's bottle can give me my clean water, hygienically, can be cost effective, as well as allow me to do my bit for the planet.

I like it.

And what's more, H2WOW will donate 50p of every bottle sale to the Just a Drop charity - which is enough to give a child clean drinking water for five years.

I know my H2WOW bottle will be accompanying me on many a future gym session

*item provided for an honest review

It's All About The Jacy & Jools Bracelet

Today has been a day pretty much spent flashing my arm around and shamelessly showing off my lovely, very new, very fantastic Jacy & Jools bracelet.

Jacy & Jools are a brilliant, brand new contemporary jewellery company who are based in Cheshire.

They use very beautiful, very fine sterling silver, rose gold and gold in combination with semi-precious beads to create very fresh, very fashionable and very exciting jewellery pieces.

Having a browse of the website, I found a whole array of bracelets and rings - all very in keeping with Jacy & Jools' signature style, but yet still all so individual.

There are pieces specific for weddings; more colourful "beach" type bits, and even things made all from carbon for the men of the world - no one is left un-catered for.

And, how very kind, Jacy & Jools asked if they could send me one of their amazing creations from their beauty packed website.

Oh well - if you insist.

I mean, who am I to refuse such a fandabby-dosey request.

:)

Let me tell you, I was a tad more than pleased to open up this gorgeously wrapped, hot pink parcel earlier this week.

It was so cute - and very me...I mean who doesn't love pink.

Then, inside I found this very pretty, very delicate Mother of Pearl Cross Bracelet from the Moonlight Collection.

It is just so cute!

The bracelet itself consists of a stretchy band of hematite beads with a beautiful Mother of Pearl Cross lovingly surrounded by two, slightly smaller silver beads.

The lovely silver signature "J" stamp compliments perfectly too, and the whole bracelet is simply beautiful and retails at £15.

Jacy & Jools' jewellery looks really rather great worn on it's own, but it can equally, and very fashionably, be all stacked together.

This is definitely a case of the more the merrier.

So it is very lucky that I also have a 10% discount code to offer to be spent on anything so desired from the Jacy & Jools website.

Spend, Spend, Spend and then use mgblog10 at the checkout to benefit from this fantastic discount.
(valid until 1st June, 2014)

I know I certainly have my eye on a few other lovely pieces that would complement my new bracelet perfectly anyway.

Happy Jacy & Jools Stacking!

*product sent for an honest review

Calling All Designers! A Chance To Design Your Very Own Handbag

Isla Rule pride themselves on designing handbags that not only look stylish but are practical and help the busy, rush around women of today organise themselves as much as possible.

They take normal, everyday bags and make them a necessity for women who, very much like myself, always have something to do, somewhere to go or someone to rush around for, and all the while living from the contents of the usually crammed full bag.

Isla Rule add "secret" compartments and sections to their bags.

They may add a colour complementing toiletry bag to one style for example - all in an attempt to help better organise women, helping them to keep all of their "handbag necessities" separate and accessible.

No more pulling out a piece of fruit, hairbrush or lip balm when trying to grab that mobile phone ringing embarrassingly loudly from the deepest corner of their bag.

Organisation is certainly the key.

The lovely Ella Laptop bag illustrates Isla Rule's concept perfectly:

Stylish, practical, sectioned, and with some beautifully coloured lining.

Now, Isla Rule are offering the fantastic designers of the world - ie YOU - the chance to have £500 paid directly into their bank account; have a bag named after them, and have their own creation made and actually sold on the Isla Rule Website.

And what is required?

Simply submit a beautiful, original handbag design of your own into the Isla Rule handbag competition.

Brilliant, right.

The bag designed must show that there is never a need to compromise style for practicality; it must be able to hold a piece of technology, as well as all the other things us ladies can't get through the day without.

Timeless style is a must, as is quality and authenticity. 

But apart from that - the design is open to whatever your imagination can come up with.

Isla Rule are looking for detailed drawings, including images of the lining fabric, colour swatches of the outside fabric and any details of buckles or closing's.

And once the finished, beautiful bag is all designed, simply create an Isla Rule Profile by subscribing to their newsletter and then like them on Facebook.

Upload the design drawings and any image attachments to the Facebook page - and that's it.

The competition is open NOW but closes at 11.59pm on 12th April, 2014.

After this date, professional industry design types will take a look and begin a voting process to choose the very lucky winner.

Tell all of your friends, family, neighbours - everyone you can find because the more "likes" the design has on the Facebook page, the more the judges will be impressed - and the judges really need to be impressed.

By 16th April, the three bags with the most “likes” will be announced as the finalists, and then it is from these lucky three that the winner will be chosen.

