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Thursday, April 2, 2015

paper eggs



Last year I designed these paper eggs to go along with Easter festivities. My little guy had fun painting some today, so I thought I would bring them back this year. They are a fun addition to Easter baskets, egg hunts, and make a cute accompaniment to place settings, too. 



There are three options for printing, small patterned (above), small blank, and large blank. You can paint/doodle/glitter/washi tape/decorate as much as you and your little ones like, then cut them out, and sew them up. 

I sewed them 3/4 of the way, filled them with candy and trinkets, and then sewed the rest of the egg while holding it shut with my fingers. 



Make sure you print two pages for each set of eggs, one for the front and one for the back. 


I used my sewing machine to quickly sew these, but hand sewing would work just as well. Just make sure the materials you use (paper and thread) aren't so thick that you can't rip the eggs open. 



I used a light-weight cardstock and normal thread, and they ripped easily. No need to back-stitch or do a really careful job of making perfect stitches, (which makes them the perfect project if you are anything like me!).


Here are the links to the templates:


Happy egg-making!

Monday, March 3, 2014

the big-boy room: progress


This past fall, we started transitioning my son's nursery into a big-boy room. He turned three and it was time to give it a bit of an update. We switched out the toddler bed for a twin, made a headboard and changed up the artwork and a few other things to make the room fit this new phase of being a big kid.   

This room has definitely been done in stages. We bought the house in 2011, and the weekend we closed on it my husband got transferred to L.A. for six months. I ended up having to stay here (it was the weirdest situation), so I started little projects around the house to keep from getting too stir-crazy. This room was the first room I painted, and getting his nursery set up was what kept me sane that first month by myself! 

That's when phase 1 happened: I painted, made the roman shade (it was my first one and now that I know a better way to make them I kind of want to redo it, but for now it's great) and hung some things on the walls. My husband made all of the book ledges on a weekend visit home, we added the table and chairs, and left it for a while. 

After my husband got back from L.A. we found out we would be moving to Montana for seven months. While we were there I made the pouf, got the rug and rocker and a few other things I could use in his room when we came back here.

For the last few months I have been slowly changing things again, and it's almost at the point where I'm happy with it and probably won't change things up for a few more years. Here's where we're at: 


There used to be a gallery wall above the bed, but I switched it out for some cloud pictures I took when we were living in Montana (inspired by Amber's beautiful dining room). I had them blown up to poster-size at Costco and stuck them in big Ikea frames. It's an inexpensive way to add some large art, and the best part is that my little guy loves them. He always says he's flying in the sky when he jumps on his bed, it's pretty cute. 



Back in 2011 we strung some cable above his dresser to display his artwork. The boy loves to paint and color, so we are never short of art in here, and those pictures get switched out pretty regularly. I think it's special to frame his artwork, so I keep a frame on his dresser that we put his larger pieces in. He thinks it's pretty cool that his paintings are displayed for him to see all day. 



Sometimes I think about taking down the picture ledges, but I do love the color they add and how easy it is for him to find a book to snuggle up with. So for now they stay.

 

So that's basically where we're at. I'm happy with everything for now, decor-wise. We've got a few projects we are working on in here to be able to really say it's done for now, but it's a fun little room that is perfect for my little one. 


This is my favorite way to find this big-boy room, with my sweet little guy playing and bringing some life and noise to it. 

Still on the to-do list:

paint ceiling white (yeah, I never got around to that :)
add crown molding 
paint closet doors (all of our doors are an off-white and it drives me crazy in the bedrooms!)
paint trim white
paint inside closet (something fun?)
paint bedroom door
replace light fixture

So yeah, a whooole lot of painting is coming my way. But I can't wait to have it all done!

And because I always like seeing source lists:

wall color: Innocence by Benjamin Moore
shade: made by me
chair: Overstock
pouf: made by me
bedding: Target
headboard: made by me
table and chairs: Ikea
rocking moose: Ikea

P.S. That wrinkled bedding is kind of killing me, ha, but I guess that's just real-life, huh?

* Some links are affiliate links. These are products that I use and love and wouldn't recommend if I didn't! 

Friday, February 28, 2014

pretty flowers (for your walls)

It seems I'm always on the hunt for pretty art to hang on our walls (we have lots of frames waiting to be filled and hung!), with Etsy being one of my favorite places to look. It's so easy for me to start looking for something else only to get lost looking at pretty paintings. It's a fun time killer. That little hobby (ha) combined with my desperate attempt to woo spring to Seattle led me to this little roundup of art. Floral prints are my weakness lately, and I wouldn't be mad at having to stare at any of these every day. The best part is, all but one of them are under $50.


Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday, February 21, 2014

my master bedroom

I really, really love decorating and home decor, and I want to start sharing more of the decorating that I do in my home. Room by room, we are trying to change it from basic-builder to a place we love, and as a blog reader, I love watching others do that in their home. So we're bringing it over here!

We were able to build our home, but not in a custom we-choose-it-all way. We got to pick the lot and floorplan, the color package (the choices were, beige, beigy brown, and beige. LOTS of beige.), and make a few little changes to things. Houses and lots aren't huge in the Seattle area, and the ones that are were out of our price range when we bought our home! So we picked the best lot we could find, and went from there. 

