Tag: home

Ikea kitchen: a quick review

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Ikea toy kitchen - Duktig - giftNo, we’re not revamping our kitchen just yet!  Our main Christmas present for Scarlett this year (well, last year – happy new year!) was this Ikea kitchen.

We went full circle when we started looking.  She showed an interest in this Duktig in Ikea, so we went home and started researching bigger, fancier (and yes, pinker) kitchens online.  My bookmarks are still full of expensive wooden masterpieces.  But we got a grip.  She’s not even two, she already enjoyed playing with this one, and it does add up with the pots, pans, utensils and food.  This was a fantastic £49 total for the two bits (they split it into the bottom bit and the top bit), not including the accessories.  We did buy it on sale – it’s normally £65 for the two parts. Continue reading →

New year, new… home?

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We’re way off buying a new house, but we’re stepping up the search now.  As Scarlett is nearly two, her school options are coming closer and closer, and we’ve started thinking now might be a good time to have a look to see what’s available on Ye Olde Rightmove.

We started looking in two directions: towards my work and towards my hometown.  These are diametrically opposed.  We went as far as to view a house near my work this weekend.  It was a beautiful Victorian house, gorgeous stained-glass windows with light pouring in, big kitchen, porches, nooks and crannies, and period features everywhere.  Needed loads of work to make it live-able, so slightly out of our price range because of that.  We could have worked with it.  But it didn’t feel right.  We’d have been moving to an area we didn’t know, to be closer to a job that I don’t know how long I’ll have.  And no closer to familial support, which is what we’re lacking. Continue reading →

Bed: a mini project (stage two)

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Stage one of overhauling our bed was hacking the top off, opening up the lines of our bedroom again and giving me less things to bang my head on in the middle of the night.

Stage two involved sanding as long as I could be bothered (not long), inhaling yellow dust (I know because when I sneezed, it came out of my nose), wiping the sanding dust with a teatowel which really shouldn’t have been used for that purpose, all to get it ready for the paint (which I got on the carpet).  There’s a reason I usually let Barry do all this. Continue reading →

Bed: a mini project (stage one)

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I mentioned a couple of months ago that I wanted to attack our big yellow Ikea four poster because it was ruining the lines in our room.  For once, we didn’t just talk about it for months and then throw it onto the pile of other discarded ideas,  Although our time and money is stretched at the moment, this was a fairly straightforward project, which Barry really kicked off when I came home to see that he’d already gone ahead and sawed the top off our bed. Continue reading →

Scarlett’s birth

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My daughter, Scarlett, will be two in a few months, and I haven’t felt the urge to publish her birth story until now, although a slightly edited version did appear in our local NCT magazine shortly after the birth.  It might have something to do with my best friend’s baby being due any day, and making me reminisce. This is the unedited, gory version, be warned. Continue reading →

Plans for bed

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Yellow bed 2I have an idea for our bed.  Put those thoughts to one side, this is a house and home blog.

The reason we fell in love with our house was the master bedroom.  And the reason we fell in love with our bedroom is the light that comes from both sides of the house; it fills the space and makes it feel twice as big. Continue reading →

I got sunshine

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Sunflower 1…on a cloudy day.

That’s what I think when I look at the sunflowers in our flower bed, anyway.  Scarlett was sent home with a tiny green shoot in a flowerpot for Mothers’ Day, back in March.  And yes, I did cry.  A couple of my friends (you know who you are) think it’s hilarious that I cry whenever nursery give me anything Scarlett’s made, painted or planted, but it makes me so happy!  I digress.

So, we left it in its little pot and set it on the kitchen table near the window, where it started to grow.  I’ve never been very good with plants, but I tried my very best with this one.  You know, because my then 12 month old daughter planted it with her own fair hands (with help, granted) and such. Continue reading →

Craft fair: the preparation

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My friend Lenka (who makes the yummy cakes) and I have decided to go to a craft fair together at the end of this month.  Well, not just go together.  Exhibit together.  Sell together!

They don’t usually allow you to share a table, but I begged very nicely as it was Baby Brain‘s first one, and they’ve let us do it if we mix up our stock, which is jolly nice of them (can you tell I’ve been reading Enid Blyton to Scarlett recently?).

I’ve got a bit of an advantage on Lenka in that my stock doesn’t spoil or go off, nor do I have to wait until the days before to start preparing, but I’m still struggling to find the time to add to my little stock collection.  I’m also attempting to make some Baby Brain bunting (in the style of my logo!) to go on the front of our tablecloth!  Barry’s going to Germany with work next week, which might be the opportunity I need to catch up on my sewing.

Dresses, bags and bibs is what I’ll be selling on the day, and I’m also taking along my baby birth details prints and an example of a button monogram for the table (but those are obviously made to bespoke requirements); Lenka has a list as long as your arm of delicious delights, including something I haven’t tried before: cake in a jar.  Pinterest it.  It’s going to be amazing!

I’ve already made Scarlett a little Baby Brain dress and nappy cover so she can run round like a mini advertising board!  She models so well!

Come and say hello if you’re in the area, full event details are here.  We’d love to see you!

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings

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photoI was recently a bridesmaid for my beautiful friend Charlie, and what a wedding!

I (among many people) made various bits for the wedding, including baking this collection of buns to look like a wedding dress for the hen do (it received good reviews from Charlie’s auntie) and sewing the tie for Charlie’s two-year old son for the big day.

I also made a couple of bits towards their wedding present, including a Mr and Mrs framed photographic print and Mr and Mrs bunting (notice a theme?).  We gave them those (along with a picnic basket that I really wanted to photo (2)keep!) the week before the wedding, but I didn’t realise they’d feature on the big day too!

Neil, the talented photographer from our own big day (who is also a friend) was also the photographer for our friends’ wedding (he’s the groom’s brother).  His wife, Amy, helps him with the photography business and is aspiring to become a wedding planner – my bunting got a nod in her recent blog post!  Click here if you would like to have a gander, and that beautiful cake at the end?  My friend Lenka made that.  What a lovely wedding!