You'd think it would be the easiest thing, to capture a photo of your family. But after 2 years of jointly hosting the Me and Mine Project I can tell you it's not always as easy as our posts must make it look!
I realised, as I sat in the sea of torn wrapping paper on Christmas morning, that I'd barely taken any photos! That the moment ran away with us and actually that was ok.
We took the annual video of the children whispering "Has he been?" as they tip toed down the stairs to the front door to check that the carrots had been eaten, we got one photo of them and their stockings, one of each of us with our precious present and one of everyone around the Christmas table.
One is enough. One to print, one to put in an album, one to compare to last year. You just need to take one. Oh and a couple of the table of course ;)
To be able to see our growing boys, how we are changing and how our little unit matures each month is a special thing. And the effort that we sometimes have to go to, to just get one photo of the four of us is so worth it. All the bribery for chocolate or sweets when we've finished, the heated exchanges between Rich and I when he wasn't quite capturing my (umm double) chin as flattering as he could.
All totally worth it, because look what I got for Christmas...
Volume 1 of all our Me and Mine photos since the project started in January 2013. Note that he made it Volume 1, which means despite all the rolling of the eyes when I wave the tripod in front of him on the 29th of each month, he's not planning for us to stop taking our Me and Mine photos anytime soon.
Big things have happened over the last 2 years, people have come into our lives, we lost very special people and we have started a new life in the country.
Almost all of my most precious photos of the four of us are in this book, and that's down to this amazing group of bloggers who share a passion for capturing our family, just as we are, at that moment in time.
Christmas is a time for family, for your nearest and dearest, for bestest friends, for merriment and for reflection. I look at Ollie in the Me and Mine post from last year and wonder at what point this year he stopped being my baby.
Christmas Day at our new house was just as I hoped for. Relaxed, a few new traditions, a good few old ones, sparkly dresses, new Christmas shirts and happiness. 3 generations together and two families. Next year my brother and sister in law are hoping to fly over from America which means my lovely Mummy can have her family photo too.
Boxing Day was a pie filled affair with my in laws joining us and we spent the next day having a rather idyllic time with the boys. Card games at the table, a leftover feast, walk in the countryside and then a time on the sofa snuggling watching Frozen. Perfect.
I hope you had the merriest of Christmases and have a happy new year's eve tonight.
I'll be having a party at home with my boys. Lush.
Now join in and share your family photo from December. It's been another wonderful year for us hosts, seeing everyone's families grow. Pop over to Lucy, Katie, Becky and Lauren's blogs and see the magic that was in their Decembers.
And be sure to check out the first Me and Mine 2015 post in January for a few changes to the hosting team...
I grew up in a happy home. I remember noisy Christmas' with my cousins, Summer holidays at my grandparents flat in Southbourne and endless games of forty forty in our garden. My brother and sister and I made tents, put on shows and trailed our duvets down the stairs on Sunday mornings to watch a variety of films like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Slipper and the Rose and The Goonies.
And we may not have noticed but the house was made a home. With furniture and paintings and a wall of certificates of our childhood achievements. I remember the pine kitchen table and chairs, with a big Papa bear chair at one end and the red wood pieces in the lounge, which made it feel more special than the family play room.
And that's what I want to create for my boys. A house bursting with things, really quite simple things like cushions and pictures, that make you feel happy.
We love colour. A neutral backdrop and a sea of vibrant accessories to catch your eye.
I've been searching the internet, writing down little interiors shops I stumble across, for places that understand and share my love of all things happy.
And then I found bluebellgray, and they found me.
Beautiful floral patterns, dynamic watercolour prints, I fell in love. I bought one of their peony print cushions and saved it for he moment when we had a dust free living room and dog dirt free sofas. And it felt like a very special moment, placing that treasured cushion on the plump new sofa seat!
So can you imagine how giddy I am to bring you these wonderful pieces from bluebellgray?!
Fi Douglas and her team have developed a product line that makes me squeal with delight. Textures, prints, textiles I want to fill our home with, managing to combine delicate with reliability.
Richard shares my love of individual, mis matched painted crockery, but often despairs that none of them can go in the dishwasher! So he was thrilled when we had a holiday brunch that everything can be washed by mechanical hands.
Sammy talks about my "precious things" he even commented that a friend started jumping on my special cushion! And both of my boys notice what I do. They say, un-promted, that the table looks lovely, that the food is yummy, and it absolutely makes a difference how you serve things! Pretty plates make dishes seem a little tastier. They make ordinary food (And pre made dough ssh don't tell!) seem a little more extraordinary.
