I have decided to set myself some goals for 2016. There's A LOT I would love to achieve and I know I can do it if I put my mind to it.

1) To decorate my house. We moved into a new build in April (2015) and I was advised not to decorate or put shelves up as the house was still drying out and to wait twelve months. So this year I'll be able to decorate and I can not wait! I'll be looking in the sales and using online discount codes.

2) Loose weight. I need to loose around 40ish pounds and I know I can do this! I was stupid to give up earlier this year. Moving house didn't help but I know I can do this. I HAVE done it and I CAN do it again. I'm looking forward to getting back into healthy eating and exercising every day again. I felt so much better in myself and so much more confident when I was doing the above last time. It is hard when I have a headache - as I have a brain disease but I think eating healthy (even if I can exercise) through those headaches and not giving up is the key.

3) To improve my blog in many ways. Scheduling blog posts and having a blogging routine. This is easily done.

4) Take more photos! I feel like I go through phases of taking pics and then don't take any for weeks! I really enjoy taking photos and learning to use my DSLR camera. I know it's not always convenient to drag that around with me but now I have a new point and shoot camera that I got for Christmas, there's no excuse! I might even join in on photo challenges this year!

5) To plant some fruits and veggies. I have a lovely little garden and I really want to focus on that come the summer. Also growing my own fruits and veggies will save me money. I'd also like some nice plants, too! My grandad has a garden full of beautiful plants I can take cuttings from, so again, there's no reason why I can't achieve this!

6) I think this comes with number 2 but I want to stay more active when I can. Not always possible with my headaches but I can try and be more active when my head isn't bad. I'd also like to make more effort with myself, do my hair properly and put make up on more often.

7) Make more time for reading! I love to read but I never have time to read but I could make time instead of wasting time on youtube or watching T.V.

8) Say YES more. 

So those are my main goals to achieve this year. I'll also do seasonal bucket lists too, which are usually more family focused but these are the main goals I would like to achieve for myself and home.

What are your new years goals or resolutions?

Sarah xXx

So Christmas has been... and gone. It always goes by so fast but this year it truly did fly by! The kids enjoyed Christmas but it was super stressful and I am so glad it's over. Everything went wrong, nothing went to plan and it was just... crap to be honest. But the main thing is, the kids had a good time and we're delighted with all there gifts and new toys, spending time with family and just generally having fun.
The boys love there new bikes and Ellie her games console. They got a lot of board games this year (which is something they had all asked for) and other little bits and bobs. I got a new camera (pics from that coming soon! Another post perhaps), a point and shoot but with changeable lenses and I love it! It's taking some getting use to but it'll be handy when we go out for walks and I don't have to take my big camera (as much as I love it, it's not always easy to drag around with me). Here are some photos I took from Christmas day. Sorry bout the poor quality, the kids were SO excited to open there presents, I was trying to snap away as quick as possible, haha.




Did you have a good Christmas? What was your favourite part of Christmas?

Sarah xXx

On the last day of term, before the kids broke up for Christmas, they had a Christmas carol church service as they go to a Church of England school. I always love watching there Christmas festivities but especially in the church at this time of year. It's truly lovely. They put in a lot of effort and the school choir even sang silent night in Spanish! Which sounded amazing by the way.
The whole school took part in the carol service and told the Christmas story, with the younger children acting it out while the older children sang, it was truly lovely and so sweet!

I am so proud of Charlie and Ellie for remembering all the words! They stood up proudly and sang the carols so well. Bless them both.

They also told the christingle story, which is something new I learned! Charlie and Ellie both had there christingle lit while they sang  carols, it was lovely! I wish I could share the photos I took but there are other children in them and I respect the privacy of those children! I did however, take a few photos at the end of the service of just my children.


They were so proud of there Christingles. And they loved being in church singing there hearts out. Bless them. It really put me in the festive mood, too! Well, I'm feeling more festive than I was.

What gets you into the festive spirits?

Sarah xXx

It's so hard to get a photo of all three kids looking at the camera, at the same time AND smiling! You would think with them being older (aged 12, 10 and 8) this would be easy but it isn't. I can't actually believe that the boys agreed to wear the same T.shirt, either. Mind you, Harry had no choice as it's the only festive top I could find in his size. Here's my attempt at some photos.
(The light was poor at the time I took these so I'll try again when the lighting is better!)

I don't know how Charlie managed to get his T.shirt wet on the shoulder?! Anyway, here are the pics! 






