Oh The Places You'll Go Dr Seuss Keepsake for Emmett

I really love Pinterest - I've been a fan since the beginning. An online scrapbook to remember internet bookmarks in a visual way?! I was first in the queue. One of the earliest things I pinned was this brilliant idea, way before Emmett was even born. Unfortunately, like many Pinterest pins I'm not sure my source is correct (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

The idea is to get each of your child's teachers (i'm starting with Emmett's nursery ladies) to write a little message in the pages of the book. Each year, you add each teacher in secret and then present the book as a surprise when they finish school or graduate. I'm sure keeping it a surprise will be trickier as he gets older, but I'm going to try my best.

Emmett starts school in September. It's bitter sweet as I will miss having him around everyday, but he's so smart and so ready for school it feels right. I know he's going to love it. We were also one of the lucky families that got our first choice school. I'm so excited.

I bought my special edition in a slipcase on ebay. I also found some really nice covering notes other families have produced here. They are still quite a few listed if you'd like to make this part of your family tradition. Have you started one already? I'd love to hear how it's going

No affiliate links - I just thought it was a really lovely idea and wanted to share :-)

Getting Back To It

So, as it turns out having two children under 3 is quite time consuming.

We have barely scratched the surface on all the home projects I'd hoped to have done, but having two little boys literally undoing any cleaning and tidying throughout the day with the effort of a well oiled tag team, I'm powerless to try and fight it. I can't stop the tide. I'm trying to enjoy this time as best as I can and remind myself to feel lucky everyday that I have a job that allows me to be home with these little tornadoes.

Right, let's try and get back to business.

Holy moly

Well, after a rather long enforced blog hiatus I'm back. The house we were buying took a whole year. A WHOLE YEAR! This was every bit as miserable as it sounds. We're in now though, and I'm just about over my bitterness about it :-)

Baby E is not such a baby anymore. He'll be 2 next month. I'm currently 4 months pregnant with his baby brother or sister. New house, new baby really is true :-)

A Little Thrifting

When I'm stressed, one of my top activities to calm down and relax is a charity shopping trip. I've been charity shopping since I first started getting pocket money, so at the ripe old age of 30 I reckon I've got a good solid 20+ years of charity shopping and carbooting under my belt.

My favourite shops are the ones run by people that have no quality filter - where they put out everything that is donated. Those are the ones where you find the real gems. The things many other shops would put out for the bins (it's those things that I usually like)

Brown bead & faux tortoise shell necklace + Brooch £1.50

 

Bow tie £1.99

1970s/80s Cot Duvet Cover & Pillow Case £2.99

 

Warm baby coat & Hoob £2.25

 

Old Lady & Animals £4

I found a few bits after a trip round West London doing errands. Most of them were for baby E. I was especially pleased with the bow tie - I have a couple already that I wear with blouses. Also, the Old Lady plush is disgustingly fantastic. She came with all her original bean bag animals that she can eat (!) I've never seen one before.

Oh, Christmas tree

 

We have a lovely bright white Christmas tree and a carefully selected collection of vintage glass baubles and favourite decorations. Baby E isn't yet mobile, so I'm making the most of enjoying them as I fear next year we'll have to find ourselves some more durable plastic ones :-)

Christmas Baby Style - 8 Months 1 Week

 

 

Christmas Pyjamas - Gap (Ebay)

I love our Oyster

I'm a complete nerd - I research big purchases heavily before buying, I'm very serious about which colours I like and which I don't and I can't stand bad design. When I found out we were pregnant last Summer, this side of my personality went into overdrive. The biggest expense would be the buggy system.

After a lot of research we settled on an Babystyle Oyster. Firstly, it was one of the only systems that would fit into my vintage Mini. Also, I was going to be seeing whichever buggy we chose A LOT, so I wanted it to look nice. I loved that it had a plain black chassis and from other Mum's comments I found that the black leatherette handle was the most hard wearing. We set on the plum colour pack - my theory that not all boys things have to be blue, and the fact that we could easily and cheaply change the seat colours.

Everything arrived about 2 weeks before baby E did Little did I know that it would be almost another 2 months before we actually took it out for a run (why does no one tell you that it takes so long to get over labour?)


