Re-arranging

I've been doing a bit of re-arranging this morning. Despite the fact that we have snow forecast for later I wanted to give the mantle a bit of a new Spring look. 

I still had my little German Christmas houses out and suddenly decided that they look too Christmassy and heavy. I wanted the look to be a little lighter. I haven't changed that much but I added the sweet post card of a rose and the little china flowers. The larger one belonged to my Grandma and the two smaller ones were sent to us as a Wedding present from the lovely Jane Posy. (how I miss her blog)

I bought out my Cath K jug which had been in the cupboard for a while but which I love. I also popped my diffuser bottle, which is almost empty, into the tea light holder and added another picture roses at the other end. It just looks a bit lighter and fresher. We can at least pretend the Spring is here can't we? 

Hope you have lovely weekend despite the snow. 

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Eggs for the boys

A couple of years ago I stitched a little felt egg for Little F to hang along with my other Easter decorations. So of course I had to make one for Little H for this year. 

His is looking a little plumper than the original one and I'm now wondering whether to re-do Little F's. I love being able to make things for my boys that we will keep and treasure for years. They both have matching Christmas stockings (I'll have to remember to show you those in December) and I've made bits and bobs for their bedrooms. 

Being boys I do wonder how much they will appreciate these hand made pretty things, but at least they will always be special to me.

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Happiness...

...Is my first bunch of daffodils this year.

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Feeling Festive

Despite life being totally crazy at the moment we have managed to get the house looking Christmassy. Here's a little peep. Edited this way so you can't see the piles and piles of babygrows, muslins and endless other washing!

:: Little reindeers on my German roundabout candle  :: My Grandma's vintage baubles and Little F's first advent calendar  :: Little F's second wonderful advent calendar recently bought by one of his fab Godfathers
:: A little scene on our sideboard  :: Detail at the top of the first advent calendar  :: Grandma's baubles  :: My German smoking man bought at the Aachen Christmas market, a little elf and the bottom of my Christmas candlestick  :: A gingham Christmas cushion  :: The Tree


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We're ready Baby

Morning! I finally managed to take some photos in baby's room this morning although the light is not exactly brilliant. Above is the little nursing chair that used to belong to my Grandma. I made a loose cover for it when I lived in Kew. It's a green denim and isn't what I want on it long term but it kind of works for now. Actually, when I had this chair in Little F's room I had his patchwork throw over it which looked really nice. I'd like to do something similar in this room but will wait until we know what baby is. Above is a lovely picture that my extremely talented Sister made for me a few years ago. She's a textile designer and like me makes accessories and pictures for the home. She makes some really beautiful things, mainly to order sold locally through friends. I keep telling her she should open a shop on line to share her prettiness with everyone. She currently is a child minder so does the making in her spare time but when her youngest starts School next year she's planning on dropping the child minding and going back to the designing full time. I'll keep you posted if she opens an on line shop as you'd love her work. 

Here are the pictures I was making a month or so ago. I'm afraid I didn't get round to filling the fourth frame yet. I will definitely do it, just can't quite decide on the design yet. These are above and to the side of the changing table so will give baby something bright to look at. 

Here's a close up of the little nursing chair. I've popped a cushion on it that I made ages ago. I used to sell this design in my shop but had a couple left. It's a tiny red polkadot with some little floral hearts appliqued down the centre. The two little softies have been around for a while. The cute little bear was purchased from this cute shop on Folksy before I even became a Mummy just because I kind of fell in love with him. The little rabbit was originally bought for Little F but he never really became attached to it. He already has so many favourite softies. So I thought they'd look cute in baby's room instead. 

Here's a better look at that cute heart picture from my Sis and the bunting I've made. The curtains were bought for Little F originally and were from Mothercare. They're just a simple polka dot in multi colours. I've tried to pick out some of those colours in everything I've made and added to the room as they are fairly unisex for now. They also match the linings of the Moses basket which will spend some time in here although for now it is in our room where baby will sleep to start with. 

