5 Ways To Spruce Up Your Home For Spring

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It's almost spring, I can feel it in the air. I can't wait to soak in all the natural vitamin D after a dark, cold winter. I like to spruce up my home at the start of each season, it's become quite the tradition over the years. With this in mind, I thought I'd put together a post featuring my top tips, and feature a couple of ideas from some blogging friends of mine too.

1. Deep clean

I start my spruce by undertaking a full-scale spring clean, throughout the house. I tackle a room a day and focus on the areas that are easily forgotten about (back of cupboards, behind sofas, skirting boards, and so on.) I make a list of every job which needs to be done in each room and check them off as I go. It's very rewarding to see all the boxes checked off at the end of each day.

2. Clear out

While I'm spring cleaning a room I make a pile of items that I no longer need and ignore it until I'm done. Once I've finished cleaning I sort them into two sections, a charity shop pile, and a bin/recycle pile. It feels so good to take bags of clothes, books, toys, and bric-a-brac to the charity shop because not only am I doing something good but I'm also decluttering my home.

3. Invest in a new storage
We started our home renovation over five years ago. It's been such a work in progress but we are now at the stage where we have money left over to buy new pieces of furniture, and storage for our home. I would like to invest in a fitted dressing room from Urban Wardrobes. Not only do they look super chic and stylish but they are functional and very useful.

4. Update your decor & furniture

A simple way to brighten your home for summer is to change up accent pieces in certain rooms. I like to switch my cushions, rugs, and ornaments around, however, I don't always buy new. I like to look in charity shops for bargains or even buy and sell pages online.

5. Choose a home fragrance

I'm quite new to the world of home fragrance and I'm hooked on finding the perfect scent. The subtle use of home fragrance can freshen up your home, especially if you have young children and pets like I do.

Do you have any tips you would like to share?

3 Simple Ways To Make Moving Home Easier

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In 2014, after years of renting, we were fortunate enough to place our feet firmly on the property ladder. We were accepted for a mortgage, despite my maternity leave, and we took to looking for our first home right away. They say that you know when a house is right for you, it's a feeling you get in your gut and we sure had that feeling and decided to place an offer on the house the same day. It wasn't pretty, in fact, it needed an endless amount of TLC, and there was a lot of admin to go through before we could get started. Our first port of call was looking into online conveyancing solicitors to help us on our journey. Once all the paperwork was done it was then time to get on with the renovation.

The house was dated, with avocado coloured bathroom, a bright red 40s kitchen, and green floral bedrooms and it had never had central heating and needed a full rewire. however, that didn't put us off. The walls were knocked back to brick, the floorboards were ripped up, we totally gutted the entire house. Thankfully, we didn't let all the work ahead of us put us off - we could see it's potential as a great family home for Nick and I as first-time buyers.

There was that much work that needed to be done that we had to live with our inlaws for six months. It was a difficult time, trying to parent an infant, work on the house almost daily, all while living with other people. In between all the renovation work we had the task of packing up all our belongings, to then transport to our new home. This has led me to write this post - here are 5 ways to make moving home easier.

1. Read or watch anything by Marie Kondo
I don't think I'll either be as minimalist as her but I would like to be - that's the dream for sure. Marie Kondo offers a plethora of tips both in her book and on the hit Netflix series. She is also such a sweet person and she makes me smile every time I see her on my screen. She teaches people how to organise, sort, and throw/donate anything that doesn't spark joy! This is also something you could do on a monthly or seasonal basis - not just when moving home.

2. Sell, donate and recycle things you no longer want or need
My Marie Kondo tip leads me nicely onto my next suggestion. Don't dispose of things you no longer want or need, it's so wasteful and you are adding to landfill when you really don't have to. If there's still life left in a product consider selling, donating, or recycling it. Online recycling sites make it easy to recycle apple products and other old electronics taking up space in your home. I also like to donate a multitude of other items, from clothes the kids have grown out of, to crockery and artwork - usually to our local RSPCA charity shop.

3. Hire a removal company
Last but certainly not least - hire a removal company! Moving home is exhausting, especially on top of everything else which needs to be done. Hiring a cheap removal company costs next to nothing and helps out tenfold. I wouldn't move without hiring one again - that service is a must-have for me.

