Thursday 26 August 2010

Bombay Duck - Sparkle In The Rain

Bombay Duck Logo

It's raining , it's pouring... It's August - of course!

Wave goodbye to that lovely weekend in July that we fondly recall as being our great British summer and embrace the weather with one of these beautiful umbrellas from Bombay Duck.






Pom Pom Umbrellas £24.99



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Raindrops Glitter Spots Handbag Umbrella Pink




Bombay Duck


Pre-Loved Sale, Albert Road Southsea


I am warmly inviting you to a pre-loved sale hosted by La Leche League Portsmouth.

Thursday 2nd September 2010

10-11.30am

At The Salvation Army Hall, Albert Road (Through the black gates next door to Ken's Kebabs!)

I will be selling some of my pre-loved stock down there, most of which is either new or nearly new.  I will have a good selection of ladies clothes of all different sizes - all high quality brands  such as Per Una, Topshop and Monsoon.  I will also have a collection of branded children's clothes of different ages.

Please come and have a browse, there will be lots of bargains to be had.  A minimum of 10% of our proceeds will be going to La Leche League.

Everyone is welcome to buy although only women who attend the group are allowed to sell.  Please do invite other women, Mum's and pregnant ladies.

Hope to see you there.

Love Abs xxxx

La Leche League Portsmouth

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Don’t call me a right on mummy just because I breastfeed my babe in public! Guest Post from Nurturing Career Mama

The children and I just spent a lovely weekend up North with my parents.  Seeing as it was the weekend though, it meant they were going to church. So, ever the loving daughter that I am, I went with my unruly brood in tow.  As it was the school holidays, there weren't many children there and the biggest noise was coming from the hiss of the geriatric hearing aid loop.  The last thing I wanted was a crying baby to ruin everyone's holy experience.





Breastfeeding toddler courtesy of sierraromeo [sarah-ji] 


Needless to say, the baby was restless, plus it was his nap time anyway.  So, in order to keep him happy and quiet.  I breastfed him throughout the entire sermon.  Now, seeing as the majority of the congregation were over sixty - I wasn't sure how frowned upon it would be to be breastfeeding in the house of God by some of the more judgemental amongst them.  As he is my third child I am quite good at being discreet and I know it may be shocking to some people to think that I am still feeding him even though he has teeth and he is walking and he is past one years old, but I am not doing anything weird or heroic.  It's just natural and easy.  I would kind of expect to be commented on by a few folk in their Sunday best, but to hear the comments made by a female presenter on a chat show that is aimed at women is pretty shocking. 

Read the following excellent guest post article by Nurturing Career Mama to find out more:

Don’t call me a "right on" mummy just because I breast feed my babe in public! By Nurturing Career Woman

I was listening to a lunch time program on Monday, called Loose Women, you will know it well if you live in the UK. It was on in the background for my hubby (not me I’m too busy working) ,when he alerted me to a debate on mums breastfeeding in public. One of the ladies on the panel, can’t remember her name (might have been Linda Belingham), made a derogatory comment about ‘right on mums’ breastfeeding in public and this got me a little agitated – well enough for me to write a post about it to you.
You might have guessed it, but I am pro breastfeeding in public. I know it’s really odd to people when they first encounter a mum breastfeeding her child and it can freak you out a bit. But that’s just because people are too scared to do it in public because they think society frowns up them and people don’t encounter this situation regularly. I know when I first saw a mum feeding her child when I was a teenager, working in a cafe, I was quite shocked and dashed over to my mate…”Hey look shes breastfeeding”. I wasn’t disgusted, I was more taken aback – it was the first time I’d encountered this. 
When I first had babe, I would hide away in a backroom while breastfeeding, even on Christmas day. I remember my first time out in public, it was in a Starbucks coffee shop and I was ever so careful to wrap myself in a shawl to cover every possible hint of flesh – and hubby was on flesh cover alert just in case it dropped down.
Argh what I long way I’ve come now…to the extent where I just don’t give a damn, where I am, what pops out and who see’s it. The only exception is work. I’ve taken babe into the office a couple of times, but did feed her at my desk facing inwards. I work in a very male orientated industry and office, and they are not the most enlightened bunch of individuals generally (software engineers and developers etc). The problem I encountered was when people spotted me…”hey we haven’t seen you in ages, hows things going”. Umm I’m feeding my babe??? And they didn’t seem to notice – I was being super discrete trying to just shout over my shoulder or use the shawl tactic. I might have freaked a few people out with that, but I think they were non the wiser.
BUT I don’t want to be branded as a ‘right-on’ mum just cause I am doing what’s natural.
I also heard about this terrible story, of a woman in Bristol who got thrown off a bus in February by the driver for breastfeeding her baby. When she refused to get off, he threatened to call the police because she was indecently exposing her self! Poor woman.
GOOD NEWS – NEW BREASTFEEDING LAW IN AUTUMN


I’ve just googled this topic and found that a new law is coming in place in autumn.
Under the new Equality Act, passed in April 2010, mums cannot be discriminated against, asked to leave a venue or treated unfavourably because they are breastfeeding when out and about in England and Wales. The Act will come into effect in the Autumn. 
Scotland is already ahead of the game on this one, I’m pleased to see that we in England are catching up at last.
So Mama’s there’s no excuses for anyone to be mean to us in public now – stand your ground and attend to your child, don’t let others initial startled looks put you off.
In fact, to be honest I have got very few odd looks from people, but perhaps that’s just because I’m oblivious now or I live in a more enlighted city – I dunno.

