Some Disney Explainin'!

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

I've got some Disney explaining to do. Here's the story-

For years Marie BitsandClips have been talking about our 'someday dream' to take the girls (and Luca) to DisneyLand or DisneyWorld together. We are the kind of women who delight in the little things so a trip like that would be like magic to us. We knew we would take joy from every tiny thing, from packing in flight handbags to seeing Cinderella's castle, and so, it's been on our 'please, please one day please list' for a looonngg time.

(From our trip in Oct '13)

Now, you might not know this about me but when I decide on doing something, I'm not letting it go. Persistent Pentland is not a nickname without basis. This Summer I decided I was going to make this happen and so set out talking to Marie and getting going on the dream. We booked a trip for November but due to work commitments, we had to delay it to March.

Since the Summer we have been talking, planning, pinning and researching all things DisneyWorld. We are OBSESSED. Since Darcy has already been to the Magic Kingdom (HERE), I know she'd understand the concept of a Disney holiday and so told her all about it. She doesn't have a grasp of time yet so it's always been, 'When Scarlet (Marie's Daughter) turns 4, it's time to go on Holiday!'. She's pumped.

Then, like some kind of magic curveball, DisneyWorld contacted my management. The dream brand that I have been wanting to work with since forever, sent an invite. They asked if Matt, Darcy and I would like to join them for four days, staying on one of their resorts and touring the parks, in return for vlogs and blogs and all those good things.

I was torn. On one hand its the absolute dream and the exchange seemed perfect to me because I don't think I could ever go somewhere that magical and not document it on every social platform available but then on the other, would it take the shine away from my dream GlitterBits (yeah, I did just ship BitsandClips and Sprinkle of Glitter haha) trip?

We thought about it for a few days and decided to go. You just can't say 'no' to Mickey Mouse and we know that the experiences will both be so different. We are so grateful to have been considered for this opportunity and are giddy with glee to go- twice!! We know it won't take any fizz from the March trip because we have so many treats planned for it and the true joy of it will be to spent time with the Sunshine family (seriously, what kind of a perfect surname for them is that?). 

With all that in mind (two Disney vacations in two months), this blog is about to get rather magical! I want to write as many posts as possible because reading other people's thoughts and opinions on the most magical place on earth is one of my favourite things to do in my spare time.

So what would you like to see?

I'll list some ideas below but if you have anymore, please leave them for me and I'll see what I can do.

Potential Posts for Trip One (The Magical Work Trip)

Disney Resort Hotel Review

Staying In Hotels With Toddlers

Theme Park Handbag Essentials

DisneyWorld Makeup (as in how I do mine for the day)

Darcy OOTD's

Mama OOTD's

Yummy Disney Food

Great Rides for Toddlers

Disney Details (I'm excited for that one!)

General Experience of each Park (Picture Heavy)

Airport Tips with Tots

The Disney Tag

Potential Posts for Trip Two (The Dream GlitterBits Trip)

Pre-trip Disney Haul (I've bought a lot that I am saving for March!)

Non Disney Resort Review (We're staying offsite)

Darcy & Scarlet & Luca OOTD's

Mama & Marie OOTD's

General Experience of each Park (Picture Heavy)

Sweet Snacks for Us & the Kiddies

Great Rides for Adults

All The Magic (all the sweet moments of little girls holding hands etc)

Packing your Stroller

Hidden Mickeys

Family Moments

Restaurant Chats

Past Disney Experiences

Obviously quite a lot there and definitely won't do all of them but just ideas to consider or add to! If you hate Disney, you're probably not going to enjoy my blog for the next few week but I will try to keep a few of the regular posts going too!

Alrighty, let me know what you thing!

Toodlepip!

xx

Red Breakfast Part One

This blog post is sponsored by Warburtons.

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

If you have been following this blog for a long time you might remember this time last year Sprinkle of Glitter partnered with Warburtons to talk about some new exciting ways you might want to serve pancakes to your family. 

