ITS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

It's Christmas!! 

To be fair the Christmas excitement has been filling our household since early November, perhaps even October for some of us. We had watched some Christmas movies and Michael Bublé was already playing. But as soon as thanksgiving was over we went straight to hunt for our tree and yes it is another huge one.

We managed to get another 9 foot tree, although I suspect its a little bit taller than that. Andrew is very pleased with himself as it was one of the biggest trees there. We did look at another tree but when the guy held it up it was just too large. It would have filled our living room.

Putting the tree up in our house is always fun. Poor old Macintosh always gets a bit scared and worried. He doesn't like this giant green thing that's invading his space. The size of the tree means I always end up standing on something trying to help balance it and keep it straight whilst Andrew's fixing it into the base. Eventually its done and then suddenly Macintosh remembers he likes giant green trees. They provide him with an additional water bowl and he can also crawl around underneath it whilst it strokes his back. Silly dog!

So anyway, we kept the cardboard houses Andrew made last year and just added some new pieces that we bought. I tried to keep the natural look going with lots of natural textures and red and white as accent colours. Its not quite Pinterest worthy but I love it.

Coming in through the front door, the first thing you'll see is our wreath. Its the same twig wreath that I just keep adapting to fit the occasion. So far its been completely worth its money! 

There is our giant tree. Complete with crooked top section and Macintosh asleep on "his" sofa. The tree rather dominates the room but it makes the place feel Christmassy quite easily!

The stockings are pinned up on the sideboard in the absence of a fireplace. (Macintosh has his by his bed!) The advent candle is on the sideboard too so we remember to burn it. We also got this amazing red and white patterned candle on sale last year and I've been waiting excitedly to burn it ever since. The logs were scrounged from the desert around us and hauled back by Macintosh and Andrew after their long walks. 

The other sides and surfaces have little touches of Christmas, from garlands to cardboard houses or other bits. It helps spread the Christmas feeling around the room. Our open plan living space can feel quite large so with a giant tree and lots of Christmas bits scattered around it makes it feel cosier. 

But the dinning table is my favourite part by far. On one of Andrew's walks he found a long log that he adapted into this amazing centrepiece for the dining table. 

That bit might actually be Pinterest worthy as I stole the idea from there in the first place. Andrew drilled some holes in the logs for the candles and voila a centrepiece. Can't wait to start eating meals at the big table. 

So there you have it, our Christmas decor for 2015. As many of you won't get to see us over the holiday season I hope you can picture us having Christmas over here a bit more now. 
H

DUNSTABLE PART II

We hung out with my family at Wrest Park whilst back in the UK. Wrest park is a National Trust property in near Luton. This provided another opportunity to top up on our historic buildings as we visited friends and family. 

Once through the opulent gate houses, and down the long stretch of drive we pulled up to the carpark. Through the gift shop we strolled through the walled gardens towards the house just as the sun broke through the clouds. It looked incredible. The french style architecture looked beautiful in the autumn sun, glowing with the leaves around just turning.

Entering the house via the exotic conservatory (containing many plants from the Americas!), we were given a brief history of the house and then left to ourselves to explore the newly restored rooms.

As is often the case with national trust properties, Hannah and I wandered around the house collecting inspiration to use on our imaginary house. They had a copy of the architect's original letters describing the house and the work he did which provided a fascinating insight into the design and embellishments. I was amazed by the lightness of the rooms, definitely some ideas for our future ‘Manor House’.

We then strolled round the gardens passing the many statues, pergolas and verandas, just enjoying the autumnal hues at a peaceful pace.

Obviously this all wasn't without food or drink, making sure everyone was well fed and watered we enjoyed time to take on tea, scone and other provisions.

Here is a lovely photo of the family (minus Matt who was working unfortunately) outside the old cricket pavilion. 

A

SUMMER DECOR

A little while ago I gave out a sneak peak of the decor on Instagram...

It had taken me a while to land on a design idea for the summer decor as every time I looked on Pinterest it appeared to be 4th July inspired decor. Now I'm not bitter about the independence of America. Doesn't bother me one bit, I'm happy to barbecue and have a party, but I draw the line at celebrating it by decorating my house in the stars and stripes! So once I'd settled on an idea the ball got rolling a bit quicker.

Andrew helped contribute towards this decor quite a bit. He helped come up with the overall look that we were going for. We then worked on the decor during the week of his night shifts. Each of us would do a little work on it and tweak it whilst the other was asleep/working. Overall I think it came out pretty well. 

I have to say these flowers are my favourites. They are fake because I can't seem to make flowers last too long in the heat out here and it'd get expensive having a vase filled all summer. I enjoyed picking them out though and playing around with combinations. I've decided I definitely need to go to the LA flower market and bring home a serious stash of flowers!

We have a few little touches spread around the room too. There's a couple of bits set out on the side tables and then we added some bunting to our bookcase. I didn't want to go overboard this time. I wanted a less cluttered look. I prefer everything light and airy in the summer. Come autumn or winter I'll want the whole house covered in decorations because I love it! 

Here's a few little up close photos to show you some of the detailing on there. The bear came from Alaska, the parcel we wrapped ourselves and Andrew made the London skyline and the fake postage stamps. 

