Autumn.. Come at me bro!

Hello lovely blogger people,

The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer, as the leaves on the trees slowly wilt from green to brown. It's definitely Autumn, and it appears to have arrived a little early this year. Well Autumn, come at me bro cause I'm ready for you!

Long gone are the pastel mints and yellows, now to be replaced by oxblood and tarten prints. It's time to say byebye to bronzed dewy skin & summer dresses, and hello to a matte complexion with a dark Autumnal lip. Preferably 'Avon oxblood, with Deep plum liner' (as pictured above).

I've decided to write up a list of my 10 Autumn must haves for 2014, some are making a return from last year purely because I like to try and get as much use/wear out of an item as possible. If you're going to buy it, use it!! 

1. Firstly is my new purple jumper! It's such a great Autumnal colour, and the little patterened collar really livens it up. A great jumper is a Autumn/Winter must have, and one with an added collar is even better! Everything looks better with a collar.

 I picked this up in an end of line sale, but New Look & Primark always have a brilliant range of versatile jumpers, that vary in price. Also for convenience Tesco's have really upped their shit in terms of Women's clothing! 

2. My second item is my lovely red tarten Swing Dess, I kept seeing a lot of photos of Michelle Keegan wearing one of these last year with leggings and a leather. I loved the look, so I went on a cheeky little internet search and found this one for £4 on Amazon. I was worried it would be too small or fall apart the first wash but it has held up brilliantly, I tumble dry it too. It's the comfiest thing I own, if I'm having a frumpy day this is what I'll wear!

I'm not sure if this is the seller I got mine from, because it was last year but here is a link to buy one of these on Amazon's website: www.amazon.co.uk/tarten-swing-dress

3: Number three on my list is my big wooly scarf! I picked this scarf up last year, at Asda believe it or not for about £8.00! It's the snuggliest, biggest scarf I have ever owned and perfect for those freezing Autumn/Winter school runs or the commute to work! Mine is grey gingham and reminds me of a picnic blanket. A great scarf is a staple wardrobe piece. They're a brilliant way to accessorise a boring jumper or coat whilst being efficient too! 

4. My fourth item is a Snood! If you're not sure what this ship is it's Scarf and Hood. So you're essentially wearing a big tube of fabric around you're neck. I don't use mine for the hoodyness though, just it's neck warming facilities. I picked this up last week at Tescos for £4.00, and although it's not a traditional Autumn colour I'm not quite ready to let go of my love for Mint Green! It's a lovely soft fabric and is perfect to wear with a plain jumper on a bitter Autumn day.

5. My fifth item is a new Candle I picked up in my local Tescos whilst I was doing the food shopping! It's made by a Scotish company called 'Shearer Candles', and it smells divine! I think candles are a really important part of keeping your home cosey and warm in the winter months, they really do add a certain ambience.  As well as looking quite snazzy too, I really love the purple and white jagged liney patterned tin. As you can tell I'm brilliant at describing things. It smells like winter berries, and Autumn. I've had it for about a week now and even with burning it every day I still have about half left. It was only four pounds in the shop and even though they only had about three different flavours? Scents? I dunno, ones. We'll use that. They only had three different ones in the shop, but on their website they have plenty more so I decided to link you up!

 www.shearer-candles.com                                                                                                                                                             6, 7 & 8. I decided I would these three products together, as they're all made by and purchased from Boots! The first two products are nail varnishes, although my nails are currently short I still have a vast collection of varnishes from when they weren't and I'm really trying and failing to grow them! So if you have any tips to help me stop biting PLEASE HELP ME!!!! The colours of these polishes are beautiful, and both are perfect for Aut/Win2014! 'Damson Dream' is a beautiful deep purpley/red that applies beautifully *2coats for perfection*, dries well & has a lasting finish. The second has all the above qualities, it's called 'Totally Teal' and is a gorgeously warming alternatives to the mint greens we've had over the summer.  Dark nails & Bordeaux lips are massively in during winter months and look gorgeous teamed with a boho chic look! 

