bello baby

Who did this? Was it you?

I've changed it back now.

the finished nursery

Oops. Ignore that broken light switch on the right. That's fixed now.

The melted crayon canvas won't be staying in the nursery long-term (if I even keep it), as the wax isn't very child-friendly - too easy to pick off and eat. Not that I've been picking off the crayon wax and eating it. Pregnancy can do strange things to a woman, but I haven't completely lost it.

A cot skirt to conceal the junk under the cot, inventively put together by my mum who used three pillow cases and some velcro.

There are many more details I'll share, but that will be another post.

nursery details

I've been instructed to rest and put my feet up, so I'm taking the opportunity to go through the photos which have been building up over the last few months and do some blogging! How nice.

Didn't realise I'd missed it over here in blogland (things have been very hectic, y'know). Hello. So, what have I missed?

The nursery is finished (more photos to follow later today). The mobile is still hanging from the light in the living room though. It'd be nice to have that in the nursery before the wee one arrives, but it doesn't look that out of place in the living room, so it's no biggie. I've almost finished making a quilt for the little one (again, photos will follow) using these fabrics. I'm sure there are many other things but I can't think of them right now. Due date is fast approaching, so you could see a birth announcement on here any day now. Although, I could do with one more week to get some things in order. Very very exciting.

More nursery photos to follow...

Melty Melty Wall Art

There has been a lot going on lately - lots of colourful fun things have been made, a nursery has been decorated and Mr Pippa made some art. Photos have been taken and blog posts will be posted.

For today, some melted crayon wall art:

It's been all over Pinterest and it was only a matter of time before I had a go at it - you know how much I love things in colour-order.

I adhered the crayons (still in their wrappers) to the canvas with a hot glue gun. Once they were all in place, I got the heat gun out and gently heated a section of crayons, allowing the wax to drip down.

I tested this out on a small canvas before venturing to this one. On the small canvas, I used cheaper crayons. I have no idea why but that one worked better than this one. I'll add a photo of it to this post so that you can see what I mean.

See how there seems to be some kind of resistance going on in those purples? That melted wax does not want to stick the the canvas. Very odd.

Currently, it's on the wall of the nursery. I'm not sure I'll end up keeping it long-term because it went a bit weird:

As the melted wax dried, it lifted off the canvas. I had already thought that it wasn't the most durable piece of art for the wall and probably better to display it in a box frame, if one wanted to keep it.

Still looks cool though. It can stay in the nursery for a bit longer, I think.

how to attach a mobile

Hello you.

I've got lots of things to show you but I've had very little time to actually upload photos and form some sort of blog post. It's for a fun reason though: I've been working on the nursery! Well, when I say working on, it's been more like me being project manager between naps and Mr Pippa doing the real hard work.

Very soon, I shall have photos to share with you. Exciting!

One question: how on earth can I attach an enormous mobile* to the ceiling? The walls in this place crumble at the tiniest nail, so I dread to think what the ceilings are like (why would someone wallpaper a ceiling unless there was something to hide? That's my thinking).

Any ideas?

*I, of course, do not mean a mobile phone. Why would I want an enormous mobile phone on my ceiling? 

Pinterest Pins {rooms for tiny people}

Pinterest really is a marvellous way to waste time looking at pretty things.

Lately, I've been looking at things like this...

                                            Source: blog.puffling.com.au via Pippa on Pinterest

...and this. You know I love a colour-coded bookshelf.

                                                         Source: ohdeedoh.com via Pippa on Pinterest

...and this.

                                            Source: thebooandtheboy.com via Pippa on Pinterest

That suspended plane had given me an idea.

And how about this for displaying books: an Ikea spice rack.

                                         

Nice little nook.

                                                Source: flickr.com via Pippa on Pinterest

...and this one just made me smile.

                                  Source: weheartit.com via Pippa on Pinterest

That was my way of announcing news. Can you guess what it is?

That's right, I'm growing an alphabet tree on a bookshelf! Um, no.

something on the wall and some daffodils

I love daffodils. They're such a happy, humble, friendly flower.

