Before and After: Play Zone

We are finally at a point where we can share some room updates! While we are in the very beginning stages of a major kitchen remodel I thought I could show off some of updates we made to the cleaner areas of our house. 

When we first saw our home, this is how the back sun room/study area looked. Even in the late winter, the light in this room was amazing thanks to the seven windows! We knew right away that this would be a perfect spot for Oliver to play.

Up until Christmas, the room was strewn with toys and books but now there's a nice train table in the middle of the room, window shades, and a rug! That's serious business for us. Take a look!

Because we have seven windows in this room, and because I'm obsessed with dark paint, I really wanted to go with a dark color. We tried so many colors that O started to think it was normal to grab a brush and throw some paint up on the wall any old day of the week. We finally settled on Naval from Sherwin Williams.

The shelves are filled with a mix of playful artwork and toys. On a good day, we keep things organized but most of the time I just pick the toys up off the ground and am satisfied with that. 

The incredible motorcycle was picked up off of a tree lawn the day we moved in! It was the best trash pick ever. JJ spent lots of time on Craigslist looking for this train table and finally found one in time for Christmas. We picked up the rug online and the rest of the place was pieced together over the last year of living here. It's a great place to play! Happy Tuesday, friends!

Artwork by: Grey Cardigan (of course). Kiddo Design for Made in the 216. Suzuran Photography. And a few other local peeps.

A Weekend In The Sun.

Happy Monday! We had a lovely weekend with friends and family enjoying the beautiful weather! We started Tiger Cub soccer two weeks ago and let me tell ya, the first day was rough. It was a little chaotic and way too new so the majority of the three year old parents suffered in public as a group. But by the second week things were MUCH smoother. O participated and had fun. He also acted like a three year as you can see in the photo but it was still fun. 

Then we promptly headed out to join friends for our annual camping trip. The husbands were out the night before so we went to meet up for the day. The kids played hard, ate lots of snacks, and explored while the adults laughed and hung out together. It was so fun. We are lucky to have good friends with lots of kids to make group activities fun!

The breeze was cool but the sun was warm and I took full advantage and made sure my camp fire seat was in a full sun spot. O loves the tent and spent a lot of time in there rolling around and being a goof. 

Sunday morning we woke up at home, got a visit from the Easter bunny that resulted in the immediate need to play with his new bath toy for about an hour in the tub! We headed outside to enjoy the sun before Easter brunch and O decided that he was absolutely going to ride his bike all the way to his grandma's house. The walk was really  nice and he actually rode about a mile before he needed Papa to rescue us in the car and drive the rest of the way.

We had a lot of fun on the cute egg treasure hunt that the bunny left for him at grandma's house. And he orchestrated a great play time with all the adults in the front yard. We had a great family time and then spent the rest of the day in our backyard. 

I hope you had a great weekend too!

New Spring.

Once the spring weather shows up so do the bright colors and fun patterns! I've been excited to show off some of the new fabrics that I've picked up! I'm especially happy about these lovely purple prints that are perfect for spring events including Easter! 

And just for fun I decided to offer up a 20% off code for any order placed between today and April 8th! Just add the code SPRING20 before you check out!

The Party People.

Apparently the majority of our little friends were born in the month of March. So far we've been to four parties in two weekends and it's been a wild and fun time. It's so fun to see how our friends put together parties for their kids. It ranges from a casual meet up to a jump palace to a mini rock show with dad and grandpa performing for the birthday girl. No matter how you put it, our little ones are lucky to have good friends to celebrate with. Above and below is what taking a photo of 18 kids kids looks like. Check out my little guy's face in the second photo, he's not into it anymore.

Let's not forget the new ones! How cute are these dads with their new boys??

We had a variety of cupcakes including minion cupcakes, a Superman cake, and a donut cake. No matter the form, it seems consistent that O eats it frosting side down and is over it once the frosting is gone and we are left to discard of the stump.

At the fourth party O discovered that this cool fire engine moves when his cheap-o parents agree to put quarters in! There was an excavator too and his was over the moon.

I love this sweet picture of the last birthday girl. She was so gracious in welcoming everyone to her party. This is what we've been up to and it's been a lot of fun. I'll share some of the fun gifts that I made for the kids next! Happy Wednesday!

