I can't lie. From the moment I found out I was pregnant I knew that I wanted a nursery inspired by something you would see on Pinterest and up until the moment we went for that first scan, I had a hidden board on Pinterest collecting ideas.

When we moved into our house in April last year, we knew our spare room would at some point become a nursery (since we were trying for a baby) so we decorated the rooms before moved in, we decided to decorate it something that would be gender neural and nursery suitable when the time came, opting for yellow and grey. We chose this wall paper from B&Q knowing it would be suitable for either gender when the time came.

One of the first things I started pinning for the nursery was wall art and had seen lots of nursery mural stickers online. Knowing we had a blank creme wall in the room I knew I wanted something to cover the wall however the ones I loved were priced around £75+ on etsy and other sites for something that would cover the whole wall so I decided I would get my pencil and paper out and design something myself. Adam told me I was crazy when I said I was going to draw a mural on the wall. I've always been crafty and am constantly doodling however I've never done anything on that scale before and I don't know if he was skeptical about how it would turn out. I was determined to give it a go though so I sketched out my plan on paper and then free handed it on to the wall. I picked up some sample pots of paint which cost me a grand total of around £10 for all the different colours I wanted and set to work.
I can't lie, I am absolutely over the moon with how it turned out and looks the perfect addition to the room. I love that it is personal as well and something I was able to create myself.

One of the decisions we quickly made when discussing the nursery was that we didn't want to purchase a "baby wardrobe" as we wanted something would last long term and not something we would have to replace in a few years. We previously had this Dombas wardrobe in our rented house before we moved and they were a fantastic size and a bargain of a price at just £60. It has a double side rail and a single side containing shelves for storage which we loved for storing other things such as nappies and eventually toys.


While in Ikea, we picked up a Malm unit which we have in our room and again we love. I love the deepness of the drawers and again a fantastic price at just £40.

Also from Ikea we have this Kallax unit which was previously in our garage but I decided to move to the nursery for storage of books and things.

Another thing we decided pretty quickly was that we wanted a cot bed instead of a standard cot. Again because we knew it would last her quite a few years. We shopped around in a few different places before we fell in love with this one from Babies R Us. Its a has Winnie the pooh on one end and a handy storage drawer underneath - handy for storing blankets!


The Winnie the Pooh bedding and the mobile were both from Mothercare however it looks like they are no longer available online. They have some other lovely sets available online and in store though.

The pink bear is one we picked up from Life Through a Lens where we had our Gender Scan. I would definatly recommend them if your local to one of their stores are looking to book a private scan as they were amazing. This bear cost us £20 and contains a recording of our little girls heartbeat from the scan - the perfect keep sake.

One of the other things I really wanted for the nursery was a nursing chair however most of them are around £150-£200. As I am hoping to breast feed I loved the idea of sitting in the middle of the night on the chair with her however could not justify the price. I kept keeping an eye on Facebook and Gumtree for a second hand one but kept missing out however one day I spotted one that was just down the road from us and was the first person to ask if it was still available - and it was! We went to have a look at it and was in almost perfect condition! And a total bargain at just £40!!! It even came with a foot stool which also rocks.




I am SO happy with how it has turned out. It really has lived up to everything I wanted it to be and I can not wait to bring her home. I know that she isn't going to be sleeping in here for the first 6 months but just knowing that this is ready for her when she is ready to sleep in here makes me happy. It has been so lovely getting everything organised and putting all her clothes away in the drawers and wardrobe and I can't wait to bring her home now!

Lets be honest, how many of us love going to a wedding or special occasion because it gives you a chance to crack out the make up you reserve for such occasions...

When thinking about my make up for the wedding we attended last weekend, my go to foundation is Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation. It was my foundation of choice for my wedding day after reading a lot of reviews and is always my go to if I know I am going to be wearing my foundation all day and night. It also photographs amazingly well.
I saw an advert pop up on my Facebook a couple of days before the wedding for a free 10 day sample of double wear and since I was going to the day before the wedding I figured I would get matched and pick up a sample since I had heard that sometimes during your pregnancy your skin pigmentation can change...
I went to the Estee Lauder Counter at my local debenhams and got chatting to the lovely lady who chatted to me not only about the double wear but also the newest in the double wear family, the double wear light. I decided to give the double wear light a go which offers a sheer to medium coverage which is buildable and is available in 10 shades - not quite the 50 offered by the double wear original however the wonderful lady on the counter soon took to trying the different shades on my face to find the perfect match. After trying a few shades, we decided on intensity 3.0 and away I came with my 10 day sample. Straight away I was impressed with how the sample felt on my skin so decided to give it a go for the wedding. I'll do a better review when I've used my 10 day sample properly.

