The Pink House - Lego loft! by Amy

I'm so excited we have another post from Amy today!  This attic makeover is simply awesome despite having minimal work done to it.  What an amazing space to play in!

In the absence of any real progress on any of the other rooms lately, I'm going to share one of our favourite rooms in the Pink House with you. It's our Lego room! When we saw the loft we knew it was the perfect place for our Lego play den and we are so incredibly happy with it and love being up there - which is a good thing as it's going to become our main living space for a while soon whilst the downstairs is being redone!

I only have a couple of 'before' pics of when it was storage - it's not very exciting but as you can see was already painted and carpeted.

We didn't have to do much in terms of decorating - just added some IKEA wall lights, and some B&Q blinds - we don't ever close these at the moment but they'll be needed when we have a full house of guests and it's being used as an extra bedroom.

The sofabed, armchair, TV cabinet and shelving is all IKEA, as are all the soft furnishings except for the blue campervan cushion which was from John Lewis. The black lamp is from B&Q and the lightbox and brick lights were gifts. The green frames are also from IKEA (I've put this in just for Bex's info 😉)

We've also added this snazzy multicoloured LED strip lighting behind the beam at the end so we can light the room up in any colour.

As you can see, I didn't bother tidying up the ongoing builds scattered around the floor by my window bench, because a Lego room is not somewhere where your Lego should be carefully tidied away, it's a space for playing!

Everyone says this is the room they can't wait to visit, and we are excited about having our first friends over to stay soon. Side note - if anyone fancies a holiday in Essex you know where we are!

#PinItDoIt - Creative Gift Wrapping by Make Thrift Love Life

I am delighted to write a guest post for Bex at The Olive Dragonfly while she's away enjoying a fabulous holiday in Thailand... lucky thing!  My blog is Make Thrift Love Life - a frugal, creative lifestyle blog about living the good life on a budget. 

I love the idea of #pindoit, as I have so many wonderful projects marked on Pinterest, and never get round to doing them.  As luck would have it, this is a busy gift-giving time for me so I chose to try a series of pins on creative gift-wrapping ideas. 

My beautifully-wrapped offerings!

Wrapping a gift thoughtfully can instantly add luxury, giving the "wow" factor to the smallest of presents. You needn't spend much money either- these wrapping methods actually cost less than buying gift bags and fancy wrapping paper.  For my #pindoit projects, I used brown parcel paper, costing only 50p for 3 metres, bits and bobs from my craft stash and recycled materials.

Just 50p in Morrisons!

Bunting-inspired gift wrap

All you need for this gorgeous wrapping is a piece of twine and a few pieces of patterned paper or card.  I cut these bunting flags from a label on packaging, which was otherwise being thrown away.  

See this project on Pinterest

Button and embroidery thread

This design is ridiculously easy, yet absolutely striking!  All you need is a funky button and some embroidery thread.  Thread the long side first, then the short side and tie in a bow.  You could jazz it up even more by adding more buttons along the thread.

I think I'll use this a lot!

Weaving Pattern

This one is actually my favourite visually, but definitely the most time-consuming.  It was difficult to get the threads to line up uniformly, but doesn't it look great?  I would take the time to do this for a very special gift. 

Simple weaving pattern

Sweet book page package 

Deviating from the "brown paper" theme, I fell in love with this cute package made from book pages!  I happen to have an old, scrappy copy of Little Women that I use for lots of crafts, so this cost nothing again. It was also very easy to do (I simply glued round all the edges, added a paper rose cut from wrapping paper and tied it with twine).  Beautiful! 

See the original on Pinterest

Lovely lace

If you have scraps of haberdashery trimmings lying around, you can really dress up a parcel with them.  I have lots of lace offcuts as I made bridal garters for a friend to sell in her lingerie store.  Tiny ribbon offcuts can be picked up very cheaply and finish off the presentation of a gift beautifully. 

My Pinterest inspiration

I hope you enjoyed reading my guest post, and are inspired to go and #pindoit! You can read more about my thrifty tips and crafty projects at Make Thrift Love Life, or on Bloglovin'. 

