Ginger Bisquite

Lifestyle, DIY, Family & Food

Living Arrows 1/52

January 6, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 49 Comments

Living Arrows

Living ArrowsAneurin you truly love and cherish your sister.  Here you are sharing your beloved dog with her and even a biscuit. (despite me trying to explain, babies drink milk…) This image isn’t perfect but it reminds me of this moment, the first day ‘back to work’ of 2014.  Your behaviour has been terrible this morning, ever since your daddy left for work you have been throwing, moaning and huffing.  This picture captures a moment of bliss, and it was lovely until soon after I took it you smacked your sister in the face.  You were annoyed that I was trying to tell you to be gentle.  I wish you understood what being gentle was, it would help enormously.  All that said, the good outweighs the bad and I am proud that you are learning to share.  This is the start of your journey as a big brother.

SONY DSCLittle Evelina, I am afraid you were born into a blogging family.  It is the start of your journey and already I am placing you on the living room floor on random bits of fabric to ‘document’ your life.  I know it’s silly. Blimey, I can see it for sure in this photo, but if I didn’t take these photos I would fear I had missed something.   Have no fear, your brother is here to protect you, even if at this moment that means kissing you with a ‘”mwah” and banging his head aginst yours. (potentially a Glasgow kiss…) You spent your first month sleeping,eating, cooing, smiling and being cuddled by your daddy.  It was a good month.

*These are my images for week 1 of the Living Arrows project on I heart Snapping.

How To Re-cover Dining Chairs

January 3, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 21 Comments

recovering dining chairsHello and Happy New Year to you! It’s 2014 and I’ve already written my first to do list and on my list I wrote recover dining chairs (FINALLY).  I blogged about how we had bought a mid century dining table set on ebay way back in November and I’ve been wanting to do it ever since.

I’ve continued to search for the right fabric to recover the chairs.  I initially wanted to use a family friendly vinyl and I bought some really cheap black stuff (£2.99 x M) I spotted in Dunelm Mill as a trial run.  Unfortunately, when I got the vinyl home I really hated the shiny look and this made me feel very uneasy about spending much more than a few pounds on fabric to cover the seats.  However, they really did need recovering urgently as, in addition to being threadbare, they were now covered in sticky Nye hand prints of varying colours and textures.

Over Christmas as we were tidying I found some wood patterned fabric I bought from Ikea to use in our old kitchen.  It dawned on me that I had enough fabric to cover the four chairs and I thought it would look kitchy used on these old chairs.  Especially when we get the lovely Marimekko wallpaper up and try to create a mid century look.

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 Here’s my How To Re-cover Dining Chairs Tutorial.

What You Need:
Fabric (Enough to cover the cushion covers and preferably in a thick and durable fabric.)
Fabric Scissors
Staple Gun
Staples
Hammer

Instructions:
1.Remove the seat pad from the chair (ours lifted off easily, you may have to unscrew it or lever it out.)
2. Lay out your fabric, upside down, and place your seat pad on top.
3. Turn the pad over to check you are happy with how the pattern is aligned. (Think about whether you want the pattern centered for example)
 4. If you are happy with how the pattern looks, cut out your fabric to fit the seat pad. I gave myself quite a bit of extra fabric on each side to allow for mistakes.
 5. Use the staple gun to attach fabric to the chair. Start by securing the centre of each side, pulling the fabric as tight as you can .
6. Work your way along the sides from the center, leaving the corners until last.
7. Pleat the corners by pulling the corner of the fabric diagonally towards to center of the seat base. 
8.  Next fold one side of the corner down so that the edge runs diagonal, then fold the other side down and staple.
9. Once all corners are complete, trim off any excess material and hammer down any staples that haven’t gone into the seat base completely.
10. Return seat pad to chair and secure.
11. (optional) You may want to use some kind of stain guard to protect the fabric.  (I haven’t done this yet but I’m interested to see if it helps keep the material clean.)

How To Recover Dining Chairs Continue Reading →

Teal Bedroom Ideas

December 30, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 15 Comments

The Teal Bedroom
The Teal Bedroom sources
My wonderful friends Ally and Ben recently bought a house and have been painstakingly renovating it from top to toe.  I’m talking moving doorways replumbing, knocking down walls and installing central heating amongst many many other things.  As things near an end,  it’s time to start thinking about how to finish off the rooms to turn this house into a home. starting with some teal bedroom ideas. 

DESIGN BRIEF:
 Magnolia Walls
 Teal Feature Wall
Ikea Pax wardrobes
Maroon Bedding
 Oak Bed


MY DESIGN:
 Ally wanted to use some of the items they already had and had been given (the bed, the magnolia paint, maroon bed linen and the wardrobes)  She then decided she wanted to add a bid of colour with a teal feature wall and I have used this brief to design the above mood board).

