Nursery Inspiration

Hi Friends!

I decided to go with an Arctic inspiration for our 2nd 'little one's' nursery. I wanted it to be warm but stick with the neutral paint already in the room. We went for a white, gray and cream palette and now that I know the little peanut is a GIRL (still so surprised!) I have added some touches of pinks and and color. The room is really small - perfect for a nursery- so it came out feeling extra cozy and warm. For questions on sourcing see the inspirations photo on the bottom. Happy designing!

I really loved this inspiration photo from pinterest but I wanted to do more of a 'snowball' look so we crafted oversized pom-poms in different sizes from cream/white and light gray/white yard and hung them with fishing line in varying lengths above the crib. You could also do this in a garland design.

INSPIRATION!

(From left to right)

1. Oeuf Crib

2. Stargazer lamp shade- Land of Nod, Geometric Table lamp base- Target

3. Arctic Rocker- Land of Nod

4. Arctic Crib Sheet- Land of Nod

5. Oeuf Changing Table

6. Marrakesh shag rug--rugsusa.com (A total steal!)

7. Hand knit polar bears- made by a friend, available on etsy. 

8. Monte Rocker- Monte.com or Land of Nod

TIPS! 

1. Put together an inspiration board and send it to close friends so they can be on the look out for you too! I emailed baby's nursery theme and my 'board' to my closest girlfriends and received really good ideas and inspiration from them- it also helped with some cute shower gifts! 

2. If you find something that's out of stock locally ask friends or family to look at their local stores. Target is notorious for being out of stock in your store or online but having a back log of stock at other stores. 

3. Search etsy and consider making items yourself. Several polar bear prints I loved my Brother-in-law made and that fun wall hanging was inspired by pinterest. 

4. Hit up holiday sales and wait for your registry completion. Many decor items go on sale when you get close to your due date if they're on your registry (Amazon and Target offer this)- add items you have your eye on and purchase when the time gets close. I got that rug on a holiday sale on rugsusa.com for 70% off and free shipping, a total steal! The Arctic Rocker came from my local offerup app. Such a great find! 

MAM : Day 10

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MAM: Day 9

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MAM: Day 3

MAM: Day 2

MAM: Year 4

Hi Friends!

Oh man, I've been SO ABSENT on here lately. My biggest apologies! So much has happened since I posted last---we moved to a house- a GLORIOUS house with a bedroom for Isla, guest room and nursery for the baby. That's right, we're expecting in October and over the moon thrilled about it! I am pretty consistently behind these days - late to everything, losing everything and running into everything which can solely be attributed to my kid being on her OWN schedule or my 'Mom/Prego brain' flying solo without me. I am more tired and impatient than I've ever been but the days fly by and I'm equally trying to hold onto a piece of them so none of this time is wasted and I savor every last second with Isla as an 'only child.' Lots of changes going on this month too-- Isla is almost fully potty trained, she moved into her big girl bed this weekend and I'm trying to rev myself up to work on the nursery. All good things that indicate momentous change in our life--bittersweet, so good and scary all at the same time. Parenting right.

And now--my overdue Mamas Across Miles post.

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Today when I got the text from my Florida bestie that we were failing on year 4 of Mamas Across Miles- our May tradition on my blogs I had to double check that it was May because quite honestly it snuck up on my me. I even signed April for the UPS guy today. If you haven't followed for the past three years, Mamas Across Miles was started as a blog project inspired by the book A Year of Mornings about two cross-country best friends who took a photo of each of their mornings and posted it on their blog for a year. The book is beautiful - a perfect Mom's Day or Best Friend gift if you need one and also wonderful inspiration for BFF's suffering from a long distance friendship. The days can be SO HARD and long with little ones up in the mix. Our days and weeks are made up of so many supportive texts, calls, FaceTime dates and care packages.

This year has been a big one so far- Ashli welcomed a Son in February (we love you RJ!), we are expecting a little one in October, we have both been through the illnesses and surgeries of family members and have already spent a glorious week together this year (which is hard to do some years- those 3,359 miles really get in the way!) I miss my girl and her sweet family desperately but this project always makes the miles separating us seem fewer and visiting my sweet friend feel like t's truly just a plane ride away. To our MAM 2016 and the hope that this tradition continues through the years.

The bump at 17 weeks.

Ashli's oldest kiddo, Grace. 

A Curious George Birthday!

Hi Friends!

I put on two parties for my big 3-year old kiddo this year because my Grandparents couldn't travel up to my place for ours and they're pretty good buddies with my little one :) I did a Curious George party at their house and it turned out SO CUTE! Since I went way overboard on the planning and crafting on the Madeline party I tried to simplify the ideas for this one and just work on my favorites. I was able to use the same banners and decor because the primary colors worked for both parties (blue, red, yellow). If anyone's party planning I put notes below and that monkey hat 'how-to'--total crafting brilliance on my part (I'm TOTALLY tooting my own horn! :) Happy party throwing friends!!

