Isabella's Room

So here is Isabella's room (yes, finally) As I said earlier it's out of my normal comfort zone with decorating it but I am really happy with how fun it turned out.  I still need to complete some finishing touches but I figured if I didn't show you all now it might never happen! Please feel free to skip all of the writing and just look at the photos! 

This is the wall the door is on (it's to the left of this painting, the door you see is the closet)

The painting in this picture is what Isabella is named after. It's by James Christensen and it's one of my favorite pieces ever. Uber bought it for me right after we were married and Mum framed it. So I figured at least for now it has to be in her room. 

I've been seeing the "I am a child of God" prints all over the place and I really liked it so I made one in photo shop and had it printed locally. The style is copied from this etsy seller I just color matched the text in mine to the colors in the room.  (please note I made it for personal use only) I actually really wanted to order this print to hang with it but currently she only offers it in 8x10 with is too small.

The mobile which I showed you all here.

The crib skirt fabric is Framed Sea Glass from Anna Maria Horners line LouLouThi. 

I had all sorts of issues in this space since we didn't want to paint and the 9 ft ceiling just made me feel like everything looked blah and short and squat so I started out with this (excuse the iphone photo...also note the bat in the crib... this was before Isabella arrived) I was happy with it but not thrilled. Then late one night while I was up with Isabella I came across this featured on a blog which lead me to this blog seriously could it have been any more perfect?

 So here is my version. I already had the Martha Stewart pinwheels so I had to work with what I had (unfortunately because the party store versions are so much cheaper!)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wall! It matches her quilt and brings the color up to the ceiling.

The ottoman from our last post. 

This Begonia was a gift for Isabella. It's doing absolutely gorgeous in her window... The beautiful miniature rose that was also sent, not so much it's gone to live with my mom and I am hoping she can revive it because it was also stunning. 

I couldn't bring myself to get rid of this corner cabinet so it's currently living in her room. The balls and poufs were an addition before the flower wall. That's about 3' of space and it looked bad with nothing there so I decided to make it into a 

NIGHT LIGHT! (update: tutorial here) I don't leave it on all night this is just what I turn on when I come into the room. It gives enough light to change her and see my way around but not enough to wake either of us up. 

I lined the back of the corner cabinet with gift paper from World Market. The pink ribbon is from Martha Stewart's Michael's line a few years back it's adhesive. On the shelves are a bunch of random keepsakes. The stained glass piece is supposed to be hanging... lost one of the pieces of chain in the move. And I still haven't printed pictures for the frames. 

Growth Chart and the Mendocino Mermaids

I had these two frames that needed art work so I made up these (based off of these prints here once again for personal use only) not sure if these will stay permanently I just love the song and the design and needed something for now. I want to find hooks to hang under these... someday 

Here's a quick picture of the girl in her room. She's wearing this dress made by Grandma. She is growing so fast! 

So there you have it. It's not done but it's done enough for now. I really want to get on with it and do some other projects... not really sure what yet! 

Hope you all enjoyed. Sorry for being SO LONG WINDED. 

Switching up the Ottoman

I went back and forth on selling this monstrosity, ottomans are ridiculously expensive and I could not find a replacement that I liked that had wheels... I bought and returned stuff to redo this sucker multiple times but when I decided on the chairs and the fabric my thoughts on this finally came together. This ottoman is really large 33"x21" just a huge box - no storage. I recovered it right after we moved into the house it started out a dark emerald green velour and was a hand me down from my grandparents (thanks!). Microsuede was an improvement at the time but now ... not so much... 

The whole storage thing got me thinking... why can't I have storage? It's totally set up for it already

Note Management checking out the situation

Uber made me a bottom (hurrah for seemingly never ending pile of scraps)

 And then I ordered some Linen in Elephant and Premier Prints Suzani in Slub Charcoal   and got to recovering

 It's definitely on the funky side... and far from perfect

 But I am so thrilled with the way the storage turned out

The hinge and spring loaded bracket were found at Lowes 

 And now all of Micah's toys can be hidden in a few seconds

It doesn't get much better then that!

Nursery Reveal

I am so happy to finally show you Micah's completed nursery!