The other product pictured is a gorgeous body from Boot's Soap & Glory range, to me it really is glorious! Applied to damp warm skin this body butter will melt into your skin leaving you feeling SOFTER than a baby, and smelling like Cotton Floss! (Cotton Candy if you're American.) I brought the travel sized mini for £2.50 (50ml) opposed to paying £10.50(300ml) and I have to say I'm glad I did, it has lasted me so well! Because a little bit really does go along way as long as your skin is damp. Too much body butter will leave you feeling sticky! Down below is a link to Boots website incase you would like to purchase this! (Unfortunately the NailVarnishes have been discontinued, Noooo! :( But give it a month and all the Autumnal stock will be in and I will find you some gorgeous budget nail goodies then.) 

www.boots.com

9 & 10: These two products are my favourite Lip-Duo of all time! If you're not a fan of dark vampy lips, stop reading now but if like me you are.. read away! Firstly I just want to say how scared I was of wearing a dark lip at first, and the first time you wear one you WILL feel self conscious.. unless if you're Rihanna! But aslong as you team it with a very neutral eye look during the day you can't wrong. If you're in a rush, and don't have time to do your cat eye.. whack on some vampy lippy instead. People will be so distracted by your loud obnoxious lips they won't even notice your pea eyes! Both of these products are from Avon, and weren't at all that expensive. They also work perfectly together as a team. The lipstick is called 'Oxford Wine' and really does look like dark red wine, and the Liner is in the shade 'Deep Plum'. Both products are made with some kind of witchery as the formula is perfect! The liner glides on nicely even over the most chapped of lips, and the lipstick whilst easy to use isn't all that messy. Though I really wouldn't recommend application whilst drunk, a bit like drink driving.. it's offensive! 

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my 10 Autumn Must Haves! I really enjoyed writing this blog, although I did have a MASSIVE bitch fit when the photos wouldn't stay where I wanted them too. Blogger sort it out! So yeah sorry about that, I had an awesome Idea for the pictures but it didn't really work out! Are there any staple products you need to get through the Autumn, if so what are they? Let me know, I love to get feed back! As always, please feel free to +1, comment and share. Also check my 'other internetty places' page to find my other social media sites!

Until next time lovely blogger folk,

'The Average Mum' x.

Cosying up my lounge in time for Autumn

Hello lovlies,

Does anyone else ever have those days where you sit and look around your house, only to realise you actually hate it? I've been having this feeling about living room for a few months now. There wasn't really a lot of ornaments or proper toy storage around the room, and I really loved the idea of having a wall full of hanging ornaments and small quirky pictures.

I've been making a start on my wall for a while now, and plan to build it up over time with little ornaments I find here and there. I don't like the thought of buying these from chain stores, as I want the wall to really get peoples minds thinking when they look at it, 

I want colour, texture, and literature. 

I decided to go for a beige and red theme, I know it's pretty simple but it's something I can cool down in the summer and warm up during the winter with big gingham throws and chunky cushions. I brought a big brass effect vase, and some traditional curtain tie backs. I want to find a big ornate mirror to dominate the largest wall in my lounge, but nothing the shops are offering has tickled my fancy so to speak. I'm thinking about going to the British heart foundation and other places like that. I'm massively into up cycling, although I'm yet to do it myself my mom uses all girls old clothes to make new clothes or blankets with. 

Another part that was driving me bonkers was the overwhelming amount of toys in the room, every spare corner was rammed with no longer played with toys! I transferred some into the girls playhouse and sneakily put some in the bin. I felt like I was robbing a bank trying to fit that half a jigsaw in the bin without the twins seeing me! I shopped around for some storage thinking I would probably settle on the cube storage units from IKEA, but something somewhere in my mind said Argos will be place. 

So off to Argos I went (typed!) and found they had a massive sale on, Yayy. Internet shopping + sales = my partners worst nightmare! I found a forgeous (fucking gorgeous) side unit for a bargain of £32.00 (half price) with FREE next day delivery. It's pine, with 4small drawers and two cube storage holes. I brought two white rectangular wicker baskets to sit inside. 2for£10 in Store 21! 

It was fate, and by that time the next day it was up in my living room, hiding the girls toys away.

