playing house

sources: 1//2//3//4

Can I tell you I dream of the house we will someday own practically everyday? You probably haven't realized since I don't have much occasion to talk about it, but we live with my dad at the moment. It is where we need to be at this time in our lives, and honestly, I love my dad. It's kind of awesome to see him almost everyday, watch my children develop a bond with him that I never had with my grandparents, and infinity bonus points - he is a cleaning nut so our messes will oft times magically disappear.

I know I will look back and cherish this transition period and probably miss his presence terribly at times, but that house lingering in our future is beckoning me... and lately, its call has been getting louder. I am happy to say we are getting closer to being able to answer that call, but in the meantime I have succumbed to playing house on Pinterest in order to try and settle down my nesting instincts.

My dream home has quirky charm, white walls, wooden floors, lots of sunshine streaming through the windows, and a big yard with a garden - I'll stop before tire swing and chickens (but, oh yes, I would take them). More importantly though, I dream of a place that is full of love and laughter, security and the Spirit, and little feet padding through hallways. And, when I think about it that way it helps knowing I already have all of those things right here, right now.

So, I'll continue to be as content as possible with our situation (I know some days will be harder than others), but I will never stop dreaming of our very own someday home.

sources: 1//2//3//4

The link to my Pinterest on the side bar isn't working right now (will get it fixed soon), but you can follow my pins here if you'd like.

***Also, Danielle made it to the finale of Project Run & Play! Her signature look is darling and so well designed. I would buy it for my girls in a heartbeat! Go see it here and vote!

nursery tour

It feels SO good to call the girl's room done, and I am thrilled with how it turned out. It makes me smile when I walk through the door - its a happy-inducing place to be! I had no real concept in mind when throwing it all together, so I am kind of amazed that everything seems to work. You can definitely tell what colors I am drawn to and that is what helped unify the hodge-podge of thrift finds, handmade items, and purchased artwork in the room. Let me take you on the grand tour...

As you walk in the door you see LM's space in the opposite corner. My sister gave us the toddler bed and we painted it white to match the crib. The quilt was handmade by me. Her artwork hangs on the wall above her, and her stuffed friends hang out in the cradle below. The window lets in more light than I want at nap and bedtime, so I usually throw a blanket over the top... neither pictured, nor ideal, but it works for now. Someday I will get around to finding a permanent solution, and I also want to raise the curtains to the top of the wall... wait, did I say the room was done before? :)

Moving to the left, you see the dresser between the crib and bed. It was originally white when I thrifted it, then we stripped the paint and refinished it. I love the painted drawer pulls and the richness the dark wood brings to the room. On either side of the dresser are some vintage suitcases for toy/anything a toddler deems necessary to hoard storage. And, I guess if the room was decorated around anything it would be this rug. I loved the print and colors and it was one of the first purchases I made with the nursery redo in mind.

Above the dresser are some art prints, a frame, and a vintage Scrabble game board. I plan to switch this up a bit since a larger version of this print is on its way. I can't wait to get it - top knot! cats! party hats! On top of the dresser is a vintage lamp I used when I was little (probably all of my sisters used it at some point); it has little millinery flowers inside the glass. LM's favorite bedtime books as well as some vintage children's books are surrounded by forest animal friends, and the mushroom is a nightlight.

Then we get to Lark's corner of the room (see topmost pic for an expanded view). The clouds above her crib, as well as her crib sheet were handmade by me. Her blessing dress (the light yellow one) was hanging to the side by itself, but then I decided to display some of my favorite vintage dresses along with it. It will be fun to change them up every now and then, especially since some of these see use! The rocking horse was a gift from my in-laws.

Little birds (I like to think of them as larks instead of sparrows) fly through the clouds and along the wall toward LM's side of the room...

And then we are standing back in the doorway!

Finally, the corner directly across from the doorway (this view is if you were standing in front of the crib), is my quiet nursing spot. Above the rocking chair is a Noah's ark crewel that my mom made for my older sister's nursery back in the 70's, and you also get a peek at the closet doors with the bunting I made for LM's first birthday party draped above them.

