my favorite French online shops for babies

Hello everyone, there you go. I have another baby related post for you. I hope you don't get bored with it, but I am only a couple of days away from the delivery and getting a little obsessed... A friend asked me the other day for online shop tips for the decoration of the nursery. I have been online a lot, searching for inspiration and I thought I would share some of my favorite French online shops with you.

1. Smallable:

Smallable is my favorite one - I purchased the baby's bed on grey (which you can see below) as well as some very cute baby's clothes and toys. Smallable is a French shop but they also deliver in many European countries and the website is also available in many languages.

1. Grey cloud Mobile by the BUTTER FLYING | 2. Mobile Mr Magique by JALL AND TOFTA |  3. Cloud carpet by PILPOIL |  4. baby bed by COMBELLE | 5. Miffy light by PAPAMARIA

2. Petit Pan

Petit Pan is not only an online shop. It's a parisian decoration and fabric shop, with a lot of asian influence, vibrant colours and beautiful bamboo accessories. Their collection for babies (accessories and clothes) is really beautiful.

1. White animal head | 2. Mobile | 3. fabric banner | 4. plaid | 5. little blue dragonfly

3. Les enfants du design:

Les enfants du desig - is a great website if you want a stylish nursery. They have a great selection of brands such as the British Donna Wilson, or the designer Seventy tree.

1. Chinese paper lamp | 2. cushion by LUCKY BOY SUNDAY | 3. white pompom | 4. Squirrel by Donna Wilson | 5.Poster by seventytree  | 6. grey cushion by NUMERO 74 | 7. pigeon lamp by Thorsten Van Elten  | 8. cushion Liberty Betsy

I wish you a great afternoon!

xxx

Elodie

Baby love's little nursery

Good morning everyone,As promised several times, today is the day of the big reveal: I will show you the finished baby nursery. Maybe baby love will want to visit it soon! So here is what I did with this room after I decided on the colour scheme and did a virtual moodboard and collected some inspiration on Pinterest. I will start with the main pieces of furniture and show you the little details:

Little black sheep by Jellycat

The grey bed is from the French brand Combelle - I bought it on the French website Smallable, along with a lovely grey changing table and I am very much in love. I picked a grey bed with a lot of cushions and made a padded cot bumper in different shades of blue and grey. The mobile adds some purple to make it a bit more girly, and some animals to make it more fun. Stars as a pattern can be found in the shape of the blue cushion, on the mobile and on the ribbons.

For the first months, baby love will sleep in a French antique crib my parents brought me in July, where my sister used to sleep as a baby 28 years ago.

I found this antique wardrobe in the lovely shop Lieblingszimmer in Hamburg (which by the way just opened an online shop) - and instantly fell in love. I like the fact that the vitrine has also got glass on the side. We didn't want to buy something too babyish and I am not sure that this will stay for ever in baby love's bedroom. I could image it very well later in a dining room for presenting pretty plates and glasses. For the time being, I love the fact that I can enjoy the beautiful clothes my mum made for baby love.

 2. On the walls

The print is by UK illustrator Kerry Layton from her beautiful brand Seventy tree.

The pompoms come from the German website Pompom your life. They are hand-made and they have a great selection of colours to choose from on the website.

I made the pennant banner myself. It's a great way to use little pieces of fabric. I used some Liberty of London art fabric, some Japanese fabric, some fabric by Swedish design Lotta Jansdotter and some French fabric from petit pan. I made a big one that hangs above the bed as well as a mini-version. A tutorial is coming soon on the blog.

I also made the embroidery hoops with Liberty of London of fabric that I showed you previously on the blog. They now hang above the changing table.

I wanted to put some contrasting elements on the night blue painted wall. I decided to go for a wall sticker in silver - I have been a big fan of Shanna Murray and was so happy to finally have a good excuse for ordering one of her stickers. The unicorn head is from the German shop Butlers.

3. The lighting:

4. The little animals:

 5. The little stars:

A big thank you to Jocelyn from the gorgeous blog little room of style for her wonderful photos and to my little assistant Cheddar:

So I hope you liked my little nursery tour. I am looking forward to your feedback. I hope it doesn't look too much like a little boy's nursery with the choice of colours.

xxx Elodie

(c) All photography by Jocelyn Casey and Elodie Love

Pimping Baby Love's clothes - Iron transfer tutorial

Good morning! I am back today with another little DIY tutorial. Last week I presented you my little pink cloud body using stencil printing. Today I want to show you how to pimp baby (and adult of course!) clothes by using iron transfers. I bought these lovely transfers on the Isemarkt in Hamburg from the lovely shop kinder+raum. The designer Evy has got a stand on the market every Tuesday. It is of course also possible to buy the transfers online or in a couple of shops in Hamburg. Here is what I made for baby love and how it goes:

1. Select the pattern you want to transfer and the item of clothing.

2. Position the transfer on your fabric and place it on something hard - a wooden kitchen table would work better than an ironing board.