I purchased a lovely little lantern and some new photo frames to sit atop the side board, and added a small basket of flower heads that I'd had drying out in the kitchen. I feel like all of these new little bits have made my living room very cosy and a nice relaxing space to be..when you're not tripping over Peppa Pig or Thomas the Tank Engine that is! 

I finished my living room off with some textured sofa cushions, in red & cream and a big brown and red rug! Perfect for the little ones to play on. My next plan of action is to rip up the laminate flooring and get a thick shaggy carpet laid! My house is old and feels cold up until July. 

I've posted a snap of a few of the new bits I got, and I hope you love them all as much as I do! 

If you know of any lovely little boutiques or sites I can order some mindboggling wall ornaments from please leave me a link :) is anyone else sprucing up their house in time for autumn!? If so let me know how! I hoped you enjoyed this post. 

As always please feel to comment, +1 and subscribe! Or find me at some of my other internetty places. 

Until next time, 

'The Average Mum' x. 

Baking with my babies!

Hello lovely blogger people, 

Sorry this weeks blogpost is a little bit late! I did post one but it had to be removed due to unforeseen circumstances, and I didn't have a backup blog that was fully written or ready. You could say I had gone back to being blocked. Until yesterday when me and the girls baked some Peppa Pig cakes.

As a treat for good behaviour and being my best friends we decided to make some Peppa cakes. We didn't have anything in the house to make them with, so we took a trip to our local shop to buy the mixture, and some eggs. The twins were absolute angels on the way down, and we had so much fun on the walk. Both of them were in brilliant moods, and so was I. Sometimes I find with having twins they swap round with their bad behaviour, so a day with good behaviour off both of my girls is always a treasured one indeed! 

The sun was shining and we were smiling. We got back home and I took their little table into the kitchen so they could make the mixture themselves, and really get involved. They also made a right mess, but I like it that way. A messy cook is a good cook! After a good ten minutes of stirring everything together I gave them some big girl spoons (as Lucie put it) to decanter the mixture into the cake cases, we had one incident where most of the mixture landed in the cake tin..

That doesn't sound too bad but all of the other cases were half-full of mixture, so I couldn't clean it up properly. We ended up with a cake baked into the cake tin, oops. 

We put the cakes in the oven, well I did because it turns out I might have tried to keep the twins away from the cooker a bit too much.. The minute I opened the door the girls ran to the other end of the kitchen! When I asked why, their reply was "we'll get burnt, it's hot". At least they know I suppose.. It's better than them getting burnt. 

Whilst the girls waited patiently for their cakes too cook & cool, I cleaned up the pandemonium in my kitchen. Mummy's get all the fun jobs! 

I sat the girls at the breakfast bar to decorate their cakes, I'd forgotten they would need to use the small table again, so I cleaned it up and put it back into its original place. The cakes only came with some chocolate icing/frosting  to look like Peppas muddy puddles, and some Peppa & George fondant stickers. 

So I put some sprinkles and chocolate chips into some small bowls for them to add on, and add them on they did! They both upended the bowls all over the cakes, and sprinkles went everywhere!

It was quite funny, and adorably cute when they said "sorry Mummy" they really do have good manners, and it makes me so proud everyday. The message behind this blog is that, even just doing a small activity like baking cakes with your kids can become something so much more. All they want is your attention, not money or material things. I've loved this summer holiday with the girls, and I'm going to be so sad to see my beauties go back to school! We've created alot of fun memories that I'll treasure forever. The best is yet to come, on Friday as an end-of-summer treat we're taking them to Cbeebies Land for the day! We'll be meeting up with some lovely friends of ours who also have twins, and I can't wait to see all the children meeting their favourite Characters! It's going to be the best Anniversary treat ever, me and Matt have just celebrated our five-year anniversary. I brought him a race-track day, he got me Cbeebies tickets! Everyone's a winner. :) I'm so excited eeep. Anyway I've blabbed on for alot longer than I intended too, so I'm going to edit this and shoot off. I hope everyone else has had a lovely summer with their babies, let me know what you've been upto! 

As always Thankyou for reading and I hope you enjoyed this blog! Please leave me a comment :) +1 and share. 

Until next time lovely blogger folk, 

'The Average Mum' x.

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2000 and whatttt?!?

Hi lovely blogger people! 