Paleo Pistachio Brownies - Foodie Friday

Today, we have a guest post from the lovely Laura over at The Mrs Makes.  We both met Laura at Amy's wedding last May, in a pistachio dress no less!  Laura is probably the fittest person I know, when she posts 'before' pictures they are what I wish to get for my 'after' pictures whenever I plan to tone up!  Lately she's been following the paleo diet, something I've heard a lot about but have never tried.  I do know my friends with Crohn's disease find it helps keep their symptoms under control and a lot of the instagram pictures I've seen of paleo recipes look pretty tempting.  This one, even more so - it has chocolate in it, what's not to love?!  Also, I love that she's sent me a recipe with green bits in!  ;)

Paleo Pistachio Brownies:

These brownies are as sugar, grain and dairy free as they can be. They aren't as sweet as your usual brownies but 100% cacao makes them deliciously rich and sumptuous - you'll only need to cut them into small squares to get your brownie fix. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup almond flour/coconut flour
• 2 very ripe mashed bananas
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 4 ounces baking chocolate (100% cacao only)
• 7 Medjool dates (1/2-2/3 cup) pits removed
• 3 large eggs
• ½ cup coconut oil, melted
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of pistachio kernels

Method:

1. In a food processor, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda
2. Pulse in squares of dark chocolate until the texture of coarse sand
3. Blitz the dates in until they've broken down and added to the sandy/crumb like texture
4. Whizz in the eggs and mashed bananas
5. Finally add in the coconut oil and vanilla until mixture is smooth
6. Transfer mixture to a greased 8 x 8 inch baking dish
7. Mixture will be very thick, smooth with a spatula and top with pistachios. You might have to poke them in a little. 
8. Bake at 180°C for 18-22 minutes
9. Optional - I like to drizzle mine with honey as soon as they leave the oven to glaze those pistachios a little. Non-processed, natural, organic honey please if you do this. 
10. Cool for 2 hours, then serve

Guest Post - Camping

We've been sent a couple of fabulous guest posts by the gorgeous Amy recently (yes, she of mermaid fame!) and here's the first!  It really makes me want to go camping again!  I haven't been since we went on a family camping trip in the west coast of Scotland when I was about 10.  (Unless you include sleeping in the tent in the garden with my brother.  Always fun!)  Over to Amy with her tales and top tips for camping...

Last week we went camping in Northumberland. It has been a pretty manic and stressful couple of months since we got back from our honeymoon so it was a very well timed break (and best of all it’s only 2 weeks until our AOWette bought yurt  break - eek!) There is something rejuvenating about camping. We have all our best  talks and ideas when we’re sitting in a field with a fire and a glass of wine, and it’s  always nice for us to get away with Bertie and have a pootle round some winding country roads.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the places we visited:

Corbridge – This is a lovely town perched on the edge of the Tyne and we stopped  for THE BEST afternoon tea. Seriously, it was scrumptious! And a total bargain at just £15.99 for both of us. We each got a pot of tea and 4 triangle sandwiches – I had  crab and James had ham. We then halved both the cheese and fruit scones which  were both really light and fluffy. After that we were too full to have all of the cakes so had the almond and cranberry flapjacks and rocky road bars boxed up for later and  just ate the crème anglaise filled brandy snaps – oh my goodness I think mine was  the best thing I’ve ever eaten!

Alnwick – home of a very famous castle where they filmed parts of the first two  Harry Potter films and also Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was also the venue  (and ancestral home!) for the recent ‘royal wedding of the north’. Best of all, it is  home to the most AMAZING bookshop I’ve ever been to – Barter Books, in the old  train station. It’s a labyrinth of shelves, rooms, comfy chairs and quiet nooks and  crannies – it has a café and even a sofa corner where you can curl up with one of the  books and help yourself to coffee (there’s an honesty box). The books are arranged  by genre and the décor is also really cool with literary quotes, (my favourite) neon  lights(!) and even toy trains running along the tops of the shelves. Seriously, it’s a  mecca and you should all go there immediately.

Bamburgh – Another North East town dominated by a castle. This one perches on a  cliff overlooking a beautiful stretch of windswept beach which is perfect for a blustery walk. It is also home to the Grace Darling museum – this year marks 175 years since  the historic rescue when Grace and her father rowed out to rescue survivors of a  shipwreck on the Farne Islands when she was just 22!

