Featured Etsy Shop: Max & Olivia

My featured Etsy shop today is 'Max & Olivia'. I recently purchased supplies from this lovely shop for Emmy's birthday party. I spent so much time looking through the beautiful photos in the shop before making my decision of getting some wooden utensils and brown craft bags for party favors. 

I recommended the shop to my friend who is having a wedding in a couple months and she's ordered some things too. 

It's a great shop and I like their tagline, 'helping you deliver happiness'. Wonderful! 

original photos by Max & Olivia

NEST Baby: Vintage baby clothes + Gorgeous Cushion

I've got a beautiful collection of Vintage & Handmade clothes over in my Etsy shop. Stop on by and have a look. 

Gift wrapping available. 

I also love this vintage looking pillow by Creature Comforts available over at Society 6. It has such soft vintage colours and an adorable print. 

photo 1 by me
photo 2 by Creature Comforts

NEST Project: Working with fabric and lace

I'm pulling some fabric out of the craft cupboard and dreaming up some new projects. New products in my etsy shop soon! 

photo by me

NEST Free Printable: Chalkboard Tags

It always seems to be someone's birthday or a friend is having a baby, and it's a great idea to have extra gift tags lying around. I love wrapping gifts in simple brown paper with a coloured or natural ribbon and finishing it off with a personalised tag. 

You are more than welcome to print these tags that I made for you. They are not to be used for commercial use, PERSONAL USE ONLY. There are a few different styles of tags including, Happy Birthday, Thank You, a heart, plus more. They feature a chalkboard style background and different fonts. Print them on heavy cardboard paper for the best result. You can also put double sided tape on the back and use them as stickers! 

You have two different paper sizes to choose from, US Letter & A4. 

photos/graphics by me

Click the link for US Letter paper size.
NEST Free Printable - US Letter Chalkboard Tags
Click the link for A4 paper size.
NEST Free Printable - A4 Chalkboard Tags

DIY Pouch Sewing Tutorial

Folks, it's 6 months until Christmas! I'm really looking forward to it this year. I'm putting these DIY Pouches on my list of things to make for Christmas gifts. We try to give purposeful, useful, and non-wasteful gifts in our family and I think these will be put to good use. I love the patterns and colour blocking that How About Orange used in the pouches above. See the original tutorial here. 

Photo by How About Orange. 

NEST Recipe - Choc Chip Mint Cupcakes

I made some yummy cupcakes yesterday, Chocolate chip Mint cupcakes. With choc chips in the cake and on the frosting. 

I adapted a recipe that I found on taste.com.au. See the recipe after the jump.

photos by me

DIY Stamp tutorial

I love this tutorial from Crafts Tuts+. They'll teach you how to make your own stamps and make your own tea towels. This would be such a lovely gift for a wedding, mom, sister, friend, house warming, etc.! 

photos by Craft.Tuts+

In my Nest: Living with a child with Special Needs

I haven't been blogging for a few weeks now, and it's because our daughter Emmy has been really sick and was hospitalized for just over a week. This is the 3rd time in 4 months that she has been hospitalized for bronchiolitis. The last episode (prior to this one) was only 8 weeks ago and she got very sick and had a collapsed lung and a cardiac arrest on the way to the Children's Hospital. They were able to revive her in the ambulance and she made a very slow and steady recovery. 

But Emmy is a fighter! She always has been and I'm sure she always will be. I'll try to not share too many personal details, but the first year of her life has been a roller coaster for the whole family. I'll start from the beginning. At our 20 week ultrasound we found that she was smaller than normal and the docs tossed around the possibility of cleft pallet, down syndrome, or brain damage and advised that if we wanted to terminate the pregnancy that we should make a decision quick. That wasn't an option for us, we firmly believe that at all costs we should let the baby live, if that's not your opinion that's fine. 

We had regular ultrasounds and she was still very small and I was losing amniotic fluid, so we knew that I probably wouldn't be carrying her past 35 weeks. At 33 weeks I was working full time and busy getting ready for the baby and was having regular check-ups. One Friday I went to the hospital for heart-rate monitoring of the baby and a quick ultrasound and they said that they'd book me in for an emergency caesarean that night or the next morning! We chose to do it that night, because I wouldn't be able to sleep that night anyway. At 8:15pm our little Emmy was born, she was 1.54 kilos (3.6lbs) and was small for her gestational age. She was in the special care nursery for 5 weeks. During that time they did some blood tests and found that she had a very rare chromosomal abnormality called Trisomy 13 (or Patau Syndrome), but her's was so rare because there were variations of the abnormality. It hasn't been documented here in Australia and we've yet to find any other case like her's in the world. 

There are a lot of issues with Trisomy 13 babies; only 80% of them are born alive and only 20% of those make it to their first birthday. They often have mental retardation, problems with heart and kidneys, and have other growth delays. Short life expectancy. Some have "rocker foot" where the bottom of there feet are so rounded that they can't walk on them. Emmy doesn't exhibit any of these features; she shows some physical features like a small dimple in her left ear and wide set eyes. 

