Hooray for April showers because we know what that brings... May flowers! I think we've seen more raindrops pouring down the window panes than beams of sunlight streaming through the curtains this month, but at last the grass had it's first proper cut of the year yesterday. The liquid sunshine has brought the garden back to life and suddenly shoots are bursting through the soil bringing colourful patches to the flower beds.

I wish I had the green fingers of the previous owners, whose hard work we get to enjoy for a second year but it's made me determined to put my stamp on a little area. The Peonies they planted years ago are coming up thick and fast, the Forget-me-nots around the patio have covered the flower bed like a blue carpet and a patch of Tulips have sprung up for the first time. But I can't take credit for those because the only Tulips I've bought are in an old bucket by the front door! The Anemone bulbs we planted last year are teasing me with just one lonely fuchsia pink flower sprouting in the rockery but I love it none the less! The Wisteria has bloomed so early this year and I reckon that by the time the boys head to secondary school the whole back of the house will be blanketed by purple in May. Just 5 years to wait...! The Sweet Peas have started to cling onto the bamboo frame and my cut flower patch is now looking a touch more up together than it did back in March. 

I've decided to keep half for vegetables and half for flowers. The boys loved picking the french beans, strawberries, carrots and raspberries last year. We even had a few potatoes and I've left the raspberry, courgette and pumpkin plants where they are and a new set of beans are in and already starting to climb. 

I've bought a few flowers which already are in bloom, which I will plant this week and my seedlings from the Cut Flower Workshop with Georgie are doing nicely. Georgie - you will be proud - I didn't let them die!

So even though the patch may not be a feast for the eyes just yet, there is so much colour in the rest of the garden. I even found a teeny tiny patch of Bluebells for the first time! Not a wood, I think there are just 12, but I was so happy! Simple pleasures right?! There's every colour of the rainbow and yesterday I snipped a posy for my desk.

For my next Rose and Grey Styling Challenge I had to dress their wire locker shelf and it was the perfect display stand for my rainbow garden indoors before it gets a permanent home on my office wall. I rummaged around for my bud vases and old bottles, used a few small bowls and I love that you don't need a big bunch of flowers to make something special. 

The Cowslip looks at home flopping over a textured ceramic bowl, and the white Cherry Blossom looks so fresh next to the Bluebells. Sometimes only one of something can bring you as much joy as a huge bunch and the single Tulip opened in front of my eyes in the warmer space inside. 

So what have I got left to do this month? I need to plant my Dahlia bulbs in pots and cover them up until they've sprouted, I will sow some seeds that now we are past the frosty weather can go straight into the ground and I need to order some autumn flowering bulbs and get them in the patch. The thing I learnt from Georgie is it's all about doing little but doing it often. Bitesize chunks. And in another week or so I will plant my tray of seedlings. 

They may only be little but they are mighty and it honestly feels fantastic to know I have managed to grow them!  

So what would be on your wishlist? Gladioli and Delphiniums are on mine!

I am definitely a person who is affected by the weather. My general state of mind is always lifted when there's even a hint of sunshine and the same goes for my home. When we moved in the house was dominated by dull yellow walls, dark wood and we have slowly worked our way around, bringing a new feel of freshness to the walls by giving them a coat of white paint whilst we decide on what colours to bring into each room.

It has transformed every single inch of wall that has been painted, making them feel like they have been brought back to life - all with a tin of white paint! But as much as I love the clean and crisp feel I am not sure a world of white is quite right for me, so I like to bring in pops of bold colour, print and pattern into a room with cushions and curtains and accessories. I tend to go a little OTT on the mis matching thing and you'll see in our guest room I have chosen striped ticking roman blinds next to floral print cushions on the window seat and smack you in the face fantastic watercolour print bedding from Bluebellgray! But when I walk in this room I feel a burst of energy and happiness.

It's like Spring has sprung indoors!

I love that each corner of the room has evolved over time, I've added to the collection of candlesticks, on the makeshift dressing table that one day will become a boy's desk, over time from charity shops and vintage sales and the heavy wood carver chair I found in a local emporium ties in with my Granny's old blanket box at the end of the bed. I filled old painted French wire basket with bits and bobs our overnight guests might have forgotten or need; a toothbrush, tissues and hotel slippers! I hope it's a home away from home for everyone who stays with us.

There's no definite interior style in this room, it's a hotpotch of everything I love. I gave the modern side tables a makeover with a tin of chalk paint and gave the creamy bed frame, which has seen better days after 3 house moves in 18 months, a new lease of life with a chalky grey finish which matched in with the peg rail above.