Sarah xXx

 It's that time of year again, time to plan for Christmas and the meal plan is no exception. Here's our Family Christmas meal plan for this year.

Christmas Eve.

Lunch will be cold beef sandwiches with salad. There will also be some festive snacks out, too.

For dinner we will have all day breakfast including: 

Sausages, bacon, scrambled egg, toast, baked beans and hash browns. 
And again, some snacks in the evening. 

Christmas Day. 

Breakfast we'll have French Vanilla Toast. The kids LOVE this! It's really quick and easy to make (recipe coming this week!) 

Christmas dinner - 

Turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, creamy mashed potato, yorksire puddings parsnips, carrots, peas and sweede, served with gravy. A selection of cranberry sauce and mint sauce, too. 

For desert will be chocolate gateau and ice cream as that's our favourite.

Cold turkey sandwiches in the evening if anyone fancies them, along with snacks which will be out during the afternoon. 

Boxing day. 

Toast or cereal for breakfast. 

In the afternoon we'll have a buffet (family will probably pop in) - mini sausage rolls, pork pies, scotch eggs, cold pasta salad, salad, chicken, tuna and cucumber sandwiches and cold turkey sandwiches, pickles etc.
Also a selection of cakes and sweet food, too! Yum!  

What's on your Christmas meal plan this year? 

Sarah xXx 

The kids asked if we could make some cupcakes, I said of course we could! I had Christmas cakes in mind, however, they had other ideas, haha. Ellie wanted to make Frozen cupcakes and the boys just wanted to decorate there cakes with whatever was on offer - a bit of everything! So that's what we did. I already had a cupboard full of cake decorations and ingredients which were left over from Ellie's birthday. We made Frozen inspired cupcakes and the boys just decorated there in any which way suited them. I think I'll make some Christmas cakes on my own this week and surprise the kids with them, hehe.



To make the frozen inspired cakes me used:

120g of self-raising flour
120g caster sugar
120g of butter (or margarine) at room temperature.
2 medium size eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract.

For the icing I used:
Icing sugar
Water.
Food colouring

Decorations: 
Snowflake decorations(I got mine from Asda)
Silver ball cake decorations (or decorations to suit.)
Silver shimmer spray (optional)

- Makes twelve cakes.

We preheated our oven. I put ours on gas mark 4 and left that to heat up while we prepared the cake mixture.

1) After we'd measured out all of our ingredients using the ozeri kitchen scales, I creamed together the sugar and butter until it went a pale yellow colour.
2) I folded in the flour to the butter and sugar. Adding a little flour each time.
3) I stirred in the vanilla extract. (Ellie poured in the vanilla extract while I stirred)
4) Next up the kids gave the mixture a little whisk (they took it in turns)
5) We poured the mixture into the cupcake cases - half filling each one.
6) We popped them in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes I popped in my thermapen (you can use a skewer but I didn't have any) to make sure the cakes were cooked. They were because no mixture was left on the probe of the thermapen.
I transferred the cakes to a cooling rack and while they cooled we made the icing.

A photo posted by Sara ♡ (@sassyserrz) on Dec 20, 2015 at 11:10am PST

I used normal icing sugar and water. I didn't measure it, I simply just poured in some icing sugar into a mixing bowl and kept adding water until the icing was the consistency I wanted. I made ours quite thick. I left some white and made some blue icing too, using the same method but adding a drop of blue food colouring.



The kids had fun decoration these! We did also make some random ones, too! The boys didn't want to make frozen ones. I sprayed them with the silver shimmer spray after, which left them with a shimmery, sparkly finish. I feel like the photos do the cakes no justice.

A photo posted by Sara ♡ (@sassyserrz) on Dec 20, 2015 at 11:57am PST

And some random ones the boys decorated. Oh and Ellie made a cat one also. She's crazy about cats, just as I am, haha.


What are your favourite festive snacks to bake? LEt me know in the comments, I'm always on the lookout for new festive recipes. :)

Sarah xXx

When I was a little girl, I remember many, many years of Santa visiting our village on his sleigh with his elves and helpers. There would be a donation bucket where people would put in whatever they could afford to donate money to charity, helping those in need during the festive season. I had actually totally forgot about this until last Friday.

