My Everyday Makeup Musts....

Here is the make up I use everyday...

It usually takes me about 5 or 10 minutes in the morning to pop on my makeup, I'd love to spend longer but 3 kids, lunches, signing copies and getting to work on time means time is limited!! 

1. Blank Canvas 

I LOVE this palette for contouring and as you can see I love the soft peach as a nice blush. 

http://www.blankcanvascosmetics.com/products/6-contour-highlight-palette-1-powders.html

2. Mac Blusher

I adore the sheen of this blusher.

3. Mac Lip Liner-Subculture 

A really natural lip colour....as you can see I love it so much it's almost gone!! 

4. No. 7 Beautifully Matte Foundation.

This is my everyday go to foundation, I use 'Warm Beige'. I love the matte-ness as I have quite oily skin. 

5. Eyes Uncovered Nude Pallete 

I use this to fill in my eyebrows with the darkest shade and then a soft natural look on my eyelids. 

6. Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer

I use this more so as contouring under my eyes, on my nose and forehead, I just like the coverage and shade. 

7. No.7 Dramatic Lift

I love this mascara, possibly one of my favourite ever! I would highly recommend this mascara. 

And tadaaa....

This is the finished look, quite a subtle everyday makeup :) (no filter)

Baby Annabel 8 month Update!

How is Annabel eight months old already! Third time around I can definitely say it's gone by in the blink of an eye!

Annabel had her 8 month developmental checkup the other day. All went well. The only area of concern is that she is not 'weight bearing' which basically means when I stand her up she makes no effort to stand on her own two legs. So, I have to get practising with her and bring her back in a month to see if there has been an improvement. 

Annabel was a big baby when she was born (10pd 5ounces) and she's still at the top end of the graph, the 98th percentile to be exact, again,because everything is in proportion I don't think there's anything to be alarmed about, I'm just hoping she might have long legs and not my short stumpy ones!!

Weight: 10.22kg

Height: 73cm

Size clothes: Annabel is wearing size 9-12 months clothes. She's the full of them and any new clothes I buy from now on will be 12-18 months. 

Nappy size: Annabel has just moved up the Size 4 Aldi nappies 

Food: The public health nurse told me I should be cutting back on the bottles and Annabel should be getting 3 meals a day. At the moment I give her baby rice/cereal for breakfast. She gets a fruit pouch during the day, some days she devours it, other days it's hardly touched.  I don't give her a proper dinner as such, just tastes of what we are eating, so I need to start giving her a proper dinner. She gets 4x8oz bottles, one when she wakes up, one at 11, one at 4 and one in the evening from about 7. She loves trying to feed herself finger food. 

Sleep: Annabel sleeps quite well (which I am so thankful for!) She wakes at about 6:30 every morning and goes down to sleep between 8:30 and 9pm. She naps at about 9:30am for an hour. Again at 1ish for an hour and has a 30minute cat nap at 6in the evening. She sleeps through the odd night unless her teeth are bothering her she might be a bit unsettled.

Teeth: Speaking of teeth, she has none yet! I can see one about to break throughout the bottom gum so I'm sure it'll make an appearance soon! 

Annabel is starting to babble lots! She loves playing peek a boo and loves songs and rhymes. If she's unsettled in the car she loves twinkle Twinkle or even turning the radio up on a good song settles her! She is quite a placid, happy baby. She has however started to notice if I leave the room and will bawl!!! So it's definitely more difficult to leave her down and get anything done around the house! She can sit up by herself, and she can roll over, she's happy on her belly and can move around but is by no means crawling yet. She loves her two brothers and always smiles and jumps and babbles when she sees them in the morning.  

I have to say I really love this stage, she's interacting, she's eating food, she's sleeping all night...I hope I haven't just jinxed myself! 

Annabels Christening Party

We had Annabels Christening in June, we were so lucky with the weather, it was honestly the best day we had all year! Annabel was 3 months old which was a nice age, but really it was organised as my sister, and Annabels Godmother was home from Australia at this time.
We had Annabel baptised in our local church, my Grand Uncle is a priest so it was lovely that he could baptise her, it really made it such a relaxed, easy going event.


For the flowers I choose baby pink roses as my colour scheme. I collected different glass vases I have around the house, none of them matched but I think it added to the look I was going for and my very talented mother created the amazing flower arrangements,,, I loved them! She also made the doilie balls and bunting (fabric from Guineys).

This was my favourite arrangement ⬇️

I bought the cardboard letters in a local store (Fagans Mullingar), they were €2 a letter. I also bought pink spray paint (about €7), I just sprayed them pink, it was so quick and simple and they can decorate Annabel's bedroom now the christening is over!

I bought the lantern, polka dot paper cups and white frames in Dealz for €1.49, I love this shop, such amazing value! My sister printed the sign for the frame and labels for old jam jars filled with mini marshmallows and other pink and white sweets! Lastly instead of buying a Christening candle I just got a normal candle and again with the help of my mother she printed a personalised label for it!

We have this chalk board in the house (from ikea) so I just drew on it and the little lanterns are Dealz again €1.49.

