Summer Tablescape

I do love a good tablescape!

Always have. always will.

Haven't fully decided my plan in the future when we start actually eating dinner at the table as a family.  Any one out there have a good solution for keeping a table looking good and set, but still using it nightly? 

 

Well... while little buddy is still eating mostly "mama milk" and from a high chair, and hubby and I are eating mostly in front of the tv... I will continue to set the table and enjoy it :)

 

So this was our table since March.  Haven't been changing it up as often as I used to. Something about a baby taking up most of my time :)

And I was ready to change it for fall so I decided to take some pictures... (I'll share the fall one soon!)

 

 My mom and I found this awesome tablecloth in Marshall's.  Can't beat that!
Since this technically started as my EASTER table... I decided to use the birds on the table.  Still not sure why birds equaled Easter to me, since Easter usually means eggs, bunnies, or Jesus.  But I went with birds.  And I liked it :)

 And since I only have 3 birds, I did an asymmetrical centerpiece.  Totally a new experience for me. But I really liked it!

The place settings... wooden charger (Williams-Sonoma),  napkin (Crate and Barrel), Blue plate and peacock plate (World Market).

 Here's the other end of the table... I used my green Anthro glasses to tie into the green birdies.

 The "table runner" was actually two blue place mats covered in my great-grandma's handmade doilies.  And then my favorite turquoise pottery bowl as the very middle.  never put anything in it (except large bags of tortilla chips a few times).  But I don't mind the look of an empty bowl, especially this one.

So that was my Easter, end of spring, summer Tablescape! 

I am loving my new fall one!  Totally changed it up this year! 

Summer Chalkboard Art

Found this amazing chalkboard earlier this summer in Canton, TX.  Love the shape, love the size, LOVE the price!  guess how much... $14! Yep, Canton rocks!

It doesn't have a hook for hanging on the wall, which is fine, because I like the look of leaning it. Plus who knows how long I'll want it here by the front door.

Due to pinterest, I've been totally inspired by cool chalkboard art.  Now, I am NOT an artist.  But I can appreciate great art and love cool fonts.  So I made a pinterest board called Chalkboard Art Ideas .  I love looking at this for inspiration, but my inspiration is "what fonts are easy enough for me to copy?" And this is what I came up with for the summer...

I loved it!  Brought me joy each time I looked at it!

And then the calendar turned to September... and I had to change it.  It's time for FALL, even if the temperatures are still in the 100's most days. boo.

Knowing that I probably won't have time to change this for awhile, I decided to go more "thanksgiving theme" rather than just fall....

 I was quite proud of myself for including a little "banner" thing.  I always practice on paper a few times before doing it on the chalkboard.  And the true chalkboard artists talk about making a grid and printing a template from publisher, etc.  Umm.. no. I freehand and I don't use a ruler even.  So it is what it is, off center usually and not quite straight. But I'm okay with it.

After living with the board for a day (and looking at it to admire it often), I decided I needed to move the "give" and "to the"... so here's the final look...

 

By the way... in the time I took to focus on my chalkboard art... (and therefore ignore my child)... I looked up to find my non-mobile, non-crawler, off of the blanket next to me, on the hard wood floor, across the room, and pulling on the drawer under the tv...

Looks like I need to start baby-proofing... and paying closer attention :)

Caleb's Nursery

A little boy's nursery...

If you start looking at the bedding out there for a boy, you better like animals, cars, trains, dinosaurs, cowboys, or sports.

Same with boy clothes.

Why do they make so many cute girls clothes and bedding with fun patterned fabrics but not for boys??

 

I knew from the beginning I didn't want a "theme room."  Nothing against theme rooms, I just didn't want one.  Plus this nursery was going to serve as our guest room as well, and I didn't want grown up guests staying in "monkey land" or something.

So I consulted my favorite resource, pinterest.  I found an amazing bedding full of blue and yellow and gray and white!  And I tracked it down and found where it was sold online- PLUS they sold matching twin size comforters! 

I literally cannot remember the website where I registered for this bedding, but here is the website for the brand... www.cadenlane.com

 

So... here is our tour... the view when you walk into the room.

