My Niece’s Nursery Awesomeness!

Say that five times fast!

Well, some of you may be aware that I am expecting.. a niece. (Gotcha.)

That’s her, Adielyn Grace. (PS- Aren’t 4D ultrasounds amazing?)

And I am so excited to say that we are very close to d-day, or should I say, b-day.

And now that we’re at the point of having the hospital bag packed (she’s about 1 week out from the formally predicted date), her nursery is 100% ready, and 1000% awesome. So without further ado, you can see it for yourself!!

The adorable flowers on the walls were done by a lady named Tamara of TC Artworks. And the adorable baby bedding is from PB baby, called “Harlington”. And how cute is that pink personalized blanket on top? We were all amazed at how perfectly it matched. If you want one with your baby’s name, here’s their website.

The rug is from Ikea. And Adie’s big sister Zoie is a big fan of it. It is so fun to roll around on.

And her added camoflauge ability is just a bonus.

Adie’s shadow box (hanging by the window in the picture above) was a gift from her Aunt Melissa. I was in love with the idea of it growing up with her- with every element changing as she does- filling up with finger paintings and photos of her with friends. I can’t wait to see it change!!

That cute lamp shade came from Ikea- they sold it to be hung from above but with an adapter kit you could light it from below. The rocker has a coordiating ottoman, and I love the shade of the fabric. The already-very-full closet is just to the left of this shot.

You know you’re close to baby when the diaper supplies are at the ready.

Adie’s changing table came from Buy Buy Baby- I love the beadboard look at the top.

The antique window was a joint project between Adie’s mom and dad- and her mom has big plans to replace that scrapbook paper with photos. Even her Grandma did the monogram in the middle- so it was truly a love-filled project. I love those little touches!!

We are all so excited. Probably none of us so much as this lady.

More Christmas Bliss

We had an awesome Christmas at the Mitchell household. Between all the houses we visited and presents we tore open, it was a grand time. Lotsa photos to share, so let’s get to it.

Christmas Eve festivities @ Winston’s dad’s were the first that I got to try out my new toy.

Even in low light, which I mentioned before has been a new challenge. We must turn off the flash lest we disturb the sleeping husband and father-in-law.

Later that day, another tree proved another photography subject. This time our theme was red and silver.

My sister-in-law saw this picture and said “she looked better blurry”. So do I, and I don’t have the pregnant excuse.

I got a digital macro filter kit at this stop- and proceeded to play with my wedding rings and the +10 filter. No clue what I am doing, FYI. Looks pretty, though…

My stepfather-in-law dresses as Santa every year. I don’t think he wants to hear how closely he resembles Santa in this picture- but he totally does.

Winston’s little cousins must feel so special to know that Santa takes his time to visit this particular garage only hours before his scheduled departure for the East Coast.

At my mom’s the next morning, we had chestnuts roasting on an LCD.

This is “my” ornament. Always has been. And it actually, in terms of representing me, it doesn’t make a lick of sense, seeing as how I stopped taking ballet at age 9. But it’s purty, so it stays.

We had our extended Christmas on New Year’s Eve. I love that my Christmas always ends up lasting like two weeks with all of the events we have going on. And another photo I couldn’t not share goes to best present given this year, and it was at this particular event. I got it for my teenage cousin. I always aim for a good laugh with this gift. I succeeded, I think.

It’s that tacky Christmas sweater t-shirt I found at Target. Next time he has a crazy sweater party he will have me to thank for being on-theme AND not wearing an actual wooly reindeer sweater, which I imagine is quite uncomfortable.

I also took a swing at handmade gifts this year- I made some fabric flower headbands for my younger cousins. I got to use all the fun, bright fabrics and headbands and I think they were a big hit.

It was a good couple of weeks. And I love that I got to have fun capturing it all. Love this new toy!!

Now Coming to You in High Definition

Yes! I made it. With the excuse help of Santa Clause, I finally got my camera (the one I mentioned saving for here)

It’s a Canon eos t3 rebel 12.2 mp. A perfect starter DSLR- so I have read. So far, I’ve picked up the menus pretty easily (all of my hand-held point & shoot cameras have been Canon’s, so a lot of the icons are the same).

To say I’m still learning how this thing works would be the understatement of the century. Heck, even that photo wasn’t that hot. Still getting used to shooting in low light. And all those new terms, like ISO, aperture, white balance and shutter speed. Just to name a few.

& Yes- I totally made that flower headband. Learn more about how I made the flowers here. Gotta love leftover fabric!

