by Helen | Dec 5, 2025 | Interiors
Lighting – and pendants – have been a big consideration in the renovation of our house. Initially, we’d thought that we’d go down the route of Moroccan/Moorish style pendants, but to get what we wanted, for all of the rooms, would have cost a small fortune. So, we decided to have coloured glass pendants in only some of the rooms. And then, as the house went white, we changed our minds again, and veered towards all white. It just meant sourcing white pendants that we liked, would suit the style of the house and didn’t blow the budget. In Istria, we had two IKEA Maskros pendants – the ones that look like dandelion heads – which we loved, and so I was sad to discover that they had been discontinued, as we did consider these again.
Because IKEA prices are reasonable, we decided to have a good look at their pendants again, given we’d been so happy with the ones above, and that’s when we started to seriously consider the Krusning pendants. I’d previously liked them in-store, but because we weren’t considering paper shades, had not really taken much notice of them, but when I checked online, the prices did pique my interest. As we needed about fourteen of them, the prices were very appealing and so a couple were bought initially, just to see what they were like. And they were gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Although the first one was a bit tricky – each pendant has about fifteen sheets of quick thick waxed paper, which you need to assemble, one on top of the other, then fan out into a kind of star shape, then scrunch up the edges. It felt a bit weird to be scrunching and crunching up the layers, but you soon get used to it, as the shades take shape. The beauty of constructing the shades in this way, is that they all look slightly different. Despite being made of paper, they are sturdy and robust, and have enough weight to them, to make them just sway gently in the breeze. A couple of ours are positioned near ceiling fans, and even these are OK. The one thing to remember about these Krusning shades, is that the cord set, to attach it, is sold separately – so don’t forget to pick these up, too.
The result? Very personalised lights which produce a very soft, diffused light, creating a very cosy ambience. We liked these so much as central ceiling pendants, we purchased the smaller versions for the lighting at the side of each bed. These lights are on dimmer switches, and so the effect is even more magical, as you can adjust the intensity. I’d really recommend these shades if you’re budget conscious but want something quite unique and elegant.
This is not a sponsored post. We paid for all of the products. We are just sharing and recommending products we like and rate.
by Helen | Dec 4, 2025 | Interiors
Not that long ago, if you told me we’d own a chaise longue, I’d have thought you were mad. Not only would we not really have had the space – or the kind of house – for such an item of furniture, people like us just don’t own things like chaise longues! Well, by a twist of fate, we do now…
When our furniture was in storage in Manilva, we got to know the guys who owned the units well, as we visited quite frequently. They often had furniture which people had left in storage as they no longer wanted/needed it and we’d be shown bits and pieces to see if we’d be interested. And this chaise longue did catch our attention. The fabric was pretty awful – a bit chintzy, with a shiny pale blue background and embellished with gold swirls. But the shape of it was lovely, and it was very sturdy. It felt like a really well made piece of furniture, with an old fashioned sprung seat, which felt as if it was stuffed with horsehair. The legs were super cute too – small, but beautifully carved, with little swivel castors. We knew it had potential but would need recovering – so we agreed a price and put it into storage with all of the rest of our belongings.
We had a good idea where this sofa would go, and luckily, we were right, as it’s now in place, on the first floor landing. But, we never did get it recovered. Instead, we decided that we’d use Fabricoat fabric paint on it, as we’d been very impressed with this product. This time, we opted for beautiful chocolate brown – applying the paint was really just like applying melted chocolate. The coverage this time was absolutely excellent, because the fabric wasn’t overly soft – it was also very taught, so application was incredibly easy and if I am remembering correctly, it only needed two coats. Overall, we’re delighted with the new look of this really elegant chaise longue, which now looks as good as new. At a fraction of the price we’d have paid for the recovering option.