Do you have any tips you would like to share?

We got a great tip from someone that was thinking of moving house in a few months. They used a moving checklist and priced out each important stage using online comparison websites covering conveyancing, surveying, house insurance, and removals. They managed to identify professionals that provided fixed fee quotes. The result was a budget that they could rely upon. Some comparisons websites ask for personal details upfront which results in emails and calls which of course is far too early when you are just gathering prices. They used the Homebuyer Conveyancing quotations website which provides a wide range of local and national Conveyancers. In your own time, you can view the fully inclusive legal fees and disbursements without the need to enter your personal details.

My 5 Autumn Favourites

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We are now well into Autumn and you can feel the change in the season wherever you go. The trees surrounding our home are now warm oranges, yellows and reds, the leaves are falling, and the drop in temperature is notable - we can now see our own breath! It's a reminder of how much I adore the season and I thought I would document my 5 autumn favourites.

1. Little Lord & Lady Clothing

I've been following Little Lord & Lady for years, in utter awe, and Noah and Ava are now ambassadors for the brand. They were recently sent various pieces from their new A/W range to try out and for me to photograph and share on social media. I'm blown away by it all, everything is stunning. Their garments are so sophisticated and luxurious, ideal for any occasion and special ones too.

2. Houseplants, DIY & new decor
I know, I know - the home renovation is still ongoing! We are almost there but it's now all about tweaking a few little things and updating some decor. My living room is my favourite room in the house, with it's neutral grey theme, with pops of colour from various houseplants I've bought recently - it makes me feel relaxed and at ease. In our dining room I am looking at swapping the carpet for Engineered Wood Flooring as it will be easier to maintain and will look more effective too. I also want to add a little brew station and any of these neon coffee signs would look amazing above it on the wall.

3. My slow cooker
I'll admit it. I'm one of those people who cracks out the crockpot at the slightest bit of cold weather and make half a dozen casseroles a week. It's so easy to set it up in the morning with whatever ingredients I please and 99% of the time it comes out delicious. Our current favourite is beef bourguignon with warm, crusty bread. Casseroles are a great way to get hidden veggies/nutrients into kids, which is even more important this time of year.

4. Conker picking & pumpkin carving
It wouldn't be Autumn, or October without a spot of conker picking and numerous pumpkins to carve. Noah and Ava love to explore and get messy while enjoying the outdoors so I've brought the pumpkins outside this year. We've put all the pumpkin seeds to one side, ready to take on our next walk to feed to the birds and squirrels.

5. Planning family outings 

October, through to December is always a busy time for us and we wouldn't have it any other way. We have Noah's 6th birthday coming up, as well as Halloween, Bonfire Night, WWE, Marvel Live, Butlins, and so much more. I'm so excited for the last few months of 2019.

What are your Autumn favourites?

Interior Design Trends To Give Your Home A Cosy Feel

There are plenty of us who want to make sure that our homes feel cosy, welcoming and warm. In the most part, this should be relatively easy to do. However, what can you do if you are finding that creating a cosy space isn’t happening quite as easy as you hoped? Interior design might be able to help you. So, to give you some inspiration, we have put together our guide to the different interior design trends that are going to give your home a cosy feel.

Create a nook

Sometimes the best way to create a sense of cosy comfort in your home is to make a nook that you can escape to. Many people use this as a place to read, or perhaps simply to chat and unwind. Creating a nook is easy, you just need to choose a space in your home and then add in a few touches that make it comfortable and welcoming. You can make your home more comfortable with a bucket chair. Not only do these chairs work brilliantly in a nook, but they are also incredibly stylish which means that you can bring a real sense of style to your space.

Have plenty of cushions and throws

The most obvious way to make your home more comfortable is to ensure that you feel comfortable. Of course, you can make sure that you make yourself more comfortable by choosing the right furniture, however, it can much simpler than that. Imagine how amazing it would feel to snuggle down into a cosy beanbag chair after a long day, wrapped up in your cosy blanket? Not only do these things help you to feel comfortable, but with the soft textures, it will also make sure that your home looks cosy and inviting too.

