… but then I saw this image while on Pinterest. I was browsing polka dot and stripe images for Alt (something I do in my free time) and I seriously got sidetracked. I clicked on the image and was redirected to the Pencil Shavings Studio blog. I had to know more about this room!

Luckily there were loads of photos! I was able to see this room in all it’s glory.

After looking through all the photos I was in even more awe.

All of a sudden I want diagonal stripes in the stairwells of my house! (I can’t decided if I want to paint them or use the wide washi tape like Rachel did)

I want to paint all the frames in my library white (and finally paint the damn walls gray). That way the artwork stands out more, and its feels a little more consistent.

I want to paint all of the walls in the house that are still builder beige WHITE! I want more white in the house. I feel like just that little bit of beige makes this house not feel the way I want it to. I’m not a beige person. I’m also looking into switching up some of the light bulbs to daylight ones, so it feels nice and fresh at night too.

I’m actually thinking of putting red and navy in the house, two colors I normally stay away from!

I was fully inspired. I even went as far as to email Rachel, the author of The Pencil Shavings Studio to tell her just how much I loved this room (and to ask for permission to use the above photos!). She was super sweet by the way!

I can’t wait until I have energy again, because seriously, I am on a mission!! Our home gets so much light during certain times of the year, and all the trim and shades are white. Along with a lot of the furniture. I want to use this to my advantage and make the house bright and clean feeling all the time. I want to embrace color just a bit more. Not on the permanent pieces, but as statement pieces (I’m not giving up my gray walls). Like maybe a bright graphic rug in the living room, or some bright colored curtains in the kitchenette. The options are endless, and I’m itching to start!!

Oh and something else pretty cool, The Pencil Shaving Studio is having a Land of Nod giveaway to go along with this room! You should head over and enter!!!

all images are courtesy of The Pencil Shavings Studio btw!

This past weekend was CT’s 3rd Birthday! Finally. I feel like I’ve been planning and making for this party for way too long. This is really the first year she’s aware of everything going on around her, so I wanted to make the day awesome!.

We invited a bunch of our friends and family, and ended up having ten kids show up total!! Only one couldn’t make it, not bad right? Especially for a winter birthday party, where you assume someone (or everyone) would be sick.

The theme for the party was CUPCAKES! Decorating cupcakes to be exact…

My original plan was to let the kids ice the cupcakes themselves and then decorate them with any of the numerous toppings we had. As the party grew closer I realized a lot of the kids that would be attending were younger than CT, so the icing part might just be a huge mess. So we iced the cupcake beforehand, that way all they had to worry about were the toppings.

I have been collecting sprinkles and cupcake liners for awhile, with no real purpose, until this party! I was able to provide 25 different types of toppings. There were colored sugars, candies in the shape of mickey and the aliens from Toy Story, dinosaur and snowflake sprinkles, long sprinkles, metallic sprinkles, two different types of cereal and more. I made sure to have every color of the rainbow, so each kid could use their favorite.

I also made a small batch of cotton candy buttercream in pink and blue, and small squeeze bottles with them. That way the older kids could draw on their cupcakes if they wanted.

It was really fun watching the kids all sit down nicely, put their chef hats on (I’ll talk about those in another post) and then go crazy decorating. A few of the younger ones couldn’t wait to decorate and just ate the cupcakes right away, but I made a bunch so they decorated their second one.

A lot of the adults were convinced our dining room would be a disaster afterwards. They were so wrong, most of the mess stayed on the table (which I covered in kraft paper) and hardly anything hit the ground. We had a very careful bunch of kids!! Seriously parents, your kids are all so nice!!

After all the decorating everyone was encouraged to eat from the buffet (that our families helped cook), let their little ones burn off some of the sugar they ingested, and then settle down before CT started opening gifts.

There are loads of great photos of her opening her gifts, she really makes the best faces!! I just figured 13 photos was already too many for one post, even if it IS a birthday post! Oh and while I’m kinda on the topic about photos, how awesome are these? My little sister Ashley took them for me, that way I didn’t miss anything. She also edited them before sending them over, super awesome of her! Thanks Ash!

The party went way better than I expected, and I’m beyond grateful for everyone who came. Thank you to you all, you really made CT’s birthday extra special!! Also thank you to all of our family members who helped out, I really couldn’t have made it through this day without you guys. It was all a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t change a thing. CT loved it all and keeps talking about it. We did all catch a cold, but it was totally worth it!

I still have a two more posts coming up about the decorating, goody bags and sweets, so keep an eye out!