But not all of my photos thus far have been quickie-blurry craziness. Here are a few that I am finding myself smiling at:

Rainbow sherbert (sorbet?) in a martini glass. My dessert JAM as of late. Can’t get enough.

Odd subject matter (yes that’s Ringo), but an awesome example of clear foreground/blurry background shots that have me drooling most of the time.

I can even capture animals that move around a lot quite clearly. But for this guy (my mom’s Yorkie, Jake) all I have to do is start sounding out the word “cheese” and I have a totally captive audience.

& last but not least, here’s a really good one that proves that my husband should tough it up and let me pluck those eyebrows. Oh yeah. I went there.

He was mid-yawn. No idea he was in the focus of my lens.

So, moral of the story, I have EVEN MORE motivation AND capability to blog at ya. The only thing I don’t have are hours in the day to get it all done!

(Oh yeah, HAPPY 2012!!! My resolution is : to not make resolutions and just do it, already. )

Baby Shower Craftiness

So I may have been behind on posting, but boy have I been busy in the background!

My brother and sister-in-law are having a little girl. Here she is, with her stylish new diaper bag. I am pseudo-concerned that she is setting an impossibly high (or should I say low) weight gain standard for baby-bearing. Seriously though. Who would know you are due in less than two months? (crazy!)

I was so excited to do all sorts of fun pinterest-y things for the baby shower. I even made my own board just for ideas that were niece and/or shower related.

My favorites that I executed I couldn’t wait to share, so without further adieu, get ready to get your Martha on.

I made no-sew fabric flowers, found here.

Here was my inspiration photo:

And here’s how mine turned out:

The original tutorial was 3″ circles on the outside, 2″ on the inside. I made each layer 1″ smaller to adapt the idea for a clothespin. I wanted to create a cute clothesline accessory to display outfits at the shower, a la this photo, found here:

I loved how easy these were. I didn’t so much love cutting all those circles. I don’t have a way to cut multiple sheets of fabric at one time. I might after this. The trick to cute flowers is a lot of petals.

The key was also finding 3-4 fabric patterns that coordinated but brought in all of the desired colors. I wanted to be able to “mix & match” to create different looks. And then I also did a few solid flowers. I think I ended up with about 12 combinations- each clothespin was a little different.

For the center of the flowers, I bought large, flat beads that had a pearl-esque gleam to them. I only needed one pack to get all of my flowers done.

I also loved how these didn’t call for absolute perfection. And while I want a perfect-looking result, any craft that allows for imperfections (it only adds character if they aren’t exactly even petals) I am all about that even more.

Here they are, in action, displaying adorable baby garb:

Another project I am still amazed at are the tissue paper poms. Here was my inspiration photo:

And this photo, found here, basically explains how to get ‘er done:

I loved that these were inexpensive, fast, and were a huge pop of color in the space. Here they are in action:

I actually held onto them after the shower. I tied them all into one large ball. I plan to use it as a backdrop in some pictures of the new baby… or maybe even to decorate her room when she comes home! Who knows.

I also made these adorable little 4×6 notecards (using a coupon code for vistaprint.com) with fill-in-the-blank spots for shower guests to fill in their hopes and wishes for Baby B. I can’t wait for her to read all of them someday!

I also made chocolate-covered pretzels. Not an easy feat, in retrospect. You really need a double boiler. To achieve color, you MUST buy the pre-dyed chocolate. Food coloring causes chocolate to seize- the tiny amount of water is just enough.

I did have one bag of red chips, so I brought a little pop of color with a drizzle and some sprinkles. The sprinkles are also the key to them retaining their round shape when you lay them out to cool.

They were yummy, and a pretty takeaway for guests once I put them in bags (fyi: they sell pretzel bags at most craft stores. I was shocked to learn this) and tied cute little bows with some white raffia. We set them in the common area next to the notecards for guests to enjoy.

I was so excited to personally invest in such a special day. I think it turned out beautifully, and I was so glad to play a part. Totally worth the small hot glue gun burn I got on my pinky finger. I snapped this absolutely adorable picture of the soon-to-be-parents just as we were wrapping up (gotta love a husband who shows up just in time to load!).

Be sure to get a good look at them while they are all nice and well-rested.

A Holly Jolly Whirlwhind.

Where does the time go? It seems like I was just blogging about fall trees. Oh, wait… I was.

Forgive the periodic absence. Time seems to fly- ever since high school graduation (which was a *certain* number of years ago) it’s been picking up speed, and I’m told it doesn’t slow down. And this also goes to show that I’m still pretty horrible at keeping resolutions. The shame. Here’s hoping 2012 frees up for me a bit.

