Trend-Led Threads from John Lewis for 8-14 yr Olds

It’s no secret I’m a John Lewis obsessive. What’s not to love? I’ve lost many an hour perusing their swoon-worthy kitchenware, caressing their luxurious towel collection and drooling over their skincare ranges. Their staff are off-the-scale amazing – Sarah in the Horsham store intervened, with perfect timing, when my parenting was critised (by a fellow shopper) post-tantrum as I wouldn’t let Cas grapple the Wedgewood display. Bravo Sarah for spotting a speechless, teary mother in despair. And that, right there, epitomises everything that’s fabulous about the lot behind John Lewis – they just seem to know what it is you want/need.

With this in mind, it seems they recently read my mind. Trawling through their website one evening, having lusted over some tribal cushions and hankered the Hush collection, it dawned on me that John Lewis had considered everyone in my family except four of the loudest, most obvious members of the crew, the 8-14 year olds. That was until NOW!

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My Habitat Bedside Story

My love affair with Habitat started very young – I would follow my mum into Brighton and gawp, stroke and inhale the chunky, red velvet sofa that greeted us in their ultra hip, industrial shop space in the otherwise dilapidated, concrete structure of a shopping precinct; I must have been all of about 5! Move on 10 years, and with a blatant disregard for employment law, I applied for their Saturday sales assistant job at the tender age of 15 – yes, I got the job but, needless to say, all fell apart when they requested my national insurance number which wouldn’t arrive in the post for another 7 months! So, when my first interiors love got in touch – like a long lost beau, to ask if I wanted a slice for their bedroom furniture cake -how could I refuse?!

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The Writing’s On the… The Typography Trend

Gone are the days of subtle messages in our homes, there’s an interiors trend for saying it how it is and in some cases, quite literally the writing’s on the wall. Maybe we’ve become so comfortable with narrating our lives on social media, giving little stories to the freeze-frames of our moments and finding relevant hastags to get the word out there. We’re using artwork, lighting, banners, cushions, blankets, crockery and even door mats to share our family motto, beliefs, uplifting quotes or a one word mood. Never has the trend for saying it like it really is been so prevalent and I simply love it! Just think of all the captioning we’d have to do if our pictures didn’t contain words too!!

I’ve slowly started to notice that more and more typography is creeping into my interior decor (along with the monochrome landscape – oh black and white it easy with kids!), I’m not sure whether its the living with all the boys that means I literally have to spell stuff out for them. I’ve also adopted a lot of monogramming – again, maybe this is due to the kids, If I don’t stamp my initials on it I might very well forget who I am completely in a sleep deprived stupor!

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Very Flattered – Amara Interior Blog Awards 2015

It feels as though I’ve nearly made my blogging full circle; it was winning the Amara Interiors Blog Award for Best Organisation Blog last November through my “day job” that finally spurred me onto starting my own, long considered blog. When I received the email a few weeks ago from the lovely IBA team informing me that one of my lovely readers (please let me know if it was you as all family, friends and colleagues thus far questioned have denied it!) had nominated me for a 2015 IBA I was gobsmacked – to the point where I emailed them back asking if they were really sure! Apparently it wasn’t a mistake!

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