Always think about your lighting

When it comes to creating a cosy home, you are going to need to think about lighting, as a simple flick of a switch can really make a change to the atmosphere of the room. Of course, you are going to want to have a room that is well lit, however, this might not always create the cosy atmosphere that you hope for. For this particular soft warm glow, you are going to need to use floor lights and table lamps instead of harsh overhead lighting. However, if you really want to have a room that you want to spend time in, then perhaps candlelight is going to be the right way to light it up.

Don’t be afraid to display your knick knacks

Now, we all know that many interior design trends tell you that you need to keep things minimal when it comes to the number of things that you have on display in your home. However, if you want to create a home that looks lived in and personal. Then you might want to make sure that you take pride in displaying your knick-knacks. If you want to make sure that this doesn't make your home look cluttered and messy, then keep your knick-knacks to one particular area, displaying them in a beautiful and decorative way.

Get personal with your wall art

Talking about being personal with what you display, there is no better way to make sure that your home appears cosy and inviting then by showing off all the adventures and moments that you have spent together as a family. Family photos are a great alternative to the normal wall art approaches and they work particularly well in a long run such as a landing or a hallway.

We all want to have a cosy and warm home, which means that these top tips should have helped you to put this in place. As you can see, making sure that your home is comfy and cosy doesn’t have to be a huge headache, sometimes all you need to do is think about your interior design choices. In no time at all, you will have a home that is not only incredibly stylish, but that is also warm and inviting too. What better combo can there be than that?

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Home Interior Ideas for Autumn

We are well now well into the Autumn. You can see the change in seasons in the colour of the tree's, and feel it in the sharp change in temperature. With the change of season, I want a change in my interiors and decor because I want to add more warmth to our home. This isn't as daunting as it seems, a change in interiors doesn't have to mean a complete overhaul as there are simple things that you can do to make a huge difference to a room.

When we bought our house two years ago I was in control of every little aspect of the renovation, from the colour of the grout of the bathroom tiles through to the colour of the garden fence. I really enjoyed having the freedom do this and although it was a lot of hard work, our home is now exactly how I wanted it to be. Our dining room currently has oak floors and neutral earth tones decor which can be warming but I want to make it more so with richer colour accents.

Repainting the walls

The alcoves in our dining room are currently painted a warm latte-like colour, which I did originally like but now I want to completely repaint them with a richer colour, perhaps maroon or a deep green. I think this would really make the room pop and make it feel warmer in these cooler months.

Upgrading the flooring

We have laminated wood effect flooring which was a great temporary fix but recently we've been looking at investing in Engineered Oak Flooring as it would really complete the room and also add value to our home. I'm also looking into underfloor heating too as our dining room is notorious for being a bit chilly, even in summer.

Revamping the furnishings
We have soft furnishings in most of the rooms in our house, some of which are old and getting a bit tatty. We have a loveseat in our dining room which has seen better days but it's the most comfortable sofa that you'll ever sit on. We don't have the heart to part with it so we are planning to re-upholster it with South West Upholstery.

Adding accent pieces

Another quick and easy way to give a room a little overhaul without spending a small fortune is buy buying accent pieces. Vases, candles, ornaments, rugs, photo frames, canvases and so on. All of these can be picked up for next to nothing at places like Wilko's or B&M Bargains.

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Renovating - What we did & Where we are now.

This time last year we were fortunate enough to buy our first home after 6 long years of renting. We viewed only a handful of properties before we found the house that was for us.

Although the house needed a lot of work we saw past it and could envision what that shell of a home could become. I vividly imagined what the house could look like and I could picture Nick and I raising our family there. That's how we knew it was the right one for us.

Buying the house and then undergoing the renovation has been such a long winded process but we are finally getting there now. I sometimes forget how far we've come so I thought I would put together a blog post of what we've done so far and what is still left to do.

What we've done so far  

Central heating. The house had never had central heating so we had to buy a boiler, have it set up and the whole heating system needed to be installed. This was one of the most costly aspects to the renovation.

New kitchen. The kitchen was a shambles when we bought the house, a retro nightmare. We knew we needed a new kitchen and we browsed different styles for weeks before we finally decided on which to go for. This of course was costly too but as we have a kitchen fitter in the family we only paid trade price and he fit it for free! Very lucky. 

