Child safety and relaxed parenting...

Theo aged 16 months chewing on a camera lens

When Theo joined our family nearly three years ago, I didn't know a lot about child safety. I was a rather relaxed mum and not naturally blessed with the ability to see an accident about to happen. I just let Theo get on with things and hoped for the best.

Whilst I believe a certain amount of relaxed parenting can be quite a good thing, our small boy has not emerged entirely unscathed. Our first big scare was a trip to A&E when he ate a pill from the dog's bowl (the dog doing that thing they do where they eat absolutely everything except their medication.) Then there was that moment when he suddenly rolled off the bed he was safely in the middle of seconds before. The lid of his toy chest fell down and caught him under the eye shortly before his first birthday and finally we had that heart-stopping moment when he found a bottle of Calpol in his room, undid the childproof lid and drank some.

Three years on I am a bit wiser (but probably still as relaxed) I've learned that supposedly immobile babies can suddenly move, that crawlers eat things from strange places and that the safest place for Calpol is the top shelf of the fridge, not anywhere in the child's bedroom.
 
Child Safety Week runs from the 23^rd – 29^th June (next week) and Betta Living are running a campaign to promote safety in the home. You can take a survey to help spot hazards in your house and find out about the nation's safety awareness. There's also a chance to win £50 of Mothercare vouchers. You can read all about it here.

So what do you think? Are there times when you've been too relaxed or do you think looking back that you were overly cautious with your baby?

In association with Betta Living

Love the little things, week 25

Today I'm joining up with Morgana for the first time on a new linky which rounds up all the things from the week. This is what I have been up to this week...

Read

I abandoned a book I was reading this week which turned out to be a rather clunky translation of a very successful Swedish novel and instead picked up a copy of a book which is everywhere at the moment... The Fault in Our Stars . I have been debating reading this book for at least a year and now the film is about to be released I decided I had to start reading it now. So far it is brilliant!


Watched

We hired Last Vegas at the weekend. It was exactly what we were expecting with predictable jokes and a storyline that didn't require too much concentrating. Exactly what we needed!


Heard

This week I've been listening to a lot of one of my favourite early noughties groups Frou Frou. Sadly they only made one album, Details, but its brilliant and sounds perfect in the sunshine...

Made

We tried this fab BBC Good Food recipe for Ballsamic roasted sausages and red vegetables. Very simple to make, absolutely delicious and very summery too. We will definitely be adding this one to our list of regular cooks.

And Lastly

I went to Ardingly Antiques Fair for the first time. There was loads of stuff I wanted to buy and I was a bit of an amateur, being very indecisive and then forgetting where things were that I wanted! I did however come away with a beautiful blue pitcher, a chair and this great pull along trolly. Originally I planned to refurbish it, but I think I will struggle getting it away from Theo for long enough as he is insisting on taking it everywhere at the moment!I'm hoping to go back next month and be a bit more focused on buying.

Cunard Mediterranean Bloggers Competition

I have long been a lover of colourful interiors and over the last year or so I have been collecting ideas and inspiration for the interior of our newly remodelled house. So when I saw Cunard were running a competition for bloggers asking us to create an interiors mood board inspired by one of their many Mediterranean cruise destinations I knew exactly which port was going to be the basis of my mood board. A place known for its colourful artistic vibrancy which sums up so much of what I love about colour... Barcelona.

My trips to Barcelona so far have all been fairly fleeting, but it is right at the top of my list of places I would love to spend a couple of days wandering round and taking in its details. It's a creative and colourful city and I especially love its quirkiness and individuality. It encapsulates a lot of the ideas that I have been collecting for the interior of our home, from the curves and colours of Gaudi's architecture to the more modern vibrant red of the Hotel Porta Fira. Barcelona is unapologetically colourful, youthful and fun.

You can see my mood board by clicking on the link below..

Follow Clare Mansell's board Cunard Mediterranean Blogger Competition on Pinterest.

If you'd like to enter yourself you can find out more at The Swelle Life or Love Chic Living. Competition closes soon though, so don't delay!

