Starbucks card - so worth it

I was about to leave for Starbucks to buy Bear and I a cappuccino each but the balance on my Starbucks card showed it needed to be credited.

For those of you who don’t know about the card, I really recommend it. First of all its simple to pay with and you don’t need your cash. It can be topped up with anything from £5 to £150 and you just swipe it as a credit card although no pin no is needed.

For me it’s very beneficial since I quite often have my cappuccino made with Soy milk. There is always an additional charge for that, but with my card I just pay for a normal cappuccino. Other free extras are selective syrups (vanilla, chai etc), whipped cream or you can just get an extra shot to get a stronger taste.

Well I’ve just topped up mine online now and am ready to go n’ get that fix!lol

Guess who....

.....is very tired this afternoon and fell asleep on his mama's lap?

TGIF

This weekend I plan to:

The most obvious; spend it with only my two boys I love so deeply and no one else

Request that Bear leaves work early today

Recover from last night’s girly night out with large cups of tea throughout the day

Follow that up with some pick n’ mix sweets including really salty liquorish from the Swedish shop

Not make any plans before 11am both days so we can have a lie in and snuggle up in bed and watch a breakfast program

Go to Selfridges with Bear and pick a sexy lingerie set for me

Wrap up warm and go for a long walk in Regents Park in my current fave shoes; Uggs

Finalise and book our skiing holiday in March in the French Alps

Cooking a Hungarian style goulash

Watch a dvd (“Closer”) that my girlfriend lent me yesterday

Go with Bear when he takes Sean swimming and sit and watch & admire father and son playing in the water

Enjoy your weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

food for thought

Oman, January 2007, was a real adventure

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

-Mark Twain

Anniversary

Today marks the 3rd year (that's 1095 days!) that my darling Bear and I have been together.

When I think of all the happiness I’ve known in these 3 years, I realise that without him, his love, so many wonderful things might never have reached me.

For better or worse and through thick and thin, we are by each other’s side sharing laughter and tears through life’s very bumpy ride, and I'm expecting many more fantastic years to come with him by my side.

I love you Bear,and look forward to a romantic time dining at Gordon Ramsay's at Claridge's tonight!

XXX

Video progress report

Sean is making great progress with his new walker (where the music you hear is coming from) that he uses to charge aroung the entire flat! Also, as you can see towards the end he is being a very obedient boy and not touching things on the table that Mummy asked him not to!!

My cheeky monkey

Talk about the "cheeky monkey" look perfected! LOL

Sean loves his new toy which is also a baby walker

My only regret is that I didn't buy it earlier!

caffein fix

Off to grab a coffee before the rain hits central London today

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Good morning!

Good Morning from a very active-ready-to-go-to-playgroup Sean, and mum still in her PJ's

Guess who....

Guess who run the washing machine with empty loads? That explains the high electricity bills! LOL

This little naughty fella, who's very active walking along furniture, walls and crawling everywhere at a million miles an hour - although he just doesn't seem to want to let go and walk without holding on to something.

We are now off to buy a baby walker with hopes that he will pick up the skill of walking unassisted very soon. Updates of his progress to come.

The little things..

Good morning! Keeping with my new years resolution, I'm working on really noticing the little things in life more (the big ones such as the health of me and my family remain v important of course).

Here are some things that I'm especially thankful for this week:

our new Hungarian goose down pillows

the diet and the cutting down on booze, which is now getting easier

that I live less than a five minute walk from Starbucks

Our Sky Plus - the uber cool satellite receiver/hard drive combo with the ability to pause & rewind live TV, record entire series at the touch of one button etc

Bear's offer from the BBC to appear as financial expert on a Panorama-like program

I lost (or thought I did) my Tiffany bracelet and found it again

the invaluable advice given to me by other mum's at our weekly play group

that I am in a very loving relationship

our living room 'vaporisateur d'ambiance' from Molton Brown, to keep the room smelling so lovely

H & M, where I picked up a great bargain (black knitted top) in their sale

groceries delivered to our door

A brand new series of one of my fave American TV shows, Brothers & Sisters, starts on Thursday

the efficiency of Amazon.com

Our weekend

Beautiful day for a walk in the park

Nice to have some sunshine again!

Beautiful björk trees -I think that is birch in English..?

Sean never tires of the swings!

Lunchtime in the Queen Mary Garden Cafe, Regents park

A baby with a full tummy is a happy baby...

