Freebie Lounge - Free Wallpapers

Here are a couple of wallpapers I shot and created a few days ago. I adore the colors of the Matryoshka nesting doll in either their vivid or more desaturated form.

Just click on the images and save. Enjoy!

PS. If anyone is interested in the more vivid - saturated versions just let me know and I'll upload them.

Little Buzzing Bee

I know this blog is baby obsessed but I never knew you could have this much fun with baby stuff.

Next acquisition for the baby frenzy is a stroller. I always though strollers were boring and uneventful. I could never quite imagine myself pushing one of those gigantic, mahoosive stroller things, where little babies get lost inside the bulk of canopy roofs, double bottle dispensers, 4 wheel drive super pneumatic wheels and under set storage that is big enough to hold the contents of a small house. I was not impressed with the stroller thing at all.... that is until I saw The Bee.

Bugaboo's Bee Stroller is a one of a kind design. No fashionably bulky, SUV type strollers here. Just very smart, industrial design cuteness. The Bee is designed for city dwellers and in a city with sidewalks like Athens' you need a super steady, compact and sturdy one. Oh, and it fits in our boot without the need to upgrade into a Hummer!

One of the creators of the now very successful Bugaboo brand, Barenbrug graduated in 1994 with double honors in two subjects: mobility (City Bike) and leisure (pushchair). In 1995, Together with physician Eduard Zanen - who became involved with the ergonomic development of the first pushchair concepts - he tried to market his Bugaboo design to several manufacturers, but nobody was ready for it. I think they have probably regretted it by now....It appeared that his ingenuity was ahead of its time. In 1996 Max and Eduard set up Bugaboo as a company and focused on how to mass produce their product. 1999 saw their first Bugaboo - the Bugaboo Classic - appear on the streets of Holland and now, the pushchair models are available in 32 countries across 4 continents, not to mention several celebrity type people as well.

Apart from all the neat features, the simple fact is that I'm in love with The Bee's design. It looks better live than in pictures and you can really appreciate how many hours someone has spent over the drawing board for this.

Plus, they have the most adorable Bee film on their site.

Yellow Is The New Black - Making a Nursery Closet

From this

to this



Finally, the completion of a project. Remember in an older post how we had set out to convert a black solid pine IKEA wardrobe, into a yellow one? There was the sanding and the primers and the paint mixing and finally the two coats of the Auro paint.

Then there was the infamous IKEA assembly, where it is customary to be half way into your project when you realize that you have done it backwards and then you need to re-do it, at least twice.

Well, assemply is finished, drawer pulls are placed and we fitted it into what once was my home office's library. We filled it with pretty much everything related to Bean ( there's plenty more in the drawers ) and are off to our next DIY venture.



Oh, plus we'll also be adding a marquetry on the top.

Le Cupcake: Edible Cow Cupcakes (Chocolate Mud)

Mouth watering site by Le Cupcake. Have a look at these Le Cupcake: Edible Cow Cupcakes (Chocolate Mud)

So many colors and to much deliciousness in this blog!

Shallow Obsessings II - Cupcakes

I ordered the Tree of Life one since it was on sale as well, but found myself in need of some cupcake sweetness. The Tree of Life bag had no cupcake stitched on it and I was left with a huge craving. So another fixation developed soon after my order was processed : Cupcakes .Etsy's craftpudding cupcakes in ribbons, faux sweets, charms, prisma's felt fabric brooches, delicious random Flickr Cupcake photos, cupcake anything...





Yesterday I got two Accessorize cupcake charms for my keys that will migrate on my Yummy Mummy bag as soon as it is put in use.

Shallow Obsessings I - Yummy Mummy Diaper Bags

We have been trying to get ready here with the baby bubble, the nursery and the new house. I need to have some ridiculously shallow obsessings to keep my sanity.

In the midst of all the stroller, cot, bottle, nappie shopping/scouting, I became fixated on these deliciously quirky Yummy Mummy Pink Lining changing bags ever since I laid eyes on one a friend was lucky enough to have as a present.

Pink Lining is a fashion handbag label created by British designer Charlotte Pearl. Charlotte created the label when she had her first daughter and they are as functional as it they are pretty. They are currently selling in Selfridges - London, Harvey Nichols - Hong Kong, Harvey Nichols - Riyadh, Isetan - Japan, many indepedant boutiques and online. The signature shocking pink lining used throughout the bags provides the wearer with their own personal piece of hidden luxury.

UPDATED - Here's the bag I received and love it. When I open the bag, the look and feel of the bright pink lining and accessories make me feel like I'm surrounded by throbbing neon pink hearts and flying strawberry shortcakes. Who knew you could get such a kick out of a diaper bag of all things.

Yellow Heatwave

Being almost 8 months pregnant does not help when you need to sand down and repaint a wardrobe. The heat here is around 37 Celcius which feels like 45 to me. Husband George has set out to the task. He sanded and applied 2 base coats for the paint and re-sanded each time.

Then we mixed the paint to get the light yellow. Light Yellow. Maybe I need to rethink the color of the wall so I'll get more of the effect we wanted.

We are also going to add a marquee on the top and add some drawer pulls from Zara Home.


I tried some rough color combinations in Photoshop.

Parallel Project - Mystic Wardrobe

Next in the nursery/ baby madness theme - a bit of IKEA hacking. We wanted the yellows and the light blues as a base for the room and craved a yellow wardrobe made of solid wood against a light blue wall. Yellow wardrobes are hard to find so we knew that we would eventually have to come up with some DIY.

We found this closet from IKEA, but the solid wood version was available only in black. Nothing
a few hours of labor out in the heatwave won't fix.

We also needed wood lacquer that would have low or 0% VOC and we used the same company we painted our new house in. Auro has a great selection of products, all fully natural and with practically no nasty chemical odors. When we finished painting the house it smelled of oranges and cucumber. An odd combination, but also extremely pleasing knowing that it is all natural and there will be no airborne nasties from the paint.

The only problem was that pure yellow was not supplied as it is apparently not available in nature. So we got yellow and ochre to mix together until we got a nice light yellow tone. A bit of a deviation in the theme but you have to be flexible.

Birdie Yam Yam - Making The Bird Mobile

Chopping, sewing and filling the birdies up in CocoMat's Natural Latex Foam bits I had stored in a bag from an old sleeping pillow. I went birdie mad for a day. I closed my eyes and had vivid turquise, orange and pink projected on to my eyelids. Next I need to find the branches an finish it up. Hope Serge likes it.

I Don't Want To Chop It

Fabric arrived and it is so beautiful. It was from a surprise scrap pack so there was a bit of gamble as to whether the colors are going to match, but I don't think you can get wrong with designs like this.

Fabric by Amy Butler

Where Do We Start On This DIY Land ?

Baby Serge is coming in less than 2 months and we have to set up a nursery until we are ready to move to our new house.

But this is not going to look like a temp nursery because you only get to do it once, once, right ?

I have been obsessed with this amazing bird mobile, courtesy of Spool. I know we are supposed to start with the main things like where the baby is going to sleep, but small touches are what make it even better.

So I downloaded the pattern ordered some Amy Butler scrap fabrics and searched for my needles and threads.