Motivational Monday || Love

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Merry Monday to you! I hope you are feeling positive for the week and looking forward to a fresh start and a new chance to achieve all your goals. 

(Source)

I chose today's motivation after I was inspired by something that happened in church last week. I know religion isn't everyones cup of tea so apologies if this is a bother to you. I'm never preaching, only sharing my own experiences. I was sat in our service and our vicar was talking about how God loves every one of us. This is something I've heard before and often felt to be quite a sweeping statement. How can anything love 7 billion people all at once? That's a LOT. Our vicar went on to say that God says he knew each of us when were were in the womb and has a plan for all of us, that he cares and loves about us all as individuals and a collective. 

I don't know if it was the happy feeling I had from the sunny weather or something more special but in that moment, I just felt very loved. I felt very secured and very content with everything. It was a very snuggly sort of peace that washed over me, just because someone told me I was loved. 

I tell my little girl I love her about a thousand times a day but sometimes as an adult, you aren't told you are loved often enough. I think I needed telling. 

So this is me, telling you, I love you. I'm not God (if I was this blog would be a LOT better!) and I didn't know you in your Mother's womb (that would be really effing creepy of me), but whoever you are, I'm sending you a little chunk of love and warmth from my heart to yours. I am fairly sure that it's a good sort who read this blog and I so often feel your love and support that I wanted to reinforce that I am always, always sending it back out to you too. 

I hope you have a fantastic week and that you continue to feel motivated and happy each day through it. 

Toodlepip!

xx

Our Easter Weekend and Decor

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Spring is definitely in the air and this weekend we had the double whammy of celebrating Darcy's birthday AND Easter.

I bought this little peachy/champagney dress in the Monsoon sale at Christmas. It was £50 down to £35 which I still think is a lot for a dress I know she won't get a lot of wear out of but it was just too adorable not to pick up. The white cardigan is from Primark (oh man that thing is soft), socks are from who-knows-where and the white shoes are from Clarks (and she has already scuffed them grrr). 

These photographs were taken outside our Church and all the old dears who doddered past commented on what a sweet child Darcy was and what pretty pictures we would have. Kinda warmed my heart a bit. 

We are Christians so for us it's a celebratory time but even if believing in the big JC isn't your thing, everyone loves chocolate eggs!

Our church had the children go round offering treats to us afterwards so we combined both Easter traditions!

Darcy loves her Nanny Tina. I am constantly amazed by how much love Tina pours into our family. She deserves some kind of medal. I've said it plenty of times before but I am so thankful that she came into our lives just as Darcy was born because Darcy will only know a loving family unit and won't have any idea what it was like before. 

 Oh hai, I like to pose by the gates! My Auntie had stopped to talk to one of her friends from Alpha and Darcy swung about by the wall and I couldn't resist snapping her. I REALLY should carry my big camera with me more often!

When we got home Darcy had lunch and headed straight out with her Dad so she could spend the afternoon with her paternal grandparents which I know she enjoyed- they spoil her so much, it's lovely. 

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the Easter decor we have in our home. I don't usually bother but this year I saw so much sweet stuff that I thought it would be nice to celebrate and fun for Darcy to be involved too. 

Clearly I spent waaaayyyy to much time and money on this but it made me smile every time I saw it and lots of people commented on how lovely it was. The honeybee vase was from Asda and all the other decorations were from a garden centre near my house. The twigs are from my garden. 

Painted baubles float my boat. Egg shaped painted baubles float them even more. 

A sprinkle of glitter in our easter display. See what I did there??

Bunny love. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend too. I'm so glad to see Spring on it's way in. Winter felt very, very long. 

What did you do last weekend? Do you celebrate Easter? Do you have a different religion or culture, if so, tell us about what kind of things you celebrate round this time of year- it's interesting to hear and learn about things like that. 

Toodlepip!

xx

Darcy's 4th Birthday

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

It seems like 5 minutes ago I was sitting on my old cream sofas at about 8.30am in the morning, with a tiny newborn laying on a duckegg blue hand sewn pillow whilst I typed about my labour and delivery story to share on my blog. That post was written in 2 parts because in those days I never had more than quarter of an hour to myself and I was rushed off my feet learning the art of motherhood. 

I'm not sure I've yet mastered it but 4 years on, I feel relaxed and confident and very happy with how that newborn is turning out. 

Every year I try and get a picture of us all together at cake time. I love it. 

This weekend we celebrated her 4th birthday with family and friends and although you may have already seen this pictures on my instagram or twitter, I wanted to share them here too so that I can preserve the memories and also because you might not follow me there. 

The day started out slightly flustered because the house was a tip and I had no food in. The day before I'd gone out to do these errands but just after buying all the decor I felt really poorly and drove home to be near my own bathroom haha. Luckily it was just an afternoon situation and with a bit of rest I was fine again. 

So, Matt came over to take my shopping list and grab all the food items and I set to work on the house. I tidied and hoovered and dusted and decorated and after about 3 hours it was looking great. Very party ready! 

We had decided on a Frozen theme because it's one of Darcy's favourite films (along with Cinderella) and I thought I could do a decent job decorating and co-ordinating to that. I taped blue, silver and purple crepe strips to the windows, scattered frozen glitter sequins eveeerryyywhherree, bought in balloons, hung paper pom poms, layed out lilac and silver paper plates/napkins/cups and my Auntie Judith made cupcakes with silver sprinkles. It all worked out so well. 

By 4pm everyone was arriving, coats were being thrown on the spare room bed, cups of tea were being made and Darcy was jumping for joy every time someone new came to the door. We invited mostly just family but also a few of our close friends, our neighbours and a couple of children from Darcy's nursery (who I think she was MOST pleased to see and immediately took them up to her room to wreck it!). 

Although Matt and I separated last year, we enjoyed the day together. It's hard to explain because most couples who split up don't get along but we decided not to be a Husband and Wife team, we never opted out of being a parent team. We love that team a lot. There's only 2 people in the entire world who know the joy of being Darcy's parent so we gotta stick together on that one! Also, we want her to always remember her parents treating each other with respect and kindness so a party all together just made sense. It was really nice. 

We did all the usual party activities - opened presents, chitchatted, served nibbles, laughed as kids went cray cray hyper, lit candles, sang 'Happy Birthday' and thanked people as they left. It really was the perfect day. 

This one is pinched from Zoe's insta account because just look how beautiful that wrapping paper is. It's from Oliver Bonas. 

Darcy loved it. She loves to have special things in the house like balloons or sparkles or magic wands and kept telling me it was her birthday party and she was going to be 4 and picking out wands for all her friends.

On her actual birthday (2 days later) Matt and I took her to a lovely nature reserve that has a kids park, then to lunch at Frankie and Bennies and then to the cinema to see Cinderella. That night she stayed at Matt's place (she woke up with me) and to celebrate on my own, I ordered takeaway. 

I vlogged both the party and the actual day so keep your eyes peeled for both of those very soon! 

It is so wonderful to share highlights of life on my blog again. Long may it continue!!

Toodlepip!

xx