the littlest fan

May I take a moment to introduce you to the littlest fan of the Tour de France:

she looks like she has ricky bobby hands here, hahaha

My friend Kay showed me several cool sites for buying TDF onesies. I'm not sure if its because I'm so dang cheap or because Elliot is growing so fast (or combination of the two) but I just wasn't willing to part with the cash even though they were so dang cute! Check them out here and here.

Plus, I wanted her to be able to wear the onesie now, while the Tour is actually going on. So, I dug through my crafting trunk and this is what I came up with! I found a hand-me-down plain onesie in Elliot's drawer. I used some of my iron-on backing and scrap fabrics (as close to Garmin-Cervelo as I could--she's a big fan of Tyler and Thor) and voila! A free and immediately usable onesie. Hooray for instant, and cheap, gratification!

Here's a close up:

craft it: antropologie inspired chandelier

I have had so much fun decorating Elliot's room. I let Josh voice the occasional opinion, but for the most part it has been a girls-only endeavor. And from the vintage prints to the pink and green accents its certainly a girly room!

I was going through a vintage/anthropologie-ish feel for Elliot's room. And one thing that was not going to fly was the builder grade light fixture:

Don't get me wrong; we built our house and picked out all the lights (and everything other dang detail---seriously, who cares about switch plate covers?!) The light worked perfect when this room was an office and then when it was my crafting room. But it didn't scream "cutest-girl-in-the-entire-world-sleeps-here." We needed an Elliot-worthy upgrade!

The hunt for a sweet chandelier ensued. But not just any old chandelier would do. I needed a cheap one (for my sanity) with lots of character (for my sweet baby girl.) I searched all over the Charlotte area, riffling through flea markets, thrift stores and Ikea. No luck.

Then I hit the Amaya Jackpot! My friends (and bosses) had an extra chandelier they weren't using and decided to let me use it while we're in our house. Score!!!

All it needed was a little TLC and an Elliot-worthy crafting upgrade! My creative juices went wild! The glass was beautiful and the vertical pieces had an almost mercury-glass type look. Be still my heart!

I knew I wanted to add some natural elements into the room (I already had plans for the wood crates and the moss covered letters) so I added some twigs and flowers to the arms of chandelier. I think it really hid the brassy-ness of the fixture and hit the spot for the nature theme too. After realizing that the chain was entirely too long, Dicky came over to help me trim it down to size.

All that was left was the installation and hanging some crystals.
Ready for a little before and after???

now that is some lighting perfection!
check out the details:

yep, we had to put a bird on it ;)

craft it: distressed apple crate

I mentioned that I searched and searched for the perfect baskets for Elliot's changing table. I wanted to find something that I could use in another place in the house after we were done using them in Elliot's room. After several trips to TJ Maxx, Ikea and Pottery Barn Outlet I was ready to pull my hair out. I gave up finding the perfect baskets and decided to make my own crates.

I opted for a distressed-apple-crate look after finding these awesome plans. I purchased several $1 pieces of wood, counter-sinking bit for the screws and Briwax stain. Josh helped with using the saw, distressing the wood and staining the wood.

The plans were super easy to follow and customize to your specific needs. I love the finished product!

i must admit that i couldn't have done it without help from casey and josh
the crates are perfect! thank you so much!!

new art for the media wall

Making a fun collage for our mixed media art wall.
Get your fun free photos from Leo Reynold's flickr stream here!

projects, more projects

Josh and I have been enjoying our time at home. We have had a very busy past few months. Between preparing for Josh's sabbatical, Josh working at two Young Life clubs, me preparing for maternity leave and both attempting to prepare for baby, we've been a bit covered up. And by a "bit" I mean to say totally-100%-completely-in-need-of-a-serious-break-before-I-have-a-mental-break.

Our combination of Sabbatical (10 weeks for Josh to renew spiritually, emotionally and physically) and maternity leave (8 weeks for me) could not be more perfect. Josh and I are loving it. We are getting some amazing quality time together. And while we are worn out caring for Elliot, we are relishing our time to love and snuggle our new little girl.

And we've found a spare bit of energy for a few projects around the house:

Josh (somehow) found the energy to paint the mailbox and front door yesterday.
Seriously? I had the energy to sit on the couch and watch the Real Housewives.
(don't judge me, the TV was on Bravo and the remote was all the way across the room.)

I haven't had the time, energy or inclination to do many of the things on my "maternity to-do list." I'd thought about different crafting projects, blogging ideas and day-trips. But all I seem to want to do is stare at Elliot. And seriously, who wouldn't want to just stare at this beautiful face all day?!?!?

