A Bunny Party for Madeleine

Last week my baby girl turned TWO! 

It is so hard to believe that it has been two years since she was born, and every day I am more and more amazed by her and by how much my heart keeps growing with love for this special little girl. 

Special events are the times that are the hardest for us to be living in London. 

We can't help but feel just a little bit sad that Maddie doesn't have Grandparents and cousins at her parties, or a big backyard to run around in, but we try to make the most of our situation and make sure we celebrate as best as we can.  

#maddieturnstwo

My baby is TWO! 

I can hardly believe I have a two year old already. 

And yet, it is so hard to believe that I haven't loved this little girl my entire life. 

Everyone tells you how much your life is going to change when you have a baby. 

But nobody could ever prepare you for how every facet of your life is made better because of their very existence. 

I've spent most of the day reflecting on the past two years and the incredible life we've had with this beautiful little girl. 

Baby Taggie Giraffe

My friend Saraid is nearing the end of her pregnancy and I am nesting right along with her! 

I'd love nothing more than to be in Brisbane with her as she prepares for this hugely exciting time, choosing crib-beddng, painting the nursery and rubbing her beautiful big belly (as all pregnant ladies love). 

But, as I am in London, with a well feathered (and at-capacity nest), I am helping to feather Saraid's nest instead!!

I made this little sweet guy a few months ago and sent it along with the bunting that I made for her nursery. 

Bloggers Bake for Bumps

Anyone who knows even the slightest thing about me knows that I love to bake. 

And I LOVE babies. 

To combine these things, makes for a happy Meg.

When I was pregnant with Madeleine we rode the usual emotional roller-coaster rides at every doctors appointment.

I had a high risk pregnancy and have a whole swag of medical problems, which I was terrified I was going to pass on to my baby. 

"Sparking" up

Oh hey there, I'm back in the land of the living!! If you follow me on Instagram you'd have seen that I've been a little out of action this week, having been struck down with gastroenteritis. 

Without going into the gory details, it was brutal. Having been dealing with IBS & IBD for years, I'll say that this was the absolute worse I've ever experienced. I really can't believe just how sick I have been.

Well actually I can, because I have a souvenir from Tuesday night...

mum-made: Ashley from Words About Waverly

Last month I announced an exciting new series on my blog called mum-made. A wonderful thing has happened through blogging and I wanted to share it with you.

Living in London has had its definite perks, but it is also so very far away from our family and friends in Australia.

And having a baby really made the distance palpable.

We have always been staunchly independent, so I'm not sure how much help we would have accepted anyway, but being in London has also had its challenges, and I was feeling so alone in motherhood.

Baby to Little Lady room update: Curtain makeover

If you've been following along, I have been posting about the updates we've been making to Madeleine's room. As I have been updating her nursery to a room fit for a little lady I replaced the nursing chair with a slimline rocker, and I've been hanging her beautiful baby clothes as wall art. 

Another change I made a few weeks back was an update to her curtains. I made the original green curtains and so didn't want to just discard them. They are nice and heavy and so keep Madeleine's room dark and warm on these cold London mornings. 

And so I bought some super cheap (as in £7 cheap) lightweight white curtains to hang over the top of the original ones. But when they arrived, I discovered I had mis-measured. Oops. So I turned it to my advantage and made neutral colour-blocked curtains. 

The beige fabric piece on the bottom of the curtains gave it a little extra weight so that they hung nicely, and I really like the slight colour variation. 

And then of course they needed a little glam and gold, so I made a sweet little Sparkle Bow Curtain Tie to finish them off beautifully. I don't need to wax lyrical about my love of gold, and sparkles and bows... we've met! 

I really love the finished product. It makes her room much lighter and brighter, but yet is still classic and feminine. I like that I can use the full set of curtains at night time and for naps, and then have the lighter ones to flow in the afternoon breezes!

Happy Friday! What do you have planned for the weekend? We are going to be heading out for lunch tomorrow and I've no idea what Madeleine has planned for Mother's Day on Sunday, but she needs to remind her Daddy, he seems to have forgotten all about it!!! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!! 

