Life Abundant

A Fond Farewell

2011-11-10T20:20:00.000-06:00

Hello all you sweet readers out there!

As you may have noticed, there have been very few posts the last few months {not that I was ever the most consistent blogger...}.

When I started this blog during the summer of 2007, life {and the web} looked very different {hello, Pinterest!}. Eric and I were newlyweds without even the thought of children on our minds, and we had just moved into our first home.

I decided to blog back then because I really just wanted a place to catalogue all the inspiring things I came across... art I loved, crafts I wanted to try, unique entertaining ideas I wanted to remember, beautiful spaces I wanted for the the home file.

I've always been a picture clipper, and I had stashes of magazine clippings here and there of all those same things, along with scrap papers with cool websites and resources I'd found online scribbled on them. The paper clutter was starting to get to me, and when I realized that I could cure that by cataloging it all here, I was quick to get started. Along the way, I really enjoyed showing off my own projects and styled events on the big world wide webber.

It's been fun getting to share with you!

As I mentioned, things have really changed since then. All that free time I used to spend crafting, decorating, and entertaining has now been overtaken by other wonderful activities... namely, doing life with my two tireless little boys {and equally tireless husband!}.

There's still a lot of collective creativity happening here, but there's just not an extra hour in the day that I want to spend blogging about it anymore. Given a laundry/cooking/cleaning/kid free moment, I choose SLEEP.

On a much deeper level, there's quite a bit more to it than that. In the season my family is in, I want to be present and to really focus on the things and people at hand, and spend a lot less time on the computer and a lot more time investing in the real-life relationships the Lord has surrounded me with. The Facebook account was closed first, and this blog is following suit. I'll keep it at that and spare you the rest.

All this to say, I'm going to officially close the book on this blogging chapter of life. I'll keep the blog open so that you can still reference any of the posts you have found to be helpful, but I won't be moderating comments or checking emails related to items found here any more.

So with that, I'll say goodbye, it's been fun, and thanks again so much for reading!

My Settee: A Love Affair

2011-09-30T22:41:00.000-05:00

Make that an EXPENSIVE love affair. I normally am not one to talk money numbers, but at the risk of looking quite tacky I'm going to because the whole process and the end price tag of this restoration adventure took a little bit to swallow at first.

Let's start waaaaaaaaay back at the beginning, where I would stay up late many a bleary-eyed night searching Craigslist for an antique settee for next to nothing. I guess everyone else had the same idea because I never did come across one.

I also considered a few antique-wannabes at Ballard Designs and Wisteria, but never did make the plunge.

Some things are just meant to be, because one day after many fruitless years of searching I got a glorious email from my friend Gem. One of her neighbors, Rena, was ready to part with a 300-year-old lovely that apparently came over with her family from England years and years ago. Ummmmm...seriously?!!!

Yes!!!! I'm more than interested, as in, when can I pick this thing up and I'm literally on my way to the ATM...how much is she asking??

Free to a good home.

Oh. my. gracious. I hope I don't wet my pants!

So, I went to meet Rena and see the settee in person, and after making absolute certain that this amazing benefactress was seriously letting this thing go, and seriously wouldn't take a penny for it, she helped me load it up into the bed of my truck.

There was one small catch... the sofa had a broken arm and needed some upholstery love {the fabric and trim had been well-worn and the original horsehair was popping out in places}, but she had already priced out the repairs a while back and didn't think they'd be much.

I hugged the right side of the road the whole way home at 30 miles per hour, throwing many admiring glances at my amazing treasure through the rearview mirror.

We were in the middle of our big move at the time, so the piece sat lonely in my garage for a number of weeks before I could finally get her into the upholstery shop to assess the investment, knowing I wanted to "do this right" and not attempt a DIY project on my own.

After careful inspection, the shop owner looked at me with a furrowed brow and asked, "So, exactly how attached to this thing are you?"

Not a good sign, but seriously, how bad can this be? I'm committed, I told him. He said not one but both arms were broken, and they were pretty ugly breaks, and I'd definitely need all new fabric, stuffing, and the springs needed repairing.

Deep breath in. Exhale. OK, still committed... ball park figure? {Gulp}.

He gave me the upholstery estimate, minus the cost of fabric, and said he'd call in his friend -- a local Englishman -- who specializes in antique furniture repair.

A week later I got a phone call. Yes, both arms were badly broken and it would cost half a Ballard settee to fix. I told him I'd get back to him, and sat down that night to discuss with the hubs.

And this is the part where I adore my husband. I told him it didn't make much sense, apart from it being cool to save such an awesome piece from the dump, to spend all the money fixing it up when I could have something brand-spanking new and sturdy with custom fabric for less than it was going to cost me to repair, buy fabric, and reupholster this particular settee. As many of us know, reason doesn't stand much of a change when something's gotten a hold of your heart, and while I didn't love the money pit this project was turning into, inwardly I was already too attached to quit.

Eric listened, and then said screw logic and reason, and to stop thinking in terms of dollars and to instead think in terms of benefit and value. He said if I felt that we should keep the sofa and fix it up, then I should commit my creative talents and know-how to doing just that, and doing it well, without considering the financial cost.

What a guy. So, I gave James the repair specialist the go ahead to fix up our settee. A week later he called to inform me that he hadn't realized how badly the legs needed reinforcing. Cha ching.

Another week and he called again to tell me the work was done and he would drop her back off at the upholstery shop.

I had ordered my fabric already, and in the do-it-right-or-don't-bother spirit, I spent a small fortune on gorgeous Dwell Studio fabric that I'd been admiring for a while with plans to use it on the front/inside portion of the piece. I chose a coordinating fabric for the back/outside of the settee, a less expensive but quality upholstery-weight taupe and white stripe. It came in soon after ordering, but the Dwell fabric was on backorder for a month. I placed the order despite the long wait, but after its delivery date came and went I ended up canceling my order with Calico Corners and repurchasing it elsewhere. A week later it arrived and I took it to the upholsterer.

New springs, new stuffing, and new fabric later and she was ready to be picked up.

I LOVE HER.

{Even in bad lighting, she is still a stunner!}

She cost me a fair sum more than any of the nicest options in her class at Ballard and Wisteria, and while we have some beautiful things in our home, she is still the most expensive piece of furniture I own.

The kicker is that even after all the mending and reinforcing, she still can't bear much weight... I guess people were smaller and thinner back in her day {typing this as I drink my Sonic Route 44 Dr. Pepper and munch on leftover rock candy from Emerson's party}. So, instead of being the showstopper in our living room as I'd originally planned, she now sits confidently at the foot of our bed in the master bedroom.

She quietly holds her own as she faces the brand-spanking-new Restoration Hardware printmaker's dresser that was made to look like it came over on a boat from England 300 years ago, even though it definitely has never seen a printmaker's shop, held a single inking brayer or type block, and more likely came over on a boat from China.

But still, they look great together and I'm sooooo pleased to have such an amazing piece of heirloom furniture in my home. It truly is beautiful and I've loved the process of giving a well-worn item a new lease on life.

Thanks so much, Rena, for generously gifting me this beautiful sofa that I know has meant so much to you and your family. I enjoyed the process of giving her a face-lift and I hope you're as pleased with the results as I am. We will enjoy it for many, many years to come!

Our Little Man Turns One!

2011-09-12T00:15:00.009-05:00

Wow what a summer! Long time no talkie. We've had a lot of goings-ons the last few months. Great stuff really. Lots of family travel. A big move {well, it was only a few miles down the road to the next town over, but any move involving kids and all their stuff = mighty large move}.

So, we spent the hot Texas months -- and they've been record hot...oy! -- packing and unpacking suitcases, and packing and unpacking boxes. The rest of the time was spent in the pool or at the ice cream shop that is dangerously close to our new place. So then the rest rest of my time had to be spent at the gym trying to keep ice cream deliciousness from firmly adhering to my lower half.

We finished off the summer with a wonderful cool front {so it was under 100 degrees!} over Labor Day weekend and also celebrated our little love's first birthday. He surprised us by coming a few weeks early over labor day weekend last year, and his big milestone celebration fell perfectly on Saturday over the long weekend.

We celebrated with our nearest and dearest, our pool, a taco stand, rented margarita machine and lots and lots of sugar. And cigars. And bubble pipes. And faux mustaches.

Above is the front and back of the invitation I created in Photoshop for the party. I fuzzed out all our too-personal info, so hopefully you can get past the wonkiness of the above feature and picture it all filled in.

Here are some photos of the details...

{My eldest on the morning of our party modeling the YUM! chocolate mustache pops he helped me make}

{The table at the party entrance}

{Bubble gum cigars for the kiddies. I placed a round 1.25in sticker printed with a red "E" over the "it's a boy!" phrases printed on each individually wrapped cigar.}

{the main table, two side-by-side rented 6' tables with draped cloths. This was the main food section with the taco stand and all the fix ins'. Delish!! The industrial frozen margarita machine we rented sat just to the left of this table, because you can't have tacos by a pool without ice cold 'ritas!}

{To make the "bunting," I printed a necktie shape onto scrapbooking paper and then cut them out and attached them to cord using mini clothespins}

{Hard to see in these pictures, but you might see the detail if you enlarge -- I've got some teal universal man symbol paperweights that I found on sale at Target holding up "Happy Birthday Emerson" banners on top of the red wire baskets. The photo is one I took of my son and blew up on Shutterfly. The cupcakes are topped with chocolate 'staches.}

{Since my son and most of his friends are picky eaters, I put together lunch bags with a more child-friendly menu in mind, and secured the bags -- tops cut and folded over to mimic a dress shirt -- with bow ties I made out of little clear bags filled with turquoise and red M&M's and fastened with a red pipe cleaner. }

{Our favor bags were made out of the same white paper bags cut to look like dress shirts and adorned with more scrapbook paper ties. They were filled with little man treats, like faux 'staches, those funny bushy eye brow/big nose/black rimmed glasses, bubbles and two bubble pipes, a harmonica, bubble gum cigars, wax soda bottles and other red & turquoise candy.}

{"thanks for 'combing' over!"}

{Mr. E's smash cake...he loved it!}

{Iced necktie sugar cookies I made two nights before the party...lots of late night fun there!}

{The beverage bar... "Please Wet Your Wiskers" with custom labeled water bottles}

{Even the soda bottles on the beverage bar wore labeled neckties}

{Real cigars for the not so little men}

{Centerpieces I made from beer cartons -- beer bottles replaced with flavored sodas and tissue paper -- that held three balloons each in our party colors}

{Other small poolside tables were adorned with these re-labeled soda bottles and balloons. **Tip -- hold them in place with velcro!}

Here are a very few personal pics from the day...

{My eldest and one of his best buddies are excited about cupcakes!}

{Our little man LOVED his cake and did an amazing job smashing/eating it!}

{Our sweet little fam with the birthday boy. **Personal Note To Self: Do not let husband wear favorite traffic-cone colored shirt during milestone-moment photo ops}

I'm not gonna lie, this party took a LOT of work with all the crazy little details, but I loved every minute of it and I actually had plenty of time to pull it all together. At our 16 week sonogram when we learned our little man's gender, I left with no ideas about a name but knew exactly what his first birthday theme would be!

I was first inspired by this party from Hostess with the Mostess {you can see that I blogged about it way back when...}. I chose the colors {turquoise, red and gray}, and had so many of my own ideas that I didn't really look online too much for inspiration. Over the last year, though, it seems many talented party people took inspiration as well and came up with their own spins on this fun theme {I found a load of sights while browsing just now in search of a great blog that I want to be sure to credit for our goodie bags and necktie garlands}. If you're planning a little man or mustache themed celebration, be sure to tap into the wealth of Google images for an enormous number of creative ideas!

Hope you all had a lovely summer, it's great to be back in touch!

Creative Party of the Bagel Variety, Plus A Party That Sadly Won't Happen

2011-04-07T15:40:00.007-05:00

If you've hung around here long enough, you know that I live for hosting parties. Doesn't matter the occasion...I've always got my party hat standing by!

So you can imagine my dismay when I found out that my darling husband scheduled a trip to Disney World with our son THE SAME WEEKEND AS THE ROYAL WEDDING.

What?!

It's a terrible problem to have and to whine about, I know, going to Disney World and all with our Pixar movie and Mickey Mouse-loving fan of a three year old. {le sigh}

But STILL, I had been planning a great get-together for my favorite gal pals around this blessed event for months!

I'd already ordered some fabulous Union Jack bunting {gorgeous in person...made from Laura Ashley toile fabric from wonderful Etsy seller tiny cherib} and it shipped all the way from the UK. Can't get much more legit than that. I nearly cried when it delivered.

I have GOT to start keeping a better calendar situation, lest a scheduling miscommunication/conflict this terrible ever try to befall me again.

My beautiful bunting would be the only blue and red color pop/British reference in the place. The rest of the party -- menu completely planned -- was going to be fit for a real wedding! White and taupe flowers, napkins, etc.... a perfect white wedding brunch. Because you know how I love brunch.

And, while guests would have been directed to wear proper wedding attire and to please not forget their finest occasion hats, I had talked my sister into arriving complete with wig and skirt suit as the Queen.

Ah well. This thing only happens once or twice in a lifetime, so no big deal! {*tears*}

Moving on!

I found a super duper creative party idea I adore. Props to mom's who take their kids party suggestions and roll with them. How imaginative and adorable is this bagel party I found over at The Indigo Bunting? Blogger Erin's {cool name!} nephew requested a bagel theme, and boy did she and his mommy deliver! Here are a few pics of the party favors, but be sure to check out Erin's post on this sweet shin-dig for more. And...

Don't miss even more great photos from this party can be found on the blog of bagel-lover's mommy, Mount Custard...

Ya'll, My Life is Crazy

2011-03-25T12:13:00.005-05:00

Seriously.

Came back from an amazing escape to Cabo with my darling hubby to celebrate our five year, only to face CA-RAZINESS all the way around here at home. I love my life, I really do. Never a dull moment.

Anywhoot...since I'm staying so busy with stuff on the home front, I'm going to shuffle you on over to visit my friend Gem...you may remember her as cape seamstress extraordinaire.

She just started a blog herself, and with all her creativity and know-how on everything from crafts and design to gardening, etc, I know it will be a hit, so click your way over and leave her an encouraging comment.

If you sign up to follow I know you won't be disappointed, and then in a year or so when An English Accent is roaring huge, you'll be able to say you've been with her since the beginning! ;o)

Kristin's Alice in Wonderland-Themed Baby Shower...