After seeing this on Pinterest (a dangerously addictive place), I was inspired to create my own canvas. I like how the lyrics roll into the wooden letters beneath. That was completely intentional, you know. I didn't need it to be pointed out by someone else. Nope. Not me.

butterflies make music on my walls

+ Edited 19th March

Thought it was about time I posted something. This was part of a window display at Monsoon Children and, after a donation to their chosen children's charity, it now hangs on the wall of my living room. That brings the number of instruments in the house up to nine. Does a stylophone count?

trading the Christmas decs for hearts

What do you think of the makeover? Well, I only changed the blog banner. Couldn't really be seen having a Christmas banner in mid-January now, could I?

To mark the taking-down of my Christmas decorations (finally happened yesterday. Now just need the boxes to move a little closer to the loft.), I've finished uploading my Christmassy photos to Flickr. And as for my Christmas album, that's due to be finished in July. How do these people making December Daily albums keep on top of it? Do they all own photo printers or something?! I, like the rest of the country, do not have a photo printing section in my home, so I have to actually go out to get said photos printed.

You didn't need to know any of that.

Why did I start this post? Oh yes, photos. So, they're on Flickr.

Did I tell you about the train sets that were part of our Christmas decorations? Mr Pip and I have a lot of wooden train sets. We originally bought them as table decorations at our wedding (which caused the caterer to ask, "Oh, so do you both really like trains?" to which we responded with a you-really-don't-get-our-style-do-you "No. We just like fun.") and they've been sitting in a box since then. So, when putting the decs up we had the genius idea of putting a train set around the Christmas tree. I gave Mr Pippa that job.

It felt as though my back had been turned for one moment to find that there wasn't just a train set around the tree, but one above the fire...

And one on the hearth...

And one around the ukelele stand.

This is what happens when you leave a man in charge of train sets.

11th December {#reverb10: 11 Things}

Prompt: 11 things. What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

I've been keeping things from you. I've been keeping many, many things from you.

Some of you may have had a browse at photos of my home, or seen some nice bits here on the blog.

It's not all like that. 

Every time I take a photo in my home, I hide things from you. Here are just a few.

Yes, my 11 Things post is basically a load of stuff I want to get rid of.

1. [See picture 1] An old broken iMac
2. [See picture 1] An old broken eMac
3. [See picture 1] Those curtains in the spare room
4. [See picture 2] Those curtains in the utility room. The plastic hooks are too old to move anymore, so if you try to open the curtains more than halfway, they snap. And, well, there's no need to comment on the visual aesthetics of the curtains.
5. [See picture 3] The light. The thing is, we have a beautiful light. But, it's so much hassle to put up and when you're in a rented house, you never really know how much longer you've got. In the house, not how much longer you have to live. Blimey that would be tense.
6. [See picture 4] My old, broken iMac*.
7. Old leads which serve no purpose.
8. I can't remember what number 8 was.
9. This one might have been to paint that delightful polystyrene ceiling rose in picture 3.
10. Craft supplies I'm never going to use.
11. [See picture 5] Jewellery making stuff. I seem to lose all creativity when I'm confronted with beads and stuff, so this will be finding a new home soon.

I did have visions of having a different picture for each of the 11 things I want out of my life so that I'd have a cool-looking mosaic thingy. But then when I realised that most of the things are quite ugly, I decided that the fewer the photos the better.

* Interestingly, this post has prompted Mr Pippa to have another go at fixing this. By the time I finished this post (it did take me a few days - energy reserves have been low), that old Mac made its way to Mr Pippa's desk. Perhaps it will leave the premisses during 2011. That would be nice.

blankie for my laptop

It's not that I've been getting bored of my babatte blanket, I just wanted to complete something smaller, quickly. Also, I really don't like resting my laptop on an exposed desk surface. I know it's pretty robust (I mean the laptop, but the desk can put up with a lot too), but I don't like the sound of it. I feel as though the laptop will get scratched or something (you know that if it'd had a protective film covering the outside, I would have kept it on - like the watch and anything else with a film on) so I'd rather put it on top of something.

Well that was a boring paragraph. I might blog about my washing cycle next week.

