The renovations continue here, with dust sheets, paint brushes and the smell of plaster filling the air!

We are desperately trying to get our living room finished for Christmas, we have new sofas arriving on the 20th, a new stove has been fitted, we just need fresh walls and the floor sanded to get the room ready for Father Christmas to pop down the chimney.

I love seeing the house coming together, finding new homes for our old furniture and pictures, and buying some new bits. All the windows need new curtains and as we live in the middle of the countryside, I have been mostly been buying online. So when The Natural Curtain Company got in touch, I was thrilled to collaborate with them.

They have an extensive ready made range as well as a comprehensive selection of fabrics for their made to measure range. We have been searching and searching for a grey fabric colour way that wouldn't seem flat. We have been trying to find a print or pattern that was subtle enough to provide the neutral backdrop for the pink, turquoise and grey theme we are creating for the room, but with a texture to add interest.

The Baltic range stood out straight away and I was so pleased when they arrived, having not seen them in the flesh. Beautifully lined, with a canvas type cotton fabric, which hang with weight for a more expensive look and feel.

We've been waiting to put up our decorations until the room was finished, but the boys have begged us to have a tree! Everyone seems to have made their homes beautifully festive much earlier this year and yesterday we decided that a dusty tree was better than no tree at all! Our woofers find real trees far too inviting, so we have 2 lovely artificial trees that we have loved for years. 

We are spending most of our time in the family/dining room at the moment, whilst the work is done, so we decided to search in the garage and the loft for all our lovely baubles and decorations, that have been stored away since we moved. 

I made a time-lapse video using the Instagram Hyperlapse app to show you a little of how we are decorating our house for Christmas. The first of 2 trees.. 

Of course I adore all the decorations the boys have made over the years, but I also can't help but love a coordinated tree. So I think our solution is perfect! A tree for daytime and a tree for night time, to enjoy when they are in bed! (You'll have to watch the video to get what I mean!)

I am most definitely feeling festive now. And I have a whole box of giant gold bows to find homes for! I am so tempted to wrap the windows like big presents...

Now don't forget, if you are searching for new curtains, you need to order by the 20th December for guaranteed Christmas delivery. Happy shopping!

In collaboration with The Natural Curtain Company

I love Christmas. I love our family traditions, no presents from under the tree until after the Queen's speech, standing to sing the National Anthem, taking it in turns to perform a party piece and eating Vienetta for dessert. Mint of course.

I just don't enjoy Christmas Pudding! So instead I have made these cake tails as an alternative!

Now you could add a splash of mulled wine, for a deeper, richer flavour, but I wanted to keep this a little lighter.

Ingredients:

• I shot of brandy
• Half a glass of cider
• Top up with ginger beer
• Handful of festive spices from a mulled wine sachet
• Skewered fresh cranberries and a vanilla pod to stir

Add all your ingredients and mix with a cinnamon stick!

My sister and brother in law are coming to stay on Christmas Eve and we will definitely be trying out a new tradition, Christmas Cocktails!

I am so excited to host our first Christmas in our new house. I have started unpacking our decorations and finding new homes for them. Now we just need the lounge decorated and find a new home for our tree!

With life being so manic and hectic since we moved in September, I feel like my creative side has been a little stifled.

Faffing and fiddling with crafty bits and pieces has had to come second to work and getting the boys to school and pre school on time. For those with rising 4's, it's tough. You still haven't cracked it by Year 1. It's every day!

So I jumped at the chance to be part of this creative project with InPost and some of my favourite bloggers.

A chance to have complete freedom to craft a square of a quilt (Cue frantic searching of the garage for my sewing machine and then frantic searches for a replacement, amongst our new neighbours, on account of my pedal being in another box somewhere!) and to be part of a collective project.

Now, those of you who follow this blog will know my crafting skills do not extend to knitting or crocheting or really anything that involves a sewing machine. So staying true to me and my blog, I found photo fabric paper!!!

This paper is amazing! You can print anything you like onto washable fabric paper and just peel and stick! So I chose my most favourite photo, the one that I use for my blog business cards from a floristry shoot I was lucky enough to snap last year, and off I went.

To make a square take two pieces of material, cut to size, I used the previous squares as my guide, and sewed them together with a basic running stitch. I cut out my fabric photo print and stuck it to the fabric.

Simple! But I may have roped my mother in. A blogger's assistant extraordinaire! 

I felt a photo fabric print was perfectly fitting for my square and I was in awe of the other efforts. A sweet embroidered letter in it's own fabric envelope, a hand stitched nursery rhyme. So much talent in a little square.

I sent my leg of the #crafttheparcel onto Emma who blogs at My Little Three and Me. I used the InPost service, have you spotted their vans and lockers?

You know when you are pregnant and all you see are pregnant women? Well since I started this project all I spot are InPost vans! 

I am forever frustrated at the local Post Office being closed after midday and parcels end up being sent back, on account of my inability to manage full time working and parcel collections.

But InPost is different. You can have your parcel collected (Great news for those of us in the sticks!) and dropped off to a locker near your recipient. The collection process takes seconds. A touch screen takes you through the collection procedure and hey presto! A magic door opens to reveal your prize!

Ok, I may have got a little carried away and felt like Christmas had come early, oohing and awing over the locker door that magically opened! It took 68 seconds to collect my parcel on account of all the wonder!

So now I know, I can either send a parcel whilst browsing through the wonderful streets of Frome at the local Texaco, or I can send it from home to a locker. Brilliant! Snail mail just got a whole lot slicker!

This post was in collaboration with a creative project with InPost