It was Michael's 8th birthday yesterday and my whole family went to Wolfes in Dundonald. It does giant amounts of food, so I ordered a starter for my main, nachos.
And look how they showed up!
I now feel a total lack of nacho donkey in my home, everyone should own one!
I do enjoy a wee browse in Heatons' Bangor store every so often. Their clothing section for women can often have some fab items like the royal blue & white striped sailoresque jumper which is on special offer right now.
They are also a good place to stock up on jeggings, they often have them in bright colours too, not just blue or black denim. I'm after a bottle green pair myself, so I'm keeping an eye out.
But it's the kids who take centre stage this half-term with trendy floral dresses at £10 and little boys’ casual tops from £4. Timeless denim staples like the boys’ denim jeans range and a cute denim dress will kit the kids out for a fun-filled week of activities from just £10. Theres Heatons’ stylish outerwear like the little girls’ longline parka (from £15) and boy’s puffa jacket (£14) that will keep them trendy as we transition to the colder months!
Shop these looks online at www.heatonsstores.com with free shipping on orders over £30.
Little baby Smickles
Bigger Smix
Yo Sushi did a random Blue Thursday, so we called in
Smix turns eight on Monday, and this year Claire at the Lily Pink Bakery made his whole class super cool green frosted cupcakes, with rainbow sprinkles & glitter.
The toppers are Minecraft characters printed on rice paper which I picked up on eBay last month.
It was also Michael's teacher's birthday actually today, so she told us they were having a Halloween party in the classroom today anyway!
If you'd like to get some Lily Pink Cupcakes yourself, use the contact details on Claire's business site.
Watch for more Birthday fun this weekend.
My little baby
No description needed.
It may just be my Ridgway Homemaker obsessed eye, but doesn't this mug from Poundland in Bloomfields have a bit of a nod to the classic black & white striped background 50s' design?
Simpsons' fans should call in and get the set, a steal at £1 a mug.
Giorgio fragrances have played a big part in my life. One fateful Saturday afternoon in my teens, out shopping with my Mum & my best friend at the time Gemma, we were spritzed in Debenhams with the Giorgio Beverly Hills perfume 'Ocean Dream'. I instantly fell in love & it became my signature fragrance for years to come.
Around 2002 it became increasingly difficult to buy, as the scent must have been discontinued. Besides the odd bottle my Mum would track down on her Saturday afternoon trips to towns all over NI with my Dad for shopping adventures, I had to accept my favourite scent was now a goner.
Since then I've tried many a perfume, but never fallen in love with any of them as much as I loved my Ocean Dream.
So in the last couple of years I've had a few perfumes I've bounced back and forth between. I like the freshness of Clarins' 'Eau des Jardins', the sweetie-esque scent of Benefit's 'Something About Sofia', and for on the go I like the tiny price tag of M&S's fruity 'Butterfly' (it totally smells like Marc Jacobs 'Daisy').
So given my history with Ocean Dream, I was pretty hopefully I would love the new Giorgio Armani fragrance 'Sì'.
Mr Armani drew inspiration from the strength of his mother, and designed a scent to represent modern femininity.
Sì comes in three incarnations. The Eau de Toilette is playful & free-spirited. It's my favourite of the three as the pear, blackcurrant and vanilla tones remind me most of the lightness of Ocean Dream. It's £42 for 30ml and works as a perfect daily wear fragrance. I'm immediately swapping it in as my daily scent.
The Eau de Parfum has extracts of cassis nectar, with darker fruit tones lifted with freesia and rich rose. It takes Sì from day to night and stays stronger for longer. It's priced at £47 for 30ml.
Finally the richest version of Sì, the Eau de Parfum Intense. It's £72 for 50ml but with its more condensed scent you don't need to apply much to carry off the elegant fragrance all evening. It's a more sensual, heavy scent with blackcurrant, for balsam and golden benzoin.
My favourite Sì is the light Eau de Toilette, which I will be wearing for the foreseeable future. Could it be I've finally found a perfume to live up to my first love, Ocean Dream? I say, "sì ".
The Vintage Rocks Dream Team
My long term go-to salon is Belfast's Vintage Rocks Hair Parlour. When Michael was a toddler he used to bring his own G-tech sweeper with him and brush up all the hair. With this year being so hectic, I hadn't had a chance to visit in months, so my hair had grown really long and definitely needed a makeover.
Yikes
This is the 'before'. A home ombre job which wasn't too terrible, but that has roughed up the texture of the hair. Unstraightened this is the nightmare I'm faced with.
I'd been watching a lot of MTV's Laguna Beach and The Hills recently and was totally sold on the over the top 90s' style dramatic highlights.
Highlighted to high heaven on The Hills
What I love about going to Clare at Vintage Rocks is she will always try to do what you actually want. If I approached another hairdresser and asked for 'un-natural looking, 90s' mega highlights please' they'd probably assume to themselves I'd end up happier if they made them more natural and go ahead and do that. Clare will listen to what you want, should it be shaved sides with leopard print, or pink roots and blue ends, and if she can do it, she'll do it, and it'll look good too.
On a similar note Clare isn't one of those heart stopping hairdressers who you ask to take an inch off and ten seconds later they've chopped about six inches off and you're getting a lecture about the ends being split. No, you're in safe hands with Clare and you'll never leave Vintage Rocks in tears!
I have a lot of hair
So somehow, from dark brown roots with bleached ombre ends, Clare got my hair in one highlighting & toning step to an all over even effect. It's exactly how I wanted it, as usual!
My hair being the straightest it will probably ever be
Vintage Rocks is pretty much your default destination in Northern Ireland for cool colours too. They are weird colour experts, so visit their website and send them an email if you want to chat rainbow hair ideas.
Brides to be, check out their gallery and ask about trial dos in the salon.
Nitsha Shepherd is passionate about silk. With ten years experience in the trade, Nitsha has just launched Charmchuri, an online store with the mission of making luxurious silk scarves available at a more accessible price range for us budget-strapped fashion enthusiasts.
Nitsha models the scarves in the online store and shows you the versatility of ways to wear them
She invited me to browse CharmChuri and pick my favourite design. This was a hard task! There are at least a dozen of the vibrant, bright and beautiful scarves I would love to own. I finally settled on a huge square scarf, in autumnal colours with oceanic blue highlights.
The print is Native American themed, it's very sweet. It makes me think of Disney's Small, Small World.
I love scarves and have quite a large collection already, but this CharmChuri one is probably the largest size I've owned. The size makes it really versatile, with tonnes of different ways to wear.
You can see the size in relation to my foot poking in at the bottom of the photo.
Despite the large size, due to the quality of the silk the scarf isn't bulky when you do fold it to wear. I simply folded mine inwards, twisted it and tied.
It's as well that I'm going to the hairdresser tomorrow!!
So that was my choice, but here are some of my other favourites, modelled by Nitsha herself. You can see how tricky it was to pick a favourite. All the designs are so vivid and the colour schemes are fab. If I had to pick another scarf I'd probably go for one with the cherry blossom pink hues in its design.
There are also prints with hot pink complemented by turquoise and purple jewel tones.
If you're loving the scarves as much as me, then you'll be pleased to hear that by signing up to the CharmChuri newsletter, you get 20% off the already reasonable price. My scarf was £59, so with the discount it would be £47.20
Also worth noting there is free UK delivery with no minimum purchase price.
These would make lovely Christmas gifts should your family include any fashion lovers.
You can connect with Nitsha on the CharmChuri Facebook Page and check out new designs and ways to wear on the Charmchuri Instagram account.
As heard on BBC Radio 6's Lauren Laverne Show.
