I love our ever changing bathroom view! I will always feel grateful for it.

So it will soon be 2015! Happy New Year to all you lovely people out there!

We have a few hopes and dreams for the new years, but most of all I hope that we just carry on as we are. I'm pretty happy with the way things are at the moment. We don't make that much money, and we only have a little house and we don't go on expensive holidays abroad or anything. Just having a wee peaceful life down here on the Isle of Wight ; )

...all is well and I'd like it to stay that way if possible!

having said that, I do have a few aims for the new year, like... going to bed earlier, spend less money, eat less sugary things (hmm?) and start doing yoga.

I have already been cleaning the house frantically and ordering storage boxes from Ikea and such like. Soon I will start re-arranging the house for absolutely no reason at all. 

I'm not a January person.

Love to you all! XXX

(photos by Nao & Artemis)

Happy 'post' Crimbo people! I hope you all had a lovely time! 

We had a delicious dinner cooked at my Mum's house on the 21st with all the clan. Then we headed back home to our little house for a 'quiet-ish' xmas with just us three. 

I loved the whole Santa thing, I suggested that Father Xmas might like a mince pie and a glass of wine, and maybe a carrot for the reindeers...littlun was straight on to it.

she kept re-arranging them on the breadboard, moving them a fraction and saying 'that's better! each time. Then she went away for a bit, then came back with a little drawing and put it by the wine and the mince pie. Then I started to feel a bit bad for lying to her so much. 

Anyway, eventually I got her up to bed so I could start making footprints in the ash from the fireplace.

In the morning I think she was a bit over-whelmed by the notion that 'he' had actually been, and had actually left a monkey (thats what she asked him for).

she was really happy with her inflatable dinosaur.

The scene of someone who very rarely cooks, attempting to make wild mushroom and Camembert pies with roasted veg and sprouts. Unglamorous. I did envision myself calmly pulling out neat trays of beautiful food whilst sporting a sequin mini dress, red nail varnish and sparkly earrings. Well that never happened.

...but luckily some food did happen, although with a toddler meltdown, she didn't eat a single mouthful of it, she had crackers and Dairylea instead.

I ended up exhausted and dishevelled, glugging down red wine and trying to stay awake in time for Downton Abbey.

Happy times, Yay!!! XXX

I also made some skincare things in our kitchen. It was really good fun! Sort of like cooking but with a longer lasting outcome ; ) I made roughly six sets of these. Very experimental, but they seem to actually work. I stuck to basic natural ingredients like Shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, almond oil, jojoba oil, apricot kernel oil, vitamin E oil, wheatgerm oil and essential oils, that kind of thing. The smells were quite woodlandy with pine, spruce, juniper, cedar wood and also bergamot, vetiver and lavender.

The packaging I found online, they are made in the UK by lucky hap. The labels took the longest to make because I couldn't get the Word template to line up with the labels when I printed them. Nightmare! The pictures are stamps that I had already. I really enjoyed thinking up cheesy names for my 'range'! ; ).

perfumes and body oil

and scented soy wax candle in enamelled mug

I made canvas pouches and found these matches on ebay...

ingredients leaflet

sewn baking paper bags. So I'm planning to make some more of these things because its very satisfying to use it knowing whats in it, and I can chose how I want it to smell too. Right, now to make some anti-wrinkle cream...hmm...

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely xmas and are suitably stuffed and drunk whilst reading this. So now all the pressies have been open, and we have been buried under a mountain of wrapping paper. As usual, we aimed for a minimal xmas on the pressie front but, as usual, things snowballed, and we still ended up with a mass of presents to open...oh its a hard life eh!

Having said that, as I mentioned the other day, I made all my pressies except for a few extra bought ones for my mister and tot.

Here are all my efforts, I'm actually quite amazed I managed to get them all made in time. Do not ask me where I found the time to do all this, because I have no b***** idea!

I made some friends for the littlun...

a rabbit in a bed for my niece

she also got a fleece scarf with felt rabbit brooch.

I knitted a bobble scarf for my littlun with a monkey brooch.

two shiny crowns for two shiny cousins.

for sis in law

for the mister (I bought some very snazzy pens to put inside).

For my mum...

stuffed with vintage sewing bits.

sketch book and cover...

laptop case for the mister...

a cushion for my mum...

...and a cushion for my chum!