my boys

This is a project I have been trying to get to forever and it's finished! And that also means that the boys' room is almost finished. I am still trying decide whether I want to do a decal on the wall over Owen's crib because the space seems so empty. I can't hang anything there because he will just pull it down, but it is so bare.

Anyway, this project was really easy once I set the time aside. I just took pictures of the boys' profiles then outlined them in Photoshop to make the shape of the silhouette. Using some erasable transfer paper, I traced the outlines onto craft paper from Michael's (these two papers are from the Martha Stewart collection they carry there: the pattern is called "sycamore bark crosshatch" and the solid I think is called "bark"). I used scissors to cut out the shapes and spray mounted them right onto the background paper. To complete them, I framed each in a Ribba frame from IKEA that, let's be honest, totally rocks and my home could not do without.

I am really pleased with the way they turned out. Their little profiles are now forever immortalized in paper. Oof...

fun day

The four of us spent the afternoon at Fairytale Town and had a great time. Jackson took this picture of Owen coming down one of the slides and I just love it. Really sums up our day.

be mine

This is the Valentine's Day card Jackson and I just finished for his class. He did the watercolor, then we scanned it. He chose the border and the colors, and typed all of the words himself (needed a little help spelling "valentine's". He is off to school in a couple of minutes to hand them out to his friends.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

This is the Valentine we got when he got home(: Oof...

Inspired

I've been inspired by the vignettes that designers like Nicole Balch at Making it Lovely and others have been putting together for both their homes and some virtual projects. Now I've tried my hand at it in an effort to make some decisions about the "refreshening" of some of our rooms now that we have gone all topsy turvy with their functions. I want to work mostly with the items I have, and of course make it family friendly (i.e., not too expensive and easy to clean/hard to ruin) but pull it together with accessories. Above is my attempt to figure out what to do with the breakfast area and kitchen which are connected and which also flow into the dining room/entry way. This is what I have come up with so far. Not sure what I think about it. How about you?

I am going to be using the multi floral fabric to replace the curtains in the formal dining area and I already have the aris pedestal table. We are also thinking about adding a bench/banquette to one side of the table for more seating and more space in the center of that room. I still need to think about a light fixture and how that will relate to the fixture I choose for over the dining room table since you can see both of them at the same time. Argh. Any ideas are wlecome(:

decorating overdrive!

My beautiful sister-in-law Amanda is expecting her first baby in May and I am hosting her shower at our house in March. We recently shifted the rooms in our house around—moved the play area to what was the formal dining room, moved the formal dining room to where the formal living room was and created an office out of the former play area/room. Anyhow, everything is all mixed up now from a decorating point of view and the worst room by far is the dining room, which also serves as the entry to the house. The shower has given me that all-so-important deadline to get that room in shape, which I desperately need or all I will futz around forever deliberating over these drapes or those and that rug or the other. Matt hates this about me and I can't really say that I blame him.

I've mostly been looking for some new accessories to help transition the room from formal cottage to modern cottage and I found this great print from Anthropolgie that I am thinking about using as an inspiration piece. What d'ya think?