Easy Ways to Switch to an Eco Friendly Cruelty Free Home

Hey All

So you'll have heard us mention many times on the blog now that I'm totally cruelty free in all I use and L is moving that way too. I initally started with make up and it took me a while to even think about all the products in the home and find suitable alternatives for these too!

Life Update

Hey all

So it's been a long time since I wrote a blog post and even longer since I did a life lately post. A lot has been going on lately and life has been hectic!! C and I have just bought our first home and it's a total project renovation house so life has been busy moving, and starting working on it and Christmas thrown into the mix.

Home Decor and Upcycling with Chalk Paint - Writing Desk

Hi all!

If you've been reading our posts over the last few years you will have seen that I bought my own house 2 years ago. It has been an extreme learning curve and I've put my all into it...including making and upcycling things.

Buying a house is generally a big deal, but especially so when you buy it by yourself - admittedly with hindsight I might not have done it but I did and therefore have had to watch my pennies at every opportunity.

It has definitely made me more talented in lots of ways though - house projects are always on the go and I've tried out many new techniques such as chalk painting and papercutting. I'm going to talk about papercutting in a separate post because it's going to take me a whole post to share those pictures, today I'm going to share some of my projects with chalk paint.

Life Update

Hi all!

The first 2 months of the year have flown by, I've been trying to save some money so have been keeping things fairly low key. I've been out for lots of tea and cake, made a few things for my house and have been trying to up my photography game!

Life Lately

Hey All

Today is actually my birthday, I spent yesterday with L we went to Lou Lou's vintage fair then off for food and drinks with some other friends which was awesome. It feels like ages since I've done a life lately post. I used to love doing these but with my blogging being a little more sporadic lately I always want to share some products I've been loving when I've got the time to post but thought today I'd share some things I've been up too.

A few weeks back I headed to London with my family to watch my super talented friend in Mamma Mia as Sky. I'd seen it with friends but my parents wanted to see it. He makes me so proud. My parents and I stayed in Camden, it was my first trip to Camden and I absolutely loved it. The vibe there is amazing and I fell in love with Camden market. He's in wicked soon so we'll be back to see that. 

I've been loving my Miss patisserie baths to relax in. L reviewed this amazing one here.

C came back from a work trip in June but was only home for 3 weeks before jetting back to Saudi for the next four so we treated ourselves to a night at Coldra Court. We loved it there and was great to have us time. Even though we live together it's nice to have nights away.

It's also been my niece's birthday recently so as tradition goes I made her birthday cake. I'm so glad I finally got to make a princess one. It ended up being way too rushed so didn't turn out totally how I wanted as my dad decided as I woke up he would like me to cook a roast dinner too, so queue mad panic of cooking full roast and decorating this,

L and I headed off to glastonbury for the second time and took C and one of my friends from back home with us. We definitely felt more tired this time and the mud was even worse than last time but it was absolutely amazing!!!!L and I were loving the glitter and bindis this year. I posted some of my festival hair styles and tips here.

C and I are trying to make our house a home and making a feature wall of our photos on the stair case. It's so almost finished now and I'm loving it. 

As C jetted off with work before my birthday we celebrated early and headed to Chapel 1877 in Cardiff. I've wanted to go and sit in the confessionals for ages and we managed to get one. I was so excited and we had an awesome meal and loved it there.

So that's what I've been up to lately. This year is definitely whizzing by. I've been busy organising holidays and things at the moment too. I'll be doing some more travel posts soon too which are probably some of my favourites lately. 

Love M

xxx

George Home Letter Votive Candles

Hey All

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Today is my last day in work and I can't wait to just get home and catch up with the family and relax for a few days before jetting off to Copenhagen for New Years Eve.

When shopping in Asda the other day I couldn't resist these little letter votive candles. At only £2 each I had to grab mine and C's initials to pop by our tv! They aren't scented which made C agree I could get them and have burned pretty well. As well once the candle has burned I'll be washing them out and using them as tealight holders!

I always keep pretty candle jars to use for other bits and pieces. Our toothbrush holder in the bathroom is an old candle holder!

Are these too tacky for you or something you'd go for? For £2 each I couldn't resist!

Love M

xxx

Lisa Angel Copper Star Light Strand

Hey All

A few weeks ago C and I moved in together, as a moving in gift my brother gave us these beautiful lights. I'm a big fan of fairy lights and candles around the house so it feels more homely and gives softer light for relaxing in the evening. As soon as I opened these I loved them.

As they were a gift I've not gone searching for them to find links as I don't want to know how much they cost  but a quick Google of Lisa Angel tells me they are probably available on not on the high street. 

You get a meter of lights and they are battery powered meaning they can be placed anywhere in the home without having to worry about them being near a power socket. They feel good quality and look great up. They give a soft glow and look amazing lit and not lit.

Are you a fan of fairy lights? They'd make a great gift to a friend or one for yourself.

Love M

xxx

Home Sweet Home - Bedroom

Hello there!

I am finally getting around to putting up some pictures of my new house. I'm so excited for it to have gone through and I've had the keys for over a month now. Broadband has taken a while to be installed and even when it was it had a few issues but I am definitely back online now!

I thought I would separate my posts out by room, I have so many pictures and the before/after is an easier story to tell.

So first up is my bedroom. When I viewed the house I knew I would be changing it straight away, you can see it below:

Honestly, it's not bad decor but it was so DARK. The walls were really dark grey and there were so many black items in the room as well that it made it feel so much smaller than it was. The wallpaper was also a bit too over the top for my tastes, even with all of the furniture removed the room was still really dark.



My amazing dad removed the wall paper revealing a white-ish wall behind. I knew I wanted to decorate the room with a white and grey colour scheme, so it was always going to take a long time to cover all of the black/grey walls.
It took a grand total of FOUR coats of white paint to cover it up - it took days!!