New bathroom. Another room which was a retro nightmare was the bathroom. It was avocado green and literally the worst bathroom I have ever seen. I couldn't wait to get in there to start ripping it out. I actually removed most of the tiles myself, with a sledge hammer! It was a bit scary! We then had a new bath, shower, sink, toilet installed and tiled the entirety of the room. 

Decorating. Every single room in the house needed redecorating which meant lots of hard laborious work. Not only did each room need painting, new flooring or carpet but many walls needed replastering too. 

What we still need to do

Fitted wardrobes. As the majority of the messy work has now been completed we are now focusing on fitted features within the house. We are very limited when it comes to storage as our attic is currently sealed off. I have recently been looking at sliding wardrobes because not only do they look fantastic but it's amazing how much you can store within them too. 

The finishing touches. We are almost at the finishing line when it comes to the work but there are little bits and pieces here and there that need to be completed. I am excited to start focusing on dressing each room now that the DIY is out of the way. I have seen some fantastic lamps on Amazon that I would like to buy for our bedroom and I also have my eye on a couple of rugs from Rug Mountain which I would love for the dining room and hallway.

Attic conversion. We have been discussing the possibility of building up into the attic to give us another bedroom. We would need planning permission of course but this is a future job rather than a job that needs to be done straight away. 

Front garden. The front yard is a decent size for a terraced house. At the moment it is graveled with a little path which I don't think looks good and it's not very practical either. I want to keep the path but lay down a lawn so then Noah has somewhere to play in these warmer months.


Hopefully in a few months time I can report back on how we have ticked off another few jobs on our to do list! Do you have any renovating or decorating tips you would like to share with me?

Choosing a theme for our nursery

When we bought out first home last year the one room that I wanted to get spot on was Noah's. I wanted him to have a room that was not just functional and pretty to look at but somewhere that just had a great feel to it too. It also had to be suitable for his age but also easy to convert into a toddler room as he gets older.

I had an idea of what I wanted before we started decorating but I found that searching for idea's online really helped me decide what would look best. I wanted his room to have a warm feel but with a slight nautical twist. To achieve this theme I decided to choose a mild yellow paint called Cream Oakville from Graham & Brown for the walls and a pale beige carpet. You would think it would be pretty simple to choose yellow paint and a beige carpet but with so many different shades to go for we did deliberate for a while. We eventually agreed on which to go for and they both complement each other well.

Once all the decorating was out of the way it was time to bring the nursery furniture out of storage. We had bought the setup when I was expecting and thankfully the warm tones of the pine furniture matches the theme of the room perfectly. You can buy pine furniture online and in many stores - a timeless, and classic look that stands the test of time.

The last step was to dress the room and I chose blue and neutral accents to add a sort of seaside/nautical feel. I personally love light blue and yellow together as it reminds me of the beach. With the subtle hints of blue here and there I think it really works and Noah's room is my favourite room in the entire house.

Noah is now 16 months old and it's scary to think in a few more months we will be changing his room around again, we will be packing away the cot and switching to a cot bed. I can't believe it's almost time to say goodbye to his cot but I am looking forward to tweaking his room here and there. I have been looking online for new pieces for his room and I am so tempted in buying this pirate themed bed from FADS. Noah is pirate mad, everything is Jake, Jake, Jake and it would fit in with the theme so well. 

At what age did your toddler go from cot to bed? Does your child's room have a theme? 

Buying our first home

Last year we were lucky enough to buy our first home after renting numerous properties for the past few years. I say lucky but we needed to save, save, save and thankfully our bank had an offer on at the time which was a first time buyer discount. With the deal we only needed to pay the 5% deposit which was exactly what we needed. If that offer wasn't available then we would probably still be renting today. 

House search - 
The mortgage application was very complex and long winded but once we were both accepted then we were able to start the search to find our home. Having family in different towns we did contemplate many different area's but we decided to stick with my partners home town where we were currently renting. We made a note of all the area's that would be suitable and the area's that wouldn't and that narrowed everything down for us. 

Everyday we would start our search online by tailoring our search by area, house type, number of bedrooms and price. We would then make a note of all the houses that could be a possibility. We found that looking online through street view really helped as we didn't need to go and drive out to every property to get a scope of the area. If the area looked okay online then we would drive over in the car at different times of day to get a feel of the location. In the end we only arranged a viewing for 3 properties.

