When I was around 4 years old my dad made me a beautiful little pale pink wooden  cradle and I loved it so much!  I have so many happy childhood memories of playing with it and was always sad that my mum had given it away. Our childhood home was a large period property,  an old Bank House with a large garden and my sister Joanna & I  had a little toy room between our bedrooms where we spent many happy hours playing away.  When we moved from that house many years later my mum had a big clear out and I think that’s when the little cradle was given away.  I always had such regrets of not keeping it so imagine my surprise when I went to my parents house a couple of weeks ago and saw this little cradle in the middle of their living room! My dad, now in his 70s had been secretly working away for weeks to make an exact replica of my cradle for my little granddaughter Lydia! For once I was actually speechless and it was the most wonderful surprise ever!

My mum asked me to make a little quilt & pillow for the cradle before we gave it to Lydia so I got out my stash of Liberty fabrics and my sewing machine and I made a little plain fabric mattress as well.

It rocks beautifully and Lydia was thrilled to bits with it when we gave it to her today! To make sure Joshua didn’t feel left out we bought him a selection of water guns which he had his eye on so he was delighted as well!!

Im so thrilled with the cradle and my daughter Rebecca couldn’t believe it when she saw it as she’d  heard me talk about mine so many times! It was a real labour of love which makes it extra special.

It fits in perfectly with all the children’s lovely traditional toys and is now in Joshua & Lydia’s playroom at their own house. I took a few pics of some of their lovely toys to share in this post. As Joshua is getting bigger he is more into his lego etc but he has a gorgeous little toy cafe which he loves too!

This cafe is fabulous and you can buy all the accessories separately like the wooden cash register , coffee machine & little chocolate cake. When Joshua was 2 his mummy & daddy bought him this beautiful toy kitchen and he has played so much with it and now Lydia loves it too! It’s in my favourite shade of blue and is super cute with its little utensils, pots & pans  and wooden fruit etc.

A big favourite with both children is their blackboard and whiteboard easel and it has a roll of paper attached for drawing with pencils as well. Felt tips have been banned after Lydia drew all over the good sofa with green felt tip, if you watch my IG stories you will have seen the damage she did!!

Lydia’s beautiful little wicker pram and washing machine are from the fab Cottage Toys and I made the Liberty pillow & quilt for the pram.  Rebecca had a large unit made locally and bought baskets from Ikea to store all the smaller toys like duplo and lego. The top shelf has books on it and both children love stories as we are all passionate about reading and I think it’s hugely important to introduce books to a child  very early on as it definitely impacts on their learning and is hugely beneficial.  I was a complete bookworm as s child and am thrilled that both my grandchildren love books too!

Thanks for reading!

 

Louise xxx