STUCK ON YOU giveaway and review!

finding fun and cute presents for the little people in your life can be hard at times, i'm always on the look out for new baby and child websites offering something a little bit different. so when the lovely people at stuck on you got in touch with me telling me about their site i headed straight over, gotta love me some internet shopping...husband this is your cue to look away, what you don't know won't hurt you and all that ;)

what i found was a wonderful little site specialising in personalised gifts for children. you can find everything from labels (the husband is all about the labels, he is a teacher after all. if you label everything of your child's then their teacher will pretty much love you. like serious love.) clothing, lunchboxes, height charts , puzzles, and that's just naming a few.

our favourite picks where a personalised puzzle for caleb.


how cute! i love this idea! i feel this puzzle will really grow with him, what starts off as good fun pulling the letters out will eventually turn into a great way to help him learn his name, the letters and colours. what did caleb think...


i think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves! he has taken to carrying one of the letters around with him, not to mention sitting on all the chairs in the house like an old man. ah my crazy, cute boy.

we also chose this gorgeous towel, which we took on caleb's first ever trip to the seaside, which i felt appropriate seeing as it reminded me of one of those old school deck chairs with its stripes...


i'm a sucker for a good towel (i get it from my mum), this is a great size for kids and 100% cotton, so super soft. i love this product but i did find it a little bit pricey at £29.99, but then like the old saying goes...you get what you pay for. the fact you can select what font you would like embroidered on the towel (we went for typewriter) are all little touches that make spending that little bit more, especially if it's a gift, worth it.

thanks to stuck on you though you don't need to worry about spending too much money as they are giving three of this little house's lucky readers the chance to win a £20 voucher. yay even more of an excuse to internet shop! all husband's you can relax ;)

entering is easy, you just need to enter via rafflecopter below. and when the giveaway closes three winners will be randomly selected and contacted by email once their entry has been verified. easy peasy.
this is an international giveaway! woo hoo :)

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*this is a sponsored post and i was kindly sent the stuck on you items pictured above free of charge. all opinions however are my own. if it's a yay or a nay i will always write honestly :)
Monday, 29 July 2013 Comments: 17
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i see skies of blue...

i want to start off by saying the biggest thank you to all the support we received for yesterday's post. such kindness at a sad time has been a great comfort. 

it's not just the blue skies that inspired today's title, it is all of you

...and i think to myself, what a wonderful world :)


there is something about a blue sky that just instantly makes me smile. lucky for me they've been in abundance up here of late.

so on friday, grandma liverpool and i decided to enjoy those blue skies on as many roof top terraces as we could find in town. we made it to two. well what can i say, we got distracted by the bubbles ;)



my beautiful ma's view...


hello fife!


and my view...


a busy st.andrews square

we were thoroughly impressed by the wine, the view and the fact they gave out suncream (la prairie suncream no less, you show off mr.nichols ;)

it was so good to catch up properly and well just talk, and talk, and talk. my mum and i are like that, could spend days, weeks together and still find something to talk about. as usual we lost track of time (that happens a lot, michael can certainly vouch for that, but that's another story...!) and realised we needed to hot foot it over to the tower restaurant for afternoon tea. more pretty blue skies along the way...


the views again were amazing and we highly recommend the afternoon tea...just gorgeous. we went on to talk about the salmon mousse pate for the rest of the weekend. yes, we're just crazy like that ;)

before the point of too many bubbles (is there such a thing? apparently now i'm older, damn you hangovers!!) we left like ladies to admire a few more blue skies on our way home...


thank you for a wonderful day, grandma liverpool. you are one of a kind and i'm so lucky to have you as my mum ♥
Tuesday, 23 July 2013 Comments: 6
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a post i wish i didn't have to write...

i really thought long and hard about whether to write this post or not and share it on our blog. for me i always wanted our blog to be a positive space, celebrating the simple but beautiful things in life. that is not to say our life is perfect (who's is?!) but i just didn't want negativity to have a home here. family and honesty however does, and this is why i have decided to share this.

a few weeks back we suffered a miscarriage.

there i typed it, that awful word. a word that at times seems shrouded in secrecy. a word i am only now beginning to accept.

you see we weren't even trying. when we found out we were pregnant we were overcome by shock. my initial thoughts were how the hell are we going do this? two under two?! damn it, i didn't buy a double stroller!

