Happy New Year

Visit my craft journal at nectar.squarespace.com

Groovy shared bedroom

Check out the details of this shared bedroom on ohdeedoh. Love the chocolate wall and paint bubbles inspired by a coaster they use on their night stand. Amazing.

Henry Road inspiration

I've been working on a design for a butterfly chandelier for my girls. I just stumbled on these one of a kind lampshades, chandeliers and mobiles from Henry Road and am getting some serious inspiration. I like the mobile.

lily's pad by ducduc

Huge design packed into such a little space. Inspiring. Love the wallpaper as a focal point for this nursery. The ducduc canopy crib is elegant. The hot pink and green are the perfect accent colors for this mod nursery.

must find time...

I must find time to make this fabric scrap memory game from inchmark. Lovely idea!

it's for the bears

$80 hard earned dollars on a bear canister. That is what my husband considers a necessity. He's off this weekend to climb Mt. Whitney with friends.

I'm still wrestling with how useful this thing even is. The bear can smell the food in the can and come to your campsite. It just can't open the can. The hope is it will become frustrated and leave. Or become frustrated and eat you? I'm told they aren't grizzly's. They are "more afraid of us than we are of them" (hard to imagine) and will just move on.

You don't want them eating your food. For two days this seemed like reason enough. Then I realize, he's only gone 2 1/2 days. If the bear ate his food, he isn't going to starve. I point out that he can fill up on Jack n the Box on the way home.

So, now he's a humanitarian. It's for the bears. The can keeps the bears from becoming accustom to eating human food. It keeps them wild - from slipping into the sad state of the polar bears; eating trash from the dump because it's there and it's easy. Okay, good reason. I don't want Yosemite bears turning into Yogi and Boo Boo. I wonder if I can write the can off as a charitable contribution?

Plus, he's pointed out it's multi-functional: He can use it as a chair. He's promised to take a picture of him around the campfire sitting on his can.

He bought it so now it's ours. I wonder if it's toddler proof?

the second cup

Sambos restaurant 1980. A young girl and boy sit in a booth with their mother. They eat, they talk. The outing winds down to it's natural conclusion.

"Can I get you anything else?" the waitress asks.
Then the dreaded words.
"Just a little more coffee please."
The children cringe. They are going nowhere fast.

I use to hate coffee. Throughout my childhood it stood between me and doing something fun. That uncomfortable period of waiting that came with topping off that second cup. In college I was so disgusted by people who had to have that morning cup of jo to get their day going. What weaklings I thought.

Then enter my husband. He use to make me sniff his coffee every morning. "Come on, just breath it in, it smells great." I resisted for years. Then while honeymooning in Austria for three weeks I did as the locals did and had a cup of coffee with breakfast. In our attempt to keep our trip alive I joined my husband in a cup of coffee and a plate of bread, cheese and meat in the mornings once we got home. The bread and cheese faded, and the coffee remained.

He makes a great cup, I'll give him that. Too good for his own good. Now he must provide a well frothed topper or else!
Lately I've been needing a second cup at nap time so I can have the boost I need to get my work on the computer done (or a post). Which brings me to the point of my rambling:

My poor mother. Like me now, she just need that little something to give her the energy to keep up with us the rest of the day. I'm emailing her now to apologize for all the grief we gave her.

soft storage baskets

I like these Jenna Rose storage bags because they don't scream "a child lives here."

I can't resist this felt bucket with squirells on it from tinydecor.

maintaining adult space

I like this idea of a curtain for carving a space out of the living room for a nursery or if you need a play area for an older child while a younger one naps in their shared room. I find these particular curtains hideous, but you get the idea.
I must say this adult space needs some baby proofing. Can't you just see your toddler diving, then quickly bouncing from that silver jack "chair?" straight onto the tile edge of the fireplace? Those green moss balls look like good eating. That DVD player in arms reach: ooh, buttons! The glass table just has to go back to 1980 from whence it came.

Colored walls are a necessity for me. We are lucky, our landlord let us paint our apartment however we liked. I know a lot of you are living with Navajo white. But, there are a lot of great vinyl decals out there that can really make your nursery or kids nook fun and sweet. Here are some of my latest discoveries from Figgy & Wink on etsy.

Green with pavilion envy

Not that I have time at the moment to kick back on the sofa and sip a tall lemonade... even if I had a yard to put this on... Still, I think this pavillion from Z Gallerie is dreamy. I do have the paper lanterns hanging over my desk. I'm part way to the dream...

crib bedding for dream menagerie rug

I've been searching high and low for crib bedding that would work with the dream menagerie rug from Anthropology.
I'm a big fan of mixing patterns. My rule is as long as the two patterns have colors in common, go for it. I think the charlotte crib set from Dwell Studio works best. The leafy motif doesn't compete with the animals, it creates a "background" for them.

tutu cuties

Jr. Jr. is two months now and we are finally getting around to doing her birth announcement. The picture we are using is "ancient" now but if we wait any longer it will never get into the mail. A friend of ours is a photographer and he's going to shoot her, but it keeps getting pushed off a week, then another week. I came across these photos above when I was looking for some inspiration for our shoot. Those are just the cutest baby pics I've seen in ages. The tutus are sold on the Layla Grace website.

Pewter Knobs

We built a dresser recently and drilled holes in the drawer faces instead of knobs. Kid shaped knobs seemed corny at the time. But, these pewter knobs by f. is for frank are tasteful, even down right cute. There are 29 to choose from. The owl is my favorite, today.

Off with their heads

Pillow Pals
I think it's the colors I like. Orange reminds me of my oldest. Her curls flip out below her ears too.

Wire monkey mobile

You certainly don't have to worry about overstimulating your baby to tears with this mobile. From the babies point of view there is really nothing to look at, just the bottom edge of the lowest bird. They barely even look like birds. Partridges? There's no contrasting colors. Nothing to make baby happy. Snip the birds off the wire and hang them on the wall, okay. You have to be careful with modern design and kids. Sometimes it's just sterile. Go for the modern furniture, skip this bland mobile, I say.

I'm surfing The Land of Nod today. I've never been one for frilly things myself, but I love feminine accessories for little girls rooms. I think this Whoopsie Daisy Chandelier qualifies.

Butterfly bedding

All Aflutter Butterfly Crib Bedding
I'm really into butterfly motifs so this caught my eye immediately. It's a sweet pattern in happy colors. I wish the sheets (available in solid pink) were sold with the butterfly print. I don't use bumpers anymore because it makes changing the sheets such a pain. My oldest threw up a lot and I got sick of having to yank the mattress out from under the bumper. It loosened the ties and it started to look sloppy. Maybe if the ties were velcro instead?
Regardless of my personal pet peeves, this is a cute collection.

Can't beat the cube

Kids deserve color. And for $119.50 they should get it. You can pick the color of each of the cubes and the table. Don't be boring and pick one color, please! I'm seeing a storage bin in each cube. I'm going to assume that you can put all four cubes under the table for space saving....

brilliant bookcase

I thought I was being clever when I told my husband to build in a temporary shelf for little baby books. I'm stealing this idea and putting my husband to work modifying our shelves. I hate the dead space that the little books leave.

This is the Nurseryworks Storytime single and double bookcase.