THEA IS TWO and UP AND COMING

Hi Todays blog is about Thea turning two and what is up and coming .

so Thea is now two where has the time gone?!this year as Dom was away with work and everyone was on Easter holidays we just had cake at home and some visitors! 

As Dom was away we decided to give Thea her main gift from us to her early so she had that on the Friday her birthday was Easter Monday , so I do think this was a bit confusing as she had the excitement on Friday and then on Easter Sunday I left out her Easter bits so she was excited then again on Monday I set up a little gift area so when she woke up she had banners and balloons and her gifts .

Our main gift  to Thea was a IKEA kitchen and some accessories to be honest she was way more excited about the accessories than the actual kitchen we have a funny video of her opening the accessories being super excited and then one of her opening the kitchen looking at it and running of to play with the accessories!

Thea had some lovely gifts this year she a lucky little thing and the lovely thing is she loves and uses every single one  Thea is peppa pig mad so she's been enjoying books she got she also got some first  readers which she loves for bed time current bed time fave is princess and the pea she kills herself laughing over the pea being in the bed it makes me laugh every time we read it sometimes I'm allowed to read it to her other times she reads it to me although she cant read yet she starts with once there was a princess and then basically talks about what she can see.

taken on Nikon D5600 by myself

I cannot believe how much Thea has changed in this year she's really independent I think for her age although  im sure most two year olds are she's very strong willed and determined  she does a lot alone now, she walks alone down the stairs - this was a big change as for a short while she wasn't to brave on the stairs, she puts herself into her high chair and does the belt up with no help! she does her own teeth and loves doing her own hair in the bath - I do have to re rinse as she sometimes has a lot of shampoo in her hair ! 

Thea can say a lot more than I could at this age it amazes me everyday she starting to form sentences and can ask for a snack or drink and she can say what she wants to watch on t.v or the I pad - yes we let her use the I pad some don't agree but as shes not on it all day I have no issue with it, its actually helped her start learning her colours and she can count to 10 and do the ABC.

Thea has always loved nursery rhymes and is really into singing them and dancing her all time fave ones are of course MR Tumbles's mix on youtube !

the ant got to close!

This year still brings challenges with her allergies currently on the food ladder and due an appt in august which we hope brings good news as so far every appt has been the same result with her food allergy and this 9 month round seems to look the same mixed with this stormy heat lately her skin has flared and been the worst we have seen it since she was a lot younger.

onto up and coming I still have drafts that need completing and publishing, we bought a new pram as although I love and still love the stomp v3 system which technically we could have continued to use we went for the new system that is just the stroller which Thea can get in and out of herself and is slightly smaller as we installed a baby gate in her room where we store the pram and having to lift the other one in and out was not fun and we have no where to store it other wise !

of course its still ickle bubba I really have a lot of love for this brand and would highly recommend it if your in the market for a pram.

a random blog that will be up at the start of next month will be butterfly hatching and releasing 

very excited about that probably more so than Thea I was on the hunt for fun things to blog about and was talking to a friend and she said she uses the kits in the school holidays with her kids.

Thea is not a huge bug lover has a fear or spiders not to sure why as we have only encountered 2 in her entire time so far! youtube may have something to do with that she was watching a slime spider video?!

Thea hated ants but always wanted to watch them but if they get to close she's not keen recently went to do a photo session and I caught the funniest photo of Thea ant watching but an ant got to close I will insert the photo, we were taking photos of a stunning dress made by a lovely mum on Instagram which leads me to my next point I will probably write some blogs on insta again as I have found a hobby in taking photos of clothing and of course headbands we were lucky enough to join some amazing teams lately with some amazing head pieces and clothing 

Dom bought me for Christmas an amazing Nikon camera which frankly im still learning to use but it takes amazing photos! so really been into taking Thea spam for our insta account! 

Thankyou for reading there wont be such a long break between blogs for a while as I have the time to write! if you would like daily Thea spam find us on insta send me a dm when you request so I know your from the blog xx

keep an eye out for the stroller review and the butterfly hatching!
Hannah and Thea
xXx

Hi! todays blog is about all things one!

