The Right Lights.

It's no secret that I've been pretty dang terrible at blogging this year, but as I keep saying, I've had a fair bit going on... I know this house 'thing' is a marathon and not a sprint, but I don't think I anticipated it would take this long to turn this place into somewhere that feels like home.

Last weekend was the first time since we've moved that I've felt genuinely comfortable with having guests come to stay, and that's with the clutter that's still overtaking the front room, the fact we have no dining table and not to mention the amount of recycling we have (seriously, no one ever tells you that you'll suddenly amass more cardboard than you've seen in your life)!
It finally feels like we're getting there though, you know? It's not a chore to have downtime any more and we can have the odd evening where we're not unpacking another box or moving stuff from one room to another because it 'just looks better'.


With that being said, with our self-set deadline of the first weekend of August looming, we still have to paint the landing, living room, bathroom, front room, kitchen and hallway - but it's all good because despite running out of steam, we're feeling savvy having painted those first few rooms and we're being a little less ambitious with colour for this next lot - feature walls are fun and all, getting painting done is far more satisfying.

TL; DR: I got a new bathroom cabinet, I put it up in my house, I've lost track of all time.


[Bathroom Cabinet: Teagan (similar), c/o Pebble Grey]
Right, back to why we're here...

I was contacted just after we put in an offer on the house to write about bathroom lighting with the offer of a fancy bathroom cabinet mirror from Pebble Grey and here's my full disclosure policy because a bathroom mirror is one of those things you don't think about needing until you do and I was going to move house and I needed one so of course, I said yes. Plus, storage, I can't stress enough how much I love storage and thinking we wouldn't even have a bed at this point, I needed all the help I can get.

So when the cabinet landed on my desk after a couple of e-mail exchanges, I was pretty excited, I naïvely thought that it wouldn't matter that I didn't put it up in the flat because we'd be in our new house in a matter of weeks. Three months later... Obviously we've now lived here about 3 months and we're only just settling in, so we only actually put up the cabinet a few weeks ago so this review has (some how) ended up being almost 6 months late. But I'm doing this and it's a great cabinet and a great idea so I felt compelled to share anyway, despite the embarrassment.


That slate. ♥



Bathroom lights are usually pretty bright, in fact, I remember reading (back when for a period I was inexplicably obsessed with winding down in the evenings) that they can end up waking you up and making you more alert, a little annoying when it's time to get ready for bed.

I was actually considering, once we'd bought our own place, that we'd either get super-low wattage lights or a dimmer switch but instead, this delightful LED battery mirror came up and I have to say, it lights up the bathroom like the moon and is great for staying relaxed after making the move from the living room to brushing my teeth.





Our little IKEA drill has been the best purchase, but these little piles of ex-wall don't ever fail to stress me out.
The cabinet itself was very easy to put up but we're very much DIY novices so it still took a good hour or so - which included the mild panic that Moon had over whether he'd hit a pipe or not, he didn't, so yeah, easy peasy. I really like the way it looks and even though the light is a simple set of battery LEDs it looks pretty sleek, I'm so pleased.

I feel that the inside of the cabinet is a little bit of a let-down as mirror on the other side of the door is just stuck on rather than having a little more consideration - with that being said, I hardly open it as it's mainly for our medicines and Moon's man things.




Now we 'actually' live somewhere it's been really satisfying to be able to invest in quality pieces rather than cheap but okay. The bathroom cabinet, while sponsored, is a great example of the kind of things that it's worth investing in. Especially if all you need to wind down and get a better nights sleep is some nifty bathroom lighting and, considering the mirror the previous people had before was just that, it's changed the whole feel of the bathroom and instantly made it 10x more functional.

Like I said, it's sort of getting there, even our bathroom window is starting to look like home.




[*I was gifted this bathroom cabinet by Pebble Grey, in case I didn't mention it enough, all views are my own]
Gratuitous Doll pics:

Packing Up: Useful Storage

Moving day is getting closer, so that means that all storage is useful storage, whether it's cardboard, or something a little more fancy.


