How to design a perfect nursery!!

Hello. I know I've been gone a while but I'm in the last few days of my pregnancy and I'm pretty uncomfortable. I thought you might like one last post so I can share my favourite room in the house - the baby's nursery!

First of all, I had to pick a colour scheme.

My choices were dictated by the green carpet that was already in the room so I kinda had to work around that! That meant that blue was out of the question so I took inspiration from one of the Mamas and Papas ranges and went for spring green, yellow, red and orange.

The cot mobile was one of the first things we bought (as it was in the sale!!) and then we found the cot bedding (also in the sale ) that seemed to match. I won't put in links to every item as, well, everything was in the sale and probably is no longer available! What can I say? I love a bargain!

Then I upcycled furniture I already had.

We had a pine storage chest which is now being used as a toy box (and happens to be the right height to double up as a changing table) and a pine chest of drawers which I painted to match the colour scheme!

I bought some cheap tester pots in the right colours and had some white paint left over from doing the walls.Then I simply painted each drawer in a different colour. The wall stickers were a bargain buy from Kiddicare in one of their many sales and will give the baby something to look at whilst I change him!

Wall stickers and free printable wall art really brightened up the room and are a good option if you rent a home like we do. Luckily, my landlord is super nice and doesn't have an issue with us decorating so 2 of the walls in the room are "pedal pusher" yellow!

We got the cot from Ikea and managed to get £10 off by timing it right and having an 'Ikea family card.' The mattress was from a website called Precious Little Ones who often have good prices on bedding and will give 5% off if you sign up for their emails.

Calming lighting is a must in a nursery as you don't want to turn on super bright lights in the middle of the night! The yellow, cloud pendant was from Ikea.

(The floating shelf in the background was another good buy from Ikea.)

I'm a big fan of anything retro so the other light in the room is an orange globe that I bought years ago when our local Habitat closed down. It sits on 2 vintage G Plan tables that I got for free from outside our local charity shop!

I wanted his room to be cosy so he has a big pile of blankets at the ready - some of which have been handmade by me, my mum and my friend.Handmade is just better!

I got his moses basket from Ebay - it's originally from Mothercare. He has 2 sleeping bags with beautiful, embroidered designs from Sainsburys - only £12 each which is a lot cheaper than the branded Grobags ones. A top tip is to wait for Sainsburys to do one of their '20% off' TU clothing weeks. Bargain!

The final purchase was a pair of blackout curtains which I bought online from Woolworths. I then bought some pom pom trim (about 4 metres) from Hobby Craft which I used as tie backs! It's all in the details.....

And finally, we bought some funky toys in matching colours.

The rattles were bought in the Kiddicare sale, Ewan the sheep is a best selling, musical and light up toy, and the dinosaur and teddy bear were hand crocheted by me! They were definitely a labour of love, I can tell you!

Well, I hope you like it! As I said, it's my favourite room in the house and I can't wait for my little baby to come out so he can give his seal of approval!

If you want any links to anything you see (from furniture to printable art to crochet patterns) then just leave me a comment and I'll do my best to reply.

Wish me luck!!!

The "Doing It In Style" baby and wedding!

Hi! So I know I said I wouldn't be gone long......and then 2 months went past. My bad.

But I'm back now and I'll let you know what's been going on in the easiest way - photos!

"Bump" has been growing steadily. He's 29 and a half weeks old today and he moves a lot! I'm starting to get quite uncomfortable and I've still got ten weeks to go. I'm due to finish work on the 31st of December so I can start the new year focusing on the little one.

We went for a 4d private scan at 28 weeks which was AMAZING! He is so cute :)  
He had his arms and legs in front of his face and wouldn't move even after a walk around so we get to go again next week for a free re-scan. It's my birthday next week so I have some time off. I can't wait to see him again! We have picked out names for him but we're keeping it all hush hush....

Oh, and I also got married! My wedding day was absolutely perfect and we had a great honeymoon in Corfu. This is one of my favourite pictures of the two of us:

Our photographer Kimberley Garrod was simply amazing. We love her.

Being married feels good. I wouldn't say anything much has changed except that I feel even more lucky to have found someone to spend my life with.

We can't wait to see our little son......watch this space and I may even come back at some point! (But this time, I'm not promising anything!)

Pregnancy week 20 - it's a boy!

It's been a busy but exciting week this week.... ! We had our 20 week scan and found out that we will be having a boy. I immediately said "I told you so!" to my fiancé - I just had an instinct.

Also, next Wednesday, I will be getting married and then hopefully going on a honeymoon so planning has hit the crucial, stressful stage. What am I saying? The whole planning thing has been stressful! Pregnancy and wedding planning should NOT be mixed.

The problem has been not having many days off to go before the big day and suddenly finding that I don't have work trousers that fit and that I need some new bras. Cue crying in the Marks and Spencers fitting room because I can't get a fitting appointment!!

We went out straight from the scan and bought a few boy specific items..... he now has quite a good sized wardrobe to wear! (The items from Gap I didn't buy...they turned up at the flat I lived in 6 years ago and went unclaimed so they will finally get some use!)