2011-03-09T20:48:00.004-06:00

{Shower honoree and mommy-to-be, Kristin}

The invitations I sent a few weeks ago invited guests, if they felt adventurous, to crawl down the winding rabbit hole and join us {punctually, of course!} for a mad hatter's tea and brunch {or send regrets via the white rabbit}.

Obviously up for adventure {and/or mimosas}, a great group of ladies joined us this past Saturday to celebrate our friend Kristin and her soon-to-arrive baby girl Rosalind. Here are ~~a few~~ a ton of pictures of all the details... {click on any photo to enlarge in a new window}

{This framed sign, which I created in Photoshop using illustrations from the book that I found online, hung on my front door and gave clear instruction to our attendees, as well as helping to get them in the spirit for what was waiting inside...}

{I typed up and framed an excerpt from the book to sit on the coffee table in my living room, along with a mug...tried for a teacup but it didn't work out...for Miss Rosalind and her own copy of Alice, plus a new chandelier and a fun basket full of girlie goodies.}

{Target's Archer Farms bottled water {they have a great, clean shape for this kind of thing}, wrapped in ribbon and embellished with a custom label I made in Photoshop using 2.5-inch round labels from Paper Source}

{we re-labeled peach and grapefruit flavored Izzy pops...}

{My favorite party planning partner-in-crime, Carrie, has an amazingly talented daughter who made our official "mad hatter's" hat for us using cardboard, fabric and spray paint. Thanks Kayla! Along with another framed Alice quote... "You used to be much more muchier. You've lost your muchness...", a gorgeous antique tea cup full of roses and ranunculus', a key from Hobby Lobby and a vintage looking tea box, the show-stopping headwear perfectly completed our beverage bar.}

And for we non-preggys there was a mimosa bar on the kitchen table, along with flowers my sweet hubby sent me the day before, "just because". =) }

{Remember the "cake tiers"/cupcake stand I made for my son's superhero themed birthday party back in January? Well, here are those same boxes/lids, recycled and covered with sheets of moss}

{In the dining room, we set up the mad hatter's tea party/brunch. We wanted this section to look to our guests as though they had stumbled upon a tea party in the middle of somewhere outdoors and magical}

{The cookies/favors I mentioned in my previous two posts}

{lots of faux natural elements such as moss, bark, butterflies etc. plus plenty of metal keys, clocks, and tea sets both miniature and large made up the scene...}

{Including a little white rabbit, minding the time, of course!}

{Delicious thumbprint cookies spilled out from a hollowed out wooden stump bowl that I scored at Target a long while ago...it normally holds loose change on my husbands dresser.}

{of course, we HAD to have tiny petit four cakes with "eat me" clearly telling our guests what needed to do}

In the living room where we planned to open gifts, we used my mantel and the area around it to establish the "red queen's" corner. Please excuse the few leftover trimmings I had laying on my mantel when this picture was snapped. We made a garland out of heart-suited cards and finished it with black satin bows...

{Another branch tree held mini glass heart ornaments I had on hand in my stash of Valentine's Day decor}

{Guests were encouraged to scribe encouraging words, prayers, or other sentiments for the special family on tags stamped with silver keys and hang them on the tree. Wish I'd gotten a photo of all the tags hung up along with the glass hearts...oops! Looked pretty cool, I must say.}

{Carrie made these cute little topiary balls out of felt...love them!}

{Carrie also attached red paper roses to a topiary and then made a paint can complete with dripping paint brushes to sit next to it, referencing "Paint the roses red!"}

{I made the vintage-looking feather and rose headband myself for little Miss Rosalind. It would have been a great idea to take photos along the way and do a tutorial, or at least get a better final shot, but since I'm probably the worst blogger you know, I wasn't thinking along those lines. I'm hoping Kristin will give me a cute picture of baby girl wearing her head piece and tutu to show you in a few weeks!}

{Finally, our guests found one last bit of instruction on their way out the door along with all the tools they needed to snip a clock cookie from the tree on the buffet table and bag it to take home and enjoy later with another cup of tea. The thank-you tags on the bags read "We hope you've had a splendid time!"}

Carrie and I were pretty thrilled with the way it all turned out, and more importantly, our precious friend loved it and felt as special, valued and loved as she deserves to feel that day. Hope you enjoyed peeking in on our little party. I'll close with ~~a few~~ a bunch more pictures from the shower...

{Super cute preggy friends!}

{Carrie, Kristin, and Me}

Teaser...

2011-03-08T22:53:00.001-06:00

So last week I showed you how to bake and cut sugar cookies to hang on a tree, a vase full of branches, or from a chandelier, etc. to serve double-duty as both party decoration and later as favors for your guests.

Well, here is what mine turned into after I iced them. Two dozen little pocket-sized clocks, perfect enough for a punctual little white rabbit...

Saturday morning, after my cookies had dried for a long while, I hung them from fallen branches that sat in a large vase, shading our buffet table for the Alice in Wonderland themed baby shower I hosted this past weekend.

Tomorrow, I'll show you the rest of the shower... {perhaps the best party I've thrown, yet, with LOTS of really fun details...}

Sleep well, and I'll see you back here in the morning! ;o) Can't wait to show and tell!

Great Party Idea

2011-03-03T14:10:00.000-06:00

{photo from UK Handmade}

You've probably seen something like this before, but I thought I'd show you a fun party/party favor idea that I really love anyway...

This weekend I'm hosting an Alice in Wonderland themed shower for my Alice-loving friend Kristin and her soon-to-arrive baby girl Rosalind. It's a tea party/brunch, and I decided to make a cookie favor tree that would serve as decor and then later parting gifts for our shower guests.

Since Kristin reads this little blog I won't share what these circles will turn into when frosted, but here's what I did:

I used this sugar cookie recipe {it's my favorite!...be sure to stay on the blog and hunt around for some excellent tips on baking and decorating!}

Then I cut out simple circles. My circle cookie cutter is a little large for what I'm planning {3 inches}, so I just grabbed one of my juice glasses and used that to cut the shapes. I put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and stuck them in a fridge for about 15ish minutes to chill a bit. Then I pulled them back out, and just before popping them in the oven...

...I cut holes into the chilled shapes using a simple drinking straw. This dough holds shape really well, but the holes still closed up just a tad and I didn't want to hassle with getting ribbon through them later, so just after pulling them out of the oven I used the straw again and re-shaped the holes to make them perfect.

In a little while I'll decorate them with icing and let them dry 24 hours {but I can't show ~~you~~ Kristin that part yet}, then I'll use yarn or ribbon or whatever I find in my craft closet to hang them from a large vase full of branches.

Easy peasy, and it's a win/win because I'll have great decor for the shower, and a yummy treat to send our guests home with. Love that!

Tune in early next week to see the decorated cookies/favors, plus all the details from our Alice in Wonderland-themed shower. I'm so excited about this...it's going to be a good one!

Apparently I Live Under A Rock...

2011-02-25T22:51:00.001-06:00

It's crazy, friends. One day I'm thinking I can't look at one more design blog...I'm completely overexposing myself to all things design and while there are so many great things to look at, I feel like I've seen so much my head may explode.

Then, BAM! The next day, I'm convinced I must be spending a good portion of my time with my head firmly planted in the sand.

Am I the only one completely unaware until this evening -- after receiving a beautiful catalogue from Restoration Hardware -- that they have a baby&child line?! WHAT?!

Seriously, I am an AVID Restoration fan. AVID. Some might even argue RABID.

I'm nuts over this store. And while I can't afford half of their stuff, I still drool regularly over their website and catalogues and marvel over the sheer design brilliance.

Anywhoot. Here are some of the things I found. Just in time to refurnish a new house in a few months. My husband is soooo excited {wink!}. I can tell because after showing him all this he smiled, gave me a pat on the shoulder, chased a Tylenol PM with a glass of wine and headed straight to bed. I know he's hoping to drift into dreamland before he's able to calculate just how much this little discovery of mine is going to cost him.

Love you, boo bear! {kiss!}

So here's a little showcase we'll call "Erin's Favorite Things." Almost as cool as Oprah's favorite things, although unfortunately I will not be able to send any of you home with the following...

From the world of insanely fabulous accessories, I give you...

{french exposition art $199}

Here it is in the room for scale...pretty pretty!

And some gorgeous pillows. Feast your eyes, DIYers. The prices on these are good, but I'm sure they'll send a few of your heads spinning with your own versions. I myself am loving the hot air balloon pillow, but am thinking about doing a series of something similar on canvases using fabric, ribbon, and/or scrapbook paper and my sewing machine and then stretching them over frames for a wall hanging...

{applique hot air balloon pillow cover on final sale $36.99}

{dog print pillow $24-$29}

I love love love these gorgeous framed nursery rhyme illustrations...

{nursery rhymes art $39 each or $199 set/6}

A few weeks ago hubby and I were out at dinner with my b-law and his girlfriend, and I nearly freaked out sitting at Bob's because they got me talking about fonts. I may have scared off a potential sister-in-law, but I couldn't help myself. Seriously, not even the two cocktails I had at that point could tame even a smidge of my enthusiasm. THEY started it.

That's neither here nor there, but just so we're clear, the graphic designer in me will always, always geek out over typography. So of course I love this mirror. Of course I do. DIYers I'm sure could make this happen pretty easily if you want it in a different scale or with different letters, but I think it's a great size and nearly a steal at $59...

{typesetter's mirror $59}

Ahhhhhh....in Rachel Zoe speak, I DIE!!!! I guess it's it comes from my roots growing up as an Air Force brat. In any case, this is C-U-T-E:

{vintage airplane mobile $49}

Again, I'm sure it's the place deep in my heart that swoons over clever text as art, but I adore this next pair of prints. These, I WILL be DIYing myself. Partly because I think that $59 for the pair is a tad overpriced {sorry, RH! I love you!}, but mainly because I'd like to make a set of 4 for my son that note his personal character attributes. While swift/fast and brave/valiant certainly make the cut for my eldest's main descriptors, I can think of a few more...

{vintage synonym flash cards $59 set/2}

Also in the accessories department, I didn't snag any pictures of them but be sure to check out their excellent assortment of wall lettering. Great stuff. Moving on to furnishings...as is standard protocol, these industrial pieces really caught my eye...

{vintage locker desk $499}

{vintage locker dresser $1099}

{vintage schoolhouse play table and chairs, $449 and $99 each, respectively}

{mason activity table $449}

{mini flatiron desk $499...ADORABLE!}

Also from the furnishings department, a few more pieces:

In these photos I pulled again from our accessories chat above, check out the headboards and dressers/nighstands:

{parker leather headboard $599 - $679}

{kent nightstand $319, dresser $949}

{millbrook iron bed $449 - $549}

{quinn dresser $639}

They actually have a larger/wider version of the Quinn dresser that I am definitely going to consider as a dining room side board should a need for one arise in my near future. {$879}

And finally, some heavenly winged friends...

{french wing headboard $599 - $679 on special}

{mini french wing chair {HOW CUTE?!} $349 on special}

So there you have it, bloggy friend-o's, my Restoration Hardware Baby&Child roundup. Have a beautiful weekend as we close out the month of love...

A Shabby-Chic Shower

2011-02-22T19:15:00.004-06:00

Isn't this sweet friend of mine the cutest mommy-to-be, ever?! Seriously, they don't come any more precious, and she looks so fabulous pregnant it's hardly fair. I was so thrilled to be part of the fun and super creative group of ladies to host a baby shower for Kim and sweet baby Presley, whom we're all waiting not-so-patiently to meet! Here are a few shots from the party last weekend...

{decoupaged letters, made with scrapbook paper and a gorgeous map of Paris}

{attendees could write little words of encouragement, well wishes,

or wisdom and leave them in the suitcase for the parents to be...}

{beverage mugs were personalized by each guest with Expo markers...}

{we created the custom labels in Photoshop to dress up bottles of water}

{my friend Carrie...you know her from her Grumpy Old Man party I featured...came up with perfectly mis-matched cupcake wrappers}

{I loved this idea, where a few of the girls swirled a bit of white paint around the lower half of mason jars, wired them to branch trees and hid little tea lights inside for some sweet mood lighting. So cute!}

It was a beautiful, perfectly shabby shower and I'm so thankful I got to be a small part of it!

On a completely separate note, I want to let you know, kind reader, that posts will not be too regular for the next month or so. I've recently had some medical issues to deal with, we're once again getting our house on the market and are getting ready to move, etc. etc. Not as much time to work on fun projects as I'd like, but I'll post as I can. Hope you're all having a love-filled February!

Yummy Still Life by Ben Henriques

2011-02-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've featured any fine art, so today I'm excited to show you these beautiful works from Ben Henriques. I am adoring these still life paintings {photos pulled from Jonathan Cooper gallery}...

Simple. Poetic. Beautiful. LOVE.

Enjoy the Big Game!

2011-02-06T07:20:00.002-06:00

Happy Superbowl Sunday, luvs! =)

*for more info on referee cupcakes click here

Superhero Party Wrap-Up: The Finale

2011-02-04T12:48:00.003-06:00

Hope all our friends across the country are staying cozy this week! I can't believe the snow we've had here in the DFW metroplex. It's been great to slow down and spend some quality time with our family... although I must admit that now on day 4 we're all getting a touch of cabin fever!

I'm going to mentally escape for a moment into the creative and inspiring land of blogs and wrap up all our posting on Superhero Parties by showing you guys what I consider to be some of the best the web has to offer on this topic.

First up, a fabulous party -- perfect in every way, in my opinion -- I discovered over at Party Perfect {indeed!}. Truly, each detail is perfection when it comes to this bash...

The absolute BRILLIANCE happening over at Scissors.Paper.Cake is responsible for one of the coolest, most fresh takes on the whole Superhero thing {although I found the best post on their party over on Imprintables...this is a "don't miss" blog and a fabulous post}. They styled an incredible party, with superb modern details.

Next up over on Ambrosia, I fell in love with the idea of a cape-making station. While our party location at a bounce-house warehouse didn't lend itself to this activity, I think it's a must for an at-home celebration!

I really love the place settings, cupcake tower and beautiful cookie favors over at Posh Tot Events...

I thought I was super original with the city scape backdrop I made for our cake stand, but turns out inspiration had already struck at Room to Inspire. I think she did a great job with hers, adding word blurbs and masks!

There are many great ideas out there in blogworld to be found, so be sure to POP! on over and check out some of these links.

Happy Superbowl Weekend everyone!

Superhero Party Wrap Up

2011-01-31T12:25:00.003-06:00

Hello friends! I have a few more images to show you from Brady's superhero birthday party this past weekend, but first I want to show you two things that didn't happen in time for the party.