I have an obsession with peg rails at the moment and would have them in every room if I could. They are just so versatile and you can change the photos and prints you hang from them as the seasons change. I have this idea to hang a collection of straw hats above the bed in the summer and put little bud vases of wild flowers from the garden around the room. 

My sister stayed a couple of weekends in a row over Easter and said it was like sleeping under a cloud. The goose feather duvet is like being cocooned in cotton wool. We used the blanket box as a moses basket stand and Logan did very well on his first sleepover away from home.

Right now I have to say it doesn't quite look this pretty on account of a new boiler being installed in the airing cupboard next to the wardrobe. But who really wants to see that? When the sun streams in from the window this room comes alive. Bring on the pretty I say!

Competition time!

I have a very lovely giveaway for you from the team at Slumberdown. I can honestly say we have never been so cosy since we've been testing their range of pillows and duvets as one of their Ambassadors and they'd like to give one of you a set for your home. It's heavenly changing the bedding now with crisp white pillows underneath, good grief when we swapped ours over I realised just how horribly yellowy they looked - yuck! We've been using pillows from their Truly Washable range and with grubby boys they are perfect. No more dirty looking bedding! Scarily their research showed 45% of us have never ever washed our pillows and duvets and 66% of us would rather throw them away. I know I have sat in that camp before!

Just leave a comment here, on this Instagram photo or this Facebook picture to be in with a chance of winning a set of Truly Washable pillows and duvet in your chosen size. The competition will close on Sunday 22nd May 2016 midnight GMT. 

So if you fancy a fresh set for spring join in the competition. Good luck!

You can see our videos testing out the Truly Washable range here...

Now I am moving onto planning our bedroom which currently resembles a building site... I am thinking blush pinks and brass finishes... what would you do if you had a blank canvas?

When your 2 year old niece, your clever, adorable, impossibly charming 2 year old niece says "Oh I would love a pony party!" well, this Auntie can't help but get right on Pinterest and start planning. With Natty just having had Logan in January we set about planning Yasmin's 3rd birthday party a few months ago together and apart from the seasonal showers on Saturday, we couldn't have asked for a more lovely day.

Lovely friends, family and family in America on FaceTime, all came together for a horsey themed celebration over this weekend and made one little girl very happy. 

It's no secret I love parties and I get almost as much joy preparing, sourcing bits and bobs and decorating the house and garden as I do helping host the actual 2 hour party itself! Those hours go by so quickly and I absolutely make the most of the anticipation and excitement. A very timely visit to America earlier this month (oh you are going to be bombarded with sweet pictures of my sweet nieces this week!) also meant I brought home some pony party extras for our mini guests - who doesn't love a horse shaped rubber duck?! 

We raided my prop boxes, found an old straw bale that I knew would come in handy one day, and popped a few fake flowers that I bought from The Range in some of my old glass bottles. Yasmin is a girly girl, a walking princess and if she could live in a world of pink she would! Which is so alien to me having two boys, where life at the moment is about negotiating time to watch some chap called Stampy play Minecraft videos. No wait, not watch him, you watch his game, him playing the game with endless running commentary. Aaaaah! 

We found some baskets from her bedroom and popped some marshmallow ice creams inside, propped up a touch with some paper, laid some chocolate horses I bought from Party Delights on the hay bale and covered two faux polystyrene cakes with pink tissue paper to act as lolly stands.

My local baker from The Small Cake Shop made the fantastic horse cake pops and themed cup cakes and I picked up 2 old Observer Guide books in my local Oxfam book shop which made perfect cake stands.

I know it may seem strange, but I always use the birthday cake as the centre piece to the dessert table. I think it's a shame to hide it away, especially as it's often one of the show stopping moments of a party, only to whizz it out for a resounding chorus of Happy Birthday and hip hip hoorays and then rush it away to be cut up. My boys love seeing their cakes and get so much extra pleasure from being able to enjoy them for the whole party and Yasmin is just the same. None of us are huge cake fans so we actually cheated a little this year and bought a basic iced sponge from the supermarket but dressed it up to the max!

I sprayed a letter three cake topper I had in my party box at home silver and sprinkled it as it was drying with glitter, used some of the fabric flowers and popped it on a painted polystyrene cake. The Talking Tables cake topper and party picks set looked wonderful and from a distance you'd have thought it was this spectacular two tiered creation. Super simple but effective is our motto!

