where are the children?

A little hungover today after a lovely anniversary meal at La Bota in Crouch End last night. Still trying to unpack everything from the pop up shop too!

So I'm avoiding this by flicking through Living etc and Real Homes.....

Living etc has a featured house this month belonging to Sara Berman. On the floor plan it does show a playroom so I can only imagine she locks her kids in there in order to keep the rest of her house so 'stylish'.

I had an interesting conversation recently with a woman who works in child health and development and she said she is seeing more and more children from middle class families who are not allowed to be children as they live in these perfectly styled homes with no consderation to their needs.

She said many are not allowed to use paints or play with water toys in case the house gets dirty or heaven forbid the kids get anything on their clothes. The kids have their lives totally managed with 'play dates' and 'french lessons' but they never get time just to lounge about or to just play outside.

I find that really really sad.

In another conversation with a woman who used to work in primary schools I found out that many schools hardly teach art, sewing or music anymore. I strongly believe that everyone is creative in their own way and that in children this should be encouraged and supported.

Without creativity I think our society gets smothered and the world is a greyer place. Thank goodness for etsy and folksy so I know I'm not alone....

Ok rant over.....

Urban Craft Stars on Living etc.com

it's a dream come true! http://www.livingetc.com/news/Urban_Craft_Stars_article_265888.html

Living etc is my fav interiors mag. I have every copy going back years and I have refused to chuck them away during any housemoves/clear outs!

And now they have featured the urban craft stars on their website! It is so exciting and so kind of them to feature us. There's a click through to etsy aswell so hopefully more uk buyers for us etsy folk too.

The pop up shop is so busy today aswell and people love our things so it's all good in the world of littlechook today.

http://www.livingetc.com/news/Urban_Craft_Stars_article_265888.html

Kim Parker Textiles

I've seen bits and pieces of Kim's work in the past but until looking at her website I didn't realise how lovely it is. http://www.kimparker.tv/ She is on the back page of this months living etc (finally got myself a copy) and I think her style is very individual and beautiful. I love that she is self taught too. She uses colour so beautifully and talks about painting flowers how she feels them rather than how she sees them.

"A designer with an exuberant style, Parker combines her own fantastic floral prints with unconventional flea market finds, fashionable antiques, and unique modern pieces to create a vibrant, colorful look"

To me she is the opposite of the blonde wood, neutral and sterile strangehold that masquerades as some kind of minimalism. Homes are meant to be lived in!

Her cushions really caught my eye and I'd love a couple for my sofa. I have just found some amazon vouchers so I may order her book Kim Parker Home although I am not sure I can get both this and Soule Mama's book. I find her blog very calming in the swirling madness of parenthood but that's another post!

Life in the pop up shop continues with a really busy day today with some great sales including one from a lovely american couple. Plus yesterday someone bought one of my kids tshirts! I was beginning to think no one liked them except me and the little lady!

where have they gone?

I've lost living etc. I can't buy the latest issue anywhere. Has it sold out? what is in it to make it so good that everyone is buying it?Also my selvedge magazine hasn't arrived in fact I think I am missing two issues now.

What is going on?

I'll have to make do with surfing the living etc website until I can find a copy.

Apart from that I've been lucky enough to have some etsy sales recently and the pop up shop is keeping me busy too. Our flyers arrived so we are busy spreading the word. We are also now featured on the official carnaby street website. http://www.carnaby.co.uk/events/events_item.cfm?id=80

children's bedrooms

Whenever I see children's bedroom in interior magazines like living etc and elle dec it makes me feel a bit sad as they are always so 'styled' and more for adults than kids. Recently DesignSponge featured a Yellow and Grey colour scheme which to me was really bland and had very little to stimulate a child's imagination.

Ok so the pics here of the little lady's room are after a good tidy and hoover this morning but it is a room for playing and enjoying. Yes it does have elements of her mum's style in it - vintage furniture and crochet blankets but it is for her to enjoy as she grows and if she wants Barbie wallpaper at some stage then so be it!

The wardrobe I bought on ebay, it is victorian pine and it is gorgeous. The child's chair I resuced from the side of the road. The rug is from ikea (it's really easy to clean) and the grey toy cupboard was given to me by my mum.

The wallpaper is cream with silver flowers - it was here when we moved in and I actually really like it now!

My bedroom

Hello bedroom! I have some new pics on flickr including this one of my bedroom. I made lovely new bed cushions made from a vintage butterfly print and a paisley print vintage dress. My crochet blanket came from a charity shop and the lampshade is a Habitat sale purchase made from cork which is a material I really like.

The chest of drawers came from an antique shop in crouch end and is made of victorian pine. It's one of my favs. The fireplace is not orignal and is a horrible fake mahogany. I did read in living etc though that to disguise a not so nice fireplace the surround should be painted the same colour as the walls. As you can see we haven't tried this yet! The walls are a bit distressed looking as I stripped the hideous 80's wallpaper (green textured background with brown roman collums) about a week after we moved in as it was so so so bad!

The show and tell at broadway market last night was a bit of a fiasco due to staff not turning up so everyone waited hours and hours to be seen. I left after 3 1/2 hours as had to get the bus home! Better luck next time....

House versus Home?

London is still being buffeted by horrible rainstorms and we are wondering if that is all the summer we are going to get.

Tonight was a late night shopping trip to Ikea to buy a cheap table for me to use as a print table. I got what I wanted aswell as some box frames which I am going to use for some mini chook worlds (pics to explain what the heck this is will follow soon).

