Candyfloss & Dreams

Category: Lifestyle

lifestyle blog posts focusing on home, lifestyle, parenting, pregnancy, family life and home and style. Home decor and working at home, working at home as a self employed freelancer and blogger. Family lifestyle blog posts including family reviews, family products and saving money as a family. Being a more eco friendly family.

  • How Using Blue Revitalises Your Home In 2017

    This is a collaborative post.

    We think of the colour blue for many different reasons: the colour of the sky, the way water shimmers at you, it’s even the metaphorical way to describe to others that we’re feeling sad. However, the use of both bright and warm blue hues in our homes is at the forefront of the design trend this year, so below are a few styles to include in your next home improvement scheme to bring out that true blue feeling.

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    Loving Leather

     

    We all know leather is super stylish, and offers an extra element of chic or refined furnishing depending on the style you go for. Buying something like a comfy blue chesterfield sofa is the chessmaster in this blue revolution. Upgrading to leather furniture is a great move during the summer. A lot of allergy sufferers will be in full sneeze swing at this time of year, so sitting on a material that doesn’t collect dust mites will be a great benefit for them.

     

    Coating your living room in blue items such as cushions is a great way to incorporate bright colours as well as a relaxed feeling into your home. Similarly, decorating with darker lampshades can offer a cool haven away from the burning summer sun whilst your lights are both off and on.

     

    Designer Denim

     

    We tend to think of denim as a 2000s trend that a lot of people don’t wish to remember. It’s been making a comeback recently, and with good reason! Denim washes are a relaxed colour and won’t have a damaging impact to any open space in a room. They can often come in ‘misty’ shades which will add both a light and dark influence, and look good as a feature wall base. It’s a great way to welcome family and friends alike, and can add a personal touch to ceilings or floors with paint and rugs.

     

    Denim is great for upholstering chairs to add a suede look to them. But if all out denim still makes you uncomfortable, the effect can often be faked as well.

     

    The Cobalt Revolution

     

    A lot of people love the colour blue; it goes well with so many other colours, and adds a modernistic turn to a space if paired with white. If you’re a fan of bolder colour statements, then using a shade such as cobalt is a great way to add life to a living room. It can also bring in a touch of the exterior, with many of us seeing oceans and rivers when we look at it.

     

    Cobalt blue also works as a great accent colour, and was employed to full effect as one last season. Professional designers are a big fan of the shade due to its versatility and multiple style combos.

     

    Blue will always be a colour that’s in style, and common and calm enough for all types of people to use it. Consider these helpful tips if you want to overhaul your living room to add in some blue renegades this summer!

  • 4 Ways To Make Your Life More Convenient

    This is a collaborative post.

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    We could all do with more hours in the day and more hands to get everything done. So if you are looking for ways to make your life just that little bit more convenient read on for some of the best and most simple ways to do just that.

     

    Plan Your Week In Advance

     

    One of the things that can really stump us, in how productive our weeks are, is when things constantly crop up and throw us off track and distract us from getting all those things done. Therefore planning your week in advance is a really good way to make sure that you get all your tasks done and that all your meetings, appointments and work get ticked off the list. You are so much more likely to get everything done if you can see, right in front of you, what needs to be ticked off your list as your week goes on. So get a really good calender and the moment something comes up, get it down in the calendar, give it a specific day, and even a specific time if necessary, in order to ensure it doesn’t get forgotten about.

     

    Video Doctor Appointments

     

    Instead of spending hours waiting in a busy doctors waiting room, there is now the possibility to download doctor apps, that will allow you to have a doctors appointment all from within the comfort of your own home. Downloading an app like, GP at Hand, will allow you to simply go onto your app, request an appointment and wait for a doctor to get back to you and let you know when your video appointment will be. Pretty darn convenient for busy mums and busy people in general.

     

    Carpool

     

    Carpooling with other people is a great way to share the burden of busy commutes and to share the responsibility of the daily school run. Pooling together with either colleagues or other mums in your local area is a really good way to share the amount of time we spend either ferrying around the children, or the amount of time we spend driving in our cars getting to and from work. It is a great way for mums to support each other and it is a great way for colleagues and friends to share the burden of heavy and stressful work commutes.

     

    Task Managers

     

    Sometimes we just need to put our hands up and just accept that we can’t do everything and that we can can’t juggle 10 different tasks in our heads at any one time. We are going to forget things and things are going to accidentally fall off our ‘to-do’ list. So for those that struggle with remembering all the many weekly tasks, make your life that little bit easier by downloading a task manager app. Apps like Evernote, allow you enter important tasks, that will send you alerts to remind you and it will also allow you record down all your really important information that you may need at a moment’s notice. So look into task manager apps that will make you feel so much better equipped to be managing the day to day tasks in your life.

     

  • Customised Clothing with Contrado – Review

    Now I’m actually losing weight I am in need of new clothes and I wanted something casual to take on holiday to Cornwall with us last month. I designed a quick T-Shirt dress with Contrado which was delivered promptly. I am one of simple pleasures and comforts and prefer cotton material over anything heavier. I quite like a good stripe too and I wanted something nice and colourful but still suitable for summer. Contrado is a great site because you can customise all of your outfit and there is just so much to chose from.

