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...

Christmas Baking: Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Whilst flicking through recipes this past week for some ideas for Christmas bakes, I magically found this chocolate orange cheesecake recipe on the BBC Good Food website and was immediately tempted. Tis the season for Terry's Chocolate Oranges after all and I love chocolate oranges, they're one of my favourites!

The Halls are Decked!

You may remember my post from last Christmas where I shared a few photos of our little flat all decorated for the festive season... Well looking back on the blog has made me feel a little bit sentimental. My final words in that post were: "maybe next year we'll have a house to decorate! Now there's an exciting thought!" and here I am, just 12 months later, sat on the sofa in our very own home. I feel incredibly lucky that our dreams came true this year and we were able to finally become homeowners, it's something that many people my age can only dream of so I'm making a conscious effort to remind myself often of how fortunate we are.

Anyway - I thought I'd do the same as last year and share some photos of our home adorned with Christmas decorations. I'm so excited about our first Christmas here and even though we aren't celebrating Christmas Day at our house, it's nice to enjoy some festive sparkle and decorations at home whilst counting down the days...

Project Grey Kitchen: Our Kitchen Makeover

The open-plan kitchen, dining and living area was the first part of the house that we wanted to get sorted first. Our house is only four years old so it's very new and structurally doesn't need anything changing, but we were reluctant to move in all of our belongings before painting the walls exactly how we wanted them. Avoiding paint splashes once all moved in would have been much more of an ordeal, so painting first seemed more sensible. Luckily the majority of our furniture was in storage at my parents', so we didn't have to worry about paying hefty storage fees and this meant we weren't under any pressure to get things finished quickly. That said, we couldn't wait to get going!

Our house and the house next door were built as a pair in 2011 and are identical but mirrored. All of the fittings, floors and windows are exactly the same. Goodness knows why but the kitchen, dining room and part of the living room were painted in a dark, chocolate brown with chocolate brown interior doors throughout the property to match. I assume that the designer wanted the houses to feel rather contemporary but it was such a poor choice of colour given the size of the house. It made the whole of the downstairs feel incredibly dark and the first time we viewed the house I remember saying to Rob "the chocolate brown has GOT to go!"

Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Happy 1st December you lovely lot! The Christmas Tree is officially up and our living room is full of sparkle and that wonderful smell of fresh Nordman Fir. You just can't beat the smell of Christmas, can you?!

Our New Home

So where to start?! I've been away from blogging for so long that I don't really know where to begin with telling you all about our house purchase and our experiences as becoming first-time buyers. It's been the biggest, most exciting and emotionally draining whirlwind and one which I hope not to have to go through again for a long while! So it would probably be sensible to start from way back in April of this year, when we moved out of our beautiful flat in Greenwich and in with Rob's Mum, in East London.

I had mixed emotions about moving out of our flat. It was the first place since living with my parents, that had felt like a real home to me and Rob & I had created so many happy memories there. We had fallen in love with Greenwich, a place which will forever be close to my heart. It was an ideal place to live, albeit an expensive one, and for me it was always going to be difficult leaving. But, {and I like to think that this was a wonderful bit of fate} a few weeks before our impending move-out date we found the most perfect house. We had been searching for just over a year{!} and the areas of our search kept changing; initially in central London, then out into beautiful Kent and then back towards London. I scoured the Rightmove app every single day for what felt like months, for properties within our budget in various different areas. We looked at houses, flats, more houses....  And when a modern, semi-detached two-bed house with a garden & car parking space appeared on Rightmove I literally jumped with excitement and organised a viewing. Luckily we were the first people to view the house and made an offer that same day. 

