Three Years Married

It was my 3rd anniversary yesterday, I can't believe how quickly it has gone.

It's a lot harder to celebrate now we have our little man, last year he was only 9 days old so it was all about him and this year I thought I would surprise my husband and take the day off work but we ended up looking after the little terror and running errands.
Our first anniversary we spent travelling around Scotland which was pretty amazing, hopefully we can do that again some day.

Last month I read a post by fellow blogger Rachel the Hat celebrating her 2nd wedding anniversary with pictures of her budget wedding so I thought I would do the same.

 Here goes my wedding in pictures.

Me & my Daddy

Moments before seeing my groom

You are Husband & Wife

Our Guests

Mum, dad & mother & father in law

My Brother , new sister & brother in law

Narrow boat ride for all

Cutting Our Cake





Speeches



Our first dance

Caricature

Our day is over

We had a pretty special day considering we were on a tight budget, but I don't think it looked cheap. We had a late afternoon ceremony which was in a registry office (it was a pretty ugly room but you aren't in there that long) so we didn't have a sit down meal which saved us a fortune. Our wedding car, photography and cake we're at a huge discounted cost due to family friends or friends providing the service. My dress was brought in a closing down sale. Our band was 'Chris Cole and the rockets' which my dad is in so was free to me. My Father in law was just setting up a video company so our wedding was the practise (Northill Video) you can see a clip of our video on you tube.
 Our reception was at a small venue next to a canal who provided a buffet for the evening which was our biggest cost. We had a boat trip for our guests before the evening reception to make up for not having a sit down meal.
And we loved our caricaturist (well worth the money) and made the evening for us and our guests as they could take something away with them. 


If you are planning a wedding and have a small budget see if you know anyone who can provide a service or maybe do things yourself. I made our invites and put together bits and pieces for the tables such as love hearts and confetti. Disposable camera are great for tables as you catch great moments from guests with these.

Hope you like the pics.



Outfit No.7 Under £20

Week 7 of my outfits under £20. Let me know what you think.
 

The Outfit: 

• Print Vest £8 from Select
• Leggings £4 Primark
• Boots from Tesco Clothing £5 (mentioned in previous outfit)
• Belt from Matalan 2 for £2 so class this as £1.

Whole outfit is £18


I would love to find out what you think out there.

Withdrawal Symptoms

I haven't been out shopping for a few weeks now especially since starting back at work and hubby being made redundant so really I am not allowed to spend.
I actually walked past My favourite shop Dorothy Perkins on Saturday it even had a 50% off sale banner in the window so I'm proud of myself, I normally think oh I'll just have a look but I didn't even do that and that is saying something......hard times.

I did nip out to Asda today my excuse was 'shall I get tea bags we only have 3 left'. I secretly knew they had another clothing sale that I was itching to go to.
I had a browse picked a few things up but put them down again until I came across a price tag that said £2.50 oh I'm sure that will be alright to spend it was £9 so that's pretty good so I did to fill my hunger of a clothes shop but funny thing is I'm not sure I even like the top.

You may see it in one if my Outfit for £20 posts so keep your eyes open for that one.

Why Does It Have To Be So Difficult

Little man is being very difficult at the moment, in the day he moans constantly which is so draining and at night he is so active it can be 11pm before we actually get him to sleep. I just don't know what to do half the time.
We have always had problems with him sleeping but at one years old you'd think that would be behind us. He is so unpredictable, for a few weeks he started to go to bed by 8.30-9pm which was amazing as we actually had a couple hours of mummy and daddy wind down time and he sometimes slept through until 7.30-8am which was a dream but since he's been Ill at easter we are lucky to get him in his cot by 10pm it's so stressful especially as you get rudely awaken by either a crying Ollie or noisy neighbours at stupid times in the morning.

I'm exhausted especially now I'm back at work. When I get home mummy mode has to switch on but in the evenings and at weekends I just want to sleep but I can't so I end up being very grouchy and snappy. I hope things change as I don't know how I can carry on like this.

I never imagined that being a mummy would be so difficult.

Outfit No.6 Under £20

Week 6 of my outfits under £20, which I wore last week to work one day.

The Outfit: 

• Dress was a bargain £5.99 from Store Twenty One in last year's summer sale originally £14.99
• Long pointy boots from Asda £12 ( approx 4 years ago in a Christmas sale)

Whole outfit £17.99


I would love to find out what you think out there.

