Holiday Rental Essentials - Coat Hooks

It's a bit of a strange holiday rental essential this week. The new Ikea catalog came out yesterday and there were quite a few things I liked, one of which was these:

My entrance currently looks like this and we're not even in winter yet! Can you imagine the mess when there are thick winter coats and boots all over the floor?!

At our friend's rental property in Quillan she just had about 6 hooks along the wall at the bottom of the stairs which was perfect for hanging up jackets and bags.

In a beach house I love the idea of something like this with the storage along the top and bottom as well (although not so keen on the colours).

I think in reality it would look more like this though which is still cute and better than what I currently have!

MP

Images: 3, 4

Bars as Home Inspiration

If anyone else is also a fan of How I Met Your Mother, you will probably remember this scene:

Although I will probably never open a bar, that doesn't mean that I don't have a few ideas stored away, just in case.

It has become increasingly popular to draw inspiration from industrial kitchens for home kitchens and I think you could also get some amazing ideas from bars and restaurant interiors.

I came across a post on Gracias Madre restaurant in West Hollywood on decor8 a couple of weeks ago. I have mentioned my love for tiles before, and this restaurant fulfils all my tile fantasies with their bar (pictured above).

We have featured the bar (pictured above) at the Watsons Bay Beach Club before, but again, there is so much that I like about this bar. I would love to bring some of that colour into a beach house design.

What are your favourite bars? Have you ever thought about incorporating elements of their design into your home?

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Images: 1, 2, 3

Focaccia

The thing about Italy is the food is amazing! Each area has their own specialties and the Ligurian cuisine highlights were lots of fresh seafood, pesto (apparently invented in Genova to stop scurvy in sailors) and focaccia. 

Focaccia is EVERYWHERE here. People will stop at the the many stores selling it and load up with their parcels to take with them to the beach. There are quite a few different toppings but my favourite was definitely just the plain one topped with olive oil and salt and also one topped with onions. My daughter's favourite was one smeared with juicy tomato paste, dollops of pesto and grilled cheese.

I must say I'm not normally a fan of focaccia as I find it a bit too thick and doughy but the Focaccia Genovese is quite thin and crispy. I think we ate it nearly every day, sometimes two times a day!

On the second part of our trip we were in Recco which is famous for it's Focaccia di Recco. 

The best place to get this is at Focaccia in Piazzetta where this is pretty much the only thing they make. We went there twice during our stay. The first time we took it back to the hotel to eat it and I wasn't too impressed as the bread part had gone a bit soggy but the second time we had to wait for it to come out of the oven and ate it straight away, much better! It's basically a layer of Stracchino cheese baked between a few pieces of ultra thin focaccia. 

Happy Friday! Hope you all have a good weekend.

MP

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Holiday Rental Essentials - Tissues

When we did a bit of research on what people like to find at holiday rentals, we came across a few items that we personally wouldn't consider essentials, but for other people they are. This includes things such as a box of tissues, egg cups, nut crackers, a dog bed and a bike pump.

I know that when MP's mother-in-law came to stay with her once she asked if they had any grapefruit spoons. I didn't even know such a thing existed! For people that eat grapefruit every morning though, they might consider this to be an essential.

The rule with some of the items above I would say is to include them if you happen to have spare ones at home (we will do a separate post about not using your rental as a dumping ground though!). You also should take note and act on feedback that you receive from guests. Apparently two of the most requested items for rentals in the US are a waffle maker and a blender.

I think that a box of tissues could be a nice item to include if you are wanting to replicate what people might expect to find in a hotel. What are your thoughts on some of these other items? Let us know what you consider to be a holiday rental essential. We are getting towards the end of this series of posts and don't want to miss anything out!

