Kiddie Coupons- a great site for Australian followers.

I'm still in the middle of the move, but thought I'd let you Australian followers know about this great site I've recently come across. It's not really decor related but it is a big help for all of us Mum's trying to save a bit of money during this very expensive time of year!

As their website says:

Kiddie Coupons - www.kiddiecoupons.com.au - Australia's premier online directory of discount coupons for parents.

Kiddie Coupons has been designed to benefit children, parents, and caregivers of children by providing savings coupons for everyday goods and services from the time a precious baby is expected, right through to their teenage years.

With big discounts available from well-known businesses supplying everything from baby goods, sporting goods, clothing, food, entertainment, and much much more, bringing up children has become a little bit easier, a little more fun, a little more adventurous and now, more affordable. Have a look through our catalogue of suppliers to see just how much you can save.

And the good news is, that until the 31st of December, followers of my blog can join for 12 months for free. Just use the promotional code JOY.

Hope you find it useful, and I will be back posting once we have settled into the new house in the next few weeks.

Travel & Transit room- out of this world!

I have just finished a gorgeous on-line room design for a lovely client who wanted a travel and transit theme for her little boy's room. We found lots of fantastic items, so I thought I'd share a few with you. The gorgeous vintage travel poster is from a great American site called All Posters (and yes, they ship internationally.) They have an amazing selection of vintage posters featuring all kinds of subjects. The mobile is from a company called Tail Winds and the fabric is Michael Miller's "In Transit". I can't wait to see how the room looks when it's all put together- I think it's going to look fantastic.

I'm up to my ears organising my move so it may be a week or so before I post again, so have a lovely week everyone!

Come on people! Free lighting up for grabs!

Our fabulous lighting competition ends on Monday and so far we have NO entries! See all the details in the last post, but enter now for your chance to win $90 worth of lighting products. Don't miss out!

Great lighting competition!

Lighting is one of the most important yet overlooked elements of room design. Many people spend a fortune decorating their homes only to put little or no thought into the lighting. Lighting is especially important in children's rooms, which need to serve many purposes. You need some bright overhead task lighting (preferably on a dimmer) and a bedside lamp for nightime story telling and middle of the light visits. You might also need a nightlight for younger children and a desk light for older children. Think about the lighting in your child's bedroom- could it do with a re-vamp? Our friends at buysterlighting.com.au are offering a $90 voucher to be used in their online store to one of our followers. All you have to do is visit their site, find your favourite light or lamp, and leave a comment here telling us which one you like and where you'd use (you can let your imagination run wild here- you don't have to stick to it if you win!) Don't forget to leave your email address on your comment. This competition is only open to Australian residents and you need to register as a follower of our site to be eligible. Buysterlighting will contact the winner directly and organise redemption of the prize. One entry per person, please! A winner will be drawn at random on Monday November 16th. Good luck everyone!

My house is for sale- want a peek?

I thought you might be interested in seeing pictures of my home. It is currently on the market and has never looked so good! Now the weekly challenge is getting it up to scratch every weekend for the open houses, especially with two young children in the house. Suffice to say, we are spending most of our Friday nights going out to dinner with the kids so there are no sticky fingerprints anywhere. If anyone is interested in buying it, you can see more details here. In the meantime, wish me luck- the auction is the on 7th of November!

Farmyard Themed Bedroom

I thought I'd show you a few photos from a room I just finished for a little girl with a love for farmyard animals. Her mum had a few items she wanted to incorporate into the room, including a picture of some ducks, so we decided to work the room around green and yellow and incorporate as many farmyard influences as possible. Here are some of the cuter items I found! The cow is from Kids Central, the play mat from Ekidna kids & the bedlinen is from The Linen Store in the UK (but they ship internationally).

Fantastic DIY blog- have a look at this!

This blog is just adorable. It is called Prudent Baby and it run by two US based mums Jaime and Jacinda. They blog about all sorts of DIY projects for your baby and their nursery- and provide step by step instructions to follow. What caught my eye initially was their cute pom pom pillow (see the pictures above). Having a bit of a thing for pom poms myself (if you haven't seen my Paperdoll Room, it features a lot of them) I popped over to have a look. Well, that was it for hours- I was absorbed! Check it out -I've sure you'll love it too!

My new website is finally done!

For the last few months I have been working on getting my new website up and running- and it's finally finished! It was designed by the lovely Andrea from Design and PR Girl and I think she has done a fab job. Hope you agree. I've also changed the layout of the blog and news page to match the new logo and website. Please pop over and have a look-I'd love to know what you think.

