Living with Kids

Children bring a lot of change with them when they come into your home.  It is somewhat gradual, since at first all they do is sleep.   But, eventually you can't help but change things because they start crawling, walking, running, climbing, etc.  I expect things to change in our home even more so as Aiden gets bigger, however, I do refuse to give up good design because of it.  I don't feel that just because I have a child I need to sacrifice good design.  

So, I put together some photos of real homes with real children living in them...just to prove that it can be done, and it makes me realize that perhaps children encourage more creative design. 

A space of my own

I don't consider myself a crafty person, but I do desire to have a little space of my own where I can sew, or wrap a gift.  Of course I will never have a whole room devoted to only that...

But, perhaps some day I will have a small corner...

or a closet...

The one thing I know is that it will need to be organized with lots of labeled boxes and containers.  I love these numbered jars from Anthropolgie.  

Hope you have a happy weekend!

A Forever Home

I've been thinking a lot recently about our home.   Rob and I have been talking about living in this house forever and ways that we can make that a reality down the road with more children.  We love this house for many reasons, but most of all, it has become our home.  

When I think about moving, it makes my stomach turn-the packing, leaving this place where we brought Aiden home to, leaving Rob's garden.  The potential of moving in 5, 10, or however many years, determines my decisions on a project.  For example, changing the light fixtures in the hallway.  It puts a voice in the back of my head that says- "you are just going to move eventually, so why put the time, money, and energy into that?".  

Making this our forever home, kills that voice in the back of my head and takes away the guilty feeling that maybe someday I will paint the shutters and trim on the outside of the house black instead of the brick red they are now because, ultimately, that is what I want.  

Of course, most of the bigger renovation-type plans- an addition onto the second floor, making the 3rd floor into a master suite, adding a mudroom and half bath on the first floor, are all things that wouldn't happen for a long time. But, having a "forever home" mindset has changed the way I look at our home and taken away my guilty feelings on making some smaller changes around here.   

Just a little excited....

Guess what I just found out?  Amy Butler now makes rugs!!  As you know, I am a huge fan of Amy's fabric, and now she is taking some of her popular prints and making them into rugs.  I find this  VERY exciting!  Here is a preview....

I think this one would look lovely in a little girl's nursery

I have always loved this print from Amy's "August Fields" collection

I love the colors in this one and think it would look fabulous in a dining room

This is one of my favorite Amy prints of all time.  In fact, I just finished a little project in our bedroom with this print which I will tell you about later.  

If you are as excited about this as I am, you can check out the whole collection right here.

Right now they are for sale on Amy's website, but I am sure other websites will buy them wholesale and we'll be able to find them cheaper eventually.  

Have a happy weekend!

Get Organized!

I have been a bit obsessed recently with getting organized.  Last weekend Rob and I cleaned out the basement which we've been talking about doing since we moved in...2 years ago.  It felt SO good to just throw stuff out and take a whole carload of stuff to Goodwill.  Now that we cleaned out the basement, we want to organize it by getting some shelves, plastic bins to store off season things, etc.  It has also urged me to try and get a little more organized in the rest of our house with the day to day things.  Getting organized is something that people make a profession doing, so, there are lots of great things out there that help us.  My favorite place to acquire organization paraphernalia is IKEA.  I decided to take a trip to IKEA last week with Aiden just for something to do.  He is always happy at IKEA in his stroller surrounded by all the stimulation of home decor.   Here's some IKEA organization at its best....inspiring eh?

I picked up a pair of the ever-so-popular KASSETT boxes.  And, here is some exciting news- this year they dropped the price from $9.99 for 2 to $5.99 for 2!!!  These boxes are so great- we have them in every room of the house.  They are sturdy and last a long time.  We have some from when we got married 4 years ago and they are still going strong.  I think they look best in white.  

    

    

I was perusing the bathroom section when I found this set of little baskets for only $4.99.  I thought the big one would be perfect for holding my make-up and I decided to use the middle one for holding my hand lotion and lip salve on my nightstand, and the smallest one to hold boxes of matches on the back of the toilet.  I think they would also look cute all lined up next to each other.  