There are so many different options on the website to choose from. You can choose to order individual spices - priced at £1.45 each or they do the saver bundles which vary in price depending on which one you order.
I decided to just order a few of the individual spices since we hadn't tried them before to see what we thought, ordering ones I knew we would enjoy, then maybe branch out to some other flavours next time I ordered.
For every 7 kits you order, you get a free one (which you can choose) so I decided to order 8. 2 chips and wedges spice which I'd had lots of recommendations about, 2 tikka masala, 2 chilli, a bolognese and a sausage casserole.

The order itself took about 4 days to come however I ordered them on a Friday night and they came on the Tuesday so I was really impressed with the quickness. I love that each of the packages comes individually packaged in little resealable tubs - handy if you don't want to use a full portion. Each one contains instructions on how to use them and what else you need to add to them.
What I was even more surprised about when they arrived was the added extras that were included in my parcel! I was SO unbelievably excited that the lovely people at JD had chosen to include lots of different ones for us to try especially when I wasn't expecting it or had not asked for it!


Included in the extras were 25 of their other favourite spices! Some of which I'd had my eye on but decided not to order on my first go and some, i'll be honest I would not have tried. Again I was very grateful that JD had sent us these lovely free gifts!

We have been using these spices over the last couple of months since ordering them and have definitely found some firm favourites. What I love about these is that they are resealable which is especially handy when there are only 2 of us.

We have defiantly been loving the chips and wedges spice and this will be one that will be a constant on our orders as we both absolutely LOVE it! It just jazzes chips up and makes them taste amazing. I just chuck a spoonful into the actifry with potatoes and a tablespoon of oil and boom.. perfect chips!
We love the chilli one as well, we have lots of chilli so its perfect for us! One I wouldn't have tried but would defiantly reorder was the Jalfrazi one. We both really enjoyed it and not something we would normally have tried. I will defiantly be trying more of the curry ones. Another one I wouldn't have tried is the tried is the steak rub. I am not normally one to add spices to my steak and don't tend to order any sauces etc if we go out for steak but seriously, this was amazing! Teamed with our order of muscle food steak and the chips and wedges spice, it makes a perfect tea!

As I say we are slowly working our way through the others.. I tend to add my meals to my Instagram page so if you want to know what I think of the others head over there and give me a follow so you can see what else I have been loving (@mybeautifulforever)

If you havent already read my mummy edition of this post head yourself over to last Wednesday post..
Today I'm going to be talking about what I packed in Baby's Hospital bag, as I mentioned in last weeks post, I decided I wanted to pack 2 separate bags, just so it was easier to have all of my stuff in 1 bag and all of the stuff for little miss in another bag.


Again there are so many different ideas about what the best things to post in a hospital bag are for baby and I decided to take a little bit of inspiration from all the places.
I havent taken pictures of the majority of the things in the bags, mainly because the bag is mostly made up of packets of things! However heres a list:

• A pack of Size 1 Baby Nappies - we decided to go with Aldi ones as heard they are the best
• A pack of water wipes 
• 2 Muslins
• Hooded baby towel 
• Blanket - We packed a disney one she had for christmas from my aunty and uncle
• 2 outfits in newborn size 
• 2 outfits in 0-3 size 
• Coming home outfit 
• Slightly thicker cardigan (rather than a coat)

And thats it. Loads of people online suggest packing the SMA ready made bottles however when we went for our antenatal classes the midwife suggested that if we were determined to breast feed not to pack these as it can mean you may give up easily. I am really set on giving breast feeding a go and the midwife said if all else fails they would give you either a breast pump to express if baby really struggles to take to the breast or have formula on hand however as they encourage breast feeding they offer you as much help as needed before using these as a last resort. For the same reason I decided not to pack my breast pump either.

