7 Sensational Summer Dresses On A Budget!

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to write this post, these are my opinions & I just wanted to share some pretty dresses I'd seen and loved.

Hi Honeys
Since we've now changed over to daylight savings & arrived formally into British Summer Time - yaaaay!!  I can't wait to pack away winter sweaters, wooly socks, boots & heavy jackets and instead start wearing dresses, pretty cardigans, court shoes (a favourite of mine) strappy sandals & wedges instead :)

I thought today I'd like to share some of my favourite new season items seen online. I wanted to show that it's possible to buy a pretty summer dress no matter what your budget. I do think these dresses are lovely, I hope that you like them too :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Hi Honeys,
Wherever you are today, I hope you have beautiful blue skies and that your day is full of fun, smiles & hugs with those you love :)

Have a fabulous day honeys, sending hugs xx

Maggi Italian Chicken Papyrus Sheets

Disclaimer: I wasn't asked/or paid to write this post, It's just another of my little kitchen experiments :) 

Hi Honeys
Having seen the ad for these herb coated papyrus sheets on TV I was curious and thought well why not try them :)

  Inside the package there are four papyrus sheets, each coated in Italian herbs, which look like this....

Do You Love Fashion? Why Not Release Your Inner Designer!

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to promote Polyvore, I just adore creating there and wanted to share :)

Hi honeys
I'm so excited to share this with you! Have you heard of Polyvore?

Ever Wanted To Create A Collection? To Release Your Inner Designer?

Imagine having a fantasy closet. Now imagine that you could stock that fantasy closet with any item from the best stores, from the catwalks, any item ever created, past or present, by all of the greatest designers.  All there for you to mix & match, to use to create your own looks.

For the past year or so I have been having great fun creating "sets" at a fabulous site called Polyvore. Oh my goodness, if you love fashion, if you love interior design, if you love to look at beautiful things, Polyvore is the place to be! Essentially, the site encourages its members to create a set or even a collection of their favourite looks whether in the worlds of fashion or interior design. 

Each set you create will be saved on your home page (you can see mine here ) and if you run your cursor over each set you'll see the details (inc price etc) of each piece added.  What are your favourite looks? Do you love Vintage Hollywood style glamour? Or are you more a casual chic person?  No matter what your own personal style is honeys, you'll find it at Polyvore 😊

I thought I'd share with you a few of my creations as an illustration and why not start with something glamorous.....

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award! yaaaay!

Thank you Hayley :)  

Having only been blogging for a few weeks, and not knowing what to expect when I started typing on my little corner of the web, I've been so thrilled by how friendly, helpful and generous fellow bloggers have been. The latest example of how sweet fellow bloggers are happened this morning when I saw a comment on my latest blog post from the lovely Hayley saying she'd nominated me for the Liebster Award :) this link will take you to her wonderful Beauty, Fashion & Lifestyle Blog

Since I wasn't sure how the Liebster Award works, the following is quoted from Hayley's blog which you can read here: Beauty, Fashion & Lifestyle Blog  It's essentially a great way for bloggers to recommend other bloggers and try to raise the profile of their blogs.

The rules for this are as follows:

1.You must link back to the person who awarded you

2.You must answer the 11 questions given by the nominee before you

3.You pick 11 nominees with under 200 followers to answer your questions

4.You cannot nominate the person who nominated you

5.You must tell your nominees that they have been nominated by you

11 Random facts about me :)

1. I'm married to my best friend & soulmate.

2. I have a beautiful furbaby called Jade the sweetest little dog, and our featherbaby Wallace, a gorgeous yellow/green budgie :)

3. I love "Sleepy Hollow" (the TV series)

4. I'm a long, long time fan of Babylon 5 (adore Bruce Boxleitner)

5. Ikea is my happy place, yep really :)

6. I've been a huge Fry & Laurie fan for many years and secretly wish they'd make another series of A Bit of Fry & Laurie. To my last breath I will adore them both :)

7. I love roses, adore them.

8. I believe in angels.

9. I love pastels and Victoriana

10. I love old black & white movies, Humphrey Bogart is one of my faves.

11. I love hugs :)

These are my answers to Hayley's questions:

Homeware Haul - Products That Made Me Smile :)

Note: I have not been asked to write this post, or paid to recommend any products. It's just some little bargains I've found recently that made me smile.

Hi Honeys
Good afternoon everyone, hoping you're all well and starting to see the Spring sunshine, even if it is still a little chilly :)

 I recently bought a few things for our home and wanted to share...

Still Waiting for Spring..

The background I used to make this image came from the wonderful Antique Images a lovely site packed full of the most stunning free backgounds & graphics. Do go along and say hi to Carolyn on Twitter and follow her site at Bloglovin I just did :)

Hi Honeys 

I hope you're well and hopefully seeing some sunshine? 

