2021 was the year that I thought everything would finally get back to normal, given that the COVID vaccine was being distributed.

How wrong I was! Two vaccine doses later, plus a third booster, and the latest COVID wave is still running rampant, dictating how we all live.

There is no certainty anymore. The best we can do is make plans and hope for the best, plan for a lot of stress and execute on what is in our control. So that is what we did!

• Continued to survive the global pandemic! Although we did finally get COVID. I still don’t fully have my sense of smell back so if I have one New Year’s wish, its to stay as healthy as possible in 2022.
• Finally sold our flat and moved to our new house!
• Began our home improvement journey. This has been a true highlight and bright spot of the year – and you’ll see that many of my life list items relate to this.
• Managed to pull off two fantastic family celebrations this year! My parent’s 40th wedding anniversary was looooong in the making and even though Omicron tried its best, it wasn’t able to destroy all my plans. We also celebrated Zola’s first birthday in style and have continued to love her with all our hearts.
• Adopted our gorgeous Bertie. We were and still remain completely devastated at his loss – he had instantly become part of our family and his loss broke my heart entirely. All I can hope for is that he is having the best time wherever he is, with unlimited chicken, snuggles and tummy rubs – his favourite thing ever.

Life list items completed:

Make something in a pottery class

Afternoon tea at The Langham

Afternoon tea at Fortnum + Mason

Sell the flat

Own a house

Renovate a kitchen from scratch

Renovate a bathroom from scratch

Create a walk-in wardrobe

Celebrate Zola’s first birthday in style

Celebrate parents 40th wedding anniversary in style

Adopt a doggie

Go back to Manchester for a weekend

Host a Christmas

Over the last few months, planning this party has basically consumed me. From figuring out how to keep it as a surprise for my parents, organising guest list, catering, decorations, managing the logistics of turning my house into a space to entertain 22 people.. oh and of course doing all this with the imminent, looming threat of covid hanging over our heads.

I’m so thankful though, that everything actually turned out perfectly! The main things for me were that my parents were surprised (tick!), that everyone had a great time (tick!) and that the people who meant most to my parent could be there (although we unfortunately had a couple of cancellations, I’m still saying this was a tick!)

I’m really pleased we were able to pull it off – it was so incredible to see how surprised and touched my parents were at all the people who had come together to celebrate their love.

~

The other cool thing about hosting this party by the way was that we got to see the full power of this house as an amazing entertaining spot. We used the lower ground floor as a ‘reception’ area – we had a bar set up, seating, and people were able to mingle there with canapes while we waited for my parents to arrive.

Once they arrived, we brought everyone up the stairs into the lounge / dining area where we had set up a sit-down meal for 22. Having both of these spaces was really great as it allowed much more flexibility for the event.

~

Here are some photos from the event!

First off, a disclaimer. We visited Fortnum & Mason during the height of Christmas shopping fever, so the entire store was basically completely overrun by Christmas shoppers. It was exceptionally busy, including in the tea salon.

Once we had battled through the throngs and been seated however, our seating area was an oasis of calm. We looked through the menus – I was surprised to find out that the tea salon offers multiple different afternoon tea packages, which is great – and I went for the classic afternoon tea with champagne.

While the service was quite slow (likely due to the aforementioned Christmas rush), it didn’t really matter because we were there to celebrate Katie and enjoy the experience – we weren’t in any particular rush.

When we ordered, our waiter told us that we could have as many sandwiches and scones as we wanted. I really liked that she mentioned that upfront, because when its not clear, it always gets a bit awkward if you want to ask for a sandwich refill.

The food overall was very delicious – all the sandwiches were incredible, and the scones were perfect, and came with a wide range of accompaniments.

I would say for the little cakes that I had expected a bit more precision in their appearance, but that they tasted incredible. My particular favourite was a honey cake with some sot of delicious piped cream on top.

Overall, I would highly recommend a visit to the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, and I certainly would like to go back when its a little less busy to have a second experience!

A few weeks ago, we saw a plea for help from a lady who’s mother had Alzheimers and was going to be moved into a home. They had arranged for her mother’s 13 year old border collie, Bertie, to be rehomed, but it had fallen through at the last minute, and they were desperate for a loving home for Bertie.

