::the week's end

Have a lovely Memorial Day weekend everyone! Enjoy the festivities!

::let's not forget C

As an amendment to the nursery planning, C will be getting his own room someday =)...here are some cute things to inspire!

::i want. i love. i have.

I want: This Johnathan Adler light from lampsplus.com. It would go great in the hallway!




I love: This idea for a nursery mobile. So sweet. I could imagine having one in my room just cause!

I have: Picked out the fabric I'm going to use for my dining room chairs. The order was put in today. Stay tuned!

::design your space, Part 4

Welcome to the fourth installment of design your space. I received an assignment from Lee to give her some help planning her nursery. Disclaimer: this is all under the assumption that the little bun in the oven is a girl. We don't officially find out until the first part of June, but it's just too fun not to start "just in case" planning!

Apparently it's very rare to buy individual pieces to shape your bedding. The norm seems to be the "bed in a bag" approach so everything is matchy matchy. (This author can foresee SO many problems with this already when going forth with her own nursery...) But-let's see what we can do. She sent me a picture of her dream nursery room (well, the pic is just of her dream bedding):

First issue, it only comes in a set and Lee is not interested in buying a bumper for her crib below(isn't my nephew so cute and helpful ;))

She has a Little Castle blue (denim-like) chair to the right of this picture and her dresser/changing table (matches the crib) is to the left. Second issue- the chair must stay blue. The slipcovers are around $500-$600 a piece. With this all in mind...here we go!

Option 1: Simple

If you want to keep it simple and purchase all the bedding in a set (no, I'm not entirely opposed) this is my favorite find.

Those ruffles! Isn't that the sweetest little crib skirt. I would ditch the quilt for bedding purposes and just use it as a blanket for the baby (or maybe throw is on the chair in case you can't find any cute pillows for it). Also, the bumper is just a bonus in case she decides to use it later...Then I would get some cute fabric (coming up!) and have someone make you a pillow or two for the chair.

Second Option: Customized

Lee had also mentioned that she liked this Amy Butler fabric. It would match in with the chair and it's just darling. So, we'll keep that as a default crib skirt material! That got me thinking. Why not just get everything made yourself? Especially since she only needs a crib skirt and sheet. *See the wheels turning now* Turns out, there are SEVERAL wonderful seamstresses on etsy that are just dying to make your nursery dreams come true. This is one of the girls I found who will basically let you pick your fabric, what items you want (yes you can get a whole set) and voila! And honestly, the price isn't that bad considering what the fabric itself costs. So, with that in mind, here are my fabric picks for the DIY-ers out there!

Option 1 (yes...I'm going to have sub points...)

(Fabric clockwise from top-church flowers, pocketbook-rose, dittybud, cypress paisley)

Option 2: (Fabrics clockwise from top: ivory/fresh poppies, hop dot-tangerine, picnic bouquet-cream, bali gate-lime)

Honestly I had a hard time picking out which fabric to use for what. Most of these could be mixed with each other. I love both crib skirt fabrics together and I also love the most bottom right mixed with just about anything.

Whichever option chosen (simple or customized), I would add this rug (so dainty):

and this chandelier:

All in all, these would all make for a lovely, posh little room. Considering you could buy the bedding, pillows, rug and chandelier for about what Lee's dream nursery bedding costs, I'd say we're coming out on top! :) What about you mommas out there? Any great resources you've been stowing away? Do you prefer to just keep it simple and let the store pick it out for you (why waste the time?) or do you like to put a little sweat into it and try and figure out your fabric love? :)

::the joys of marriage

One of the interesting things about being married is finding random things in your house. Aaron will sometimes leave things places and I'll think to myself "You know...he's going to be looking for that later." Do I move it to a more accessible location for him? No. :) I let him look. But, the other day I came home and found the funniest thing ever.

Yes, that's Aaron's wedding ring. And yes, that is a doorknob. Where is this door you ask? It's in our guest bathroom. I didn't even want to ask the situation as to why he felt the need to take it off there...so, for now...we'll leave that little mystery unsolved.

And yes...I just left it there. :)

::recovering

So I've decided I'm going to recover my dining room chairs and I'm trying to pick out my fabric. What do you think? I have deep grass green curtains in the room and everything else is a neutral color.

::alive

I'm still here. Still recovering. Yes, I am sad. : ) No, I could not handle children. ;) Just a couple things going on over here:

- We decided to retry growing our own herbs. This time the effort will be made indoors. Away from the floods.

- Sister's wedding was just fantastic. (I stole the picture from Lee's blog) It was one of the most chill ceremonies I've ever been in. No stress, just fun. She just texted me from NY (their honeymoon destination) to tell me she saw Olivia something from The City. lol...so cute

- Trying to decide on a vacation for this fall. We were planning on Destin, but now with the oil spill we're holding off. Hilton Head? Nix the trip altogether? Thoughts?

- Oh, we're having a garage sale this Saturday. You should come by. :)

::worthless

I'll come back to posting "regularly" next week. This is a bit of a break week for me. The house is still relatively clean after the weekend festivities and I've felt no need to do any dishes or anything of that sort since Sunday. I started playing a Nintendo game and I shouldn't have because now I want to play it all the time. *sigh It is alot of fun though...and to my defensive the game is basically several logic/mind puzzles to help solve a mystery. So, I am using my brain *_*

This weekend went off without a hitch (well, there might have been a hitch or two). Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. :) When my nephew came over to the house on Sunday he looked up at some "streamers" I had put up and said "Birthday?" :) SO cute. This coming weekend will be filled with dinners, nail appointments and photographs. It'll be alot of fun. I'll post some pictures when I come back!

