Inspired: Apartment Therapy Home Tour

While eating my breakfast this morning and perusing my usual blogs, I came across this great home tour on Apartment Therapy. It has given me lots of motivation for some of the errands I have to do today. Take a peek.

(all images via Apartment Therapy)

Something about the simple decor on their side table makes me want to spruce mine up a bit. I think it has to do with the fact that their chaise and side table at the same height, just like ours. 

Great pillows. Nuff said.

I'm love, loving the mix and match of bright patterns in their daughter's room. I'm feeling I need to add some extra texture to the nursery with the colors I've been using. 

And this chalk board painted wall is such a great idea for any kid's room. Maybe once our girl gets a little older she'll get her own chalk board wall. 

I always love an all-white bathroom. The pink picture is the perfect, subtle pop of color.

I've been wanting to paint our front door a bright color for some time now, but have yet to bite the bullet. 

For the full home tour, see Sarah & Clay's Playful Yet Elegant Home at Apartment Therapy.

Ruffles

I've always loved the Waterfall Ruffle Shower Curtain from Urban Outfitters, but not it's $79.00 price tag.

I love anything ruffled really. 

Check out their Ruffled Duvet Cover,

and I'm very seriously considering purchasing their Ruffled Laundry Bag for the baby's room.

My sweet husband got me a UO gift card for Mother's Day and while perusing their website I found this orange ruffled shower curtain for half off - only $39.99! 

I've been looking for a way to spruce up the guest bathroom, and this pop of color is the perfect fit. The rest of the bathroom pretty much has a white and beige theme going on. It still needs some work including a fresh coat of paint on the walls, some sort of art on the wall about the toilet, and replacing the 1990's countertop. 

Here are two before pictures of how the bathroom looked before. 

Well my order arrived the other day and it took me no time to rip open the box and hang the new shower curtain. I apologize in advance for the terrible lighting in these photos. Since we live in a townhouse and the guest bathroom is right in the middle of the second floor, we get little to no natural light in this room. 

In case you are curious, here is a shot of the counter in the bathroom.

The milk glass shoe is one of many pieces that my grandmother has given me over the past two years. 

The picture on the left is my gorgeous mom from 1979. And the picture on the left is my maternal grandmother. I adore both pictures. The little jar was part of a set of 4 jars with missing lids I snagged in the Ikea "as-is" room for $1.99. The white dish is from Pier One.

The guest bathroom is where I shower, so that's why I opted for a more girly feel. For me, it's roomier than our master bathroom (ok, roomy for a townhouse bathroom) and I can shower and blow dry my hair and not worry about waking up Jordan in the morning.

These shower hooks were in the clearance shelf at TJMaxx. Love them!

These gorgeous detailed towels are part of a set that my aunt gave me for a housewarming gift. I love the floral detail on a simple white towel. The rest of the set is in our master bathroom.

I'm happy to say that the orange of the fabric is almost more of a peachy-coral orange, than a bright construction cone orange it appears in the above pictures. Here is a shot of the curtain in the sunlight. It's pretty close to the picture that UO had on their website, if not a tiny bit lighter.

Since I was on a roll with ruffles, I also picked up this Gingham Ruffle Pillow in black on sale for $9.99,

along with this Ruffle Stripe Pillow in orange, also $9.99.

A sucker for letters and anything monogrammed, I had to grab myself some letters, too.

Left: Wire Frame Letter                                                                  Right: Industrial Stencil Letter

I'm still playing around with a home for each. I was limited to which letters were available. Most of the ones I was looking for were out of stock, so I opted for D's on both. Once they come back in stock I plan to get a few other letters.

Someday if I can figure out how to get some decent lighting I'll take a few real pictures and a more detailed look at the guest bathroom.

To The Max

Maxi dresses in lots of fun patterns make me very happy.

Bring on summer!

Design Your Own Fabric

Check out this great post over on BabyCenter where John and Sherry from Young House Love talk about the custom fabric they designed for their daughter Clara's first birthday party. Using her own handwriting, Sherry created this print of her daughter's name which she customized with colors, duplicated for the layout, and sent over to Spoonflower to have created. 

photo courtesy of Young House Love

Isn't that the coolest idea? John and Sherry used the fabric as a backdrop for pictures during the birthday party. But it would be just as great to create your own throw pillows or curtains (or anything really) with this fabric. 


