Treasure Every Moment: haul

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

HAUL: Toddler January Sale Shopping

The sales have well and truly begun, both online and in-store, in fact many sales are beginning to increase in reduction value now. Every year I start buying Isabella's wardrobe for the next year, so most of these purchases were in 2-3 years. There are even some pieces for our baby due in June, the clothes are so teeny tiny! Other than Next I did all of this sale shopping online over Christmas Eve to the day after Boxing Day. Now putting together the pieces into this post I've realised that I haven't really got Isabella any Christmassy clothes for next year, so I'll be keeping an eye of for further reduced items over the next few weeks.

Zara

TODDLER HAUL: 7 Outfits for Autumn

Changing Isabella's wardrobe around when she goes up to the next size or if a season changes is one of my favourite things to do. I do a lot of toddler clothes shopping in the sale the previous year, so at the end of this summer I was picking up summer clothes in 2-3 years ready for next summer. Forward planning saves money! However when I got out all of the 18-24 month clothes I'd bought her last year I realised I hadn't picked that much up. We therefore went shopping and picked up most of the pieces below. Instead of just doing a normal haul I thought I'd put together 7 autumnal outfits including the new pieces...

TODDLER: Next Summer Sale Haul

I thought I'd share what we picked up for Isabella from the Next sale this weekend. We are currently buying clothes in the summer sales in 2-3 years, with the hope that they will fit Isabella next summer. They look so huge, but then I can remember buying her 12-18 months last summer and those seeming huge. It's all relative I guess. I was surprised at how quiet our local store was yesterday and I heard a number of people working there saying how unusually quiet it had been so far. This was obviously good for us sale shoppers as it meant there was plenty of stock and choice. There are also a couple of sale bargains from Morrisons at the end of this post that I picked up this week.

TODDLER: Summer Sale Shopping 2016

It's that time of year again...summer sale shopping! Like most, I love sale shopping and especially when it's for Isabella. The older she gets the harder I'm finding it to buy her clothes that aren't branded with a tv character or Disney - she's not into any of those things so I don't really want to be paying the premium. If you have any good shops/websites that sell non-branded toddler clothes then please let me know below - I'm on the hunt! I've picked all of the items below up over the past week, so hopefully they'll still be in stock if you want to grab a bargain yourself.

WISHLIST: Marks and Spencers Spring/Summer Baby Collections

These posts are almost becoming a bit of a tradition, mainly due to my love for Marks and Spencer's baby clothes. I actually wasn't all that keen on their last autumn/winter collection (thank goodness - my bank balance needed a break), but they've just bought out their spring/summer collections and I'm in love again! There's lots of colour, floral patterns and finally new bib sets, which I've been waiting for for what feels like forever. Last week they had 20% off everything online, so I seized the opportunity and picked up a few of my absolute favourite pieces.

BABY: Boxing Day Online Sale Shopping #1

Though I do love a bargain I'm not willing to always battle the crowds with a pushchair in tow, so this year a lot of my sale shopping was done online on Christmas Eve. It's so much easier and with free click and collect you often don't even have to pay anymore. Also, if you buy online you have the right to return the items but you don't as easily if you buy instore. Basically, there are a lot of advantages to shopping online! As I mentioned in my 'instore sale shopping' post (see here) I've mostly bought Isabella clothes in 18-24 months, so that they're ready for next autumn/winter. I also picked up some really cheap clothes for when she starts nursery, as I don't want her nice outfits ruined there. I've worked at a nursery and know the messy play that goes on!

Polar bear t-shirt - Marks and Spencers - £4

BABY: Next, Marks and Spencers and Mothercare Sale Haul

Last Friday I was putting together our weekly Baby Style series blog post, which required me to go onto the Next website where I noticed they had a sale starting last Saturday. Getting the links for the Baby Style posts is a nightmare for my bank account, I'm constantly seeing the latest baby clothes and more importantly noticing when a store has a sale. I picked up these pieces from Next in a couple of trips, as well a few items from Marks and Spencers' latest sale (the excitement I get from the Marks and Spencer's baby clothing sale is ridiculous!) and Mothercare sale too. There's seem to be a lot of sales on at the moment, so worth keeping your eye out if you are looking for baby clothes.