Buying a new home, you would think there's not a ton of work to do, but to get it the way we want it there is quite a bit to be done. Our builder had taste different than ours, and had some weird ideas about tile pairings and such. In the kitchen we opted to go without the "upgraded" backsplash and tile counters because they were not our taste and we knew we would be ripping them out eventually. So we have basic tile until we change it ourselves. Our backyard did not come landscaped, so we have been sloooowly landscaping that. We changed our fireplace which made a HUGE difference in the living space downstairs, we added a bench/nook in our entry way, and have painted a few things and hung pictures, and I'm pretty content with our downstairs for now (except it's time to change up all my pillows again :).

The upstairs is a different story. All of the trim and molding in the house are a dark stained hemlock. It's really pretty downstairs, next to the wood floors, but upstairs next to the carpet it looks pretty dated, at least to me. It was a battle talking my husband into painting the trim in the bedroom. I wanted the room to be as light and bright as it could be, and dark trim just wasn't doing it. He finally broke down a while back and we painted the trim, then the walls. The difference was amazing. The room feels so much brighter and happier, it is a place we love to be!

Here's what it looked like when we moved in:


We have diy-ed a lot of this room. It's been such a labor of love, but it's not done yet! So here's a look at what we've done so far, and what we still plan to do:


We had the bed on the wall to the right for the first year of owning the home and it never seemed quite right, but I was determined to have paneling on that wall and make it a pretty accent wall. Then I read something that said your bed should always greet you when you walk in a room. Call me crazy, but I loved that sentiment, so we moved it under the window and love it there. It makes sure to greet us when we come in the room now, it's very polite like that. Haha. The flow in the room is so much better now, and I love sleeping under the open windows in the summer. 

I made the roman shades (tutorial coming soon!). I also made the pillows (they are double sided, what what!) using this beautiful Robert Allen fabric on one side. The fabric is double-sided, too (the colors are switched on the opposite side), I used the lighter side (obvs) for one side and the other side of the pillows are white with black trim. I'll show them another day. The bench is from Target, it's a really pretty blue velvet. The one I bought was an online purchase return so it was marked half-off. Sold!


We had to cut down and recover our headboard to accommodate the window, and we went from a diy tufted greyish blue headboard (that I never got around to posting) to a very simple silvery gray color. I kind of wanted it to just blend in and not compete with other elements in the room and am really happy with it. Sometimes I toy with adding a nailhead trim around the edges, but for now I like it simple.

The nightstands are an Ikea hack, using the Rast and some pretty brass pulls. I love them. The lamps were a Homegoods find, and the floral art is the cover of my Lulie Wallace calendar that I framed (LOVE her work).

My husband made the bed frame, and I lightly white-washed it. I think eventually we are either going to paint it white or upholster it, or maybe just add a skirt, but for now it's kind of a fun texture in the room. I kept the feet of the frame natural. I have a thing for natural feet on furniture, I love it (I did it on our ottoman, too). 



Here's where that piece I painted ended up. I actually painted another one, too, that was right next to it, but I moved it to the bathroom where I like it much better. So I'm on the hunt for something to hang to the left of this one.



I did a whole post about this dresser makeover, and I still need to add some more art around the TV to make it blend a bit. 



There are still a lot of things we need to do before we declare this room done. Actually, I'm not sure I'm a person who will ever have done rooms. I love changing out art and textiles, and the little things that make a room pretty seem to be always moving. But the bones usually stay in place, and we aren't quite there yet. 

Sometimes the room feels a little more masculine than I want, so I want to add some more pops of pink and floral to warm it up a bit. I have been on the hunt for fabric to make a lumbar pillow for the bed. I'm toying with Orangerie Rose, but I'm not positive yet. It's so pretty, but I'm not sure if I can pull the trigger! We'll see. 


So there you have it! That's our room. We're in a good spot, but there's still lots to find and do. And then we have the rest of the bedrooms! It's never-ending, but I love it!

PS The wall color is Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore. The trim color is off-the-shelf bright white from the Clark and Kensington trim and cabinet line. It is great paint for painting trim, I highly recommend it!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

bits + pieces


1. These are the little valentines for my son's preschool party. I got to help out at the party, too, and it was so fun watching him give them to his friends. I made them the night before (super late, too!) and wish I wouldn't have procrastinated so much so that I could have posted them here for any of you needing last minute valentines! Next year!

2. My littlest Valentine and I had a special milkshake date on Valentine's Day. It was pretty sweet, and he even tried to pay for the meal (with a little business card he found. He insisted it was his debit card, it was too cute!). Love my little guy. My husband and I (luckily!) went out for our Valentine's date a few nights before, which ended up being such a good decision since on Valentine's Day there was a last minute emergency at work and he had to come home late. I wasn't even mad since we had already celebrated :). We all had a great day though.

3. I've been pulling out my paints more and more lately. I am having such a moment with vibrant pinks in the home, so I painted this to get some pink livening things up around here. Right now it's in our bedroom, and I think that's where it will stay (I think?). I'll show you how it looks soon!

4. I know I'm not the first to discover this app, and I won't the be the last, but Waterlogue is amazing. It makes normal, everyday pictures look like watercolor paintings. I have wasted so much time playing with it, I love it so much!
I commissioned an artist to paint something for my mom for Christmas; he did such a beautiful job and it ended up being a really special gift. This app could give you a very similar look for basically no cost. Not that it replaces the talent and quality that commissioning a true artist gives you, but if you are just wanting the look of watercolor, or to turn a normal picture into art, it's amazing how good it looks.  What a cool way to make special pictures even more special and beautiful enough to hang on your wall, right?
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