Katie

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Christmas With Hever Castle

It’s become a bit of a family tradition to start off our festivities at Hever Castle. This year was our third visit and it’s just as special as the first.  Hever Castle is just gorgeous on it’s own, but when it’s filled with lights & Christmas it is even more incredible! We arrived just as it was getting dark so the tree lined walk down towards the lake felt like a real winter wonderland.  The lake joined in this year too, with a huge light…

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My Gallery Wall With Desenio

We’ve been in our new home for a good 4 months now, so we’re feeling really settled and more like we actually live here, rather than ‘borrowing’ someone else’s house. Now it’a all about putting some personality into each room, especially on the walls, it’s really important to me that the house has character and feels like it belongs us. 

The walls are all gorgeous, bright white which I love, despite moving from a house where I wanted to paint every wall a dark colour. I think, because this house is so full of light, it suits the white, pared back look. It’s a complete contrast but one that we all love. Plus, we can change the character of the room just by changing the furnishings and details, a lot cheaper (and easier) than painting the walls every time we fancy a new look!

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

I love art, and a gallery wall has always been on my room checklist. We had a small one in the old house, but we have a separate dining room now, which felt a little bare compared to the living room, so I really wanted to fill an entire wall with images that suited us as a family. 

Desenio very kindly sent me a voucher to use so I could design our gallery wall from scratch. 

I knew I wanted black frames, I love how they pop against the white wall, and there had to be at least one large framed print as the central image, but apart from that, I was fairly open minded about what images we’d use. Desenio is amazing for inspiration, maybe even a little too amazing! It took me hours to decide. 

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

The best part for me, was being able to design how the gallery wall would look, with several layouts to choose from, and giving you the chance to add prints you liked, to see if they worked well.

I managed, in the end to whittle it down from the thousands Desenio have available and I chose a LOVE typography print as the largest image, because that’s what family is about. Obviously there had to be a quote in there, I didn’t want too much text as it would have been a lot of black and white on white walls, but the one that stood out to me the most was the Change your thoughts one. PMA baby!

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

I added a leaf print with gorgeous greens and pinks, the most beautiful Frida Kahlo one which I am obsessed with and, of course, there had to be a moon imagine in there. La Lune. I also added a New York print for the hallway and a tiny “Stay Weird” postcard sized print in bright pink for the living room.

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

Because you must always let your weird flag fly!

The finished result looks amazing and they fill the blank wall perfectly, it’s changed the whole feel of the dining room now, just 5 framed prints and the entire room feels complete and more us.

My Gallery Wall With Desenio

CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS // LA LUNE // PALM PRINT // LOVE 

FRIDA // STAY WEIRD // NEW YORK

What do you think? I have already been eyeing up some prints for the bedrooms! 

The code “LIFEDAILY” gives 25% off posters* on all of our sites between November 27th and 29th.
(Except for frames and handpicked-/collaboration posters)

 

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Three Ideas For An Italian Mini Break

Italy is a great option for getting out of the country, even if it just for a short break such as a 3 day weekend. The food is wonderful, the people are friendly, and the climate is all around comfortable. It draws millions of visitors, all in the pursuit of “La Dolce Vita”.

For your next Italian mini break, here are three ideas of where to go:

Sicily

Sicily is not just any island. It has beautiful beaches, a volcano, Greek temples and other UNESCO World Heritage sites. The food is incredible, the people are friendly and it is a wonderful place to spend a holiday. Getting there is not difficult, as there are two main international airports and budget airlines such as Ryan Air fly there. To make your trip that much more special, you can check out the luxury villas in Sicily for rent on websites like Wishsicily that list all of the ones available. At a villa, you will have the privacy and space that helps shift to holiday mode and surprisingly, they can actually save you money from their base price as well as the money you can save just by having a meal or some snacks made in your own kitchen.

Three Ideas For An Italian Mini Break

Umbria

Umbria is a special region in the heart of Italy. It is often overlooked as it is so close to Tuscany, but it is a place that will keep you wanting to come back. It is green with gorgeous countryside and historic cities such as Perugia, Assisi and smaller villages scattered throughout the region. You can happily spend 3 days in Umbria eating and drinking your way through the region, visiting the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi and stopping off in whichever village appeals to you.

Veneto

The most famous part of the region of Veneto is understandably the city of Venice. With the canals, colorful homes and Piazza San Marco, Venice is a magical city that is unlike any other place in the world. If you have already been or want to avoid heavy tourism during your mini break, there are plenty of other cities and sites to see in the region as well. For example, you could spend one day popping over to visit the islands of Murano and Burano. For another day and with just a quick train-ride from Venice, you can visit the charming and well-kept city of Verona.