all these thoughts seem so indulgent and trivial now.

while we were getting our heads around the idea and getting excited little did we know our little one had already stopped growing at six weeks. mother nature, i felt this was particularly cruel of you.

we found out days before our twelve week scan when i started to bleed.

now i know our situation is common and obviously something wasn't right, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.

we've spent the last few weeks letting go. letting go of our little one and letting go of the future we thought we'd have with he or she. 

the sadness has been overwhelming. i've felt like a magnet to sadness, anything sad going on i've absorbed it. like the weight of the worlds sadness was on my shoulders, sounds dramatic i know, but it is just how i have felt.

sad for those who have ever been through this.
even sadder for those where it happens later on in pregnancy. to anyone this has happened to i am in awe of your strength, my heart sincerely goes out to you.
sad for those who received the same news as ourselves but don't have a little one to go home to.
sad for the ones who like us have gone home to a little one and know the full weight of what they've lost.
just, sad.

i cling to one of my motto's in life, everything happens for a reason, and i have to believe that in this situation.

we've shared so much on this blog celebrating caleb. it only feels right that this little one should be here too.

so here are a few words we wrote for you, little one when we found out you were gone.

you were there, fleetingly, for six whole weeks. now you're not.

too fragile for this world. let it be known though, you were loved, you were wanted. you were ours.

you stole a piece of our hearts the day we found about you, that part of our heart is now yours to keep, that way we will always be connected.

we love you
mummy, daddy and caleb xx
Monday, 22 July 2013 Comments: 15
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happy friday!


happy friday...indeed it is! this little house has grandma liverpool up for a visit and the sun is shining. perfect combination :) 

she's been weaving her mum magic and i already i feel so much calmer and happier about things. how do mum's do that?? i hope i'll possess that power when caleb is grown and going through a tough time.

so it's a mother and daughter day today with a spot of afternoon tea, complete with bubbly (well it would be rude not to!).

caleb and michael are going to have some boy time, happy days.

happy friday everyone and have a lovely weekend :)

Friday, 19 July 2013 Comments: 2
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happy 3rd anniversary, husband! ♥


so i'm like married to this guy, you may have seen him knocking about on this little blog. he goes by the name of michael and just happens to be my best friend.

now i could sit here and write a bunch of mush about how much i love him, but you don't want to hear that and he already knows it ;)

what i do want to say though is thank you.

thank you, my dear husband for loving me and all my imperfections. we've had the most amazing time together these last eleven years, but of late it's been pretty rough.

what do you do when you're going through a tough time? well treat the ones you love the most atrociously of course ;) you've been my rock, my sounding board and stayed strong all the while. i thought i couldn't love you anymore but each year i do. so much for no mush! 

happy 3rd anniversary (can you believe it!) husband.

here's to many, many more ahead.

this is a little peek of one of the most wonderful days of our lives courtesy of the lovely people over at limelight films...


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Wednesday, 17 July 2013 Comments: 14
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silentnight....that's the dream :)


sleep. ah sleep. we used to be good pals now we're more like long lost friends. caleb entered our world, and our sleep made its exit.

you're warned, may god are you warned but you just don't fully get it until it happens to you.

so all pregnant people out there, when a total stranger comes up to you doling out yet more advice (because you just know how people like to do that) take the sleep one seriously.

get it while you can.
sleep like you've never slept before.
sleep like you're life depended on it, because unless you're blessed with one of those freaky 'they sleep right through' babies you can kiss it goodbye.

why all the talk about sleep? well i had the lovely people from silentnight scotland get in touch with me to see if i would like to try out and review a sleep aid. eh yes please!

i was able to choose from a list of sleep aids, and after initially being disappointed that a night nurse to tend to caleb wasn't on the list ;) i opted for the lavender pillow spray. i'm a big champion of natural oils after my skin went crazy when caleb was born so the spray seemed a good fit for me.



now the idea of using a sleep aid has never entered my head, i'm more of a like to complain i'm getting no sleep kinda girl rather than actually doing something about it.

so i was curious to see if this would help. you see i have no problems falling to sleep it is getting back to sleep when caleb wakes in the night that is the problem. he is up for mere minutes and then settles back down, his mama however...a different story.

so i've tried the spray for a week and what have i found?