And as a last minute point, you might want to know that the bunting has the Queen's head on it and says 'Rule Britannia'. See not bitter about Independence day at all! ;)
H

SPRING DECOR

In order to spruce up our decor for spring time I decided to add little pops of colour. I didn't want to overdo it or drastically change the whole look of the lounge area but I did want it to look a bit fresher. 

A twig wreath with coral flowers greets you as you come in the door. I really love the coral colour, although it looks a little more peach in this photo. It's rather hard to photograph because its in a very small dark porch like spot. But hey, you get the idea.

This area didn't get too much of a spring touch. I attempted to write a Bible verse on our chalkboard in different fonts. Its not the best and I need some serious practise but I was copying from Pinterest. Its not the worst and it'll do for now, until I have time to get my perfectionist hands working on it again!

The best bit about the bookcase area is our new antique find. I love our new airmail scales. They were tucked away in the antique shop and I fell in love with them at once. I convinced Andrew to get them pretty quickly which is good because there was an older couple eyeing them up too and I didn't want to end up losing them. Snap decision and we owned them! 

This is the main lounge area and here is where the colour pops happen. I made the pinwheels from some amazing patterned card I found on sale in a craft store over here. They were pretty easy once you got the hang of it. I could have made quite a few but then I would have struggled to find homes for them and as Andrew pointed out when he came home, maybe less is more! (I probably would have had them on every available surface!)

Those close up shots show our two favourite parts of the decor (other than the amazing scales). Andrew loves the mustard and greeny coloured pinwheels and I love the spring print. It was yet another Pinterest find that I just printed out. But I love how when its sat next to the whale bookends the grin from Mr Moby makes it look like he's happy its spring. I'm happy its spring too. Its not been a particularly cold winter in California but I am glad that the  sun is out and there was a little bit of greenery around where we live. It didn't last long as the heat began to build but I liked it. 

So there we go, there's our spring decor. Hope you like it. Macintosh does, just ignore him pouting in the of the bookcase. I wouldn't let him have a treat, that always makes him grumpy!
H

WINTER DECOR

Once the twelve days of Christmas were over our Christmas tree and all the decorations came down pretty quick. In fact it was too quick as Andrew confessed he felt some withdrawal symptoms. Apparently the house looked too bare and empty. Now I feel that has less to do with the decorations themselves and more to do with the 9 foot tree he dumped in our lounge, but judge for yourself on that one! This withdrawal worked out positively for me as it meant he actually helped to create our winter decor. I started the whole thing and then he edited it until it was just right. 

Our theme is based loosely on Scandinavian interiors, with the decor being simple, clean, white or neutral colours and not fussy at all. I spent a lot of time (too much probably) on Pinterest working out what to do but so far I love what we came up with. It's a fresh look that's low maintenance and just looks clean. After all the fuss of Christmas its nice to have a simple, clutter free decor.

Accurately capturing the white-ness proved difficult so in some photos things appear more yellowy, sorry about that! Blame the photographer. That would Andrew of course!

H 

CHRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE...

Some of you may have seen this picture on Instagram...

It is a picture of the 9 foot tall Christmas tree that Andrew gleefully bought. Since we have such tall ceilings he was determined to get a tall tree as in his own words, "We'll never get to do this again as we can't afford the houses in England that have tall ceilings." I must admit I couldn't fault his logic but the tree was a bit on the large side. Still whether it was love that won out, or submission, or just simply me being outmanoeuvred, whatever the case, we got the tree!

Getting it into the back of the Victor the Volvo to get it home was quite amusing and we even had one friendly American suggest we just put it in his truck and he'll take it home with him instead. I think that was the final kick Andrew needed as he suddenly managed to fit it in! Once it was home poor Macintosh got quite a shock as we dragged this giant tree through the house. The sight of me standing on a stool whilst Andrew scrabbled around underneath the swaying tree as he fixed it into the base caused Mac some worry too. Eventually it was secured though and the mammoth task of decorating began. 

We already had some ideas of what we wanted to do. I like matching colour schemes and for everything to look thematic. Andrew is a perfectionist too, who likes the simple Nordic styles. As you can imagine the combination of the two us meant that this was no simple operation. It took a few days of prep to create what was needed and some frustration too on my part when surprisingly we didn't have enough ornaments for our now 9 foot tree! Thankfully Andrew and I like the tree to be more on the sparse side so that the greenery shows through, but still there's sparse in a stylish way and simply not enough! Our style this year is pretty similar to our usual one. Its Nordic, so there are lots of reds, whites and natural materials, with some greys thrown in as I love them so much! 

This year Macintosh even has his own little bit of decoration with his stocking up! Yes we are those people!

Now this photo shows my favourite part of the decoration (minus the tree). These houses were made by Andrew, out of card and without any templates. He got the initial idea from pinterest but the houses like these you can buy are ridiculously over priced. So he simply looked at a photo we found on the internet of a house, or church and then created these! They had battery operated tea-lights in so that the light flickers out through the windows. I know I'm slightly biased but I think they are amazing!

That church is just my favourite. He even added a rose window in it for me. Its the little touches that I love.

So there we go, that's our Christmas decoration. We are now mostly ready for Christmas and as we count down through advent we'll be reading some devotions written by John Piper so that we can focus on the true meaning of Christmas, because although decorating is fun, that's really not the focus for us. I'm pretty excited though. It'l be different out here but that could be fun!

H