spring greens

Fresh bright greens.  Immediately appealing for this time of year.  New shoots.  New beginnings.

I've been adding more plants around our home.  From a huge Fiddle Leaf Ficcus, to cut branches with green leaves, cacti and succulents and ferms in my terrariums. Opening blinds to let in as much light as possible and feeling spring in the air.

My favorite daytime item of clothing has become these Gap cargo jogger pants. 

Super comfortable and  I love the narrow ankle. 

Teamed with my favoroite vintage style Nikes…

Hope your Monday has a Spring feel to it.

beach house dreams

(all images via Pinterest)

My Huzz grew up living at the coast in the UK and spent years hanging out at the beach.  From weekend jobs as a teenager setting out rows of the great British deck chair, to jumping in the ocean in the midst of winter!  We both love beaches, oceans, fresh air, walking and having fun at the beach.  As soon as we mention going to the coast for a day trip, whether it's on a chilly winter day, or a basking in the sunshine kind of day, our family springs into action and loads up the car pronto!

It's our dream to one day live with a stone's throw of the ocean.  Morning walks along the beach with our dog.  Coffee in hand. Wrapped up against the elements, or basking in some early sunshine.  Watching the weather come inland from far out at sea, whether it be storms or showers, sunrises or sunsets.  Kids skim boarding, climbing the sand dunes, picnics, sunbathing, building sandcastles or digging enormous holes.

When I'm browsing on Pinterest (which is far more often than I like to admit), I'm always on the look out for for beach house inspiration. And I can often be found scouring property websites to get an idea of what's out there.  Putting together ideas and plans for the future dream beach house that will hopefully one day become reality.

Here's some of my inspiration…

Weathered wood and a big deck.

Neutrals, benches and a fabulous ocean view.

An outside shower.

White, creams and wood.

A fresh kitchen, with big windows and a little spash of color (love this blue/grey stove).

Adirondack style chairs and sheep skins to keep cosy.

Blue white and crispy clean.



Beach house dreams are made of this!

bed time

Next week we will take delivery of a new bed.  A lovely hand made wooden king size bed, that is long overdue for us.   Like all our furniture purchases, we've taken our time and not rushed into buying an 'It'll do for now' piece that we didn't love or want to keep forever.  I'm so happy we waited and found The Joinery here in Portland where each furniture builder creates one piece from start to finish, signing and dating their work when completed.  We chose the wood and the design we wanted and can't wait for it to arrive in our home.

We're looking forward to stretching out, sleeping well, having space for us and the two kiddos and the dog to jump in on a Sunday morning, all with some space instead of a pile-up!

Moving from a regular double size bed to a king size will of course require a little bed linen shopping to be done.  I'm unlikely to go for anything other than crispy white and 100% cotton.  I like to keep it simple, clean and fresh.  At he most, I might add a small pattern detail or a stripe here or there, or a touch of cream or grey.

Here's some of my favourites…..

preparing for summertime

Only 7 school days left until the long US summer vacation begins.   Part of me is looking forward to long warm days, no rushing out the door in the morning, parks, friends and relaxation.  The other part remembers how 12 weeks can feel !!!!

We have a vacation planned and the kiddos have some fun camps to attend with friends.   But then there's still 7 weeks to fill and enjoy.

I'm planning a few fun garden activities to keep the kiddos amused without having to visit every playground in the Portland metro area!  Nothing like a bit of back yard fun with neighbourhood kids to keep everyone happy.

Back yard bean bag toss game.  cb2

Enough sidewalk chalk to get their creativity going

and a little hop scotch too.

For those hot days when nothing but water games will do.

Bring the teepee outdoors, with blankets for the ground and lots

of cushions, and hours of playtime and games begin.

all images via Pinterest

Such a great idea.  I know the perfect spot in our back garden

for a big chalk board.

Shopping List for Stocking Up

Paper

Pencils

Pens

Stickers

Mini bird houses to paint

Balloons

Bubbles

Large canvas for a big painting project

Cookie and treat making supplies (who wants to run out of chocolate chips 

when the need arises?!)

What activities do you like to plan for the summer days with kids?

pretty succulents

I'm definitely coming round to updating our garden with some gorgeous succulent plants.  Edging around the house or along the path; in big plant pots or even being completely adventurous and trying a wall display!  The colours, textures and modern feel of these plants is so attractive and of course there's the bonus that they are pretty self-sufficient (for the non-green-fingered people amongst us!).  Although around here (prone to more than a little drop of rain!) some more attention needs to be given to drainage and soil.  But nothing that a little web surfing won't advise on I'm sure.   Gorgeous aren't they.

 

All images via Pinterest (of course!).

spring zing

What a fabulous sunny day we are having - 2 in a row - whoop whoop!

I really feel like I have a spring in my step.  Yesterday a lady stopped her car by me as I was walking along.  "Excuse me.  I wanted to tell you that you look really lovely".  Seriously!  That lady really made my day.  Seems that a little sunshine makes the world a much happier place.

So my thoughts have been turning to a little spring zing in the house.  I recently purchased these lovely cushions which are now adding a splash of sunshine to the living room.

