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It seems ages ago since the children all went back to school, even though it is only a couple of weeks and typically in our house, we are already chasing missing cardigans! For some reason, my daughter and her friends have an inane ability to lose parts of their school uniform and at first I thought it was just my child but apparently it is a common complaint from all the parents. On one sports day last year, another child apparently went home with my daughter school polo shirt, never to be found again and she came home in her PE top.

I don't deny that I can occasionally misplace items but my daughter lost a grand total of 4 cardigans in one term last year, this is not only frustrating but expensive too, especially when you buy the school branded clothing. So this year, we have been a little more savvy. We have bought a small number of school branded items but we have mixed this with the supermarket brands too. Asda have a great range of affordable and great quality school uniform, which washes really well and is easy on the purse strings!

This year, in an act of rebellion, I bought a "Hello Kitty" PE bag from Asda this summer, rather than the standard issue ..... again mainly so that there was no chance of mixing it up with anyone else's

Some schools want all of their children in the same uniform, not a mixture of different styles (this is a whole other blog post tomorrow) but when they are smart and hard wearing, I really don't see what the issue is. The range from Asda gives us an affordable option when parents need them and who can argue with that?

Disclaimer : We were sent a couple of items of school wear from the Asda back to school range but the views are honest and true.

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When I was in junior school, I was asked to draw a picture of my favourite place in the world. I drew my bed.

I have always loved my bedroom, if everyone else is out for the evening I won't snuggle up on the sofa, I always climb into bed and read, work or sleep. My bedroom therefore has to be a haven of opulence, serenity with a little sassy thrown in. Unfortunately with two small children it is a little less serene and a little more second grade with baby wipes adorning my bedside cabinet rather than gorgeous table lamps.

So when I saw that Debenhams have a fabulous competition  where you select a range of products to create your perfect bedroom from their website and then combine them to create a mood board, I thought it was a great chance to indulge myself. The only restriction is that you have to do it within a budget of £5000. The winner, chosen by judges from Mammasaurus and Love Chic Living, will receive a amazing £500 worth of Debenhams vouchers to spend on anything they like! Sounded like a challenge to me.

So if I take the influence of two small children out of the equation and am let loose with what I want on my bedside table, then this is what it would be:

The room would have aubegine accents (my mom would say purple) and as our cat likes to sleep on our bed so much, I thought the cat cushion would either give her some company (or competition).

I love the delicate etched glass table lamps and a proper dressing table but the thing I love the most is the ottomon style bed. The reason? I can stash away all my shoes under that bed and no one will ever know how many I own ..... ssshhhhh!

So out of my £5000 budget, I only spent just over £2000 which in my eyes means that I have more money to spend on shoes!

This is my entry into the Debenhams Dream Bedroom Competition.

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I was reading about a survey of 2000 mums today, that has been carried out by Venture photography studios, which found that many mums in the UK admit to overlooking their second-born children when it comes to taking photographs, with almost two thirds of them admitting they forget to take images of their new addition on its own – instead plumping for ones including their elder siblings. This research totally resonated with me as I was very conscious of giving my second daughter the same time and attention as I gave my first, which is no mean feat when you have the older sister to take into consideration too. 

91 per cent of mums questioned said they obsessively recorded every moment of babyhood for their first-born but amazingly a whopping 70 per cent of mums admitted that they have fewer than 10 photographs of their second born child on its own, with photos almost always including the older sibling.  

61 per cent have none of the keepsakes for their second baby that they kept for their first child, such as hand and footprints, first locks of hair and first paintings. ‘Detail’ photographs of tiny feet and curled up fingers were also lacking when it came to the second child – with 75 per cent of mums admitting that they have fewer of these for their second baby than their first.

It really made me sit and think about why this happens and it occured to me that whilst a lot of the time it is about just that, time. When you have two children, there are occasions that you simply don't have the time, energy or inclination to get the camera out, when you are juggling the demands of two or more children. This is where sites like MyFamilyClub come in to help busy parents. They currently have a fantastic offer with 10,000 FREE MyFamilyPack's to giveaway which includes all sorts of things such as discounts, freebies and best deals to make mums lives easier(go register now, quickly).

Capturing the best deals is part of the the Lilypad philosophy.

Capturing those special moments ..... well that is up to you.

Image courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

Featured post as per our disclosure policy.

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It has been reported in the Mail online today that forecasters are warning of an early winter, with snow expected as early as October! This has the potential to wreak havoc with my Halloween plans, not to mention a friend's wedding but it is however also another excuse for me to buy new footwear! The UK and Ireland have also been forecast to experience extreme cold conditions and snow from the Arctic for prolonged periods, so maybe footwear won't be the only thing on my shopping list.
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It is fairly common knowledge of my love affair with shoes and a change in the temperature is just another reason (as if I need one) to buy new shoes. Last year when the snow came, I wasn't prepared. Now I know that this sounds ludicrous when I am a complete control freak but it kind of caught me off guard so I remember going out to play in the snow with the little ones without suitable footwear for any of us really. So today I was introduced to MoziMo and in my search for snow boots, I was able to indulge my passion for shoes. I particularly like these stretch boots on the MoziMo website and whilst they are possibly not the most practical for the forecasted bad weather, if I am going to slip and slide around in the snow, I may aswell look good doing it!

The Met Office has said that below average temperatures in October could mean that there is a chance of upcoming overnight frosts, which would be seen predominantly in the Midlands and south-east (the last time this happened my food shopping wasn't delivered for 4 days because they couldn't get through the lanes by our house! but I digress) so typically I am going to be finding any excuse to accessorise with scarves, hats and gloves.

My youngest daughter got so excited about a pair of new party shoes at the weekend (I wonder where she gets that from) but getting both my girls the right shoes is important to me. As I have got older, I realise the damage I have done to my own feet over the years by not buying the correct shoes so now buying the best shoes is as much about design as what is best for my feet!