Capturing colour - Green

It's week three of our #capturingcolour project and this week focussed on green. It's a colour that surrounds us in abundance in the natural world at this time of year, but it's harder to pin down in manmade environments, partly because of the superstitions that surround it being unlucky, although you do see more green cars than ever these days!

One of the things I have enjoyed about the #capturingcolour project is that it's made me a lot more active on Instagram and this week I've shot nearly all my images on the iphone.

We went to our local fete on Saturday and it poured with rain, so we all ended up trying to stand under Theo's green froggy umbrella...

My Ikea desk is also green and very battered after a couple of house moves. I'm going to be looking for a replacement as soon as the house is finished. I saw a lovely wood desk at Ardingly Antiques fair yesterday, but dithered and didn't buy it....

This green tractor has been a favourite of Theo's since he got it as a baby and has stood up to a lot of rough play...

I love the variety of shapes and colours in the leaves, just like the variety in the fabrics in the quilt I'm making at the moment. This is one of those projects I'm going to be sad when I give it away... I hope it's appreciated in its new home.

Next week's colour is purple. Please check out the other blogs taking part too...

Hayley at Shutterflies

Chloë at Sorry about the Mess

Lauren at Real Housewife of Suffolk County

Kirsty at My Two Mums 
Lucy at Capture By Lucy

Living Arrows - 24/52

ISO 250, 50mm, f/3.5, 1/500

Over the last couple of weeks I've been teaming up with five bloggers for a great photo project centered on colour. As with all photo projects one of the best things about it is that it provides the motivation to try taking photos in new ways. This week's Living Arrows image is he result of my experiments with capturing the colour red and I love the way it turned out.

Theo loves fruit, particularly raspberries and we had great fun putting them on his fingers and seeing how long he could resist the temptation to eat them while I took photos. As with most two year-olds he finds it hard to stand still or hold something in place for long, so he kept moving and eating the raspberries as I tried to take the picture. In the end (as is so often the case) it isn't the photo I was trying to take, but I prefer it to my original idea...

First look at the new exterior of our house...

Three and a half months ago we started a complete remodel of our 100 year-old bungalow. This is what it looked like in February before we started... you won't believe what it looks like now!

After spending the whole of the spring under a protective wrap, last week the scaffolding started to slowly come down to reveal the shape of the new house...

There's still a few weeks of work left to do including the addition of the weatherboard and render and of course the removal of the other three sides of the scaffolding. Inside the new bedrooms and bathrooms are almost complete and we can see the space we are soon going to be able to spread out into. Sixteen weeks living in one room has been hard work at times and the stress of missing deliveries, broken items and things that just don't work as you wanted, has reduced me to tears at times, but the light is now visible at the end of the tunnel.

I cannot wait to move back in, to unpack, dust everything, find things I haven't since since February and for us to have the house to ourselves once more.

Though we had ambitious ideas about paint and wallpaper at the beginning we have decided to paint everything white to begin with and tackle small projects on our own as we get to know the inside space. One exception to that will be the tongue and groove boarding in the main bathroom which I think may end up a grey/blue colour...

Though certain jobs may still have to be done next month, we hope to be finished by the end of the month and moved in in time for our annual Canada Day party at the beginning of July. We will of course give you the tour when it's done...

 

Capturing Colour - Red

This week's colour for the #capturingcolour project was red. We own loads of red stuff, but most of it is packed away at the moment, which is why there are more toys in this post than grown up things!

On a slightly different note, I noticed an interesting thing while out and about photographing this week. All our local postboxes seem to be in a pretty poor state of repair. Is it the same across the country? Do we need to start a campaign to get Royal Mail to give them all a fresh lick of paint and make them shiny again?

If you feel inspired to join the capturing colour project you can do so via Instagram using the #capturingcolour hashtag. Next week's colour is green, please check out the other blogs taking part too...

Hayley at Shutterflies

Chloë at Sorry about the Mess

Lauren at Real Housewife of Suffolk County

Kirsty at My Two Mums 
Lucy at Capture By Lucy