Friday I'm in love... with a Christmas gift guide for a little animal-lover

I'm finding it a little tricky to find the perfect Christmas present for Arlo this year. I don't want to go mad and get him loads of stuff, I just want to find one great thing that will really make him smile on Christmas morning. One thing's for sure - it will have to involve animals in some way or another, because this boy is animal-mad. A few of the things I've been eyeing up over the last week or so include: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

Friday I'm in love... with pom poms

It all started with a hat. A simple bobble hat for the winter months. I've been looking out for one on my travels and along the way I've been noticing lots of pom poms all over the place - from bags to shoes, and jumpers to jewellery. So this winter I fancy pom poms in a few other places than just a hat, starting with these shoes which I LOVE and stopping off at a few other bobbles along the way. Above are some of my faves. (Minus jewellery you'll note - even I draw the line at pom pom earrings.)

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Friday I'm in love... with the best winter coats

...time to go Winter coat shopping, that is. As has become tradition, I've been enjoying a trawl through the shops (online of course - actual bricks and mortar shopping options are fairly limited over here) to look at coats for the big Winter Coat Shop. Last year's picks were pretty colourful, but this year I'm looking for something a bit more classic. No matter how many I look at, I keep coming back to the old favourites - parkas, fur collars, trenches... now to just choose one. Or seven.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

Friday I'm in love... with pink. Again.

Now, I'm aware this isn't the first time I've devoted a post to the colour pink, but recently I found myself with a little selection of some newly acquired things, that all happened to be pink and very photograph-able, so I couldn't help but photograph them, as you do:

• The Aspinal pocket mirror was a gift from the bride at her wedding last week - each of us bridesmaids got one. It's a bit too pretty to use, so for now at least its main function is just to be looked at, and stroked from time to time. It's the perfect colour pink.
• I also found these beaut stickers on eBay (after this shopping trip, I've been on the hunt for more Meri Meri goodies), which are already being put to good scrapbooking use.
• And in other exciting stationery news, I finally got my mitts on a Ban.do agenda this month and I'm in love with it. I do love a good diary, but this is something super special. It covers 17 months for a start, so lasts longer than your average diary, plus it's filled with the sweetest stickers, secret messages and beautiful illustrations. I am yet to actually write anything in it yet, because it's just to perfect brand new (anyone else have that about stationery? Too pretty to use) but am looking forward to start doodling all over it from August onwards. 

Holiday shopping

Picture the scene - it's the first full day of your outdoorsy family holiday, you're in a cabin in the middle of the most beautiful woods, with bikes ready to go... and it's raining. Proper grey with the kind of drizzle that you know isn't going anywhere. What do you do? You turn chicken shit into a chicken salad (line shamelessly stolen from Pete Campbell on Mad Men, my new fave). We headed to Winchester for a day of light shopping (the best kind). We also ended up getting steaks for lunch, so it may have been the best decision we ever made. 

Winchester is beautiful, and a wonderful place to while away a day. The most beautiful thing about it is The Hambledon, aka my favourite shop in the world. I'll take one of everything please. They get bonus points for playing the Car Share playlist when I walked in too, which brought me much joy. Arlo was sleeping in the pushchair, and Alex was absorbed in another shop, so I had lots of time to browse. Browsing is the best. 

Anyway, I spotted these gems in the little back corner of the shop and I snapped them right up - lots of gorgeous stickers which will be just perfect for scrapbooking, and washi tape in the cutest patterns - they are from Meri Meri, which is a brand I'd never heard of before but now that I have, perusing their website is my new favourite thing to do. Just the prettiest perfectest stuff. Expect a follow up post soon filled with pics and pics of scrapbooking pages I've whipped up using these goodies. 

Nb. the storage boxes and cute number paper clips I discovered in Ikea a few days later. The boxes are the perfect size for storing stationery, although one of them remains empty so I'd better get back to The Hambledon pronto to stock up on more supplies...

