Wow, I don’t even know where to start with this room, I’m still in the process of picking my jaw up off the floor. This beautiful room was a labour of love for Evelyn and her husband. The awesome mural (covering three walls!) is topped off with thrifted furniture and some beautiful hand made accessories. It looks like a wonderful place to sleep and play for Evelyn’s newborn daughter, Casandra.

See the all the photos at Saucy Dwellings. You can also keep up with Evelyn’s interior design projects via her flickr account.

I love this recent post from Planning With Kids on how to eat organic food when you’re on a budget. As important as it is to me that my family have food free of chemicals and other less than delicious additives, it’s also important to me that we can afford to pay the rent Take a look at PQ’s post to see a list from Dr. Bob Sears about the fruit and veg generally coated in the lowest amount of pesticides.

Other ways to eat Organic on a budget:

• Shop locally. I find organic meat, veg and eggs far cheaper at the smaller locally run shops, for instance, free range eggs from a farm about 30km away from here run at the same price per dozen as the homebrand eggs in Coles, and there’s a definite difference in the taste.
• Grow your own! One way to guarantee you know exactly what goes into your food is to grow your own, start small with something foolproof like potatoes in a large pot or mushrooms in a cupboard, and you’ll be ready to take on more once planting season arrives.
• Make your own snacks. Organic snacks and treats are very expensive, but you can make organic biscuits and snacks for half the price at home, and they don’t have any preservatives, and you can opt for natural flavours and colouring if any is needed.

All of these options take up more time, so it’s simply a process of weighing up time verses cost. Unfortunately Australia isn’t yet at a stage where eating organic is an easy or cheap process, but it’s getting better each year, just a couple of small changes can help your budgetting and at the same time allow your family to eat healthier.

Tanie from Vancouver turned an empty wall of her home into a beautiful woodland themed sitting room for the kids she looks after in her daycare. The deep brown chairs, the mushroom table and the fabulous tree book storage all look amazing, but the murals just completely make this space. I especially love that they’re on canvas so they can move if Tanie ever decides to move home. It looks like such a magical space to curl up with a book.

See the whole room, with paint chips and detail shots at Cupcake Wishes and Unicorn Dreams. Don’t forget to check out the beautiful deer that Tanie’s daughter, Symphony, drew that inspired the entire look.

It’s Bunny Week over on CraftBlog, so I’ve spent the past couple of days deeply involved in rabbits, in every form, and it’s occurred to me that one of the most regularly “monsterfied” animals, is probably the innocent rabbit. Is it the floppy ears? The propensity for carrots? (to quote Anya Jenkins, “what do they need such good eyesight for anyway?”). Or are all these softie makers not so subtly inspired by Monty Python?

Whatever it is, I think it’s awesome. Here are a few of my favourite handmade monster bunny plushies from around the web.

Clockwise from left:

1. Elroy The Fang Bunny from Pork Chop $18 – Pink woodgrain fabric!!! That is all.
2. Coventina Bunny from OMGVooDoo USD$18.99 – Great for newborns, this stuffie has eyes to pull at and those limbs look great for chewing on.
3. Pink and White Bunny Monster by TchotchkesByHolly USD $15 – Great for older kids with a twisted sense of humour, because who doesn’t love mutant bunnies?
4. Baby Dust Bunny by TchocthkesByHolly USD $10 – Not exactly a monster, but too cute to pass up, I love this little dust bunny, though it’s far cuter than the dust bunnies you tend to find in my house.
5. Easter Bunny Doll from MiniMonster USD $19 – Cyclops meets bunny in a very sweet spring dress, possibly the greatest combination since someone decided to put BBQ sauce on pizza.

Are monsters for you and your bub, or do you prefer the more traditional bunnies at Easter time?

Skulls on kids clothing, babies in particular, seems to divide parents. Some, like myself, love the punky look, others, like my sister in law, wouldn’t dream of dressing their kids like that.

If you’re like me and love skulls and pirates, this is the round up for you!

All prices, unless otherwise stated, are in Aussie dollars.

1. Fitted bamboo nappy from BananaBottoms USD$20.95 -  I hunted all over Australia to find a skull nappy or cover that wasn’t a custom and was actually in stock, and couldn’t find one anywhere. This super cute fitted nappy has a girly twist on it with hearts and flowers.
2. Skull and crossbones wetbag from LittleHipsters $17.99 – Great for swimming or storing wet nappies, it comes in two sizes.
3. Skull baby bib from My Wooby And Me USD$6.99 – Awesome Alexander Henry print on the front and backed with white chenille, as it’s made to order you can also request whether you want a snap or velcro as the closure.
4. Skull canvas shoes from FrockYou $49.95 – Proving that sensible shoes don’t have to be boring, these funky slip ons have sole support and a super soft terry lining.
5. Toddler skull and crossbone skirt from Lunalei currently on sale for $15 – Perfect for autumn weather over a pair of leggings and some mary janes, this skirt is also available in aqua.
6. Green strip and skull legwarmers from Bubbaboom $16 – I found these were awesome when the boys were younger, great for potty training to save any delays pulling trousers down, and also excellent for protecting knees when Connor crawls on the carpet.

