March 30, 2017

Transform Your Home into a Calming Haven

Transform Your Home into a Calming Haven.

Does your home make you feel happy and relaxed? If not, something needs to change! If you don’t have a place where you can unwind each day, life can quickly catch up with you. Here are some of the ways you can create a calming haven at home.

Bedroom

A relaxing bedroom is crucial for a good night’s sleep. Being surrounded by mess and chaos isn’t good when you’re trying to wind down. Find good storage where you can house your possessions, this makes them easy to access but means they’re not cluttering up the space. Update your bedding, and make an effort to make the bed every day. Psychologists have found that bed makers tend to be happier and more successful in their lives, so it’s a practice worth getting on board with! Painting the room in calming colours can help too. If you’ve gone with bold red, oranges, bright pink or other vivid shades, it’s worth scaling it back. White, light grey, cream or a light pastel shade will be far more soothing.

Bathroom

There are few things more relaxing than a soak in the tub. Your blood pressure drops, your heartbeat lowers, and stiff muscles begin to loosen- just what you need after a stressful day. Even if you don’t have the means or desire to refit a completely new bathroom, there are things you can do to improve the way it looks and make it nicer to spend time in. Over time bathrooms can look grubby due to the grout, even if they’ve just been cleaned. Use a grout tool to scrape off the top layer of grout between tiles, and then fill it back in with a new mixture. This will give the appearance of fresh new tiles!

The same applies to the sealant around the bath, sink, and shower. Use a knife to prise this up, and then reapply it. This alone can give you the appearance of a new bathroom even without changing anything else! Heated towel rails are useful addition to the bathroom, as well as keeping it warm and warming your towels they provide somewhere to hang your bath towels too. Give your accessories an update too; a new shower curtain, bath mat, soap dispenser and some scented candles can bring in a fresh and clean new look. When you come to have a bath each day, you’ll be relaxing in a much better environment.

Living Room

The living room is an important space to get right. It’s where you spend time connecting with family, and is a place in the home where we tend to spend a lot of time. Having big, comfy furniture is a good choice. It’s easy to go for style over substance, but finding a good balance between looks and comfort is key. Make sure there are enough seats for everyone to comfortably lounge! Piling on soft throws and pillows make everything extra cosy too.

Garden

Once the warmer weather is on its way, the garden is the perfect place in the home to relax. You could sit outside with a glass of wine or cup of tea and read a book, or just sit and watch the wildlife. The trickling sound of water features have been shown to relieve stress, so adding one to your garden could be a good investment. Having some comfy seating out there is also important, whether it’s a patio set, bench or swing seat.

All Pictures taken from HOUZZ

March 30, 2017

Relax and Recuperate

Transform Your Home into a Calming Haven

Bedroom

March 27, 2017

Make Home Security Your Number One Priority!

SOURCE

Make Home Security Your Number One Priority!

It's hardly going to be much of a shock to say that you probably care about your home quite a lot. I mean, who doesn't?! Your home is your sanctuary from the outside world. It's the place where you spend time with your family, make memories, and should feel safer than just about anywhere else in the world, which is what makes it so utterly horrible when something happens to disrupt that safety.

March 24, 2017

How To Get Your Garden Summer Ready

Getting your garden summer ready can be a tough task to ask, as our gardens are one of the most neglected spaces in our home. We don’t often tend to think of them as a space as such – more of a backup for when the summer months hit and we need to get outside to cool ourselves down, bask in the warmth and give the kids somewhere to run around. However, we need to be giving them a bit more attention – it’s only what they deserve.

We leave our gardens for months on end with not so much as a trim until we spend that week when the sun’s starting to stay in the sky for longer periods furiously mowing, sowing seeds and making sure that everything is up to scratch in the hope that you’ll catch a warm day soon. Keep on top of it throughout the year and you won’t have this mad dash – and it’s more simple than you think.

