Kid's Art Throw Pillows

So when I am trying to distract myself from my frustration over our house being rebuilt I try to focus on the fun stuff I get to buy with our replacement money from the insurance company. I recently ordered my dream sofa from Room and Board and was searching for the perfect throw pillows to go with it. I was thinking something abstracts, colorful and with a watercolor feel. Then I had the idea to get some of the kid's paintings printed on pillows!

What a great way to incorporate their artwork in to our living space. I photographed the paintings and uploaded them to Shutterfly. then ordered pillows printed with the photographed artwork. It was so easy and they turned out so beautifully! The blue and gold pillow is Clover's painting and the purple and green one is Echo's

I can't wait to see them in place on my beautiful new sofa. It still feels like a long way off before we are back in our house but siding is going up today so that's progress at least!

Echo's New Room

At long last Echo's big girl room is complete! This was one of the major things we had to do to get ready for the new baby and we have been planning and talking about it for so long that we are really excited to finally get it done. We plan to put the new baby in the nursery (Echo's old room) because it is right across the hall from us and has easy night time access for me. Echo has been sleeping really well lately making it less important for her to be right next to us so moving her to the other room just made sense. I didn't want them sharing a room at this point because I'm afraid the baby will wake Echo up and don't want to mess with her sleep.  

Before

The biggest thing we had to do in this room was get rid of the nasty carpet (as seen in the before picture). Eric's parents came down last weekend to help us work on it and they knocked the whole thing out in just two days! The new floor looks amazing, it really makes me want to do the rest of the rooms that haven't been done yet but it is a huge pain so who knows when that will happen.

My contribution to the room was a mural by Echo's floor bed. I originally really wanted to do this room in a nautical theme (mostly because I wanted to paint a nautical mural) but I could see that Echo really didn't care about under sea stuff as much as I do so in the end I tried to make it something she would enjoy more. She loves to help me in the garden and loves animals so I did some sunflowers and a rabbit for her. She is so proud of this mural and loves the rabbit in particular. She often goes up to it and pats it or gives it kisses, so cute!

This room feels so much more open and it has been fun watching her get used to it. She spent her first night in her new room last night and she slept great in spite of my worries about her adjusting to a new space.

I'm so happy to have her moved in because now she will have plenty of time to think of this as her room before the baby comes and takes over her old room! We still have a few of her things to move in and Eric is building some shelves in her closet but other than that the room is done. Yay!

Changing and Rearranging

We have been making big changes in our main living area of the house and now I am finally getting around to sharing some photos of our updates. I think it's really interesting to see how our needs have changed and how the space has developed over time. The first thing I wanted to show off are the awesome built in stairs that Eric made for under our staircase!

This is a project we have been wanting to do since we moved in. The previous space under the stairs was inaccessible and basically unusable and a waste of space.  We had some bookshelves stuck back there but we really couldn't get to them and they didn't give us as much storage as we wanted.  The new built in shelves are very wide and very deep and allow for plenty of storage for our games and extra kitchen goods.

The top section of the shelves will one day be a reading nook for Echo but for now it's a place to hide the cat food so Echo can't eat it (babies love to eat cat food, don't ask me why). 

In order to be able to access the shelves we had to do a little furniture rearrangement and this is the new setup. It is a much cozier arrangement and allows for better conversation and a better spot to sit by the fire since the furniture is closer together now. We even found a nice little nook for Echo's easel and her little rocking chair.

The area by the front window has changed too since we swapped out the round table that was in this corner with the rectangular table that used to be in the dining room. Eric is now using this corner as his work desk for when he works from home. It's great because he has a lovely view out in to the front yard and plenty of light. He also sold his IMac and works exclusively on his new Chrome Book and his Ipad so he doesn't need much room. We almost never use the loft now because we have pretty much stopped watching tv altogether and Echo hates being confined in the small space up there, preferring to have free reign of the whole house. The consequence of this is that we are using our "formal" living room a lot more now and not really spending much time in the the loft. Plans for how to revise the loft space to make it more usable are in the works though.

We got a cool new firewood holder so we can have dry wood inside and it fits nicely with the new furniture arrangement (it needs to be filled up more though!). The house is starting to feel like a greenhouse because I had to move so many plants inside to save them from the freezing weather but it makes everything feel a little fresher and greener so that's nice.