Some of the details Spoonflower lists on their website for creating your own fabric:

• no minimum order
• $18-$32 per yard (or a swatch for $5)
• made of premium natural fabrics
• uses eco-friendly textile printing
• weekly fabric design contests

I'm itching to create a fabric of my own although I haven't decided what design I want. I may go the same route at YHL and design a print using our little one's name. I will definitely be relying on a carefully selected font as I hate my own handwriting and can't write in cursive to save my life. I also like the idea of creating some sort of abstract floral design using the same colors I used for the pom-pom project: pinks with gold and splash of teal. Maybe I could even incorporate both ideas into the design. Some abstract design with her name laced into it. 

Check out Spoonflower and take a peek at some of the fabrics that have been made. You can even order someone else's designed fabrics.

Things I'm Digging: Fishtail Braids

Pregnancy hormones and prenatal vitamins have kindly graced me with ever-growing locks. My hair is probably the longest it has been in some time. I officially have mermaid hair! (That's what I call the length when your hair is long enough to cover your boobs.) While I don't want to cut it, summer is coming quickly and I need to find an easy solution to the heat. 

Enter the fishtail braid.

source unknown

Having been born with stringy, stick straight hair, I have always relied on braids to add the thickness and texture I've craved to my locks. When I was in grade school I was the girl who always french braided every one's hair for them. I've worn some form of braids in my hair for years now. Whether is be a low braided pony tail, a thick braid of my bangs, or a few simple tiny braids in the side of my head. Fishtail braids have always caught my eye as being one of the prettiest, simplest looking hairstyles, and it wasn't until last summer that I finally taught myself how to do them.

I prefer a messy tousled braid over the perfect, tightly braided version.

Moni Souris

Melissa McKenzie


Even many celebs are sporting these trendy tresses.

Angela Simmons via The Weave Bar

Mattieologie

Fergie via Stiletto Chic

Mary-Kate via Nona Ellin

Here are some other great, bold braids that are hot this season if the side-pony fishtail doesn't work for you:

whowhatwear

I see myself sporting lots of braids this summer.

The "Baby Countdown is On" To-do List

This past Saturday marked 8 weeks until our little girl is due. At our last ultrasound our due date moved from July 13th to July 9th. Time is flying and there is still a good amount that I was hoping to get done before she came. I figure I'm due for a good old to-do list. 


Realistically I know that not everything on the list will get done in the next two months. But being able to knock a few things off the list will make me feel accomplished and a little more prepared.

• Work on guest room for potential post-baby overnight guests
• Organize decor on new living room shelves
• Bonus points if I can do the above without purchasing anything new
• Finishing touches in nursery (paint touch-up, fix window treatments, etc)
• Ceiling fan for nursery
• Blinds for skylight in nursery
• Find a mirror for nursery (currently liking this one from IKEA
• Clean and spruce up outside (front and back upstairs and down)
• Hang family wedding photos in upstairs hallway
• Decide on a spot and hang Jordan's anniversary gift
• Reupholster dining room chairs
• FInd pillows for dining room bench
• De-clutter dining room (which has become the new junk room for things we have yet to find a home for or have yet to donate)
• Purchase final frame for wedding wall collage in living room (still have a picture of my family that needs to be framed and added to the wall)
• Re-organize linen closet

Now these are all just home-renovation-type projects. There's a whole separate 'preparing for baby' list that we also have.


I am thinking about tackling a few more nursery projects - if time allows of course. I don't plan to reveal any more nursery pictures until the room is completely done, but I can let you in on a few mini projects I have in the works. More about those in another post.  

Crazy Love

I gave you this sneak peek yesterday at Jordan's anniversary gift.

When planning his gift, I knew immediately that I wanted to do something sentimental to us. The traditional first anniversary wedding present is 'paper,' so my initial thought was to print and frame the sheet music to our wedding song - Van Morrison's "Crazy Love." Thoughtful, but a little boring and too easy. 