Mow Early

The last thing you want is for the grass in your garden to have grown to an unmanageable height! Eek! don’t talk too soon! have you seen your grass out there! it’s likely to break your mower. if you leave it any longer! So If you have a big garden that takes an absolute age to go around with a standard lawn mower, you could consider looking at something like Mountfield ride on mowers from Mowers Online to make the job easier and more appealing to you…Although I would personally love a ride on mower, I have settled for a Mountfield…I had heard lots of good reviews about them and purchased one last Spring…I can cut lines into my grass with ease!

Sow On Time

Different seeds have different sowing periods on them, and you want to make sure that you’re not planting them early or too late. Think about the flowers that you would want to see during the summer months in your garden. There are some which will only last for a short while, such as the sunflower, but others such as sweet peas will last for a good four months. It’s up to you to decide on what you want and what will go together; there may only be a period of a few days or a week where everything is blooming together and looks wonderful, so staggering out the sowing times across the period of the summer is the best thing to do to ensure that your garden constantly looks colourful and wonderful.

Buy Late

By buying late, this means at the end of the summer season ready for the next year. There are some absolute bargains to be had, especially in garden centres! This goes mainly for furniture, ornaments and, for the foodies out there, barbecues. As long as you have somewhere safe and dry to store it until the next year, you’ll have everything on hand that you need to keep yourself fully stocked up the following year. It’s the cheapest way to do things, and you won’t be scrabbling about the following summer spending more than you need to on stuff that you haven’t really thought about. The online sales usually start in September/October time with garden furniture, and you are more likely to find better deals on the internet than you are in store … so open up your web browser and get shopping! …of course there is always the Boot sale’s to purchase bargain plants…I love to buy my plants at our local one, as it is so much cheaper buying from the actual growers themselves!

Have you any tips for creating a lovely Summer garden…if so? Please share below, just click the comments icon x

March 24, 2017

How To Get Your Garden Summer Ready

Our gardens are one of the most neglected spaces in our home. We don’t often tend to think of them as a space as such - more of a backup for when the summer months hit and we need to get outside to cool ourselves down, bask in the warmth and give the kids somewhere to run around. However, we need to be giving them a bit more attention - it’s only what they deserve.

March 08, 2017

A Happy House Move and Lift Update

A Happy House Move and Lift Update.

I thought it was about time that I update you all on what has been happening around here…we have finally arrived at the other end of the tunnel…all the work as been done on the house to make it Freddy friendly and we have also designed the living room to carry it forward for 2017…

Ok so we have argued alot about what we should have, as I still love kitschy chic, but Freddy wanted a more grown up look kinda like what we had here but with a bit more grey added! but we have had to compromise…we agreed that we would keep our favourite ornaments and get rid of the really kitschy ones (I have added a few back though! shhhh don’t let him know ;))

The amount of stuff I have given to the charity shop is unreal! especially with my mum moving over too! we have all been on a ‘chuck out your chintz’ detox lol! and I haven’t even finished…I hope that by Easter, everything will be sorted and we can actually start to enjoy the fruits of our my labour!

Anyways I thought I would add some pictures of what has been happening and talk you through them as I go…so here goes folks.

This used to be the view of our living room as you walked through the door and looked to the right. Freddy spent a whole year in a hospital bed behind this unit, not able to get upstairs at all, but it was 100% better than the horrible cottage that we lived in before, although you might have liked the decor, it was a constant reminder of Fred’s accident and he was trapped in the Dining room…Our new forever home enabled him to have a wash in the downstairs bathroom, cook in the kitchen and washup! and best of all get out and about on his scooter!

After my Mum had moved over and a few days before the builders were supposed to start work on the lift, I got a nasty chest infection…I think it was my body telling me i needed the rest as I was so run down and depressed, I had already suffered a rotten cold sore the week before!…you see I got no help from anyone…ok so we had removal men to pack everything up, but I had to unpack everything at my mums new place myself, well that and move the furniture into places that we finally decided to move it into!

freddy in the thick of it whilst the builders were installing the lift

Obviously my Mum, Rosie and Freddy couldn’t help…and my son Daz works so hard, so it was all left for me to do…and after a while I was really feeling tired and would of loved some help…but no-one offered and I am not one to ask, so my health suffered in the process and all I could do was hope that someone could send me a Knight in Shining Armour to help me get the living room clear ready for the builders to start work!

