Giveaway Four - Beauty Hamper from House of Fraser

I would absolutely love for you to vote for me in the Clickstay Mummy Blogger Awards. It takes 2 seconds and you can vote here up to once daily. I'm currently in third place, but I would be over the moon if I made it into the top spot as the prize is £1000 towards a villa in Portugal which would allow me to go with the kids on our first family holiday in the sun. Thanks so much for your ongoing support - it's much appreciated. Sarah x
Yesterday was the official birthday of the Glasgow Mummy blog! I have been writing on these pages for four years now... can you believe it? 

No, neither can I!!

I have a final giveaway to share with you to thank you for your support over the years... House of Fraser, Glasgow have very kindly made me up a Beauty Hamper for one lucky reader. If you're aren't the lucky winner, then HOF have the Big Brand Sale running just now with up to 50% off; definitely worth checking out.

So what's in the stash I hear you ask? Well, there is...

A zebra print Roberto Cavalli clutch bag

Molton Brown Ylang Ylang Body Wash, 50 mL

Azzaro Pour Homme, £30 mL

Yohji Yamamoto Eau de Parfum, 10 mL

Yohji Homme Eau de Toilette, 10 mL

Nails Inc Snowflake, Whitechapel 14 mL

Clinique Clarifying Lotion, 30 mL

Clarins Instant Eye Make-Up Remover, 30 mL

Clarins HydraQuench Cream, 5 mL

Clarins HydraQuench Mask, 5 mL

Clarins Men Super Moisture Balm, 5 mL

Plus samples of the following:

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

Jean Paul Gaultier Madame EDT

Jean Paul Gaultier Fleur du Male EDT

Davidoff Cool Water EDT

Vivienne Westwood Cheeky Alice EDT

Elie Saab le Parfum Couture

Elie Saab le Parfum Intense

Paisley Etro EDT

And then I threw in a few things from me too:

Molton Brown Heavenly Ginger Body Cream, 100 mL

Origins GinZing refreshing eye cream (sample)

Origins GinZing refreshing scrub cleanser (sample)

cK 3-in-1 face make-up (sample)

Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream (sample)

Priori Skin Renewal Cream (sample)

Prior Barrier Repair Complex (sample)

All you need to do is enter the rafflecopter below... easy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There is only one prize.
UK entrants only please.
No cash alternative available.
Good luck :-)

Have you voted here? Thanks again!!!! Apologies for all the spam, it'll stop soon!

Giveaway One - Happy Birthday to Us with St Enoch Centre

I have been writing my blog now for almost four years. Yep, four years!! I can't quite believe it. I am super proud of my blog and the little space on the Internet that I have created. 

I love to share what we get up to - the good times & bad - this is real life after all! 

I am so happy that I've been capturing our memories and photographs and I really enjoy reading through my blog archive. Plus there's now video blogs too! 

I love the emails I get from my followers who have been inspired by my story which has given them hope in their own dark times.

I am grateful for the advice and suggestions I've had from readers who have been in similar situations to myself which has been a huge help to me.

It may not mean much to some, but reaching my blog 4th birthday in June is a big deal to me!

There's another big birthday approaching in Glasgow soon. The St Enoch Centre is going to be 26 years old this month!! 

The kids & I have had some fantastic times at the St Enoch Centre...from partying with Mickey Mouse at the Disney Store to meeting Santa at his grotto... from bee keeping on the roof to meeting celebrities at Mothercare!

There's a great selection of shops; the kids are big fans of the Disney Store and Hamley's and mummy loves Debenhams, BHS, H&M and Boots. Last time we were at the Centre as a family we had food at Ed's Easy Diner which was yum! Plus it's super handy to get to... We tend to use the subway park and ride; the kids love getting on the subway train and it takes us right to the Centre! But there is also plenty of parking at the Centre and I've never had an issue finding a space.

Anyway, to celebrate both birthdays, the St Enoch Centre have kindly given me a £50 gift voucher as a competition prize for one of my followers! All you need to do is enter the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There is only one prize.

No cash alternative.

The winner will be able to collect their voucher from Customer Services at the St Enoch Centre.
Competition ends on Sunday 17th May.

P.S. I've a few more great giveaways coming soon... keep watching this space!

{R's Birthday Surprise at Blythswood Square Hotel}

It is R's birthday today (Happy Birthday!!) and I had planned a luxurious getaway for the Easter weekend at the Blythswood Square Hotel for us to celebrate. I managed to keep it a secret from him right up until we pulled up outside the hotel in our taxi!! I'm amazed I didn't spill the beans as I was super excited about it all!

