cosy up 'blabla' cushions

I do have a soft spot for cushions and there is such great choice out there so we have quite a few in our rooms, on sofas, floors, playhouses, chairs....

As well as the many "add to basket" cushions! I make too, ranging from the cloud shaped to the traditional square, they're fun and can transform a setting in an afternoon and at not a huge cost.

Today though i have these lovely knit ones by blabla to share with you.....

Trays have lots and lots of uses, we use ours for snacks, drinks, play-doh rolling, sledging!
Being super slim they can stack and then there is room for more! So the next tray I'd like to add to our tray supply is one of these gorgeous 'Alabasta' trays from Ary at Hus & Hem.
The other thing about this tray, it has got me hunting for our old spirograph, I sense some spirograph fun with the mini1 coming on!

transformer tuesday #11

Halloween week is upon us so we thought we'd make this week a transformer 2sday with double the crafting and making.
We are using some of our favourites; paper, gluppy glue, card and some garden finds.
For our halloween party we're focusing on the orange rather than the black so we've been making orange paper garlands, twiggy spider garlands and cardboard twig spiders.

we used:

- patterned papers

- gluppy glue

- scissors for cutting shapes

- thread

we used:
- garden twigs
- gluppy glue
- scissors for cutting shapes; round bodies and doughnut ring
- bakers twine
- clear nylon thread for hanging

Both of these cloud cuckoo crafty projects can be adapted for many occasion, birthdays, christmas and simply to just decorate, enjoy x

Jane Muir & open studios

Living pretty much around the corner from Jane Muir's studio was a treat, a happy place filled with the most delightful and original ceramic figures some of which we are fortunate enough to have in our own home and of course Jane herself with her warm welcome and happy red hair that matches my mini1's.
The Arches in Peckham Rye is fabulous, Jane's is the cheeriest and such a joy to visit, all studios there are opening their studio doors the last Friday of September and October, so get yourselves ready this Friday. If you miss it don't worry as they'll have a studio open weekend pre christmas.
Here are some of Jane's ceramics, I'll be sharing our own on a later 'our house' post...

I bet you're smiling, and I hope you can make the open studio x

cosy houses

I've been thinking of a tent/hide-out/play/wendy house equivalent for the minimini1. On my search I got hooked into knit and I feel a project coming on (to fill in that spare time!)
As I was aware with the more recent knitted pieces in this post I was not familiar with this first knitters story, excellent job Alison.....

Back in 2007 knitting enthusiast Alison Murray went in, round, through and off to the max and created this fabulous knitted wonder house complete with knitted contents raising thousands for charity.The millions of stitches were made by hundreds of knitters from around the world. click to read full story

More recently designer makers / artist knitters have come up with some amazing knitted houses that are loved by parents and filled with adventure and play for little ones; Donna Wilson has the delightful house blanket.


 Lucky Boy Sunday have their fabulous quirky knitted playhouse (on my wish list!)

And as for me and the minimini1 the project has started and I look forward to posting more in the near (as possible) future.

national apple day

From our first apple tree we planted this spring we had the most delicious apple.
They looked beautiful too...

Looking forward to next years pickings and crunchings!

And as it's apple day our print is still available and is one of your favourites so it seems.

planting for spring colour

Yesterday we had a lovely time in the garden planting our bulbs ready for some springtime colour.
We made our name sticks as I know I will forget (but the onlooking squirrel will not!)
and mini1 very much enjoyed the stamper.

We soon got to the fun part digging 40 plus holes between 5 and 15cm deep dependending on what each bulbs person requirements were.
Mini1 was most happy as she said when 'taking off their jackets' I explained they needed to keep the crispy dry layer to keep them snug, she was warm enough and thought they'd be just fine too!

We picked the spots and look forward to spring time.....

Tall alliums against an original stone wall will be so pretty and the hyacinths is a pot will smell divine, chionodoxa coming up from the base of the tree will look so dainty and pretty and crocus around the large stones will be a happy contrast.

transformer tuesday #10

i spy with my little eye(s)....

bird spotting was carried out by transforming the following items into brilliant binoculars for the mini1's

we used
- cardboard tubes
- scissors
- gluppy glue
- tape
- fabric squares
- fabric trims
- ribbon

got to dash i can see something far away......

holding-on

sisters having october sun fun at the park. 

i love the dress yourself look a mix of stripes, spots, sparkle and fur, as for minimini1 a great auntie knit is always adorable.

sleeping with which light on...

