With our new home renovations coming to an end, it’s now time to start thinking about the decorating – about the furniture, the little objects and the personal touches that will turn this place from a house in to our unique home. This is the exciting bit and the bit where we get to be creative and have lots of fun. One of the things I am very keen to do is to have a playful element in all our spaces. I don’t want strictly grown-up zones and separate kid zones. I don’t think we live like that anymore so every space in our home will be shared between the adults and the kids and I want this to show through in the decor.
I am not talking about toys strewn all over the living room or turning the dining table in to a kids craft centre, but instead picking out cute little objects, cushions and artworks that will work alongside the more grown up pieces. One of the shop’s I’ve got my eye on to bring some kiddy cuteness in to my home is Eef Lillemore (don’t worry, I don’t know how to pronounce it either!). They have some of the cutest decorations I’ve seen and I’m especially loving that panda tray for my kitchen and why not an ice-cream cushion for my living room? And what about a few of those pastel posters for the bathroom?
Everybody needs a little dose of cuteness in their home and when you have kids, it’s the perfect excuse to introduce it in to every room. I wouldn’t even object to some of that cloudy wallpaper in a hallway – so subtle and sweet. Of course a lot of the stuff at Eef Lillemore would make such fun decorations in a kids room too – like those beyond adorable posters! Something guaranteed to make you smile each morning, so why not have a little touch in every room?
I am so glad I have started writing down what Anya says because even at 6½ years she comes out with some hilarious stuff! I know these innocent comments and crazy sweet words will disappear over time so I want to make the most of it! Do you write down what your kids say? It’s such a lovely memory to have and look back on. So to end the week on a happy, funny and light-hearted note, here are some recent conversations with Anya:
We were chatting about an upcoming 6th birthday party that Anya was invited to. Me: What does your friend like? I need to buy her a birthday present. Anya: She likes boys.(of course I’m thinking, boys already?! But I continue the conversation) Me: I can’t buy her a boy, can I? Anya: No, but you can buy her a toy boy! Oh the innocence of childhood!
Out of the blue: Anya: Do I have boobies or nickels?
We were at a restaurant and Anya chose Cumberland sausage and chips for her meal. She then proceeded to tell the waitress her order: Anya: Can I please have the sausage and chips without the Cumberland?
Anya’s just lost both her front teeth. We’ve always made a big deal of the tooth fairy and Anya’s always been so excited about the whole magic of the tooth fairy, much more so than Santa (sorry Santa!). So I was not ready for this. Me: How much did the tooth fairy give you this time? Anya: (very matter of factly) It’s not really the tooth fairy. Me: Who is it then? Anya: It’s you. Noooo… I’m not ready for these magical myths to be busted just yet.
What are some of the funny, cute, candid and crazy things your kids have said? I’d love to hear so do leave a comment below.
Nothing says Summer like some fresh, brightly coloured fruit. Ice-cold watermelon, bright red strawberries or even the odd fruit daiquri or two enjoyed in the sunshine is what it’s all about. With the Summer holidays coming up I have DIY’s on the mind and what better than some fun fruit crafts for kids to keep them busy. So I’ve rounded up 10 of the very best fruity DIY’s – some with free printables for a quick little project and others that are a bit more involved. Most of these fruit crafts for kids would make great decorations for a fruit themed Summer party too.
Do you know Kids on the Moon? It has to be one of the coolest kids brands ever! The clothes all tell a story, it’s about art meeting fashion but beyond that the clothes are always so practical and comfy for kids to wear. Anya has clothes by Kids on the Moon so I know how easy they are for a kid to wear and still do what kids do. The fabrics too are always practical and designed for repeated wash and wear. I have featured their collections here in the past and now they’ve launched a brand new line of clothing for modern mums called By the Moon. Instead of just sharing both the collections with you I thought it would be fun to chat with Magda, the amazingly talented designer behind both the kids and mums range.