I cant believe I'm writing this blog a year to the day Thea was born for a few reasons one I didn't think I would be brave enough to start a blog! and two because its just insane that a year has gone by!

its the eve of Thea's b day and it happened to be the day the  venue was free the same day for her party so Thea is for now fast asleep! as she partied all afternoon!

So this gives me time to write! pictures need downloading and cake smash needs to happen at this point but I plan to use tomorrow to take those pics and then add them in!

so lets start party wise we booked our friends pub which is a lovely local pub with a fab garden area huge function room and lovely staff!

I think I mentioned in a previous post about the decs our lovely friend shelley had her daughters first birthday not long before Thea's so massively helped us out and supplied a lot of the decs! the beautiful photo banner and the garlands and chalk boards and my personal fave the gold glitter letters!

I bought gold and pink  pinwheel decs for the cake smash background but they were dotted around the venue - I had intended to go down earlier to set up but that didn't happen so kate our friend who runs the pub actually did all the decorating!! you can tell she does kids parties often as I had left photos in the boxes and she knew they were for a 1 day 1 year board!

I love that they provided chair and table covers as this just makes me happy as it means everything looks matching!

the cake was made by my sisters friend which was beautiful although I did change the ribbon for lace as it fitted the theme more! my sister also asked for half vanilla and half chocolate which I think was a good choice! my cutting skills are not the best and I think I could have done with ordering a bigger cake! I am kicking myself I did not get a pic of the cake on a wall back ground only on the table that was facing a black area! I also did not get a photo of the chalk boards gift table or food table!!!



 the pictures above are random food ones I took to be honest the last thing on my mind was photos for the blog which I really needed! as what else will I put on this blog so I'm working with what I did get! the party was good fun and I hope our guests that made it had a good time Thea partied so hard she fell asleep on the way home!
The following day I did a DIY style cake smash which was fun! I managed to loose half the background in transit from the venue somehow so had less to work with but I'm happy with the pics they still need fully editing but I'm going to share them on this blog then if anyone wanted to know more I will have a cake smash blog up soon after this one which has taken me longer to write than I thought considering the lack of photos!! I also have so many lovely photos of friends and family but I figured not everyone would want to feature on the blog!

I feel really emotional writing this because our friends and family really made the day special for us and the generosity was beyond amazing we didn't ask for gifts just peoples attendance if they were free would in our eyes be the gift! as most friends and family are not that local to the venue, Thea is one lucky girl! she had so many beautiful gifts every time she opened one my heart melted! a lot of the gifts had a lot of thought behind them and a few were more maybe for me as I'm obsessed with putting Thea in headbands and my old managers and work friend bought for Thea the most beautiful headbands! along with some fab outfits which I have yet to photograph! Thea was lucky enough to get her very own unicorn and donkey! in the form of rocking horses which she loves! a fab unicorn balloon which she plays with and every time she sees it says me ha ha - I think she is letting us know its hers! as I happen to love unicorns to!



 I have learnt a lot about myself and I can say being a parent has made me a better person!
I will continue to take photos and be active on here and insta as I have found this blog and insta becoming a mum hobby for sure! there are many tutu and headbands to be photographed! easter is approaching!

thank you for reading cake smash blog and 1 year update pending and still skinny tan and matching mum and baby in the pipe line!

