I won’t be doing much cleaning over the bank holiday weekend *smug face*. Wanna know why? Because I’ve finally found something that’s helped me to keep on top of the endless housework that comes hand-in-hand with a busy family home with two young kids, a mud-loving puppy and a constantly-moulting cat. I’ve got to be honest, when the iRobot Roomba 966 – an all-singing, all-dancing robot vacuum cleaner – first arrived, I was cynical. It comes with a hefty price tag (retails at around £800), so it needed to be something pretty special to convince me it would make a… View Post

I love the excitement of bonfire night –amazing fireworks, writing my name with sparklers, wrapping up warm, the smell in the air. It’s a real marker in the year – a celebration of the end of Autumn, with a chill that reminds you that winter is just around the corner. Every year, around this time, I start pinning warming soup recipes on Pinterest and promise myself I’ll cook myself some, but it never seems to happen. But with a new commitment to eating more veg, I’ve decided that making soup is a must so I sought out a tasty-looking butternut… View Post

A pair of luxury slippers are on my Christmas wish-list, but as the colder weather sets in, I need something to tide me over. Not wanting to splash out on my dream pair, I decided that an easy DIY option was the best the short-term solution. This simple hack was achieved using a pair of basic slippers I’ve had kicking around (boom boom) in the bottom of my wardrobe for months (if not years), and some iron-on fabric patches which I think I must have got in a goody bag from an event somewhere. Above you can see the slippers… View Post

How confident a gardener are you? When it comes to indoor plants, my confidence has sky-rocketed over the last few years, but as soon as I step out of the back door, it’s a totally different story. And it seems that I’m not alone – recent research by garden tool supplier Fiskars has revealed that 41 is the age Britons offically ‘get into gardening’. And I’m also one of the three in ten adults (according to the research) who still rely on their parents to sort out their outdoor space! Busted. So when Fiskars invited me to join a gang of fellow… View Post

I’m calling it – the autumn cleanse beats the spring clean hands down for me. In spring, all I want to do is get outside, but in autumn I go into full home declutter mode. For some reason this always takes me by surprise, but having looked back in my blog archive it seems I get this urge every September. It’s my seasonal reset button, with its promise of a new start (remember the joy of all that new stationary for the brand new school year?), and the reintroduction of routine and structure after the summer break. So I’ve gone into… View Post