Even Monsters Sleep with The Great Little Trading Company

They’d long been the unmentioned, embarrassing and hidden away members of our family; neglected, covered up and forgotten about. But after our extension was complete and we’d all moved back in to our immaculate white walled rooms, I couldn’t take the shame under the fitted sheets any longer. Hugo and Bruno had had their knackered, Swedish super-store, grey (with various other colour markings!) mattresses for far longer than they should have, and at 9 and 10 had earned the trust to not piddle in their beds any longer – so began the hunt for quality mattresses to ensure those two monsters got the best nights sleep possible.

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Green Velvet Sofa of Dreams | My DFS Bailey Sofa

Let me start by saying, I’m incredibly grateful for all the awesome experiences and offers I get from writing about my family and home. But, if I’m completely honest, free stuff doesn’t pay the bills, put chicken fajitas on the table or clad my children in Adidas as they desire. There’s only so much stuff we can fit in our house along with the 7 of us – so, a lot of “gifts” end up being re-gifted or on Ebay. When I initially got the email from DFS asking me to “pop to Milan” for design week, then style one of their sofas for my blog, my first thought was “Eeeeeekkkkkkk YASSSS!” but my second – we really don’t need another sofa, I’m happy with the ones we bought 4 months ago (from Ebay), but I suppose I could sell it for a few hundred quid after I’ve snapped it for the blog!

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My Utility Room of Dreams | John Lewis AEG Washing Machine & Tumble Dryer #AD

One of the things I love about being a blogger is the weird and wonderful stuff that comes into my inbox; from offers of lube reviews to can I make pet insurance an exciting content matter? (The answer was NO!) But sometimes, some brands just ‘get me’ – get my blog, my family and come up with a collaboration that’s so god damn on point even I recoil in amazement. When John Lewis asked if I’d like to try out their new AEG washing machine and tumble dryer, it was as if all my parental dreams had come true! Needless to say, a family of 7 gets through a shiz load of washing and for anyone who follows my insta-stories, you will only be well aware of the drama it causes when one of my trusty washing steads fails me.

For a long time, as a family of 7, it’s been necessary to have two fridges, two lounges, two bathrooms (even two houses in the beginning) so it seemed almost a natural progression to upgrade my domestic goddess-ry to two washing machines and tumble dryers. I’ll be keeping my old work-horses (for now) as it seems a travesty to be loading the new shiny machines with muddy football boots and questionably stained bed sheets!

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Where Did You Get That? | My Monochrome Must-Haves

It might be a beautiful picture of my cherub, I’ve captured a darling moment and captioned it with squishy, vaguely comical, words – but there’ll always be a couple of beady-eyed, interiors magpies commenting: “Random question, but where did you get your [insert monochrome home-ware of choice] from?”. Truth be told, I’ve done the same a thousand times over – sod that kid picking his nose front of frame, tell me where I can get THAT cushion!!! So, whilst a vast amount of the shiz filling up my home was salvaged from a car boot sale or eBay, here’s my most asked about home wares from our monochrome family home that you can actually get your hands on, plus some I’d love to throw into the mix!

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Top Sofa Trends from Milan Design Week 2017 | With DFS

My inbox can be a dull place to hang out most of the time, then, like a rogue Jelly Tot lurking at the bottom of your handbag, a little wonder can appear. The email from the DFS HQ asking me to head over to Milan to garner some design inspiration and soak up the lastest interiors trends from Salone del mobile (Europe’s largest design exhibition) with their design team was one of those Jelly Tot discovering moments.

You might think going to Milan Design Week with hopes of returning with concepts suitable for a family home, is the equivalent of bumbling along to LFW to find a suitable outfit for the school run; but the DFS design team trot the globe to ensure their sofa collections offer the very latest in interiors trends, whilst using their years of experience to ensure their sofas are befitting of family life.

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