Hannah and Thea
xx

Thea in a max and molly romper the same company who are making a custom 1 year photo romper with a dotties bowtique custom headband

Hi, Today's blog is all about the big 1 birthday prep! 

yes i know its a good few weeks away still but i'm so excited if a tad emotional to!

i just thought i would share my plans for decorations and outfits - yes more than one!

photo sessions for cake smash and one year - i said photo wise i would document 1 year monthly and then after as and when so 1 year  photos will be on a photography background as i think i will frame one as i had a beautiful romper made for it! 

so decoration wise the theme is girly ombre pink mostly with a few hints of blue silver and gold 

for the cake smash back ground i decided to splash out of some more expensive decs which i would not normally do but these were the only ones i could find that perfectly matched my theme in my head! i had already purchased some candles, plates and napkins from the same brand in the jan sales so it also made sense as the colours match perfectly! as we all know im criminal for browsing pinterest for photo ideas so i found a couple i liked and went with similar ideas.

so going with the pink gold theme i found these paper fan decorations from ginger ray now is it just me or is 6.99 for 3 expensive?! i ordered two lots of both for the photography background, our lovely friend Shelley who's daughter turned one in Feb lent us a huge amount of decorations which has been a massive help! so amongst the decs she gave us to use was the same banner i would have bought in gold also from ginger ray not pictured which will go in the middle with the paper fans either side.
im in two minds still if i should by some other bits for the floor of the back drop maybe some pink and gold round fluffy balls or maybe some cheaper style fans if i can colour match them well enough!







For the table which will have the cake - my sister has a cake maker friend who has kindly offered to make the cake which is pink and white with a gold glitter topper, i'm keeping the cake part a surprise for  both her b day party and cake smash for the b day blog! i had intended to make Thea's cake myself but haven't even attempted to trial it and so prob not a good idea last min! our lovely friend Sarah is making a beautiful cake for the cake smash and frankly i'm going to feel terrible letting Thea smash it! Sarah is making the smash cake free from so Thea can eat it hopefully with no probs!

side tracked there a bit getting back to the table we are having the party in a friends pub which has a function room so she will cover the chairs and tables in white so i'm keeping it simple with a tassel banner Shelley lent us and maybe some sprinkles !
for cake plates i just bought a few pink and gold ones from ginger ray along with matching napkins i love the pink and gold combo!

For the rest of the room i have a 12 month photo banner which again Shelley lent us which will hang somewhere mixed with the fans from the photography back ground and i will be getting a 1 helium balloon and prob happy birthday also simple but i hope it will look ok!

For outfits i have ordered a one ballerina vest in pink with one in gold glitter from a company i found on instagram - tailoredwithlove along with a cake smash ombre pink and white tutu  from another instagram company - babylaneuk with a dottiesbowtique pink with gold centre medium bow!
our lovely friend Sarah bought thea some fab clothes for christmas one was a fab pink and gold skirt which i'm going to pair with the one vest pink bow , tights and a cardi and i had a custom white and lace romper made for 1 year photos which you will see on the b day blog which is from another insta shop max and molly all of this i will be flat lay photographing for the other blog!

all in all a short little decoration blog brief idea of what we will be doing hopefully we will get some fab photos im borrowing our friend nikki's  photography background and taking the photos on my i phone! we are super lucky to have such helpful friends!

thanks for reading
Hannah and Thea
xx

Hi, 

sorry for such a long gap!  we hope you had a lovely jan! a Thea update is long over due! we have been getting used to a new routine for me being back at work and Dom being off from work with a bad back so writing has been on the bottom of the list for a while but i really wanted to do a small update as we have made some progress with Thea's skin!

Im sure i have mentioned various times that Thea's skin has been on and off terrible since she was born and i have done a blog about things that did and did not work, now we have had to see a private Dr as the NHS couldn't prescribe the strength of cream we ended up needing as it wasn't improving or healing and it was becoming worse and worse.

Again nights were really bad they have never been amazing but they seemed to go backwards and it was becoming really frustrating on top of work and no sleep getting no where with allergy testing or getting Thea's skin better! we decided with a letter from our Dr to see a private one to move things forward quicker as the NHS Will not in our area or on our Drs advice test Thea before 12 months old which is insane as i know other mums who have had their kids tested earlier than 6 months as hard as we tried even with Thea's symptoms being classed as emergency and failure to survive due to not being able to eat solids and not gaining weight  we couldn't be seen .

so things have improved loads but still a few patches remain on Thea's face but teething doesn't help but overall wow the difference is amazing and nights are ok still not the best but better!

the DR gave  us a anti- bacterial body wash - our Dr gave an oil which was ok but not really helping, they gave us a strong steroid for strict use twice a day thin layer which combined with the wash in a day eliminated all the red and itchy patches to small non raised not red patches to no patches  and Thea stopped itching and became more settled but we still keep her scratch sleeves on at night as she does itch out of frustration or force of habit not sure which one really but she still itches sometimes during the night.

