The Alice

One of the things I’ve been anxious we get done is the re-vamp of our small garden. I want to be growing herbs, salad and some veg by the time the baby comes and I want it to be a nice space we can use for playing and entertaining. So this weekend we got started.

It’s getting there – most of the crap (bar the weird plant in the strange pink plastic tub) has now gone. All we need now is a nice table and chair set to go with our two new sun loungers (thanks Mum and Dad.) and I will be all set for a summer of maternity leave.

BEFORE

Our lovely little London garden

The yard area running down the side of the house

AFTER

Proudly BBQing in his new improved garden – note the handy beer-can holder on the right

I’m not sure if you can tell in this photo, but all the dust, broken bricks and bits of crap have been cleared away. Next step: pressure-washing.

With only 17 weeks to go now I feel it’s time to legitimately begin decorating the nursery. Taking inspiration from Young Mummy’s gorgeous book-themed nursery, I want Baby H to have a stimulating, girly and interesting room; she will sleep in our room for the first six months of her life so it will be initially treated as a nursery/playroom.

So far we have a white cot and chest of drawers. I think I’ve convinced Will that he should be building a built-in wardrobe in the bedroom alcove though with his track record in DIY I think he’ll need a hand from Grandpa-to-be. An antique desk inherited from family will be a changing unit with some small adjustments and the neutral carpet will be jazzed up with a rug.

(Note: I’ve shamed myself into posting the ‘before’ photo, taken just after we moved in! The room has improved massively even since then – though it’s currently serving as a storage area for the high heels I can’t wear anymore. Those awful opressive curtains that came with the house have been replaced with neutral white which makes the room immediately seem bigger and brighter).

On my shopping list so far:
Ridiculously girly fairy lights
Laura Ashley bunting
A ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ pink poster
Some pretty storage boxes
A cherry blossom decal

I was browsing birthday cards this morning and I found some gorgeous ones that were the result of a collaboration between Rob Ryan and Roger la Borde. Rob Ryan is a brilliant artist whose shop is based on the lovely Columbia Road (which is where we used to live, back in the day when a warehouse studio apartment with massive windows and one storage heater seemed like a good idea). His art is based around laser cut silhouettes and lovely words – the one I found this morning might have brought a tear to my eye:

‘You were in my head but now you are in my heart, please stay there forever’

He has around 7 greetings cards with Roger la Borde and luckily enough three of these are pink-themed. I’m going to frame these three (the one above will take pride of place in the middle) and hang them above the cot. Hopefully my hormones will have calmed down to the degree that I don’t weep every time I see it.

Where did you get your ideas for your children’s nurseries? I’d love more inspiration!

When Will got asked to interview for a job down in London, I didn’t think anything would changed He’d been asked to do the same a couple of times before and nothing had come of it so I was happy for him to give it a go. We were happy in our lives in Nottingham – we’d bought a lovely house 2 years earlier, had good jobs and lovely friends and in my heart of hearts I really didn’t expect that to change.

When he got the job it was brilliant – the best thing that could ever happened for his career. I was so proud of him, yet the stress of organizing a move across the country in 4 weeks was pretty full on. Naively, not knowing London’s housing market, we allocated one day to house hunting two weeks before our moving date and managed to see three flats. We took the second one we found in Kentish Town, a beautiful 2 bed garden flat, though rent was more than twice our Nottingham mortgage payments at almost £1,600 a month (OUCH).

We quickly learned about London and the different areas we were spending most time and subsequently lived in Shoreditch and Islington, where we were the longest.

When we found out we were having a baby, one of the first things I wanted to do was organise where we’d be living. Our flat in Islington was lovely, but only had one bedroom and no garden. Perfect for that time in our lives, as we spent most of our time in restaurants and pubs! But I knew that when baby came I would want a garden and extra room for a nursery. So we moved out to Muswell Hill, Zone 3, in January. A big move – moving away from our friends, work and the bars we were in so often really cemented the change we were about to make in our lifestyles. But we 100% made the right decision.

This place is going to be our baby’s first home so it’s really important that the it’s as homely as possible. I’m a real homebody and love being here – pottering round the house, cleaning, doing laundry… so I’ve got a huuuuuge list of DIY things that need to be done before the baby arrives.

We’re getting there, though; the area is lovely, there are tons of kids on our street and we really feel at home in this house:

The lovely interior glass paned doors were one of the things that sold me on this house.

Hallway table.

My favourite room… the bedroom! Faux fur blanket a gift from my parents.

Sun streaming in through the garden into the lounge – I can’t wait for summer…

* My sinusitis alongside a cold has been giving me real pain the last couple of days so I’ve been hanging out at home working from my sickbed. Urgh! Hoping to get out the house for dinner with Will at some point this weekend – and of course to The Baby Show on Sunday with him and my parents. I’m sure photos of the baby-overload will follow.