Going Logo Down In Acapulco

Yo, Yo, Yo!

There's a top prize available for the first one of you to spot the new addition to my blog. 

Can you see it? 

Ok, I lied about the prize; so I might as well tell you. I've made a logo for my blog. Exciting times, oui? 

I was asked for a copy of my logo for my profile on a new social media platform, and realised I'd never made one! So I asked Tom to help me take some close-ups of a dinosaur, and thus my logo was born: 

Obviously, the photo shoot also involved snacks. The cake slice is from besties' belated wedding cake, and (apparently) it was delicious. Greedy dinosaur... 

I've made a few other tweaks to my sidebar too; a bit of a spring clean. I'm thinking about adding a sidebar on the right too, for a collection of my favourite blogs' logos. What do you reckon? 

Whilst I decide, shall we all have a dance to the Four Tops? Yes? 

Katie xxx

Commode on over

And pull up a chair (once you've recovered from that really awful pun). 

Not just any chair, oh no; an upcycled chair. Yup. I've been getting my craft on once again, and this is the reason I spent several days in March covered in spray paint.

Commode: Before

I spotted this fellow feeling a wee bit sorry for himself, literally, in our local flea market late last year (the one that made me famous). Despite the fact his seat was bleached with the splatterings of bleary-eyed, full-bladdered emergencies past (lovely, eh?), I fell in love with his rather sexy turned legs and arms. 

Eeeew.

But check out those sexy legs!

And those arms! Swit-swoo!

Thankfully, I had a good excuse to buy him there and then, because we'd recently decided our bathroom needed a chair to perch on whilst we brushed our teeth. And what better for a bathroom than an antique commode?! Tom might have been slightly less enthused that we had to carry it home between us, because we'd walked into town...

Rather than reverting to my trusty DIY chalk paint, which I've previously used on a dresser, a lamp, a dining room chair and our dining table, I decided to opt for something even easier (and with no brushes to wash out afterwards) and bought a can of Rustoleum primer and another one of grey spraypaint. 

Making progress; after the first coat of primer.

I was particularly drawn to the wicker elements, because they reminded me of the aida fabric for cross-stitching. So I decided to embroider it. Are you ready for the "after"? Here goes:

So much better with the stains cleaned and covered!

I opted to use wool, because it's nice and chunky, but
I'm uncertain about the colour.

I haven't embroidered the seat yet, because the wicker is so complicated I struggled to get a standard pattern, and I was worried it would make the seat uncomfortable. Look at me- choosing practicality over aesthetics!! Perhaps I'm growing up...

Katie xxx

Ready for the floor

S'up homies!

Are you having a nice weekend? 

I must warn you, you may want to hide your wallet before reading on. After I found out via Brit + Co that Society 6 (the awesome art shop) have started selling rugs, I spent two hours trawling through all 2,000(!) of them trying to narrow down which one to buy. 

The rugs are the same price for each standard size, regardless of design, and start from a bargainous $28 for a 3ft x 2ft rug. Although they become slightly less bargainous when you find it impossible to pick a favourite and end up with 28 of them in your cart....

The designs span from the sublime to the ridiculous, with the following being just a few of my favourites:

Substitution II

ókshirahm sky mandala

Compass (Natural)

Winter Stripe

Fractal geometric emperor penguin

Overdose

The Whale

Vintage Preservation

Which one do you like the most? I just can't decide!!

Katie xxx

Groombridge Place

Hey m'dears 

This post has been a long time coming, given that it's about some of the adventures from my birthday weekend, for which the celebrations have well and truly finished. Now I'm just old. Tom and I spent the Friday at Groombridge Place, after Tom cooked up a breakfast storm to keep us going for most of the day. 

The house is stunning, although I was sad to discover visitors aren't allowed any closer than the outside of the moat. Still, I guess that's the whole point of having a moat! The house is surrounded by beautiful themed gardens, including a Drunken Garden, Oriental Garden, and Secret Garden. 

Gorgeous blossom in the Oriental Garden

I'm not quite sure how secret a Secret Garden is when it's signposted...

The formal gardens also host a tiny museum about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a frequent visitor to the house, a giant chess set, free-range peacocks, and some of the most unusual plants I've ever seen. 

It even has tulips which look like Bart Simpson!

And that's just the tip of the magical iceberg.... The house and formal gardens are nestled inside a vast, wooded estate (aka the Enchanted Forest) which is crammed with incredible, fantastical things to discover. I don't want to ruin all the surprises, but the thoughtful additions include eerily realistic human skeletons, gypsy caravans, giant swings, and a Pterodactyl. 

Innocently enjoying the regular-sized swings. Little did I know they'd
soon be ruined for me FOREVER. 

