#LittleLoves - La La Land & Lovely Bloggers

Posted on the 15 January 2017 by Sparklesandstretchmarks @raine_fairy
Last year, I started keeping a paper Gratitude Journal and I found it to be quite therapeutic and helpful to record little moments of enjoyment and happiness to look back...so this year I thought I would start joining in with the #LittleLoves prompt here on my blog, as it's a similar kind of idea and something I thought would be fun to write each week.

This week was a bit of a crappy one in lots of ways and I have spent most of it feeling super anxious and very very stressed out...My therapy sessions are quite intense at the moment, I'm feeling a bit low most of the time (I always do in January, a seasonal thing maybe?) and a few little niggles like the kids not sleeping well at night, our car tire ripping to pieces while we were out with 3 hungry kids at dinnertime and the RAC being really bloody unhelpful, and a parking ticket all added to it...I think during weeks like that it's easy to write it all off as one big fat pile of arse, but actually there were some good parts to it and so I'm hoping that taking part in #LittleLoves each week will help me to focus more on those standout good moments...

So here they are, my #LittleLoves this week...

Read...

This week I've really had the travel bug and have been reading a lot of travel blog posts to get some inspiration on holidays to take and places to visit with the boys, one of my favorite posts was this one from Weekend Candy...the 2017 Calendar Of Great British Weekends Away - it has given me SO MANY MORE places to add to my list of things to see in the UK, and a lot of them are even quite local to us so we could do them on day trips which is very handy!

Watched...

It's not very often that I go to the cinema and even more unusual that I go with my sister - I can't even remember what the last film I saw with her was - but this weekend we headed off to see La La Land together.
I hadn't actually heard anything about the movie until Jon pointed out a poster to me and said "I suppose you'll want to see that?"...I looked at it and agreed it looked like something I'd like, and then forgot all about it...then my sister asked if I was free to go the cinema and if anything was on, and when I looked at the listings I saw the title and suggested it...so we went.
I'd never seen a trailer for it, all I knew was that it had Ryan Gosling in (win) and that there was some sort of musical or dance element to it.
Well...oh my god. It was AMAZING.
This is possibly the corniest thing I've ever said (thank god I'm not a movie critic!) but it was honestly a treat for the eyes - the colours, the camera work, the fashion - everything about it was just beautiful. The dance moves were perfect, everything looked slick and stylish, the songs were catchy and cheesy but in a really cool way, the story was just enough to keep you interested but not enough to make you have to think too much...it was just an absolute delight to watch.
I fell in love with both of the characters equally, I thought both Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone were FANTASTIC in their roles and can't win enough awards for it in my opinion, and the whole thing was just brilliant....apart from the last 5 minutes unfortunately, I wanted a different ending!...but I can let that go.
I actually can't wait to watch it again, in fact I really want to go back to the cinema again and see it a second time on the big screen!

Heard...

I'm way behind the times but this week I caught up on some of James Corden's Carpool Karaoke videos and I absolutely LOVED the Sia one...her voice just completely blows me away, I really need to download her album.



Made...

I have to admit, I have done absolutely nothing in the way of crafts or baking lately...although I do have plans to make a unicorn cheesecake this week, so watch this space!...but I did try something new for dinner this week which was Sausage & Root Vegetable Bake (Linda McCartney sausages for me, pork sausages for everyone else!) which we all really enjoyed (Well...the kids really enjoyed pushing it all around their plates and only eating the sausages...) 

It was such a simple, easy meal but so so tasty - definitely one we'll be having again!


Wore...

This week (and every day since Christmas, actually!) I've been living in the jumpers and leggings that I bought in the Next sale, I've also been going sans make up most days because I've been at home a lot thanks to a)Sickness bugs, b)The weather and c)A need to catch up on work and house organising...

So I don't have anything inspirational or trendy to share with you....actually what I've been "wearing" mostly lately, is snapchat filters! As even when we look like absolute crap, a good old snapchat filter can always make us look passable can't it?! 



And Lastly...



Last week I hosted a little get together at my house for a lovely group of local bloggers - It was a party for Novasol Holiday Homes who are company specialising in beautiful self catering holiday homes across Europe - we played a European Knowledge quiz, had some nibbles and had a really nice couple of hours after the quiz chatting about holidays and all things blog-related too of course which was lots of fun (not so much for the non-bloggers I'm sure!)

The quiz was really good fun too and I actually learned quite a lot, Novasol had provided me with some really fun prizes to give out too - from Vodka & Wine to liquorice fish - random but lots of fun!

We were all really impressed with the look of Novasol's holiday homes and I am thinking that a villa holiday in France might just be in the future for us! If the idea appeals to you too, then be sure to take advantage of this exclusive discount code - for a limited time only (ends 31/01/17) you can  enjoy 10% off selected holiday homes (subject to availability) in France. Simply search through the 4,000+ French listings and send an email to novasol@novasol.co.uk with your booking details and the discount code 2049154 (code valid throughout January 2017).

I'm loving getting to know the local bloggers more lately too, and will be heading for a bloggers night out with them in a couple of weeks in Exeter so I'm looking forward to that! 
That's it for this week, I hope the week has been kind to you all....and that this one is slightly less stressful for us!
If you enjoy my blog, please consider following me on Bloglovin'