Sea Life Manchester....

Over the half term holiday, the children and I were invited along to a preview event at Sea Life Manchester before it officially opened to the public. The little Poppins were eager to attend! It sounded a perfect family friendly event and I was a little excited too as growing up by the beach, I love all things sea related. Sea Life Manchester is the 14th Sea Life centre to open in the U.K. and features over 5000 sea creatures.

My little Poppins couldn't wait for the doors to open...

As there were quite a number of family bloggers and media peeps attending, there were little waits here and there, but things got moving quite quickly as we made our way around. If possible and convenient for your family, I would certainly consider leaving the pram at home/in the car as it did feel a little congested at times with all the buggies etc. I know Sea Life Manchester are going to be reviewing the pram situation and of course, not everyone shall have a pram with them on their outing, but was just something we noticed on the day.

Without wanting to give too much away, one of the first rooms we entered involved a great interactive talk about the centre, and featured a wonderful introduction to some delightful sea creatures. The children loved it! As we made our way around, you couldn't help but be amazed by the tanks, and there were even tanks that could be crawled under, making the little ones seem like they were swimming with the fish.

    

I loved the sharks and was mesmorised by their stillness. As you walk around, you can't help but get drawn into the underworld environment all these sea creatures live in. There is a touch screen by every tank and I really enjoyed reading about the species of fish/sea creature I was watching. Half way round you can actually get up close and have a little touch of the little creatures at the touch pool. Master Poppins had great fun gently holding the crabs, and there are sinks available nearby for everyone to wash their hands.  

Walking around you could see a soft play area and shop that were having their final touches given before the grand public opening, and you can even pre book your own Sea TREK which I have to say I don't think I'm quite that brave enough to do myself ;) So a very enjoyable family attraction and one definitely worth consideration, when it comes to fun days out!

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Disclosure: We were provided with complimentary entry to Sea Life Manchester for a preview tour for the purposes of this blog post. All words and opinions my own.       

HomeSense Store Grand Opening!....

We all know I love a good shopping expedition and when I found out a new HomeSense store was opening at The Arndale Centre in Manchester, and I was invited along, well, I had to pop along didn't I. HomeSense has long been a favourite place of mine to shop, and I have picked up many a bargain there in the past. I just love the shabby chic style treasures one can often find in there, and with up to 60% off the rrp, there are real savings to be had. The new Arndale store shall feature up to 50,000 items for the home, with daily deliveries bringing 10,000 new items of stock each week. This certainly offers customers something new each time they visit.

Being a Corrie fan, I was looking forward to meeting Antony Cotton, who was the special guest to open the store. He was a great sport when I asked for a little snapshot with him after he cut the ribbon!  

Once the ribbon was cut, in I went for a little moochy. I have to say I was like a little girl in a sweet shop. I couldn't resist heading over to see some of the Emma Bridgewater bedding, it really was lovely. And you can never have enough cushions can you ;) There were some great designs on offer. 

I loved reading this little flyer I picked up whilst walking around, top tips on how to shop HomeSense...

"Come over to ours this spring and find charming, unique homeware that you're likely to stumble across in a cool market or a tucked-away boutique but all for up to 60% less than the high street. HomeSense is a store where shopping is fun, and unexpected, where you might find the very thing you weren't looking for. Here's how to make the most of your shop"...

1. What's Our Secret?

We've got a dedicated team of buyers who hop on planes, scour the world for bargains and negogiate hard, so that you always get up to 60% off global homeware every day.

2. One Of A Kind

Just like our buying model, our stock is unique. If you see something you like, pick it up because there may not be another one. Once it's gone it really is gone.

 

3. Always Be Prepared

We get daily deliveries so you never know what gems your eagle eye will scout tomorrow. We love to see you, so pop by often.

4. Never A Dull Moment

We don't do 'matchy matchy' at HomeSense. We are particularly proud of our huge range of quality products from designer bed linen to hand made lanterns from Morocco.

5. Lets Be Friends

Come on over here and subscribe to our newsletter for more tips. You could win a £250 prize draw, and we'll tell you what's new first - scout's honour!  

