Since my child has put herself to sleep...

... thought I'd share some photos of her (finally) (almost) finished bedroom.

We caught a lot of flack from folks when we didn't know what gender our baby would be, and we told them the room was blue. LOTS of people immediately replied with, "well, you'll have to change that if she's a girl." Um, no. It turns out that we like the color, really like it with red accents, and guess what?? Our baby has remained a girl despite the blue room.

We'll start with her crib, which came from IKEA. Notice how pristine it looks? Notice how there are multiple death traps near it? (Soft toys, hanging blanket, pillow...) That's because she's only used it for the occasional nap, and now she's starting to hang out in there a bit while we're in her room so she'll get used to it. This is the secret to having an immaculate crib - don't use it! Print on the wall is by the amazing Black Apple, and the pom poms are a MonkeyBean creation from my first shower. (Awww.) The blanket you can't see was mine, made by a great-aunt, and has the tightest crochet stitches I have ever seen.

Next we have the rocking chair, source of immense angst for my younger brother. Mom had a different chair for each of us, and this is actually his. However, when we moved to Georgia, Mom put my rocking chair in his room, so he's attached to that one. Thus, I have his for Bethany. Confused? Imagine how I felt when we tried to sort all this out when I was 9 months pregnant. Yeah. The gorgeous afghan was made by Lindsey's sisters' step-grandmother. More Black Apple art on the wall, and another print by an artist whose name I've forgotten, so I'll have to look that up and report back.

This is the crazy amount of stuff I have temporarily put on her bookshelf. I know that it will all have to go when she starts pulling up, but for now, I like it. You can see some of her MonkeyBean newborn portraits, as well as a Pete the Cat print - he's riding the St. Charles streetcar, of course. A whole bunch of vintage books, a vintage baby bonnet, a doll I bought in Prague, and a little ceramic box made for me when I was little round this out. You don't want to see the shelves - trust me.

The color on this shot is off, but you can see the canvas piece Kinsley made for Bethany, as well as my very clever (ha) use of a picture display mobile for Bethany's art cards. This is hanging above her changing table, which is really a pad on top of a dresser. Couldn't get the whole thing in a remotely decent shot, so you'll just have to imagine the dresser. Bethany loves to stare up at both of these things, since they're black, white, & red.

Finally - gratuitous cuteness.

Hearts, hearts, hearts.

Valentine's Day was never my favorite. I had fun making valentines until about fourth grade, and then it was just a drag. It was never very exciting later, either. Now, I like the crafty aspects of it, but could still really care less about the holiday. Yesterday, I looked at a list of restaurants with prix fixe menus for Valentine's, and NOTHING. Nada. Zilch. Absolutely none of it looked good. Seriously - why stuff a perfectly good fillet with OYSTERS? Yucky.

The worst of the worst? Places that advertised a "rose for the lady" at every table. BLECCCCCHHH.
With all of that said, I had a blast making my cards for Sarah's swap, and stupidly forgot to take a picture of them. Things are going swimmingly for Lisa's swap package, as well, and that one should be on its way to her shortly. Here's the mantel, currently, waiting on this year's valentines to arrive and cover it even further in crafty goodness. I decided that the Christmas card holder could continue in service for an extra couple of months. Besides, the cute dress card that Sarah made last year covers up the Christmas star at the top. Aren't I tricky...
Props to Sarah for the bottle brush tree & button tree idea/direction - those used to be Christmas decorations, but I've decided to make them work year round.

January Mantel

January Mantel
Originally uploaded by sarahblascovich

For the mantel-loving folks out there, here is what it looks like today. Mid-month, it will probably go ahead & transition to Valentine's Day, just because I love red that much. It also means that I can put out last year's swap goodies, and add this year's to it as they arrive.

Fun things include: our photo by MonkeyBean; an altered bottle made by Dawn, coveted by me, and Christmas presented to me by the Motherina; bottle brush trees Monkey & I dyed last year; and the l-o-v-e-l-y soldered piece from Lennye.

The other side of the mantel is kind of dull, so I didn't even bother to take its picture. For excitement, I signed up for the Decorated Fireplace Mantels group at flickr. Since I'm the only one in the group who's posted a picture so far, we'll see how this goes. I just want to make sure I'm up on the hottest mantel trends (*snicker*). Speaking of flickr - I'm thinking of upgrading to the Pro account. Any thoughts on this? I mostly just want the ability to EASILY organize & label all of my pictures, somewhere other than our skittish hard drive.

Happy Sunday!

Definitely out of the ordinary.

Photo from www.nola.com.

Bear emailed me this morning to let me know the snow was on its way! This is just the most amazing image - decidedly not something I've ever gotten to see. To celebrate, we had yummy dinner, but we still haven't seen any flurries.