As I mentioned, both my boys ended up sick all last week, so needless to say, there were a few projects I wasn't able to get to. I think they are pretty fun ideas, though, and you may find them handy if you are planning your own superhero-themed party, so I still want to share them.

In addition to the custom superhero capes and masks {scroll down for previous posting on this}, I wanted to send the kids home with something fun and edible.

There is a place not too far my home called Le Popcorn. It's a beautiful little candy and popcorn shop, and their specialty is flavored/colored popcorn. They sell bags of custom popcorn orders in all sizes, and they even sell mini sizes that can be used as party favors and gifts.

I actually purchased some of my own clear treat bags at the craft store, and I intended to buy a larger bag of colored popcorn, either in the "wild blueberry" or "strawberry" flavor, and break the popcorn up into smaller portions --about 3 or 4 cups to each bag -- to fit in my little treat bags.

I was then going to design my own comic book-style labels in Photoshop to say "thanks for POPPING by!", make a small hole punch through one of the corners, and attach the labels to the bags/tie up the treats with curling ribbon used for gift-wrap.

Well, I never made it over to the popcorn shop to begin with, nor did I have time to design my labels until this morning for show-and-tell purposes.

The good news for you {if you happen to be needing superhero or comic-book style party favors} is that I went ahead and created a PDF with six of these labels on a page for you to print and use yourself, free of charge. My only request is that if you do pull the image above off my blog to use, or use the PDF I email you, please give Life Abundant a mention and/or display my blog's button if you post anything about your personal use of the tags on your own site.

If you'd like the PDF, simply click the "email me" button on the right column of my bloggy here {make sure to include your return email address within your message} and I'll be happy to send you the file.

The next project I didn't get to was a centerpiece for the kid's table. This was less for lack of time, and more because I was planning to assemble the centerpieces on-site at our party location, and by the time I got there I decided last minute I just didn't want to mess with these. No idea what that was about, it is so out of character but Oh shwell! Anyway, this is what I was planning...

Pretty simple centerpiece! I'd planned for three of these, POW! BANG! KABOOM!

The round glass vases I already had, purchased a while back from Michael's {but I'm sure they still carry them}. I simply used four sheets of blue tissue paper to stuff the vase {one sheet is folded and wrapped around the inside of the container}, then wrapped it with silver star garland.

The yellow paper I purchased from Michael's... it's heavy-weight scrapbook paper, and it's actually textured with tiny little raised polka dots on it. I used a red paint pen to write on the shape that I freehanded and cut out.

Easy easy!

Ok, so enough with virtual party planning and on to the real stuff. I've already shown you our cupcake tower with comic-book blurb toppers, the skyline cake backdrop, and the custom capes with masks we sent home as party favors.

All that's left is to show you our set table and the cookies I had a friend make {love the florescent lighting in our party room! Casts such an attractive glow on everything...ha!}

I used an inexpensive roll of red gift wrap to cover the table, and silver-foiled cake boards I found for $0.99 each at Party City as chargers. I layered those with a yellow paper plate {for pizza and cupcakes} and a blue and white polka dot napkin. On top of that I placed cookies that my friend Megan made. She referenced the superhero illustration from our invitation to decorate round sugar cookies with icing.

I love decorating sugar cookies and really wanted to make these myself, but I'm so glad with the way our week turned out that I had delegated these to Megan's capable hands! Her cookies are both cute and delicious! If you live in the Ft. Worth area and need cookies made for an event, check out Megan's website.

I would have loved to embellish the little bagged cookies with ribbon, and also would have liked to wrap the bottles of water and juice boxes that we set at each kid's place setting {after this photo was snapped} in custom labels, but yes, in the week's craziness those projects fell by the wayside, too, so try to imagine how cute this table COULD have been! {wink!}

We did end up with a dozen balloons in primary colors with big silver star weights on them line the center of the table, but somehow missed photographing that. The kids' table was certainly not perfect given our circumstances, but still pretty cute and Brady...who got well-enough just in time for party day... was sooo excited about the way it all turned out.

Megan made us some of these superhero logo cookies with a sparkly "B" for Brady on them, too, so we scattered those around the other table for the grown-ups to enjoy...

So that's it! Scroll down to view previous posts with the rest of our superhero party details!

I'll be back later in the week for one more post on superhero parties to show you some of the best of what I've found on the web!

Hope you're having a SUPER Monday, friend!

Superhero Capes, Cake & More Cake!

2011-01-29T14:52:00.002-06:00

Hey friends! Soooo sorry to drop the ball yesterday, for all of you who have been waiting on pins and needles to check out our finished capes and cake/cupcake tower.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, birthday boy has had the flu, and poor love was still feeling badly yesterday. Add to that my four month old lovebug woke up running fever, too, and showing some of the same flu symptoms as big brother. Thankfully, an impromptu trip to the pediatrician gave us good news on that front...NO FLU!...but he did have an ear infection and tons of upper respiratory garbage.

Needless to say, I spent the day taking care of my sweet boys, cleaning the house, and finishing up last minute party details.

I could never have done any of it without the help of my awesome mother-in-law, who has been such a huge help to me this week!

Anyway, because of yesterday's craziness, I never did get the chance to snap a photo of all our finished capes together like I'd hoped. And now all the superhero wear is safely in the hands of each of our precious superhero friends, so all I have left to show you is Brady's own cape and mask...

{can you see how the "B" is glittery? Love that part!! If you click on the photo and enlarge it in a new window, you can really catch the detail.}

And here's how each cape and mask were packaged for our Superhero friends... excuse the yellowy-tinge of the photos...

Ok so next let's talk cake/cupcake tower.

When preparing for this party, my son and I were looking at pictures of superhero cakes online. Here are just two of the many imaginative cakes we found and were inspired by...

Can you guess which one he picked as his favorite? Yes, of course, he had to go with the amazing 6-tiered cake. When he saw it, he said "OOOOOOOOO, Mommy! Is that my cake?!" Hmmmm...maybe if mommy had a million dollars {I have no idea what this cake cost, but I'm sure it was A LOT} or 500 kids to feed. Not so much!

But I didn't want to disappoint, so I put my thinking cap on and decided that I could build up his poor-man's little 8-inch cake with tiers made out of hat boxes {this is what I served for his family birthday dinner last night}. The display could then double as a tiered cupcake stand on party day.

Here's what I came up with...

I did a terrible job of photo documenting the process, but in a nutshell...

I found the bottom "Captain America" box at Hobby Lobby. Of course, then it was less Captain America and more cutesy, with a red and white striped base and a red and white polka dot lid. Still, I was thrilled by my luck at stumbling upon a box that was already striped with red and white, because I had planned on having to do this myself with tape and paint. All that was left to do for that tier was to spray paint the lid, first with white primer and then with blue that I already had. I then made the logo label in Photoshop, printed it out on plain computer paper, and then cut it out and glue-sticked it on.

Next was the Spiderman tier. For that I simply spray painted a plain cardboard round box with red paint, then used a black paint pen I had to freehand the web and spider.

Finally, the top tier. I wanted to work in some yellow, so I went ahead and made the Superman-like tier yellow with a red "B" logo. We could get away with it since our them is more generic hero than specific. Just like the second tier, I took a plain round box, spray painted it yellow, and used a red paint pen to freehand on the logo.

For his family party Friday night, I simply removed the top tier and replaced it with an 8-inch cake I had our local bakery make. I wish I'd gone with a 6-inch round, because it would have fit and looked a little better. Plus I wouldn't have half an amazingly yummy birthday cake left sitting in my kitchen, loudly calling to me right now and begging me to polish it off!

I had placed the cake order before getting my cake tier thing worked out, though, so oh-shwell! Brady loved it and didn't mind a bit that it was slightly less than perfect.

The next day for the party, we covered the three hat box tiers in cupcakes. Before I reveal that, though, let me show you what I came up for cupcake toppers.

I first came across these POW! fondant cupcake toppers from Two Sugar Babies on Etsy and fell in LOVE!

I very nearly placed an order for these gorgeous toppers, but looking at this photo I was so inspired and suddenly was hit with an idea that I needed to try out.

So, I purchased some pre-made icing {make sure you buy the kind that is meant to dry and harden fully!} and lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Then using my black icing, I piped some simple shapes {I heated the tube of icing in the microwave for 8 seconds first to make it a little more cooperative}...

Then I heated the red tube of icing for 10 seconds, making it really, really warm and liquidy, and flooded a few of my shapes. I did the same with the yellow and blue tubes of icing. I then grabbed my black icing again, when everything had dried a bit, and piped on my words {you can see that I didn't used two of the wonkier looking ones}...

I let these dry for 24 hours before I touched them. Then I gently removed them from the paper with a very thin spatula and very carefully stuck them down into the cupcakes. I didn't make enough for all of the cupcakes, I just wanted a handful of them to have the word shapes.

Ready to see the reveal? I'm really very excited about the way this turned out. Here's our complete cupcake tower at the party...

So that's all I've got on capes, cakes and cupcakes! I'll be back next week to show you the final party details and to wrap up my posts on pulling together a super-hero themed party.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend. This superhero has exhausted her powers and is now off to take a much needed nap!

Superhero Capes!

2011-01-27T22:04:00.011-06:00

So if you've checked out superhero-themed parties at all online, you've surely seen a variety of capes that people are making for their party peeps. No exception here! I couldn't leave our super friends without the proper gear, so I decided capes are a must-have for Brady's party.

I am many things, but a seamstress I am NOT. So, I designed the most simple plan for capes, EVER! They only needed one straight stitch across the top to be finished. I was sure my Singer and I could handle that. Not so much. Epic fail.

Thankfully, my amazing friend Gemma -- my favorite British import -- is an ultra-talented seamstress, and when I took my pathetic little sewing mess to her house for a quick fix earlier this afternoon, she whipped them right into shape and created something truly fabulous. And super inexpensive!!

OK, so let's get to the cape how-to...

First, I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest standard sized pillowcases available. I found these in packs of two for $5.50 a pack {I made 14 capes so I bought seven packs}. These are the perfect size for preschooler capes {I'm sure the queen and king sizes will be great for bigger kids}, they come in a great assortment of colors, and all the sides are finished edges, so that = much less sewing!

Next, I ironed all the pillowcases. This was not an enjoyable part of the process. I'm really, really good at a handful of things, and one of them is avoiding the ironing basket at all costs. Couldn't escape it this time, though!

Next, I took the top part {where the opening is} of the pillowcase and folded it over, then ironed that fold.

Then I flipped the pillowcase over, and made two pleats each side of center. I'm sure that makes zero sense, so let me just show you and hopefully you'll get the idea...

Next, I went to sew a straight stitch across that top folded/pleated part, because again, sewing is not my thing and I thought that technique would, at the very least, work to hold it together and look OK.

Wrong.

First of all, because of user error I had my machine's tension all messed up and that made for some wonky stitching. Second I can't sew in a straight line. At all.

What's that you say?....No, it's actually not easy... If you can do it you're probably talented.

To save you a good cry and/or eye bleed, I won't show you the pictures of my sewing disaster...

Instead, I'll tell you how I tapped into my inner super hero and saved the day by enlisting the help of one more talented. At nearly 10 PM last night, I texted my friend Gem and asked her if a Starbucks venti caramel macchiato would buy me an hour of her expertise.

Well, since she's basically A-MAZING, she took my capes and made them fabulous. She sewed this rectangle stitch thing around the top and included the ribbon ties in that stitch {a waaaay more attractive solution than my original idea}...

Then, she asked me in her super cool British accent how I planned to attach the monogram medallions that I'd made and cut out of felt. Ummmm...fabric glue? Wrong answer. Gem promptly began a zig-zag stitch around both the medallion and the red letters. Check it out...

{Gem, a.k.a. Super Seamstress!}

Where did those medallions come from, you may ask? Well, the circle is made out of yellow felt for the boys, pink for the girls that I found 4/$1.00 at the craft store. The red letters are a heavier felt -- and though you can't tell in the pictures, it's actually a felt with glitter all over it so they really sparkle -- I got for $0.99 per sheet. I managed to make 14 letters out of 6 sheets.

I used a salad bowl as a template for my circles, tracing that and then cutting out the shapes.

For the letters, I used my home computer to print letters in Arial Black font. I can't remember the type size, but I made them to fit in a 6x9 area.

I simply printed out each letter, then lay {laid? I have no idea the proper tense for that...my high school honors English teacher is grieving into her decaf right now...} the print-out on top of a piece of red felt like so...

Then I simply cut around the letters using poultry shears. Because why not? {Lord knows they've never come anywhere near poultry in this house. We're a boneless, skinless chicken breast kind of family. But that's neither here nor there.}

I used heavy duty fabric glue to attach each letter to the center of a felt circle.

So that's that.

I want to post a great shot of all the capes, in a row, hanging in some good lighting, but since it was after 5 o'clock when we got these finished, that big reveal will have to wait for tomorrow!

To sum up, these gorgeous capes cost me just under $4.00 each. Seriously, four bucks. My incredible iPhone photography does not do them near justice. In real life, they look more than A-mazing.

Thanks so much to Gemma for taking my idea and sending it over the top {on a side note, I convinced her in our 2.5 hours together today to start her own blog, so I hope to introduce you to that really soon, because this girl is talented as has some really brilliant ideas!}

Also a HUGE shoutout to my wonderful mom-in-love, who has been a massive help to me this week taking care of my boys. After picking up a nasty cough and 103 degree fever last weekend, the birthday boy was diagnosed with the flu by his pediatrician Tuesday morning. He's been home from school this week, and I could never have accomplished all these birthday party projects without the help of Gran!

See you guys tomorrow for the final cape reveal, plus a cake/cupcake tower and other party goodies!

Superhero Party: Cake Backdrop

2011-01-26T23:52:00.002-06:00

For Brady's Superhero themed shindig this coming Saturday, I wanted to make a backdrop to display the cake and cupcakes {we're doing a family dinner on Friday with cake, and then serving cupcakes at his party}.

To continue our superhero theme, we definitely needed to work in a city skyline somewhere, and what better backdrop could there be for the cake than that?!

I started with this tri-fold foam display board from Michael's. Remember those things from your old science-fair days? Science is not my thing, but I think I now have a new love and appreciation for these display boards! Anyway...here is what I started with. Exciting, eh?

I took my trusty craft knife, a straight edge, and a cereal bowl from my kitchen cabinet {for the "buildings" with the rounded roofs} and sliced my way to this...