Friday I'm in love... with pay day

Things that I do every single pay day:

1. Weep a salty tear of relief
2. Buy some fresh flowers and order a shitload of Nespresso capsules in an excited flurry of feeling loaded
3. Sort out all the boring stuff like mortgage, council tax, bills etc etc etc 
4. Begin precise countdown until the next pay day

If tables could talk

Sometimes, you see something in a shop and you know instantly that it's meant for you. This used to happen to me with dresses, but these days it happens mostly with furniture. Which is a shame because our house is already full of furniture. So these days when it happens, and I spot something that I love and know would look ace in our house, as well as being useful, I have a little internal monologue that goes something like:

Me: "Oh this is so gorgeous, I'm just going to get it"
Sensible me: "And put it where though?"
Me: "I dunno, I'm sure there's a perfect spot for it, but in the meantime I just couldn't possibly leave this gem here in the shop, so like I said previously, I'm just going to get it"
Sensible me: "Stop being a dick. Gaaaad."

Quite often you can replace Sensible Me with Alex in this conversation, as he's usually the voice of reason in these types of scenarios.

SO ANYWAY, back to this weekend - I spotted this little gem in a tiny shop that I'd never noticed before. It was right by the door and caught my eye straight away because it was right up my street. I went in to have a look and the shop keeper told me that it was hers, but she was reluctantly selling lots of her furniture because she's emigrating to Australia next month. She also told me that this little side table had the most amazing back-story - it was designed and made by a prisoner on the Island (we have several prisons here because being surrounded by water on all sides makes it more difficult to escape. Except that means that when a prisoner does escape, which ACTUALLY HAPPENED when I was about nine years old, it makes it very likely that he stays on the island, prowling around and hiding in people's sheds, etc. Which means everyone is too scared to go in their shed, or even garden, until they're found. TERRIFYING.)

SO ANYWAY, back to the prisoner - he made the table by hand as a wedding present for his warden, to say thank-you for turning his life around. The lady in the shop had bought it from the warden's daughter in a garden sale when he went into a home. It's really beautifully made, so much time and craft has gone into it.

So it's a beautiful thing, with an amazing story, and a price tag that frankly would have been quadrupled if we were in London.

So basically, I fell in love with it, but thought Alex would out his sensible hat on and remind me (not incorrectly) that we don't need any more furniture. So imagine my joy when I showed him and he loved it too! We bought it then and there and took it home on the back seat of the car. I'm just so chuffed with it. So far, we've tried it in the front room, just by the front door when you get in, and by the dining room table for storing the table mats etc. Neither feels quite right, but it does look good wherever we put it. So even though it currently has nothing in it, and no long-term home, it's definitely a keeper and I know we have the perfect spot for it somewhere, we just need to find it.


ps. Sorry for all the caps lock, this kind of thing makes me over-excited

Friday I'm in love... with birthday presents

So, a certain small someone will be turning two very soon, which means presents need to happen. We don't tend to go all out with presents to be honest, as we know he's going to be very spoilt by friends and family as it is (and he's not exactly short of toys as it is), but I do want to make sure he has a couple of special things to open on the morning of the big day. I've collected together a few things I know he'll just love:

one. the boy loves duplo, and he loves animals. This would be job done.

two. I was shocked the other day to realise that we don't actually own a bucket and spade! I plan on getting a lot of beach action this summer so it's going to be an essential. And this crabby set is the cutest I've seen.

three. we've been spending lots of time in the garden lately, and next on our outdoor to do list is to start planting some flowers. Arlo has a little yellow duck-shaped watering can that he loves waddling around with, and I reckon a little trowel and fork for little hands would go down a treat

four. well OBVS we need to get a massive number 2 candle to top Arlo's cake (that I will not be making myself, seeing as I want it to be delicious)

five. books are always a winner and I've just discovered this, which is part of a series about a little elephant called Arlo. I'm coveting it just for the cover alone!

six. now, he probably doesn't need another train set, seeing as he has one already, but this is so mega cute and it comes with a giraffe and everything! I know he'd just love pootling around with this.

seven. this one might just have already been ordered and is winging its way to us now (luckily Arlo can't read) and I'm very excited to set this up and have it ready and waiting for him to discover on his bday. Arlo loves drawing and scribbling everywhere, usually on the walls, so I'm hoping to channel all that creativity and messiness into one area for maximum fun with minimum cleaning required.

Friday I'm in love... with new threads

I do love a good shopping spree. Sadly, my spree-ing days are long behind me, so these days I get to shop vicariously through Arlo. It's actually loads more fun because the clothes are cuter, cheaper and you don't have all the changing room faff to contend with, so you can get a satisfying amount of shopping done in no time at all. We popped into H&M the other day for a browse and came away with loads of stuff - including the selection above, all of which fell into the 'can't resist this' rather than 'well that will prove very useful' category. Mind you, if a t-shirt featuring a bee in a beret surrounded by some solid gold word play isn't useful, then I don't know what is...

