katy – Page 26 – Apartment Apothecary

katy 2nd November 2016

Nursery wish list

Woah. Discovering the world of children’s shops is a very dangerous game: there are so many lovely things! Making a wish list for the nursery has been difficult purely because there is so much to choose from and far too much temptation to go completely over board. Forget the boring stuff that we’ll actually need, I’m just enjoying choosing the pretty stuff right now.

I have chosen a white back drop for the room and because I don’t like bright, bold colours I have gone for my favourite dusky pinks, blues, greys and greens with touches of black and lots of raw wood and jute baskets to ground the scheme so it doesn’t look or feel too sickly.

Here is a taster of some of the lovely things I have found, some of which I have bought already, others may remain firmly on my wish list forever *sigh*.

Accessories

Nursery wish list | Apartment Apothecary

Chalkboard – Labour & Wait, Hot air balloon light – The Modern Nursery, Saar Manche illustration – Tea & Kate, Quilts – Camomile London, Cushions – Camomile London, Wool rug – Urbanara, Zebra basket – The Tipi , Home cushions – Smallable, Ferm Living whale mobile – Smallable, Natural belly baskets – Olli Ella, Changing basket – Olli Ella, Cam Cam swaddles – Little Goldie.

I want to include lots of texture in the room using layered textiles on the day bed, a snuggly woollen rug and lots of baskets to store toys and blankets. I’ve chosen a beautiful illustration, a chalkboard and a couple of other prints for the walls.

Furniture

String shelving – Haus, Sebra Kili cot bed – Houseology, Chest of drawers – Ikea, Day bed – Ikea, Rocking chair, Black-out blinds – Luxaflex.

I’ve been told by friends with babies that black-out blinds for the window are a must, especially as the cot has to be positioned under the window as this is the only place it will fit in the room. A lot of Luxaflex blinds have the option of room darkening fabric and they are safe for children so that seems like a good choice. I wish I had the budget to source some beautiful vintage furniture for the room but I need the practicality of the Ikea day bed and drawers at the moment as we have such a severe lack of storage. I will, however, be on the hunt for more characterful options as the baby gets older – what I really want is some lovely wooden furniture rather than all the brand new white pieces. Hopefully the beautiful Danish cot and a lovely rocking chair that Jules’s mum used when he was a baby will make up for the generic Ikea stuff. I am keeping the String shelving from our home office in the room, too, as storage is key in our small flat.

Toys

Wooden activity arch – Smallable, Cart and cubes – Smallable, Sebra rabbit – Smallable, Maileg bunny – Tea & Kate, Sebra elephant on wheels – Smallable, Little People books – Southbank Centre shop, Wooden toy bundle – Sarah & Bendrix, Luggy basket – Olli Ella, White paper doll house – Sarah & Bendrix.

I know the baby won’t be able to play with some of these toys for quite a while but they look so pretty! Wooden and crocheted toys, beautiful books – all so tempting…

Someone hold me back!

Katy x

katy 31st October 2016

Dyson V8 Animal cordless vacuum review

I am beyond excited about this new addition to my home. No, it’s not a stylish piece of furniture or a beautiful piece of art but a cordless vacuum. A CORDLESS VACUUM! Believe me when I tell you that this is a life changing moment for me and I squealed when it arrived at my door last week.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about keeping your house clean living with a dog that turned out to be very popular and a few readers who are also dog owners left comments recommending the Dyson V8 Animal cordless vacuum (the Dyson V8 Absolute is very similar but choose the Animal if you have pets). I always like getting personal recommendations so I decided to take your word for it and try it out. The lovely team over at ao.com sent me one to review and it arrived the next day with a one hour delivery slot – great service!

I am being completely honest when I tell you that the vacuum is completely brilliant and has made keeping our flat clean so much easier. Our current vacuum is big, heavy, bulky and just getting it out of the hallway cupboard is enough to put me off using it, let alone dragging it around the house and having to bend down to use any of the attachments. I constantly bash it into the walls when I pull it around corners and knock stuff off surfaces with the hose every single time I use it! Let’s just put it this way that vacuuming is my least favourite chore but the one I need to do most because of all the dog hair.

I knew a cordless vacuum would solve a lot of these problems as they are so easy to store on a charging dock and not having a hose or cable to worry about is pure bliss and makes moving around so much easier and less hassle. However, after doing a bit of research the Dyson V8 Animal not only gives me the benefits of being cordless it actually provides better cleaning than my current vacuum. Let me tell you how…

Dyson V8 Animal cordless vacuum review | How to keep your house clean with a dog | Apartment Apothecary

Charging dock that can be screwed to the wall, four attachments, the main handset and an extender pole.

The Dyson is extremely versatile as you can use the handset with the attachments so it’s like a hand-held vacuum, especially good for our sofa and bed to get rid of Otto’s hair or more generally for getting rid of crumbs on the table, in kitchen cupboards or use the brush attachment for dusting shelves. We can also take it out to our car to get rid of dog hair and mud, which is invaluable. I talk more about the special pet hair attachment in the video below and you can see me using it on my sofa and Otto’s bed. My regular vacuum doesn’t come close to removing dog hair in the way this does.

When you add the extender pole to the hand set it changes in to a regular vacuum and because it is so light (only 2.6 kg – some cordless vacuums are up to 5 kg) you can easily reach up to the ceiling to get rid of cobwebs, add the brush attachment to clean skirting boards without the need to bend down (something I have to do with my regular vacuum) and the main attachment for the floor pivots on a ball head so it is very, very easy to use.