3. Place a sheet of baking paper between the fabric and the pattern before ironing. Set your iron to 150 to 160° C and press against the fabric with a lot of pressure for 20 seconds. It is important to press and not iron.

4. Peal off the plastic film et voila!

Here are a couple of examples of what I did for baby love.

The colourful bodies are from petit bateau, the white body and kimono style t-shirt from C&A, and the muslim squares from Budnikowski. The patterns are from kinder+raum and the paper box is from Tiger

I hope you like it. It is a very easy and economical way of pimping your plain baby outfits and bodies. Take care and have a nice day.

Elodie

Pimping Baby Love's clothes - Stencil Printing

Hello everyone, Today I have a little DIY for you. My fabulous mum made a lot of baby clothes for little Miss Love, and I have been sewing a lot myself lately too, almost only for the decoration of the nursery (which I will be showing you soon, when I think that it is almost finished). Another thing that I have been doing during my maternity leave with my friend Stephanie is "pimping" some plain, white baby outfits I bought from C&A for instance. The first one I want to show you uses the stencil printing technique. Stenciling is a very fun and easy technique for customising boring fabric.

Here is what you will need:

• strong paper and a permanent marker, or stencil pattern
• craft knife
• fabric paint (mine is a Javana Textil)
• small plate (for the paint)
• sponge
• washi tape

1. Choose an existing design or design your own stencil with a permanent marker. I found my little cloud in the book simple sewing for baby by fabric designer Lotta Jansdotter 2. Using a craft knife and a cutting mat, cut out your design. 3.  Pour some of your fabric paint onto a small plate and have your sponge ready.

4. Protect the other layers with another piece of fabric. 5. Place your stencil on top of your fabric and secure it on the sides with some washi-tape, so it will not move when you are printing. 6. Using the sponge, apply an even amount of paint through your stencil. 7. Let the paint dry a little bit before removing the stencil. Fix the paint after drying by intense ironing (5 min. cotton setting). Cover fabric with a cloth. Thereafter your fabric will be washable.

Here is the result:

I wish you a great day! xxx

Elodie

My sweet virtual baby shower

Dear all, I have been wanting to write this blogpost for a while now. As you know I am expecting a baby in the coming weeks and in the US there is this great tradition called "Baby shower".

The original intention was for women to share wisdom and lessons on the art of becoming a mother. My blogger friends are the wisest and the great Katharina from the beautiful food-blog Katharina kocht, organised a great virtual baby shower for me with the best blogger crew in Germany. My party was everything but traditional and there were not only women invited! But there was a lot of wisdom going on!

I got up on 8th July and was so overwhelmed with the surprise. It didn't stop all day, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I received so many lovely messages and blogposts full of love under the hashtag #MADAMELOVESBABYSHOWER.

Here is a little overview of my virtual party for you:

Decoration & flower inspiration:

From left to right and from top to bottom:

• Lovely BABY LOVE Lavender letters from my #2flowergirls colleague and friend Inga from the blog glomerylane
• Sock bouquet for my baby girl from Ann-Christin, from the blog hafenmaedchen
• gorgeous mobile from the my dear Claretti from the blog tastesheriff

DIY Inspiration From left to right and from top to bottom:

• A pennant banner tutorial from Martina from the blog FormTiere
• A DIY nappy bag from Caro from Draußen nur Kännchen
• A baby announcement card - amendable and printable from Dani from the blog cozy and cudly
• A tutorial for a lovely colourful bib from the blogger and fabric designer Susanne from Hamburger Liebe
• The lovely logo for the party was designed by my friend and jewellery designer Trixi from the blog Frau Sieben
• The PSSSST.... frame is from Sabine from the Blog Wohnbedarf, also shop owner at Freundts, where you can buy those beautiful letters.
• Julia from the blog mintlametta, made a great tutorial for a homemade baby book

 Shopping guides From left to right and from top to bottom:

• My friend and wedding planner Eva from the blog Jagentin gave me some tips for a great baby card
• Igor from Happy Interior Blog and Ricarda from 23qmStil know me very well and they know that I am using most of the time from my maternity leave nesting and decorating the nursery, so they gave me some inspiration.

What would the blogosphere be without the food bloggers? So my sweet food blogger friends brought a lot of home baked sweet stuff to my virtual baby shower. From left to right and from top to bottom:

• Lavender shortbreads from my sweet flower girl Julia from the blog junifaden
• Sweet hearts from my sweetheart Küchenchaotin Mia
• Petits Fours à la française from Bianca from the blog ELBCUISINE
• And last but not least the great mini-handpies from the organiser of the party Katharina from the blog Katharina kocht

So my dear friends, I don't know how to say thank you and how much I love you! Baby Love is so looking forward to meeting you all in real life! Speak to you soon,

Elodie

The Nursery project #5 - Lovely Doudou

Hello everyone, Today I would like to talk about "doudou". A "doudou" in French is an object than a baby/young child sees as its favorite one - The babies/young children sleep with it. A good translation would probably be cuddly toys. Here is a selection of my favorite doudous for the nursery in the nursery colours. One of them (N°2) has already found its place in the nursery.