    

My favorite place to find big baskets and bins is TJ Maxx or Marshalls.  They always have great baskets and they are always so cheap.  We use a lot of baskets and bins for organizing all of Aiden's things.  We shove all his toys in those 2 bins that fit perfectly in the shelves in our living room.  I found this neat little box in the last picture on clearance a couple years ago for $5 because the handles fell off, but I think it makes it look like an antique without them.  

    

Do you like to be organized and find pretty ways to do so?  My next thing to tackle on organization is our utensil drawer in the kitchen- it's a bit scary looking so don't expect any pictures of that.  

Surprise, Surprise

I told you not to get too excited about this little project I have been working on.  Yes, that's right- more pillow covers.  I may have a serious problem with changing the pillows in our living room.  Rob and I were watching videos of Aiden from early last summer and we both said- "what are those pillows on the sofa? I barely remember them".  Maybe that's because I have changed them about 5 times since then.  This addiction stems mostly for my love of fabric.  Also, everything in the living room is pretty neutral, so I can easily make this change over and over again.  Of course, I need to take into account the dining room wallpaper and yellow walls.  I don't want things in the living room to clash too much.  I know I've said it before, but I want these 2 rooms to feel like they flow into each other.  Anyway, I won't bore you too much with my thought process, here is the sofa.  

 

I have really been liking the color gray recently.  It started with this $12 clearance item I found at Target this past winter. 

I love Amy Butler prints and have admired this print for awhile.  I thought that the gray colors would work with everything else and it has a touch of yellow to tie in with the dining room.  I wasn't sure if I would like the dark brown pillows with them, but I think they are a nice contrast.  

I also really wanted to make a pillow for the chair in the living room.  This chair is so pretty, but since Christmas, it has served as a place to put Aiden's monkey.  I felt like it was time to move monkey into Aiden's crib and make a pretty pillow to show off the chair. 

 I wanted a smaller pillow, so I picked up an appropriate size insert and made this cover for it.  It is the same color gray as in the other fabric.  

So, there you have it.  The bird pillows were just a little too much for me at the moment, and I like these more toned down pillows for now.  

*just a tip- I have a hard time finding samples of fabrics that I like and have sometimes ordered things online and been disappointed with the actual colors- they are often much brighter than they appear on the screen of my computer.  I noticed that a lot of fabric stores on ETSY sell remnants or fat quarters of fabric for how much a sample would be anyway.  I always figure I can use the pieces for other projects anyway.  So, this time I ordered some fat quarters of the fabric I was looking at and was then able to see what they look like in person before committing to a bigger order.  

Sorry, but not much to report

I am truly sorry for the lack of posts this summer.  It feels like things have been busy these past few weeks around here- I spend most of my time chasing Aiden around.  And, to be perfectly honest, there is not much going on in the decorating department.  Part of that has to do with contentment- there is nothing that feels pressing.  We have done most of the bigger things that we have wanted to since moving in.  I am sure there will always be things that I want to repaint, change, etc.  But, for now, we are happy with the way things are.  I may be lying a little bit here.  There are some small things that I want to change that I probably think about every day.  The biggest one is new chairs in the dining room- not around the table, but the 2 in the corners that we use when we have guests, and on a daily basis, mostly used as Aiden's time-out chair.  They are falling apart, and I loathe them every day.  One of the arms is falling off of the one and is becoming dangerous.  I desperately want these chairs from West Elm.  

I keep hoping maybe one day they will just show up at my front door.  The second thing that I wish for maybe every other day, is a new rug for our bedroom.  The one that we have is from Ikea and it produces this weird gritty white mess underneath.  I don't know what it is or why it happens, but I don't like the way it looks to begin with, and every time I clean the floor in our bedroom I get so frustrated with it.  I would really love this rug (also from West Elm and currently on sale).  

At the moment we don't have the money to spend on these 2 things, but hopefully sooner rather than later.  Until then, I will just keep hoping they show up at our front door.     

I do have one small project that I will be working on that I will post about soon.  Don't get too excited- but I will give you a little hint....