Our Festive Home

Well the decorations were put up last week, as those of you who follow us on Instagram will know! It felt early for me to have it all up, but after looking at gorgeous festive photos that everyone on ig was posting I gave in to the pressure! I was glad I did.... we had Christmas songs on and a bottle of prosecco on the go. Owen and Olivia decorsated their bedroom trees next to me while I hung the baubles on the main tree, and Lee..... well, he just looked on really after assembling the tree. I'm far to OCD when it comes to the tree to have him do anything! And yes, we have an artificial tree, I would love a real one, if only they came in white! We've had this colour scheme for 2 years now and I still can't bring myself to change it. Although it's not traditional, to me it feels just so Christmasy, ( not sure that's a word ) possibly because we don't have lots of colour in the house any other time of year, December is my time to bring it on! We're enjoying it while it lasts.... come the 27th it usually all comes down. I'm looking forward to that fresh clean feeling when everything's put away already!

Even the animals get into the holiday spirit!

Everyone has a favourite bauble, the glass pom pom one is mine.

Nearly every accessory gets packed away and replaced.

The hallway.... with a bit of modern retro... kitsch baubles in modern pink! Little tree decorated with our paper garlands.

A little more traditional in this room.... Red, white and silver.... And a bit of homemade thrown in too. These canvases were done a couple of years ago ( and I have to get round to sealing them this year ) the kids enjoyed making them, getting their hand and feet covered in paint, and they're a cute reminder every year of how big they're growing too! If you have children and a couple of canvases you need to break out the paint right now!!

The childrens rooms and landing are all done too. And although I enjoy how happy and cheery it all looks, I love escaping to the bedroom at night.... there isn't any glitter or festive cheer to be seen and it feels so peaceful. Bah Humbug!!

Cool Calenders for Advent!

It's time to get your skates on people if your thinking of crafting your advent calender and haven't made a start..... Oh, thats just me then!

I think I've been so busy drooling over everyone else's creations that my two might end with cardboard chocolate crap! I really need to get a move on with this...... here's what's been giving me inspiration, but unfortunately not the kick up the a*$e I need to actually make one!

Love this..... easy & simple and can display on the fridge! Full details here

Paper bags & stickers from here

This one really appeals to my orderly side, perfect in monochrome and will look neat and tidy the whole month! Buy the printable template here

Too rustic for my home, but so so pretty. See the post for post here for this one.

Love this quick and easy idea from this lovely blog. I think the peg & paper bag route is what I'll be choosing as I have such a limited timeline and I have 2 to make. I'll be filling the bags with fun size chocolate bars and will be throwing in some other goodies on the odd day...... Lego mini figure for Owen, a lip gloss or little piece of inexpensive jewellery for Liv. 

What are you planning this year?

You don't need children for an advent calender, what about one for a loved one, or even the dog! 

Chic Christmas decor....

I know it's only November but I'm getting excited already for Christmas. I'll definitely be making lists this week for presents not yet bought and the Christmas day menu. Apart from the day itself this is what gets me so excited, all the preparation! Deciding what we'll be eating & drinking on the day and the theme for this years wrapping.

 I'm making it easy on myself this year as we'll be keeping last years theme for the decorations and unusually for me I'm going for more or less the same table setting as last year because I loved it so much. It looked so colourful and festive that I can't wait to arrange it all again! Here's a peek at last years on Instagram.

There will be a couple of tweeks to it I imagine and as every year I'll buy some new add on decorations, after all, I decorate 5 rooms so there's always room for more, and that is a post in itself!

But just because I'm keeping the same as last year doesn't mean I've not been drooling over some amazing festive decor..... Here's a selection I'd be more than happy to live with over Christmas. ( All images from www.housetohome.co.uk

See the whole amazing room here 

 White and Silver in the hallway, perfect to set the mood for the rest of the house.

Brights, like mine, but I have to have a white tree!

Love the wall & window detailing 

Gold done the modern way

And just because we love a bit of pink! 

Are you planning your Christmas Day and decor yet? What are you being inspired by this year? We'd love to hear.

Candle re-purposing

After having lunch with my mother-in-law the other day, she ordered another of our gorgeous Fired Earth  Black Tea & Jasmine candle as she'd just finished her last one. I asked her what she'd done with her empty glass jar and she replied she'd thrown it in the bin! My sister-in-law and I were horrified, but I'm guessing lots of people throw them straight into the recycling. I can't even remember the last time I threw a candle jar into the bin. When your spending £20 or more on a candle and it comes in a beautiful glass vessel I find it such a waste to throw them. A good wash and they come up sparkling ready to be reused in so many ways. Here's how I use mine.

Kitchen storage.....

Heavy glass bottomed ones like these make perfect whiskey or Baileys glasses, 

Storage in the bathroom, who wants cheap plastic packaging on display?

Keep your desk tidy and looking stylish,

Make it cosy reusing them for tealights,

This Tom Dixon candle is on my Christmas list and I'm already dreaming about what I'll use it for afterwards!

So what do you do? If you throw them, hopefully next time you'll think twice before you drop them into the recycling bin, or if you have an inventive way of re-purposing them, let us know what it is.
And if your inspired, we've got some beautiful candles in the shop for you to enjoy long after they're burnt out.

Halloween.....

Well, Halloweens over for another year, ( although I've still to take the decorations down ) 

We had a great time this year, as it was half term we didn't need to worry about bedtime routines and could relax and have fun. Adults and children! 

We split our celebrations into two nights, a small childrens party on the 31st, and our family party at the weekend! 

The childrens party was very easy, made up the table, easy food for the kids, hot dogs, pizza, homemade spicy veg soup for the grown-ups and of course cake to finish! We took the littles out Trick or Treating around our little close, we usually let our neighbours know we're visiting.

Even though I made up about 30 treat bags for any visitors we got, every single one of them is still here! Our little Close is a bit closed off so we don't always get any people venturing here but I live in hope every year nevertheless! 

Olivia playing up to the camera!

Seeing double!

I kept it simple, infested jellies, printed off some bottle labels, orange and skull candles and a halloween table cloth that cost a couple of pounds!

The kids had tons of fun, too many sweets and a late night which meant they stayed in bed a little longer the next morning!!

Onto Saturdays party, which led to me staying in bed a little longer on Sunday!!

We decorated my cousins house in the afternoon, and like me, she likes white! Not the easiest task to make a white house spooky, but we didn't do too bad! An old black chandelier she'd just had taken down came in useful! 

We did think about hanging a baby doll from a rope on the trees, but wasn't sure others would find it as funny as us, and didn't want social services on the doorstep so we vetoed that idea! I took all these photos in the daylight so they'd photograph better. I really did mean to take some pics at night but then a glass of bubbly was handed to me and that went out of the window! We were more interested in hamming it up for the camera in our costumes!

We used kits from Smiffys for these, and Lee's horror flesh needed more time to dry, but we were rushing, so overall don't think we did bad!

Auntie & Mum, 2 devils.... we're saying nothing!!

Those white contacts were really freaky!

Not great quality pics, but iPhones and a good amount of alcohol were involved! 

Hope you had some fun Halloween celebrations, but hope you weren't as poorly as I was the day after!!