In need of a new mousemat.

Yesterday, David and I re-arranged our living room and dining room (pictures to come soon), and my desk is now in a much more prominent position in the dining room - it was in the dining room in the alcove under our stairs and it's now infront of the chimney breast. We much prefer it in its new home, and it'll hopefully make sure that it doesn't accumulate piles of paperwork and general junk anymore. With such a clear desk however, it has become clear that we need a new mousemat.

This is our very tatty mousemat:

I know it's not awful, but one a little more in-keeping with the room (and in-keeping with how I want the room to eventually look in my imagination) would be so much better.

Here are a few of some of the best mousemats I've found so far:

"Grey martini" from tinyshoppe.

"Owl" by Eleanor Grosch at mirrorgirl.

"Unikko" mouse mat at Marimekko.

I really like the subtle colour of "Grey martini", but I think the Marimekko one has the edge for me - funky! Which is your favourite?

My home: an introduction.

In this mini-series, I'm going to share a selection of my favourite things from each room in our house. Hopefully these posts will provide you with a little insight into my style, and give you a peek into what our house is like.

Bathroom

Our bathroom is my next room to be featured in this series - I've mentioned before that our bathroom is downstairs, behind our kitchen, so it only seemed natural to focus on this room next.

The items I've focused on in this room are our medicine cabinet and "Jim", my metal bird sculpture:

Medicine cabinet

This little cupboard was a wedding present from my maternal grandmother. She picked it up at an auction, and it fits our needs perfectly. It's made of hard wood, and was made by soldiers who became injured in WWI. It has an inscription on the back that proves its provenance; unfortunately I can't take it off the wall to show you what it says, as I'm writing this while Torin is asleep upstairs having his afternoon nap and I'll wake him up if I go upstairs to get a screwdriver.

On the shelf are:

• a little blue and white china bowl from The Pier (now closed down)
• bath oils from The White Company (also a gift from my grandmother) - I love the simple packaging

"Jim" the metal bird

This was a birthday present from David a couple of years ago. That Spring, we had heard scratching in the chimney breast in our dining room - the chimney breast without an opening. Living in Cardiff, we often see seagulls nesting on chimney stacks, so our first thought was that a baby seagull had fallen down ours. We decided that we had to get it out, or the poor thing would certainly die (and begin to smell), so we took the grate off the wall. To our dismay, the hole in the wall behind the grate was approximately 3cm tall by 20cm long, so we had to widen the hole. David took a hammer and chisel and knocked a hole big enough for us to see what we were dealing with - a baby seagull that was by no means baby sized! Eventually we managed to widen the hole so it was big enough for David to reach in (with a gloved hand), and bring the poor bird out. He took it outside and placed it onto our patio table as we needed to see if it could fly away (we followed advice from the RSPB). Immediately, seagulls began circling our garden, screeching at the young bird. It didn't seem to be able to fly, and we were worried about our cats attacking it, so David plucked up the courage to go back into the garden (despite the now dive-bombing adults), and put the bird on the flat roof of our bathroom.

The bird stayed on our roof for about a week, and we named it Jim. Adult birds occasionally flew down to bring it food and one was always standing guard on our roof nearby. A few days into the following week, we heard a fracas in next door's garden and saw that Rufus our ginger cat had tried to have a pop at Jim, who must have tried to fly and ended up on the ground in their garden. The fracas was Rufus meowing and hastily retreating - seagulls can be vicious, and Jim certainly had back up. Over the next week or so, we would see Jim in different positions in the garden next door - he eventually managed to get up onto the roof of their shed. He then made it onto the roof of the house at the end of our garden. The day soon came when we went outside and couldn't see him anymore. This was a good thing - it meant he was fully grown up, fully healed, and free.

So, when David saw this metal sculpture in Homesense, he couldn't resist it. It always brings fond memories back every time I look at it, especially of David and our friend going out to check on Jim with umbrellas over their heads to protect them from swooping gulls!

Can't stop looking at . . .

Each week, I'll be sharing with you something that has caught my eye. It may be a picture, blog, product or website.

A belated edition, sorry . . .

It's been a very busy week so far - seen lots of family and friends, and watched lots of rugby.

Anyway, I had a wander through John Lewis yesterday, and came across this adorable wooden bird sculpture:

It measures h20 x w26 x d14.

Here it is in relation to other objects:

Keeping my fingers crossed for Mothers' Day.

Shopping for stripes.

Apologies for my absence yesterday, but I was out having a lovely time with my mum and Torin. We went to Kent to stay with my parents for a few days while David is in Italy with his work (lucky thing). Inbetween visiting friends and family, mum took Torin and me shopping, and thoroughly spoilt us. We had a lovely lunch at Carluccio's - where we shared the Antipasto di Verdure - a delicious platter of roasted peppers, a green bean salad with mint, caponata, buffalo mozzarella, artichokes and rustica olives and some lovely focaccia bread:

Image from here.

We were absolutely stuffed when we had finished - yum!

We then went to look for a present for someone in Marks and Spencer, and mum ended up treating us to these stripey lovelies:

This flattering striped Autograph jersey dress for me,

and these cute striped socks

and lovely striped cotton knitted jumper for Torin (this isn't him btw).

Thanks mum, we had a really lovely day! x

Pin it up!

You can now find me on Pinterest! Look for rebeccamellor - drop by and see what I've been pinning up recently. I've only got one board at the moment - "For the Home", but I'll be creating more soon!