Circus Bathroom

Tots100 have teamed up with Bathshop321 to give the chance of winning a wonderful bathroom suite. Hooray as our current bathroom is getting a bit shabby, especially the shower.The bathroom suite has not been updated in the years that we have lived here. I've tried my best to improve by painting the walls and the tongue-and-groove panelling all white to make it look fresher but the brown/orange/pink (who knows!) tiles are really not my style and the suite has seen better days with rust, wonky seats, dodgy sealings around the bath and worn away flooring.The shower in particular is awful and has cracks in it, rust and the water squirts in all directions, including the ceiling which makes for a lovely water fountain effect. Little Bird loves bathtime (as does Billy the dog) and it would be nice to make it extra special. With my whole house being a bit eclectic with wall art and ephemera, the bathroom is no exception.


I would love a sparkling new white suite and retain the eclectic feel by having it circus/funfair themed. I shall explain...... My dear nana used to go a circus/zoo/funfair called Bellevue as she lived just around the corner. It was in Manchester and as a child I thought she had made it up to entertain me. Turns out it was all true. Bellevue was an amazing place and my nan's stories conjure up such fantastical images to me. She tells one particular story of losing her sister near the snake enclosure and then trotting home worried that she would have to tell her mother that Hilda had been eaten by a snake. These anecdotes have a special place in my heart. Bellevue was closed by 1980 but the memory of it in it's heyday lives on in my nan and her many stories. I found an old book on Bellevue and it's vintage pictures inspired me......tightrope walkers, tigers, clowns and pretty ponies. Not something I would encourage today of course with the animals but I find these vintage funfairs and circuses intriguing. Here are some of my ideas in the pictures below......
 Perhaps I could paint circus stripes - just bit not all over! Monochrome perhaps a bit too bold but yellow (my favourite colour) would be wonderful. Circus art that's particularly funny considering my nana's story.

Unusual fair inspired lights as a feature would set the room off and be fun for Little Bird.

We desperately need storage for bath toys and toiletries and something modern like this rounded unit would be my choice. It would be fun to shop for circus themed accessories too. On Ebay I found  a cute circus towel for Little Bird, wrong name of course :)

I love grey too and this would go very well with the yellow accents in the room. Grey metro tiles in the shower to be very posh hotel-like. A heated towel rail would be great rather than the rusty old radiator alongside a little gallery of Belle Vue art on the wall to remember my nana's stories.

Plenty of cute accessories to make the bathroom fun. I'd like a huge vintage mirror above the new sink and new flooring maybe grey and geometric in style. Vintage framed posters would really stand out and make the bathroom very individual to us.

The Quadrant Shower Sorea Suite from Bathshop 321 is the one I would choose as I love the curve of the shower enclosure which would be ideal for the corner where I would put it. Perfect shininess that I would lovingly clean :) I love the chrome shower mixer, very unfussy compared to our current one which is yellowed plastic and huge. Although I love vintage, I like bathroom suites that are more contemporary in their design such as this with a sink that is angular. Very sleek. 

This is my entry into the Tots100 and Bathshop321 Win a New Bathroom competition.

Neighbourhood Allotment Tour

 

A little tour of an allotment in the next town to me. This was last summer on one of their open days. 

 

Making friends by the broad beans.

 

What a fantastic shed with a make do extension. We aren't allowed this sort of construction on our plot as we have to have uniform size and shade of green so it's not upsetting the neighbouring houses. Bit of a shame if you ask me as I love a colourful shed. 

All the pathways through this allotment have fruit or vegetable road names. Too cute. I like these painted tyres too. 

They had a scarecrow festival, one of my favourite things in the world are scarecrows- funny but also a bit creepy.

An avenue of pink and purple sweet peas so pretty and fragrant.

 

The Witches cottage. I'd be interested to see this shed's occupant.

A very fun and flower rambling allotment, definitely more than just vegetables.

(p.s Apologies for the competition posts, it was a New Years Resolution to join in with bloggers comps - I'll try and balance them with my other posts)

Lovely Nectar Points

We collect Nectar Points in our household, usually for Christmas goodies so when I saw a competition ran by Confused.com to win 60,000 Nectar points which is £3000 to spend I jumped at the chance. 

The competition required you to put together a Pinterest board, showing how you would spend 1000000 Nectar points (£5000). My board is here and it was a lot of fun to put together spending imaginary money from smaller treats to larger purchases.

I would most definitely subscribe to all my favourite magazines as with money being tight I only get these as a treat. Little Bird got me some magazines for Mother's Day and it was a real pleasure to look through them. Having subscriptions would be great and I'd get one for Little Bird too.  

It would be lovely to buy Little Bird educational toys, games and books. I'm considering home educating him and having some great toys to learn with would be a real help. At the moment I pick useful items up from the charity shop up but if I won I'd be spending Nectar points on setting up a home classroom.

On my long term wishlist has been a DSLR camera as I'd like to go to college and take a photography course. Taking photographs is very therapeutic and I'd love a decent camera to take pictures of the family with.  

The dogs have to have a treat too. New beds to keep my two best friends warm and cosy.

A Mac Book for the family to use would be the brilliant as our laptop is a bit old with sellotape holding bits together and if the battery ever drains you have to do this strange combination of commands to turn it back on again. Here's dreaming for this purchase. 

Fingers crossed!

New season at the allotment

Little Bird striding across the plot

It's time to be back at the allotment and I'm struggling to muster the energy. I'm always like this at the beginning of the season when everywhere is quite bare. This week I'm planting my potatoes, broad beans and garlic (bit late but never mind).

There are a ton of jobs that need completing. The shed needs painting, arches need fixing, compost turning, fruit supports fixing but the lure of standing there admiring the lush growth in summer will spur me on. 

 

My plans this year:

grow sweet peas so they are tumbling off arches

don't cram so many vegetables in

grow in nice straight rows

grow better pumpkins

keep the shed orderly

grow cut flowers

keep on top of the weeds

take Little Bird with me more as he loves stomping around in the soil

Big smiles

I visited a great allotment site last year that was really creative so once I've ordered the pics I'll show you. I'd like to pinch some of their ideas to make mine a bit more special for Little Bird. He loves the outdoors so the allotment is ideal to nurture this, it also has a beautiful park right next door with a little kiosk for ice cream breaks :)