• painting with Annie Sloan
    crafts - homestyle - Orla Kiely - upcycling

    Orla Kiely inspired stool

    October 14, 2016 - By 

    I’ve been needing to inject a bit more colour into our living room. I had some Orla Kiely wrapping paper left over and thought it would be perfect for updating our little stool. A while ago I painted it with a Miffy face but it’s been looking a little sad, definitely in need of some TLC. I gathered my supplies: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Emperor’s Silk and a paint brush. I love using Chalk Paints as you don’t need to do any prep! I simply covered the legs and underneath of the stool in two coats of paint and…

  • 6 ways to use Duck Tape Chalkboard tape
    Duck Tape crafts - homestyle

    6 ways to use Duck Tape Chalkboard tape

    October 11, 2016 - By 

    My husband and I have been fighting over the latest Duck Tape. We both love Duck Tape and he often ‘borrows’ mine when he needs it for a DIY project around the house. When he saw the latest Duck Tape Chalkboard tape, from leading stationery brand Duck Tape, he immediately wanted it for himself! I’ve been trying to use it for my own purposes before it disappears into his man-cave, never to be seen again. Luckily it has so many uses that I don’t think there will be much left. The Chalkboard tape can help turn almost any hard surface…

  • PlayStation Kids and Parenting Showcase
    homestyle - Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List – Week 107

    October 10, 2016 - By 

    Happy Monday everyone. The weekend whizzed by for us and we’re all beginning to feel the need for half term to hurry up and arrive. Time for my weekly Monday Happy List. I got my hair cut! I hate getting my hair cut so this was a big thing for me. As a parent it can be hard to make time for yourself, but with both children now at school there’s no excuse. I even treated myself to lunch out! With the days colder and so much shorter we seem to be packing in a lot more playing, baking and…

  • the gingerbread house
    homestyle - Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List – Week 106

    October 3, 2016 - By 

    Did you have a good weekend? I can’t believe it’s Monday again, time for me to write my weekly Monday Happy List post. We had a pretty quiet weekend as both the children seem to be laid low with germs. They are adjusting to being back at school and seem to have had permanent coughs and colds ever since term started. They were both so tired that we didn’t even make it to their weekly swimming lesson which was a shame as they are progressing so well. Fortunately we had been invited to try the new Autumn/Winter menu at our…

  • flush-windows
    homestyle

    The benefits of using a local window company

    September 28, 2016 - By 

    Last week our new kitchen was fitted. I’m not sure why it took me so long to realise that it would require time and effort (and money) to make our 1990s house bearable. We both loved our Edwardian terraced house. I loved our neighbours, our street and our proximity to central London. The area was showing signs of gentrification when we lived there but this month they got their first Pret which caused a bit of an outcry and meant Wood Green hit the headlines. It’s fair to say Wood Green has finally arrived – just not in time for…

  • DIY constellation pin badge holder
    crafts - homestyle - upcycling

    DIY constellation pin badge holder

    September 27, 2016 - By 

    It can’t have escaped your notice that pins are really popular at the moment. My collection has been growing steadily for weeks, thanks to my Lucky Box subscription and Instagram. I can’t help but see a pretty pin and have to follow the trail until I have it for my collection! My enamel pin badge collection is getting out of control. Two of my favourites are the Custard Cream enamel pin by Nicki McWilliams which I picked up at one of her workshops, and my seam ripper No Regrets enamel pin badge from Colette. I do have a few more…

  • days out - homestyle - Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List – Week 105

    September 26, 2016 - By 

    This past week has been a strange one. I’m still adjusting to both my children being at school. There was no time to relax at home though as our new kitchen was installed. We ordered it through Wickes and they had a cancellation which meant we were offered a really early slot or had the option of waiting another 6 weeks. We went for the cancellation slot so spent last weekend packing away our kitchen in the spare room. It was interesting watching our new kitchen being installed and it’s looking quite good with just a few snags. We still…

  • Decorated Trolls gingerbread biscuits
    baking - gingerbread - homestyle

    Decorated Trolls gingerbread biscuits

    September 15, 2016 - By 

    We’ve been taking inspiration from those cute little Trolls recently. We’ve seen the trailer for the new Trolls film a few times and enjoyed playing with the new Poppy Style Station which we recently reviewed. I thought it would be fun to bake and decorate Trolls gingerbread biscuits so found a cookie cutter online and got everything ready. Decorated Trolls gingerbread biscuits You can probably guess that I made a batch of my favourite gingerbread dough (using this gingerbread recipe here). They spread a little whilst baking as I hadn’t chilled it for long enough, but they were still recognisable…

  • days out - homestyle - Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List – Week 103

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    It’s Monday again and for once I am sitting in silence, listening to the radio all on my own. Time for my weekly Monday Happy List post! Monday was the last day of the school holidays when we were all together so we celebrated by visiting Northala Fields,  local country park. Unfortunately the boating pond was out of action but they have an amazing play park and we took a model car too. It was really quiet and we almost had the place to ourselves. It was also a great way for the children to use up some of their…