So spring is officially here! Not that you would guess it by the weather. Spring cleaning is already well under way in my house. I’ve chosen to love a frugal life going forward so I am either selling or binning everything that I don’t really need. It’s crazy when you start sorting though things how much stuff you accumulate without even realising.
Are you doing any spring cleaning this year? If so what sort of stuff are you getting rid of and what are you keeping? I would love to know.
Now that the madness of Christmas and New Year is done it’s time to start a fresh with the new year to come.
Hi start every month with a doodle on my kitchen chalk board so that when I get my coffee every morning it gives my that little smile to start my day.
This doodle wasn’t my most imaginative I will admit but if like me, you don’t have a whole lot going on in January other than trying to get back into the routine that is everyday life then this is a happy little reminder that yes it’s cold and dark outside but we are faced with the promise of warmer days to come!
That’s pretty much all that gets me through this month is knowing that we are that much closer to spring and the loving embrace that is a nice sunny day!
Hope you are all keeping well and belated New Year wishes to you all!
It’s that time of year again where we bid a reluctant farewell to summer and welcome the warm cosy embrace of autumn. Last night we had thunder storms which meant it got dark real early. I’m not normally a fan of the long nights but I’ve changed the batteries in my candles and string lights. I lit every candle in the house and actually found time to sit and chill on the sofa with Sienna for an hour or so before bed. I must say after weeks on end of sitting in the garden all night it was really nice. I really was in my happy place.
Autumn to me is staying in, lighting candles, watching a series on Netflix and enjoying some family time!
Every year autumn is fast becoming by favourite season. I love the opportunity it brings to bust out your cost sweaters, scarves, hats and gloves.
The shops are full of Halloween deco’s already and I think we will be adding some new stuff to the decorations we already have. I hope to get some bits before the end of this month so that we can decorate from the beginning of October.
I will keep you posted on our shopping extravaganza once we have been.
Hope you are all staying safe. Here’s to enjoying some quality family time and cosy nights!
P.s. I also updated my chalk board sign and just want to add it to this post.
Happy National Dog Day to all my animal loving friends! Whether your the four legged variety or two I hope your all enjoying the day!
Owning a dog is a the creation of a bond like no other! They are fiercely loyal, great company, and top laughs with their cheeky naughty antics!
I’ve recently taken on Jack’s sister Gypsy after their mother passed from old age! As she craves company it seemed only right to bring her home with me! She has taken to like at our house perfectly.
Although I will admit Jack was a nightmare in the beginning. From being King of the house for so long to having to company 24/7 and having to share food, water and cuddles he had finally adjusted really well.
Because they were both entire when we brought her up with us we had to get one of them neutered because incest is not a good thing for matter what species you are! Gypsy drew the short straw and had to face the knife. She was an absolute trooper about it all and was back to her self within a couple of days!
On the topic of National Dog Day I thought this would be a good opportunity to list the benefits of having a four legged member of the family!
All in all, owning a dog is the best thing in the world! my dogs are crazy and weird but I wouldn’t change them for the world!
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Sienna Loves her Tonie box and listens to it every night! It’s the only way that we could get her to go to bed and stay there. Since having our Tonie box bed time has become a breeze! There are so many Tonie’s available there will always be something new for your little one to discover when visiting the toy store!
Head over to Tonie’s website and save yourself £15 off the price of a new Tonie box with this code!
You’ll thank me when you’ve done your first drama free bedtime! 😘
So we’ve been at it again! This time the kitchen was in the firing line! Those dated wooden cabinets just had to go! They were bringing the whole room down! Since we moved in back in 2016 we have slowly added our own touch to every room and this was one of the only ones we still weren’t happy with!
Eventually I want an extension which will house a new kitchen and I would rather save the new kitchen feeling and the money for when that happens so for the time being we decided to refresh what we had with some cabinet paint.
We had already done a fair bit in here at this point like painting the ceiling which was the same colour as the cabinets and we also painted the tiles which had a speckled brown finish with ducks on them. Nothing seemed to look right together when it was like this.
After a full day of prep work which solely consisted of sanding off the sheen and years of general kitchen grime off the cupboards and then we began painting. Dan has had his air line and compressor set up in the garage for years and only this year started using it so everything was sprayed to get a more even finish. Because it was sprayed we managed to keep the grain effect which I love!
I had some real trouble trying to decide on new handles for the doors and drawers. I didn’t want anything too fancy looking we were were going for a minimalist look. They had to be silver to match all the other kitchen accessories and I also didn’t want to pay the earth for them as the idea of this was to refresh the kitchen on a budget! Eventually I found the ideal ones on Amazon. They were £10 a pack so I ordered two packs of the shot ones and one pack of the long ones and have a load left over as spares.