My bump has grown quite considerably this week. I invested in some black skinnies from New Look, some tights and a top from the H and M Mama range and some pj's from Primark with bunnies on which are frankly awesome.
Here's what I've been wearing:

Dressing for the dropping temperatures.

Trying to find clothes for work.

Summer clothing for the honeymoon.

So as it's all go for the next few weeks, you might not hear from me until I get back.

Enjoy autumn whilst I soak up the sun!!!

Pregnancy week 17 and a half!

Wow, I am such a slack blogger!
Well, you try being pregnant and planning a wedding and working full time and then see if you have time to blog!

My time has mostly been spent constructing fiddly favour boxes, varnishing favour keyrings, checking that everyone has rsvp'd and generally just panicking that my wedding is now only 28 days away!! (which also means that my honeymoon will hopefully be soon after...)

I've also been hanging out at Marks and Spencers. Does that sound random? I really like it there! At the moment, they seem to have sales all the time and the service is really good. They make me feel all warm and valued! I took the opportunity to pick up some gorgeous baby clothes in the sale...

Marks and Spencers sale - jackets £5 each, bibs £3 for a pack of 3.

 As I don't find out the sex of the baby until the 9th of September, I made sure to ask about the returns policy so I could buy both colours!! The jackets are reversible too - so cute!

Last Sunday, we went to our local church to hear our Banns being read (something you do before getting married in church.) This dress still just about fits...!

My bump is almost big enough to use as a table now!

Starbucks caramel macchiato iced coffee - currently on offer at Sainsburys.

You can probably call this an addiction now. I need to have one iced coffee a day. I would drink it all day if I could find a decaf version!

Well, that's week 17.....what have you been up to recently?

Pregnancy week 15 - hello bump!

Well, there wasn't a week 14 because I felt horrible. I thought I would feel ill forever but this week I've been feeling pretty good (touch wood!)

I got loads of wedding stuff done this week....we went bridesmaid dress shopping today and tomorrow I have my make up trial and my dress fitting. Not entirely sure how the dress fitting will go! I might need to panic buy a loose fitting dress in the Monsoon sale!!!!

Here's the 15 week bump:

It depends on what I'm wearing as to how pregnant I look. A PR guy today offered me a sample of the new Parrot Frozen Cocktails, not realising I was preggers! (I did try it - it was amazing.)

I have become addicted to iced coffee over the past 2 weeks. I don't care where it comes from...so far I have tried Costa, Starbucks (from Sainsburys), Marks and Spencers café and Mac. Donalds. I would recommend the Mac Donalds one strangely enough!

A Marks and Spencers Mochafrappe.

In other news, I have been covering myself in anti stretch mark cream and panicking about lack of summer clothing for my honeymoon in a months time! Autumn/ winter clothing in the shops already? Help!

Dream nursery interiors

Evening! I've been off sick today....pregnancy does not agree with me.

I know I'm supposed to be enjoying it but ugh....I just feel ill all the time! Sick, headachy, tired....and no one will give me any sympathy. "Just wait 'til it gets worse" they say. Thanks for that.

Anyway, the only thing I have been enjoying is planning how to turn the second bedroom into a nursery. I have an awkward, green carpet to work with, so I was thinking greys and yellows and greens as a theme. Mamas and Papas do a range called Timbuktales which pretty much sums up what I want!

I made a little collage to give you an idea of the products I'm lusting after:

And here is the room it all needs to fit in:

It's bigger than it looks! This is only half of it really.

The walls are all white but I'm planning to paper that wall behind the bed and maybe get new curtains.

What do you think? Will it work?!

Pregnancy - week 13: The one where I hate on maternity clothes!

Hiya! So I know I said I would blog more.....but I was just sooo tired last week  and I wasn't feeling great. I had a nice, relaxing time at my mum's house in north Wales - here are a few snapshots to show you what I got up to:

That should be Betws-y-Coed...ooops. A beautiful town on the mountains :)

Trout for lunch at the pub and a beautiful house and church.

I can just about still get into some of my clothes and I crocheted my first baby bootie!

My bump is starting to get a little bit bigger so I went to the hassle of looking for some maternity clothes. That proved to be a depressing experience! After trying some ill fitting jeans in New Look and several shapeless dresses, I decided to put the effort in to order some Topshop jeans to the local Topshop store.

Topshop doesn't seem to carry maternity clothing in any of its' regular stores but if you pay an extra £2, you can get your online order delivered to the nearest store (where you can return it too!)
I ordered the Leigh skinny maternity jeans and a blue t-shirt dress (which was hideous) and found the jeans to be super comfy and a good length (you can get a 30inch leg...)

They are expensive at £38 (plus the £2 to order) but I'm planning to wear them all the time. The New Look skinny jeans I tried were rough and baggy on the legs - and generally annoying.

The selection of maternity clothing in high street shops is truly awful and as I'm not a fan of online shopping, the situation is a little desperate!

Anyone got any tips??