I now use the Dyson several times day, just a few seconds at a time, to keep on top of the dog hair and it makes a massive difference to how clean the house feels generally. If I use it on the maximum suction setting the charge lasts for up to 7 minutes but I only really need to use that setting when I’m cleaning the sofa, car or Otto’s bed to get rid of hair. Generally, it only needs to be on the minimum suction setting for vacuuming the floor and in that case it can last up to 40 minutes. If I want to do a big clean of the whole flat I still use my regular vacuum as that can take up to an hour but otherwise it is the Dyson V8 Animal all the way!

Here’s a bit more detail…

Thanks to my lovely readers for recommending this and to ao.com for sending me one to review – I am so, so pleased with it!

Katy x

Pin me!

katy 28th October 2016

Friday Faves

How is it the end of October already?! Seriously? I’ve spent the week planning features for November and I suddenly realised that my planner is about to run out of pages as well as the year running out of days (and once December starts that’s the end of the year with just a hazy month of fairy lights, parties and presents, right?). Anyhoo, I promptly put an order in for my annual Rifle Paper Co calendar – I chose this one from Papermash – and now I need to choose a new planner so I thought I’d share some of my favourites that you can buy right here…

Right, I’m focusing on making the most of the rest of this year and trying to slow time down a bit. Hope you’ve all had a good week and enjoy the weekend!

Katy x

katy 26th October 2016

DIY advent calendar with Houseology

Ok, I know it’s early but bear with me on this… to prepare a DIY advent calendar that begins on December 1st takes a bit of planning and time to get it ready so blogging about Christmas at the end of October in this case is perfectly acceptable, right? Plus, if you aren’t already excited about the festive period then that just makes you a big grouch in my books 😉

This is a really simple idea for a slightly more interactive advent calendar than the bog standard chocolate ones as some days there are Christmas baubles from Houseology (aren’t they beautiful?) to add to the tree and other days there are little brown packages filled with whatever treats you like. It really didn’t take long to put together and a chalkboard door or wall is the perfect backdrop.

Otto definitely gets more than his fair share of the advent treats but Jules also gets some of his favourite chocolates stuffed into the brown paper bags. Adding christmas baubles to the calendar makes it feel a lot more festive and it is such a nice tradition to steadily add more and more decorations to the tree as advent goes on until Christmas eve when the tree should be full.

All you need to create the calendar are lengths of string, clothes pegs and small brown paper bags (so much quicker than wrapping individual parcels) with a hole punched in the corner. I decorated each one with a sprig of Eucalyptus and a label for each day.

DIY advent calendar | Blackboard advent calendar | Christmas decorations from Houseology | Apartment Apothecary

Houseology collection heart bauble, porcelain cone bauble and gold metal sleigh decoration / Lene Bjerre bird ornament / Pine garland

The Houseology collection pine garland is the perfect decoration to use year after year either draped on a mantel piece, along the Christmas table, over a doorway or you could even hang your advent calendar gifts from it. Take a look at the rest of Houseology’s gorgeous christmas collection this year – it will definitely start to get you in a festive mood! I can’t wait to get my LED christmas tree out from last year.

Two of my favourite decorations from the Houseology collection are these glitter and feather baubles and this cluster of glass pine cone lights. So beautiful!

Other baubles I have used are: pearl pine cone, jute snowflake and hammered gold heart bauble.

So, you’ve got about four weeks to go…are you ready?!

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Houseology.

Pin me!

katy 24th October 2016

Styling an Autumn table (and the perfect dinner party recipe)

One of the things I like best about the arrival of the colder months is the chance to cosy up indoors and enjoy long dinner parties with lots of candles, red wine and yummy food. It’s so lovely to gather friends and it is easy to make it feel special by making a bit more than the usual effort on styling the dinner. I have the perfect recipe for you to use for dinner parties, which will give you the extra time you need to prepare a beautiful autumnal table.

I’m a big fan of Robert Welch knives (remember this post?) so I was thrilled to be sent a beautiful new set of Malvern Bright cutlery that adds a touch of style to my table. I would always recommend investing in a set of good quality cutlery as not only does it look great but eating from it is so much more pleasurable. This limited edition 30 piece set is great value and you save £39 compared to individual retail pricing and it is completely dishwasher safe (a must for me).

To style my table, once I had decided on my cutlery, linens and glasses, I spent a few moments printing out the menu for the dinner but you could just add a simple name card. The pink of the glasses and the pink salt adds a bit of warmth to the table (you know how I don’t like dark colours so this is my nod to autumnal colours).

A very quick, easy and cheap way to add a bit of decoration to the table is to use a few stems of Eucalyptus, with the added bonus that it smells amazing, and a few gourds nestled amongst the foliage to add an autumnal feel.

I remembered that last week I found Jeska’s tutorial to gilt seashells and although I didn’t have time to do that I thought the shells would make lovely little pinch pots for salt and pepper.

I really like the simple and classic design of this cutlery range and it feels really good to hold, too. As an added bonus you get six free steak knives with this set.

So there’s my easy to style Autumn table and as promised, you must try out this recipe by Nigella Lawson for Asian flavoured short ribs: it tastes so good, can be prepared up to three days ahead of time and it is impossible to get wrong. Do it – your friends will love it! I’m looking forward to thinking of Christmas table ideas now using my new gorgeous cutlery.

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Robert Welch.

Styling an Autumn table | Robert Welch cutlery | Autumnal table with pumpkins, touches of pink and Eucalyptus | The perfect dinner party menu | Apartment Apartment

Pin me!