 

Crib: Babies R Us
Rug: Homegoods
Glider and Ottoman: Buy Buy Baby
Dresser: Buy Buy Baby

The curtains I made, purchased the fabric from fabric.com

 

 Found this cute little side table at a thrift store. I spray painted it gray.

I've had this blue lamp from Pier1 since I was in college.  I love the "Caleb" artwork, a gift at a shower.  The knick knacks on the table were from my nursery as a baby. Fun fact, apparently my hubby and I both had Peter Rabbit in our nurseries.

A view of the "guest bed" (Or my bed on rough nights). 

The balloon art is actually a photo from our Gender Reveal Party- I love having it in his nursery as a reminder of the moment we found out it was a boy.

The other prints I found on pinterest and printed at home.  Frames from Hobby Lobby.  I have actually replaced the yellow one on the left with an AWESOME print from Recipe For Crazy on etsy. 

I don't have a photo of it in the room, but here's a copy of it from the store. It's a quote from the Jesus Storybook Bible (which we read every day and LOVE).

 

 

 Caleb already has quite a collection of stuffed animals. This is only a few of them.  I made the yellow and gray throw pillows, all fabric from fabric.com

the wall when you first come in the room is a plethora of items... apparently it couldn't all fit in one shot, so here are the "parts."

At the top of the wall is a hand - me down shelf that I spray painted gray.  On top of it sits some super cute items that were decorations at one of my showers.  And the red cowboy boots were a gift from Hubby's aunt. 

Under the shelf is this cute "ruler". I saw it at a little boutique awhile back and was so excited that it works in our room!  Everything hanging was also decorations from that super cute shower... his sonogram, an awesome Bible verse about Caleb, and baby pictures of hubby and me.

Near this "ruler," I hung this cute print, also found on pinterest. It says "He's got the whole world."  I love it.

 I was totally inspired by... pinterest (again) and made this shelving unit for his toys and books. I bought unfinished crates at Joann's and stained them.  Then I just stacked them. I may actually attach them eventually, but I'm not sure what configuration I want long term. 

The wooden train on top was made by hubby's uncle when he was little. 

 

Next to the chair, we have a side table that doesn't fit in our living room anymore.  Found this cute yellow tray at Hobby Lobby.  The little "we loved you before you were born" sign was a gift- LOVE it! 

 The lamp is from Target.  And we have a large basket of burp cloths under the table (because Caleb is a "spitter" so we go through the whole basket every couple of days.)

 

Aha!  the star of the show!

 

Here's the shelf wall again...

And to top it all of (and bring in more yellow), we have a ruler growth chart.  I saw something like this on pinterest and wanted to make my own... but then I was 8 months pregnant and found a fabric version at pottery barn kids, and well sometimes it's worth it to just pay for things. 

We use the dresser as his changing table.   This artwork hangs above the table.  He LOVED looking at these and has since he was little.  The bottom left picture is a painting by hubby's grandma of a train station.  The top right picture was the bottom of a birthday invitation.  The other four animals are actually gift bags!  Sometimes you just have to be creative when looking for art.  All frames from Hobby Lobby.

 My sweet boy!

 And his precious hands!

And that... is Caleb's nursery.  It was so fun to brainstorm, shop, plan, and put together!  And the result is a room we love to spend time in!  And hopefully a room that can grow with him.

A Gallery Wall

I realize it's been a long time since I posted last.  Since that post I have...

been pregnant.

had a baby.

gone back to work.

stopped working outside of the home.

designed a nursery.

changed 1,000,023 diapers.

celebrated 6 months of my sweet boy's life.

celebrated 6 years of marriage.

and many other things.

 

So why not just start posting with a gallery wall since I did this last week instead of trying to catch up on over a year of life.

 

We have a LONG hallway in our home. I mean super long.  Everyone who walks down the hall of our home always says "wow, this is along hall."  And it is.  My mom refers to it as a bowling alley.  And one day Caleb (my son) and I will probably bowl down it.

It's in the addition of our home, which we completed 2 years ago.  And the walls have been bare ever since.  Much to my hubby's dismay. In my mind, it was always going to be a gallery wall of family photos.  I was just waiting for our family to grow. 

 

And now that Caleb is 6 months old, we have plenty of photos to begin the wall. 

 

I researched pinterest to see what stood out to me in gallery walls.  They can so easily become sloppy, messy, chaotic.

