Lily and Mitch

LIGHT UP, LIGHT UP

This multiple pendant took my fancy a long time ago when I first saw it on Pinterest. I pinned it at the time and bought it today. I always get a little buzz when a pin becomes real.

Handmade Pendant Light Chandelier

Brightened up Day Five of Clean 9 if you'll pardon the pun. It's handmade by a company called Light Cookie who are based in Greece and sell via Etsy. Go check them out, they have so many great products.

Oh speaking of lights, very pleased with my B&Q glitzy bargain in our utility room. Who says laundry can't be glamorous!

ONLINE MEMORY BOX

Just set about to update the FAMILY page and could not bring myself to delete its contents. My Miss Marple skills reckon it was written late 2012. How things have changed. How my little people have changed.

Joseph :: My boy. He has been an easy child since day one. Sure he has the odd 'moment' but on the whole, he is totally chilled out. A really happy and contented little boy. I know because he tells me. In the middle of a game, colouring, watching TV, whatever... he'll look at me with the declaration 'mummy, I'm a happy boy' and it gets me every time. Love it. So my baby {'I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy'} will be three in January. He gets funnier every day. He repeats everything we say. Not in that annoying way a seven year old does... but later, even days after we've said something I'll hear him playing with his HappyLand people and I can hear how he makes conversations between them. It will be exactly something Alex or I have said. And the voices. Oh, the voices! He calls to Carys 'c'mon sweetheart, keep up' exactly as I do when we're out walking. Precious.

Carys :: Carys is a dream. I thought Joseph was easy but this little girl trumped him in the easy baby competition. From the day she was born, she made sense of everything. Life got easier. I don't know how that is possible and I can't explain it but that's how it was. I hadn't realised that I had lost myself in motherhood until she was born. I found myself again without even knowing I had been gone. Saying all that, she's a force to be reckoned with. Carys is similar to Joseph in a lot of ways, calm, content, happy to go with the flow but there is a spark in her that will, without warning, cause utter chaos.

T3 :: Oh, who are you in there? This little mover certainly doesn't let me forget they're in there. I can't wait to have him or her in my arms. We've agreed on names and I'm so excited to know which one will be added to our family.

JOSEPHS ROOM

Joseph and Carys have shared a room since forever. It has always worked really well for them but since Darcy's arrival, I've been dreaming and scheming a pretty vintage style girls bedroom for Carys and Darcy to share. The move to our new house is on the horizon so I'm preparing Joseph with the notion of a room of his own. He doesn't seem terribly keen about the idea. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bed hopping.

I have started pulling some ideas together for Joseph's room. I'm not even sure which room he will have. At this stage we don't even know how many bedrooms we're going to have. We are hoping to extend a three bedroom semi to five bedrooms. There are lots of if's, but's and maybes around that though.

Anyways. My starting point is this handsome chap. Isn't he great!? He's from Graham & Green who call him call him Elle but he seems more like a he to me.

Elle Elephant {Felt Animal Head from Graham & Green}

Pinterest strikes again... blogger Everything Emily created this amazing wall and I reckon our elephant friend would look amazing up here.

Image from Everything Emily... click here for the how to on this look.

People, people... it's WASHI TAPE!

>>> Look at that >>>

Genius.

So that plus that... equals a pretty great start. I'm going to need to take an uncomfortable step back and let him be a part of the making of this room if the 'going it alone' plan is to work out. Let's not get carried away though. If he gets full control, it will look like a Disney and CBeebies vomit contest. Its just not going to happen. End of.

Joseph loves looking through pictures on my phone, Instagram or Facebook so his room needs to be filled with his 'most favourites'... who'll make the cut!? He'll love helping out with this project.

Can't wait to get started.

EASTBOURNE

Jolly's to Eastbourne are a regular occurrence for us. Luckily we have family down there with this scene less than a 10 minute walk from their house. I love it. The children love playing with their cousins and I love spending time with my sister-in-law. Alex and Tim are just happy when we're happy so life is good!

Moody Skies in Eastbourne

Last week Kate and I decided that we'd brave half term together so with six children aged 6, 4, 3, 2, 10 months and 8 months, we nailed it! We played those kids like an orchestra and were a step ahead of them every step of the way. Well, sort of. Nothing like a bit of bribery to get ahead of the little people.

We stayed home, just let the children just enjoy being together. We ran errands in town, we got soaked in a rain shower, we had hot chocolates and sticky buns, we negotiated who got the pirate plate (seriously kids plus plates and cutlery choices... disaster!) we went to soft play, we survived it.

SHRED IT!

Need a giggle?

CLEAN BANDIT :: RADIO 1 LIVE LOUNGE

I had just pulled into a parking space this morning when Fearne Cotton played this on Radio 1 this morning. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Perfect tune for a grimy Monday morning.

Clean Bandit cover Royals by Lorde.

HOUSE HUNTING :: PIN DREAMING

We are house hunting.

Although we are only just starting with viewings, we have been house hunting for quite a while via the powers of the three w's. Since before we left Switzerland, we've been trawling through estate agent websites, Zoopla, Prime Location et al. Rightmove and I? Oh yeah, best friends. The sort of 'best friend' that delights in reminding you how poor you are.

Anyways, we've been getting an idea of the market prices, schools, areas with a reasonable journey time for Alex to get to... and more importantly, home from work! We've pinholed a few areas and have been out at viewings. Let me tell you this... house viewing with three small children is a challenge. Let me tell you this... 'you don't even have a garden to worry about' is a very creative way to tell the buyer 'this house would be perfect if only it had a garden.' Let me tell you this... you cannot and will not convince me that a second reception room on the ground floor magically turns your three bed house a four bed house. Let me tell you this... photographing a teeny tiny room from atop a step ladder doesn't fool anybody. Let me tell you this... taking my shoes off and tiptoeing around some of these houses has made my socks beg for mercy. Two words... vacuum cleaner! A few more... mop and bucket.

In short... it hasn't taken long for the house hunting game to become totally and utterly and completely and wholly unfun*. Second guessing floor plans with not so clever photography tricks to get to the house and see the grim reality. I'm over it.

So what am I to do? I get pinning. If we can't find the house, I'll find the dreams until we get there. My pinterest page is rich with dreamy dreams. They may seem unrealistic for most of us but we can cleverly pick out ideas and apply them to the most modest of spaces. Here are a few kitcheny* images that I'm dreaming of applying to wherever we may find.