The embossed pattern has taken the colour well, but you can still see it, and this adds texture to what might be otherwise a very flat colour, so it’s worked out well. It still looks very elegant, and the carved legs are more prominent because they are no longer competing with the blingtastic fabric. Now that it’s “dressed” with a couple of cushions and a throw, it’s taken on a lovely new look, and is very much at home in its new space. And, yes, we do now feel very comfortable being the owners of a super gorgeous chocolate brown chaise longue…
by Helen | Dec 3, 2025 | Interiors
Although we have a lot of space in our renovated house, one thing we are short on, is actual storage space. Apart from what is now a rather lovely pantry – another thing ticked off the wishlist – there is no original storage, and so we have had to be creative with shelving and cupboards. We sold the furniture we could not easily disassemble and then reassemble, when we sold our house in Istria, so we’ve had to buy quite a lot of storage. We’re lucky that we have a large roof terrace, where boxes and crates still sit, waiting to be unpacked and dealt with.
One thing we really need storage for is bedding. I don’t know how other people deal with their bedding situation but we seem to be forever in a bit of a pickle with duvet covers, sheets and pillow cases. We always think we have the bedding to fit perfectly, but because we have no system, it all gets mixed up and what I thought fitted a particular bed/duvet etc, often doesn’t and it drives me insane. So, we’re working on getting it all sorted and knowing what goes where and with what. And whatever no longer fits, will go into the painting/dust sheet box. We’re planning on floor to ceiling shelving in the little recess that has been created in the passageway to the main bathroom, and once these are up, and long drapes fitted, we’ll be good to go in terms of bedding/towel storage.
Another item on our long list of “things we’d love to have in the house”, included some kind of chair/seating arrangement, under the window in our bedroom. We’re working hard to make this a really comfy, relaxing room, that is a bit of a haven. The en-suite has been created and our beautiful black sanitary-ware installed, and because it’s recessed slightly, as well as the double doors into this room, we’ve also added a long stretch of duck egg blue velvet curtains across the wall, softening the entrance, and therefore softening the feel of the room.
But I’ll come back to the curtains and the bedroom, because they are not what this about. No, this about finding that perfect something for underneath the window. Out of which we have the most gorgeous view, over the terracotta roof tiles of the houses opposite and away to the mountains to the east, towards Malaga. The view changes throughout the day, and as we’re discovering, across the seasons, and this little space is the perfect place to just sit, and take it all in. So, instead of being perched on a random spare chair, I wanted something beautiful, which would add to the bedroom, not be a spare part. A lot of online searching led me to this beauty – a slightly off-white, soft boucle bench, with big thick, chunky legs, and which is the exact size for under the window. And when I say exact, it couldn’t have been any more perfect. Snug. Perfect. But best of all, it also has a hinged seat with quite a good sized bit of storage – meaning that the bedding for this room can be stored in the bench. So no confusion going forward!
This was such a find on amazon.es – and therefore presumably available on amazon.co.uk, and comes in three colours – white, khaki and green. It’s super soft and beautiful to the touch, as well as being very robust and comfortable. We didn’t want to have a window seat built as I’m not really a fan of these, so this is absolutely ideal, as it can be moved if we fancy it somewhere else. Enjoying the view has just become a whole lot nicer. With the bonus of a view with storage…
by Helen | Nov 27, 2025 | Lifestyle
As winter takes hold, this is a super delicious winter warmer – Fresh Pea & Mint Pesto with Butter Beans & Roasted Tomatoes. And, as far as I can tell, it’s vegetarian and suitable vegans if the Greek yogurt is omitted and maybe an alternative used – although I do stand to be corrected on the vegan front.
what you need :
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Butter Beans (2 cans)
- Frozen Peas (about 300g)
- Fresh Mint
- Fresh Basil
- Garlic
- Spring Onions
- Cashew Nuts & Pine Nuts
- Lemon Juice
- Olive Oil
- Seasoning : Chilli Flakes, Salt & Pepper
what you need to do :
- Roast tomatoes with olive oil, chilli flakes, salt & pepper
- Soak the nuts in boiling water and leave until ready to add to blender
- Sauté the white of the spring onions with the garlic for 3-4 minutes
- Strain, rinse & add the butter beans and a smallish quantity of water and then crumble in a veggie stock cube
- While this is simmering, add the peas, mint, basil, nuts (strain water before adding), lemon juice, 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, a splash of water and salt & pepper to a blender & whizz. Add more water if consistency is too thick.