These are only three of the many options that Italy has to offer for a mini break. If you want a trip to the mountains, the Dolomites are gorgeous to visit. If you want pure seaside, there is always the Amalfi Coast (that is especially convenient to get to from Rome and Naples). If you prefer lakes, Lake Garda and Lake Como are beautiful. One of my favourite parts about Italy is that the landscapes, cuisines and even cultures shift as you go from region to region. So whatever you may dream up for your holiday, there is a good chance that Italy offers it, plus the special characteristics that make it a destination in Italy.

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What's Your List Like?

Thank F**k it’s Friday. 

That’s all I can say. It’s been a long week! Anyone else feel like last Friday was at least 2 weeks ago? Just me? 

My weeks tend to run to the same familiar pattern. 

Monday: Day Off (ha! oh how we laugh at this term) 

Tues//Wed//Thurs: Kids, work, kids, dinner, kids, sofa. 

Friday: Day off to plan all of the relaxing things we’re going to be doing at the weekend.

Like clearing the garden of a gazillion leaves, serious question, do they actually mulsh (that’s a word right?) down into nothing and magically feed the grass or do we have to pick them all up? There are a LOT of leaves. Clean the car. Go to football. And squash. Take the teenager to a shopping centre. Food shop. Dog walks. Washing that doesn’t get done during the week because the days zoom by and before you know it the basket is overflowing and no one has clean socks. 

Except me, I don’t wear socks. 

See. Re-lax-ing. 

We might even throw a little bit of DIY in there somewhere, there are always things to do, in the garden, especially, I’m led to believe, in the lead up to winter. Apparently you should be ticking things off your list like clearing the gutters, finding companies like Drainage Services UK and all sorts. 

I’m not really that kind of DIY’er though. I’m more than happy to leave that to T and I’ll concentrate on things like where to put the Christmas tree, what colour tinsel (I hate tinsel but I have a plan) will go round the banisters and how many fairy lights do you need for outside. These are the kind of projects I’m down for. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love a list. I really do. But wouldn’t it be nice if that list was more of a “get hair & nails done” and less of “we need to order another recycling bin”. 

But we really do need another recycling bin…..

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I've Never Met A Leopard Print I didn't Like....

Actually, that’s a lie. I have met a leopard print which I absolutely hated, it was a weird colour combination which had way too much dark brown going on, but that’s beside the point. 

It’s basically a neutral. 

I can’t tell you exactly when I became ‘a bit mad about leopard print’ as my 9 year old tells me. I know it’s come on with age, and roughly around the same time I started mix matching my interiors and making things clash. 

My quarter life crisis (yes, that’s a thing) clearly has pattern, texture and colour as it’s thing. And I’m more than happy to accommodate that. 

I have a uniform, for work and for days off. It almost always involves skinny jeans, a v neck top of some kind and either trainers, boots or sandals. Throw on a oversized coat in winter (still lusting after the coat of dreams from M&S) or a camo shacket in spring and I am good.to.go. 

I’ve tried switching it up but it just doesn’t feel comfortable, and when you’re almost 6ft tall with red hair, you stand out anyway, regardless of what you’re wearing. The last thing you want it to be completely uncomfortable about what you’re wearing and fiddling with clothing. 

Plain clothes maybe, but always good accessories. I love shoes, leopard print shoes especially (hence the title of this post, uh huh, ya get me?) My battered old faithful Stan Smiths have a little touch of leopard print on the back. My converse are furry leopard print. And don’t even get me started on my bargain £12 leopard print boots from Primarni. 

Winner winner chicken dinner. 

I am obsessed. Some people like to have blow dried hair, or matching undies to feel like they’re nailing life. I like to have a little bit of print on me. Just somewhere. It’s not so much my security blanket, just it makes me feel more ‘me’ – even when I’m pretending to be a grown up. 

I always like to have a little scroll through shopping sites while I’m waiting for one child or another to finish their social lives, so, in the interest of keeping leopard print alive, here are a few of my favourites at the moment. You’re welcome. 

I've Never Met A Leopard Print I didn't Like.... 1. Office Aruba Leopard Print Boots // 2. Aldo Mules // 3. Aldo Mules // 4. Aldo Mules // 5. Aldo Mules // 6. Aldo Mules

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