This year Warburtons are back and are the official supporters of the British Heart Foundation's, 'Wear It. Beat It.' campaign. From the 19th of January the packaging will be changed and 5p from every loaf will be donated. Warburtons are encouraging families across the country to pick up a loaf and host a Red Breakfast, which is actually what this post is about! 

In this house, we are food people. We enjoy the eating, the socialising, the instagramming (lol), we're foodies. 

When we were asked if we would talk about a few fun wholemeal toast ideas and start a bit of a blog convo about family heart health and the importance of having a healthy heart, it was an easy choice- yes!

In this post we'll look at a sweet and savoury wholemeal toast option. Of course, you could go for non-wholemeal-toasted bread or sandwiches but in this house, we're wholemeal toast people!

Tomato and Basil Wholemeal Toast

Oh me oh my this was delicious. I was surprised because I'm usually pretty picky about tomatoes (I like them in things but not on their own) but I really, really enjoyed this and will be making it again. 

To Make :

Toast wholemeal bread to your liking, lay on some torn fresh basil, grill tomatoes and place on top, drizzle a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle a little rock salt and voila! The tastiest savoury treat. Yay. 

Tips :

I know you imagine a grilled tomato to be just cut in half but I found it easier to do 3 or 4 thick slices instead - they sit better on the wholemeal toast and are easier to eat. :)

Crushed Raspberry and Cream Cheese Wholemeal Toast

This was a favourite for Baby Glitter. We usually give her berries as part of puddings so to her, this was something quite special haha. 

To Make : 

Toast wholemeal bread, spread cream cheese, scatter raspberries- beyond easy!

Tip : 

Crush and tear the raspberries a little bit so the lovely flavour seeps out a little. 

And there you have it, two incredibly quick and easy ideas. Why not pick up a loaf in store and have your own Red Breakfast with friends, family or even colleagues an raise funds for the British Heart Foundation? For more information or the chance to win Red Breakfast kits, head on over to the Warbutons Facebook Page. 

I hope you liked these ideas and they haven't made you too hungry! What do you like to put on your toast? All ideas welcome!!

Toodlepip!

xx

Allergy Advice - This product contains wheat, gluton, soya and is produced in a bakery which used milk, sesame seeds and barley. 

This blog post is sponsored by Warburtons.

Personal Facebook Reveals

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

I'm gonna be bold- I am a comedy genius. No, I joke (ha, pun intended), I'm not but I do make myself laugh sometimes. At least someone does eh?

I regularly hold back on social media because I'm a pretty private person and also because it scares me that strangers can see everything and I don't know what they might thing- oh hai Insecurities, welcome, welcome. 

My personal Facebook though is quite the oasis. I'm a serial status updater and to be very blunt, some of those gems just need to be shared with the world, the Glitter World at least. 

After no good thinking at all (I'm sleep deprived as usual and have had way too much sugar), I've decided to share a few of my favourites. Enjoy!

I realise I've done a poor job of hiding surnames but all the people here are YouTubers who you know anyway. Please don't FB stalk them or they won't be my friends anymore. 

Did this tickle your pickle? Should I do this more often or is something that only makes me smile?

If this is entirely mad, blame the cocopops. Often I copy statuses over to my Glitter FB, which you can follow HERE. 

Toodlepip!

xx

Target Is And Will Always Be My Friend

Just dropping in really quick today to share some finds from Target this weekend. On Saturday, I went to Target to pick up some... hmm... what did I go for? Oh, I was looking for some goodies for my planner. Eh, let's be honest, it's Target, I went because its my happy place. At any rate, I went with the intention of only spending a few dollars. I guess that's always my plan but when I go into Target there's no way I can leave without taking a detour through the household items. Do you take the same detour?

I've been casually looking for some bar stools since moving into our little condo. Originally I'd been eyeing the Ingolf Bar Stool from Ikea for $69. I see it all over blogland and Pinterest, certainly a cute chair and seems to hold up well... but enter my friend Target.