Then I took three different craft paints, a plastic appetizer plate and a 1-inch foam brush I had on hand...

...and with a brush loaded with a mix of the colors I just made broken vertical dash lines down the buildings to make it really look like a city skyline at night.

I'm so happy with the way this turned out and can't wait to show you what I've worked up for a cake stand and cupcake toppers. That's Friday! Now I'm off to finish up the capes I'm doing for the kiddos, but I don't want to leave you without showing you this FABULOUS wonder woman themed party from Jamee over at Setting the Mood. You don't want to miss this, so be sure to check it out for lots of super inspiration!

Billy's Grumpy Old Man Party

2011-01-24T14:18:00.000-06:00

"Life would be infinitely happier

if we could only be born at the age of eighty

and gradually approach eighteen."

- Mark Twain

So this past Friday I mentioned that I took a superhero party-planning detour to help my friend Carrie with the awesome last minute "Grumpy Old Men" themed shindig she hosted for her husband Billy on his 37th birthday. It turned out to be an awesome party, with excellent company, yummy food and of course plenty of cocktails! And though I wasn't about to set down my drink to get any real photos {wink!}, I was able to maintain beverage in one hand and iPhone in the other. Here are the few that I snapped for you...

{This is the cake, complete with dominos, pocket watch and pipe. As you can see, decor was a palette of tan, orange, dark brown and white, and we incorporated lots of "old men" games into the decor, along with framed quotes about old age}

{one of the grumpy old man's favorite comforts is a mojito, so of course we HAD to set up a mojito bar)

{when guests walked in the door, they found a big silver bucket and were encouraged to jot down their suggestions for Billy's ultimate "bucket list"}

{my gorgeous friend Carrie, the best hostess I know}

And I can't believe I'm showing you this one, taken in the "photo booth" Carrie's daughter set up...

{me and my honey, looking really hot in our old age}

Carrie and I had such a great time getting this little event together, to celebrate an awesome guy that we all love. Eric and I had a ball at this party, along with everyone else. Great job, Carrie!

And now it's back to the bat cave to continue whipping up the most super superhero party ever!

Calling All Superheroes - Brady's Birthday Invitation

2011-01-21T23:34:00.003-06:00

In full party-planning mode here, folks! I was a little sidelined last week, and happily so, as one of my best friends Carrie recruited me last minute to help her host a "Grumpy Old Men" themed birthday party for her 37 year old husband. It was the perfect theme for him, given that he's an "old soul" who's always joking about how he's an old man hiding out in a ~~middle aged~~ young man's body {love you, Billy! ;o)}

The bash was this past Monday night, and since it was all so last minute {the party was decided on and planned in just a few days!}, we stayed pretty busy getting it all together. I'll hopefully have a few fuzzy iPhone pics for you soon so you can see what we pulled together {since I know you all LIVE for the amazing professional photography on this blog....ha!}.

Anyhoot...after that short and super fun little detour...I am back to planning my son's third birthday party that will be here in exactly one week. Ahhhh!! So many projects, so little time, and I think I must secretly enjoy pressure because I always find myself doing things right down to the last wire.

So far, I at least have the invitations sent, and three cheers for all the RSVPs! Everyone invited is coming, so we're super excited!

Here is the finished invitation that I ordered from Hicks. I personalized it using Photoshop and a free-for-personal-use font I found on the world-wide-webbers {Google search for "free comic book font"}, then printed it on my own printer at home...

I also designed these delivery and return address labels to stick to the front and back of each envelope, and printed them on sticker paper I got at the craft store. Here's the mock-up version to show you...

{personal note on the round sticker labels I made: I'm a devils-in-the details freak, so I'm a bit bothered by the imperfections in my circle return address labels here. I normally order and use up bajillions of the round labels from my favorite go-to supply store, Paper Source, for stuff like this throughout the year. It would have made for gloriously perfect round stickers...but alas, I thought I had some extra laying around the house and discovered that I did not. A jaunt out to Dallas with baby in tow was out of the question, and with no time to spare for ordering I just went ahead with the sticky paper I had...there's a bit of stretch to the sticker paper I bought so booooooooo!!! on this being less-than-ideal. Learn from my mistakes, and always be sure to have plenty plain white round Paper Source labels around. You'll use them up, I promise!}

I bought some scrapbook paper at Michael's to make envelope liners. The paper was a heavy weight cardstock, and therefore too thick to use for this project, so I took the single page I bought to Kinko's and made color copies of it on regular 8.5x11 printer paper to line the inside of each envelope. I cut up an extra red envelope to make a template, then traced and cut out each liner and attached it with a little glue stick action to the inside of the envelope.

And that's it! Super-fun superhero mail...gotta love it!

I really enjoyed embellishing the cute Hick's invitations, and am so happy with the way they turned out!

Stay tuned next week for lots of fun party details in the works, as well as some extra-super superhero party inspiration.

Have a great weekend!

Pure Style. Exactly.

2011-01-07T14:16:00.000-06:00

Stumbled upon this new-to-me blog a few days ago, and have spent waaaay to much time perusing it. It's called Pure Style, maintained by a cute gal named Lauren, and it's full of endless beauty and inspiration of the interior kind.

I realized almost immediately that I've actually seen pictures of her A-MAZING house all over the place, and most recently in one of my favorite mags, Better Homes & Gardens. Here are a few photos of the house turned gorgeous home I snagged off her blog. Hopefully they'll be enough to convince you to check out the post she did about her renovations... you won't be sorry! Lots of genius here, my dears!

She also wrote an excellent post on budgeting for interior design, and if like me you are commissioned every once and a while to help friends and family decorate, it's a great resource to pass on to those requesting your services.

Hope you've had as much fun exploring blogland as I have this week...lots of amazing-ness out there!

Happy Friday, friend-Os!

PS...I'm sneeking away for a weekend with my hubs tomorrow {lots of movie-theatre going, Mexican food eating and margarita drinking, plus after Christmas sale shopping in store!}, and will be working on birthday boy stuff next week for my little man's upcoming shindig {invitation preview coming soon...} BUT if I weren't up to all that, I would definitely be searching thrift shops for a cheap old globe so I could turn it into this...

click here for the tutorial from design*sponge.

Project: Party Plan!

2011-01-03T10:54:00.000-06:00

We're back from Christmas in Vegas/Skiing in Utah/New Year's in Vegas, and I am off and running on party plans for my eldest son's THIRD birthday party in a few weeks.

Where does the time go? I can't believe my precious baby boy is going to be three years old. I'm going to have to stay ears-deep in party details to keep from focusing on this little fact and spoiling all the fun... these milestones are always a tad bittersweet! Can I get an amen! from my momma friends?

ANYWAY, this year, per his request, we will be doing a superhero-themed function. It took us a while to settle on this one. First, he asked for a pajama party, then a dragon/vikings theme {after one too many How to Train Your Dragon viewings}, but finally settled on superheroes. I've asked him three times now, and I've gotten a "superheroes" answer every time, so it's official.

Here are the invitations {above} I ordered just this morning from the creative talents over at Hick's. They will customize and print for you if you prefer, but I ordered mine blank for a song and am going to print them myself using Photoshop. Be sure to check out their products... lots of super cute invites and ideas for your celebrations on Sara Hick's own blog, Party Perfect.

Stay tuned in the weeks to come for all the details, and if you have any brilliant ideas you don't mind offering me, I'd love to hear them!

Advent Box Display { + Eric's 30th Bash}...

2010-12-20T20:13:00.005-06:00

Worst. blogger. ever. people! So sorry. If consistency is your thing, this is not your blog, my friend! ;o)

So I'd intended to show you the really cool way I was planning to display my advent boxes {see the post just below this one}. I was going to use this really amazing silver glitter spray paint {which I stole from my friend Whitney's stash the last time I was there}...

...to coat branches laying around the yard. I was then going to stick those lovely-fied branches in a clear, tall glass cylinder vase filled with faux snow and hang my boxes like ornaments from the branches so that my son could choose one each day in our count down to Christmas.

INTENDED being the key word, because in the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks, that project never happened, and my boxes were simply piled into a pretty silver bowl.

Here, though, are a few pics I pulled off Whitney's blog, from her Pier 1 table centerpiece post that illustrate the idea...picture my cute, colorful boxes hanging from those branches and you'll get the general direction I was heading. {great minds think alike, or at least I'll flatter myself to think so...}

Not only have all our festive holiday activities kept me and my family crazy busy, I also surprised my wonderful hubby for his big 3-0 birthday this year, first with a whirlwind weekend trip to Disney World with one of our favorite couples, then with a top secret surprise dinner party with 36 of our closest friends and family when we got back.

{Me and my better half in the Magic Kingdom}

{Our amazing friends who love us enough to go along with my crazy idea to surprise Eric with them and this trip}

{On a side note, our dear friends who we went to Disney World with are the awesome Pete and Sara-Britt Guinta. Pete is the lead singer of a fabulous Long Beach, CA band called Centrevol. They're fantastic, so check them out. Your ears will thank you if you download "Save Yourself" and/or "Don't Hear Me Wrong"...you can do that right here on the website}.

For the dinner party part of Eric's birthday surprise extravaganza, I enlisted the help of the amazing Jessica of Modern Moments Designs. I first saw Jessica's "Circa 1980" party suite featured here on hostess with the mostess' blog, and knew that it would be the perfect party theme for my music fanatic husband. She customized an invitation for me, along with thank you tags {I used them to embellish the party favors, which were CDs burned with the ultimate "mix tape" I had my husband create...30 of his top favorite songs of all time!} and place cards.

{the invitation...excuse the quality of the next few photos...I snapped them with my trusty iPhone}

{party favors...burned CDs with Eric's top 30 favorite songs of all time...his ultimate "mix tape"...email me or comment if you're interested in any of the how-to details or materials list to create these}

{table centerpieces...I used glass vases I already had, scalloped cardstock, and pictures of my hubby through the years that I simply photocopied at Kinko's.}

{the menu I created in Photoshop to go along with our theme...click to enlarge in new window if you care to see the details}

Jessica was fantastic to work with! Even when she broke an arm halfway through the customizing process, she was still super great with turn around time, and was a huge help working with me when Paypal was being screwy with my order. I highly recommend both Jessica and her Modern Moments products.

As for the birthday boy, he was totally surprised on all counts, and the dinner was a complete success, made so of course by our incredible friends and family who all came to show my hubby some birthday love {though I like to think the design details were pretty fantastic!}.

Advent Boxes

2010-11-30T22:49:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions that my mom {affectionately known as "Mayta"} did every year with us during the month of December was that of advent boxes.

In her version, she cut up old Christmas cards and folded them to make little square origami boxes. She filled the boxes with various things... candy in some, slips of paper in others that said things like "I'll make up your bed for you this morning" or "I'll cook whatever meal you choose for dinner."

Our favorite boxes, though, were those that hid a little slip of paper that read "SURPRISE!" Finding that little note meant we got a treat too big to fit in the tiny advent box, like a CD, DVD, movie tickets or a gift card to Starbucks, to name a few things. {This year, I've been stock piling goodies from the dollar aisle at Target...}

Mayta piled all the little boxes in a decorative sleigh on the bar in our kitchen, and every morning before heading off to school my brother, sister and I would each choose a box. In this way we would track the days leading up to the 25th of December.

{Mayta had a box for each of us to open in the mornings, and she must have had carpal tunnel after folding that many boxes! Since I'm way too lazy to make a box for both B and E to open each morning...that would be 48 boxes, yikes!...I'm just going to do 24 boxes and let them take turns opening one each day...whatever candy or note is in that day's box will be for the both of them. Of course, Emery is way too little to be picking boxes this year anyway... whatever, I'm digressing once again and I'm sure you don't need all this information...}

ANYWAY, I loved this tradition growing up, and want to continue it with my own sons. Instead of origami boxes, though, I found these tiny little cardboard boxes {measuring 2" in diameter and 1.5" tall} at Hobby Lobby for $0.99 each. Of course, it's best to wait until they're on sale for 1/2-off, but I'm not going to lie, I spent $24 on this project because I couldn't wait! ;o)

I had a bunch of fun coordinating scrapbook paper left over from my plate project, so I grabbed that and got to work measuring and cutting paper to decoupage to my boxes.

Then with a little of this...

And a bit of that...

I created these little babies. Cute, right?

These would look super pretty piled into a big silver bowl. I think they'd also look fantastic lined up on a tray...although if I were to go that route, I would probably put some decorative glass or ceramic knobs on the lids.

I'm actually going to do something completely different to display these, and I'll show you that later this week. For now, though, I'm off to make 21 more boxes! :o)

P.S... yes, adding numbers to these would be cute, too. {I think, though, half the fun is choosing which one to open each day, instead of having a number dictate that for you...but that's just me!}

A Few Things...

2010-11-24T19:00:00.015-06:00

Hey friends!

Just a few quick things before I sign off for the Thanksgiving holiday...I'll be back up and running next week {hopefully Monday} with more Christmas projects/decor to show you.

For now, though, make sure you visit my precious friend Whitney over at Shanty2Chic and enter to win the Silhouette machine they are giving away! You don't want to miss this generous giveaway, or all the great Christmas crafting she's been up to!

Next, I wanted to show you what my completed plates look like on our Christmas tree. Here are a few photos {click any of them to enlarge in a new window}...

And finally, I want to leave you all with this delicious recipe for Sprinkles' "Pumpkin Bliss Cupcakes". They are to die for, and your friends and loved ones will be cheering your name if you show up with these on Turkey Day. I'm considering adding some peanut butter chips to mine...I think that may knock them out of the park...

Pumpkin Bliss Cupcakes

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups sugar

1 15oz. can pumpkin puree

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, spice, salt and baking soda. Seperately, combine eggs, pumpkin puree and sugar, whisking together until smooth. While whisking, add oil and juice, continuing to whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture to pumpkin puree mixture, folding together until well incorporated, but don't over mix. {This is the part where I will be adding my peanut butter baking chips} Spoon batter into muffin tins, bake 20 - 25 minutes. When cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting

4oz. unsalted butter, room temperature

8oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 tablespoon Nielsen-Massey pure Madagascar bourbon vanilla

5 cups confectioner's sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat. Add one cup sifted confectioner's sugar at a time and continue to beat frosting for 5 minutes.

Hope you enjoy! For all my readers in the USA, hope you have a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving. Warm wishes to all of you.

And now it's time for me to brine the ol' bird...and by that I mean pour myself a deep glass of wine! ;o) Let the festivities begin!