Crafty update.

First off - the infamous diaper cake. These are de rigeur at school showers, but apparently something of an oddity at St. Paul UMC. Who knew?
Who knew, too, that the parents-to-be (our pastor and her husband) would register for non-bleached environmentally friendly diapers that are, um, beige? Beige = not good for diaper cake making. I did not know this, of course, until I opened them. Thus, the cake is a little dingy-looking, but I think you can still get the effect.

I also decorated some onesies for them, which were then strung on this clothesline. I had thought we would use some vintage tablecloths of mine for these tables, so the onesies were WAY too heavy for the plastic. Fortunately, thanks to the magic of Mr. Stapler, we got them to stay up for the duration of the shower.
Moving on to fall - for KK, here's the mantle:
I took my leaves and used glue dots to stick them to my IKEA tree. I waited overnight to do this, which wasn't bright, as they would have been much easier to glue fresh. You will notice the lack of acorns this year - no little wormy friends, either...
There are a couple of additional pre-Christmas projects coming down the pike, I think, but there is definitely Christmas crafting to be done. Whoo-hoo!!

While you're surfing around blogland, be sure to check out Julie's fun blog (I've linked to it before) and etsy shop. She's having a fun little contest right now, too. Her shop is chock full of the results of her gifted thrifting - she's got some books that are making me very envious!

Happy Tuesday, everyone.

Finally.

It's fall. It feels wonderful outside, though if the temperature were to lose another 10 degrees, I'd probably love it even more. We invested in a few more window screens this year, so my adoration of open windows can continue. I used up a fair number of soup coupons at the grocery store yesterday, so now my customary grilled-cheese-and-soup-for-dinner-three-nights-a-week tradition can continue. We also managed to just about finish putting up the Halloween decorations. I haven't made much (yet) this year, but I did add a few things to the mantle. I'm sure you'll be able to spot them (haha), but if not, I added a detail picture so that you can admire the kitty cat with a candy corn nose.She came from a fabulous little primitives store north of the city - Mother Dearest's favorite. (As did the Owl sign at the top of the page - man, we love that place.)
The pumpkin outside the door actually came from Waycross! I was driving back to the hotel and spotted it, so I had to go back the next day for it. I'm pretty sure it's from some sort of heirloom seed, because it's a much paler orange than anything you'd find in the stores. Mr. Pumpkin is decorative for now, but he will be cooked and eaten later. There is pumpkin soup in my future! In addition, somewhere we found a pumpkin-pepper-cheese souffle recipe that needs to be tested.
Although I missed out on/didn't sign up for any Halloween swaps this year, I did succumb to the pull of ApronThriftGirl's Red & Aqua swap. My newest swappy partner is Shawna, who writes at Farm Girl Living. In related swap news, my partner from last year's Halloween swap, the fabulous Heidi, has a new blog address, so be sure to stop by her new home! Lovely Heather at the Speckled Egg has added some images of the tag book we put together for her store's birthday - oh my goodness, it's amazing.

One last thing - my sweet cousin Bethie has new pictures up of Baby Brooklyn. She is darling, and though I maintain that she still looks like my uncle (Beth's dad), she is definitely starting to resemble her older brother Aiden. If you just need more cute baby in your life, you should stop by.

Happy Monday!

Summer Vintage Fun - Part One

As you have probably read by now, it turns out that AARP is completely inept in sending out mailings. I think Natalie's sister wins, though, having it arrive ON her 25th birthday. Thanks for the non-retirement love, y'all.

I figured it was time to show you the way-late pictures of some of my thrifty fun from this summer. Most of it came from Indiana - surprise, surprise - but some of it did appear here at the Value Village - where else? I decided to spread out the love over several days, so today we'll see tablecloths, books, & china.

The middle tablecloth with strawberries was actually my Great-Aunt Martha's. I stayed with her daughter, my cousin Carole, while we were in Indiana, and when she saw me looking for tablecloths, she brought this one out for me to keep. It's very well-loved, which makes it even more special. I know I can't compete with the Tablecloth Queen, but I am at the point where I have enough vintage cloths to make a choice about which one goes on the table - pretty cool!

The books were in a box at this "antique mall" that Carole told us about. They were quite a steal, and they're really fabulous. The one in the middle about animals is actually from Barnum & Bailey! The illustrations are gorgeous, and one of my goals is to get some scanned in to use for projects.

The china is appearing slowly but surely at the Value Village - I just check every time I'm in there, and usually 20 or 40 cents later, I have something cool. Dawn has been talking about creating art on plates & trays, so I think I'm going to give it a try.

Like my mother, I cannot BEAR to hurt old things, so it has to be one of these 20-cent wonders if I'm going to do it.

Tomorrow: random linens and more books!