BABY: Primark Autumn/Winter Baby Haul

Gone have the days when I used to pick my favourite pieces from the woman's autumn/winter Primark collection. Oh no, now I'm far more excited by the baby girl section and picking up the latest pieces for Isabella.

BABY: Zara Haul

Zara has such beautiful clothes and we've bought a couple of pieces for Isabella from in-store before. The other day I somehow found myself on the zara website making quite a big order. The clothes are such good quality and pretty reasonably priced. They also come so beautifully packaging, wrapped in tissue paper and presented in a box. Little things like that really make me want to shop somewhere again and again and again. Some of these items were in the sale - I can't believe there are still sales around, they seem never ending this summer. I bought most of these in 6-9 months as they are more autumn/winter friendly.

BABY: Next Summer Sale Haul 2015

This is a completely unplanned blog post, but after receiving an email about the Next sale starting yesterday I couldn't not go! Any excuse for a bargain and very much like the JoJo Maman Bebe sale I picked up clothes for next summer. There are a couple of 6-9 month pieces that I thought would be perfect for autumn/winter too. I picked all of this up at two different Next stores, neither of which I visited particularly early. We left the last store at about 3.30pm yesterday and there was still lots of stock, so I'd imagine there would be a fair amount to pick up today (Sunday 19th July 2015). There are also a couple of items from F&F Clothing, Boots and Mothercare that I thought I'd share with you too.

BABY: Recent Baby Purchases #1

As we are still renovating our house (it's been slow progress since Isabella was born, but that's ok) we have the luxury of deciding what purpose we want each room in our house to serve. There are two 'reception rooms' downstairs, typically one would be a dining room and the other a living room. We're clearly keeping the living room, but the dining room is going to become a playroom for Isabella. We just feel that we don't need a separate dining room because our table and chairs all fit in the kitchen nicely.

BABY: JoJo Maman Bebe SALE Haul

Isabella has been really hard to settle the last couple of days, I think it's because she had her 12 week injections but it's been tough. So yesterday I decided to get out of the house and go for a wander around our local town, hoping it would help to settle her and it worked wanders. Isabella slept the whole time and she rarely sleeps during the day anymore! We timed our trip into town perfectly, as it coincided with the first day of the in-store JoJo Maman Bebe sale - cue buying many cute things for Isabella. But instead of buying more summer clothes for this year I thought it would make more sense to buy for next year, nothing like forward planning! Isabella was born right at the beginning of April so I bought size 12-18 months, hopefully they'll fit next summer.

BABY: Marks and Spencers Sale Haul

I've expressed my love for the Marks and Spencer's baby and children clothes many times on my blog - they are always so cute, stylish and excellent quality! Sometimes the downside is the price, they can be expensive. Personally, I find it hard to justify spending over £24 for an outfit that will only fit for a couple of months. So when there's an M&S sale I'm straight onto their website or instore to grab as many bargains as I can get my hands on.

On the way back from our recent holiday to Cornwall we nipped into Cheltenham for a bit of retail therapy. It actually turned out to be a pretty stressful visit, as Isabella was sick all over me and the floor in Primark, screamed down Marks and Spencer's and was sick on me a couple more times! Shopping isn't anything like it used to be. However we did manage to have a quick browse in the sale section, which was pretty big and well stocked - so if you fancy picking any pieces up I'd head to your local M&S asap. I bought all of these things 2 days ago, so hopefully they should still be available in some stores.

Anyway, on to the haul...