Just a quick little blog I'm firing straight off my iPhone to say THANKYOU! 

I didn't expect my blog to get 10reads let alone over 2000 in less than a year! 

I know compared to some blogs this is a minute number, but to me it seems MASSIVE! Thankyou so much for sticking with this blog, and following me on my journey! I have so much to tell you and catch you up on! 

Watch this space lovely blogger people, and again Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou! 

Until next time, 

'The Average Mum' x. 

Cheeky Little M.U.A Haul!

Hello lovely blogger people,

I really hope you all enjoyed my last product review. It was on Lush products, if you didn't read it go do so now, or Santa won't visit you. I'm joking... Maybe! ;) 

This blog is a haul blogggg, Yay! I love buying new make-up to add to my kit, especially when it's a good price and is really good quality too! 

All of my products today are from the same brand 'M.U.A - Make Up Acadamy' the brand is the high-street drugstore Superdrugs own Make up brand, and is very reasonably priced yet also very good. 
I'm not sure about anyone else but when I'm buying new Make Up, I'm looking for three very important things. 

1. Good pigmentation & colour pay-off. 
2. Wearability. (How long it lasts for.) 
3. Good value for money.

I think this brand definitely ticks all of these boxes, and as an added bonus it is available on pretty much every High Street, unlike a lot of Make Up that is only available online or in big shopping centers! 

The first product I purchased is an Eyeshadow palette called 'Undress Me' that claims to be a duplicate for the 'Urban Decay, Naked2 palette'. I researched this beauty before buying, and discovered it was only £4.00 and that alot of other fellow beauty bloggers had purchased both and compared them, then found this palette to be a very good duplicate. 
The palette itself contains 12 shades, ranging from matte nudes to shimmery darks. 
Everything a girl needs to go from day to night effortlessly!

They have very high pigmentation, and the colour pay off is exceptional for a four pound eyeshadow palette! I can't fault this, with even the darker colours being easy to blend. The packaging of the palette is simple and black, with a clear lid to view the product through. It is quite cheaply made, so I worry dropping this would result in a few broken shadows. 
**Tip** When working with dark eyeshadows, use a clean fluffy blending brush like a M.A.C 217 or a Real Techniques Crease brush. It will move and blend the product alot easier.**
I highly recommend this! 

The second product I brought from M.U.A is the 'Undress Your Skin' highlighter, I'm a little highlighter obsessed so I couldn't help myself! Also, this another dupe product so I had to try it!! Again I had stumbled upon this product whilst reading a beauty blog, and read that it was a fairly close product to the 'M.A.C Whisper of gilt Highlighter' Nice play on words there M.A.C.. which was sadly only available for a limited time. (Cue the cries of pro M.U.A's everywhere..) 

IF applied sparingly and with a clean blush brush this product can make a wonderful highlighter  and since it only set me back £3.00 I can't complain too much. But say you were to wear this out at night or around flash photography...  it might come across quite glarish under the false light. But in natural light, ontop of a peachy blush this product can look so beautiful! Again the package of this product is quite simplistic, a white container with a nice clear lid so you can view your product. The plastic is cheap on this product also, but that's expected. Just store this product well! 
**Tip** Tap excess product off your brush to avoid using too much** 
I recommend this product... if used sparingly!! 

Product number three is a Mascara, now I've always purchased more expensive mascaras because I'm prone to conjunctivitis if my eye makeup isn't hypoallergenic. But I'd had no trouble with my other M.U.A products so I decided to give their 'Extreme Curl Mascara' a go. Frankly I'm quite glad I did, firstly it smells like cucumbers! So nice, because every female knows what I mean when I say I do not miss that mascara smell! 

Secondly it comes in a nice silver tube, that faintly resembles the new mascara from Rimmel.. the actual name has escaped me! But even perfect people have off days! The formula itself isn't at all clumpy, and this shit really is BLACK! Again it was only £3.00 and it also hasn't given me any eye problems! My only little niggle is, the wand is very straight so the first few times I used it I ended up with mascara on my nose! It's just getting used to the wand..
'The wand chooses the wizard Harry..' Sorry I couldn't help myself! 
I highly recommend this product! 

