These would be cute invites or thank your to give to your honoree at a baby shower.

We moved into our place in November and I’m just starting to actually arrange furniture and decide on artwork/photo placement.  This house has a few problems.  First it’s a rental so even though we are capable and willing to make changes, we need to ok it with our landlord first and also we don’t really want to pay for it.  It’s also very small, less than 1000 sf, I think.  As you can see, another feature is the lovely grey wall to wall carpeting, it adds a nice ‘dinge’ to the whole place.  The fireplace has been boarded up and is actually not located very well for furniture placement anyhow.  So I’m proposing we make it into a little boy’s nook.

We have so many extra pillows and comforters I don’t know what to do with them all!  I have been wanting to make floor pillows to house them and finally on Sunday I had to take action.  I took an old throw blanket (Sorry, Elaina, I hope you didn’t want this anymore — it was my sister’s blanket.) and folded it in half.  I sewed up the long side and one of the short sides.  Then I folded in a hem on the open side and pinned in some extra ribbon and sewed the hem shut.  Then I filled it with about 4 pillows and a comforter and tied it up.

Ideally we would cover up the brick altogether and make a spot for Jax to sit and look at books or color or whatever.  I’d be cool to do a book display like this or as I’m showing below a chalkboard nook.  I even added wood floors (there are wood floors under that gorgeous carpet), colored the walls a latte-ish color, and reupholstered our chairs (which is on the agenda too).  The chalkboard image is from apartment therapy.

Here’s what the tied up end looks like.

I don’t love the ties but for the sake of doing this in a half hour I worked with what I had and what I new I wouldn’t want to use again.  I just have to try and get a photo of Jackson using the pillow!

The coffee table above is also on our to do list of things to change.  Mike put that one together quickly out of old 2×4′s that were lying around and then gave it a white wash finish.  We’re hoping to find some better wood at some point and make it a medium brown.

Do you have any trouble areas in your home?

(from here)

I’m always on the hunt for shower favor ideas that aren’t cheesy or too expensive, ’cause come on, I’m not made of money.

I like a gift that can live on after the party and this idea/DIY from Chelsea of Heels and Sunkissed Curls is a great way to create a centerpiece and favors all at once.  Visit her post to find the how-to.

(Boho Tie Die Hair Ties from Etsy)

I’m always searching for my hair tie.  If it’s not on my wrist or in my hair I feel just as naked as when I take off my wedding ring.  These hair ties take your style up a notch.  I’ve got these on my list of things to get for summer.  Accessory plus function.  Love!

(from here)

I like Olivia’s hair ties from her Etsy shop, Mane Message because her styling is gorgeous and she’s local.  She’s in Berkeley, Ca and a Cal grad.  Go Bears!  (I’m a Cal Bears fan by marriage, my heart lies with the UW Dawgs!)

(from here)

These would be great as favors for a shower (if most of the guest have ponytail length hair) or even stick into a baby shower basket for a new mom.  I like to gather all of my favorite new mom essentials into a basket and these would be a perfect addition.

This mood board really took me for a spin. I usually have an idea of where I’m going with a design, but basically nothing from my original ideas is still in this board. It went from a blue and yellow theme towards a more serene palette. I couldn’t decide to go for blue or a grey lavender for the paint color. So I went for both.

I love the sheep print, and the distinguished raccoon . . . ok, I love all the artwork.  I even switched #7 to go with the lavender theme.  And I went for a sofa instead of a glider because if you have room for it, it’s pretty nice to have.  We have an extra sofa in Jackson’s room (Although we are going to try and sell it and add floor pillows instead — his room is not that big) and it is a great way to end the day with the whole family on the couch.  We read books, sing lullabies, and watch Jax get the last of his crazy energy out as he spins around his room.

And you know I love monsters.  So I had to bring one into this sleepy nursery.  Bring the monsters out from under the bed!

What do you think? Could your baby sleep in this nursery?

1.  Owl Floor Pillow
2.  Grey Knit Storage Basket with a Little Monster
3.  Crib
4.  Light Fixture
5.  Counting Scottish Sheep
6.  Distinguished Raccoon
7.  Blue Scheme: Flying Owl or Lavender Theme: Talking Owl
8.  Starry Night Art
9.  Sofa with Geometric Pillow and Owl Pillow
10.  Rug
11.  Silver Dresser

I’m not really stressed about either of these things but I do get blown away at how quickly time does pass. I’ve thought I was thirty for a few years now, so the fact that I finally am is reassuring. I can’t wait to be 35! Then I’ll really know what life is about, right? That’s sooo old.

It’s been really fun watching Jackson this last month. He understands more, he really lights up when he sees something he recognizes and tries to say what it is. He mimics his dad as he yells at the TV during baseball games. ‘Aarhh’ and throws up his arms — just like dad.

But I do love the month of May. It’s a nice transitionary month. The long days of summer are still ahead of us, we have something to look forward too, and yet the present ain’t too shabby either.

May 1st was always a fun day when I was growing up. We would pick flowers from our garden and make paper cone vases with a ribbon to attach it to the doorway of a neighbor. We’d hook it on, ring the door bell, and run. Did anyone else do this?

