The week that was #1

Having seen various bloggers and fellow mums taking part in regular round ups of their weekends (#weekendinanutshell on Instagram for one), and having started a similar summary type post in the past (which I called at the time Breakfast In Bed), I wanted to start a regular post update about what's going on in my world.

I last did something like this back in November, when I had been so busy that I hadn't had time to update my blog or really share all that had been happening, so I did so in the end in one big post.

And I loved it. It felt natural and it was a fun way just to chat to you all with no one set theme, but several instead. There's no real rules to this blogging malarkey, is there?

There's just not enough time to share everything I've spotted, watched, thought about or enjoyed so hopefully a regular 'The Week That Was' update will be a good way of bringing all these things together.

Some weeks are quiet and run of the mill, other weeks, something out of the ordinary happens or a new special memory is made. Either way, I want to do more to remember more so a summary of what I've been doing and what I'm enjoying, when being mum and being me, is something I feel I'll get a lot out of and hopefully you will too.

DOING Work is well and truly back into the swing of things and in-between a busy week of meetings, I also got to see my Mum and Dad with Ethan, making the most of our day off together. It was our first visit of 2015 and although brief, it was lovely to see them both and for me to have the chance to show Ethan off as he really is changing all the time.

Hubs has also got a new job (yay!) so we have been celebrating this, I've been planning his birthday (which is tomorrow) and we've been out and about, picking up some new shoes for Ethan (he's a size 5 now) and a new raincoat plus spending time with Stephen's brother and sister.

LOVING The new Cath Kidston Spring/Summer collection has dropped and after weeks of anticipation, I finally got to see the full range on offer and my, there's some beautiful things to be had. You can read all about my top picks and to date, I have restricted myself to a pencilcase, water bottle, key fob and tin, although, in the future, there's just a couple more things I would very much like to make mine.

LOATHING My psoriasis has returned with a vengeance and it has really been driving me to distraction at times. Following light therapy last year, which did an amazing job at clearing things up, it's slowly but surely returned and now, it's almost as bad in places as before with some new areas to worry about too. I have a consultation next month and in the meantime, hubs has given me some new reading, looking into alternative therapies which have, for some, reaped big rewards. Anything is worth a shot at the moment.

WEARING With CK still in mind, my wonderful hubs bought me the stunning Cloud dress, which is the centrepiece of this new print collection. It really is rather wonderful and it makes me feel bright and breezy. Roll on spring!

I've also tried wearing a tied hanky / scarf in my hair when I tie it up, to add a vintage touch and make more out of my bad hair days. It;s different for me but I have to say I quite like it!

USING Touch wood, my skin has been pretty good of late (psoriasis excluded) and I've been loving the Manuka Honey range from Good Things. I've long been a fan of their Five Minute Wonder Mask and the honey range is just as impressive. Apparently, it contains bee venom (WTF?!) but whatever is in it, I know my skin feels super clean after using the scrub and smooth and firm after the Radiance Mask. It feels great and smells great, so this is a new weekly treat I'll be enjoying more of.

WATCHING Aside from the usually viewing of Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh, I have been really enjoying Elementary. It came out a while ago but I missed it at the time, so through the wonders of Netflix I managed to watch the entire first series in just over a week and I am now working my way through series two. I love crime programmes and this is easy watching, intelligent and just a great programme.

Then, over on YouTube, I've discovered Vintagious and have been watching tutorial after tutorial to get tips on how to achieve vintage inspired 'dos. I've never been able to do much with my hair but I'd like to try and Natalie's guides are really easy to follow.

PLANNING I've been putting pen to paper a lot recently, stocking up on some new stationery (one of my fave things in life - ssh, I'm a geek, I know) and embarking on a spot of life planning. I'll be posting more about this later this week, but I've been taking some time to really look at what I want and need to do, what I need to do to accomplish it and how I can make some small changes, and more of an effort, to achieve what I want and just 'be more' and 'do more' this year. And it feels good.

I've also been booking in dates with my besties so we have weekends together to look forward to. We don't live near each other so we're trying to make more of an effort to stay in touch and talk more, so every Sunday, at 7.30pm, we grab a glass of our favourite tipple and join each other on Skype for a natter.

COOKING I picked up a recipe card box and I have been filling it with new recipe ideas. I need more inspiration when it comes to our weekly shop, as I discovered when I wrote my Love Food Hate Waste post. So, the idea is I can go to my recipe cards each week and pick out the things I'd like to try out or want to eat and put together a good meal plan that helps us to eat better and to make best use of our budget too.

ENJOYING Ethan is just so much fun at this age and although he still goes through moments or phases where he decides he doesn't want Mummy or he gets tearful for seemingly no reason, we've been having a lot of fun together. He's learning so much, so quickly and I've been really trying to make the most of every moment. This past week has just been great and I really do love that little man of mine.

UPDATING I took some time to make some tweaks to this space I call my own and I'm feeling pretty pleased with the results. I've also been more relaxed with how I do things and have put myself under less pressure and as a result, there may have been less posts on here but I have been enjoying things a bit more by making sure I'm blogging about living rather than living for blogging.

LINKING If you fancy it, I created a new link up this month called The Perfectly Imperfect Parent. You can read about it here and you can also get involved before the end of the month and you can read my first post, about choosing 'me time', here. I'd love to hear what you think.