Loveliness from Japan - my little Daruma

Hello everyone, I think everyone needs a little motivation to achieve a certain goal, or realise a dream or make a wish come true. That's exactly what a DARUMA is for.  A DARUMA is a traditional handmade Japanese wishing doll. It is a centuries-old tradition from Japan.
Those who know me well know that I have a special relathionship with Japan (like many French people) and that like everything Japanese. I had three years of Japanese at school (which I completely forgot of course) but I am still a big fan of the Japanese culture and I spent my honeymoon in Japan in 2008.

That's how daruma dolls work:

1. Decide on a SPECIFIC GOAL you are DETERMINED to ACHIEVE or a SPECIAL DREAM, you want to COME TRUE.
2. A Daruma always comes with two blank eyes, so DRAW one of your Daruma's blank eyes to signify your COMMITMENT to achieving your GOAL.
3. Place your Daruma somewhere VISIBLE in your home.
4. Once you've achieved your goal or your dream has come true, draw in Daruma's other eye to say THANK YOU!

I brought the first one, on our honeymoon in Japan. It was a traditional red one. My wish was work related, and it worked. The second one I brought at the end of the pregnancy, and I chose a golden one. 

I love the meaning of the talisman, but I also find it very cute as a decoration item. Mine now lives on my bookshelves in my living room. It reminds me of my sweet dream, which was (now that it came true, I can tell it) : give birth to a happy and healthy baby.

WHAT ABOUT YOU, WHAT IS YOUR DARUMA DREAM OR GOAL?

You can for example find a DARUMA online here on the Saroshi online shop. I bought mine directly in the shop situated in the Gertigstrasse in Hamburg.

Talk to you soon,

Elodie

Some dahlias for baby love

Hello everyone,

When I saw these gorgeous dahlias at the market yesterday, I couldn't resist! I decided to be crazy and spend € 2.50 even if I could go to the hospital any moment now, as I am already 8 days overdue. I think the shades of pink, red and purple are just beautiful. They make me look forward to the autumn and its fantastic range of warm colours. I also wanted to use my new mini-medicis vase I found last week. So here are a couple of photos for you and for my baby love. Maybe she will want to come out if she already feels the beauty of flowers. Have a nice day and talk to you soon! Elodie

Baby love's little nursery

Good morning everyone,As promised several times, today is the day of the big reveal: I will show you the finished baby nursery. Maybe baby love will want to visit it soon! So here is what I did with this room after I decided on the colour scheme and did a virtual moodboard and collected some inspiration on Pinterest. I will start with the main pieces of furniture and show you the little details:

Little black sheep by Jellycat

The grey bed is from the French brand Combelle - I bought it on the French website Smallable, along with a lovely grey changing table and I am very much in love. I picked a grey bed with a lot of cushions and made a padded cot bumper in different shades of blue and grey. The mobile adds some purple to make it a bit more girly, and some animals to make it more fun. Stars as a pattern can be found in the shape of the blue cushion, on the mobile and on the ribbons.

For the first months, baby love will sleep in a French antique crib my parents brought me in July, where my sister used to sleep as a baby 28 years ago.

I found this antique wardrobe in the lovely shop Lieblingszimmer in Hamburg (which by the way just opened an online shop) - and instantly fell in love. I like the fact that the vitrine has also got glass on the side. We didn't want to buy something too babyish and I am not sure that this will stay for ever in baby love's bedroom. I could image it very well later in a dining room for presenting pretty plates and glasses. For the time being, I love the fact that I can enjoy the beautiful clothes my mum made for baby love.

 2. On the walls

The print is by UK illustrator Kerry Layton from her beautiful brand Seventy tree.

The pompoms come from the German website Pompom your life. They are hand-made and they have a great selection of colours to choose from on the website.

I made the pennant banner myself. It's a great way to use little pieces of fabric. I used some Liberty of London art fabric, some Japanese fabric, some fabric by Swedish design Lotta Jansdotter and some French fabric from petit pan. I made a big one that hangs above the bed as well as a mini-version. A tutorial is coming soon on the blog.