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Italian Riviera - Part 1

We're just back from our holiday to the Cinque Terre so I thought I'd share a few things while it's still fresh in my mind. Cinque Terre is about a 5 hour drive from where we live in Switzerland and on the way down we stopped at the Serravalle Designer Outlet. My husband's colleague had warned us that we would spend the whole day there and we were there 5 hours and that wasn't even really doing proper shopping ... just wandering in and out of shops whilst trying to keep the children under control! There are a whole load of designer brands here. I thought the shops that had the best offerings were Prada and Burberry. There were discounts of up to 50% off and you could get a pair of sunglasses for around 100 euros. If I had more time I would have liked to have tried on a few things at Missoni. A cardigan was around 150 euros and dresses around 200. There are so many shops here including Petit Bateau and Frette, it is definitely worth a stop.

We then headed for Monterosso Al Mare which is the first Cinque Terre town that you hit as you're driving down. The road down is crazily steep and narrow! The owner of the hotel later told us that they recommend the best way to arrive is by train. We stayed at a really nice hotel called A Ca Du Gigante. The location of this hotel is amazing, right by the beach and restaurants so it was great to be able to just leave our car for a few days and get around by walking and the train.

Monterosso is the only Cinque Terre town that has a sandy beach which is why I chose there as thought it would be the most practical with the girls. Most of it was covered in sun loungers which you had to pay for with very small patches of public beach.

It's a great little seaside town with lots of restaurants to choose from and a little playground running alongside the beach. Our favourite place to eat was at Cantina di Miky. It was right on the waterfront serving up the most delicious food. Fritto Misto, a lemon, vodka and prosecco dessert drink and stuffed anchovies. 

Monterosso is also a great base to explore the rest of the towns. We took the train one day to Riomaggiore which was a quaint little town.

The trains were really busy and the little villages are heaving with people. It is Italy in August I guess! The area was full of Americans and then later we found out that a lot of people from Milan flock down for their summer holidays as well as it's only a few hours drive away. My tip for the train is to allow time to buy your tickets. We spent nearly half an hour waiting to buy tickets.

After a busy day exploring Riomaggiore we were happy to just spend the rest of the time relaxing at the beach and eating lots of gelato! 

Stay tuned for the next part of our trip! 

MP

Holiday Rental Essentials - Mirrors

Along with an iron and ironing board - not everyone will agree that a holiday rental needs a full length mirror, but if guests are using your rental as a base for going out to an event such as a wedding, they would definitely hope to find one.

I have always really liked the Hovet Mirror by Ikea, as pictured above. This measures 196x78cm and can be hung horizontally or vertically. The simple aluminium frame means that it will suit a wide range of interiors.

An alternative option also by Ikea, that would work well  in smaller guest rooms, is the Knapper Standing Mirror. This full-length mirror has a small rail and some hooks at the back for hanging clothes, accessories and jewellery.

As well as a full-length mirror in at least one room of your holiday rental, ideally there will also be a mirror in the bathroom that is suitable for shaving.

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Images: 1-2, 3-4

Molitor, Paris

If you follow us on Instagram you will have seen that MP is currently in Italy. We had planned on taking a break from the blog for a few days but, I've decided to stick at it with a couple of short and sweet posts this week.

Today I am just going to share with you a very cool looking hotel that I read about on Urban Junkies the other day. The Molitor hotel in Paris is built around an Art Deco lido.

Located in the 16th arrondissement, the 124 room, 5 star hotel has a rooftop terrace with views of the Eiffel Tower, a Clarins spa and two swimming pools.

I love what the developers have done with this property.

I once came across a magazine article about a family in Australia that bought an old public swimming pool and then turned the building holding the former changing rooms into their house. I have been on the lookout for public pools for sale ever since. Well, it's nice to dream anyway!

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Images: 1-3

Holiday Rental Essentials - Safety Devices and Equipment

Flies would usually be something we would hate to see at a holiday rental, but if they were actually smoke alarms as the ones pictured above are, we may reconsider.

I am not actually sure if I like the look of these smoke alarms by designer Paola Suhonen for Jalo Helsinki, but I do think that all holiday rentals should have smoke alarms and possibly carbon detectors and fire extinguishers as well. You can buy combined smoke and co2 alarms from many stores, this one by Nest is a nice product.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Would you expect to see these or any other safety devices at a holiday rental?

