I am not the best sleeper in normal times, add in Christmas, a pandemic and all the uncertainty going on in the world currently and it gets even more challenging!  So I am always mindful of creating a beautiful calm space if I do have guests, especially over Christmas.  With an empty nest I have two guest rooms - my son's bedroom which is my dressing room now - it has a small double bed in it - plus I have a guest room above the garage with an ensuite shower room.  DUSK sent me some of their gorgeous bedding to try out, they offer 'luxury bedding for less' and their website is full of useful sleep tips, as well as a gorgeous selection of beautiful bedding and linens to make your bedroom or your guest room look and feel like a hotel room!

This is a gifted blog post.

My daughter was born during the afternoon of Wednesday 13th December 2000, having been due on 1st December!  I was taken into hospital on the Tuesday to be induced but as it turned out, I went into labour that night and she was safely delivered sometime after lunch, it was all a bit of a blur to be honest!  I remember I had a student midwife who was delighted to have completed her first natural delivery! 

My parents were at home looking after our son and my husband arrived at the hospital about 6 am to be met with me in a wheelchair heading urgently to the delivery suite. There had been high winds and a storm overnight and I wasn't keen for him to travel until it calmed down!  I had quite a relaxing evening on the maternity ward watching Peak Practice, having a bath and taking paracetamol for early labour pains!!!

As the birth went smoothly, we were allowed home the same day.  Emily now is a very petite young lady, but as she was overdue she was quite a chubby baby for the first 6 months!  But she was so easy going, so laid back, slept through the night at about two weeks and has never really given me any challenges at all!  I remember friends saying, you wait, she will get her own back during her teenage years, but she never did!

Don't cancel your Christmas plans!  I feel very strongly that enough is enough, we need to learn to live with 'the virus' now and I am becoming increasingly concerned about the effect on mental wellbeing and the implications for our long term health.  The news this last week has really upset and disturbed me.   I just feel it is never-ending!

Back to my Christmas gift ideas - I am still very keen to do conscious gifting and I love giving an experience rather than too much 'stuff' that will ultimately end up in landfill.  This year I have finally invested in reusable Christmas Crackers!  I met Caroline from Sew Caroline at a Christmas Shopping event and I have purchased a set of six fabric crackers that I can add my own gifts to.  I can use them year after year and they will look amazing on my table.  I am planning to fill mine with some beautiful, natural bath bombs from Vari Cosmetics.

Some of my gift ideas were previously gifted to me (and are marked *)

I was recently invited back to The Massage Company in High Wycombe to see how they are getting on, try out some of their most popular massages and share an updated review on my blog.  I first visited them in June and July 2019 but since then we have all had the stress of a pandemic to cope with! The Massage Company was one of the many businesses that had to shut their doors for months on end.  But they are back open and offering a selection of full body massage treatments again - these include a hot stone massage and a deep tissue massage alongside quite a few relaxing upgrades to restore our wellbeing and help our stress and tension!

The Massage Company gifted me three massages which I took over a period of about six weeks, so one every two weeks.  And first of all can I say, they were amazing!  But let me tell you in a bit more detail ... and share the many benefits of regular massage too!

This is a gifted blog post.