BOY'S BEDROOM MAKEOVER - NAUTICAL, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT

We have spent so long on Seb's new room.  First, let me start by showing you the before pictures.

See that hole in the ceiling?  Eeeek!  Christmas Eve, it caved in.  

We recently moved into this house, which is my mum's and I grew up here as a child.  Mum's found herself a fancy apartment and we've taken on the house ourselves.  So obviously getting the back bedroom sorted was a priority.

Unfortunately, when we paid a builder to come and fix the ceiling, we were ripped off and lost SO much money, so the decorating was not only delayed, but also now on a budget.  We managed to fix the ceiling ourselves and got it decorated rather quickly afterwards.  All we had to wait for was the carpet and yesterday I was finally able to put Seb's room into place - And he loves it!

This door hanger has been Seb's since he was a baby.  It's been included in all of his bedrooms!

I popped some pages of Seb's old books into these frames to make them a little more cheerful.

These three framed prints were an absolute bargain.  I simply bought a pack of scrapbook paper with a nautical theme and inserted them into the frames.  A £20 jobbie!

There are still quite a few bits left to finish.  His shelving will be going up shortly to hold all of his cars and dinosaurs on display and some beading will be going around the wall where it joins with the ceiling.  But for now, we're so pleased with the results - AND ALL ON A BUDGET!

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend!

SIMPLY GORGEOUS BLOGGER TEMPLATE

This morning I've been super busy working on a brand new Blogger template.

Despite occasionally having serious tantrums over HTML, I find designing blogs so therapeutic.

Today I introduce my Simply Gorgeous Template.

This Blogger template features a lovely colour mix of pale pink and blue has a beautiful, elegant feel to it. It's simplistic theme has a gentle appeal that stands out without dominating your blog content. It's perfect for fashion bloggers but in truth, it's ideal for everyone!

This blog template requires you to have PHOTOSHOP or similar. Customising your blog title and sidebar labels is easily explained in the included tutorial so as long as you can run a programme like Photoshop which handles layers, you can do this no problem. 

This trendy Blogger (Blogspot.com) template includes the following

> XML Template File
> Header .psd File
> Social Media Icons (Facebook, Twitter; Pinterest, Instagram; Google.)
> Sidebar Label .psd File
> About Image .psd File
> Grab A Button Image .psd File
> Blog Background
> Blog Post Title Icon
> Photoshop Customisation Tutorial
> Installation Tutorial (psst... It's super easy to do!)

How It Works 

This package is for instant download. Once payment has been made, your new blog package will be available for direct download in a .zip file.

Once you receive your Blogger Template package, you simply install the XML file and proceed to customising your layout with the Blog Elements. This will all be explained in the tutorial included in your package.

Finally, you save your settings, pop the kettle on and enjoy your new pretty blog!

£12.00

PRESENTING MY FUTURE 7 YEAR OLD FASHION BLOGGER

Madisyn was my little guinea pig.  When I started my photography business 3 years ago, she was constantly posing for me in front of the camera, helping me to practise my new found craft...  And she hated me for it!

"Oh pleassssseee Mummy! No photos today!"

I was so cruel.  I'd dress her up in ridiculous super sized frilly skirts and drag her around every pretty location I could find.  She was adorable, really.  But for every one nice photo, there were twenty of her scowling at me.  But her co-operation in my days of practising the basics of photography eventually paid off.  

What makes me laugh is that now, at the age of 7 (very almost 8), she wants to play 'model' all of the time.  She's just recently started expressing an interest in fashion, photography and apparently she wants to own her own clothing boutique called Miss Ribbon.

Today, we had some fun with the camera.  We'd have usually gone out for our seasonal photo session by now, but it's been raining non-stop in not-so-sunny England.  So I present to you Miss Madisyn Williamson, a mini fashion blogger in the making.

[All poses in the following photos are Madi's own... God love her!]

I'VE BEEN NOMINATED - LIEBSTER AWARD

I was thrilled to see after checking my morning e-mails that Christina from Home With My Tots had left me a comment saying she'd nominated me for the Liebster Award.  Although my posts date back to last year, this blog is in fact only a few weeks old.  I merged some previous posts from other blogs that never really took off and only recently began networking with other wonderful bloggers.  So it's really lovely to see that somebody has thought of me during nominations for this award.  Thank you Christina!

By accepting the nomination, there are a few rules:

1. Send blog love back to the blog that nominated you and link back to them.

   2. Nominate 5 - 11 new bloggers who have 200 or less followers.

   3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator.

   4. Share 11 random facts about yourself.

   5. Decide on 11 questions to ask your nominees to answer.

   6. Contact your nominees and let them know that you have nominated them for the award after you have posted yours.

Here are my answers to Christina's 11 questions.

1. What is your favorite TV show?

It's a toss up between Vampire Diaries & Gossip Girl.  But I love LOADS of TV shows.

         2. Have you ever traveled to another country?

I've been to quite a few places.  I took a cruise around the Caribbean (my dad was a Cruise Director for 17 years), visited Cyprus frequently, Tenerife, some other Spanish islands, Tunisia & Egypt.  Cyprus is my favourite place!

         3. Name something you love about yourself?

Hmm.  I love that I'm creative.  Although at times I also hate this part of me.

