easter and one year older

Hi everyone! For me Easter is spring, fresh flowers, bright green grass, eggs, family time, good memories.

Ideas or projects for Easter decorations. Beautiful branch arrangement and nice table setting from here

Hanging vases, easy to do for any special occasion. Like it.

And these wonderful bunnies from here.! And there is much more! go have a look!

Easter Grass decoration here

and finally EGGS. Chocolate eggs, hmm...and coloured ones. I used to love colouring and painting eggs with my sister and mum. There is so many ways how to colour, paint, decorate eggs. Perhaps naturally dyed ?

Lavender	Small Quantity of Purple Grape Juice Violet Blossoms plus 2 tsp Lemon Juice Red Zinger Tea
Violet Blue	Violet Blossoms Small Quantity of Red Onions Skins (boiled) Hibiscus Tea Red Wine
Blue	Canned Blueberries Red Cabbage Leaves (boiled) Purple Grape Juice
Green	Spinach Leaves (boiled) Liquid Chlorophyll
Greenish Yellow	Yellow Delicious Apple Peels (boiled)
Yellow	Orange or Lemon Peels (boiled) Carrot Tops (boiled) Celery Seed (boiled) Ground Cumin (boiled) Ground Turmeric (boiled) Chamomile Tea Green Tea
Golden Brown	Dill Seeds
Brown	Strong Coffee Instant Coffee Black Walnut Shells (boiled) Black Tea
Orange	Yellow Onion Skins (boiled) Cooked Carrots Chili Powder Paprika
Pink	Beets Cranberries or Juice Raspberries Red Grape Juice Juice from Pickled Beets
Red	Lots of Red Onions Skins (boiled) Canned Cherries with Juice Pomegranate Juice Raspberries

want to know more? how to make those chocolate yummies ? ... head over there.

We have a busy weekend in front of us. Dinner with M. celebrating my birthday, visiting friends, Easter egg huntS:) with kids and friends. I will let you know on Monday. Have a lovely time everyone!

little project and tips for reading!

We had a wonderful weekend, pottering around the house, visiting another National Trust side, gardening and doing small projects in our home. One of them was to create better space for A., for her reading, drawing, playing.

In my spring clear out, couple of months ago I had to let go my beloved sofa (which I only bought back in summer:(, but by creating the work space in the kitchen we lost some space and one thing I can't live with, is lack of space and clutter. I love to look at other's people homes, at their open shelves full of stuff and ornaments, but I'm just not able to function around it.

I put up the Lack shelf from Ikea for the books....and brought this old A's. moses basket from the loft as Anya uses it for her dolls as a bed...and sometimes for herself to read...and finally I put more doors on this big built-in cabinet. There is a lot of stuff behind there, believe me! and two of the rows hides all the other toys. I just leave the doors open in the morning and close it when A. goes to sleep...

So with all the books around I would like to share some with you. I'm always interested in new children's books so these are some of my daughter's favourites. I'm not really good at describing things in English so ...little comments only. Anya is 22 months.

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett. Simple, easy, fun story.

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. Great touch and feel book, good for practicing animal noises.

Have you seen my cat? by Eric Carle. A little boy goes around the world to find his lost cat. A Slide-and-Peek board book, nice story, good for practising memory.

Ten Little Ladybirds by Gerth & Huliska Beith. One 3D ladybird disappears every page.

The Wheels On The Bus by David Ellwand. Sound book with cute pictures.

Rainbow Rob by Jo Rigg and Simon Mugford. Funny rhymes, touch and feel, colourful book. Very educational story.

My Dad by Anthony Browne. Wonderful! present for dads from children. My husband was very touched:) and A. loves it too.

Dogs by Emily Gravett. Soft, beautiful illustrations. Nice and simple story.

Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett. As they say :Perfect for little monkeys everywhere!

Where Is My Teddy? by Jez Alborough. We read and read this book probably 1000 times. It comes with story CD as well.

Charlie's Cook Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler. Funny rhymes, unusual story, entertaining.

Splat The Cat by Rob Scotton. Great fun, nice and soft illustrations.

The Great Paper Caper. I love , love, love anything from Oliver Jeffers. I have to admit A. might just a little bit too young for this book. But the illustrations! are just awesome!

Little Beauty by Anthony Browne. Wonderful, kind, sweet story and even better illustrations.

ABC's . This book is dedicated in memory of Charley Harper. What else to say...beautiful A-Z.

