30 Things I Love: 3

Picasso print.

The third thing from my home that I'd like to share with you is our print of Picasso's Retrato de Paulo con gorro blanco (1923) that sits on the shelf above our television.

Several years ago, David, my family and I went on holiday to Salobreña in Spain - close to Malaga, Picasso's birthplace. We decided to visit the pretty, old part of the town and while we were there, we took in the Pablo Picasso Museum, and toured around Casa Natal - the actual house in which Picasso was born.

We bought this print as a reminder of our stay in Spain, and because we liked the colours in the picture.   Once home, I put it into an IKEA frame and displayed it on this shelf. 

What's funny, is that the boy in the picture has more than a passing resemblance to David when he was little. And, as a result, the boy also looks similar to Torin. So much so in fact, that someone (I forget who now though), actually asked us if the picture was of Torin!

How amazing would it be if someone did a sketch of your child and the artist turned out to be Picasso - you'd never have to work again!

What's your favourite holiday souvenir?

30 Things I Love: 2

A while ago I started a new feature called 30 Things I Love. The idea was that before I turned 30, I was going to share thirty objects in my home that either mean a lot to me or that have an interesting history.

Well . . . I had my birthday last month and realised this week that I have been immensely slack in sharing any of my possessions with you! So, in the second of its kind, I'd like to share with you the new(ish) feature of 30 Things I Love:

30 Things I Love: 2

The red box.

I know this little red box crops up in pictures from time to time, so you may have already seen it, but I wanted to tell you a little bit about how it came to live in our house. David and I bought this red box from The Pumping Station, an antiques place in Cardiff, as a present to each other on our first wedding anniversary. It wasn't a planned gift, but we were there browsing, saw it, liked it and bought it as it was fairly inexpensive. We then decided to always buy ourselves a small antique every year on our wedding anniversary. 

We've no idea how old it is, what it's made of or what used to be kept in it. However, it's the perfect size for housing a box of tissues, so that's what we keep in it. It's moved around our house over the last four years but is now usually found sitting on this radiator cover in our living room.

30 Things I Love.

This week has been all about organising. It's funny, doing official things for my children makes me feel suddenly very grown up. I've been sorting out the nursery Torin will be going to in September - here children are entitled to a free nursery place in the term after their third birthday. It's one of those decisions that carries a lot of responsibility, but I guess it's not as bad as choosing which school he'll go to - that'll come around next year! The other thing I've been doing is sorting out the family meals. David's been brilliant and cooked lunch and dinner for us all for ages now (especially since I was heavily pregnant with Astrid) and this week I felt like it was time I tried to do it myself. In order to keep our budget and my mind in check (so I didn't have to think too much - I still have a little baby brain going on!) I found a great meal planner online and have been following that.

Speaking of feeling grown up, I turn 30 this year, so I thought I'd do a few features on here to celebrate. The first of these projects is 30 Things I Love. I really enjoyed the mini-series I did as an introduction to my house and in some rooms I struggled to choose just one or two things to feature. Therefore I thought I'd take advantage of the 30 theme and show you a few more things from around our house. I'll be focusing on items that either mean a lot to me, or that have an interesting history.

30 Things I Love: 1

Torin's train cushion.

This cute train cushion sits on the end of Torin's bed. David bought it from Laura Ashley in Harrogate while we were there with David's brother and his wife. I think it's such a sweet cushion for a child's room as it looks homemade with the visible stitching and the gingham fabric. It's special to me as we bought it before Torin was born and David chose it by himself - that may sound a bit odd, but most of the design for Torin's nursery came from me, so it's lovely that Torin's got something in there that his daddy chose for him.