My Baby Is One

I can't believe my little man is one.

One of the first pics of Ollie

I keep thinking back to last year and trying to remember how I felt as I had a very long painful experience of childbirth (I thought it was anyway). 

I've probably been driving my hubby mad at the weekend by saying do you remember this time last year at certain points in the day. It all started at 6.15am on 15th and after paracetamol, pethidine, gas and air and an epidural he eventually arrived on 16th at 12.39pm. 

The little guy didn't want to come out so it looked as though I might have to have a c-section which scared the life out of me but they said they would try a vontose and/or forceps first. I hated the idea of forceps as I heard some awful stories about how they can damage your baby but I was prepped for theatre and about 10 medical staff surrounded me while they tried forceps and all I could hear was push...push...push but I couldn't feel anything, it was such a surreal experience then I heard "it's a boy" which I couldn't quite believe and just said did I just hear that right as we were expecting a baby girl but both of us said well that's got to be Ollie then which was the only name we had for a boy. I wasn't disappointed just excited and overwhelmed by the whole experience.

14.04.12 Cake

14.04.12 Presents

One year on and he is a lively,loud, cheeky but gorgeous little boy.

Unfortunately we had my grandads funeral on his actual birthday on the 16th which was rather gutting but he still managed to steal the attention and make people smile. 
We made up for it over the weekend with a family party and an outing to a soft play centre with a couple of Ollie's little friends the day before. 

15.04.12 Playing with friends

I am  a proud mummy to a toddler

16.04.12  I AM ONE

Being Back At Work

Last week was extremely hard leaving my little guy then I had five days off for Easter after starting back (that would be nice if that was every week), but it was filled with illness as my little man hasn't been well and I was just exhausted.
Ollie is normally very active, he doesn't stay still for a second but over those few days he wanted lots of cuddles and loved just sitting on the sofa curled up in my arms which was actually rather nice and he slept more, but it's always so worrying when they do things out of character especially not wanting to eat (he loves food) but spat everything out.

Now on my second week I'm starting to feel a little better as I don't feel as stupid as I did as I was completely lost last week I had forgotten so much but it didn't help being so tired and missing my little man.
He is also much better as the terror is back to his normal mischief which is great and just in time for his 1st Birthday on Monday.

Love Those Shoes

I just thought I would share my latest purchase, oh just look what I got last week .....red canvas espadrilles from Matalan for only £8. They also have them in blue and beige but I love the red and I can't believe they are only £8 at that price you can afford to buy all three colours.

I just had a look at the website and they are nowhere to be found so I'm glad I got them instore that week if they have sold out but I have to wait for the rain to go before I can wear them.

Check the site out for the latest heels and wedges

Outfit No.5 Under £20

These weeks are flying by this is my 5th week doing this. The weather has turned yet again so I decided to get my boots out again.

An odd face because my little man was heading my way

The Outfit:

• Black with tan dot jumper for £5 in sale was £14.99 at Internationale

• Black Jeggings £12 but I managed to get 25% OFF at Selectso £9

• Tan Boots £5 was £18 at Tesco Clothing

This would have cost £44.99 at full price but with my bargain radar the Outfit cost a Grand Total of £19 woohoo! another successful buy.

I would love to find out what you think out there.

Hehe! my little guy

Back to Work Wear

Second day at work done and these are the outfits I chose to wear on my first two days.

04.04.12

Day One
Dotty Dress from Dorothy Perkins and heels from Tesco Clothing which has been one of my Outfits under £20.
 I added black tights as it hasn't been that warm out there this week. The bag is from Next which I mentioned in my post Next Sale Purchases. 
It may have been a little over the top but never mind I needed to feel my best as it was a difficult day leaving my little man behind with daddy for the first time and all day.


I felt pretty good in this even though I had to wipe the tears away for most of the day.

Day Two:  

05.04.12

Red dress from Tesco Clothing in the sale of course for £7 it was originally £22 which has been mentioned in my previous post What to wear.

I teamed this up with black tights and my birthday boots from Dorothy Perkins also in the sale for £28 which were £60.

I felt nice in this but I'm not sure the picture shows it as a very flattering dress but I think it looks better in the flesh maybe another time I will add a belt or a long funky necklace. 