I am so happy with how this little diy project turned out. There are a couple little things we still need to sort but they are quite hard wearing as out dog has a lovely habit of stretching against the cupboard doors and none of them have scratched so that’s great.
If any of you are thinking about painting your kitchen but worried about the durability of this I would say as long as you make sure you lacquer them once painted you should be ok.
I would love to hear about your experiences of painting furniture and anything you would do differently next time.
Have a great day everyone!
All my love, Mel xo
As was mentioned in my November post I was planning on giving my living room a refresh with a colour change!
Having decided I wanted a blush pink to tie in with all the other accessories in the room I had my heart set on a colour such as this which was made my Colour Courage. Unfortunately, my local diy store decided to stop stocking this brand just before I wanted it and I was more than a little disappointed when I realised.
I wasn’t about to give up there so I decided to have a chat with the girls on the counter where they mix the paint to what ever colour you desire. I explained what colour I was after and they were able to mix this but then I found one that was almost identical in their swatch range that I think I preferred to my original choice!
I already had a grey on my feature wall but I wanted to refresh that too and again they stopped stocking my original colour so I took the plunge and had both colours mixed. Because my daughter fancies herself a bit of a Picasso I decided to opt for a washable paint! Below is my before and after shots of the room.
The pink did take two coats but I turned this project around in a day and I am very surprised about how far the paint went! I still have half a tin of the 5L pink and practically a full stone of the 2.5L grey! So if I need any future touch ups it won’t be a dash to the store to get more made!
I would love to hear you thoughts on this room refresh!
Hope your all staying safe and have a lovely week!
It’s that time of year again when we pack away our Halloween decorations and spend a month in limbo before the Xmas decorations come out!
I like to take this month to finish off any home deco projects that need seeing to before the carnage that is Christmas descends! Most of my projects will involve a fresh coat of paint so it’s nothing major.
We celebrated Halloween at home this weekend due to the latest lockdown. We had pumpkin carving which got real messy but the results were worth it! 
Sienna was really excited for Halloween this year so it was a real shame that we couldn’t take her trick or treating! But because we couldn’t take the girl out for Halloween, we brought Halloween to the girl! We had a little party with buffet style food and music, and we danced around our living room like lunatics 😂 it was great!
After what can only be considered as a year to write off, the little things like bonfire night, which I will be enjoying with my family at home, is really something to look forward to. We have got some little fireworks from our local shop and we intend to have our own little display.
I hope you are all keeping safe and making the best of a bad situation!
All my love, Mel
During lockdown I’ve been reassessing the decor in my home and giving everything in sight a freshen up because while your stuck at home what else is there to do.
This week the on the agenda is the bathroom. Because it’s tiled from floor to ceiling there’s not a lot I can do with the walls without completely destroying the room so I figured I could change the blinds to give it a tweak.
At present we have a white roller blind with a suede flower pattern in black in there and I’ve never really liked it since I put it up but at the time it was better than what was there when we moved in.
As I’ve been looking to modernise the house bit by bit I find myself torn between two options, Venetian blonds with ribbon or day/night blinds.
I love them both which is why I can’t decide so I’ve taken to Instagram polls to see what the masses think.
Hope your all staying safe! Have a great weekend!
Back last year I bought a new coffee table and because I’m a lover of all things rose gold of course it had to be that colour. I searched and searched for months for the right style coffee table, and although there were plenty on the market they all seemed to have a black glass top which looks amazing when it clean but by god it doesn’t half attract the dust even when it’s just been wiped!
I didn’t want to get rid of the tables because one was a gift and the other less than a year old but something had to give as I was losing the war against the dust and mixed in with dribble finger prints from my one year old they always looked dirty!
I decided that I would like to update these with a marble top and as real marble is so expensive we opted to go for the cheaper alternative and wrap the tops in a marble effect vinyl. It has taken months to find marble effect vinyl that was long enough to wrap the tops without a join but finally this weekend we found the perfect roll in our local B&Q store.
As it was a flat surface it was fairly easy to to do, It just took a few attempts to get all of the air bubbles out from under the vinyl but I am so pleased with the result.
By wrapping the tops of our tables it has lifted the room so much and they match our decor so much better now. I wish I had done this months ago. For the sake of £10 we have transformed the centre price of our living room at what I would consider to be a bargain!
Have any of you guys attempted to update your furniture with sticky back plastic / vinyl, if so I would love to see your projects.
Have a great Monday everyone!
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