Dear Mummy, Basingstoke is my hometown and we are lucky that there’s always lots to see and do. This summer from the 14 July to 13 August 2017 Made in Basingstoke Festival is happening across the town and comprises of … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, the Easter holidays are upon us and social media is awash with things to do over the next 2 weeks. Along with days out exploring the countryside and getting fresh air we’re on the hunt to find things … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, we’re so excited! Now that the John Lewis advert has been shown its officially the annual countdown to Christmas 2016. Everything is now downhill until the big day. With Christmas light switch ons to winter markets these are our … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, you’ve been with Specsavers for over 10 years and have always loved their customer service, but recently they have gone above and beyond in your books. Little folk, like me, are now getting the VIP treatment from this high … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, woweee it sounds like you’ve had the most random of weeks! You visited Festival Place Shopping Centre’s Big Brand Fashion event. Which gave you the perfect excuse to be pampered and have a leisurely stroll about our local shopping … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, we’ve been super busy over Easter and have crammed a lot in, with days out, a wedding, shopping, events and training. It’s been crazy hectic and we’re gonna need a holiday to recover from the holidays!! My mummy … Continue reading
Dear mummy, what a week we’ve had! It’s great to have my folks back home from their travels in New York. We’ve been doing really festival things this week like putting up our Christmas Tree, reading some Christmas stories and … Continue reading
We’ve just heard of some special ‘spooky’ events coming up in Hampshire and wanted to share them with you. We’re massive fans of Halloween so love participating in pumpkin carving, apple bobbing and dressing up. These are the places we will … Continue reading
Dear mummy, I may be only small and still at nursery but we’re still interested in all the back to school ranges which pop up in September, especially all the new stationery which is available in shops. Here’s our … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, you had a wonderful evening at the LUSH Store in Basingstoke recently. Having been invited down to a bloggers event to see some fab summer products. If you haven’t heard of Lush (where have you been?!?) it is … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, we’ve had a really unusual weekend. Very hectic and frantic but rewarding. My mummy attended a blogging conference called BritMums Live 2015 in London.
She got to meet other parenting bloggers and listen to some fabulous speakers. She finally met some of her online friends and interacted with brands and PR companies. Entered some fab competitions (my mummy loves competitions and she actually won a ticket from Bella Bathrooms to attend BritMums Live)
She had fun, however she felt daunted and out of her depth too. So many bloggers had travelled up together and knew each other beforehand by attending previous events and she had come alone on the train. Some were welcoming and happy to talk to my mummy over a cuppa…..some were not. One blogger in particular was looking around the room while my mummy was trying to be friendly until another came across to chat to her and she quickly left without saying goodbye. Shame as I would have liked to get to know her a little better as she’s local to us. A smile can go a long way!
Anywho, apart from that little hiccup my mummy had a great time. She enjoyed bumping into Em @snowingindoors and chatting while making her fabric corsage in the craft zone. Listening to some live music and absorbing the keynote speeches from other bloggers. The kindness that Grace @EatsAmazing showed her by lending her a charger.
Here are some of our photos from BritMums Live, we hope you enjoy them.
My mummy had fun on the BritMums Instagram Walk with Darren @OneDad3Girls and meet some friendly bloggers. She was amazed at the creativity from Maggy @redtedart and Ali @incredibusy with their beautiful Poppy England story book dresses and perfect Instagram poses and photos.
She had a giggle with Louise @liquoriceuk and Sarah @RunJumpScrap.
She took me with her, as I wasn’t able to attend. I appeared in some of her photos #Babyonastick hehe 😉
It was the longest she’d walked in the past 2 years! Past Southbank, over the Millenium Bridge and past St Paul’s to the Barbican Centre then onto The Brewery where BritMums Live 2015 was held.
It was a whirlwind couple of days. Her main highlight was making Happy Hearts at the Embrace Happy Session with Pippa @storyofmum and Karin @embracehappy and I think that session resonated with a lot of attendee’s there….it wasn’t ALL about the blogging!
Afterwards my mummy was glad to get out of the big smoke and head home to her family. Her heavy goodie bag slung on her shoulder as she travelled on the stuffy tube back to Waterloo. Her feet were hurting and she was tired. She slept on the train back to Basingstoke.
In the evening she enjoyed a date night with Daddy while Grandma babysat, taking on board the comments from the Embrace Happy Session.