Here’s a tutorial for a May Day basket from Alpha Mom.

So, I’m aware that this is a little late as Stacy’s son, Connor is now almost 7 months old, and has turned into quite the adorable boy as you saw a few days ago. But summer is approaching and this theme is perfect for a summer baby shower. So for all the expectant mother’s out there a Sailor theme or an ‘Ahoy it’s a Boy’ is an easy theme to decorate for. The pictures below are a mixture of photos from the shower and photos I took at my house a few days before in case I wasn’t very good at taking pictures and sharing hosting duties with three of my friends.

I found large sailboats for the table at a craft store on sale (it was towards the end of the summer of this September shower). Two of the three I found were an aqua blue color so I spray painted them white and pained a navy stripe and added some ribbon at the top.   On the first photo I also found three wood life preservers and added cover weight paper from Paper Source with embossed lettering, ‘Welcome Aboard Connor’.  Connor’s room is a sailor theme so I left them with Stacy for his nursery. The triangle flags are the same Paper Source colors with some twine and supported on either end by a wood dowel anchored with sand and decorative rocks.

Rootbeer floats in beer mugs are a decorative and delicious touch. One of the other hosts picked up the gorgeous flowers at the farmer’s market that morning.

Cupcake toppers are very easy to make.  I used a vector I found online and printed out several on one sheet of paper and then used a 2″ (actually a 1-7/8″) circle punch and sandwiched a toothpick between two circles.  I liked the blueberry in there too for a little extra decor.  Thanks to my sister, Elaina, for making the cupcakes for my ‘staged shower’.

Tanisha made the cupcakes for the actual shower, beautiful, no? And Allison brought the cake pops. I ate WAY too many of them. Allison also made the favors, which I also ate way too many of. She decorated boxes with map paper and twine and enclosed some salt water taffy. Delish!

We also had a box (that my husband made, thanks dear!) with some sand in it and a little sign (not pictured) that read ‘leave a message in the sand’. The guests were asked to fill out a letter to Stacy & Steve. I had something similar at my shower and it’s a nice ‘guest book’ of sorts and something to bring home for the dad-to-be to read.

Stacy’s mother-in-law took care of the food. And are we glad she did. It was not only gorgeous to look at but it was just as tasty.

It was a wonderful party and a fairly easy theme to decorate for. You can start with this invite on our Etsy shop!

Stacy looked happy at the shower! And that’s not her child in her arms, but another cutie as well.

Yesterday I shared photos of Stacy and Steve and their son Connor. Let’s take a 6 month jump back in time and see Connor at 2 weeks old. I swear I did this post already, but I can’t find it, so if you have seen these photos already, I apologize. But, come on, who doesn’t like pictures of a newborn?

This has to be my favorite photo:

He wasn’t terribly happy to not be in his mother’s arms as I remember so there were a lot of scrunched face photos. But I was able to get a few calm Connor moments too.

He was happiest in the comfort of mom’s arms though.

He’s looking at me thinking, ‘Are you done yet, lady? I’m hungry!’

This past weekend I had the opportunity to photograph one of my friends from college and her family.  It was very sunny and although we started early (8:30ish) it started getting warm fast as the dial was to approach the 90s by midday.  I am by no means a professional photographer, I would barely consider myself an amateur photographer so the bright sun and I met our match.  Even I could not photoshop myself out of some of the dark shadows that were the result of the bright sunlight.  We did capture some nice photos though and I am happy that I was able to capture the obvious love these parents have for their adorable son, Connor.

I photographed Steve and Stacy back in September, when she was 35 weeks.  And tomorrow I will share Connor’s 2 weeks portraits (I know I’m going backwards) I took back in October.  I need to also get a post together from the baby shower a few friends and I threw for her!  I’ll be busy today gathering photos.

This one was my favorite photo from the day:

Connor was hamming it up at 6.5 months and sticking out his tongue.

Those eyes! I love them. I have soooo many more photos of just Connor’s face taking up the photo with those big eyes!

And not to be left out was Brooklyn, Steve and Stacy’s first baby, their black lab.

Can’t wait to take some more photos of this adorable family! And here’s hoping for overcast skies . . .

A commenter shared one of her favorite comments from a stranger (“oh, he must look like his daddy!”), which reminded me of how people often tell me “What a big girl!” Ellie is upon revealing her age.  Yes, she happens to be in the bigger end of her age group, thank you?  I’m not sure of their intention.  It’s like when someone says “oh, you got a haircut!” but doesn’t exactly say it looks good.

These types of comments at some point would become wildly inappropriate.  Of course there are some people that would say this to anyone at any age, but for the majority of society–can you imagine going up to a 40 year old woman and saying “Wow!  You’re a big girl!” or asking a complete (adult) stranger what is wrong with their face?  Hopefully you cannot.  So why is it okay to say these things to/about a baby?

As the commenter also pointed out, a large portion of parenting is filtering!  Filter what we say, what we think, and who we listen to.