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Four fabulous tipi corners

January 12, 2015

Ages ago I bought a large cardboard igloo for Anya. I had stored it away and completely forgotten about it until we moved house a month ago. As soon as she spotted it, she wanted to put it up and so we did over the Christmas holidays. This igloo has become her favourite little space in the whole house. She reads in there, plays in there, hides in there and even takes her quilt and pillow and has a little rest in there. Of course any kid loves a ‘secret’ hiding place and this igloo has so reminded me of that. Actually I don’t think you can ever be too young or too old to want a little hiding place! So when we do up Anya’s room in our new home, I know that I will be creating a tipi corner for her. While the igloo is lovely it is very large so a tipi will be far more practical as it doesn’t take up nearly much room. With that in mind, I went looking for some tipi corner inspiration and here are my favourites:

I love the simplicity of this teepee and the way it has been decorated in shades of white and black with just a simple string of lights. This might be for a kids room but it would look equally great in a living space if you wanted to create a cosy corner for all the family to enjoy.

This is such a gorgeous and girly room and the dusty pink teepee just adds to the feminine vibes of the room. I love how most of the room is white but the pink teepee just adds that splash of colour.

While I always think I prefer plain coloured fabrics, it’s when I see prints and patterns mixed like this that I start re-thinking. I love this printed teepee that looks so great with all the other patterns surrounding it. This space works perfectly for a boy or girl so would be great for a shared room.

Teepee’s aren’t actually that hard to make so you could make your own and then mix and match a range of fabrics like they’ve done on this one above. These pretty floral fabrics look great all together especially against the geometric rug and cushions.

Even if your child’s room doesn’t have space for a teepee, I really would be tempted to put one in a shared family space like a corner of the living room. I think once we get Anya’s room done with a teepee in there, it won’t be just her using it – I can picture me spending hours in there playing games with her or just reading books to her. Do you have a teepee in your home?

Image credits: 1. coos-je | 2. detailed factory | 3. nynneetliloujos | 4. momo design

The secret to sticking to your resolutions

January 9, 2015

Each year I make some resolutions (or goals which is the word I prefer) either for my work or perosnal life or most often for both. But in all honesty, come March/April they are long forgotten and or at least I haven’t stuck to them. This year I want things to be different. There are of course changes I want to make but I need to find a way to stick to them. When I started thinking about this last week and wondering how I could be better at sticking to my goals, it suddenly hit me as to where I was going wrong. In the past I’ve sat down and made a general list (either on paper or in my head) of big changes I want to make, without much thought given to how I was going to make these changes. After a while these changes can start to feel overwhelming and I would mostly end up not pursuing them at all.

One of my goals for this blog is to mix the content up a bit more. While I don’t plan to stop featuring gorgeous kids stuff, I want to add more DIY, recipes, personal family experiences, my own styled shoots etc. This can feel like a big task (especially with a huge house renovation project coming up and my new shop to add to my normal workload) because creating more of my own content will take time. As an example, an idea for one post struck me today. In the past this idea would have been added to a list, I would have tried to plan how I’m going to do this along with other stuff over the course of the year, where I’ll find time, trying to put a list of ideas together for the year – no more. I took the simple step of emailing the brand that I wanted to collaborate with and that’s it for today. When (and if) they come back to me, I shall take the next little step. It might seem like the obvious thing to do but I know that I definitely wasn’t doing it right in the past.

So this year my resolutions don’t look anything like big, huge things to accomplish. Instead I have a rough idea of the big picture in my head but that is not my focus at all. My focus is doing at least one small thing each day that will over the period of the year, add up to my big goals. I am not going spend time thinking about the big end goal but all I want to think about is what is that one little thing I can do today. That’s it – just one small step every day.

After one year I shall see if this little daily method works for me or not. Have you made goals for the year? Do you usually stick to them? If you do, I’d love to hear how you manage to make it happen. Maybe you already do one small thing each day?

{words from goodvibe.co}

Quirky and fun activity books

January 8, 2015

While Christmas shopping for Anya I came across these kids activity books which literally jumped out at me possibly because of their striking black and neon colours. I picked up one and had a quick flick through and thought it looked pretty good. So I bought it for her and she has loved it. We got the orange ‘Definitely not for chickens’ one which is full of drawing puzzles, number activities, memory games and lots more. Some pages are easier than others but all offer pretty engaging things to do. There are five different books in total each with different puzzles and activities.

Apart from being really fun for kids, these quirky Totally Twisted Puzzle books are nicely illustrated and use the same colour scheme inside and on the cover making it all very striking to look at. I’m planning to get another one once Anya has gone through the first one. It’s been a great book to take along when you need your child to be entertained (rather than giving them an ipad/iphone). Recently while planning our house renovation, we’ve had to spend hours at kitchen/bathroom/flooring shops and this book has been the thing we’ve taken along to keep Anya occupied. I also love these books to give as party favours or small gifts.

Sweet and stylish polka dot bedding

January 7, 2015

Character themed or over colourful kids and baby bedding just doesn’t do it for me. I personally prefer children’s bedding to be as simple and minimal as possible but that doesn’t mean it has to be just black and white. I totally appreciate that a few carefully chosen colours thrown in can work really well. That’s why I’m loving this new collection of baby and kids bedding from Australia. Tiny little polka dots in charcoal or neon pink adorn the sheets which are complimented with a beautiful two-tone blanket. There’s also a sheet with little yellow hearts that is quite adorable for baby boy or girl. And then for older kids you’ve got the dotty sheets with matching duvets which can also be paired with the two-tone blankets. Very simple, very classy.