If you liked this post, read more at http://nurturingcareermama.wordpress.com/

Tuesday 10 August 2010

What Shall I Wear to a Posh Wedding? Designer Dress Hire

Okay ladies, try not to hyperventilate here.  But you know all that fashion that we love looking at and dreaming about, but we just have to leave it at that because it's only a dream right?  Flicking through Vogue and admiring the designer dresses or watching television and  seeing the celebrities looking amazing in their thousand pound dresses, why do we do it to ourselves?


Girl Meets Dress Ltd

Click the box above to browse the fabulous dresses for hire

Well, it looks like all your fashion dreams could be coming true.  For the price you would pay for a high street dress for that special occasion, you could be wearing pure unadulterated designer dresses.  Let's face it, you might pick up a lovely Karen Millen or a sweet Coast dress for £100 upwards and you'll only wear it once, because once you've worn it to one event, you wouldn't want to be appearing on Facebook the following month wearing exactly the same thing.  So off that dress goes to the back of the wardrobe never to see the light of day again.  So, if you were going to spend that money anyway, why not go for uber fabulous?  Why not upstage the rest of the guests in a genuine Phillip Lim or a silk Miu Miu or a floor length Alexander Wang?





Hire a Herve Leger worth £1633 for only £119 http://www.raredesignermusthaves.co.uk/303 Or Chloe or Miu Miu - there's lots to choose from!

Click here to Hire this genuine Jimmy Choo studded clutch - £79 - retail price £254

Click here to Hire this Royal Blue Silk Issa Dress £89 - retail price £321

This is my favourite, pure silk Issa dress with plenty of ruching, imagine flouncing about in this beauty!

http://www.girlmeetsdress.com












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Girl Meets Dress Ltd

That's it, it's so easy.  Browse online and make sure you give them at least four days notice before your event and you will be wearing the dress of your dreams.  Then when the party's over, send it back and start looking for your next dress!

http://www.girlmeetsdress.com

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Thursday 5 August 2010

New Discoveries

It's Been a Bad Earnings Month but a Seriously Life Enhancing Month So Far

After leaving my Twitter account dormant for eighteen months I finally decided to take the plunge and get tweeting.  Boy, was it worth it.  It has been surprisingly easy and actually rather nice to talk to complete strangers about all sorts of nonsense.  I have a good feeling that some of those strangers are fast becoming friends.  I heard a quote the other day that Facebook is for the friends you wish you didn't know and Twitter is for the friends you wish you had.  There is some degree of truth in that. Don't worry friends - I love you all.

I've got my fashion goggles on

 I have met some wonderful inspirational Mummy Fashion bloggers.  One lady you may already know is: www.fortynotout.com If you can't get enough of her fashion fabulousity then you will be seriously excited to hear that she has just released a new venture in the form of  her own personal services as your very own stylist.   For knock down reasonable rates she will take the headache out of what to wear and will ensure you find the perfect outfit for your occasion.  Don't just take my word for it, take a look; http://www.fortynotout.com/onlinestylist/ You can even buy vouchers for a friend to try the service - what a fantastic present that would be!



I've also met  a great team of writers who are on a mission to get writing up to 2500 words a day.  http://completeflake.com/2500-words/  It's a challenge issued by the complete flake to get passed that writers block and get writing.  Come and join us! #2500wds  The curious use of hashtags  "#" is almost making sense. I am a great lover of grammar and I like a sentence to be sentence so the challenge of squeezing all that I want to say into 140 characters is against the grain but more fun than a game of Suduko to say the least.  It's fun, give it a try and come follow me if you do on www.twitter.com/abbymansell 

Other New Discoveries This Week


Anyone who has been to our house of chaos will know that I am no domestic goddess any more.  Self employment and working from home means that my constantly being here means that I am constantly making a mess. I have clothing stock piled everywhere and the contributing dust scattered by the fluffy ginger tom cat, the hairy Rhodesian ridge back dog, one large dusty tree surgeon human bean, two long haired medium sized human beans, one smaller human bean who can barely remember to brush his own teeth never mind actually clean up after himself and a small but messy baby bean come toddler means that the cleaning is very hard to keep on top of.  Because of this, I had given up trying to remove the years of limescale that had collected on the bathroom sinks.  I'd scrubbed and bleached and bought limescale remover and tried and scraped till my fingers were raw.  There was no natural remedies prepared to do the job.  So, like every lazy arty type would, I ignored it and let nature take it's course.  Until I discovered Cillit Bang.  My goodness I sound like even more of a corporate whore than usual, but seriously that stuff works.  And pretty rapidly as well.  I no longer have a thick greening layer of hard limescale growing on the sink enamel.  I smile when I go to the loo now instead of mutter and curse.  I have never bought it before, because years back, someone told me it was crap and I don't like listening to adverts because they tend to say anything to make you buy it.  They do though don't they?  I'd much rather take the words of other people and fellow bloggers, they tend to be a bit more honest than the actual advertisers.  Whoever told me it was rubbish - obviously had a clean house already.
Advert:

