DIY - Ombre Planter in collaboration with Wayfair

Today I'm delighted to have teamed up with Wayfair to bring you this really simple ombre planter tutorial - perfect for adding a splash of colour to your garden, what ever the size. It's SO easy to make and will turn into a fantastic mini cut flower bed once the warmer months finally arrive. I've filled mine with my favourite spring flowers like ranunculus, muscari and tiny viola's, when they fade I'll re-sow with pot loving seeds to create a mini cut flower patch that I can move around the garden. Here's how to make...

 You'll need - Wayfair  Kampen Living Wooden Planter, White outdoor paint, Pink outdoor paint, paintbrushes.

Step 1 - Mix your paint. You'll need three different shades, here I used white with a tiny drop of pink, pink with about a tablespoon of white paint added and pure pink. You might want to play around with amounts to get your own colours but ideally you are looking for a gentle ombre across the three colours. 

Step 2 -  Starting with the palest colour working down to the darkest colour - paint each wooden section with two coats of paint, leaving to dry in between each coat. 

 Step 3 - Leave the paint to dry completely before planting up with flowers of your choice. 

A huge thank you to Wayfair for sponsoring this post - opinions, tutorial, styling and images are all my own. 

You can see past Wayfair collaborations below...

How to get creative in the Garden with a little one

Spring Shelfie 

Favourite Spring makes

Fabric Bunny Easter Eggs

With Easter on the horizon and the hope the actual spring isn't too far off, I've rounded up some of my favourite tutorials for you if you fancy getting crafty in the next few weeks. I promise there a new tutorials coming soon but until then, happy making! x

Spring Gift Wrapping

Aqua and Blue Stone Necklaces 

 Rose Gold and Semi Precious Stone Hoops 

Simple Supermarket Bouquets 

Birthday bits

It was my birthday last week and apart from a small freak out about turning 35 I got massively spoilt and inspired by these beautiful presents - its like my family know me! 

Tea towels - Anthropologie
Books - My Floral Affair and Foraged Flora
Gloves - Briers
Topper - Other Letters
Candles - Ovo Things 
Cake - recipe, Call Me Cupcake - Blood Orange Upside Down Cake 
Flowers - Bunched 
Plates - Vintage

How to do anything creative with two babies

If you follow me* on Instagram, you'll see that I've been sharing in real time how I design, make, photograph and edit a tutorial. I wanted to show two things; one,  its still possible to create with little ones in tow and two, how long the process actually takes. Before I left my day job there were a few kind folk that delighted in telling me I'd never make again. I definitely disagree with that one, whilst its not the easiest its not impossible to still find time to create with two. As with everything in life you have to change and adapt which is no bad thing in my book! Here are some of my tips for getting projects done and having fun along the way...

Get some company - A had some friends and their toddlers round for wreath making at Christmas time, whilst it was chaotic we still managed to each get a wreath made. Christmas might be long gone but with spring around the corner you could try making flower crowns or something simple like candle making . 

Add a creative spin on an everyday activity - for me this is either laying the table or wrapping presents, if there is something that you have to do then find a way to make it beautiful. 

Schedule time - like booking a doctors appointment or trying to make it to a gym class sometimes the only way to scratch that creative itch is to ask for help and schedule it in. If I have childcare then I can plan to do a detailed project (like a jewellery making) if I've only got nap time then I might try and play around with a few photo ideas.  

Slow projects  - I used to be all about quick projects that I could complete in about an hour and a half. 90 minutes now feels like such a luxury I've switched and started projects that I can pick up and put down as when. 

Get them involved - If there are two things I love, it's being in the garden with Stanley and having him help me make a cake. One of my biggest joys is being able to pass on my passion for creativity but also watch his imagination unfold. As long as they're not in any danger include little ones where ever you can. Whilst the activity might not turn out exactly as you imagined its so important to have time together. 

You can see more of my how to posts below 

How to get anything creative done (with a baby)

How to get anything creative in the garden with a little one

Festive addition - How to get anything creative done (with a baby)

*if you don't follow me, you can follow me on Instagram here. 

A colourful undone table

I've always believed in making the everyday beautiful and since having children I believe in it even more. Whilst I can't create as much as I used too, I've adapted to make the jobs I have to do to make them as nice as I can. A few weeks ago on a rare sunny day, I was having family over for a simple lunch. Instead of using my rather chipped and worn out everyday plates and glasses, I rummaged through my cupboards and pulled out some of my favourite bits I've collected over the years. I've picked most plates, tablecloths and vintage cutlery up in charity and secondhand shops for a few pounds and I love how happy everything looks layered together. 

I deliberately kept the tablecloth crinkled (who really has time to iron a tablecloth?!), flowers a little wild and piled plates high in the centre. When we sat down to eat, serving dishes and people filled in the gaps. As this time of year can be so bleak, its good for the soul to dust off what makes you happy and eat a little cake! 

