Secret Corner - Dibor

This week's secret corner is a lovely French style homeware store called Dibor.  This family run business has recently relaunched and you'll find tonnes of beautiful things.  As well as the french flair there is also a touch of vintage which I absolutely love! They do a wide range of gifts so make sure you check it out if you want to get a head start on your Christmas shopping!

I have actually held back a bit on my favourites, there is some real cute stuff but I thought I would keep it short and sweet today.  First up is this downright lovely Amelia Lamp which I am seriously considering buying for our bedroom.. so obviously I would need two! I'm not entirely sure yet if I am prepared to spend that much on two bedside lamps but I have struggled so much trying to find some simple, plain white lamps for the bedroom - who knew it would be so difficult!

Next up is what I would call a "grown up" item haha.  We get terrible draughts through our house in winter and it drives me mad so this draught excluder is on my "must buy" list.  And the red fits in with my living room, must be fate.

In keeping with chills of winter I just bloody love this faux fur throw.  Look how snuggly it looks! It would be utterly stunning draped across my bed... or any bed for that matter! I would not let anyone touch it for fear of dirtying it but it just looks amazing and COSY.

So, what do you think? Is French style your thing?

Secret Corner - Country Cream

Country Cream is a beautiful, 10 year old family run business.  They have some exclusive items that are handmade and handpainted by various people.  I love this companies ethics - they aim to use mums at home, retired, elderly, disadvantaged and disabled people to help make some of their items.  The bonus being that for some of the items you can actually choose what colour you would like it painted in.  I wish more companies were able to offer this service!

Country Cream offer a wide range of items from ribbon to furniture and it's all beautiful!

I absolutely love this cute little card/photo holder.  I always wish I had somewhere to put my cards! I have a fireplace but it it fills up pretty quickly and I don't really like putting them in the window so this is perfect and when we don't have an "occasion" happening in our lives we can just pop some photos in but there are thinks like thank you cards or whatever that I would probably just keep in it forever.  I quite frankly think it's superb!

Check out these cute little cat shaped peg blackboards - what a genius invention this is! Not entirely sure how practical they are because they seem quite small but I still think they're cute and I'd still probably buy them.

Lastly, I just adore these beautiful heart boxes.  I can think of all sorts of things to do with them and places to put them but I have Christmas at the forefront of my mind right now and I think they'd be fab filled with some decadent chocolates or I'm actually considering filling one with some make-up bits and giving it to my bestie. There is a whole tonne of uses for them and they would look gorgeous on the dressing table.

Have you spotted anything you like? Share them with me!

The Place I call Home

... is beautiful.

I could just stop there, because that is what I truly appreciate about this place.  The beauty.   I know that nowhere else can compare to it, because this is home and I know it always will be.

I have rolling mountains, fresh sea air, white sandy beaches, secret spots, caves, waterfalls, giant waves crashing into rocks, wide open spaces, the best views for miles and miles, a quiet little street that looks perfect even when lit up by street lights.  I have lived in other places... and I will always, always come back to here.  It's just where I belong.  Yes, it's small and lacks opportunities and some might say I don't have the freedom of a large city but I don't need that, I have the freedom to appreciate the creation of the world.  The mountains, the sea, the cliffs, the forests... the natural things.  I get to breathe fresh, sea air every single day and I am so grateful for that.  I get to see the stars twinkle every night when I look up into the sky.  I can walk outside at 3am and know I won't get mugged or attacked or witness something horrific.  I'm not scared here, I'm content and that is all I need.

Some day soon, I'll share some pictures.

Secret Corner - Rockett St George

I have an absolute BEAUTY of a homeware store for you today.  If you haven't already heard of Rockett St George then check them out.  PRONTO.  I am so so excited to be doing a feature on this store.

They've been running for 6 fabulous years and decided to set up Rockett St George because of their shared love of shopping.  They know that not everyone has time to be rushing around the shops so they choose to set up an online store with the knowledge that it would be easy and accessible for people.  I've had a tough time trying to narrow down my favourites! This place really does have something for everyone - with things as cheap as chips to items running right into the thousands, there's something to suit every budget and every style.  From gift wrap to wallpaper, you'd be bloody mad not to take a peek.

So, my favourites.  This is just a small portion of my picks! First up, I love this simple feather print. I love feathers, I do. I've always said if I was ever to get a tattoo (I wont, I'm far too fickle) I'd get a feather down my ribs.  I like seeing feathers just floating about in the wind and landing at someone's feet and I feel like I could place this print in either my bedroom or my living room and it'd look perfectly in place.