I absolutely love the Blythswood Square Hotel. It's a 5 star hotel and spa right in the city centre of Glasgow, and it's location meant that we didn't need to waste any precious time travelling across the country for our weekend break. I've thoroughly enjoyed their Square Eyes Film Club events and I've also attended a Cupcake Masterclass at the hotel. Bex over at The Olive Dragonfly also had her mini hen party here, so I knew that we were going to be in for a great weekend of pampering!

Our room was ready when we checked in at lunchtime on Easter Sunday, so we were able to suss out our digs and drop off our bags before hitting the spa!

Our Bathroom to Bedroom hotel room - amazing!

I had booked the Blythswood Spa Escape & included in the price (£260 per room per night based on two adults) we had the following:

• Luxury accommodation (and that it was!)
• Full Scottish breakfast
• 55 minute spa treatment each on the day of arrival
• Complimentary use of The Thermal Experience

R had a ishga Hot Stone Massage and I had chosen an Elemis Skin Specific Facial. It was extremely relaxing and I loved every minute! Whilst the face mask was on I was given a head, neck & shoulder massage. It was perfect! I do love a good facial :)

After the treatments we met up in the relaxation suite where I had a cup of green tea and chilled out for a bit. There were lots of inviting loungers to chose from with cosy blankets to keep warm. 

From here we headed back to the spa reception where we were shown to the locker rooms and once in our swimming gear we then made our way to The Thermal Experience. We spent two blissful hours in the various steam rooms & saunas... The Laconium, The Sauna, The Saunarium, The Crystal Steam Room, The Tepidarium, the Hydro Pool and the Vitality Pool.

Feeling thoroughly spoiled and relaxed we then headed back to our room where we had a few hours before dinner. I may have enjoyed a hot bath with a glass of fizz (thanks Ali!) before slipping into my little black dress!

The food was amazing, with the dessert being my highlight. The macarons were to die for!

After a brilliant sleep, I started the day with another bath and then we headed back to the restaurant for breakfast. Full Scottish for R and Eggs Benedict for moi. I know I keep saying this, but it really was amazing! I wasn't quick enough off the mark to get any of the pastries, next time!

We checked out of our room at midday, but I had paid for us to return to The Thermal Experience again (£20 each) and so we spent another three hours journeying through the series of rooms again. And if it couldn't get any better, we were then booked for Afternoon Tea in The Salon. I had clocked an offer on Emerald Street for two-for-one tea so we had afternoon tea for two for £22.

Duchess of Bedford Afternoon Tea... the sandwiches were gorgeous & loads of them too, followed by two perfect scones with lashings of cream and jam, and rounded off with carrot cake, lemon meringue pie, lemon drizzle cake, caramel eclair and a raspberry meringue (according to the menu this was a macaron, but it was more like a meringue and very different to the macarons we had with dinner in the restaurant the day before which were delightful). All washed down with some earl grey tea.

Mmmmmm!!!

It was the perfect end to an absolutely amazing weekend!!! 

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{Happy Birthday to my Littlest}

My daughter turns 3 this month. Yes, three!!! Where has the time gone??

For her first birthday we threw an afternoon tea party and for her 2nd birthday I hosted a painting party. This year she's having a small Build a Bear party with her big brother and their cousins - I know that she'll love it.

I thought I'd pull together a few of my favourite photographs of her over the last three years...

Just a week old!

I did a lot of walking whilst the littlest was a baby as 

part of my fitness programme with my personal trainer. The baby carrier was great for this.

Out for tea and cakes with the girls!

Those cheeks!!

Dressing up for Halloween. I love a tutu!

1st birthday 'afternoon tea' party - and another tutu!

Starting to look more like a little girl than a baby!

Dressed as Robin for her brother's super hero party!

Aww!

Doing some gardening last month!

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{Giveaway: It's my party...}

...and I'll cry if I want to!

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My blog will be 2 years old this month...16th to be precise! It's been an emotional journey that we've shared thus far (lots of tears from me!) but things are surely on the up now!

When I started this blog with my first post 'Beginning, Middle & End', deep down I knew that I had a journey ahead of me and that something needed to change. I wasn't happy, although at the time I didn't share the reason why. It was mainly relationship issues, which I've now divulged. So that was the beginning.... and at the moment I'm making a rocky journey through the middle. Life has it's ups and it's downs that's for sure! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a happy ending!

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I have decided to do a giveaway to celebrate my blog birthday... hopefully you will spread the word that is Glasgow Mummy and join in.

I've bought a few of my favourite things for one lucky person to win....

• A set of boxed grey notecards from Paperchase (my favourite colour and it's pretty stationery too!)