Windows and doors are flung open today.  I love getting a fresh breeze through the house (although I can now see how much the windows need a good clean!).  

And these goreous yellow mini-chrysanthemums are sitting in the kitchen.

Hope you have a bright and sunny weekend, whatever you may be up to.

X

a 'free' morning

Well, I'll use 'free' in its more lose sense!    After the pre-school drop off, a a nice long walk with Harvey the hound and getting the kitchen back into shape after a dinner for 10 we hosted yesterday evening (think kitchen explosion!), I have 2 and a half hours to myself!  Yay!

Time to catch up with a few of my favourite blogs, actually getting to finish a hot cup of tea (instead of warming it again and again!) and sitting on the sofa during the daytime (such a rare happening).  I have a pile of magazines gathering dust that I'm going to flick through and ...  well there is no 'and'!  That's it folks I'm       R E L A X I N G.

I feel a calmness which I am going to enjoy every last minute of.

Happy Wednesday to you.

multi-coloured recycled crayons

I had an hour spare this afternoon, after a busy morning that included my usual Tuesday two hours at Luca's school library and then a dash to the post-office and library, and onto Ruby's school for a 'Thanksgiving Lunch'.  It was nice to get home and have a cup of tea and sit still for a while.

I spotted on Instagram someone had melted all their old little pieces of broken crayons and made nice chunky ones from all the bits.  And as we have soooo many little bitty pieces of crayons that never get used, this was a perfect little project for Ruby and I.  She peeled off the remaining paper from the crayons and sorted them into the muffin tin.  Fifteen minutes in the oven at 275 F (135 C) and our old crayons were liquified.  Once out of the oven, I left them in the tin for about 45 minutes to cool and then popped them in the freezer just to make sure they were solid.  They fell out the tin with just a couple of taps, and now we have lovely multi coloured chunky crayons that look great as well.  Job well done!

oh so pretty lights

Well, there will certainly be some friends and family receiving these gorgeous hand made lights from me this Christmas.

I have just discovered Cable & Cotton, creators of beautifully handmade strings of lights, that can be customised to your own choice of colours (43 to pick from) or theme (maybe a wedding, party, Christmas etc) or pick from the pre-selected colour schemes. You can also choose the length you wish (20, 35 or 50 lights) depending on where you want to hang them.

Each lamp ball is handmade using cotton wrapped by hand around a balloon that's been coated in an adhesive, including natural gum.  Once the adhesive is dry, the balloon is removed and you are left with a beautifully individual ball that is your "lamp".

Here's a short video showing how the lamp balls are made.....

The colours are so pretty and I'm finding it hard to make up my mind whether to go for a Christmas themed string, or a mix of colours to use all year through (or both maybe!).

What colours would you pick?

pretty bowls

My kitchen cupboards are bursting at the seams with white crockery in them, but these gorgeous patterned bowls keep calling me back time and time again.  These pretty colours and patterns are perfect to perk up any morning breakfast cereal, and a few might find there way into my collection.

Anthropologie

(bummer, missed these heart ones for Valentine's Day)

West Elm

coming up for air

The past week has flown by in a blur.  We moved into our wonderful new home and have daily been working through the towers of boxes and furniture wrapped and transported from the Netherlands.  For the kiddos it has been like Christmas - too much at once!  For 4 months they got by with the very bare minimum of their toys and then bang...  everything arrived at once and they are overwhelmed and have gone from one box to the next to the next.  So I'm trying to unpack and follow the chaos the kiddos have left in their wake all at once.

A new home (with cute little Dutch clogs in the corner!)

But what a fabulous week it has been at the same time as tiring.  We have met some great neighbours.  Home baked cookies have been delivered to us.  Roast Sunday dinner with another neighbour.  The kiddos taken out for icecreams.  The sun has shone and the neighbourhood children have been running in and out of our house and my kiddos seem to have a handful of friends each already.

And as for the Huzz and I.... we've found ourselves sitting outside in the street on the sunny evenings, glass of wine, sharing tacos, chatting with new neighbours, and finally relaxing whilst children play and run in and out of water sprinklers, ride bikes and scooters and have fun.  We're feeling very at home, once again.

Now back to those boxes!

Hope you had a great weekend.

terrariums

On my wish list for the new home is a large terrarium.  I spied a gorgeous large glass ball filled with all kinds of greenery recently in a florist downtown in Portland, but now can't remember where so need to go and retrace my steps from that day.  In the meantime, here's a couple that I like on Pinterest.

And here's a little 'how to' video from Sprout Home if you are the creative type and want to get busy with your green fingers.  It looks very easy and just a case of getting all the right components in advance.  I love the huge glass container she is using in this little movie.

beautifully designed thermo

Is this not the coolest home thermostat you've ever seen?  Of course, designed by a former Apple VP. The Nest Learning Thermostat senses when you are home, is simple and easy to program, and much better looking than those boring cream grey ones that are so unstylish.  And its controllable via your iPad, iPhone etc when you are away from home.  Smart eh!

Definitely on my list of 'must haves' for our new US home (when we find it).

nest.com