Putting the nursery together

What is it about the 2nd trimester?!?  

You start to feel better and you immediately begin nesting.

Right now I'm working on furniture for the nursery.

I have a VERY little bedroom to work with this time around...

being the third child, this one is drew the short straw.

My vision is white walls, neutral furniture, and pops of color in the curtains, pillows, art work, etc.

I just have to show you my very most favorite find so far...

It will probably never make it into the nursery...

it currently resides in our master bedroom, right next to our bed.

Every night before I go to bed, I look over at it and dream of the sweet little one that will be here soon.

It's precious.

And, while I'm at it I might as well announce that the sweet little one is going to be a GIRL!

Life is so very good.

When do you start?

My front door is bare.

It seems too early to bring out the Valentine's Day wreath and decorations.

Maybe I need to come up with a door decoration for January.  Something New Year-ish.

What do you do?

Have you gone ahead with your Valentine's things?

Is this what is called "the January blahs"?

Ornament wreath, dressed in red

What do you give a fabulous friend for Christmas?

You know, the friend that has the most incredible taste and sense of style?!

A red ornament wreath, of course...

Isn't it pretty?  

I had the best time collecting ornaments and glittery red things, and then putting it all together.

It just got better and better the more I added.

It's a little like a Where's Waldo or I Spy book...the longer you look at it, the more you see.

Before I gave it to my friend, I let it do a little modeling over my mantel

And the best part?  I truly think she loved it.

*If you want to make your own...here's a great tutorial for you to follow ;)

12/10/2011 ~ I just received a photo of the wreath in it's new home...

My friend named the photo, "My prized possession"...isn't that sweet?

I'm dreaming of...

I really want to love Pinterest.  It seems like it makes a lot of people really happy.  

I get that, and I wish that I could join them.  But it's kind of like Sudoku, cake decorating and spinning classes,

I've tasted that Kool-aid but just can't get myself to drink it. 

But I do like looking at things, becoming inspired, and saving them on my mental "to do list".

Here are my latest favorite things...

(for my family room):

Whitewashed hardwood floors from Lumber Liquidators

(For my eat-in kitchen table):

Garden Side Chair in Ivory from Home Decorators Collection

(For my master bedroom):

Claudette Headboard from Ballard Designs

I lay awake at night thinking about how these items would further my vision for a lighter, more Shabby Chic/Whitewashed home.  

Lovely

Interior Transformation: master bedroom curtains

In the spirit of Finding Happyfull I've been making due with my simple point and shoot camera.  And up until now I really feel like the blog has been chugging along alright without a fancy smancy camera.  Unfortunately today I met a challenge that my little ol' camera just couldn't handle very well...photographing out a window.

The photos in this post aren't pretty.  

Now that the disclaimer has been made, let's get on with the post about curtains...

Our master bedroom has been LONG neglected.  The only thing we've done is paint...a dark chocolate brown that fit with the whole Santa Barbara feel of the past but now is on the list of things to change.

The windows had blinds on them when we moved in.  They're functional but not pretty.  I've wanted to add curtains for years but haven't been able to commit to anything.  And with an overall interior decorating budget of about $0 the last thing I wanted to spend money on were curtains for a room that no one saw but me and Corey.

Then I had an idea.  I found a white vintage chenille bedspread (king size) at Savers (kind of like a Goodwill for those of you in other parts of the country) for $8.00...score!  

I took it home and cut it right up the middle, the long way.  Then I hemmed the cut edge and added a 6" pocket at the top for the curtain rod...

and voila, I have two very shabby chic curtains framing my bed.  

(remember the photos are crappy)

and AFTER:

Cute, right?

Next up for this room?  Headboard.

Transformation underway

We moved into our current home four years ago.  I'm not a overnight decorator but I did have an initial vision...I called it "Santa Barbara Casual".  Where I came up with that name I'm really not sure, especially since I've never been to Santa Barbara.  I envisioned warm wood tones, terra cotta tile, copper accents, and a lot of black distressed wood furniture.   Kind of like this...

or this..

I didn't get that far in four years...I painted a few rooms, bought a few pieces of furniture, changed out some light fixtures, hung some curtains.  Just the basics.  But I haven't LOVED it the way I had hoped.

A week or so ago I had a pow-wow with Corey about my unhappiness with the way things were or weren't coming together.  We talked about what I liked and didn't like and then tried to remember homes and rooms from our past that we liked more.  We both agreed that the home we liked the best, the one that had felt the most "us" was our first little house in Minneapolis that we rented while I was pregnant with Soleil.  It was just barely 900 square feet and we consciously tried to enlarge it by keeping everything bright and light.  The whole house had a bit of a whitewashed feel to it.  It screamed for shabby chic decor and I happily obliged.

The two houses that we've lived in since that little house in Minneapolis have both been newer, more traditional homes...and they've been bigger.  But what I realized in talking with Corey is that they haven't necessarily felt bigger...and my Santa Barbara decorating was actually making me a little claustrophobic.  

So...I'm heading back to my shabby chic/whitewashed roots and making some changes around here.  Don't expect an overnight extreme makeover, but it's happening nonetheless.  I've decided that I've got to lighten things up and embrace what I really like, not what I think I'm suppose to like for this house. 

It's hard to admit when you've made mistakes.  

Thank goodness I never actually painted the kitchen cabinets black...eek.