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!