Here is a picture of the new dining room arrangement. I actually think the round table fits better in this space. Unfortunately this area wasn't very clean for this photo, oh well.

I also felt the need to change out the art on the dining room wall so I got a huge poster sized print of one of my photographs and framed it for this wall. I'm loving the updated look. The glass in the frame is a little too reflective though and messes with the photograph, I'm working on a solution to this. I'm moving the art that used to be on this wall up in to the loft where I'm making a gallery wall.

Here is an aerial view of the new downstairs space. Sometimes I think it really helps perk up your spirits to rearrange and redecorate a space. I think this is just what we needed and we are appreciating our house in a whole new way now.

Updating My Throw Pillows- DIY Pillow Sham

My throw pillows have been around a while and by a while I mean since college (more years ago than I care to remember!). Back then i was going for an eclectic, world traveler vibe in my apartment with a definite tendency towards Asian decore. These days I definitely tend more towards rustic and, well modern themes in my house with a little bit of urban and a little bit of country thrown in (maybe this is what happens when you move to the suburbs). I recently decided that my throw pillows could use an update to reflect my current since of style. Having a toddler around also meant that I wanted them to have removable covers that could easily be washed since she tends to get food on just about everything. 

Being on the cheap side I decided to use fabrics I already had on hand and was able to piece together some scraps from a skirt I made last year to make a new pillow sham. I think it gives the couch a little pick me up and perhaps distracts ever so slightly from the cat scratches at the edges ;-)

I still have the pillow on the right side of the couch to make a new sham for but I haven't decided on fabrics for this one yet, hopefully I can use some leftover fabric scraps again and pull off something that will go ok with the other pillow. I have a whole host of holiday sewing projects in the works so I am in full on crafting mode. Hopefully I'll have more to show soon!

Montessori Style Rooms

I am a big fan of alternative education styles and there are a lot of good things to be said for the Montessori method. We plan to Unschool our children (more on that later) but I think there are a lot of ideas that we can take from other educational philosophies including Montessori. What I love about Montessori is that children are respected, given independence and allowed to use real tools and materials rather than fake, "kid" versions of things. Montessori is also child led, following the individual  child's interests and abilities. In this way it is very similar to Unscholling.  What I don't like about Montessori is that unrealistic imaginary play is discouraged. For example, you can play prentend at being an airplane pilot but not at being a fairy.


Anyway, enough of educational theory for the moment. I have been thinking a lot about how I want Echo's room to take shape when she gets older and we move her out of the nursery and in to her "big girl" room. I'm really interested in the Montessori style or organizing a room. Here are some great examples from my Pinterest board on kids rooms.

 Some of the things to take not of in a Montessori style room are beds directly on the floor, shelves and pictures that are low to the ground, within easy reach and toys organized in to easily accessed containers so that kids will have no trouble getting toys out and putting them away without adult help.

Other Montessori principles include limiting number of toys and choosing simple, quality toys over lots of cheap plastic toys. I love the idea of all this and would like to try it for our kids rooms but I feel like it might be harder in practice than in theory. Also, depending on the number of kids we end up having it could be difficult to have floor beds like I want, we may end up needing bunk beds!

Still I think all of this is is good information to keep in mind as my baby is quickly turning in to a little girl. She will be needing her big girl room before we know it!

A Tour of Baby Echo's Room

Since I am now on maternity leave I am in full nesting mode. I've been working hard to clean and organize the house (especially the nursery) so that everything will be ready when Echo makes her big debut. I finally have the nursery cleaned and most of the baby things put away, at least it's one room in the house that is ready! I feel like so much love has gone in to this room and I am so grateful to everyone who contributed, especially those who made items for the room with their own two hands. It makes it such a special place and it radiates warmth and love. Here is a little tour around the room :-)

View of the changing table area (my dad's old childhood desk with a changing pad on top). On the end nearest the camera I have hooks storing my travel changing pads and a beautiful handmade bag by my friend Aileen which is currently holding extra cloth diapers. 

Overall view of the room, it was dark today so the lighting isn't great but you get the idea

Echo's toy shelf, complete with handmade pillows spelling her name from my friend Joanna

Handmade blanket under the changing table along with her other blankets, wipes and hand sanitizer at the ready, extra diapers, covers and diaper cream hanging above the changing area. I also installed an led touch light above the changing area for nighttime diaper changes. 