When I was sent this cute storage bag from Room to Grow it couldn't have come at a better time. I'm always on the hunt for receptacles to put things in but due to being semi-mid-move it was a bit hard to place this at the exact moment that I wanted to get the photos ready.



Room to Grow predominantly caters for pretty bespoke children's bedrooms so I have a pretty strong feeling that this is designed for toys or other child-related miscellanea. As a little person is nowhere near on my horizons yet, I can afford to be a little selfish and I reckon this is going to come in really useful for things like bed linen, towels and maybe extra cushions (which I've some how accumulated).




The bag itself is fairly sturdy and even though you do need to have something in it in order to hold it up, that's makes it pretty good for storing away when it's not needed - ideal for someone who's trying to cut down on clutter.

Tiny Changes.

I'm so, so glad that the weather has decided to kind of start to clear up, all that gloom and drizzle was a major downer. I haven't felt so productive on a Monday in a while, and there's still so much to get done, I'm putting it down to the lovely sunlight that beamed through my bedroom window this morning, thank you, Sun. I figured I'd take a pitstop here and share some of the new additions we've made to the flat over the weekend, some more living and breathing than others.

Maybe today's productivity is an overflow from all the crazy running around we did at the weekend, felt like we didn't have two seconds to ourselves. If we weren't in the car driving somewhere, we were thinking about how to pack something, it doesn't really make for a relaxed life.

Briefly walking around Dorking on Saturday morning (before 11 o'clock!), and stopping in at my current favourite, Feather & Fern, I thought I'd give Dorking's flagship vintage shop, Shrewd, a quick nosey. Shrewd has changed a lot since it first opened up and has relocated to a much brighter, more spacious location. It has a similar feel to the upstairs of Snooper's in Brighton and I like it. Despite my current clothes-fast, I still really liked going through all the lovely one-off pieces they have to offer.


With yet more drizzle after lunch, Moon and I went over to Guildford to pick up Chris and Calvert before going over to Ikea. However, due to a badly-timed look around the shops to kill time, we (Moon) ended up picking up an armchair, something we've (any visitors) have been in need of. We got it from Sabichi, and it was half-price as it was a display model, but still in as-new condition, although Moon did break it in transit when we headed back to drop it off at my Gran's before heading back to Guildford, second time lucky, to get Chris and Calvert. After nearly two hours in Ikea and being one small sofa-bed up, poor old Chris and Calvert ended up being shoved in the boot of the car. It was a good job we did drop off the chair before, but it was still a pretty stupid idea.

After picking up Doll from 'home-home', loaded up with more cat food than I've ever seen in my life (thanks, Mum!), we brought a pretty stressed-out and sad kitty back to Newbury with us. To be fair though, if someone put you in a cage, bunged you in a car and didn't tell you where they were taking you, you'd probably be a bit anxious too. Despite that, Doll seems happy to have our flat as her new home and readily spread herself out on our bed, she's currently curled up at my feet ♥.

About two hours after we got home...


SOLSTA, £89, Ikea
The stressful sofa-bed; home of my cat cushions and sunshine-coloured knitted throw (also Ikea).


This room still feels half-empty to me, I'm trying to make the most of it as an office space and have spent a few hours in here this afternoon but I think it needs a little something extra.


We've swapped chests, I'm quite happy about this as I put work into painting my one.


The current state of the living room with red leather armchair in-tow. Keep an eye out for that box, it's my next adventure into painting.


Yep.
I think that now, minus a microwave, we have all the furniture we need, once we have a weekend that isn't spent running around, we'll be able to enjoy the work that's gone into making this place our own.

Fitting in with the staying productive, I've made a little list of future posts, and I hope to post a bit more than usual this week. I hope you're having a great start to the week and that your weekend wasn't quite so frantic.

Newbury Home.