Tell us about Kids on the Moon? Kids on the Moon is a brand that uses dreams and magic to make children’s clothes. Natural materials and colours are mixed with a lot of imagination, storytelling and fantasy. The brand is created by three women who also happen to be mothers and who spend their days traveling between the moon, the earth and planet Venus. Kids on the moon was created three years ago by Magda Rams, the brand’s designer who designs every collection and whose sense of style defines Kids on the Moon.
What did you want to be when you were growing up? That’s easy – I always wanted to make clothes. Also as a kid I used to dream a lot and still do. I find children very inspiring and designing clothes for them is a true pleasure. On one hand there are no limits to the imagination and fantasies come to life, on the other you have to be sincere and true to yourself as kids naturally shun fads and fake hypes. That’s why at Kids on the Moon we use natural colours and comfortable but original styles. The brand is about lightness manifested in a beautiful, well designed manner. Our motto is no gravity – there are no limits to our creativity. Kids on the Moon is where fantasy meets good design and quality. Our collections tell stories from dreams. The brand’s name and concept give us unlimited possibilities – just like space or a kid’s imagination.
What led you to start Kids on the Moon? Kids on the Moon is a natural almost organic outcome of an art education, a career in the fashion industry and being inspired by my own kids. I’ve always looked for professional independence and wanted to enjoy what I do. One of the objects that has always been with me is my great-grandmother’s sewing machine. Ever since I remember I was always trying to sew something on it. Kids on the Moon must have been written in the stars for me.
You create incredible collection after collection. How do you do it? At the very beginning, there is a world in which our collection will be set. This world is a mixture of children’s fantasy and the world of nature with a dose of a grown-up imagination and of course the world of fashion, literature, film and art. A careful eye will notice quotes from Kubrick’s films, from Mad Max, David Bowie and more. As a brand inspired by the moonlight and space in general there is a lot of cosmic themes but we are not limiting ourselves to it. Our current summer collection OCEANIA puts together oceans, lunar seas and …grunge. In autumn we will get inspired by the TOTAL ECLIPSE and see what happens when the moon takes over making the sun vanish for a while. So the upcoming collection will be, as always full of mystery, magic and of course – moonlight.
Do you experience creative block? How do you deal with it? Creative blocks happen to everyone. They are a sign that you need to rest and relax, do things you enjoy, run bare feet with your children, read a book and listen to music. So creative blocks are like little vacations – they pass as soon as you start enjoy them 🙂 (I love this quote – it’s something I’m going to remember and use!)
Aside from your own, which kids clothing line really inspires you? Featherdrum – for that holiday feeling all year round.
And lastly, if you weren’t a kids clothing designer, what would you be? I have always been attracted to fashion – so I am sure if it hadn’t been for Kids on the Moon I would design adult clothes. In fact this is happening already as we have just launched Kids on the Moon’s older sister – a brand called BY THE MOON. It has been created for all mums and grown up women who live by the sun and dream by the moon, who value comfort, lightness and a little bit of magic every day.
Thank you Magda for your inspiring words. I am loving the new modern mum collection just as much as the kids collection. And remember the next time you experience creative block, treat it as a vacation and it’ll fly by!
What look do you go for in a child’s bedroom? Black and white, bold colour, pastels? Modern, vintage, minimal? There are so many choices and styles out there to decorate a kids room that it’s hard to choose one style above all others. I keep flitting from colour choices and styles I like and change my mind every day but eventually end up coming back to the whole monochrome Scandinavian vibe. That is monochrome with pops of colour. A little colour just makes the black and white even more dramatic and with a monochrome backdrop, no colour is off limits. I can sometimes neglect the boys on this blog as some readers have pointed out to me recently (sorry!) so today I’m sharing some of the coolest black and white boys rooms with bold pops of colour:
Accenting with red in a boys room – how striking does that look? Bright red is such a bold colour so you don’t need much of it and it looks so great. Red is a pretty under-used colour in kids rooms and while a lot of red can be too much, just a little accent like this works so well especially in a black and white room.
