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Thursday 31 May 2012

Queen Elizabeth Diamond jubilee

1952: At 25 years old, Elizabeth's father died and she became Queen to travel the world and look after Britain. 60 years on and I realise I don't know much about her life.

I love these pictures from her first commonwealth tour, through 1950s and 1960s. There's a brilliant timeline on the official jubilee website.

http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/timeline

Not many street parties going on here in Madrid so have invited some people over for a jubilee inspired coffee morning next week!

*All images from aforementioned website licensed to press association- do I need to ask to use these...? Should have attended the Cybher session on legalities and images*

Thursday 10 May 2012

Cybher meet and great

Irk, my man joked that I would not be allowed in to Cybher as haven't been very Cyber lately- this is true- I've felt completely deplugged- but now with Elias the 3 month old sleeping on his own at night and my Leon at la guarderia 5 mornings a week thus not demanding the iPad every time I use it, I can hit the Cyber waters once again. I've felt not able to spend time on online things which is a shame, but am focusing more on my physical space as just moved house to SPAIN. It's time to Cyberize once more.

Bla blah blah

This is me

Name: Maria
Blog: mixedupmummy.blogspot.com
Twitter ID: @Mariahalse
Height: 5ft 6/7ish? - Too tall for heels - sniff ;,(
Hair: Dark brown with fringe - piled into a big bun

5 things you should know about me
1. I have just settled into our new home in central Madrid with 2 babies but miss lush SW London
2. I would have loved to have been in a rock band playing badass bass but it never happened
3. My patience surprises me: I marvel at my 2 year old singing the Circle of Life at top volume on repeat.
4. I love traipsing Le Marais for €10 vintage dresses and big piles of 2nd hand tat in flea markets for hidden treasures!
5. I desperately miss night time dancing but don't do anything about it. Yet

Hope to meet some more fab bloggers on Saturday! See you then and do say hi - I'll have a baby strapped to me. (And if you're going to Cybher make sure you check out some other meet & greets here!)

ShopStyle review

Shopstyle is a super massive clothes shopping search engine that makes it easy to save favourite items, put together looks using a special widget and receive personalised sale alerts for your favourite stores or products.

The iPad app is brill and quickly became my nighttime feeding app of choice, allowing me to swish swish swish through rails of clothes and hearting those I like and may consider buying when I have a flatter stomach... and plenty of cash!

You can search by keywords and filter for size, price or store allowing you to discover new brands and dream of beautiful dresses floating into your inbox as a sale alert.

Some of my favourites on the Shop Style iPad app (all the affordable items are sold out!)
Topshop, Office, Miu Miu... beautiful clothes and shoes all around, though it lacks some of our favourites such as H&M, Zara, American Apparel, Polarn O Pyret... I was informed that these stores have very limited, protected online shopping.

On the ShopStyle website their Stylebook widget is lots of fun to play with (I found it difficult to enlarge and choose products on the iPad but it was still doable) and can create looks that you can save and share.

Putting together a Springtime look on the ShopStyle website 
It's also fun to browse other people's 'looks' that they've created and rate them with 1, 2 or 3 stars! 

Browse through other people's looks using ShopStyle found products

I purchased a few bits for Leon including a coat from Peacocks- I've never bought anything there before but I saw a duffel coat for £15 and I thought it was a bargain! (This was in November...) The app took me to the retailer's website and paying was easy - the product arrived within a couple of days- super speedy. I must admit I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the coat and the material felt more like a thick jumper- the sizing was also a bit off- 2 reasons why I'm not an avid online shopper- BUT I didn't return it and it's been worn to death so all in all a very good purchase!

It's a brilliant app but I'd like to see more ways to personalise the shopping experience for example having a few favourite stores instead of having to scroll through the extensive list of stores. There are many brands and stores I haven't heard of so am discovering a few gems. I'd rather save those I like in a separate stream allowing easier viewing for next time!

**Warning: ShopStyle will make you want to go back to work to earn lots of dollar to pay for beautiful clothes**

Thursday 3 May 2012

Madrid!

We've been in our new home, Madrid for over a month now and have enjoyed visiting the city but have mainly been doing this:

Feeding the baby

Sampling the local produce

Bathing the babies

Feeding the baby


Fingerpainting

Walking the streets in the sunshine

And the odd bit of tourism - here, the impressive Plaza Mayor


Life is good, Leon's just started nursery (he loves it) giving me more time to spend with little Elias and getting stuff done. We've been away for a few weeks visiting family in Paris & back home in London (also for blogging event Cybher!) but looking forward to spending more time on my blog :D