Hello! I'd like to begin by stating how freaked out I am that in my absence, Blogger appears to have had a complete personality overhaul, we'll see how it goes shall we?

I've spent a lot of this week sat in our new flat watching The Real Housewives of Orange County. What is a girl to do when it's pouring outside and there's no Internet? It took way less time to unpack than I thought it would and we were all done by Sunday evening - in time for The Voice, yes! - and celebrated with a post-unpacking-how-great-we're-moved-in Bucks Fizz toast.

I'll apologise immediately for doing such a 'everything'-heavy post, but it's been a while and I have so much to tell you. My job hunt, despite lack of Internet has been mildly successful and I'm officially signed up with two of the recruitment agencies in Newbury - I'd like to big up Newbury's Reed btw, their staff are fab - and I even have an interview with Crew Clothing on Monday. Don't get me wrong, retail has never been my first choice, but believe it or not this is actually the first shot I've even had at a retail role, as they seem to be just as good at ignoring me as other positions. A photography role I went for in Reading last week sadly wasn't to be, as I'm without a full driving license, but the new home and start have me in a positive mood so I'm not too downtrodden.

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Anyway, I'm sure that what I have to say really isn't thatfantastic, as as I said, I've been vegging out on the sofa all week. So here is our home, and it's becoming more so by the day, I can't wait to have our friends come and stay, we're in dire need of at least one comfortable chair though, which is what Sunday's planned monster carboot voyage is for.
This is from when things were a bit overwhelming. Easily the most boring and annoying thing to unpack was clothes, so repetitive and there's just so much of them.


This is Moon unpacking our bargain-tastic TV table.


This is from the first night, things look a bit different now, but similar. We concentrated on making up our bed and then doing the kitchen/lounge, we needed somewhere to sit once we were bored of unpacking, right?


Snug mug.


Long came to visit us on Sunday, he didn't pick a great day to do it, he's not too far away though so I'm sure we'll see him again soon. I just hope the next visitors we have don't coincide with more bad weather.


We're going to try and grow a few things, fingers crossed.


I promise to take an updated photo once the weather is better, I really love how light the whole flat is. When Long came, he brought us a bottle of Chambord and the cute Rex cushion shown here. ♥


The bluebells and the vase they're in are from my Gran :)


That breadbin is one of the main reasons I'm having a semi-love affair with Wilkinsons right now, and it matches my amazing toaster!


Tea-making station/Kitchen/Dining/Lounge.


Weird thing to move in somewhere and not have a bin, so we had to pick one up. I hated this at first but it is only a bin and Moon was so insistant that we needed something purple for our home.


Garden photo, to be continued...


Bedroom.


That black thing, opens up, I haven't filled my side yet, it did have our bed linen in it until I discovered that even our bed had drawers.


Amazing shelving unit, but thanks to less-amazing previous tenants we can't get a TV signal in the bedroom, I'm sure we'll work something out.


Office/spare room.


Hallway gallery, ho ho ho. ♥


Funny how even though I've moved the same things are still around me, it's pretty good though.


Moon's brother brought these back for him from Hong Kong, so cute!

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It's so amazing to have so much storage, and still have heaps left over. I was genuinely beginning to believe my mum when she was nagging me about how I have too much stuff. I think she'll find that I don't, I can barely fill a two bedroom flat. We have empty cupboards, and shelves and it's great. Although I'm maybe slightly annoying that I'm unable to stay and enjoy our new home's broadband offerings, another reason we're heading back to Surrey (as soon as I finish this) is to pick up little Dolly cat. After planning all week how to approach the issue, I just came out and said it, right after getting down to the business of why the previous tenants had cut off the phone line and how some people just came round and cut down all the trees in the garden - one reason why I've not shown you the garden, but another being because it's currently cold and wet. So yeah, we were looking like pretty favourable so we can keep her, and I'm so pleased.

I hope to keep a finger more firmly on the pulse of things from now on, I hope I've not bored you too much. How has everyone been?