Sage + Mint.

*and how to easily spend £40 on candles and disappoint your boyfriend.


You might remember back in June when I visited the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair that I was head over heels with Produce Candles and their beautiful packaging. Well, knowing that winter is on its way and that once it gets to this time of year as soon as it's time to turn the heating on and the living room gets darker, it's time to light some candles and start hibernating.

After my sweet friends Kirstin and Dan picked me up a rhubarb Produce Candle to warm our house, I felt confident that Produce Candles really are as good as they look.




A beautiful trio - and I'm sure I can do something fun with the jars once the candles are used up.
So far, despite burning for over 8 hours (and other things candle bloggers say), they're less than 1/3 way through and by the standard of the kind of scented candles I usually buy, I'd say that for their size, that's pretty good.


It's very simple, but I love that they sort of keep with the gardening theme and package the candles with straw-like padding.


Another nice touch, for the record, tomato is delicious!



I Love Produce Candles stocks the whole range of candles, and they're actually also the company from the stall I saw at Wealden Times all those months ago.


The main touch that I love is the tips for growing the plant that your candle smells like. I already have mint and sage growing from plants in the garden but this is good stuff to know for next year's plants.


There are so many to try, but I went for sage and mint as they're my two favourite herbs. I'd be really interested to give radish and carrot a go and I'd love fig if this winter lasts as long as it's supposed to - still, I'm slightly on reserves given that they are pretty luxury. That said, I'd definitely say they're worth it, not only do they smell great but they're made from natural soy wax, which burns much more evenly and slowly than beeswax, so you get to enjoy them for longer. ♥

JOYFUL.

[Oola Blue Fish Dish* c/o JOY]
As time goes on, I'm becoming really aware of lack of room tours and homeware hauls. I just bought a house, it's exciting and it's something to write about, right? Well, yeah, but also, it takes ages to get ready. It still feels like there's always something to do and over half our stuff is still packed up in boxes in our front room - which I guess explains why we have SO MUCH storage space.

I've been watching llymlrs' moving vlogs and even though she's still sitting on the floor, I'm pretty astounded that her new place has come together more so in a few weeks than mine has in months. Comparison is a killer, but I'm working on it.

When we moved, we cleared out a lot, I think it's a good thing but it meant that we spent a lot of time asking ourselves whether the thing destined for home, charity shops or the dump was useful to us. Now we feel very much clutter-free but as as before, I'm still on the lookout for cute homewares to make my new house a home - we've still yet to put all our pictures on the wall!

When I was contacted to do a little chat about Joy the Store, I jumped at the chance. It's one of those quirky 'bit of everything' shops that I really like and would buy everything from if my pockets were deep enough. Full of useful but pretty (and less useful but still pretty) items, it holds the same place in my heart as the wonderful Oliver Bonas.


From pug vases to sweet trinket boxes and a washing up sponge after my own heart, as well as a range of books, mugs and photo frames, there are all sorts of things to choose from. I opted for this beautiful fish dish, knowing that it would match another fish dish I bought a few years ago and that Moon is always pleased to see nautical things.





I like to have various bowls and trays round the house as receptacles for things like keys and money, we have a couple with potpourri in (because my mum gave us the biggest bag of potpourri as a moving-in gift and I actually don't know what to do with it). So bowls are just useful things to have. I'm still undecided about this one because it could work for a fancy serving dish or, as we're using it now, a fruit bowl, or another clutter collector. Whatever form it takes, there's no doubt that it's as useful as it is pretty and I'm pleased to have another sea-themed item in my home.



Joy is a shop I'll always pop into if I see it and I get a feeling that now I know about it, their website will be one I'll visit regularly too – especially because I need to make that Buddha butter dish mine.

*This is a sponsored post: I was sent products by Joy to promote for this post, all opinions are my own.

House - Warmed.

One down, one more to go...

I feel out of the swing of hosting, still getting used to a new area and how to use our space have knocked my confidence a little but it was so nice to gather some of my closest friends to warm our new home, and hey, it's not even looking that bad - except the front room, but we don't need to talk about that.




*Spot the cat-botherer
Pro tip: if you are hosting a housewarming party, potlucks are the way forward, not only will you be surprised by some of your guest's culinary skills, you'll also have more than enough food to go around.
Starting to wonder how we're actually going to cater for twice the amount of people by ourselves when my family comes at the end of this month (omg!)

It was a nice, relaxing weekend, rounded off on Sunday with a trip to a (not so) local farm because we're left-field like that.




The smallest rabbit I've ever seen. SO SMALL.




In other news, we're on a painting break but even with just our stuff in and no paint, can we just take a minute to appreciate this 'before + after'? Parts of this house are resisting my love but I think the living room has my back ♥

Organised Family Fun

Currently writing this with paint splattered in my hair while I get back to feeling anxious about visitors.

We must have started decorating again!

Seriously, if anyone ever tells you to paint that awkward (super-tall) bit of wall above your stairs, just get a man in. I know it's defeatist and lazy but that's where DIY painting gets really hard, even with a tall boyfriend tiptoeing on a too short ladder, I'll tell you though, for our landing, one-coat paint has been our SAVIOUR! - even if a lot of it is my hair right now.


So, I'll be taking you back to a slightly less stressful time a couple of weekends ago, when I felt happy to have guests and actually pretty dang house-proud for the first time since we moved here.

My family on both sides is pretty big, and, particularly on my Dad's side, we're a lot closer than most. I think having my Gran as such a strong matriarch really helps this. My cousins and I used to go on holidays together but as we've grown up this is an aspect that's fallen by the wayside a bit. As a bonding exercise, I thought a girly weekend would be fun, and a nice way to show them my new home.











We had a nice afternoon of fruit picking at Millets Farm, defiantly sat in the less than sunny garden to enjoy Pimm's and a tasty dinner of vegetarian chilli before putting on facemasks and watching 10 Things I Hate About You. We rounded up the evening with The Babadook (which in hindsight should really have been Bend It Like Beckham but there's always next time).



[Because it didn't go on Facebook... ;)]

It was so nice to host guests after such a long time and not have to think about decorating or cardboard, plus, have you seen my main guest bedroom? It's the coolest.

I hope this is the first of many weekends we have like this, family is so, so important and I think it's especially important to take advantage of those bonds if you've got them, there's always time for a catch up. I'm already looking forward to seeing the girls again for my family housewarming at the end of next month, better get down to more painting, right?