• A gold and black necklace from Forever 21 (I'm loving gold jewellery right now!)

• A bag of Percy Pig sweets from Marks and Spencers (mmmmm.... Percy Pig!)

• A bar of Green & Black's white chocolate - I'm hoping you'll make the White Chocolate Tiramisu from Project #RecipeSwap

• I'm all for some pampering me-time, so I've included an Arran Aromatics grapefruit massage bar

• Lastly, with my love of fairy lights there is a box of 10 paper star fairy light covers (lights not included)

Good luck :-)

Sorry, but this competition is open to UK entrants only. There is only one prize available.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Daughter's 2nd Birthday - a Painting Party}

For my daughter's first birthday party, I hosted an afternoon tea party for family & friends. This year I decided on a smaller affair - a little party for her cousins (six children under 5 years of age!). One of her favourite things to do is paint, so what better than a painting party!

I got lots of inspiration from Pinterest and put together a few ideas.

{The decorations}
Coloured streamers
Lots and lots of brightly coloured balloons

{To eat}
A selection of rolls
Cocktail sausages, crisps & nibbles
Strawberries & grapes
Jelly & cream
Iced biscuits
Paint palette cupcakes

{The cake}
A plain madeira sponge which the kiddies 'painted' with food colouring

{The games}
Painting a canvas using paper plate stencils
Pass the parcel - each kiddie received a packet of pencils and a box of paints for the winner
Musical statues

Here are the pics...:

Presents for the birthday girl 

Busy baking - thank you to Auntie Ali

Streamers from Party Delights (where I also bought some brightly coloured plates, cups & bowls)

Cupcake paint palettes inspired by this pin. I got the wooden palettes from eBay.

Creating their masterpieces (I managed to find cheap canvases from a local cash & carry - they were £2 each). I cut out stencils on paper plates of stars and hearts which I drew using cookie cutter shapes. I was inspired by A Little Learning for Two for this :-)

Note the dust sheets everywhere! We were hoping to be in the garden for this activity, but the weather had other plans!!

Jelly and whippy cream with sprinkles - yum!

Inspired by Sprinkle of Glitter, I recreated some milk bottles with sprinkles and heart straws. 

Sorry for the absolutely rubbish photograph, but you get the idea!

After lunch we then 'painted' the birthday cake with food colouring

The finished cake, complete with sparkler!

My daughter's finished canvas.

The party was a great success. There were enough activities to keep the kiddies entertained and they all left with a piece of cake and a canvas!

{Guest Post: Children's Party Ideas}

It is my littlest's birthday in just under two weeks time! Hard to believe but she's going to be two... yikes! Where did the time go?

Anyway, this guest post from Air Inflatables, a leading UK bouncy castle sales specialist, has come at a good time as it has five fun & affordable children's party ideas.

Children love to be creative and it’s hard when you’re on a budget to provide them with activities to ensure they have fun at the party, it’s particularly difficult to keep a group of children entertained for extended periods of time too – that’s where we come in!

Here are 5 creative yet affordable ideas to keep your children entertained at their party:

Egg Decoration

Egg decoration is an old favourite that doesn’t need to be confined to Easter! It’s simple and can be very cheap too. You need a pack of eggs - free range eggs are bigger and better quality but if your budget is tight then buy a pack of chef’s eggs from the supermarket, they’re very cheap and come in large quantities! Then you need to hard boil the eggs; pop them in a pan of cool water with a tablespoon of vinegar and half a teaspoon of salt in and gently bring them to the boil (this will help to avoid cracking) then boil them for around 2 minutes, take off the heat, cover and leave for approximately 12-15 minutes. Then remove the eggs from the pan and place in a bowl of ice water to cool down, cover in a container and when they’ve cooled pop them in the fridge ready for the party. All you need now are some paints, maybe some simple colours for hair and eyes, and then get the kids to paint the eggs, this could be themselves a superhero or a princess - the possibilities are endless!

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Make your own pizza

Another fun food favourite - why not get a few readymade pizza bases from the supermarket , these shouldn’t be much more than 1 or 2 pounds and as well as great value they also come with cooking instructions on the back of the pack. Spread the base with a basic sauce; we recommend passata for a tomato sauce but you could use barbeque or even pesto. Then cover with the toppings you desire, this could be ham, pepperoni, mushrooms or mozzarella. You can literally let the kid’s imaginations run wild with this activity and you don’t need to worry about lunch either as they have arranged it for you!