The builders moved some of the ornaments into the kitchen

So! it was the morning before the lift men were supposed to turn up to start work…I was in bed trying to sleep, still coughing my guts up! when I was awoken by a lot of commotion going on downstairs…it sounded like furniture being moved and men talking! I thought to myself that I must be dreaming this! But no! The workmen had turned up a day early!

This was the answer to my prayers! and all three of them moved all the furniture over to the other side of the room including Freddies bed and everything in the space of about 20 minutes!…I really couldn’t thank them enough…they were lovely lads and got on with their work while Freddy provided them with cups of tea here and there and I was able to rest upstairs…I did call an ambulance over the weekend thinking I was having a heart attack at one point (I wasn’t thank goodness!)…but I won’t bore you with those details lol!

My view from my bed, the night before my knights in shining armour arrived! Note..I have hidden all the tissues x

lift hole cut out and strengthening ceiling

Before any of you panic that I have sent all my kitschy collectables to the charity shop…don’t worry! although I have given a lot away, I have kept the pieces that I think you will all like and I am going to add them over time to my shop again…We have got too much enamel for one thing and although I filled the cottage up with wall to wall ornaments… I can’t do it so much here, as everything has to be Freddy accessible…also this clearing out milarkie is doing my brain fog a hell of a lot of good…the only place that I seem to of cluttered up is my craft room…I will show you that another day but basically it looks a bit like my other craft room lol!

There was dust everywhere!

front garden

The whole house was freezing because my builders were obviously born in a barn!…the front door was open constantly and poor Freddy had about 10 layers of clothing on to try and keep warm! We had all sorts of tradesmen turn up in those 5 days! they must of all thought what a lazy b*tch…all Fred’s wife ever does is sleep in bed lol! oh if only they knew!

There is still alot of sorting out to do, as I said before I want to be finished by Easter…because all the work had to be delayed on the house for a year (as the house was brand new…it needed to settle) so we hadn’t really moved in properly…so I will carry on visiting the charity shop with things I don’t want and things that you won’t want either…I will hang pictures and re-arrange shelves etc etc…but in the mean time here is a sneaky few pictures that I took on my iphone…I will show you more when I have finished it all properly…

Freddy’s lift all installed and ready to go!

Rearranging the house to both our tastes.

sorting out all of our favourite ornaments and compromising on others.

If you have made it to the end of this post! I congratulate you…it has been a long one hasn’t it! I just felt that I owed you an update and didnt realise it was going to take so long myself! but there you have it! I must also add that now Freddy can live like any other person in his own house is immense! It makes me so happy to finally have my husband back! It has been a terrible couple of years but we have got through it and are better people for it. Ok so we have argued about the decor, but I have to give in a bit, as I love that he is interested again…we are all happier people now…how we have arranged the house works for everyone…

It has now become a Happier than Ever Happy House 😉

why not subscribe to my posts on the sidebar…if you are interested in seeing how we have transformed ‘The Happy House’ into the 21st Century!

Bye for now

March 08, 2017

A HAPPY HOUSE MOVE AND LIFT UPDATE

I thought it was about time that I update you all on what has been happening around here...we have finally arrived at the other end of the tunnel...all the work as been done on the house to make it Freddy friendly and we have also designed the living room to carry it forward for 2017...

Ok so we have argued alot about what we should have, as I still love kitschy chic, but Freddy wanted a more grown up look kinda like what we had here but with a bit more grey added! but we have had to compromise...we agreed that we would keep our favourite ornaments and get rid of the really kitschy ones (I have added a few back though! shhhh don't let him know ;))

March 02, 2017

Don’t Forget Your Kitchen This Spring

Don’t Forget Your Kitchen This Spring.

