Hygge Nook

Boys' beds

I thought finding a bed for my oldest son would be super duper easy. Nope. When the children's beds were last updated, they got Ikea extendable children's beds (now discontinued I think, but similar to this). Whilst it was great that we could shorten and lengthen them, the height was entirely rubbish. Too low to get any storage boxes under but just high enough that toys and other bits got shoveled under there.

M and S both have one of these beds each so the idea is to move M's bed into S's room where G will inherit it now that he is ready to move on from his cot. They will have matching beds and M will get a new one. Really, I'd like to replace them all but that isn't financially justifiable at the moment.

The criteria for M's new bed is white wood or metal frame, with storage baskets underneath, or, at least, the height for storage baskets. His room is the smallest in the house, though slightly more generous than your average British box bedroom, and storage space is really vital.

Here's what I'm looking at:

Ikea Odda bed with built-in storage, £139

 
Habitat oak single bed, £199

 
Homebase Mirko single bed with mattress, £199

The Ikea one is the closest to what I had in mind though I wonder if there is enough space in M's room to actually open the drawers (radiator on one side and a chest of drawers on the other). Working with small rooms is hard.

Little interview at Tea for Joy

Lynne of Tea for Joy asked me to take part in her Style Resolutions series and my interview is now on her blog here. She asked me about my favourite finds of 2009, my style resolutions for 2010 and which style blogs I'll be reading. Nip over and have a look.

In the same series, Lynne has also interviewed bloggers Emma Lamb, Conversation Pieces, Patchwork Harmony and La Petit Oiseau. New ones for your RSS reader, perhaps?

Thanks for having me over, Lynne!

Thursday Three

+ Crochet Adorned - new crafty book to add to my collection. The author also blogs at Linda Made. Lots of lovely, colourful, crafty things.
+ The True Blood books boxset, by Charlaine Harris, I got as a Christmas gift. It has books 1-8 so you'll need to snag book 9 too. All it took was one bite and I was addicted.
+ Malteser cake - as soon as I saw Helen's recipe, I had to have a go. It's similar to rocky road and terrifically yummy - I added a handful of chopped up mini marshmallows to mine (pic, above)

Memory quilts - what to do with your children's old clothes

Like a lot parents (I assume), I have quite a few of my children's old clothes put away. Mostly it's the baby stuff, that is so small and impossibly cute that they hardly seem like a real little human was in them. I adore these things. They were the things my children wore in the first days, weeks and months of their lives and I've attached a whole bunch of sentiment to that. However, there they are lingering in three or four taped-up boxes. They'll probably never be worn again but I can't get rid of these favourite little clothes.

Just before you say that some needy children out there may need them, I do donate absolutely every other stitch of unwanted or outgrown clothing or footwear to charity. However, that's not really the point of this post. So what is, you ask? Well, I heard about someone who had taken their children's old clothing, cut them up (gasp) and stitched them together into a quilt.

Can you imagine? All those beloved prints and patterns and colours all in big quilt that can now be used and seen on a daily basis... and it frees up the storage space. F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S.

Whilst I contemplate learning some sewing skills and see if I could make an eiderdown, let's check out some other patchworks: 

Patchwork pillow from Bright & Blith (with tutorial) via Ohdeedoh.

 
Patchwork quilt from Rice - I love that purple trim.

 
Baby clothes quilt by Wee Wonderfuls.

 
  
Baby clothes from the 50s and 60s by Fonticulus on Flickr.

Now that I've had chance to browse the web looking for baby clothes patchwork quilts, I've realised how popular they are plus there's cushions and pillow shams too. There are even people who will make them for you for a fee. However, I think this is a project I'd really like to take on myself... once I hone up my very rusty sewing skills.

Would you make something like this? Any tips?

More inspiration: Check out the memory quilt Flickr group.

Crocheted granny star garland

 
Do excuse the slightly wonky frames - I didn't notice until I uploaded the pics. 

I love bunting, I love garlands. I like colour, I like creating. So, of course, I love everything about this pretty star garland. I don't think this is where it will live, but I wanted to take a snap. I suspect that my daughter will want it for her room as soon as she sees it!

I found instructions for the granny stars here at The Royal Sisters, via Attic 24, and soon whipped up 12 stars. They take no time at all to make, are easy enough for beginners, and I had plenty of colours in my yarn stash to make lots of cheerful mix'n'match colourways.