More diaper storage, extra wipes and baby toiletries 

art for Echo's room, the bottom one was a wedding gift from a coworker and the top one is an original watercolor I bought in Puerto Rico (Echo's first trip overseas, even though she was still in my tummy)

Wooden shelf for holding small toys, I also put our wedding cake toppers on here so mommy and daddy can watch over her :-)

The quilt hanging over the rocker was made by one of Eric's family members for us, the rocker was one that my mom used to rock me on as a baby and she and dad refinished it for me. We added a little clip lamp for reading and you can see my awesome diaper bag to the left of the rocker. 

My shelf of children's books and a cute cloth covered box which is currently storing her nice baby blankets. 

Crib with baby quilt from my friend Mary and a mobile made by one of Eric's family members

More art, these are all from etsy. 

 I'm so excited to have Echo's room all ready! Can't wait for her to get here!

Joanna's Bridal Shower

I haven't ever had the opportunity to be in a wedding before so when Joanna (one of my besties) asked me to be in her wedding this Fall I was thrilled! Of course things were complicated shortly thereafter by my getting pregnant (and due right around her wedding date). Nevertheless I am happy to have the opportunity to be there for a good friend and while I still plan to be in the wedding (assuming I'm not actually in labor that day) I wanted to do something special for Joanna just in case it doesn't work out. As one of the only local bridesmaids I offered to host the shower at my house. This is a relatively new thing for me, I have helped throw a lingerie shower/bachelorette party for an out of town friend before but hosting it at your own house is a little different. Hosting a shower is lot more pressure than having a regular party for some reason, you want it to be just perfect! I enlisted the help of the only other local bridesmaid and we decided to throw Joanna a kitchen themed shower since she is such a foodie. All in all I think it was a big hit! It was fun getting everyone together and I love that our house is such an easy place to entertain in. Congratulations Joanna, can't wait for your big day in September!

Decorations made from photos I've taken of Adam and Joanna and crepe paper

Gorgeous flowers from the Marietta farmers market

The spread of food

Handmade favors, honey butter glazed popcorn

Pretty presents and paper lanterns made by Sarah, the other in town bridesmaid

People starting to arrive

The fabulous veil and hat made from the ribbons off of the presents.

Group shot!

Westley stole a cupcake after everyone left.

The Baby's Room

I've noticed that a lot of people have cute little names for their unborn babies, I haven't found a name that seems right so I just call it "the baby". I have started working on decorating the baby's room and wanted to show you all what I have going on so far. We are converting the room that used to be my studio in to a room for the baby and moving my studio stuff in to the guest bedroom. The studio room seems like the perfect place to use as a nursery for several reasons. First of all the wall color is already bright, cheerful and unisex which is exactly what we wanted in that space. Anytime I don't have to repaint a room it makes me pretty happy and I really like the yellow/orange color for a baby's room and a kid's room so it should grow well with the little one. The other reason for choosing this room is that it is almost exactly opposite from the master bedroom so it will be easy to hear the baby when it cries and easy to stumble in there in the night to feed them. Lastly we wanted to keep the guest bedroom intact because there may be lots of people coming to visit after the baby comes and we will need a place for them to sleep.

As far as colors go I am not in to super pink or blue nurseries or themes that are overtly related to one gender or another. I had originally planned to do a book/reading theme in the nursery but then I realized how bad I am at sticking to a theme and that I really am just not a theme person anyway so that went out the window. In all of my decorating I tend to be pretty eclectic and just pick out whatever I like withen a certain style so that's what I went with.  I have been doing a bit of etsy shopping for decore and we already have a beautiful crib curtesy of my parents who wanted to give us our baby present early. Here are some photos of what I have so far.

View of crib, mobile, rug and wall art

This is the rocker my mom used when I was a baby, she kindly recovered it for me and my dad refinished the wood.

our lovely crib! 

Fox and bear pillows I ordered from Bird Mafia 

Cute curtains I got at Ikea

A print from Sandra Dieckerman Illustration

A print from Parada Creations

A print from 1Canoe2

All three prints together,

I still have a lot of work to do in here (there are no pictures of the other side of the room because it is full of junk!) but it's coming along. I just have to try and not buy everything right away, hold me back! Lol :-)