The days are getting longer, and the sun is starting to rear its head a bit more often. Spring is on the horizon and moods are starting to lighten. Now is the perfect time to clean up and remodel our homes, and one room that should not be neglected is the kitchen. The heart of many homes, the kitchen is the one room where you can guarantee a good time, whether that be eating great food, enjoying a family get together or throwing a party for a special occasion. So, it is important that your kitchen space looks great, feels welcoming and functions well.

image source

If you are thinking about giving your kitchen a spring makeover, here are some tips to help you do the job well:

Décor

The easiest way to perk up your kitchen ready for the spring and summer months is to change up the décor. When you think of spring, you tend to think of bright, warm colours, pastel hues, and natural fibres. Simply painting your walls a nice shade of duck egg blue, grey or white can give the room and instant boost that makes it feel refreshed. If you don’t want to re-paint, consider bringing in some spring coloured accessories such as new appliances, jars, and artwork.

Update Your Units

Updating your units can go a long way to making your kitchen feel brand new, especially if you trade in dark units for lighter ones. Choose lighter wood, or white, cream and pastel coloured units for a true spring feel….or if you are a trend setter opt for this dark grey look above and add pastel or white accessories! If you don’t have the budget for it, or are not interested in a full kitchen remodel, simply paint your units in the colour of your choice – just make sure you sand and prep them first.

Appliances

Spring is the perfect time to get rid of any old and inefficient appliances, so if you have a kettle that takes an age to boil, a fridge that struggles to keep your foods fresh or a kitchen sink that’s lost its sparkle, take this opportunity to start a new in your kitchen and improve the style and convenience of your kitchen.

Image source

Clean the Cooker

Of course, you don’t have to buy anything new or do any decorating to give your kitchen a spring makeover, a good dose of elbow grease can give you an equally spectacular transformation. Put your rubber gloves on, crack out the cleaning products and spend an afternoon cleaning all the grease and grime from your cooker, kitchen sink, cooking spaces and floor and your kitchen will look like a whole new room. Even if you’re good about cleaning your kitchen regularly, a surprising amount of dirt and grease can build up, so it is worth doing this before you consign anything in your kitchen to the scrap heap – it might just scrub up well.

Add Some Finishing Touches

A vase of daffodils, a plate of cupcakes or a nice painting, when placed in the kitchen, can make it feel much more homely and inviting, especially in spring. So, always add a few finishing touches to any kitchen makeover.

Happy Kitchen Dining my Lovelies xx

March 02, 2017

Don’t Forget the Kitchen Sink This Spring

Image source

The days are getting longer, and the sun is starting to rear its head a bit more often. Spring is on the horizon and moods are starting to lighten. Now is the perfect time to clean up and remodel our homes, and one room that should not be neglected in 2017 is the kitchen. The heart of many homes, the kitchen is the one room where you can guarantee a good time, whether that be eating great food, enjoying a family get together or throwing a party for a special occasion. So, it is important that your kitchen space looks great, feels welcoming and functions well.

March 30, 2017

Transform Your Home into a Calming Haven

Transform Your Home into a Calming Haven.

Bedroom

Bathroom

Living Room

Garden

March 30, 2017

Relax and Recuperate

March 27, 2017

Make Home Security Your Number One Priority!

March 24, 2017

How To Get Your Garden Summer Ready

Mow Early

Sow On Time

Buy Late

March 24, 2017

How To Get Your Garden Summer Ready

March 08, 2017

A Happy House Move and Lift Update

The builders moved some of the ornaments into the kitchen

lift hole cut out and strengthening ceiling

front garden

March 08, 2017

A HAPPY HOUSE MOVE AND LIFT UPDATE

March 02, 2017

Don’t Forget Your Kitchen This Spring

Don’t Forget Your Kitchen This Spring.

Décor

Update Your Units

Appliances

Clean the Cooker

Add Some Finishing Touches

March 02, 2017

Don’t Forget the Kitchen Sink This Spring

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