There I was in the bar stool aisle, minding my own business with my $20 worth of dollar spot and planner items in my cart, when light shined from the heavens and I spotted the clearance tag on these Threshold bar stools. They have a similar feel to the ones at Ikea, but were now marked down to half the price! Oh yeah, the last three of these babies were definitely coming home with me.

And about an hour after arriving home we have this...

Do you see my photo bomber in the background? Look in the lower left corner.

This is a few days after moving in.

Ah... much better! But this picture makes me realize we need some color in this space. Any suggestions?

Till next time...




#target #targetstyle #threshold #thresholdtarget #clearance #barstools #kitchen #kitchenstools 

Curing The Agony of Grocery Shopping... Kinda

I recently received a question from a reader asking how I manage to not buy duplicates when I go grocery shopping. Until I received that question, it hadn’t occurred to me that I was guilty of doing that very thing on countless occasions. Then I realized I haven’t had it happen in a while… hmmm?

Picture this true-to-life scene: You walk through the door with your many bags of groceries in tow. You gingerly sit them on the counter and start unpacking them to put in their respective places. As you add the bell peppers, the cucumbers, the cheese, and a few other items to the refrigerator, you quickly realize that you could have saved your money on those items since you are fully stocked. “Oh well,” you think, “let’s load up the pantry.” Turning to the pantry you are shocked to realize that the situation is much the same in there…

Sound familiar? Well, that was often the scene in on any given Sunday in my house. There’s nothing like coming home from your weekly trip to the grocery store to discover that at least 30%-40% of what you just purchased is already in your frig or pantry.It’s extremely frustrating because not only is it a waste of money, its potentially going to be a waste of food as well.

Now the question remains, how have I rectified the problem for my household? First, I think the most important change made was to start meal planning. Planning for the week ahead not only saves me from constantly thinking about what I’m going to eat but it’s also the key to my shopping trip.  Once all the meals are planned, I write all the ingredients down on my Grocery List printable. Well, I don’t include the seasonings, unless it’s something unique I've never used before.

With my completed grocery list in tow, I make the short trek from the office to the kitchen to compare my grocery list with what’s already in the frig and freezer. If I already have something I can simply cross it off the list now and not waste my money at the store. 

 

Next, I take stock of what’s in the pantry as well. I can once again mark off what’s on my list that I already have and I can add the staple items that we are low on.

 Can you tell this was taken before my shopping trip? It’s looking kinda bare, need to fill this baby up.

Lastly, I have a chalkboard where I write down items we've run out of during the past week. I double check to make sure they made to my list as well. This hangs right across from the kitchen island so its in plain sight and easily accessible.

The whole process takes about 10-15 minutes and saves me time in the grocery store (I hate grocery shopping) and saves money, so it’s well worth it to me.

That’s all… now it’s off to the store.

Amazing Advertisers || January 2015

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

As we draw near to the end of January, I am reminded of all the resolutions I made a few weeks back and the boosted optimism I had for the fresh start of a year. How are you going with mine? I still feel pretty perky and hope to remain so throughout February!

This month has been a big month for Amazing Advertisers, with a few newbies joining us as well as the return of our oldie but goldies! You may have seen some of these lovelies before, but just in case you haven't, let's take a fresh look. 

(Image)

Lea Blush

Lea Blush- All Things Beauty is a YouTube Channel, run by Lea Clements. As yet there are no uploads on here but I'm sure Lea is set to having something cracking up there soon that we can all enjoy!! From the looks of the videos Lea has liked, she enjoys music and beauty. Not much else I can say about this one yet but I'm excited what the future holds for her!

SilverSpoon London

SilverSpoon London is run by Angie and as she states, is a blog 'fusing London life, food adventures and luxury travel'. Angie's blog is a treasure chest of incredible photography, mouth watering food and can I just say, beautiful dresses- that lady is smokin'! This month Angie has celebrated two big milestones so hop on over to see what they were and drool at the gorgeous pictures. 