Just by having the stronger cream and hope of allergy testing three weeks flew by and we were told we could book for allergy tests private at the same clinic so we are looking into that this week so all in all progress being made and solid food looks like it will be ok now Thea's skin is under control and we can get her tested to avoid the serious reaction triggers - the Dr did warn us that allergy advice changes frequently so her advice would be to introduce every food slowly and controlled but not to give up if we see a reaction as its possible the more Thea eats the trigger food in small amounts that her body then wont react to it anymore but obviously not continue if a bad reaction  happens and give her good space between if this happens to recover before starting again! so combined with the body wash/steroid cream and being only on the milk we see improvements so solids food starts again this week! 

Thea is doing well in other areas although we know she is not at the right size for her age her weight has levelled out and although not gaining heaps enough to not be a huge concern, Thea is crawling and standing copying as best she can words and shes learnt to wave and clap! how to play peak a boo  and she understands gestures for her bottle or water! she now has 8 teeth and a bit more hair yipee! so all round not to bad we think she will figure walking soon enough!

Thea doing better and having had Dom off work lead me to think about work and money as if Dom had to give up work how would we manage my wage doesn't cover everything and how would i be able to provide a uni fund or savings for Thea in the future - i love my job and enjoy it but the money could be better ! so a mum friend and i have been talking for a while about how to earn from home while working to get extra money for uni funds holidays savings things like that, i have always wanted to set up a wedding hair and makeup venture but its to time consuming with a retail job that means working all weekends and holidays.

My mum friend mentioned a company and that she was going to give it ago and would i be interested in joining  her and after being really sceptical we chatted and we realised we can make it work we have so many tools and friends that we really could achieve extra earnings between full time work .

so i'm really considering taking that opportunity between my job and hey if it doesn't work least we tried! i think if i can in the progress and achieve my goals its setting a good example to Thea and by blogging and documenting my journey - good or bad, i can encourage other mums to do the same! this company actually appealed to be on a level of how it works and how i feel about my body post Thea! and having done some homework i think i would be happy to be part of that company! vs others but its personal choice many people do similar things with other companies i like this company for the natural ingredients and benefits to the body.

all in all new venture post pending once i have taken the plunge into actually doing something about earning more instead of moaning! doing something i enjoy - writing a blog posts baby related or new venture related i enjoy writing about many things so why not earn for myself and my family at the same time?! have any of you guys started a new project while off with maternity leave?! i would love to know ans hear about your experiences! 

enough ranting from me hope to write again soon! thank you for reading! 

Hannah and Thea xx

current products for Thea 

Hi, finally a blog!

Christmas! so its been and gone but here is a little blog on our little trip to Newquay Cornwall
we spent christmas in a really cute cottage close to the beach and right next to sainsbury's - you may wonder why i am adding that - its because i love the line of baby clothes from TU by Sainsbury's and dom found such a cute sleeping bag thats a unicorn, and i also found myself in the baby section more than once looking at clothing but managed to only buy one pair of boots!

