Archive for the ‘Nursery’ Category
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4
Aug
2011
30
Sep
2010
Another Genius Gift Idea
As hard as they are to come by I’m not one to keep a good find to myself, so I’ll let you in on my latest stroke of genius, made possible by Flying Start Toys on Etsy, some serious Etsy search-and-discover skills on my part in finding this little gem and a flash of creativity, again on my part, although, admittedly, as someone who is not actually very creative on a whole, this self-perceived creativeness may not seem quite as grand to the outside world. But I can assure you the outcome is good. And… you may copy.
I came across Flying Start Toys’ Sail Away boats – made from materials with beautiful patterns and in the following lovely combinations shown below – while searching for a mobile for a baby’s new nursery as a gift (in an effort to find an alternative to the OTT sound and light shows one finds in commercial baby stores). I never found a mobile I liked, but was delighted to stumble across these.
3
May
2010
By popular demand – THE BABY LIST. Essentials and almost essentials to buy.
This is like a picture of me at the dentist. I know - bad hair day.
Ages ago I wrote a post about baby things I had bought that I had wasted money on. I made a rash promise to post my spreadsheet of things that you SHOULD buy. Four months later I am coming good with my promise. I know. I’m reliable like that. You should hear my promises to my dentist – they are nothing short of inspiring and involve trips to hygienists, dental floss and 45 degree brushing angles.
Anyway, I digress. I know that interesting dentistry anecdotes is a post in itself but baby stuff I promised and baby stuff you shall have. There are many many things to buy when you are having a baby. And many many shops and online stores from which to buy these essentials. I say essentials. In actual fact, apart from a cot, a pram and some clothes, you’d be hard pressed to say anything was truly essential. But we are what we are. Well, actually, I am what I am. You may well be a far more worthy and green type person who buys the minimum, recycles stuff, freecycles it back into the community and is generally a better, kinder and more annoying person than me. If you are, can I suggest you stop reading? I think you will not enjoy my list of essentials.
4
Feb
2010
Make your own personalised word cloud canvas
I stumbled across website wordle.net a few months ago. Wordle lets you create your own word cloud image. I have been pondering ever since what a great gift it would be to use it to create a unique canvas for your baby’s room, or as a gift for, well, anyone. Or maybe you just want one for your own living room.
You can create your own word cloud image on wordle by entering a list of words and then changing the font, colours and the way the words are arranged. The image is yours to use as you wish, so you can save the file you’ve created and have it printed on canvas. (Google “print on canvas” and you’ll find any number of sites that will print your image on canvas and send it to you. Assuming you don’t live in Tristan da Cunha*).
18
Nov
2009
Wallpaper porn & other fabulous things Scandinavians are good at
"Feather" wallpaper from Scandanavian Design Center
I am loving Scandinavian design right now. I came across online store Huset shop recently – “your house for modern Scandinavian living”. It has so much truly awesome stuff I don’t even know where to start. So just go there. I suggest you start small – with the kids section – and then go as far as your credit card will take you.
A few days before that discovery, I stumbled across this other piece of Scandinavian fabulousness (while reading some high brow fashion magazine that I can now no longer recall); Scandinavian designed wallpaper from a company called Scandinavian Design Center. I love the patterns. They are works of art. As far as I am qualified to identify what is art. Which is not at all. But take it from me, it’s a delight for the eyes. Not even sore eyes. Just eyes in general. I could stare at the wallpaper and fabrics all day and, seeing as the article was only 5 pages long, I had to take my addiction to their web page where I was delighted to browse pages and pages of wallpaper and fabric designs which I stared at for many, many minutes and at least two cups of tea. I should have been doing other things and not coveting that which I can not pay for or find a place
14
Oct
2009
Why I am not a multi-millionaire
I only recently discovered what used to be called the Baa Baa Blind and is now called the Gro Anywhere Blind. Brilliant idea – if I had thought of that instead of fiddling around at uni and stuff, I would be multi-millionaire now and enjoying the calming atmosphere of my Philippe Stark accessorised home, instead of the shrine to Ikea I find myself living in. Not that I am bagging Ikea, I LOVE Ikea. I come up with excuses to drive out there at least once a fortnight. Still – if you had told me when I was buying my first Billy when I was 19 that I would still be buying them when I was 30-something (the fight about whether I am in my early or mid 30s will continue until I am in my 40s), I would have laughed scornfully. I can do a good scornful laugh too – ask my family. And if you don’t know what a Billy is, shame on you. Or perhaps good on you for not wasting your time at uni and inventing the Baa Baa Blind. Or the internet or something. I should do a whole post on Ikea. That way I would not waste time when I am supposed to be commenting on the Baa Baa Blind. Anyway. The blind. 
