Bank Holiday - Birthdays and Rainy Days

I love a long weekend. This Bank Holiday Sunday we travelled up to Richmond to celebrate my brother-in-law's and his twin sister's 40th Birthdays (coincidentally it's on the same day! Ha!) It was also my Father-In-Law's birthday on Monday, so it was a big group celebration. As usual, cake duties fell to me. So I baked a huge batch of my brownies and the Birthday Boy's specially requested favourite carrot cake. 

It was a glorious day - a beacon of sunshine in the midst of a week of solid rain. Much Pimms and white wine and delicious food was consumed. The children ran around together all afternoon, while the grown-ups chatted and laughed until the early hours. Perfect!

Pure and Simple - Eucerin DermoPURIFYER Cleanser Review

Well, this post is quite exciting for me as it is the first time I have been sent a product for review. So I am looking at this as my first legitimate blogger review! Hooray! Of course, as I haven't purchased the product myself this leads us into new territory and so, from now on if I am reviewing a PR provided sample I will mark the item with an asterisk (*). But, rest assured I will be as honest as ever. I will not blog about a product that I don't think would be of interest to you (or me, for that matter) and all opinions will be my own (good or bad) and not that of the marketing department. There - that's that little bit of housekeeping done!

All Over the Overalls - The Wren Shops Dungarees

Ok. Now just wait. I know what you're thinking? Dungarees? I can see the images running through your minds - Huckleberry Finn, Charlene from Neighbours, Super Mario. But wait. If you haven't seen the legions of super-cool bods who have brought the denim dungaree back, then you are missing out. Dungarees are a major Spring-Summer look and I have become slightly obsessed with finding the perfect pair.

Summer Breeze - sunshine, weddings & celebrations

Well, that's more like it! Summer sun all weekend and today. There's nothing like a bit of sunshine to make me feel that all is well with the world. I have had the most wonderful weekend. A beautiful Cotswolds wedding on the hottest day of the year, a world-beating first barbecue of the season and to top it all off another pretty major reason for my family to celebrate. Today's is a pic-heavy post!

Dress - Diane von Furstenburg, Jacket - Rag&Bone,
Bag - ASOS, Shoes - Shoemint.

My wedding outfit was a riot of colourblock (although, in 23 degree sunshine that jacket was a bit surplus to requirements). My jacket and dress were Yoox designer bargain finds and that bag was a half price ASOS steal (still available too - link here.

Oh, the places you'll go! A plea for the bedtime story.

I was woken up on Tuesday morning as always by Chris Evans' breakfast show on Radio 2. After dancing out of bed to the soft rock sounds of John Parr's Man In Motion (the theme from St Elmo's Fire - classic! I had the 7"single) something he discussed stopped me in my tracks. He said that a poll had revealed that young parents are no longer reading books at bedtime to their children, that the bedtime story is dying out. And my heart sank.

Actually, the poll he was discussing looked specifically at Dads. He was referring to a survey by Booktrust which has found that only 19% of 18-24 year old fathers read stories to their children. But it's not just the Dads at fault here, because there was a similar survey in 2012 that found that less than a third of parents read regularly to their children.