If you look closely you can see me choosing some goodies from the Swedish shop in Marylebone

We splashed out on some new and totally amazing pillows in The White Company sale

We will sleep like royalty on these

One of the things we bought today was a candle from the French luxe candle and fragrance company Diptyque (that I heart almost as much as the Jo Malone candles), which Jennifer Lopez amongst other A-list celebs are known for demanding in her dressing room

Wandering home with my usual wet skinny cappuccino from Starbucks in hand

Wrapped up warm and heading home after our walk, lunch and mini shopping spree

Lovely Lilies from Bear :-)

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Today I ...

...adore my son when he reach out his arms to me and give me the biggest cuddle

...went out to get a cappuccino earlier

....plan to get a free straight blowdry by my friend who is a hairdresser

....have not had sushi since just before xmas and look forward to having some this evening at our local sushi place

...wish we will make a decision for what car to buy when visiting the Range Rover garage this weekend

...have yet to paint my toe nails for tomorrow

...wonder who gets voted out in Big Brother tonight

...can’t wait to see my brother later this afternoon as I haven’t seen him since he went to Tokyo on 28 Dec

...would like it if Bear realised that the bouquet of flowers in the living rm are dead and that we/I need new ones

....realise today that my jeans are not as tight since starting the diet

...am having sore eyes from not sleeping enough

...feel very excited for Saturday night when I’m out for a girly night

St Paul's by night

strolling past St Paul's cathedral after just visiting daddy whose office is round the corner

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My cure to the winter blues

Today is full of gloomy skies, slush, and quite depressing half-hearted snow. Here is a living proof of the boy that brightens up my day:

BB award :-)

Yesterday evening when I was sitting in my PJs, contemplating another day of the stomach bug torture, I made an utterly delightful discovery in my inbox. The no 1 famed London-Swede blogger Stina, nominated my little bloggette amongst with 6 others, for the Beautiful Blogger Awards. If you haven’t already, I beg you to visit her blog.

SO… the rules are:
-Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
-Copy the award & place it on your blog.
-Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
-Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
-Nominate 7 bloggers.
-Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate

Ok, here we go, seven not so interesting facts about myself. Look here for previous similar post

1. I cry every time an advert comes up from NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children)

2. I get uncontrollable crisp cravings.

3. I a lot of the time lazily paint only the two nails showing when wearing open toe peep shoes.

4. I am a very light sleeper, sleep with ear plugs, but still wake up for the smallest sound (Sean coughing etc) so we have now finally moved Sean in to his own room.

5. Apart from champagne being my favourite choice of alcoholic beverages, I love a good ‘ole cognac such as Martell XO Surpreme.

6.I have been betrayed by several (now ex ) girlfriends and find it difficult to trust female friends

7. Before I decided to give up my career (NO REGRETS!) and become a full time mum, I had what I thought was my dream job as an executive PA for an Saudi oil shipping company, where I gratefully only had to work part time for many years.

The following are my seven nominations for the Beautiful Blogger Award:

Stina – so I’m returning the favour to the talented girl who nominated me. She is really the “girl next door”, and her writing and pictures are beautiful and the blog is very broad (now also with a lot of not only yummy but healthy food recipes ) which keeps it interesting.

Matilda - writes a great blog about life, fashion and nothing and everything in particular. Very enjoyable reading.

Caroline – one of my first blogging friends who now is a new Mum, and has got a beautiful blog with exquisite pictures and where you can get a fix of inspiration each time when looking a gorgeous pictures of her enviable home in Norway

Karin – a student who write intelligently about with passion about subjects close to her heart.

Linda – a law student who writes a very frank and open blog about everything from friends, family and her husband to be and she is very generous with personal details about her interesting London life.

Veronica – Not the average blog girl with the average blog material. a real quirky girl that I have really warmed to.

Fashionable Mama- The author is also a mother who has now moved back with her family to her native country Sweden after living in Ireland for many years

sick

I am simply not here.

I am having a day or two off.

I have a stinking stomach bug, I am exhausted, I am emotional and my head is pounding from the lack of water or food in my body. I spent half of last night on the cold bathroom floor and the other half in bed leaning over a bucket. Lost count of how many times I've puked, and as a result I've got excruciating pain in my ribs.

I am not reading, tweeting, commenting or answering my phone.

I am curling up in my bed with a large glass of cold water containing salt to help me retain it. I am giving myself a dose of recorded Nip Tuck.

I am logging off, switching off and shutting the world out.

Today, I am looking after me.