The Road Is Long...

Oooeeee be still my beating heart this blog is a beauty. Imagine a perfect glossy magazine that makes you want to get out into the world and actually do stuff? This is it. I just spent a little bit of time reading the 35 by 35 article and now feel full of inspiration to write my own. Reading the exciting lives of Lucy and Yannick is completely captivating and something I urge you to do too. 

Darling Dee Dee

Darling Dee Dee is a most delightful, classic beauty blog. With clear photographs, well written copy and a crisp design, it is easy to be lured into it's pages and start making a terribly long shopping wish list! I love that Dee includes well, natural lit, shots of swatches to go along with the reviews and I love that this month there has been so much Charlotte Tilbury. That rose gold packaging gives me all the feels!

Anna In Wonderland

Anna is an impressive lady. As well as currently studying for her PhD, she is also doing a whole host of other super clever things that she has listed on her About Page (do go and have a nosey). This month Anna has hosted a giveaway, celebrated her book turning one, posted her videos, shared a hair tutorial, been poorly sick (sending hugs!) and said some very lovely things about me! Anna is one of our oldie but goldies so do give her some sparkly love!

Get The Skinny

Written and run by Tara, Get The Skinny is a blog dedicated to fitness, food, lifestyle and well being. If, like me, one of your new year's resolutions is to up your exercise intake and take better care of yourself, this blog might be a really good resource for you. Beautifully laid out, crisp and clear, well worth a looksie. 

PinkSparklesBeauty

PinkSparklesBeauty is written by 22 year old Jen and is her own little slice of the web to chat about all the things she loves and enjoys. This month Jen has shared with us her excitement for an upcoming holiday to one of the Greek Islands (lucky lady) and her favourite beauty products- so fun to see some Zoella Beauty bits in there too. A lovely little spot :).

Doing Life My Way

Doing Life My Way is a beautiful blog written by Alexandra who lives Down Under. This month she is travelling around Asia and by the sounds of the update she gave us, she is having an action packed blast! She has promised to share a few pictures with us when she returns from her travels and maybe also a vlog so I am really excited for that and think you all will be too!

Skorch Magazine

Skorch Magazine is a haven for the plus sized. Packed to the digital rafters with shopping advice, makeup tips, interesting articles and curvy OOTDS, this site is a wealth and resource to those of you who might need or want a little more info or community in this area. Well worth a look for style inspiration and guidance. 

The Peppermint Pencil

Written by Anya, The Peppermint Pencil is a blog dedicated to creativity, food and lifestyle. Whilst this blog is wonderfully laid out and completely enchanting, I think the thing I have enjoyed most this month is the sweet little video of her 'blustery' days in London. It's so incredibly sweet and beautifully put together and well worth a watch. 

Trudy Johanna

Trudy's blog is an online diary for her to share whatever tickles her pickle and I'll be honest, I like that kinda thing- it's like a virtual pick n mix. I love the unique layout (very magaziney) and have particularly enjoyed the post, 'Her Success Is Not Your Failure', it's real food for thought and something I often need reminding of myself. Good job Trudy. 

And there you have it, a bevvy of beautiful blogs for you to peruse and enjoy! Thank you to all of these wonderful bloggers for their support this month and I'm looking forward to seeing what February brings for you all! Hurrah! 

Toodlepip!

xx

What's Happening In The Office?

A few weeks ago I shared this picture of me and my fearless office assistant, Miss Mya.

You can sort of see that "we" are building something, it just so happens to be a Billy bookcase from IKEA.  (My first time building this bookcase, "we" handled it with ease.) These two pictures marked the first step in "beautifying" our shared office. 

Originally Mr. UC claimed (was banished to) this office because he only had a desktop computer (I didn't want his "collection" anywhere else in the condo). 

