Lila's whimsical nursery

Lila's eclectic, whimsical nursery

This was my little girls nursery. 

When we found out we were expecting a girl, well to say I was overjoyed would be a serious, serious understatement. I think I kind of went into shock a little! I wanted a little girl so desperately but I had myself convinced that the baby was another boy. I had been buying extra little boys clothes, designing a boys nursery and even referring to my bump as 'Max' our choice for a boys name at the time. And I was so looking forward to having another little boy, and for Marley to have a little brother. 

I remember the moment the sonographer told us it was a girl. I didn't believe her. I asked her to check again. I asked her what chances she had of being wrong. I asked her if she had gotten it wrong before. Thankfully Paul was there to give me a gentle 'shut-up-I-think-you-are-offending-her-nudge'. I sat in the waiting room afterwards in complete and utter bewilderment. I just couldn't believe we could be so lucky. One of each, it seemed too good to be true!! 

I had so many different ideas for what to do for her nursery. I initially started going for a really vintage look but my taste is so eclectic and I knew it would be hard for me to stick to one era or theme. 

Lila's nursery was a real mix of modern pieces, vintage finds and DIY. 

Her cot and change table were both sourced locally via ebay. 

The replica eames rocker I bought online.

The vintage dressing table was purchased from a second-hand antiques dealer. 

The bedding, cushions, bunting, fabric pom-poms, and fabric-covered boxes were all DIY projects of mine. 

Expedit unit from Ikea

Lila's room evolved as she grew older. When she learned how to climb out of her cot and kamikaze it to the floor, we thought we had better move her into a big girl bed. 

Lila's big girl bed with bedding from Spotlight

This gorgeous vintage iron bed was sourced from Gumtree. I love this bed! It is such a divine bed for a little girl. The doona cover set was a bargain at Spotlight for only $29.95!  However, I have bundles and bundles of fabric ready and waiting for me to get started on her rag quilt. Hopefully it will be ready by next winter....

Sadly, this gorgeous little room exists no more. A few months ago we made the decision to move both of our children into Lila's room so that Marley's room could be used as a shared playroom and office space.

 

I'm hoping to finish both rooms over the summer....hoping!

Lisa xx

Lila's 1st Birthday-Wizard of Oz

Our little girl turned one in December last year. Now, I'm a lady that likes my themes. When I say like, I mean LOVE and I tend to go a little overboard. Lila's 1st birthday was no exception! 

I am however, a lady on a budget and really cant justify paying money to someone to do something for me that I could easily make/bake/create/decorate myself!

I love DIY. I love getting creative. I don't love the hours and hours and constant stream of late nights leading up to these parties but I just.cant.help.myself!

So, for Lila's first birthday I went all out...within a budget.

The invitation really set the theme

Wizard of Oz 1st Birthday Invitation

From there, I had to cull the millions of ideas I had running around inside my head into just a few. That was hard. VERY hard!

I knew I wanted Lila to be dressed as Dorothy so I set to work designing and making her costume. 

The birthday girl in her DIY Dorothy costume

I'm only a beginner sewer so the quality is probably terrible, but she looked cute on the day and that was the main thing!

Dorothy Costume from the back

For Lila's costume I made her a little apron out of some gingham fabric I bought at Spotlight.
I loosely followed this tutorial from The Dating Divas I then added a little white trim to the edges and a red sequinned letter 'L' to the front. 
I also made her a little blue tutu to go under the apron from this tutorial I found at 
The Idea Room.
 Her 'ruby red slippers' were from Pumpkin Patch and the little red hair bow I think from Big W? 

Unfortunately on the day she wasn't feeling very well so we didn't get many pictures of her smiling. Poor little poppet. 

PARTY DETAILS

THEME

Wizard of Oz

INVITATIONS

little house inspired.

as pictured above.

VENUE

Our house

DECORATIONS

'Somewhere over the rainbow' balloon backdrop with DIY birthday bunting made from doilies, blue card and red cut-out letters

DIY witches legs decoration-red shoes from op shop, and children's striped tights stuffed
with newspaper and placed under the the kids cubby house

We also had a 'follow the yellow brick road'. We made this from yellow A3 card which we taped to the floor in our house leading guests from the front door through to the back deck where the party was. BUT we forgot to take a photo of it. 

PARTY FOOD

CAKE

Wizard of Oz Birthday Cake

Handmade fondant Wizard of Oz characters

CUPCAKES

Red velvet 'Ruby Slipper' cupcakes

Rainbow cupcakes with DIY cupcake toppers to match the bunting

COOKIES

Sparkly ruby red number 1 sugar cookies

Toto sugar cookies

OTHER SWEET TREATS

Tin Man's heart chocolates

Sparkly red cake pops

I am yet to find a nice looking way to display my cake pops without them having to lay down or knock each other over.....

PARTY GAMES/ACTIVITIES

DIY Pin-the-heart on the tin man game.

Somewhere over the rainbow...number 1 pinata

We also had a face painter for all the kids. However, instead of ending up with 'lions and tigers and bears oh my' we ended up with 'skeletons, and spider-mans and fairies oh my'!?! Still, very cute and lots of fun though.

LOLLY BAGS

lolly bags with DIY thank you tags, string and sparkly
 red bows for the girls bags and gingham bows for the boys.

So, that was Lila's first birthday. As I mentioned in my previous post on Marleys 3rd birthday train party , this year we are having a joint birthday party for the kids. I figure this is probably the only year we will get away with doing it. They are still young enough to let me choose the theme, although Marley required quite alot of persuasion and compromise this year, Lila really has no idea. She loves playing with her dolls but that is all she is really into. She doesnt really watch TV so I have so far escaped anything 'Dora' or 'Disney Princess' themed. I am going to enjoy that while it lasts!

