The Art of Accessorizing Your Kitchen

When you think about accessorising, your mind probably goes straight to a great pair of sunglasses, a statement necklace, or a handbag. But guess what? The same ideas you use to complete an outfit can totally apply to the most important room in your home: the kitchen. Accessorising your kitchen isn't just about filling empty spots; it's about pouring personality, usefulness, and style into the heart of your home. It's that final touch that turns a room full of appliances and cabinets into a space that truly feels like yours. Accessorising Beyond Your Wardrobe Just like a simple black dress gets a whole new vibe with the right accessories, a basic kitchen can be jazzed up with carefully chosen details. The trick is to think of your kitchen's permanent stuff – the cabinets, countertops, and flooring – as your main pieces. The accessories are what add character and flair. These finishing touches are easy to swap out when your tastes change or the seasons shift. It's a ......

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Turn your photos into Wall Art

Given the monumental wonders of modern technology, taking pictures is now super easy. In addition to the abundance of smartphones and devices that help us capture the important moments in our lives, there has also been an explosion of tools and platforms that are designed to edit, store and share our pictures as well. One popular by-product of this revolution is canvas printing. From photos of lush green landscapes to family portraits that document your memories, printing your photos on canvas can literarily turn them into fine works of art! Over the years and through lots of trail and error, we have become familiar with some of the best ways to ensure great looking pictures and what is needed to turn them into beautiful pieces of art on canvas. Let me share some of them with you: Use the Best Pictures If you are going for canvas prints the most important aspect to get right is the quality of your images. Selecting the best of your pictures to use for canvas printing will......

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Celebrating Local in the Heart & Home

I have to be honest here and say, being an expat, that Cardiff did not initially do it for me, it's not a visually beautiful city like Edinburgh or Bristol, it doesn't have the northern quarter like Manchester or the rural charm of Truro and of course, is minuscule in comparison to London but over the past few years it has really grown on me with it's imposing castle, beautiful Bute Park and friendly locals. It's started to see a real revolution in terms of food and fashion with pop-up stores, festivals and markets happening every weekend, along with music and theatre shows. The city centre has also really expanded it's reach with new developments being built all the time as well as investment going into previously overlooked parts. It feels like a rather exciting time, a time of movement and opportunity and right now we are really enjoying the city so when Wallpapered got in touch and told us about their custom postcode wallpaper or canvas map art we......

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Camping in West Wales

Over the bank holiday we joined a few friends camping right on the tip of the West coast of Wales in beautiful St Davids - the UK's smallest city, really it's just a quaint and picture perfect seaside village but with a very impressive Cathedral that really takes your breath away. Even though we knew it was going to rain during half our trip it really made no difference to us, in fact it made it more of an adventure and there is nothing better than cosying up inside your lovely dry tent while it rains outside - there is something very natural about that. It was also lovely for Mr A to have so many friends to play with - all of different ages and at one point because of the rain they all piled into one tent and all that could be heard was laughter. He really is a very happy little camper. I also love to cook on our little campaign stove and how everything becomes very slow such as waiting for the water to boil for morning coffee - there is something w......

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Camp Bestival Highlights

Well we have had another manic weekend, with four nights spent under canvas, walking up and down the rolling hills of Ludworth Castle in Dorset and chilling next to a campfire at night and enjoying all that was on offer at the family friendly music festival that is Camp Bestival. We arrived home yesterday in one piece but shattered. They say images tell a thousand words and when I have caught my breath I shall post a proper review but for now here are some of our favourite photos from the weekend... Fun in the Dingle Dell forest The two boys getting arty John showcasing his new lighthouse tattoo I have joined in with this weeks Country Kids, for families who love spending time outdoors and Travel Tuesday for peeps who love to travel  ...

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Keeping a toddler warm under canvas

The weather is lovely at the moment but don't be fooled, at night it can still plummet and without the proper equipment you can really feel it when camping under canvas. We went on our first camping trip of the year at the end of May, it was dry and sunny but still very chilly at night, dropping down to around 5 degrees at night, although we did our research, invested in 3/4 season sleeping bags and while I sure some of the people on the site were freezing we were nice and snug in our tents and Mr A actually slept better than at home, going through each night without waking, tossing or turning. Here are our top tips to keeping toddlers and young children warm at night 1. The biggest tip we can give is create a barrier between you and the floor. I you sleep on the ground or a small foam mat you will lose body heat during the night through conduction so having a barrier such as an airbed with not only provide comfort but also insulation from the ground. We used an Eurohi......

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Boys Club - The Working man

So as many of you know John is a traditional cut throat barber, working in Cardiff City at a great Gentleman's retreat that is Bentley and Co . His work is a good reflection of his personality as he takes care in his appearance and pride in what he does. His working week style fluctuates but he tends to not wear anything to expensive as he clothes can get covered in hair during the day and he likes to separate work from home. This however doesn't mean you can't look smart with his take on the modern working man. I feel really lucky to be able to go into his work and take photos as it really is a boys club, with all the barbers being male, a long established shop and the cliental ranging from businessmen to toddlers, there is a real camaraderie among each other and it's great to overhear what they talk about, *what you hear in the shop stays in the shop* So what he today - he went for a tweed style blazer jacket from Topman, as well as the trousers, also from......

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Next Home Blogger Event

So last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the Next Home-ware blogger event in Cardiff. It was a great day out with some inspiring interiors, stylish bloggers and high tea in a penthouse suite at St Davids hotel. The day started out with a tour of the Next store in Leckwith Cardiff, which is amazing by the way - it's so huge and has an amazing homes section. I loved all the room sets and there is a real nautical theme this season as well as a crafty, home-made element, especially with their cute cushion covers. They have some great accessories and they are all very reasonably priced, more than I expected. The furniture can be quite expensive but is solid, well made, has designer features and worth the little bit extra. After we had a good look around the store, picking up a few bits and bobs for the house (I love my new bicycle tea candle holder) we made our way to St Davids Hotel to watch the new Next home wear TV advert and have a spot of pampering with m......

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On the move

As you already may now we recently sold our house! We thought we would be moving just after Christmas but the buyer insisted on moving in before so for the past two weeks that is what we have been doing - packing...moving...moving and more packing - hence the lack of posts! We have also been offline for the first time in a long time, in fact we will only be reconnect to the world wide web next Wednesday  so this post is coming to you via my parents broadband. Moving is always a stressful and crazy time but with a toddler thrown in on top of that it's pretty interesting - especially just before Christmas  We have been working hard over the past few days to make our new temporary house homely - yes I say temporary as we still haven't found a place to buy, so we are renting a cute little cottage for a while instead. Here are my two  favourite parts of our new home... Our beautiful old Welsh fireplace Our cosy reading nook ...

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