A Christmas Cuppa

My view as a I type away on this festive morning

Morning.

I'm currently on the sofa, surrounded by Christmas decorations, watching one of those new Christmas movies that's popped up on Netflix, featuring an American journalist and a European Prince (you've seen it, I know you have), with a cup of tea at my side.

Style | Winter co-ords

SKIRT | TOP (BOTH COS)

Winter for me invariably means wearing several layers. Tights, thick socks, skirt, vest, top and jumper with a scarf, coat, hat and gloves piled on top. None matching. My idea of an ideal outfit is no more than three colours, including lipstick, so wearing 10+ items of clothing makes this very difficult indeed. Thankfully, the fashion world has suggested an alternative: the winter co-ord. The perfect grown-up answer to keeping cosy this winter.

Usually knitted, in a winter-friendly palette and keeping minimalism key, these are what I'm hankering after for this season. Ironically, this past fortnight I've invested in a full-length leopard print skirt and a mighty haul from the Morris & Co x H&M collection, so I've in no way followed my own suggestions here. Maybe next month.

Travel Diaries | Le Cinque Terre

And so to the final leg of our Italy journey: Le Cinque Terre.

Like so many other people, I'm sure, I had seen photos online of the beautiful, colourful houses clinging to the cliffs and didn't think twice about adding it to our itinerary. Getting there couldn't be easier, it's just a one hour train journey north from Pisa to La Spezia, and then a quick 5 minute hop on the Cinque Terre Express to Riomaggiore.

Catch up on the rest of our trip in Pisa and Florence Part 1 & Part 2

Travel Diaries | Florence part 2

Picking up where we left off, day three in Florence was another painfully early alarm ready to head to the Uffizi before the crowds hit. By this point I was already done with medieval paintings of Mary and Jesus so I whipped through the first few galleries and headed to the Botticelli.

Travel Diaries | Florence part 1

After a busy day in Pisa, we took the train to Florence. The journey, which only cost a few pounds, is a one hour hop on one of Italy's lovely modern trains. Florence's train station is right in the centre and was, thankfully, only a ten minute walk from our AirBnB.

Guest Room Renovation

Mockup of the final design

As always happens, we had no plans or intentions to redecorate our guest room. Then friends told us they were coming to visit and I was suddenly spurred on. 

When we first moved into the house, I wanted to do the room in a rich emerald green. This then morphed into light, dusty pink. And finally, after months of pondering, I realised it was a combination of the two that I wanted, and so we settled upon pink and green.

Travel Diaries | Pisa

Earlier this year (a lot earlier this year - May, in fact) we took a trip to Italy. We'd talked of going to Italy for years but it always seemed too expensive, then last September some bargain-price flights came up to Pisa so we booked it on a whim and started to plan. Turns out, it was really expensive. But it was also the best trip we've ever had so I'd say it was worth it.

International Women's Day | What is a strong woman?

In honour of International Women's Day I was going to talk about being a 'strong woman', but as I spent time thinking about it I couldn't actually define what a 'strong woman' is.

Hair | Curly Routine

The question I get asked most often is 'is your hair natural?' The easy answer is 'yes, yes it is'. The long, complicated answer is 'yes the curls are natural but it takes hours of care and a lot of expense to make the curls look at least vaguely presentable.
I could probably write an entire book just on my hair but I'll try and keep this intro short for now and tell you how I manage my curly hair day-to-day.

Summer Style | Handbags

If there's one thing I'm terrible at buying, it's handbags. Don't get me wrong, I love bags. I have a flourishing handbag Pinterest board. I just never remember to actually buy them - or I fall in love with bags that would take me months to pay for. 

I use the same backpack every day for work, I have three shoulder bags - one in black, two brown - and three clutches - navy, brown and black. And some old, unloved others languishing in a drawer under my bed. My 'holiday bag' is a tattered, mint green backpack from ASOS that my mother bought me as a gift when I was still at University and I still use it every day on holiday, despite the fact that from day one the string-opening on it has been a nightmare to get in and out of and it now flakes bits of green all of the place. Really not what you want when you're hot, sweaty and trying to look chic.

2018 Reading list | Part 2

2018 is the year of 'reading books that have been on my shelf for ages that I really should read'.
Here's Part 2 of my reading list.
Read Part 1

2018 Reading list | Part 1

Anyone who spends more than an hour in my company will very quickly realise that books are my lifeblood. I try to spend around two hours a day reading but with a busy job and a house to renovate that doesn't always happen. I usually read about two books a month so this is only a few of the books I'll read this year, but they're the ones I'm most excited to get stuck in to.

Summer shoes | Minimalist flats

As soon as summer comes around, shoe-wise I'll be living in my Birkenstocks. I walk to work, and work across several buildings, so I usually walk several miles a day, rain or shine. Living in a city means I also tend to walk everywhere on the weekends. So I need shoes that are going to stand up to the task and, much to my own frustration, I have 0 tolerance for uncomfortable shoes, including heels of all kinds.

Living room renovation | before and after

The first room we've renovated in our house is the living room. We moved in December 2016 and in the first year here we spent a lot of time and money tidying the garden, which looked to have been neglected for a very long time, and paying lots of money to fix things like holes in the roof and dangerous wiring upstairs.

The living room is north-facing and doesn't get much natural light at all. I spent a lot of time researching colours for north facing rooms and came to the very quick conclusion that we should paint this room as dark as possible, floor-to-ceiling. Thankfully, Kate Watson-Smyth of Mad About the House posts lots of photos of her beautiful dark living room so after tactfully sending these to my dear other half over the course of a few months he agreed to come over to the Dark Side and paint the room in Farrow & Ball's delicious Down Pipe. The room doesn't feel any darker than it ever did before, just cosier. The walls go from teal, to blue, to grey, to black all in one day as the light moves around the room.

before