I also made the embroidery hoops with Liberty of London of fabric that I showed you previously on the blog. They now hang above the changing table.

I wanted to put some contrasting elements on the night blue painted wall. I decided to go for a wall sticker in silver - I have been a big fan of Shanna Murray and was so happy to finally have a good excuse for ordering one of her stickers. The unicorn head is from the German shop Butlers.

3. The lighting:

4. The little animals:

 5. The little stars:

A big thank you to Jocelyn from the gorgeous blog little room of style for her wonderful photos and to my little assistant Cheddar:

So I hope you liked my little nursery tour. I am looking forward to your feedback. I hope it doesn't look too much like a little boy's nursery with the choice of colours.

xxx Elodie

(c) All photography by Jocelyn Casey and Elodie Love

Flowers from Sabine's garden

Hello everyone, I am not making so many bouquets these days, but luckily my friends still are and I love looking at them. Today I would like to show you the little wonders from Sabine's garden. Sabine is a German copywriter and blogger and online shop-owner. Her lovely blog is called azurweiss and her shop la mesa. We first met virtually through the swapping action Post aus meiner Küche last year and in real life in February in Munich during the blogger meet up "I love you blogs and coffee". She posts a lot of charming flower arrangements on her blog, and has participated many times in our #2flowergirls photo challenge. I am a big fan of her Instagram feed, where she posts a lot of lovely flowers. She usually presents simple flowers in very pretty glass or white china vases.  Some are from the flea-market and some can be purchased in her online-store.

Today, I am so glad to be showing you some of Sabine's bouquets from her beloved garden along with a little interview:

Dear Sabine, what kind of flowers do you grow in your garden?

I’m very much in love with cottage gardens and I grow typical cottage garden flowers like cornflowers, cosmoses, delphiniums, peonies and old roses together with tons of herbs like sage, rosemary, mint and chives. And not to forget some tomatoes, courgette and pumpkins. Our garden looks quite romantic and often a little bit higgledy-piggledy (because I don’t have time to keep all the weeds away) but this contrasts quite well with our  house which is pure white and very functionalist, almost Bauhaus-style.

What does your garden mean to you?

Honestly –  I think I couldn’t live without it. Working in the garden just makes me happy and I wish I had more time to spend in this little green relaxing zone.

What kind of vases do you like using for your bouquets?

Most of my vases are made of white porcelain, many of them are vintage. I like to arrange them in groups with flowers assorted by colours – mostly white, pale pink or blue. I also use transparent or blue glass vases or even glasses (vintage or new). Liqueur glasses for example are wonderful to arrange flowers like forget-me-nots or single blossoms. Especially in autumn and winter I often use rough ceramics (mostly vintage) to decorate, for example, dahlias, asters or just branches.

Thank you so much Sabine for sharing with us your lovely pictures and your love for flowers.

I wish you all a great day and hope to talk to you soon if baby love doesn't decide to make an appearance. Only 7 days to go! xxx Elodie

(c) All photography by Sabine Wittig

KALASON

Hey everyone, I hope you had a good start to this new week. Today I would like to share with you another shop I love. It's a very Scandinavian shop as often in Hamburg. That is, by the way, one of the reasons why I like Hamburg so much. It's because you often feel closer culturally and design-wise to Copenhagen than to Munich! The other shops with a great selection of Scandinavian design I presented to you in the past are LIV, Lys Vintage, smukkeStore or Nordlys. The particularity of KALASON is that they have a focus on design for children with brands like little elephant or sebra, but you can also find some classic design brands such as nordal or hay. The shop owner Katharina Langewender is also a graphic designer, and a lot of the postcards that can be found in the shop are her own design. Katharina also designs logos and is responsible for Lieschen's pretty logo. The shop is situated in the very lively and pretty district of Winterhude, where you can also find the  shop schön und ehrlich, next to the canal, but you can also purchase everything online via the great online shop.