BEAUTY: Drugstore haul with my first impressions

You know when everything in your make up bag and skincare routine all seem to run out at the same time? Well that happened to me recently, so it was the perfect excuse to mix things up and try new products. Cue a trip to Boots to update/transform both my make up bag and skincare routine. I thought I'd combine this drugstore haul with my first impressions of the products, as it's always helpful to know if a product is worth buying or not.

L'Oreal Infallible Foundation in Porcelain (£9.99). I have tried the matte version of this foundation (read my full review here) and after initially not really liking it I ended up really liking it's medium-full coverage. It's not the easiest foundation to blend into my skin but with a lot of buffing I got a pretty flawless finish. So I was intrigued to try the more satin/glowy version of the Infallible foundation. This one is aimed at people with drier skin, which is certainly me at the moment (since giving birth my skin has become the driest ever!)

L'Oreal 4D Mascara in Black (£10.99). My trusty Maybelline Cat Eyes mascara was running out, so I needed a new one that did everything that mascara did and more! This L'Oreal mascara had some pretty impressive claims about making your lashes longer and with more volume. However on first impressions I don't like this mascara, it's a pretty dry formula which I don't like. It didn't seem to coat my lashes with anything, so I certainly didn't get the volume or length I was looking for. After three coats my lashes still looked like I hadn't applied anything, not the best first impressions for a relatively expensive drugstore mascara. I'm not giving up on it just yet, I will continue to try it out and I'll keep you updated.

L'Oreal True Match Foundation in Rose Ivory (£9.99). Boots had a 3 for 2 offer so I thought I'd restock on one of my favourite drugstore foundations. They don't currently have 3 for 2, it's 2 L'Oreal products for £12. I love this foundation, it has a medium coverage, blends well and covers almost everything I want it to. Personally, I like quite a full coverage foundation, like Estee Lauder Double Wear. True Match has a lighter coverage but still covers dark circles, blemishes and uneven skin tone.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in Light (on offer for £4.49). This is another repurchase - this concealer is just perfect for the summer months. I don't tend to use it much during the winter, just because I like to use something with a better coverage (like Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer or Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer). We are now entering the summer months and I love to 'wake up' my skin with products that have a more dewy finish. This concealer is perfect for lightening up the under eye area and using as a kind of highlighter. I apply it in a triangle shape under my eye, blend with a duo fibre brush from Real Techniques and set in place with Rimmel Stay Matte powder in Translucent.

Dior Nude Foundation in Ivory (reduced to £10). This was the absolute beauty bargain of the year so far, in my local boots they had a basket of reduced make up. If you go to Boots I'm sure you know the one, it usually has broken eyeshadows, lipsticks that have been opened and generally not great things. However every once in a while there will be a gem, a bargain that cannot be resisted and the day I went in it was this Dior Nude foundation IN MY SHADE! I couldn't believe it, despite only just buying two L'Oreal foundations the day before, I couldn't turn down this bargain. Dior Nude usually retails for £32, so with a price tag of £10 you can probably see why I couldn't walk away without purchasing it. It was unopened, never been used and even in the box - complete winner. This is probably the lightest coverage foundation I've tried in a long time, yet it somehow gives a good amount of coverage. The kind of coverage that is perfect for a summer day when heavy make up would probably just melt off your face. I actually really like the light texture of this foundation, which is such a contrast to my usually pretty heavy textured foundations. I think this is going to become my new favourite foundation for the summer.

L'Oreal Elnett Satin Hairspray (travel size). I'm currently using the Fudge Urban Iced Raspberry & Vanilla hairspray, which has a pretty strong hold and you can tell when I have it on. I wanted something a bit lighter on the hair but with the same hold. As this is such a popular hairspray and I had never tried it I thought I'd give it a go. First impressions of the hold and feel on the hair are really good, however I don't like the smell of it. The Fudge hairspray smells really nice, so it might be that I'm used to that scent but either way I don't like it.

