Happy Birthday Max

It's hard to believe that our little Max turns 1 tomorrow.  To celebrate his first year, Harry and I recently created this little chair for him for his bedroom.  Being quite small, it is actually the perfect size for him to climb up onto. I bought the vintage chair for a very small sum and then had it recovered in a plain white canvas.  Harry then drew all over it with fabric felt pens.  On the back I have written a special little note to him.  We also wrote his date of birth and a few of his favourite sounds on the chair too.  I hope it is something he cherishes and keeps forever.



PS.  If anyone is going to try this I would advise ironing the chair after you have drawn on it so as to seal the ink onto the fabric.

A Child's Favourite Thing

I was recently reminded how important it is, not only for an adult, but for a child to have one or numerous special favourite things. Over Easter I read a lovely paragraph in the book Home by Anita Kaushal;


You’ll never know which thing will become the best-loved, can’t-do-without, the night-time necessity. It might be a hand-stitched hand-me-down, a bright new soft toy, or a well-used blanket. Whatever they choose, it will mean security to your children and bring a sense of personal belonging and wellbeing. And you’ll end up treasuring it almost as much as they do.

Our Harry has a special ‘can’t-do-without’ friend he affectionately refers to as Duckie. Duckie was found on Harry’s first Easter Egg Hunt when he was 1 and has remained his most-loved and most treasured cuddly friend who {not so much these days now that he is a big brave 7 year old} would accompany us absolutely everywhere. There has been many a tear-filled night when we have driven onto the barge to go to our house at Stradbroke for the weekend and it was discovered that Duckie was not on board!

Due to major concerns from all that Duckie might one-day disintegrate, he has only had 3 baths in his lifetime - a drop into the washing machine and then a dash in the clothes dryer – always fearful that the opening up of the dryer door might just reveal the absolute end of Duckie. The slightest sign of wear and tear anywhere on Duckie signals Brad’s mother to quickly whip out the sewing basket. Complete relief is thankfully restored once she has worked her magic on our special duck.

We have all {my parents and my brothers and brad’s parents and of course Brad & I} loved Duckie just as much as Harry…well almost as much as Harry!

I think it is wonderful to encourage our children to embrace the love of a special thing. Just like we have special things which we keep and hold onto {something I have talked a great deal about here on ABT}, a child should feel the comfort and re-assurance of having their very own special things around them. With this in mind, I think we should decorate a child's room filled with the special things they love and encourage them to collect, collect, collect!!

It makes me wonder what it will be that our next child treasures. What special thing can’t your little one live without?

Here are some little cuddly creatures I placed into a nursery I decorated for some clients a while ago. I wonder whether their little boy now treasures any of these little friends we placed into his cot before he was born?!

An old photo of Harry with his treasured Duckie...

image 1,2,3 - via children's spaces from zero to ten and babies rooms zero to three by judith wilson, image 4 - via interior divine blog

Dorm Room

As much as I do love the look of a gorgeous bunk room, I have found that bunk beds really are such a pain to make. Lately I have been preferring the look of a large dorm room with rows of single beds like the picture above. I love the lidded basket placed at the end of each bed - perfect for storing each person's clothes in. I personally would be much happier making these beds instead of numerous bunk beds.

image - cote maison via aged & gilded

Children's Bedroom Series

I have been thoroughly enjoying the posts Amanda has been running on children's rooms. She has been interviewing a few blogger's children and posting some photos of their rooms which has been so much fun! My Harry was one of the children to be interviewed about his room HERE. Thanks for asking us to be involved Amanda and I can't wait to see who's room is next!!

image - house beautiful via swish & swanky