Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

It's Emilia's first Easter - yay!  And at 6 months old she is a lot more aware of what's going on so she actually got very excited about her presents this morning :)  The Easter bunny came and brought her a Peppa Pig egg which came with a cup/bowl/spoon set and giant blowing bubbles which both Emilia and the doggies liked a lot!  

Look what a big girl she is!  I actually can't believe how grown up she looks sitting in her crib like this...how did that happen?!  You can't really see it very well but she is wearing a warm pink Easter dress & striped top from her Oma (M&S) along with some matching brown tights and her pink ShooShoos.  Her pink headband is from Layniebug Designs.  

Of course Emilia beamed and was her usual smiley self while I took these pictures of her in her crib but when I tried to get a mommy daughter one, this happened: 

She's like "really mom?  All I want is some chocolate..."

My outfit details: Cardigan/Senes Paris, Nursing top/Boob, Jeggings/ASOS, Boots/London Rebel

Nope, nothing.  I don't know why but she just wasn't feeling it!  I'm wearing a very spring-like outfit aren't I...ha ha ha!  Well I didn't feel very springish when I looked out the window this morning at the pouring rain - but my mom did bring me back this cardigan from Amsterdam and I was looking forward to wearing it so that's what I went with :)  

I hope you all had/are having a lovely Easter Sunday! 

Stay Stylish!

My Cupcake Room!

Welcome to my cupcake room!  This is really just a spare room in our house that will eventually probably become Emilia's bedroom when she's bigger.  (Right now her nursery is the smallest "box room" next to the master bedroom - click here for pictures!)  For now I use this room as my study/filming set-up/make-up/cupcake memorabilia storage and my sister loves to sleep here when she comes to visit too!  I love it, it's like my girly haven...a little girl's dream room!   

View from the doorway.  

Opposite view of the doorway!

Back wall - what you see in the background of most of my videos!

Other side of the bed - where I usually sit and film!

Window opposite which I film and my deskspace!

Windowsill and desk area.

Wall opposite bed.

Pink hearts lampshade from Dunnes Stores!

I hope you liked my room tour!  If you have any questions about where I got anything let me know and I try to get back to you - some of them were gifts so I might not know but I will do my best! :)

Stay Stylish!

Beauty Tuesday: How I Style My Short Hair! (No Heat)

I've been getting lots of questions about how I style my short hair recently...it's really quite simple, easy and most importantly - quick!  It also does not involve any heat which definitely appeals to the lazy side of me as well as being healthier for my hair so it's a win win situation!

Let me preface this by letting you guys know that my hair type is dry and its natural texture is wavy (the shorter the wavier) with a tendency to be frizzy.  I wash it twice a week and it rarely gets greasy or oily at all...it really is quite dry!  The shampoo & conditioner I use currently is the Aussie Miracle Moist and 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor.

After I get out of the shower I towel dry, brush out my hair using my Tangle Teaser and then apply a pea-sized amount of Phyto 7 Hydrating Day Cream for dry hair.  I distribute this through the ends and continue getting ready/applying my makeup.  

When I'm finished getting ready I go back in the bathroom, turn my head upside down and scrunch about two pumps of Redken Curvaceous Ringlet Perfectiong Lotion for Classic Curls into my hair.  By this stage it's still wet but has air dried a little bit so it's not soaking/dripping wet.  This stuff helps to give it a more defined curl rather than a weird frizzy wave, ha ha ha!  I then leave my hair to air dry completely. 

Whenever I don't use a blow-dryer on my roots it tends to look a bit flat (unless it's been slept on) so I always like to finish off my styling process with a couple of sprays of the Batiste Dry Shampoo Big & Bouncy XXL Volume.  This stuff is AMAZING, it gives such volume and doesn't make your hair look grey or white once you really work it in!  I love this stuff so much I normally use it on Day 2/3 hair as well just to spruce up my roots a little.  

If my ends are looking a little shapeless on Day 2/3 or I just feel like they need some more definition, I will use a pump of Redken Curvaceous Wave Ahead Texturising Mousse and just scrunch it into my hair to give the curls and waves more body.  This isn't always necessary, it kind of just depends on how it turns out the next day after washing it!

