Friday, 9 December 2016

On Wednesday, things got a little bit festive.
If you're a local to Southampton you may well have seen the shiny gold mini building that has joined Guildhall Square for December, and contained inside is a little Christmas treat.

Cue Camera is making it's mark on the city, and helping city-goers get in the spirit with their mini photo studio/large scale photobooth. Now I'm a BIG fan of photo booths. I've worked for a booth company and class the owner as a good friend. I also love photos (like you couldn't already tell) and I REALLY love Christmas. So basically this was always going to be a winning combination for me. Throw in a group of bloggers and it's a match made in heaven.

Right, so the Cue Camera pop-up studio is two shipping containers that have been transformed into a photography studio and changing rooms, and kitted out with literally 100's of Christmas costumes (there's a brochure on their website) for everyone in the family, including babies and the dog! Using green screen technology, you get dressed up and throw some shapes, and their professional photographers snap away and create your perfect Christmas card photo. At the end you select your favourite and take it home!

I popped along with the Sotonbloggers for the evening*, which included a lot of laughs, and singing Merry Christmas to the people passing us by!

Thursday, 8 December 2016

I'm writing up this post (sorry it's going to be scheduled) after we took a little winter walk to the woods. We just got home, and I'm feeling really happy. Like content happy. And I just wanted to share really - and I guess that's kind of the point of blogging isn't it.

So basically we had a Saturday afternoon with zero plans. Absolutely nothing! And because the weather was clear, we decided to take a walk to the woods near our house and get some fresh air. Myself and Henry have been a little bunged up with the start of colds,and have been hiding away for the last couple of days, so I thought a little walk would help clear us up a little and give us something to do - anyone else always fall into arguments if there's no plans for the day?? Maybe that's just us!

So out we went in layers of jumpers, walking boots, and Henry in our Ergobaby on Dann.
And it was nice.
We talked, away from social media, without TV, without distraction. We talked about Dann's TKD, about dinner ideas, plans for Christmas, what we want for the future. We took a shed load of photos too (you'll be seeing them here - ha ha sorry, not sorry). We found a horse and of course went and said hello. Henry took a nap. We found a local pub. We popped to the shop and picked up bits for dinner.

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

We're really getting into the festive spirit over here, including present wrapping (I love present wrapping for getting me in the Christmas mood) and card writing. This year, I'm trying to put in more effort into my Christmas cards, especially as they'll be the first ones with Henry included in them. I swear becoming a parent has made me so sentimental!

Anyway, alongside our normal charity box of cards, I've gotten some extra special cards for family members courtesy of Choosey*.
Like many card sites online, you choose from a selection of designs, for different purposes, and then tailor the inside to say what ever you like.
What makes Choosey unique is that you can add an AR video to the inside of your card - and to be honest, it's pretty cool.

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

We're properly getting into the Christmas spirit over at our house, and are loving creating lots of new traditions for our little family. After all, Christmas is all about family and traditions.

One of the things I've seen on Pinterest and Facebook over recent years is Christmas Eve Boxes, and I fell in love with the idea. Of course, having Henry meant I needed to start the tradition straight away.

I love the idea of getting the Christmas joy started as early as possible (in December, I'm not completely insane), we get our decorations out on the 1st December and do little trips out to the local Christmas Markets. We have an advent candle, and next year will do advent calendars too. This year though just made sense to start our Christmas Eve Box, and I thought I'd share how I've done it, and on a budget too.

Monday, 5 December 2016

Motherhood is damn hard!
I knew it was going to be hard, but I guess I kind of under-estimated it, but, boy it is it worthwhile.

Sometimes it's really easy to get bogged down with all the bad stuff. I mean it's always easy to let the bad times over-rule good things in almost any aspect of life, but combined with sleep deprivation and a steep learning curve, it'seven easier to focus on what isn't right, than what is.

So to help me, and hopefully you, I'm sharing seven good moments from my motherhood so far!

Hello and Welcome

Hi I'm Rachel, wife, blogger, tea drinker and tattoo lover. I'm also known as mumma to my baby boy Henry and kitty Archimedes. This is my little corner of the internet. I blog about our little adventures in sometimes sunny Southampton, England, and share just a bit of our lives. Hope you enjoy!!