Hexham – we didn’t really do very much in Hexham but I had to include it for 2  reasons – 1. the awesome cheese platter we had in Deli at Number 4, and 2. Josie’s  Dragonfly Store! I was so excited when I saw this and immediately took a photo to  send to Bex – it’s a shop that ONLY SELLS THINGS WITH DRAGONFLIES ON!  Having googled it for this post I’ve also found out that all it’s profits go to a local  charity helping young people with cancer - http://www.josiesdragonfly.org/ I now feel really bad that I didn’t buy anything but at least I know where to go when it’s Bex’s  birthday!

We also went to Lindesfarne, Kielder Water, a small hamlet called Fallowfield (which was really nothing more than a farm) and various parts of Hadrian’s Wall.

I thought I might also give you a few of our campsite meal ideas. I think a lot of  people think that camping food can’t be any more gourmet than pot noodle or baked  beans, and we are often guilty of falling into a routine of eating nothing but barbeques or bacon sandwiches (not including our all time winter camping favourite – ‘amy & james’s camping slop’ – a beef and potato stew with cheese added to the gravy! It  sounds gross but if you’ve had a long day out in the cold and rain it’s AWESOME).

So on this trip we tried to be a little more adventurous and our three favourite meals  were:

Steak and eggs – this was our first night meal and we were a bit stuffed after our  afternoon tea but still managed to wolf down the whole lot. We barbequed the steaks  and then I slow cooked fried eggs on the camping stove – my top tip is to cook them  on a really low heat and then turn the heat off and cover the pan with a lid or tin foil to finish them through - this stops them sticking which is extra important when you're washing up in a communal outdoor sink!

Barbequed piri-piri chicken kebabs with tomato and red pepper pasta and cheese  sauce – this was really simple and yummy although the pasta pan was a bit of a  pain to clean after making the cheese sauce (my favourite, super simple recipe –  just a small tub of sour cream/crème fraiche, a bit handful of grated cheddar and a  teaspoon of mustard all stirred and melted together).

Barbeque grilled vegetables and haloumi to start, followed by barbequed ribs with chilli crisps and hummus. Yum!

I’d love to hear other people’s camping recipes and also any campsite  recommendations you have around the UK as we are always on the look for new  places to visit.

Guest Post - Dealing with Anxiety

This is a brilliant guest post by Amy.  It also ties in nicely with the post I shared this morning as I often find music helps me in the same way and I need to remember that when I'm going through a stressful time.  There's nothing I like more than cooking with my music on full blast in the background, singing along and dancing round the room.  

As Bex has recently shared some of the ways she makes herself feel better I thought I’d do the same.  Just over ten years ago I started having anxiety attacks.  They started about a year after a particularly traumatic time, in a period when I was actually really happy and relaxed (this is apparently really common!).  I was really freaked out at first but then when I pieced together why it was happening I had some counselling to address the core issues.  Since then I have managed to get things pretty much under control through avoiding or overcoming my main triggers or by taking steps to compensate, such as taking valium when flying.  Last week I sadly had my first all day attack for a few years which was horrible but has meant I’ve forced myself to work harder at looking after myself and not letting things get too much.

One of the best ways I’ve found over the years of making myself feel better is by singing.  Despite being not being very good, I’ve always been an ‘in the car’ singer (much to my poor husband’s dismay), but then I started going to karaoke a few years ago with some colleagues and always really enjoyed it.  As a result I bought a few Singstar games and one night when I was feeling a bit low I put one on and realised that singing made me feel a lot better – it can feel a bit like you’re moping around like a hormonal teenager, especially if you go for ‘emotional’ songs, but Singstar is especially good because you have the added challenge element – I’m very competitive and always want to get the best score possible.  I find that singing is a really good way of distracting my brain from negative thoughts and if I feel as though I’m on the edge of an attack (I’ve taught myself to recognise the signs), I can now sometimes prevent it – I just quickly bring up Youtube, search for a song (you can get karaoke versions for lots of them too which have the words – reading them adds to the distraction), and let rip at the top of my voice (obviously this doesn’t work in the office or on the tube) until I’ve focussed my brain elsewhere.

Sometimes the best thing is a Disney classic, sometimes a weepy tune to sob along to, sometimes whatever is at number one and paying on the radio, and sometimes an obscure cult classic you’ve never heard before as a challenge, but whatever you choose, singing is proven to release endorphins and help lift your mood!