Viewings -
The first house that we viewed I loved as it was huge and in a fairly okay location. Once we viewed the inside of the property we noted lots of issues that would cost an obscene amount of money to try to repair. We were open to do work but the issues were too much for us. The kitchen was full of mold and the entire house had movement as it was situated on a hill. It was a shame because I did get a good feeling from the house, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be.

The second property looked fine on google street view but we were deceived as it ended up being in an awful area and the house itself was run down and tiny. What was worse is they were asking for a lot of money for it too, far too much. We only needed to step into the house to know it was a no from us, we couldn't get out of there faster!

Last but certainly not least was the property that we ended up buying. The house needed a lot of work but it was work that we would be able to afford and manage with the help of our family. It's in a fantastic area which is close to everything we need and we instantly knew it was the one for us.    

Making an offer -
After viewing the third property we knew it was the house for us. We saw past the avocado green bathroom and bright green carpets and decided to make an offer. The previous owner had recently reduced the asking price as they wanted a quick sale but as first time buyers we needed to buy our first house for as cheap as we possibly could. With this in mind we went in at £10,000 less than the asking price which was £20,000 less than they were originally asking for. At first they declined our offer and tried to make a counter offer, which we firmly declined. We stuck to our guns and eventually they caved in and accepted our offer. It did take a few months for us to finally sign everything over and we had months and months of renovations ahead of us but we were finally home owners! We had bought our first home! 

If you are looking to buy, sell or even value your property then I would recommend taking a look at My Online Estate Agent. In a digital world where we do our shopping, banking and holiday bookings online it makes perfect sense to seek an estate agent online too. Not only do they provide everything that you would receive from a regular in store estate agent but they are an estate agent with a twist! You can set wheels in motion all in the comfort of your own home, with ease and with a fraction of the usual costs. My Online Estate Agents offer fully professional services for a fraction of the cost with their fabulous upfront package fee's. I wish I had of heard of them sooner as I could of saved ourselves a nifty sum which we could of put towards our renovation. 

What are you experiences of moving home? Have you recently bought or planning to sell?

Five tips for a healthier home in 2015

The new year is the perfect time to make your home healthier. Here are five simple tips that will help you create a fresher, healthier, and altogether happier place to live in 2015. 

Let the light in
It can be tempting in the drab winter months to close the curtains and curl up on the sofa with your favourite TV box set. Unfortunately, a lack of natural light can lead to irritability, headaches, and even sleep disturbances. So make the most of the short daylight hours by sitting near a window when possible, or invest in a special lamp that replicates sunlight. 

Improve your air quality
With the windows closed and heating on, the air in your home can become stuffy and unpleasant. Even worse, excess humidity can lead to mould growth and trigger allergies and colds. The best way to combat this is to get a dehumidifier, a handy gizmo that removes excess moisture from circulating air. Your home will feel fresher and you will feel healthier too. 

Bust the dust 
Dust isn't just unsightly, it's a health hazard too. Not only does it exacerbate allergies, micro-particles of dangerous compounds such as lead, toxic cleaning products, and pesticides can concentrate in dust deposits. The best defence is a good offence, so try to vacuum twice per week, and get a duster for those hard to reach nooks and crannies. 

Hurrah for hand sanitiser 
Everyone knows they should wash their hands after using the bathroom, but few people are aware of the importance of regular hand washing when at home. From door handles to food preparation surfaces, there are many places in your home that harbour microbes with the potential to cause illness. Try placing a few bottles of squeezable hand gel around your home, in easy to spot places as a reminder of the importance of proper hand hygiene. 

Ditch the sofa 
You come home from work, do your chores, eat a (healthy!) dinner, and then what? Veg out on the sofa of course! Unfortunately, barely a week passes without the publication of a new study on the health risks of excessive sitting. It's bad for your posture, bad for your heart and blood pressure, bad for your spine, and causes a host of other issues. Try replacing your sofa for a few hours a day with a more upright type of seating to improve your posture, and take regular walking breaks to keep your heart happy.