AND if you have one, five or even fifty design ideas, submit them all, you can enter as many designs as you like.

The more the merrier - but each one must be unique and all your own work.

Oh - and over 18's only - sorry - but rules are rules.

Make sure you comment below and let me know what fantastic designs you come up with.

Happy Creating!

A Little Nail Painting

Nail polish and me have never really seen eye to eye in the past - especially over recent years when the only need I had for it was a quick splash over my toe nails to make my feet (urgh - feet!!) look a little more presentable out of shoes.

Having acrylic nails for longer than I care to remember has meant that I haven't really needed to paint my own nails for quite a long time now.

Plus, every nail polish I own seems to last no time at all before it's all chipped and simply, looks terrible.

However, because I have recently removed the long, very fake talons (see here) I needed to make friends with the nail polish again, and embrace it's "cover up my ugly, wrecked nails" ability.

And, thanks to the arrival of Valentines Day, and the fab gift Sharon sent me (see here) I had a very lovely, brand new polish to try out recently.

This NYC polish was a great turquoisey, aquamariney colour which I thought was really pretty.

I'm very much just a blood red or high-shine black type of girl when it comes to having the acrylics painted, but now I have short nails I am embracing the colour and experiencing a whole array of them, as often as I can.

Now the picture seems to show the polish as more of a blue shade, but trust me - it's certainly turquoise - or "East Village" as NYC like to call it.

And after applying two coats of polish to my nails - which would be sufficient enough to cover any "normal" nails - the colour shade was perfect.

The polish covered evenly and was a great texture - and the "quick dry" formula really helped - waiting around for nails to dry is definitely NOT the one.

Due to my ravaged nail condition, I applied a third coat of polish, just to cover all the disgusting bits up properly and the colour was even better - slightly darker and a bit more shimmery.

I thought I may have some problems with having so many layers on, with the polish chipping extra quickly, but, four days later, after numerous washing up sessions, numerous baths and general very un-nail careful incidents (hair washing, button fastening etc) I am STILL left with perfectly good, un-chipped nails.

A winner and a time saver.

NYC East Village polish certainly works for me!

Introducing My Hubby - The Geek

I 'fessed up to my own geeky, book-loving ways a little while ago (here), so I thought that it's only right that at least one of my blog posts should "out" the Hubby's geeky ways too.

Well, I suppose my blog name already hints that I think he is a little bit of a geek at heart, so it will come as no surprise that the geeky activities are in there somewhere.

And here they are...

(Sorry Hubs!!)

My Hubby is a huge Warhammer 40k fan and loves nothing more than spending hours - and I literally do mean hours -  sitting, paintbrush in hand, painting his Chaos Space Marine miniature figures.

Now for anyone who hasn't the foggiest idea what Warhammer is, well, you're in good company to be honest.

I have no real idea either - all I do know is that there are various armies involved in the games; there are lots of rules and rule books - one specific to each army in fact, oh, and each figure can be moved determined by the throw of a dice.

The scenery part of the board-game can be made as elaborate or as simple as desired too, as it is down to players choice, but the things that can be whipped up with a bit of sand and some cardboard is pritty amazing with a bit of imagination.

And there's even a "geek club" (sorry- my nickname for it!) where, on a Friday night, off pops the Hubby, box of miniatures under one arm all ready to roll the dice and battle other enthusiasts, in a bid to be crowned "Winner!" for saving his marines from the rival army.

Like I said - lost on me - but he loves it.

And so do a lot of people to be honest.

My Uncle-In-Law was overjoyed to be given a £400 Thunderhawk Gunship (?!!?) for a recent birthday - yep - four hundred pounds - and whenever the Hubby, or my son visit our local Games Workshop they always come home with wish lists hundreds of pounds long.

Crazy!

I have to admit though, I do think the Hubby's painting skills are beyond fantastic.

The figures all start life as being very basic and plain and all require sticking together and building up.

Then the hours and hours of painting begin.

The detail that is put into each figurine is immense

There has recently been some cape molding going on too, completely from scratch, using "Green Stuff" - or plasticine to my novice eye!

I know I wouldn't have the patience to do any of this whatsoever.

But he loves it, and at least it keeps him busy and out of my blogging way

Some Weekend LUSH-ness

After a majorly stressful week at work last week, I was certainly ready for a little bit of relaxation this weekend.

I was that busy, there were days that I didn't even mange to touch my phone/Twitter/Facebook/Blog at all during the eight hours I was at work!

Such Crazy Times.

 I decided that the best way to unwind over the weekend was to do as little as possible and to have the odd relaxing soak in the bath, filled with luxuriously, steaming warm water and some lovely LUSH bath products that I had waiting in the bathroom for occasions such as these.