Some great tips there, and I know I shall be popping back to the new HomeSense store again very soon. As mentioned you never quite know what you may find...

     

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Party Time At Chill Factore!....

We all love a party in the Poppins household and no one as much as Miss. Poppins!

When she was invited by Chill Factore to be the guest of honor at one of their fun snow Parties she couldn't wait to say yes and began to excitedly write out her invitations to some of her closest school friends. She was invited along to give a little review of what she thought it was like to have a party at Chill Factore and of course all her friends were to give their opinion too. As mum, I quietly observed but can let you know so much fun was had and I would definitely recommend considering holding your birthday party at Chill Factore.

  

There are various party packages on offer at Chill Factore, including different snow activities etc. Miss. Poppins party package included, hire of helmets and snow boots for all the children, 1 hour of tubing and food and drink afterwards. As she had not had a birthday party this time around, it was decided as well as an 'End of Sats' party for her and all of her friends, it would also be her belated birthday party. All her invited guests, 9 of them were as excited as she was about the upcoming event.

On arrival we were greeted by our friendly and efficient party host who explained thoroughly the plans for the party. She then accompanied everyone to the changing village, where the children changed into their pre picked snow boots and helmets. As soon as everyone was ready, our party host took us all onto the snow for their activity. Being the party host parents, both Mr. P and I were assigned the roles of  'Party Helper' and we were allowed on the snow to oversee the activity. Oh boy, they did have fun!!

  

Being mostly 10 and 11 year olds, the tubing was a perfect activity for them to do, fun, exhilarating, and they got to show their slightly competitive side as many a race was had between two friends. One down the new bumpy slope, and one down the straight but fast one. The two party hosts at the top of the snow hill, were great at pushing them down.

"Faster, faster" they all shouted and the party hosts really were fantastic with the excitable children. Health and safety was adhered to at all times, and felt 100% confident that all the children were in very safe hands. It can seem quite a long way up...

    

Of course Mr. Poppins had to try out the goods for himself, and you can just see him sneaking in at the back of the party crew on the walkway...

Even after an hour the children could have kept going, they really were having so much fun, but the mention of hot pizza and fries got them eager for something warm to eat. However, Miss. Poppins couldn't resist one last go!

Our party host took us back to the changing village to take our boots and helmets off, and then showed us the way to the restaurant for the food. The food was perfect ( I had to taste test of course) for a group of hungry pre-teens, and served by some super friendly staff. Ice cream for afters and a little birthday cake, made for a wonderful party, her guests all gave the thumbs up and many who hadn't been to Chill Factore before, were eager to go back another day and perhaps try out a new snow activity. I know we shall certainly be going back very soon for some more fun in the snow at Chill Factore!

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Disclosure: Miss. P and 9 guests received a complimentary party package, including one snow activity, helmet and boot hire and food and drinks for the purposes of this blog post. All words and opinions our own.      

Room For Improvement Challenge: The Hallway....

I just love a home makeover challenge, so when the peeps at MoneySupermarket challenged me to do a little mini makeover with a budget provided for me of £50, well I couldn't resist saying yes! The Room For Improvement challenge has seen many bloggers getting involved and I am really enjoying seeing everyone's transformations. I would loved to have done a room, but I think even with my thrifty ways, I'd be pushing it to get an entire room done with a budget of £50. So, after much thought I decided to transform a 'space' into a special little retreat. Somewhere pretty, girly, that  I  we all can sit and relax, take time to have a cup of tea, read a book etc. A space I thought perfect was the area under our stairs in the hallway, and normally somewhat of a dumping ground. An old computer sits on a well past its sell by date desk, an old Ikea bookcase takes up quite a big area, and it generally just looks a very unappealing area to sit and relax in. You just want to walk straight past, getting from a to b without stopping to stay a while.

What this challenge has inspired me to do, along with the £50 budget, is utilize what I already have, to source new and second hand and to create a special area, that I DID want to stop a while and relax in. I do hope I've achieved that. So, here is the 'before' space, yes a little uninspiring huh?