We moved the cot into here the other day which is earlier than expected as we won't need it for a while. We were planning on buying Little F a 'big boy's bed' after Christmas so he could go into it a month or two before baby needed the cot, but while we were Christmas shopping in John Lewis last week be happened to see a perfect bed for him at a fab price so we bought it then and there. It was delivered on Monday and thanks to my lovely Daddy is now up in his room. We weren't sure if it was all a bit early as he only just turned two but he's taken to it like a duck to water. Suddenly such a big boy. I have to admit to having a little cry on the first night after he'd snuggled down. I'm not very good with these milestones. 

I hope you liked the little look at the nursery. Sorry they are so dull. Would have been better on a sunny day but they're in short supply around here at the moment. 

So I'll leave you with some brightness. A sneaky peek on some of the things I've been working on the last few evenings. I'm gathering quite a collection of new designs for the shop. I really want to get them in the Etsy shop but I'm thinking it might be easier to wait until after baby is here in case I make any sales and can't get them posted due to be in labour! I'll let you know when they're available. 

Have a great weekend. 

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Loving Autumn

While I do miss the end of the Summer days, I do also truly love Autumn. I think if I'm honest it is my favourite time of year.

I love the beautiful colours and where we live we really do get to see a lot of those colours. We're in the heart of the Chilterns and although we're on the edge of a town, we can be in stunning beech woods within a few minutes walk, or more stunning countryside just a short drive away. There is something particularly beautiful about beech in Autumn. They really do turn the most vibrant orange colour. At the moment there is still a fair bit of green mixed in but this just seems to add to the beauty of the orange shades. 

I can't admit to taking these lovely photos as they were taken by lovely S on Saturday. He and little F went for their first proper Father and Son adventure leaving me to 5 hours of peace with my sewing machine. Most Saturdays since the beginning of this year have been christened 'Daddy Day' as they always go out together in the morning to have a bit of time together and to give Mummy a bit of peace, something I've really especially appreciated while pregnant. Usually they end up in town and often meet Nanny and Grandad for coffee. But last week S announced that they were going for a walk and taking a picnic. They did a walk that S did as a child which we've been meaning to do. Part of it involves going to the top of a lovely hill, part of it is through beautiful beech woods and part takes you round land on the 'Chequers' estate. You can see the house in the picture above. Not sure if the PM was in or not! Little F absolutely loved it and came back covered in mud with tales of all the things they'd seen as well as a big stick he'd collected and some dandelions for Mummy. It's definitely a walk I'm looking forward to doing once I'm more mobile again. 

The other thing that I love about Autumn is that it is the start of snuggly cosy season. It's a time for lighting candles in the evening and making everything snug and warm. 

I had a re-arrange of the mantle-piece the other day to make room for lots more candles. I would really like to paint the fireplace as the wood is a little orange, but as I may have mentioned before, lovely S is not quite sold on my desire to paint everything in sight and is currently resisting this particular paint project. So for now it stays wood coloured and I'm putting up with the blue tiles that I don't really love either. I'm still happy with how it looks though now I've got all my cream candle holders arranged. It did make me realise that I need far more though. What I really need is some cream candlesticks as all I seem to have is lanterns or tea light holders. One thing I did do to create more holders was to use a cream pot (second from the right) to hold a tea light. It's added more in the way of cream to the shelf, and although you don't see the actual candle, it gives off a lovely glow from the top that works really well. 

Back again next week hopefully with some nursery photos. It's just about done but I still have the pictures to put up. Have a lovely weekend. 

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The View Through.......

I used to hate the view when I opened our front door. Now I love it. It used to include our very horrid kitchen and dull magnolia walls in the hall. Now I'm greeted by our vibrant yellow hall walls and the view through to our lovely new kitchen. I look up the stairs and see our photo gallery that is taking shape(sorry, I've cropped all but the very edge of that off the picture) and the jolly blue gingham curtains I've just completed. I've even grown quite fond of the twirly 1960s banister now. Somehow it sort of works in this house and with the yellow walls. 

I had a dream of living in a home decorated in shades of elegant neutrals but I've really realised with this house that you have to listen to the building. It was painted all over in neutral cream when we moved in and after living with it for a year we realised that it just didn't work that well. It's a 1960s house with no interesting architectural details and  huge windows that let in a lot of light. It was crying out for some colour. When we first started rolling on this yellow I did have a moment of mild panic. It looked unbelievably bright. But now it is finished and we have pictures and curtains up it just makes me so happy. 

