Arbonne Cosmetics Review

I am imagining some of my friends snorting with laughter when they see the title of this post. I’m not widely known for being a connoisseur of cosmetics.

But when I had my makeup done by a very lovely lady at the MAD Blog awards I was stunned by what a good job she did. Bad experiences in the past meant that I had envisaged leaving the room looking totally overdone, and having to rush away to scrub it all off with wipes and start again myself. But the results were actually lovely and very natural. Me – but better.

Arbonne Cosmetics – who provided all the products at the MADS – have offered me a few goodies to try at home. So here goes…

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One Year On…

November 1, 2012 By DorkyMum in Blogging, Harpenden, Scotland Tags: Being Mrs C, blogger events, Blogging, BritMums Live, dancing on ice, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, England, Hertfordshire, Jubilee, London, London Transport Museum, MAD Blog awards, moving house, Olympics, Save the Children, settling in, The Start Up Wife, Willows Farm St Albans 29 Comments

Last week marked one year exactly since we moved from Edinburgh to Hertfordshire, and I am pretty proud of how we are doing.

DorkySon has settled amazingly well in his new nursery – it has been an absolute delight seeing him grow in confidence, become so much more curious about the world he lives in, and spend the majority of his time as an incredibly happy wee boy. He is a lot of fun to spend time with right now.

DorkyDad is working harder than I have ever seen, learning new skills and absorbing information about a sector he hasn’t worked in before, travelling to parts of the world he never imagined visiting, and trying hard not to let the unpleasantness of a daily commute get him down.

I feel like I have whinged quite a bit about things since we moved – and it’s no secret that we don’t want to live here forever – but it has also brought some amazing opportunities for us all.

So I decided to have a read back through some of my blog posts, and reflect on ten things – big and small – that we would not have had the chance to do if we hadn’t made the move. Continue reading →

Project 52: Week 42

October 31, 2012 By DorkyMum in Photography Tags: 52 Week Project, carved pumpkin, children, halloween, parenting, Photography, Project 52, pumpkin carving, pumpkins 16 Comments

This is DorkySon’s first ever pumpkin.

I guess he felt that everybody should know that.

The Pot Plant Analogy

October 30, 2012 By DorkyMum in Guest Posts Tags: birth, birth trauma, difficult birth, Marina Graham, parenting 59 Comments

I wrote my birth story up for another website last week, and when I posted a link to it on Facebook, it prompted a very interesting discussion in the comments.

It seems I’m not the only person who has been told not to ‘complain’ about a difficult birth experience, because I ‘ended up with a healthy baby and that’s all that matters’.

An old university friend, Marina, wrote an absolutely brilliant analogy about how it feels, and why we need to take birth trauma seriously, and she has given me permission to post it here. Continue reading →

Not another post about books…

October 29, 2012 By DorkyMum in Nostalgia Tags: books, books as gifts, bookshops, reading 16 Comments

Buying books is an optimistic thing to do, isn’t it?

It means you believe there is someone out there who can say what you’re feeling better than you can say it yourself… because the best moment in a book is a moment of recognition.

Or is it? Maybe the best moment in a book is discovering something right at the edge of your vision, a little beyond what you know. Something that makes you stop and say, “Oh wow. Yes. That.”
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Dorkymum | Stories from Tasmania

Stories from our family home in Tasmania