My Sunday Photo

This week has been sponsored by...

Owlfit of the Week

I love the bright colours in this owlfit!  In the words of Chandler "could it beee any more colourful?"  Sorry, shouldn't be watching Friends while blogging...

Back to the Owlfit!  The top (kirta) and legging are from Westside, India.  LittleOwl hasn't worn the kirta too much as when she first got it, she was still lacking in the hair department and looked quite boyish in it.  

I've teamed it up with the pixie hoody that I bought in Lille, France that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago.  On her feet, LittleOwl is wearing her Ladybird wellies from Tesco.  If you haven't seen the wellies they have in stock this winter you really should, I couldn't choose between these, the crocodiles or the giraffes - so I let LittleOwl choose!

Bathroom Layout

Papa Owl and I have started planning our bathroom layout.  We'd had a few rough sketches of how we thought things would go, but hadn't actually measured the room to see if it would fit.  The room is currently two room, which we will return to one.  The current three doors will be reduced to two, one to enter the bathroom from the house, one to enter the garden from the bathroom!

I did a bit of searching on the internet and came across a bathroom planner on bathstore.com.  It was a bit clunky but very quickly gave me a scaled layout and the ability to add baths, showers etc.  It soon became apparent that the only way we were going to fit in a toilet, sink, shower and bath was if the bath was to sit in the middle of the room.  We thought a free standing bath would be a luxury that we couldn't justify, but the extra door in the bathroom means we just haven't got the wall space to fit it all in otherwise!

I'm quite excited by this!  We currently have a shower over the bath so it will be fantastic to have a separate shower.  Having a toilet in the bathroom will make it so much easier with Little Owl.

While I was busy clicking away at the laptop, Papa Owl had dug out some square paper, a ruler and a pencil and had been busy creating a scaled diagram.

Papa Owl hasn't included the chimney on his diagram as we are planning on taking it out.  While it took a little longer to set up, Papa Owl's diagram is much more tactile and easier to change than the online diagram.  It took a bit of work looking up different sizes of baths and showers but it gave us a lot more flexibility.  Going for a central bath has also given us the wall space to have a large shower.  Another luxury but does mean it will be possible to take a shower with Little Owl.

I've been quite drawn by this style of shower which I have been told is an "off set quad".  It gives us the space inside the shower, but by softening the corner, allows more room outside to walk through what might be a pinch point between the shower and the bath.  

We are still very unsure of the style of bathroom we want.  Do we go with a Victorian bathroom which will keep in style with the house but limit us on some choices, or do we go with contemporary which allows us to add sunken spots lights bringing much needed light to a very dark room?

Cross Monday Week 36

Look how much I have done!  So excited!  Everything on the left of this section has taken me two weeks to do, and if I push on I could get it finished in another week, a week to do the big plant in the middle, and a further 3 weeks to do the right hand side... two weeks to do the vine... hang on - I thought I was doing well but if I keep this fast pace up, its going to take me 7 weeks minimum to finish this section.  Not sure Christmas is going to lend itself to lots of stitching either!  Oh well, at least its a marker, lets see how far I get by 12th January, just 7 weeks away!

My Sunday Photo

Sunday afternoon fire

Owlfit of the Week

You know when you arrive home to a package like this, that its going to be a fab Owlfit week!  I am a big fan of me&i having first discovered them at The Baby Show when Little Owl was a baby.  If you haven't discovered me&i before you should take a gander at their website.  The concept behind the me&i brand is that the clothes are all bought through home parties, however, if like me you don't have a rep local to you, you can just order through one of the reps. 

So do you want to see what I got?!!

Matching hat and skirt!  I fell in love with this pattern when I first saw it, and quickly added it to my pinterest board of this seasons top toddler clothes, but it was looking a bit too pink for me and I wasn't sure what I was going to put them with.  After they arrived, I realised how much red was also in the pattern so off I went to H&M to buy the top and leggings (which are part of their 3 for 2 basics range).  I was really impressed to discover their winter leggings slightly fleecy on the inside to make them nice and warm for winter!

I've teamed them up with boots from Mothercare.  If you want to see what other little ones are wearing this season, click on the badges below to find links to other blogs. 

Small Changes. Big Difference.

Last weekend was one of getting jobs done, nothing too exciting, just small little jobs, but some of them have had a huge impact on our home!

Firstly the light had gone on  the first landing, which is a dark enough spot as it is without any natural light.  We put a brighter bulb in and a larger shade and its lightened the whole hall way up massively!

Second was a new toilet seat!  Little Owl couldn't get on to the toilet herself with her seat on there so we have invested in a 'family' toilet seat!  Little Owl loves it and again, the room seems brighter having gone from a black to a white seat.

