IKEA's #PolitePlacemats : Apple Genuis? Or Are Your Manners Too Far Gone?

This is the IKEA Sittning placemat, and it could be the answer to anti-social dining. 

It's £1.50 and its clever feature is its little phone pouch. I'm as guilty as anyone of Instagramming the heck out of a good 50% of my meals, but this pocket has a place specifically for my anti-social device, to stop me placing it on the table and checking it constantly throughout the meal for those precious 'likes'. 

The thing is, I think it might make me EVEN worse. I usually pop my phone in my pocket and maybe take it out when I've finished eating to check, but if it's sitting inside its little placemat sleeping bag, where I can SEE if it lights up with a notification- surely I'm more likely to use it? 

Anyway, it's a cheap and cheerful IKEA design, and if you don't think the pocket would work well for phones, then it could be a neat way of setting the table with your cutlery tucked in there, or a nice napkin- IKEA napkin designs are always epic. 

What do you think? Give me a tweet #politeplacemats and have your say. I could do with one with a bigger pouch for a certain small someone's Kindle Fire HD! 

The New IKEA Catalogue is Here!

The new IKEA catalogue is out and browsable  online. Here are some products & pages that caught my eye.

I adore the little windowsill greenhouses. I had one at our old house, but it didn't make the moving house. I think I'll pick up this year's version and try to grow some veg off season. 

Michael covets the Death Staresque lampshade at every IKEA visit

Look at that wallpaper! The stuff that 1970s' shag-pads dream of. 

These perfume bottle inspired table lamps are gorgeous for a girlie bedroom. 

I have several old fashioned display cabinets that I love. This modern one would be great for a kid's collection of toys. 

A Barbie pink TV table? Yes please. 

Thank you, IKEA Belfast, for these green goodies.

Purple Sauce, Flamingo Croquet, Sneaky Sushi & Climbing Walls

We've had a mega busy day and it's only 2pm as I start writing this. Our first stop this morning was Belfast's Premier Inn. Today sees the launch of their exclusive purple breakfast sauce, so we popped along for a bacon butty & a cuppa.  

The sauce is available in all Premier Inns throughout the UK, and non-overnight-stay-guests are welcome to call in for breakfast to try it any day, and grab a Costa blend coffee too. It's really tasty, but I can't put my finger on what it reminds me of.  The base is blackberries, but it goes really well with savoury flavours. It isn't obnoxiously purple, like the green ketchup of the 1990s, but you can see the violet hue off it in real life.

Our next stop was Victoria Square, which is all dolled up with an Alice in Wonderland theme for the summer. There's a hedge maze and flamingo croquet to play. 

We then hit Yo Sushi at 11.02am, two minutes after opening, to try to get some takeaway sushi to bring home with us for later. Sadly nothing was ready, but they made some boxes up while we waited. Of course we got too tempted by the treats going round on the sushi train and ended up eating a few dishes while we waited too. 

Our afternoon plan for today was to drive down to Castlewellan. My brother & his wife are down at the Methodist Holiday Week and today is the open day. It's been raining all morning though, and the thought of trudging round in the drizzle wasn't too appealing, so we stopped off at Ikea in Holywood and decided against the long drive to Castlewellan. 

They have a free climbing wall today, which Michael scaled up whilst I held my breath. He's a lot braver than I! 

So that's been our busy morning. Michael is now building a Premier Inn in Minecraft, and I'm about to tuck into my takeaway Yo Sushi, with maybe a little splash of purple sauce! 

Free Kids' Activites All Summer With Ikea Belfast

Stuck for something to entertain? Ikea Belfast (& most likely your own local Ikea too if you don't hail from Northern Ireland)  are putting on lots of activities to keep young ones busy. Climbing walls, £1 lunches and lots of products designed for playing at home too. 

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/store/belfast/storeInfo

Picnic plates, cups and napkins

bake from the box

really nostalgic, old school kit

I REALLY like this sand box kit. You can pretend to serve up sand ice creams! 

Short on Space? How to Create a Herb Wall Garden.

Just a quickie, link blog today as it's been a busy day for us. Ikea have a Pinterest board showing you how to make a herb wall garden.

https://www.pinterest.com/IKEAUK/how-to-make-a-herb-wall/

Free and Funny Ikea Valentine's Cards

Ikea are feeling romantic, and wooed me today by sending me this brilliant spotty duvet cover. It's very me, don't you think? The Stenklöver quilt cover came along with it's own funny, little Ikea themed Valentine's card.  Print your own at www.ikea.co.uk/valentine

There are actually some great present ideas to be found in Ikea. I love these Art Deco perfume bottles

Or you could bake your way into the heart of your significant other. 

Help Ikea Bring Light to Refugees

Help Ikea this February and March to make a difference. 

New Year's Day Ikea Trip For Ideas For Our New Home

Smix & I are getting excited about our new, little home, so we took a trip to Ikea, Belfast for inspiration of what we will decorate with.

We don't need a chair, but if we did....

Super cute storage

This looks like a 1960s' G-Plan original

So shiny

I must have a plant wall..it's my dream

Smix just wants to upgrade from a toddler bed, to a bunk bed. I think we can manage that.

But which one?

Whichever one he gets he wants this canopy.

Don't need, but do want.

Nice fresh duvet cover too, will pick this up when we do move.

I went ahead and bought one of these cute toilet brushes today, with a matching bin for the bathroom.

Smix loves these Tetris/Death Star type lamps

Plants! Taking inspiration from Gertrude Anna's Timmy White, I'll be filling our new home with lots of plants and plastic dinosaurs.