madame love loves: Seventy Tree

  Hello everyone! Do you know Kerry Layton? Maybe you know Seventy Tree then? Kerry is the brilliant British illustrator behind the brand Seventy Tree.  Seventy Tree was established in 2010. I really love the animals, Kerry uses in her illustration and bought this lovely print called Everyone's friend (currently out of stock) that Ella literally loves! The bear is saying H E L L O and many different languages including the three languages Ella is looking at it everyday and it makes me very happy. I am sure that it is not the symbol of her multilingual upbringing that appeals to Ella yet, but the great contrasts. During the first 6 Months of their lives, babies can hardly see any colours and are fascinated by black and white, as this is pretty much all they can see.  So I really recommend putting up contrasting prints on the wall when decorating a nursery. On top of that, I think that animals in decoration always work very well, not only for children! I also love the cutting boards and tray by Seventy Tree. Geometric and very happy! I wish you a great day! Elodie

 © Picture from the nursery by Jocelyn Casey, pictures from the collage by Seventy Tree with permission

pennant banner tutorial + free pattern

Hello everyone, As promised when I showed you the pictures of the nursery, here is a little tutorial for the big and the mini pennant banner I made for baby love.

So here you go! It is a very simple project that will not take you more than an evening or a week-end to complete and that is suitable for beginners. I also made a mini-version of the pennant banner. You just have to use the smaller triangle and a smaller portion of bias tape. I made some pictures to illustrate the steps of the tutorial and a pattern to download:

FREE DOWNLOAD

Items needed for a two-metre pennant banner:

You will need:

• the pattern (see above)
• 32 fabric triangles (for 16 triangles). It is good to use leftover fabric pieces from other projects. You don't need 16 different fabrics - just be careful not to put the same pattern next to each other when you assemble the garland
• 2.5 metre bias tape.
• assorted thread (same colour as the bias tape)
• a cutting mat and a rotary cutter (or some fabric scissors)
• masking tape
• a sewing machine
• pins
• iron and ironing board
• 2 curtain rings to attach the banner to the wall.

Step 1: download the pattern, print it and cut it out. Place the pattern on your fabric on the cutting mat and fix it with masking tape. Step 2: cut your fabric. Always cut at least two of each pattern for both sides of your triangles. Step 3 - 4 : place your triangles' right sides against each other and sew them along the two longer edges.

Step 5: cut the point of each triangle with a pair of fabric scissors. Step 6: return your fabric on the right side. Step 7: iron your triangles flat. Step 8: iron one side of your bias tape flat and pin your triangles (2 to 3 pins per triangle) next to each other. Be careful when you assemble the banner not to put the same pattern next to each other and to have a harmonious succession of fabric. Sew on the fold of your bias tape. Leave at least 8 cm of tape on each side, so as to be able to attach your banner to the wall. Take away your pins.

Step 9 - 10: with the help of your iron, fold your bias tape and pin it in place. Step 11: sew your bias tape as close to the edge as possible -  backstitch at the end. Step 12: attach the rings at each sides of the banner, and fix it to wall with simple nails.

Voila!

Take care and talk to you soon! (I really hope this time after the birth...)

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

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 #4 - Playing with fabric

Dear readers, as a lot of you already know, I am a little bit of a Liberty addict. I just finished a baby blanket with Liberty fabric on one side and a very pretty Japanese fabric on the other side. I will show it to you later. Yesterday, I have been playing with three different Liberty of London patterns to decorate the walls of the nursery. I used embroidery hoops to frame them. It is a very easy way to display your favorite fabric on the walls. I bought them at the German DIY shop Idee. Here are the three fabrics I picked from my collection - I chose fabrics that fit in the colour concept of the nursery.

Becci Tana Lawn from the spring/ summer 2012 Glencot House collection was inspired whilst a member of the Liberty Art Fabrics team was reclining on an old patterned chair in the drawing room at Glencot House in Somerset. A layered design of leaves and flowers creates three dimensions drawn from the gardens at Glencot. Becci A is shades of blue, jade and grey.

Poppy and Daisy is on the Classic Tana list since 1979, Liberty Poppy and Daisy was designed in 1974 by the Jack Prince Studio. Version K has brown, blue and purple flowers.

Wiltshire is a leaf and berry pattern which was designed for Liberty in 1933 and redesigned for Tana in 1968. Wiltshire has been on the Classic Tana list since 1979. Colourway L has blue, lilac and olive berries on a dark background.

I also played yesterday with Muslin squares and Liberty bias tape. I gave it then yesterday night to my friend Sabrina for her 6 weeks old baby - but I will definitely also make some for baby love!

My next project is a nursing pillow with Marimekko fabric. I can't wait to show it to you!

Speak to you soon!

Elodie

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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 #2 - online inspiration

Hello everyone,The birth of baby love is approaching (the end of August) and I can already tell you that you will see less flowers and more decoration and DIY on the blog in the coming weeks, as I am decorating the nursery and planing to make some stuff for the baby. I will show you some pictures of the room slowly transforming into a nursery and some great resources to buy furnitures and decoration items online. Today I will start with my online inspiration and first where I store my inspiration when I am surfing the web. I created a Pinterest board, that I names LOVEly nurseries. You can have a look here

A great website, when decoration the nursery and waiting for the baby to come is the French blog called The Socialite Family - A SAMPLE OF SMART AND COOL FAMILIES .

The blog is written by Constance Gennari who used to be a children’s fashion journalist. The purpose of Socialite Family is to observe interior design through the eyes of a family and I find her blog very inspiring. The interviewed families so far live in Paris, New York, London, Milan and Nantes, Los Angeles and Barcelona. (the interviews are available in French and English). It is a very visual blog, and I find extremely inspiring.

Speak to you soon, xoxo

Elodie