5 Reasons Why Greyhounds are Awesome

We adopted our ex-racing Greyhound 4 years ago and it was one of the best decisions we ever made. Greyhounds are the perfect family pet and are probably the most chilled out dogs in the world.

Despite lots of Greyhounds having a rough start to life due to their racing careers, they are so affectionate and adapt really well to being in a home. They love retirement and running for fun, instead of having to run for entertainment with the chance of being injured and then put to sleep.

Here are my top 5 reasons why Greyhounds are Awesome.

How to create the right ambiance in your home

THIS IS A COLLABORATIVE GUEST POST

Creating the right ambiance in your room is essential for you to enjoy the space. From pendant lights to cosy furnishings at the dining table, adding the softer touches to your interior design can help to create a room with character, atmosphere and a mood.

Here are some tips to create the ambiance you are looking for:

TEXTURE

Textures around the home need not be uniform. In fact, if you’re looking to achieve an informal, cosy setting then steer clear of a regimented list of restricted textures and you’ll find textures that marry well irrespective of their feel or material. Mirrors and glass objects are a good accent to any texture. To create a broody feel, consider rich, dark veneers. For a softer touch, incorporate silk upholstery, velvet floor length curtains and hints of aged brass and copper...

Toddler Fashion: It's Wednesday

As Elise gets older, she is showing more interest in what she wears, so I decided to start a new series on the blog where I share the outfits she has worn lately. She doesn't have a huge wardrobe, and we try to keep a capsule style wardrobe for her, so I thought it would be interesting to show you how we work with a small wardrobe. I have got some random bright coloured items (like shorts) for the summer, but her wardrobe mostly consists of grey, black, white, navy and hints of pastel pink, mustard and red. She has been in the same size clothes (12-18) since she was around 1.5 years old and she is now 2.5 years old.

For today's outfit, I took a bit of inspiration from Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family, and added a pop of colour with her shoes and bag...

My Favourite "Everything" Online Shops

THIS POST IS IN COLLABORATION WITH CONTACT NUMBERS UK

Shopping online can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that everything is at your fingertips, and a curse because it is so easy to click purchase. I find that it is easy to make impulse buys, and this can be a bit of a curse. Sometimes you wonder why you ordered something when it arrives! I found this happened when I was a sleep deprived mum of a newborn. Online shopping for random things on Amazon became a 2am habit, and I often wondered why I purchased what I did.

I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite online shops where you can buy pretty much anything you can think of. The perfect place for those impulse buys, but that also have easy return policies. Being able to return online purchases easily is a huge deal for me. I hate it when you can't return items easily, or the details of how to return items is vague. That's why I like using the Contact Numbers UK website to look up where I stand when it comes to returns. You can find all the contact numbers of major retailers on their website, including Amazon and Very. This means you can talk to an actual human about returns policies, something that can be a huge benefit if you can't find the details online, or the details are a bit confusing. I often forget to keep the packaging for my new purchases, and this is something that I am trying to work on. It is so awful when something doesn't fit, but you haven't kept your receipt or the original packaging. However, there are always options and so talking to someone on the phone is often the best option...

"Frat Girl" by Kiley Roache - Book Review

"Frat Girl" is a debut novel from Kiley Roache,  an 18 year old blogger and editor with the Huffington Post. Kiley has also been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune while she was a high school student, and also wrote for The Doings, a Sun Times Media Paper. She also attends Stanford University.

With a list of achievements like this, it makes me feel like I haven't done very much with my life! After hearing all of Roache's successes, I had high hopes for her debut novel "Frat Girl". This would be my first contemporary novel with feminism as it's main theme. I was a little skeptical before reading the book, mostly due to the fact that I don't know much about Feminism. I only know what I see in the media, and on twitter, and although I do believe in lots of points within Feminism, I know that I only know surface details about the history and don't have much involvement with campaigning.

As it turns out, I was right about not knowing much about feminism, and this book definitely taught me a thing or two. I also got to experience the Frat and Sorority system that is present in American Universities. 

Read on for my full review of "Frat Girl" by Kiley Roache...

"Goodbye, Perfect" by Sara Barnard - Book Review

"Goodbye, Perfect" is the third stand-alone novel from Sara Barnard. Her two previous novels have been very popular in the blogging world, and I have heard plenty of praise for her style of writing. I happened to see a copy of her latest offering in my local library, and even though I have a huge stack of books at home to read, I just couldn't resist picking it up. If I'm totally honest, I mostly picked it up because of the beautiful cover, I didn't actually know anything about the book before I started reading it, but as soon as I finished it I quickly purchased another book by Sara straight away. I think this gives a little bit of an insight into what I thought of "Goodbye, Perfect" and I am hoping to love her other novels as much as I loved this one. 

Please note that this is a spoiler free review, where I don't reveal key twists in the plot, but I do discuss individual characters and their subplots. I try not to reveal anything that I would want to discover myself on the first read, and that isn't found on the back cover.