Did I pick the right window fabric?

My living room panels

VS.

These Crate & Barrel panels made from Dwell Studio Bella Porte Citrine

Alright, so let me back up a little bit. A few months ago when I was spoiling myself and getting ready to order new window treatments for my living room and dining room, I decided I wanted to go with a yellow and white fabric for the panels. I knew the yellow had to be vibrant and bold since I'm not really a fan of buttery yellow. I had all but decided that I was going to order the Dwell fabric pictured above (exactly like the Crate and Barrel panels) to have custom panels sewed BUT I just wasn't feeling confident in my decision. So, the search began for a yellow and white ikat. Luckily, good ole Duralee had me covered and I fell in love as soon as I saw this print. 

So, now I'm asking you guys, which one do you like best? The one I decided to go with or the one that Crate and Barrel is now selling.  Be honest!!!

Here are a couple more shots of each:

Dwell fabric by the yard available here through Fabrics.com

Crate and Barrel panels available here

Our Easter Decorations

What I love about Easter decorating is that I can use pink throughout our house without one word of complaint from my husband! I'm kidding, he really is a good sport about letting me make the design decisions. But I do love that Easter decor is sweet, innocent and very playful. Take a peak around our house and check out my Easter goodies!

 I designed the this Keep Calm poster for an etsy client. Do you like the bow tie on the bunny? 

This print is inspired by my friend Stephanie who writes the blog "The Hands on Housewife"
and is giving away her Keep Calm and Hunt on poster for FREE here.

The carrot garland is my favorite!

Happy Easter pennant banner I made last year.

Sequin eggs from the Target dollar bin dress up the antlers

 Then we took a break from our decorating to visit the flower fields

 I placed speckled eggs in all of our plants and really love the subtle color of these beauties.

These carrots with feathery tops are to die for!!! And so fun and bright!

The burlap banner is from etsy seller funkyshique (shop here)

Hope everyone has a fabulous Easter full of chocolate bunnies and egg hunts!

XXOO

For Sale: Keep Calm and Eat Bacon Printable Poster

After lots and lots of requests, I have finally listed the printable Keep Calm and Eat Bacon poster for sale in my etsy shoppe. When you purchase the listing, you will receive a jpg file sized at 8x10 AND 11x14 ready to be printed at any photo finisher. I can create this in other colors but a custom color fee will apply.

If you need some cheering up in your life, this is the poster for you. It's pretty ridiculous, I mean really, it's an ode to a stinky pig! But it's really fun and always brings a smile to my face. Now, it's not so bad cleaning 100 baby bottles by hand. Ha, I wish!

You can purchase the listing here for $12. 

Bottom two photos are by Marla of Sprout Photography

Tour My Home: Living Room

I've been super excited to share our living room with y'all. (Sorry, that's my leftover Southern accent from living in Pensacola) Aside from our kitchen, this is the room where we spend most of our time and it's definitely one of my favorites in our home. I'll be sharing the detail shots in another post because there are just too many gorgeous pictures by Marla of Sprout Photography to squeeze into one post. I just about died when I looked at these pictures for the first time, her work is amazing!

It's really amazing what a coat of paint can do! This console used to be stained oak, definitely not my favorite, and now has a cool asian flare with a quick coat of glossy red paint. Would you believe it if I told you my father-in-law picked out that vintage trunk on his own as my Christmas gift a couple years back? I could hardly believe it either, I love it!

The fab yellow and white ikat window treatments are new and I couldn't be happier with them. Plus, the antlers were a fun DIY project that I'll share soon. 

I love those red Ikea lanterns and how about that modern art on the mantel that I grabbed at a yard sale.

A couple of my favorite things in the room are the coffee table with stools that pull out and this rug from Ikea. It's not terribly kid friendly but I'm willing to put up with a little scrubbing for the look.

A couple more corner shots

 This red bookcase might be my most successful DIY but unfortunately I don't have a before pic. It was also stained oak and it smelled like cigarettes. I grabbed it from a pretty nasty thrift store that had posted an ad on Craigslist so you never know where you might find that perfect piece of furniture.

Thanks for stopping by!

XXOO

Tour My Home: Our Kitchen

Right off the bat, I have to admit that this room is my least favorite in our home. We are renters of an incredible craftsman home that is almost 100 years old and the biggest downfall of this 100 year old home is the kitchen. Back in the day, kitchens weren't the central hub of the home like they are today so it's a little short on space. Did you happen to notice we are missing a very major appliance? Sadly, we don't have a dishwasher or a garbage disposal which makes doing dishes a lot more of a chore.

In spite of it's shortcomings, I tried to give our kitchen a little character by adding in some fun artwork and my go to pattern, the stripe. The roman shade was a fun DIY project but you can't tell my landlord that it's hot glued to the wall in a couple spots :)

These two posters are my new favorite additions to the kitchen. I detailed how I made them in this post. And I'll be adding the Keep Calm and Eat Bacon one to my shoppe soon. After my hubby got home from being out of town for work, he casually mentioned that he thought the saying on this poster was supposed to be "Envision Whirled Peas." Oops, I knew something wasn't quite right. Either way, I still think it's fun.

Doesn't a label make everything cuter?

Mmmm, red velvet cake!

Some

This chalkboard is actually my favorite part of the room. My favorite saying "Smile more, pray more, complain less" is permanently written at the top and it serves as such a great daily reminder to be a better wife, mother, friend, daughter, sister etc. Plus, the chalkboard entertains Charley while I cook and do the dishes.

