Childwood wallpaper

I have hankered for some time after Cole and Son’s ‘Woods’ wallpaper. So when I noticed on a local buying/selling site that someone had over-ordered some for her project, I snapped the excess up. I didn’t have a room in mind for it, but the chance and price were too good to pass up. Nevertheless, it sat around for more than a year while we procrastinated about what room to put it in. 

We finally got around to hanging it on the walls of our toddler’s bedroom last month. 

I loved it, but thought we could kiddie it up a bit by adding a few little friends. My two youngest boys and I released some squirrels to frolick in the trees…
Some nattering rabbits…

…and a family of hedgehogs out for a stroll. 

The woodland animal wall decals are by Lauren Moriarty & Co. from Not on the High Street. You can buy them individually or as a pack of three and choose your animal and colour combinations. They are so easy to put up that my toddler managed it!

I like to think we’ve added a bit of fun and haven’t defaced this iconic wallpaper. What do you think? 

We’ve got a little wallpaper left over and I’m dying to recreate this downstairs-toilet-come-forest. 

Wraptious Applause

There will be hearty applause indeed for the winner of the biannual Wraptious cushion competition, where they invite artists and designers to enter up to three cushion designs for the public to vote on. Wraptious are an artist community whose work you can buy on gift wrap, stationery, prints, homeware and t-shirts that are all made in the UK.

I felt a little intimidated to enter as there are some really amazing entries, but when Wraptious extended the competition deadline I summoned up the courage to enter three of my designs.

This morning the postman delivered a plump cushion-shaped package to me and upon opening it, I discovered that my lovely husband had decided to surprise me with a cushion in my Butterfly Florals design!

The cushions are printed on a vegan suede material which is very soft and stroke-able and the printing is really crisp with vibrant colours. I’m really very happy with it.

You can vote for your favourite until Sunday 8th May by liking the post on Wraptious’s Facebook page, Instagram feed or if you love an entry you can buy it from the Wraptious competition page, with or without a filler.

Display Space

I’ve written about bell jars before, our one got smashed recently so I was on the look out for another and found these unusual display cases from I Love Retro. They are a bit more unusual, I’ve only really seen them in shops, but I would love one at home.

Have you got a special book that you could display in this low display cabinet, open at your favourite page perhaps? Jewellery would look wonderful too and would mean you can easily see all your collection without it gathering dust. This is £99.

This rectangular cabinet could hold something quite large and there’s also a square one. Both are £119.

Or make your own snow globe with this more unusual round bell jar, it is also available with a dark base. The small one is £29 and the large £39.

I’m going to re-home some wedding nick knacks in one, what would you display in yours?

The Cheese Shed

It’s not that I forget birthdays. More that I remember them at the last-minute and, more often than not, procrastinate when it comes to posting the gift. So I do a lot of gift buying online and my latest online gift saviour is The Cheese Shed who specialise in West Country cheese.

My husband and I honeymooned in that part of England and we ate a lot of local cheese while we were there, some of which is among the best cheese I have ever tasted, so I had high hopes for these cheesy gifts. I was not disappointed.

The Cheese Shed offer 16 different gift boxes to choose from starting at £25, with names such as Nothin’ But The Blues and Some Like It Raw. The Big Softy below is making me dribble on my keyboard…

If you want to spend a bit more you can upgrade to one of the four hampers, a cheese subscription or gift vouchers. You receive an email when your gift is delivered, which I think is a nice touch to stop any worries.

If you haven’t got a sweet tooth or don’t like cake (what? It could be possible!) then look at the beautiful cakes of cheese that The Cheese Shed create. They are wedding cakes but would be stunning at any party, and are better value than most wedding cakes at £67 for one that feeds 20-25 people.

If you have specific cheese tastes or like trying out different combinations you can have a go at creating your own cheese cake masterpiece using the interactive cakebuilder. I warn you though – I have just spent almost an hour building different cake variations.

Would you prefer cheese, chocolates or flowers in the post?

A Bit Tinny

There’s a bar near me that has an amazing ceiling adorned with metal ceiling tiles. I hadn’t seen them for sale anywhere in the UK, but Rockett St. George now stock them in three different styles. There’s an ornate floral version.

A traditional design.

Or a fancy trellis tile.

The ceilings in our house are too low to have these; but I think I may find a place for them in the kitchen I’m planning, maybe around the base of the island or as a splash back. If you like the style but not the shiny tin, you can prime and paint them too. They are 61cm square and each tile is £19.

These Moroccan style coasters from I Love Retro would compliment them perfectly.

What would you use them for?

Bright Buttons

I saw this sofa by Graham and Green with contrasting colourful buttons and had a bit of a swoony moment. Isn’t it handsome?

It was rather out of my price range so I decided to emulate it by getting a couple of pieces of our existing furniture recovered in a similar fashion. I ordered some cream faux leather upholstery fabric & some sample swatches of bright velvets in yellow, duck egg, purple, orange and fuchsia to use for the buttons. Here is our old chaise lounge…

…and here is a footstool that we picked up in a second-hand shop a couple of years ago. I used a local upholsterer who did a far better job then I ever could.

