{it's raining letters}

You might have noticed, we've gone a bit alphabet crazy around here. Two weeks ago, I was grumbling my way through Elmo's utterly incoherent volume of ABCs, when Tilly suddenly pointed to the letter A and said "A". In all the surprised cheering and dancing that following, we must have happened upon an ancient tribal rain dance, because suddenly letters started pouring from the ceiling...

... drenching Tilly's room in learning goodness, with a pop of colour.

So far, she's got "A" and "O" down, and with a bit of prompting can show you the "B" and "Q", too. What, you're meant to learn them in order? 

And by the way, this is the new paint job we finished back in the autumn that I never put up photos of.

Greyish.

That's really what it's called -- nothing about moonbeams, thunder or stone. It has the most amazing power to make the room lighter when you want it light, darker when you want a certain someone to go to sleep, and is just warm enough of a colour without having any tint of anything. So, phew, all those hours of staring mindlessly at paint samples taped to the walls weren't in vain.

And since we're doing a bit of a room tour, here are two prints I framed and hung above the changing table.



If you've ever met (and, therefore, been roared at by) Tilly, you'll know that she's all about the animals (seriously, she was making monkey noises for months before she bothered to learn to say "mama"). So, I tried to find as many animals as would fit onto two A4 pieces of paper. Would you believe, her favourite is the shark, and she sings the music from Jaws in his honour -- duh dun, duh dun...

{oh happy grey}

Just a little note to say hello. And that we haven't fallen off the face of the globe. It has been painting week here, and we've been busy to-doing, unscrewing, spackling, de-crackling, stirring, concurring, drilling, filling, second-coating, and then doting on Tilly's newly grey room.

No photos of the actual room yet -- Tilly is in bed woofing (hopefully a pre-nap woof) -- and so I'll give you a couple of photos of rooms I'd pinned for inspiration. And yes, patient Pinterest followers, all of the pins simply titled "grey walls" will now stop, I promise. (Well, until we do the kitchen...)

1. Buymodernbaby 2. The Good Report 3. Tarpapercrane

P.S. Thanks to all of you who are joining in with the Advent Tea Swap! It's now closed, but if you'd like to arrange a swap of your own with family and friends, I'd be happy to share a tip or two if you drop me an email. 

{outlook: cloudy}

Where I grew up, it was cloudy 364 days of the year. Grey clouds, black clouds, it's-about-to-rain, oh-wait-it-is-raining clouds. Even on sunny days, there were wispy white clouds, which often produced rain by the afternoon. But Texas is almost cloudless. There are a few days of ominous monsoon thunder clouds, and then the blue sky is wiped clean.

All that to say, I'm a bit cloud crazy at the moment. Whether it's missing the familiar clouds of England, or just feeling the need for soft fluffy things to lounge around with, I'm loving the way something wet and drizzly can become bright and beautiful. 

Cloud rugs, Geometric cloud, Rainbow cloud, Red drops cushion, Wooden clouds, Doily cloud

A New Take On An Old Favourite

Ever since Spool created their free bird mobile pattern, everyone with a needle and a baby has been sewing birdie upon birdie from fabric scraps. 

The original Spool mobile:

I started making a mobile for Tilly last winter using their pattern, and yesterday, it finally hung above her bed. Now, I made a few changes to the design, for a few reasons. Firstly, because I got sick and tired of sewing birds. Yes, it's a simple pattern, but hand-stitching fiddly, fraying, curved-pieces of cotton is not my cup of tea. Give me felt any day. So, sewing four birds is all I could bear. And secondly, because I do not trust my branch-balancing skills enough to put sharp pointy wooden "spears" above Tilly's bed. Forget SIDS, I'd be worried about SIKS (Sudden Infant Kebab Syndrome).

So, my birdies perch comfortably on embroidery hoops, each swinging at his own pace. I don't think anyone has ever had an organ pierced by an embroidery hoop.

Tilly is fascinated by her new birdie friends... perhaps too much so. When she woke me up this morning, it was because she was tired. I have a feeling she'd been up for an hour or so already, just happily staring at her birds!

Bunting

You might remember, I was very inspired by beautiful bunting hung in nurseries. It's a lovely way of adding colour and patterns.

You might also remember Justin's reaction to the idea: "But it reminds me of used-car dealers!"

With another day at home, and a little more energy than usual, I couldn't resist giving it a try. And though fabric flags look lovely and hang beautifully, my lack of pinking shears plus my lack of motivation to hem edges led me to use some brightly patterned scrapbook paper, instead! I simply took squares of 12" by 12" paper, and cut diagonally down from each top corner to the centre of the bottom edge to make the triangular flag shape.

The letters of her name are cut from plain brown paper, and glued on. Then, little holes are punched out along the tops of the flags, and a piece of long string threaded through. (I taped the string to the back of the flags to prevent them all sliding together).

Oh, and Justin approves. "It's nothing like a car lot," he assured me. High praise, indeed!

We thought Tilly might be on her way last night, with an hour or two of stronger contractions, but I guess it was just a bit of practice! And though we're so eager to meet her, we did enjoy a nice full night's sleep last night instead, which seems like more and more of a blessing each day!

Here Comes the Circus

For a while now, friends and family have been asking me over and over again, "What theme are you going to have for your nursery?" And for a long time, I had no answer.

I mean, I love colour. People had suggested I just pick a colour, and make that my theme. But how to pick? I love red, of course, but don't think that has quite the calming vibe a nursery needs as the only colour. I love yellow, I love pink, I love orange, I love turquoise. I love them alone, I love them all together!

Plus, I want to have lots of animals around. Where does that fit in to a colour theme? I was really actually starting to hate the word 'theme', and beginning to empathise with all the students working on literature essays I see, who ask, "What even is a theme?"

But then it hit me. A way to tie it all together. The circus!

Circuses have colour. Lots of colour! All the colours I like, with none of the pastelly sage-greens and lavenders that give me the creeps a bit. Circuses have bunting. Circuses have animals by the dozen!

So, I think I've got it figured out. All the design websites tell expectant mothers to have one item that really captures what they want in the room, and proceed to match everyone else to that. I feel like for me, that item is this Alexander Henry fabric (above), spotted on etsy.

Tilly will be a Tiger, after all!

Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5