Friday I'm in love... with colourful kids' rooms

I want to give Arlo's room a bit of a revamp in time for the summer - it's starting to feel a little 'babyish' and now there's no doubting he's very much a 'boy' these days. So my good friend Pinterest has been helping me out - here's some of my favourite kids rooms I've been gazing at for inspiration (and there's about a gazillion more here too, where they're all taken from) - there's always room for more colour.

Friday I'm in love... with feeling impulsive

I've been feeling a little flighty lately. Like I want to do something different, try something new, break the routine. Not that we have much of one! A few ideas that have crossed my mind this week, fleetingly or otherwise, include:

1. having pink hair. Because why not?
2. getting a kitten. Because we've been doing a lot of sofa snuggling lately and a kitten would fit right in very nicely. And because Arlo has got a lot of kitten love to give.
3. or maybe getting a whole box of kittens?
4. painting our ceilings blue, like this dreamy bathroom I spotted.
5. buying more fresh flowers. An under-rated joy in my opinion.
6. painting again. Something for Arlo's bedroom wall like this lovely alphabet print.

Time will tell how many of these things actually happen, but for now it's nice to daydream. Mostly about pink hair.

Friday I'm love... with a wish list for Santa

By the way, it's nearly Christmas, in case you weren't aware? I usually get quite over-excited about the festive season anyway, but as this year will be Arlo's first where he *might* be able to get a bit excited about it too, I just can't wait. I've been looking for inspiration online this week to decide what to get him, and may have just bought one of the above things for him to find on Christmas morning. But I'm not going to say which, JUST in case he learns to read in the next five weeks...

one: I've been meaning to get Arlo a height chart for ages because he just seems to get taller and taller, and this one is really lovely

two: this is something Arlo needs probably more than wants, but the boy still doesn't have much hair and it's getting cold out there! These guys make the most amazing range of hats (and other knitwear) that I've just spent a good while pouring over. They're a) based in the US and b) pretty pricey as hats go, so it's fairly unlikely that Arlo will be discovering one of these under the tree, but really bloody gorgeous all the same

three: so sweet, and Arlo hasn't ever had a rocker before so I'm intrigued to see if he likes it

four: I love this Brio train set for incorporating so many of the things Arlo loves to do - stacking, pushing along little cars and trains, building with blocks

five: given the amount of time Arlo spends in our kitchen cupboards, taking things out and putting them back in again, I figure a little kitchen of his own would be a big hit

six: these bright blocks come in more unusual shapes than most, and are fair trade too so what's not to love?

seven: this is on the list for no other reason than it looks mega fun!

Friday I'm in love... with sofa searching

Clockwise from top left: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

The main event in the Lewis-Wild household this week has been all kinds of demolition happening upstairs. We've ripped down a partition wall that's turned one weird bendy beige-carpeted corridor and one weird tiny room with no window into one big empty room with tonnes of natural light and freshly sanded wooden floorboards. The floorboards are going to be grey, with white walls everywhere (have I mentioned that I love white walls?!)

As well as office space for me when I work from home, we've now got space for a proper spare-room set up with a sofa bed for guests when they stay that can also be a second living room type set up. Which means new things must be bought and much pinterest-ing must happen along the way- we need a sofa, art for the walls, a lovely colourful rug...

...actually, maybe I need to look no further - I just need everything below. The pink sofa. The black and white cushions. My intense love for coffee made official via the use of enormous metal lettering. And the dog. OK mostly just the dog.

Friday I'm in love... with new walls please

As I've said before, I have a thing for white walls. They're clean and crisp, make a space feel lighter and brighter, they make your furniture pop and are very low maintenance. But lately I've been really hankering for some walls with a bit more going on, and I've been losing myself (and lots of time) on Pinterest looking at pictures of lovely wallpaper. I don't even think number five is technically wallpaper, I think they've just stuck lots of colourful tissue circles to their white wall. It's like constant confetti, how lovely is that?

You can find all of the above wonderful walls (and many more) here. 

