HIVE ACTIVE AT HOME- LETS GET LIVING

When we moved into our new home, we decided from the offset that we wanted to have a smart home in the sense of having products installed that would make life somewhat easier; with both convenience and ease. 

We decided that Hive was the plan for us and since installing a range of their products, we have been very much impressed with the results and love using the service in and around our home.

With little children, it's important for us to have a homely cosy atmosphere and with our newborn in particular, Hive has helped to make small moments like bath and bedtime that little bit easier and special. 

We have a variety of Hive Active plugs, heating and colour changing bulbs around our home; which paired with the Hive app on our phones work a treat. 

With the use of the Hive Active plugs, the nursery lamp is turned on from my bed ready for those nightly feeds and changes, our kettle is switched on in the mornings ready for my first coffee of the day and lights are scheduled to turn on and off when we're away from the home for security purposes. 

With our British Gas installed Hive Active Heating, we use the Smart Themostat to control the schedule of our heating and to create a boost of warmth throughout the home as and when we need it. I most often find myself using the app before bath times as well as setting off home from a day out, to ensure that we arrive home to warmth as well as again, from bed in the mornings. It's an invaluable product which now, I genuinely don't believe I could be without. The convenience is second to none and I thoroughly enjoy using it.

One of the products that we have in two rooms of our house are the colour changing bulbs; a dimmable cold to warm white one in our bedroom- perfect for creating a cosy and relaxing atmosphere for the baby in the evening and a colour changing bulb which we have downstairs- perfect for both playtime for our toddler Harrison and nice for creating a slightly different ambience, particularly at Christmas time when we found we used it a lot.

The final product of our Hive Home range, is the door sensor, which whilst admittedly I was a little unsure of before, I am now thrilled with. I'm alerted on my phone each and every time the door is opened and closed, giving me complete peace of mind when I'm out as well as giving me the very helpful service of switching on the hall lights automatically when I arrive home, which is so helpful in the evenings.

Hive has made little parts of our day so much easier, as well as making moments with my family that little more special and cosy and I'm really excited to extend our plan around the home further in the future. 

*This is a sponsored post

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TOO GOOD TO GO OUT- DFS PINK VELVET ZINC SOFA

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Writing this post, I'm currently 39 weeks pregnant and in full nesting mode around the entire home. Creating the perfect atmosphere for my baby to come home to has been so important for me, thus has making a cosy and festive space for myself and my toddler Harrison to enjoy together during these last few days of just myself, daddy and the little one himself. 

We recently moved into what could quite possibly be our forever home and the first room that we wanted completed was our living room, ready for baby's first Christmas and the first in our new home. I wanted it to be a place with a warm and cosy finish that was calm and inviting- something with comfortable living room furniture that made it #toogoodtogoout. 

It's taken a few weeks for me to get it to where I wanted it to be, but with the help of the DFS Cuddler  sized Zinc Sofa in Blush Velvet, it is just that. It's my favourite room in our house and even sat on its comfortable cushions right now, I can't quite believe I have a pink sofa!

It's fast become a cosy space where our days are started with a cup of tea, a slice of toast and toys on the floor and where evenings come to an end with candles burning, a soft and warm ambience and blankets draped over us ready to wind down. In fact, nothing quite beats snuggling up with Harrison on the sofa, reading a bed time story with him and talking about our favourite parts of the day. They're the moments to really be cherished.

I'm a firm believer that the most important memories with children are made within the home; it's where they sleep, where height is recorded against against the door frames, where tears fall down their faces over scraped knees and broken toys and hugs are given to make them better. 

This evening, five days away from my baby girls due date, Harrison and I set aside a night to "pop some popcorn", watch some Christmas movies and read a new book and it was better than I could have ever imagined. There was no where I would rather be and it was certainly too good to out.

*The DFS Zinc Sofa that features in this post was very kindly gifted to us as part of the too good to go out campaign.

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Feel Unique Beauty Diary 2017

It's now nearing the end of the year, the time of year when new years resolutions begin to tick over in our minds and our 2016 diaries draw to the final pages. For me a new diary is like a new start and I love nothing more than beginning a new one with a clear mind and a pretty new pen. 

Feel Unique's 2017 Beauty Calendar is the perfect diary for the beauty obsessed like myself and far from a bog-standard week to view diary it's cute and quirky, beautifully designed and really well put together. 

Being organised needn't be a chore with this handy sized diary as each month is packed with important beauty dates, cute quotes, space for both notes and doodles and even monthly Feel Unique discount codes (who doesn't love a discount code?!).