You'll see from the above photo that there is some neutral going on. We've painted the living room in a Dulux shade called white chiffon but we do have a feature wall in the dining end of the room that is a deep cherry red. Despite the fact that the walls are painted in there, it's still a work in progress so I won't give you a look at that just yet. You'll see that the skirting boards are still the hideous orange wood we inherited and we're living with the horrid blue curtains that the previous owner left behind. The woodwork will get done in bits I suspect(unless S has a fit of energy during half term!) and we don't have the budget for curtains for now unless I can find some super bargain fabric or cheap but lovely ready made curtains on line. 

I'm very happy with my little kitchen now. I love to spend time in here cooking and baking. We decided to go for colour in here too as the units are neutral. I initially picked out a blue that was almost the exact colour of my cornishware collection but then decided it was too deep and was going to make the room too dark. This is perhaps the smallest window in the house and as the kitchen is north facing I didn't want it to feel dark or cold so we plumped for a paler shade of but still with the same tone as the Cornishware. I'm really happy with how it has turned out and I love the contrast of the red gingham blind against the blue. Are you getting the fact that I love gingham? I really do. I'd have it at every window if I could get away with it. In fact I'd quite like red and white in the living room but in a much bigger check. Something like a 2" square if I could get it. I haven't run this past lovely S yet though and somehow I'm thinking that he wouldn't be up for that idea. He's definitely getting better at accepted my taste but we've still had a number of 'discussions'. For example he thinks that our bedroom is too feminine and girly. It's really not. I'll share some pictures of that soon and you can let me know what you think. So I'm going to slowly work on the idea of the large gingham check in the living room.

Back to the kitchen. Here's the view from the door. Well at least some of it anyway. The view to the right was looking a lot less tidy but I was feeling impatient to write this post so you're just getting the tidy views for today! Can you spot our little 1960s serving hatch? It's still wearing the orange pine look as well so needs a coat of paint when we do the woodwork through on the other side. I hated this feature when we first looked around the house. 'How naff' I thought. But I have to say it is absolutely fab. I couldn't live without it. Because the kitchen is too small for a table we use the dining table through on the other side all the time. This hatch saves so much carrying. When preparing a meal I just put everything in the hatch then walk through hands free to collect it from the other side. And clearing the table at the end of the meal is a breeze. Just pop everything back through the hatch ready to be dealt with sooner or later.  Love it! It's also great for when little F is sitting in his high chair and I need to go through to the kitchen for something. I can still chat to him through the hatch while I'm preparing stuff. Great!

Well I hope you've enjoyed the little wander through my hall and kitchen today. See you later in the week. I'm hoping I might be able to do a baby blanket 'ta da' soon. 

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Playing with colour

I've been having fun this week creating some pictures for babies room. We're all decorated in there now but as we've gone for a neutral off white as we don't know what we're having it does need some brightening. The curtains will be going up in the next few weeks(once I've given my Dad enough time off since his last job!)  and they're off white with a little multi coloured polka dot all over. They're currently in Little F's room but as they match the linings of the moses basket he's going to be getting something new.

I have a load of picture frames that I'd had up in my flat in Kew that haven't found a home since. They all need a fresh coat of paint as they've been stored away and have got a bit scuffed and tired looking so I took four of them and painted two yellow(remains of the paint from our hall)  and two pale green(remains of the paint from our bedroom) 

The fun bit is filling them with some pretty pictures and designs. I had a sort of quilty thing that came with the moses basket that we've never used as in my opinion it would be completely dangerous to put over a baby. I suddenly decided to chop it up and create something new with it. So the fabric on one side, which is the same as the curtains has been cut into flags to add to the bunting I'm making for the room(more of that another day) and the fabric on the other side has been turned into a picture. There was a panel of cream fabric with an embroidery of an Elephant(I think he's called Humphrey) and it was just the right size to fit into the frame. There was rather too much cream above the elephant though so I've sewn a line of buttons above in a mixture of colours picked out from the embroidery. It was super quick and easy to do and looks really cute. The pictures I've taken of it aren't great so I'll wait until it's up on the wall and take a better pic to show you all. 