::happy weekend

I'm signing off for the weekend. Dinners, parties, shopping, cooking, cleaning are all in my forecast. If you're in the area, stop by. Everyone else will be! Yay! Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely mothers out there. Feel appreciated. Loved. Because you are :)

::design your space- Part 3

This was by far the hardest and most fun design your space for me so far (I know I'm just so many entries in...) Kim has quite the romantic and antique taste (or at least I think so). So, I basically have to say to myself "what would I not naturally gravitate towards?" and then go from there! Ok...so Kim will be moving out next month and sharing a house with 2 other girls. So, this design your space is devoted to her room only. I have another file for her for a whole house design but we'll get to that another day. Her house is more like my "if I ever had an awesome vacation home...this is what I'd do with it" house. Fun!

Ok, first design challenge. She has a picture that she'll be taking with her and she wanted to decorate around it. Here it is:

Ok...so what I did was come up with 4 different room options: Fun, safe, traditional and wild card! Oh...I just know there's suspense now. She is basically starting with nothing. Her room now has dark hard wood floors. I'm going to give my opinion for a bedroom set and from there it'll be bedding, rug, curtains, and paint.

Bedroom suite:

I love the darker colored wood. I also Love the detailing, especially the legs. This is the first "traditional" looking bedroom suite I've ever seen that actually has a platform bed. Very pretty and timeless. It's perfectly "modern girl meets classic romanticism". Now onto the rooms shall we!!

First option: Fun!

Bedding, Curtains, Rug

The bedding alone is a huge statement piece. I would keep the pillows muted and simple. Paint=a slate gray-blue (I swear I picked out the paint before I even saw the curtains) The curtains are actually a velvet which would bring in a lovely different texture. And since everything in here is quite dramatic in and of itself, keep the rug simple.

Second option: Safe

Bedding, Curtains, Rug

Sticking with a solid colored comforter isn't a problem when you've got the fabric textured like this! (Could I be my own commercial?!) The curtains are also classic and simple, but have lovely detailing along the seam. Honestly, you should look at the links for all these curtains. They have the Best detailing. With everything else solid, go ahead and throw a printed rug in for a little variance. I love how this picks up the accents on each piece without being too matchy. Go for a warmer sand color for your paint (this one is a little more orangy than I'd go in real life, but it was the closest sample I could find)

Third option: Traditional

Bedding, Curtains, Rug

You've got to love a bed in a bag! Everything you need all nicely packaged for you. One of the things I love most about this bedding are the pillows! Throw diamond-like substances on anything, and I'm in. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the front pillow has gold jewels all down the front. Again, the detailing on the curtains is what makes them divine!! The "branches" are actually rope sewn into the fabric. Throw in a daintily printed rug and a cool taupe paint and you've got a winner.

Fourth option: Wild Card

Bedding, Curtains, Rug

This room is all about the drama! I understand rosettes might be a little trendy, but I just think this bedding could stick around for a while. This is also a bed in a bag with great detailing. I love the red accents, especially the mis-matching bed skirt. Keep the curtains simple. But if you look closely to these curtains, you'll notice stripes in the fabric made with Shimmer material! To DIE for! I totally picked out a fur rug for this room before I even noticed they already had one in the picture with the bedding. But in this case, I'll just say great mind think alike. Anyone who's been to my house knows I'm a sucker for a fur throw/rug. Keep your paint light and neutral. It would look especially pretty against those dark floors and furniture.

Well there you have it. The good thing about some of these pieces is they're really versatile. You could mix and match in between the rooms until you made yourself sick. So...which do you like best? I think mine is the fun option...but I don't think that would be Kims...hmm... :)

::i want. i love. i have.

I want: A book suggestion. I'm currently reading East of Eden (yes, still...it will take me years...I've accepted it) and The Reason for God. So, I'm looking for some mindless fiction. I don't know that I can make myself finish reading the second Twilight book. It's just not fun to read once you've seen the movie.

I love: Parties! This weekend will be especially full of them. There will be about 30 people wandering through the course of 2 days. It will be alot of fun!

I have: The cutest nephew ever. I'm not saying because I'm biased...it's just true. :)

::new recipe

Aaron wanted a hamburger last night and as I am not a huge red meat person, I decided to try this. Umm...can we say fannetastic!! It was SO good. I'm a big fan of black beans in general and will put them in just about anything I can. So let's get on to the tweaks of this recipe (cause you just know that what works for one, won't work for the next)

Mistake #1- I didn't actually measure anything. This recipe makes 2 burgers and I only needed one. This isn't really a mistake...but I think I used a tad too much oil considering my next mistake...

Mistake #2- When she tells you to rinse and dry the beans, rinse and dry the beans. I didn't and it made it not quite as firm as I think it should've

Mistake #3- Turn up the heat. Again, this could be the too much oil or the unrinsed beans, but it wasn't doing anything until I turned the heat to medium.

All in all, I will absolutely make this again. The best part was I didn't have to have the leafy veggies falling off the burger as they were already in the patty! Yay for spinach.