Not everything is old, these pink tumblers from Ikea are gorgeous and provide a good balance to the older pieces. For me, style is all about collecting what you love - old and new usually finds its own way of working together when buying what you love rather than what you 'should' have. Have a super weekend and lets keep our fingers crossed for some more sun!

Inspired February

I love putting these 'inspired' posts together - they definitely give me time to stop and think with some clarity as to what I want to get out of each month. They fell by the wayside in the Christmas rush and January catch up but I was glad to snatch a few moments last week to sit and take some pictures of these beautiful ranunculus as they faded away. There's romance in the air in February (although I never celebrate valentines day) and I wanted to reflect that in these dreamy vintage colours. How nice would they look in a bedroom or living room - so scrummy! 

There's not been much creativity happening lately - my babes have been tag teaming sleep day and night (ugh!), plus a constant stream of virus' that we can't shake off means I haven't had the energy to create. In the spirit of nourish I've been focusing on sleeping when I can, baking cakes and getting outside any time its not blowing a gale or raining. My sister sent me this really interesting article on colds, so I've stocked up on vitamin D and probiotics to help recovery. 

Fingers crossed our bugs will disappear soon, as soon as they do I'll be thinking about creating again. After an Instagram freeze I'm happily taking pictures when I get a free second and really enjoying playing with the A Color Story confetti filters. Of course flowers are never far from my mind, I came across the beautiful Grace Alexander site and plan to buy some (more) seeds for my cut flower patch. To help me get to sleep I've been putting my phone away and picking up some of my favourite books, Hans Blomquist - In the Mood For Colour is top of my pile. Talking of books I'm really hoping to get Rachel Ashwell, My Floral Affair as a birthday present at the end of the month - it looks so pretty. February can be such a funny month not quite winter not quite spring but now I've started listing I've realised that there is plenty to get excited about, its all about planning the right activity for the right day. Have a lovely month. xx 

January in the garden

I've been meaning to write this post the whole month but naps and brain power haven't been coordinating lately! I started my blog when I started to get into jewellery making (remember that ;-) ),  it's always been a journal of my creative adventures. Now I'm really into gardening I want to share what I'm doing on a regular basis. 

I find being in the garden such a joy, I love watching shoots appear magically from the ground and I'm also really enjoying learning something new aside from being a mama. This will be the fifth summer I've had a garden and through trial and error I feel I've got enough experience to start recording what I'm doing (you can see the before garden here). If like me you LOVE flowers and dream of having buckets full throughout the year, then I hope this post will help get you started. January is a busy time so lets go...

Order dahlia's - If you're on Instagram then from late July onwards you won't be able to miss the endless stream of cafe au laits and other beauties. I had mixed success with growing dahlia's last year but I'm determined to get a better crop this year. 2018 tubers have been released so it's best to order now to get your favourites. I've gone for Ice Cube and Penhil Watermelon plus mix bags from Poundland which I intend to put in my cut flower beds. You can read my Dahlia Experiment post here.

Sow sweetpeas - I love sweetpeas, they are the first flower I had some success with. I've always grown High Scent but had an amazing crop from a 45p packet from Lidl. I've got a few seedlings already from a batch I planted before Christmas but intend to keep planting a few seeds in my very cold greenhouse every month until early spring. This year I'm going to plant smaller varieties in pots, for the taller ones I intend to invest in some kind of frame and grow in the garden. 

Weeding - Not a glamorous job but strangely satisfying. There is so much bindweed in my garden that I'm making the most of the damp soil to pull out as much as I can. If there is anything you want to get rid of, now is the time. I've also been cutting back a spiky hawthorn and taming some wild roses whist I can get to the beds. 

Dream about roses - I used to spend my online time dreaming about shoes now its all about roses. After poppies, garden roses are my absolute favourite, I bought Lady of the Lake on sale and its doing so well in a shady corner. My aim is to fill every fence with roses so the garden is some kind of rose cocoon - I might order some more of these to cover a newly installed fence. There are so many I'd like to add that I'm carefully planning before I make a considerable investment. 

Plan cut flower beds- I had two cut flower beds last year, one in the garden and another at my mums allotment. This year I'm planning on turning another bed in the garden into a cutting patch for larger plants like cosmos and sweet peas and keeping my smaller beds for new to me and more delicate plants (they are currently full of anemones and ranunculus). I've gone through all my seeds and seed catalogues and ordered some to trial (I'll share my seeds another time as I'm still waiting for some to arrive). I've drawn up a rough plan of where I'm going to plant everything so I know how many of each to order, with time limited I want to focus on a few favourites that I know I can care for rather than an over enthusiastic ramble. I feel much more confident to just go for it this year and I really recommend reading The Cut Flower Patch if you're just starting out. 

I'm planning to post more to my gardening instagram account Lottsinthegarden if you'd like to follow along. Until next time happy growing! xx