The trees I mentioned last time are totally naked now. I would show you a picture, but it’s pretty depressing. I need me some white Christmas to brighten things up a bit.

Good thing it’s upon us. Like Whoa. One minute you’re celebrating gorgeous fall colors and turkeys and then BAM! It’s all about sparkly ornaments, crazy-long shopping sprees and inclement weather closings (fingers crossed here).

This was from last year. Believe it or not (my Colorado family will laaaaugh) this is enough accumulation to merit a full day off. Gotta love NC black ice- it’s awfully deceiving to car tires. It looks like there should be traction, but notsomuch.

So on to the good stuff, and the point of this post. My casa, all jingle-fied. (Spoiler alert: you may or may not notice a considerable upgrade in photo quality from previous posts. You’ll have to stay tuned for more…..)

Starting in the Kitchen….

I love these guys. They were a Goodwill find- a whopping $3. And they do light up- but I like them just as well when they’re off. Forgive their dusty hats- they just broke free of storage and their owner hasn’t quite realized how much detail she can now capture in a photo.

That about does it for kitchen decor. Most of the decor change-ups happen in the living area.

Now for the main event- el Christmas Tree.

And yes, he’s a faker. But we love him. He assembles umbrella-style in three pieces, is pre-lit (but not in an annoyingly complicated way,  it could actually be re-strung one day) and he fluffs up quite nicely. All in all it takes me about 30 minutes to get him in, up, and fluffed. A big bonus: I don’t have the hassle or the guilt of buying, killing, and hauling a real one. I know they smell nice, but I can accomplish a nice smell with a candle. And since it’s all about ‘tradition’, the fact that we grew up with fake trees means that we don’t really feel like we’re missing anything. It’s our traditional.

In addition to my real, already-wrapped presents, I also put some large “fake presents” under the tree to block it. I have a good reason for this.

Forgive the blurriness, he was on the move.

The tree has a pretty big fan in the form of an orange furball. He’s done pretty good so far in terms of climbing- but go looking for Ringo and you can almost put money on the fact that he’s laying under the base, staring up at the lights, batting at the shiny ornaments. If you look closely in the picture above, you’ll see the tree shining in his eyeballs.

The fake presents (just large gift bags, or even decorated boxes- but bags do the trick for me) block him from getting too far under the base where I can’t monitor him. It’s a visual block- so he doesn’t think he can fit, and doesn’t go under there. The one thing I worry about is chewing on the needles- they’re obviously not poisonous, but he will certainly throw them up if he eats them. Fun fun.

I have to wonder what he must think about our crazy tradition of pulling out this giant green piney thing, assembling it, putting lots of shiny and sparkly things on it, and then yelling at him when he attempts to play with it. Must be confusing to be a cat.

I love our tree this year. It is different in one major way: I have multicolored bulbs on it. I grew up with white-only lights. Winston remembers colored ones. I had this idea that the crazy colored ones looked tacky. Especially the small, standards strands like you can buy in the pharmacy in which neon colors somehow seem acceptable… not on this tree.  But these don’t.at.all. They’re originally from restoration hardware (bought at Goodwill) and they are the awesome, old-timey, large bright bulbs. True reds and greens. Plus some unexpected yellows and blues. But overall, very classic Christmas. So, it was on theme, a good husband & wife compromise, and a nice little addition to my own version of traditional.

What I also love about our Christmas decor is that almost all of it, from ornaments to cookie jars, were items that either Winston or I grew up seeing around Christmastime. It certainly brings up a nostalgic sense every year when we pull everything out.

Another new change in this year’s setup was overall placement. We have this set of shelves above our bar that normally housed the Christmas village. It’s adorable- and purely sentimental- it’s made up of pieces I picked up mainly at the dollar store as a kid. It’s come along with me.

Here’s how it’s looked in years past:

But…. this year, logic was telling me that houses couldn’t be stacked on top of each other in a shelf-like situation. It just didn’t seem geographically possible. And our wrap-around mantle was BEGGING to house this collection. And as fate would have it, I had just the right amount of batting material to create this snowy little street. It provides a nice balance of lit-up holiday items on both sides of the room. Totally one of those “why didn’t I think of this before?” moments.

But what about the shelves that used to house the village? Well, we have tons of other holiday knick-knackage that filled up this space, and I put the poinsettias through the bars that had previously been on the mantle. I also took some ribbon and ran it through the same bars to create a fun area to display all the Christmas cards we’ve already received. (Yet another thing on Santa’s Yet-To-Accomplish-List)

So how are your holiday plans coming?