Animal Flash Cards by Eric Carle. A. spent the whole Christmas playing with them. Very clever and beautifully done.

huh...are you still there? Once I started....I couldn't finish:)...I hope, you have a toddler yourself it might give you some tips or ideas.

More favourites if you still want to :)

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson

The very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do you see? by Eric Carle

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton

Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett

Where's Spot ...and Spot Bakes a Cake by Eric Hill

and once again anything by Oliver Jeffers:)

All the books should be available on Amazon or in your local shops. Thanks for reading everyone!! have a good day

happy inspired weekend everyone!

I want to share some photos of children's bedrooms I have been collecting. I have a small obcession...but if you like colours, kids bedrooms or looking for an inspiration ...come in...and I'm just going to point out the bits I like.

1.picture wall, shelving / 2.storage, honey toned cupboards, the bike

3. wall map, sticker,colours/ 4.oho...that colour combination! green, orange, chocolate brown..amazing

5. what a great idea, the fairy lights hearts

6. beautiful mobile and RED letter/7.'sweet washing line'

8. fantastic idea - little bench created from Ikea storage cabinets

9.wall colour, white floorboards...I want to move there..

10. wooden wall, cardboard kitchen

11. black wall, that ceiling!, floor, great colour combination

12. mixture of old and new, mirror, shelving, lamp, cushion...wellies:)

13.cool bench...

14. white floors, cots, displays, so neat, pristine, calm, oh and that rug...soft, soft, soft

........

I have a few little project prepared for this upcoming weekend. Some decorating, sewing, general pottering etc., maybe some gardening? What about you? anything interesting? but first of all what bedroom did you like? have a great one!

photo credits, links : 1. gap interiors. 2. flickr 3. flickr 4. gap interiors 5. gap interiors 6. flickr 7. flickr 8. flickr 9. livingetc. 10. flickr 11.12.13.14. livingetc.

cupcakes and champagne anyone?

One of my first posts on this blog was about a stylist Eva Lindh. I just came across these new images and what a yummy treat. Nice afternoon with friends? cupcakes, tea, champagne anyone? I love the colours, they are so fresh, feminine and SWEET. Last couple of days have been very long as A. is still not well and most of our time is at home. I think we read about 250.000 books and paint 125.000 cats,dogs, piggies. Any recommendation how to amuse a toddler with bad cold? have a lovely SWEET day everyone!

first class love

Royal Mail Smilers. Choose the template, upload an image to the website and order your own stamps. Sheets of 10 or 20. See more here. Like it!

coloured rain

it's been raining here in UK again so this colour changing umbrella could put smile on your child's face. The rain clouds are printed with special ink so they change colour when wet. Great idea. more about or to buy here.

claire basler

Is an artist living on the outskirts of Paris. Her home/studio is a large former iron factory and I find it extremely interesting. There is no border between her work and home. Her large paintings are part of the living space and branches in vases ( I would say more part of the trees) and flowers are everywhere. Light, green, fresh, alive...same as her paintings. Be sure to check her website. Beautiful...

but what do you think? could you live like that? or do you prefer to separate work and home ?close the door when you finish....or does it change when you have a family, children...?

all photos elle decoration

today

Beautiful day outside, but A. is not well , so girls staying at home and boys off to Chartwell.

Wonderful photos from Kate Mathis.

I feel much better today

Just after we came back from Portugal I fell really ill. Me and my husband caught some sort of virus and bathroom and bed were our best friends for a good part of the week. But yesterday I fell much better, cooked homemade chicken stock, lunch, dinner (very unusual for me, all that cooking), bought tons of vitamins and fruit...all positive! Have a great spring weekend everyone!

lisbon

I had wonderful time with my sister in Lisbon. The weather was perfect, warm, sunny, breezy and the city is great. It's very diverse, full of contrasts and culture. For some reason it remained me of Prague.We stayed for 4 days and did a lot of walking and chatting. It was so nice to spend some time with my sister, just on our own as we don't see each other enough, me in London and her in Prague. I miss her...and yes they are my tired feet...

typical painted tiles Azulejos

Belem

We stayed in this hotel and I can fully recommend it. It's very affordable, with great style, simple and modern decor and the location couldn't be better.

One more thing . If you ever go to Lisbon make sure you visit Berardo Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Joanna Vasconcelos. Enourmous fabric 'toys', instalation.

Robert Longo. Oversized drawings.

And these....Shoe made of pots and pans! Large hanging gold ball made of used bullets.....and more and more..

thanks for reading everyone..:) how have you been ?