Once Upon A Time, There Was A Project….
Activity Easter Baskets 2023
A peek into the contents of our 2023 Spring “Easter” Baskets filled with activities and sustainable contents rather than candy. Each year we find new things to keep our little kids entertained, so check out this post and our Amazon shop for a whole host of Easter activity ideas for kids aged 1 to 7.
Hazzer & Megs - Some Opinions
With some downtime during my wisdom tooth surgery recovery, I succumbed to watching the Harry & Meghan documentary. These are my personal thoughts on the series, them, the monarchy and a few things in between!
Children’s Book Series: Ages 1-6
Finding great books for kids can be hard! Here’s a guide to our fave children’s book series (part 1 of 2) including authors from both sides of the pond for a bit of variety & interest.
Setting Intentions - The Plan 2023
A flashforward into 2023, setting our annual “intention” phrase and project list for the next year - aiming to balance family life with our never-ending old house project list!
Gift Guide: Boot Room Inspired
Gift guides inspired by renovated rooms around our house - links are ALWAYS things we own or have on our own wishlist, nothing sponsored here. First up - the newly reveal boot room featuring everything quintessentially English you could want to gift for the holidays!
The Boot Room - Reveal
Our English boot room reveal! A dramatic and inviting space filled with bespoke DIY woodwork, original features, magnificent textures and function galore. You won’t believe how much we packed in, so read on to see every last detail of our entryway room.
DIY: the Witch Coven
A full step-by-step DIY tutorial on making your own large-scale witch coven - using simple wood, chicken wire, and landscape fabric - these outdoor weather-proof witches will be ready to haunt our garden for many years to come. And are a heck of a lot cheaper than any inflatable!!
The Year of Wonky Feet: George Turns One!
A recount of our son’s first year: from bilateral club foot diagnosis through the first 2 months of casting, minor surgery and how life unfolded as we transitioned to boots & braces. A helpful and informative account including emotional moments, tips & tricks, daily life of newborn clubfoot care and a few products that we found useful along the way.
ORC: The Potting Shed
Oops we did it again - entered the One Room Challenge, but outside this time. Read all about where we’ve got to and the year-long planning process that’s occurred to get us to this point!
Building Trellis Cedar Planters
A quick DIY guide on building our trellised cedar planters for the beginning of our “courtyard” transformation. Diagrams, illustrations and pretty night-time pictures all included!
15 Newborn Essentials
As we prepare for arrival of baby #3, we thought we’d share a plethora of products and items we find essential for welcoming a new baby home, complete with a blurb about why and where to purchase. Baby products are a minefield to navigate for the newbie, and one can learn a lot after three kids and five years, so we hope you find this helpful! Nothing is sponsored and if you walk in our house right now, you’d find all of this in view…
DIY Tongue & Groove Paneling
Week 6 of the One Room Challenge was enveloped in a cloud of mdf dust as we took on routing out our own tongue & groove paneling to cover the boot room in classic style. Lighting was also installed, shoe shelf progress was made, and a beautiful bench came to fruition. Read on here to see the full details…
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?
Week 5 of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge came and went in a flurry of garage time, power tools and woodworking. I don’t have a lot to show for it yet, but come and read about the progress so far! It’s going to make for a dramatic last few weeks and reveal… !
Building an Upholstered Bench - Part One
Week 4 of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge led me into a whole lot of woodworking, but the rain hampered my ability to finish up building. So here I detail my construction plans for our DIY from scratch upholstered bench, and how they changed as I learned more about the upholstery process!
What’s Going On?
A couple weeks ago, I posted a slightly enigmatic message to our Instagram stories, saying I needed time to process some information and would be taking a break. I didn’t do it to be attention seeking, but rather the opposite, to actually avoid lots of messages saying “where’d you go” …. I have always promised transparency in the good, bad and ugly of life on this blog, and there’s no way I can say any of this succinctly in a few Instagram stories. So here’s what’s going on….
Lights & Rugs & Fabrics, Oh My! The Boot Room
Week Three of the One Room Challenge is upon us and we’ve been getting on with measurements and planning in the background - so this post is all about choosing our lighting, ordering a custom sisal rug and selecting a fabric for our DIY bench build. Read on to hear all about it…
Let’s Get Colourful - The Boot Room
Week two of the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge, and we’re talking colour in terms of the full moodboard and the dramatic change we’re making in our little boot room space. Read the inspiration behind the choices, the feeling we want to evoke, and what we’ll be doing next…
ORC 2021 - The Boot Room
Our third foray into the One Room Challenge world, this season we’re taking on our “Boot Room”. Join us for the adventures of transforming this currently yellow and non-functional room into somewhere a family of soon-to-be 5 can easily organise their stuff. This week we’re sharing befores, challenges, floorplans and inspiration.
The Big Re-Wire
Over the last year, we undertook one of our biggest projects - a full house re-wire. While we hired a contractor to do the big work because we’re a bit scared of sparky things, we still made a lot of very specific old house decisions to keep things looking, well, old. Read on for the full details and the answer to that always-asked-but-never-answered question… what.did.it.cost?
DIY - Installing Underfloor Heating
We installed underfloor heating ourselves for the first time, and now have a toasty, beautiful limestone floor to enjoy in our English style DIY kitchen. Here’s our process from start to finish! And the second post in the kitchen floor series.