My next product is a blush! This only set me back about £3.00 and is called 'The Mosaic Blush' the appearance lives up to the name of this product! It's gorgeous, and has a little bit of everything packed inside the simple plastic black and clear pot! The colours are seperated into small mosaic shaped pieces and there's around six varying shades in there! Two shades for highlighting, a nice purple and a shimmery muted gold. Two shades for bronzing, a light matte shade and a darker more shimmery shade, and two shades to add that pink flush to your cheeks, in orange and dark red. The colour pay off and pigmentation again in this product are outstanding.
I highly recommend this product to anyone who is a beginner at contouring/highlighting and adding colour to their face! You really can't go wrong with this beauty! 

My final and favourite product is the 'Cover and Conceal' concealer. It comes displayed in a small white and clear plastic tube, and is applied with a wand. The formula itself is quite watery, and it has very little coverage. BUT before you close the page down, I will say it makes a wonderful illuminator, and is very good if you're looking for something to create that coveted dewy skin look! This product sells in Superdrug for £1.50 and if I didn't already own about 82 concealers I would have been upset by it's lack of coverage. I think really they need to change the name and purpose of this product, then we'll be onto a winner!
I would recommend this product, just don't go in with the mind set that this will cover and conceal cause it will not! It will however illuminate your gorgeous blogger faces! 

All products are available to purchase in Superdrug stores or online at: 
www.superdrug.com

As always I hope you enjoyed reading todays blog, and I really hope it helped to find you a budget beauty bargain! Next week I'll be back with a skincare blog so keep your eyes peeled! 
Feel free to comment, +1 and share! Thankyou for reading..
Until next time lovely blogger folk, 
'The Average Mum.' x

Lush.

Hello :) 

I feel rather sheepish writing this, like a friend you haven't seen for a while who feels slightly guilty for staying away so long! I'm afraid life got in the way of my internet dreams, but I'm back! Also I kind of lost my writing skill, I was completely blocked. But after a short break I feel a lot better and have lots of new material to write about! 

I decided to keep today's blog short and sweet and treat you all to a small product  review as my way of saying sorry for neglecting you lovely blogger people! 

I've always had really chapped lips and after trying all of the obvious remedies I decided to try a lip scrub from Lush! I've had Lush products before and I loved them, I love the fact they only use natural and organic products, I love the fact they're extremely against animal testing and I love the very fair prices. 

I purchased what I would describe as a pretty wicked duo! A scrub to get rid of the dry cracked skin on my lips, and a balm to soothe them after exfoliation. 

Together both of these products cost around £11.00 I ordered offline so I paid a little extra for delivery! As always I have done a seperate paragraph for each product! Enjoy.. 

(Links for online purchasing below, *this is not a sponsor*) 

Lush: Bubblegum Lip Scrub. 

This lip scrub is amazing, not only does it work wonderfully the first time you use it and every other time afterwards.... It's also edible. Yes you're eyes aren't deceiving you, soft lips and a snack all in one gorgeous looking pot! I love the packaging it's the classic simplistic packaging from Lush we've all come to know and love. Inside the jar is 25grams of heaven! It's also small enough to carry around, winner! 

Lush: None Of Your Beeswax Lip Balm. 

*i purchased this as it is a recommended product to use along side the lip scub.*

I'm not normally a massive fan of lipbalms/glosses as I always find them too sticky and feel they have a really funny plasticy taste. So I was rather dubious when this lip balm claimed to leave you with 'supple lemony smackers' but everything's worth a try! 

So you can imagine my shock when it really did leave them tasting lemony and feeling supple! I highly recommend using this to sooth your lips after exfoliating because if they're really chapped (like mine!) they can feel quite soar afterwards! The lip balm is contained in a small Lush tin, and contains 8grams of lemony goodness! 

To order these offline visit.. 

www.lush-cosmetics.co.uk

Both of these products were £5.50 each and I really do class these as A Budget Beauty bargain. I know they seem quite pricey, but they last and work! 

I really hope you enjoyed reading today's blog! I'll be back soon with some more for you, watch this space! 

As always please feel free to +1, comment and share! :) Thankyou for reading. 

Until next time lovely blogger folk, 

'The Average Mum'. x