Welcome Mirryn Hope

On 16th March we welcomed into the world another beautiful daughter, Mirryn Hope. We are delighted with our precious bundle and Alba May adores her new little sister. 

Spring is coming

It's been so long since I've blogged here and I have so much to share. We finally finished our home renovation and moved in before Christmas. I'm more than happy with how it has turned out and can't wait to share some photos here. We are also expecting our second child any day now so it's a very exciting time for us. I'm hoping I'll manage to find some time soon to write about our new home x x x 

The kitchen is in!

Hello All,

I'm not sure if there is anyone still reading here but just in case anyone was looking for house updates I thought I'd post with the latest photos of our kitchen. We had it made by Le Cucine dei Mastri but with the sink and worktop from Ikea. It was fitted the day that we left to come to Scotland for the Summer so I haven't actually seen it yet! 

And here are a few pictures of our beautiful girl enjoying her Summer holidays in Scotland........

Happy days.......................x x x 

Update

I've had a few messages recently from followers asking for an update so here I am. I've totally abandoned my little corner of blogland for the past year. I am always full of intentions to get back into blogging but never quite get there. Anyway, I'm still here, still working away at the house which seems will never be finished, still enjoying being a mummy to our little girl who is growing up so fast.

Here are the most recent pictures of the house. The windows went in last week which has made a huge difference. It now feels more like a house and less like a building site. The past year has been very slow going. When I look back at pictures of the house this time last year it really doesn't seem like much progress has been made at all. Now that the windows are in though hopefully with a big push we'll be able to move in this summer.

Muffin Making with my Little Muffin

We seem to have skipped Spring here and gone straight to Summer. Already it's 25°C even though just a week ago we were still wearing wooly hats and scarves! While it was a bit hot to play outside in the middle of the day Alba and I took the chance to do a bit of baking. It's the first time I've baked with her and I was expecting chaos. I obviously underestimated her though as she stood on her chair as quiet as a mouse, delicately stirring and adding raisins one by one. At the finish she even asked for a cloth to clear up the bits she'd spilled. I'm looking forward to doing some more baking or crafty projects with her. If anyone has ideas of fun, creative things to do with toddlers please share them in the comments. 

Have a great week everyone x x 

We're plastered!

It's a lovely sunny day here in Umbria so this morning Alba and I took a walk up to the village to take photos of our newly plastered house. The scaffolding came down yesterday and we can finally get a proper look at the work that's been done. I'm really happy with the way it's looking so far. I had a few doubts about the colour but now that I can see it properly I love it. The inside is light and airy and seems so much bigger now that it's been plastered. There's still a lot of work to be done but finally I can see light at the end of the tunnel! 

Feeling Inspired

For weeks and weeks I have abandoned my blog, lacking inspiration, time and energy to post anything or even to read the blogs that I usually love. I don't know why today I suddenly feel inspired to post again but I'm hoping that the feeling will last!

In recent weeks we have been busy trying to choose floor tiles and bathrooms for our house. Work is still moving along at a snail's pace but at least I'm finally getting to choose some of the interior fittings. We're preparing to start the plumbing work and so we've been concentrating on bathrooms the past few weeks.

It's really important for me to get the bathroom just right. I hate using a dirty bathroom but I also hate cleaning bathrooms! So, we're trying to come up with solutions to make the bathroom as easy to clean as possible.

I want to share with you some of the bathroom features we're considering and ask your opinions on how practical they are.

The above picture from Velvet & Linen is pretty much what we're aiming for, clean, simple, light - perfection! I love the shower with just a simple glass screen and the shower head coming straight out of the wall. However, I'm wondering if it would be useful also to have a hose attachment, like in the picture below (from here), for cleaning or for showering little people! What do you think?

As for the sinks, we'd really like to have basins which sit on top of an old piece of furniture like in the pictures below (from here and here). Those of you who have sinks like this do you find them practical? Does water splash out everywhere? And, is it better to have the taps coming directly from the wall as in the first picture or from behind the basin as in the second picture?

It's such a hard task making decisions like these especially if, like me, you are an indecisive perfectionist! If you have any tips or ideas I'd love to hear from you.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

Lots of love

Sarah Elizabeth x x x

Knitted vest

It's turned pretty chilly here in Umbria so luckily I've just finished this cosy cardigan to keep my wee one warm. The pattern is 'Plain Vest' from Pickles. It was really easy and quick to knit and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's the first time I've knitted an actual garment (apart from scarves!) so I'm quite proud of myself!

I think Alba likes it!