12.31.2014

Christmas Day!

Christmas day was wonderful! It was full of the fun traditions that my siblings and I grew up with- which doing with your own kids is darn near perfect. 







 One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the big, delicious brunch after our gift exchange. This year I wanted to make something cute for the girls, and after a dollar store raid, we scrounged this up for them!























I hope you had a very Merry Christmas spent with those you love!

(Not pictured: two days later when EVERY one in my family got the flu. Blegh. My girls and I are still hacking our lungs out, but at least no one was sick ON Christmas!)

12.27.2014

christmas eve!

We're in Florida for Christmas!!! 
We've had so much fun being with my whole family. It's never quiet and the house is always messy, but it's the greatest- there is nothing like being home for Christmas! I also won't complain about the 70 degree weather.


^There is no doubt where I get my love for decorating from- every inch of my mom's house is decked out for the holidays and it is picture perfect. 


^Cousins are the BEST! They have been going 90 to nothing playing all day long, bouncing around the house from one game to the next and changing in and out of different dress-ups. My mom was so excited to have all of them here that she made sure the American Girl dolls were all straightened and combed with a basket full of new clothes for playing with. 

 ^Doting over Olivia.

 ^This year we started a new tradition of all of the grandkids making gingerbread cookies with Papa! In all matching chef hats and aprons of course...


 ^Milly and Papa got into a bit of a flour war. Given the crowd, it was fairly expected.

 
^Even Chef Olivia got in on the action (and by get in on the action I mean I put a chef hat on her long enough to take a picture and she happily sat in her highchair stuffing her face with baby puffs). I just love her scrunch-faced smile! 

The night of Christmas Eve we got together with ALL of my extended family at my grandparents' house for dinner and a nativity play by the kiddos. It was so awesome being with some of the cousins I grew up with and seeing our kids all play together. Talk about nostalgic. 



^Bathrobes and towels make for the best shepherds costumes.

^Us with my Grammy and Grampy! These are two incredible people right here!


The rest of the night we stayed up WAY too late getting the last of the presents in order and helping my mom play Santa by filling stockings and setting out the gifts for the girls! I LOVE the magic of Christmas, especially with kids around!

12.17.2014

girls' room reveal!

You guys...FINALLY. 
This room has been in a state of almost done for months...but there was always ONE more thing I wanted to add or change. I think I'm in a place now where I can consider it "done" and move on to the next project though (Whew!).

Jillian's original nursery was monochromatic chic lavender, black, and white (featured on I Heart Pears here).  With the arrival of her little sister, I knew they'd eventually be sharing a room so I wanted to give it a facelift. I wanted it to feel lighter and brighter with a touch of whimsy and a nod to some of my favorite styles right now. 

I'm really inspired by white Scandinavian kid's rooms mixed with an eclectic, colorful style. Check out my inspiration on my Pinterest board for their room here and you'll totally see what I'm talking about. I wanted it to incorporate natural textures and animals, because what kid doesn't love animals? But then I got all weird and could only incorporate woodland animals, because I didn't think it'd be kosher mixing zebras with foxes...you know? I'm not OCD at all.

Enough talk, more pictures. That's why we're here anyway, no? (Excuse my amateur photography ability- I literally have no idea what I'm doing behind a camera--what the heck is ISO?).

The room transformation started with their closet- which was a makeover in itself! Read about that before and after here. The whole room developed from the floral art hanging in the closet- which is actually gift wrap from Rifle Paper Co.!


The layout of the room will be changing like next week with the addition of Jillian's Christmas present (a play kitchen), but here we are as it stands now! As clean as it will probably EVER be.


^Jillian's bed is from Ikea. I LOVE it because it is built to grow with her. The frame actually expands to a twin size with another size in between. It has mattress inserts to make the mattress as long as a twin to fit the bed. GENIUS I tell you.

^^Small details like this in a room are my FAVORITE.  I just hot glued the pom-pom ribbon on the curtains and it instantly gave them a pop 'o special. That adorable map is a vinyl decal from Target! Mega-score from my sister who found it and convinced me it belonged in this room. She was right. To "frame" it, I painted a giant white rectangle on the wall, stuck on the decal, and hung up painted MDF trim with 3M wall strips. Can we pause for a moment and talk about how much I'm in love with Martha Stewart's line of metallic paints?! (what I used to paint the arrows on the frame). You'll see it several other places in the room. If it were up to me I'd paint everything in my house with it.


^The clock is from Society 6- a new favorite site of mine.


^ This adorable hand block-printed pillow is from Laura Frisk on Etsy, who happens to be right down the road in Salt Lake City! She was awesome to work with!


^I used the same gold metallic paint to freehand arrows on the "J".

^The dresser in the closet is a total space saver- it holds SO much! It's also from Ikea. I also love that I can have a changing area on top of it, which I use daily for Olivia. The bookshelves on the wall are Ikea spice racks that were painted and stained.

^The cloud pillow is from The Land of Nod, and the rain drop pillow was a super quick DIY using leftover fabric and stuffing, a sharpie, and pink watercolor paint.


^That faux sheepskin rug was $10 at Ikea! Olivia's crib is also from Ikea. (And no, this is not an Ikea sponsored post...I just really love their stuff...but you know...hey Ikea, we can totally be friends in that way.) 
Her crib skirt actually isn't a crib skirt, it's just a piece of cute fabric I folded and tucked under the mattress. Super cheap alternative! 

^The "O" was hand-painted by my sister's friend, Connie Driggers. Love it.





^Can we talk about this mobile for a sec? I'M IN LOVE. It's from Gigi Love Feathers on Etsy. I love how delicate the gold-dipped feathers are! Olivia will stare at it forever. So could I, for that matter. Is it socially acceptable for an adult to have a mobile over their bed? Cause.....


^Oh look, more Ikea furniture! ;-) Great for toy storage. I have another one downstairs. The basket is also from Ikea, I just added a little paint to it.



^The painted canvas was a super easy DIY, as well as the rain drop garland above Jillian's bed. For that I just cut two pieces of materal/felt and did a blanket stitch around the edge. 

^Well-loved books are my love language.


^These tiny felt shoes are hand-me-downs from Jillian, originally from Bonnie Bluebell on Etsy.

^The pictures for these DIY Olliblocks are from The Caravan Shoppe.


^The fox print is a digital download from a favorite shop of mine on Etsy, Paper Canoe Printables. The ABC letter cards are a free download on The Handmade Home. Yay for free stuff!
The watercolor portrait of Jillian is from a local artist, Chelsea Jeong. It looks JUST like the picture she did it from- amazing.

 ^Jillian's ukelele, or "violin" as she calls it, is also from The Land of Nod (doesn't look like it's still available though). They have some of the best toys! 



^This braided ribbon rug is also from The Land of Nod. I was looking for a rug FOREVER to put here, and when I saw this one it was done and done.


^My dad saw this deer head and couldn't believe I would include something as "redneck" as a deer mount (we're from a pretty small town where rednecks are as common as mounted deer heads). I tried to explain to him that it was like a trendy thing now, but he didn't believe me. Oh well...you can take a girl out of the South... ;-) 
It's from Hobby Lobby, originally in black, I just spray painted it white. 


^Jillian's bedding and that cute doll are also from The Land of Nod. The house pillow was a DIY modeled after these crazy expensive house pillows.




YAY!
It was a lot of fun to work on and the girls love being in there! Win-win.


I'm already planning on my next project (which is a true before and after) starting in January! Oak stair rails and banisters be GONE!