Seeing the accompanying pictures of Bertie melted our hearts. We instantly knew that he was an amazingly loving dog, and within the hour, we had arranged to go round to meet Bertie with Zola.

The next day, we met the family and Bertie, and as soon as Bertie saw us he came straight in for tummy rubs. We were smitten and knew that we wanted to give Bertie an amazing retirement with us.

It was already on Day One of watching his floofy bottom make its way down our stairs, that I knew he had my whole entire heart.

This next bit is hard to write.

Almost immediately, Bertie started having tummy problems. We put it down to a change of environment and introducing him to a couple new treats. We went to a strict diet of chicken and rice, and assumed his tummy would settle shortly.

It didn’t.

What followed was 4 weeks of Bertie not being able to keep food down, and becoming increasingly uncomfortable. We spent hours with him at the vets and ran a series of tests, until finally the vet came back to tell us that Bertie had cancer and at his age, palliative care was the only the real option left.

Because the palliative care measures didn’t help, we made the decision to put him to sleep. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We were both there to make sure he drifted off peacefully, having his tummy rubbed and his head tickled. I hope he went to sleep feeling like he was the most loved dog that ever lived.

But I don’t want this post to just be about Bertie’s illness, because that was only a tiny part of our story with Bertie. He was an amazing addition to our family, even if our time with him was only short.

To make sure I didn’t forget my favourite memories of him, I have written them down:

Things I love about Bertie

• How excitedly he gets up when you ask him if he wants to go for walkies. He’ll jump up so quickly and even start barking out of excitement! This is no mean feat because Bertie has arthritis, and sores on his skin, and is generally more of a slow ambler. But as soon as walkies come on the menu, its like he is a little puppy again.

• His little old man bark. He’s going a little bit hoarse but that doesn’t him stop from barking. Actually its more like honking! It is a great, deep honk, that is unmistakeably Bertie.

• The way he looks up at you when you scratch his head. His eyes just say “I love you”.

• When he’s sooooooo excited about his food and tries so hard to get every last drop of food out of his bowl. You hear this metal clank clank clank, and its Bertie vigorously licking the bowl to within an inch of its life.

• When you go in for a stroke and he immediately puts himself into the tummy rub position because that’s the best thing he enjoys in life. For a 13 year old, Bertie is adept at quickly flipping himself onto his back so that you are able to definitely understand what he is requesting. For Bertie, a day without tummy rubs, is a day not worth living.

• When he wags his tail so much, it makes a thump thump thump on the floor or wall. With Bertie, you can truly hear his happiness a mile off.

• When he lies next to me when I’m working, and I just look down and see him there, keeping me company. Bertie loved to stick by my side in the mornings. I would come downstairs, wake him up, and then we’d go for our walk. When we returned, we’d have breakfast and then he’d just stick to my side all day – his favourite position to lie and snooze was in my office while I took calls.

• When we first leave the house on a walk, he’s so excited and motivated to get going that he’s almost running! Bertie would jog down our street at the start of each walk; by the time we reached the main road, he was usually more sedate and tired, but always 10000% effort at the start.

• When Bertie wants more tummy rubs or affection, he’ll paw at you while staring into your eyes until you capitulate. Bertie definitely knew how to ask for things, and he wasn’t backwards in coming forwards. And of course, capitulation was inevitable because who wouldn’t want to give him every single thing in the universe?

• How he is so patient with Zola, especially when she is all in his face trying to give him a thousand kisses, or when she’s mere centimetres away from his food while he’s trying to eat. I don’t know how he managed it.

• How, as soon as he sees a ball, he lowers his head in preparation for running and if you go to throw it, he’ll start running after it already. Bertie doesn’t have time to wait to see if you’ve actually thrown it. Lets go!

• How cuddly and snuggly he is. When all his reassuring weight is pressed into you and you feel safe and warm because he’s there.

• How much he loves finding a good corner to go and nap in, often facing the wall. The amount of times I’d look over to check if he was okay during a call, and he’d just be snoozing right up against the corner of the office. I think it makes him feel safe.

• Most of all, how Bertie loves being told he is a good boy and wants to do anything to make you happy. The actual goodest boy in the whole universe.

Thank you Bertie for bringing so much joy, love and light into our family. We all miss you so very much.