Giant swing!! EEEEPPPPP! (Apparently, giant swings make
me do Chipmunk Face too.)

I told you it was giant(!)

We also witnessed a raptor show, which I got slightly too excited about because I tend to think "OHMYGOD Jurassic Park!!" whenever I hear the word raptor. As I know now, raptor also means a bird of prey. The display was pretty cool, despite the lack of dinosaurs, and the birds got incredibly close; I was one of the majority who were clipped by a wing when we didn't duck low enough. Although I suspect the owl hit me on purpose after overhearing me muttering about the disappointing lack of Jeff Goldblum... 

Jack

Inky

I honestly can't recommend Groombridge Place enough, and can't wait to take our gorgeous niece there the minute she's old enough to tackle a full-sized replica Robinson Crusoe TV show treehouse. 

Amazeballs.

Have you found any brilliant places for adventures recently? 

Katie xxx

Hopping To It

Hello lovelies!

I hope you all had excellent*, extra-long, extra-chocolatey weekends :) I realise that this post is incredibly late as a last-weekend round-up, given that this weekend is already upon us (HURRAH!) but, in my defence, I spent Monday to Wednesday in a chocolate egg coma and then last night, just as I was about to hit "Publish", we had a power-cut; which wiped out the wifi. It also meant we had to get ready for bed by the light of candles, my bunny nightlight, and Tom's bike lights; which was much more exciting than brushing our teeth in normal circumstances.

Our Bank Holiday weekend was mainly spent cleaning, weeding, de-cluttering and visiting our favourite place in the world; THE TIP. We even tackled (cue ominous sounds of doom) The Loft. It took two trips to the tip, the building of an avalache-worthy teetering pile of bric-a-brac ready for the car boot, and two evenings listing things on eBay, but we got it all done. Phew! 

Thankfully, our weekend wasn't all boring chores. On Saturday we went to our collective besties' house for a BBQ to celebrate their super-secret nuptials! Last Monday, Tom and I were honoured beyond words to be the sole guests at their top secret wedding - not even their families knew!! We actually managed to keep schtum about it since February(!) which was so hard but also rather fun. It also proves I'm An Excellent Secret Keeper, so feel free to send all your juicy secrets my way...

Yay for secret weddings!

In addition to the BBQ fun (with an Easter Egg hunt, which I might have become slighty too competitive about) I also received my parcel from Lauren's cheep** and cheerful Easter swap, courtesy of Clare.

I'm sure it goes without saying that those poor bunnies didn't last the night. 

The nail varnish is a gorgeous coral colour, and I love that it's called "Fruit Salad" because when people ask me "what's that all over your hands?" I can tell them "It's Fruit Salad" rather than "It's the chocolatey remains of two dead Malteasers bunnies". GENIUS, no?

The wrapping paper was very "me", given that the Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my all-time favourite books. Particularly his impressive munchings on the Saturday...

The parcel above contained these pretty magnets, which are now adorning our fridge and getting along splendidly with all the others. 

I sent my parcel to Sophie in the Sticks, who has posted a photo of the goodies I sent her here.

Katie xxx

* Yes, I know I could've put "eggsellent" here, but I kind of feel like puns that obvious are beneath me.

** Ok, I cracked***. 

*** Haha. 

Spot the difference

Today's entertainment is brought to you courtesy of Essentials Magazine and Ideal Home magazine. When reading the recipe section in the May issue of Ideal Home, I got a rather vivid sense of déjà vu. The brunch recipes looked delicious, but rather familiar... 

I don't tend to keep magazine recipes very often, but (rather serendipitously) a collection of tasty breakfast ideas caught my eye in Essentials Magazine about two years ago, and I subsequently stuck the pages on the fridge for some lazy Sunday morning inspiration. 

So, shall we play spot the difference? 

Awkward....

Katie xxx

P.S. The Boston Beans are delicious, by the way.

Day beds and de-cluttering

Hey sweetcheeks! How's tricks?

Apologies for the silence- last week I was been bitten by the de-cluttering bug and subsequently launched a strategic attack on every cupboard, drawer, and vintage suitcase in the house to oust some of the general detritus we've apparently begun hoarding over the last few years. 

When we were renting I had regular, ruthless clear-outs, to save us lugging armloads of unnecessary stuff from one place to the next, but since buying our house I've felt less compelled to de-clutter (aside from the occasional bag of odds and ends going to the charity shop). As a result, our loft is bursting with boxes of tat, nearly-empty tins of paint, Tom's old uni coursework, bags of my falling-apart shoes, and Playmobile pirate ships. 