The minimini1 has started to wake at some awful hour, we keep a lamp on out side of her room and she has the fantastic Thorsten van Elten wall pigeons in her room but I'm on the hunt for a softer light to keep on in her room that is light enough for her to settle herself but not too strong to take away the night time calm feeling. I'm edging toward the fabulous Lapin&me vintage bunny, however there is then the growing range of LED lights they're a great price, good selection and we haven't got to worry about the plug sockets either.

Lapin & Me £62 for the signature Lapin & Me vintage bunny finished by hand in 'vintage granny-green' finish, looking adorable when lit and not.
Little Baby Company superb range of lighting with a good range of prices too, I love the LED bunny and toadstools starting at £7.50
notonthehighstreet ranging from £14 to £69
nubie £65 cat & dachshund (other cols available)

toddler plus bedding

i know i'm biased on the baby bedding front as we have our own organic collection which of course i use and test! and yes as mini1 is 3 and the owl print is not too young and fits her converted cotbed perfectly I can't help but shop around as I'm feeling a little pre christmas change in the air.
So I hear you say, what did we pick, what did we find... well I must admit I've yet to finalise our decision, but here is where we are and some of our finding

Mini1 does not want pink with or without fairies, her natural tug was for bold, clean lines, I'm not sure whether this is because of the clean silouette of her current owls? but she did like the clean silouette of Anoraks red rabbits, I'm not too worried it's in single size rather than toddler because once we make the move we will go from converted cotbed to single and miss the toddler bed out anyway.
I was however thrilled to find Little Auggie 'Rabbit Patch' this was with thanks to coos and ahhs.
Designers Guild had the wonderful Best Friends range and mini1 very much liked the owl rug!
Although not one particular design stood out for us Zara Kids have a good offering.
So mini1 which is it to be?

transformer tuesday #9

There are so many things to do outside this time of year with the gathering of lovely leaves, acorns, conkers and twigs. Here is just one of the things we did we leaves....

Leaf birds, 

before &

 after.....

We used;

- some leaves

- paint

- glitter

- washi tape

Monday is Wash(i)Day

My nanna had 'jobs' to do on specific days, and I always remember her saying as she left on a sunday well tomorrow is was day. From what I remember this was pretty much how her week went...

Monday was wash day
Tuesday was ironing
Wednesday a trip into the big town or city
Thursday food shopping
Friday fish super
Saturday treat
Sunday family

Well as it's monday, here is my take on Wash day, just so happens mine has an 'i' at the end of it... today my Monday was washi day

© 2011 cloud cuckoo designs ltd

© 2011 cloud cuckoo designs ltd

© 2011 cloud cuckoo designs ltd

© 2011 cloud cuckoo designs ltd

fab find #5

Little Odd Forest is todays fab find and from this super site I'm picking these super cute indoor cosy gnomes.


and look what they're busy working on, we love these woodland animals bags.

tumbling animals

Tumbling animals by Bobles is based on simple geometric formed shapes. The animals double up as  childrens furniture but are designed with creative play in mind. Tumbling, rolling, jumping and rocking are some of the fun activites your child can have.

boo....

So we like to carve a pumpkin and put candles and such on the front steps but this year i feel there may be a little more going on at halloween as the little ones love fancy dress!
To get us in the mood we've been making some halloween happy masks here they are in this little illustrator image I did some time back, the hats you see here on the little characters we've adapted, enlarged and got ready for october 31st, we'll be showing you how before halloween so you can do your own if you fancy.

Steve Jobs

"I want to put a ding in the universe." (quoted Steve Jobs) 

Well he certainly did and through his many achievements he will remain in our future.

Steve Jobs, amazing man, achiever & creator

R.I.P

1955 - 2011

Image link

wonderful walls

I love walls they're such fantastic areas to decorate. Here is a collection that will make you love walls too, and if you already do then you'll love them even more draped in these glorious colours and patterns by Kirath Ghundoo. The work on her site is amazing take a peek and smile.

unique & quirky

This is how Ashley Percival describes his work and I'd agree.
I love his characters with the quirky slant and also the use of pencil crayons. It is incredibly hard to pick just three to share so be sure to pop across to his site where you'll find more skateboards, fantastic owls, elephants and more.
For now though;  Foxy Bear, The Skateboarders, Bear & Fox