We had a loud knock on the door around 8pm and there stood and elf! The kids were all upstairs getting ready for bed and ready to watch a festive movie on Netflix. I called them all down and was SO excited to see there faces. I could hear the music from the sleigh and a lot of chattering. As soon as they saw the elf, they were like "IS SANTA HERE??" There faces were a picture and I wish I had been more prepared because I would have taken better photos. I had to quickly help Ellie put her PJ trousers on as she was half dressed and half in PJs lol! We went outside to see Santa on his sleigh and wow. I was AMAZED! It's so much better than I remember and the kids, well, they couldn't quite believe what and who they were seeing, right outside our house! They were stunned! There faces were just, I can't even explain, they were so, so excited.


Ellie, my youngest (she's eight years old), still believes in Santa and the magic of Christmas, she went right up to his sleigh (which was towed by a big Land Drover) and high fived him and told him "MERRY CHRISTMAS SANTA". It was very magical for her.
Charlie (He's 10 years old) was fascinated with the lights around the sleigh and was like "How do they get them to work, is the power lead attached to a battery??" He's curious about how everything works at the moment, bless him. We also put a few coins and odd change into the bucket. My (almost) teenager was all "I'll just watch from the window". I don't think he wanted his friends to see him (not that they were there) waving to Santa, haha. Still though he was like "That's so good for kids" And I wanted to reply with "YOU ARE A KID" But didn't because we all know how teenagers think they're not kids any more, haha. He's growing up so fast, it's unreal.


Anyway, it was a spectualr little event that lasted for around 15 minutes and the kids (and I!) had a wonderful time seeing Santa, waving, and wishing him and his elves a very merry Christmas. Ellie was full of questions "But how does Santa have time? And aren't the elves suppose to be making toys? And feeding the REAL reindeer's" Bless her. I told her that perhaps they were Santa's helpers, helpers, haha. She was all "Yes I reckon they were, it's so cool though, Santa is so magical. Can I be an Elf when I grow up?" Even Charlie was like "That was so magical" and it was. It truly, truly was. Seeing Santa ride around on his sleigh really did put the magic back into Christmas.


Have you and your little's (grandchildren/brothers/sister etc) been to see Santa this year? What makes Christmas magical for you?

Sarah xXx

I have got SO much to do before Christmas, I really need to write a list and set myself some goals. I find that when I set myself a list of things to achieve, things actually do get done and a lot faster, too. So here's my list of things to get done before Christmas.


1) Finish Christmas shopping
2) Wrap all presents.
3) Plan our Christmas meal plan.
4) Catch up with laundry (I don't wanna be doing more than I need to over Xmas!)
5) Blitz the front room and kitchen ready for Christmas.
6) Take photos of the kids infront of the Xmas tree.
7) Blitz the kids rooms and make space ready for Christmas.
8) Order the last couple of things.
9) Send out Christmas cards (I am slacking!)
10) Do some Christmas baking with the kids.

...and I'm probably missing a few...

So those are my goals and things to achieve this week. All focused on Christmas and the Holidays (Which are fast approaching!). What;s on your list this week?

Sarah xXx

 Gosh, December is flying by so fast. Too fast! I am still not ready for Christmas. Nowhere even near. I have so many gifts to buy still. I know it'll all work out in the end and Christmas isn't just about gifts and what not but even so, it's stressful! I'll start off with the 'not so great' things that have been going on lately.

Firstly, we've all been poorly with one thing or another. We just start getting better and then one of the kids come home from school with yet another bug or virus. I think the kids have had two stomach bugs since October! Harry last week was vomiting and then this weekend, Ellie came down with it and now, Monday morning... Charlie is puking. It just seems never ending. I'm certain it's this time of year and being ill comes with the colder weather, also Harry starting high school and a lot of new bugs and germs are going around but shesh. It's just been one illness after another, quite literally! Time to get the Detol and cleaning products out again. (I feel like I'm constantly cleaning and the amount of disinfectant I've gone through, trying to prevent these bugs! I guess my mums theory is right "If you're gonna get ill, you'll get it regardless! Still no harm in trying to prevent it though, right?) Hopefully all will be over with by the time Christmas rolls around. Which is eleven days away! EEK!
I've still got that wrapper lodged in my throat. I need to go back to the hospital for a scan but with the kids being ill and I've been ill, it hasn't been possible. It's not causing me any distress, it's just annoying. I can barely even feel it today so perhaps it's making it's way down (touch wood and pray!)

Anyway. Onto better things.