These two Redken Curvaceous products were sent to me back in October and I haven't had a chance to try them out till now as I think products like these work better on shorter hair!  Back then my hair was really long and I feel that these would have only made it look straggly and gross (believe me, I speak from experience!  I sported the "wet look" on long locks when I was about 17 - I looked like a witch!).  But on a short, layered up style these products have become my best friend.  They are both €17.70 and are available from salons nationwide.  I think I will definitely repurchase when these are emptied!

And that's my current hair routine at the moment!  I'm really happy with how quick and easy this is especially with a 6 month old baby...my hair is normally the last thing on my mind so it helps to be low-maintenance!  Let me know if you have any tips on short hair styling products or techniques!  I would love to hear them :)

Stay Stylish!

What I Ate Wednesday!

Breakfast

I had the Alpen Apricot, Almond & Hazelnut Porridge with almond milk, cinnamon and some whole almonds...this turned out to be a very almondy breakfast, ha ha ha!  We were actually out of bananas - eek!  And I also had my usual black coffee :)  Emilia had pureed apple for breakfast but she only took a few mouthfuls.  The weaning is going a lot slower than I had expected.  To be honest I think I went into this a little bit over-enthusiastic, thinking that Emilia would love everything that I put in front of her!  And while she has certainly not hated anything I've fed her yet she isn't as excited as I had hoped she'd be and tends to lose interest after two or three mouthfuls.  She has also started nursing more during the day (which is good to get her used to regular mealtimes as opposed to only too many night-time feeds) however that surprised me as I had thought the amount of feeding times would decrease!  I don't mind this as I plan to breast feed for the full year, it was just different to what I expected! :)  We will continue with our couple of spoonfuls a day and I definitely enjoy having my "breakfast buddy" but for now she still prefers her milk!

Lunch

We went to my mom's house in the afternoon and I had a bowl of her butternut squash soup!  It was so delicious...I wish I could make soup like this.  I actually bought a butternut squash so that I could attempt to make something with it but I'm still too afraid to open it...ha ha ha!  I don't know why vegetables that are difficult to cut scare me so much!! (Not the taste, just the preparation part!) 

Snack

A little bit later in the afternoon I had a Yoplait Hazelnut yoghurt which reminds me soooo much of when we first moved to Ireland, I think my mom used to buy them for our school lunch boxes!  These are so good & creamy!

Dinner

Well this is embarrassing...I only realised afterwards that this is the exact same dinner we ate last week!  Oops! :(  Sorry guys!  But it really is a favourite in our house!  Jonathan made Chicken Thai Green Curry with Asian style veggies & wholewheat noodles.

Dessert/Snack

We are enjoying a scary movie tonight so I made popcorn!  This is the Kelkin Lo-Pop, my favourite kind :)

And that's it!  What did you eat today?  

March Glossybox 2013

This month's Glossybox had a "City Chic" theme and came with a cute little travelling book, full of information on various cities like their street style, best beauty stores, places to eat, etc.  I thought this was a nice added touch and appreciated the illustrative style of the book - it even came with some adorable stickers & address labels!  Here are the products I received in this month's Glossybox: 

Jason Rosewater & Chamomile Normalising Shampoo

This is a paraben-free, no sodium lauryl/laureth sulfates, animal by-product free shampoo which claims to remove build-up without stripping the hair.  My stylist would probably approve ;) I am curious to try this out and love the full-size sample!

L'Occitane Immortelle Brightening Hand Care SPF 15

I love L'Occitane products...they have a shop here in Cork which always smells delicious whenever I pass by!  I can't wait to try this and think it will make a lovely addition to my handbag collection!

Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream

This was a bit under-whelming for me as I would think most beauty-savvy people either own this or have tried it before.  It's pretty much a staple so not a very exciting product to test out.  I suppose it's nice to have a smaller size version for your purse/travel!

Jelly Pong Pong Lip Blush

I got the red one and I must say that this product looks very interesting!  It isn't very pigmented when first swatched but when I rubbed it into my  hand it developed into what can only be described as a blush-like stain.  These definitely remind me of the Clinique Chubby Sticks or Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains.  Red isn't a colour that I wear very often but I do like it on special occasions so I will do my best to test this out!