Woodland Animals Theme Room

It's been ages since my last post- the last month has been taken up with getting my house ready to put on the market and being busy doing several online room designs for new clients. One of the room designs themes I've been working on is an Woodland Animals theme. I thought I'd share some of the cute items I've found along this theme. Such a nice idea for an animal loving little girl! The beanbag and the height chart are from Cocoon Couture and distributed by Bubba Bling and the bedlinen is from Treehouse. I'll share some of my other great finds very soon!

Babybites Magazine features us in their Spring Interiors Edition!

If you haven't discovered the fabulous NZ online mag Babybites, make sure you check out the Spring Interiors edition, out now. It has some gorgeous features in it including a fab racing car room and lots of other gorgeous rooms, tips and tricks. They have also included us in the feature, and they made us look so good! Make sure you subscribe so that you don't miss any issue- they are always great.

Bibitty- The ABC of decorating your child's room

Check out this lovely little Etsy store! It's called Bibitty and they specialise in alphabet related wall art. I would love to use these cute flashcards in a nursery of child's room. You could hang them on a wall or prop them on a mantle. Absolutely divine!

Baby Universe and Retro Rooms competition!

We are running a fabulous competition in conjunction with Baby Universe, and the prize is a fabulous online room make-over from us! You can see all the details here as well as checking out all the other great competitions and news in on their site. The competition is only open to Australian residents. Let us know if you have entered, and we will announce the winner once the competition has ended on September the 14th. Good luck everyone!

Down on the floor!

I've never been a huge fan of play mats- you know, the ones you see used in pre-schools and play rooms all the time, and they generally just look tacky. These fantastic rugs have made me change my mind though! From Danish by Design, they are really cool. What little girl wouldn't adore the doll's house rug and the road rug is the best I've ever seen.

The rule to remember though is - don't use them decoration! Roll them up and put them away when the kids are finished playing and you don't run the risk of your house looking like the local kindy. (Although I could almost be convinced that the road rug could fit in with a "car" themed bedroom...)

Bubba Bling- such a cool online shop

Hi everyone- I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! Got a bit sidetracked with school holidays. We spent a week at the Hiton in Fiji. For a fantastic holiday with children, I cannot recommend this place highly enough. The website is here for those of you who are interested. I think we'll be going back next July holidays- it does make getting through winter so much easier!

Anyway, back to the real world.... While I was away, the lovely Marnie from Bubba Bling contacted me to tell me all about her shop, Bubba Bling. What a cool site she has! Check it out here. Bubba Bling is an e-boutique specialising in almost everything you need for your child's room. They have bed linen, wall art, furniture and other bits and pieces. I especially love the cowboy blanket backed with faux "pony fur" and the Cot Couture pink damask cot linen. I also really like the "World in Pink" bed linen from Boodalee. Have a browse through the site, there's heaps of other great stuff too.

Anyway, now that the kids are safely back at school and pre-school I will be posting more often, so look out for a few exciting things over the next few weeks. In the meantime, if any of you have anything you would like to see featured or think our readers might like to see, please email me the details at carmen@retrorooms.com.au.

Have a good week everyone!

Highchair or piece of art? Check this out...

How incredibly gorgeous is this highchair? I saw it this morning on the Babyology website and had to share it with you! It's called the Calla chair and it's designed by Yves Behar for Fleurville. It's not on the market yet, so I can't tell you how much it will cost, but isn't it beautiful? You can sign up to the website to find out when it's available (and to find out all the practical stuff, like safety features) or just to drool over the photos. I want one!

Mathilda's Markets in Sydney this Sunday! Yay!

For those of you who have not discovered Mathilda's Markets yet- you are in for a treat. The Sydney markets are on this Sunday from 9am-1pm at St Ignatius College RIverview, Tambourine Bay Road, Lane Cove. There will be almost 70 stalls, all selling unique children's and babies products. There will be food and drinks and face painting for the kids. It really is worth a look. You can check out their website here. Enjoy!

Go ahead and write on the walls- it's ok!

Check out these cute chalkboard wall stickers from Giggle Smile Designs! I can see a huge range of uses for them in the bedroom, playroom, home office or kitchen. I'm sitting here trying to work out where I can fit one in my house! They are removable, affordable and easy to apply. Perfect! Giggle Smile also have a huge range of other wall stickers, wall art, wooden and acrylic wall lettters and much, much more. Check out their website at www.gigglesmiledesigns.com.

I Just love that fabric!

The aptly named "I just love that fabric"is a great online fabric store that has lots of fantastic fabrics and oilcloths for kids (as well as cool fabrics for adults and home decor). Susie also makes canvas wall art for children's and babies rooms as well as aprons, bunting, cushions and book bags. How cute is the cowboy apron? And the red dots are very, very similar to the ones I used in the Paperdoll Room. You can check out the full range of fabric on their website www.ijustlovethatfabric.com.au and Susie also has a fun blog that you can find here www.ijustlovethatfabric.blogspot.com. I bet you will just love it too!

