Shopping for Home Decor Inspiration

A few months ago I found myself in London with a lunch hour to kill.  The office I was based in for the day was a stones throw from Tottenham Court Road, so I got a hustle on and I was there in 5 minutes.

On my days, the shops.

West Elm. Amazeballs.  I just went in there to drool.  I had read about this shop on all manor of American blogs but just assumed it was just based in America.  How wrong was I.  I laughed out loud in the shop when I saw some rabbit screen prints.  I snapped up the details for purchasing at a later date.  Here is my favourite print:

Superhero Rabbit - available from https://www.hammade.com/

I have this print, and a few others from this company, lined up for the hallway when it's done.  They also have a "Rabbit of the Month" competition which I have just entered Rupert into for their October draw.  Fingers crossed, as the winner wins a free print!

Tiger. I actually first came across this shop on our recent trip to Dublin.  I snapped up a doormat for £5 for the hallway, and this cute coaster for my bedside table for a bargain £1.  I searched through the whole pile of coasters looking for a "D" too, but it wasn't meant to be.

By the time I had loitered in these two shops my lunch hour was up and I had to head back to the office.  But Tottenham Court Road seemed to be packed full of homewares shops.  I'll have to go back when I'm next in London for sure.

Gardening - Lessons Learnt for next year

I haven't had as much time this summer to devote to my the veg patch as I would have liked due to extra-curricular work activities, so I think it has not reached it's potential.  We have certainly learnt our lessons for next year though:

1/  Cover the veg patch with enviromesh.  We lost all of the kale and the broccoli so a very large family of caterpillars.  They demolished the patch in just a few short days.  This is how the patch looked at the end of July:

Days later, they were just skeletons of plants.  I was too saddened to take a photo of the destruction!

2/ Plant much more lettuce (as we couldn't keep up with demand at all this year), and protect from slugs.

3/ Make sure mange tout and peas are appropriately supported.  The eagle eyed among you will notice the leeks have been dibbed out where the mange tout and peas used to live.  The packet on the mange tout and peas said to plant at 2.5-5cm spacing.  Thinking not all of them would germinate, we went for 2.5cm, with the rows slightly closer together than the packet said.  Only for every single one to germinate!  They were closely packed and not particularly well supported.  By the time we realised just how much support they needed, it was too late, and too hard to retrospectively fit, so we propped up the masses with canes.  After a midly windy day, they all just fell over and snapped at the base - destroying nearly all the plants.  A sad day, but lesson certainly learnt.  We still just had about enough time in the season to plant a few more mange tout (in a pot, in front of some trellis for support!), and we have literally just had the first meal from these this week.

4/ Pick runner beans regularly whilst young.  Otherwise they just get too coarse.

And lastly,

5/ Raspberries taste great from the garden!

What lessons have you learnt or tips have you got about growing fruit and vegetables?

It always seems impossible until it's done

Quote: Nelson Mandela.  Print available from theloveshop.etsy.com

It's done.  My exam is over. 6 months of hard graft - almost every evening and weekend.  I forgot what that Friday feeling felt like, as Saturday and Sunday just meant studying.  But for now, it's done.  Utter RELIEF.  I say for now, as I don't get the result for over 2 months.  If I failed I will have to do it all again :'(

I didn't come out feeling particularly positive, but I don't anyone that ever has come out of that exam  feeling like they have passed, so I am clinging on to that hope for now.

The day after my exam I dusted off my DIY shorts.  Time to get back to work on the house :-D
I have a list as long as my arm of jobs that need doing.

I've also decided to focus all this extra time I have now on working on my blog.  You might have noticed the new blog title, to more accurately reflect the content of the blog.  When I first started the blog, it was a way of documenting all the baking I got up to, but now the focus is much more on DIY, with a dabble in baking every now and then.  I am aiming to blog more regularly and consistently - rather than my bunched and sporadic posts that I have historically done.

Time to get DIYing and blogging!

A little holiday from DIY and baking

I'm sitting my professional exams at the end of September, so I have been working very hard for many months, and will continue to do so in advance of the exam.  As such, DIY and baking adventures have been taking and will take a back seat.

This is my life now, evenings and weekends:

Getting a helping hand from the buns

We are on a break anyway while we wait for the hallway to be plastered. The plasterer was due this week but has been delayed so is now due in September.  Having booked him in April I'm jolly looking forward to getting it done!

The only time I now get to think about house decor is on my cycle to work, and I have a few things up my sleeve for the hallway when my exam is over.  Pinterest is officially banned as I could waste so much time on there!

I'll be back in October

x

Bathroom Reveal

(Excuse the hallway decor...)

I love the soap dispenser (bought from Amazon) as it stops the room getting cluttered up with loads of bottles.

Enough room for mine and the hubby's towels. Note the new radiator and white door, which obviously are updates to the room since we first decorated it.

The new toilet roll holder from John Lewis. With two screws I'm hoping this will be less likely to succumb to the poor wobble fate of our old one.

3 new spotlights are just perfect to light the room. LED too so energy efficient as well 👍

Today's gardening haul

So much fruit and veg! It's amazing. I can't believe how much we have grown with so little faff. I was brought up on the gardening principle "well it's got two chances", so we sowed everything straight out from seed. And voila:

Today's haul: lettuce, rocket, kale, mange tout and strawberries. 

And not forgetting this badger! Look at the size of this raspberry!

Even the bunnies have been getting in on the action, dining on the carrots we have thinned out. They love the kale too :)

Bathroom shopping

This should probably have come before my last post, but here we go!

I spent a lot of time researching all the various components of the bathroom. If I had discovered Pinterest before we bought this house I think it would have been a whole other story!

We went round lots of shops to get some ideas of what we were after. I sat in the baths in the showrooms as well as on the toilets! The baths raised some eyebrows but the toilets really got people staring at me! Obviously my trousers were still on!!

For tiles we tried some tile showrooms but the real success was with Walls and Floors, an online company. They delivered full sized samples for very little money. I would highly recommend them.

Once we worked out what we wanted, I then researched the best and cheapest place to get it.

Admittedly I made mistakes. Hindsight, a wonderful thing... The toilet roll holder has been a nightmare- it was a reasonable one from Victoria Plumb. But it has wobbled and wobbled until I could take it no more. I have since bought the John Lewis Mode toilet roll holder (with much less possibility of wobble in the future due to its design). This has been installed for about two weeks now and I have much more faith in it. 

The shower curtain pole I originally bought was also terrible. "You buy cheap you buy twice". It went rusty so quickly which just looked horrible so that was quickly replaced.

But, you live and learn!