(ps, those are Josh's hairy legs, not mine!)

craft it: coffee filter lampshade

Josh and I have been inspired to do a little re-decorating around the house. Our lives have been so busy the past few years that we really haven't paid much attention to the decor in our home. As we've spent more time together and more time in the house we're noticing all the clutter, items we don't like and things we'd like to do differently.

I've decorated the guest bedrooms pretty much by myself. They are fun and colorful and my little slice of girlishness in our house. The living room, dining area, kitchen and our bedroom are a completely different story. They are in major need of a decorating overhaul!

My friend LindseyLee suggested a blog that had pictures of a house that sounded like the style that we were looking for. She hit the decorating nail on the head!! I am loving Sarah Lorenz and her beautiful home! We have a lot of projects to do around the house before it is anything close to resembling this style, but I can't wait! Wow, this post has too many exclamation points!!

I started off with one of the cheapest ways to copy Sarah's style: coffee filter lampshade. Be warned, it takes a ton of coffee filters and your fingers will definitely get burned by the hot glue. I also think this project looks better on her lampshade since its a drum shape.

Here's the Before:

And the After:

This lamp is actually in one of the guest bedrooms, but I plan on moving the shade out into the living room when we start making over that room. This was just a $4 crafting project that I wanted to try out.....no sense in freaking Josh out by saying I was doing a project for the living room until I knew he was 100% on board. And lets just say that my "Honey, I'm going to make a lampshade out of coffee filters" didn't really get his decorating juices flowing. However, after seeing the finished project he's now a believer. And better yet, he's ready to start redecorating the living room!!

Re-decorating the living room will require painting some of our furniture, which I can't do while I'm pregnant. Sad. So, we're brainstorming and compiling ideas for the space. If you find any fabulous finds or have any creative thoughts please let me know!

**we're almost done decorating baby girl's nursery. i'll post pictures soon!

room re-do

Getting ready for our little girl has been fun around our house. We have three bedrooms upstairs and had them set up as two guest bedrooms and a spare room/girl area/quiet-time space. Since the other bedrooms already had tons of furniture in them, we decided to use the smaller bedroom/spare room as baby girl's nursery. More about that room transformation later.

This story is about the middle guest bedroom, or as Josh refers to it "the glow-in-the-dark-green" bedroom. The room won't be totally made-over. We still need it to function as a guest room. Buuuuut, I needed a little space in this room too. (Especially since I just got kicked out of my old room by our almost-here-baby.) I wanted this room to also serve as little crafting area for me. I love little projects and wanted a space to store my supplies in an easy-to-access but still well-hidden manner.

So I hijacked some space in the green guest bedroom.

One of the many challenges in this bedroom is the dark brown desk. The desk was a given to me by my parents when I was a child. Its stately and sturdy and I love it. However, it doesn't quite lend itself to the shabby-chic-neutral-to-white-oh-so-refreshing pallet that I love.

I was tempted to paint the desk white, but thought my parents might have a coronary. But, I really needed something to break up the darkness of the desk. So, I did the next best thing, I found a vintage fabric that I loves and slid it under the glass top. I also got rid of 90% of the random picture frames and added a few josh-would-call-them-knick-knacks-but-i-think-they're-just-fabulous-trinket-holders.

We still have a few more things to do in this room, mostly involving painting, but those projects will have to wait until after the wee babe arrives. Not being able to paint (since I'm pregnant)has seriously cramped my style!

crafty mama and her crafty friends

So, this wee little baby girl of mine is going to need some clothes or she's going to be hanging out in just a diaper. Which, don't get me wrong. a-la-loin-cloth may be tres chic to some----but its not really my style. Go figure. I have had several generous friends and family members pass on their children's oh-so-cute-just-out-grown-barely-used clothes for our wee babe and I am so very thankful!

Despite the efforts of our friends and family to cloth our babe, we were still very short on 0-3 months sizes. So I swiped (and by swiped I mearly nearly stole because I got them so dang cheap) some onesies from Walmart, grabbed my crafting gear and held my friends LeeLee and Chelsea hostage until they designed some cute clothes for my girl.

We layed out all our crafting materials to see what we had to choose from. Oh the sweet joys of iron on fabric glue!!!!

LeeLee and Chelsea were getting very creative. They even drew out a few designs:

Here are some of the finished products:

Thanks you ladies for making these oh-so-fabulous onesies for my little girl.....and thank you for still be my friends after I held you hostage for the crafting session :)