HELLO my darlings! How are you all?

It feels so good to be back and on a Friday too. Hurrah for that!  Thank you all for bearing with me whilst I’ve had a little break. I can’t honestly say whether or not I’ve got my blogging mojo back completely yet but I can tell you that I’m feeling motivated and am happy to be sat here typing away, so that’s a good start right?!

So what’s been happening in my world? Well I celebrated my 34th birthday last week which was rather wonderful and I’ve spent the last week or so looking after a poorly little lady which has been a bit of a challenge to say the least! Those of you with toddlers will know that little ones and nasty colds just do not go together so there’s been many a sleepless night of late (how I long for a good night’s sleep!) and some very long days.

But hey, let’s not concentrate on the negative! Here, in my bid to stay positive amidst the sleep deprivation and dreaded Winter lurgy, are five super, marvellous things I’m loving right now for today’s Friday Five.

Getting festive!

What can I say? I adore Christmas and let me tell you, in the Portman household we have gone festive rather early this year and I am loving it!

We decided to put our tree up on the 1st December and I’m so glad we did, because it really does feel very Christmassy and rather lovely indeed. Everytime I look at it, with it’s sparkly baubles, festive trinkets and twinkly lights, it makes me feel happy and all warm inside. And to top it off, Elsie think it’s wonderful too.

Every time she sees it she says ‘wow’ and smiles. And if that doesn’t demonstrate the magic of Christmas, I don’t know what else can! Now, if she’d just stop pinching the baubles off the bottom…

Encouragement from people (and possibly the universe)

When I first realised I’d lost my blogging mojo recently, there were numerous times I considered giving this blog up and putting an end to Pouting In Heels. On dark days, I’d think ‘what on earth is the point?’, ‘who reads it anyway?!’ ‘no-one will miss it’! Pathetic I know but totally true.

But the weird thing is this.

Every single time I nearly pulled the plug, something would happen out of the blue to make me stop and reconsider. An email would ping into my inbox from a PR firm who’d just discovered my blog and wanted to discuss working together or a tweet would come in from someone complimenting me on my writing or one of you gorgeous bunch would leave a ridiculously kind message on here.

And each and every time something like that happened, I would think, ‘gosh, some people really do like my blog, my blog does make an impact, perhaps I should keep going!’

It’s bizarre how often when a situation looks really bleak, somewhere, somehow, some rare beacon of light or a few words of encouragement seem to magically appear when you most need them. And boy have I needed them recently!

So, to all of you, who got in touch, said something kind or supportive, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.  You may not have realised, but your words and encouragement have brought me back from the brink of the blogging abyss. And for that I am incredibly grateful.

Eye pencil magic

I was treated to a Colour Chameleon Eye Shadow Pencil from Charlotte Tilbury’s new make up collection for my birthday by my sister and I am totally in awe of how wonderful it is.

Charlotte’s amazing Colour Chameleon Eye Shadow Pencils are designed to enhance your eye’s natural colour, bringing out their true beauty. Besides loving the whole ethos of this (how refreshing that we enhance our natural beauty!) I am seriously loving the effect of my pencil – which is this one here – on my hazel eyes.

I was slightly skeptical at first but I have to say, my Golden Quartz pencil really does seems to make my eyes look lovelier. The slight flecks of ‘gold’ in the pencil really enhances my eye colour and what’s more, the pencil itself is super easy to apply and lasts forever. It really is a dream product. On a ‘no time for make up’ kind of day, I’ve been quickly using it to line my eyes which looks equally as good as when I use it over the entire eye lid as an eyeshadow.

As always however, the true test of beauty products, is if other people notice. So did this pencil get a reaction? Well I’ve only been wearing it for a week so it’s early days but weirdly, the first time I used it, my husband came home from work that same day and told me ‘you look really beautiful today.’

Coincidence? Or eye make up magic?! I’ll leave that to you to decide, but either way I’ll take compliments like that any day ;-)

My friend’s new jewellery shop

I can’t tell you how delighted I am that a very talented friend of mine, Jessica Steele, has launched her first jewellery shop online.

Not all people have the strength or conviction to be bold and follow their dreams which is why I’m so proud of and pleased for Jessica, who has recently launched her first jewellery shop on Etsy, Bijoux Twenty Two.

Jess is talented and gifted (you’ll see that in her beautiful hand crafted designs) but she is also brave, gutsy, inspiring and driven. I’m totally biased because I think both she and her jewellery are awesome, but please if you can, do take a moment to check out her delicious designs and show her some support here: www.etsy.com/shop/bijouxtwentytwo

Disco ball heaven

A few weeks ago I achieved a dream I’ve held in my heart for a long, long time.

Yes folks, finally I have a working, revolving, all round sparkling disco ball up in my house! Woo blinking hoo!

The disco ball – which was kindly given to me about seven years ago by my boss at the time (thank you Mr Harrod!) – is finally up in my dining room! Am I crazy?! Maybe. But who cares! I have a disco ball that works and lights up with the flick of a switch and I couldn’t be happier. I just know that we are going to have some fun times and create some amazing memories over the coming years with that disco ball dazzling in the background.

Life. It’s all about the little things! That and a good ol’ dose of sparkle!

Till the next time, it really does feel good to be back. Mwah!

Katie