New TV binges

Following on from my last post about my favourite TV shows, I've got some new obsessions to share.

I know I'm majorly late to the party when it comes to Game of Thrones but wow!  It was amazing to be able to watch all 6 series back to back right as series 7 started although now I kind of wish I'd waited until the next one comes out as I'm dying that I won't know what's going to happen for another 2 years!?!?  Gah!  It took me a while to really get into it and the first series is certainly very racy but I was soon captivated by the adventure and stunning cinematography.  I love the humour amongst the turmoil and of course, so many pretty faces and beautiful costumes.  And, well, the dragons!  It really is an amazing show and I'm glad I discovered it at last.

Downstairs Loo Redesign

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It's a while since we updated anything in our house but there are quite a few things I'd like to do to it.  As our house was pretty much liveable when we moved in, we concentrated on one major thing (ripping down a wall), one fairly major thing (designing and preparing the twins' nursery), a quick redecoration and then all the minor stuff like organising our things, an obligatory Ikea trip, framing photos...

The thing is, although it was liveable and we did redecorate the main rooms (and even those are still a work in progress with quite a few temporary features like a bookcase I hate), we didn't really sort out any of the other rooms.

I'm starting small and doing the downstairs loo first.  Mainly because Nik and I had a look around Farrow & Ball in Tunbridge Wells recently and fell in love with a wall paper design.  Rather than looking for a wall paper for a room, we found a wall paper and had to think of where we might be able to put it!  We both agreed it would look fab in our WC along one side (as we think it would be too much on all the walls in such a small space) and would really spruce up a very plain room which is used a lot by both us and visitors.  It's also Kalyan's favourite place to wash his hands.

The Pink House - Reclaimed Wood coffee table DIY by Amy

As I mentioned in my kitchen post, we've been trying to reuse and recycle materials wherever possible.  Please excuse the rubbish photos in this post but I think they give a nice overview of the process. 

Here is the wood as it was before:

Bexphoto Family Photography - Launching Soon!

If you read this blog you know I love photos!  I always include photos in my posts and like it or not I usually share plenty.  Although I'm trying to be more selective here these days, I still love to share lots of my own photos and I started up a new photography website to feature more of them.  I've had a photography website for years but it used to be a place to sell my landscape and nature prints and showcase a few of my galleries before I started taking photos of people.  I always used to say "I don't do people." but that all changed when I had kids of course!  Nowadays Bexphoto.com is more of a photography blog but I plan to sort it out a bit while I think about investing in another proper site.

England's Medival Festival - review

I would have never thought of going to a Medieval Festival as we're not really into battle re-enactments, etc.  Or so I thought!  We were invited along to review England's Medieval Festival and had an amazing time.  There's so much more going on than you might expect and it was perfect for a weekend with kids, the twins loved it and so did we!

There were literally dozen of things we could do with plenty of entertainment for little ones.  (I warn you now, I took photos of everything!)  We actually really enjoyed the twice daily parades and battle re-enactments at the castle with big bangs and arrows flying.

Buxted Playpark - review

We've got a lot of great parks around us here in Uckfield and we often visit various ones but there are some I've never been to.  I thought I'd review our favourites and start exploring some new ones too. I've already written about Luxford Park when I reviewed Holly's Outside the Box clothing range (the kids loved it and it made a great backdrop), but one of the handiest for us is Buxted play park.  Right next to the doctor's surgery, it's very handy if you also need to pick up a prescription (although swings come first).

Bright prints for the twins' bedroom gallery wall

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You may remember the gallery wall I made above the twins' cots in their nursery.  I filled lots of white frames with various brightly coloured prints as well as a few of my maternity photos.

Photo by Laura Aziz {baby, picture this}

Into The Trees Festival - Event review

After having an amazing time at Elderflower Fields, our first family festival back in May, we were thrilled to be invited along to their sister event, Into The Trees, and it didn't disappoint.  A smaller festival without camping, Into The Trees is focused on kids enjoying nature and the amazing location of Ashdown Forest.  The event in September is two days of fun at the same venue, Pippingford Park, arranged on a smaller scale and with even more focus on being in the woods and getting back to nature.  A family ticket for both days was just £22 and under 5s went free, such a bargain with so many free activities included.

My House in August - Instagram challenge

In August I took part in an Instagram challenge and I wanted to share my entries here as I really enjoyed it and I'm now doing September's version too.  It's a daily hashtag challenge in the same vein as Style Me September by Hilary which I did way back when.  This one isn't about fashion though, it's about home style.  #MyHouseInAugust had daily prompts of ideas to share and combined it with a giveaway too!

Hosted by A Little House in London and On a Wing and a Chair, the prompts can be interpreted however you like.  They gave away a neon light in August and September's prize is a stunning blanket which I'd love to win.  Here's August's list and the rest of my entries last month...

Local Roasts - Ringles Cross Pub - Sunday Lunch Review

I've been thinking about starting a Sunday Roast review series for a while.  It's a topic I often see come up on our local Facebook group page and I find it interesting hearing people's opinions on where the best local roast can be found.  It's definitely a subjective thing so I thought a detailed series of reviews with photos and our opinions could be useful for locals (and visitors) looking for a place to spend a lazy Sunday lunchtime enjoying a good roast.  We've already sampled a few local Sunday Roasts which have been recommended to us and found varied options so depending on what you're after, there's bound to be one you'd enjoy.  

The first to feature in my new series is Ringles Cross pub who invited us to review their Sunday Roast for a feature in my Uckfield News column as they are listed in the Uckfield Directory.