We had a lil birthday tea situation for her at home, and of course I had to go a bit extra on my decorations. The pastel balloon arch is honestly my favourite thing ever.

We also a few added extras, including a Zola cake (for the humans) and personalised doggy treats for all of Zola’s friends, and their own little pawsome doggy bags to take home!

Zola absolutely loved running around the garden and playing with her friends (shout-outs to Roxie and Roly who couldn’t make it on the day ) as well as getting lots of attention and snuggles from her grandmas and grandpas and other friends + family.

Here’s to another incredible year of being your mummies ZoZo, we all love you so very much!

Whilst everything technically worked, we struggled with it aesthetically as well as functionally.

Here’s what we were working with:

The all-white look and those tiles were giving hospital vibes. We wanted to strip it back to a more cool, minimal vibe, and change some key things like remove the bath and replace with a walk-in shower, and to include a double sink.

This time, we didn’t rely on any designer except ourselves. We worked on configurations that we thought could work, and aside from some advice from our bathroom fitter and from the salesperson in Porcelanosa where we bought our fixtures and fittings, the vision for this bathroom came from us. I’m particularly proud of the transformation because of this!

The first step for the fitters was to gut the old bathroom – everything must go!

Once everything has been removed, the work started to construct the new carcass of our bathroom.

We had wanted to include inset shelving and an inset radiator which required our fitters to build out the walls a bit. They also had to plaster where the walls would be uncovered, as well as sort out all the key plumbing bits, aka make the right pipes end up in the right places!

This was all super cool to watch change from day to day as everything took shape:

Once the shape was in, the next step was for the tiler to do his thing. We had chosen two different tiles for the bathroom – one to cover the bulk of the walls and the floor, and a ‘feature tile’ to add a bit of interest to all of the inset areas as well as behind the sink + mirror.

Once all the tiles were in, it really looked like our bathroom was nearly there and it became so much easier to picture what we were creating.

After the tiles went on, it was time to finally get the fixtures and fittings on!

We had gone for a monochrome look with these – everything was white or black, with grey being reserved for the tiles.

Seeing pieces like the toilet, shower, sink actually finally go in was so great. By this time, it had been months and months since we picked everything out in the showroom, so it was great to be finally reminded about what we had chosen and to sensecheck that everything was actually going to go together as we wanted.

After everything had been hooked up and properly installed, it was time to get the details looking right! I had spent a bunch of time sourcing and choosing the little details that really make the space sing:

And with that, the bathroom was finished! I’m so proud of how this bathroom turned out, and the mega transformation that we were able to achieve.

Here are some pics of the space altogether:

Here’s to many years of enjoyment!

I went with my work colleagues to Skandihus, a pottery studio located in Hackney, for a couple of hours of beginner pottery fun!

We had a dedicated instructor, and our own space (mask wearing was mandatory), and we each got our own little cubby to make our clay masterpieces!

We each started with a lump of clay, some tools and listened to a demo from our instructor, who ran through what we were going to be attempting: a simple bowl that we could customise however we wanted using the tools we had available.

We got to have two attempts at making a bowl with two separate pieces of clay, so that we could experiment with different techniques.

At the end of the two hours, we got to pick one of the two bowls we had created that was our favourite. This would be the bowl that would be glazed and fired, and that we would get to keep!

Unfortunately, that part of the process doesn’t happen on the day you are there, so our bowls went into a queue. I’m hoping we’ll get them back soon and I can share an update on what my final bowl looked like!

But for now, please enjoy some pictures on our final bowls ready to go into the kiln!

I had heard great things about the afternoon tea there, and so, as a mid-year pick-me-up, we decided to pop in to sample the experience.

Overall, the setting for afternoon tea, Palm Court, hits all the right notes. It is sumptuous, elegant, and refined, with plenty of spacious seating, little stools for your handbags and my favourite, a pianist serenading you in the background.

The afternoon tea had all of the usual components – teas + champagnes, sandwich selection, scones, little sweet bites, as well as a ‘bonus round’ of a frozen ice-cream sandwich. Very yummy all-round but my favourites had to be ice-cream sandwich and the regular sandwiches.

I did appreciate the theme of the sweet bites though – they were all elevated takes of classic British biscuits, very clever!