It's actually quite nice to dress up a little for work than wearing my usual leggings which are great by the way and a godsend while I was pregnant but dresses do make you feel more womanly. 

First of Many

Oh my what a day I really thought I could be strong. I held it together as I left the house this morning as Ollie waved goodbye but it was so hard to hold back the tears. Once I got to work I felt okay...I can do this I told myself but then after a one to one with the manager talking about the last few days I started to well up aaggghh no I didn't want to do this.

I composed myself and I was fine until lunch time when I called home to check in and that was me well and truly gone - I can't do this I said to hubby it feels so wrong but I know I have to as I am the one with the job and have to do it for our little family.

Oh why does it have to be so hard.

I got through the rest of the day with no tears but as soon as 5pm hit I was out as I wanted a cuddle from little man.

Now just got to do it all again tomorrow, I do hope it gets easier.

Back To Work Tomorrow

Me & Ollie today

Well here we are, I'm at that point 
where my work days are back and I have to say goodbye to pyjama mornings, mummy lunches and morning coffees :-(

My early mornings will now turn into getting to work on time and not deciding on what breakfast Ollie should have while we watch baby cartoons then quickly changing to interesting mummy programmes....oh goodbye This Morning and Loose Women hello sitting in an office dreaming I was at home thinking of the things I was doing this time last week.

It's a weird feeling as it feels like it's the end but I still have my little boy which is forever. I'm sure when I get home the hubby will pass Ollie over so I do my responsible duties even though I didn't do that to him when he was working all day. Deep down though I think I will want to as for almost a year it has been pretty much me looking after Ollie 24/7. Making sure he is changed, fed, has clean clothes, bathed and getting up in the night so it will be so hard not to carry on, I don't want to feel I'm not needed anymore he's my little boy. 

Starting this year Grandma has had Ollie over night once a month which has been very strange but a godsend as well as we needed the sleep, but being without him by my side for nearly 10 hours a day 5 days a week will be incredibly hard I just know I will be thinking about him all the time and worrying if he has been fed and changed but I guess that is normal until I get into my new routine.

Hopefully I will get to be at home again some day as who will take all the pictures.

Supermarket Clothing

Wow.........look at these dresses from Asda at £16 each, you will certainly get noticed in either of these but of course my favourite is the polka dots.

 

I'm loving all the colour around at the moment. Look at this A line lace dress which is new in at Tesco f&f at only £14 it's yummy. 

This Butterfly vest is also £14

Sainsbury's Tu Range also have some nice bits as helped by Gok.

I hate to say it but I do buy a lot of clothes from the supermarkets as they are reasonably priced and have a nice collection of clothing. My weekly food shop always takes me longer than it should because of the clothing departments.

I love making things

I have been making greeting cards and jewellery for several years now so I have decided to re-launch as Little Blue Feet (previously Kelly Card Designs). After having my little man I abandoned my creative side as being a new mum was hard enough but now I know what I'm doing (most days) I had the urge to make something so i decided to make animals.

On my facebook page you will find all my greeting card designs and my new products added today hanging felt animals what do you think?

I will get some better pictures added but these are my animals so far hope you like them. I have a cat, chick and rabbit in working progress.

I am selling these at £3.95 each plus £1.25 P&P.

I am happy to customise and add an initial or change colours to suit you at an additional cost of £1.

I have written a previous post on Being Creative.

Comments welcome, what other animals would you like to see?

Remember to Like my facebook page

Outfit No.4 Under £20

This was the first time I have worn this outfit even though I bought it last summer as I wanted to hide my lumps and bumps after having my baby but it didn't hide them but now 2 stone lighter (still 1 to go) I felt it was time to wear it. The sandals were also purchased last year and not worn - I'm awful for doing that. Lucky people two posy photos this week.

The Outfit:

• Black jersey maxi dress from Select £12 (last year also came with a rope belt) this year it comes with tan belt.

•  Sandals from Tesco Clothing Sale (last year) at £5

• Tan bow belt from Matalan sale 2 for £2 (black & tan) so counting this as £1
• If we want to add in the Sunglasses they are a cheapy New Look version at £1.99 (last year).

 Outfit is a Grand Total of £19.99 (including glasses)


 I would love to find out what you think out there.