I think I have a bit of an obsession with the colour gold.  I love wearing gold jewellery and having gold accents in my home.  It’s a colour that’s rich and warm and works best when used sparingly.  I particularly love that there are so many different tones and shades to gold so you can chose to bling it up or tone it down.  It’s not a colour you would immediately associate with a nursery or toddler’s room but I love the idea of adding gold accessories and accents in a kids space especially when paired with lots of white.  I went looking for some gold nursery decorations and here’s what I loved:

1. Black and gold cloud mobile…  2. Mexican inspired Concha chair…  3. Mr Mustache print…  4. Straw storage baskets with gold sequins…  5. Toadstool night light from smallable.com…  6. Set of raindrop cushions…  7.  Organic stars duvet set.

I have a folder on my laptop called ‘little things’ where all the inspiring and beautiful things, humorous things, quirky things and the things that make me smile get put away.  Today I thought I would share some of my current favourites:

Love this simple DIY shelf to store all those little toys.

I want to adopt these quirky hand made twins!

I want to try and make this gorgeous DIY pierrrot style collar.

 Love the neon and pastel colour scheme and that beaded hanging light.

My daughters birthday is in December, just a couple of short weeks before Christmas.  That means come December we have an overload of new toys, games, books, clothes… the works!  For the first time this past December we had a proper birthday party for her which meant even more stuff.  Come the new year I seriously feel like her things have increased 10-fold.  While the big things always find a home, it’s the little bits and pieces that cause the problems and the mess.  Apart from giving a load of stuff to charity, I’m always on the look out for new storage solutions and when I last went looking, I found these super stylish storage sacks by Varpunen.  They come in 3 different sizes which are perfect for storing small and medium sized toys and besides they look great.  I love their geometric patterns; some subtle some bold but all cool and classy.  I’m loving the idea of having 3 or 4 of these lined up holding a range of different toys.  Of course these Varpunen storage sacks aren’t just for kids, they’d be equally at home in an adult space keeping your things tidy.

Last Friday I wrote about Fanny & Alexander, a wonderful store from Buenos Aires.  In that post I mentioned that I am visiting Argentina in January (so excited!).  I then got a lovely comment from one of my Argentinian readers and we began exchanging emails.  Sadly I won’t be able to meet her as I am not visiting the city she lives in but it’s been fun chatting to her.  That is one of my absolute favourite parts of writing this blog – hearing from you, my readers.  I have had contact with many people from across the globe because of this blog and I hope to meet some of them one day.  It was this Argentinian reader who told me about Krethaus and I was besotted.  Thank you Soledad for sharing this lovely store.

Krethaus are also from Buenos Aires and make furniture, cushions, bedding and rugs for kids and babies.  Their designs are simple with clean lines and muted colours.  I’m totally loving all those cushions… how cute is the red mustache one?  And that kids bed?  I love the simple yet dramatic headboard and the natural wood.  Using lots of natural materials throughout their creations all of Krethaus’ furniture is handmade making it even more special.  They describe their designs as having a ‘quiet elegance’ and I have to agree.  I am really loving discovering all these gorgeous stores from Buenos Aires and I shall be adding Krethaus to my list of places to visit when I am there.  I don’t think Krethaus ship internationally yet but you could always drop them a line and I’m sure they’ll help. 

P.S. Have you entered out Halloween giveaway?

Are you a Halloween lover or hater?  I used to love it as a kid and now I love it because of my kid, who this year is old enough to get it, and is so, so excited about buying a pumpkin.  I’m not crazy about the whole spooky and creepy crawly side of it but that doesn’t really matter as there are so many creative ways to celebrate Halloween without a bat in sight!  This year I wanted to do something a little special to celebrate Halloween with you and I found the perfect opportunity with Room Cph who have kindly agreed to give away these Lego Halloween storage heads.  You’ll find all the details of how to enter at the end of this post.

Room Cph are a Danish design house who work with cool brands like Lego and Pantone Universe by taking their existing products and putting a new, highly creative spin on them.  It was Room Cph that designed the Lego storage and lunch boxes (in close collaboration with Lego) that have become quite the Lego design icon.  Now they’ve introduced their latest creations which are these two Halloween themed Lego storage heads – a pumpkin head and a skeleton head that I’m giving away.  They also sent my daughter one of the brick storage boxes in fuchsia and she’s already filled it to the brim with all her little treasures (read junk).  But I’d much rather it in the box than strewn all over the house getting under my feet!

Lego is one of those brands that I think everybody has a soft spot for.  It was around long before I was born and I know it will be around when I have grand kids.  That’s some going!  So if you fancy a bit of Halloween Lego for your kids room, enter my giveaway and you could be the lucky winner.  Happy Halloween!

GIVEAWAY ENTRY DETAILS:

One lucky reader picked at random will win both the Lego skeleton storage head and the pumpkin storage head.