Weekend Ramble

Happy Sunday all, have you had a good weekend? I enjoyed a lazy Saturday yesterday with a dog walk in the morning followed by an afternoon of ticking some boring chores off my to-do list. Then I made the yummiest glam mac n cheese for dinner with chicken and pancetta {I'll have to blog the recipe soon because it's a winner} and spent all evening curled up on the sofa catching up on trashy TV. Today was due to be a washout weather-wise and indeed it rained all morning but we refused to feel defeated, so we wrapped up warm, got in the car and drove down to the Kent coast for a Wintry walk along the beach with the pup. The English seaside is beautiful during the Summer months but equally as beautiful during Winter I think. I love cosying up in thick scarves and big coats to keep warm and any excuse to wear my Hunters! It was pretty stormy this afternoon - the waves were wild and the sea was bitterly cold but we still took the opportunity to paddle in our wellies which is always fun. I was really excited about taking Rosie to the beach and she loved it! She was terrified of the sea, probably because it was so cold but she ran excitedly along the sand and kept finding bits of seaweed to chew on... typical cheeky puppy! And once we were sufficiently 'beached' we headed to the cutest country pub for a hearty Sunday Dinner and some vino.

Thought I'd share some photos anyhow - 

Enjoy!

A Little Bit Lydia

So you may have noticed that I took a break from blogging. An accidental break at first I'll admit, but suddenly we're five months down the line {how on earth did that happen?!} and I have a serious case of blogger's guilt. So here I am once again, sat at my laptop with the urge to write type. I'm back for good this time, I promise!

I don't even really know where to start... the last five months have been a complete whirlwind but it's safe to say that Summer 2015 was a goodun. We finally bought our first home at the end of June{!!!}, moved in almost immediately, repainted the kitchen and bedroom and have enjoyed slowly transforming it from a house into a home. It's a work in progress and I keep having to remind myself that there's no need to rush things, we'll be here for a while after all! In July we enjoyed the most dreamy week in Croatia and saw one of my best friends get married which was blooming lovely. I've started tackling the garden {which was a jungle when we moved in} and we enjoyed a much needed, relaxing week in Italy in September, with my family. There is so much news and so many photos to share with you! Oh... and we only went and got ourselves a puppy!!! She's called Rosie and we're totally in love...

Roaming around Rome... an anniversary Eurotrip ♥ {part one}

At the beginning of May we were lucky enough to spend four days in beautiful Rome. You may remember in this 'this week's happiness' post back in December that I spontaneously booked our flights with Easyjet whilst lying in bed one evening feeling very sorry for myself and craving a holiday. I managed to get return flights to Rome for the two of us for a bargain of £120! And with the hotel booked a couple of months later all we had left to do was count down the days until our minibreak. May 5th finally arrived and off we went - a 4am alarm, suitcases packed in the back of the BMW, a reservation in the long stay car-park at Gatwick and a breakfast in Pret a Manger. Is there anything better than a pre-flight breakfast?! We were so excited to be spending our 3rd anniversary in one of the most romantic cities in the world.

I've been looking forward to blogging our trip to Rome, apologies that I haven't done it sooner! But it's been a nice excuse this week to look back at all our photos and be reminded of what an amazing few days we had. I've split this up into two blog posts, because I was far too snap happy!! I hope you're ready for a photo marathon...!

Vendredi

So it's Friday morning and I'm sat on the train to work, and I've suddenly realised that I haven't done my #thisweekshappiness post! What a rubbish blogger I am. So instead of my usual Friday post you can have a good old ramble instead. I hope this suffices!

This week's happiness

Things that have made me happy this week...

Summer picnics

Ahh don't you just love packing up a picnic, taking a blanket and finding a pretty place in the countryside to sunbathe, eat and just relax?! I really love picnics! This week Rob and I went into Epping Forest, which isn't too far from his mum's where we're living now. It's really pretty, with so many places to explore - lots of little trails, always busy with cyclists, walkers and families. We managed to find a secluded spot on some open grassland and enjoyed our lunch al fresco. Thank you sunshine, you can keep coming!

Happy feet: the perfect deck shoes

I've been on several shopping trips recently with the aim of finding some sensible flat shoes but on each occasion I've totally failed the task and come back home with dresses, tops and lingerie! Story of my life. It would seem that I am an absolute expert at shopping spontaneously! But, to my complete surprise last week I wandered into the UGG shop {with the intention of browsing their Summer wedges collection} and found these beauties: the UGG Chivon deck-style shoes.