One of the best tips I had seen online was from Charlotte who has a Youtube channel (Charlotte Taylor) and a blog over at Write like no one is watching - Ive been following Charlotte on her blog and Youtube forever and love her colabs with the Channel Mum Youtube channel. In one of her recent videos Charlotte mentioned about putting baby outfits in zip lock sandwich bags and labelling them.  What a genius idea and one I soon took to. I used the ikea sandwich bags which I am obsessed with and quickly took to organising each bag with a sleep suit, vest, hat and pair of scratch mittens labelling them according to size. We've got 2 in newborn size and 2 in 0-3 size so we have a variety of sizes depending on how big she is! She also has a special outfit ready for coming home.




I decided not to pack lots of lotions and potions in the bag. They don't recommend using products on baby straight away anyway and advise just water. Apparently its even optional now that baby has their first bath at the hospital and instead they encourage you (if you feel confident enough) not to have a demo and leave baby up to a week before their first bath instead opting for cotton wool and water to top and tail as this encourages the oil in their skin. I decided to pack water wipes rather than cotton wool for ease (another tip I picked up online) as these can also be doubled for nappy changes too.

Its hard to believe we are almost at the point that we will be grabbing this and off to the hospital!!! What essentials did you pack for baby in your hospital bag??

We've had the invite for Adam's cousins wedding for months and I'm not gonna lie, for months I have been panicking about what I was going to wear, especially when I realised I would be 35 weeks pregnant!
The wedding was 96 miles from home however we decided that we weren't going stay over as I will be honest, I didn't want to be that far away from home for a long period of time and since we were going to be in the car for about 2 and a half hours I wanted something comfortable.

I knew I didn't want to spend a lot on an outfit, particularly so close to the end of my pregnancy when I knew I wouldn't get much wear out of it.


I ordered this dress from the Mothercare sale for a total bargain of £5 and loved it when it came - it looked perfect, was comfy - sorted.. however little miss had other ideas about it and thanks to a sudden growth spurt my lovely comfy dress although still fit was now not comfortable and defiantly not practical for sitting in the car for 2 and a half hours!
I then ordered a dress from the Dorothy Perkins sale - deciding to go up a size just in case however got an email from the 3 days after ordering it to say they had insufficient stock and had cancelled my order... queue pregnancy melt down and me threatening to go to the wedding in a bin bag :P
Id been through my wardrobe once and tried what I thought was all my suitable dresses on however I decided on Thursday to have another look at what I had knowing if all else fails I had a girly day with Mum and Nanna planned for Friday, the day before the wedding so would hunt something down.

To my surprise, not only did I find a suitable dress that had slipped off the coat hanger hiding at the back of my wardrobe but it fit!!! Yipee!

Let’s me honest.. as the weather starts to get warmer it can’t just be me longing for spring! Although I’ll be honest this winter hasn’t exactly seen me donning thick jumpers thanks to the joys of pregnancy hormones!

Heres a breakdown of what is in there:

• Nighty 
• Dressing Gown 
• PJ's 
• Slippers
• 4-5 pairs of underwear (old ones that I am not bothered about) 
• Towel 
• Toiletry Bag  - Flowery Ted Baker (see below) 
• Other Bag - Spotty Cath Kidston  (See Below) 
• Sponge 
• Maternity Pads - Have packed a whole pack

In here I have:

• Moisturiser (Forever Living Aloe Moisturing Lotion from Travel kit) 
• Soap and Glory Dry Shampoo 
• Face Cloth 
• Tooth Brush 
• Colgate Mouth Wash 
• Sanctuary Exfoliator 
• Clinique Mild Face Wash
• Liz Earle Facial Toner Spritz 
• Deodorant 
• Tooth Paste (Forever Living Aloe Tooth Gel from Travel Kit) 
• Shampoo and Conditioner (Forever Living Aloe Jojoba range from Travel Kit) 
• Body Wash (Forever Living Aloe Bath Gelly from Travel Kit - Figured best as all natural) 
• Elizbeth Arden 8 hour cream 
• 2 bobbles 

In the spotty Cath Kidston bag I decided to pack all things medicinal so again they were all in one place.

Not all these are things for me (just to point out) as it may seem pointless packing Paracetamol and Burfen when I'll be at the hospital but I figured I would pack some for Adam (who suffers from headaches and my mum (who suffers from a bad back) so i figured it would be worth having them on hand especially as it is likely they will be sitting round for a while!
In here we have:

• Hand Sanitiser 
• Nipple Cream 
• Forever Living Aloe vera Heat lotion - for my back during labour if i get any pain 
• Forever Living Aloe vera sachets - particularly good for after birth especially if stitches are needed or apparently good on maternity pads for those sore lady parts! 
• Tissues - because lets be honest there will be tears
• Breast Pads 
• A flannel - packed a separate one so Adam can mop my brow during labour! Haha 

We are now in month 3 of 2018.. how quickly is that going already! Im not sure if it is because we are counting down the days until April or that time is just going really quickly in general.
Back in January I wrote this blog post about my goals for 2018 and I thought today I would do a little catch up to see how I am getting on with them!