Happy Friday! {oh, and my Christmas tree plate project}

2010-11-19T15:49:00.002-06:00

Wow, what a week! I've been busy playing less crafter, and more administrative assistant for the last couple of days. Picking up birth certificates, trips {yes, multiple} to the social security office, and working on getting us all passports has been the name of my game. Finally, last night, I brewed a few hot cups of Earl Grey and stayed up late so that I could finally tackle a project I've been dying to get at!

A few weeks ago in a magazine somewhere, I saw a Christmas tree decorated with kitchen utensils and plates. It was super cute, and while I don't desire to cover our tree with utensils, I'll hang plates on just about anything {it's one of my hubby's favorite qualities about me...ha!}

Later, browsing through the latest Anthropologie catalogue, I spotted this beautiful pillow, and inspiration struck!

I decided to make a dozen plates with this same look for my tree. I started with this stack of plain glass appetizer plates that have been hiding out high up on a dusty shelf in my kitchen cabinet. I hadn't used these babies in forever, and they were only $0.50 each at Garden Ridge anyway...

Then I ran out to Hobby Lobby to pick up some beautiful coordinating scrapbook papers {I use pinks, purples, and turquoise/blue along with the traditional red and green in my Christmas decor}.

I also snagged a can of this gorgeous green spray paint from Valspar...it's hard to tell in the photos, but it's the perfect shade. It's called "New Advocado" {yum!}, and I got it in the satin finish.

I then sprayed my plates. You'll notice in the photo that I originally turned one over. My intention was to spray both sides, but as I discovered, that is totally an unnecessary step if you're using clear glass plates. Hello! Besides that one random one, the rest of the plates are only sprayed on the front.

I then did a Yahoo.com image search and found this reindeer clip art. It's from a free printable coloring sheet, so I didn't need to resize it or anything, I just printed off one copy.

Then, since for whatever reason {a little festive spirit in my tea? Maybe...} I decided I didn't want the antlers to touch, I redrew a few of the lines...

This next part is where I really need a Silhouette machine. Please, Santa, I'm begging! After this project, I'm convinced I'd use it all.the.time. Anyway, here's the poor woman's version...a trusty trick I learned in design school...

Graphite Paper...woohoo!!

In this next photo, you can see where I first laid down the scrapbook paper, then layered it with a sheet of graphite paper, then put the illustration on top. I then traced over the lines of the illustration with a pencil.

Here's what you have when you're finished, as the graphite created an outline on the paper.

I then used a craft knife to cut out the image.

I used a foam brush to apply Modge Podge in the matte finish on the back of my reindeer, then pressed it onto the plate...

I then Modge Podge'd over the top, and let it dry before doing another layer of Modge Podge. I did about 3 layers to make sure the paper was good and adhered to my plate.

Then, I used a paint marker to outline the image.

I instantly regretted it. A white or silver paint pen would have looked much better than black...it's just a bit too much. But, I moved on to my final step anyway, and I'm glad I did because I learned a valuable lesson.

I used Valspar clear gloss and sprayed over my finished plate, to give it some shine. Trouble was, I obviously didn't let my paint pen dry long enough, because as you can see, the paint started to bleed.

So, I redid another plate, this time using a white paint marker {because I had it on hand...looks good, but still wishing I had a sliver one!}

Also, I've learned in this process that it's better to use a high gloss spray paint, as well as a glossy Modge Podge. Trust me, if you want a glossy final finish, this will produce better results than using all matte products and then a high gloss spray. Not sure why, but just take my word for it. :o)

Overall, I'm very happy with the finished project and can't wait to get them all finished so I can add them to our Christmas tree. Only 11 more to go!

Artwork Display

2010-11-13T09:43:00.002-06:00

I don't normally post on the weekends, but this morning as I've been browsing blogs, I've seen lots of creative ways that people are displaying artwork, and it's giving me plenty of inspiration for setting up a Christmas card display so I'm ready for the influx of mail in a few weeks.

I pulled this photo off my family's private blog to show you the artwork display that I set up well over a year ago in our hallway, to showcase my son's amazing artistry.

I'm thinking this might be a fun way to show off Christmas cards, too. Maybe spell out "J-O-Y" to hang above the display, and string some ornaments or large jingle bells down from the hooks, as well as interspersed with the photos and cards along the hanging lines.

I got the frame and hooks from Hobby Lobby at half-off. The metal letters are for real, and I found them at one of my favorite Dallas haunts, Griffen Trading Co. {the " T " actually came from one of the U.S. Post Offices when they changed up all their building lettering a while back...cool, huh? Love junk with a story!} I'm almost hesitant to share, because this place is a hidden little gem, but if you're in the DFW area, you MUST check it out one of these days for the most unique finds.

Let me know if you have or are seeing any unique, creative card displays around blog land! I'd love to see!

Oh Christmas Tree!

2010-11-11T20:22:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I have to brag on my amazing friend, Whitney. On Tuesday, I took her some floral cones and ribbon, with the idea of running the ribbon through her ruffler and wrapping it around the cones to create adorable Christmas trees.

Let's just say, Whitney took that small idea and ran wild with it, creating something absolutely amazing! I knew it was a good idea, but I never could have dreamed up how great these can look. She is so creative! Way to go, Whitney!! I'm beyond impressed.

Be sure to check out her tutorial to learn how to make these cuties...

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2010-11-10T19:00:00.004-06:00

Have you seen the movie Elf, with Will Farrell? If you have, you'll understand ~~who~~ what I'm married to. My husband IS Buddy. As quickly as the jack-o-lanterns are ~~smashed~~ whisked away, out come the Christmas decorations. And it seems my hubby's enthusiasm for all things Christmas is catching on, because I am in full festive mode around here. All of my other regular household projects have been tabled for the next month and a half, as my brain is literally leaking ideas for fun yuletide decor.

So here's the first of my Christmas projects, as I've got visions of Christmas tree inspiration dancing alongside sugarplums in my head, keeping me up at night.

Pretty cute, right? {I guess we're past the point of feigning modesty....I'm adoring this!}

After 2 hours and two 3rd degree burns from Whitney's insane hot glue gun, I've got one down and two more to go before my little grouping of these babies is complete.

Here's how it went down yesterday...

I started with some floral arrangement cones, wood disks and candlesticks from Hobby Lobby. I was going to style this amazing iPhone photo for you, but then thought it might be more fun to let you see my actual workspace. I spy.... Diet Coke fuel? Check. Half eaten apple for sustenance, check. Anthropologie's latest catalogue full of endless inspiration serving as hot glue catch-all, check.

Also, please note my pathetic, mini $2 glue gun, which Whitney barely allows past her front door, she's so disgraced by it {wink!}. I was doing just fine working with my little gun, which apparently has a really safe low temperature, when Whitney suggested I use her way cooler and super hot one. Big mistake. I literally have a burn so ugly on my right hand, I can't even write out my grocery list. I'll be sticking with my little trusty mini from now on...

Ok back to this project.

I glued my wooden candlestick {from a bag of six for $2.99} to my $0.79 round wooden disk to make a stable base.

I then glued my floral cone on top. Next, I used an old book, a straight edge and my craft knife to cut little squares of paper from the pages {about 3 in. x 3 in.}. I rolled each of these little squares into a cone shape, and secured it with a dot of hot glue.

I then started attaching them to my cone with hot glue, making my way around the cone and layering my pages as I moved up the tree.

After what felt like years, my floral cone was covered and I moved to the garage to finish up with a little glitter. You'll notice in this next picture that my wooden base turned red. That was a game-time decision, and I simply removed my base, gave it a coat of my glossy Rustoleum red, and re-glued it to the bottom of my tree.

I probably should have used spray adhesive to make my pages a little tacky for glitter, but didn't have any on hand so I just used a foam brush and applied a touch of Modge Podge to the ends of each of my paper cones. Then it started snowing fine glitter...

And here it is again, the finished product. I think the possibilities for this kind of little tree are endless. Origami or scrapbook paper would work well, as would paper doilies or sheet music...

As I mentioned, I'm hoping to do two more of these in different sizes to create a grouping of three. We'll see if I can rid myself of my new found glue gun ~~fear~~ respect so I can tackle the next one.

Be sure to check out Whitney's blog to see what she did with her floral cones turned Christmas trees. You don't want to miss it!

Happy crafting!

Coffee Sack Turned Magnet Board

2010-11-08T22:42:00.002-06:00

I'm not one who likes to display stuff on my refrigerator doors. It always ends up looking a little cluttered in my opinion, which would be fine if it weren't in the kitchen. I like my kitchen to look clean and tidy, and I've found that bare fridge doors help to distract from the pile of dishes that's accumulated in my kitchen sink. {wink!} But, like anyone else, I still get photos and cards from friends and amazing artwork from my little guy that I want to put somewhere.

So this idea, from the creative mind of my partner-in-crafting-crime Whitney, is the perfect solution! She's made these before using fabric, and since I'm in a "cover everything with utilitarian sacks!" phase, our brains collided and we came up with this coffee sack turned magnet board!

We started with this frame that was hiding out in Whitney's garage, and spray painted it with a glossy red from Rustoleum.

Then we took the coffee bean sack that I picked up from a local coffee shop {check with smaller coffee shops in your area...they'll often sell you their empty bags, and some hand them out for free!}, cut along the side seams and unfolded it to have one long length of "fabric" {although in the end we only needed to use the upper half for this project}.

Check out this amazing stuff Whitney found at Lowe's {below}. I haven't a clue what the formal name for it is, but it's a thin sheet of galvanized metal that she found in the plumbing section along with all the other galvanized stuff. How's that for direction?! Sorry, friends.

Anyway, the metal is easy to cut with sharp scissors, but be sure to wear some heavy gloves or your hands will be sliced to shreds! With work gloves safely on, I cut the sheet to fit inside my frame.

Next, we popped the glass and the artwork out of the frame. The glass we set aside for another day, and luckily, the artwork was mounted on a good piece of foam core. If the frame you are using does not have a foam core piece inside, then pick one up from the craft store and cut to fit inside your frame. Since my frame already had that, I got to skip a step.

I took my metal sheet and piece of foam core inside to Whitney, and she pulled out her heavy duty glue gun and adhered our metal sheet to the foam core. She did a fabulous job while I just sat there and watched her work on my project. I let her handle this part because I was intimidated by her mad hot glue skills. She has a holster for her glue gun, people. Seriously! A holster. Once she pulled that baby out, I figured I better let her handle the gluing...

And since she did such a great job with the glue gun, I let her go ahead and coat my metal sheet in spray adhesive before we smoothed the coffee sack over the top.

Here's a word to the wise... you'll have a lot more success getting your coffee sack magnet board to look nice and professional if you spend some time ironing the sack until it's really flat, before trying to adhere it to the metal sheet.

Whitney and I figured this out a smidge too late, and ended up ironing the sack while it was already somewhat attached to the metal sheet. Yes, friends, thanks to Whitney's fabulous job with the spray adhesive, there was a nice thick layer of flammable glue just under that thin burlap sack, and we went ahead and ironed away.

We're fearless that way.

A two crafty chicks + a hot iron + spray adhesive fireball incident would have made for some excellent headlines, don't you think? But I'm digressing...

Please just promise me you will iron your burlap sack before gluing it to your metal sheet, mkay?

So here it is before assembly... {waiting for the glossy red paint to dry fully}

And here is a close up of the board...can you see the layer of burlap sack, then metal sheet, then foam core? Hopefully I've done an OK job of explaining how to put that part together.

And here she is all finished up! Isn't it purdy?!

I hung mine in my laundry room, which is right off my kitchen. Forgive the wonky photo below...it was hard to get a good picture of my board because my "laundry room" is really more like a thin hallway between my kitchen and garage entry.

I found two cute hooks at Hobby Lobby, and used jute to hang up the board...pretty much ripped off Whitney on that idea. It's cool, she's flattered, I promise! :o)

I found super heavy magnets at Hobby Lobby as well, and they do a great job of holding things up. Here's my friend Ashley's cute birth announcement for her precious daughter Madelyn. So glad I have a place to put it!

So what do you think? :o) Hope this passes for an OK tutorial. If you have any lingering questions, you can always check out Whitney's post on this project...she made one of these for her nursery a while back.

Happy Monday!

Be Back Soon!

2010-11-05T18:42:00.000-05:00

Well, folks, this week sure got a way from me in a hurry! I had hoped to post another project or two I've been working on, but between sick kiddos, hosting a dinner party, and house guests I just flat didn't have any free time. I'll be back up and running on Monday with a fun project to show you. Have a great weekend!

A Little Lampshade Revamp...

2010-11-01T15:51:00.003-05:00

I started with these lamps that are sitting on the sofa table in my living room. I bought them, along with the shades, years ago at Target. They've served me well, and I love them, but since I can't leave well-enough alone, I thought the shades were due for a little revamping...

{how do you like my son's bright orange tool bench in the corner?? I think it really adds to our room... ;o) }

I bought some yardage of inexpensive burlap at JoAnn's for $2.50 a yard. I then measured my lampshade and cut strips to completely wrap around the shade. I quickly ran a straight stitch along the edges to make a little hem.

Then I simply hot glued along the edges of the lampshade and attached my fabric strip {my way cool friend Whitney did one for me...she's the reigning glue gun queen}.

Next, we took some jute webbing {Whitney found this at JoAnn's for $0.79/yard} -- the kind used in major upholstery projects -- and wrapped that around the shade, attaching it with hot glue on the ends. Here's the finished product...

I love! What do you think?

Happy Halloween Weekend!

2010-10-29T15:54:00.002-05:00

{image from Country Living? I think...}

I was hoping to post a few of the projects I've been working on this week before we head into the weekend, but alas, I have too many irons in the fire! A handful of things that are halfway done makes for poor posting...and I still have to pull some costumes together for my kids, so I'm off to make that happen. Hopefully, I'll have at least one thing finished by early next week for some show and tell!

Hope everyone has a happy halloween!

Bistro Style...Be Still My Heart!

2010-10-27T09:50:00.001-05:00

These glorious images from Canadian House & Home stopped me dead in my tracks this morning. Two thumbs up for designer Jennifer Worts, who clearly gets bistro style. I'm pretty sure I could prop myself up at the bar with a good friend + a deep glass of vino and never leave.

I'm having a bit of an identity crisis, because I absolutely adore the crisp, clean, bright but some how warm look pictured in the bistro kitchen, and then I find this picture of a perfectly undone industrial chic space and I love it, too...