Renu Flash Relax Mask

This is a gel mask which claims to smoothe fine-lines and give a "face-lift effect".  My skin tends to do well with gel-like formulas so I'm interested to try this!  And I will see if it really gets rid of my wrinkles...ha ha ha!

On the whole I certainly don't think the March Glossybox was the best one so far but it isn't the worst either.  I am most excited about the L'Occitane hand cream and the face mask - and I am really loving the travel book.  

Onto a little review of the products from January's box - to be completely honest the only two products I ended up using were the Murad Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture for eyes and the Monu Micro-Exfoliant.  The eye cream was very light-weight, hydrating and felt nice on my skin.  I would probably purchase the full size version if I didn't have a whole bunch of other samples to try out!  I used the Monu Micr-Exfoliant bi-weekly for about the last two months instead of my usual exfoliant and really liked it.  The beads are tiny and feel like sand on your skin...at first it sort of scared me how "deep cleaning" it felt but it didn't strip my skin or leave it feeling dry/sensitive so I feel it did a good job!

You might have noticed that there was no review of the February Glossybox (the Valentine's edition). That is because unfortunately it never arrived...I'm not sure what happened but I didn't get one last month!  I was quite disappointed as I had heard some great things about it but I waited in anticipation and alas it never appeared.  Although I am not a typical paying customer of Glossybox (like a lot of other bloggers they are sent to me for free to review on here/my YouTube channel) I do expect to be treated the same so I was disappointed that it didn't come and I never heard anything from them :(  I have yet to contact them about it either however, maybe I should have done so but I guess I just kept waiting for it to arrive!  I will say that aside from this Glossybox have always been a very positive and nice company to work with.  I hope you all know that it is by no means my intention to discourage you from using their service by sharing this info with you guys, I still love Glossybox and am a fan of what they do I just want to stay truthful about my experience - freebies or not ;)  I hope you all understand!

If you'd like to sign up to Glossybox you can do so for £12.95 a month here.  They do ship to Ireland and now also to the US.  If you do subscribe to Glossybox and you also received this box, let me know what your thoughts are!  As always, I would love to hear from you guys :)

Stay Stylish!

Fashion Friday: Purple Power!

Cardigan/Soaked in Luxury, Nursing tank/Boob, Chelsea boots/LoveClothing, Scarf/Zara, Jeggings/Zara

Really, purple power?! Yup, that's when you know you're running out of good titles for your outfit posts...ha ha ha!  But I don't wear purple that often so when I do why not make a song and dance about it??  And Emilia was wearing lavender today so we kind of matched ;)

I'm pretty much in love with this cardigan except for the fact that it has sequins in it which are kind of scratchy and I'm conscious of that when breastfeeding...poor Emilia but pain is beauty, right girls?!?  (Joking...heh heh heh) 

My hair is getting loooonger even though I only got it cut a little over a month ago - what can I say, it grows like a weed...so I think I'll make an appointment to get it cut again next week.  I feel like sticking with a "style" is what moms and other responsible adults do and this should hopefully make me a proper grown up and give me some sort of wisdom/insight into the meaning of life, right??  Instead of not cutting it for another thousand years and just letting it grow out/do whatever it wants which is what I usually do!!

And the famous Chelsea boots, well these are just wonderfully comfortable and look good with most of the other items in my closet (or at least I think so) which means they have become some of my favourite shoes to wear!  Along with my black wedge booties, these would probably be up there with my most worn winter/autumn/early spring/most of the Irish year footwear.  On the topic of weather, I am still holding out for a heatwave this month (March 2012 anyone??) but until that magic happens we booked our summer holiday to Sorrento in July so at least I have that to look forward to!  Sun! Sea! Good food! Bikinis! And first big trip with a baby :)  So much excitement.

And just in case you thought this blog couldn't get any better, well guess what.  It just did.

Have a great weekend and stay stylish my fashionable friends!! ;)

What I Ate Wednesday!