Ikea have the slogan of 'do you live in a house or a home' which got me thinking ours is definately a 'home' ! Most of the houses in the interiors magazines I have read lately just leave me a bit cold. It's a bit wood floors - check, large gilt mirror - check, glass extension for a kitchen - check and the houses are always in London and always have a couple who are architects/interior designers who have impossibly cute kids with names like Song and Otter.

But I do like the 'feng shui' house in this months Living etc. The kids rooms look like real kids bedrooms that they can have fun in rather than an adults idea of a 'styled' kids room. I also like thier mix of vintage furniture and street art like the banksy print.

The Geffrye Museum

To round of our bank holiday weekend we visited the Geffrye Museum near old street this afternoon.

It's collection comprises textiles, furniture, paintings and interior objects from 1600 to the present day. I particularily liked the 50's interiors and the Jessie Tait ceramics.

The victorian rooms were fantastic too as it was interesting to see a house similar to my own home and how it would have been laid out and used in the era it was built in. We did laugh at the description of the women of the house spending afternoons sewing, playing cards and receiving callers. Would beat working for a living we thought.

I bought a really fab book too on 50's design which I will try and feature some pics from this week. The museum has a great shop and a nice cafe too. And no one minded a small child pushing a pink pram at great speed round the museum either luckily for us!

I also got to sit in a Balzac chair by Matthew Hilton for SCP and it made me want one even more. Can't remember whether it is in Elle Dec or Living etc but one of the homes featured has a Balzac chair and the owner says she saved for 10 years for a Balzac. I can see her point but I am hoping for a lottery win sometime soon!

We rounded the day off with a fantastic vietnamese meal near old street tube too. Lovely!

Family Photos

hello for a bad littlechook who hasn't blogged for days now. Mainly because of a rare night out in london on friday which involved cocktails and bucket loads of rose. The cocktails in a tapas place in shoreditch was very sex and the city but we had to take the fancy leaves out in case we poked our own eyes out.

Anyway, I was able to do some printing today using my butterflies screen to add to a flower garden design and the result is quite lovely and I'd blog more about this if I could upload a picture but I can't find my lead to connect the camera to the laptop.

And for some reason I am feeling all nostaligc this weekend so today's pic is of my two favourite family photos. On is of my daughter Katherine sleeping in the garden of our old flat when she was about 10 weeks old. The other is of me and my gran. I think I am about 4 and it is a strip of pictures from a photo booth (way before digital gave you four of the same photo). My aunt found it in a bundle of family pics she went through recently and the strip has been folded in half. I wonder if it was kept in her purse? It makes me remember what a lovely, strong and kind woman she was and how she would have loved to meet my Katherine.

I've seen walls of family photos in quite a few featured homes in interiors mag such as elle decoration and living etc and I think it adds a real personal touch to a home. I am planning to do this in our hallway over time so that Katherine can see her family members as some live quite far away and we don't get to see them that often.

My first attempt at a montage turned out well using photos from the bundle my aunt gave me including a picture of my dad with us in the 70's with a Borat style 'tash - it's a classic. I love all the 50s and 60s shots of my grandparents on their holidays especially loving the floral prints on my grans dresses.

Anyway that's me for tonight, off to update my neglected etsy shop.

littlechook at home

I've been in the studio all day today working on layouts for new screens. I am going to the East London Print Studio on Thursday to use their equipment to expose the screens so I need to have four designs ready.

Also worked on more t shirt designs last night and washed them today. The flock is even more fluffy once washed and looks great. The colours are really bright.

Having bought Living etc, Elle Decoration and Real Homes recently I have been thinking about our house and how we should decorate it. My plan was to paint everything white for starters but I am actually really liking the wallpaper even though it is quite old fashioned and 'country cottagey' which isn't me at all usually. I think the living room paper is Laura Ashley.

The carpets are all a bit old and scabby but instead of replacing them I am thinking a good steam clean would help them look nicer.

The fact that we have no money after our move is also curbing my design enthusiasm!

The house though does have some beautiful orignal victorian features like cornicing and ceiling roses. Alot of the 'ladder' houses got the 70's treatment but ours didn't thankfully! The Harringay ladder houses are row of victorian houses on a set of roads all running parallel (hence the name 'ladder') and they all have unusual names. I'd love to know more about why these names were chosen but google hasn't yielded any results.

The community noticeboard though does refer to a 'seafaring theme'. Would like to know more about this!

etsy in living etc

more fab press coverage for etsy on the living etc website. Living etc is probably the biggest interiors mag in the UK and it is a great read. They always support new designers too.

Shannon Morton admits her etsy addiction and hopefully this will inspire other UK folk to buy handmade aswell. I wish though she had highlighted that there are lots of UK sellers as people can think etsy is just US based designers.

I noticed she picked out Heather Moore (skinnylaminx) and she is one of my favs. i'm going to order some of her tea towels for my mum to hang in her new kitchen (well its still a work in progress at the moment and they seem to have no heating, no roof and no kitchen wall currently) gulp!

http://www.livingetc.com/blogs/editors_blog/Shannon_Morton_admits_to_an_itsy_etsy_internet_addiction_article_255826.html

new shoes

Katherine's feet have grown half a size in about 6 weeks so I got her new shoes today. She loves them! They are pink with little flowers on the straps. She kept stopping and looking at her feet. She is so funny!

We bought some treats for all the toddlers and mums who are coming to see us tomorrow. It will be great to see all the girls for a catch up.

On the etsy front I have another sale which is fab, more vintage cushion covers. I have listed up some products too on icraft.ca and in my bigcartel shop too. However my latest plan is to start wholesaling and getting my things into shops. My plan is to go through all my back issues of living etc and elle dec and pick out the interiors shops that I think would be good stockists and then contact them for a meeting. Or hopefully my lil sis will do that bit as she is brilliant!