With this colour scheme I think you have two choices, to carry on with the sharp zingy modern feel or choose some more calming tones.  I’ve highlighted this with two options of alternative bed linen, one more modern design from Ikea and an alternative more neutral set from Dunelm Mill.  I also think this teal design will go well with their already owned maroon set, and if Ally decides to keep their old stuff (house renovation is an expensive business), by simply adding a few maroon trinkets this will pull everything together.

With the thrifty theme in mind, I was also thinking about a few low cost pieces of art that would really personalise the room.  As Ally has a geography degree and is currently training as a geography teacher I love the idea of creating something to hang using maps.   I love the options below and all only require a frame (easily picked up from a charity shop, car boot or IKEA) and items you would have in the cupboard at home.

map art diy

December 27, 2013
by Jenni Clutten
1 Comment

2014 Gardening Challenge

gardening challenge

2014 is the year of the gardening challenge.  In 2014 I want to try my hand at having a proper allotment style fruit and vegetable patch, as well as in generally beautifying the garden i.e keeping up to date with garden jobs.  I am aiming to write a gardening post once a week, sharing what I’ve been doing, inspiration I have found and even the failures. And oh my goodness I am certain there will be many (it’s good to share!)

In 2013 I made a good start by getting out in the garden on a more regular basis.  Mammasaurus inspired me to get on with it through her regular ‘how does your garden grow’ posts, This year I managed to get in 4 of those and an update on starting to rennovate our garden shed as well as a guide on how to give your front garden a makeover.  The shed still looks the same externally but we tackled the interior on boxing day and that’s starting to come together now, with some shelving and desk space. (The spring will bring some much needed insulation).

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I’d like to think I’ve made a good start at documenting the garden this year and I can only build on that in 2014.  Here are a few of my favourite photos from the 3 gardens we have lived in over this last year.  This year is all about our wonderful new garden, I can’t wait to see what the spring will uncover.  Especially since the day I went into labour I was out clearing the annuals and planting spring bulbs.

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Truth be told, I rarely set myself goals out loud.  I have things I would like to achieve but I rarely share them with others for fear of failure.  However this year I’m going to put it out there, I really would love to start growing the very basics of our diet.

Are you setting yourself any challenges this year?  Got any gardening tips that you would like to share?  Let me know in the comments below!

We wish you a Merry Christmas

December 25, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 0 comments

SONY DSCMerry Christmas to you all!

I hope you’ve all had a lovely day, whether at home or with family and friends.  We spent this year at home just the four of us after an epic drive through the storms on Monday.  We have all had a lovely day of stocking emptying, wrapping paper ripping, fizz sipping, turkey feasting, baby cuddling and sofa lounging.

Aneurin is now tucked up in bed after a very busy day.  He was very lucky to receive a whole host of amazing gifts, but his favourites have definitely been some extra train track bits, his new pens and crayons, a harmonica and a  cow hopper.

Here are a few pictures from our day.  Yes our house is still a mess but today, I kind of don’t care.

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Christmas 2013
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Evelina Newborn Family Photos

December 18, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 12 Comments

Flash Charlie Cotswold wedding and family photographyWhen Evelina was just 3 days old we were lucky enough to have some newborn family photos taken by Mark of Flash Charlie Photography.  He took lots of images of us all, and even ran around in the garden chasing after Nye who was having a bit of a mad day.  We are so grateful for his perseverance with a newborn that refused to sleep for most of the morning, and a toddler insistent on set sabotage.  It was so worth having these pictures taken and I know we will always cherish them.  There really is nothing more special than capturing a moment in time like this even if I was ready to go back to bed once he left.

When I was looking for local photographers, one of the things I especially liked about Mark’s style was that each of his images seemed to capture the true character of the subject.  I think this comes across especially well in Nye’s photos, he is almost 2 now and is so busy all the time I find it difficult to capture him, but Mark was able to do this beautifully.  I really feel like when Nye looks back on these pictures when he is older he will get a sense of what he was like, running around the garden laughing and generally being a happy and cheeky little boy.  No doubt he will still be full character when he is bigger, but by then we’ll probably be less able to bribe him with apples and lollipops.

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Cotswold Family Photography
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Cotswold Family Photography
Flash Charlie Cotswold wedding and family photography

FilmFlash Charlie Cotswold wedding and family photography
You can see more of the photos from the day on the Flash Charlie webiste, and if you are looking to have some family photos taken then I honestly don’t think there is anyone better!

