Its safe to say that from April-September, I become pretty obsessed with the weather. As a girl born in the Southern Hemisphere, I love the sun and being outdoors. I grew up in Queensland Australia where it was mostly hot. We would spend our days by the beach and our evenings on the veranda, barbequing and eating outside. Later having moved to the UK, when I bought my house, I was determined to create an outdoor room where as a family, we could spend lots of time outdoors.
Three years ago I felt like a proper accomplished adult when I managed to save up enough money to buy a three seater velvet sofa. Our old one, which we d had since we bought the house, was worn and the cushions kept sliding off literally every time you sat on it.
Right from when I was a little girl I have always loved Christmas. Even growing up in Australia, where it was summer and it was more beach and BBQ’s, it was my favourite time of year.
As a busy working Mum one thing I struggle with is there is never enough time. Since my children were born, my life has always felt governed by time slots. Baby having its nap, dropping and collecting the kids from morning nursery then whole days as they moved up to school.
Any of you who follow me on Instagram will know I’m a huge fan of DIY. I spent years working on building sites as a painter and decorator and I’ve renovated 2 houses, one of them, our home today, which is an ongoing project with my husband. So I was really excited when I was recently contacted by French Design Company TIPTOE about a collaboration and was offered some of their table legs to try out.
I’ve been putting off writing this blog because I knew it was going to be a biggie, but then I reminded myself that nothing could have been bigger than the revamp itself so I’ve sat myself down and started writing.
If like me you are a parent you will now how precious or elusive sleep can be. I still regularly have one or both of my children waking during the night even though they are 7 and 10. Excuses range from bad dreams, monsters in the room, feeling hot and itchy or I’ve been awake all night and of course at the point of waking I know there is no way I’m going to get them to stay in their own bed, no matter how hard I try.
Can you believe it’s almost that time of year? We’ve had an amazing summer (ok lets just forget about the last couple of weeks), which has blessed us with warm sultry nights where you can sit outside in a vest top for hours.
I was recently lucky enough to have to collaborated with Rebel Walls in a very exciting project to transform my middle room downstairs. When we bought the house 13 years ago it was a small and dark, separate reception room with French doors onto the garden and a wall separating the hallway.
I was absolutely over the moon recently when I was asked by Wayfair to join them in a really exciting collaboration with Abigail Ahern. I love Abigail Ahern’s signature dark and moody style. Her trademark inky colour palate combined with lush botanicals and texture, was the inspiration for me to paint my whole house dark three years ago, so as you can guess I was really excited to hear about the collection
I don’t know about you but in summer I love rich jewel tones, they remind me of holidays, white sand and turquoise sea. There is something about having a tan that makes jewel colours pop. I have a few emerald green dresses that look great pared with a pair of fringed boho sandals and messy hair.
Now I love a Gallery Wall. Many of you that follow me on Instagram will know this, as I have several around my house and photograph them regularly. I love the way they allow you to group different images and objects together to create impact.
This week I thought I'd write about something that I LOVE. Vintage furniture buying, or treasure hunting as I prefer to describe it. Im a little bit obsessed with it and have been know on many occasion to swerve the car, with the kids screaming ‘MUM’ as I drive by and spot something outside a shop and make us quickly pullover. Or organise a ‘family 4 week summer holiday camping trip’ to France, with Brocante and Vide Greniers top of my list and actually the real reason for the choice of destination.
I recently up-cycled a chair for a hairdressing salon I have been redesigning, I posted my progress on Instagram and got a huge response to it so I thought I would show you how affordable and easy the project was.
