The Big Bedroom Reveal

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Our master bedroom ticks all of the boxes for being awkward to decorate. Despite being the biggest bedroom, due to the odd layout of our house, it's cursed with the smallest window - a narrow window that looks onto the side return, so doesn't even have the benefit of being well positioned to let in light. It also has a strange curved wall on one side, making it very difficult to use it to fit furniture against.     Both of these issues meant that I found decorating it a big challenge. That said, we couldn't do worse than the previous occupants, who decided to embrace the darkness and put in fitted mahogany wardrobes. Those were one of the first things to be ripped out ...

“It just gets harder…”

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I read a fabulous article the other day by Talya at Motherhood The Real Deal on the most annoying advice given to parents. An A-Z of sometimes hilarious, sometimes baffling, and sometimes rude advice given to various different bloggers. And reading this got me thinking about my own piece of baffling advice I received as a new parent: "It just gets harder". There's me, 6 weeks or so into the most difficult thing I've ever had to do, dealing with a baby who not only doesn't sleep at night, he doesn't sleep during the day either, and cries pretty much constantly. No time to have a shower, no chance to drink a hot cup of tea, let alone make an actual ...

Wisteria at Greys Court

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I'm a huge lover of wisteria (and judging by my Instagram feed lately, I'm not alone!). It's such a brief period when it's blooming and you notice it everywhere - the gorgeous purple colour is stunning and the smell is something special. I got a call from my Mum earlier this week, well aware of my wisteria love, to tell me to get to Greys Court as soon as possible as she'd just visited and seen the most amazing wisteria. Not one to argue with my Mum (you wouldn't either!), we duly headed there early one morning to check it out (and make good use of our new National Trust membership at the same time). Greys Court dates back to the ...

5 Happy Things #14

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What a mad couple of weeks it's been lately! If you're a regular reader you may have read about our flooded garden last week which threw my mood out for a few days, but remarkably dried out really quickly thanks to the glorious sun we had last week and it's looking like we've been really lucky and not lost too many plants. All things considered, it's been a pretty good week, so on with the Happy List!   01. I'm a huge fan of wisteria - it's such a short lived but beautiful bloomer - and this time of year you just seem to notice it's purple glory everywhere. A few days ago my mum rang me, knowing how much I loved it, and ...

A wet and windy trip to Wheal Coates

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As recently signed up members of the National Trust (a sure sign you've hit middle age!), I spent a good amount of time trawling their website for sites in Cornwall that we could visit on our recent trip. Wheal Coates is an old tin mine, located on a dramatic clifftop above Chapel Porth beach, and the ruins are one of the most photographed places in Cornwall. The best viewing time is supposedly the evening, when you should see a spectacular sunset, but as we have a toddler, we took the easy option and visited on a moody looking morning. There are 3 engine houses and from the car park you can take a circular walk amongst the heather and gorse and ...

The Fear of Two

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I grew up as one of two sisters, just under two years apart in age, and I think having a sibling close in age had a huge impact on my childhood. Having someone there to play with, to chat to, to share all those little experiences, that was a huge part of my childhood and I'm so grateful for that. Sure, there were lots of arguments, but ultimately we're really close, both then and now. We're very different in so many ways - we don't look alike, my sister is far more of a go-with-the-flow kind of person, more outgoing than me, more of a risk taker - and yet there is something about us that's also very similar. We had our ...

The Garden in May - Part 2

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When I posted my May garden update earlier this week I have to confess that I was a little bit disappointed in it's progress and with the photos I'd managed to capture. I felt that it still wasn't quite looking it's best, and I was intending to head out in a few days time and try to capture some better shots. But fate had a bit of a slap around the face in store for me as a punishment for my ungratefulness, as later on that day I discovered water flooding into our garden, which quickly filled up the entire space, covering all of our plants with a layer of water. In so many ways I recognise that compared to other ...

The Garden in May

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May is the best month of the year for gardening in my opinion; everything is suddenly shooting up as if out of nowhere, there's lots already in bloom and even more promise of the months ahead. I'm a bit late with this month's garden post, but 'sorry not sorry' because it's allowed this little pink azalea in the photo above to come into bloom! It has such a lovely colour - it was practically dead when we moved in here and has taken so well to being moved from the pot to the ground (which is more on the neutral side of things than the acid soil it prefers, so I had my doubts as to how well it would do) I've ...

Lappa Valley Steam Railway Park

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As we had a long journey back home from St Ives we wanted to do something in the morning that was on the route home - and being just off the A30, Lappa Valley fit the bill. Lappa Valley is a miniature steam railway and park, aimed at younger children - there are 3 different trains to ride, as well as a whole host of other activities including indoor soft play, mini ride on tractors (a toddler favourite!), crazy golf, boats, and all the usual park swings, slides and sand pits. When you arrive in the car park, you're actually located a mile away from the park itself, and you need to buy your ticket from the ticket office and ride ...

#PatioPerfect with Wayfair

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The patio can be something of an unloved part of the garden. We removed a pond from our garden last year and replaced it with a large patio area - it was a huge project, and when it came to finishing it there wasn't much of the summer left to enjoy it. But this year I wanted to add a few finishing touches to smarten it up ready to enjoy a few (ok, more than a few!) glasses of wine over the summer. So I was thrilled when Wayfair got in touch to ask if I'd like to collaborate with them on their #PatioPerfect campaign I was thrilled. You can read more about how I chose to style up my space over ...