Last week we decided we wanted to get a new Christmas tree. We have been using the same tree since our first apartment together 9 years ago. It was bought on clearance after the holidays, and was pretty much the only one we could find. It was a little short, and a little sparse, but it always looked super cute when we put all of our ornaments on it. You can see a photo of it from last year (CT is really cute and tiny in the photos too!!). The reason we decided to upgrade was because we felt it would be nice to have a bigger tree, since we have such large ceilings. Plus we found the perfect tree for us by accident and needed an excuse to buy it. Ha.

The new tree is 7.5 foot, instead of 6 foot. It has those plastic feeling branches on the outside and tinsel on the inside instead of tinsel all over. Oh and the best part… The lights are LED’s and can switch from colored lights to white lights!! That last part is what sold me and made me spend my hard earned cash on a new tree! I’m a sucker for new technology.

We apparently waited to long to buy it, and ended up with the floor model. Which bring me to why we set it up so early. Since we bought the floor model, it didn’t come with a box. So our options were to have a huge tree in pieces in the middle of the library, or set it up! We set it up, and of course I couldn’t have a naked tree standing around. So we decorated it too! CT’s decorating skills have improved greatly since last year. She put ornaments on the bottom half of the tree, and I did the top half for the most part. JC had to put the star on, I’m just too short.

I’m happy the main tree is up, along with a few other decorations. It’s been slowly lifting my spirits. Everything is so shiny and bright. I still have my white tree to put up, but I’ going to wait until after CT’s birthday in mid December. That way I have more space in our dining room for the party! Which I really need to start preparing for…

Has anyone else already set up their tree, or decorated for the holidays? Or am I the only crazy one?

It’s still a work in progress, I have plans for more shelves, a new larger rug, and maybe a love seat. I’m also picturing two pendant lamps hanging above the couch, but I haven’t narrowed down which ones yet.

As you can see, CT has pretty much taken over, It’s basically her room. For Now. I WILL take it back one day, hopefully soon. When I do, I’ll share loads of photos!!

If I had unlimited funds I’d love to add a few more items…

1 – Multi Colored Glass Shade by Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. (CT already has this light, but it gives off a very unsettling orange glow and we would really like to change it ASAP) /// 2 – Princess and the Pea Bedding by Land of Nod

3 – Pull Up a Pouf (Aqua Variegated) also by Land of Nod (she HAD an awesome beanbag, but it unfortunately was a victim of our last cold and was not able to be cleaned!) /// 4 – Elephant Wooden Mobile by Freya Art & Design

5 – I Feel Like A Super Today print by Helen Dardik (She is seriously my new favorite artist! I love everything she does) /// 6 – Princess Art Prints – Set of 6 by Loopz Art

7 - Unicorn White Papier-Mache Head by Dwell Studio /// 8 – Rosette Blossom Round Rug also by Dwell Studio (It would go great with CT’s Dwell Studio for Target dresser)

I know that kids change their mind ALL THE TIME about what they want, so I’m not going to go super crazy with CT’s room just yet. Were keeping it very basic with no real theme. All the artwork can be changed out, and I’m even buying a few new rolls of washi tape specifically to tape up prints of whatever is in at the moment. Nothing permanent.

It is neat to dream about what I could buy though!! Kid’s stuff is so much cooler now than when I was a kid, or even a decade ago when my siblings were little! It’s awesome.

Ah, the front door, the beginning of your house, sorta. We don’t actually use the front door much. We prefer to use the back door, where the cars are kept.

Anyway, currently this is one of my favorite spots of our house. We’ve only lived here for little over a year, so I may change my mind soon. But for now this spot makes me the happiest.

I’m not much on white walls, or off white contract color walls, and we are surrounded by them now (were thinking light grey, everywhere). To break up the white until we had time to paint everything, I decided to paint our front door a dark plum. I still think it was one of the best things we’ve done to the house so far. I smile every time i look at it.

oh and that chair, is our best thrift story ever…

I don’t believe it is a real Eames lounger, but it looks very close to one. It’s super soft and comfy, so I really don’t care. We found it at a thrift store about 8 years ago. It was just sitting there for $200, which at the time was just a little too much for a used chair. We were about to walk away from it when over the speaker we hear “half off all furniture”. Apparently $100 wasn’t too much for an old chair, so we swooped it up and somehow got it home.

It’s been dragged all over Maryland with us, sometimes it fits the appartments we were in, sometimes it was just too big. I think it’s finally found a perfect home in our library. oh and CT LOVES it! as you can tell, it’s basically her chair now.