End Of

Hello, Everyone :)
It's another end of another week. I know it's really Tuesday, but when you are a stay at home mother you can set your own week endings and starts, or that is what I'd like to think. The week ending I'm really talking about is the Holiday Week...on blog it didn't really go that well. But I'm actually quite excited to end it so I can start another one, that will hopefully go a bit better.
But as a finishing treat, here are a little video and a few more pictures from our time in Cabo Verde :)

I love this little video of Oscar. He stops and poses for Dan to take a photo of him and then continues with his little walk :) So freakin sweeeeeeet :)

This is one of the pictures I actually absolutely hated, because I just felt I look so massive and it was just one of those why meeee? moments with this one. Then I realised that I am actually not massive, I'm just next to a 1 year old and a skinny guy :D SO I figured I'll just put this picture out in the world to remind me to be less critical about myself.

The amount of pain we went through to find these swimming outfits for Oscar. They are from Debenhams and cost a fare wack with about £20 for each (we got 2)but they were so worth it in the end. Oscar hated when we tried putting sun cream on him, so it was good that most of his body was already protected with this spf40 suit :)

YES I look like a twat, but I wanted a picture with the massive waves :D I mean they were huge. The red flag was up most days because these waves would take  a grown man down and under. And they were also very loud. The bikini is again Roxy :)

Anyway, I do hope you have enjoyed a few little snippets from our first long haul family holiday to the hot Cape Verde. And as always, Stay tuned :)

xoxo

Meril

White Blouse

Hello, Everyone :)
You know when you pack your bags for the holiday and plan your outfits and you think you're going to look amazing at all times? And then you realise that you really don't want to put make up on every day just in case there will be pictures taken because it's bloody hot outside. You don't really want to wear those high wedges that go nicely with that short skirt because you are running after a toddler all the time and bending down in places where people will have a full view of your private parts. So you end up wearing pretty much the same kind of outfit pretty much every day, because it looks nice AND it's practical for the holiday. For me the outfit was shorts and this £5 peasant blouse from Missguided that I ordered from their sale section only a few days before the trip. And this top has become my favourite since I wore it the first time.

I mostly wore it with my two pairs of jeans shorts I took with me and mixed up my shoes and accessories :) So if I was going for dinner I would wear sandals and some jewellery but if we were going to the playground with Oscar it would be paired with tennis shoes and my trusty backpack (I will talk about that some other time :D)

And now I have wore it so many times during my holiday I have kind of gotten obsessed with white blouson style gypsy/peasant tops. SO above are a few other ones from Missguided I love and the first one is the actual one I own. And I love that mixing it up with different items of clothing I can wear it all year around :)

What is your favourite holiday outfit? Let me know in the comments below :)

And as always, Stay tuned

xoxo

Meril

Holiday

Hello, Everyone :)
SO blogging on a holiday went great :D Let me just put it out there before anyone else does...I failed miserably. We just had way too much fun and we packed every day with lots of activities and naps :) Yes...naps...most days we all had 2 naps and it was wonderful :D I will also apologise to everyone who has emailed me, I have filed the emails and I WILL reply :) As like I already said the Internet and WiFi situation was poor in Cape Verde. But here are a few pictures I took of Oscar on the beach that I love so much. It was our last day (not travelling back day) so we decided to take a long stroll on along the soft sand and crashing waves while the Sun shun brigth and the wind blew stong.

And if you haven't already realised then we are back home now and apart from getting more activities and adventures for Oscar I will try to get back to the old routine we had, because even though holiday mode is great... in the real world it won't work for that long :D I will write a few posts about the lovely holiday we had and then continue with the interests, hobby and family posts with a few little foodie ones thrown into the mix as well.

So Stay tuned

xoxo

Meril

Travel Day

Hello, Eeveryone :)

You know that feeling you get when you step out of the plane and the heat hits you with all it's force :)? Being couped up inside due to bad weather and cold in England I am currently experiencing a feeling I can't really describe. It's a mixture of tiredness and happiness and buzz all at the same time. We have only been here for a day and a bit and as you might have noticed this post is late....due to no fault of mine really. Because apparently having wifi in rooms is such a tabu here in Cabo Verde I have been unable to write at the times I usually do. 