Another piece of wall art.  I really want this 'what is love' natural limestone wall art (click and read, it's wonderful) .  In complete contrast to the feather print, I actually really like having things on the wall that people can stop and take the time to read and then leave my house full of thoughts and questions and answers.  There are various different options and to be honest I'm not 100% sure if I would necessarily choose the 'what is love' one... they all give me a bit of food for thought.  Hmm.

I'm not entirely selfish when it comes to my shopping habits... I think this adorable shaving mirror might just be going in the husband's Christmas stocking.  You can actually write whatever you want on it but I love the wording they hsve chosen... aw.

Next is another print.  I just blummin' love all that arty wall stuff don't I? I would just sit this pretty little lipstick print on my dressing table though, propped up against the wall, unframed.  I also think it would be the perfect gift for any beauty queens in the family... plus it's ONLY £10, wowza!

Now I know this Secret Corner series is all about homeware, but this homeware site have only gone and included a sneaky bonus of jewellery items and they are all lovely.  My favourites are the angel wing bangles and this gorgeous spike necklace which would look perfect under a blouse or a nice structured collar.  I think I'm going to have to put these on my Christmas list actually!

And finally... check THIS out.  A caravan.  A caravan! Rockett St George, I salute you.

Secret Corner - The Calm Gallery

If you love filling your home with prints and typography then you will love this little place!

The Calm Gallery.  Run by young husband and wife team, Lucas and Hayley, they have sourced a variety of fantastic artists to bring you unique, handmade prints, tea towels and postcards. I really need to narrow down my 'to buy' list but I've been trying to source some nice simple, neutral coloured prints for the kitchen for quite a while now but could never find quite what I was looking for.... until now! The prices are very reasonable too, AND there is of course the added bonus that you know you are supporting independent artists.

These guys don't offer a framing service but they do give you a few recommendations on what frames would suit your print if you don't have an eye for that sort of thing which I think is pretty perfect of them.  They have also gone to the trouble of including a little profile about each artist - how lovely of them! I seriously think these guys have done a great job, you can tell that they genuinely had the customer at the forefront of their mind whilst they were developing this site and as a result of this I don't think I'll be buying my prints from anywhere else! My only negative is that they don't offer any sort of custom printing which is a bit of a shame as it would be nice to change the colour to fit in with my rooms but that's just a minor and I can imagine that offering any sort of customisation would turn things a bit manic!

Now on to my favourites! I am most definitely buying this 'complete and utter bollocks' one for our games room.  It's a phrase my husband uses regularly and the games room is somewhere that him and his mates spend a lot of time so I feel it's pretty apt, ha.  I also like this one about beauty because it's true and I wonder why it's not a more well known phrase?! Unfortunately the colours mean it won't really fit into any of my rooms.

I am in love with these eye chart prints which are actually designed by the founders - at the moment I can't really decide which is my favourite and I'm having a bit of a debate with myself about whether to buy one for the stairway or not.... which would you choose?

So that's it.  A completely and utterly fantastico website.  I hope you guys like it as much as I do, I was so excited about writing this post and sharing this little place with you all! I actually had to stop looking because my favourites list was getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.....

Amazing Pins #1

I basically spend hours and hours of my life browsing Pinterest.  I mainly look at the Home Decor and the DIY & Crafts sections but will often find my way browsing through various other things too, trying to get ideas for hairstyles, nails, make up looks etc.  I could genuinely gush about Pinterest forever and ever and ever.  Why did nobody think of it sooner? It's so simple, and so obvious. I was actually pretty late to this party and dismissed it for a while, I don't really know why, I probably just couldn't be bothered finding out more about it and I couldn't even tell you what it was that changed my mind but oh my... I cannot imagine that I would be doing half the things in my house if it wasn't for Pinterest - it is AMAZING.  Seriously, if you haven't signed up yet then you really really must....

Im loving these 4 at the moment!

Who knew that a peg board could look so lovely? This is in a shed.  I want a pretty looking shed! source

I love every single thing about this.  In case you don't know it's from a Mumford and Sons song and I kinda like those guys too so I would happily hang this in my house somewhere. source

I seem to have developed a bit of a thing for nails like this.  It just makes them so much more interesting and soooo pretty. source

A bench made out of pallets... look at it!! Isn't it just amazing and pretty and cute and adorable... and it's made out of pallets! Think I'm gonna have to add this one to the husband's list... source