How our playroom is organised to stay as tidy as possible

I know that we're pretty lucky to even have a playroom.
And to be honest it wasn't in the initial plan for our home until Henry arrived. In fact our playroom started life upstairs in what is now Henry's bedroom (you can read my first playroom post here, and how it's been transformed into Henry's room here) and moved to our conservatory late last year.

Being able to have a playroom means we can keep some of the toddler mess in one manageable space, and create more adult space in other rooms. Our living room does still get completely trashed with toys, but in stages, and in the evenings, we can tidy everything away into the playroom and our space is child-free. It's a nice feeling.

Preparing the home for baby no.2

Review Post*

We are getting over closer to becoming a family of four and I'm not going to lie, it just does not feel quite real yet. Apparently the large watermelon shaped mound under my clothing just isn't enough for my brain to accept that we are actually going to have a second child soon.

That being said, I am thoroughly enjoying getting all the preparation done for baby number two. The organiser in me is thrilled to be able to wash tiny baby clothing, and organise drawers, and clean rooms. I think I was a born nester because I absolutely love it.

However there is much less to do this time around. Our home is already prepared for an active toddler, and realistically a newborn is far less of an issue on your home furnishings than a toddler - how do toddlers make some many crumbs? But we do need to create new space for the new addition, and our home has changed a lot since Henry was a baby, even though it was only two years ago.

So what have we been doing to prepare for our little newbie?

Building our own mud kitchen: The Ordinary Moments

We finally had a bit of summer guys... in April!!
After snow and storms, I really wasn't expecting a weekend of beautiful sunshine, and we certainly made the most of it.

We've been working on our garden periodically for months, with little updates here and here, and we've been able to do it on a budget which I'm pretty proud of. Recently we added wood chippings to the "kids area" of the garden to cover the concrete base, and make it a bit more child friendly. The last addition to this mini-section to the garden was our planned mud kitchen.

Appreciating days at home

Collaborative post*

Winter is such a tough season.
I mean it's great with Christmas and cosy days at home with lots of home cooked food and cuddles.
But after a while, and after what feels like 267 days of non-stop rain, staying at home can feel like a bit of a drag.

With Spring, finally, sort of, on it's way, we'll be getting out more and more.

But with Spring comes Summer and our imminent new addition. And a newborn means a few more days at home.

How we updated our toddler bedroom

Since we found out we were expecting a second baby, we have been planning Henry's bedroom move to free up the nursery for baby boy. 

The room has been a work in progress for quite some time, as it started life as a spare bedroom, then a playroom - which didn't really get much action to be honest. Now it has a new lease of life and honestly it's one of my favourite rooms of the house now. I feel like it's a room with so much functionality and fun. 

As I'm super nosey, and love seeing inside other people's home, I thought I'd share a little glimpse into our toddler bedroom and share a few of my favourite homely bits too. 

Getting our garden kid ready for Spring

This is a collaborative review post*

The seasons are a changing, hopefully at least, and with that means getting ready for much more outdoor play and adventure.
We've always loved getting outside, and with our garden almost completely renovated now (we just have some wood chippings to put down, and a tidy of the flower beds) - you can see some of the original garden in this post.

Alongside our Wendy house which we put up over the summer courtesy of Dann's parents, and hand painted by me, we wanted to add a few extra toys and outdoor play things for Henry and Baby Boy to play with. We have a sand and water table, and plans for a mud kitchen to be built this summer.

Your one stop cosy Christmas shop

Who knew the Christmas with a toddler would be so hard and so much fun all at once.

It's exhausting keeping up with Henry, but seeing the wonder and excitement on his face is definitely worth the early nights.

Alongside trying to be super organised, and only partially failing, we're taking advantage of stores that can cover multiple needs at once, because convenience is the name of the game when you have a little one in tow too!

On top of present buying, we're also in need of our family Christmas essentials, and nothing says Christmas like cosy, food filled days at home with your favourite people.
Enter Morrison's* with their one stop shop for all your Christmas needs.

How we transformed our conservatory into a playroom

When we bought our home two and a half years ago we were a little perplexed on what to do with the conservatory that was unceremoniously attached to the back of our house.

I must admit, it's never really been something I've wanted, though it wasn't a deal breaker having one either. We just struggled to know what to do with the space. It's a large area, but with it being colder than the rest of the house in the winter, and warmer in the summer, it's a difficult space to use. 

For a long while the room was used for storage or like an over sized cupboard of junk and miscellaneous home items. Then we discussed turning it into an adult den/escape, filled with plants, a little storage and seating. However we finally decided to combine the last plan into a playroom too. The playroom we had upstairs wasn't really practical and would eventually become a second bedroom. Plus we got the rabbits and decided to house them in the conservatory too, so playroom/conservatory is what we've created. 

And it's fast becoming my favourite room in the house. 

Autumn Home Decorating

Autumn is the best season isn't it?
I pretty much think it is a holiday in itself.
I mean every holiday has it's own form of decorating, and so does autumn, and I am so on board with autumnal decorating!!

Let's be honest, an excuse for candles and pumpkins was always going to be a winner with me, and if you through in a little Halloween quirkiness it's literally like this season was for me.

So with a little help from Homesense*, I've been adding to our home with a little Autumn and Halloween decorating!

How we renovated our garden for under 1k

We've been in our house now for just over two years, and to be honest have done quite a bit of work transforming it into a place we love that suits us as a family. We've completely overhauled the kitchen (including basically everything in the kitchen minus new flooring) and the upstairs bathroom, as well as redecorating every single room, re-flooring all of the upstairs and creating a nursery and playroom.

Whilst the main focus of our home was to make it ready indoors for a family, we realised that we had kind of let the garden fall behind. But we're now finally there with it.