I am not saying there is no Internet what so ever, that would be just crazyness :D but it's only in the lobby/bar area and I didn't really want to leave D alone in the room with a sleeping Oscar on the first night :D

But let me tell you about the joy that was travelling with a 16 month old for about 8 hours (6 hours of that in a plane). And I'm not even joking about the ''joy'' part of this as it really couldn't have been better. Well it can always be better, but what we got was pretty damn good as well. 

I know no one really wants to hear a happy story, but I thin I still learnt a few tricks along the way that I can share with all the mama's going to travel in the near future :)

We only had about 45 minutes of this blissfull sleep until the silly lady started talking too loundly, but it was nice none the less and gave us a well needed break of entertaining the little one to keep him happy.

So here are my 5 tips to last a ''semi'' long flight with a toddler

1. Get new toys - I give all the credit to Dan for this one, because he was the one researching the good toys to get and actually got them in time and then managed to not give them to Oscar ahead of time. 

The 2 things I thought were pretty awesome were the buckle pillow, that you can see on the picture and sticker books.

The buckle pillow kept him entertained for a good half an hour initally and then he kept going back to it. So it was definitely a WIN. And the sticker book (stickers you can re-attach) is another one of those things he had so much fun with. To be honest he has been loving sticking little stickers everywhere lately, which is why D got it in the first place, but the fact that you can stick them on the pages and stick them again and again, is what made a huge difference. 

2. Bring snacks - the unheathy kind you know he will love

3. Be calm - you are locked in an airplane for the duration of the flight, so no matter how angry you will get, you will not be getting off early :D SO why bother stressing yourself and everyone around you out by being a stresshead.

4. pack all the baby stuff is one bag in separate zip lock bags, so everything will be easy to find when you need it. Snacks and drinks in one bag, diapers and wipes in another, toys and books in the third....you get the idea. Also pack a set of spare clothes...there might be explosions of all kind

5. If strangers wants to help you out.... let them :D you are in a contained space so no one can steal your child, so if he is willing to go for a little walk down the isle with a complete stranger, then let him :D you will get a little breather and your child will have a little change of scenery so to say.

But all in all we were so lucky with Oscar behaving so well on the flight and even during lift off and landing. And now it's our second night here and we are all enjoying it so much. More to come ...

So...As Always

Stay Tuned

xoxo

Meril

Holiday Week

Hello, Everyone :)

Let me start by saying how sorry I am for being late with this post. The plan was to still upload a post every morning at 9am like during Beauty Week, but life got in the way yesterday so I had no time to write or prepare anything. Tomorrows post will also be a late one, because we are travelling quite early and obviously I won't be able to do any work on the plane as there will be a little toddler needing all my attention at all times :D But that means I will be able to do an update of our travel day and tell you all about how it went :) And during Holiday Week I will be updating you all about how and what we are doing on (I can now reveal it)Sal Island in Cape Verde. 

Totally stole this picture from the Internet and I have really no idea if it's in Sal or another Cape Verde Island :D But hey I wanted a nice picture rather than a pile of suitcases that is sat in D's office waiting to be taken to the car tomorrow morning at 7am :( :D

So what have I been doing today? It feels like everything. I have been trying to get the whole family ready to go, packed my things and Oscars thing. I cleaned the house :D (Is it just me or coming home from a holiday is less painful when you know you are coming back to a clean home and clean bedsheets?)Prepped everything for the plane trip...so everything that is not going in the checked in luggage. I also went and got a few last minute things and collected the things we ordered .... All in a day :D And the day is not even over. Once I finish this post, because I told Dan I needed to do this, I have to go and help him clear our living room and cover our furniture, because while we are gone some work will be carried out....some wall plastering and stuff I'm quite happy about not having to witness :D OH, and I also did a food order for when we are back. We are getting back quite late on Tuesday and we will be arriving to a pretty much empty fridge, so I did our usual weekly food order for Wednesday morning. So I have been very busy here, but I'm glad I've made the time to write this post and let everyone know I haven't given up on the blog already :D 

But for now I hope to see you all back here every day for a week for Holiday realated posts filled with Sun, Sea and Burnt Shins (or hopefully just some tanned skin :D rather than burnt :)

And As always 

Stay tuned, everyone :)

xoxo

Meril