If you are lucky enough to have a garden then it is one of the most important parts of your home. It might not be inside the house, but that doesn’t mean it can’t play an important part in your family’s life and be treated like an extension of the house. When the weather is good you'll spend a lot of time outdoors, or hopefully you will if you make it a beautiful place to want to spend time in!

The weather might not be great right now, but if you want your garden to be ready for the summer months, you need to start thinking about which changes to make right now.  If you don't want to spend time outdoors then it's just wasted space.  Don't let that happen!  In this blog post I'll explore how to ensure your garden gets used and not forgotten about with some simple garden makeovers.

Your garden doesn’t need to go to waste for a moment. You can actually have a lot of fun when making over your garden and it might even add some extra value to your home. So, what should you do to make the most of your garden? The tips below should give you some ideas. You don’t have to make use of them all, but you will definitely find some of them useful and applicable to your garden.

Read on for my honest Thermae Bath Spa review.  I went as a couple with my husband and these are our thoughts.

<BLOG_BREAK>

If you are looking for a new (and now even cool) way to release your inner creative spark, perhaps knitting could be for you.  Stop right there if the thought of knitting only conjures up images of your Gran in a rocking chair cosied up with blankets and knitting needles sticking out of her silver bun, because knitting is making a comeback with all ages enjoying its many pleasures. 

With the likes of Etsy and Folksy growing in popularity as buyers grow tired of mass produced products and seek alternative unique handmade goods, knitting is fast becoming a popular hobby and even an entrepreneurial career for those who make selling a success on such handmade marketplaces.

One of the best things about knitting is you can do it anywhere.  You can even multitask and sit and knit whilst watching your favourite TV programmes in the evening next to the fire with a mug of tea.  You can also take your knitting with you.  Are you going to be a passenger on a long car journey or have a terribly dreaded boring train ride to endure?  Fear not, just pack up your needles and yarn and knit away whilst taking in the passing scenery.  It’s the perfect way to unwind and mindfully relax whilst also keeping your brain active.  As well as being incredibly creative, there are so many more positives to this hobby.

If you are still struggling to see how knitting could be for you or you’re still put off at the thought of getting in a woolly tangle with those pesky knitting needles, here are five creative knitting ideas you may not have thought of and you may not even need needles.

Knit a cosy scarf using your arms

Unbelievably you can make a scarf in as little as 15 minutes without any knitting needles in site.  Just search on YouTube and you’ll find no end of videos with step by step instructions.  You simply use your arms to loose knit an infinity scarf in virtually no time at all.  If you’re short on time , but want to challenge yourself with a  creative new hobby, knitting could be just the thing for you.

Knit a warming throw using a table and your hands

Cut your heating bills and arm knit a cosy blanket to snuggle under this winter season.  Using super soft and impressively large merino wool yarn it is entirely possible to arm knit, or rather ‘hand and table knit’ a gorgeous fluffy blanket or amazingly chunky scarf.

Create unique knitted wall hangings

Art isn’t just about pretty paintings on canvas or clay sculptures.  Get arty by creating your very own knitted wall hanging.  Simply hang a gorgeous piece of your favourite knitting proudly from a branch and bring your walls to life.  These would make perfect unique handmade gifts for friends and family too.

Knit a plant pot

We’ve all seen those buttoned up knitted hugs for mugs, but why not go one step further and knit a plant pot cosy?  For indoors of course, unless you have some magical waterproof and weather resistant fabric, then go wild and cover your patio pots in your knitted creations too!  For a cool 70s vibe you can even discover patterns to knit your own plant hangers.  Add a glass terrarium and voila – a total focal point and great conversation starter.

Finger knit a spectacular woven rug

You read that correctly, yes.  You can even knit yourself a rug!  Not only can you clothe yourself, cover your bed, add art to your walls, create gifts for loved ones, sell your wares online, enjoy yourself and take up a mindful hobby, oh no that’s not all – now you can also carpet your floors by knitting!  Who’d have thought?  Plus you can skip the knitting needles and use your very own fingers to make such a delight.

Final word

As you can see, there is so much more to knitting than one might first imagine.  You really can use knitting to release your inner creativity and make almost anything your heart desires.  If you can imagine it knitted then there’s no doubt a knitting tutorial out there for it!  Why not grab yourself some wool in your favourite colours, search for free knitting patterns or tutorials and create something wonderful for yourself or your home?  Knitting is a hobby and skill you will cherish for years to come.