Did I mention the walls are still unpainted, plaster pink has become a very fashionable colour in our home sweet home ;) It is a forever work in progress home, I love how it evolves but don't think the time shall come that it'll be completely 'finished'. Mind you, what would I do with my time in a 'finished' house ;) I love that its 'work in progress' state brings with it new challenges for me every day.

Knowing me, there had to be an element of pink in the new transformed space, and all things HOME related was definitely my inspiration. My starting point was that I knew I wanted some wall art for the back wall, and I really liked the idea of a pretty candy floss pink for the paint. I have always wanted to try out these vinyl wall art 'quotes' but had wondered if they were that easy to apply to the wall and whether, well, that it might look a bit naff. With my £9.99 in hand from my budget, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go, searching on ebay I found the perfect words! I just love the feature wall, and the inspiring words mean so much to us as a family. Regarding the application, it all went well, but my advice is, read the instructions carefully, then read them again and go slowly, very, very slowly when applying to the wall. So, that was my first inspired purchase and then the space evolved from there into a new, pretty, relaxing area that I just love!

Oh I did have fun! Miss Poppins took a hand in styling the area and I have to say we feel we can now stop for a little sit down in an area I can be proud of. So, what did I do and how much did I spend? Well, here's a little break down...

After I had purchased the wall art, I had a little mooch on freecycle and on offer was a well used but practical chest of drawers. Although a little shabby looking, I knew I could pretty them up. I enquired and was very kindly given them. Here they are awaiting a little TLC.

And here's what they looked like after a little paint job using some Annie Sloan 'Antoinette' pink and 'Old white'.

Ah, much better! I wanted to really go for it with the girly-ness and found a stash of unused floral stickers, which I think looked rather sweet.

Lining the drawers in some lovely vintage style floral wallpaper creates just a little more girly love!

So, that's the drawers done all for £0.00!! I already had many tins paint and rolls of unused wallpaper lying in wait for a pretty project like this. Next it was on to the chair. I kept the chapel chair from the 'before' photograph and decided to shabby it up, in keeping with my girly/pretty/shabby chic theme. Loving the distressed look, after painting it, I gave it a little sand here and there and popped one of my handmade cushions on it too.

And a little space for my pretty books.

As for the back wall I mixed a candy floss colour using mostly white with a little bubble gum pink, and a spoonful or two of the Annie Sloan 'Antoinette' pink. Perfick!

I was not brave enough to apply the wall art quote myself, so all the family got involved on that one! I spent a while making sure it was level, before doing the peeling back.

It got a little nerve wracking as the peeling back commenced.

Phew we got there! I loved the look of it straight away :)

The little canvas you can see was a purchase from Wilkinson, and at £3.00 didn't eat too much into my budget.

Another Wilkinson purchase was the pot pourri at £4.00, it has a really lovely, delicate spring scent.

Whilst in HomeSense I couldn't resist some purchases as I thought would sit beautifully in my our little sanctuary. First up is this floral suitcase at £7.99, I love it!

Next, I fell in love with this beautiful artificial posy that again cost £7.99. Just looking at it makes me smile so very, very much.

And what a bargain! The original Sia label reveals its rrp. Thank you HomeSense for providing me with such a bargantastic item there.

Whilst in the queue waiting to pay for the two items, I saw these.

Well, it would be rude not too at £2.29 and they look very pretty! With my girly-ness kicking in again, I decorated the lovely bon bon sweet jar with some sticky fabric tape and a little ribbon.

Next it was back to ebay to purchase a couple of pretties. First was this brand new Home Sweet Home wooden heart at £2.85 (with free P&P).

Next up on ebay I found a real bargain with this lovely lantern at £3.70, normally a candle would be housed inside, but I went for some pretty floral lights.

  

It looks lovely at night, providing a atmospheric glow over my little space under the stairs.

The pretty vintage bowl and Cath Kidston playing cards were a charity shop find at £1.00 for the little bowl and £2.00 for the sealed cards.

