Post Comment Love 5-7 January 2018

Hello there and Happy New Year!

Welcome to the first #PoCoLo of the year, it's great to see you and it's great to be back. I don't know about you, but I very much needed that Christmas break and took the opportunity to completely unplug myself, and it was great.  Of course that means I didn't achieve as much as I'd planned but it was worth it for the break.  

I'm used to feeling like I need to catch up anyway, it's becoming almost the norm, but that's for another day (and one soon, I hope!)

This week my photo is of the DIY Garland that came on my Papergang subscription box, one of my Christmas presents. It's on my noticeboard to wish me a Happy New Year, but true to form, not quite cut out and formed into a garland. Each of those shapes are to be cut out and part of the garland, and that's a lot of cutting out isn't it?

I'M KINDA LIKING MY SHORTCUT VERSION!

We've a lovely blogger in our Blogger Showcase this week, but before I share more - remember if you'd like to be featured in a future post then please get in touch with Morgan or I. We've a bit of a waiting list, but currently have free slots mid-March and we'd love to feature you.

Blogger Showcase: Emma from This is Em's World

Now having read Emma's responses I'm totally jealous as she's seen Strictly live in the studio, something I'd love to do and while I've tried for tickets have never got even as close as a sniff, maybe I will one day, who knows.  Either way though I'm pleased to know that real people do actually get the tickets. 

But there's more to Emma than just Strictly, I mean, she's chosen biscuits and cake - now we're talking!  But before I share all of her responses here I'd best give you the link to Morgan's blog so you can read them for yourself.

Before you go though, don't forget to check out Emma's social media channels and give her a follow or two:

Twitter  -  Instagram  -  Reddit  -  Pinterest  -  Bloglovin'  -  Tumblr

An InLinkz Link-up

A welcome basket for guests this Christmas

I don't know about you but when we go and stay with friends or relatives it can go one of two ways. I can be uber organised and remember to pack everything I need to take, or more than likely I'll be rushing around at the last minute randomly throwing things into my bag. Then it's hit and miss as to whether or not I actually throw the things I need into my bag or not...

And I'd like to think I'm not alone, although I expect my guests are slightly more prepared than I ever am.

So when Wayfair challenged me to put together a welcome basket for my guests this Christmas then stepping up to my role as host I used my mid-range self as a basis for what to include in my basket, but first I needed to choose a basket.

After plenty of deliberation I opted for this fabric basket in petrol by Zeller. Our spare bedroom is a mix of pale blues, mid aqua and neutral calming colours, but I thought adding a pop of blue would make a nice change - and it does.

You'll know by now that I'm not much of one for sticking to rules, so I'm using a side table as a bedside table and I love the strong shape it gives.  The brilliant white top show off the colours of my basket and of its contents.

The unfinished legs give it a modern and effortlessly stylish look and feel, and it's also available on the Wayfair site.

So what's in my basket?

• Slippers! We've wooden floors throughout our house and if you're not used to that, then it can be cold underfoot, and they are the most often loaned item to guests.
• A small patchwork quilt because there's nothing worse than being cold in someone else's house is there?  It's only a small quilt, and there's another larger one on the open shelf unit, so I'm not trying to freeze my guests out!  
• Some reading material and quite a selection at that. There's the magazines from this year's Ideal Home Show at Christmas and from Grand Designs Live earlier in the year.  Plus some classics - I've included The Da Vinci Code and Flowers in the Attic - sometimes having an old favourite to dip in and out of is welcoming isn't it?  I've also included a tongue-in-cheek book entitled "House Rules" not quite what you might think, but it's full of tips for running a smoothly oiled home - I think I could do with reading it again!
• An eye mask as it has been said our bedroom is on the light side...
• Some essential toiletries including cotton wool buds, cotton wool pads, make-up remover and my favourite thing to forget a contact lens case.

On the side table I've also added a delicate glass jar with some brightly coloured alstroemerias, also known as Lily of the Incas or the Peruvian Lily, and a small fabric tray for jewellery and valuables. It's one I made a short while back and the colours match the new basket well.  It's a small thing, but whenever I stay away from home I'm always keen to know where my jewellery is, and that it's together, so if we needed to leave in a hurry I can easily pick it up in one go. I'm hoping that I'll never need to know that, but when I do it's reassuring.

The final item that's an essential when guests stay is some fluffy towels, and this year I've gone for some of these funky and festive stag towels. Aren't they great?

So what have I forgotten?  What would you include in a welcome basket for your guests?  Leave a comment and let me know, as my once confident-that-I'd-included-everything-self is no beginning to wonder what I've missed!

* This is a sponsored post with Wayfair but all views and opinions are my own.

A folklore living room at the Ideal Home Show at Christmas

This room set is inspired by storytelling from days gone by and for me, that's easy to see. It's a room that draws on the traditional reds and greens of Christmas but with a modern slant. It combines rustic with style and screams Christmas doesn't it?  I think there's also a touch of Scandi-style for good measure too.

There are elements of this room I love, the neutral background which looks grey in my pictures is a paint colour called Celestial Blue and provides the perfect backdrop for the bright berry red sofa.

The black framed coffee table and open shelf unit were also favourites, which will no doubt shock MOH as I won't let him have a coffee table in our current living room. I don't dispute how useful the right coffee table would be, but I'm not budging on the fact that it will turn our space into an obstacle course. 

The frame of the table is simple isn't it, and it reminded me that I still need to buy some square metal tubing to repair our gazebo which suffered from pooling rain damage in the summer.  Another one for the to do list. 

I also like how the simple framed table is decorated with eucalyptus and pine.  Pine I've used to decorate our house before, but not eucalyptus and it's something that's on my list for this year.  It also reminded me I still need to buy some square metal tubing to repair our gazebo which suffered from pooling rain damage in the summer.  Another one for the to do list - and funny how you get those reminders when you least expect them isn't it?

We have a teak open shelf unit - well less open than this one - and if I'm honest when I looked at this one I was full of admiration and envy all at the same time.  The plan was for ours to look equally as stylish, but in reality it rarely is and often becomes a home for bills, important stuff and all manner of things.  Luckily we have some doors on ours so a quick tidy (aka shoving things behind the doors) can make it feel super stylish pretty quickly again. Unless you really are a no clutter kind of person I'd always recommend getting some closed space on an open unit, if you can!

No living room room set for Christmas would be complete without a tree would it? Infact I suspect many of us feel the same about our own living rooms. This year I'm contemplating having the tree in our conservatory as with six adults in our house I think the large tree may just prove one thing too many. The challenge will be of course to make our living space equally as festive without the tree, I have a plan starting to form and we'll see if I can pull it off.

The final element of this room I loved was these tiles. The pattern, their texture and how they're used on the floor and the wall to create a practical zone around the log burner.  They're ceramic but are called pressed pantina steel tiles and have that aged look that works so well here, the copper edging really does add the finishing touch.

So what do you think? Is the festive folklore style room for you?