- Add to butter beans and simmer for about 15 mins
- To serve, scatter the chopped green parts of spring onions (tiny pieces so texture isn’t too rough – our slices could have been smaller), roasted tomatoes and seeds of your choice – we used nigella seeds & these gave it a bit of an oniony kick
- A dollop of Greek yoghurt & pitta bread, to mop it up, finished this off
It sounds a bit faffy but it’s honestly not – just do it in three parts : tomatoes, then butter beans, then minty pea pesto. It is absolutely delicious! The minty pesto is also a fantastic base sauce and I’m thinking next time, served over charred chicken breast or salmon. Seriously make this if you like fresh & healthy & tasty. It’s a winner.
by Helen | Nov 26, 2025 | Lifestyle
Over the years we’ve been finding that, especially over the summer, our use of plastic water bottles increases significantly. We always recycle plastics, but we were creating our own small mountain of bottles and often our plastics bin (which was only collected every two months) would be full to the brim and we’d end up taking excess plastic to the municipal waste. We’ve used filter jugs in the past, which have helped – but when family and friends came over to visit, these jugs just weren’t enough, and the plastic waste increased. One thing that we did find very effective – although only when it was only the two of us – was a Black and Blum water bottle with activated (specifically Binchotan) charcoal filters, which purified tap water by absorbing contaminants and releasing minerals, and resulting in cleaner, better tasting, water. The charcoal was replaced every couple of months, and the carafe style bottle was a good size to keep in the fridge door, keeping it cool. To make sure we always had purified water, we’d decant the water from the carafe into another jug, making sure the Black & Blum bottle was always full.
However, this still wasn’t ideal as often we would forget to re-fill and so plastic bottles were usually still bought as a back up, meaning we weren’t really tackling the problem. Our tap water in Istria wasn’t great and even though we had a filter fitted on the tap, we rarely drank water this way.
Now that we have moved to Andalucia, we have decided once and for all, to resolve this issue. Summers will be hotter than in Istria, and we want to ensure that both us and our visitors, have a regular supply of good drinking water but without the plastic waste. We know we won’t be able to eliminate it all, but we’re definitely going to reduce it, now that we have bought a wonderful Ecofiltro Water Filter – the self proclaimed 100% biodegradable sustainable water solution…
Not only do these look quite beautiful – and come in four colours (pink, mustard, white and matte black) – they also come in two sizes, 5 litres and 20 litres. We did a bit of working out, and quickly realised that if we bit the bullet and bought the more expensive 20 litre option, it would still have paid for itself in less than three months, if we looked at the amount of bottled water we get through. We opted for the white unit, and also bought the wooden stand – an expensive purchase, but one that is already, two months later, paying dividends.
The filter unit, which sits inside the white chamber, looks like a big terracotta plant pot. This is constructed from a composite material comprising three natural elements: clay, sawdust, and colloidal silver. The pot is filled with tap water, and slowly it starts to seep through the walls of the pot, into the chamber – initially, the filtration process is quite slow due to the pores of the ceramic material opening, and this does result in a clay-like taste in the water. It is recommended that this initial water is discarded – we filled it three times, before the clay taste really dissipated and now, the water tastes great. We do drink a lot of water, and we do keep it topped up – but if we’ve been away for a few days, we will empty it (great for watering plants), just so that we can fill with fresh water. As it’s getting warmer, too, we’re finding that adding ice, makes a difference.
So, would we recommend an Ecofiltro unit?
