4 THINGS: I wish we had bought earlier

If there is every an event in your life that requires you to buy a lot of 'stuff' it's having a baby! There are endless checklists online, parents are often more than willing to share their 'must haves' and there's just no avoiding buying a lot of the essentials. I absolutely loved shopping for all thing mini, both before Isabella was born and after. Those 3am night feeds were the perfect time for a spot of online shopping! After a few months of new orders arriving almost daily (of course I needed to stock up on endless craft supplies for my 2 month old!) we decided to take a step back and think carefully about whether or not we needed each item. However, there have been a few things I really wish we had bought earlier. There use would have made life easier, we would have got more use out of them and therefore making the more expensive purchases worthwhile.

BOOKS: Vintage Interior Inspiration

Part of creating a home is making it your own, putting your own touches here and there, as well as incorporating your personal style. I love dreaming about what my 'perfect home' would look like, if money was no object, don't we all? We are buying our own house at the moment and it's a project to say the least. We really wanted a house we could completely make our own, while adding value too. Every room in our house-to-be needs a lot of work, think new carpets, wallpaper, paint, decoration, plastering, whole bathroom, whole kitchen etc. It's going to be a big project but I'm sure it will be so rewarding too.

There are the obvious websites perfect for inspiration but sometimes getting a good interior design book, snuggling down with a cup of steaming hot tea and a roaring fire beats sitting online. I have found two beautiful vintage interior design books, which not only look pretty sitting on your coffee table but are also filled with endless inspiration.

Vintage Home: Stylish ideas and over 50 handmade projects from furniture to decorating by Sarah Moore (£14.39) has such a striking and eye-catching front cover. I love the composition of all of the items, as well as the combination of colours, textures and patterns. That's something that the vintage interior style can do so well - mix up patterns, colours and textures in the most perfect of ways. The author, Sarah Moore, also has a website filled with vintage goodness where you can buy many interior design items.

This book is filled with DIY vintage decoration projects that can really change the design of a room. There are bigger projects and smaller ones, ideal for everyone. This book is perfect to slowly browse through, while noting down the projects you fancy having a go at.

The Vintage Modern Home by Katherine Sorrell (£16.97) is another vintage interior design book I've been enjoying browsing through. This book combines modern touches with the wonders of vintage design beautifully. The book is split up into clear sections, making it a really easy read and easy to use for inspiration. The photography throughout the book is stunning, it's like Pinterest in a book.  

I love having these books sitting on our coffee table, ready to dive into whenever I feel like some interior inspiration. My home interior shopping list is always so long after looking at these books!

Do you know of any good interior inspiration books?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x

RELEXATION: Tips on How To Relax

Relaxing isn't something I find very easy, my mind seems to be running at 100 mph at all times. I'm either worrying about something, thinking about work or what I should do next - my mind never seems to just rest! I hadn't really thought about this that much, it's just how I am and I was fine with that. I say 'was' because when I started working full time I quickly realised that I needed to be able to have some time just relaxing. There's always so much going on with my job and with my personality the way it is, it is very easy to become overwhelmed. I'm sure there are so many of you that feel like this sometimes too. At work we had a 'wellness day', a day all about how to relax. I honestly think this day should be compulsory 'training' in every work place because whatever your job you've more than likely felt stressed at some point. I have never really tried to make a conscious effort to relax before but after this 'wellness day' I have learnt so much and have since made a real effort to genuinely try and relax. We tried meditation, aromatherapy, yoga and dance. I had never tried yoga, meditation or aromatherapy - so I went in with an open mind.

Personally, I didn't really like yoga - although it is a great way to relax. I found it so hard to do any of the 'moves' - it seems even lifting my arm up for 2 minutes was almost impossible! However if you like doing toning exercises, you'll love yoga! One of my friends has completed a 12 week yoga course and absolutely loves it, so it's completely personal preference. That's the important thing with all of these 'relaxing tips' - what works for one person might not work for someone else. I just wanted to share with you all some of the tips I learnt and have helped me learn to relax.

I never thought mediation would be 'my thing' but I'm really warming towards it. There is something very relaxing about laying down, listening to peaceful music and really concentrating on relaxing every part of your body. I have downloaded a free app on my iPad Mini called 'Be Fearless'. It has one 'Stress_Relieve' 16 minute meditation for free, you can of course pay money to download others. It plays relaxing music and someone is talking to you, telling you how to relax. I can't 'turn off' for 16 minutes yet, I start getting distracted at around 8 minutes, but I'm hoping I'll be able to build up to complete the whole session.

Essential oils can be used for a wide variety of reasons, during the day we had the chance to make our own aromatherapy oil. As I very rarely feel relaxed I decided to design one aimed at helping with anxiety/stress. Peppermint and Neroli are meant to be good for stress relief, we mixed the essential oils with grape seed oil. It smells amazing and during that intake of breath it is quite relaxing.

Do you use any of these techniques to relax?

Feel free to comment :)