Subtle changes make me happy!

Are you like me? Do you feel the need to change your entire house around at every spare moment you get? Being a Mum at home, I spend A LOT of time looking at the rooms in my house. One day I will just wake up and say "I need a change", closely followed by the moan of my husband 'NOT AGAIN'. There is a big difference between my husband and I. I have spent my entire childhood moving from house to house, place to place. My parents are talented builders/designers and spent their days renovating houses. When one was finished, it was time to move on the the next. I didn't realise it at the time, but I loved the excitement of change - a new window to look out and see a different view on life. When I met my husband, he still lived in the house he was born in. The concept of this fascinated me, and I thought I longed for the stability of living in a house long enough to get to know it better. Since we have been together I have managed to convince him to move 5 times already ( 5 times more than he has ever moved in his entire life), but on our last move he made it clear this would be it for quite some time to come! So, after a long winded story, if I can't move houses, I have to move everything INSIDE the house to get that feeling of change.

Lately, the changes have been a little more subtle. Now that my babies are now children, they have strong opinions about how they see their rooms, and are not necessarily keen on too much change. Instead I have been making pillows! It is amazing the change a bright cushion makes to a room. I have recently re-upholstered my boring brown suede bed with a gorgeous textured blue/grey linen. With that change in place, I added a sunshine yellow striped pillow with linen piping and a white ruffle pillow with grey contrast stitching. The ruffle pillow is actually created from an old bed sheet and I just love the little touch of femininity it adds to our otherwise quite masculine room.

Miss P LOVES colour! I always imagined a subtle room in neutral tones and highlights of a European colour palette for her - how wrong was I! She has an eye-burning fuchsia pink feature wall with accessories to match. Even the all white quilt cover had to be a major negotiation to keep in the room. So instead of fighting it, I joined in the colour fun and made her a giant rainbow ruffled cushion. It also doubles as a floor cushion for her to sit and read and she LOVES it!

Even Mr M is getting in on the act. On a recent visit to our local fabric store, he literally jumped out of his pram when he spotted a roll filled with cars and caravans. Determined he would not leave the store without it, I purchased a few metres not entirely sure what I would create with it. He had other ideas however, and upon returning home he led me by the hand to my machine, fabric crumpled under the other arm and said 'A quilt and pillow please Mummy' - how could I resist.

Even though I won't be moving house anytime soon, I am beginning to fall in love with creating a 'home', pillow by pillow.