 Hit The Urban Outfitters Summer Sale (because a Headhuntress has to earn her crust)

Not Such A Good Discovery


The summer months are hectic for us, not just because of the school holidays but because it's major birthday time.  The baby turned one last week and the teen is going to be 14 next month!  Oof.  The baby party was fairly simple, but the teen initially asked for a beach party.  "Sure," I said being all laid back about things as usual.  We've had beach parties before.  They're a doddle.  Just take some food, drink, windbreaks and music, people can chat and go for a swim... Actually, no, on second thoughts.  "Wouldn't you rather just have the party on Southsea Common darling?"

There is no way that I want to be responsible for a bunch of rampant teenagers floating about in The Solent.  How would I explain to their parents that they were fine until they drowned in my care.  No thank you.  Not something I want to be doing.  So - phew - the teen has agreed to an Al Fresco party on Southsea Common. Which will of course be round at our house if the whether is inclement.  Back, to parties round at our house.  I served up a load of bland but healthy tasting snacks for our baby's birthday party, but the teen and I got busy baking and she produced a fine Victoria sandwich for the birthday cake, which was nicknamed "The Giant Cream Tea" as it resembled a massive scone after I had scraped the burnt bits off and smothered it in jam and clotted cream and also some lovely cupcakes which we decorated in icing and those yummy little silver cake balls just for the adults and anyone who was old enough not to go hyper on a glucose induced sugar high.

 Me being the try hard health Mafia mum that I am means that we don't often have sugary snacks and sweets in our house, so the little silvery cake balls were irresistible to us hormonal girls hankering for some sugar.  We must've eaten hundreds of them.  Yummy scrummy.  So you can imagine our dismay a few days after noshing on them at every opportunity that the teen announced that they had pork gelatine in them!  Yuk!  Hurl.  Bleurgh.   After years of being a vegetarian I had just filled myself up with a pile of collegen made from pig bones, connective tissues and intestines.  Nice.  That is the equivalent of a meat eater finding a severed finger in their dinner.   Never before have I wanted a colonic more.  Why do they need to have gelatine in them someone tell me?  It's just sugar!

Pigs bones anyone?

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Must-Have Designer Maternity Dresses

So, you've finally done it.  That pink line has appeared on the white plastic stick or if you're really posh there's a little word written on the screen.  "Pregnant."  Pregnant?  Yes!  You are soooo happy but once the excitement and the nausea die down, the big question is....  What the hell do I wear?

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There's so much to buy for little ones, but there's always a little voice nagging at the back of your mind.  What about me?  I had no idea how I was going to house my gigantuous behind that grew two inches for every one inch my bump grew.  ASOS are great for cheap and cheerful maternity pieces, but if you are looking for some quality purchases, then head to Blossom Mother and Child.  Take a look and drool my friends.  Their current stock almost makes me wish I were pregnant again.  Actually.  No.  Three children are quite enough thank you.


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True Religion Billy Maternity jeans £286, buy here  I wore these adapted Blossom True Religion jeans during my pregnancy as the non-maternity ones are so flattering, I knew that these would make the best of my ever expanding backside.  The stretch panel at the front is so comfy, they make for the perfect jeans right from the early stages through to the end of pregnancy and on into that post-pregnancy-wobbly-tummy period.


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Clements Ribeiro Iris jersey maternity dress £115.00, buy here  This Clements Ribeiro number is ideal for day wear.  Soft stretchy and comfortable, ruching will become your best friend during pregnancy!


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See by Chloe knit dress with contrast trim £232.00, buy here  This See by Chloe dress is so cute with it's little cut out hearts - and the good news is - it's not just for maternity.  Great for Mum's who've had their babies and need something forgiving to wear whilst looking and feeling stylish still.
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M Missoni cardigan £408.00, (read more and buy here) Love love love this Missoni cardigan and the good news girls, is that it's not just for maternity either - hurray!  All we need now is a spare £408.
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Blossom halter neck dress £259.00 (read more here)
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This dress is stunningly elegant, perfect for that special day or evening out when you're expecting a baby. The halter neck cut is so flattering and will show off your slimmest area - back and shoulders, while the chiffon skirt will swish beautifully over your bump.

So, if you want to know where to buy the best high end maternity clothes that money can buy - then head to:  http://www.blossommotherandchild.com/



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