A pretty stack of stars

 
 

Closer look at the colours used

 

Not so twinkly, but very pretty, stars

To make them into a garland, it was a case of making up a long chain with enough length at either end for hanging and equal space in between each flower.

Simply 20 chains and a slip stitch to attach each star

I'm thinking of crocheting a trim - perhaps a simple scallop edge - over the chains to make the chain a little more substantial and also to make it look a little more 'finished.'

For now, though, I think they're delightful.

Magazines

 
A fairly wide range of magazines makes it into my house every month. This is, in part, down to work - I need to see what issues are being discussed and what issues and sections I can pitch as a freelance journalist. Secondly, they're fun. Of course, my magazine habit can get costly. Every month, Easy Living and Living etc drop on to my door mat. During the course of the month I may also pick up (but not every month) Red, Essentials, w&h or something else that grabs my eye from the women's shelves. I like these because they are intelligent, they aren't solely concerned with fashion and 'how to please your man'. [Disclaimer: I have written for w&h and Easy Living as a freelance].

Interior decor mags are lots of fun. Looking on the shelf of magazines I'm currently clearing out, I can see Real Homes, House Beautiful, Ideal Home, Country Home, Your Home and Elle Decor. I can't see how the sort of writing I produce would fit with these, so they are purely for pleasure. Of course, we're looking at around £2.90-£3.90 a magazine these days so it all adds up.

Subs then, are the way to go. My Easy Living sub cost £12 for a year via a leaflet in the magazine, my Living etc sub was courtesy of Tesco clubcard coupons (only available in the UK, sorry lovely overseas people). I've just been browsing the latter's site and for home decor I see sub offers for Coast, Country Living, Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Ideal Home. So, as a little January gift to myself, I'm laying down £12 of tokens for a year of Elle Decor. I also added £10 of tokens to convert to £40 of Pizza Express tokens. Free mags for a year + free pizza out = fab.

Which magazines are in your house? Do you keep them all?

Thursday Three

 
+ Living etc - one of the best interiors magazines on the market and I treated myself to a year's subscription.
+ Boots No7 skincare - I have super sensitive skin and can't wear many products but this brand has been my mainstray for years. There's currently a 3-4-2 offer on, so now's the time to stock up.
+ Gilmore Girls - I have no problem with being so late to the party with this show, which ended two years ago. I'm midway through season one and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest.

The mirror found a new home

Remember the mirror I mentioned way back? The one I had big plans for? The one I thought, hey, I could paint it, I could add some pretty trim and make it look a whole  lot nicer? Yup, that one. You know what happened to it?

Yeee-ah...You guessed it. Nothing.

Oops.

But, the story has a happy end as it found a new home, within our home, this weekend. I got my little kit of nails and picture hooks out, armed myself with a hammer and knocked a hook into the wall of our Liliputian-sized hallway. Until now, if I wanted to check my hair before heading out, or touch up my makeup before a night out, I'd have to take off my shoes and head back upstairs and into one of the bedrooms (the bathroom is pointless, whoever put in the mirrored cabinet fixture was a great deal taller than me so I can only see the top of my head), such a waste of time.

Now, I have a mirror by the door that cost me nought pence and was up in minutes. A job well done, I say and I don't know why it didn't occur to me earlier.

Have you done any costless switcheroos lately?

Books for the weekend

I don't want to keep apologising for the lack of posting. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Lots of work on, schools closed due to the beautiful but freak snow, things to pursue, make, do and bake. All make for a busy bee.

I'll leave you with this picture of a little stack of books I'll be looking through this weekend (aren't the yarn colours yummy?) - a rare weekend with no work to catch up on and lots of time for crafting, dozing, watching DVDs along with the more mundane household things.

Have a lovely weekend xx

Etsy shop

I mentioned a while ago that I've been working on a secret project in the occasional seconds of free time I get. At last, it's ready to be revealed.

In the grand tradition of blogging, I've opened up an Etsy shop where I'll be selling little knitted accessories and things. Want to take a look?

 
There's pretty corsages brooches in poppy red, gold, heather and bubblegum pink with beaded centres...

 
or in dual tones such as heather and gold or heather and pink...

 
plus there's rosettes for your jackets and stuffed hearts ready to hang... 

You can find the shop here with the first few corsages added and I'll keep you updated as more items become ready.

Stay tuned... I feel a giveaway coming on.