Yes, without hesitation – and, we are NOT being paid or sponsored to write this post or recommend this product. A 5 litre unit would certainly be more than enough for a couple and at €144 is a whole lot more affordable, especially if you forgo the stand (which retails at €26 for the 5 litre model). But, living where we are now, and with hopefully lots of summer visitors, we decided that the 20 litre option, with stand, was better for us. It was a bit painful hitting the “pay” button, but it’s done now, and we’ve bought no bottled water since our kitchen was fitted and we could fill from the tap. We don’t anticipate buying bottled water going forward, so for us, it was ultimately a good decision. It’s definitely a style statement, too, with its slightly off white colour and pale wood stand. It’s a very simple design, so although it is quite large, it doesn’t look bulky and over-bearing. The initial taste of clay has indeed worn off, and the water does have a very different taste – cleaner and fresher, would be how I would describe it. It is recommended that the filter unit (which should always be kept wet to maintain its effectiveness) be replaced every two years – and when you do replace, as long as it’s not damaged, you have yourself a plant pot.
by Helen | Nov 25, 2025 | Lifestyle
I’ve followed Zoco Home on Instagram for a while now, always drooling over their Andalucian/Ibizan/Mallorcan inspired furnishings and accessories. I’ve never really clocked where they are physically, until recently, and realised that they have two stores, very close to us – one just outside Marbella and one just outside Mijas. On a recent trip to Mijas Pueblo, we felt we were too close by, to not visit. And wow, it didn’t disappoint. A bit like Habitat, but with that Mediterranean sunshine feel.
The showroom is large and spacious and beautifully arranged, with home zones so you can get a real feel for bedroom or living room or bathroom inspiration. I honestly could have spent a small fortune, but as we were mid renovation, and therefore mid huge spending on essentials, like building work, I had to rein myself in. I felt proud that I only left with a lovely Meraki after-sun lotion, rather than the huge cream linen L-shaped sofa, I had my eye on.
Everything is truly exquisite. The colour palette throughout is earthy and muted, with lots of linen and rattan and concrete. There’s nothing bling or overly bright. Everything feels calm and just being in the showroom, feels relaxing. There’s no apparent pressure to buy. Sales assistants are there if you need them, but they just left us, after acknowledging us, to take photos, and ooh and aah over everything. The store also has a small cafe/restaurant, which seemed to be very well used, not only by shoppers, but also office workers and builders. If we’d had a bit more time, I think we’d have tried it out, as the food we spotted on tables looked very “Zoco Home”, and definitely not your fast food caff variety.
Maybe one day we’ll have a house where we furnish it from Zoco, but in the meantime, here’s what caught our eyes…
by Helen | Nov 19, 2025 | Interiors
We have no central heating in the house. We could have had it installed when the renovation was happening, but having experienced how the heat is retained over the spring/summer/into autumn months, we decided against the expense. We also decided against air con, which could have been a dual system and therefore also provide heat, because we didn’t want a big external installation, nor did we want the units inside the house. So, we have our Dovre woodburner, which is due to be fitted by our builders, but there is a delay because the door glass was smashed somewhere in transit, and this is now on order. We also brought our portable heaters over from Istria – only one of these has made the final cut, because the others, which I’ve just sold on Facebook Marketplace, were no longer right for the house. Not at all pleasing to look at, and I’d never have been happy with them going forward, so they were sold. Luckily, we’d really looked after them, so did manage to get quite a good price for the four of them, so I didn’t feel at all guilty, when after realising I had just sold our only sources of heat, I ordered new heaters from Create-Spain. Two in sage green, which complement the floor tiles on the ground floor perfectly, and two in moca, for the first floor, where the tiles are patterned with a really lovely moca/rust red palette.
As with everything we’ve ordered from Create-Spain, the price was exceptionally good, the ordering process smooth and easy, and the delivery quick and efficient. By coincidence, they arrived on the day we sold the other heaters, so I think it was meant to be.
They are quite small in size (570mm x 430mm) but are seriously beautiful. Honestly, I have never been quite as delighted with a portable heater before. The colours are rich and gorgeous, and in a matte finish – and everything, just everything, on the heater is the same colour. No silver knobs and switches, or different coloured feet. All sage green or moca. And the best thing? The cables and plugs are the same colour! Not white (just about acceptable) or black (never acceptable, but so, so common), they are exactly the same colour as the heater. Cables are my pet hate and if I ever had my way, any in white or black that were too long, would all be consigned to Room 101. Up until now I haven’t know what to replace them with, meaning that there has been a flaw in my plan – but I now know. Coloured cables and sockets. If Create can do it, then ALL suppliers can.