We ended off the experience with a visit to the bar, which has a really interesting cocktail menu that is sure to have you drinking something you’ve never seen before!

I hadn’t been back properly since, and Lu also hadn’t been back to Manchester for a while after also having lived there at roughly the same time as me (although we didn’t know each other then!). So, given that international travel is a challenge, why not do a weekend city break away and revisit our glory days at university.

We had such a good time! We booked a hotel in the City Centre so everything was in walking distance, and we spent three nights there.

Highlights were:

Going back to the Manchester University campus and wandering round being like “oh that’s changed!“, “I don’t remember that!” and “ohmygod thats where I did X“, over and over

Visiting some gorgeous eateries, particularly in the Northern Quarter. We ate really really well.

Finding some new cocktail bars, that definitely weren’t there when I was a student!

Aaand in an unexpected turn of events, watching Lu get a tattoo!

We had a great weekend away, and although we missed our bub ZoZo a lot, we enjoyed having some alone time together and walking down memory lane.

The best thing that this bedroom had going for it was its size – it would spaciously accommodate a double or queen sized bed as well as other furniture. Like the other rooms, it also had a beautiful floor to ceiling large window as well as some inbuilt cupboard space.

But, like the other rooms, it was severely in need of TLC. We also didn’t need to use it as a bedroom, so our options were wide open.

One of our biggest pain points in the flat had been storage for our clothes, shoes and accessories. We had been sharing two double cupboards between us for everything we owned, and it was a mess. The lack of space meant that we were cramming clothes, shoes, bags in a tightly as possible and it was really difficult to see what things you even owned. We also ended up packing a bunch of things away in storage, because there was literally no space.

Moving to this home, we both agreed that we wanted to make space for our belongings to shine, and to be stored correctly. The more we discussed this room, the more it felt like a no-brainer that we should convert it into a walk-in wardrobe/dressing room.

I especially wanted this room to also accommodate my cosmetics collection and be a space where I could do my spa sessions and get ready in peace.

So, we did some research and found Neatsmith, a bespoke wardrobe designer and installer, who would be able to advise on the best layout and configuration, supply and install our new room.

Our consultant, Hannah, came round to take measurements and properly see the space. We excitedly waited for her to come back with some thoughts of what the space could be transformed into.

We met Hannah in the Neatsmith showroom to go over the initial plans she had created. This was both to give feedback on her ideas, but would also give us an opportunity to inspect the actual different materials, finishings, and options that Neatsmith offered for their wardrobes.

On that visit, we aligned on the ideal configuration that would work for us in the space (including debating things like how many shelves, how much full-length storage, what should the inside of drawers look like), as well as picked what we thought would be the best finishing and colour options.

Hannah then went away to produce 3D renders so we could completely visualise what the space would look like. Here are the renders:

We absolutely loved where we had got to with these renders. I especially loved the dressing table by the window, where natural light could flood in as I was getting ready. I also loved the open shelving by the door that would be great for things like handbag storage.

We were also really excited about our finishings. Behind the open shelving in the middle of the room, we had chosen a textured mirrored backing, which would make the space feel bigger. We also really liked the silver textured frontage for the shelves, and the LED lights we chose for extra mood lighting.

The next step was to give Neatsmith the okay and to book in when our installation would happen. The lead time for Neatsmith to produce the materials was not actually as long as I thought it would have been, only around 8 weeks.

Finally, the week of installation arrived. The two nicest, most polite fitters arrived to do the work. These guys were top tier fitters – super quiet, polite, and very very clean – at the end of every day everything was cleaned and as pristine as an in-progress install could be.

Here are some shots of the in-progress install:

At the end of the week, as promised, the build was complete and our new wardrobes and dressing area was installed.

Here are some shots of the room at the end of the week, before we put any of the finishing touches to the room and before our stuff actually went in!

We are so excited about this room’s transformation into a room of real utility. There are still a bunch of finishing touches needed though to make its transformation complete, namely:

• The yellow walls need to be painted over. This will be happening in the next month or two when our decorator comes back.
• We need a blind so that the neighbours can’t see in when we are getting changed
• We need to find a beautiful new light fitting
• We need to change the carpet

I’ll be making a new post showing the finished walk-in wardrobe with stuff inside, when at least a couple of the above changes are also completed!