Baby E turned three this month so he’s not such a baby now *sigh*. So I guess from now on we’ll call him ‘Little E’.
His bedroom is probably my favourite room in the house. It evolved in to what it is now mainly over the course of a year and since then there’s been a big removal, in the form of his beloved cot and a big addition, the Lightning McQueen bed his Daddy bought for his second birthday which was slept in for around two nights. The latter is still in the room pressed up against the radiator and I can’t wait to get rid of it!
When choosing the paint colour initially I was planning for the room to be a very girly dressing room as I didn’t know I was pregnant. When I found out my happy news I decided to stick with the colour I’d already decided on because it would suit a boy and be a cool alternative for a little girl. It’s ‘Pale Delphinium’ by Laura Ashley and the decorators said it was the best paint they’d used in terms of application (Farrow and Ball takes tons of coats). It’s such a pretty blue and so striking against the white picture rail and ceiling and is reminiscent of Wedgewood.
A picture speaks a thousand words, so here we go….
The picture wall I put together while on maternity leave and I pushed myself to finish it in time for his Christening which happened at 6 months…. although I still haven’t finished the ‘my first year’ frame in the bottom left corner. The 3D shadow frames are from Hobby Craft and most of the others Ikea. I looked through photo wall templates online and found it very confusing deciding how to lay them out and eventually placed them on the floor and moved them around until I was happy. Then I took a photo and tried to get them on the wall exactly the same. I knew that I’d be very stressed putting nails in the walls and they’d keep going in the wrong places so decided to use 3m picture hanging strips which are so easy to use and allow some adjustment.
I wanted a particular decorative shelf that I’d seen on Pinterest (similar to the Any Which Way shelf at GLTC) and couldn’t find it anywhere at the time, so we ended up buying these simple brackets and shelves separately from B&Q whilst I was pregnant, but shortly before I went in to labour six weeks early! They were quickly put up whilst we were in Hospital for a few days and even though I wasn’t there the spacing between them was fortunately almost right 😉 The pompoms were made by me out of tissue paper and the embroidery hoop I’ve featured on her previously and was stitched for Little E by a very lovely Aunty. I could have spent time tidying before snapping but this is real life, thermometer and ear buds included! The blankets include a shawl my Mum used for me and my older sister and brothers, and a blanket knitted by my Grandmother. The snow globe with a horse inside is beautiful and was a Christmas gift from my sister, and my mother in law gave us a lovely anniversary Peter Rabbit coin which we’ll treasure. Underneath the shelves we still have the change station and baskets which now store his trousers, pjs and vests. And still some nappies…we need to get a wriggle on with that!
We were very fortunate that the room already had the built in wardrobe although it and the entire room were dark blue so it took a few coats to get it white and I swapped the white wooden knobs for some pretty ones. The cloud mobile is from The White Company and the Harrods Bear was a (very lovely!) gift from a great Aunty. The paper pom poms we’d had from the Christening and made themselves at home. One of my favourite items is the hot air balloon which Hubby and I got while celebrating our wedding anniversary in Bath (it was our first trip away from baby – he was just three months!). I was worried the colours would be too bright and Hubs talked me in to it and I’m glad he did.
The height chart (spot the scribble!) is by DaisyPrintCo on Etsy and the bear head was ridiculously cheap in the post-Christmas sale at M&S a couple of years ago. It was so cheap (£1.50 I think) that I bought another as I know it’s the type of thing my sister would love and she can put it in her nursery when the time comes. We have load of bunny ears stuffed in toy boxes from when we had a Bing Bunny themed party for E’s 1st Birthday, and these one’s somehow ended up on Bear (who has sometimes ended up in E’s bed).
Partly in shot is the day bed I bought very cheaply from Dunelm with the aim of reading books on it (back when I was planning a dressing room). The colour was described as ‘dark cream’ but arrived looking a bit green so I gave it a quick coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Off White. Once E started sleeping in the nursery (i.e. waking constantly through out the night) this was our saviour and I highly recommend putting a bed in every nursery where possible. Since we took away the cot and gave E his Lightning McQueen toddler bed a year ago he’s decided to sleep in the day bed so it’s his now…but he does like to share with us still! The Bunting I got for his Christening and repurposed to his room just a few months ago. The cushions were purchased to look pretty on the day bed but obviously just live stuffed between the bed and wall now.
In the Chair is Big Ted who was gifted to E by his very lovely Uncle A and Aunty R at the hospital when he was a few days old, when baby was much smaller than bear. He spends a lot of time in bed with E, and on the floor, and is a dear friend. He wears a batman snood that I got on ebay for E but is much too small (it came from China). The Chair I found from a second hand chair shop who decided to put it outside one sunny day when I happened to be walking by. The latest purchase is the Abbeville Storage Shelf Unit from GLTC which I had my eyes on for ages and finally ordered in the January Sale. I’m now thinking he definitely needs one of the bigger items in the range…well he always needs more storage! And on top of that is a star machine which is very special and creates very lovely calm moments and is E’s favourite way to fall asleep at the moment.
This is what it looks like. Night night x
I was in Hobbycraft earlier today and saw this absolutely swoon worthy colouring book. I don’t have time to colour for relaxation at the moment but if I did I would have snapped it up. I loved flicking through the pictures and it would make a lovely present so wanted to share it.
The Night Voyage, a Magical Adventure and Colouring Book by Daria Song available from Amazon.
DH and I have lived in our lovely home for three and a half years now and slowly his resistance is being beaten down(!) and the lounge has started to look how I want it and it feels more as though it actually belongs to us.