Breakfast

Alpen Raspberry Apple & Raisin porridge with almond milk, 1/2 banana and cinnamon. Black coffee (Lavazza Crema e Gusto!).

Lunch

I had lunch at "On The Pig's Back" with my mom & sister.  I got the grilled pear & blue cheese salad, it was delicious!  Emilia chewed on some of my bread...she loved it! 

Snack

I spent the day with my mom - so this was eaten at her house!  I had an apple and a kiwi!

Dinner

Jonathan cooked one of our favourites - Green Thai Chicken Curry with wholewheat noodles and Asian veggies!

Dessert

I took this picture way after eating as I completely forgot to take one before...sorry!  I finished off a packet of Oreos (I had about 4 or 5 I think) with a cup of Nescafe Mocha...yum yum ;)  

What did you eat today?!  As you can see I'm not doing very well with my "no sweets" plan :(  I wish I was the kind of person who could keep it healthy in the evenings but my sweet tooth is toooooo demanding, I envy those of you who manage to not give into cravings!  *Sigh* 

Emilia is on her second week of solids and onto two tastes a day.  For breakfast she had pureed pear with baby rice and for lunch/afternoon snack she had pureed carrot.  I will try to take pictures of her meals too in future WIAW posts once they become a bit more substantial - right now she's only taking a few spoonfuls alongside her regular breast milk!   

Stay Stylish!

Emilia's 6 Month Update!

I can't believe Emilia is already half a year old!  You definitely realise how quickly time goes when you have a baby...they grow SO fast!  I have to say I'm really excited now that she's 6 months - I feel like this is the "fun" stage of baby-hood ;)

Height/Weight: I will try to update this after our 6 month checkup...she still has not been weighed or measured since her 4 month one!

Daily: I've started to notice a definite structure to Emilia's days where she takes two naps, one longer one in the morning/midday and another shorter one in the afternoon.  Without these naps she becomes a little demon baby and we call her Little "No-Naps" Saccone Joly ;)  But generally speaking she sticks to this loose schedule and it seems to work for everybody.  There are other things that she enjoys doing everyday like playing in her Exersaucer in the mornings while she watches Peppa Pig (I mentioned this in last month's post - it hasn't changed!), rolling around on her playmat (she has now mastered rolling both from tummy to back and back to stomach but not crawling yet!), and she also really likes her new bouncer from her grandma...even though her feet don't quite reach the floor yet! 

Bedtime: Her bedtime routine is pretty much the same as it was last month...and she is still sleeping in bed with us for the most part.  It just works a lot better for everybody and ensures that we get the longest amount/best quality of sleep.  I still don't feel any reason to change this as we're all happy with how it's going...honestly I really love the closeness of sleeping together and think it's been so beneficial to breastfeeding & our mommy/baby bond :)

Eating: I started Emilia on solids a few days ago!  Initially I thought I would be able to wait till exactly the 6 month mark but she was getting to the point where she would refuse to feed during the day and was basically just dream-feeding all night...she wouldn't take her milk in the daytime because she was too distracted by everything else that was going on and she was obsessed with the food we were eating!  It was crazy, she'd try to grab things off the table, from our hands, plates, etc.  Now she is so enjoying eating solids...even though it's been a very slow process and she hasn't really "eaten" all that much, just little tastes here and there.  So far she has had baby rice with breast milk & water, pureed pear, apple and sweet potato.  Watching her reactions is so much fun and she has enjoyed every taste...I can't wait for her to try more!

Sizes: Emilia is fitting into 6-9 month clothing but leaning more towards the 9 months end of that scale, ha ha ha!  She's definitely gotten too big for most of her 6 month clothes (sad face) and is fitting comfortably into 9 month vests & even goes up to 6-12 months sizes sometimes!  In terms of nappies she's wearing a size 4 (EU).