He has since acquired a laptop and no longer needs to spend all his time in there, so we decided to share (I have taken over) the space. However, there is still the issue of the "decor". Mr. UC is a sci-fi buff, aka a Trekkie, and this is a shot of one side of the office when he had single occupancy.

Let's take a closer look at those bookcases. *Clears throat* This is not even all of his collection, I mean decor.

This is where the Billy bookcases enter and have made a huge difference already. Well, that combined with condensing his collection.

Let's zoom out a bit on this side of the room. The content of the shelves are in the midst of being organized, but oh what a vast improvement already!

Now let's flip around to the other side of the room. Goodness it a hodge podge of hot mess mixed with ugliness. That's ok though, these types of rooms make great reveals for the afters, right?

I did move the dresser into the room though, I will most likely paint it a different color.

So what's left to do in here? My to-do list, in no particular order:

1. Additional shelving for two bookcases (4 shelves)
2. Add doors to bookcases
3. Add knobs to bookcase doors
4. New desk... possibly build it
5. New filing cabinet
6. Repaint dresser
7. New curtains, lighter color
8. Organize paperwork
9. Organize office supplies
10. Organize craft supplies
11. Decorate "exposed" bookcase shelves
12. Better lighting for the room (There is no overhead lighting)
13. Extra seating... maybe slipper chair

Better get to work, till next time...

Motivational Monday || Magic

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Did you have a good weekend? I hope that if you did, the positivity has carried through into the start of a new week. 

I chose this one today because it seems to fit nicely with a couple big things I have been thinking about a lot lately, the first being God and the second being Disney World. 

I know, an odd mix but still with something in common. Both God and Disney put a great focus on belief. To be clear to anyone wondering, I am not bunching to two together and show both topic the appropriate respect in my thoughts, it's just hard to always convey that via text and screens.

As a Christian, I have a strong belief that there is a God and he is the Father of Jesus and he holds our lives in his hands and is there to guide, love, support and teach us. The majority of my friends are not Christians (or any other religion) and so many times I have found myself in conversations where I am put to the test, don't have the answers and simply respond with, 'because I believe it'. It's hard to explain how or why I believe in God but sometimes I say this-

"When Darcy couldn't talk and was a little baby, I knew in my heart that she loved me. She didn't say it outloud and she didn't do anything grand to show me, but I had such belief that she did, that I knew. That's how I feel about God. I just believe it so deeply that I know."

Believing in God brings me more peace than I could ever write in a blogpost. I am not scared of my life or of the future and I am not scared of what comes after. Sure, I fret and worry about the little things, but when I really think on it, I remember that my life is just part of God's plan and all I need to do is follow that and I'll be fine. A lot of people may think this is stupid but I don't feel embarrassed or ashamed, I feel soothed. 

And now Disney. Walt Disney World is my favourite place on earth. I'm the kind of woman who cries at the parades, skips down Main Street and almost floats through the day because to me, it's all just so magical. I believe in the magic. Yes, you could argue that it is all carefully designed to make you feel that way, but I'm fine with that. You wanna design a place that is a delight to be in, smells incredible, looks fantastic, sounds amazing and is made purely to please, go right ahead, I'm happy to be a part of that. Rather than questioning the mechanics of the operation, I am glad to look upon it as magic and enjoy every moment I can. 

The point I am making is this- If you want to pick apart every single thing to see how it works or to question why or to know every little detail, sure, go ahead. Sometimes though (and not for everything but just some special things), don't. Sometimes when you don't look for it, it's just there, waiting to be enjoyed or loved or soothed by. Let yourself go with something and enjoy the magic of it. It's really, really nice. 

Next time you feel like something lovely is happening and you want to enjoy it, just enjoy it. Choosing to believe in something does not make you dumb or weak, it shows strength that you can allow yourself to do that and have the faith to be able to. 