So, are you wondering why there is a 'D' and an 'A' hanging above their beds instead of two 'L's'?  Some of you may not know that Little Miss (LM) and Lark are the girls nicknames I use on the blog :)

I hope you liked the tour!

Below is a list of where most items came from in case you are curious:

3-D Bird Wall Art

Letter 'D'

Letter 'A' - Anthropologie

You Make Me Happy print

I Lovely Love my Family print

Fox Girl print

Alphabet print

Rug - Urban Outfitters

Shelf - Ikea

Mushroom nightlight - Target

Crib - Target

Toddler bed - hand-me-down

Clouds, Quilt, Crib Sheet, Doll - handmade

Mobile, Doll Crib, Noah's Ark Crewel, Lamp, Deer bookends - vintage

And, I can't remember what the paint color is called! I know I saved the swatch somewhere, maybe someday I'll come across it and update this post.

UPDATE: I found where I tucked away the paint swatch. The wall color is Behr Window Pane and the drawer pulls are Behr Reef Green.

zoomed in nursery tour

I promised you a tour of the girl's shared nursery this week, but it turns out I am still waiting for a package to arrive in the mail... but once it does come I am finished!!! Oh, it's going to feel so good to call this room done. I am really happy with how it is all coming together.

In the meantime, here is a zoomed in tour of some fun spaces...

LM's art display above her bed, hung up with clothespins on glitter ribbon. She is so proud of her art - it's a mix of what we do at home, and what she makes at a neighborhood art class she attends. There are also a few vintage French flashcards thrown in...

LM's bed. I thrifted this green gingham animal blanket when LM was a baby and she has since become very attached to it. I suppose now it has become her official baby blanket, instead of the one I made for her (which never gets used), but that's okay!

The beginnings of a ceramic animal collection in the works on top of the dresser, and a peek at one of the crib sheets I made from a vintage sheet the other week. 

This Noah's ark crewel was made by my mom for my older sister's nursery in the 70's. It's one of my favorite decorations in the room.

A quiet nursing corner, and some fluffy clouds and birds above the crib.

What LM sees as she is going off to dreamland...

Vintage suitcases full of essentials - a dollhouse, a flashlight for shadow puppets, a bottle of water, puzzles, favorite bedtime books, and anything else a toddler decides is important to put in there... always a surprise to open them up!

And, it's no secret I am slightly obsessed with this rug and the colorful background it creates, but it also makes for a good hiding place... hmm, do I spy Cars undies? :)

Can't wait to show you the zoomed out version!

3 wishes

1. my very own dream house to decorate and make a home

2. this book...

(found via)

...and this e-course to peruse for ideas and inspiration:

(source)

3. an endless amount of amazing thrift finds on the cheap

three little clouds

One of the pros (actually the only pro) about the occasional night when I can't fall back asleep quickly after nature calls is that ideas seem to flow easily into my mind... for instance, the doll suitcase - I thought that one up in the middle of the night and then I really couldn't fall back asleep because I was so excited to make it.

This was one of those flowing ideas. As I lay my head back down my thoughts turned to what I should hang up over the crib (obviously because that is a very important thought to have at 2 am) and what came to me was clouds, with doilies. I knew I wanted it to be something light so I wouldn't be worried about it falling on the baby and what is lighter than clouds? My sleepy mind has all the answers.

So last night I made these three little cloud pillows (how-to steps below if you are interested). You could say they are rain clouds since I used gray fabric, or even snow clouds since the doilies are like snowflakes (the Little Miss pointed that one out to me), but I think they are happy clouds whatever kind they are... 

 baby's-eye-view

The Little Miss is officially sleeping in her toddler bed full time now (recently freshly painted white) and it seems we timed the switch perfectly since she has discovered how fun it is to climb on the crib. She is excited for baby sister to sleep there soon.