Because it’s still not been quite chilly enough for additional heating – although I can feel that day is coming very soon – we’ve not been able to assess how effective they, apart from when we tested them, and the heat output seemed more than sufficient, at the time. A cold snap will tell, though. In the meantime, I am just enjoying looking at our delicious convection heaters…
by Helen | Nov 19, 2025 | Lifestyle
It’s been a while since we’ve made our favourite Irish soda bread – https://www.wearelifestyles.com/cheesy-irish-soda-bread/ – because we’ve not had our own oven for so long. But, we wanted to get back into making bread – and bread which we knew contained only good stuff. As we’ve been operating with just air fryers for a while now, I was all over a recipe I spotted on Instagram using just three main ingredients – self raising flour, Greek yogurt and egg wash – and cooked in the airfryer, so we gave it a whirl a few days ago. Suffice to say, we now make these rolls (or sometimes a loaf) nearly every day, instead of buying our bread in. It’s very quick to do – so much quicker than getting in the car and going out and buying bread. Like with the Irish soda bread, we’ve started experimenting and added other ingredients – obviously topped with parmesan and with cheddar kneaded into the dough, is an absolute winner in our house, but cranberries and nuts and seeds are also great additions. The only thing that we want to improve on, is getting organic self-raising flour. Sourcing self-raising is quite tricky here, but M&S apparently do a cracking organic one. And now that I have my residency sorted here, once I collect the actual card, getting over to Gibraltar – and therefore M&S – is no longer an issue. I’m counting down the days…
what you need to make 9-10 small rolls/one loaf
- 300g self raising flour
- 300g Greek yogurt
- egg wash
- salt & pepper
- toppings/additions to dough to your taste – sunflower seeds, chia seeds, crushed nuts, cranberries, cheese, chilli flakes etc
what you need to do
- heat airfryer to 180°
- mix the greek yogurt into the flour, with salt & pepper, according to taste, and any additional ingredients, until a dough is formed
- separate the dough into 9/10 bread roll shapes, or form a loaf
- brush with egg wash
- sprinkle with your chosen toppings
- cook in airfryer for 12-15 minutes (12 mins for individual rolls, about 15 mins for a denser loaf)
- try and resist until they have cooled down…
We’ve also switched the Greek yogurt for cottage cheese (same quantities) and the results are as good – with the added bonus this time, of hot bits of cottage cheese, in the middle. Because we can’t resist this home made goodness, and they don’t sit long enough to cool down…
by Helen | Nov 12, 2025 | Renovation
I’ve long dreamed of crittal doors in our house, but it’s never been a reality before. With hindsight, when we renovated our house in West Didsbury, we should have investigated these metal doors more thoroughly, because as much as we loved our hardwood French doors, I think crittal may have actually been less expensive. However, we went with the wood, and the bespoke design and they were lovely, but I just couldn’t get the black metal beauties out of my mind…
So, fast forward ten years, and we’ve sold up in West Didsbury – and Istria – and are now renovating in southern Andalucia, and this time, I’m not compromising on the crittal doors. They were a no-brainer from the moment we offered on the house, and we knew exactly where they would go.
The house originally had a number of small rooms on the ground floor. Some were just spaces though, with no real purpose apart from walking through them to reach another room. With a potentially beautiful internal courtyard – although definitely not beautiful when we bought the house – we knew we had to open up this floor and create a much more open living space. By doing this, we could potentially have two sides of the internal courtyard to play with, and if we were very brave and knocked out the main wall, we could have our crittal doors. Our builders came and assessed things, and yes, it could all be done – although with the caveat that there would be much demolition and much, much mess before we saw anything which might resemble the new structure of our ground floor, but they showed a photo of a project they had recently completed.
