I've had a bit of a thing for vintage, frame-less mirrors for a while now. Pinterest probably started it off and a few years back, in our old house, we started to collect them from boot-sales {one cost me just £2!!} and antique/junk shops local to us. There are new copies of older mirrors appearing in shops which look pretty good if you can't find the original vintage ones but to add a bit more character we love the real deals in all different shapes and sizes, with a chain to hang them from a screw. We had a couple spread across our old house, that round mirror in the middle was in our downstairs toilet and the two on the right were in our spare room {here}. When we found out that we were moving, we set about collecting a few more to create a proper display. The tall oval one on the left is my ultimate favourite, and cost £35, I love the scalloped edging on it and the pretty bevel. 

One of the most requested blog posts I get asked to write is about our sink unit. It's something we discovered with our old bathroom {remember it, post here?} when we bought an oak style console table from eBay that we then converted into a double sink unit for a fraction of the price you'd pay for a purpose built sink unit and we think, so much better looking. It's like a piece of furniture, a real feature compared to your standard bathroom fittings - it also doubles up for storage too. I wasn't blogging at the time so I didn't take any photos of it. This time around I've made sure to take photos along the way... 

The second part of our trip to dreamy Ile de Re in France {part 1 here with all the travel details}. p.s. now that all the travel blogging's over for a bit, I'll be starting the house posts again next!

Oh, the Ile de Re. Where do I begin? Last week Ben and I had the dreamiest five nights away. Last summer, I'd seen photos of gorgeous French seaside towns filled with old shutters and hollyhocks with beautiful beaches. It looked so pretty and just up our street so I started researching it, deciding that we'd have to visit for ourselves. Fast forward a year and it was one of the best holidays we have ever have {and I still can't believe it's just an hour's flight away from London!} I was in two minds about posting about the island, so many people like to keep it a secret. But in the end I figured it was just too beautiful not to share {just er don't tell too many people ok?!}.. 

Bonjour! If you've followed my photos on Instagram you'll have seen that we've just got back from a little trip to France.

Part 2 of the Cali/Hawaii travelogue. From San Diego we flew to Maui. It's the perfect tropical add on to the West coast of America although it's still a 5 hour flight across the ocean. You're basically in the middle of the sea - practically Australia -, almost as far west you can go before you cross the international date line. We'd been before as a family back in 2008 and loved it so decided to spend 5 nights there again this time. A lot of you have asked for a blog post on our trip as you're thinking of going for honeymoons. Whilst that's normally my specialist subject and the purpose of my trips {I'm a travel/honeymoon writer for So You're Getting Married}, this was with my family so it will be from a slightly different angle. Because I was there with family instead of for a work trip with no pressure to take photos or report, I really tried to switch off for a few days. And while you may think that there are still a lot of photos in this post, compared to my usual self I actually left my camera, and even phone some days, in the apartment a lot so for me it's pretty good going! - and apologies now, they're nearly allll of beaches or palm trees.

We got back from California and Hawaii last weekend. My family, Ben and I love America so decided to go on another road-trip {remember this one?} in California. Ben and I stayed in La Jolla on a work trip last February {see this post} and loved the area so much - I declared I wanted to live there - that we decided to return for longer this time, staying in a beach house with everyone. Some photos {a lot}, and our favourite places below if you'd like to see.. 

Hello to the weekend! Shamefully the last time I wrote one of these Friday posts was on week #11, the day that we exchanged on the house. It's now #27!! I've got out of the routine of writing these weekend updates and posting regular photos, with all the chaos of the house renovations and with some travel thrown in, Friday's haven't really felt like Friday's for a while. But anyway, how have you been? For me this week has gone by in a flash. 

Can somebody please tell me where the last two years have gone to? Time really does fly when you're having fun. Yesterday we celebrated {albeit a bit jet lagged} our second wedding anniversary and I'm shocked at just how long ago it feels already. Last year on our first anniversary I shared my favourite parts of our wedding day here, and talked about how it felt to be married here. 

We celebrated with cards we'd bought in California and although the tradition goes that you should buy a cotton themed present, Ben surprised me with a rose gold heart ring that I'd been swooning over for a while. It was bad timing this year with the house in the middle of works, with getting back from our trip to America with my family the day before so were pretty tired and after two weeks of lots of eating and drinking, didn't want to go out for a big lunch or dinner. So we ended up with an impromptu picnic in the glorious English sunshine, eating cherries and macaroons from M&S. The afternoon was spent on house stuff, trailing round shops for curtain poles and shelves - alll the glamour but we can't wait to have a house again! We watched our wedding video {pssst, password is Sterling if you're in a film watching mood} and looked over some photos.

We've booked a few days in France to belatedly celebrate on our own in a couple of weeks time. So despite the slight bad timing, here's to two years of being married, the best two years so far. To quote from our wedding day, 'To, have and to hold, let's go and grow old because our love is a wonderful thing ♥'

A few photos, but loads loads more here if you'd like to see and the whole wedding series with all the DIY bits and planning here.