Impromptu Boxing Day Photo Shoot

by Bex

Today we all woke up in a pretty good mood with some nice light coming through the windows so I took advantage and whipped out the big camera!

We often get sleepy smiles like this one below but in the last few days we've definitely been getting a lot more meaningful, alert smiles!  It's lovely to see them react to us now!!

The Twins' first official photo shoot!

by Bex

So, we had our second shoot with Laura (Baby Picture This) after the babies were born following our maternity shoot a couple of weeks before the birth.  It was lovely to see Laura again and be able to introduce her to the twins.  We are so pleased with the photos she took of us excitedly awaiting their arrival and we're even more delighted with the gorgeous images she's captured of us once we doubled Team Olive Dragonfly!  Our first proper pictures as a family of four are so cherished, we love them!  It's great to have a (non-iPhone) record of our teenie babies aged just 15 days.

Here's our happy ending... and it's only the beginning!  I could not be happier right now!

I think Kalyan wishes we ironed the sheets!  ;)

Before & After!

Thank you again Laura!

The Twins' Rainbow Nursery - Revealed

by Bex

This was written before the babies arrived but I wanted to save it until after I announced their birth and names as their initials are part of the design.  Some of the following photos are by me and some by the talented Laura Aziz.  Laura's are labelled where applicable.

So you've seen a few sneaky peeks of the nursery by now, including my initial plans and Instagram snaps as the design of the room progressed as well as a few tutorials of how I made the mobile, painted the drawer knobs and,made the cloud shelf, not to mention a wee sneaky peek when I published a few of Laura's maternity photos.  The walls were as they were when we moved in, I never would have gone for a blue wall but I absolutely love the particular shade that's in there and it works so well with the sunshine clock and cloud shelf as well as the brightly coloured rainbow accessories in there.  The rest of the walls were already a pale grey which would have been my choice with all the white furniture I wanted.

Here's a reminder of how the room looked the day we moved in... (unfortunately I didn't take a picture looking the other way towards the blue wall around the door)

Before

I've tried to keep calm and not overfill/clutter the room (I found it difficult not having full walls to play with as the long slanted walls limited what I could do) and a few of my original ideas have since been relocated to the playroom which will now also be rainbow themed to fit in all of the brightly coloured bits I love.

So, here is the overall finished nursery complete with list of suppliers.  I hope you like it - I am utterly in LOVE with it!  :)

After

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

Photo by Laura

In case you fancy any of the items you see, here is a list of suppliers/where we found everything.  I've included links and prices where possible:

Furniture:
Daybed - Ikea (Hemnes), £260 (we've owned ours for 8+ years)
Chest of Drawers - Ikea (Hemnes), £200
Box shelves - Ikea (Kallax), £45
Baby wardrobe - Ikea (Stuva), £104
Bookcase - Ikea (Billy), £20
Cots - Uber Kids (Saplings Kirsty White Cot), £100 each (I also found a 10% off code at the time and then one cot got damaged during transit due to poor packaging and after waiting quite a while for them to deal with it, we got a 50% refund on the damaged cot.)
Eames style white rocker - ebay, £41.99

Pretty things:

Gallery Wall:
Frames - Ikea (Frosakull, Sondrum, Nyttja, Ribba), Homebase, Hobbycraft, various sizes and prices
Geometric art cards - Ikea (Kort)
Pink fox art card - Ikea (Kort) (gift from Rachel)
Bunnies & squirrel art cards - Ikea (Kort)
Various gallery wall prints - This Modern Life
'Twice as Nice' biscuit card (from Roz), Nikki McWilliams
White initials - Posh Graffiti, 12cm - £6.25 and 23cm - £9.50
Colourful initials - This Modern Life, £7.45 each (displayed in box frames from Hobbycraft with the glass & backing removed)
Maternity photos by Louise Mallan, Lauren McGlynn & Laura Aziz.  (All the Ls!)
'Smile' postcard (from Sharon)
'Hello Sunshine' postcard (from Aisling & Stella)

On the Daybed:
Snail Cushion - Wesco, £13.90
Jammy Dodger Biscuit cushion (gift from Roz), Nikki McWilliams
Dragonfly cushion (old gift from Julie)
Turquoise cushion - very old
Hand-painted knobs - homemade (see here for painted knobs tutorial or buy similar on Etsy)

On the Blue Wall:
Happy Day bunting print - Ingrid Petrie Design on Etsy (gift from Claire), £15
Clock - Ikea
Cloud shelf - homemade (See here for cloud shelf tutorial or buy similar on Etsy)
Rainbow stacking toy - Grimm Toys (gift from Mum & Dad but available on Amazon), £53.50
Bookworms - we got ours in Rocket Science, a wee shop in Brighton for £3.49 each but they are available on NotOnTheHighStreet.com for £5.75.
Frames - Ikea (Ribba, Sondrum), various sizes and prices
Books - mostly my own from when I was a child
Elephant mobile - Gift from in-laws (from India)

On the Left Wall:
Globe lamp - Ikea (Fado), £12

Flexi Robot - Rocket Science, the same wee shop in Brighton, £3.50 but I've found these cheaper here and they're available on ebay.
Geometric art card - Ikea (Kort)
Yellow elephant art card - Ikea (Kort) (gift from Roz)
'Be Cheerful' postcard - gift from Aisling & Stella
Bunny teddy - Gift from Katie

Frames - Ikea (Nyttja, Sondrum), various sizes and prices

Dragonflies - Umbra (had these for years but they're still available on Amazon)

Other:
Mobile - homemade (see here for Hot Air Balloon Mobile tutorial)
Maternity photos by Louise Mallan, Lauren McGlynn & Laura Aziz.  (All the Ls!)
Crocheted teddies - made by Mum's friend
Elmer the Elephant toys - (gifts from Mum & Dad) - £8.95 each in John Lewis
Curved changing mat - Wesco, £31
Storage Boxes - Ikea (Drona in various colours), £2.50
Organiser tray in wardrobe - Ikea (Kusiner), £6
Drawer organisers - Ikea (Skubb), £6
Star print lampshade - Asda, £8
Wooden mouse on windowsill - From my childhood (tail chewed off many years ago!)
Wooden rocking horse puzzle on windowsill - Present from my brother when he was born in 1984 ;)

(Still to come in the playroom - paper lanterns/poms, rainbow bunting, garlands.)