MADE BY ME (and a little room tour)

This may come as a surprise to you, but we're not really the pink girly types!  So after getting quite frustrated with trying to find cute children's bedding that wasn't princess pink or covered in Dora the Explorer, I decided to just make my own.  There are so many incredible fabrics out there these days that it is always quite difficult to make a choice.  I can stand in the fabric store for hours umming and aahing, shuffling down the aisles dragging roles of bright material behind me.  It's heavenly!  Anyway I'm certainly no wizz on the sewing machine (I mean, I know how to sew but I lack the patience) but whipping up a soft blanket or duvet cover really takes very little effort. I'm actually pretty proud of the fact that Ayana has only ever had blankets made by me so far.  I know she won't want my haphazard, homemade sewing jobs forever so I'm making the most of it now!

As I was thinking about this post I looked around Ayana's room and realised that just about everything is either handmade, handed down, collected, found or scavenged.  It makes for a pretty eclectic little room where everything tells a story...

1. The shadow boxes belonged to my mum when she was younger.  Many of the little objects are ones that she had already collected, the rest are little pieces Ayana has found on our walks.  The clock belongs to Saba from when she was young and most of the necklaces were made by us when we were little.  That crazy Dr Seuss like succulent was self sown.  It just appeared in the old pot while it was outside one summer!

2. More handmade necklaces from when we were kids.  The amazing Indian dress was bought by Nic the other day and (I think) was hand sewn by the lady in the shop.

3. This kid was definitely grown from scratch.

4. This retro shelf has been with me for nearly 10 years.  I bought it in a small junk shop up the road from my house in Wellington.  I've often toyed with the idea of painting it but I kind of love that chipped old colour.  The puzzles were all made for me by my mum when I was little.  Most of the toys and books were either mine or my mums as children.

5. Ayana's first blackboard masterpiece (I just painted some pieces of wood and old pictures in their frames with blackboard paint).  Souvenirs from travels long ago.  A couple of wooden postcards I found the other day.

6. Ayana's crib, built by my insanely talented brother (ermm we accidentally broke one corner while moving it recently, hence the red rope.  Planning to fix that asap!).  I found the chair on the side of the road a couple of years ago and gave it a fresh paint job.  Monkey was a present from Ayana's grandmother and he's always been a favourite.

7. I don't actually know where this came from exactly.  It was in our playroom for as long as I can remember! I have a feeling my grandfather might have brought it back from one of his many travels.  Either way it's a great dress up piece!

8. Always busy.

9. A cute (and slightly creepy) poster I picked up recently.

10. Shadow box close up

I look forward to when she's older and can have more input into how she wants her room to look.  For now though I think it's a pretty fun sort of place for a little kid.  To top it off the room gets flooded in sunshine every afternoon so I often find myself hanging out there too!
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