So, for the last year (you're probably not interested in any of this) I've been resting the laptop on a very unattractive laptop case. Over the summer, Mr Pippa got me an amazing new laptop bag, but that will need a whole other blog post. So, I decided to make something pretty for it to rest on (or, something pretty on which to rest it if we're going to write proper).

I use the word so far too often.

So  A little while ago, I was inspired by Biscuit Monster (that blog is always a pleasure for the eyes), who was inspired by some other people. But, with crochet, I only seem to be able to keep one stitch in my head at a time: I paused working on the babette blanket to make a scarf only to find that, when I returned to it, I had to teach myself again because my crochet hook just wanted to continue doing whatever it was doing last (it has nothing to do with me forgetting how to do things). So, rather than teaching myself how to do granny squares or something, I made lots of little babette squares and joined them together (isn't the joining part the most boring?) and I am very pleased with the result.

The really dark one on the left is navy. It's clearly camera shy, as is the burgundy, next to the denim blue, which has turned itself black in all of the photos.

That's a happy laptop :)

 Isn't it cheerful?

yummy colour-order bookshelves

I've gone and done it (thanks for doing all the lifting, Mr Pippa).

You know how I love seeing things in colour order? (Yes, you already know this.) Remember ages and ages ago I said I'd love to put my books into colour order? I'm not the first to do it:

(source)

 (source)

 (source)

 A face! Made from books! (source)

And while we're on books and bookshelves, this one made me smile. Is it just me, or does it look as though the shelves are looking down thinking, "Why do those books keep falling out whenever I look down?" (source)



 (source)  
Again, not colour order but I like it. You just know that the day after you do this, you'll need to use the book 3rd from the bottom. No, I shan't be arranging my books like that (fear not, Mr Pippa). Interestingly, we do happen to have something similar going on on our living room floor. It's not an artistic statement, it's just a pile of books to take to the charity shop. Could I have been subconsciously influenced by this picture?


Anyway, enough of that. Here are my shelves:

Hooray! Grouping colours is fun!

Yes, that's right, I created this blog post for the sole purpose of showing you my bookshelves. 


That is all.

back in the 90s

My computer has said goodbye to the world. I'm praying that it will revive one last time so that we can do a final back-up, but it's looking bleak.

In other news, my phone has completely died! Brilliant! (Note the sarcasm. I am not actually trilled at being uncontactable. Especially as I have a fair bit to do at the moment). I bought my first mobile on the 9th of the 9th 1999. I figured out that I purchase a new phone every 2 years. Pretty much to the month. My last phone was held together with elastic bands and I only replaced it when it actually stopped working. Oh how frustrating. It's like being back in the 90s again.

No, you didn't need to know any of that, but I wanted to write something while I have the chance. I feel like we haven't spoken in ages. As I can't access my photos, I still can't show you the pictures of my amazing Cath Kidston office chair. It really is beautiful. But we'll all just have to wait.

As I don't like posting without pictures, here's a picture of someone else's bookshelves. They've arranged their books IN COLOUR ORDER! You know how much I love it when things are in colour order. (Like this, this, this, this, this and this.)

I really want to do this.

prettier than your average kitchen wipe-board

Well, I think so anyway :o)

We use a wipe-board in our kitchen for meal plans and to do lists but it's so ugly - it looks out of place amongst all of the pretty pink and blue!

I found an empty clip-frame whilst tidying the other day and was debating what to do with it - I've never been a huge fan of clip frames, they just 'do the job' really. And that's when I thought of doing this:

Get the wrapping paper out and some co-ordinating papers and ribbon and then have a bit of fun putting it all together.

I wanted to create different sections for different messages. It worked out better than I was expecting - I even surprised myself! So if you're not impressed with this then I just don't know HOW to please you! Although saying that, I have done something very cool with my guitar case. That might impress you. It's very cool.

Do you have any idea how tricky this was to photograph? I love how you can see the mannequin in the reflection of the green circle in the picture above.

Oh and I've started making another sock monkey. It's like an addiction!

+Edited 6th April. If any of you make your own kitchen wipe board, leave the link to it in the comments so that I can have a little lookey. Let's make our kitchens pretty!