And just like that, Christmas is here! Our tree is And just like that, Christmas is here! Our tree is up, the Santa hats are out and the first doors on our advent calendars are open.

I love this time of year. It is my favourite. And it’s one of the few times still full of magic even as an adult. I’m going to be soaking up every minute of joy the next few weeks bring and I hope December is full of moments of joy for you too.

Happy December! 🎄
AD | Christmas has arrived at @thelexiconbracknell AD | Christmas has arrived at @thelexiconbracknell and there’s so much to entertain the whole family whilst you do your Christmas shopping! 

Visit The Lexicon Glow Room for a magical light experience that will dazzle you with 20,000 LEDs. It feels like the room goes on forever! Then, take a dip in the Light Pool, a magical ball pool with golden balls to be found and prizes to be won!

If that wasn’t all, have a photo in the giant Christmas bauble ‘sparkling selfie station’ and follow the Twinkle Trail, spotting baubles in shop windows to collect the clues and enter to win fabulous prizes this Christmas. Plus, share your sparkling selfie station pictures, tagging #thelexiconbracknell or email them to marketing@thelexiconbracknell.com and you will automatically be entered in a competition for the chance to win a restaurant gift card too. 

There are also special performances from local choirs, bands and singers and even the chance to meet Bluey, Hey Duggee and Chase from Paw Patrol! You can be sure that a trip to The Lexicon will have something for everyone over the festive season this year. We loved our visit to The Lexicon last weekend and know we’ll be back again before Christmas!

Find out more on @thelexiconbracknell website.

#TheLexiconBracknell #Merry&Bright
AD - Press Trip | What a lovely evening that was! AD - Press Trip | What a lovely evening that was! We had our first Glow Marwell experience tonight - and we loved it. It may even be the best light trail we have been to.

We spent well over two hours at @marwellzoo, enjoying the light installations, indulging in the food stalls and cafe, toasting marshmallows and even meeting Father Christmas! 

Glow Marwell was such a nice way to kick off the festive season - and it’s on all the way through December! If you’re looking for a really nice festive activity the whole family can enjoy, this could definitely be it!
AD | Are you looking for gifts for the grandparent AD | Are you looking for gifts for the grandparents this year? @famileo_uk is a wonderful gift, giving the recipient a personalised gazette of family news regularly throughout the year - and it costs from just £5.99 a month. 

Multiple family members can use the same subscription, all posting messages to be added to one gazette - and sharing the cost of the subscription too! It’s great for parents, siblings and children to all share their news with grandparents each week, fortnight or month. 

We’ve been sending my dad Family gazettes for a while now and he absolutely loves them. It means we tell him all the little things that are happening and not just the big news you remember to mention in phone calls. The children get to upload their own messages to their grandad and it’s definitely made them feel closer, building a stronger relationship despite living far apart.

Find out more about Family over on the blog - link in bio - and buy a subscription for your nearest and dearest this Christmas. It’s a gift they will definitely love to receive.
Two weeks of Fred & George! I won’t be doing the Two weeks of Fred & George! I won’t be doing these updates every week but I like having somewhere to put all these photos!

They’re now three months old, super loving and happy, making biscuits and purring constantly.

They stay in ‘their’ room overnight but explore the house during the day, getting more confident as time passes. They even got to the point of relaxing on the sofa with us last night.

Fred & George are now very much part of our family and I can’t imagine them not being there now - even at 7am when they’re miaowing at the door for breakfast!
AD | Stuck for screen-free entertainment that your AD | Stuck for screen-free entertainment that your kids will love? Claim your FREE Banjo Robinson activity pack today!
 
Reading for pleasure is a key indicator of a child’s future success, but if your child doesn’t love to read, what can you do? We know it’s not always easy keeping kids entertained and away from screens, so we’ve partnered with the award-winning @banjorobinson to gift you a FREE activity pack, worth £9.99.

Here’s a little look at the Banjo Robinson subscription - Troy loves it! Travelling to world with Banjo is so much fun! You can read our full review over on the blog and claim your free activity pack too - link in profile.
A whole week of Fred & George. We weren’t meant A whole week of Fred & George.

We weren’t meant to get more cats just yet but sometimes the universe sends you things when you don’t expect them.

These little guys needed a home and a family to love them. And we had a home and a lot of love to give. We still miss Leia but this pair are definitely helping make me feel whole again.

They are both used to us now, and love us. They’re less nervous, give us cuddles and let us pick them up. They’re still living in our spare room but starting to explore the rest of the house under supervision. 

They play fight constant. Love toys, especially a crinkly feather thing on a string attached to a stick, and love being up high. They are an awesome pair and we are so glad to have them.

Thank you @millbrook_rspca @rspca_official for trusting us with ‘Lonestar and Starfish’. We could not love them more. 

#catsofinstagram #catstagram #catsofig #catsofinsta #catlovers #adoptdontshop #rspcarescuecat #kittensofinstagram #kittens_of_instagram
[AD - Press Trip] I’ve just finished writing abo [AD - Press Trip] I’ve just finished writing about our half term break at @pottersresort and it’s over on the blog if you want to go have a read.