Because of our somewhat limited English summers, we didn't really want to spend a fortune on the garden but wanted to try and make it as child friendly and safe as possible.
We had a £1,000 budget, and I think we stuck to it pretty well, with a little help from family. (you can see some before shots, in this garden post!)

So what did we do?

Why Hampshire is Home

I moved to Southampton in September 2008 to start studying for my Journalism degree.
A little known fact, Dann actually moved down to Southampton in June 2009 so we could move in together. Since then, Hampshire has been our home away from home. We're both originally from Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire (there's some question as to what county Dann's home village is actually in). We met in Bucks, and 90% of our family is still in the county, so you'll often hear us say we are going back home for a weekend.

But it's a sentence I am planning to drop.

Don't get me wrong, I love my old home. I think I might even love Dann's old home more than my own. Our visits there always stick with me, and we have some of our fondest memories there - including our wedding which was in the church in Dann's village, and the reception in my favourite local town.

But it is no longer really home.
It was a home. But our home is now in Hampshire.

Crafts with a baby - they rarely meet the expectations

I always imagined how life would be with a little one, especially when I was pregnant. 

Of course, like any expectant mother (or father) I focused on all the positives like cuddles, first steps, playing together and crafting together. 

Now the latter of these is what I want to focus on today. 

Is your home ready for a little walker?

The last couple of weeks have seen our little crawler start to take his first steps.
Everyday he is getting braver and letting go of furniture more and more, and taking more steps with every try.

It's an unbelievably exciting time but also a really nerve-racking time too.

With new movements and development, comes more exploring, and of course, the realisation that maybe our house isn't completely child-proof! You only need to sit on the floor and get down to their level to see your living room/kitchen/staircase how your little one sees it, and all the opportunities for exploration your home provides.

As with any exploration, you need to be prepared, and as safe as possible.

If you're little one is anything like ours you'll probably have been baby proofing for a while now, but we're now stepping up our game a little more with our very nearly walker, with a little help from Fred*. 

Chickens, dogs and garden fun

Although I'm often very sad that we don't live closer to our families (obviously this was our choice by deciding to stay in Southampton) but I take a lot of solace in the fact we don't live too far away and we can make special memories for our family.

With the Easter break and my sisters wedding, we decided to spend the entire long weekend at Dann's parents house. 

It's fast becoming one of our favourite places, and I just know Henry and any future littles are going to make so many memories here.  

Prepping for travel with littles

After 10 months we're finally getting used to this travel with kids lark.

With family and friends dotted all over the country we often find ourselves away from home over the weekends and bank holidays. 

So we've spent the last few months fine-tuning our travelling, and most importantly our travel prep.

My 15 minute lazy pasta dinner

Do you know what I really love? Really good comfort food. There's something to be said for carbs and their ability to make us feel full and comfy and cosy inside. These dishes are of particular importance during times of need or when requiring cheering up.

Today I thought I'd share one of my favourite comfort foods, which also happens to be a super fast dish perfect for the lazy cook. We usually save this for evenings when we're super busy, or returning from a trip (the homesickness gets very real, and this helps quite a lot). 

It isn't pretty really, but damn is it warming and loved.

We didn't go out today

We didn't go out today... or the day before if I'm totally honest.
We didn't get dressed, and we never even planned to.
I wore no make-up and didn't brush my hair.
We didn't leave the house once.

And sometimes that is perfectly OK, even when your baby is a bit older.

The thing is, with the weather like it is in not-so-sunny England, it's hardly difficult to think, that there are going to be quite a few stay-at-home days, especially when you don't have a car during the week (and frankly even if I did I'd probably hate it because this girl HATES driving!).

You often see these mums on the internet that really do have their shit together, and are out and about every single day,and every type of baby group you can imagine, having coffee dates with other mums and basically nailing mum life and maternity leave.

I don't do this.

Getting Spring Garden ready

Anyone else really looking forward to Spring now? Don't get me wrong, I know British Spring isn't always much better than our Winter, but it is a teeny bit warmer, with a little more sun! And with the first signs of Spring, comes the hint of Summer, and that's a season I'm really looking forward to this year.

Anyway, with Spring in mind, we've been thinking about all our Spring cleaning, which always results in us decorating, re-arranging and organising some part or another of our home.
This year, we're focusing on our garden. With Henry hopefully being on his feet come the summer, I want to get him outdoors as much as possible, which means getting out in the garden. And it requires a much needed spruce up.

A weekend in the countryside

I'm trying to get back into using my blog as a diary as much as a platform to share thoughts and ideas. With Henry growing up SO fast I really want to make sure I record as much as possible on this blog so I have it to look back on - plus it really motivates me to take lots of photos (in keeping with my 2017 resolutions!)

At the weekend we decided to go back up to Buckinghamshire as Dann had some annual leave to use up and had a random Friday off work. We both love going back up to Danns home village. It's the perfect quintessential place and is like the village that time forgot (apart from the cars, and the broadbadnd - though thank goodness for the wifi as the only signal is in the middle of a field!).

We're really making sure this year to go and visit family as much as we can, and to go out and do things as a family with Henry, especially whilst I'm still in maternity leave!

So I've out together a little photo diary for you, and well, for me too! (warning - this is very photo heavy, like you;d expect anything less!)

Our Christmas Day photo diary

Is anyone else really missing Christmas already? It can't just be me? 

For a lot of people, today is the return to work, so most definitely the Christmas spirit is on it's way out. 

After a lovely little Christmas period, and some well deserved time off, I finally sat at the computer to look through our Christmas Day photos - sorry it would have been sooner but I got knocked off my feet by a nasty headcold over the New Years period - and I decided I just had to share some of our photos, because even if I do say so myself, they are damn cute!! Plus being our first Christmas as a family of three, I felt it needed to be recorded on the blog!