House update - our bedroom

I've been meaning to do a house update post for a little while now, since we finished our house. I thought I would start with our bedroom, since its one of my favourite rooms. I tidied a bit before I took these photos, but there I have since spotted bits of everyday detritus hanging around! 

My bedside table is always very full - this is it at its tidiest. I love my 70s ceramic lamp which I bought on ebay, and the little handmade woven basket was bought in a market in Morocco and is where I keep cotton wool for taking off my makeup!

This little M plate was from Anthropologie and I thought it would be a perfect bedroom plate. It hangs beside a favourite wedding photo. 

This is R's side of the bed. 

This is our view from bed. We have two lovely big windows in this room which means that the room is very light and bright. 

At the moment this is where I'm keeping some of my jewellery and a rather vigorous scented geranium as well as other bits and bobs, and the all important radio, for listening to while getting dressed in the morning. 

These photos were taken in two batches hence the change of plant pot!

I am a big fan of old suitcases. These were bought at a car boot sale for very little and are perfect for storing clothes and scarves. I now have quite a collection of covered clothes hangers - they're so pretty, especially the wooly ones.

The furniture in here is a mix of old and new. Our bed was John Lewis and the wardrobe was mum and dads' that they passed to me and I painted. The rest of it is either from antique or junk shops, nothing was very expensive! 

This huge fluffy sheepskin is a beloved present from R and incidentally makes a perfect kitty bed. It's so snuggly on bare feet. 

I LOVE wicker lampshades. I have them in almost all the rooms of the house....! 

My dressing table/chest of drawers has a tendency to become a dumping ground and I am perpetually tidying it. It is also a bit of a dust trap. 

Sadly the fireplace was ripped out of this room years ago but we still have a chimney breast where we have started a little botanical picture display. 

So there it is - our bedroom. There is no theme or colour scheme and essentially it's just a bright, calm space full of things that we love and make us happy. It's certainly not perfect and like all of the rooms of the house will, I'm sure, evolve as our tastes change and develop and we acquire things and let other things go. For now though, I'm pretty happy with it:)

Next up, bathroom. 

mussels on a Friday night

Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting increasingly unwilling to go out on a Friday night. In fact, I'm becoming increasingly wedded to my Friday nights in - get home, open wine, have bath, put on music, light candles, cook, talk, eat. 

Anyway, mussels were on offer in Waitrose and I made a spur of the moment decision that we should have them for our tea. This is a recipe that I have been meaning to make for ages, but the right combination of time, ingredients and inclination hadn't, until now, happened!

It's always a bit of a palaver getting them scrubbed and clean and removing the barnacles, pesky things!

R did most of the hard work - I swanned in for the creative element, haha. 

Bobby was bewildered - a hard fishy thing!

We followed this Jamie Oliver recipe. It was super easy and quick. The recipe doesn't call for white wine but we thought it would be a shame not to add some....we put a splash in just before putting the lid on the mussels.

The magic moment when you lift the lid and they are opened up! R laid the table as I added the linguine and gave everything a good mix. Then a handful of parsley and a glug of olive oil, and then spooned clattering into the dishes. 

It was completely delicious - savoury, fishy, fragrant and comforting. A soothing dinner on a Friday night. 

Chutney making

We had a glut of runner beans this year. I have stewed them, curried them, eaten them plain up with butter and pepper, made ratatouille, given them away to everyone and anyone....and still we had runner beans...!

There was nothing left but to make chutney! 

I got my sisters involved - we spent a lazy Saturday in the kitchen drinking tea, chatting and chutney-ing. To be honest, they are not the greatest chutney fans (why would you eat anything other than Branston pickle?) but they were happy to chop and stir. 

Luckily I had lots of empty jam jars hanging around (perks of being a hoarder). I sterilised them in the oven (10 mins at 180 degrees C) and boiled the lids. 

I used this recipe as a rough guide, adding bramley apple and courgette as suggested (courgette from our own garden, I may add). I halved the amount of vinegar though. 

I made them little labels and frilly hats. 

Now we have to wait for a month before it's ready to eat!