Friday I'm in love... with my top ten winter coats

I love Autumn. It's a new chapter, the beginning of the Xmas countdown (I start early) and most importantly it means WINTER COAT SHOPPING. Is there any better kind? There are some lovely lovely coats around this year, I've been spending ages pouring all over them all (online obvs - the Island does not boast the best shop selection it has to be said). So here's my top ten. Clearly a bit more narrowing down needed.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

Friday I'm in love... with new stationery

Bit of a picture-heavy post today, but I just couldn't stop taking pics of my new favourite thing. I got a delivery of new stationery in the post this week, which is the best kind of parcel. I bought a new diary from my favourite stationery shop online, The Magic Notebook. They have the best designs. My plan for this diary is to use it to keep track of blog posts and ideas - I haven't quite mastered a way of scheduling and planning ahead for my blog posts yet, and sometimes a beautiful new notebook is the answer. In this case it definitely is. The beauty of most of the journals from the Magic Notebook is that they don't have printed dates - you add that in yourself - so you can start a diary off from any point. I love the illustrations and little messages dotted all the way through - I'm off to start doodling in this right now.

Friday I'm in love... with the prospect of reading a good book

What's better than a good book? Having some spare time to actually get round to reading one, that's what. I haven't read a book for over a year, and I need to do something about it soon. When the day comes that I don't fall asleep instantly on sight of my pillow, this is my growing stack of reads to get through:

one. Love Caitlin Moran, love her writing, already know I'm going to love this. If you haven't read How to be a Woman yet then I suggest you do so right away. You won't be disappointed.

two. This was a Christmas present that I was so happy to receive but have never had time to read. I suspect it may provide just as many laughs as How To Build A Girl, but for very different reasons. I'm almost a bit scared to read this in case it makes me fall out of love with Morrissey.

three. Wasn't aware of this one until my mum recommended it to me. Apparently she spent many an evening laughing her way through this book and that's enough of a recommendation for me.

four. Not a newie but such a goodie. When we had to pack all our wordly belongings into my mum's shed for nearly a year so we could move to the country and stay with her before finding our own place, I threw away three bookcases worth of books in a bid to downsize. The only novels I kept where by Sue Townsend. As well as this I have every Adrian Mole book ever written, each one all dog-eared and missing covers and pages because they've been read over and over again. Hearing that she'd died earlier this year was one of those rare times when a celebrity death actually makes you feel something - because her books were such a big part of my teenage years. When I heard the news it made me want to read them all over again, and I plan to, starting with this.

So I have the reads, and I have the inclination - now just to find the time! If I can get through one of these this Summer, I'll be so happy. Resolution made.

Friday I'm in love... with a new wardrobe (for Arlo)

Arlo's at a stage where he's just about grown out of all his clothes and is ready for the next size up, which means I can legitimately start looking out for new, slightly-less-small clothes for him to wear. These have caught my eye this week: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Number six was actually a birthday present from our lovely friends Nikita and Lolly - Arlo isn't quite big enough for it yet but I can't wait until he can start using it - it comes with a little hood for rainy days, complete with bee antennae which is going to get some use come rain or shine, that's for sure.

Number two I picked up for Arlo a couple of weeks ago, and he's been wearing it around town (aka the park and his Caterpillar Music class) this week - it's nice and light which is nice considering we're having some kind of HEATWAVE at the moment.  We've spent lots of time outside this week, catching up with friends, so this Friday I'm also in love with the sun, and being able to enjoy it.

Friday I'm in love... with pink

Having a little peruse of my pinterest boards this week I was struck by how many pictures of pink things I had. Really loads. Pink has been my favourite colour since I was about four years old (see my pinterest profile for a visualisation) and it probably always will be - here's a few of my favourite pink things at the moment:

one: the notion that I need an alarm clock is clearly laughable, as Arlo has my morning wake up call covered, but I want this on the bedside table for aesthetic purposes alone.
two: I've been inspired by this post to look for a statement wallpaper for our bedroom and this totally does the job. Lots of pink, lots of colour, floral without being twee, and it's called Blazing Poppies too, which just about tops it off for me.
three: not even really sure what this snack is, but I want it. Even if it's just to look at for a while.
four: I was devs to discover that Topshop have stopped making my favourite shade of pink lipstick this week. This seems like a pretty good alternative.
five: love this watch. I have a little look at it online roughly once a week and it just doesn't get any less perfect. This is probably what prompted the whole pink thing this week because I've been thinking about it probably quite a bit more than would be considered normal.
six: in recent house news, next on the to do list is a new front door. Guess what colour I want to paint it?