Until then, my plan is to keep updating this blog with a few more parties we have already had including Marley's Under the Sea 1st birthday party, his Teddy Bear's Picnic 2nd birthday party and my husbands Wild West 30th. 

Lisa xx

Lila's Christening Day-Pretty bird Cages

Lila was christened in July last year when she was 6 months old. I actually cant believe to look at her now that she was only a baby last year. Where does the time go!!??

I was so excited to finally have a little girl and be able to plan really girly,  pretty parties! After much searching, I finally found the perfect invitation for her special day at paper posy and from there; the bird cage theme was set.

Normally I like to do my own invitations but because I had Marley’s christening invite professionally designed, I wanted to do the same with Lila’s.

PARTY DETAILS

THEME

Pretty bird cages

VENUE

The local catholic church and our house for the celebration

INVITATIONS

Paper posy 'Vintage' Design 

Lila's Christening Invitation by Paper Posy

DECORATIONS

Wire bird cages-some we borrowed and some I already owned. 

Paper bird cages- the most gorgeous little etsy store-Little Retreats  

Little Retreats

Little Retreats

Little Retreats

Little Retreats

White wooden and ceramic birds-Typo and Target

Floral fabric table cloth-Spotlight

Name blocks- I ordered them through a little store on Ebay but can not remember the name or find the details!

CAKE

little house inspired.

I wanted to do something a little different with this cake and use buttercream to decorate for the texture. It didn't  turn out as nicely as I would of hoped but it was still cute. To quote my husband 'Its not  your best work is it?' Men!

CUPCAKES & COOKIES ETC

little house inspired. 

Cupcakes-Vanilla with buttercream coloured posies 

Cookies-sugar birdie cookies with fondant and gel icing decoration

Stay tuned for my next post on Lila's 1st birthday Wizard of Oz party...

Lisa xx

Marley's 3rd Birthday-Choo Choo Train Party

My little man Marley turned 3 last year and to celebrate, we had a train themed party at this gorgeous little miniature train place. 

The day could not have been more perfect, the weather was perfect and everybody had such a great time, adults and kids alike! Admittedly, I was completely exhausted after spending night after night getting everything ready, but it was all worth it in the end. He is turning 4 this Friday and everyone keeps asking me if we can have his party at the same train place again!

I was too busy enjoying the party to get some really great blog-worthy photos but a friend of mine did manage to get some good ones for me.

PARTY DETAILS:

THEME

Trains! Blue, turquoise and red colour scheme.

VENUE

Morphett Vale Railway, South Australia 

INVITATIONS

little house inspired.

Train ticket invitation

I wanted the invites to look like train tickets but still be fun and personalized with his photo and in keeping with the colour scheme.

Thank 'choo'  thank you tags

Name labels for lolly bags

Cupcake circle toppers

DECORATIONS

Happy birthday banner and tissue paper pom poms-little house inspired. (and helpers!)

other round lantern thingys (?) were from Martha Stewart's party range at Spotlight

Balloons-Spotlight Sparty’s

Train decorations-Ikea

CAKE

little house inspired.

Marley's 3rd Birthday Train Cake

The cake was two tiers (bottom tier dark chocolate mud, top tier caramel mud). I like to have fun with my cakes and create a bit of a story with them, particularly for children's cakes. The bottom tier was covered in 'grass' (piped buttercream) and the top tier was a little landscape setting with a 'tunnel' carved in to it. I made the fondant train topper a few weeks in advance.

CUPCAKES & COOKIES ETC

little house inspired.

vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. The lolly train decorations I made the night before by cutting up various licorice lollies and 'gluing' them together with leftover icing.

I also made train shaped cookies using a train shaped cookie cutter and red and blue cake pops with number 3's on them.  

Train and Number 3 Cupcakes

well that was Marley's 3rd birthday. This year, I am combining both birthdays into one party in the middle of both their birthdays (November 18th).

We first considered 'Neverland' as the theme, but Marley is just not into the tights *sigh*. We then fell in love with the Lorax movie so decided that would be our theme but then I thought, being the middle of November it would be so nice just to get all our friends and family down the beach together so....beach party it is!

Lisa xx

Hello, hello

Wow, talk about procrastination! Ive been putting off starting this blog for months simply because I had no idea what to write for that dreaded first post! What should I say? How should I say it? Do people even care for what I have to say? Do I care if people care or dont care about what I have to say?? ?????????
But hey, Im here now, typing away as the thoughts roll out my head through to my fingertips and hit these keys.

So,,,,,,,,
Im reluctant to make any sort of crazy promises that I will post every day or even every week for that matter. Im b.u.s.y! I have two children, Marley is 3 and a half, Lila is 16 months old.

Yeh, so what I here you say, millions of people have two kids! Hmmm, but im also notoriously unorganised and untidy and when you throw in two littlies, a husband who works ALL THE TIME, our own small business and my tafe studies, it leaves little time for everything else.


BUT, I will endeavour to keep this blog going. I have a kazillion ideas and projects that I want to do and I want somewhere to chronicle everything in the one place. And hey, if you happen to like something I have done and it steers you in my direction, awesome-welcome!

So what will you find here?

• Our own little house's projects and reno details
• Lots of inspiration from other 'little houses'
• Crafty and sewing projects
• lots of cake and cupcake decorating!!
• party planning and styling
• lots of interior design and decoration inspiration
• lots of pics and funny stories of my gorgeous, cheeky, crazy kids. They are my life after all.
• and Im sure my husband will get a look in from time to time as well

Let's get started then!

Lisa xx