Quotes to live by for your home

True story. 

I spent about 4 hours in one day looking for the perfect wall art for our bedroom. It had to be something that suits us both as a couple, something that suited the colours of our room and most importantly the words had to mean something when I looked at it a whole year down the line, I tend to lose interest in things after a few months.

I ended up finding nothing. Then I realised. You can totally make your own quotes, get them printed on Photobox, and buy a cheap or second hand frame to hang it. 

It's a fraction of the cost for something that's perfect for you, and essentially hand made. 

Here's one I made earlier (above). I'm still playing around with quotes, photos and colours before I print and hang something though. It's so much fun and I'm learning a lot about photoshop & design.

Mountains & Anthropologie

I'm fresh home from a French Alpine retreat with work (which I'll share stories and photos on soon enough) and thought I'd post a holiday / festival-vibe outfit I didn't take off the whole time I was travelling. 

Enter my new beautiful Anthropologie kimono. In late 20s heat, this baby kept me as cool as a cucumber and prevented my milky white skin from burning like a prune. Do you like it?

We stayed in the most stunning chalet (more info and stunning photos from Neil to come, I promise) right on the border of the Swiss and French Alps in a village called Morillon. It was a transformational week for me. Unplugging, relaxing with cool people and exploring the mountains with a bit of adventure (and fondue) thrown in. 

Come Friday I'll be back in the Alps again - this time Bavaria. Stick around until early July and I'll be gate crashing your newsfeed with interior updates, outfits and holiday stories, no doubt. 

Outfit: Kimono c/o

Anthropologie

, Clutch c/o

Anthropologie

, Jeans c/o

George

 Credits: Photos by

Neil William Shaw

(also does weddings, hey) 

Curl up, it's 4 sleeps until Christmas!

Can you believe Christmas day is almost upon us?

I've spent the weekend wrapping presents listening to cheesy Christmas tunes and drinking red wine way too early in the day. Feeling very festive indeed :)

Our front room looks a bit like Santa's grotto at the mo; we've gone all out on decorations, logs in the fireplace, bauble filled vases, the lot. It's looking really special, so I decided to keep the rest of my place looking less festive but still cosy with splashes of bright colours here and there so as not to take away from the christmas-chic room.

I thought I'd share our new bedding from Argos' range with you. I try to freshen up the look of our room quite regularly by changing the cushions, blankets and duvet covers, and over the past few weeks I just haven't been able to get enough of the colour mustard, so when I saw these cushions and knew they had to be mine.

Argos wouldn't usually be the first place I look for cosy bits and bobs but they've recently collaborated with Habitat and have the NICEST range of bedding available. Have a little look here. I think these cushions will look fab from Winter to Spring, and I paired them with some simple crisp grey sheets so the colour pops. 

What do you think? :)

They were bargains too! £12 each for the floral cushions £4.99 for the poppy red cushion, £7 for the Habitat geometric pillowcase and just £10.99 for the grey double duvet set crazy good value.

Getting Christmassy with Home Sense, Brighton

You might have remembered me inviting you all for an evening of interior chats, mince pies and all things Home Sense in Brighton at the beginning of December, oui? Well, the evening went wonderfully :) I thought I'd share some photos with you all (this time by me, my photographer wasn't on hand that evening haha)

Get ready for serious levels of Christmas cosiness and snaps of some of my favourite picks in the Brighton store at the moment. There was bucks fizz a'flowing, mouth tingling canapés and cheese and a heap of inspiration to get everyone thinking about gift ideas and tarting up your home on the big day.

With only 7 or 8 shopping days left until Christmas, if you're still on the market for unique gift ideas I'd really encourage you to pop in and take a nosy around. I just bought a beautiful lamp for my nan for Christmas there (lucky she doesn't read my blog!) and knew it was for her within 10 mins of being in the store!

Happy shopping you lovely people. Oh and if you do pop in to the Home Sense store, look out for the pretty Hang a Bauble campaign they're initiating to help the Surrey charity Action for Children.

Customers are invited to pop in store, buy a bauble for £1 on which they can write a festive wish or happy childhood Christmas memory and add it to the hundreds of baubles that line the till-side walls :) what a wonderful initiative for charity eh? 

7 things I'd buy for my living room if money was no object!

We can all dream about what we'd buy if we won the lotto right? In fact, I think it's healthy to create an online wish list of things you'd pounce for if cash was at your disposal. It makes you really think what exactly you'd like in your home, and whether it's even worth picking up lots of cheap items rather than saving for bigger items you'll love for years instead. 

I thought I'd share what's on my wish list at the mo. Some financially achievable, some seriously not.

1. Harrods Birdie Blossom cushion £395 each

Just ignore the price tag for now, and look at how rich and beautiful the hand printed silk, piped cushion is. I love the colours, the splash of yellow and autumnal reds and think it would go beautifully on our Chesterfield sofa in our living room. Sigh, if only I had £400 knocking around...

2. Winston Aniline Ash Leather sofa, and matching pouffe! 

I love deep mahogany brown leather sofas. There's something so cosy, wintery and traditional about them that make them instantly give an expensive feel to a room. Furniture Choice stock a pretty nice range with small wheels that I think would look so cute as a mismatched sofa beside our Chesterfield. If only we had the extra space!

3. Wood burning stove for a country-chic open fire - without the mess.

We currently have a decorative fireplace with bare brick at the back and resting inside are some logs just waiting for a wood burner to be installed to fire up the chimney. Our next big purchase on the house will be something like this Ashdown wood burning suite from Next. It's long been Neil & I's dream to have an open fire and we can't wait to eventually get one built in come winter 2016.

4. Candlesticks galore from John Lewis, £15 each

Okay this doesn't break the bank if you buy just one, but I'd plan to buy a whole group of different sized candles with different coloured candlesticks and place them all together decoratively on the hearth. I have an obsession with copper at the moment, since buying a round copper mirror from Oliver Bonas, these would match beautifully :)

 5. Bronte herringbone and tartan blankets

 If money was no object my home would be filled to the brim with thick woollen blankets in all different patterns and colours. I lust after Bronte's old english classic collections. The patterns, wools, and colour combos on offer tick so many boxes, it's just the biggest tease that they're about £75+ a pop. Please Santa, can you bring me my very own x 10?

6. Wicker basket storage, Marks & Spencer, £39.50 for a pack of 3 

Well, when I own so many Bronte blankets one day, I'm going to need some top notch wicker storage baskets to house them! I'm addicted to wicker. These baskets from M&S look like they're fantastic quality, and really not a bad price if you think about the cost-per-use ;) washing, products, towels, bed sheets, blankets, wicker baskets are so handy to have lying around and I love their countryesque traditional feel. 

7. Rose Gold Candleabra from Zara Home

I speak for every woman that has ever stepped into Zara Home and smelled the sweet aromas of their wide range of infusers when saying, Zara Home is the epitomises dreamy home ware. If I was minted, I would deck my whole home in all things Zara, like this luxurious rose gold candle holder which would make a wonderful centrepiece to any table this Christmas.

I best start saving for the January sales eh?!