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Pot a plant

We love this idea, all you need is a bag of soil (or soil from the garden) a pack of plastic party cups and some seeds. For our example we’ve picked a French breakfast radish which look great and don’t need transferring to a garden. Get your plastic cup and fill it with soil, leave an inch space at the top to avoid overflow then place a radish seed a half inch deep. Let the children know to water the plants a little every couple of days (not to put too much in) and after around 30 days the radish should poke out from the soil and be ready to eat - easy, simple and fun!

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Bouncy castles

Bouncy castles can seem to be a more expensive item at a party but we’ve found that if you have a search of your local dealers you can pick them up from as little as £45 for a couple of hours or £50 for the day which is a huge bargain considering the amount of time the children will spend on it. We think that a couple of hours is great for working up and appetite for lunch or towards the end of the party so they are ready to relax in front of a film before their parents pick them up. 

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Pencil Stationery

Another great arts and crafts activity is to buy a big pack of pencils online, it’s really simple to get bulk packs and they aren’t too pricey either (24 pencils for £2 on eBay), then get a used plastic bottle and some PVA glue, spread the glue over the bottle and stick the pencils to it with the rubbers on the bottom and the points facing upwards (make sure they’re not sharp!) then leave the pots to dry and they can now be used as stationary holders. This is a really handy activity that gets the children a useful gift and may even get them interested in their school work!

That’s our ideas for some fun and affordable children’s party ideas; the best part of it is that you don’t even need to make party bags as they’ve made their own gifts during the day! Even though you may be faced with a lot of clearing up, we think these activities are great, but we’d also like to hear what affordable, fun and creative ideas you have too so please leave any comments below.

Watch this space to see what we did in the Glasgow Mummy house for the littlest's birthday :-)

{January Joy - 14th Jan}

Today is my birthday, so the timing of today's prompt for #JanuaryJoy 'Monday Mani or proper pedicure' couldn't have landed on a more perfect day! 

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I'm actually going one better... this evening I am going for a mini-facial and a hot stone back massage at a nearby day spa. My friend that moved to Australia had been given a voucher for a massage for her birthday, but somehow ended up losing the voucher and despite all our best efforts we were unable to locate it. Turns out the voucher wasn't lost... she found it the other week and has organised for me to use it on her behalf. How lovely is that!! A proper birthday treat :-)

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{4, not 3}

According to my son, he is turning 4, not 3! His actual birthday is tomorrow, but today we had a little party with his cousin's at his daddy's house. It's been a long, emotional day and I left the party first, with tears welling up in my eyes as I went. I found it a bit difficult. All the immediate family from his side were there plus me and despite nothing being said about the whole situation, I could feel the tension (maybe it was my imagination!?) and felt a bit awkward. I came back to my empty house, wiped away the tears and hit the gym! (About time too you might say!). I'm currently sat at my desk with a cup of tea in hand and I'm planning on having an early night - I need to catch up on sleep and prepare myself for the week ahead.

I thought I'd share a couple of the photographs in case you didn't happen to spot them in my Twitter feed. I had bought my son a very cool t-shirt (I think so anyway!) for his birthday that has his name across the front, as such I'm not sharing any photographs of him, but here is his little sister in her party dress!

Pointing at a 'birdie'

She *loved* all the balloons!!

An example of the t-shirt I bought my son by Flaming Imp

{Daughter's First Birthday Party}

I've just realised that after posting my plans for the afternoon tea party for my daughter's first birthday, I didn't post any photographs of the actual party! Silly me! So here are some of the details...

I made a number '1' applique vest for my daughter to wear:

I created a number '1' template in Word

I used this to cut a number '1' out of rose patterned fabric, which I then sewed onto a pink long-sleeved baby vest. Up close it didn't look great, but from a distance it was ok!

I had bought a very cute little ballet tutu from Sainsbury's that I teamed with the baby vest and striped tights to complete the outfit!

I also made some bunting to decorate the living room. The fabric (which I also used for the applique vest) was from Remnant Kings Curtain Warehouse.

I sewed triangles of fabric and attached them to bias binding. You can follow the tutorial I used by Homemade & Happy here. I'm going to use the bunting to decorate my daughter's bedroom, so I hadn't just made it for the party.

I made the birthday cake myself with some help from Mrs Jones, Passion in the Baking. This was part of my 35 at 35 list. I also used Ruby Delicious, who I would highly recommend, to cater for the party (I had enough to stress about!). Alison brought vintage crockery for us to use as well as bringing lots of different teas and a selection of amazing cakes, brownies, meringues... It was all lovely (I've got more photographs of the food and other details, but they're on another camera and I need to download the pics to my computer. I'll post them soon!).

Button birthday cake.

And here is the birthday girl herself:

My favourite out of the vintage tea cups (photo is a little blurry, sorry!)