London Mummy

A little bit of Thrifty Goodness and a spot of shopping in Spitalfields

What a shame they don't package paints for children like this anymore!

This little tin so reminds me of childhood, afternoons spent painting on a dark rainy day.  I found this set of paints at my local car boot fair and as soon as I laid eyes on it knew it just had to be mine :)  I couldn't believe it when the chap selling it rather warily asked a £1 for it, how could I resist and promptly snapped it up.

It was made in England for W H Smith & Son, I'm guessing sometime around the late 1970's.  It still had the original 25p price sticker on it.

The illustrations are just delightful, my favourite is the Lion I think - it would be wonderful to find out who the original artist was.

Inside it still has most of the little individual tablets of paint with the colour names printed below each one, somewhat muddied by a child's eager painting hand dripping water from their brush no doubt, but still wonderful all the same.  I love the fact that it says "couleur sans danger" inside too :)

Found this little cheerful vintage apron in a treasure trove of a vintage shop just off Brick Lane during a trip to Spitalfields last week with a friend. 

Tiny bit of vintage trim but thought it was just so sweet!

This area is definitely worth a visit but I would recommend going on a Friday or the weekend as a few favourites like Labour and Wait and Shelf in cheshire Street are only open then, unless you want to spend your time like we did, our noses pressed up against the glass willing someone to magically appear!  Sunday is a particularly good day anyway as you can combine it with a trip to the Sunday Up Markets and the Flower market at Columbia Road, if the good weather keeps up for the weekend I shall have to tempt Livvy into a return trip.

Charlotte over at Anknel and Burblets recently posted about her last day at work nearby and has lots of lovely photos of the interesting sites in the area including a fabulous coffee shop.

Right I'm signing off now as I seem to have posting gremlins with Typepad and it is driving me nuts!

Strawberry Luna - Original Hand Screen Printed Art - for babies, kids and grown-ups

I don't know about you, but I love to follow a Flickr trail, you know when someone adds a comment or one of your photos to their favourites.  I like to take a look at that person's photos and then their favourites which often leads me to some new things for me to love :)

Which is exactly how I came across the posters and Alphabet Prints of talented designer and screen printer Allison of  Strawberry Luna

I have always loved this colour combination and as we all know, I have something of a penchant for houses too :)  Everything about this composition just works for me.

Or how about this one:

Now in real life, I'm not a cat lover but even I have to admit that this one is cute!

Allison also designs and hand screen prints some lovely limited edition Alphabet Prints which have a wonderful nostalgic feel to them, here are a few of my favourites, although I had a tough time choosing as there were just so many that I like. 

Priced at $15 each plus postage - my fellow Europeans will be delighted to hear that Allison does ship internationally - I think these are tremendously good value. 

These would be an adorable addition to any nursery or playroom and would be a very welcome new baby gift I'm sure.

 

Actually I know a fair few adults who would love this on their walls ........

How could I resist when we all know just how much I love owls, be they Festive Ones for Christmas or just normal everyday fun ones.

Birds in a tree, yep that works for me too!

 

To see the rest of the collection and purchase any of  Allison's prints and posters, visit the Strawberry Luna website.

Do let me know what you think and you can also check out Allison's Flickr Photostream.

Festive Snowy Owls & Bird Love

Thank you so much to all of you who left me a comment regarding Andrea's illustration for London Mummy - I'm still having trouble deciding on my favourite.  Like many of you it seems, my initial favourite was number one but then, as others mentioned, I  did then think number two would be more flexible for print etc ........  I think I shall put off the final decision for a little while longer, just until I get this last run of Christmas Fairs done -  I confess I was cursing myself on Saturday as I lugged about twenty large boxes of stock up and down various stairs four times, it would all be much more simple if I just had one type of product - but hey where would the fun be in that :)

Here's some little festive snowy owls I made to display in my christmas wreaths -  I really like the simplicity of these white wreaths, you can't tell from the photos, but they also have some clear crystal beads which look so pretty when they catch the light.

If you want to make some of these owls then head over to Moonstitches for a great little tutorial.  There is also a new Owly Love pool over on flickr.  The fabrics are from my stash, some white Designers Guild linen mix for the body and some lovely soft patterned fabric which I can't for the life of me remember where it is from - actually that may well be from Designers Guild too.

Livvy came with me to the latest fair I did on Saturday which was held in a beautiful old church in Richmond, near Kew called, appropriately enough, The Barn Church.  My little mini entrepeneur daughter had been busy making some gorgeous friendship bracelets and asked if she could sell them alongside my things and she was so chuffed when she sold a fair number of them - she had made some gorgeous colour combinations - I will post some photos when the rain stops and we get some decent light around here.

As requested, I am in the midst of a lined Christmas Stocking tutorial but in reality I doubt if I will be able to post it here much before next week as I really do need to concentrate on these fairs I'm booked in for I'm afraid.