As these doors looked pretty much perfect, we gave them the go-ahead, thinking to ourselves, how bad could actually be? Well, bad, actually. This bad…
Even before the wall to the courtyard had been knocked out, there had been a fair bit of demolition. In between the two windows had been a dividing wall – one room was a small dining room and the other was one of those “spaces” that hadn’t seemed to function anything more than a way to access what was a downstairs bathroom. But once this dividing wall came down, it gave us an idea of how big these crittal doors would need to be, and at one point, for a very brief moment, we did wonder if we should keep the windows. This thought didn’t last too long though, as we knew that was our chance to create a house exactly as we really wanted, with few compromises. So, the big demolition started.
Although we were lucky and were renting elsewhere while this work was going on, we felt increasingly disheartened every time we visited, as it just seemed to get worse and there seemed to be less progress than the last time we’d seen it. The house – if you could call it that – was just filling up with concrete bags, concrete mixers, scaffolding, steel beams, bricks. And rainwater. Because when it rained, we were exposed to the elements. All we could do was keep the vision of what could be, in our heads.
We weren’t just doing the big wall, though, we were also changing the door from the kitchen into the courtyard and the kitchen window, and so the whole ground floor was essentially a building site. (There are two living rooms to the front of the house and these were also being worked on, so chaos reigned for quite some time).
But, without us even realising it, things did start to improve and soon progress was more obvious, with each visit. The steel beams were installed, walls were starting to be plastered, cabling was installed and plumbing points were in place. And, the floor tiles were laid. We could definitely the shape of the house emerging – and that is a very good feeling, mid-renovation!
And then the really big day – the day the builder sent us a photo. The crittal doors and windows had been delivered and were standing in our house! The beautiful custom made windows were here! And yes, that is also the beginnings of a micro-cement kitchen.
And finally, the installation started.
We could not be happier with the choice we made and the time it took from making the decision to installation has been forgotten. We have our beautiful, chunky, metal doors and windows and they have really surpassed our expectations. We’ve only just now started to close the doors in the evenings – it’s November – so for most of the year, we think they will be open, making the house even more spacious. They fold back on themselves and look utterly gorgeous, especially they now allow the internal courtyard to be a real part of the house. The kitchen window is fabulous and the door we replaced, just finishes off the whole picture. The ground floor flows so well and makes absolute sense, now that it is largely open plan, and now that there are no dark spaces and redundant rooms.
Our doors were made by a local firm of metal workers, and were made to our specific design. Everything about them is utterly perfect. They enhance the house so much and bring the outside in, a way much better than we hoped. I am so glad we held fast onto our dream as I now could not imagine anything else would have worked as well. They are a huge part of our house and a huge part of our design decisions, which will last for years to come.
by Helen | Nov 5, 2025 | Lifestyle
We have a Chinese Bazaar supermarket in our time, which is proving to be a bit of a treasure trove. We often find ourselves short of screws or nails, or can’t find the mallet or need a tiny bit more spray paint and with our nearest big DIY store being half an hour away, a short walk down the hill is just the ticket. Last week, we did find ourselves a couple of screws short when shelves were being put up in the bathroom and so off we headed. I could easily have stayed at home, but I’m not one to pass up a scouting opportunity in this shop. It’s packed to the rafters, mostly I have to say, with cheap tat. Which is fine, but that’s not what I’m interested in. Kitchen ware and ceramics are what caught my eye – and I came away with a nice haul, which wasn’t too costly, at all.
A visit to this shop always results in the purchase of a few terracotta tapas dishes, and a nice collection is developing. This time, I went for larger tagine size bowls – meaning we have to get our Moroccan cooking heads on, and develop our tagine skills. But I also spotted some very pretty fish embossed bowls and plates which, at the price, could not be resisted. Even though I was reminded that I had vowed not to buy any more plates and bowls because, in my own words, “we had more than enough”. Which to be fair we do, but I mean. Look at these…
They are quite “rustic” with bumps and lumps and ridges in the ceramic and the fish designs have a playful feel to them, but they are very beautiful and exceptionally robust and well made. And, they complement very well the bottle of olive oil, which was bought months and months ago, in Eataly in Trieste, with its sardine adorned ceramic bottle…