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This time three years ago, oh so different

As Bear and my anniversary is coming up (three years together at the end of the month), I was trying to find some nice pics of the two of us when we had just met.

Instead I came across these pics, all three taken in Jan 07, before I met Bear. I used to change from straight to curly hair all the time.

The building you see behind me in the bottom pic is a block of mansion flats, where I used to live for four years, prior to moving in with Bear, only a few minutes walk from where we are now.

I shall be back with our anniversary plans. :-)

Family quality time

On the sofa with my two best boys ever. Just look at them! What more do I need? This is true happiness! :-)

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May I introduce...

...my new gilet? (sorry for looking angry but I'm really not! lol) Very nice with white denims even in the winter! :-)

Perfect to wear over polo neck jumpers as seen here, or over any jacket incl a short denim one.

It's got a zip along the front

Sienna Miller is here seen wearing a similar one

today's brekkie

As part of my diet, I am today having toast with avocado. So delicious if you first toast the bread so it becomes really crispy, spread the avocado on the toast and sprinkle with red pepper flakes then some salt and pepper.

There is often a misconception with avocado that it's bad for you as it's so high in fat, but its containing good fats and can therefore contribute to weight loss (eating in moderation that is, not one every day!) Its even sometimes referred to as "God's butter" because it's offering so many health benefits.

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new favourites from Louis Vuitton

Sean earlier today with a big bag of donation clothes that a local soup kitchen/ rough sleepers centre will come and collect this afternoon.

Yesterday I went to Louis Vuitton on New Bond Street to purchase the above pink monogram shawl. I already have two, one in black and in chestnut and wanted the pink as an addition to my collection, mainly for the upcoming spring.

Unfortunately I was told it was sold out in all London shops, and they dont' know when they will get it. Whilst I was there I browsed the shop and found that they have added pink and grey coulours to the fabulous Farandole fancy jewelry collection.

As you know, I'm a huge fan of bangles, and these funky new ones with LV logos and monogram flower motifs are so gorge. Here are some of my new favourites, and the pink shawl I went to buy (unsuccessfully).

Thoughtful Tuesday...

My very good "friend" from Smythson of Bond Street

‘Ello! Although New Year’s resolutions often set people up for disappointment, i kind of love them. Not necessarily start going to the gym 7 days a week, but i love the new year as a time to reflect on and evaluate the year (and in this case i have been reflecting on the decade as well). It makes me think about how i handle situations, how i treat others, how i wake up feeling on a day-to-day basis and how i want to wake up feeling. i am constantly trying to evolve and grow into a better person.

That is part of being spiritual. And one thing I try to do as often as I can is to say affirmations, and to make visualisations, preferably writing them down. I believe it’s important to write your affirmations down. It’s a powerful process to be able to see your goals written out on paper, and that way they stay on your mind and in front of you at all times.

Just as my Bucket List , I would love it if I made these dreams real, but what if i change my mind? All of my goals/dreams are subject to change of course, but the one consistency i want to keep in my life is happiness. all I need in life is to be surrounded by the people i love and to wake up content and hopeful every morning.

Well, its freezing cold in London at the moment, so I’ve decided to stay in for most of the day apart from a couple of errands I need to run this afternoon, and I will now sit down with my very good friend.

Her last name is Smythson. Maybe you’ve heard of her? She is a bright pink five year diary in goatskin (the diary runs from 1 January to 31 December, but is not year specific and I am on my third year now) and part of my every day essentials, and it’s also where I write my daily affirmations and visualisations. Here is the start of one I just starting working on:

I want to live by the seaside in a large detached house with a not so large garden, an electric garage and gates to enter. I will have a dog (German shepherd named Caesar) who only will be allowed on one floor in the house. And sea views are NOT optional, haha!

A must have from at least one window.I wish to decorate the house in a New England style but also with a mixture of vintage, antique items and modern useful things. The children will have a swing which hangs from a tree and on the veranda I would like to have one for us adults too.

I will further work on my baking and cooking skills and will help out at my children’s school with charity etc but will focus on gardening, sewing, reading and walking along the beach and playing with Sean and his siblings and their friends.

The hubby will work from a purpose built home office in the garden but come over to the main house for a delightful healthy meal for lunch. We have two (or max three) very well mannered children and a nice open log fire behind the antique fireguard in the living room with large cosy sofa’s around.

This visualisation is nowhere near finished, but that’s all for now. Oh, and the house below is just so inspirational, my dream house (I have many though, haha). Bye for now XOXO