Here are my best ‘get it all out’ singalong tunes:

Defying Gravity – Cast of Wicked This is my go to tune if I’m stuck in an emotional funk and need to shake it all out – I’ve been known to have to stop the car because I’m crying too hard singing along to it while driving that I can’t see where I’m going.  If I haven’t cracked already by the line “And nobody, in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, is ever going to bring me down.” then that’s guaranteed to tip me over the edge.

Hold On – Wilson Philips This is another weepy one for me but I think it’s a good one to wallow in if you need a bit of a hug and there’s no one around to give you one.  Plus the video is so 90’s that it’s a great diversion – even if just to pray those high waisted jeans don’t come back into fashion along with all the other 90s trends that are creeping in.

Ordinary World – Duran Duran “But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world, somewhere I have to fiiiiiiiind, And if I try to make my way, to the ordinary world, I will learn to surviiiiive!”   Need I say more?

 Heaven Helps The Man (I’m Free) – Kenny Loggins In all honesty pretty much ANY KL tune (funnily enough with the exception of the 2 famous ones – Footloose and Highway to the Danger Zone) is guaranteed to do the job for me – especially some of the more obscure soft rock ones - but this one also has a cheesy video so I picked it for blogability, plus it’s an awesome tune which you can really get overly into when singing along.

Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac You can’t beat a bit of Fleetwood Mac can you?  I love how this is actually a really angry song but with a really boppy feel to it.  It’s a bit like an audio metaphor for putting a happy face on.

Winds of Change – Scorpion This is one of my Singstar classics and the one (along with Total Eclipse) I consistently manage to achieve a ‘Singstar’ score (the highest level) on.  It’s mellow 80’s rock with some great long notes and some slightly weird lyrics meaning you have to concentrate pretty hard.

Eye of the Tiger - Survivor I reckon this tune vies with I Will Survive as the ultimate karaoke classic but that needn’t put you off.  The lyrics are cheesy but punchy and good for firing you up plus EVERYONE knows the tune and you can do some cool air punch type dance moves too.

Motherlover – The Lonely Island featuring Justin Timberlake This one is in here just because it is so ridiculous that it can’t help but cheer you up.  [I've chosen not to embed this one since my Mum and MIL both read the blog and it may cause offense to some people.  You can see it here if you wish ;) ]

I've actually thought of making a couple of playlists, one of melancholic songs for when I just accept the sadness and have a little wallow, one for when I want to cheer up and be happy and dance around and another of shouty songs like Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" for when I'm angry and frustrated and want to get it all out!  Thanks for the advice Amy and for sharing a few of your favourite songs with us!

Guest post - On the cover of a magazine

The lovely Lauren from Living In a Boxx sent us in this fashion related post. Lauren and I met at bootcamp over two years ago and I'm so glad we did :) She does a regular series on her blog (that she only started this year) which is very similar to our Splurge Vs Save  feature except she chooses things she's seen on a magazine cover and finds cheaper alternatives.  It's brilliant and I'm so glad we can share it here as it's a feature we've been lacking for quite a few weeks now!  Thanks Lauren, over to you...

Hi there! I'm Lauren normally over at Living in aBoxx, I'm here with a little guest post.  I've known Roz for a few years now and had the pleasure of meeting Bex through her.  I'll admit I was excited when Roz asked me to guest post but also a bit apprehensive, what the hell would I write about?

I decided to stick to what I'm used to.  I have a feature entitled 'On the Cover of a Magazine' in which I try to recreate the latest Vogue cover on the high street.  So here's a similar one featuring this months Cosmo.

The cover dress is Oscar De La Renta so you can imagine the price tag.  It's not too easy to get any feather dress cheaply though, unless you're talking fancy dress.  I couldn't find a fuchsia one anywhere!  I  did find these two bad boys in the sale though, making them more than affordable.

Left: Lipsy - £87.50

Right: ASOS - £48

Both are gorgeous, but with the second less than half the price in the sale it's got my vote.  If you're desperate for some jewel encrusted fuchsia, I've found these babies too...

Left: Forever Unique - £75

Right: Boohoo - £20

As for the jewellery - big gold and sparkly.  Dorothy Perkins and Etsy have some great flower rings.  I couldn't work out from the picture if Rachel's necklace is writing or not.  There are some lovely 'love' necklaces in Etsy and there are gold statement necklaces everywhere.

Top Left: Dorothy Perkins - £8.50

Top Right: Etsy - £4

Bottom Left: Etsy - £14.46

Bottom Right: Topshop - £16.50