December 16, 2013
by Jenni Clutten
4 Comments

Orange Pear Apple Bear – Emily Gravette

orange pear apple bear

This week we have been enjoying Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravette.  We love this book.  We took a few minutes to have a quick read after our epic brownie making last week on the last day of Neil’s paternity leave.  Nye and I spent the morning making some amazing brownies, the entire kitchen was covered in debris but it was thoroughly enjoyable.  Then the first slice was proudly taken and placed on the table ready to enjoy, with his face, T-shirt and even hair covered in sticky chocolate goo.  We sat cuddle up and I pointed to the pictures and Nye read out what he could see. ‘pear, onge, ap’

This book is so simple yet so very clever, I picked it up in a charity shop for about 25p and it’s one of our most favourite board books.  Gorgeous watercolours, such soft imagery but with colours that still jump off the page.  You can even see the texture of the original paper on the pages which brings the whole thing together, making it seem like such a work of love.

Brownie Making

 Once again we are linking up with Tigerlilly Quinn and her wonderful We Like To Read Linky.

Caslon & Co Review

December 13, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 7 Comments

Caslon & CoLast week I was sent this beautiful Caslon & Co oven mitt to review.  Caslon & Co kitchen linen really stood out to me because of their absolutely stunning designs, printed using traditional techniques .  You can read all about exactly how they make the prints, every print lovingly hand made using antique letterpress blocks.  Each design fuses vintage patterns with a contemporary colour pallet which would suit any home.

In the interests of product testing this week I’ve been doing my best to cook up a storm in the kitchen.  Of course you can see how beautiful the product is but the most important question is, is it functional?  And yes, I am pleased to report that the as well as being stylish this oven mitt is beautifully made, fantastically heat resistant and machine washable.  It is made of a soft but highly durable fabric on the outside and lined with a waterproof layer which helps protect your hand from the heat.  Impressively designed and made in the UK you’ll be pleased to hear also.

All in all, I absolutely love my new oven mitt and I think it would be a perfect as a Christmas present, wedding gift or to celebrate a new home.  As an extra special treat you can get an extra 15% discount at Caslon & Co simply by using the code xmas25 at the checkout.

DISCLOSURE:  I was sent this oven mitt for the purpose of this review.  All words, pictures and opinions are my own.

 

1st Trip to the Park – Family Photobook

December 9, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 4 Comments

On a cold December day we took our first steps outside for a family trip to the park, our first outing as a family of 4.  Just an ordinary everyday moment but it was special for us.  As we opened the door we felt the chill of the air crisp on our faces.  We were bundled up in layer over layer, worried you might be too hot or too cold.  Baby Evie you were just 5 days old and looking beautifully peaceful as we gave your brother a break from the confinement of the house.

We pushed you both slowly along for the first time in a pushchair made for two.  In your seat you lay awake, taking in the bright white of the sky and the lush green grass.  The trees clung on to the last of their golden coloured leaves as we walked underneath them through the village and up the path.  Your brother was thrilled to finally get out and about, however he did need some distracting from the fact we left his beloved doggy at home.  Thankfully he soon forgot about his dog once he noticed the gates open up on to the play equipment.

New Baby Evelina

December 3, 2013 by Jenni Clutten | 7 Comments

It is with tremendous excitement and pride I announce that our beautiful baby girl, Evelina finally arrived on the 28th November at 1.57am. She was born exactly one week ‘late’ at 41 weeks and I had the peaceful and natural birth I had wanted.  Most importantly we now have a healthy happy daughter weighing 8lb 10.  She is a true delight and makes us beam from ear to ear, her squeaks, big eyes and soft soft skin.  Nye kisses and hugs his new sister before he goes to bed every night and my heart almost bursts with joy.  I am intending to share the full birth story when I get a chance, but until then our days are filled with cuddles and broken sleep.

Welcome to the worldEvelina

My First Photo
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Admiring Daddy
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Daddy Pride
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Sleeping Beuaty
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Close Up Face
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Side Crib
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Me and Evelina
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Sleeping Evelina
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Leaving Hospital
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Leaving Hospital Cosy
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Me and Evelina
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Ready to go
Goodbye Hospital

Dearest Evelina,

Thank you for filling us with happiness, for reminding us what it is like to have a new born and making us appreciate our time as parents to you and your brother even more.  Pregnancy drove me totally round the bend, but all the pain was worth it in the end.  It amazes me how quickly I have forgottenthe previous 9 months in just a breath of newborn baby cuddles.  We have had just 5 days of you so far and you are gentle and graceful.  You have big alert eyes which you only seem to open in the evenings and long dainty fingers.  I kind of want time to stop still and preserve your tiny body but I also cant wait to get to know you as you grow day by day.

xoxo