Then it was the turn of the coat rack!  This came with the house and we've just carried on using it.  Little Owl's play kitchen sits underneath it, which didn't leave her much space to play as she grows taller.  The new bulb upstairs has helped to lighten another dark corner so we decided to raise the coat rack by about 6 inches.  This was going to mean a stretch for me to hang my coat but would really make it a nicer space to play for Little Owl (why can I hear all my teachers saying "there's no such word as nicer"?)

The trouble is, we took off the coat rack and our hallway suddenly felt light and spacious!  But we couldn't not have a coat rack... so we found another spot!  Just behind the front door! So obvious but we never thought it would fit there, the fit is actually so perfect that we think it was made for that space!  As an added bonus, it makes the entrance to our house seem so cosy and homely - love it!

There was one other small change this weekend - picked up my new glasses from Frames In the Lanes too!  So far only my mother and one student have noticed but I have had a few compliments on my hair!  

My old glasses had seen better days!  Love the news ones though!

Aren't they fun!

Cross Monday Week 35

Its coming on!  The plant on the right was two evenings work and its not finished yet but it also marks how big this section is.  There's a few bars to go beneath it and then its the vine which marks the end of this section and will finally show me the space I have for Little Owl's name!  I'm pretty sure I won't get there this side of Christmas but hopefully in the new year I can start planning that bit.

My Sunday Photo

Robertsbridge Bonfire. Last of the season.

Owlfit of the Week

I LOVE this pixie hooded coat!  I picked it up at a flea market in Lille (that's a post I really need to write) for €20 and I'm so glad I did!  I wasn't sure of the size as Little Owl wasn't with me, but in the end it came down to the fact it was the only one!  It's quite thick and a snug fit which keeps Little Owl super warm, and I love the off centred zip, and how it matches the tip off the hood.

It just so happens that we have some matching cord trousers!  They are from M&S and I found them on ebay, they featured in one of my first owlfit posts!

Not many of Little Owl's trousers still fit from last winter but luckily these still do!  I love the detailing on them, and the colour just happens to be my favourite!

Christmas Cake

Papa Owl has decided that this year he is going to make us a Christmas Cake.  His mum makes one every year, and usually he persuades her to cut him a healthy chunk which we enjoy over the festive period.  This year we are going to have a whole cake!

Now you might have noticed by now that I am no baker.  So I had two jobs to do, the first was to take photos!  Little Owl and Papa Owl weighed all the fruit and mixed it together.  Papa Owl then gave it some brandy to drink.

 My second job was to take Little Owl out for the day so Papa Owl could work his magic.  I have no idea what was involved but like the good "blogger's hubby" he took some photos.

So that's our Christmas Cake all wrapped up!  Literally but not figuratively, as it needs "watering" with brandy once or twice a week until about a week until school breaks up and then its time to ice it ready for the big day!

I am joining in with Little Chefs linky.  If you click on the picture above you will find a blog where the amazing Baked Potato Mummy bakes amazing food all of the time and with her toddler! 

I am also linking up with Thinly Spread for her Festive Friday Linky, all things Christmassy until Boxing Day.

Our Bathroom

We're at the very beginning stages of planning for a new bathroom.  We've owned our house for just over 3 years and are slowly renovating it room by room.  So far we have completed our bedroom, Little Owl's room and our living room.  Our dining room is a work in progress, with an aimed completion date of Christmas 2015.  We are also hoping that our bathroom might be completed by then too.  To be honest its a bit of a dream, I don't dare to believe it could happen.

We started by sketching out the bathroom with all the details on like the window, doors (plural), alcoves etc so we could measure and record them.  This is by no way to scale!

So our bathroom is currently two rooms, our current bathroom has a bath and a sink and not enough room to swing a cat, not even little Bonnie.  Originally it would have been one room, I suspect the maid's room.  

Have you spotted the unique feature?  Yes, we have a door to the garden from our first floor bathroom!  What's more, you still have to go up steps to reach it!

The plan is to open this back up to one room, and probably remove the chimney breast to allow us more room for storage, and some wall space for radiators.

We hope to fit in a bath, separate shower, toilet, sink, and off course a shoe rack for our garden clogs! 

Cross Monday Week 34

Finished another section!  Technically that means I am half way through which would make my completion date 6th July!  That's two months earlier than I originally thought but I think it is optimistic.  The outside border took me 4 weeks to go round with the green and its not all crossed (midway on the right hand-side clockwise round to the top left needs a second stitch).  I then need to do the same with the gold, and then again with the red, so that's 8 weeks.  Then there is pink and two shades of blue to add!  

However, I am really pleased with the progress, and in teacher's speak, July is this year!  This next section is the last proper section in the middle, then I just need to add Little Owl's details which will take some planning.  Exciting!

My Sunday Photo