Not sure what I'm supposed to do with that. I could easily go either design direction. {deep sigh}

Well, instead of working overtime to figure my design self out, I'll just indulge in a few more photos from House & Home. How about this beautiful "modern farmhouse" living room...

The colors are perfect, and I'm really enjoying the mix of clean modern and cozy farmhouse. I wish I could jump into this photo and steal those gorgeous navy chairs!

And finally, one more...

The kitchen in this image feels a bit like a cozy coffee shop. Me likey! That chalkboard gives me an idea for a wall in my house I'm looking to change up...

Ok, baby is asleep, and I better take this opportunity to back away from the laptop and hop in the shower! Happy Wednesday, bloggy friends!

Halloween Virtual Decor

2010-10-26T20:00:00.006-05:00

{Manolo for the Home}

I love the month of October! It's easily my favorite month of the year. I absolutely LOVE decorating for Halloween each Fall, and I normally go over-the-top decking our hallowed halls.

This year, though, I've uncharacteristically dropped the ball. I'm blaming this guy:

If he weren't so wonderfully sweet and cuddly, I might be able to put him down long enough to pull our Halloween decor down from attic storage. As it is, though, we spend a lot of time snuggling these days!

As we near the 31st, I find myself missing my usual spooktacular decorations, so I'm going to do a little blog decorating today....

I love the idea of doing separate Halloween themes in each area of my house, and I think if I were decorating this year, I'd make sure our front hall was done up in lots of vintage orange and black with plenty of pumpkin jack o'lanterns and a collection of black cats...

{decor village}

I adore vintage halloween stuff! The collection above is perfectly displayed. And how about this fantastic dining room?! The spooky black and white image on the wall sets a great mood...

{apartment therapy}

When I first saw the above photo with the haunted house wall and the black feather wreaths {I happen to have two just like them I found at Target last Fall}, I immediately thought of Edgar Allan Poe {specifically two of his creepier poems, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Raven}. I would take that thought and run wild with it in my own dining room, adding a centerpiece similar to the one pictured below with a few apothecary jars and plenty of faux black birdies. I'd probably nab this idea, using popcorn as filler and an image of Poe himself in one, and possibly more black and white photos of birds, haunted houses, and a few printed lines of his poetry in the others. It might even be cool to find a few books of Poe's short stories and/or pages from them and add those to the jars.

{EAB Designs}

Moving on to the living room, I'd definitely make a mad scientist-themed mantel my focal point. I'd begin by draping the mantel with torn cheese cloth that I'd spot with tea-stain. Then I'd start layering...

{Mad Scientist Labels by Martha Stewart for Grand InRoad}

I'm crazy about these poison labels from the Martha Stewart line for Grand In Road...I'd use vintage bottles filled with colored liquid and arrange them on my mantel, along with bugs, snakes and framed vintage anatomy posters. I think a few cloches filled with glittery bones would be appropriate scattered about as well.

{martha stewart}

Along the bar in our kitchen, I would create a haunted woods display, starting with potted manzanita branch trees sprayed black {just like the one below, minus the treat bags}.

{haute tot & baby couture}

I'd scatter plenty of dying leaves around and stretch spiderwebs across everything. Then I'd make cheesecloth ghosts like these in varying sizes, hanging a few from the branches and scattering the rest about. I like the idea of adding lanterns and candles as well.

{martha stewart}

And that would about do it for our festive decor! I'd love to hear about/see yours, so send me your links!

Ooooo La La!

2010-10-22T15:03:00.002-05:00

Because I'm celebrating my birthday this weekend and am super excited about it, here's a bonus post before we head out for a few days...

My love for all things Anthropologie can never be overstated. My husband has come to love this retail store because any time he is in need of a gift for me, he knows he can pretty much walk into the shop blindfolded, pick up any item, whether it be clothing, jewelry & accessories, or home goods and I will be thrilled with it!

{Ladies in Waiting dinner plate, $24 ea.}

I was in the store the other day and stumbled upon these fabulous plates.

OK, no, technically, I don't need them. But oh how I want them! All four, pretty please.

Love the dainty detail around the edge. Love the simple line drawings of these over the top subjects...a perfectly pleasing juxtaposition, if you ask me. And of course, I'm all about anything that reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette". In a word, I think they are fantastic!

Somebody please pick up these little beauties and do something amazing to display them...then send me the pictures so I can rest assured they've found a proper home.

Have a great weekend!

Jazzed-Up Dining Chairs

2010-10-22T10:40:00.006-05:00

First of all, let me just say hi! to all my lovely new followers who found Life Abundant via Shanty2Chic. I went to bed last night with a handful of loyal readers, and woke up this morning to find a bunch of new friends! So exciting to have you all following this humble little blog now, and I'm really thankful for all the sweet comments!

Now on to the most fun project I've done in a while {and I think that's due in large part to my new DIY buddy/long lost twin who was such a blast to tackle this project with!}...

Yesterday my fabulously creative and hilarious friend Whitney came over to help me with a project I've been dying to get at for a while now... jazzing up my very boring, very khaki, linen-covered dining room chairs {I should let you think they're from the Pottery Barn or something so that Whitney and I look extra brave taking on this project, but I'll be up front and tell you they were a cheap steal from Sear's a few years ago, so no worries if this project turned into an epic fail...which it sooo didn't!}.

We let our two little newborn loves have a play date {which mostly looked like them snoozing next to each other in their bouncers} while we stenciled our way to French grain sack inspired perfection!

I L-O-V-E the finished result. Here's a close up...

And since Whitney is a way better blogger than I am, check out her awesome blog, Shanty2Chic, if you haven't already for the project details.

Oh, and if you haven't heard of this A-mazing product yet, be sure to check out the Silhouette. It's a wonderous little machine that creates endless crafting possibilities. It was a huge help in our process, and provided us with our number stencils. Be sure to check out the link to see all the amazing capabilities. I'll definitely be asking Santa for one this year!

Linking up to these parties:

Emerson's Nursery...Finally!

2010-10-21T16:51:00.010-05:00

{click any of the photos below to enlarge in a new window for viewing details}

So our slipcover for the rocker finally arrived, and I'm ready to share Emerson's nursery! Yay! Here's the piece that started it all...

{Jim Datz print, "Manhattan" from 3 Potato 4}

The typographer in me fell in love with this print long before little Emery was a gleam in our eye, and I bought it, even though at the time I hadn't a clue where I could put it.

Then I spied this AMAZING japanese import fabric at a local boutique {it's a fabulous place with gorgeous baby stuff, but it will have to remain nameless here because they are way too proud of their baby bedding}...

{echino scooter fabric, purchased online from super buzzy!}

I inquired about how much a bumper and skirt would be, and my wig was blown back when they cooly announced that it would run me $650. What the what?!

I came home, found the fabric online and had five yards of it shipped for right around $100, used a local seamstress to sew me a bumper, sheet and skirt and a few weeks later had the whole gorgeous set for around $175. And the amazing woman who sewed it all together came up with a set that was even cuter than the one I could have paid more than 3 times for. Woohoo!!

After I had my fabric and my Manhattan print, the theme just came together on it's own. Eric and I went to New York for our babymoon, and as we explored the city, I was reminded of one of my favorite old movies, A Roman Holiday, where Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck toured Rome on a vespa scooter. It dawned on me that I could pull my scooter fabric and my Manhattan print together the same way, and decided to decorate the nursery as if little Emery were to hop on a scooter and explore the city for the day. So here we go... {I'll start with the details and then give you the overall view. Ignore my SUPERB photography skills, mkay?!}

I had this lamp base in my attic...I scored it from Target a while back on major sale, and then bought a fabric remnant and buttons from JoAnn's to cover a cheap lamp shade.

I used Photoshop to design this sign, then had it printed on glossy stock at Kinko's and added a super cheap brushed metal frame.

Here's my homemade poster nestled into my favorite wall of the nursery {click on the above photo to see the details}. And here's the rundown of the goodies: I got the speed limit, detour and stop signs from Hobby Lobby {and yes, I had the audacity to use the exact same ones in my other son's room right next door}. The black oval mirror and the blue photo frame below it are also from Hobby Lobby. The blue frame was on clearance for $2.00. It was originally painted light blue and had a really cheesy quote about memories printed on it. I remedied that with a can of turquoise spray paint from my garage, and then roughed it up around the edges to look very vintage.

The frame on the top left is from Ikea, and I used turquoise scrapbook paper printed with white cars to enhance the plain white mat {the paper reminded me of Manhattan traffic}. The white frames are also from Ikea, and in them I've framed beautiful illustrations from a wonderful book, Up & Down New York by Tony Sarg. Finally, the black subway sign is from Etsy seller Jen of The House of Wood. I have yet to work with anyone on Etsy that is not super nice and professional, and Jen is no exception!

I found this huge and gorgeous clock {think Grand Central Station} at Hobby Lobby on sale. Perfect! Then I found the cute baskets with mini chalkboards already on them from Lowe's to add to my changing table...they were only $7.00 each! I painted the edges of the chalkboards with turquoise craft paint. I should have gotten a closer-up picture of these... ah well.

Here, I took a black frame and shelf from Hobby Lobby, mounted the empty frame on the wall, then fancied up the shelf. It was brown metal when I bought it, so I spray painted it and roughed up the edges. It also originally came with wooden pegs where the nobs are now, and one of the pegs was broken, so they marked it down another 10% for a total of 60% off, since it was half-off to begin with. I got the ceramic nobs while I was there.

I added another framed illustration from Up & Down New York in an Ikea frame, an "E" I got on sale from Anthropologie, and then two cutie stuffed animals that were a gift from my friend Katie who is lucky enough to work there.

Above all that is a canvas I bought on sale at Michael's. I used cream and yellow paints, plus a scrapbooking ink pad for antiquing to cover the canvas. Then I printed off a Bible verse on my home computer and used graphite paper to transfer the text onto the canvas, which I later filled in with a Sharpie.

So that's it on the details...here's the room all put together. And for the record, please note that I painted the tone on-tone-stripes you see on the back wall myself, two days before my baby was born. I'm thinking that might explain my pre-term delivery. Oops!

I love how this room turned out. It's definitely my favorite in the house. {oh, and for more details on the mobile you see hanging in the corner in this last photo, click here}. Somehow it's sooo Emery, whatever that means, and I hope he enjoys it as much as I do!

Linking up to this party...

Emerson, as Captured by Images of Grace

2010-09-15T10:48:00.005-05:00

Eric and I took Emerson to Grapevine yesterday for a wonderful photo shoot with Amy from Images of Grace Photography. For nearly 2 hours, we marveled at how amazing Amy was working with Emerson...managing to move and shape his little self around while still keeping him nice and sleepy!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the result. As I commented on Amy's blog this morning, just seeing the preview I know I'm already in so much trouble! Pretty sure we'll be buying nearly the whole lot of pictures.

I adore how Amy captured our 11-day old baby love and are so thankful to have these photos of our precious son.

Thanks so much, Amy!!

Click here to see the full preview from Emerson's photo session.

Surprise!!

2010-09-06T20:53:00.007-05:00

Introducing our precious new son, baby Emerson:

Born September 3, 2010 {surprise!!}

6 pounds, 12 ounces

18.9 inches long

Our incredible new addition totally surprised us by deciding that Labor Day Weekend was a perfectly appropriate time to make his grand entrance. Not long after I started having crazy contractions all of a sudden late Friday afternoon {I actually went into labor as I was writing my last post!}, we drove to the hospital to get checked out and make sure all was still well with our little love {in fact, we'd actually hopped in the car with Brady around 7 pm to meet some friends for dinner, and decided at the last minute to head to the hospital instead to get checked for peace of mind...HA!}.

To our great surprise, we found out I was actually in full-on labor, and since we were scheduled for a C-section later this month, our doctor decided it was time to go ahead and deliver him, albeit 3 weeks early! Emerson arrived by C-section late Friday night, and he and I are both doing great! We just got home from the hospital earlier this afternoon, and our little foursome is currently cuddled up together on the couch, enjoying being home as a complete family.

We are amazed, overjoyed, head over heels in love, and still a little shocked by our tremendous Labor Day weekend surprise! Praise our almighty, sovereign Father for His perfect plans and timing...He has once again blown us away.

Nursery Sneak Peek: The Mobile Project

2010-09-03T16:53:00.004-05:00

So we're still waiting on that rocking chair slipcover to arrive! Which kills me because I'm just dying to show you our nursery...have I mentioned how proud I am of this one?! {wink} But I'm holding firm and am going to wait to show you our finished room until I have that slipcover! I want everything to be just perfect before we showcase. :o) Bear with me and my silly perfectionist tendencies when it comes to these things!

So in the meantime, I thought I'd go ahead and show you the mobile I made for my newest little love. I'd been wanting something fun and colorful to hang over the crib, and while tissue paper poms in our colors {red, turquoise & khaki} or japanese lanterns were viable {inexpensive!} options, I opted to pull out my crafty skills and make something really original.

So here's the step-by-step. I purchased three cardboard "E's" from JoAnn Fabrics. They were such a steal! {Sorry, forgot to photograph before painting, but just picture plain cardboard letters and you get the idea. I'm sure most of you have seen these around in craft stores...}

I spray painted one in a turquoise paint, another one black {I'll get to how it turned "zinc" in a moment}, and the edges of the largest "E" red. All were colors that I already had in the garage.

For the largest "E", I traced the letter on two pieces of striped scrapbooking paper I found at Hobby Lobby and then decoupaged the pieces onto both sides of the letter. {the rusty look was already part of the paper, I didn't do anything there.}

For the "zinc" one {which totally rivals the zinc letters you'll pay anywhere from $18 to $98 for at Anthropologie, even up close!}, I took my "E" that had been sprayed black, and with a dry paintbrush applied Folk Art's Enamels Metallic Silver Sterling acrylic paint. I could rave about this product! In a very random fashion I applied the paint, occasionally wiping my brush dry again. I made sure to let the black show through a bit in some areas. In no time I had a lightweight {cheap! cheap!} "zinc" letter. {And yes, I'm totally planning to exploit this technique on many future projects, I was so pleased with the results.}

Next I used my 1-3/4" round paper punch to cut circles out of more scrapbook paper I snagged at Hobby Lobby.

I then suspended my "E's" from twine I already had, and began to add my circles down the length of the twine with hot glue {I used two matching circle pieces, and sandwiched the twine in-between}.

Toward the end of each of the three lines I had going, I added mini chalkboards I'd found at JoAnn's the same day I bought my letters. I used a white paint pen to write "peace", "joy" and "love" on them, and for the three lines I used 6 chalkboards total {using the same hot glue sandwich technique as I did for the circles}. So "peace" x 2, "joy" x 2, etc. so that the boards would read the same on both sides. Hopefully that makes sense...I'm not so good at articulating the process.

