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Christmas decor

The magic of Christmas decorations and beauty for beauty’s sake

December 16, 2021

This year our Christmas tree theme is pink, white and silver, and I have to say, it looks absolutely magical! A couple of years ago I was accused of doing themes and going all out to decorate the house just to impress other people – just to look good on Instagram. I couldn’t help but think, ‘Do you know me at all?!’….

How to decorate a Christmas tree

How to decorate the perfect Christmas Tree

November 26, 2019

Ok, I’m going to unashamedly blow my own trumpet here, and say that I do a bloody good Christmas tree! My tree gets lots of compliments every year, so I thought I’d pass on my wisdom and give you some tips for how to decorate your Christmas tree!…

Wickes bathroom renovation

Bathroom renovation diary – stage two. The Wickes bathroom going in

I’ll be honest, I’d hoped to tell you about the whole thing in two parts, however the bathroom is still not finished – we’re a bit stuck on the decoration. In the mean time, I’ll fill you in what happened after stage one!…

Buying a Neapolitan Mastiff

Owning a Neapolitan or English Mastiff

When you’re family is ready to buy a puppy, it’s important to make sure the dog breed is one that’s going to suit you; so if you’re thinking about getting an English Mastiff or a Neapolitan Mastiff, I’m here to help!…

Bathroom renovation

Bathroom Renovation Diary – Stage one

We moved to this house eleven years ago, so for the first couple of years I shared the renovations (that we did mainly ourselves) on this blog back then. Then our mortgage deal ended and our kids needed car insurance, and we decided any spare money we had we’d spend on holidays together. So work on the house has been minimal for the last few years. However, it really is time we got the bathrooms done….

craft storage solutions

Craft storage solutions for organising and sorting out my crafting stash

September 27, 2018

Craft supplies multiply when you’re not looking, don’t they? Well mine certainly have, and they were taking up too much space in my sewing room. That’s mainly because my fabric stash is currently doing the same thing! However, I decided it was time to separate the business from the hobby, and relocate my crafty bits and bobs….

Vintage suitcases - planning emigrating

No longer living in limbo-land! 3 tips if you’re thinking about emigrating

September 5, 2018

I feel like I’ve been living in limbo for the last two years. If you watch my YouTube channel, you may have noticed the odd subtle hint of something big changing soon. That change was a move to America for a year. At first it was a small idea that went away again when we found that we couldn’t take our dog, Loki with us. However, after our trip to Connecticut last July, we looked into it again….

Feather & Black in Bath, Somerset

Celebrating the new Feather & Black bedroom furniture shop in Bath, Somerset

Most of the shops were closing and only a few people milled around the beautiful Georgian streets of Bath as I walked up from the Southgate car park to Northumberland place, a little street to the right as you go up the hill of the main high street. The new premises of Feather and Black are beautiful and is one of those rare shops that haven’t completely hidden all the original architectural features of the building. I’ll be honest though, when I walked into the opening party, I didn’t notice them at first because I was too busy looking at the lovely furniture and accessories….

Making a floral display with vintage bottles

How to make an easy but impressive floral display for the whole year

October 9, 2017

I have a thing for old bottles. Whenever I see one in a flea market or boot sale, I always pick it up; wonder what it once held and who in its history has owned it; but end up putting it down again because I’ve never had a reason to buy it (aren’t I good?!). However, I’ve finally thought of a reason to buy a whole load of them! And because I was impatient, I bought a job lot of vintage clear glass bottles, but actually it would’ve been fun to build up the collection over time, picking one up here and there. I thought this would be a nice quick and easy blog post just sharing my flower arrangement idea, but I ended up being pulled into the time-draining vortex of the internet discovering all sorts of things about old bottles! Did you know there are collectors’ clubs and events all over the country? If I had time for another hobby, I can see that vintage bottle collecting could become one of them!…..

Exposing a fireplace and other renovating adventures

January 6, 2017

Some of you have been following the renovating side of this blog since we moved in eight and a half years ago; so I thought I’d do a quick update of a couple of the smaller jobs that we’ve done recently. The first clue that there was an old fireplace in our bedroom was the hearthstone that we found when lifting up the beige carpet to reveal the Georgian floorboards. The second clue was the obvious difference in sound when knocking on the wall. The third clue was the whacking great hole behind the plaster when we hit it with a hammer….

A review of the new Dyson V8 Absolute cordless vacuum cleaner – Is it worth it?

October 29, 2016

Chris has been asking me for a cordless Dyson for a couple of years. I always agree until I see the price, and then I decide that a broom and a dustpan and brush will do just fine. Then the other day he just came out and told me he was getting one. If it takes a snazzy expensive gadget to get him to even think about cleaning, then maybe it’s worth it!….

Painting my gong copper

October 27, 2016

You probably won’t find another blog post with the same title as this one! But that’s literally what this post is about. I have childhood memories of a place called Foxlease in the New Forest where we’d sometimes have a little holiday. It was something to do with the fact that my Mum was a Guide leader. Anyway, it was a big old stately home and they had a huge dinner gong to tell everyone staying there that dinner was ready. Every evening they would take in turns letting the kids bang the gong. It never was my turn….