Syrup and Salt

I love nothing more than crafty hands at work and Kato Harrison's Syrup and Salt label is right up my street. Homemade with love in Cornwall, her colourful hair bands are a treat and come in two sizes - perfect not only for me but Mini too.

And her silver embossed bracelets which you can have made with anything on them also come with a whole host of different ways to wear them, from velvet to leather in neon pink, black or the palest blue. I have my three gorgeous terrors on mine. It makes me smile every time I look at my wrist.

For the Children

We're a big fan of H&M in our house but nothing beats their All For The Children collections. Each year we wait with bated breath to see what they come up with, and each year their creations wow us with their originality, quality as well as their low price point. This season it was actually the boys collection that enticed. From a fantastic grey combat suit and Bat Boy sweatshirt to the lizard printed high tech tracksuit and dinosaur rain mac.

This year the theme was animals, from Bat sweatshirts to lizard tracksuits and Chameleon bags. This incredibly cute snowy owl poncho was a big hit with Mini.

I had to buy the girls matching knitted metallic leggings, comfy as well as chic.

Here are some of our favourites from the collection

La Coqueta Kids

I was asked by Celia, mum of four and owner of my new favourite kids store La Coqueta to answer a few questions on her blog about mums in style. Not a chore at all having to talk about my style tips, love of fashion and my kids! You can check it out today on their website La Coqueta Kids
As you can see im a fan myself and have even taken to stealing Mini's cat ear headband. Its just too cute!

I did rather a big shop. There is so much to love but i just adore their Pampa check and have bought Phin the shirt, Mini the dress and Ottilie the blouse as well as their festive Red Greca Sweater which i got for all three. Just watch out for our christmas snaps.

I quickly put Ottilie in their Maranta trousers - I love this blue and yellow tartan colour way and the drop crotch style makes them super comfy too. I paired them with a frilled blouse from Bonpoint and Marie-Chantal yellow cardigan and brogues, but they'd work equally well for boys too.

Double Trouble

Day of The Dead

Every year the exercise in creating our Halloween look gets harder. How to do a whole ensemble look, where everyone agrees? Last year's Ghostbusters was hard to beat. So I decided to rely on my fashion expertise and style our family to the hilt Mexican style. I used clothes we already had. Adding white gaffer tape to create Tom's striped suit so it would coordinate with Phin and Mini's dress and suit combo which i had bought last year from H&M. My dress was a vintage black lace Spanish style affair gleaned from the wardrobe of my aunt Jutta, whilst Ottilie's burgundy tulle confection by Angel's Face was a Mini hand-me-down. But it was with the accessories that I really went to town.

Mini already had this pink rose crown in her wardrobe but i added feathers butterflies and birds with a glue gun as well as a black tulle veil from Claire's Accessories. 

Ottilie's cream flower and tulle crown was from Bonpoint while Phin's top hat came from our local party shop and I then stuck different sized spiders all over it, whilst Tom's was decorated in skulls.

The Grim Reaper

Our little skeleton baby kept on putting her crown on upside down, I guess she preferred it that way!

Lisa from the fantastic kids party company Jem's Fairies did our face painting and Mini and I plumped for pink crystals adorning our eyes.

I bought a couple of hair bands as well as the skull choker from Claire's Accessories and then added some blood dipped roses, a spider, butterfly and a few lady birds to finish off the look.

Our friends never fail to impress either. Here the Preston's have morphed into zombie Simpsons complete with bulging eyeballs. And the Steed's were transported to Hogwarts with Argus Filch, Professor Trelawney, Mad Eye Moodie and a pint sized Voldemort, although to be fair he was mostly mistaken for Malfoy. None the less we were all the toast of the street.

Pumpkin Time

Ah yes, its that time of year again where I normally get out my pumpkin carving tools and start hacking away at 10 pumpkins to help decorate my friend Karen's house, in preparation for our annual party. But this year I thought I would try something new. So out went the knives and in came the spray paint and glitter.

Obviously I thought it was going to be a doddle, and if I had left it at just spray painting them, then yes it would have been a breeze. But then again when did I ever take the easy route?

My idea was to spray each pumpkin with one of four colours - black, white, gold and red. Then prepare a stencil of a spider's web or an owl or bat, stick this onto the pumpkin and then spray over in another colour. This was trickier than I thought.

At first my idea was to draw the image out on paper - but how to stick them onto the surface of the pumpkin without glue? All the edges needed to be stuck down so no bleeding occurs during the spray painting process. To combat this I used masking take to stick the edges of the template down, but this was fiddly. So I thought why not make the templates out bands of masking tape stuck together? Great idea, not so great in practice. When I peeled away the bats, they simply took the underlay of colour with them. The effect looks quite charming (see below) but it wasn't going to work on a large scale.

The same thing happened with the little circle stickers I had bought from Rymans. So instead of putting them on and peeling them off, I decided to spray paint them and stick them on after and I'm loving the result!

Inspired by the fantastic Yayoi Kusama, they look like pumpkins that Louis Vuitton would be proud of! I even added brass tacks to some to create a polka dot effect and finished off the look by brushing the stalks with pva glue and dousing them in gold glitter.

I then decided if my silhouettes weren't going to work, then why not decoupage? I plucked some Lady's Mantle leaves from my garden, spray painted them and when dry, coated both the top and the underside in a watered down PVA solution. Quite baroque.

I also like keeping the wonderful textures and shades of these decorative gourds but enhancing them with some more glitter stalks. I put them in a glass bowl on my kitchen table in lieu of freshly cut flowers and they look fantastic.

Wee Willie Winkie

So the Pom Pom tassel was not the only reason we chose minis school but it definitely incentivised us! I mean who could resist a woollen wee willie winkle hat as part of the uniform? It's just too cute. And it fits perfectly with her grey velvet pie crust collared coat. Winter is well and truly here.

Mini's first sleepover

Mini had her first sleepover this weekend. Well she had technically slept at her cousin Talulla's house in the summer for one night but this was the first time she would be properly away from home.
Boy was she excited. We planned her outfit meticulously from her Mothercare bird print tshirt to her Caramel faux fur collar coat, encrusted hair band and Liberty print suitcase. Which, once on the front steps gave her a 1930's war refugee vibe.
Oh I was losing my little girl. But only for the night. Off she trotted to her best friend India's house where they played beautifully. And then it was off to dinner in an outfit curated from indie's wardrobe followed by a barbie movie under a canopy. What fun!
The next morning it was pancakes for breakfast and then an afternoon spent with Tante Poppy at her flat baking chocolate chip cookies and watching enchanted.
Definitely a fun packed weekend for miss independent.
Thanks to poppy and kate for the pics!