My 40 before 40 List and making it happen

Having turned 32 last week it's reminded me how fast time flies by, it feels like only yesterday I was celebrating my 30th in the South of France with family and friends. I was pregnant at the time with my youngest who is now nearly 19months old and it feels like our feet have not touched the ground since he came on the scene. Having always had itchy feet and following on from my father's passion to travel I managed to fit a whole lot of living into my life before turning 30 including celebrating New Years in more than 4 different countries and travelling to 25 countries as well as learning to drive, having a family, taking a cargo ship from Africa to the UK and loads in between. Although things did slow down slightly after having kids and traipsing around Europe with a backpack working at hostels as I went along was not so much an option anymore, now things need to be planned and thought out far more in advance. I do think putting pen to paper and making plans is the f......

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Visualising your dreams

We all have dreams and goals we want to achieve, some are far more realistic than others but if you don't actually put down the ground work you are never going to make any of them become a reality. Over the past few years I have narrowed things down to what I really want to get out of life and I having a real clear direction on where you want to go and visualising and what you need to do to get there is absolutely essential if its something you really want to do. Wether it be time spent travelling, a big purchase or a career change have a focus and try and not deter from that. Three things I would like to achieve within the next 10 years are 1. Purchase a small rental property or Holiday bolt hole 2. Learn how to Sail 3. Buy a Camper Van I have over the past two years been actively saving for the camper van - I had a one berth van before kids, I bought it in Glasgow and drove down through the Dales into Wales, past Snowdonia down to St Ives and Lands E......

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Building the house of your dreams

How beautiful is this outdoor space and pool ( image ) I have always been attracted to unusual properties and I find it hard to deal with living in what I would call an "ordinary home" and even though I have pretty much given up on trying to persuade John to live in a houseboat or a double decker bus I do think that the possibility of building and designing our own home is not completely out of the window especially since the recent Tiny House revolution has swept across the US and is now hitting UK shores. As you can imagine I love watching Grand designs and I am a true believer in that everyone has the right to pursue happiness, I am not talking about fame, fortune and an excess of material things but rather being able to create a space that you are happy with and want to enjoy your time in and a place you can call home. I love the Tiny home revolution happening at the moment  ( image ) To me there are a variety of options when it comes to my dream ho......

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Bathroom dreams, treats and dry skin beats

So our bath has sprung a bit of a leak...well it's a little bit more complicated than that but after having the floor recently re-tiled and the walls painted with thought besides replacing the glass screen on the bath and a few other little things that the Bathroom was fairly straight forward with regards to getting ready to put the house on the market - alas that is not the case and instead we have to replace the whole bath, the shower unit above the bath and the wall tiling around the bath...all before the baby pops out next month. In the perfect world we would replace it for a beautiful roll top bath but when renovating a property the first thing you need to do is separate your wants and desires to what is the most practical, finically beneficial and what suits the property the best. Of course having a roll top bath would bring the wow factor but as we are marketing it towards families and want to keep the costs down the best options is something simple and less lavish...althou......

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A few home truths

We knew buying our current property that we were taking on a bit of a project. It was in better condition than our last (a total renovation) as some of the rooms had been "finished" but as we delved deeper and had a better look we came across some very interesting takes on DIY. Our first stop was removing all the bad Artex on the bedroom ceilings - who ever thought Artex was a good idea I don't know. Unfortunately the floorboards upstairs simply could not be stripped so we opted for re-carpting throughout which was already a huge improvement on the tired and stained carpet which was there when we moved in. What we noticed along the way though was not only had all the doors only had one thing coat of undercoat but where all also on the wrong way! In the living room we have two Alcoves, when we moved in they had awful wooden boarders that didn't fit properly and one of the alcoves had shelving which we used for books for the first few months before getting aroun......

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Easy Sunday Morning

Sometimes I wish I could stay in bed all day ( image ) We make life what it is, we see the things we want to see. On sundays I like to look for the whimsical, the lazy, the cosy, the calm to the start of the day. Is there really anything better than a lazy sunday morning with american pancakes (preferable made by someone else) and a fresh cup of coffee wrapped in a soft quilted throw in a wonderfully light kitchen with large windows...well we can all dream and why not I say...life is too short not too. How cute are these ( image ) What I want to wake up too ( image ) ...

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Dreams of a SMEG Kitchen

The plan is to move very soon *exciting* and since I have recently fallen in love with the application that is Pinterest, I have found it to be an amazing tool when scrap-booking my idea kitchen. I love the cook and to me the kitchen is the heart of the home, the one place I could spend a lot of money on to get just right. I love wooden floors, solid oak tables, home-made trinkets and retro fittings. One of my biggest "must haves" for the new kitchen is a SMEG friday, ohh for how I have longed for a SMEG fridge for so many years. Their design is timeless, and fits with pretty much any type of look you are going for, be it rustic, vintage, modern or contemporary - there are not many products that can do that! So I better keep saving because I won't settle for anything less Here are a few visual inspirations....and dreams..... ...

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