We bought an apartment!

And we had some work to do inside before we could settle in. More than we initially thought, as it wasn’t paint on the walls of the main rooms (dining room and bedrooms), but something that we had to remove before we could paint. So we spent quite some time…

sanding,

scrapping things off the walls,

smoothing the walls,

painting,

cleaning,

and finally, moving in

and unpacking everything.

It’s a huge investment, which is stressful, but the place is great now that we made it our own. And we learned new skills. We wanted to do most of the work before moving in, because of Mr. E., which was stressful and exhausting, but thanks to the very nice people who helped us we managed it! We have wonderful friends and family members. In case you’d like to see the before/after pictures I posted everything on my Flickr account. This past summer we also…

Celebrated Mr E.’s first birthday! As you can see he loved the paper wrapping his gifts. It’s not always easy to have a child, but I love him dearly and I’m really happy to know him.

Improved the apartment. Two words: “Thanks Ikea”.

Spent a one week holiday in the south west of France to see one of my two best friends and my god-daughter, her little girl who was born only three months after our son. They live in the US and were in France to see the family. Mr E. discovered the swimming pool and loved it!

And I colored my hair! ^^ You might have guessed it on the last pictures I posted, or seen it on Facebook. I love it!

In the middle of all this I did manage to start sewing a little bit again at the end of summer. I made a dress for my god-daughter, which I forgot to take pictures of. I’m hoping her mom will send me some so that I can show it here. And I did a little something for two friends’ wedding. I do have picture of this project. The past weeks have been quite busy but I’m slowly working on more toddler clothes at the moment.

The other day I checked the French Ikea website. I don’t exactly know why, but since I was a little girl I liked Ikea very much. There was one not very far from where we lived, and we went there regularly, to go look for a piece of furniture, eat meatballs with cranberries or simply check the latest stuff they had. Here is a small selection of items I’d like to get if I had a home to furnish.

I love that kind of cushions! Or rather, I loooove cushions and I love that kind of design they have there. You can find the same kind on the lampshade bellow (both pictures are of the same object).

I’ve been dreaming of this for years! I really hope they will keep selling it for some more time, until we have a room to put it into. I’d transform it into a cosy sofa for lazy days, topped by a nice quilt and lots of comfy cushions! How does that sound?

This one isn’t as nice as the previous one (even if it’s white, it’s a little too square, not soft enough), but it’s still cute and could perhaps be considered as a subsitute.

This is only there for the lampshade at the bottom left corner, with the circles. So cute and fresh!

When I was little I wanted one of those so badly, but never got any. I really like them.

A simple but nice little table.

A strange and funny lamp.

And you, which interior brands do you like? What kind of furniture or decorating objects would you like to fill your house with?

No, the desk is not always this neat. I just wanted to show it as it is in its best days. ^^ This room is supposed to be a shared working room between my husband and I, so each of us has a desk in it.  So this desk that you see is used as a working-on-computer desk, preparing-packages table for work, cutting table and sewing table. But those past weeks my husband kindly let me use his desk for my computer, so I have more space for sewing on my own. I chose it quite big to that it would be easier to cut fabric and sew. I love my desk!

This is my inspiration corner, and also where I keep flyers for sales and events. The cork board is part of the changes I made recently. I can’t put anything on the wall (can’t make holes in it), so I didn’t think I could have an inspiration board. Until I realized I just had to let it on the desk against the wall! It works, and I really like it. It’s much better than the cords (my temporary solution) for inspiration.

And here are my materials! Under the desk: fabrics. The bag stores those that are waiting to be washed. But really I have another pile of fabrics sitting on the kotatsu in the living room, waiting for me to buy another storage box. Near the desk: several things that are too big to go somewhere else (pattern paper, cutting mat, batting…), some patterns and inspiration magazines and my iron. On the shelves: top shelf = sewing notions and some tools; then my gothic lolita magazines, doll magazines and doll pattern books. On the last shelf are my doll clothes, it’s no sewing stuff. I also use a shelf somewhere else to store my human pattern books and other craft related books. You can also see a little piece of the flower dress, which proves that it exists! ^^