Ogx Argan Oil of Morocco Shampoo and Conditioner (travel size). I was watching someones (I forget who) YouTube video recently and they mentioned this shampoo and conditioner as being amazing for your hair. I've been in such a hair rut for about a year now, always using the same products but not really liking how they make my hair feel. So I thought it was about time I tried something different. Instead of buying full size products straightaway I like to try them in a travel size first, to see if I like it without wasting lots of money. I've washed my hair a couple of times with this duo and I'm seriously impressed! After the first wash my hair felt so soft and smooth, a real improvement. It didn't give my hair the shine I wanted it to, but it did make my hair feel amazing.

Nivea 2 in 1 Eye Make Up Remover (£3.89). Another repurchase - if you need a good eye make up remover that does actually remove waterproof mascara then this is a great budget alternative to something like the Clarins Instant Eye Make Up Remover.

Nivea Cleansing Wash for sensitive to dry skin (£3.15). I currently use the Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanse and Polish to take off my make up at night but wanted something to use in the mornings that will help to rehydrate my dry skin. So far I like this as a cleanser, it's creamy, moisturising and doesn't leave you with that tight feeling so many cleanser give you.

Garnier Softening Toner for normal to dry skin (£3.29). Although I don't have sensitive skin I thought that this isn't going to be too drying on the skin due to it's gentle formula. I've liked using this after cleansing to make sure all of my make up is removed and it leaves my skin feel refreshed.

What have you been enjoying from the drugstore recently?

Feel free to comment :)

Helen x

FASHION: Breastfeeding Friendly Capsule Wardrobe

I have found finding suitable outfits for both breastfeeding and my post birth body very difficult. Before pregnancy I was an avid dress wearer, pretty much my whole wardrobe is dresses! So when it came to getting a bump I had to but some slightly different style dresses, which wasn't a problem. However after giving birth was a completely different story. Finding outfits that looked ok on my swollen, wobblier and just generally larger breastfeeding body was a daily struggle. My wardrobe of dresses became useless because I couldn't breastfeed in them and most of my tops were too tight around my tummy area. All of these issues didn't help my already lack of confidence about what pregnancy and giving birth had done to my body.

After lots of online searching and shopping I finally have a capsule wardrobe suitable for breastfeeding and my changed body shape. As I'm sure I can't be the only one struggling to find suitable breastfeeding outfits I thought if share my capsule breastfeeding wardrobe with you.

In this post I'll show you the items in my new breastfeeding capsule wardrobe and in another post I'll show you how you can mix and match these items to make many different outfit combinations.

Cream Textured Scallop Hem Top - New Look - reduced to £5

Rose Printed Button Dress - New Look - reduced to £9

Navy Crepe T Shirt - New Look - reduced to £5 (now only available in cream)

Paisley Printed Tube Skirt - New Look - reduced to £5

Maternity Skinny Blue Jeans - New Look - reduced to £7

Blue and White Patterned Tube Skirt - New Look - reduced to £6

Black and White Patterened Tube Skirt - New Look - reduced to £7

Pale Pink T Shirt with Lace Detailing - H&M - £7.99

Black Crepe Jacket - H&M - £14.99

High Waisted Blue Jeans - H&M - were reduced to £7 but now £14.99

White Loose Fitting T Shirt - H&M - reduced to £6
(similar here)

Blue and White Stripy Loose Fitting T Shirt - H&M - reduced to £6 (similar here)

Jacquard Skirt - H&M - reduced to £10

White and Black Nursing Tops (pack of two) - H&M - £14.99

I'm still very much on the hunt for dresses suitable for breastfeeding, so if you know of any please leave me a link below.

Did you struggle with what to wear after having a baby?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x

HOME: HandM Home Haul and Wishlist

As we are starting to have a proper kitchen again (very exciting!) I've been shopping around for some new kitchen accessories. I've never bought anything from the H&M home section before but have always swooned over so many of their items. They are often reasonably priced and so stylish - definietly worth checking out. Here's a few pieces I picked up recently...