I wanted to put some of my favourite photos on the grid too as the kids did so many fun activities - they had THE best time. 

Giant swing, segways, climbing, archery, laser clays… there was so much to do that we couldn’t fit it all in - we need another trip!
And there ends our October half term - well, apart And there ends our October half term - well, apart from Troy who has a bonus week off!

This half term has been pretty lovely. Troy had his school residential the first weekend and then we had a really lovely few days in Norfolk before heading home and picking up two new members of our family - Fred and George. 11 week old rescue kittens who have pretty much stolen our hearts.

It’s been so nice to have a chunk of quality time with this pair and now I’m looking forward to the Christmas holidays. These two are the best company and I really do live for the school holidays. 

How has your half term been?
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Guest Posts · August 17, 2016

Mastering DIY Decor | AD

*This is a collaborative guest post

I’m always a fan of DIY home improvement, especially when it comes to decoration. It’s certainly nice to buy something for decoration now and then (be it a painting, a new set of curtains, or anything in between), but there’s something that’s just more satisfying about making a room look nice with your bare hands!

This is particularly true when you’re doing a larger project in your home, such as organising a garden, designing a nursery, or even building a full addition. While you’re at it with a big job like this, it’s a perfect opportunity to do a little extra work to make things look the way you envision them. Below, I’ve put together a few tips about how to do so.

Hang An Interior Curtain

I’ve already mentioned curtains, so this feels like a good place to start. And to be fair, I’m borrowing the idea from a delightful collection of easy home decorating ideas by House Beautiful. But I can’t get over the concept. Basically, it means rigging up a curtain hanger somewhere in the midst of a room, rather than along a wall and up against a window. Such a curtain can be used for any number of purposes: concealing “the mess of preparation” in a kitchen, as noted at House Beautiful; providing a secret play space for a child; or functioning as a barrier for an impromptu dressing room. Or you can simply keep the curtain tied to one side so it looks like an elegant (if perhaps unnecessary) furnishing! You can easily hang a curtain rod and set this up on your own, and it’s a very unique DIY design concept.

Get The Hang Of Your Tools

A lot of this discussion comes down to fun ideas and conceptual design, but at some point, you actually need to do the job! And for that, you’ll probably want a few power tools on hand if you’re going to make a professional effort out of it. A hammer and nails go a long way, though you’ll find that impact drivers in particular can help with managing large screws, nuts, and bolts for bigger jobs (perhaps even fixing a curtain rod into place!), and power drills or sanders can make tricky tasks easier as well. These aren’t always cheap accessories, and they may not be what you first think of when you picture pretty and colourful new décor, but knowing how to operate them is part of the foundation of a DIY job well done.

Get The Hang Of Painting

No matter what you end up doing in terms of fun ideas like the interior curtain, you’ll probably want to do a little bit of painting if you’re doing something as ambitious as a new addition or a nursery setup. Sure, this is something you can hire a professional (or even a university student) to do, but it’s also an easy (and surprisingly fun) thing to do on your own. And don’t worry about your abilities. You can always learn the basics of painting, and from there you’re just a few brushes, rollers, tape strips, and cans of paint away from getting the job done your own way.

Mastering DIY Decor

Get Creative With Lighting

As far as I’m concerned, the lighting is the most important part of any room. Count me as a big fan of letting as much natural light into a room as possible! But I also love the idea of creating your own light fixtures in a way that makes a room 100 percent unique. And this is where you can really take a DIY approach more in tune with crafting than traditional home design. I’d point you toward Bored Panda’s exhibition of DIY lamps and chandeliers for inspiration, because some of them are just lovely.

Don’t Stop When The Room Is Done

I suppose if I have one overarching tip for mastering home DIY décor, particularly with regard to a new room or addition, it’s that the process shouldn’t necessarily stop. It’s nice to step back, look approvingly over a finished product, and heave a satisfied sigh at a certain point. But once the room is designed and painted, the furnishings are in place, and you’ve put in your personal touches, you can always do a little bit more! It might mean arranging a collage of photos on one wall, laying down a new rug, or whatever else occurs to you—just don’t look at the room as a finished product until a few weeks after you feel you’re done.

In: Guest Posts

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Comments

  1. A Cornish Mum says

    August 17, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    I can’t wait to get redecorating our house again, I have to wait til the shed is done though so I may be waiting a while yet 😉

    Stevie x

    Reply
  2. Joanna says

    August 17, 2016 at 10:26 pm

    Great tips, can’t wait until we find a home we’ll finally be able to call ours to do all the decorating! I love the curtain idea, in my husband’s homeland in Pakistan every house we visited seem to have the curtains dividing the rooms, hiding all the stuff behind them rather than organising in wardrobes etc. I’m thinking to get one in our house, would be great for quickly concealing the playroom mess 😉

    Reply
  3. Plutonium Sox says

    August 17, 2016 at 11:25 pm

    Fab tips! I’m decorating the girls’ room, struggling a bit to find the time so I’ll definitely be stopping when the room’s done!
    Nat.x

    Reply

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Hi everyone! I'm Donna. Mummy. Blogger. Social Media Manager. Traveller. Lover of stars, rainbows and gin. Firm believer that tea and cake can fix most things.

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