One of my favourite features of the Feel Unique Beauty Diary is the budgeting pages, which broken up between monthly needs and wants allow you the space to jot down your spends whilst keeping an eye on what you have left. 

Hidden away on the last page is home to an array of some of the cutest stickers I have ever seen. 'Important', 'Birthday', 'Wax' and 'Brows', 'TOTM', 'Bill Due', 'Holiday' and 'Netflix and Chill' are just a few of the stickers included and I honestly can't wait to begin sticking them throughout the pretty pages and important dates. 

It's perfectly girly, really helpful with those important dates (I'm talking Fashion Week and National Lipstick Day) and whilst I'm not sure I'll be making complete use of the Total Gym Sessions sections provided, the rest will go down a treat throughout the entire year of 2017, I'm sure.

The Rose Gold foil spine is an absolute delight to hold in your hand, place on your bookshelf or home in your handbag and available to buy now on Feel Unique, you can treat yourself or the one you love ready for the new year for just £10.50.

I'm going to be giving away some Feel Unique Vouchers and a couple of these diaries over on my Instagram, so make sure you're following me over there so that you don't miss out! 

I'd love to know what you think of this diary, do you love the look of it and will it be taking pride of place within your stationary?

*This is a sponsored post

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URBAN DECAY NAKED ULTIMATE BASICS

The Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics is my kind of palette. I've had a couple of eyeshadow palettes really wow me recently and this is for sure one of them.

Home to twelve brand new and exclusive Urban Decay matte shades, it's for me, the perfect go to palette at the minute as it holds both cool and warm tones- including my favourite kind of shade, Extra Bitter, a gorgeous burnt Red that I cannot get enough of.

If I'm honest, I've never been blown away by the original Naked Basics palette, it was nice and compact and I've reached for it on the odd occasion, but it's never been an absolute must have for me, this on the other hand is a delight.

The shades as described by Urban Decay are:

Blow (light nude demi-matte), Nudie (soft pink-nude matte), Commando (light taupe-brown matte), Tempted (pale brown matte), Instinct (medium pink-taupe matte), Lethal (reddish brown matte), Pre-Game (pale yellow matte), Extra Bitter (burnt orange matte), Faith (medium warm brown matte), Lockout (rich neutral brown matte), Magnet (smoky grey matte) and Blackjack (warm black matte). 

I've personally always favoured warm tones over cool hues, so naturally I've reached for them more but the fact that this palette features both really impresses me as it gives you the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone with a look if need be.

I also really enjoy the formulation of the matte shadows, often mattes can be really chalky without much colour payoff, but these work well. They're nicely pigmented, they blend well and they last all day which for me is perfect as I have zero time to reapply. 

Overall, this palette gets a huge thumbs up for me (that burnt Orange really sold me) and although I do still have a huge soft spot for the original Naked palette, this is by far my favourite and the great news is that it's available to buy everywhere now, costing £38.50 (£3.20 per shadow).

I'd love to know your thoughts, what Naked palette is your favourite?

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YSL Rouge Volupté Shine Oil-In-Stick

44 Nude Lavalliere, 47, Beige Blouse, 48 Smoking Plum, 51 Rose Saharienne

I've always been a fan of YSL lipsticks and love adding them to my ever growing collection. All the way from the packaging through to the products formulation and ability wows me and so when I heard of these Oil-In-Stick Rouge Volupté Shine launching, I honestly couldn't wait to try them.

Before trying them, I was so excited to apply them for the beautiful application, shade range and the taste-ahem that the YSL lip products always have and I'm pleased to report back that they're just as good- if not better, than previous products.

The formula of the new lipstick is made up of six oils as well as Pomegranate extract, Macadamia butter and Hyaluronic Acid creating a pleasing, smooth and problem-free application. The swatches above are one sweep of product- they're amazing and the fact that they sit so beautifully on the lips, providing the freshest of tones, shine and comfort as well as moisturising qualities make them a winner for me. 

The packaging of the Rouge Voluputé Shines has always been a favourite of mine and always make for a very pretty display. I've spoken about them many a time online and in real life, and thankfully, nothings changed with their exterior. They're the beautifully designed Gold tubes and now with the 12 new launches available to buy, theres a whole 30 shades to choose from!

Available to buy now, in stores and online, YSL Rouge Volupté Shine Oil-In-Stick lipsticks cost £26 each and if like me you're very much into lipsticks, then I truly believe they're worth every penny!

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