We had a bit of a splurge (but still half the price of the version I was inspired by) on this two-seater Chesterfield style sofa bed from Designer Sofas 4 U and added the same colourful buttons. This is a great company who have an excellent sale section where you can often pick up a leather two-seater sofa for around £500. The sofas are handmade in the UK and they will make bespoke sizes. Their colour range is really extensive or you can send them your own fabric to use.

What do you think?

Sweet & Salty Lamb

I was hankering after a bit of comfort food and after playing around in the kitchen, I came up with this lamb dish. Lamb is my favourite meat and I think it tastes really good with the sweetness of the sweet potato and peppers cooked in coconut oil that contrasts with the salty feta and peppery spinach.

To make enough for 2-3 people you’ll need:

• 6 lamb chops
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 peppers, diced
• 2 tsps coconut oil
• knob of butter
• lemon juice
• half a pack of feta cheese
• half a bag of baby spinach

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Put the coconut oil and butter in a baking tray and in the oven to melt, when it is hot carefully add the sweet potatoes and peppers and stir to coat the vegetables.

In a separate baking tray put the lamb, season and add a squeeze of lemon. Cook both baking trays for 30-40 minutes, until everything is cooked and the  lamb fat is starting to crisp.

Put the raw baby spinach on plates, add the vegetable mixture and crumble the feta on top and serve with the lamb and a decent grind of black pepper.

If you cook it, let me know what you think!

Butterfly Kimono

I was at my friend’s house recently and saw a beautiful dusky pink embroidered satin fabric folded neatly on her kitchen side that made me stop whatever I was yapping about and exclaim “I love that!”. My friend unfolded this beautiful kimono in its full glory and I’ve hankered after it ever since.

Based on a 1920s Japanese design, Lunn Antiques have brought it back to life.

Available in a short or longer length for £58 or £63.

I’m very lucky that my generous friend has satisfied my hanker and given me one as a gift! I just need some fluffy pink mules to set it off with now.

Gourmet Gin & Tonic Popcorn

Before I gave up sugar at the end of last year, Santa left in my stocking this gin and tonic flavour popcorn by Joe and Seph’s Gourmet Popcorn.

I can usually take or leave popcorn but, oh my word. This stuff is amazing. Seriously, if you like a nice G&T, you will love this. They taste of smooth, sweet caramel and right when you’re thinking that they don’t taste of G&T at all, the juniper & quinine tang hits you. And then you want more.

Joe & Seph have created some amazing sounding flavours. Madras curry with black onion seed and lime? Cheese on toast? Irish Cheddar & Paprika? Caramel, Mirin, Soya & Sesame? Oh, how to choose!

There are some good gift packs and you can brand your own packets if you buy in bulk, they’d make excellent wedding favours.

Prices start from £4 and there are discounts for buying six, as if we needed an excuse to buy more…

Sugar Highs & Lows

On December 31st I decided to conduct a little experiment with my diet to cut out as much sugar as I could. I still have fresh fruit but no longer have fruit juice, dried fruit and, as much as possible, anything with added sugar (which is hidden in everything!).

Fuelled by desperation as my baby doesn’t sleep well and I’m perpetually tired, I started to wonder if the sugary drinks and snacks I was increasingly reaching for was part of his sleep problem. As I’m breast-feeding, he eats what I eat after all and I was willing to try anything to get a bit more shut-eye.

A secondary reason for reducing sugar is that I have rosacea on my cheeks, which means I look quite rosy and spotty. As karma for being a smug clear-skinned teenager, this came on in my late twenties and I’ve noticed that my diet definitely affects it and I wanted to see just how much by.

I thought I ate relatively healthily. I don’t have caffeine or fizzy drinks but I did drink a lot of fruit juice and Nesquik, and cakes were an everyday staple of my diet. As a treat my husband would bring me sugar mice from the old-fashioned sweet shop on his way back from work. When I first reduced the sugar in my diet I knew I would feel it and I had some pretty bad headaches & much grumpiness in the first week. To add insult to injury my family kept forgetting and offered me things I was trying to avoid. But more than a month into my experiment and since the sugar withdrawal lessened, I can see some real benefits.

A change that has become more and more noticeable over my low sugar month, is my skin. The redness of my cheeks has greatly reduced and the texture of my cheeks is much smoother. It has made a bigger improvement than anything I’ve tried over the last five years, including antibiotic creams and laser treatment. I would say it looks about 80% better and almost unnoticeable with make-up.

Another really big difference and one that I wasn’t expecting, is how much better I feel in general. My energy levels are higher and more constant and mentally I feel more level and alert. I’ve also lost a few pounds in weight.

Despite all the benefits I do have some sadness about the sweet treats I’ll be missing, but I am definitely extending this experiment to the longer term.

How do you feel about sugar? Would you give it up?

If you’re interested in finding out more there is a lot of useful information over at Happy Sugar Habits & A Life Less Bullshit.