Autumn Home Additions

There's something that happens to me, a change as soon as the temperate drops. I'm a homebody anyway, but I seem to start nesting for the winter, making sure my house is as clean and cosy as possible. Part of that is always making a few little purchases, mostly of cushions and candles, not that I ever need much of an excuse anyway. 

Before I got pregnant I used to check the H&M Home website on the regular, but I hadn't been on in months until recently. My cushions were looking a little grubby, and of course H&M is always the best place to pick some news ones up for just a few pounds. I decided, being Autumn, to add a bit of a mustard to my living room so picked up the geo print cotton cushion cover and the velvet cushion cover, although I now have so many cushions on my sofa it's running out of bum room. 

To me, it's also not Autumn without picking up a Bath and Body Works Candle. Of course being American, they are a little harder to track down, but after refreshing my ebay search every few hours for a couple of days, I managed to get my hands on the Pumpkin Spiced Cheesecake candle. It smells like salted caramel and I can even get a good whiff of it from my sofa when it's not burning. I also got one of the candle holders from this seller which just makes it look a little prettier on my coffee table. 

Have you made any cosy additions to your home recently?

Some Third Trimester Essentials

The third trimester is notoriously difficult for pregnant ladies, and whilst nausea has pretty much disappeared, you're plagued with other delightful pregnancy symptoms like restless legs, insomnia, stretch marks.. the list is rather long. There is a positive behind it all though, it's meant that I've not felt too guilty spending a bit of money on myself and giving myself the occasional daily pamper session, with a few selected favourite products to get me through.

I've tried and tested a few different products in an attempt to keep the stretch marks at bay, and I've found that body oils really work the best for me. I've not come out completely unscathed though; before I even considered stretch marks as I was losing weight with morning sickness, the backs of my legs were somehow covered in several purple lines, and due to a little bit of laziness on my part (oops!) I have a couple around my belly button too. My favourite has been the Roger & Gallet Fleur De Figuier Ultra Nourishing Oil*, which has a beautiful fresh scent, as well as being so easy to apply everyday with the help of a spritz bottle. It sinks in really well too, meaning I can go a bit overboard in the fight against those marks! To switch things up a bit I've also been using the L'Occitane Almond Supple Skin Oil which I've managed to use the entire little sample of in just a few days. The scent is really lovely, and something a bit different to the Roger & Gallet offering, although both are seriously good quality and are helping to keep away stretch marks and the uncomfortable itchiness I'm also suffering a bit with.

Lush has been my favourite store throughout the whole pregnancy, and I'm finding myself having a bubble bar or bath ballistic filled bath every other day, which is becoming a slightly expensive habit, but it's a sure fire way to help me relax in the evenings. Sadly most of my recent Lush buys have already been all used up, but one of my favourites that I keep repurchasing is Blue Skies & Fluffy White Clouds Bubble Bar which has patchouli as one of it's main ingredients, claimed to help you relax and drift off to sleep. Therapy Massage Bar is the first one I've ever bought from Lush, and it doubles up as a lovely body moisturizer for the times you can't try and guilt your partner into giving you a nice back rub. The scent is absolutely gorgeous, and I've found this has been a great help in fading the existing stretch marks on my legs. 

Last but definitely not least are a couple products from Neom. A couple weeks ago I was really struggling to sleep, and at about 3am in desperation I placed a next day delivery order of their Tranquility Pillow Mist and Tranquility Travel Candle. I find just a spritz of two on my pillow and a couple deep breaths help me drift off so much quicker, which is especially helpful after waking up for a wee the third time in a night. I can rely on burning the travel candle for an hour or so in bed whilst I read to give me an extra good nights sleep too. I only wish I'd bought this pair quicker!

Have you tried any of these products before? 

A Little Update

Somehow, it was a whole six months ago (!!!) now that I wrote a little post about taking time out, and boy have I stayed true to my word on that! If you follow me on any of my social media, you'll know it's no secret that I'm expecting a baby due this December with my partner, and that post was actually written in the first weeks of what were to be months of absolutely horrendous morning all day sickness.

To say pregnancy hasn't been the easiest is a bit of an understatement; I don't like moaning too much because I fell pregnant incredibly easily, and I know a lot of women out there have issues with that or can't have children altogether, so I should count my lucky stars. But when you're throwing up for the tenth time that day after just a sip of water, it's a little hard to try and be at all positive. I'd say probably the twenty weeks I spent most of my days with my head in the toilet bowl, and at 32 weeks now I'm still probably sick one or two times a week. Those darn hormones! I ended up taking tablets for it but that just made it worse, so I've just struggled on really. Luckily working from home means I could work around it and go to lie down when I needed to. I suppose one of the upsides to it is that I lost 12 pounds early on, meaning I'm only 6 pounds heavier than my starting weight with just seven weeks to go!

So, I probably haven't left myself a great deal of time to get back into blogging properly before baby comes along and wipes me out even more so than I currently feel, but I thought I'd at least do a little update post. My back hurts, heartburn is awful and I can't sleep properly, but I'm happy and so excited for this little babe to arrive at the beginning of December. I'm hoping to manage at least a couple posts a week, so please stay tuned, and thank you for sticking around!