Hello all, sorry for the lack of blog posting. Other social media (aka Instagram) was where it has been happening along with my garden. Lots of gardening taking place at All things nice... I now have lavender, sunflowers, blue hydrangea, roses and lots of other pretty flowers. The weather last night and today is playing havoc with them... it is sooo windy. Yesterday was a lovely warm day so I got the garden mowed, but then it just changed and we had rain all day long today. Anyways it is such an Irish thing to keep talking about the weather...

I have also been busy cleaning and tidying the house and getting my sun room in order. I'm now enjoying spending time in here. It is eclectic but just what I want... In comparison to my living room which is very colour coordinated in greys, white and blue... Sorry about the dark photos but the weather hasn't been good for photographs today. Hope you all had a lovely weekend and have lots planned for August....

My living room is now taking shape. I have been talking about it for a long time now. I was on the look out for an over mantle mirror for my living room but then I bought this canvas and have decided to use it instead of a mirror. It only cost €20.00. What do you think? I have changed it a bit now with two vases each side of the photo instead of the mixed items. I have tried to kept the room in different shades of blue, white and grey to watch the chairs, furniture and white marble fireplace.

I was also on the lookout for some nice cushions for the sofa and came across these cute paisley ones for €6.00 in Primark. I think they fit in very well and look more expensive than €6.00. Who doesn't love a bargain?

And finally I bought this cute baby blue lantern for a tea light in Primark as well. I need to paint/spray my lamp base and shade as it doesn't match the room but in time I'll do this. What do you think?

Hello everyone. Hope you are not too busy in the run up to Christmas. I am on my holidays from work these days and I am enjoying my time off.  Below are some images of the decorating I have done for Christmas. First up is our new Christmas tree which I have put in our good living room. I also tried drying some oranges for their scent and decoration in the house. This was my first time trying to dry them and they worked out alright. They took so long in the oven that I gave up. Instead I dried them on top of the wood burning stove which took far less time than the oven. The smell was lovely in the room though as they were drying up on the stove. I also made some pretty paper doily snowflakes. They are now hanging over the double doors into my sun room. I'm thinking of adding some red to the centre of them to make them more festive. You should try and make some of these doily snowflakes they are so simple to make and look cute.

Below is just one more  photograph of my tree. The lights are a bright white so they match well with the grey/blue colour scheme in my living room. Today I made this flower arrangement to sit on my kitchen island. All the items were free as I just picked them from the hedge. Three of the hydrangea were already dried and one of them is a fresh one from the garden. All the foliage is fresh from the gardens. The final photo is just me deciding where to put the fairy lights, I haven't left them here and have yet to decide where to put them. I have a lot of dried hydrangea so hope to make some more arrangements.

Hope you like having a look around my home and also at my homemade/handmade items. Have a go yourself or if you have some items you have made, I would love to hear about them and see them. Until next time.... 

I have been procrastinating for a long time now over decorating my good living room. I have it painted since the summer time. It is a pale ice blue/white colour. I have my sofa and armchairs bought and am now trying to source a fireplace which I have spotted online.

Below are a few images of some wallpaper I like from Sanderson. I like both wallpapers but I think that the floral bird pattern is more to my taste. It is the voyage of discovery range (Clementine Dusty Pink). I will get this wallpaper for both alcoves each side of the fireplace.

In terms of the fireplace I like the Victorian fireplaces with the decorate corbel detaling, Below right is an image of our chimney breast. I need to buy a fireplace and get it fitted before getting the skirting, wallpaper and flooring can be started. 

I have my sofa bought, it a dark slate blue colour. Have you any nice inspiration for me for the room?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend. Imagine we only have one more weekend left until Christmas. I started decorating the house this weekend, using lots of foliage I picked in the hedges and woods around  the farm. I have just a few more decorations to put up and more holly to pick. Here is an image of the arrangement I put on my entrance table in the hallway, do you like it? I might add some more holly to. I'm getting my Christmas holidays on Thursday :) Have you all your decorating done? 

Here is some DIY I did over the summer, but never posted it. My birdhouse which my Dad made for me was beginning to get a bit weather beaten so I decided to paint it using Ronseal Wood Sage paint. I think it turned out pretty. My shrubs are still small as they are only planted a year but they are coming along well. Did you do any DIY jobs over the Summer? You will also notice that we now have the wall to the rear of the house painted and it looks much better. So we don't have that much work left outside the house. The next work to be done is finish the sitting room which I painted over the Summer months too. I will post some photos of it as it progresses. Hope your enjoying the weekend.