Banner from Target, red pedestals from Target (holiday $1 aisle- they were $5), stuffed George from Nordstrom, jack-in-the-box George from Target and vintage book was mine when I was little :) 

All signs I did in word- I just grabbed a picture from Google that would print clearly in high resolution on large paper and backed them on solid paper. 

Lemon cupcake + chocolate with banana candies (from Amazon)

These monkey party hats! Party hats from Amazon, 'how-to' on construction below. 

Invitation from Etsy! 

Guests signed this vintage book I snagged at Half Price books. 

Banana Split bar. SO FUN! 

This little sweet face had the BEST time! 

The family celebrated in style! 

PS- Those monkey hats were SO easy to construct. I saw this picture on pinterest and knew I wanted to make them. I didn't want to do the ears from paper but wasn't sure how to craft them. 

Thankfully I was walking in Michael's after the holidays and found these gingerbread men 80% off--Thanks to my kid with a January birthday! After giving them a second glance I decided they'd work perfect and they come in 3 shades of brown ( in one package). 

I lopped off the heads and used them for ears. The inner ear was also from the heads or you can do them from the arms and just round them out. I stuck them on the ear with scrapbook sticky squares and then hot glued them to the hats. I couldn't believe it was easy as it turned out to be! 

Putting on a 3rd Birthday Madeline Party!

Hi Friends!

I had the best time getting ready for Isla's third birthday party! We decided (and by that I mean, I decided :) to do a Madeline in Paris theme. If you aren't familiar, Madeline is a character from a series of classic books. The books are about a school girl named Madeline who's brave, adventurous and the smallest in her class. She lives at a boarding school with a group of 11 other little girls and their Teacher, a nun named Miss Clavel. The stories are very sweet, kind of quirky and timeless. I wanted to do Madeline for Halloween last year but Isla was set on Rapunzel so I repurposed the idea for her birthday and I'm so glad I did-- I kind of ran with it (for a good month :)

Isla had the best time with our family and her little buddies. They all seemed to love the extra touches- which always makes the extra effort put into a party SO WORTH IT! I tried to link to the products I used below if you're planning a Madeline themed party and need ideas--many of these came from pinterest and blogs I researched. There are a ton of cute ideas--have fun!!

We invited a small group of kiddos because I wanted to go all out on party favors. Each little girl got a handmade cape (I used this pattern. I'm a pretty basic seamstress and it was very easy!) and Madeline's signature yellow hat with black ribbon. A note on the cape--I used a polyester blend that was lighter and softer than wool. I lined Isla's in plaid flannel and the other girls' in navy lining. All of them turned out great. The hardest party was the Peter Pan collar. The pattern on the website was too small for me so I used it as a base pattern and drew my own. Message me if you want help with this! One cape had a button but the rest all had ribbons to tie them with. This cape is really versatile- you could add buttons, clasps, pockets--so many cute ideas! 

The blue milk bottles are from Target. The hats are from Amazon. They shipped much faster than expected. I hot glued black ribbon to them after cutting off the bright ribbon. The tags are from Michael's. 

The two little boys got adorable berets and a set of mustaches. oui! oui! The mustaches are from Target's party aisle. The beret is from Amazon. I must say the beret fit a 4 year old and one year old great and shipped much faster than expected. They were SUPER CUTE! 

These flags are from Amazon. 

These prints are from Social Print Studio- order through the app, it's very easy! 

Balloons from Amazon- Banner from Target (letters from Michaels). 

The banner is from Target, letters from Michaels, hanging fans from Michaels, Poster from Michaels,  red cake pedestals from Target ($5!!!) and white is from Amazon. 

I grabbed a Madeline paperback from Half Price books, took out the pages and made pictures for easels and that adorable book page banner. It turned out super cute! 

I used book pages and a grommet pincher to do the top of the banner. 

Picture of Isla's year were strung in the window. These are from Social Print Studio. 

This invite- cutest thing ever. You can find it : Here.

Everyone signed this adorable Madeline print- found here.

Madeline cookie favors for everyone! (and Isla made a special Thank you sign!) The Madelines were from Target and bags from michaels. I made the tags on a home printer. 

Isla and Rosalie -- her baby cape kills me- so cute!! 

These two Parisian monkeys!

GIFTS!!

That adorable personalized crown and wand courtesy of the Hansens- Good work L!!!

If anyone's interested - Isla's dress is from Amazon. The dress wasn't available when I looked but it's by: Weixinbuy. It was $9 and shipped straight from China (in about 2 months) but quality wise it's totally fine, didn't shrink a lot and will definitely last us through this size. Their other clothes are cute too! 

Happy Planning Friends! 

xoxo. 

S