Overall, when dealing with imperfect rooms like this kitchen, have fun with the details! No matter how I decorate this room, it will never be my dream kitchen. So instead I added some fun details like the gorgeous Anthropologie hooks for hanging towels (on the left side of the first picture), I transferred my dish soap to an olive oil bottle and set it on a silver tray, and I proudly display my pink Kitchenaid mixer. Someday I'll have my Carrera marble countertops and a fancy Viking range, let's just hope it's sooner rather than later!

I'll revisit the kitchen in a couple weeks to share some fun tips for organizing your pantry and maybe even some free labels to get your pantry looking pretty.

XO

Miss Charley's Room

 

Welcome to Miss Charley's room. Since Charley was our first girl, I sort of went over the top with the girliness in her room, I just couldn't help myself!

The first step in almost of all of my design projects is to select a gorgeous fabric that will serve as the inspiration for the rest of the room. In Charley's room, the window treatments were the jumping off point, I just love this Duralee fabric!

We already had the white slipcovered Pottery Barn chair and it has been the perfect cozy addition for reading and cuddling before bedtime. Do you see the monkey painting I hauled over to the park for Charley's party? My talented friend Renee painted this for Charley along with the two bird paintings above her dresser.

My next step was selecting paint colors. I knew that pink walls would be serious overkill so I opted for this gorgeous pale apple green by Benjamin Moore and painted the ceiling the palest shade of pink I could find.  Do you love the chandelier? Me too. I snagged this baby on clearance from JC Penney for $129. Also, the shag rug is from Target, it's perfect for playtime on the floor.

I wanted a customized piece of art with Charley's name on it in her room and knew I could handle painting this myself. So, I bought a large canvas and painted the background with the pink ceiling paint. Then, I enlarged letters in Microsoft Word and traced them onto the canvas and painted in the letters by hand. I love that I was able to paint something for her room even without having any artistic talent.

I don't tend to be a "bed in a bag" type of gal so I mixed & matched store bought and custom made bedding. Do you see the adorable pom pom trim added to this Pottery Barn bed skirt? That little detail took me about 5 minutes top and it adds so much fun. I can't resist a pom pom trim! I didn't start out with a bumper, you know first time mom following the rules, but added one when Charley started bumping her head. My favorite local workroom whipped one for me with some gorgeous Amy Butler and Michael Miller fabric. Plus, I was able to use the scraps from the windows to create a few of the ties.

The pillow in Charley's crib is the same as the window treatments so you can see it up close in the picture above. Also, her polka dot sheets are from Pottery Barn Kids.

Meet two of Charley's best friends. The one on the left is "baby," seriously that is her name. I tried giving her a real name to no avail. Actually, we own two babies, just in case of emergency and so one can take a bath without C having a fit. (It actually looks like this one needs a bath, sorry!) And on the right is "friend," and yes that is the name that Charley gave her. I adore this Serena and Lilly stuffed animal. In fact, Charley has quite a way with naming her animals. A Bengal Tiger has just recently been named "Miss Sparkles" and for the record, the tiger is a boy. So, apparently we have a transgender tiger...

The dresser was the last purchase in the room. I wish I'd had the budget to skip Ikea altogether but it actually looks clean and simple in the room. And I love the bird paintings done by Renee above the dresser.

I've had this pink and green jeweled frame in my bedroom since college. When I went to replace the picture with a new one, Paul suggested leaving it with there so Charley could see us when we were young. I love that every time we are in our room, I get a little flashback to our college days. The picture was taken in Hawaii the summer after our sophomore year of college, circa 2002. 

Love this gorgeous striped pillow on the chair. Unfortunately, it looks like it's taken a beating...

This gorgeous inlaid wood box holds Charley's treasures, mostly jewelry from her dedication. Paul's first deployment was during the time I was pregnant with Charley and he picked it up for her in his travels in the Middle East.

Hope you love her room as much as we do! If you have any questions about sources, feel free to shoot me an email.

All of these gorgeous photos are by Marla of Sprout Photography, website here.

XXOO

House Tour Sneak Peak

Our living room 

(All photos by Marla of Sprout Photography)

I was so excited when I saw Marla's name pop up in my inbox last night. These photos have been much anticipated around here. I couldn't be happier with the end results and am so thankful for Marla's amazing talent.

Here is a sneak peak of each of the rooms in our house. I'll be sharing the rest of the photos soon along with lots of DIY projects. Enjoy!

 Dining room

Kitchen

Landing

Charley's room

Quinne's room

Our master bedroom

PS- Marla is giving away a FREE session, details are over on her blog. Hurry up and enter soon, it ends tonight. So, if you live in Southern California and want incredible photos, enter to win TODAY!

Keep Calm and Eat Bacon

It's no secret that I am Keep Calm obsessed. Here's my latest addition to the growing Keep Calm collection in my house. When I picked up the print at Costco, the photo department gal chuckled as she handed it to me and asked me if we ate a lot of bacon. We don't really and she must have thought I was crazy when she she received this order over the internet. Actually, I shutter to think of some of the photos that must cross her order desk.

Here is how I made the new addition to my kitchen. I designed the print to 16x20 and printed at Costco for $5.99, deal! Then I framed it in this Ikea frame for $14.99 but wasn't too happy with the existing white mat. My only qualm with the Ikea Ribba frames is the color of the "white" mats, they just aren't white. So, I grabbed the mat and ran over to Michael's and had a black one cut for $9.00. The project cost me $30 from start to finish.

Can't wait to share the "real" photos of my kitchen taken by Marla yesterday. Boy am I glad the photos are done, it's a lot of work to get your house perfect for photos.

Gotta run! I'm hosting a baby sprinkle this weekend (remember the invitation) and have lots to do.