laurabutlermadden.com

I can’t believe this day has come around so quickly…it’s almost a year since we decided that we would sell this special house – we realised that as much as we loved everything about it, the location is sadly just too remote for this stage of our lives, both for work and with a little one. We felt that we needed to be living somewhere more urban and decided to start researching a move to Bath

Even though this was taken in 2013, so only six years ago, it feels like a lifetime since then as so much has happened, but I will always adore this photo, this bedroom and this house. Meanwhile we had bought this house, a three bedroom Victorian terrace just off Clapham Common, to work on as a renovation project, but also for us to live in. When we finished our second cottage in the Shaftesbury Estate, the plan was for our team to move straight onto our house, to try and get the loft extended and the work completed before Christmas. We were sad to leave such a happy home, but found a very sad looking house on the border of Balham and Streatham that needed some serious TLC, so decided to move on to that instead…but more on that in my next instalment.

Amanda was the UK’s first Placenta Encapsulation Specialist to be certified and qualified as a Phlebotomist, so we felt in safe hands. This included the Combined Placenta Capsules, Placenta Cream for Mother, Placenta Balm for Mother & Baby, as well as the Placenta Tincture and Placenta Essence. We also opted for the Gold collection option, which was amazing and meant that Amanda collected it from the hospital within a few hours of me giving birth. The Placenta Balm for Mother & Baby was also amazing –

The weather and so many other little things (as always when renovating) have been against us and we haven’t (as we originally hoped) finished by Christmas, but that is another whole blog post for next year. I loved the eucalyptus garland that we had as the table centrepiece last year and so wanted to use something similar, but have added some dried hydrangeas from the garden to the garlands, which adds both colour and texture. I fell in love with the Pea Pod and the blue matches out kitchen perfectly, so decided to use it to add some colour and interest to our Christmas table this year. Finally, as those of you who have followed me a while will know, as well as hydrangeas, blue and white ceramics and candles, I am also a little obsessed with natural textures in the home and couldn’t resist including some feathers in the table scheme –