I AM YOURS AND YOU ARE MINE

12 years together.

I love you more every day, every minute, every second baby. And I will do forever more.

Last photo by Tori.

TREASURE HUNTING

When you're on a budget, finding something special in a charity shop is, more than ever, like discovering a piece of buried treasure. And when said item has no price tag on and the crazy old lady in charge that morning has to pluck a figure from thin air, you know you could really bag a bargain.

 

This beautiful set of side plates, tea plates and bowls epitomise the style I'm so in love with right now. A simple yet pretty design in a muted shade, with just the right amount of vintage femininity. And all for £4.

I'm pretty sure that this very low price had something to do with a rather delicious nine month old baby charming the pants off everyone in that charity shop.

High fives Phiney - I like your style!

LAZY DAYS

Ah Friday, you are very welcome today. After a week of birthday parties, roadtrips and weddings the idea of two days, just us three, sound blissful. And the forecast of rain offers the perfect excuse to snuggle up indoors under piles of blankets, eat naughty treats and drink hot chocolate. Oh, I do love you autumn.

I'd love to know what your weekend plans are. Any great adventures you're preparing for, or are you joining us in our quest for lazy days?

On a very happy side note, a big hello to all our new followers. 250, wow! We're very happy to have you all here and I love to hear from you, so please do stop by and say hello :) Also thank you for all the lovely messages of support on this post. It means a lot.

Happy weekend everyone xx

Picture taken on my iPhone at the wedding we attended on Wednesday. These two...I feel so much happiness when I see them together.

NEW ARRIVALS

Yesterday, while we were celebrating at one friend's wedding, another beautiful friend and her husband were welcoming three daughters into the world. Triplets, naturally conceived; Florence, Livvy and Eloise. All doing well, with just a little help breathing all that was needed.

These are three very special babies, for reasons it's not my place to go into here, and their arrival is greeted with so much love and joy. Liz and Chris are going to make such wonderful parents, a role they've been waiting so patiently for.

We can't wait to meet these gorgeous girls. And we hope you love the Happy Circus knits Mama. They're teeny tiny, but are still likely to be far too big for now. It's also super impossible to find a triplet card, so we set Josephine to work and she produced the best card ever. A very special parcel for some very wonderful people. 

BIRTHDAY GOODNESS

Happiest of birthdays my love, my best friend.
Your first as a Papa and the last of your twenties.
We love you more than you could know, more than words can say, and we will do forever.

Beautiful picture by the awesome Tori.

NEW WEEK: NEW ADVENTURE

This week marks the beginning of a new adventure for me; for us. On Friday I handed in my notice at work. I'm officially a full-time Mama, and I can't tell you how happy that makes me; makes us.

Before Ben and I decided to make a baby, we had discussed waiting for a time that would financially allow me to stay at home with our child indefinitely. People make all kinds of decisions when it comes to childcare and heading back to work, based on money and ambition and a whole bunch of other factors, but for us it was important for me to be able to stay at home for as long as I wanted to. And we knew that would be as long as possible. For us, becoming parents meant being the people who decided what our children would be doing each day, how to care for them and how they were taught those early life lessons. For us, handing our baby over to a nursery or childminder to make those decisions wasn't an option.

But in reality, it wasn't as simple as that. Ben's doing really well in his job but despite some serious budgeting and planning, we quickly realised that without me working, money would be tight. Really tight. As the months of my maternity leave ticked by (here in the UK you're able to take 12 months of maternity leave, where you receive a small percentage of your salary for the first nine months) we weighed up all the options. Working part-time? Find an evening job? Going back full-time? The true expense of childcare and more. But no matter what, we still came back to the same answer. There are more important things than money and nothing more important than our little family and our baby.

So here we are, living off one salary. Budgeting to within an inch of our lives, compiling some pretty strict meal plans to keep within our allocated food spend a week, saying goodbye to most treats. But it doesn't matter. We can do it. We can pay our bills and our rent. Keep our car and still eat good, home cooked meals using fresh ingredients from our local butchers and greengrocers (in fact Ben's enjoying and embracing the challenge of these financial restrictions as he plans our meals for the week). We've even got a teeny bit spare to enrol Phiney on the next level of swimming lessons.

But don't get me wrong, a bit extra would make a whole lot of difference and over the coming months you'll see me taking the next step to make Happy Circus my new career. To bring in more than a bit of spending money. But that's for another post.

You'll also see us getting seriously thrifty, making second-hand a priority, saving the pennies where we can and attempting a completely DIY Christmas. Bit that's for another post too.

Money-making, money-saving, upcycling, recycling - it's all something you'll be seeing a lot of round here. We're more than up for the challenge of creating a loving home full of fun, laughter and adventure that isn't impacted by the restrictions of our financial situation and, as I know we're by no means the only ones trying to live on a budget, your advice, tips and support will always be welcome.

This is a new period in our lives, and it's one we're so happy to be embracing. At times I'm sure it'll be difficult but being able to spend my days with our beautiful girl and for Ben to know that she's with me while he's at work, it's more than worth it, and worth sacrificing all those material things for.

It's the little moments like these that I wouldn't miss for the world. Josephine learning how to use her beaker on her own but finding the lid far more entertaining. And then there's seeing that smile all day, everyday. Yes, I count myself so very lucky.

OCTOBER: what a difference a year makes...

The first of October already. The last twelve months have sped by so quickly, it's hard to believe how much has changed. This time last year, my belly was getting bigger by the day and we were slowly gathering bits and bobs for the arrival of our new baby, trying to guess if it was a boy or girl.

Now here we are. Beautiful Josephine is crawling at high speed around the house, pulling herself up wherever she can, chattering about this and that in her own funny language.

Our lives last October were full of excitement and wonder and a sense of unknowing; of how things would change and what they'd be like in a year. Today, every day is packed with just as much excitement and wonder and a sense of unknowing. And it's awesome. Things have changed, of course, but absolutely for the better.

That Ben and I created this little one with our love is the most wonderful thing in all the world. That we now have the privilege to help shape her life is a role we cherish, and in turn she is shaping our lives too. Every day is an adventure, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.

ps. how amazing is the top Phiney's wearing? It's French vintage at it's best, and it will be going into the shop later in the month with a whole host of other fantastic vintage finds. I was trying it on Josephine to see roughly what size it was, and I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of her modelling it. To be honest I was very tempted to keep it, but right now Phiney has enough vintage in her wardrobe...