1. Skull bloomers from LilSpunk $15 – great for wearing under skirts when your babe is crawling around and sticking her bum into the air the skull print is also a bit more subtle than other ones.
2. Pirate growth chart from LandLubbers USD$45 – Living in rentals I have come to love wall decals, it means I can give a room a new look without totally breaking the bank, this decal would look awesome in my youngest’s pirate theme room.
3. Girly punk slide clips from The Button Boutique $5.50 – I love these pink and girly bows with the added punky touch of the skulls, they look awesome, and yet subtle enough that my mother in law wouldn’t roll her eyes at me.
4. Bad boys rock babygrow from Lunalei $29 – we all know it’s true! This babygrow also comes in a “Bad Girls Rock” option as well.
5. Flower and skull blanket from Minky Baby Blanket USD$25 – super cute combination with the bright pink dot minky and the Robert Kaufman skulls print.
6. Skull booties from Funky Monsters $16 – made to order so you can chose your size and choice of lining, love the print used in these and they’d be great for lazing round the house.

Where do you stand on skull themed clothing? Is it not for you, or is your entire kids wardrobe covered in pirates and sugar skulls?

AKA “When Geeks Breed”

I LOVE this nursery, the attention to detail is absolutely perfect, and touches like the star night light, the framed power pad and of course the beautiful quilt are just the icing on the cake.

This nursery belongs to Kaiden, son of Heather and Brian from Nashville, check out more pictures of what might possibly the geekiest nursery in the world, at Saucy Dwellings.

I recently had to take a bit of a break from Altbub due to some upsetting circumstances. Some readers may know that I was expecting our third child, due on the 19th of March. Unfortunately, on the 19th of February we found that, at 36 weeks gestation and for no known reason, my baby’s heart had stopped beating. I delivered a stillborn baby girl that afternoon, we named her Robyn.

As a lot of writing for the blog involves looking at baby sites, obviously it’s not been something I’ve been able to deal with, but I’m slowly feeling better, and I’m determined to make the site into everything I hoped it would be when I started it a couple of month ago. I am trying to gain something positive from what, at times, has felt like living in a nightmare, and part of that is a renewed ambition to aim high and achieve everything I hope for.

I won’t be discussing Robyn or dwelling on what has happened at all on the site, but if you do want to keep up with how we as a family are all doing, my personal blog can be found at  Not Another Mummy Blog.

If you wish to learn more about stillbirth, or support the research into discovering the causes and prevention, please visit The Still Birth Foundation.

Looking for the perfect baby shower gift for some green parents?

(and by that I mean eco-aware, not brand new, although they may be that too!)

I’ve been hunting around Etsy looking for gifts for my baby newphew and have found some awesome handmade goodies for babes and parents who are keen to watch their footprint on this earth.

See the full round up behind the cut >>

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure every expectant parent has been there at some point. You spend hours, days even, pouring over baby name books, scanning the credits in movies to see if anything sticks out, eavesdropping on conversations in cafes just incase someone mentions a name, a name that happens to be The Name. The name that you fall in love with and immediately decide that THIS is the moniker you will bestow on your future child.

Off you race to tell your partner/in laws/parents/best friend/random stranger in the street and their response is less than enthusiastic… “Yeah… but what about _______ instead?”.

When I found out I was pregnant with my eldest, I already had a few names in mind. I liked Amelia and Robyn as girls names, and Cameron and Brendan as boys. My husband immediately vetoed all of them. I was particularly attached to Robyn (not that it would have mattered – little did I know then that a daughter wasn’t in my future) and the battles we had over that name were immense, there were a lot of tears, and eventually I conceded and agreed we’d think of a different name – we did, under a great deal of pressure the night before my induction and thank god that Declan wasn’t a girl because I hate the name we chose now!

I didn’t have too many problems giving up that fight, I wanted my husband to love our baby’s name as much as I did, but I’m not sure how I’d go getting negative feedback on a name that I had decided on from someone like my Mum or a close friend. A friend of mine recently found out that her third (and planned last) child will be a little girl, a sister for her two older boys, she excitedly told her mum the name that she and her husband had decided on and her mother has thrown nothing but negativity at it. This wasn’t a “we’re thinking of this name, what are your thoughts?”, it was a “we’ve decided our daughter will be called this”, things have escalated to the point where she and her mother aren’t speaking. Of course my friend is upset, to the point that she’s now doubting the choice that she was so in love with just a week ago.

As far as I’m concerned, grandparents, friends and relatives are free to put in their 2 cents worth, but out of respect to the expectant parents, they need to keep it at 2 cents, not try and stretch to a whole dollar. Their time has either gone or one day will come for their turn to name a child, and as much as I respect the opinions of my friends and family, they need to respect mine, particularly on something as special as naming a child.

And if you don’t think that they’ll like your babe’s chosen name, just don’t tell anyone until after the birth, they’ll have a hard time saying anything negative about the little newborn blob, no matter what his or her name is… unless it’s Diammond Sparckle, then even I will admit that I’d struggle not to say something.

Did you receive any negative feedback on your child’s name? Was it under lock and key until labour day? Or did you do what one of the women in my mother’s group did and tell everyone a fake Klingon inspired name just to get people off your back?

In totally awesome news today, the final results from the home birth trial running at Sydney’s St George hospital have been published, and the result is a great one.

From The SMH:

A study of the first 100 women booked to use the service found 63 per cent successfully delivered at home with no intervention or pain relief and minimal vaginal tearing.

Thirty women were sent to hospital before going into labour and seven were transferred during labour, one of the lowest transfer rates of any similar program in the world.

Read the full article here.

This is a great step in finding a happy medium between home birthing and hospital/birth centre birthing. I hope after seeing the results from the St George study more hospitals will consider taking up a similar program and make a safe and inexpensive home birth an option to more parents to be.