A Rustic Wedding

I was so excited last week to wake up to this lovely email from a bride and groom that I worked with back in November. Kara and Brandon were so kind to share photos with me from their wedding and their photographer Angela Barutenek of Aster & Olive was just as nice for letting me share them with you! You can check out more of their wedding on Angela's site here.

The wedding was rustic and took place in Geneva on the Lake. The details look amazing and these two were a breeze to work with. They saw the fabric they like from my Boutique Bridal Bazaar display in 2013, they let me pick the lining, and these guys look amazing. And Kara is a beautiful bride. Oh, ad don't forget that awesome little pug! Thanks so much to the happy couple, wishing you lots or happiness!

The Reluctance.

I started this prototype kid's tie one year ago. It didn't work quite right so I set it aside and basically forgot about it. In the meantime, I did manage to crank out one, count 'em, kid's tie for a custom order during this past year. Yesterday I was bumbling around in the studio and came across this fun neon thing that I started. So I tinkered with it. It's still not perfect and honestly, it's a little long for O but he's wearing it with pride. "Papa pulls on it like this," he said when he put it on.

This sourpuss face is the most accurate of shots that I got. He agreed to take pictures but was pretty annoyed that it was "taking soooooo long." It was five minutes tops. 

But once it was over he took the wearing of his new tie (or tight, as he says) pretty seriously. He wore it to Home Depot and wanted to put it back on after his bath. And this morning he requested to wear it again when it was time to get dressed. So he'll be the most formal one at his sitter's house today I'm sure. Happy Tuesday, hope you're looking your best!

These Many Winter Days.

Yes, yes the winter has been cold, dark, and long but that doesn't mean you have to dread every day. Yesterday the sun was shining and the snow was glistening. We took a walk and O said "where did all this glitter come from?" It was so sweet and innocent and I cannot imagine crushing those thoughts and replacing them with ones that insist that winter sucks. That said, how do you pass the time? I'm not sure where I saw this idea but it turned out to be pretty fun.

Here's the scene...Spiderman is frozen in ice...and only bath time can save him! We raced upstairs to get

the tub running  and to answer the questions "how do we get him out and will it make the water too cold?"

Lucky for Spiderman the water was pretty warm and he was quickly released from his ice cage. Oliver thought it was pretty funny and it got him asking some impressive questions about ice. AND he was in the bath for a long time leading up to bedtime, which was great because at this point I was worn out. 

It was so much fun that I froze some of his sea creatures for next time. I was tempted to put in food coloring but thought better of having a bright blue kid. Have a fun day!

Snow Day Crafts

The day started off a little shaky. The mounds of snow determined to keep us indoors made me worry about what we'd do today. Through clenched teeth and spilled milk (literally everywhere), I scrubbed the stove top in protest of another day inside. It's winter, I thought to myself, get inspired. Deep breaths and a cup of coffee while O played trains and I had a simple idea. Let's make something kiddo. 

Our craft shelves are overflowing with things to do, I just have to actually do them. I have to come up with the ideas, this kid would happily just watch T.V. on a day like this but I didn't want to start that up.  We gathered up the X and O stamp, some nice craft paper, a glue stick, and scissors and made Valentine's Day cards together.

I helped with the cutting and the tape, and stopped my inner control freak from intervening beyond that. They look great and he was really proud of himself and listed off the names of friends and family that he'll be giving these to. Plus we easily spent a good hour on them.

 

"Don't worry, mama, the ink will wash away." It's tough sometimes to find an activity that we both want to do, I can only play train chase for so long before I'm bored…so  crafts are always a great alternative. Now I just need to stay motivated for the rest of winter. When't it over…April? Happy Friday!

Supa Fresh Weddings

Hey, Cleveland! Have you heard about this fun new event called Supa Fresh Wedding? It's next Saturday, February 8, from 2-7. I can't believe it's almost February! Anyway, it's a collaborative event hosted by Cleveland Flea and Borrow Rentals and it's bound to be inspirational and provide so many engaged couples with great vendors to personalize their special day. The list of vendors is long and full of some pretty impressive talent from the area. Check out all of the information here! Tickets are on sale now, $20 in advance and $25 the day of.

Come with colors in mind and we can talk about customizing the perfect necktie, bow tie, pocket squares, or tie clips for the men in your party. Plus you'll have a chance to enter to win something free for your groom if you come and see me! And if you can't tell, I'm totally pushing this amazing radiant orchid chambray that I picked up! 

I hope to see you there!