Obviously, one must keep one's energy levels up when heaving chests of drawers up and down stairs on their own (one could have waited 20 minutes for one's boyfriend to get home from work and help, but one is not known for one's patience). Thankfully, my Mother In Law came to the rescue on Sunday with some gorgeous Easter treats:

I took the photo above this afternoon. There were a lot more eggs in there on Sunday...

In addition to throwing out an entire binbag full of old birthday and Christmas cards (which I sorted on our bed, thereby covering it in loose glitter) I've decided to get rid of the denim chair in our dining room (because it turned out to be awfully uncomfortable) and turn our south-facing guest bed into a day bed for curling up on with a magazine. By "day bed" I basically mean, "add lots more blankets and cushions". Serendipitously, my MIL made me a beautiful patchwork cushion for my birthday! It goes perfectly with the others I've thrown on there already, and is a step closer to the number of cushions a good day bed needs (12, I reckon).

Panda cushion, new patchwork cushion,
Sweet Dreams pillowcase, and cloud cushion.

Reverse of lovely new cushion

I've only done two rooms so far (we have a LOT of stuff) but the house is looking better already, and I'm excited to crack on with the sorting.

How do you feel about de-cluttering? A therapeutic pastime, or a boring, dusty, chore? 

Katie xxx

Three Things Tuesday

Hello lovelies!

How are you?

Here are three things which are currently rockin' my socks:

1. Pimping the washing up.
Fancy glass bottle + oil spout dispenser thingummy = glamorous washing up liquid agogo. Much better than a regular plastic bottle, no?

2. Mystery boxes.
When I came home yesterday I couldn't get into our front porch because it was full of packing boxes and bubble wrap. My first thought was Tom had decided to leave me (fair play to him, really- there's only so much enforced eating of cake a man should have to take!). Tom was quick to take credit upon returning home, and told me he’d bought me a surprise DIY extension kit- the perfect combination of country kitchen and box fort.

Sadly, he was lying (I knew it!). The boxes were actually for our neighbours, who are apparently moving next week. Once they've gone, Tom and I will be the longest-residing inhabitants of our terrace. Which means my master plan of driving people to sell up and move with my enthusiastic shower-warbling (so we can sneakily knock through into the neighbouring houses and live in all four) is totally working. Yes!

3. Sleeping in the savannah
Well, almost - thanks to my awesome birthday presents from Tom.

I love that the tiger one is in the kids' section, but the zebra one is apparently classy enough to be deemed adult bedding.

What's currently floating your boat?

Katie xxx

A new age bracket

Hey y'all*!

*Turns face back and forth* Can you see any extra wrinkles? 

As of Thursday, I'm now the grand ol' age of 26 - moving into a whole new age bracket on multiple-choice forms, and no longer scraping into the Young Person category for National Trust membership (which costs less than half the price of an adult one). Boo.

On the plus side, I managed to stretch my birthday celebrations out over three days; which I reckon is pretty good going. I also only worked on Tuesday and Wednesday - something I could very easily get used to! 

Birthday cards and a pretty new book

I spent Thursday morning chilling out at home with Marmite on toast and Sarah Moore's Vintage Home (a present from Tom, which I asked for after reading the lovely Anna's review), followed by an afternoon of shopping hardcore cardio/weightlifting due to buying the bits for my parcel for Lauren's Easter Gift Swap. I somehow managed to spend an hour and a half in Brighton Homesense. The evening involved a pre-theatre dinner in Wagamamas, and being treated to a White Russian and front-row seats for the hilarious David Sedaris by a girlfriend (thanks again, Holly!). 

It also involved a lot of my new favourite tea.
This stuff is SERIOUSLY delicious. Seriously.

Tom and I spent Friday exploring Groombridge Place, which was so amazing I've decided it's worthy of a post of all of its own - so you'll have to keep your eyes peeled later in the week. It involved giant swings**, drunken gardens, and raptors. You know it's going to be good.

Yesterday Tom and I hosted my birthday party, which meant a morning of cleaning the house, making salads, and lining up cakes, before an afternoon of eating too much BBQ food, copious laughter with some of my all time favourite people, and plenty of rum. 

Believe it or not, five kinds of cake is pretty restrained for one of my parties...

Oh, and presents! Amongst other treats, I'm now the proud owner of this INCREDIBLE alarm clock:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
[image source]

Today has involved tea with my parents, leftover BBQ food, and scoffing miniature scones whilst catching up on some good TV. Tomorrow will centre around counting down the minutes until Made in Chelsea Season 7 starts. Eep!

What did you get up to this week? 

Katie xxx 

P.S. I'm linking this post up with the fabulous Hannah's The Week That Was: Captured (TWTWC).

* Sorry, I've been watching too much Nashville. 

** Honestly- those swings have ruined regular-sized swings for me, forever. It was totally worth it.