Villa Campo Verde

I've been meaning to write this post for a long, long while but have kept putting it off because it seemed like such a monumental task and secretly I couldn't face choosing from millions of photos. But those of you who follow me on social media may have been a little bombarded recently by some 'villa spamming'. So I thought it was finally time to share one of my favourite places in the world... Villa Campo Verde.

In Dissertation Hell...

Once today is over I will have worked five 12 hour shifts in the space of seven days... so this post comes from a rather delicate, exhausted place and you'll have to excuse me if I ramble on and don't make much sense. I thought I'd update you on my week, although as I've just mentioned, most of it has been spent at work so I'm not sure how interesting this will be...

Our Gallery Wall

I promised I would blog the gallery wall I've recently been creating on the landing at the top of our stairs so here goes...! I've wanted a gallery wall for a long time and for that I can only blame Pinterest. When you're bored and in need of some interior inspiration, search 'gallery wall' on Pinterest and you'll immediately be graced with hundreds of beautifully arranged arrays of photos, prints and artwork in some of the most dreamy looking homes imaginable. Hashtag house porn. Unfortunately our landlord back in Greenwich was a bit fussy about things going up on the walls, so I knew that my project would have to wait. But now we finally own our beloved bricks and mortar we can finally call the shots. And so I got started on creating my own masterpiece...

Life lately

Can somebody please explain to me how on earth it is nearly the end of February already?! This year seems to be racing away before my eyes and I just can't catch up!! It's been a long while since I rambled on and updated you on life in general so I feel it's about time for a personal update and a few photos of life lately...

 

Skiing in Les Arcs {with video!}

You may remember early last year that I blogged about my first ever skiing lesson at the Snozone in Milton Keynes? Well, a few weeks ago we finally went on our long awaited skiing holiday to the French Alps with our friends Emma & Matt, and had the most magical time in the snowy mountains. I was overwhelmed at how beautiful the scenery was and how much fun I had skiing, so I thought I'd share some photos...

Valentine's Baking: Rose Cupcakes

 

Happy Valentine's weekend!! It's been ages since I last did some baking and with Valentine's Day tomorrow I thought it would be the perfect excuse to spend an hour in the kitchen. I love finding recipes for different holidays/celebrations, you can get so much inspiration from the likes of Pinterest, Instagram and various different recipe websites. You might remember last year when I baked these jam tarts. This year I kept it simple and made vanilla cupcakes with buttercream icing {you can't go wrong with cupcakes... who doesn't like cupcakes?!} but after discovering I had a cake decorations drought I popped to the shops last minute and picked up these cute red and pink rose decorations from waitrose. The heart candles are also from waitrose, they fell into my shopping trolley...

My top 10 valentine's day cards 2016

I truly understand why many people regard Valentine's Day as a money-making Hallmark ploy, but let's be honest here, who doesn't secretly love a bit of romance on 14th February?! Rob and I don't ever spend much on each other but I personally love the excuse to send a soppy little card, not only to Rob but also to my friends, to remind them how much they're appreciated. And with such an extensive range of quirky, flirty and beautifully designed cards that the shops have to offer, why not? I love the amount of dark humoured cards around these days, some are brilliant, so if you don't fancy doing it for the cheese then do it for the laughs instead!

I've picked out ten of my favourites for this year incase you're after a bit of inspiration:

1."Every inch of you is perfect" - Paperchase, £3.50

2. "Brie Mine" -  Bekka Griffin Illustrations at Not On The Highstreet, £2.50

3. "You're a gem" - Ohh Deer, £2.95

4. "I guess I like you more than the rest of these insufferable shits" - Scribbler, £2.99

5. Personalised map heart card - Jessie The Jabberwock at Etsy, £6.99 + shipping

6. "Yoda only one for me" {for all those Star Wars fans out there!} - Dust and Things at Not On The High Street, £2.95

7. Why not send a post-card instead?! "You're all kinds of lovely" - Paperchase, just 70p!

8. Simple silver hearts - John Lewis, £1.50

9. "Hey hot stuff" - John Lewis, £2.50

10. "You're the gin to my tonic" - Oliver Bonas, £2.95



Will you be sending a card this year? Go on and spread the love!

Lydia xxx

Our Bedroom Makeover

After the kitchen, our bedroom was the next room that we wanted to get sorted when we moved into our house back at the beginning of July last year. Much like the rest of the house, nothing really needed to be changed. The carpets are as good as new and the walls had only been painted white a few years ago, but there were a few irritating grubby marks on the wall from previous furniture which were a bit of an eye-sore. And since we had some leftover Farrow & Ball paint from our kitchen makeover we decided to paint the largest wall in the bedroom in ammonite grey, creating a very subtle 'feature wall' if you could even call it that, to add some character whilst keeping the room as tranquil as possible. I think it's so important to make your bedroom a relaxing place to be, somewhere you can completely unwind. Calming colours can go a long way in achieving this!

It should have been a relatively quick job, as it was just the one wall that needed painting, but these things always seem to take longer than expected don't they?! We tried to be so careful when painting the edges where two walls met, using frog-tape to help keep the lines as straight as possible. It took a couple of coats to hide the grubby marks where a previous headboard had scuffed the wall and we painted over some marks on the ceiling in white too.

A Christmas & New Year Update

It's somehow 5th January already {how on earth did that happen?!},Christmas has been and gone and I've been absolutely rubbish once again at this whole blogging thing. Truth is, our Christmas this year ended up being quite the opposite of what we were expecting, so the blogging unfortunately took a backseat. You may remember last year when I posted this post about a typical Christmas at home with my family? Well, this year I was SO ready for another magical Christmas at home with all our usual family traditions, especially after such a busy few months. I was longing for some quality time at home, to relax in my pyjamas, help mum with the baking and embrace the festive spirit.

But this year things were different. We have a new little addition - our lovely little Rosie - and as adorable as she is, she's hard bloody hard work at the best of times! It turns out that this Christmas she had different plans! To cut a long story short, sadly things just didn't work out quite as we had hoped back at my parents house. Rosie didn't settle well at all, mostly because of the family cat, and I think that being in another new environment completely offset the routine that we have worked so hard to achieve with her. It was absolute chaos. So after being at my parents no more than 24 hours, we made the heart wrenching decision to leave and travel all the way back home which meant that Rob and I would spend Christmas just the two of us {and Rosie of course!}. It was a difficult decision, I had teary eyes for most of the journey home and I felt really awful about it. It felt like Christmas had just cancelled. Never the less, I was determined that we could enjoy ourselves, even if it was going to be quiet at home and a tad lonelier than we'd expected. 

And infact, although it was indeed rather quiet, it was one of the most special Christmases I've ever had. If there's anyone who is utterly amazing at turning a shit situation into the best one then it's my wonderful Rob. I'm so lucky! Swoon. 

A few photos from our first Christmas in our first home, if you'd like to see...