Lorna Cole

This is a post I've been really looking forward to and it's something a little different for my blog! Interior design and home decor interested me even when I was much younger, I used to collect paint swatches and have planned out the decoration of my future home many times! I knew Resourceful Living by Lisa Dawson would be right up my street so I was excited to read it! A big thank you to Octopus Books, Kyle Books and Anne from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour and for my copy of the book. Description  It's often thought that restyling your space comes with a hefty price tag and unavoidable waste. But in Resourceful Living , award-winning interiors blogger Lisa Dawson shows how, with a little creativity, you can revamp your home with existing pieces, vintage finds and key purchases.  The clever ideas in this beautiful book cover:  - The most important ways we use our homes, from eating to sleeping, living and working.  - The Basics of...

Like me, everyone has times when it can be difficult to find the inspiration to write new blog posts. I feel like it’s easier to come up with ideas at certain times of the year but it can be frustrating when you can’t seem to write something that you’re happy with. I thought I’d share a few things that I try when writer's block hits me! → Pinterest - A classic go to for inspiration for pretty much everything, why not keep a board full of different ideas that you can come back to when you're feeling a bit stuck for fresh ideas. → Lists & Mind maps - Try making lists or if that’s not your thing then perhaps a mind map may help. I like to write down the things I enjoy and am interested in and often that can give me a burst of inspiration for some posts.  → Read other blogs - This is one of the best ways to get some inspiration for the content that's already out there. I'd recommend participating in blog chats as they're a great way to talk with and su...

I'm not one to make resolutions particularly but I do think it's quite useful to make some goals, though it doesn't necessarily have to be January!  →   Start a Creative Arts degree - This year I plan to begin studying with the OCA, this is part of the University for the Creative Arts but you can do it from home which will allow me to continue working as well! →  Work with more companies - I've had a couple companies reach out to me already this year so I'm really looking forward to working with more brands to create content. → Create a list of book ideas - Writing a book is on my bucket list and although it's not something I plan to do yet, I would like to think of some potential ideas and themes. → Guest posts - I've done a few guest posts previously and would like to do more to build up my portfolio. I'd also like to contribute to places like Buzzfeed since it's a platform I use frequently. → 4000 followers on Twitter - I'm al...

Magazines used in photo: Ocado Life, Tesco, Homemaker I feel like we're having a proper summer here in England this year, (though typically it's been raining today) and when it's hot out I always like to have foods that are full of flavour, colour and are pretty easy to make. However, I often find myself eating the same things so I've made a Pinterest board with recipes I want to try out and thought I'd share some of my favourites! Breakfast So to start off the day I've gone for something that you probably shouldn't have every day but if you paired it with some fruit then it would make a delicious breakfast to wake up to! This recipe is for Nutella Brioche which just sounds great, doesn't it and it's something that lots of people can eat. It does take a while to prepare but the cook time is only 40 minutes, which I think is totally worth it!  Credit to Dina from Simply Home Cooked for the recipe and image Lunch Instead of ...

I did it, a whole year of blogging! I'm so glad that I stuck at it because I enjoy it so much and can't believe how much progress I've made with it all. Not only that, but I've connected to so many people all around the world which is just amazing, I can't wait to see what the next year working on my blog brings! Anyway, here is a sum up of my blogging journey so far. What I've achieved - Just over 50 posts which is equal to roughly 1 per week, and I'm definitely pleased with that! I started off slow and could have probably done a lot more but at least I've got something to work towards! - Hit 1.5k+ followers on my blog Twitter account and also had 30.5k impressions in my best month - Reached 200+ followers on my blog Instagram account after starting to properly use it in May - Had 2562 viewers on Pinterest in one day and an average of around 1000 - Over 9000 pageviews, the fact that I'm on the way to 10,000 blows my mind! -...

I've been a fan of Old English Company for ages now, they have some great little bits including prints, homeware and stationery. I often find myself scrolling through their Instagram or Pinterest and mentally create a wishlist in my head of everything I want! I love simplistic designs and they do exactly that, they're definitely somewhere to check out if you want some new bits for your home or some gift ideas! I'd love to know if anybody already has some bits from Old English Company or if you've been eyeing something up for a while! Anyway, when they got in touch with me to let me know that they had a competition for their new Enamel Pin range I wanted to let people know! Their collection of pins are so cute and there are some really fun designs. They're a great way to jazz up a jacket, bag, or you can even buy an Enamel Pin Display Flag which I love the idea of! My favourites are definitely the Pineapple, Monstera Leaf and the Love Heart but you can ch...

This weekend consisted of a Christmas preparations trip to Southampton, mostly to get our Christmas tree but there were also a few other bits to do! I know there are pros and cons of getting a real or fake tree but there is something so exciting about going to choose it and being surrounded by the iconic pine scent, it really makes me feel so Christmassy and sort of marks the start of the festive period. You could probably spend hours looking at different trees and trying to decide which is the best looking one but once we had finally agreed we took it back to the car and headed into the town. After getting some lunch I headed to a shops in search of a Christmas jumper, I'm always really picky with the ones I like so I knew it would take up some time. Unfortunately it seemed that a lot of them had sold out but hey I suppose that is the beauty of online shopping isn't it! Luckily it wasn't a complete waste of time as I did spot a few different things that could be po...

Sorry for the delay with this post, I've been pretty busy! This year is going so quickly that I completely missed the August favourites but  I have probably been loving most of the things I'm going to talk about today across August and September anyway! Food - Last week my boyfriend and I celebrated being together for 3 years by going out for a meal at our local Indian restaurant. As a result their Chicken Tikka Masala, my personal favourite from their menu has found it's way into my favourites this month. It's honestly so good that we always go back (I have the pictures to prove it!!) and it has a chilled atmosphere which makes it great for smaller or larger groups of people. Drink - In order to try and hold on to that last remaining bit of summer I have been enjoying Costa's Fruit Coolers - well the mango and passionfruit one to be precise! I am so glad my little town has a Costa because this drink so refreshing when the sun it out! Plus the designs on their c...