Finally, to get the vespa scooter medallions that echo our crib bedding and pull the vespa theme in, I took an extra piece of our fabric to Kinko's and color copied it onto paper. I then traced the cardboard ornaments {less than a dollar each from the Christmas section at Hobby Lobby} onto the paper, cut out my scooter circles, and applied them to both sides of each cardboard piece with spray adhesive. I could have decoupaged them on, but since I didn't have any fixative around to protect the ink on the color copies, I opted just to glue instead and they are holding up nicely.

Here's the finished product again...

I love the way this turned out, and it was sooooo easy! It took hardly any time at all, and my materials for the whole thing came in under $20. Can't beat that for a truly unique mobile that our precious baby will marvel at while he's logging time in his crib!

I wish I were a more talented photographer and that the photos could serve appropriate justice to this project. Hopefully when I'm able to show you the whole nursery, you'll get a better idea of how great this really looks {if I may say so}! ;o)

Have a fabulous Labor Day weekend!

As Captured by the iPhone

2010-09-02T13:47:00.002-05:00

Still trying to perfect my sugar cookie skills! I whipped up a few of these this week for my husband's fantasy football draft party. I've got a long way to go before I'm a pro at this, but at least they taste super yum!

And here are the cupcakes that I made and stacked for the food table centerpiece. I'm giving myself bonus points for agreeing to host a party at 8+ months preggo...

...docking points though for not taking any quality shots of the rest of the party details with a good camera. Maybe next time!

Space for the Kiddos

2010-08-29T16:27:00.004-05:00

First things first...updates! So believe it or not, our soon-to-arrive son's nursery is FINALLY finished. Despite the continuing epic contractions {having another one now actually...oh the joy!} and the fact that little love's head is firmly pushing downward on a major nerve {who enjoys random shooting/stabbing pains in their back and ladyparts?!}, we did it!! Cheers and high-fives all around.

So where are the pictures, you ask? Minor detail. We ordered a new slipcover for our PB dream rocker a few weeks ago, and are still waiting on it's arrival. And though it's one small piece of a room I'm really proud of, I don't want to showcase the space until it's perfect! As soon as it comes in I'll be a-postin!

And later this week, I'll do a tiny little sneak peak of some of the projects. For now, though, I'm enjoying these photos from a new-to-me blog, Grace Happens. These images I believe are from her own little one's bedroom, and I'm just loving it! All that color + a perfectly cozy mis-matched bed...too fun!!

Hope you've all had a great weekend, and thanks again for staying tuned despite the huge gaps in posts... we'll get it together one of these days! ;o)

Super Streamers

2010-08-08T19:48:00.006-05:00

Found these great images over on the Bash blog {see blog roll for link}. Who knew such a cool look could be achieved with paper mache streamers {or at least I'm assuming that's what these are...maybe ribbon? Can't quite tell from the images, but cool concept regardless of the material}?! Check out more on the Max & Margaux wedding featured on Bash here.

Forgive the lack of blogging lately... seems my baby love wants to come early, and a hospital visit plus lots of crazy contractions have me trying to both limit activity and also focusing the energy I have on accomplishing multiple tasks before baby no. 2 arrives! Been working on the nursery and it should be finished this week, fingers crossed! I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Brady's Big Boy Room!

2010-07-08T13:05:00.009-05:00

Here's a peek at my son Brady's new big boy room!

Eric and I are ready to get decorating the nursery {OK, so I'm dying to decorate and get the room finished for our impending arrival, and Eric is wanting to get the big paint job he's sooooo excited about over and done with...}, but first we have to get our reluctant "big boy" moved out of the space. Completing his new "big boy" room is the first step on a long list of projects, and I'm happy after today that it's finally D-O-N-E!

Wish Brady was as excited about his new room as we are! He loves spending time in it and playing with toys on his big bed, but when it comes to actually leaving the comfort of his crib to sleep in it, well, that's a different story! Hopefully he'll warm up to it soon. I mean come on, kid! What's not to love?

Here's another peek from the hallway... {where the picture ends on the left is the back corner of the room, so there's about a foot of space on that side of the bed before you hit the wall. Hopefully that makes sense as you're looking at the photos.}

This room was originally used for comfy guest quarters, so we already had the queen-sized bed and the upholstered headboard. I didn't get any photos of it, but before our little redo the headboard was done in khaki microfiber and had some tufting on it. I recovered it in the blue-green linen and trimmed it with light blue ribbon to match the wall color.

I know the safety bed rails add a lot to the space {wink!}, but please try and pretend they aren't there...I was too lazy to take them off for our little photo shoot.

Unfortunately, the size of the bed doesn't leave a whole lot of play room for Brady, but we had to work around that because it's a really great bed and we didn't want to get rid of it or store it, especially since we're planning to move in the next year or so.

The walls were also the light greyish-blue color already, and since my sweet hubby and I are a wee bit tired after painting a whole house over the last few years, and as we still have a nursery to repaint, we decided to leave the walls alone. I think the color, Martha Stewart's "Craft Apron" from Lowe's, still works pretty well, though it may not be the most exciting hue!

I was pumped to find the Dwell bedding that I've loved for forever on sale a few weeks ago, and I'm hoping we'll have it for a long time. I think it's got plenty of longevity and flexibility, style wise.

The painting over the bed I also found on sale at Aaron Brother's framing store. It was the jumping-off point for the room, and inspired not only the color scheme but also the running theme: vintage cars and travel.

Here is the view from the back corner by the bed to the walls opposite...

I found cheap frames half-off at Hobby Lobby to give the cross and "B" we already had a little more punch. I found the speed limit, stop and detour signs for half-off at Hobby Lobby as well. The map made out of license plates and the B&W photo of the car interior were discovered at Target {not on sale...boooooooo! I was on such a roll that day!}. On the bottom left is a framed poem that Brady's Aunt Stephanie wrote and had framed for him before he was born...it originally hung in his nursery along with the cross and aluminum "B".

The Bible verse is one that Eric and I feel speaks to the destiny our Father God has for Brady, so we wanted to somehow put it up on the wall. I looked into having a custom wall decal made, but they were a little pricey and I wasn't willing to pay when a little time and craft paint could produce a similar result for a fraction of the cost.

I opted to paint the verse on a 3x4 foot canvas {which I found at Michael's for, you guessed it, half off!} because our walls are textured and it makes for a much tougher, much more time consuming project to try and paint directly on the wall {my precious momma and I did this in the nursery, see below photo, and it took ages! Plus, we were pretty close to developing carpel tunnel and were nursing sore backs for a week, so I decided not to go down that road again, even though I do like the look a little better than the canvas version}.

I choose a canvas with only 1/2-inch sides and painted it with some left over "craft apron" paint I had so that it would blend into the wall as best as possible. Then I used acrylic craft paint in teal from Michael's {guess what, that $0.79 investment was NOT half-off!}, hoping it would echo the color of the headboard and help tie everything together.

The curtains and shelving unit {we use it for toy storage} are from Ikea. I bought the caddies for the unit's cubbies at Target. I already had the lamp, also from Target, and the fan {Bed Bath & Beyond} and ipod dock/noise machine/clock.

Not sure if you can tell from any of the photos but next to the lamp there is a vintage gas pump {it's actually a piggy bank. How clever!} and an old red truck photo frame. Both were found at Hobby Lobby {yes, one more time, for half-off!}.

So that's it! Our finished space for our special little {big!} boy. I'm still working out a bedside table, but hopefully I'll have that moved in soon. I'm also thinking I may add something to the caddies on Brady's toy shelf to give them a little punch. Maybe mini slate boards or labels or something...

That's another project for another day, though! I'll post any follow up changes.

Now on to the new and soon to be improved nursery!

CedarWorks

2010-07-07T11:19:00.005-05:00

{click on any of the images to enlarge in a new window}

I found the most beautiful, completely customizable playscapes for both indoor and outdoor use today. Check out the CedarWorks website to create the perfect play area for your kiddos...that is, if you're lucky enough to be able to afford the hefty pricetag {they're unfortunately a little on the high end}. Apparently CedarWorks is pretty proud of these things, and I can see why! Not only are they a treat to look at with such imaginative designs, but they are beautifully constructed and have an excellent record for building the strongest, safest playscapes on the market.

Here are a few of the indoor sets I love from the Rhapsody line...

And if you need your indoor playscape to multi-task, how about a play set/bed? My son the climbing monkey {and I'm sure his soon-to-be little brother} would go bananas over one of these!

And here are some from the outdoor Serendipity line...

While the website is the best way to go if you're looking to customize and order, I highly recommend requesting one of their catalogues, as they showcase so many unique customizations of their pieces to help you better create your own set.

Oh, and they have a blog, too.

Flowers From My Loves...

2010-06-29T19:36:00.004-05:00

Left my precious hubby and our sweet little man in Target by themselves for 5 minutes, and look what I was greeted with when I got back...

Sweet loves. Happy Tuesday!

Blue Lily Photography

2010-06-25T13:54:00.004-05:00

I'm on the eve of my third trimester already! The nesting bug has finally got me moving, and this week I started to get Brady's big boy room together. The PLAN...and we know how well I do with plans...is to have it finished by next week, and then I'll be starting on the nursery. So excited now that the fabric for our baby bedding has arrived!

Since babies are all we have on the brain these days, I wanted to post some gorgeous newborn and maternity photos I stumbled upon today, from the tremendous talent at Blue Lily Photography.

Aren't these shots simply delicious?! I can't get over the colors.

And then check out these unbelievable maternity photos. I must admit, I'm generally not crazy about maternity photos because they're often so melodramatic and cheezy, but these are stunning!

Blue Lily has a blog, too, and I highly recommend taking some time to snoop around it...I LOVE this family session, and I hope one day our annual Christmas card photo is as fun as this family shot is!

Online Shopping...

2010-06-11T19:38:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure when I'm going to start feeling motivated to tackle the million projects I have to complete before baby #2 arrives in a few short months. I remember having nesting crazies the entire time I was preggers with my first son, but this time around, all I want to do is sit on the couch and do a whole lot of nothing! Online browsing is one of my big past-times these days, and I found a new home goods site I love called Cottage & Bungalow.

There are many beautiful things to look at, from furniture and lighting to art and home accessories, but these bathing beauties really caught my eye. It's a good thing I am out of wall space in all of the rooms where this might be an appropriate piece, otherwise my browsing might have turned into buying...

Hope someone else can give one of these lovely ladies a home!

{Retro Dive Girl $92.00}

Nursery Inspiration

2010-05-17T20:52:00.004-05:00

The other day I was out shopping with my mother-in-law, who has a knack for finding some of the coolest places to shop, and we came across this fabric. After doing crazy mad Google searches, I finally found out that it's a Japanese import fabric called "echino scooter." This is the red version, but there is a super cute turquoise one as well...

I'm loving it! And I'm really loving the fact that I've got a great jumping off point for decorating another boy nursery, because I've had such a hard time this go-around finding fun boy stuff that I haven't seen before.

It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but the dark stripe in the middle is actually chocolate brown with turquoise dots. I'm planning to use this fabric for the baby bedding, as it goes so well with the dark wood nursery furniture we already have.

I think this fabric will go beautifully with my Jim Datz print, and I'm soooo happy to finally have found a home for it in the new nursery...I've been trying to work out the perfect spot for it since I purchased this piece ages ago.

I also really like the styling of the above photo of my print as further decorating inspiration for the space... dark stained beat-up wood with vintage accents. This is the look I'm going to go for.

So I guess I've got sort of a mod/vintage motorist theme going. I'm excited!

Funky Fabulous Stairs

2010-04-26T15:11:00.004-05:00

What the what??!! I am continuously amazed at the ingenuity over at Funky Junk. This may be one of her most impressive projects yet!

She took a ho-hum staircase and sanded and stenciled her way to stamped-crate inspired fabulousness.

Click here for the step-by-step.

HGTV Green Home

2010-04-21T11:07:00.005-05:00

So the update on our own build project is that it is officially on hold. After much prayer and also discussion with friends who spiritually walk very closely with us, we are sure that the Lord is telling us to "give it a year."

While I was initially in my flesh disappointed for that answer on a number of levels, Eric and I both have such a deep peace about it, and know that it's the right thing for now.

So in the mean time {and now I officially have a LOT of freed-up time on my hands}, while we prepare our current house to accommodate a family of four, I'm continuing to collect plenty of inspiration for the project.

I'm really loving this year's HGTV Green Home. The design and decor are right up my alley! Here are a few more pictures...

Double Duty Headboard

2010-03-10T12:08:00.003-06:00

{not sure where this image is from...let me know if you do!}

This is going to be a super short post, but I had to catalogue this picture because I love this idea! How great is one big head board + two twin beds for a kid or guest room? Personally, I would have gone for a much more fun fabric than shown here, but it's a super cool concept that I'm going to tuck up my sleeve for later...

Too Much To Do!!

2010-03-04T10:45:00.008-06:00

It's been a while since I last blogged, and there are many reasons! First and most importantly, I've been working on a little project {see above photo} that has left me dog tired and pretty ill for the last several weeks. So much for not being pregnant...this baby is as much a surprise as the first one. Man does God have a sense of humor! :o)

Anyway, add this to my full time job running after our wonderfully high energy 2 year old and I've got more than I can handle. While I strongly admire those women who can do it all while juggling a house full of kids, I am sadly not that woman. =)

In addition to kids + life, we've been busy getting our house on the market, scouting property, and working with a builder on getting plans laid for a new home we hope to be in before baby comes in late September.

So all that to say, my blogging over the next few weeks will be inconsistent at best. {apologies!} If I'm not running around trying to hide toys and dirty laundry for a house showing or scouting the internet for kitchen appliances, I'll definitely be napping! =)

Love, Erin

Brady's Wild Rumpus!

2010-02-09T12:18:00.004-06:00

As promised {albeit a few days late...}, here are some of the decor photos from my son's 2nd birthday bash. To see the invitations for our party and learn more about why we went with a "Wild Rumpus" theme, click here.

Also, before getting started, I have to send a HUGE shout-out to my amazing family, who all chipped in to make this thing happen! As usual, I got way too carried away and planned a million craft projects for party decor. In a stroke of genius, my husband and I went on vacation for a week, returning a day before the festivities. Needless to say, all storms combined and I had too many projects and too little time. My mom, sister, brother and husband all were amazing helpers and somehow we were able to get everything done.