We’ve the lovely comfy sofa finally purchased a couple of months ago which is similar to the one I wanted when we tried sofas out before we moved in and which DH said was too soft. The pine skirting boards and fireplace have been painted white which makes a massive difference to the room’s scheme. Last December the dominating brown and brightly coloured floral roman blinds on our bay windows were replaced for something very neutral. And we have our gorgeous super duper extending dining table and benches which are so heavy I hope we don’t move house for a long time.
Now that it’s all starting to look more ‘me’ and I’m pretty happy over all, my brain has automatically started nit picking the smaller things I don’t like. One of them is the ‘colourful’ tiles on the sides of our fireplace which I assume are original (1895). I appreciate many would find them beautiful and attractive but I am very much 50 shades of beige! Whilst others might paint over them in black, I decided to try a solution which makes me happy and isn’t too permanent, and which OH couldn’t moan about too much. Stickers!
I purchased these Tile Sticker Transfers from ebay for £8.99. Fitting them was easy and didn’t take long. The first photo shows the first couple on before being trimmed (and my little boy’s rocking horse!)
I’m happier with the fireplace than I was, but think my eyes miss seeing the white gaps in between. This is because our tiles are not standard sizes and so I covered the grout as well as the tiles. I should add that we don’t use our fire so whether they are safe for use in a working fire I don’t know. They are safe for use in kitchens near hobs so it’s possible.
And because we all love a transformation, here’s a photo of my fireplace before it and the room was painted, even though you can’t see the tiles. I had a gold theme going on and I actually quite like it!!
Today I received my first flower delivery from Bloom & Wild, the letterbox flower delivery company and thought I’d share it with you. I paid £20 instead of £30 via Facebook advertising and the gift message I put for myself was ‘You’re worth it’!
Hubby saw me arranging them (I just took a few minutes to trim them) and commented on the extravegence. He was surprised when I told him the price and thought they would have been around £50.
I’d definitely recommend treating yourself or a loved one. This is the ‘Gemma’ – perfect as I’m feeling festive already! If you click my link you’ll get £10 off your first order too.
I had some time to peruse the clothing/home/everything more exciting than food department of our closest giant Sainsbury’s store last night.
It’s still hot and sunny but I couldn’t resist this gorgeous fox jumper by Tu Clothing. Little E is very particular about what he wears and was excited when he saw it this morning and even got the ‘fox’ to partake in his game of cars! So hopefully it won’t be difficult to get it on him when the weather turns chillier.
I also got this lovely edition of Roald Dahl’s, the Twits, for £3.99. I can’t wait to read it to him once he’s developed a longer attention span. I’ll be seeing how he enjoys it tonight anyway and will probably end up reading it alone once he’s asleep!
I also love, love, LOVE the star blanket/throw in the photos. I got it last week from Zara Home to protect our new sofa from toddler spills and at £39.99 it was more than I wanted to spend but I know we’ll love it for years.
As we were on holiday at Center Parcs with little man there are so many memories to choose from this week. But I have to go with the moment E looked happiest, and that was when he whooshed out of a water slide on Daddy’s lap. He beamed a massive smile and then clapped excitedly which is very telling as he hasn’t clapped like that for a while.
I didn’t have my phone with me to snap a photo for obvious reasons, but we had Hubby’s waterproof GoPro aimed at him, so I’ll add a still shot to this post if I can get one from Hubby.
For now here’s a cheeky snap of E wearing sunnies happily for the first time!
Sunglasses, £6 from JojoMamanBebe.
Little dude has just turned 18 months old and I’m slowly phasing out his 12-18 month wardrobe (a pair of dungarees became too short months ago, and a few pairs of trousers are still so long they make him look like a Tomliboo – what’s that about?!). So I ordered him some cute Paddington Bear PJ’s from M&S.
He’s only very recently got in to TV and certain characters and LOVES Thomas and Friends, so when the PJ’s came I decided to put the Paddington Movie on (thank you Amazon Prime!) in hope that he’d become a Paddington fan. It worked and he is obsessed. Everything is now ‘bear’.
The cotton pyjamas are so super soft and he looks adorable in them. He’s average size, perhaps a bit tall but mid weight, and the top is snug considering they should fit for another 6 months, especially on the arms. I always find M&S come up a little smaller than other brands. I love them but wish I’d gone up a size. Still, I’m sure he’ll wear them to death before he grows out of them!
You can grab them here.
Nanna P (Hubby’s lovely Mum) bought E a very cute pair of Jelly shoes for our holidays at Centerparcs and Greece this month and next, and Elliot, being a shoe lover couldn’t wait to try them on.
Here he is modelling them whilst showing me where his tummy is!
Shoes, £7 from M&S.
This week’s best came after putting the Paddington Bear movie on to watch with E, who has only very recently began to properly watch TV. I had just bought some Paddington Bear PJ’s for him (see here) and thought he may get excited if he connected the two. He’s only said a few words so far and ‘bear’ has never been one of them, so I was very excited when five minutes in to the movie he said ‘Bear’ in a clear and very cute voice. And he repeated it tens of times in the hours and days that followed. As soon as he sees the TV now he says ‘Bear’ and has started to call everything and everyone ‘Bear’. He is bear obsessed and it is adorable.
Here he is engrossed watching ‘Bear’ for (literally) the thirtieth time!
Unusually, I spent the most part of Friday to Sunday with my boys, actually doing things together. Out and about. Adventurous! So there are four best bits this week.
1) Shopping at Westfield for a Bridesmaid dress.
2) E’s first go on a bouncy castle at Willows Activity Farm. A boy sat on his head for longer than is polite.
3) Cooling off nakey in the garden and riding the skuttle bug.
4) Caught up with Mummy friends from my postnatal parent craft class, and photos were taken with babies lined up, same as we did a year before. There was a lot more movement this time!
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