What we are looking for in our next family home

I have spoken a few times about how we are nearing the end of our (somewhat slow) renovation of our current home and will be fingers crossed putting it on the market this year so we can move. This has got me thinking a lot about what we are looking for in our next home, nothing lavish or anything but for a variety of reasons our current house really doesn't tick our boxes and was always bought as an investment to do up and then sell. While our current home does have some pros such as a nice sized garden and a light and airy kitchen extension I do have a list of things I would love to see in our next property although of course we are realistic about the fact there is never a perfect home and you do have to compromise somewhere but not on everything. Character over a New Build I'm just putting this out there but I am not a huge fan of new builds, I certainly wont discount them altogether because at this point we have to consider all our options but we have always lived......

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Guest Post - A Lazy Persons Laundry Hacks

What do cleaning, tidying, washing up and laundry all have in common? They’re all household chores which never seem to be finished. It doesn’t matter how much time and energy you put into them, there’s still a basket full of laundry, a couple of bits of washing up left to do. And all the while there are just about a million more interesting things to do! Laundry is a job which seemingly never ends and can really stress you out. So what are us lazy people to do? We want our laundry done and out of our mind as not thinking about it isn’t an effective solution. After all we all need clothes to wear! You just don’t want to go crazy as you try to keep up with it. I put together tips and hints for speedy laundry and how to dry your clothes faster. How to do laundry faster Let’s dive into our laundry basket of hints and tips for getting your laundry done quicker 1. How often you do laundry matters Is it better to do a little laundry or a lot of laundry at once? If you find y......

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Sous Vide cooking in the home

I was recently invited to spend the day with the lovely people at Clifton Food range at their in-house kitchen as well as take a tour around their factory in Weston-super-mare. To be honest my knowledge of Sous Vide cooking was pretty limited before attended the event, all I knew was it involved cooking in water but that was about it, although as I cook everyday and it's something I love to do I was really looking forward to learning more about it and how it could be used in the home, as up until now it was something only really found in professional kitchens. The day kicked off with some coffee and relaxed introductions before professional Chef Dez Turland talked us through in-depth into what exactly a Clifton water bath is and what it could do and I was amazed to hear that pretty much anything can be slow cooked in water as long as it's vacuum packed before putting into the bath. They are also incredibly eco-friendly and cost hardly anything to run, which for me p......

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This Homeschooling Life

As some of you may already know, myself and three other bloggers do a monthly roundup of what Home Schooling or Home Ed looks like to each of us and what we get up to and here are some of the highlights from the last month. It's been a bit slower than usual, with less outdoor adventures due to both the boys coming down with bad colds and coughs (as well as myself) but we are not back on form *well almost* and we have ramped up the Christmas crafting and getting into the festive season.  One of our favourite things from the past month has to be the JacDo Christmas Craft session at Chapter in Cardiff with a few other local bloggers and their kids. The lovely people at JacDo had setup three tables each with a different craft, all perfect for young children to get stuck into and get creative with. First we made sock snowmen filled with rice then painted paper plate wreaths and a simple sowing craft which was Mr A's favourite. For those who don't know what or who Ja......

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Bringing books into the home

My dream - lots and lots of books ( image ) Growing up my father was a speed reader and book addict, something he has passed down to me. My parents even had a separate lounge which was off limits to children and was kept mainly for entertaining friends and being a quite space for my father to read. One side of the room had floor to ceiling book shelves running right across it and like the image above it's something I would love to have as well one day, although for now we are working with what we have which are to unloved alcoves in our little house. As some of our readers already know we recently bought this cottage 6 months ago and are slowly making a few improvements before selling it next year. One of the things was have been working on are the previously unused alcoves in our living-room. You can never have enough storage space and we both love to display our array of books. I recently did a post about our record corner which has now been further improve......

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