The House That Made Us

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I felt (& have been feeling now for probably about a year since my cervical cancer scare) truly content & just pure unadultarated happiness. What has kept me going throughout this is simple. Each week I’d stand on those scales (Monday AM, after going to the loo & completely naked) in the middle of the kitchen & every week, I’d see the scales going down. After not long, I started noticing my clothes getting looser & then, everyone around me started seeing the difference too & making comments about how great I looked. I’d then be able to buy clothes in a smaller size & not from any plus ranges. That right there, beats eating a Domino’s pizza hands down. Finally, a huge thank you to the incredible teams I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside on this collaboration; from Sam & Sarah at Darwin Escapes to Silvano & Victoria at Prestige & Paul (x2) & Joby the film crew who had me laughing for 2 days straight. Everyone has made this experience so enjoyable! Now, 6 months later I sit here typing this being the most content & happy I’ve ever been. Of course, it hasn’t been easy especially doing a renovation pretty much single handedly & our budget disappearing at a great rate of knots due to rising material prices. I’ve had the occasional ‘what have I done’ when the dust is everywhere & I’m missing my friends, but all in all, it’s been the best thing we’ve ever done. Within hours of getting the caravan home, I was on the case & basically started ripping it apart. I waved goodbye to the yellow curtains, pulled up the stained carpeting & scrubbed everything with sugar soap to remove any grease/dust to prep for painting. It was a complete blank canvas & already looked so much brighter & lighter. You can see stories highlighted on my feed to give you an idea!

Make the right choices– half of dieting is common sense, we all know what we should be eating but lets be honest, if weight wasn’t an issue we’d all be eating pizza over salad. If you can make the right choices the vast majority of the time then you can make the wrong choice occasionally. I’m going to go in to the whole moving process & our decision in depth another time, but for now, I have an (almost….) finished room ready to show you guys & she is a beauty. The rest of the house is pretty much upside down at the moment whilst I pour blood, sweat & tears in to renovating but this is such a peaceful, calm space that means we can close the doors (which do need to be replaced but they can wait) & almost pretend that everything is done for a second. With the bones of the caravan looking a hell of a lot better, it was then time to focus on the fun part, accessorising to give it a bit of character & turn it in to a real home away from home. The bedside tables are part of the Camille Limewash range from The Cotswold Company*& I couldn’t love them more if I tried. They are the perfect tone of natural wood against the green of the walls & are great quality being made of solid oak.First things first, I started by ripping out the wardrobes. The space this gave & light it let in was insane & has made such an immediate difference. We have an ensuite off this room & next to it, a small spare bedroom which we’re planning on reconfiguring so they’ll swap round. The ensuite will become a dressing area then the bedroom a larger ensuite….when I can find a plumber which may be 2057 at this rate. In the meantime we’re using the spare bedroom off this as a dressing room which means I didn’t need any big bulky furniture in here. We hadn’t repainted this room since we moved in over 6 years ago so it was in desperate need of a refresh…the perfect excuse to give it a bit of a makeover & try out a new look. The only thing now left to do is paint the outside, however the cold weather means it’s the worst time possible to do it (& the risk of rain!) so that will be done in Spring. Lighting wise, this house doesn’t actually have ceiling lights & at first I was going to get an electrician in to put them in, but then I thought about it & actually we never used our main lighting, instead preferring soft mood lighting from lamps in the evening. I replaced the wall lighting with these antique brass Millhouse from John Lewis& love the soft glow. I’m undecided about putting some art work below them but at the moment want to keep this space feeling fairly fresh & bright. I also got this antique brass lever arm floor lamp, currently in the sale from Dunelm.

We had lots of prosecco & some delicious canapés but the best part was definitely the most incredible cake made by Cakes By Sadie Smith& topped off with my logo & signature bee by Alices Accessories. Thought number 1 was to put a log burner where the TV is. After consulting with some fitters I was told that I’d need to bring the wall out a substantial amount which would then mean that it would make the room an even odder shape & we’d quite literally have to squeeze past the arms of the sofa to go & sit down. I also got told about the maintenance & safety issues surrounding log burners & children which I have to admit did put me off. I swapped the usual display on the oversized footstool around & moved the usual big white Neptune hydrangea arrangement with one a bit more seasonal looking. The concrete look vase was from Neptune & the flowers are a mix of real dried hydrangeas (the green) then artificial types of eucalyptus, berried twigs & lilac hydrangeas all from Hudson Home. The sofas are the large Lynden from Laura Ashley (now available at Next) in Katrina Silver. We’ve had these a couple of years now & are super comfy. I’ve styled these with cushions including the beautiful fringed Bertie Olive from my collection with A&H Wills along with 2x olive green simple striped covers from Etsy& then some plain natural velvet from the Sanela collection at Ikea (I’ve had these for years, they go with everything & are so versatile!). The knitted pom pom throw is a few years old now from M&S. This week is focusing on one of my favourite rooms in the house & probably the place I spend the vast majority of my time; the living room. I suppose you could say that this is more of a grown up’s lounge seeing as the kids tend to watch TV & play in the playroom (coming up in a couple of weeks) & so stays relatively tidy. It also means it was designed with that in mind so we didn’t need many storage solutions either.Our last night in Baylyn House, I sat in each room, silently saying goodbye to the place that held us close & safe. That had seen my babies grow in to the little people they are now. For the first time I sobbed at the thought of making the wrong decision, at all of those people we were leaving behind. I’d miss my friends & family who are everything to me & I’d miss the familiarity of the streets I’d walked down since I was a little girl. Were we doing the right things taking the kids away too? Would they settle in to a new school or would we traumatise them if it all went wrong. Drink drink drink– an obvious one but you’d be surprised how often your body is telling you it’s hungry when actually you’re probably just thirsty. I try to drink 3L a day as an absolute minimum & before every meal I have a glass of water/sugar free squash to fill me up a little bit too. Versatile – can be used when baby is sleeping OR awake for tummy time, a play or even changing mat. As tears ran down my face, she stood up (ruining the plait in the process..) & hugged me with a concerned look on her face asking ‘Mummy, why are you crying?’. I explained to her that I was happy. She asked me again, why was I crying so I told her that people don’t just cry when they’re sad, they cry when they are really really happy too.