Gemma in the Cotswolds

LIVING & RAISING RAINBOWS IN THE COTSWOLDS
Beauty

Quick Voluminous Hair for a Busy Mum – with John Frieda

Quick Voluminous Hair for a Busy Mum – with John Frieda

Anyone who knows me, knows I have a love/hate thing going on with my hair. As a child, it was long and blonde and I could sit on it. A a teen it turned frizzy and mousy, and I spent hours and hours attacking it with a hair straightener. Many moons and many colours later, after my third pregnancy, my shoulder length hair decided it wanted to be naturally wavy. I was more than happy about this, as it required minimal effort – just what I needed as a busy mum. I do however love my hair longer, but as it…

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The Me & Mine Project

The Me & Mine Project – May 2017

The Me & Mine Project – May 2017

Its the end of May already?! May for the Brushneen household, has passed in a blur of dust, mess, dust sheets and more dust. As Ell has been fitting our new kitchen himself (and he’s done an amazing job), because he has only had weekends to get on with it, it seems like it has been going on forever! The majority of the kitchen was in when I wrote our April post, but we were waiting on worktops. I can happily say it is now completely finished – except for the living room has now started! Its been a boring…

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Living Arrows

{Living Arrows 2017} #16

{Living Arrows 2017} #16

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” Kahlil Gilbran Anyone who pops over here regularly will realise that I haven’t been around much lately. Mainly due to the work happening on our house – which has tapered off for the moment as we are nearly done – and secondly because living in the mess in a small house with three young children managed to overwhelm me. At times it felt like I would never be organised again.  Due to this, photo taking has been few and far between as the weekends have passed…

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The Siblings Project

The Siblings Project – May 2017

The Siblings Project – May 2017

I’m two days late with this post due to having a malfunctioning MacBook charger and having all my siblings photos on the computer. It seems to have been the story of the last few months in that one thing after another seems to have stopped working or broken in our house. Project kitchen is finally complete and project living room has started. I feel like I have been a pants Mum to my three this month as both me and Ell have been preoccupied with getting the house sorted as quickly as possible. On the plus side, it means that…

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Birth Stories

Happy Birthday Mason | Mason’s Birth Story

Happy Birthday Mason | Mason’s Birth Story

Today Mason, my youngest, my last baby, turns two. I honestly can’t believe how fast two years has flown by – I can blink and I am back in the haze of the newborn days, and then I blink again and I have a beautiful crazy toddler, who knows his own mind and is fiercely independent, but is yet still the cuddliest of my babies. I found out I was expecting Mason early September 2014. From the beginning I felt a sense of calm as I worked out my due date was days apart from Sophie’s due date. Mason was…

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Brand Collaborations

#TearsintoSmiles with Elastoplast & Britmums | A Clumsy Family

#TearsintoSmiles with Elastoplast & Britmums | A Clumsy Family

This post is an entry for the BritMums #TearsintoSmiles Challenge, sponsored by Elastoplast. It’s a standard joke in our house and amongst our family and friends that we are a clumsy family. If there is something to trip over or fall in, one of us Brushneen’s will find it. I have never known anyone other than Ell who has been able to shut their own head in a door – I’m still not sure how he managed that. I fall up the stairs on a daily basis and unfortunately it looks like all three kids are following suit. I was…

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