My perfect bouquet - rainbow flowers!

Although I do always love the flowers Nik picks out for me, this year, I really wanted to create my own rainbow bouquet!  I love flowers, learning names of the ones I love and arranging them.  I sometimes think in another life I would have loved being a florist!  Maybe one day, maybe when I retire I could get a job in a pretty little flower shop.  Anyway, for now, I make do with being creative with my own flowers and this year I went to both of Uckfield's lovely florists, The Flower Shop and Miss Bloomsbury.  It helps that they're just a few doors apart on the High Street so I was able to pick and choose my stems from each to create my perfect colourful arrangement which looks beautiful on our new bar cart in the dining room!

My Rainbow Christmas Tree!

My love for all things rainbow has really gotten out of control if you ask my husband!  You know what though, rainbows just make me so happy!  The bright colours really do cheer me up, I'm so drawn to them, so yes, it has become a bit of an obsession but I don't care and I think he gets it really.  He does love our tree (despite his concerns it might look a bit "shopping centre"), he loves how it turned out almost as much as I do!  And the twins?  Their response was "Wow" when they saw it after a weekend in London with Daddy seeing their cousin while I stayed home to work and prep the house for Christmas!  :D

Before I found some more yellow ones on eBay!

Saal Digital wall decor review

I was recently offered the chance to review a wall decor product from Saal Digital and had fun going through the various options available.  They offer the usual traditional canvas prints as well as more modern looking aluminium and acrylic print options.  I decided I wanted to print a recent photo of the twins enjoying bathtime to hang in the bathroom so I opted for the weather resistant option of PVC foamboard.  I wasn't sure how this would feel but as a light, easy hanging option which I could print larger for the same price as other options, I decided to go for it and was pleasantly surprised with the feel and quality of it.

Ordering was easy, I just uploaded my image and checked the crop after choosing my dimensions and material as well as the hanging mount option.  Mine is the 40 x 60 cm which costs £41.95 plus £5.95 shipping.  They currently have an offer for £15 off when you spend £30 though so you could nab a bargain before the end of September.

It arrived quickly and very well packaged.  There was no chance of damage with the thick cardboard protecting it and tight plastic wrap holding it in place for transport.

The print quality was very good too, the only issue I had was the shadows printed a little greener than the original image appeared.  It shows up fine in my photos but the tiles have a green tone compared to the actual bathroom tiles the print is hanging above.

It looks fab on the wall though...

Summer fun in the garden!

Sometimes we just want to stay home, especially when it's been SO hot.  I just can't bear the thought of being stuck out in the sun somewhere or even getting into the roasting hot car before it cools down with the air-con.  Luckily we have a decent sized garden with a paddling pool and playhouse to keep the kids entertained and plenty of shade in the form of porches and brollies too!  Plus - free fun days at home are always good, we can't afford to be going out every day, especially when I'm barely ever organised enough to make packed lunches.

I took a few photos on one such day and I love them so I thought I'd share them here as a bit of inspiration and as a little intro to my revamped Bexphoto site too!

Of course, a hot day in the garden isn't complete without a Mini Twister or two (and a Nobbly Bobbly for me)!  The twins adore these treats and were more than happy to get up on their playhouse porch for me to capture them eating their lollies.  (Kalyan is looking exceptionally pale due to the usual Factor 50 Fight!  His is not rubbed in very well!)

Downstairs Loo - Before & After

It's been months since this room was finished and I took photos back in January but have only just gotten around to blogging it since I wrote about the plans and before photos here.  I adore the new wallpaper and I'm so glad we decided to splash out on the F&B Lotus pattern.  In the end though, we couldn't justify the cost of doing all the walls in such a small room so opted for just the back wall in paper and actually I'm so glad we did, it looks fab with the other walls in the dark grey background colour, Plummet.  The amazing Matt and his mum from MRJ Services did a fantastic job hanging the wallpaper and painting the room.

Cable & Cotton rainbow lights in the kids' bedroom

You may remember my excitement at getting these rainbow lights for the kids for Christmas.  They're now up and we love them!  They were pretty popular on Instagram so I thought I'd share a bit more info here as I had a few people asking about them.  

You can now buy a ready made rainbow set on the cotton & cable website (after they saw how popular my set was!) but it has a more pastel tone so if you're after one more intensely coloured like mine, see the list below.

Going for gold - top tips for DIY spray painting!

The guest room is coming along nicely now, I've managed to get rid of all the furniture we no longer wanted, all donated to a local furniture charity shop.  It's a brilliant way to get rid of furniture you no longer want, saved us more wasted time trying to sell it ourselves and benefits the local hospice, plus they collect it free of charge, check out the Hospice in the Weald website.

Priya waving goodbye to the truck carrying away our old furniture.

As for the fun stuff, you may have noticed on Instagram that I've been going mad with the spray paint over Christmas.  I decided some gold touches with the Hague Blue walls in the room would look nice and started with this gorgeous hexagon mirror from Oliver Bonas.  I had hoped to get both the small and large sizes to hang together but they sold out of the larger one and although I found plenty of other ones, none were much larger in size to go with the small one.  In the end I opted for a circular one to hang with it and actually think it'll look nice having the two different shapes.  While on the Oliver Bonas website, I also found this gold edged tray which is perfect in the room.