Our first outing - 4 weeks after baby E was born

The Oyster is amazing - firstly, all the extras you get included in the price. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the built in sun shade (hidden under the footrest on the buggy) and the rain covers that came with it. I love that I can have baby E facing me or facing outwards. I love how easy it is to push one handed and how big the basket is for shopping. Also, for a London family it doesn't take up much room on public transport and you can lock the front wheels which makes getting on and off trains and buses so much easier.

But, I found out recently how great their customer service is. When my car was stolen, I had left the chassis of my Oyster inside my car. We were then stuck at home with no buggy and no car. Babystyle UK were amazing - they went above and beyond to quickly put together all the parts we needed and had it sent out next day delivery for an amazingly reasonable price. I'm very quick to complain about bad service, but it's so important to make sure you've said thank you when a business has been amazing :-) Thank you again Babystyle UK

Baby Style - 6 Months 1 Week

Bandanna Bib - Bibbles

Stripey Jumper - Primark (charity shop)

Cobalt Blue Corduroy Trousers - El Corte Ingles, Spain

Red Moccasins - Minnetonka

 

(almost sitting up all by himself now)

E's Nursery Tour



This is a bit of a cheat, as baby E still sleeps in a travel cot in our room, but all of his things live here in his nursery. Most of the items in there are thrifted from Carboot sales and Charity shops. The cowboy pictures are from some original 1950s wallpaper I rescued from a drawer lining of a chest of drawers being thrown away! Just because he's a little boy it doesn't mean every item he owns has to be blue :-)

 

 

Attic24 Ripple Blanket Pattern

Red Eames Style Rocking Chair - Ebay

Painted House Shelves - Carboot Sale

 

 

 

Lusy Blom Rug

Vintage Disney Jungle Book Curtains - Carboot Sale

Moving and Shifting

In the long torturous process of trying to sell our flat, we seem to spend a lot of time at the storage unit putting things away in our efforts to show our home as a de-cluttered dream house. Fingers crossed all our effort pays off soon. I'm so ready to move.

 

 

Turning a pile of knots into crochet

I'm a creative person, and I love learning new crafts. I can turn my hand to pretty much anything and love to try new crafty methods whenever I can. There was one thing, my nemesis, that I just couldn't seem to crack and that was crochet. I lost count of the number of failed attempts, the number of balls of wool thrown across the room in a huff...the piles of knots that looked just like a pile of knots. I just could not get my head around it.

Finally, I found a series of videos on Instructables by russm313 and it all just fell into place. During my pregnancy I made a whole pile of blankets, toys, cardigans and booties for baby E. In fact, now if I don't have a little project on the go I feel quite lost.

One of the first things I made was a ripple blanket - it was really enjoyable. The free pattern is from Attic 24 and can be found here. Be warned though - it's a wool eater. I dread to think how much it cost in wool and trips to Hobbycraft

 

(E and Beasley love blankets and snoozing)

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween - but as a Brit, I especially love how the Americans do it. I prefer their less spooky attitude to fancy dress where you can go dressed as anything, rather than having to be creepy or scary. We get a few Trick or Treaters on our street but not many. I've never seen any children in home made costumes either, which is a shame as they are the best! When I found this tee shirt and bib in Marks and Spencers I just couldn't resist.

We couldn't mark the occasion without including Beasley, too - Happy Halloween!

 

*I was inspired to cut happy smiley Pumpkins by Sarah Dyer on her blog here 

Wow

I'm surprising myself with the amount that has changed since my last post. I was just snooping around the internet looking to start up yet another blog before remembering this little creation from over a year ago.

For a start, business priorities shifted hugely - the market stall plan was very cute, but way too much like hard work. Mostly it just was one giant flash back to the many years of freezing my butt off at Spitalfields and Camden Lock with my old label Pink Kat. Weekends are too precious and after so many years of slogging my guts out working 100 hour weeks, I'm ready for a big change.

So, Big Change#1: Ditching the market stall / festival trading plan for a purely online vintage toy selling career. A profitable and ultimately more satisfying way of life with a much nicer and happier balance.

Massive Change#2: We now have a new and very exciting addition to the family - little baby E. A very planned for sweet chap that took 2 whole years of willing to finally come into our lives. As a result of this wonderful life-shift, work on the whole has been put on hold. He arrived in May of this year.

Huge Change#3: As if all of this wasn't enough to be getting on with, we have decided to put our lovely little starter flat on the market to find ourselves a much more suitable family size nest.

We're all getting used to these changes - but luckily Beasley has taken very well to becoming a big furry Brother