    The design process is really simple, you just create an account and then get started on customising your own clothes. There were absolutely loads of dress styles to choose from but I thought a t-shirt dress would be easy to customise, great for the beach, great to pull over for swimming and could be dressed up with skinny jeans (when I fit into them) or leggings. The dress also works really well with a decent pair of flats or trainers. I think t-shirt dresses are super comfortable and so easy to dress up or down.

    Once you’ve selected the style and shape of the clothing and you can create so much at Contrado, dresses, leggings, jumpers…whatever you want really. You can then select the type of material you want to use. There is cotton and cotton blends depending on your own personal peference. I thought cotton would be nice, light and cooling. You can then go on to select your fabric pattern and there is so much to choose from. Contrado have loads of shapes, characters, patterns and you can add text too.

    Contrado is a great website for making good quality customised clothes. The T-Shirt dress I made is so comfy and it washes really well so I am incredibly impressed. Plus I’ve heard horizontal stripes make short people look taller.

    Contrado Customised T Shirt Dress

     

    Disclaimer: I received the custom made dress in exchange for this feature. All opinions remain my own. 

  • Igloo Mania Board Game Review – Brainstorm

    Evie loves a good board game and with this very wet summer we’ve had Igloo Mania has been a firm favourite already. We have loved playing it already particularly as it’s reminding us just how cold it can be despite it being August. Penguins are a big hit here too. Igloo Mania is from Brainstorm Limited games and is suitable for ages 5+. It’s a relatively quick game and it does require a bit of easy to follow assembly before playing. It may be advisable to set it up in secret, unlike us, than have to deal with “is it ready yet” every five seconds. I honestly think if I’d been a clever parent and hidden it away with a big reveal so we could play instantly I wouldn’t have been slightly insane when playing…anyway, I digress. It is actually quite fun.

    You’ll need 2-4 players for this which makes it ideal for our small family. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. The game comes with an Igloo mound that you build around with little ice blocks, penguin character sticks for the players to remove bricks and a little Eskimo proudly standing at the top of his Igloo. As mischievous penguins it is your job to remove the bricks without making the Eskimo fall off his perch. Adam likes to play strategically removing blocks from various places on the Igloo. Evie likes to do them in a line which meant each time we have played she has made the Eskimo fall. Whoever makes the Eskimo fall collects the rest of the ice blocks and the person with the least amount of ice blocks wins. Evie hasn’t won yet…

    The game is fun and a smaller version of Jenga really. It’s quite cute in its design and Evie really likes it which makes it a nice big hit for us. The game is easy to follow and has an easier mode for younger players which I think is designed to keep them playing longer. It’s as if the creator knew what small children might do (take all the ice blocks in a line for example) and make quick work of the game. We all like it and it’s nice to have a new game to play through the summer holidays and year long. Igloo Mania makes a great rainy day game and quick work of shedding boredom. A great game we’ve all enjoyed playing and will continue to do so.

     

    Disclaimer: We received Igloo Mania in exchange for this feature. All opinions remain my own

  • Fantastic House Moving Tips That You Have Probably Never Thought About

    This is a collaborative post.

    We all know moving house can be very stressful, and there is loads of advice online as to how you can make life easier for yourself in the process. We have already given you our stress-busting tips on this site. However, to be original, we have decided to come up with some clever ideas that you have probably never considered. So, without further ado, let’s get packing… erm… We mean cracking!

    Fill your socks

    Not only do you need to pack your socks, but you also need to pack up your fragile glass items. Kill two birds with one stone (not literally, that’s cruel) and use your socks as extra padding for your breakables. You might still want to use bubble wrap or extra tissue paper, but your socks will add extra protection. Hint: think of the germs and use clean socks if you intend to drink out of those glasses when you get to your new property.

    Use beer crates for your books


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    Avid readers will need to put their favorite books somewhere, but cardboard boxes may not be strong enough to hold the weight. Instead, use wooden beer crates which are more durable, and have handles on the side to help you carry them. Make sure you remove (or drink) the beer first, however, as you don’t want to ruin your copy of Fifty Shades of Gray with fifty shades of alcohol!

    Take a photo of your tv wires

    Unplugging the wires from the back of your tv is one thing, but remembering where they go again is quite another! Considering the number of appliances you probably have plugged in, from your DVD player to your games consoles, having a handy photograph of what goes where will help you untangle your memory when you get to the new house.

    Hire a cleaning crew

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    You have so much to do on moving day that cleaning the home may become an afterthought. However, if you are renting your property, you won’t get your deposit back if the house is a mess. Therefore, hire an end of lease cleaning service to reduce your burden, or get your friends and neighbors in to give you a hand.

    Cut down on boxes

    You probably have loads of storage containers you haven’t actually thought about. Picnic hampers, laundry baskets, suitcases, and litter bins are just some of the items that could be filled with your essential items. Please note: ensure the cat hasn’t made a home in one of them, as you don’t want a flat packed kitty on your hands when you start to unpack later in the day.

    Use toothpaste on nail holes

    Your paintings look great in the house until you remove them and you are left with unsightly holes in the wall. Provided the toothpaste matches the color on the wall, squirt a little in, wipe away the excess, and you will never see the holes again! Admittedly, you won’t see them anyway as you will have long gone, but if your new property smells minty fresh you will know why!

    Let me know if you have any original and creative tips for moving day.