for a start using a sleep aid has made me approach sleep differently. when i can't sleep i'm quick to grab my ipad, i do this even knowing it's the last thing my brain needs...stimulation. since trying out the spray and taking my blog reviewer job seriously ;) i followed the instructions to breathe in the scent and relax, and relax i did, and what happens when you relax? well you only went and guessed it...sleep. rocket science i know ;)

so if you have trouble sleeping i would totally give this a shot, although if you're not a fan of lavender this little baby is not for you. the big key i feel though is to relax. no technology, no listening out for the baby (i so do this like i'm newly deaf) you will hear them, no list making in your head (my sleep nemesis), and lastly your mum banged on about it non stop when you were a kid...a tidy room. i don't know about you but i can't sleep in a messy room, i can't function in a messy home for that matter. ahh i am turning into my mother. (not such a bad thing, ma ;)

i wish you all lots of lovely sleep, if you have any sleep tips i would love to hear them, and if you have a baby that sleep right through, keep that fact to yourself no one likes a show off ;)

*this is a sponsored post and i was kindly sent the lavender spray free of charge. all opinions however are my own. if it's a yay or a nay i will always write honestly :)
Tuesday, 16 July 2013 Comments: 2
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a week (and some!) in this little house


ah baby boy, it's been a while since i've done a week in this little house post. i initially started these posts as you were changing so much and so fast that i didn't want to forget a thing. these last few months have seen you make big changes (or should i say steps!) but also settle into yourself, so the need for these weekly posts doesn't seem as urgent as they once did. your big moments always warrant a post of their own anyway, so from time to time i'll do this post so as not to forget the little things.

so, this little guy has been...

>>> saying 'ta' when you hand him something. this kinda gets me every time :) also 'goal' when you kick a ball. this is your daddy's favourite. the big word in this little house though is NO. used in context may i add, yeah were not so chuffed about this word ;)

>>> humming and babbling to the tunes of nursery rhymes. i think i prefer your renditions now.

>>> walking, walking and just not stopping. since that day in the museum you have barely crawled. in the last few days you have mastered standing up to walking without any aid (ie. us or furniture!),clever boy! but with walking comes a lot of falling. some are corkers as well but you take them in your stride, i think it is us who is left more traumatised for sure.

>>> saying 'hi' to anyone, and if they don't respond, why you just shout 'hi' louder of course ;)

>>> mostly sleeping through the night. i nearly didn't type this in fear of jinxing it!

>>> a big fan of being chased and chasing back, all the while with the most hilarious, filthy, dirty giggle. just gorgeous, my boy.

>>> a total daddy's boy of late. mama is taking the very grown up approach to this and is not moaning at all...sob, sob, sob ;)

these last few months have been hard in this little house. without you i would have dismissed them and started again fresh in my head, but i love that you make that not an option. as to dismiss those months means i would be dismissing some incredibly special times too. you always remind us of the good. there you go teaching us again when it should be the other way round. for a 15 month old you are turning out to be one wise old man ;)
Sunday, 14 July 2013 Comments: 0
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in the summertime when the weather is fine...

lets go to the beach! the question though was which beach?

i didn't relish the idea of being on a beach with the whole of edinburgh all trying to squeeze our pasty white tush's on it, so the obvious choices were out.

drawing a blank and not wanting to go too far we called our friend madeleine who we knew would point us in the right direction, and indeed she did, telling us about a little hidden gem in east linton.

after parking up, she gave us directions through the woods (and of course we got lost) but then there it was in our sights, like a like a little oasis...


nothing quite like sinking your feet into warm sand :)


now we were fully aware this trip was going to go one of two ways (kinda like how every situation goes now with a toddler in tow ;) seeing as it was caleb's first visit to a beach. beach baby or cry baby??


beach baby!

this little guy was in his element, we put him down and he was off, straight for the sea like a born surfer dude.



didn't even flinch as he sat in the cold sea...true scottish man.


it's actually crazy how much sand this kid ate, not too mention how much sea water he drank, at one point he had shells in his bucket of water and kept fishing them out and drinking from them like mini cups! at first we let him thinking he'd get a shock from the taste and stop...eh no. we then had to tell him to stop which made him do it all the more (of course), how he wasn't sick baffles me. 


our first time building sand castles together! i showed him the fine art of of getting the sand at the right consistency, as you can see he was totally engrossed by my chat ;)


Saturday, 13 July 2013 Comments: 6
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