Eventually we got there and my white and grey bedroom has arrived!

I love how full of light it is now, it feels so much bigger

I have some of my prized possessions in my room, including my antique pewter tea pot which looks like something from Alice in Wonderland, and also my Grandma's bureau.
It is a beautiful writing desk that I kept when she died, it's now been turned into a dressing table for all of my make up. I hope she would approve of me recycling an old piece of furniture into something for me to use.
It's a future painting project when I have settled in more and have chosen a colour.




I'm sure that will be a post in it's own right but I love the fact the front folds down and I can sit and do my make up at it every day.
I've also set up some silver plant pots with my brushes in and have a cake stand ready for some jewellery to live on. I love using items for a different purpose than they were designed for!



As for my bed......it could do with looking a bit more inspiring but I've found a throw that I really like and brings a bit of colour to the white and grey palette. I need a few more cushions so I'm looking for some in a similar colour now to bring it all together.

I've also got a really cool bedside table and lamp - they do not match at all!



I bought the bird lamp shade from Asda to go on an antique silver metal lamp stand I was given. The table also came from the same people and I love the detail on it. I think mixing silver and gold can sometimes be completely wrong but when you have a room with such a neutral palette the metallics can bring more to it.
I cannot stop staring at the patterns on the table it's so beautiful.

At the foot of the bed I then have a blanket chest with amazing detailing across the front. All of the main wooden pieces came from family members so it's great to have a few bits of family history in my new house.




At the moment I keep bags and shoes inside this but it's not ideal so hopefully things will be moved around when I get more furniture.

I don't have any pictures or mirrors on the walls yet but I do have an old style map to go up, and hopefully some things more colourful too.

What do you think of that I've done to the bedroom so far?

Do you have any ideas of what I can do to make my bedroom more colourful?

I'm going to upcycle the bureau and the blanket chest, I'm hoping to do them a dove grey colour so if you have any ideas of painting or sanding then please send them my way!

L xxx

Orla Kiely Home Fragrance Collection

Hello there!

I recently wrote a post about how I've just bought my own house - I'm still moving my stuff and still don't have broadband either (let's not even get on that conversation shall we....) but my house is feeling so much more like a home now that it doesn't smell of cleaning or paint.

ORla Kiely have some absolutely amazing products for the home.

Orla Kiely is relaunching her Home Fragrance collection by adding three new fragrances to the three pre-existing ones, each with their own statements prints.
I was kindly sent the Sicilian Lemon Reed Diffuser and Orange Rind Scented Candle for my new home and I can't have been more pleased with them!

The Sicilian Lemon reed diffuser contains a blend of lemon, mint, frankincense and lavender oils, and to be honest it smells fantastic. I'm a huge lover of citrus and mint scents so this is perfect for me.

The bottle is also beautiful, the pattern is beautiful and typical Orla Kiely. Prints with patterns please me due to their symmetry, this is the kind of bottle that you would be happy to put out on display around your house.

I can't comment as to how long the scent lasts for as they have been in my house for a week and still going strong as you would expect. The reed diffuser is in the window in my living room that over looks the garden, I can smell it every time I walk through my living room and especially when the doors are open! 

The Orange Rind Scented Candle is another amazing product. The pattern is again beautiful and symmetrical and the colours match the scent.

The candle contains orange rind, sandalwood, eucalyptus and nutmeg for a warming glow that reminds me of winter time as oranges always do - but it isn't a wintery scent at all.

I love the jar that it comes in as it was so simplistic but also comes with a matching coaster to put your candle on, it's touches like this that make a product what it is.

Here is the candle on my windowsill on the stairs, I'm slowly but surely filling my house with citrus scents and it smells wonderful!

What I love most about these products is that the fragrances are so accurate and not synthetic at all.

The Sicilian Lemon Reed Diffuser is 200ml and costs £32, the Orange Rind Scented Candle is 200g and costs £25.
I always think it pays to buy a more expensive home fragrance product, you cannot beat a genuine scent and these are really great.

Do you like Orla Kiely patterns? What's your favourite scent?

L xxx

Life Lately!!

The past two weekends have been really busy but in the best way. I thought I'd share what I've been getting up to lately as I've had a good past few weeks.

The week before last I took a weeks holiday from work to go and spend some time with my family. One of my closest friends was getting married and I wanted to be around if she needed any help with anything.

It was lush to spend a week at home with the family and spend lots of time with them and friends. My mum made sure my week was busy. It started off with a family meal at a local pub. How amazing is this feast me and my dad shared. Gotta love pub grub! It was amazing to see my nieces. They always make me laugh.

My dad makes amazing food. Especially food you can pick and share. He made this feast for us.

When I'm home I do a lot of cooking. I love to cook for people. This is an amazing chicken satay with chilli, lime noodles.

When at home it's now become tradition to go for cocktails with my parents one night. Me and my dad both love a drink so he loves the excuse. I'm so lucky to have such a great family.

mmmm this was a mudslide!! It was amazing!!

My week at home was finished with the privilege of becoming a bridesmaid. I was so grateful my friend chose me, and she picked us the most stunning dresses and went all out on jewellery and shoes for us. It was amazing to be part of her day and see her and her husband so happy. It was an amazing day!!

The tables looked amazing and I loved the purple roses!!

My bridesmaid dress!! I have ice cream in hand as they had an ice cream cart for after the ceremony which was a lovely touch.

Here is a sneak peak of the first dance. My friend looked so beautiful and her dress was perfect for her. I did almost cry a few times but held it together. There first dance was Ho Hey and her brother performed it.

And a little drunk photo!! It was such a great wedding and I can't wait to see more of my friends get married!!

Love M

xxx