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Baby to Little Lady Nursery Update: Nursing to Rocking chair

Last week I did a post on the updates that we've made to Madeleine's room, as our little baby becomes a little lady. These changes have been subtle but effective, and it has become my favourite room in the house again!

The one big item that I wanted to change was the nursing chair. I loved my rocker/glider throughout my final trimester when I could no longer sleep in our bed, and loved all the hours I nursed my baby in it. But, gone are those hours spent cuddling in a chair, replaced by segments of time playing and reading and singing instead.

I did some research into chairs and have always loved our neighbours chair, and was beyond thrilled to find the Eames RAR replica chairs were about an 8th of the price! Yay! So farewell old chunky nursing chair and hello slimline rocking chair! 

The new chair takes up about half the space of the old one, and I kept our footstool so it is still just as comfortable to sit and do some rocking and reading together. Our little girl loves to read so its nice to still have a special little place to sit and read together.

Plus this one is light enough for Maddie to be able to rock herself in now, which amuses her greatly!

You may detect a little bit of a theme (gotta love a theme) and so loosely it is just soft neutral tones with touches of pink and gold. Maddie knows how to say "pretty" now, and I'll give her two different options and she'll always pick the pink or gold one and say "pretttttttty". So really, I can't deny my daughter her wishes can I...? hehe.

I made this gold bow cushion to add to her little elephants cushion, and love the little bit of glam it adds to her room! 

I have finished off the changes to her curtains, which has also made a huge difference to the brightness of the room, but this post is getting lengthy enough, so that will be another post next week!

Maddie and I are off to Jersey today, so if you're wondering why I am posting photos of the beach and cows, now you know!!! I hope you are having a lovely week!!

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Baby to Little Lady Nursery Update: Wall Art

Decorating Madeleine's nursery was such a joyful time for me. "Nesting" was one of my favourite things about being pregnant, and I spent hours and hours making special little things for the arrival of our little girl. We had just moved to London from our student year in Oxford and was was pretty unwell throughout my pregnancy, so what I lacked in disposable income, I made up for in time at home. And so I sewed and crafted to my hearts content, and created the perfect space for our baby to come home to. 

And then that baby turned into a little lady, and I found myself wanting to change things up. 














Long gone are the cot mobile, cot bumper and receiving blankets, and bit by bit I am turning Madeleine's nursery into a space for a little lady.

Ever since Maddie was born I've been hanging clothes and shoes around her room as pieces of art.

Partly because I didn't have any real wall art yet, but mostly because it was all so cute I didn't want it to sit in a cupboard for nobody to see! I am going to box frame some of my favourite shoes of hers one day (if we don't have another girl first though) but in the mean time I thought I would change the display to being some favourite pieces from the past year. 

The little cardigan is what Madeleine's Great-Nanna hand knitted her; 

The ivory Marie Chantal dress is what she wore for her Christening, 

And then I had to include her most recent party dress from Christmas! 

Every day when Maddie and I go into her room to get her dressed I ask her what she wants to wear and she points at the pink and gold dress and says "pretty dress". Oh dear!

And because my obsession with gold glitter still hasn't come to an end (and potentially, there's just a small chance that I am passing this obsession on), I decided to make her hangers a little prettier too!

I dream about the time when our house is big enough to fit a teepee and drawing table in Maddie's room, but until then, I am having fun creating a more grown-up space she can play in, without spending a fortune! The next step, removing the Nursing Chair!!

Psst!! If you are looking for a little more meg-made, I'd LOVE for you to follow along!

Travelling with a toddler, the Early Years

In Baby M's first 6 months of life she travelled from London to Greece, Australia, New Zealand and New York. She clocked up some serious hours snoozing 30,000 feet above ground, and we loved travelling with her. It was a breeze! We had the bulkhead seats, so whilst she slept for 8 hours, we had all the legroom we could hope for. We were boarded and disembarked first. And 9 times out of 10, were ushered through a "families" line in customs, so never had to wait in long queues. 

I wrote a post with tips to travelling with infants a year or so ago here, and thought I should update the status as to travelling with a toddler, the Early Years. Literally a whole new ball game!