My goal was to create a fun space that he wasn't going to out grow quickly. I really wanted to stay away from any specific theme's but have a lot of nature inspired items. It was amusing to realize later that the first item I had for the nursery was a calendar print of James Christensen's Flight of the Fable Maker that I'd had my Mum frame a few years ago. I had it hanging else where in the house and had totally forgotten about it until half way through finishing the nursery. It fits in perfectly and ties the whole room together. So somewhere I managed to keep that in the back of my mind as I made all of my design choices!

I can't say by any stretch of the imagination that this nursery really ended up being budget friendly, well at least by our standards. But I did pick items that could be used for all future children and then could transition into our house in other areas easily. And everything that I could possible do myself I did.



Matt and I have always thought it would be fun to have a giant map in the house so I decided to incorporate one into the nursery. I just love the array of muted colors it brings into the room and I made a bunch of flags out of Japanese masking tape and straight pens to mark all of the place we've been separate, together, and soon as a family.

It's hard to pick a favorite item in the room but the Tree Stump Ottoman is definitely near the top. And to make it even sweeter it's full of a schleich animal collection my dad has steadily been adding to.

The Mobile and Quilt are my other favorites for the room. And are hopefully items that will be with him for many years to come.

Most of the toys in the room are hand-me-downs from various family members. With a few additions like his own Steiff elephant, SIGG bottle and various Melissa & Doug items.
Well there it all is finally! I hope you guys enjoy the pictures as much as we are enjoying the room! Oh and sorry there is not Micah shoot for you this post has taken a few days to get together and I simply forgot to load one in at the bottom when I started... I'll try to get some up in the next few days! : P

Resource list:

Crib - Walmart.com

Dresser- 'vintage' piece my parents picked up second hand for me in Germany

Chair - Babiesrus

Side table - Pottery Barn Kids

Rug - Pottery Barn

Wall sconce - Restoration Hardware outlet

Curtains - Pottery Barn pinstriped sheers discontinued

Floating shelves - Ikea

Closet shelves/hanging system- Lowes

Baskets - Michaels Craft Store

Wooden clothing hangers- amazon.com

Book baskets & wall hooks - from Ballard Designs but have since been discontinued

Map - McMaps.com

Toy Chest- has been in the family since my mum was a child

The elephant puppet is from this etsy shop

Puky Bike - a gift from my parents

The stuff I made: Tree Stump Storage Ottoman, Bunting, clothing organizer, Mobile, Quilt, bumpers, Deer head, Spoon Shadow box, growth chart

Stuff others made: elephant stuffed animals, hamper, diaper bag, back pack, elephant garland,

Because, who doesn't need a stump?

First off I would like to say I have no idea where this idea came from... one day, a few months ago I decided I wanted to make a stump ottoman for Baby MAC's room... Why? I don't know. Anyway, I went through a lot of different ideas on how to do it - I even searched Etsy to see if it had been done already so I could get some ideas... unfortunately I totally struck out.... then I saw a post on Young House Love featuring a small storage ottoman they had bought at Target for a ridiculously cheap price and knew that was my best bet. I ran by Target and picked one up.

Fast forward a few weeks to my Mum's arrival and soon after that, the excessive amounts of wool roving I had asked her to pick up. I finally had all of my supplies in order and a slave to do my bidding... ahem I mean my lovely mother who is exceptionally awesome, talented and helpful.

We got busy collaborating on what I was wanting and then she got to work sewing the whole trunk together. So all I had to do was the fun stuff! How awesome is that?
We didn't bother taking a lot of in progress pictures... so here's the final product and a brief run down of how we accomplished it.

Using the cylinder ottoman, we recovered the whole thing with 100% wool suiting that we washed in hot water, sliced into bark like pieces and sewed together; leaving the seams exposed to give it the raised look. We stuffed it with poly-fill it to give it a trunk like shape.

I used wool roving to add in all of the detailing.
The inside is lined with a Joel Dewberry print.
I wanted to add a zillion more animals... but decided to stop and live with it for a while before doing anymore... I don't want it to be crowded!
MUSHROOMS! I can't wait to make more of these!
The leaves are cut from felt sheets and then the veins are needle felted in.
A little sneak behind the scenes of Mum cleaning it up for the photos.
Which of course she took and edited and handed to me to blog... because she is awesome like that.

It looks fantastic in the nursery... which is SOOO close to being done!