         4. What is your favorite color?

I don't have a favourite colour.  I love all of them!  I love putting colours together that break the rules.

         5. Who is your favorite President?

I live in England, so I have to be honest, I don't follow American politics at all.  So it would be impossible for me to call a favourite president.

         6. What is your favorite type of food?

I'm a foodie lover so this is tough.  I love roast chicken with gravy and all the trimmings but I also LOVE sausages with eggs and beans.  Then there's creamy carbonara.  I've been gluten-free for over a year now but if I wasn't, Chinese would come up tops.

         7. Do you believe in ghosts?

Not in the traditional sense.  I believe in energy and I believe energy never disperses.  I also believe in parallel universes and our eyes and ears can only see and hear so much on our frequencies.  But that's a conversation for another day ha!

         8. If you had only one day left to live and you knew about it what would you do?

I'd probably waste it crying and feeling sorry for myself.  Let's be honest, anxiety levels would be sky high and it would make it difficult to concentrate on anything else.  I'd likely write a blog post and letters to my friends and family and perhaps even a video recording for my children.

         9. What is your favorite sport?

I've never been the sporty type.  I hated playing sport as a kid and I hate watching it.  I do love the sound of the Grand Prix on the TV on a Sunday though.  Does that count? 

         10. Do you fold your pizza in half, keep it flat or eat it with a fork and knife?

I eat it with a fork and knife.  It's shameful, I know.  But being gluten-free, our pizzas tend to be super hard and I have to cut it up with a sharp knife into small pieces haha.

         11. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

Crazy as in 'wow-awesome' or crazy as in 'get me a shrink'?  If we're talking about the 'wow-awesome' type of crazy, then nothing seriously cool.  I abseiled down a really high waterfall.  I also screamed all the way down!

11 Random Facts About Myself

1.  I'm gluten-free because it helps my auto-immune thyroid disease.

2.  Since being diagnosed with the above, I've become somewhat of a medical wiz and know all sorts of really random stuff about auto-immune diseases.

3.  I like to be alone.  Alot.

4.  I have Emetophobia.  It's a phobia of sick and it has at times almost ruined my life.

5.  I'm training to be a cognitive behaviour therapist.  Partly because of my experience with the above.

6.  I'm terrible at texting & email.  I fail to reply to people all of the time and it's not good for a woman in business!

7.  I gave birth to my second child at home, on the couch, whilst my husband watched Willow on Sky1.

8.  I'm working on my first young adult fiction novel.  It's a dystopian story and I plan to self-publish before the year is out.

9.  I see the numbers '444' EVERYWHERE!

10.  I drink decaffeinated tea.  All day long.

11.  I can't sleep without the TV on. 

My Nominations

Deana Rose @ Tesori Belle

Elise @ Everyday Elise

Ainslee @ A Beautiful Heart

Hilary @ Young Texan Mama

Katy @ Adventures in Adulthood

11 Questions For My Nominations

1.  What's in your make-up bag?

2.  Spender or saver?

3.  Currently reading?

4.  If you were to write a book, what would it be about?

5.  Which 3 words best describe your blog?

6.  What made you decide to start blogging?

7.  What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you?

8.  And the best?

9.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you pick?

10.  What's for dinner tonight?

11.  What's your favourite aspect of blogging?

ZOMBIE GROANING SON WITH SLEEPING DISORDER

Ever since Seb was born, he's always been a snorer.  Not only does he snore louder than a bear, he also sweats something chronic during his sleep.  I didn't think it was anything to be suspicious of.  He's a boy after all!  But after a minor operation last summer, I was pulled to the side by the surgeon who asked me if Seb had a sleeping disorder.

Of course I told him no.  But over the weeks I started watching him whilst he slept.  At first he would be ok but around midnight, he'd start groaning like a zombie.  It was frightening at times and quite often he sounded like he was about to be sick.

His sleeping became worse and during the day he would become so irritable that I considered we may have some behavioural issues.  His concentration at school suffered the most.  He was getting 0/10 on his spelling tests and he couldn't be bothered to do anything in class.  Teachers would tell me he spent lunch times sleeping in the wendy house and at his newest school, the complaints were similar.  They were unhappy with his incomplete homework, but he was falling asleep at dinner time and I couldn't get him to stay up.   I assured them he was a good boy and told them I was investigating his sleeping habits.

We finally got our appointment through to see the ENT specialist at our local hospital.  Our doctor told us he had super large tonsils and adenoids and he suspected Obstructed Sleep Apnea to be the problem.  So he issued us a saturation monitor to evaluate his heart rate and oxygen levels over night.

Today, we are going to get the results.  Since all of this became a possible problem, I've noticed other strange behaviour at night.  He had a spell at the start of the year where he'd wake up in a state of hypoglycaemia and this was extremely scary.  His blood sugar was very low and I wonder if it's induced by the possible sleep apnea.

Last week we had a horrendous night.  I noticed for the first time that he actually stopped breathing every so many breaths.  He stayed with us that night, on my lap and it lasted for hours.

After his worse nights, he's had to miss a day at school.  He's so tired all the time and I'm hoping that today we get some results.  If it comes back that all is ok from the saturation monitor test, I have no idea which direction we go in.  All I know is watching your son stop breathing whilst he's sleeping is very scary business!