Milestones:

• Sitting on her own!  I still put pillows/cushions around her though in case she falls backwards or loses her balance but usually she will sit comfortably in a stable upright position completely on her own.  Yay!  Such a big girl :)
• TEETH!  She now has her two bottom front teeth!  I can't believe it, but they are so cute and make her smile all the more adorable.  Although this also means she has started biting the boob a little bit...ow :(    
• Playing peekaboo!  She doesn't play it herself but reacts really well now to when we do it.  She loves the game!  She also gets excited about her toys and will try to move towards them/retrieve them.
• Raspberry blowing!  I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my update video...but she has been doing this non-stop since my sisters taught it to her.
• Pulling off her socks!  Now her socks are always going missing...and not because of Theo!!  She has become the culprit, as she loves to pull them off and shove her feet in her mouth.  
• Weaning - she is now eating one meal a day (usually lunch) in her highchair, which she loves sitting in and watching us prepare her food!   
• Rolling around the floor.  As I mentioned earlier, she now rolls both front-back and back-front which makes her a lot better at getting to where she wants...ha ha ha!  Not crawling yet though!

That's all I can remember for now!  You can also watch my video update here!   

Stay Stylish!

Mommy Monday: Starting Solids!

Emilia turns 6 months next Monday, which means...weaning time!  I have gotten so many questions about when I'm going to start her on solids, what foods I'm going to feed her, how I'm going to introduce them, etc.  I have held off on weaning her till 6 months, as that's what doctors recommend in Ireland and although I can tell she's probably physically ready (she is extremely interested in food and gets so excited everytime I eat in front of her!) I really wanted her main source of nutrition for the first 6 months of her life to be breast milk.  I do intend to continue breast feeding her until 12 months though, alongside her solid foods!  Here she is sitting up in the shop model Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair...hers comes in tomorrow and we can't wait for her to get it! :)  We got the walnut one with the pink silhouette cushion.  I'm so excited to start feeding her at the table with us! 

Emilia has been reaching for anything we are eating recently and if we extend it towards her she tries to grab it and put it in her mouth!  This was what happened when my sister Erika gave her her yoghurt carton (she didn't actually get to eat any, but she tried!).  So far she has had a little lick of apple, a tiny taste of banana and an itty-bitty lick of ice-cream!  She has liked everything she tasted but to be honest, she has never been given enough to really "try" anything.  

She also has two teeth now!  Her two front bottom teeth came in together, making her smile all the more adorable :)  Hopefully this will help her out a bit when she does start on solids but even without them she wants to bite and gnaw on everything, especially hard plastic toys.  Her gums bled a bit when those teeth first started to cut through which gave me a fright but I've been assured it's totally normal (I didn't know that!!)  Right now we are giving her Teetha granules or Bonjela teething gel for the pain and she is also wearing her amber necklace, but I do take it off her at night.  

I've always known that I wanted to make all of Emilia's baby food myself so I wanted to share an amazing book that I found while pregnant.  It's the Annabel Karmel New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner and it's full of wonderful recipes for great home-cooked meals that are easy to prepare and healthy for your baby.  She also gives you tons of information on how to begin the weaning process and what to feed your baby first, which foods are best, etc.  All things that I feel are so helpful for first-time mommies! 

 

The thing that really drew me to this particular book is the meal planner part, which gives you a clear, easy-to-follow menu for the first few weeks of feeding your baby.  You also get a meal planner for stage 2 (7-9 months) and an older baby/toddler (9 months+).  The book provides you with lots of recipes too, from the simplest of meals like fruit puree to more complicated things like full proper dinners for when the kids are older.  

I really can't tell you how helpful this book has been to me...and I haven't even started Emilia on solids yet!  But this just makes me feel a lot more confident about the whole thing and I can't wait to start preparing her meals!  It's strange because even though I generally hate cooking, the thought of cooking food for Emilia really excites me and I know I'm going to enjoy it so much!  Does anybody else feel this way?!   

Reaching for a cupcake last night...Albi wanted some too, ha ha ha!  

So that's my plan for starting Emilia on solids...I hope it answered all of your questions!  Basically I just hope to give her the best nutrition I possibly can by making her healthy home-cooked foods and trying to limit jars/store-bought baby foods with lots of added salt/sugar/nasty ingredients I don't know anything about!  I'm excited to start this journey and I definitely plan to share my experiences with all of you!  I hope you will join me :)