She attended another local blogging event over the weekend hosted by Festival Place to launch their summer festivities, called the Style Council and had a lovely breakfast while chatting to local bloggers like Louise @northhantsmum, Lara @adventuresofamum and Jenny @JennyCole04. She took away some style tips as well from stylist Melissa Murrell (pictured below).
We had a great day on Fathers Day, the weather was beautiful and it made a stark change from the previous 2 days in the busy city. We had a great day on the farm seeing the animals and enjoyed some outdoor fun at 4 Kingdoms, Newbury. We sat in the sunshine and had ice cream. We reenacted rescuing a princess from a dragon and played hide and seek.
My mummy is so glad she’s home, she’s thankful for the opportunity to go to London and to be a part of the buzzing blogging world and equally thankful for the normality of being a mummy and spending quality time with her family.
Love Bella x
Dear mummy, phew! What another hectic weekend! We like being busy even in the mixed weather.
Multi Michelin Star award winning chef Jean-Christophe Novelli
Over the Easter weekend we visited #EatStreet at Basingstoke’s Festival Place Shopping Centre. Here we picked up some last-minute chocolate from Hotel Chocolate, enjoyed free food tasting from Costa and Nado’s and watched the talented multi Michelin Star chef Jean-Christophe Novelli put on a live cooking demo. The weather was horrible and it was a lovely way of spending a rainy afternoon out of the house.
Exbury Gardens steam train
On Saturday we visited Exbury Gardens, in the New Forest. We were supposed to be visiting on Good Friday but chose the better day to visit.
Daffodils at Exbury Gardens
However it was very windy and overcast, still it didn’t dampen our spirits as we ran through the daffodil fields and saw the beautiful flowers!
I chickened out of the steam train ride to see the Easter Bunny as I got scared of the bunny man (more like boogie man!) I get frightened really easily of large mascots and characters.
Easter Egg Hunt at Highclere Castle
On Easter Sunday, we braved the weather and went to Highclere Castle (where they film Downton Abbey) to join the Lady of the manor on an Easter Egg Hunt in aid of Naomi House and Jacksplace. We had a great time at the Easter Fair.
Easter at Grandparents
Bank Holiday Monday was a more quiet affair as we saw my Grandparents down in Hayling Island and spend the day by the seaside. We weren’t brave enough to go skinny dipping though!! We hope you had a great Easter weekend too.
Love Bella x
Easter cake
“Love is in the air, everytime you look around”
Dear mummy, I think that’s how the song goes?!? This week at Festival Place Basingstoke they are holding a very special event called #lockyourlove just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Have you ever been abroad and seen padlocks on railings from tourists leaving their initials marked onto them? This is the idea behind #lockyourlove to leave your mark on a place and someone…
Festival Place is a huge shopping centre in Hampshire and they are offering shoppers the chance to ‘lock their love’ on a special heart sculpture in Porchester Square this Valentine’s Day.
Copyright Robin Jones at The Digital South.
This creative idea launched last week and is running until Valentine’s Day on 14th February, shoppers will be given the opportunity to personalise a padlock with a tribute to their loved one and attach it to the Festival Place heart.
By taking a picture of their padlock and sharing on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the #lockyourlove hashtag shoppers will also have the chance to win super duper prizes from Festival Place retailers including Nando’s, Giraffe, Wagamama, Build-A-Bear, Thorntons and The Perfume Shop. Sounds good right? Festival Place are really sharing the love!
Shoppers are also encouraged to share the love by donating to Festival Place’s chosen local charity, the Ark Cancer Centre, when they receive their padlock in centre.
Copyright Robin Jones at The Digital South.
The heart sculpture is a living art installation which is growing and changing everyday, the more people add their padlocks to it the more it comes to life. It was created by local artists Helen Dyne and Louise Hight, who met recently through All Our Own Crafts, a pop-up shop in Festival Place promoting local crafters. We popped in there before Christmas and wrote a post about this fantastic shop. We love how Festival Place is encouraging arts in the community and supporting charities.
Want to find out more about #lockyourlove campaign at Festival Place? Then visit www.festivalplace.co.uk or find them on Facebook and Twitter. But be quick it’s only on until Saturday 14th.
Lots of #lockyourlove
Bella x
All Our Own Crafts Pop-up shop in Basingstoke’s Festival Place, Hampshire. Dear Mummy, we popped into Festival Place in Basingstoke over the weekend and stumbled upon this great little shop that only opened a couple of week ago. It’s called … Continue reading