The same day I was brainstorming his gift, Nicole over at Me oh My posted a DIY Tutorial for Wood Stained Painting. Perfect! Why not do a painted version of our wedding song? Sometimes I honestly have the strangest luck when it comes to projects. Technically not a paper gift, but paper and wood both come from trees. Does that count?? It took me a few days to decide whether or not this was a feasible project to tackle. And if it didn't work out as easy as she made it look, I needed a back-up gift.

Finally last Wednesday (way to procrastinate, Jessica!) I purchased my supplies and went to work. Jordan was out for a good portion of the night at a Philadelphia Union soccer game, so I knew I could work uninterrupted. I finished most of it that night before he came home and did the last few touches the following day. 

I'm really proud of it. And it helps that the hubby loved it.

Last step is finding where to hang the piece.

Be sure to check out Nicole's blog My Oh My! 

Anniversary Weekend Recap

My absolute favorite picture from our wedding day.

One year ago today was the best day of my life to date. (Although after the next 8 weeks I think we will have this day beat.)


Today, May 15th is our first wedding anniversary! It is honestly crazy to even think that it has been a year. We’ve had our fair share of ups and down, challenges, surprises, and many ‘firsts’ as newlyweds. (Can we still be called newlyweds after the first year mark??) But with each day that passes we become stronger, closer and more in love than ever.


This past weekend we headed down to Rehoboth Beach for a little mini vacation. Since I'm at 32 weeks, travel is a bit restricted for us. But this was the perfect getaway that we needed. Just me and the hubby.. oh and Lyla. Yes, we brought her with us. We are still undecided whether or not that was a good idea. Lyla isn't the best traveler. She spent most of the weekend nervous and jumpy. 


Although I brought our camera with us, we were too busy to take many pictures.

I snapped this shot of my babies napping while I took a quick shower.

After dinner Saturday night before we went out on the town.

When we checked in Friday night it was already about 7:00 so we hopped in the shower and headed over to Dos Locos for dinner. Mexican food is our weakness, so this was a must. We split mini tacos as an app, Jordan got the Pork Tomatillo Burrito and I ordered the Sante Fe Quesadilla.


Saturday after grabbing breakfast at a local diner and taking the pup for a long walk to tire her out, we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon walking around town and along Rehoboth Ave, checking out all the shops. It was pretty overcast and too chilly to enjoy the water, but we did walk along the boardwalk until the rain started. So we ran to Greenman Juice Bar & Bistro for a dry place to grab lunch. Jordan had the freshest apple juice either of us have ever tasted and I had the Greenman juice - a mix of apple, kiwi, cucumber and spinach. We each had a delicious organic sandwich. 


A nap and a shower later, we went out for our anniversary dinner at The Pig and Fish. Dinner was amazing. Jordan imbibed in some Dark and Stormys (the staple drink of Bermuda where we went on our honeymoon) and we each pigged out on some of the best food we've ever had.

Cheese pierogies with bacon, herbed sour cream, sweet onions and truffled pomme frites.

I need to recreate these at home someday. 

Any kind of cheese plate is a staple appetizer for us. 

I had salmon for my meal (the one seafood I allow myself to eat while pregnant in moderation) with sweet mashed potatoes, black bean and corn salsa and a cilantro sauce. Jordan had the BBQ braised pork shank with spinach and mashed potatoes. We were beyond full after that. Another long walk for the pup after dinner and we went out on the town to Irish Eyes. 


Although it may sound like a low-key weekend, it was absolutely perfect for us. We got to spend some time just the two of us doing one of our favorite things to do together: eat at some great restaurants. We relaxed and laughed all weekend and didn't bother to look at the clock once. We were on our time. 


Now we are home and both Jordan and Lyla are taking a long , much needed nap. We exchanged gifts after we got home. Here is a peek at the gift I made for Jordan. I will post more about it in detail tomorrow, but just to give you an idea:

We also stopped at my parent's house on our way home and picked up the top layer of our wedding cake. We will be digging into that later tonight. :)

All in all a great weekend. :)

For fun, check out my posts about our wedding, honeymoon, and even one about some of my favorite details about our wedding day. I know I’ll be flipping through pictures and reminiscing with my hubby tonight.