It's a skill to create a line that can go straight from a breakfast table to a celebration dinner. Rims that don't feel as though they are going to chip if you stack them in a cupboard, but evoke a garden party, Summer atmosphere.
The milk jug has been filled with milk, cream and tulips over Christmas and the bowls have been overflowing with popcorn, salad and oranges!
Versatile, yet feminine. And it has this ability to make you want to complete a set.
So I have a special treat for you today! Fi and the team at bluebellgray would like to offer a lucky reader one of their stunning watercolour tea trays. I have the same one on our living room table filled with candles and flowers and it's fast becoming my favourite photo prop!
All you have to do to win it is leave a comment on the blog or on this Instagram photo!
Now go and have a peek at their beautiful bedding collections, prints and rugs. Oh the rugs. Be still my floral, colour loving heart.
I feel so proud to feature one of Great Britain's most talented designers. Scotland is very lucky to have bluebellgray. And so are we :)
The competition will close at midnight on Sunday 4th January and a winner will be drawn at random and notified on Monday 5th January. Good luck!
In collaboration with
Christmas this year felt like a sprint to the finish, which should have been a marathon. We really wanted to be at home for our first Christmas in the new house, and invited our family and lots of friends, who are yet to visit before the holiday period is over, to come and stay. It's felt like we have spent almost every spare second making the house feel like home.
A happy home.
When we first viewed the house, we didn't actually go inside. I knew as I tip toed past the front gate, that we were going to live here. The lovely lady who owned the house saw me snapping a couple of photos and popped her head out. 16 hours later, 2 hurried house tours and a frantic set of phone calls to the estate agent, and we knew we had found the forever house we had been searching for.
It feels like a good house. It has good sturdy walls, window ledges that are begging to be filled with the photos that are buried in a box in the garage somewhere, it feels like a grown up house. A house that has been standing for 300 years and will still be standing in another 300 years. But I didn't want it to feel as though we were playing house, if that makes any sense?! I wanted Christmas at Charters to feel like everyone was coming home.
To be looked after, to make some new memories. To want to come back again next year!
We have been working hard to get our living room finished, a space for Rich and I to sit in and read, watch an episode of our favourite series, and entertain. No toys, nice sofas for sitting on, not jumping on! That goes for boys and dogs!
So when Farrow & Ball got in touch, I was thrilled to feature them and their beautiful range of paints. I adore their colours, their ability to develop exquisite finishes and depth to colours that can often feel flat. We knew we wanted a grey palette for the room, and Farrow & Ball's grey colour choices are inexplicably not cold. They give out warmth even though they are traditionally cool tones.
I loved the chalky grey of the Blackened paint. I knew it would work well with the pinks in the accessories around the room and the undercoat was like painting with milk. Creamy, smooth and helped to hide the lumps and bumps in our very old walls.
The room is quite a big square with windows and a door on all 4 sides and a wonderful inglenook fireplace with the original bread oven. A traditional drawing room which we wanted to respect, but also have a contemporary feel.
Under the carpet was the original herringbone oak flooring which had been carefully preserved for over 50 years! We love having hard floors downstairs because of the 2 sets of mucky paws that run around the ground floor and the next job is to polish and seal the wood and fit coconut matting to the french doors. We are also going to order the same striped curtains that frame the doors for the window seats to the back garden but have chosen to have grey linen roman blinds at the front windows.
The colour changes with the light during the day, starting off with a more blue tone and then ending the day when the sun is low in the sky and streaming through the windows with a creamier tone. We used 2 coats on each wall and still have almost a whole tin left, which I have saved for a few other projects around the house.
Now I get to add all the little pretty bits, and when the cards and decorations come down next week, I can start adding our lovely accessories that have been stored away for over a year. A vintage window frame mirror, all our family photos (Which may need a little updating now!) and trinkets.
Farrow & Ball paints are distinctive and well respected. They set the tone of a room, they make it feel slightly more special because you know it's a Farrow & Ball colour. They have a great set of advice guides online for preparing your rooms, which undercoats to use to get the best finish possible and you can order a FREE colour card of their 132 colour options here.
The room looks so different now, I'd love the previous owners to come back one day and hopefully love the love we are pouring into the house.
Their paint has brought my vision to life. The soft chalky grey hints of the Blackened colour is the perfect backdrop to the wool mix sofas and I now need to choose a complementary colour to paint the very old dark wood furniture that has been unloved after 3 house moves in 1 year!
What do you think? Go for a neutral or go for a colour, like my beloved Edwardian sideboard which sits against the back wall to the hallway?!
In collaboration with Farrow & Ball