Ok, so, here we go...

Below are some lanterns I made with $3 glassware from Michael's, tissue paper, and transparencies of illustrations from Where the Wild Things Are that I had made at Kinko's:

NOTE: To view details, click on any of the images to enlarge in a new window.

Here's the effect with the overhead lights off...

And here are the trees we made..."we" being my amazing sister who went out with me in FREEZING weather the day of the party to collect branches, and then patiently hot-glued paper leaves and flowers to the branches for me {I purchased the custom cut leaves from scrapaddict on Etsy...she was wonderful to work with}. We made three total. Two for the bar on either side of the lanterns, and one for the snack table. I had the glass vases {from Michael's ages ago...}, and I wrapped them in faux bois gift wrap by Elum from the Container Store.

Here is the snack table. We had pizza as a main course, but kept cookies, cupcakes, chips and popcorn on this table for folks to snack on...

I'm pretty proud of myself for making 3 dozen of these babies the day before the party...

I had a lot of fun doing it, but true to form I totally underestimated how long it would take me to do them {all day}. For my first try at making home-made sugar cookies and then decorating them, I was really pleased. I had loads of help from the talent at Cookie Craze...I used her cookie and icing recipes, and referenced her blog for tips and tricks.

And here is a close-up of the cupcakes and toppers we made the day of...

Here is a photo of the kid's table we put together...the crowns were purchased at Party City, and then faux fur was lovingly applied to the bottom edges with hot-glue by my sister, who at this point had become reigning hot-glue queen of the day.

And lastly, some photos of we proud parents and our precious birthday boy. I'm sooo disappointed we didn't take a family picture together that day...what was I thinking?!

Here's daddy and Brady after coming in from the freezing cold back yard, where we had a rental bounce house set up {for our party last year, the weather was a sunny 70 degrees, as was the entire weekend before our party this year. But of course, the day we plan an outdoor activity in January is the day it's below freezing! Murphy's law, I suppose.}. The cold was no hinderance for the kiddies, but all outdoor supervisors were frozen!

And here I am with our sweet little love, singing happy birthday and getting ready to blow out the number 2 candle.

If I may say so, it was a great party, and both our kids and adult guests seemed to have a good time.

It's Not Complicated, Just Fabulous!

2010-01-20T14:58:00.003-06:00

Have you seen It's Complicated yet? If you haven't, you should! I love Nancy Meyer's stuff in general, but I thought this film was fantastic. I adore Meryl Streep, and Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are pretty excellent, too.

It was so hard for me to pay attention to the story line, though, because I was soooo struck by the set design. Meryl's bachelorette pad was beyond perfect. Everything from the architecture to the furnishings and decor were spot on, in my opinion. This is totally my aesthetic!

I want to permanently live in this living room...amazing! It's simply perfect in every way to my eye.

I could just die over the visual texture of the architecture, and all that beautiful natural light....oh my goodness!

Meryl kept working with Steve on that remodel project...the one where she would finally be out of this kitchen:

I must admit I just couldn't understand it...I thought the kitchen was, in a word, yes, PERFECT! I would definitely cook cozy dinners for my family and friends in there.

I'd have to see it again, but I believe this photo is of Meryl's eldest daughter's place? Confirm? She had a really fun home...to me, it looked as though the place was decorated the way Meryl's character was decorating 20 years ago...same feel, just a little more vibrant and young-feeling. I'm sure that was intentional, and I love how the set designers used this visual link to enrich and add depth to the relationship between the mother/daughter characters. Am I crazy to take it that far?

And of course it wasn't enough to have a gorgeous home. She just had to go and work at the most lovely bakery on the planet. Of course. The beautiful life!

And if the beautiful interiors weren't enough, they had to go ahead and give her the most luscious garden to pick fresh {I'm sure organic} fruits, veggies and herbs.

If I could live in a set, this would definitely be my pick!

What about you?

On our way to a Wild Rumpus...

2010-01-19T13:00:00.008-06:00

{the invitation I designed for Brady's upcoming birthday bash. click to enlarge}

It's hard to believe, but we are rapidly approaching my son's 2nd birthday! Seems like we were just planning a robot party to celebrate his 1st!

Be that as it may, my little love's big milestone is upon us, and I've been busy planning and getting things in order. Like many others, as I've learned from perusing the blog-o-sphere, my hubby and I have decided to go with a "Wild Rumpus" theme this year. While some of our other ideas, such as a "Look Whooo Is Turning Twooo" owl themed shin-dig or a construction-themed event were tempting, we're going to stick with a Where The Wild Things Are plan and do it rumpus style this year.

Our precious boy is proving to be so strong-willed, and runs around with such amazingly high energy all the time that a "Wild Rumpus" just seems soooo fitting. Plus, it's a theme that works well for adults, too, and since we're hoping to make this party just as fun for our grown up friends as it will be for their kids, it just works.

As our invitations are now safely in the hands of our invited guests, here's a sneak peek {click on the picture below to enlarge it}...

I ordered everything I needed for these from Paper Source {envelopes, pre-cut card stock, 1.25" round labels, and their envelope liner template kit} and designed + printed everything from my home office. I took our Where the Wild Things Are book to a local Kinko's and made color copies that were used for the envelope liners.

You can find the font that was used for the recent WTWTA movie at Scrap-N-Fonts {I downloaded it for $5 to use for the wording on the invitation, and also to address and print the front of the envelopes {not shown}}.

I'm looking forward to sharing more of the details with you after the party! Look for those the first week of February.

I love you, blogs and assorted hot beverages...

2010-01-18T16:12:00.005-06:00

I've seen this poster floating around in a few different places. As best as I know, it's from Etsy seller Jennifer Ramos.

While it's super cute, I'm not a coffee drinker at all. Instead, you'll almost always find me with a hot cup of tea, but I've been known to sip all kinds of warm beverages while blogging, so it doesn't totally work for me.

Here's the version I came up with while fooling around in Photoshop earlier today {and of course, it's turquoise!}...

I started with "I love blogs and hot tea" but didn't love the look of that, so I whittled it down to just "I love blogs and tea" but didn't love that either. I finally just went with a steaming cuppa whatever.

I'm still going to mess around with it a bit, because I'm not totally satisfied with the layout, but I'm liking the concept so far. It's just for me, anyway, to print on my home printer and frame by my desk, so I won't get too crazy with it.

Hope you're all having a happy Monday!

Weekend Posting...

2010-01-17T14:39:00.006-06:00

The Cowboys are not looking so hot this afternoon, so I hopped online to obsess some more over other people's blogs! Came across this image over at abby goes design scouting.

Don't you just adore the double mantle situation she's got going on at her place? It's kind of amazing, and I think she did an excellent job accenting it with all the fabulous art and objects.

P.S. She's selling that amazing set of blue spheres in the fireplace, so pop on over to her blog before they're snatched up by someone luckier than you! ;o)

Simply Beautiful Things...

2010-01-15T18:26:00.005-06:00

There is never a shortage of creativity and loveliness to be found in the blogging community. I am daily amazed by how many inspired, talented people there are in the world! Here are a few of my favorite things I stumbled across today, that I admire for their simple beauty...

This gorgeously romantic dress will be in my dreams tonight! Can you believe it's handmade by the bride's own mother? What a labor of love. So, soooo beautiful. {and look at that necklace...the bride created it herself!} Check out the post about this amazing wedding, featuring the photography of Jill Thomas, here on once wed.

As a mother of a very precious one myself, I don't think there is anything on earth more wondrous than little boys. So, when I see handsome young fellows racing vintage boats in Paris down the Jardin du Luxembourg...Oh Heaven Help Me! I first caught wind of these images on it's not my work, but check out the whole set here on flickr.

And lastly, a beautiful photo tutorial for making these perfect shortbread buttons on forty-sixth at grace:

Hope you have a fabulous weekend filled with simply beautiful things!

Turquoise: A Love Affair

2010-01-13T00:08:00.004-06:00

I've been on a turquoise kick for years now, and given these beautiful images I found on pink wallpaper's blog, I don't think I'll be shaking it any time soon...

I was on a Ft. Worth home tour a while back, and there was a pantry completely built out with this exact cabinetry...same color, vintage-looking hardware and butcher block counter top. The walls were painted a perfectly pale shade of lime green...it looked amazing and I've thought about it many a time since then. Don't know if I'd ever be able to commit to full-blown kitchen cabinetry in this color, but I could definitely do a pantry! So glad I have this photo to reference for "someday".

Loving that pop of color on the door. I wish I were more bold! I've been planning to paint the inside of our own front door, but I'm so non-committal and scared to go big sometimes that it will probably end up being black. Hopefully if I look at this picture enough, I'll be able to muster up the courage when I'm ready to knock that project out!

Hacking Baby Bedding

2010-01-10T22:16:00.006-06:00

As a blog post disclaimer to my close friends and family, no I am not pregnant and am not planning to be any time soon! :o)

Having said that, check out this beautiful crib bedding I found while browsing over at Serena & Lily...

If my darling hubbs and I ever do have another baby and said imaginary baby turns out to be a girl, I would LOVE to have this be her bedding. Of course, at a cool $969.00 for the three piece set of bumper, skirt and plain white sheet, I definitely wouldn't be purchasing it!

Instead, I'd be compelled to try and make it, by sewing my own bumper and crib skirt out of linen, trimming it with ribbon, and then channeling the genius over at 6th Street Design School and painting the folk art design onto the fabric.

Although instead of using freezer paper to make a stencil as 6th Street did, I would use contact paper and cut the design out of that instead. Then I would use this amazing product to spray paint the design onto the fabric. This fabric paint doesn't come in white, though, so I'd have to go with a really light pink, which I think would look just as great, especially if I used the same color pink ribbon to trim the pieces with. Or, of course, I could just use plain-old-fashioned fabric paint and apply it with a sponge or brush.

I Spy....

2010-01-09T14:32:00.005-06:00

{4"x4" Cotto Antiqua terra cotta tiles --carved french linque deco in antique white}

...the perfect tile for my kitchen backsplash, finally! Thank you, Ann Sacks. Now if you lovelies would kindly box yourselves up and skip on over to my place I'd really appreciate it. You can bill my darling hubby, but please wait until after you're installed. Thanks a million and much love, Erin

Happy Brrrrrrrrrrrrrthday!

2010-01-09T02:47:00.005-06:00

I'm well on my way with all the plans and projects for my son's 2nd birthday in a few short weeks. While I've got my theme all worked out this year, I can see how in the future it may be a bit of a struggle to come up with new, fun things to do in celebration of Brady and his January birthday every year. With everyone still coming down from the holidays, and the weather outside still being so frightful, it can be a bit difficult to get people back in the mood to celebrate!

But I think Veronica did a fabulous job coming up with a fun party for her little love. It's a "Brrrrrthday Party", or a day filled with sledding and snow, followed by some warm drinks and treats. Too cute, Veronica! Here are just a few photos I pulled from her blog. Be sure to check out the link for more beautiful photos of a beautiful day!

Kitchen Perfection

2009-12-31T02:03:00.003-06:00

It's after 2 a.m., and I should be sleeping. Instead, I'm up and can't stop drooling over this kitchen...

{from Kristin Buckingham}

Enlarge the image to see the insanely perfect details. This is truly my dream kitchen...I think Kristin Buckingham must have pulled it out of my head and unfortunately placed it in someone else's home. Definitely stuffing this one in the "someday if we build..." file.

LOVING This Brilliant Idea!!!

2009-12-29T20:46:00.006-06:00

I'm about to cry, I'm so in love and aching to try this idea from little green notebook.

I spied this amazing chest at Wisteria and fell head over heels. It's completely out of my price range for one, let alone ever wanting two to act as bedside tables. After a few ooooohs, ahhhhhs and sobs, I went ahead and catalogued it into the "never gonna happen" file.

So when I stumbled across the nifty post about how to gild a dresser, I was beyond beyond psyched. Pretty amazing results! Here is the "before" chest purchased at Home Goods, at deep discount. Only $75!

Then with a little of this...

And a bit of that...

Viola!!

While it may not be exactly the same as the beautiful piece from Wisteria, it's a rockin' stand in, with a much nicer price tag! Be sure to check out the step-by-step tutorial from little green notebook, and while you're there, stay around for a bit because she's got a BE-A-UTIFUL little blog.

Happy gilding, do-it-yourselfers!

P.S. If you're wanting some more A-MAZING do-it-yourself projects, check these out! {all found on little green notebook, see above links}...

Book Display from Rain Gutters {this hits close to home, as I'm doing something very similar for my son's room}

Ikea Dresser, Redefined

Spruced-up Campaign Furniture

Christmas Cookie Craziness! {in a good way!}

2009-12-15T15:15:00.004-06:00

I have every intention of baking and decorating Christmas cookies this week with my little fella {those pictured above are from the big talent at Cookie Craze}, and this video that I happily came across on the Bake it Pretty blog could not have been discovered at a better time!

If you bake a lot of cookies, you may know about this technique already, but for me it's a life-changer! Check it out!

And for more great information on cookie decorating, check out these tutorials from Karen's Cookies.

Winter Radiance

2009-12-15T13:05:00.002-06:00

Most people know that Anthropologie sends GREAT catalogues and direct mail pieces...and it looks like their email blasts are catching up!

I received a brilliant email from them this morning, titled "Incandescent Outfits". I love that word, "incandescent"...thanks Keira Knightly {as Elisabeth Bennet in the most recent Pride and Prejudice movie} for introducing me to it a few years back!

In*can*des*cent: white, glowing, or luminous...strikingly bright, radiant, or clear...marked by brilliance...characterized by glowing zeal

There was no way this message was going to the trash bin without at least a teensy tiny peek. Probably should have avoided it, because the artsy ensembles created by the brilliant heads at Anthro are indeed deserving of the email's title, and have left me completely coveting some new clothing {as if I need any more!}...

There were 9 total outfits showcased, and these are definitely my top 3. I love every inch of each one!

It's particularly dangerous having this store a mere 20 minutes from my front door. I'm going to try really, really hard not to go anywhere near it, for fear all that incandescence will suck me in like a moth drawn to a flame.

{le sigh}

Aren't they beautiful, though? It's fun to admire from a safe distance...

Festive Table

2009-12-11T12:51:00.003-06:00

I am absolutely adoring this festive sweets table, designed by Kelly over at yes, please {click on the photos to enlarge}. It's a perfectly soft pallet, and the snowball garlands plus the amazing meringue topiary are to die for! VERY nicely done, Kelly!