In keeping with my romantic theme on the blog this week, I want to share my obsession with glass bell jars! I have lusted after them in fancy magazines and bookmarked different websites.

Thank goodness for TKMaxx! £16.99 and all my dreams have come true!

I spied one without a base for £7.99 but this one had me at the top knot.

I cut some roses from the bush in the front garden and used 4 of my bud vases (Cox and Cox) from the pigeon hole shelves in the lounge. The hole at the top allows the flowers to breathe and it make an exquisite and curious display.

I would have one in every room if I could! I am now on the hunt for a chicken wire version but can only find them on US sites!

Cox and Cox have a lovely one and there is a fab selection on Not on the High Street.

My favourite are the Boho Mini Glass Cloches which I would use to store ribbons as the handy hole would make them easy accessible!

Maison du Monde (I lust after everything on this French site which my architect's desk came from) have a footed version which I adore!

My current crush with The Wright Stuff - bell jars! Follow my Pinterest board for more ideas on how you can decorate with bell jars.

Quite a while ago we swapped over the dining room and the playroom. On the basis that we do very little formal entertaining as the kitchen is such a sociable room. So it seemed crazy to keep the larger room for the rare occasional use and keep the toys crammed into the tiniest room downstairs. The boys play all the time in the playroom and I am very grateful to have a room I can shut the door on all the toys at the end of the day (although there still seems to be toys and books everywhere).

The dining room had become a bit of a dumping ground/dog den. It's where the dogs sleep at night as they like to be confined into  cosy space over night and the table was a great place to store bits to go up in the loft, rain covers for the pushchair, you name it - any bit of junk was on it!

We realised one of the problems and the reason we didn't use the room very often was because quite simply we didn't like it very much!

It is small and our large furniture was overwhelming. The sideboard was a museum to our wedding gifts, some of which haven't seen the light of day since the John Lewis delivery 7 years ago.

We decided out with the old and in with the well, old!

I saw a lovely painted table on eBay and a painted sideboard in a friend's shop, Simply Gorgeous!

My sister is having the table and we managed to sell the old sideboard for 75% of what we paid for it 8 years ago - not bad going! The new sideboard only set us back £20 on top. I won the table as the only bidder for £99, which for a solid wood table that seats 6 is a great buy.

We have a renewed love for a tired little room and I just need to sort out some curtains which match our old mirror. Orange and grey may seem a strange combination but I love it!

My husband has convinced me to be brave and put our leather chairs up for sale and go for Eames replicas! Brave or stupid, what do you think?

One of my closest friends shares my passion and admiration for Anthea Turner. She once showed me how to fold a child's swimming towel and I was so impressed! All down to the lovely Ms Turner. You may laugh but I recently rediscovered my stack of her 'How to' and 'Perfect' books and almost every page has something I want to share!

She is a neat freak, there is no doubt about it and there is no way I will ever achieve weekly washing of the dogs beds and daily wiping of the kitchen bin lid, but there are loads of hints and suggestions that made me reach for the notepad.

Tip 1

How to clean up broken glass

Have you ever thought that a slice of Hovis would be the magic wand!

That's right - once you have cleared up as much of the glass as you can with a dustpan and brush reach for the bread bin and grab a slice and use it as a mop.

It's texture and sponge like quality will pick up all those tiny shards that are almost impossible to see but are guaranteed to spike your little ones or little paws.

Genius!