The first bath I enjoyed was made all the more special thanks to this cute looking bath melt that I was kindly sent as part of a blogger Secret Santa last year (see here) - the very festive Melting Snowman.

This product is only available over the Christmas period, but he was so sweet and softening, that I couldn't not tell you about him.

Being the first bath melt I have ever used, I wasn't really sure what to expect, and it very slowly just "melted" into the bath water - nothing at all like the bath bombs I have used before - this was obviously created to be enjoyed as part of a long, leisurely relax in the water.

And that suited me just fine.

The lovely vanilla fragrance was really subtle and the coco and shea butter within really softened my skin, whilst the real chocolate drop features of the eyes and buttons smelt totally irresistible to a chocolate lover like me - but - just for the record, I DID resist and I DIDN'T eat them...!

I look forward to meeting this little guy again next Christmas.

The second LUSH product I indulged in this weekend, I have decided is my favourite LUSH product so far, and was given to me by the lovely Sharon in the Valentine Blogger Swap I recently shopped for (see here).

This bath bomb - Butterball - fizzed and flew around the bath the instant I popped it into the warm water.

It began to resemble a little ugly alien type thing after a while though because the lumps of "butter" ie coco butter inside started to become visible.

These were obviously really oily to touch and the warm water melted them down from little solid pieces to pools of liquid which floated on the top of the water and covered every inch of skin in a lovely smelling, oily film, moisturising brilliantly as they went.

The smell of vanilla and musk was beautiful, yet not overpowering, and I left the bath totally oiled up and was all soft and silky for days.

Amazing!

Definitely my favourite bath bomb so far...even if it ISN'T winning any prizes in the most attractive category.

I Loved My Lovely Lush Filled Few Days

My Valentines Day

I haven't done all that bad this year to say that Valentines Day is one of those occasions that myself and the Hubby don't really buy into.

Call me tight, but I'd rather not be forced to pay double the price for an all-you-can-eat buffet meal, only to then be shoehorned into an overcrowded restaurant and be watched over by anxious waiting staff to make sure that I'm eating at an acceptable speed because my table has been booked by another couple in half an hours time.

Ooooh - what a spoil sport I sound.

But don't get me wrong, I'm all for romance, little surprises, hearts, flowers and lovely meals out, but I just don't appreciate establishments taking advantage for the sake of one day.

However, this year things seem to be a little different.

After attending my first candle party (see here) at PURE Beauty and Holistics, I found the cosey-ness of the beauty room so peaceful, and the therapist, Rachel, was just lovely, so when I found out that she was offering a Back, Neck and Shoulder massage deal especially for the men this Valentines Day, I thought I'd surprise the Husband and booked him in for one.

I'm sure there are Wife Points there for sorting him out a rub down by a beautiful brunette - and actually on Valentines Day too.

There is a little background reasoning to why I went for this gift though - the Hubby is having terrible neck issues at the moment and has been for scans, checkups, all sorts recently, so I figured this little treat would be the perfect gift for him this year.

And then there's that other man in my life - the one that always gets a special card.

My very beautiful son.

Chocolate Heart Toast, Strawberry Milk and Chocolate Treats.

I like to make him feel as special as he is.

Oh - and what about me?

Well, I never expect a thing - romance isn't exactly the top of my Husband's forte list.

But I was actually gobsmacked to wake up to this little lot today.

It would seem that nagging for flowers all year long actually paid off eventually - and my love of all things chocolate and candle shaped holds no bounds - so yep - he did good.

With Valentines treats almost over there was just one other gift to look into.

And last but by no means least was the gift from taking part in the Valentines Blogger Swap, organised by the lovely Kelly.

Granted I signed up almost too late to be part of this, but luck seemed to be on my side, and the very thoughtful and very generous Sharon sent me my lovely, well package box of goodies.

I've never had these Reece's Peanut Butter Hearts before - I'm not quite sure why though, because I just LOVE peanut butter - it's probably because I knew that I'd develop an addiction the second I tasted how amazing they are - but whatever the reason, this little heart was around for oh, all of about five seconds before I absolutely demolished it.

Yummy.

The nail polish is a beautiful colour and I can't wait to try it out and the MUA bronzer is right up my street and it matches my skin tone perfectly.

Throw in a lovely LUSH Butterball bath-bomb, a shimmery lip gloss and yet more sweet treats and a lovely gift is created...which has made me wonder why I don't celebrate Valentines Day like this every year.

Sharon - you did very well - I'm very grateful - "Thank You"!

"Thank You" Kel for all of the organisation!

And Happy Valentines Day To One And All