It has annoying little sheep all over it because most people need to be reminded they are in a nursery – the cot, the change table and the mountains of hideous plastic toys not being a dead giveaway – but it does what it is supposed to. Blocks out all the light. And is stuck up with suction caps so you can TAKE IT WITH YOU. Or take it down when your child no longer needs to conform to Gina Ford darkness dictats. And then put it back up when the clocks change and your child is getting up at 5am and if they don’t start sleeping in you will murder them with an axe go a bit crazy. Anyway – great idea. I have bought one for home/travel and a couple for friends. This is where you can buy them from in the UK , and here for Australia, but they seem to sell them lots of places online around the world. Google it on the internet. You probably invented it so you should know how.
27
Aug
2009
WALL STICKERS ROAD TESTED
In my first genuine product road testing exercise for this blog, I have applied the wall stickers that I wrote about in my last post, on a rough finish wall no less.
Applying one of the stickers that make up the final "I'm like a bird" picture to the wall
I wanted to know, were these fancy looking wall stickers as easy to use as they looked? And, could you really, as the manufacturers claim, apply them to a less than perfectly smooth wall. And the answer is, well yes. More or less.
There were small challenges. Firstly, there was some unexpected creative decision making required. As the pictures come in several elements rather than as one complete image you have to construct the picture with each smaller sticker, deciding where to place each sticker in relation to the other, rather than just putting up one sticker with the complete image. In addition, the re-stickable “I’m like a Bird” stickers from whatisblik needed to be applied in a particular order. You have to figure the sequence our yourself as it isn’t spelled out in the instructions. It’s not super complicated but I did have a little stress attack about how to place the many stickers on the wall to arrive at the right final result. Luckily, Señor i-know-everything-just-let-me-show-you-and-please-stand-aside (aka my husband) was there to lend some support.
It would have been handy if a larger image of the final picture, especially in the case of “I’m like a Bird”, that really needed to be copied fairly faithfully, was provided so we could easily see how to place each of the stickers.
The Wee Gallery Jungle design was a bit easier as it didn’t need to be replicated as precisely but it was still a bit like deciding
6
Aug
2009
Wall Stickers – Decorating the Nursery, Low Maintenance Style
I was eagerly awaiting the legendary nesting stage in the late stages of my pregnancy to see myself transformed into a fabulously feminine and motivated domestic goddess type person but instead of a full butterfly like transformation I experienced a small fluttering of domesticity by way of an urge to buy stuff. Which I am pretty sure was there before. But this time it was, at least, an urge to buy stuff for the transformation of the office like spare room into something more like a babies room. I say it was a nesting urge nonetheless. Yay. I am woman.
This urge to decorate the nursery resulted in trying out wall stickers. My perception of wall stickers before my personal venture into this entirely new world was that they were the kind of not very cool thing people who also knit “there´s no place like home” wall hangings and embroider doiles might use to “brighten up a room” by, say, creating borders and floral features on walls with stencils. Naturally the pervayers of these wall stickers would also be into lavender and purple in general. However, I have discovered wall stickers (or decals) are part of a whole world of very cool designs and interior decorating. For me it’s turned out to be one of those things that until you’d heard about them, well you hadn’t heard about them… and then when you start looking into it you wonder how you could have missed it. There are a LOT of sites where you can buy wall stickers (or decals) and the amount of choice online means you can find far more interesting designs than cheesy kids cartoons – which are the wall stickers you tend to see more of in your average home decorating store collection – if you can find one at all.
