The Interior DIYer

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Updating our [landlord’s] Ikea shelves

This isn’t a particularly striking nor interesting blog post, but over the past few weeks I’ve been reorganising and updating the stuff on our [landlord’s] IKEA shelves. I styled our shelves like this close to 2 years ago and they’ve barely changed since. Recently, I spent a few minutes each day while Cora isn’t making unrelenting monotonous teething sounds content, so I had a chance to move things around.

I added the second large door back onto our shelves, and it seems I did just in time as 2 days later [on Father’s Day], Cora started crawling. All she wants to do now is crawl and it’s the sweetest and most exhausting thing ever [for both of us].
I also hung up Cora’s Elodie Details playmat. It spends most of the time on the floor in our living room, but when Cora’s asleep, we hang it up on the wall so we’re not walking on it and so the cats don’t get [extra] fur all over it. 

I’m finding it more and more difficult to photograph these shelves [7 years living with them and their yellowedness is making me want to ram them into a wood chipper]. I tried to photograph them over 3 different days, and each time I uploaded my photos onto my laptop, I was underwhelmed. You’ll have to trust me when I say the shelves look half-decent now, but they’re just so tough to photograph. Am I the only one with a tricky part of their home like that? It looks good in real life, but completely impossible to photograph? For now, they look about as good as I can get our landlord’s shelves to look.

p.s. When I was looking at my posts on these shelves over their lifetime, I found this haggard blog post and I take back anything negative I said about these photos today. Woof. 

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Felt ball bunting from Creative Tuesday

Shortly after Cora was born, a long time internet friend of mine Janine* of Made for Me Studio sent Cora the most adorable felt ball bunting all the way from New Zealand. It was made by Janine’s talented friend Lesley of Creative Tuesday, who makes a range of sweet decor for nurseries and children’s rooms. Sweet features from prints to mobiles to wall decals and of course, felt bunting … 

When we first got Janine’s sweet gift, I tried hanging the felt ball bunting in a few places across Cora’s bedroom, but as there’s only one wall to hang it on which is already quite full, it didn’t stand out as much as I would like. I took my time and thought about where else the bunting would look best. I then realised the best [and now most obvious] place was to hang it on the mahogany mirror in our hallway. It’s the centre of our apartment and so many times a day we hold Cora at the mirror and have fun giggling, making funny faces or waving to each other. Cora really loves the bunting and often grabs it, but it’s so long that we’re able to rescue it safely from her tiny grip fairly easily and with no damage done. 

What I love the most about our Cora’s new bunting is it’s decor that can be easily moved around our apartment and when we eventually move, it will be something we can hang anywhere. Plus, it brings some fun and whimsy to the rest of our apartment so all the cute isn’t just in Cora’s room.

Thank you again, Janine. It is the sweetest xx



*Janine and I have been internet friends since 2011. One of my earliest memories of Janine’s kindness was when I got two wisdom teeth pulled and  we shared messages as I recovered. Over the years we talked about so many things and across all the changes that happened in those 6 [!!!] years. Janine even offered for Robert and I to stay with her and her husband Mike [must not forget their fur baby Smooch] when we were thinking of going to New Zealand for our honeymoon [we unfortunately didn’t end up as flights that long scare me, but it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go]. 
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My HomeSense Ireland launch haul

This morning we had good light and I had a few minutes to myself so I took pictures of my HomeSense haul I picked up on Wednesday night.

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I didn’t realise I got a gift card to spend in store at the launch until almost an hour into my visit. It was a happy surprise and because I’d already been around the shop twice, I had a few [massive understatement] pieces in mind that I wouldn’t have had a problem bringing home. And here they are …

[Above photo] DECORATIVE MAGNIFYING GLASS, €9.99 AT HOMESENSE
I’ve always wanted a magnifying glass for our coffee table, but it was one of those things I never ended up actually getting. I saw this one at the launch on Wednesday and it was the first thing in my trolley. The first of many. 

ROSE GOLD BOTTLE HOLDER, €8.99 AT HOMESENSE
HomeSense have an actual rose gold section in the kitchen area. I saw this wine bottle holder and picked it up because Robert and I spend a lot of time at home, so if we do have a glass of something, this will make us feel fancier. Even if we’re in our PJ’s on the couch watching Better Call Saul. 

[That bottle of wine is a screw cap. I put the cork on the table in an attempt to look sophisticated. Full disclosure].

WINTER GREEN THROW PILLOW WITH POM POMS, €16.99 AT HOMESENSE
Of HomeSense’s pillow aisles [yes, aisles as in plural], I kept going back to this dark green pillow. It’s my favourite deep green [just like our footstool] and in the softest fabric. I wasn’t sure about the bright green pom poms, but there are tiny hints of bright green in our living room [like on one of my iBride trays], so I went for it and I’m surprised with how much I like such a bright colour on our couch.

BLACK VANILLA VEGETABLE WAX CANDLE, €8.99 AT HOMESENSE
There’s a black candle section in HomeSense. I stood there for about 10 minutes looking at all the black candles and eventually decided on this black vanilla candle. It smells like heaven. I’m a sucker for a pretty candle.  

I got 2 more pieces in my HomeSense haul; something for Robert ahead of Father’s Day and something for my mom, but didn’t want to share them in case they see them here. 

Thank you again to the lovely Kate and Kayla and HomeSense for the invitation to the launch and for the generous gift card! It worked. I’ll be back.  

DISCLOSURE – while this blog post is not sponsored, I did receive a gift card to the amount of €50 free of charge to spend at the HomeSense launch. As always, all words and opinions are my own. I only work with companies I like and of course, think that you will too. Thank you for supporting the companies that support The Interior DIYer.