Designing your dream kitchen

This year we were lucky enough to be able to escape the renting rut and place our feet firmly on the property ladder by buying our first home. If you are a regular reader of your blog you will know that for the past 9 months we have been renovating the house and it's been such a long and tiring process. We still have the odd jobs to do but we are pretty much at that finish line now and as stressful and tiring as the whole experience has been it's so worth it and we are ever so grateful to be in this position.

One of the huge benefits of buying a house that needs a full renovation is that you can start from scratch and put your stamp on every little detail in the house. My partner let me take charge of decor and design as he admitted he didn't really have a clue (not that I did either) and he fully trusted me with it. 

My favourite room to design was the kitchen. 

When we moved into the house the kitchen was a total nightmare. The red tiles and dated cabinets hadn't been altered since the 1970's and everything was falling to pieces. One of the first jobs we did was to rip the kitchen out and start with a blank canvas.

Once I had that blank canvas the fun really began.

I knew that I wanted a kitchen that had a farmhouse and homely feel to it without it being too old fashioned. I'm a huge fan of cream and wood together so we chose cream shaker style cabinets with a wood effect work surface. I think this combination works the best for the style that I wanted to achieve.

What I really struggled with was deciding which tiles to go for as there were so many options. I liked the rustic looking tile but as so many more people preferred the glossy underground tiles I had to take their opinion on board. I had also noticed how on trend they were so that helped me make the decision too. I'm really glad that we went for them as I think they look perfect in the room and do give it more of a modern edge. We chose a wood effect tile for the floor and I think they finish the kitchen off perfectly.

Of course when all this was completed we then had an empty shell of a kitchen. When designing the kitchen we opted for some of our cabinets to be intergrated so we could have our washing machine and tumble dryer in the heart of the kitchen. We already had our matching kettle and toaster but needed to buy a new microwave as we had broke ours months ago. I don't know how we managed for so long without one as we've found ourselves using it everyday since it arrived.

Now the new kitchen has been fitted, decorated, tiled, floored and filled with our appliances and belongings it's finally completed and it feels fantastic.

- This is a PR collaboration. 

Our home: Home decor haul

With most of the house renovations now out of the way I've finally been able to focus more on home decor. This means one thing... shopping! To be honest I'm not usually a 'shop to you drop' kind of gal but shopping for home decor is the only exception, I love it!

Here are some of the pieces that we have bought recently;

Night light from Rose & Grey. I recently won a £50 voucher to spend at the fabulous Rose & Grey and decided to spend it on Noah. I bought him this super cute night light and a little wooden chair for his bedroom.

Shabby chic inspired vase from Feather & Black. Not sure where this is going to go yet but I adore it.

Scented candle from B&M. I'm a secret candle hoarder and my Mum recently bought me this candle as a little house warming gift. Isn't it lovely?

Vintage look wall clock from Morrisons. I actually bought this a while back but it's only just gone up on the wall so it feels new! I think it suits my kitchen perfectly.

Kitchen sign from B&M. Can you believe this sign was just £1?! Another addition to our kitchen decor. 

This haul is all from B&M and all for under £50. The cushions and lamps have gone up into our bedroom while the rug and laundry basket (temporary toy box) is in our living room. 

As you can tell from by buys I shop everywhere for decor pieces. From bargain stores, to supermarkets and online boutiques. It really pays to shop around for the best price and don't settle for the first thing you set eyes on.

Where are your favourite places to shop for homeware? 

- I was not sent any of these products for review or reimbursed for featuring any stores mentioned. 

Review: Curved Table Lamp from Litecraft

You should all know this by now because I've been droning on about it for months but here I go again in case you missed it. We recently bought and renovated our very first home - hurrah!

With all the renovating, dust, DIY and decorating now out of the way it's now time for the fun part, dressing the house! I do find it hard to visualise what I want when it comes to decor and often find inspiration online and in stores. I've found it especially daunting this time around as we have redecorated every room in the house and started from scratch. I don't know what I would of done without Google, it's amazing what a quick search can do. 

When Litecraft contacted me asking if I would like to review one of their lamps it literally couldn't of come at a better time. I was given a selection of lamps to choose from and it did take me a while to decide. I could of easily picked the lot because they were all stunning!  