I was drawn to...

 

~ white frames

~ simple frames with some variation

~ variety of sizes

~ asymmetry

~ colored photos

 

My favorite inspiration picture had an accent of 1 color in the frames and mats, I decided to do that as well.  I also noticed that they displays I liked most all had a pretty defined bottom row, so I tried to do that as well.  This is a work in progress.  I plan on adding more frames over time.  Also, I don't have photos for all of the frames yet, so some frames just have scrapbook paper in them.

 

 And here it is...

Hope you enjoyed it!  I enjoyed putting it together! So fun to walk down the hall and see fun family photos!

Pottery Barn Inspiration

Years ago I started noticing in Pottery Barn catalogues how they would have entire book cases full of backwards books.  So that the side with the pages was facing forwards.

I always liked how it looked, but I also like seeing which books I have on my shelf.  So I never knew how to incorporate this.

Here's a bedroom from the current Pottery Barn catalogue, notice the books in the background-

backwards, and the look is so soothing

 Here's another one... all of the books piled to the side of the couch and under the table are angled so that we see the pages.  again- much more calm looking that all of the different colors.

 This picture is not pottery barn (well not that I'm aware of), but it is REALLY similar to the original Pottery Barn picture that I noticed all of the backwards books in.  Don't you love all of the creams and whites?

I recently heard Genevieve Gorder on "Dear Genevieve" explain that when you are styling bookcases that seem too crazy and loud, take it down to just one color.  That becomes super calm. So then add in one more color for interest, but not too chaotic.  Or go full color for a big statement.  But basically she was saying (in much more eloquent words), that the number of different colors affects the feel of the bookcases.  Less colors = soothing and calm, more colors = expression and big statement (but maybe chaotic if I am the one laying things out)

And here... I love how the old books make a statement with their yellowed pages.

 So when I was trying to find things in the house to style and fill our bookcases... I found a bag of books that we intended to take to Half Price books and sell to them.  We clearly did not care about the books, so I thought, "Books we don't like or want?? GREAT! I can put them BACKWARDS on the shelf!" And so I did.

I also have a stack of newer books in a different spot on the shelf, but I forgot to take a picture of it. and I like this stack better.  But the idea is the coloring.  I love it.  Thanks Pottery Barn for a fun idea!

Organization Obsession

One of my favorite boards to post to on pinterest is my Organization Obsession board. 

Because I'm obsessed with being organized.

Sometimes I over-organize things so much that it becomes a burden to keep up with and thus leads to many piles around the house.

I realize this defeats the purpose.

But I love the thrill of coming up with a good "system."

Even when that system becomes hard to maintain.

And eventually I may revamp the system into a workable system.

This is success.

So enough talk... on to my current favorite organized spot in my house...

my children's books "library."

You see, as a teacher you buy a lot of books for your classroom.  And over the years, I've collected a lot of books.

But, my new classroom is shared with a 7th grade class on Monday, Wed, Friday.

So there is not room for all of my books.

Instead I take in a stack of books that are seasonally appropriate and put them on my 2 shelves.

the rest stay at home.

So last August, I organized my books by season or topic and put up dividers, now I can quickly reach in and grab the books I need.

I love this system. And seeing it every time I open the closet makes my heart happy! 
Oh to be organized!

Canton Find

We spent Saturday in Canton, TX shopping at the First Mondays Trade Show.  First Mondays is a HUGE flea market that happens the weekend of the first Monday of the month. It runs Thursday- Sunday. Nope, not open on Monday at all. Very confusing.

But anyway, we love going. You can find literally everything under the sun there. Literally.

And it's spread out over many acres, so you get a lot of walking in. Which makes you feel good about the fact that you ate fries for lunch and sampled a million different sweets along the way.

Okay, so onto my Canton find.  I was on the hunt to dress up this window above the tub in our master bathroom. (Sorry for the dark picture, the sun was streaming in and I just couldn't fix it with my point and shoot camera).

Before...

 After...

 I found these awesome iron and wood decoration things (no clue what to call them).

I loved the idea of bringing some wood onto this wall since the mirrors on the opposite wall are dark wood as well.  Feels more balanced now. Plus dresses up the window.

 The distressed paint even has some blues in it... LOVE!

A successful Canton trip.