There's nothing that says summer more to me than eating outside. Whether it's breakfast in the garden, picnics in the countryside or an evening BBQ once the sun has gone down, alfresco dining is a real summer favourite. I sometimes joke that I should go and live in Australia as barbecuing is my preferred way to cook. And I think picnics are definitely my favourite way to lunch. Outdoor living just feels so much better. Knowing this, M&S got in touch to ask me if I'd like to try some of their new summer picnicware. I'm a summer girl through and through so roll on the warmer weather for more al fresco adventures please! 

Happy Friday! And another long weekend, hip hip hooray. We're using the Bank Holiday to fly to Italy, I'm so excited to visit the Amalfi Coast and I hope it's as magical as I'm imagining it to be. I'm lucky to travel a lot with work but this is a personal trip Ben and I booked last year, it's a place we've wanted to visit for a while so I can't wait for us both to be able to switch off for a bit and escape some of the building dust for a while! I've loved having some new interior posts to share this week, and there's lots more to come. But it's been a while since I've written one of these weekend posts, I'll blame Easter and the past couple of weeks have been crazy but I thought I'd come and check in quickly to catch up on what's new around the house, some new favourites I've been loving {these cute mugs from Photobox} and what I've been up to before I go.. 

We kept our island from our last kitchen {you can read the story behind it below} yet knew that we wanted a different colour scheme this time around. Ben's Uncle who is making the rest of our kitchen will be painting the other units but we needed to sort having our island repainted. Last week she had her makeover and since then a few of you have requested this blog post on repainting kitchen cabinets so I thought I'd share some tips, and photos of the before/during stage below;

It's been a while since I've posted an extension update, {last one here}. This should be the last construction kind of post, then it will be on to the exciting stuff - the finishing bits and posts about flooring, paint and the big reveal in a couple of weeks. The last time I left you we were about to have the steels going in, they had to be craned over the house in a pretty nail biting fashion! But luckily the house lived to tell the tale and it became a pivotal point for the extension. The builders we'd contracted in had finished their section and now it was over to Ben and his team to carry on. {be warned, it's a bumper long post...}

How was your Easter? I hope filled with chocolate? We hadn't planned much at all for ours other than Easter Sunday which would be spent with our families. I never know how busy bank holidays will be, if you want to go out somewhere the roads can be crazy so we decided to stay home and carry on with the never ending house and garden renovating. However, spur of the moment plans can sometimes be the best kind of plans and so with a sudden decision to go to London on Good Friday along with brunch, peonies and easter baking, this weekend was actually one of my favourites for a long time. We had a mixture of being productive - Ben cracked on with the floor while I sorted some of the garden out - along with more fun stuff like our pizza date and seeing some of our favourite people for bluebell walks and egg hunts. And it's always such a bonus when the days blur into one, Friday felt like Saturday and Monday felt like another Sunday. Some photos below if you'd like to see;

The second part of our Maldives trip last week took us back to Baros where we'd honeymooned almost three years before {remember this and this?}. I was so excited to return, it had been such an incredible place, and a tiny island in the middle of a turquoise sea, but I also hoped it would be as good as we remembered. Would we potentially ruin our dreamy honeymoon memories? But I shouldn't have worried, both trips will always be remembered and I think this time it was almost better than the first? More on the resort as a destination on So You're Getting Married later this week but below are some personal travel snaps;

Last week we got back from The Maldives. It was a dream trip like no other and I can't stop looking at the photos. Now that we're home in our dusty construction zone of a house, I keep having to remind myself that last week was real. Whilst I'm sharing more on the resorts we stayed at on So You're Getting Married today with my role as honeymoon editor, I'd love to share some more personal photos below if you'd like to see. 

Some photos and a little recap of my Birthday weekend below. If you know me at all, you'll know what a huge fan of celebrating Birthdays I am. This year though with Ben so busy on the kitchen extension and us flying to The Maldives the day after I didn't want to do anything major to celebrate {I mean, those two things are pretty much all I could ever wish for!}. So we kept it simple and did all of my favourite things over a few days. I celebrated with dinner at my favourite restaurant with the girls, went for walks under blossom and blue skies, had breakfast in bed, saw family and friends, had a sunny lunch with my Mum and the pup and ate a lot of cake. It was perfect and with just a few pink and gold decorations {and an incredible cake thanks to Nicola Johnson} it was so so pretty. 

I cooked on Mother's Day a couple of weeks back and it felt so good to be back in a proper kitchen. We've been living with our two-hob, tiny micro-oven temporary kitchen since the first week of December and whilst it's fine for everyday quick dinner cooking, you really don't want to spend a lot of time in there or be juggling all the pots and pans. So for once I felt inspired to create something special for my lovely Mumma but also my Grandparents, Ben and my Dad. A lot of you requested the recipe after I posted photos on Instagram so you can find it below. It's a recipe I made up from a couple of different ones turned out really well, looks more impressive than the skill behind it and can all be made in advance.