Litecraft sell a vast range of different products from LED light bulbs to table lamps to chandeliers! But don't be fooled by their name because if you aren't on the market for new lights then you should know that they also stock multiple home decor staples such as throws, bed linen and curtains too.

We received the lamp a while back now and I have been itching to use it in our new home. I wanted to unpack it when we were in the new house as I didn't want it to be damaged in the move or get dusty at the house while we renovated. 

I knew which room the lamp would really shine in (pun intended) and that room was our living room. We have gone for neutral tones throughout the house and the living area is probably one of the room's which will showcase it best. 

The lamp is the perfect size for using as a beside lamp or table lamp, not too big or too small. I mention this because I often find a lot of side lamps are too small and I like a lamp to be bigger as I like them to be a focal point in the room.

I love the design of the lamp, it's just the right amount of modern for me as I'm not really a fan of overly modern decor and furniture. The design isn't just aesthetically pleasing as it's also practical too. The base and curved neck of the lamp are very well made and sturdy.

Last but not least I will go to my favourite feature, the shade. I love it's shape and I feel it's bang on trend at the moment. With the colour of the shade being a mushroom colour when the lamp is on it gives off a atmospheric warm glow. I feel like I could have the lamp in any room in the house and it would look equally as nice. 

It's always great to collaborate with new brands and Litecraft have been a joy to work with. So much so I wouldn't think twice about recommending them to a friend and wouldn't hesitate in buying from them in the future. 

But for now I'm going to be spending many Autumnal evenings curled up on the sofa, enjoying our new home with the warm glow of our lovely Litecraft lamp. Bliss. 

I was sent the lamp for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.

Our home: The master bedroom

Our bedroom is one of the rooms in the house that is totally finished now, minus a bit of furniture and decor. It's one of the rooms that I feel we spent ages on as it was the first room we began stripping and a room that we've dipped in and out of as our renovation progressed. 

It was probably one of the easier rooms to renovate too. We of course stripped the dated floral wallpaper and retro green carpet as soon as we bought the house. The room needed new plaster here and there but other than that the walls were fine. The ceiling was then lowered, plastered and spot lights were installed (something that I wasn't really bothered about but Nick prefers spot lights over one main light.) We also had new electrics and central heating installed as that was needed throughout the entire house. The new central heating and electrical rewiring was so expensive and cost almost half of our renovation budget. Which is very daunting when you still have a new bathroom, kitchen and a dozen other things yet to pay for! 

After all the big jobs were completed it was time for the fun part, the decorating. We first painted the ceiling white and it took a few coats as fresh plaster loves to soak up paint. Then we decorated the room with lining paper and painted with a Dulux shade called Mellow Mocha. It's a strange colour because in some light it can appear to have purple hue's and others it's the taupe type shade we were looking for. The light rail, skirting board, door, door frame, window frame, window sill then had a couple of layers of undercoat and gloss. 

With all the messy DIY and decorating jobs out of the way we then had to decide on a carpet. We decided to go for a silver grey (which is bang on trend according to our carpet fitter!) as I thought it would really compliment the colour and decor of the room. 

Here is our bedroom renovation journey from start to finish, enjoy! 

Our home: We have finally moved in!

Wow, what a journey. 

It feels like a lifetime ago that I wrote all about buying our first home back in January. It took 4 months for the sellers to finally agree to terms and for them to sign the contract. It was torturous waiting because it wasn't a case of buy the house and move in the house. No, buying the house was the first step because we knew how much work needed to be done before we could even think about moving in. 

Once we finally signed on the dotted line it was time for the "fun" to begin, the renovating (I would be happy to never hear or say that word ever again!) We were a little naive when it came to the work because we thought we would be in the house within 2 months. We totally underestimated not just how long it would take but the scale of how much work had to be done. It took 5 whole months of renovating, decorating and DIY until we actually moved in. 

So after all these months and all the hard work here we are finally in our new home! All the major jobs are done and dusted but there are still some little jobs that need to be done. We are so close to everything being completed now and it feels so good to be almost at the finish line. 

We haven't fully unpacked yet and haven't dressed the house but we are certainly settled in. We get a lovely vibe from the house and love it here already. It feels incredible to be home owners and now have a place we can call our own. I can see us having many happy times here.