So, this week we got a beautiful glimpse of Spring... for a few days anyway :) We had gorgeous blue skies complete with fluffy clouds and a perfect soft breeze.

A Perfect few days for drying laundry, playing with your furbaby in the garden & just sitting in the sunshine, taking a few minutes to just breathe and be happy :) All of which I did, and it made such a difference to my mood and to how I felt.

Chronic Illness & Sleeplessness Part Two - Let's Get Some Sleep!

DISCLAIMER: Please remember This is NOT health advice.  Please talk to your Doctor or Health Professional if you have specific concerns about mobility, joint pains or anything else. Thank you.   Also, I haven't been paid or asked to write this post. These are just my own experiences & things that have helped me. I hope that they can be useful and help others. 

Hi Honeys 

Hello again :) In my last post  I talked about lack of sleep and possible causes, at least in so far as how they have affected me.  Today I wanted to share some of the coping mechanisms I've found over the years.

The single biggest thief of sleep is pain. I so wish I could find something that would make all of the pain disappear for Spoonies everywhere, but even if we can't make it go away altogether honeys, there are ways to minimise it or at least to address some of the problems directly.  Again my experiences may be very different from others but if any of these ideas help anyone in any way I'd be so happy.

Chronic Illness & Sleeplessness

Hi Honeys 

Do you have trouble sleeping?  I certainly do.  Almost everyone has probably experienced the occasional night where they can't easily nod off or just can't seem to settle but in my case it's so regular as to be the norm and has been now for many years.

I've been told at hospital that this is not unusual in arthritis patients. There are many reasons for this, the obvious one of course being pain whether in the joints or in the muscles. Both very distressing and more than able to deprive anyone of sleep believe me.

Longing For Spring, Blue Skies & Fluffy Clouds!

Hi Honeys

Is anyone else fed up of wearing multiple jumpers/cardigans/scarves & gloves? As someone not terribly steady on her feet I'm so grateful for the lack of snow this year, ice terrifies me! but I'm so, so fed up of drenching rain, winds so raw they feel like they could cut a person in two and did I mention I'm fed up of jumpers! 

Really, though :/ I so long for the sun on my face and for warm gentle breezes. For daffodils, for the lavender to start scenting the garden again and for the roses to bud and show their beautiful colours. 

About me...

Hello there, lovely to meet you :)

Welcome to Rosie's Cottage HQ.  Do pull up a chair, kick off your shoes and make yourself at home 😊

What you'll find here are the musings of a blissfully happily married, incredibly lucky lady who is also mum to the sweetest furbaby you'll ever meet 💗  This is our baby Jade.....

Isn't she a cutie? We were blessed to adopt our precious angel from a rescue when she was approx. 7 months old, and she is the apple of our eye💖   I've been told our baby is spoiled (the cheek!) and I always reply that she is not spoiled! She's just loved an awful lot 💖

Jade loves walkies with Dad, cuddles on the sofa with her Mum and naps, she also adores her cuddly stuffed toys, especially the squeaky ones 😊 Back to me then, although I could chat happily about our baby Jade for hours 🐶

I'm a Spoonie and battle arthritis - inflammatory (RA) & osteo, fibro and asthma. Well meaning people often tell me that I'm "too cheery" or "don't you cope well."  I say well meaning (and I'm very sure they are) but it can grate on a person no matter how well intended. 

Anyone who has mobility problems & all of the other associated baggage that accompanies living with a chronic illness, knows how incredibly difficult coping is and really doesn't want it pointing out.  I know honeys, I sound ungrateful for the concern of others (and I'm so not) it's just that I'm really not a fan of "pity parties."

Self care is so important to everyone, not just those living with health issues, but there's a fine line between acknowledging the limitations a chronic condition might place on us and allowing them to exert too much control over how we live, in my humble opinion. 

I love reading, writing, and trying out recipes. My kitchen experiments are tested on my poor long suffering husband, who has yet to complain, well ever, bless him (thank you sweetheart x) 💕

We are currently involved in home re-organisation, yep I said we.  Of all the blessings I've had in my life, beyond a doubt my darling husband is the finest.  Anything I've ever gotten excited about, whether something silly like my latest recipe experiment or wanting desperately to organise our home from top to bottom, he's smiled his beautiful smile, given me a huge hug and joined right in 💖

I did say I was a very lucky lady, and when I count my blessings and say thank you every day, Hubby is my first, always 💗 I try to keep myself as busy as I can and love to tweet, pin and most of all to hug 😊 Seriously, I'm a serial hugger! Can't help myself 😄

Thank you for stopping by, do say hello in the comments section below and I promise I'll reply. Have a fabulous day dear ones, sending you heaps of hugs,
Rosie xx

Ps: You can find me on Bloglovin on Twitter and on Pinterest if you're around do say hello 😊
huggles xx