We wanted to keep the games simple and fun as most of the mini guests were around 3 years old. So horsey rubber ducks plopped into my old tin bath became Hook-a-Horse and the children took it in turns when they fancied a go to wander over and see how many they could catch in their nets.

My sister and brother in law had painted some pound shop miniature fence panels white and taped around lengths of white plumbing tubes to create a row of garden jumps and all the children lined up and took it in turns to cross the finish line with cheers from the crowd. 

I spied these amazing jockey dressing up outfits, a fabric horse built into a waistband at the Country Living Show on the My Horse stand. They couldn't have been more perfect and they have a new home in the dressing up box. 

Just before all her guests of the human kind arrived we had a surprise for the birthday girl. Well for everyone really. We had hired a real miniature horse called Nutkin from The Cuddly Pony Party who happened to be very local and in fact had met my brother in law many times when they were teenagers!

It is an amazing party experience. Nutkin is incredibly docile, loves being centre of attention and is a dab hand at children' parties.

She was so friendly, posed for pictures and munched on their grass as the children groomed and then painted her and gave her pretty hair dos with bows and clips! The children got to hear all about how she likes to be brushed, what she eats and gave her lots of cuddles.

It's so clever really, all the little brushes must be like a mini massage. I chatted with Izzy about the paints and whether she's ever experienced any negative comments, which she told me she had on social media, mostly from people who haven't read about the parties properly. All the paints she uses are child and horse friendly, wash off straight away and Nutkin barely gave a second glance. She happily munched on her hay bale, had a few half carrots fed to her by the children and you could have thought you'd just spent an hour and a half with a big stuffed toy! So placid and calm around the children who were all so loving and nurturing towards her.

It's lovely that Izzy is so proud of her and after she handed out beautiful traditional equestrian rosettes to everyone, we waved her goodbye and she headed off for a good shower.

We had braved the great British April weather for as long as we could and then we all came in and played some games and the children ate their Pony party teas in their snack boxes in the warm. Andrew's mum made some delicious fillipine dishes as well as the beautiful floral horseshoes and all the grown ups dived into a huge bowl of chow mein and a drink from the bar. They made rosettes out of foam sparkly templates and lots of stickers we bought in Hobbycraft, drew a little picture or message on the fabric horse as a keepsake for Yazzy's room after her birthday and a game of pass the parcel took us almost to 4pm, with just enough time to sing to the birthday girl and then wave everyone goodbye.

We all headed back into the garden as the last guests headed home and the sun came out in spectacular style! It was like a brilliant summer's evening and we had a mammoth bouncing session on the trampoline followed by apple bobbing!

Sammy is a dunk your head right in, strip off after two goes and get soaked from head to toe kind of player where as Ollie and Yazzy delicately picked their apples up, pretty much on the first try, by biting the stork!

Darling girl it's such a pleasure to spoil you. Yasmin appreciates all the fuss, all the little things that might go unnoticed. She walked out to the sweet buffet and gasped with her hands to her mouth and said "Oh Auntie it's all so pretty! I like da cakes, I like all da cakes!"

My sister plays a rolling gallery of photos on their tv screen and my niece is a girl who is constantly reminded of all the lovely times she's had in her little life. Each one sparks a memory or a story that she's been told and remembers and I know we will all be going over her happy party for years to come.

I'll miss my sleepover buddy tonight, for the last three nights I've slept in her room on a pull out bed and she has loved waking up together! Almost in disbelief that I actually did what I promised. That when she opened her eyes I was really there on the floor! This morning when she woke up she scooted in for a cuddle, and sang at the top of her voice, happy birthday to herself! 

This time is so short really, when parties are the highlight of the year, I know the time is coming for my big boy, in Year 2 there's more group trips to the cinema and individual sleepovers so I am going to treasure being able to help my sister. 

We have had a glorious 3 days together, finishing with a princess breakfast this morning and Natty and I completely surprised her by dressing up in two of my old ball and bridesmaids dresses. We wore crowns, ate pancakes covered with sprinkles and blasted out the soundtrack to all the Disney films. At one point Natty and I started twirling and dancing and she couldn't get down quick enough to join us. I leaned over to my sister as we ruffled our skirts and whispered, this is what childhood memories are made of and we smiled to each other. It makes me ache thinking it's a good while until we see each other next for Sammy's birthday at the end of May. Thank goodness for FaceTime! 

A big thank you to Talking Tables who kindly sent us all the lovely Pony Party theme table ware and decorations. It's safe to say her pony party dreams came true.

Now I wonder she will love next year?!