Back in January the lovely people at Trunki let me choose a ToddlePak for Reuben.  He was 9 months at the time, so I knew we had to wait a little while for walking, but I never thought it would be this long!  Now Reuben is walking I am able to review the Trunki ToddlePak.

I sooooo wanted to be writing a more positive update absolutely raving about how amazing the water only hair washing method is and how I’m now a convert...  but sadly not.

I still have faith in this method, after all so many bloggers saying how their hair is incredible using this method can’t be wrong, right?!

My husband has also been washing his hair with water only and continues to do so.  The difference being his hair is 1-2 inches long, whereas mine is waist length.  He also has to wash it every single day to keep it clean and flake free. 

If you have short hair, then it’s definitely easier.  I read a newspaper article about a lady suggesting the WO method, but her hair was shorter than my husband's!  Easy peasy!

Let me tell you what happened with my hair and why I had to stop the no poo method for good.

We were kindly sent a TOTSUP ‘Big Red Bus Reward Chart’ to review with our daughter Bella.  Bella is almost four and has been going through a ‘threenager’ stage for a good few months now!  We thought it was easing at one point, then she seemed to get a million times worse!  She’s not a naughty child, but learning right from wrong, asserting independence and pushing boundaries like any normal three year old.  It can certainly be frustrating as a parent and there are days when no amount of pleading or bribes of treats will work!  There are also days when Bella doesn’t seem to care if I raise my voice, get upset or angry.  She’ll just carry on doing the exact opposite of what I’ve said.  Grrr!

We had tried rewards charts, but with little success.  She’d be rather excited by them for a day or so, but would quickly revert to the unwanted behaviour and not seem bothered by the promise of a reward.  We’d only tried printable charts with star stickers and they were pretty boring, resembling a worksheet rather than something fun and interacting.  I was unsure whether the bus would be any different to the charts we had already tried, but the reviews were very impressive and it looked so much more fun than a bog standard sticker reward chart.

Would Bella be convinced?

Boredom is something that we enjoy sometimes and dislike other times.  Luckily I’m always so busy nowadays I rarely have the pleasure of being bored.  I saw a blogger mention they were bored the other day and had one hour to kill. ‘What can I do?’ they asked.  Why not do something interesting with your spare time?

Here are 3 interesting things that you can do which will not only banish the beast of boredom, but you will enjoy doing them!

Just a quick update as I want to document my entire 'braces at 30' journey from start to finish.  Yet again I had to go to my dentist as they were concerned that my orthodontist was not leaving enough time between the dentist removing two baby teeth and the orthodontist fitting my brace.

Read on to see what happened when I had to visit the dentist for them to check my baby teeth before they removed them.  Totally pointless if you ask me!

But then again, I'd better get used to having a LOT of appointments now I'm going ahead with train track braces and cosmetic dentistry,  It's going to be a journey for sure!

Ben and I tied the knot in August this year (2015) and I've meant to devote a whole blog post to the event for a while now.  I'll share a snippet so you get a feel of the day and perhaps some inspiration from some of the ideas we had for our Wedfest.   We did a DIY backyard wedding in our garden.  It was low cost, so budget-friendly, and perfect for those who don't like the idea of a traditional wedding day.  Read on as I share how we planned our outdoor wedfest for lots of DIY backyard wedding ideas on a budget!

One thing that I always find quite un-eco-friendly is the giving and receiving of cards.  There’s definitely something special about receiving a handwritten greetings card in the post with an actual letter and some thought in it, but many of us send a simple happy birthday or merry Christmas card without a note at all.  We simply write Dear so and so, love me.

I’m not one to keep these things either, so it goes on the side for a short while and then in the recycling.  That’s it.  It seems so wasteful.

Luckily, if you like sending cards there is a way to be more eco-friendly.  Simply make sure you buy cards made from recycled materials only or why not buy seeded cards that have wildflowers and plants embedded into compostable paper that can grow into something after use?

It’s such a great idea and one that I have stumbled upon recently when browsing Etsy for a more eco-friendly Christmas card alternative.

When Luxemme contacted me asking if I'd like to do an outfit post, I was slightly nervous at first.  I'd not done a 'proper' outfit shoot since before becoming pregnant with Reuben.  But, my weight is now back to pre-pregnancy figures (finally), so I thought why on Earth not, let's do this!