Apart from these stylish bedding sets for kids, also on offer are some unusual and fun prints. What I love most about the prints is that they really are for any age – from little babies to adults. Many of the prints compliment the bedding sets really well or would be a great way to add pops of colour to an all white nursery or kids room. Of all I think I’m loving that quirky dog print and the charcoal polka dot linen is just lovely too. In fact I would be tempted to go with both together for a boys room.

Merry Merry and Happy happy!

December 24, 2014

Dear readers,

Wishing you and your families a happy and joyful Christmas full of love and laughter. I hope you are all surrounded by your loved ones and have a warm and happy festive break.

Thank you all for your wonderful support this year. Not just with the blog but with my new shop too. Personally for me, this year has had some ups and downs but it has also been a big year in many ways – new shop and new home. I hope to grow my shop in 2015 and of course continue with this blog with new ideas, collaborations and inspiration.

Once again thank you for coming here everyday and for all your likes, comments and love on facebook too. I will be taking a break to spend some time with my family and will see you back here on January 5th. But there will be some exciting shop news in between so keep a look out for that.

Happy, happy 2015 to you all!

– nomita xx

A very simple Christmas DIY: Tree garland

December 23, 2014

Do you remember my DIY mini forest advent calendar? Well, I had all those mini origami trees floating around so I had to do something with them. With our recent house move, I knew there would be no tree this year but I did have 24 of these mini trees which I wasn’t ready to get rid of just yet. So I decided to simply make a little mini tree garland.

If you’re starting from scratch you’ll have to make the origami tree’s first of course. But after that it’s really simple. All you need is a needle and thread and just string the trees together at the top. Super easy, peasy! I had the green trees from my advent calendar but you could easily make the garland in any colour you like – perhaps a black and white one or even a gold one. Alternatively these little trees could also become tree ornaments – again just thread from the top and hang from your big tree.

What else would you use these little trees for? Name place holders? Table decorations? Anything else?

{all photos by ebabee}

Four easy Christmas crafts for kids

December 19, 2014

Christmas is the perfect time for crafting. It’s cold outside, the holidays are on and so it’s a great way to keep the kids entertained. My preference is always for quick and easy crafts. Anything too involved and I find that the kids patience wears thin and the crafts don’t get finished. So with that in mind I’ve picked four fun and colourful crafts most of which come with free printables too.

1. How cute are those printable Christmas crackers? The printable templates also come as blank ones so they’re great to give to the kids and let them decorate as they wish.

2. I’m loving these playful DIY birch Christmas tree ornaments. For these you will need to buy the birch rounds or improvise with something else like thick cardboard. And then decorate as you wish – with stickers or drawings or both.

3. These printable tree and gingerbread pouches come undecorated so you can print on to colourful paper or plain paper and decorate. These shapes can be used for so many things – storing little treats, making hanging ornaments, gift tags and so much more.

4. A cute little printable geometric snowman that even comes with a hat. This little snowman can be used on it’s own as a decoration or if you print quite a few, it would make a super cute table decoration on Christmas day. You could even use it for place names – just write each persons name on the hat.

Have a great weekend all! Enjoy the happy, cheerful, festive atmosphere which is the thing I love the most about Christmas.

P.S. Today is the last day for UK Christmas orders from our kids clothing shop.

Stunning simplicity

December 18, 2014

Everywhere you turn, it’s all about Christmas. So today I wanted to take a break from all the festive chatter and share these gorgeous dresses for girls. Clean, understated pieces that can be worn for any occasion. From one of my favourite high street stores, these dresses could not be simpler or more stunning. Anya has last years version of the orange and pink block dress (the skirt part was black last year) and whenever she wears it the compliments don’t stop coming. This year I’ve got my eye on the bright blue bubble dress although the black dress with the pink collar is so striking in it’s simplicity. Styles like this really speak to me because I’m not a fan of too much fuss and embellishment but more importantly I think dresses like this really allow the child wearing them to shine rather than detracting from the child. What do you think? Too simple or simply stunning?

Free printable Chrismas gift tags

December 17, 2014

Every year I share some of the best free printable Christmas gift tags from around the web. This year I had every intention of designing my own but I didn’t plan on moving house, celebrating Anya’s birthday, launching a new venture and having Christmas all so close together! I guess my own designs will have to wait until next year but there are some amazing free gift tags to be had out there so I’ve picked my favorites. If you’re one of the last minute types like me (still to buy Christmas gifts!) then these labels will come in handy next week as you can just print at the very last minute and they’re way cooler and so much more unique then standard shop bought ones.

Store those toys in style!

December 15, 2014

With Anya’s birthday in December and then Christmas, the build-up of toys, games and gifts is endless in this house. We gather more stuff in December than the rest of the year combined! So I’m always looking for ways to store all her ~~junk~~ new belongings. I am partial to toy storage sacks as not only do they look stylish but it’s oh so easy to tidy up – just throw all the toys and mess in to them and you’ve tidied up in minutes. Here are a few toy storage sacks I’m loving at the moment and having a hard time choosing between. Many of them come in different designs and colours so just check out the links to see more. And any of them would be great to store all the new Christmas goodies: