Me and Mine - A Family Portrait Project November

Yes to months that whizz by, especially when it's November! Because you know what that means... Christmas is coming! I adore the lead up to Christmas and it feels that this year everything festive has crept into the last couple of weeks of November.

All my work has been focussed on Christmas styling, updating seasonal imagery, making advent calendars and everywhere you look there's boxes with balloons, wreaths and baubles! I've squeezed in more trips to London than in the whole year into this month and have made some new friends in the online world.

You know when you just click, to the point you can almost hear a clunky sound?! Well that's how I feel. I've found a firm friend and confidante in Katy and it's been lovely to see her so much at press shows and events, to put the world to rights and bounce ideas off each other. 

I feel like I have been welcomed into a new world of blogging, meeting some of my favourite interiors bloggers and stylists and it's made me realise there's so much about the house I haven't shared. I hope you will enjoy some of my makeover and inspiration posts I have planned over the next month, so you can see how we are slowly transforming this old shell.

We spent a rather smelly week with the downstairs toilet soil pipe being open after the cloakroom decorating turned into a more major revamp! It was not pleasant. 

But once the new pipe was fitted, the tiles laid, the beautifully smooth (and I tell you in a very old house smooth walls are an anomaly so I just wanted to stroke the bare plaster!) new plaster painted and the woodwork finished we just couldn't stop standing in the door way for no other reason than to admire it!

As soon as I have hung a mirror and have sourced a few accessories, I will share some photos! It's funny how the smallest room in the house can actually have such an impact. Just off the hallway it's a room that gets seen and used by everyone! There are two other bathrooms in the house that desperately need remodelling but with Christmas approaching they will definitely have to wait at least until next year, if not the year after. 

For those who know me well, know I am not the most patient person. Once I have a vision I steam roll ahead, but with a house you can't do that, unless you win the lottery of course! But the more you have to wait, the more you appreciate what gets done. We have lusted after Fired Earth tiles for a long time, so to finally see them laid in our house felt like a major achievement! And that is in no way an advert, I just thought you might like to see!

We started November with my sister's birthday, and I joked with her that we all just assumed we would spend the weekend together. No real discussion just that on very special occasions we love just being in the same room. We FaceTime at least 4 times a week, just a quick 10 minute hello and catch up on our days, it's nice to see her face. Her bump is growing at a rate of knots whilst the rest of her has barely changed. We are all wildly debating what the baby might be, will it be another girl, will she look just like Yazzy, or will they have a son?! I looked through all my baby boy boxes of clothes that I have been saving just in case and would so love to see them worn again, but I know how much we treasure being sisters so it would be just perfect for Yasmin to experience what we have. 

We've started planning her hare themed baby shower, Yazzy nicknamed the baby "the baby rabbit" at the first scan and it's just stuck. And it's one of those things that suddenly everywhere we all go we see rabbits! On cushions, on prints, on clothing! 

We also had exciting news from across the pond. My brother Patrick and my sister in law Carlotta announced they were having a little girl! We had kept the secret for a short while and the boys are so excited to have another girlie in the family. Two boys, two girls and one surprise to come!

I packed up a box of goodies, a British baby magazine, a Dada book that ironically I had bought when we visited them in the summer and they first told us they were pregnant, and lots of lovely creams and potions for Carlotta which my mum took over for Thanksgiving.

They are flying back on Christmas Day this year and we will have a second Christmas on Boxing Day. It's amazing to see her little face on the scan, her profile so clear. It's almost impossible for me not to buy pink things...

Our feet aren't going to touch the ground next month, the school fayre last week signalled the start of the Christmas parties and we are counting down the days until we fly off with Mark Warner Holidays to take the boys on their first ever skiing holiday (They still don't know so I am devising a surprise to tell them!). 

I just can't wait to see them in the snow!!!! It's going to be a magical trip and we feel so lucky.

This weekend we braved the Great British weather and headed to Southbourne with lovely friends and their baby. We got blasted by the sea breeze on the beach, wrapped up the three boys and went to a couple of play parks. Nothing fancy, just a chance to be together. There's nothing quite like going away with real old friends, people who you can wear your pjs with, with no make up on and all crash out at 10pm exhausted from being woken up by children all night! There's no pretence, just a sense of contentment. 

We managed to snap this photo just before it was dark last night, and I will always be grateful for this Me and Mine Project, because without it I wouldn't have a photo of the four of us this month. A record of the chipboard haircuts, the small boys in tartan, with gappy grins.

I'd love for you to get to know them a little better, they are such a big part of this blog, even if you don't always see them so next month I thought a little family video interview might be fun! 

Come and join in with us and share your family photo for November. This month I want to send you to Lucy at Dear Beautiful who has a special small person in their family photos. Their littlest made her Me and Mine debut last month and our Me and Mine gang have a couple of others to come as well. Fritha - we are all so excited and Katie has a blue one joining her pink tribe next year!