Artazon Wall Letters- make your child's room their own

I love to use wall letters to spell out my client's children's names- it instantly personalises their space and gives them ownership of their rooms (although it gets tricky when you child goes through one of those "I hate my name" stages and wants to be known as Princess Anneliese....). These cool letters come from NZ based company called Artazon. They make customised letters and wall art from a variety of different materials (wood, mirror and acrylic) and have a large range of fonts and also have a stainless steel range.  You can check out their website here Their creator, Lisa, also has a blog, lisasarahartist.blogspot.com. They ship worldwide.

Finally- an alternative to the Barbie beanbag!!!!

If you are like me and the idea of a living room full of Barbie couches and Thomas the Tank Engine bean bags makes you want to cry- here is the solution. 

Lelbys Little Living www.lelbys.com designs and produces contemporary children’s bean bag chairs, toy boxes, teddys, cushions and throw rugs to match the colour palate of most living rooms. The faux suede ones even have matching throw rugs and teddy bears! The range is designed to enhance the interior of adult living spaces, to suit the style of most modern parents.  Australian mum of 2, Lesley Gordon (nicnamed Lelby by her husband) firmly believes that choosing a chair for your child is just as important as choosing your own sofa, it should be stylish, comfy and compliment your home. They ship internationally and are very reasonably priced. The best bit is you won't feel like you are living in a pre-school!

Kenzie's nursery- simply gorgeous.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the gorgeous nursery Rachelle  created for her baby daughter Kenzie on Rachelle's fantastic blog KenziePoo. I absolutely love this nursery. It epitomises my favourite design rule- decorate your nursery for the child your baby will become, and your child will grow with the nursery (for more on this subject, see the article I wrote for Connect2Mums). I adore the Lulu ghost chair and the fab Eames rocker. I also love the colour scheme- it is so feminine but not PINK! I asked Rachelle to tell us about the nursery and how it came about and here is what she had to say.

"My name is Rachelle and I reside in the US (Idaho) and I love all things baby.  After having my little girl Kenzie I was so inspired to start a blog called Kenziepoo. The blog is all about baby from clothes to Nursery, featuring great finds, fab baby sites, giveaways etc...I also have a fun Etsy shop that I do for fun on the side.

 

Inspiration: After searching through magazine after magazine I couldn’t decide on what I wanted to do for the nursery until…One day I was registering for my baby shower at Target, and they gave me a booklet of things you could register for. While flipping through that book I found a picture of a room that I absolutely fell in love with! Yellows and whites with lovely wall decals. And that was it!

Favorite Element: I would have to say my favorite items in Kenzie's room are the ABC print with the beautiful frame I found at an antique store, and the beautiful bedding that my good friend made (she is an amazing seamstress).

Biggest Challenge: My biggest challenge was putting the light up….We ended up having to call a friend and have her rewire it!!



What Friends Say: What a blessed baby!

Proudest DIY: I am definitely not an artist, so I was pretty proud of myself when I made the silhouette of Kenzie on her wall.

Biggest Indulgence: Probably my biggest splurge in the room was the crib and the amazing Eames rocker.

Best advice: My best advice is to go homemade.

Dream source: I would love to eventually buy Kenzie a Madeline Weinrib Atelier rug."

 

Resources:

1. I got the great decals from my brother & sister-in-law's shop: Custom Vinyl Decals


2. Crib from Pottery Barn Kids


3. Eames Rocker: Hive Modern


4. Lou Lou Ghost chair: All Modern


5. ABC Print: Made by Girl; I also bought some fabric and put the fabric in embroidery hoops.


6. Mobile: Kikkerland


7. Elephant Pillow: Dwell Studio


8. Russian Cross Stitch Rug: Urban Outfitters


9. Chandelier: Pottery Barn Kids


10. Other Pillows: Hettle & Dedeetsy shop, 


11. Vintage Banner: Jump Up and Down


12. Sheepskin Rug: Costco


13. Fabrics & Embroidery hoops: JoAnn


14.Fabric for Blanket: Mod Green Pod 

I am guest author on the Skout Trade Fair blog!

A week or so ago I was asked by the lovely Louise from Skout Trade Fair to be the guest author on her blog. She asked me to pick 5 things I loved for mums, kids and babies. Not all of them are decor related, but I really enjoyed putting the article together. I've posted the pix of the five things I chose, but to read the whole article, check it out  here.