Nursery decor from A-Z

The alphabet cards on Finley's wall

It's hard to believe it was almost a year ago that I went to the Pick Me Up contemporary graphic arts festival at London's Somerset House. I had meant to blog about it at the time, but being pregnant and constantly tired I never quite got round to it. It was so inspiring and the sort of exhibition where I would genuinely love to own the art so I'm planning to go again this year, and I will post about it this time round.

Personalised prints being created by Nursery Names at Pick Me Up 2013

One of the surprising things was how child friendly it was - it's funny how you start to look at things with a different perspective. We were there early on a Saturday morning and not only were there lots of parents with little ones (a revelation: so this is what you do when you're not hungover and up at the crack of dawn), but there were printing workshops and creative spaces where older kids could get involved in creative projects too. There were also quite a few artists creating work aimed at children and the stuff that really caught my eye was by Nursery Names. In their own words it's a "customisable alphabet print project founded by London based graphic artist & art director Emily Forgot". They were creating personalised prints on site, or you could buy individual letter prints or alphabet prints. But I went for the beautiful sets of alphabet cards. I love the quirky illustrations and the fact that they are fun without being too twee.

I had originally planned to frame the whole set but after struggling home from Ikea with a giant picture frame and trying to arrange them in it, they still didn't look right. Luckily, as I was looking back at my children's nursery Pinterest board for inspiration, I looked again at a nursery that had used traditional twine to peg alphabet cards to the wall. I decided this would be perfect and would make a different yet stylish way to display the cards. I'm really pleased with how they look and now just need to get a few more prints up in Finley's room so it starts to look a bit cosier. I'm also booked in for a lampshade making course at a local creative cafe in June so I can make him an original lamp shade - decent kids ones are surprisingly hard to find.

The alphabet card sets or personalised prints would make a brilliant birthday or christening present for little ones and they come in a variety of colour ways. You can find out more at the Nursery Names website.

Orla Kiely Excitement Overload

It was actually quite a few weeks ago now when I walked past the Uniqlo window and did a double take. Was it… could it be… Orla Kiely prints in Uniqlo? Why hadn’t I heard about this? I raced in, convincing myself that the stuff would probably all be really expensive but I was wrong. Not only was there a whole range of scarves, dresses, jumpers and tops in the instantly recognisable print but they started at under £10!

So I guess I’d better get this out of the way early, I went a bit nuts. I bought a hoodie (so nice, so soft, so cheap!), a top and LOADS of scarves. Admittedly I justified the huge initial outlay (credit card) as most of the scarves were gifts (October and November are busy birthday months) but obviously I bought plenty for myself. And I figure I can always sell them on eBay where the scarves alone are currently selling for twice the original price.

Of course, I’m sure I’ll find it hard to actually part with any extra stuff and I’m already thinking about crafting projects that I can make with the lovely soft scarves. A skirt or dress for a toddler would look cute but can I part with them…?