Healthy Eating: 
It was one of my main goals during this pregnancy to not put a lot of weight on. I am very aware that I am already over weight and what I did not want to do was put on 2 or 3 stone and be even further away from my overall goal than I was before I got pregnant. Especially when you hear so many stories from people who say they have 'never lost their baby weight'. One of the main things that frustrated me was that my pregnancy, despite being healthy all the way through with no problems, was considered high risk from the moment I first saw my midwife due to my BMI.
I have continued with slimming world throughout my pregnancy and have put on a grand total (at 34 weeks pregnant) of 8 pounds which I am not gonna lie, I am pretty damn proud of. At our scan last week they projected that baby girl weighs around 5 pounds 10 and if you add all the water and other bits to that I would say 8 pounds is probably all baby! My 'lifestyle midwife' (separate from my normal midwife to just track my weight gain and lifestyle) discharged me last week and was ecstatic with my weigh gain, when I first saw her she said I shouldn't gain any more than 7kg and at weigh in with her last week I had gained a total of 2.5g.

Meal Planning:
Going well. I have even started to plan the meals enough to allow us to start double cooking portions (Cooking for 4 when I do evening meals or if its something like a rice or pasta dish even 6) meaning there is loads left over. What I have then been doing is freezing these meals so that when baby arrives we have some lovely slimming world meals all ready to hand that just need whacking in the oven or microwave. I am going to continue to do this as we have 2 freezers (one in our garage) so we have plenty of space to store them - even with my bulk buys of meat. I know we will be so grateful for these in the first couple of weeks after baby arrives and will mean we don't fall into the take away trap!

No unnecessary spending: 
Im not gonna lie and tell you this one is going well as it isn't. Somehow a decaf costa latte seems to have snuck into my morning routine at work and needs to stop! Looking at my online banking there are also too many entries for the shop at work for lunches and lazy breakfasts! I did a really good food shop at the weekend and have batch cooked our lunches for the week. I only have 3 weeks left at work but if I don't take lunch to work and have a coffee every day you could be looking at a spend of at least £5 or £6 a day which even with the 4 day week I am doing now is £20 - £25! Thats £75 over 3 weeks! Madness!

Self Care and Mindset: 
Again this isn't going as well as it could. I need to start taking some more time to myself.

Read More: 
I currently have 2 books on the go; Giovanni Fletchers Happy Mum, Happy Baby and The Hypnobirthing Book by Katharine Graves. I have however finished neither yet and am about half way through both. I am yet to finish a book in 2018 yet so need to pull my finger out!

Proper skincare routine: 
As I mentioned in my blog post here,  it has been going well. I've ditched the micellar water and being making a conscious effort to take my make up off properly. At the moment I am using the Body Shop Cleansing Oil. I seem to have a stash of make up removing cleansers so I am trying to work my way through them! I'm still loving the products I mentioned in the above post and hopefully it will continue to go well!

Here in the UK, we will be celebrating Mothers Day this Sunday. With Baby Barlow still tucked away in my tummy I have to wait until next year to celebrate my first proper mothers day with our little girl (however totally counts this year too eh.. someone give Adam the heads up!)

I thought I would share with you a few ideas for those last minute mothers day gift ideas.





Yankee Candle - £23.99 (Large) - You really can't go wrong with a Yankee Candle can you? My mum loves the sweet smelling ones and the summer scoop has become a firm favourite since they discontinued the Salted Caramel one (sob sob sob) - They have some amazing flavours and because they do a range of candles from Tea Lights and Votives right up to the large jars there is something for every budget. They also have some great burners too for the melts which make a fab present.



Mum Mug - Cath Kidston - £8 - You know your getting old when there is nothing better than a good mug to drink your brew of choice from.. I have a couple of Cath Kidston mugs and they are my favourite ones because they are the perfect size for a cup of tea. They have a variety of different mugs for Mother’s Day on their website and in store.