Do you like wallpaper? I have none in my new home yet! Above are some of my favourite patterns from Cath Kidston and Laura Ashley mainly. What type of wallpaper do you like? Do you have wallpaper at home? I would love to see some images of it. I think it is nice for a feature wall rather than a whole room. I'm thinking of putting some in my guest bedroom (mentioned with images in my previous post)

2012- What a Year it has been! We moved into our New Home on 1st January 2012 and I also got  a new job that month too, but to add to all of that, we were also arranging our wedding for February. We had our wedding on 25th February and thank goodness it didn't rain. I am blessed to have found such a wonderful husband. We did a lot of decorating in our new home and I enjoyed my afternoons on the farm- helping with the calves and getting lots of fresh air. We booked our honeymoon for September and had a great time. We even got a tan (I call it a tan,  but to most others it is probably just a lot of freckles). I wrote a review for the Irish Country Living Magazine which appeared in their Autumn edition. IKEA also asked me to take some photos of my new home to feature in their House Call Feature (they haven't used them yet which I'm thinking means that the photos aren't good enough quality). My blog got shortlisted for the Irish Blog Award which was really exciting too. I got lots of inspiration online this year and am really enjoying using pinterest! To all of my friends, followers and those who visit my blog, twitter or pinterest, thank you all so much, I really hope that my blog sprinkles some happiness into your life. . .

From top left: 1. We moved into our new home- our cottage in the country. 2. We got married, pictured above in the hotel. 3. Some daffodils I picked and put in our home, 4. Our kitchen is fully completed. 5. A trip to the seaside to my parents holiday home. 6. We booked our honeymoon to Madeira. 7. Some lovely hydrangeas my mother picked for me, 8. Long walks along the lake shore. 9. Honeymoon in Madeira. 10. Some more wedding memories. 11. A trip to the Market. 12. A view of Funchal from our hotel suite. 13. Some more flowers in my sunroom. 14. Another trip to the west coast of Ireland. 15. My spare bedroom, 16. Our Wedding Day

Hello everyone,

So I eventually have time to blog. Since the New Year, we have moved into our new home, we're really settled now; kitchen, snug, utility and shower room are all completed. I have a few accessories to get but that is on hold for a while. I have also got a new job which I am really happy with and enjoying, my office is small and really cosy :) So next thing on the "to do list" is get married. The wedding is in three weeks time! I have the dresses sorted, just need to get mine altered a wee bit. All invites are out, flowers sorted, cake sorted, food sorted, cars, rings, etc. I just have to buy my shoes soon and get my hair sorted. No honeymoon planned as my other half is a farmer and has a lot of work on with cows calving. So in three weeks I will be a farmers wife! I'm living life to the full in the countryside. I'm looking forward to getting married and have time to relax and also do some more work around the new home. At last I got the lead to charge my camera so here are a few photos from around my new home. The snug still looks a bit bare but I will upload more photos again for you all!

Today we stopped by Argos and bought this mirror for my downstairs toilet. I thought it was pretty. Hope you all had a nice weekend. It's great just to get some time off work and time to relax. 

I am on the lookout for some nice wallpaper for my snug. I have a stove with a wooden beam over it and there are two small alcoves each side. The room is painted a cream colour and I was looking for wallpaper for the two walls each side of the chimney area. Check out all of the lovely wallpapers below which I like, all from Laura Ashley. Which one do you like most?

 

I have announced my BIG news to you all, and over time I will keep you updated on the progress of the build, but don't worry my blog is not going to become merely an update on the build, I still will have lots of other nice things to write about :-) Crafts, interiors, style, countrysides, colours, etc, etc...

So just to give you a bit of an idea about what the layout of the new house should look like, here is a plan of the ground floor below

There you go, we have a large kitchen/ dining area, sun room, small lounge/ snug and good sitting room to front, one of which may be used as a study/workspace/library room. There is also a small utility and toilet/ shower room to the rear. The plan will be altered in this area to ensure proper wheelchair access. The garage is accessible from the house. So there you have it!

So far I am thinking cream kitchen/wooden worktops, blue walls in the kitchen area/ cream colour in the dining area, possibly tiles on floor in kitchen and wooden floor in the dining area, wooden floor in the lounge/snug. Have you any nice interiors ideas for my moodboards? The wall between the lounge and the dining area may not go in as I would like to have lots of sun in the kitchen area. Any advice, help is much appreciated on interior colours, designs, styles, items, furniture.

P.S I have a small budget so no really expensive items please unless you know someone who is willing to donate them to me ..      :-)