pb teen love.

the bedding is definitely teen-ish, but i love the furniture and all of the fun accessories! i think i need those book ends.

coming together.

{canopy for crib, doll from colonial williamsburg, paper lanterns, recycled party decorations}

before & after.

i finally got around to putting hardware on serena's new dresser, so here are the before & after photos!

before:

after:

a fresh coat of white paint, new hardware, and voila! {that makes it sound like it was easy... it was actually a lot of work...} i kind of love it in serena's room.

lanterns.

these are so beautiful! i need to throw an outdoor party just so i can make them. or maybe the decor of this next baby's room will be based around these pretties! {if it's a girl, anyway.}

learn how to make them here on crafty nest {found via pepper design}.

pretty pacaderms.

i ♥ these wall decals from pottery barn kids. the $129 price tag is a little too steep for me. but a mommy can dream.

bird garland.

i love this bird garland by gillargirl. it's so dreamy. i think i'll make one.

promised before & after.

i'm happy with it. but more importantly, sean loves it. after all, it was his birthday present.

small update.

sorry for the lack of interesting posts. a few updates:

thank you thank you thank you all for your great suggestions for recovering my photos. my dad & uncle have been working on it. they bought a recovery program and it looks like they will be able to get my photos and itunes back! i am beyond ecstatic and grateful! i will be purchasing an external hard drive AND backing my photos up online. lesson learned. crisis averted. no more tears about that {there were quite a few}.

sean and i have been busy spending part of our tax return on a new tv and entertainment unit. sean is giddy about his ginormous new tv. i don't think i'll ever understand why size matters so much to men when it comes to their tvs. but it's obviously important to him, so i let him get the huge one, even when i had made it known i preferred the 42 inch. we spent 3 hours putting the dang ikea storage unit together tonight. i'll have to post a before and after tomorrow when i can take a picture in daylight.

serena is all over the place. yesterday she learned how to crawl up the stairs and now we get to straddle the gate every time we need to go upstairs. she is into everything all the time. on our way home from the store today, i put the diaper bag a little too close to her car seat. she quietly pulled everything out of it, found the goldfish crackers, dumped them all over herself and the car, and started chowing down. it was pretty hilarious. even though we just vacuumed the car :)

and that's all for now. sooooo glad it's friday tomorrow!

i ♥ ikea for kiddos.

all of ikea's dinnerware for kids is so adorable and so incredibly cheap. love the doggy sippy cups.


and i may have just found a $20.00 solution to the headboard dilemma. the picture doesn't do this canopy justice. it was darling on display. now if i could just be sure that serena won't yank it right out of the ceiling.

faux headboards.

a few months ago my parents gave us a twin mattress they were trying to get rid of. it's in storage, waiting for the day when serena will be in a big girl bed. but in the meantime, i've been dreaming about faux headboards to make it fancy. check out these lovelies i've found around the web:

how perfect would this decal from decoMod walls be as a faux headboard for a twin bed? love it.

these decals from bilk are also lovely, but wouldn't work for a twin.

i love this wallpaper headboard tutorial, seen on ohdeedoh.

this is a sweet alternative to a headboard, also seen on ohdeedoh.

or i could paint my own... which scares me!

striped nursery.

i am slightly in love with this room {seen on ohdeedoh}. how adorable are those stripes!?

maybe i'll get brave and paint someday.

my guest bedroom back!

did i mention that sean finally de-junked our guest/craft/music room? it's been so nice to have it back. granted it's a slighly random room, and lacking in the color department, but i love and missed it. someday i would love to paint the dresser & bed white and replace the hardware. but that's just a giant project that i'm not willing to take on right now! and i don't know if my mom would allow it... all of the furniture was my grandma's.

a few things about the room:
1. yes, i organize my books by color, not author.

2. the frames above the bed were actually meant to be filled, but i never got around to it.

3. another painting by my grandpa ♥

4. no idea where i came up with the idea for a seashell bouquet. as i said, it's a random room.

5. don't look too closely at the chess set. i have no idea where the pieces go.

satisfied?

i have had these frames hanging in my house for 3 years. they have been empty until today. i meant for them to be that way. my inspiration came from an article in martha stewart's magazine many years ago. there was a whole section about hanging empty frames and i loved it! sean has never liked or understood the awesomeness of the empty frames. probably many of you who have visited my house have felt the same way! well hopefully today sean will be satisfied.

ann gave me a few little practice roosters with my big rooster. they are so cute and fun and i didn't want them to go to waste! so for now, my empty frames are no longer empty. we'll see how long i keep it that way.

shower for tru.

the long awaited shower for baby truman has come and gone. we had so much fun! we ate yummy soups, breadsticks, salads, and lemon cupcakes. we showered alicia & tru with lovely gifts, had an apple juice chugging contest {from baby bottles}, and attempted to identify some celebrities from their baby pictures. we laughed. serena bullied asher and made him cry. so glad to get together with my ladies today! i love them.

paper lanterns.

i finally hung up the paper lanterns i bought for serena's room. they were lost in a drawer for a year and i found them again when i was decorating for new years eve. they are a martha stewart product... just one more reason why i love the woman :)

serena loves looking at them. i think she is getting bored of her froggy mobile.

p.s. how did i forget this beauty when i posted about my grandparents' things? this used to be in my bedroom and now it's in serena's. the print was on the inside of a vintage cosmetics box.

coming soon.

to my house!

these beauties from decomod walls & big lake studios will soon be making it onto the walls of my home. i love how the print matches my blog header :)

can't wait!

grandma & grandpa around the house.

today i was noticing how many items i have displayed in my home that are from my grandma & grandpa. my grandpa was an ameteur artist and i love having some of his paintings on my walls. it's nice to have some decor that actually means something and reminds me of them. {not that my generic ikea canvas art isn't special...} i loved and miss my grandma so much. i think i inherited my love for all things fancy from her. she was a very fancy lady! i'm sure sean loves that i display that fancy pink doll on the mantle :)

eventually i'll finish this project and frame a few of these

to add some more heirlooms to my decor.