Obliteration!

We spotted news of the Obliteration Room at Tate Modern on the Babycccino blog and in The Guardian and we just  thought it looks the most fun for children. Imagine being let loose with a sheet of dotty stickers, and being allowed to stick them wherever you liked! Things like this didn't happen when we were young! It's part of artist Yayoi Kusama's retrospective at Tate Modern from 9th February until 5th June 2012 for more information, visit Tate Modern's Website.

Photo credits: Mark Sherwood/Natasha Harth/Rex Features

Pretty things

Sometimes we discover a shop, place to stay or place to eat that we love and want to share with you.

Recently while shopping in the lovely market town of Easingwold near York we discovered a gorgeous interiors and lifestyle shop called Angel - it was literally impossible to leave without buying something. Particularly lovely are the hand-appliqued cushions made with vintage linen, quirky typography pictures and pretty sticky tape. We also loved the Sophie Conran candles and bought a gorgeous necklace of tiny amazonite and gold beads and hammered gold rings.

Visit Angel Lifestyle online at www.angel-lifestyle.com, or if you're in the area, you can find the beautiful shop at 23 Chapel Street, Easingwold, Nr York, North Yorkshire.

Half term project - Shoe box doll's house

It's half term holiday for us here in the UK, and we've put our heads together to think of a lovely way to spend a day with your gorgeous girl, at home, crafting and creating together.

And we've come up with a shoe box doll's house, we know when we were little we would have just loved to make one of these beautiful and simple projects together with our Mum or Granny...

So where to begin? You'll need:
- A shoe box. Any shoe box. If it's an adult one it's bigger, so a little easier to work with
- Scissors
- A glue stick
- White paper and crayons, pencils or felt tips
- A selection of small boxes, cardboard or little objects to use as furniture - be imaginative!
- An old fashioned clothes peg for a peg-doll, or little animals/people from the toy box
- Scraps of fabric, lace, ribbon, buttons...

First step: paint out the inside of the box in your chosen colour, or you could use wrapping paper or a wallpaper sample to decorate the walls. Sometimes you're lucky and your shoe box has a coloured inside - mine is glossy hot pink (how very ilovegorgeous!), so why not use a piece of wrapping/wallpaper as a funky carpet?

Next you want a window with a view. Draw a rectangle on a piece of white paper and draw a lovely view - whatever you'd like to see - trees, hills, flowers, palm trees on a sandy beach? Or you could cut a photo out of a magazine or travel brochure and simply draw a frame around it. The travel pages and classified pages of glossy magazines provide a great source of little pictures!

Now if you want curtains, decide whether you'd like them short or long - will there be a pelmet? Set free your inner designer! Cut strips of fabric for curtains and use a ribbon or trim for a pelmet.

Will your room have pictures in frames? Snip away at a magazine or catalogue - we found ours in an interiors accessories catalogue. You could have anything that takes your fancy - a fireplace, blue and white china plates on the wall - see if you can find three flying ducks!

You can make furniture out of anything you can find - matchboxes, pipe cleaners, little gift boxes, use your imagination - anything tiny could be something else...

Brown paper looks a little like woodgrain, so wrap up a small box to make a cabinet, wardrobe, blanket box...

So now you've made one room, you could make some more. Stack two or four together and make a pitched roof out of a simple piece of cardboard folded down the centre...

And don't forget to send us your pictures via our Facebook page! There'll be a prize for our favourite!

Pop-up shop

Our friends at Papillon are playing host to an ilovegorgeous pop-up-shop at their Marylebone Lane store... doesn't it look adorable? Not only can you find the best range of children's shoes, but now you can stock up on colourful clothes for your gorgeous girls too!

Meet our gorgeous girls...

There are two sides to ilovegorgeous... - our London side, with a smart shop in hip and chic Ledbury Road in Notting Hill - surrounded by wonderful shops, restaurants, delis and must-have luxuries - and then there's the hive of creativity that is our design studio, a short walk from the shop and in a modern, urban space.

And, of course, we have our Yorkshire HQ - we've shared before photos of our stunning location at the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, in an elegant stable block conversion. Here, we are surrounded by fields, hills, sheep and some very beautiful architecture! It's here we take your calls and send out your parcels.

Last week we mentioned on our Facebook page that there was a new project afoot for one of our Yorkshire team - adopting, or rescuing, five ex-battery hens. We asked for name suggestions and got some brilliant replies!

So here are the ladies - we have decided to call them (inspired by Facebook friend Sarah Bird and her Hollywood roll-call)... Marlene, Greta, Lana, Rita and Ginger.  As you can see, they're looking a bit worse for wear now, and they really must get the hang of not standing in their food dish... but we're sure with a little bit of TLC they'll soon grow glossy new feathers and their combs will be red and perky in no time! We'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, we're happy to report that they're already feeling quite at home in their new des-res, complete with cosy straw-lined sleeping quarters and open plan dining and leisure area! So much so, in fact, that today, just three days after their arrival at their new rural home, they have laid four eggs. Clever girls!