For your chance to win these storage heads, just leave a comment below… easy!  Say hi or whatever you like but keep it nice!  One comment per person.  Entry is open to UK residents only for this giveaway.  The competition closes at 8am (UK time) on Halloween day (Wednesday 31st October 2012).  Any entries after this time will not be counted.  The winner will be announced on Friday November 2nd on our facebook page and on this post.  Good luck!

P.S. Feel free to share this post by clicking on the ‘facebook like’ or ‘tweet’ buttons.

*Wallpaper image via wall-library

UPDATE 02.11.12 :  This giveaway is now closed.  Thank you to everyone who entered.  The winner is Fiona Morris. Congratulations Fiona!

While I am a minimalist at heart, I also have a huge soft spot for colourful patterns and floral prints especially when they have a vintage or retro twist.  I guess you could call me a ‘closet pattern lover’ or something along those lines.  So this ‘closet’ part of me felt a flutter of excitement when I saw the latest offerings by French design house, Mini Labo.  Pretty patterns and retro inspired prints are used to make cushions, storage boxes, stationery, toys and much more.  While some designs are aimed at children and others at adults, I think most of their stuff would brighten up any room in your home.  Mini Labo say they believe in injecting some gaiety and sweetness in to everyday objects to make them that bit more special.  I definitely get a cheerful vibe from their offerings and would happily add a bit of this cheer to my home. 

Since I started writing this blog, I’ve come across so many beautiful nurseries and kids rooms.  Each one is unique, individual and has been designed by the mama (or papa) in question with bags of creativity and love.  So I thought I would start sharing some of my lovely finds.  Today I’ve picked 3 simple nursery storage ideas that I love.  These 3 ideas are for small storage and show how, with a little imagination, you can make a real feature of stuff that you would probably otherwise have to find a storage space for:

1.  Inexpensive wire planters hung on a wall to store and display soft toys.  It looks amazing, the toys can be seen and it adds real style to the room.  This is the creation of a Texan mama called James (yes, a mama – see her blog for an explanation) who blogs at Blue Bird Vintage.

2.  Vintage suitcases look super cool, you can often pick them up for pennies at a flea market and they make very useful storage boxes.  I love how they’ve been used to keep the babies books tidy and besides looking chic, the books are easy to reach for little kids.  This is part of a delightful room created by an Aussie mama who blogs at One Claire Day.*

3.  Instead of a chunky wardrobe this is a wonderful and stylish way to store clothes.  They look stunning hung on this rustic, minimal, eco-friendly hanger.  Perfect for when space is tight but I would choose this even otherwise as it’s such a great feature for a room.  I found this at a blog called French by Design.

P.S. If you’ve still got all your Christmas shopping to do (like me!) have a look at our Christmas gift guide… it might just help! x

* Via Ohdeedoh

Yesterday I was browsing the latest collection at Caramel Baby and Child when I spotted these cool cushions and toy storage bucket bags.  I discovered that these gorgeous silk printed goodies are made by Ah Quel Plaisir, started by Belgian born Caroline Halusiak. The toy storage buckets are made of canvas and embellished with beautiful animal prints in soft tones.  They come in 3 sizes but all are on the small side so they’re just the ticket for small toy storage.  The star and cloud shaped cushions are stylish, fun and playful, the perfect combo for kid’s room decor.   The cushions and bucket bags cost around £45 each from Caramel’s shop.

The colours, the prints, the designs of the Orient have always inspired me for their richness and their almost magical qualities.  If you’re a regular here, you’ll know how much I also love the style of the Frenchies.  So when I discovered Zolima I was more than a bit excited.  Zolima combines the beauty of French style with the magic of the Orient to create sumptuous goodies for kids but ones that will so appeal to mama’s too.  They make storage cases, suitcases, little bags and purses as well as clothes, mostly for the girlies but there are some for the boys too. 

I like all of Zolima’s goodies but it’s the bright coloured suitcases that I’m seriously lusting after.  They are so pretty, so girly.  They come in different sizes and can be used for travel.  But when you’re back home, you’re not going to want to hide these beauties away.  Use them as creative storage for dolls, toys, books or anything else.  Check out Pivoine et Tapioca who have the whole range.

Ooh la, la… I’m liking this range of goodies by Range Ton Pyjama.  When I first spotted them I didn’t know what they were but I knew they looked darn cool.  With a little digging and some much needed help from good old google translate, I found out that they’re a range of yummy little French products for the kiddies.  At the top you’ve got table napkins, then a quirky, robot like pyjama case, a soft toy rattle and some little pouches to store whatever you like.  There’s more to the range including a mini hot water bottle (only made of grains, no water required)… so sweet. 

Range Ton Pyjama offer everyday kids stuff but they’ve added bags of funky style.  To get this range, go over to Prairymood, a French store full of yummies.  Sadly, it’s only in French so you’ll need to don your French speaking hat or there’s always google translate.  The range costs from €11 – €34 and shipping is €15.50.