Toodlepip!

xx

(Disclaimer - I know religion is a sensitive topic and I always worry that my opinions are in some way offensive. Please don't pick me apart (haha kinda the lesson of the day) or be mean about them, I won't respond or engage. I'm not saying God is 'magic', I'm saying more that he is 'miraculous'. Cool <3 font="">

Primark Haul

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

To me, shopping is therapy. Walking round the racks and racks of brightly coloured garments, running my fingers over the textures, flicking through the hangers for my size and picking something up to decide whether I want to take it home or not. Oof. I just love it. 

Over the Christmas holiday and last week I made two trips to two different Primarks and collected a few bits and pieces for our upcoming travels (more on those another day). 

I made this haul video to show you the delights Primark has to offer at the moment and lots of you left lovely comments saying you enjoyed it. 

Sometimes I think watching Haul videos is like the modern day equivelant to window shopping. It's addictive and I love it!

If you are unable to see the embedded version, click HERE to watch it directly on YouTube. 

Do you ever shop at Primark? What do you usually buy?

Toodlepip!

xx

Organizing My Computer Files

January is known as a month that a lot of people focus of getting organized. Personally, I love taking full advantage of the sales on organizational supplies, but I also love no cost organizing too. That being said there is one space you can organize without spending a dime. Do you know what it is? It’s the space on your computer. That's right your desktop and all your computer files.

I don’t know about you but since pretty much everything I do is digital, it’s been easy for my desktop and documents folder to get cluttered and out of hand. Then add to the mix the family and blog photos, the blog videos and the printables I create and you have the perfect storm for a cluttered mess.

I recently took the bull by the horns and uncluttered my desktop. It had gotten quite cluttered from all the files, photos and documents that I download and was actively working on while making my 2015 planner. Now, this is what it looks, as you can see it was 9:17 at night when I took this screenshot. So much more please to my eyes.

Next, it was time to organize the dread Documents Folder. On the left (the before) you can see there were a few files not placed in specific folders. So I deleted the files I no longer needed and created a couple of new folders (highlighted on the right) and organized the out-of-place files.

 

But the big issue was my Downloads folder... eeeek! There were 154 items in this folder and being a a mixture of photos, fonts, pdf files, and other random things. 

First I tackled the pdf and word documents, purged the unnecessary ones and relocated the rest. After that I renamed the all the photos and saved them in the correct folders.

Finally, I deleted all the files I was keeping for no good reason.

Ah... much better!

After organizing your computer, you may notice that some of your folders are quite large or you may find files that you don't want to lose. For our family its our photos, we have had the terrible misfortune of losing the majority of our digital photos because of a hard drive crash. I have also experienced a loss of blog photos because of a misplaced USB stick. When you lose precious memories like that, you quickly realize the importance of backing up your files.

As you can see below, I have currently 14 GB worth of photos in my Pictures folder, its definitely time to back up and reduce the amount of photos I'm storing on my hard drive.

Mr. UC, being in the Information Technology field, has handled all of our needs related to backing up our data. He has also made things super simple for me, placing an icon on my desktop entitled "IESHA BACKUP HERE." LOL. That man knows make it simple or I probably will not get around to doing it. Can't get any simpler than a click of a button. You may be wondering what happens when I click that button... well all the contents of my Documents folder gets copied to my folder on a 1 terabyte external hard drive.

The cloud is a great option for backing up as well. I use it in addition to the external hard drive for my edited blogging and instagram photos. You can use either as your sole backup option but I've found it helpful to have both options. It ensures that your more important items do not get lost.

Now, what about you? How do you currently organize your files? Do you have a schedule to purge unnecessary files? Do you have a way to back up your files? Why not try following this handy calendar provided to me by singlehop.com? Its an easy to follow step-by-step process, allowing you to not get overwhelmed as you get your computer space in tip-top shape. Also, if you are interested in learning more about the cloud and how to use it, check out SingleHop's page about dedicated private clouds.

Till next time...