Mid-photo shoot I remembered that I could put up the vintage mobile I bought now, and best part - that it is an umbrella! I didn't even think of that connection when I was making the clouds, although my happy clouds would never rain on her sweet head :)

So the nursery is slowly coming together. I still want to get new curtains, make a bedspread for the Little Miss, finish the baby quilt I started, and hang up all the pictures, but all of the big main projects are done! We are very happy to have our garage back now that everything is painted.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

***

How-to:

The clouds were super easy to make (a satisfying project you could finish in less than an hour):

- Make a cloud template out of paper or just draw directly onto the fabric

- Cut out 2 clouds and sew them together leaving an opening on the side

- Clip around curves and down to corners, turn right side out and iron flat

- Stuff as full as you want with stuffing

- Slip stitch the opening closed

- Lay doily on top, pin in place, and hand stitch onto cloud (I stitched mine on very loosely since they wouldn't be viewed super close up or touched and I promised my mother I wouldn't ruin the doilies since they were made by my great-grandmother. If I was making a pillow someone would use frequently I would machine sew the doilies in place before I sewed the two clouds pieces together.)

- I hung mine up lazy style with a strip of scrap fabric safety pinned on the back

dresser restyle

The dresser restyle is done! We took it from a bad white paint job to a walnut stained beauty with aqua-colored drawer pulls (the picture with the cat shows the true aqua color best, it was hard to capture). It took awhile and in process I had to promise Husband he would never have to strip paint off a piece of furniture again, but we are both really proud of the end result - he for his hard work and me for my 'creative direction.' :) He had never done any refinishing like this before, so for a first attempt I think he did great!

Once I get all the pictures framed and hung and arrange everything into place I'll do a full nursery tour. It's been fun dreaming up this space for my girls.

And Tiger Lily hopes you have a lovely weekend!

mary blair

The Little Miss is fast becoming obsessed with the Little Golden Book I Can Fly. She has me read it to her multiple times in a row, although she ends up practically reading it to me as she has all the words memorized. And I love it too, how can you not adore Mary Blair's sweet illustrations?

So I decided to search for some more of her work and now I think I'm the one with a new obsession. I'm so glad I came across her work, it is truly inspiring!

source

images found here

diy fabric wall decals

I am loving Danielle's home tour, especially the whimsical fabric clouds in her boy's room. I feel like so many possibilities are opened up to me now that I know I can adhere fabric to the wall with cornstarch - although I'm probably the last to know since the tutorial is from 2008. Better late than never! Have you tried it before?

studio of mae

Studio of Mae makes the most amazing reusable fabric wall decals. I've had my eye on the doll sets for awhile now, so I was happy to have the chance to win them (and much more) by entering the competition they are holding for new ideas. I've sent in my ideas and am crossing my fingers with my eyes scrunched shut in anticipation. Check out the details here.

These would look so cute in the Little Miss' room which I am in the midst of redecorating into a more toddler friendly/interactive space.

the post in which i lament...

...the fact that I do not own a house and therefore have no room for certain amazing finds. First, let me start by saying that the shop tour on Decor 8 featuring Brass Razoo is giving me all kinds of inspiration. I am definitely filing this away to return to when I have more space to fill (and will keep the small things in mind for now).





With that said, there is a definite downside to thrifting and this week I am suffering from it. It goes something like this - you stumble upon an unexpected amazing find that you don't really need (or in my case you don't really need it or have room for it) but you know that it's a one-of-a-kind! You can't go back in a month or a year when you have the perfect spot for it. It will be long gone and you'll only be left with the memory of that perfect chair, or couch, or dresser that no other finds will ever live up too. Dramatic, right? I know. Let's just say if you want the perfect vintage couch that looks like it was never sat in and still has the original matching pillows go to the DI in AF. And whoever got that mid-century chair I passed up because I couldn't think of a place to put it, you're welcome. Sigh...

At least I am not becoming a hoarder.


Photos by Amber Fischer