Amazingly, we have just finished decorating our living room (after 10 months since we moved in!). It took a good few days to take everything out of our living room and paint the floor and put up some shelves but its much better now. Last winter we got so down because of the lack of sun. We spent more time in this room because of the log fire (and the telly) but it is generally the least sunny room in the house. I HOPE that with the new white floor, it will help to make the most of the natural light, and keep us the right side of sanity during the depths of January.

That massive sign on the wall was an ebay purchase by my Mister, and yes, he didn't look closely at the measurements before bidding...I think you could see this from outer space.

By the way,  Mr. Stephens of Stephens ink was a very fascinating fellow, who trained to be a doctor, but whilst writing his essays, became fed up with the rubbish ink he was using and so developed his own ink. This ink became the biggest selling ink in the world! This enamelled sign looks quite modern I thought around 1960s but it's actually from 1910-1920s! It probably would have been on a railway side.

The clockwork menagerie is getting bigger...full of dysfunctional old creatures (right at home in our house!)

I'm trying to make myself print out more photos as its easy to just keep them on a disk and forget about them. So after about 50 attempts, I managed to persuade our printer to kindly give us three pictures.

 

Also, I'm trying to be tidy and make use of the storage we have. However, these toys will stay like this for about the 10 seconds it takes for our daughter to walk into the room.

I'm very proud of my wallpaper collection ; )

This old 70s wicker lampshade has a bit of a makeover, but, it was a lot harder to paint than I thought...I should have used spray paint...oh well...

My favourite this about our 'new' living room is the shelf above the door.

its feet up time now.

I'll deal with this another day...

arrrrgghhh!!!

in other home improvements news, we decided to say farewell to four huge pink hydrangeas and hello to a nectarine tree and lots of perennials.

 

but, I do like other species of hydrangea, so I planted this one which I love!

and my dahlia has managed a flower! Its like a firework explosion.

If things go to plan, we should have a little crop of plums, apples, pears and peaches very soon.

and some cut flowers too...

love these bonkers yellow things. And a few early plums that we shared with some caterpillars.

So there is still tons of stuff to do to this summer before the winter comes and we turn into vegetables again. The littluns expression here,  pretty much sums up my mood too, after all that physical work lately.

Now I'm a parent, I get to witness a lot of small milestones of a certain small person. I find it incredible and fascinating to watch happen so quickly, and I feel happy and excited for her. BUT, this next stage, of moving out of her cot, caught me unawares. How happy was I to start re-arranging her room and buying new bed and bed linen, I totally didn't realise how sad I'd feel about packing away her cot. I mean, happy and excited for her, but sad for me. 

Actually I had planned to keep her in her cot (just whilst sleeping I mean!) until she was at least two, but I came across a nice bed that was a bit of a bargain, and also she seemed to really like climbing into our bed all of a sudden and puling the duvet up over her (in her cot she just has her sleep sack thing and some blankets), so she seemed like ready for a real bed of her own. (just letting you know now, I put a wedge shape cushion on the side when she went to bed to stop her rolling out, it was one a bought when she was a baby and had reflux).

So here is her new big bed and newly re-arranged 'child's' room (sniff sniff)

I didn't spend much money on her room at all really, just a bit of time and energy to find bits and bobs we liked.

I'll run through them, just so you get the idea...it's quite surprising where you can find nice things these days (well nice as in my taste ; )

We very recently found this old British Rail catalogue stand at Kempton park market. This was the most expensive thing in her room I think! But it's something we can use forever (and even sell later if we get tired of it, thats the beauty of buying vintage I'd say)

The small woven African baskets are from Brixton market, cushions made by me, dolls house I bought second hand from Ebay and painted it white. Other bits we have collected from junk markets.

Books are a nightmare because the littlun loves them but likes to get ALL of them out and look at just one or two pages then toss it aside and go for the next one, I spend ages putting them all back and they always loose their covers or get ripped etc...so book storage, especially for those large format books was something we'd been looking out for.

(wire basket from H&M)

The clock I bought from Wilco and did a bit of a makeover of it, the quilt was made be me.

the fabric for the curtain is from Tas-ka. Vintage electric storm lamp we have had for a long time, from a junk market some where!

Two little metal chairs we bought at our last trip to Kempton Park market, two for £20 and those are her new sandals...she is growing quickly!

laundry basket from H&M, blanket (which I bought when she was newborn ) is by Donna Wilson. Animal hooks from Anthropologie (we put these up last year when we moved in)

Owl nightlight as served us well, it was from B&Q!

Magazine rack from Spitalfields market for £15 which is perfect for those massive books.

The whale mobile I made her is still there!

and this mirror used to belong to her Great Grandma

Her bed buddies: rabbit, bear and whale, made by me out of old jumpers. Tortoise by Jo and Mr. Peanut (a first Valentine pressie from her Dad) is by Donna Wilson.

I found that little dome at House Envy

the white metal bed frame was from Asda Home (£99) I love it! and mattress from Ikea.

The bed linen are from H&M and Asda (cloud cushion by me)

this poster is actually some wrapping paper I bought in London, £2 per sheet.

The animal cards I bought from one of my favourite shops in Winchester, The Hambledon, who have a great online shop.

Her 'P' door knocker was a xmas pressie from her Dad last year.

She was having a nap in the bathroom (!?) whilst we put together her bed and re-arranged, so I wanted to capture the moment when she ran in to discover her new 'beddy'...

all her toys are stuffed in her toy basket and under her bed. I'll give it one day until it looks like the room was tipped upside down and shaken about!

She loves her big bed so much! It was amazing to watch her, so grown up, and bringing everything to the bed and jumping up and down, hula hooping, and making a very small cuppa tea!

The lamb blackboard is from Spitalfields market, I don't think it is very old, but I love it all the same. The little green table (with storage box under the lid) is a new purchase from Kempton park, and this vintage French poster is from the Hambledon as well, I think it was about £10. (I put this up after I took the other photos by the way ; )

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

So that is that, she is all grown up, she gets into her bed when she wants to, and gets up if she wants. Freedom for her! 

How did you feel when you made the switch? (Parents I mean, or even did you remember it yourself?) I remember trying to escape from my cot so I could sit with my brothers to watch telly. I shared a room with three older brothers, blimey, it's hard to imagine how I survived! Maybe I would have been safer in the cot, ha ha!