Here are a couple of pictures. Even if online shopping is great, nothing can replace a real-life shopping tour:

KALASON Semperstraße 2 22303 Hamburg

Tue – Fri: 11:00 – 19:00 Sat: 10:00 – 15:00 Follow kalason on Facebook

The nursery project #2 - online inspiration

Hello everyone,The birth of baby love is approaching (the end of August) and I can already tell you that you will see less flowers and more decoration and DIY on the blog in the coming weeks, as I am decorating the nursery and planing to make some stuff for the baby. I will show you some pictures of the room slowly transforming into a nursery and some great resources to buy furnitures and decoration items online. Today I will start with my online inspiration and first where I store my inspiration when I am surfing the web. I created a Pinterest board, that I names LOVEly nurseries. You can have a look here

A great website, when decoration the nursery and waiting for the baby to come is the French blog called The Socialite Family - A SAMPLE OF SMART AND COOL FAMILIES .

The blog is written by Constance Gennari who used to be a children’s fashion journalist. The purpose of Socialite Family is to observe interior design through the eyes of a family and I find her blog very inspiring. The interviewed families so far live in Paris, New York, London, Milan and Nantes, Los Angeles and Barcelona. (the interviews are available in French and English). It is a very visual blog, and I find extremely inspiring.

Speak to you soon, xoxo

Elodie

Wild flowers in Spain #2

Sometimes images speak louder than words. As I promised in yesterday's post, here is my wild flower bouquet from the Costa Brava. I hope you like it!

Speak to you soon - I will be back next with some new ideas for the baby's bedroom.

Take care

Elodie

Cat on dog

Hello everyone, 2 weeks ago I received a little package I ordered some time ago on the online shop fab.com. Fab is a members-only website and mobile app that offers curated sales, featuring designers and manufacturers from around the world. You usually have to wait a pretty long time between the order and the delivery, but it is generally worth it. My last order was for my cat Cheddar and I promised on Instagram, that I would post some photos of the little present, so there you go:

The funny scratching dog is from the US company Imperial Cat. They are not on sale anymore on the Fab Website, but you never know, they might come back at some point. Anyway Cheddy loves it! I wish you a great day! Speak to you soon

Elodie

Blue variation

Hello everyone, I gave a little dinner party last Saturday, and it's always the occasion for me to pimp my flat with some fresh cut flowers. When I was on the market, I bought some blue flowers. I decided not to mix them, but to make three different bouquet and display them on different spots of the flat. Here is the result. I hope you will enjoy it. Which one do you prefer? Myosotis, delphinium or hortensia? Speak to you soon!

xxx Elodie

The nursery project #1 - book & magazine inspiration

Hello! As a lot of you already know, I am expecting a little girl at the end of August! I am so excited about it. That also gives me a great occasion to start a new decoration project - and I would like you to share my thoughts and my decorating journey with you. The nursery will be set in our former bedroom, and my old office/workshop is now our bedroom. You have to have a little bit of imagination if you live in a relatively small space (80 m2). The room is approximately 10 m2, but you don't really need much space for a newborn baby who will sleep in our bedroom to start with anyway. Today I would like to share with you where I find my inspiration offline. That's a question I am asked all the time when talking about the blog or about decorating in general: Where do you find your inspiration? So, here are some answers, some great books I am reading at the moment and the French magazine Milk (which also has texts in English). And what about you? Where do find your inspiration when you want to decorate/redecorate a room? Have you got some tips regarding kid's and baby's rooms?

Talk to you soon, for some more baby inspiration.

xxx

Elodie

1. Decorate workshop by Holly Becker  (the founder of the decor8 blog). This book is like no other decoration book I have read before. It can be used for any decoration project, it is more a guide, a companion than a book - very inspiring! 2. Children's room by Terence Conran (the founder of habitat). A very interesting book with a lot of tips, written by a design guru. 3. & 4. two brilliant books from my favorite publisher Paumes. This small Japanese publisher has some great books about children's rooms and family life in various countries. Most of the texts are unfortunately in Japanese, but the pictures are really inspiring. You can order them online via the online concept store Bodie & fou 5- The French Magazine Milk about children, now has a decoration issue, which I really love, with a lot of home tours and creative ideas. A lot of the texts are in English too.