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.

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!! 

Rough Luxe

I'm definitely a lover of the rough luxe look, It looks glamorous and yet not 'try hard'. I especially like this look in winter. it always brings to mind dark and moody but still cosy rooms. 

From one of my favorite interiors blog, Design to Inspire

Some of these rooms I'd give my right arm to relax in on a cold winters night

.

Image, Richard Powers via Man Make Home

See more of this amazing home here in Sweden's Elle Interiors

From Mark English Interiors

Although this look is laid back it's not the easiest to pull off. It's a delicate balance of worn elements mixed with newer more lavish pieces as well as the odd industrial element too. It was definitely an inspiration when we created our new Metallic candle holders.... We love that as they older they'll take on there own unique patina....

In our dream kitchen there would definitely be polished concrete worktops, molded handled gloss white cupboards, maybe a worn copper tap...... and bang up to date appliances mixed with a few old apothecary jars. 

What do you think of this eclectic look? I think its possibly like Marmite, you either love it or hate it and it's love for us! 

Pink Pumpkins!

The pumpkins are finally done! 

Black & white, and pink & sparkly! Perfect in the hallway. Not so perfect pumpkins but they're only around for a few days so it's ok!

What pumpkins have you been creating??

Styling on a budget

Very excited at the moment to be helping my friend style her home. Her personal life has recently gone through some changes and so she wants to give her home a bit of a makeover, like a break-up haircut for the home!!

We're going to be making over 2 rooms, living room and her bedroom and we are on a strict budget of a few hundred pounds. Obviously it would be great if money were no object but lets face it, everyone has limits, and I find it more exciting this way, hunting out little bargain gems. When you have to make every pound count it makes the things you do decide to spend the money on more special. Here are some of the Pinterest images we've been getting inspiration from....

With a colour scheme of black, cream with shots of blue for the living room decided on the bedroom will be cosy with white, cream and wait for it.... PINK!! We're working with pieces that are already in the rooms so that helped narrow down colour choices. I think its probably harder to start a room from scratch, to choose from the myriad of colours out there!

We've been pinning like mad woman and are going shopping tomorrow, then Monday night we're going to be painting, ready to do the styling of the rooms on Tuesday. So I'll be sharing the results next week, while my friend snuggles up in her new rooms. In the meantime the mood boards are here and here.

The one benefit of being your own boss!

I've not been on this journey of  being my own boss for very long, but one thing I've come to realise is that there are less plus points than one might think. The first major downside is that you never 'switch off', ever! Unlike when you're employed by someone, and you are paid for every hour you work, running your own business means you are certainly not paid for every hour of work and there is no going home and forgetting about work till the next day. It's still on your mind when your cleaning the house, cooking the dinner and watching TV. It's something no amount of relaxing scented candles can remove from your brain, I know this because I've tried!!

There is lots of pressure involved in knowing that you have to put yourself out there and there is a very real possibility of failure. After all, not everyone has the same taste as you.

But this week I've discovered a big plus point of being self-employed. 

My little girl Olivia has been poorly and ended up spending a little time in hospital. She has a viral infection, but her symptoms were a fever we couldn't bring down, headache and a rash all over her chest, so obviously anything sinister had to be ruled out.

 As any working mum knows, nothing should keep you away from your sick child but when you have a job to do and less than understanding employers then where you SHOULD be isn't always were you ARE! If you stay home you feel guilty for not doing your job, if you go to work you feel guilty for not being with your child, it's a no win situation. This is the first time since I took the plunge and accepted redundancy that one of my children has been properly sick and I can't tell you the relief of knowing I had no boss to ring to say I won't be in or staff that I would be letting down by not being there. I was free to put everything on hold and look after my girl. So I might not be earning as much as I used too and I might be working longer, much longer hours but for this one thing this week it's all totally worth it. I don't expect many males out there to get this post, but I bet my life all Mums will.

Re-organising......

We've been having lots of family time this weekend as my Husband has been working nights for 2 weeks due to a big re-fit going on at work. He finished on friday, so we picked the children up from school headed out for dinner then came home to relax. Candles, pink fizz and pjs.... bliss! 

Saturday was spent shopping with my girl. Clothes, snow cones and new bags all featured. 

 Sunday was a lovely lazy morning and an afternoon trip to Nandos. Cheese board and wine for the evening rounded things off nicely. All in all a lovely family weekend.

But to be honest it's not often that a weekend passes without some new addition or something changing in the house and so I did find time for a bit of re-arranging of the kitchen shelf. 

It was more decorative, giving the kitchen a shot of colour with the artwork that was up there, but its a long shelf so actually I was just wasting the space and lately I've been drooling over some gorgeous and functional open shelving on Pinterest like these.

( images from my Pinterest board here )

So I decided to just go for it and change it up, after all it's hardly difficult to change back! 

So it went from this.....

to this......

I'm really liking how its turned out, feels so much more practical and kitcheny... ( a new word for Monday that, kitcheny!! )

So a quick re-do in the kitchen that cost nothing.... just the kind of house project any husband will like!