The cottage was lovely and very farm feeling the living room area had a lovely log burner which would have been so festive but we had no need to use it as it was warm throughout  the cottage once the oven was on for dinner and everyone was in the living room - I thought being by the sea I would be freezing but actually London was colder!
we had a lovely little room above the front of the house which worked well for having Thea as at night we were a little bit further away from the family as she still is not sleeping all night and while we were away she was having an allergy issue! so some tears at night!
the other part of the cottage was lovely every room had a different sea theme and amazing windows as you may have seen I took a few photos of Thea at the windows! running joke also as all the bedrooms with bathrooms had them in what i can only describe as a very small cupboard! ours was ok but honestly the other one was a case of go in sideways and suck in and then turn ha ha !anyway- for me there is just something more festive about a cottage than our flat! maybe its the sea air and no planes going over and the fresh feel with the big windows?!

our mini christmas tree!

log burner in the living room

going to bed on Christmas eve and waking up Christmas morning in the cottage felt very festive!
our friend Sarah gave Thea a lovely Christmas eve sleep suit and my mum had given Thea a Christmas eve book so Thea wore the sleep suit and I read her the night before Christmas - she had no clue she basically just tried to eat the book and roll away maybe next year she will be more into the reading before bed?! We slept a bit later Christmas day but Dom and I were first up with Thea so we had a cup of tea and opened our gifts from each other, when everyone was up we had the best cooked breakfast which was fab as it kept us going til Christmas dinner which was amazing really well cooked by Dom's brother Lee's boyfriend Jaime who is a chef, how lovely is that having a chef in the family! first time we were meeting him on this trip and he spent a lot of his time in the kitchen! i would like to say i helped out with the food but everyone knows i never cook, Dom's other brother James and his wife Jill along with Dom helped with the food!
so Christmas day consisted of amazing home cooked food lots of laughing and opening gifts Thea had a fair few even tho we packed smaller ones to take!

christmas morning breakfast

Christmas day was lovely and i love that in years to come Thea will be older and more excited! i'm a huge kid still when it comes to Christmas! I feel very lucky to have been able to spend Thea's first Christmas off work as working in retail is rubbish when it comes to working holidays so I will always look back and be happy we could spend it as a family! 

we stayed for 5 days with Dom's family and spent a lovely evening in Launceston meeting Dom's extended family who had yet to meet Thea and we had not seen everyone since our wedding 4 years ago! we saw the family the day before Christmas eve, Christmas eve was a relaxed chill day for everyone with last min food and drink shopping.

Moving on to my fave day Boxing day normally if we are home its a pj day with food and family, this year Dom's family booked Jaime Oliver's restaurant 15 in water gate bay - not far from where we stayed a quick cab trip which was funny a big car small beach parking and one to many steps after eating ha ha!


so I was excited to eat here as I had heard many good things about it I believe it was his first restaurant where they train and teach young people in need to become professional chefs, all profit goes to the charity - the Cornwall Food Foundation.
The menu was amazing and you never know what you may get as the menu is subject to what arrives at the front door the morning of your booking!
I had my fingers and toes crossed for some sea food!

The view and location alone would get 10/10 for being beautiful you would have no idea it was December, the sun was shining and the beach was full of people learning to surf and families walking along the sea front.

The venue was nicely decorated and the staff were friendly and knowledgeable about the menu and the wines- we did a wine pairing so every course has a matching glass of wine, so I was two behind everyone as I was taking a sip with the matching meal and then stuffing my face ha ha! i ended up passing on most glasses i'm not a huge wine person- having said that I could get the reasons for each pairing so it is worth doing if you enjoy wine and even if you don't so much it does enhance the meal and experience!

view from 15

now I was excited and didn't really consider the blog post so my memory of what we ate may be a tad off but where I can I can say what it was! Each plate was like a piece of art and the flavours were incredible- now anyone who has eaten here and thought hmm mid range in the food world - I honestly wouldn't know why but i'm not a food critic and i love most foods so in a sense i'm easily pleased!

To follow we had this little lobster tortellini which was so good the source tasted really good I cant for the life of me remember anything helpful about this! there was a crunchy element which really added to the dish - no surprise I don't remember the ingredient! All we need to know is it was good!

 

i wanted to buy a box but it was 16 pounds for one box!

Thea enjoying her 15 experience

We hope you had a fab Christmas holiday, thank you for reading my ramble, posts will be few for a while as i'm back in full time work, hoping to do a Thea update soon and of course a 1st birthday blog post with pictures I have found a few instagram shops for handmade rompers which I want to get and photo also, I have the holiday blues writing this as its a school night as they say well nearly my last full weekend off with Dom and Thea!