She did have hip dyslpasia which she was in a hip brace for 7 months. She currently has glasses to help her crossed eyes and her long-sighted vision. She has very tiny bronchial tubes and immature lungs so she's susceptible to respiratory issues, which is why she's been getting sick with bronchiolitis so much lately. 

There are some other minor things that we've had to treat with physiotherapy and speech pathology. I went back to work part-time when Emmy was 6 months old, but I've now resigned and am staying home full time with Emmy. I'm loving it, and let's be honest her doctors and specialist appointments are a full time job, plus I get to be home with my little cheeky monkey! 

We've laughed, we've cried, we've grieved almost losing her a couple months ago, but most of all we're in awe of our daughter and just love her laughs and the joy she brings to us. Because her case has not been documented before we don't know what to expect of her, but she's trumping what the doctors are expecting of her. 

I wanted to share this, because I believe each and every kid has some special need in their lives, but some kids have more than others, and I'd like to offer my support and warm thoughts to other kids and parents that are going through tough times as well. 

photo 1 Joseph Kan Photography
photo 2 by me

Handmade Heart Cushion

Because Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I felt the house could use a little "heart attack". I made this cushion with recycled upholstery fabric and some red cotton fabric. I love the way it turned out with the neutral fabric in the background and the punchy red heart. In the off season it will live in Emmy's room, or it might make it's way to our bedroom. 

photo by me

Scandinavian Woodland themed nursery

There are only a few times in your life when you really feel like "nesting", they are getting your own place, moving in with a significant other, and having a baby! We hit two out of three of those on the bullseye last year when we moved into our first house and when we had our first baby. 

Our 1950's bungalow has a lot of charm (meaning a lot of things to fix up), and when it came to the baby's room, there was no exception. We chose the smallest room in the house, because let's face it, babies are small. We had to be smart about the layout of the room for many reasons, 1) It's only 8ft by 8ft, 2) The door swings in the wrong way, and 3) there's a closet door that swings into the room. 

We have tall ceilings so we used that to our advantage and tried to keep as much off the floor as possible and use the wall space instead. We painted the walls a nice neutral colour that will grow with her, or if we decide to move her into another room, we don't have to repaint. 

I love the aesthetic of Scandinavian design and the whole idea of the woodland themed nursery came from a poster I clipped from a magazine a couple years ago.

Go over to Pinterest and check out more cute baby room inspiration on my board.

 

  Emmy's crib/cot with mobile and art on the wall. 

  boxes with precious things over change table.

 Reading/feeding nook with Eames replica rocking chair and library of books.

  I made the mobile from paper toys, bought some art on etsy from Hillary Bird, the poster of Scandinavian and Northern European woodland creatures that started the whole idea of the woodland nursery theme. 

DIY chalkboard painted closet door.  

Dollhouse we got at a garage sale. I've seem them new for $240!  

 kids table with chalkboard top.

Our baby changing station. We painted this dresser and put a change table on top. We attached a hamper on the side and easy reach rubbish bin. 

 A teepee for impromtu pow-wows!

NEST Recipe - Heart shaped Norwegian waffles

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to live in Norway for a little while with my mom's family, and something I remember making heart shaped waffles for dessert on cold snowy nights before snuggling up next to a wood burning stove. 

You don't have to have a heart shaped waffle iron to make these, but it's a plus! 

(I've directly translated this recipe from Norwegian)

125 gr (1 stick) melted butter
50 gr (1/2 cup) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
4 eggs
250 gr (2 3/4 cups) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 - 1/4 milk (or buttermilk) 
spices optional: a little pinch of cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon 

Whisk melted butter, vanilla extract, salt, sugar, and eggs together until you get a light consistency (I use an electric whisk). Sift flour and baking powder and carefully stir into the butter/sugar mixture. Add milk and give the mixture a good whisk. 

Most waffle irons don't require you to butter or oil the hot plate before each waffle, but some might. If you're required to, put a little vegetable oil or butter on hotplate before each waffle. Cook 4-6 minutes each, or until waffle iron tells you it's done. 

Toppings: My favorite are butter with strawberry or raspberry jam, or butter with sprinkled sugar and cinnamon. 

Enjoy! 

photos by me

Welcome to NEST

I am so excited about this project that I'm about to embark on in. I've come across some fabulous vintage finds and have a passion for handmade items and crafts for you to wear, for baby to wear, and for the home. I will share some of my favorite craft and dIY projects and vintage wares. 

I've also opened up an online shop that you can shop vintage and handmade from anywhere around the world! The photo above is a sneak peek at one of the lovely vintage dresses that will be for sale soon.

So make yourself a cup of coffee and sit back and relax and enjoy the ride with me. 

Happy Nesting! xoxo Sonja 

photo by me