Next I decided I'd like to do something colourful with hearts and felt. I went through my stash of felt and found a good selection of pretty colours that hopefully don't say boy or girl when mixed together. I'm currently in the process of stitching them to some white linen and they'll be placed in one of the yellow frames. I've got more ideas swishing around involving ABC and 123. Not sure yet whether they will be fabric or felt. 

I'm so enjoying making things for baby. The knitted blanket is well on it's way to being finished. About 4 more squares to go but I've already started stitching it together. I'll share pictures once it's done. As I mentioned there's also bunting in production. 

I would have loved to have done all this kind of thing for little F in the weeks before he was born but his very early arrival and the nervous weeks prior to his arrival meant that we barely had anything organised before he came. Of course I have enjoyed creating his room since but it's not quite the same as preparing for a new baby. I suppose I am almost treating my preparations for this baby the way that most people do for their first and I'm really loving it. 

Have a fantastic weekend and I'll see you next week. 

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Little Corners

A tiny corner of our kitchen including new sweet calendar from Belgium and lovely Cath Kidston teapot.

Little Corners

Bit by bit our house is starting to feel like a home. 

We've been here for a year this coming Sunday and have lived with the previous owners decor for all that time while we got a feel for the place. This has been difficult for me as I normally like to start prettifying straight away, but I think it really has been necessary to get to know this house before we started to decorate. 

We started in half term by painting our bedroom and the hall, landing and stairs. I actually thought we would only manage the bedroom as we were away for more than half the week up in Yorkshire but we got on a lot quicker than anticipated. The light today is not brilliant so these pictures make our bedroom look a bit more washed out than it actually is. It's a beautiful sagey green, inspired by a jug that used to belong to my Grandma. It's a Dulux one called 'Willow Tree'

I really love it. We have a wall of cream wardrobes which are not fantastic but we will have to live with them for the time being. The green is a lovely contrast to the green. Anyway, although it's 5 weeks since we finished painting, the room is not finished as I haven't done any prettifying and putting up of pictures. This afternoon while little F pottered about between his room and ours, I started the prettifying process. The chair is part of our dining set and is a spare which will not fit downstairs. The table and chairs used to be my Grandparents and we inherited it from Mum and Dad who decided it was too big for them when they down-sized a couple of years ago. It's not 100% my taste as the wood is quite dark but my plan is to re-upholster all the seats as I've done with this one, and make little slip covers for the backs like this one too. It's hard to see but the fabric is also sage green and cream and is spare from Mum and Dad's livingroom curtains which I made for them. It matches the walls perfectly. 

The lovely rose print was also my Grandma's. I have another one above our bed and another one which needs some work on the frame. I love these prints. Apart from the fact that I love these type of prints, I love to have items in my home that used to belong to my Grandparents. It's a continuation. It's a little bit of them, and it reminds me of so many happy times spent staying with them when I was little. The fabric 'F' I've had a while. If you used to read my old blog you will have seen it adorning my walls in my old flat in Kew. It hasn't had a home since I started living with lovely S. To be perfectly honest he's not hugely keen on it but he'll have to grow to like it! The sweet little mirror was one that I won a few years ago on a lovely blog give away from this lovely blog. So it's all starting to come together in this room but there is much more to do before I can share a wider shot of the room with you!

Here's another tiny corner, this time of little F's room. Really we have done very little in here apart from arrange the furniture, put up a few pictures and bunting and find homes for his toys. Plans are afoot to decorate in here over the summer holidays. We're planning a simple mural on one wall and the rest will be painted an off white to keep it fairly bright as it is north facing. His curtains are cream with little multi coloured polka-dots and have a matching light shade. They were purchased from Mothercare as they match his old Moses Basket linings. These will all be moved into the new babies room before November and I am part of the way through making new 'big boy' curtains in a lovely blue ticking. I think that the teddy bear picture above will move into babies room as well and the little button picture is really just a hook filler for now. We had something larger hanging there as his old changing table was a lot lower than the chest of drawers that we have recently moved in. 

What do you think to this sweet little boat? Isn't it cute. The seagulls spin around on top. Mum and Dad bought it back from their recent holiday in Lyme Regis and I just love it. He is very fond of it too but is a little to exuberant with the poor seagulls so it lives out of reach for now. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these tiny corners of my home. More to come as I work my way around the house. 