I would also like to add thank you to everyone who has read/visited the blog and our Facebook page its had way more reads than I thought - I was nervous I would be rambling to myself! I will try and think of some good content for the coming year as i'm learning as I go with having Thea and her allergies and eating/skin difficulties!

 Thanks again for reading 

Hannah and Thea 

xx

Hi, today we talk all things Halloween!

Halloween and Christmas are my fav times of year so much so I take the decorating a little to far even the bathroom gets some festive decs around these times! 

I hope when Thea is older she shares my excitement for Halloween and Christmas! 

I thought I would write a Quick blog on quick and easy costumes for babies, I'm writing this after a long night of no sleep a lot of crying and constant struggle to stop Thea itching - we tried some new foods which set her skin and sickness off to a new level of BAD ! So the

Last few days and nights have been a struggle  so forgive me if there are spelling mistakes and things I haven't noticed during the typing and checking before publishing this today is Saturday 29th so I  wanted to have the Halloween blog up and ready for  the 31st ! 

So massive costume fail on my part for Thea's first Halloween I got her a pumpkin all in one but it was massive and I didn't get the chance to exchange it for the smaller size I got 6-9 but thea is still on 0-3 mostly baby grow wise ?! Why I thought it would fit who knows I got excited was shopping with my sister at the time and we saw the adult Halloween t shirt section ha ha that sounds weird !!
( nothing weird I just mean big people t shirts !)

So Thea actually has no costume but before I ordered a couple of random easy and

Quick Halloween / baby photography costumes that could be good for last min options 

The first one I got was a lady bird I just had in mind that I could photo it for Halloween and also use it for a photo shoot

For my sisters new born since I have been  off work I've been attempting to do some baby photography mostly with Thea! Just for fun I really enjoy the creative side of it, so I thought great a double use for that costume! I love it think it's really cute and easy if you needed a quick costume only thing is you would need a black baby grow - hardest thing to find I swear ! For the pics it was just a nappy but for actually using it as a costume baby grow is needed !

The hat is easy and cute and fits Thea well a tad big for my sisters new born but laying down to photo it you would never know ! The shell was cute tho a few of the dots were falling off my the end of the photos ! And it doesn't attach to anything as it is made for

New borns who don't move but this is easily solved by some ribbon so you can use it as a costume which I'm panning to do for Thea as we have a fancy dress party coming up !



The second one I got was a peacock costume which I gravitated towards because of the headband and the colours no one else likes this costume ! Anyway it's again needing a black baby grow if it was to be used as a costume but the tail part attaches around the waist and the headband is cute could even be used for a 40s theme it's great for new born photos it's actual purpose!
The third one I got again a photography outfit really was a little rabbit one which is a hat and a bottom part that cover and attaches like a nappy - best way to describe it ! This one is easy with a white baby grow under it ! All of these are cheap and quick and easy! 

The only other Halloween thing we have done is go pumpkin picking with my sister and her 3 girls which was fun and we had our traditional hocus pocus night with our friend Alex it's not Halloween without watching hocus !
My pumpkin carving skills is so bad I can't even bring myself  to upload the pic I wanted to do jack from nightmare before Christmas but ended up using the wrong knife and ended up doing a ghost face which then I messed up and it caved in on itself so now it looks like Micky mouse!
Next time I'm letting my sister Laura do my one she's really good a carving them ! And my sisters husband is always doing really good ones for the girls !



I hope one year we can spend Halloween in America ! I think that would be super cool much more festive than here maybe!  I've seen those Halloween stores jam packed with Halloween goodness! In America , While we get small sections in supermarkets and of course fancy dress shops but it's just not the same here! Would be so cool to have a massive Halloween shop ! And maybe some different Halloween sweets!





We hope you have a spooky Halloween!
Thanks for reading
Hannah and Thea
XxX