Now I did promise another giveaway before Christmas didn't I - so come back over the next few days as I shall be posting details either tomorrow or Wednesday..........

   

Rosie Flo's Night-time Colouring Book has arrived!

I just love days like today so I am hosting a free giveaway - see below.

When it comes to new stock deliveries here at London Mummy I am just like a kid at Christmas - not matter what I should be doing, I just cannot wait to open my parcels and ooh and ah over everything - how sad is that!

Anyway, I have received lots of yummy goodies today from my Top Drawer shopping spree but for now I am just going to show you the brand spanking new Rosie Flo's Night-time colouring book:

If you haven't already heard of Rosie Flo, let me explain just why we love their colouring books so much. 

Husband and wife team Steve and Roz were inspired by their two daughters to produce a creative colouring book.  Roz would spend hours patiently following her daughters' instructions and produce drawings for them to colour in.  Dresses were the most popular items and Roz's older daughter Sophie wanted to add the faces, arms and legs herself whilst her younger sister Sasha, was obsessed with simply colouring in, soon they had an impressive collection of people and dresses and Roz felt sure that lots of other girls would love this way of drawing and colouring too.

So Steve and Roz took the plunge and produced the original Rosie Flo's Colouring book which proved to be a huge success.  Roz was right, there were lots of other girls wanting them, including my own daughter and her friends who positively pounced the minute they laid eyes on them.

There are now a total of seven books in the range, including one for the boys: Johnny Joe.

The children just love comparing their pictures - that's the beauty of these books, no two pictures will be the same as the child puts their own creative stamp on them. 

The quality of the book is superb, nice and thick paper so none of that awful seeping through onto the picture on the next page and the size is just perfect for popping into a bag - these are an absolute godsend on a plane or train.

Anyway back to the new book:

This one is a little different, as it has been printed on thick, quality black paper.   You can still use regular colouring pencils along with gel pens and paints but this really brings the night-time themes to life.

How great is this witches and wizards scene - just perfect for Halloween.

Or this spooky skeleton and dog ......

Midnight feast anyone?

There are lots of other wonderful illustrations in this book; a bonfire night party with fab fireworks, groovy disco dancers, a flying carpet ride high above the rooftops, a cinema audience wearing x-ray specs plus lots, lots more.

I am going to give away two free copies of this brand new book, which are normally £5.99 each,  to one lucky winner - why two copies, well I don't want to incite sibling rivalry! 

Just leave a comment on this post and I shall use the random number generator to select a winner - only one entry per person please.  The closing date for the draw will be next Monday, the 1st October and is open to all, including my overseas readers - the postage is on me too!

Good luck!

Olivia will be so relieved this stock has arrived as it means she can now start colouring her own sample copy which she has been itching to do :)

Adorable New Girls Clothing Collection by Siaomimi

I am so excited to be able to bring you a sneak preview of a simply gorgeous brand new clothing range for girls aged 12 months to 6 years called Siaomimi.

This adorable little forest animals print is my absolute favourite as seen here:

and here on this gorgeous little ric rac trimmed tee shown with the blue gingham Bubble Shorts:

The creative force behind Siaomimi is the very talented designer, Hilda Yim, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design in New York.  Hilda has previously worked with Anna Sui and DKNY and had her own successful Shopaholic womenswear label which was sold in numerous stores in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

Following the birth of her daughter, Charisse, last year, Hilda was inspired to create a childrenswear range and it is simply beautiful.  The prints are all adorable and I really love all the little finishing touches and attention to detail.

How sweet is that little embroidered flower on the pocket of this little gingham shirt dress .......

Hmm, wonder if I could persuade Hilda to produce this gorgeous Audrey Spring coat in an adult size and I love the fact that there are matching Mary Janes and Ballerina shoes available in a wide range of colours too.

The prints Hilda has used throughout her range have a lovely sweet nostalgic vintage feel to them - this little bird print is another of my favourites:

Plus the prints are available in a variety of different colourways too - here is the same bird print in a pretty pink and green colourway used for the reversible sun hat:

Looks like the girls had fun at the photoshoot wearing their oh so so sweet summer dresses!

As a mother myself, I love the practical element to this range, quality 100% cotton, lots of sweet leggings, shorts and tees in a good range of colours, perfect for mixing and matching. 

Don't all little girls love a twirly skirt, especially when it comes with a matching little lamb applique tee:

To see even more from Hilda's stunning Spring/Summer 2008 range pop over to the Siaomimi website.

The collection will be available in both the US and in Europe and yes London Mummy is really looking forward to stocking it.

Both Hilda and I would really love to hear what you think of her range so please leave a comment or, if you would prefer,  email me via the link in the left hand side bar at the top of this page.