This is Annabel's little dress and sparkly shoes! I loved them! The dress was from Hazy days and shoes from Minor Details (both Mullingar). I changed her out of the Christening gown and into these when we got home from the church.

I could honestly write 10 posts about Annabels Christening but here's just the one for the moment! Hope you enjoyed it :) 

Week 2 of Summer Holidays...

Our Week In Pictures 

So I hadn't intended on doing my week in pictures but after seeing last weeks I kinda like it, so here we go, this past week this is what we got up to!

We went to Kilkenny (without kids!!) Saturday night for a family members birthday. It was a great night away, we ate in Rinuccini's and had an area reserved in The Left Bank.....

 We did some gardening...

We went for lots of long walks in the countryside....bliss....

I went to a shoe event in Korkys in the Ilac Centre....

Here are some of the fab outfits styled by Justine King....

We brought the kids to Kildare Maze in Prosperous, Co. Kildare. It was fantastic, I would highly recommend it as a family day out! 

We had a busy morning of painting, blowing bubble and lots of water play in the sink, the toddler really loved it! I will definitely be doing more water play with him...

We went for a lovely breakfast in Miller&Cook in Mullingar, it was very tasty....

And we had a great world cup party!! Senan was party planner extraordinaire, its amazing how much a 9 year old can actually do when given the responsibility! It was great fun and we were delighted Germany won...

How are you summer holidays going??

My first week of summer holidays...

What a great first week of holidays we've had! We had very little planned (which is quite unlike me!) Things just kinda happened, the weather was a big bonus and made the days long, lazy and fun! 

Last week we.....

Played tennis....

Went to the playground...

Had a picnic in Pheonix Park...

Baked...

Played hurling...

Walked along the canal...

Went to the lake...

And ate ice cream...

Went to Kidz and Co...

And I went to my friends wedding...

There was lots of catching up with friends that I don't get to see during the school year, hanging out with family and of course plenty of laundry, cooking and cleaning!! 

If the rest of the summer goes as well as the first week we'll all be very happy campers! Fingers crossed the nice weather comes back! What are you up to for the summer? Any good suggestions for nice family days out? :) 

Presents for teachers

So this year I decided I'd try do 'thoughful' presents and stick to a budget! As a teacher I genuinely love getting presents and lovely cards that the children have so carefully written their name in their neatest writing for teacher!! I especially love when a parent write a few nice words, I figure they must mean it or they wouldn't have gone to the effort on the first place! 

My son is finishing third class, he has had an amazing substitute teacher over the last few months so this is the gift he is giving her...

                                 

....along with a bottle of wine and a card. 

I printed the thank you card off from online and I also got the 'smart cookie' label online (I must check back where and link it!) I think it's very cute! 

There is also an SNA in my sons class who I know he gets on great with so he is giving her a bottle of wine...

                                           

My younger son attended crèche for 2 days a week since Christmas and is finished up for the summer now so we dropped in this home made gift....

                                 

I filled old jam jars (I am a chronic hoarder so I was secretly delighted a finally found a use for them!) with sweets, glued on the label (also printed from the Internet) and added some ribbon. The card is also printed,,,a great way of keeping costs down. 

Like I say I went for a 'thoughtful gift' and hopefully they'll be liked/enjoyed! :) 

Do you agree with giving teachers presents? 

TJ @ 20 months!

My baby is 20 months old!! And I have to admit I just love from this age on, I way prefer it to the baby stage. I just love watching them in awe of the simplest things! I feel like his little personality is really beginning to shine through! He's a little messer, a stubborn little boy too! 

FOOD

TJ seems to eat most things. Although bananas are perhaps his least favourite! 

I would like if he ate a breakfast cereal such as porridge or weetabix but he won't! Every morning he has chopped fruit, usually melon, pineapple, strawberries and blueberries with a few raisins thrown in. 

These are some of the foods he might eat for lunch or as a snack: youghart, a cheese sandwich, ham, apple, orange, apple and pear purée, beans, scrambled eggs, they're the main ones. 

Dinner is usually whatever we are eating, shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognaise, spuds, veg and meat, he loves pizza and chicken goujons! And there is always a spare jar of baby food in the press, he has been known to get on occasion! 

SPEECH

So, I'm not hugely sure where he ment to be at but he has the usual Mama, Dada, bye-bye, he seems to have a lot of the -uck words, truck, buck, duck, stuck. He hasn't grasped his brother Senans name yet but he is starting to put 2 words together 'Hiya Dada' 'All gone'. 

SLEEP
TJ is a nightmare when it comes to sleep!! He usually ends up in our bed by 4am! He has a great bedtime routine and goes down easy, but he will not sleep the night through! I'm told this should improve naturally by the time he's 2...I'm waiting patiently!! 

At the moment he is obsessed with tractors and lorries and trucks! (Not as interested in trains as his big brother was at that age.) He is really starting to enjoy looking through books and pointing t the pictures, hi favourite is a farm book he has. He loves playing outside. He isn't very interested in TV, I know most parents would be happy with this but he wudnt even sit and watch a cartoon so you could load the dishwasher!! He enjoys going for walks in his buggy. He's starting to throw the ball to his brother! He really does seem like a little messer, full of divilment! We love him to pieces!