1. Cat Girl by Kathryn Davey via Kathryn Davey 2. Bear by Makie via smallable 3. Zakka Crocodile via Babyssimo 4. Badger by Maleig via Room6 5. Mr. Bell by Lucky Boy Sunday via Millimètres 6. Tobi little Berry by Dimpel via smallable 7. Doll Chiara from Jess Brown via smallable 8. Mono Cat from Donna Wilson via Donna Wilson 9. Fox with scarf by Maleig via Room6 10. Rabbit via smallable 11. Mama Mouse with baby via Milchmädchen

Baby Love already received a beautiful present from ma sister. It will probably be a bit big to start with, but I am sure that she will love it as much as I do. He is called Auguste from the French company Moulin Roty.

I hope you could find a little Doudou inspiration today. Have a lovely day! Talk to you soon, Elodie

The nursery project #3 - mood board - the colours

Hello everyone, As promised there, I will share the evolution of my "nursery project" with you on the blog. Today I want to show you a little mood board I created in order to illustrate the overall look I want to give to the room and decide on the main colours in want to use in the decoration of the nursery. As you can see the two main colours are blue and grey/silver.

1. Pompoms to add some lightness and fluffiness to the decoration 2. Print Everyone's friend from seventy tree - looks perfect for a future multilingual child 3.Wall hooks in different shades of blue 4. A unicorn - this one has already moved in... 5. A lovely star carpet. 6- The Egmont bunny lamp - In fact I have had this lamp for ages in my living room. Now, it lives where it belongs: in the nursery! 7. Lovely fabric: from left to right: Liberty art fabric - Capel blue Liberty art fabrics- Eloise blue Liberty art fabrics - Betsy grey France Duval-Stalla - Grey with white cloud of stars cambric 8- soft toy - dog - in Japanese Zakka style

1. Why blue? I decided to pick blue as the main colour, even if I am expecting a baby girl. The baby's bedroom is going to be set in our former bedroom in which we painted one of the walls in midnight blue last year. I still love this colour so much and find it so peaceful, that I decided not to change it and build the decoration around it. To make it a little more girly, I am adding some flowery Liberty fabric. I am a big fan of british stylist, shop owner and book author Abigael Ahern and her choices of dark colours in decoration, and decided to apply that to the nursery. I also decided to mix different shades of blue.

2. Why grey/silver? First of all, grey is my favorite colour in decoration. I painted the main wall in my living room in grey and I really love it. Grey/silver is more going to be used as accents in the nursery, as a contrasting colour to blue and in fabric. We will leave the other walls in the nursery plain white. For me silver as something magical in it and I hope it will inspire my little princess.

3. The Patterns I am going to use a lot of stars in the decoration of the room, as well as animals, as I think they both fit perfectly in a baby's room.

So! I hope you got inspired. I think we are also going to add some neon yellow to the room.

It's all for today. I will be back tomorrow on the blog with a great flower project - so stay tuned.

xxx Elodie

The nursery project #1 - book & magazine inspiration

Hello! As a lot of you already know, I am expecting a little girl at the end of August! I am so excited about it. That also gives me a great occasion to start a new decoration project - and I would like you to share my thoughts and my decorating journey with you. The nursery will be set in our former bedroom, and my old office/workshop is now our bedroom. You have to have a little bit of imagination if you live in a relatively small space (80 m2). The room is approximately 10 m2, but you don't really need much space for a newborn baby who will sleep in our bedroom to start with anyway. Today I would like to share with you where I find my inspiration offline. That's a question I am asked all the time when talking about the blog or about decorating in general: Where do you find your inspiration? So, here are some answers, some great books I am reading at the moment and the French magazine Milk (which also has texts in English). And what about you? Where do find your inspiration when you want to decorate/redecorate a room? Have you got some tips regarding kid's and baby's rooms?

Talk to you soon, for some more baby inspiration.

xxx

Elodie

1. Decorate workshop by Holly Becker  (the founder of the decor8 blog). This book is like no other decoration book I have read before. It can be used for any decoration project, it is more a guide, a companion than a book - very inspiring! 2. Children's room by Terence Conran (the founder of habitat). A very interesting book with a lot of tips, written by a design guru. 3. & 4. two brilliant books from my favorite publisher Paumes. This small Japanese publisher has some great books about children's rooms and family life in various countries. Most of the texts are unfortunately in Japanese, but the pictures are really inspiring. You can order them online via the online concept store Bodie & fou 5- The French Magazine Milk about children, now has a decoration issue, which I really love, with a lot of home tours and creative ideas. A lot of the texts are in English too.