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Tidying and Organising

It's been a busy week here. There's been quite a bit of going out and enjoying ourselves for little F and me which is nice but I have to say I'm not the kind of person who likes to be out and about all the time. I like to have home time too. I like to be on top of things in the house and I do get a bit twitchy if things start to get neglected and disorganised.

 

We started on a big decorating project last weekend which is basically to paint every room in the house hopefully before November when our No. 2 is due! We did well. In four days we completed our bedroom and the Hall, Landing and Stairs. Much more than I thought we would manage. We do still have glossing to complete but it's looking really good so far. I'll share some pictures once I've prettified and got pictures up etc.

 

So as well as a general untidiness developing due to our gadding out and about, there was also a fair amount of post-painting disorganisation going on. By Friday a day in the house was very much needed and I felt the need for some serious tidying and organising. I think they say that the nesting urge is supposed to kick in in the last few weeks of pregnancy(I didn't experience it last time due to F being so premature) but for me it seems to have already kicked in. I'm feeling the need not only to tidy but to sort and organise.

 

I started out doing a bit of dusting and one thing led to another. Before I knew it I was re-arranging ornaments and I had all my books of my section of the bookcase and totally reorganised. It had become a bit of a dumping ground lately for all sorts of bits and bobs from paperwork to sewing to little F's toys. It was not a pretty sight!

 

But now I am very happy with how it is looking. It's nice to have all the books in a different order. I'm seeing them with a new eye and looking at things I haven't looked at for a while. The junk has been thrown or recycled. F's toys are where they should be and the paperwork is all neatly filed where it should be.


 

It's a good start. The next job is to start on putting pictures up in our room and the hall. I have three up in a group in the hall and it is already looking lovely. Then to make a curtain for the window on the stairs and a roman blind for the little hall window. It's a good job I have a reasonable amount of energy at the moment! Five more weeks until the summer hols then S will be off for six weeks and we can continue on with the painting marathon. The Kitchen is next on the list as the area of walls to be painted is pretty small so should be just a day job! Lets hope my energy levels last!

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The very ugly kitchen

Before I start, I should warn you that there are no pretty pictures in this post. I've been trying to decide whether to show you images of the ugly kitchen. Part of me wants to because I want to do the big 'Ta da' when the new one is installed, but part of me doesn't want to because I really only like to show nice pretty pictures on this site.

So in the end I have decided to just give you a sneaky peak so you get the idea. This is actually just about the best vew I could show you. If I panned round to the left you would be looking at some very yucky cupboards, some hideous panelling popular in fish and chip shops in the 1970s, and our oven covered in a very unattractive blanket supplied by the removal company as we're not able to install it until the kitchen people have provided a gas supply into the kitchen.

If I was to pan round to the right you would see yet more yucky cupboards, the frankly revolting sink and horrid yellow roller blind!

We are counting the days until they start on the work as it is currently the most unappealing place to cook a meal. Here's a close up of the lovely tiles. Can't wait to see the back of these on Monday. I might even volunteer to help Mr Kitchen in smashing them from the wall!

The kitchen we've chosen is cream panelled with a beech work top. Very simple and hopefully a good backdrop for my Cornishware and other pretty bits. I will be making a roman blind for the window in red gingham and I think the walls are going to be pale blue but I will decide on that once the kitchen is in.

I am so excited to be getting my first ever chosen by me brand new kitchen. I had a new kitchen before when I rented in Kew as I was the first tennant after the flat had been renovated, and it was lovely, but it wasn't what I would have chosen. This, however, is my choice. Simon has been the bestest Hubbie and let me have the design I wanted. He prefered a white one but it looked a little dated to me as it had too much in the way of twiddly moulding. The one little choice he did make though is a fancy tap. I think it's a little OTT for our needs and the size of the kitchen but he really wanted it and as I had my way on everything else I had to let him have his one little toy! You'll see what I mean when I show you in a week or two.

So that's the end of the sneaky peak. Hopefully I'll be showing you the finished article by the end of next week. Next time I'll be back here spreading some hydrangea love. See you soon.

Fiona x