We ate the original sweets, hard work this makeover challenge stuff ya know ;) They were our own so replaced them with some more out of budget at £1.00. Yes more pink! My final purchase was this gorgeous Prima spring time craft magazine. I think it has been out a while, but I hadn't seen it and I thought it a perfect buy to help me relax in my our special corner. Possibly the best £3.99 I have ever spent on any craft magazine, and so up my street the the girly look inside.. I urge you to have a nosy if you see it in a shop.

The pretty handmade Daisy crochet blanket has been kindly borrowed from Miss. Poppins, it was a special gift for her from mummy and daddy, made by The Patchwork Heart. She loves it and not sure she'll let me borrow it for that long ;) The round wicker stool was another eBay purchase from a little while ago, that again I utilised for the space. Of course there has to be comfy slippers close by, and only my poshest ones would do for this special area ;)

One of handmade hearts hopefully makes for a personal touch.

I doubt I'll ever get bored here, though if I do, I have a selection of pretty books and magazines to occupy me. I painted the wooden magazine rack and I think looks loverly jubberly in the far corner.

So all in all, here is my list of costs, that helped me to improve this area...

Floral Suitcase (HomeSense) : £7.99

Flower Posy (HomeSense) : £7.99

Pink Bons Bons (Home Sense) : £2.29

Wall Art 'Home' Quote (ebay) : £9.99

Home Sweet Home Heart (ebay) : £2.85

Lantern (ebay) : £3.70

Canvas (Wilkinson) : £3.00

Pot Pourri (Wilkinson) : £4.00

Craft Magazine (M&S) : £3.99

Sweeties (newsagent) : £1.00

Vintage Bowl (Charity Shop) £1.00

CK Playing Cards (Charity Shop) : £2.00  

Total spend: £49.80!

So with a relatively small budget, you really can get inspired to turn an unused and not very pretty area into that perfect little space to relax and unwind in. Re purposing old furniture, sourcing places like freecycle and mooching on ebay means you really don't have to spend a small fortune to transform a space.

Right, I'm off to put my feet up, I hope you liked my finished look.

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My French Connection Bargain!....

What a beautiful day! Oh I just love sunny days where I can delve into that pretty (mostly pink) area of my wardrobe and can get the dresses and the skirts out. I am a believer that yes, of course, its what's inside that counts, but wearing clothes that cheer you up really can make you feel very happy indeedy. And what made me very happy today was seeing the prettiest little spring time outfit in a charity shop. Oh I just loved it! The two piece set is French Connection (a brand a love). It looked in perfect condition and as I don't think is current season, loved it even more, as is kind of almost 'vintage'. I was drawn to it straight away.

I thought at first it was just the jacket for sale, so was delighted when I realised it was a two piece. And the flowers, oh I just loved the flowers!

Those of you that 'get' me, would know that I would be hopping for joy seeing this little number, so pretty, so floraly, so very, very lovely. I just had to try it on.

Well the jacket seemed to fit, yay!! Now to try on the skirt. Please fit, please fit!!
It did :) My little 6 year old Master Poppins was with me and he said it looked lovely and pretty on me, with him being somewhat of a fashion guru, I value his opinion very much. I popped the outfit back on the hanger and made my way to the till to double check the price, as the ticket had a little scribble on it and looked like was £14 for the two pieces.

Even though I would have found it very hard to put back. Being the thrifty sort I did a little hmmm whilst I had a little think about it. Then the very kind and generous Red Cross lady on the till made me smile even more by saying If I really liked it I could have it for £10, what a lovely bargain! I thanked her very much indeed, agreed the sale and promptly handed over my £10. I couldn't wait to try it on all over again. I just love the pleated style of the skirt which I think has a pretty vintage look to it. I may wear the outfit for my 40th garden party and perhaps to a wedding coming up. I know I'll certainly get my £10's worth.

Oh I could pose all day in it!

A little close up of the 3/4 sleeve jacket.

Well, however much I wanted to, I can't play dress up all day, so one final curtsey....

I popped the little two piece safely away and can't wait to play dress up again :) It also reminded me, when walking onto a charity shop you just never know what little delight you may find! Next time you find yourself strolling past one ~ pop in and see!

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