Hello yellow! Another great accent colour for a black and white boys room. The yellow is used very sparingly with lots of grey and it ends up looking so stylish. Also I love the paper flower decorations in this boys room – would you consider these for a boys room?
Charming, playful and delightful are the words that come to mind looking at this lucky boys room. The black and white in this room has been complimented with soft pastel tones. Again the pastel doesn’t take over but just adds that little pop of colour.
In this bold black and white boys room, green is the accent colour. But rather than stick to one shade of green, they’ve used a range. I love the addition of an indoor plant which not only provides colour but is a lovely addition to a kids room. Looking after a plant is a great little responsibility to give to a child, no?
I’m loving this cool shared boys room. Shared by toddler and older brother it sticks very much to the black and white theme but with a hint of blue. Using coloured furniture is a great way to introduce a little colour in to a black and white room. And colours don’t always have to be bright – the muted blue here looks to perfect with the black and white.
One of the best things about living in London has to be the diversity of the people and cultures. London is full of immigrants from all over the world living alongside native British people too. I too am not from here – I’m from India but now London is my home. In London you can experience culture, food, art and language from almost anywhere in the world and that is just special. Not that many cities can boast such a diverse range of people but there is one other that immediately comes to mind and that is New York City. Maybe it’s even more diverse than London if that’s possible and it’s another city I love for this reason. So I was absolutely delighted to receive a kids book last week called Larry and Friends that celebrates exactly this aspect of city life.
Larry and Friends by Nat Jasper and Carla Torres is a children’s book on immigration and all that is great about it. It is set in New York but it could be London or any other big, multi-cultural city. The book is about Larry the dog who is born and bred in NYC but his group of friends are from all over the world. Larry is celebrating his birthday and one by one his animal friends arrive at his party. As each friend arrives we get a little insight in to their lives – where they are from, what they do and how they ended up making NYC their home away from their native countries. His friends come from Peru, India, Korea, Iran, Tibet, Puerto Rico and lots more places but are all now living in NYC. There isn’t a typical story as such but each character has a little back story of their own. And the illustrations are colourful and so detailed and all done in a beautiful painting like style.
Anya really enjoyed this book and picked it up to read by herself too. She didn’t immediately get the significance of the animal friends from all over the world but we ended up chatting about how some people leave their native countries to settle somewhere else. It was an interesting conversation and we talked about how London is one of those kind’s of cities. She has friends from Pakistan, Lebanon and China so this made the book even more relevant. While this children’s book celebrates immigration, diversity and friendship, it also subtly puts across little life messages like it’s always important to be yourself, you can overcome adversity, knowledge is to be shared and more. Larry and Friends is a lovely, happy and uplifting book on a topic that I think we need to see more of in kids books. Unfortunately it’s not that easily available outside the US but you can order from there although shipping is expensive.
A couple of weeks ago Anya and I went shopping to buy a birthday gift for one of her friends. Near our local shops, we have a large no-car square surrounded by shops with an outdoor play fountain in the middle that the kids adore. I often see kids turning up in their swimsuits and playing in the fountain till they are drenched. Playing outside with water is such a fun thing to do for kids and Anya loves it too. On this day we visited the fountain and I saw at least three kids, aged between 2 and 6 years, playing without any clothes on at all. I was quite bit taken aback.
I have no problem with kids taking their clothes off as kids, especially the littlest ones, like to do that and there is absolutely no harm in a private garden or similar private space. But in a public place in full view of thousands of people, I just didn’t think this was a good idea and I know I would not be comfortable letting Anya do it. Also age is a factor here – I mean five or six is just a bit too old to do something like this under any circumstances in public. Obviously I’m also thinking about the darker side of life where we do live alongside a very small minority of people who may not have good intentions – you know what I mean. So why put our kids in what could be a vulnerable position? That’s how I feel but am I over-reacting? Am I being too cautious and cynical? I don’t know but it absolutely doesn’t feel right to me. And even if you set aside any fears of the darker side of life, is it really appropriate to allow your kids to be naked in public? I don’t think so.