We've put our Christmas tree up and it looks lovely, I do need to get some gold ribbon though, just to finish it off. I've decorated the tree in a theme this year, silver, rose gold and gold with a tiny bit of black (because the baubles are SO sparkly, I HAD to use them lol). I wasn't quite sure how it would look but it looks really nice, the pictures do it no justice. I'm avoiding tinsel this year as my cats like to try and eat it and I certainly don't want it causing them any injuries or health problems. I've also put the Christmas lights up around the window and the look lovely. I think I'll be more into the Christmas spirit once the Xmas shopping is complete.
Ellie and I took a trip to the local garden centre which was so festive and lovely. We had a great time.

Oh and Santa came around our street on his sleigh (raising money) which was amazing!! Truly, I was amazed as were the kids. What a festive way to get people into the Christmas spirit! We stood and waved and Ellie even went up to the sleigh and said hello and wishes everyone a merry Christmas. I wish I had of taken better photos but I was just stood there in amazement, haha. That really made mine and the kids week last week :)

How has your week been? Are you all set for Christmas?

Sarah xXx

Over a million people per year, visit The Dead Sea which is located in the Mediterranean, looking for a natural remedy to help or cure many, many health problems including acne, wrinkles and fine lines, body aches and dry skin just to name a few.

The Insta Natural Dead Sea Mud Mask captures minerals from the dead sea waters along with organic minerals which nourishes, detoxes and purifies the skin leaving exceptional results. It's 100% natural and is a cruelty free product.


This mud mask removes dirt, oil and grime as well as dead skin, improves acne and blemishes, spots and reduces the appearance of wrinkles and lines. The Dead Sea mud mask also hydrates skin leaving it smooth and soft.

I am always on the look out for a good face mask and ways to improve my skin. I'm thirty years old now and really do need to start taking better care of my skin. I was super excited to try this mud mask. I don't know what I was expecting the mud mask to look like but I wasn't expecting this! None the less, I didn't let the look of it put me off! I would also like to note, there is not much of a smell to this mud mask. Which is a good thing in my opinion.

I applied a thin layer of the mud mask to my face but avoided my eyes and area around my eye and lip. The texture of the mud mask is quite thin but quite hard to apply because of the consistency but I got there eventually,  I left the mask on for around ten minutes (10-15 minutes is recommended) until it was dry. I removed the mask with warm water and a soft face cloth in a circular motion which gently removed the mud mask. It's recommended to use the mud mask once a week. 

I've used the Dead Sea mask three times now and I have noticed that it has helped reduce spots and left my skin feeling hydrated, refined and smooth.

The packaging is perfect. A 19oz plastic tub with a screw on/off lid which is air tight. It's also easy to open. Priced at £21.95 for a 19oz pot of dead mask is more than worth the money. I think this would probably last me at least 6 months if not longer. I've used it three times and it honestly doesn't even look like I've touched it!

Overall I quite liked this mud mask, I was satisfied with the results and I would use it again.

Do you have any tips for looking after your skin?

Sarah xXx



I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, all opinions are my own, honest, personal opinion. I was not paid for this post.

When we moved house back in April, a lot of my Christmas baubles got broke. It was my own fault for not wrapping them up properly. I decided to go with a copper/rose gold, silver and gold theme this year, for our Christmas tree. I was in desperate need for new baubles. Here are the ones I'e bought recently.


First up this pack of twenty from NEXT. They are black glitter, copper/rose gold, silver and gold. They are just so pretty! I love the copper ones that are textured. These were £6. There was also a 81pc set of baubles in similar colours from NEXT priced £10. The baubles are slightly smaller and I also got those too but forgot to take a photo!

I also picked up these two sets in home bargain which were £2.99 each. Bear in mind our Christmas tree is 7ft 6inches and therefore, takes A LOT of baubles and decorations. The mini baubles are SO cute! I think the mini dark silver glittery ones are possibly my favourite ones ever!


 Oh and these lovely rose gold large baubles, I think they were £1.99! They have gold sparkly, glitter hearts on them, I think they're so pretty. And they break the silver and gold up on the Christmas tree. Perfect for my colour theme. I got them in Home Bargains.


I also bough some single baubles. Plus, I already had some that didn't get broken! So I didn't buy too many single baubles.
The Christmas tree is from the range and I think was £1, I bought two of those and the other baubles are from a local garden centre and cost £1.49 each.


We've now put the Christmas tree up and I just need to get some ribbon and tinsel to make it look less bear. I plan on getting some of that this week :)


I feel like photos do it no justice and it will of course look A LOT better when the ribbon and tinsel is on but I thought I would share a photo of my lovely tree.


When do you usually put your Christmas tree up? What are your favourite things to decorate the tree with?

Sarah xXx