From our recent trip to the US, the 7 hour flights between London to NY went as well as they could, and Baby M was happy as can be, she was just active, and even though she had her own seat, she wanted to explore. The trouble with being 14 months old is that you are too old to sit still and sleep all the time, but not yet old enough to be entertained by a DVD for two hours. And so we were walking up and down the aisles, playing with the faucet in the bathroom, eating snacks, playing peek-a-boo with anyone and everyone, listening to the headphones and reading books. Repeat that 40 times. We were fortunate enough to travel on the company dollar, so we had three seats in Premium Economy, and even then we found the trip exhausting.

And when we landed at JFK, I had the good sense to mention sensitively to my husband, that we wouldn't even be a THIRD of the way to Australia at that point.... nice going Meg, harmonious! 

So, after getting back to London a week ago, I am already getting the suitcases back out and preparing to lug ourselves back to Heathrow on Thursday morning, bound for Australia! Not for work, so two seats way at the back. For 30 hours.

To say I am feeling a little stressed is a giant understatment of the bleeding obvious! 

I've mentioned before that I'm a Stress Baker, but, as I am going to be a bridesmaid in 10 days, stress baking is not an option (note: when you are trying to lose weight, don't spend a month in New York and don't injure your back and make walking impossible for a week.... gahhh, hello spanx). So I have become a Stress Crafter this week! I have been making all sorts of things from wedding trinkets, baptismal celebrations (we are baptising Baby M the day after we land, great idea right?), and then I thought I would make a few toys for the plane to occupy our little Curious George. 

Whilst battling my own jetlag and laying wide-eyed at 1am each night I've had plenty of time to plan this next trip. I wanted to make some toys that we could take onboard that are a bit different, lightweight, and that replicate things at home that occupy Baby M for substantial amounts of time. 

So Baby M's little pack of entertainment is ready!

Toddler Plane Distractor 1 - Sock Puppets

Sock Puppets!!! I can't believe these are Baby M's first ever sock puppets! But how incredibly light and packable makes them perfect entertainment for travel. I wanted to make three to keep her busy, and so based on current socks around the house (yes, we now have three mismatched socks), decided upon making an elephant, zebra and pig. 

I had all the different felt already and so just sat for an hour with my glue-gun and scissors and had fun creating these little guys...

Toddler Plane Distractor 2 - - Baby's First Wallet

I'm not sure whether it is just because I have a really cool hot pink J Crew wallet, but my little girl is obsessed with playing with wallets. She loves to take all the cards out and then put them all back in again. And so I thought I would create a fabric version all of her own to play with. It was very easy to make, just a few pieces of felt, some ribbon and the sewing machine and it was done in about 15 minutes! I had to "quilt" the felt to make it feel authentic.. not that I own a Chanel wallet!

Toddler Plane Distractor 3 - - Button & Shape game

Who knows what you'd call this, but she is at the age where it is fun to fit things inside other things, and whilst at home that means boxes inside bags inside boxes, on a plane it looks more like this....

The other things I have armed myself with are:

• A few new books that are interactive (partly because I am sick of the sight of our current library and couldn't possibly read Pat the Bunny one more time!); 

• An app for the iPad which is a Finger Painting screen; 

• Nested cups for building and destroying towers, which when all nested together don't take up too much space, and can then be used for a number of games too; 

• Snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. 

• A bag of pom poms, for her to put in cups, put in the wallet, put in the socks. And then for her to take out of the cups, out of the wallet and out of the socks. 

• This neat little "drawing pad" which uses a pen that you fill with water and when pressed on the page, the colours appear! 

All in all, it was fun making these little toys for her. They weren't expensive to make, but hopefully they keep her entertained for a little while (well if I am honest, hopefully she'll be entertained for all 30 hours that we are in transit).

So, wish us luck on this next adventure, I feel like we need it!! I have some NY posts to come and will be posting on Instagram so if you want to see Baby M being Baptised, and my best friends' wedding, not to mention what relaxing at Noosa looks like, follow along!

Lets hope I can replicate this scene at some point over the next few days...