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Package Holidays

We recently went on a last minute break to Lanzarote, one of the Spanish Canary Islands that are around a four hour flight from the UK. We had been through a bad couple of weeks and decided we just wanted to get away to the sun with a minimum amount of organising to be done - so we booked a package holiday through Thomas Cook. We stayed at the Sandos Papagayo Beach Resort which you can just see on the top of the cliff in the picture above.

This was only the second ever time that we have been on a package holiday. The first was a few years ago when we went to a friend's wedding in Mauritius. On that occasion we went with the half-board option. The hotel was called Sugar Beach and after a rather round-about flight routing via Milan and the Seychelles, then an hour transfer we were so glad to see the hotel and enjoy the break.

Although I have never been someone who feels that they have to be constantly on the move on holiday, the stay in Mauritius was the first time that I had stayed at one hotel for an entire week and never ventured out to discover new bars, cafes and restaurants. At the time, although the hotel was really nice I thought that sort of holiday wasn't really for me, but I could see the appeal if you had young children (which we didn't at the time).

This time around, with our toddler, there were definitely aspects to the all-inclusive holiday that were great. These sort of hotels are really well set-up for families. Our little girl was obsessed with the mini disco that took place for half an hour each night. It reminded me of when our family friends used to go on Club Med holidays when we were younger and would come back and teach us the moves they had learnt to Agadoo.

Outside of the hotel, I found the volcanic landscape really different and beautiful in it's own way. There was a nice walk along the clifftop pathway from our hotel to the marina and then on to Playa Blanca. The beaches on the Papagayo coast were amazing, but a bit tricky to get to with a toddler and without a car.

Unfortunately the pools at the hotel were all quite cold, so we didn't get to do as much swimming as I had hoped and I preferred to swim in the sea. The beach directly in front of our hotel was rocky and had black sand, but a nearby hotel had this swim platform (pictured below) that you could use to dive into the clear blue water.

The biggest let down for me with this particular hotel was the food and drink. If you follow us on Instagram, you may have noticed that I didn't post a single picture of a meal or cocktail for the entire weekend and this is quite telling for us - we usually have to restrain ourselves so that our entire feed isn't full of food photography. While I didn't have high expectations - there was a definite lack of fresh and appealing food and the general drinks available were of the sugary non-branded variety. We had upgraded to a Royal Elite service at the hotel which essentially meant we were guaranteed a sea view room and had access to a private lounge. The lounge turned out to be somewhere we ended up several times each day as they had good Wi-Fi and a much better selection of drinks.

Anyway, we haven't been put off the all-inclusive package holiday just yet. With young children it is nice to be able to have all your meals and drinks on site and available at all hours of the day. At this particular hotel the kids club only took children from age four and up, but I am sure that this service is something that we might appreciate on future holidays. We will ensure that we do a bit more research next time - I am sure it is often a case of you get what you pay for.

Friends have recommended the all-inclusive holidays in Mexico as being of a great standard. We'd love to hear if any of you have tried these, or any other package holiday.

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Images all my own

Friday Baking - Easy Fresh Fruit Cake

A few days ago we were at a friend's house and she gave us a whole load of blackberries from their garden. On their own they're a bit sour so I decided to use them in a cake which is really easy to make. The girls and I put this together in around 10 minutes. The recipe is from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and every time it turns out well. You can use any combination of fruit that you want. I've used raspberries and blueberries before which was yummy. Here's the recipe:

Aunt Daisy's Fresh Fruit Torte

113 grams butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
fruite
1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar (I mix about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into 1 tablespoon sugar)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
Grease and lightly flour a 20 cm round cake pan, then line bottom with waxed paper.
In a large bowl, on the low speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour, baking powder and the vanilla until well incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Spread the fruit evenly over the batter. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Bake for around 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.