Would you let your kids take off all their clothes in a busy, public place? All it takes is that one wrong person to see them so I think even though it’s a very small risk, it’s a risk not worth taking. Similarly I wouldn’t put pictures of my kids without clothes on this blog or any social media either. But aside from any dangers, I still think there’s no reason for kids to take their clothes off in public. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Have a wonderful weekend full of lots of playtime in the sunshine! And a very happy 4th of July to my American readers. x
We are huge foodies in this house. We LOVE to eat! And we love to cook. If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that we were doing a huge house renovation project which meant we haven’t had a kitchen for six months! But we do now and we’ve haven’t stopped cooking since. I am all for experiencing and eating different foods, foods from around the world but also food that is family friendly. In the past, I’ve often ended up cooking two meals in an evening – one for Anya and one for Richard and me. That just takes the joy out of cooking and it starts to feel like a chore. So I keep looking for new ideas and flavours that will feed us all and I thought I would share some of my favourties here too.
Even though Anya is a fussy eater, I’ve slowly been introducing her to new flavours and tastes and today I wanted to share my version of this delicious spiced Lebanese rice with mince lamb recipe. This recipe has lots of spices which are exactly what gives this rice dish so much flavour but these spices are in no way spicy. What’s more, this Lebanese rice is a one pot meal making it a convenient and quick mid-week meal without compromising on flavour.
Spiced Lebanese rice with minced lamb recipe:
Serves: 4 Ingredients: 500 gms minced lamb (I prefer 10% fat but up to 20% is fine) basmati rice* 1 medium onion ¾ tsp all spice ½ tsp ground cinnamon 2 black cardamom pods (or ½ tsp ground cardamom) ¼ tsp ground nutmeg ¼ tsp ground clove ¼ tsp ground cumin beef or chicken stock 1 tbs olive oil large knob of butter couple of handfuls of frozen peas handful of coriander (optional) *I measure my rice in a measuring jug so I know exactly how much liquid to add. I put in rice up to the 300ml mark and then I put in a little over double the amount of water/stock – around 700-750ml.
Start by finely chopping the onion. Then measure out your spices and keep them aside.
Next heat the olive oil in a fairly deep pan and add the chopped onions. Stir the onions until they soften and turn a very light brown. Add in the minced lamb to brown making sure that any clumps of meat are broken down. (These steps can be done a few hours in advance so I usually do this in the afternoon making the dish even quicker to put together at dinner time.)
If you’ve browned the lamb mince in advance, just heat it up first. Add the knob of butter and once melted throw in all your spices and really mix it well so that they are spread through the lamb. Add the rice and peas and give it all another very good mix. Add your hot stock, bring to the boil and let it all boil for a minute or two, turn down heat to low, cover and simmer for around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the rice as it’s done once the water has all evaporated. But make sure all the water has gone and it’s dry – if the rice is even a little wet it will be soggy and not as enjoyable. Often the rice at the bottom of the pan will burn a bit which makes that rice go crispy – this is the best bit of the dish so don’t throw it away, eat it!
I like to garnish with chopped coriander but that’s not essential. I usually have this with a simple red onion salad. Just thinly sliced red onions, sliced cucumbers and chopped coriander mixed together with a bit of salt, pepper and a ¾ teaspoon of vinegar.
This spiced Lebanese rice with mince lamb is a yummy little dish. If you give it a go, it may just become a weekly favourite as it’s become in our home. And the best bit is that not only is it a quick mid-week family dinner to put together, but you also have everything in one pot. This quantity comfortably feeds the three of us leaving a good amount leftover and this rice dish tastes even more delicious the next day.
Ebabee Likes is a style guide for babies, kids, teens and their mamas. It’s all about inspiration, ideas and indulging yourself and your brood. It’s written by me ~ Nomita ~ a style loving girl from Mumbai who now live’s in London. Read More...
