Time flies when you're having fun!

What?! It's already Friday night? Where on earth did this week go?

We woke up this morning to the most beautiful morning we've had yet in Maryland.  It felt like Idaho! Cool, breezy, perfect.  I packed up the little one and went over to my mom's to have some coffee on the porch.  That didn't feel like Idaho - it was so much better :)

This week we've been working on having Emma sleep in her crib during nap time and bedtime.  She was previously sleeping in our room still, but we are ready for her to be in her own room so we can sleep a little better.  So far the napping has gone well, and tonight is the first night we're really trying to have her sleep in her crib at bedtime.  After about an hour and a half of letting her cry while going in every few minutes to console her, she's swaddled and sleeping.  We'll see how long it lasts!

We've got quite the exciting week ahead of us.  Tomorrow night we're headed to Ram's Head Live to see the Swell Season.  Did you see the movie Once? It's the guy and girl from that movie.  I'm super excited. Then next Sunday, I'm taking my man to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert at Merriweather Post.  They're his favorite band and he's never seen them, so I bought us tickets for his birthday.  Mom's going to watch the little one for that show, and Karen is watching her tomorrow. Yeah for date nights!

I'm going to try and get back in the swing of posting regularly once again.  We'll see what happens.  For now, some guest room inspiration.

{via Decor Pad}

{via Decor Pad}

{via Lonny Mag}

Swoon.

{via}

Oh, and this, too:

Living Room Inspiration

Here are my inspiration photos for now.  I'm so excited about this project!

 Mom's current room is beige accented in red like the one above.  I love this and will definitely keep the warm colors. One thing I'd love to see go, however, is the brick.  Here's a photo from YHL where they painted over brick, and painted the ceiling rafters white.  I love this look, but with pops of red for mom's warm room.

As for the bay window, we have a few options.  The biggest issue is that the window looks out onto an ugly plastic garage, so there's no real view.  In light of this, my current thought is to do some roman shades like these:

I'd love to work in a window seat, but seeing as we're on a budget I'm not sure that's going to happen yet.

 In the meantime, I'm thinking about re-arranging the room so that the couch is actually in front of the window. I think this combined with some bold accessories on the window sill, roman shades, and a bay window curtain rod with panels will help make the shed disappear.  The couch will become the focus, and some bright pillows will help draw the eye there instead of outside.

We have another window to work with, and I think that since this one has a wonderful view of the tree in Mom's front yard we're going to try and play it up. I'll be back with more inspiration and ideas later!

Mom's Living Room Renovation

This week flew by for me - I feel like it was ages ago that I did some organizing work for my Dad, but that was just Monday!

I've been doing lots of "inspiration grabbing" the past few days, to gear up for helping my Mom re-decorate her living room.  We're not sure when it's going to happen, but I figured I might as well get some ideas going!

The room is a medium-sized addition, and has lots of interesting features like a bay window, wood floors, exposed brick, and ceiling rafters.  This shot shows the exposed brick and the rafters, and the next shows the lovely bay window all covered up by some horrid blinds. 

There are lots of things that have to be taken into consideration.  My parent's house is divided up into three (pretty much equal) sections.  They have the hallway where the bedrooms and bathroom are, then the kitchen/dining room, then this living room.  Because this room serves so many purposes, there are lots of things to take into consideration.  It is the piano room, the library, the tv room (thank goodness for pretty tv storage! I love my mom's tv cabinet), the office, and the playroom for Emma and her cousins.   Whew! That's one busy room!


I'm hoping to come up with some easy, cheap ideas to help get the room organized and functional. My mom and dad did a huge kitchen renovation a few years ago, and I'm hoping to help them bring their living room up to that beautiful kitchen's standard.

Stay tuned for inspiration photos!

When we finally buy a house...

I want it to have a nook.

Oh and a bedroom like these:

Wallpaper

I'm in love with these wallpapers... I might need to find somewhere in my house where I can work something like this in!

Boy stuff...

So when we get pregnant again (I swear I'm not pregnant yet, so don't even bother with the insinuating questions) if it is a boy I am most definitely going to have this bedspread in his room at some point.  How handsome, without being too "little boy":

{via pb kids fall '10 preview}

We've been busy!

This week flew by, which was nice.  We're still not quite settled in, but getting there.  We've realized that moving from Maryland to Idaho as two unemployed newlyweds was so much easier than moving from Idaho to Maryland with a 4 month old! We're not only having to adjust to the fast-paced lifestyle, but also trying to figure out how to unpack while tending the little one, and amidst everything establish a daily routine.  It's not the easiest thing in the world, but we're getting there.

I'm going to apologize in advance for this post. Some people will enjoy it, others will skim it, but I'm in a writing mood and haven't done much of it lately. 

First, Emmaline.  We're trying to figure out what our "parenting style" is, meaning that we are trying to figure out what parenting means for us.  This is hard! I think we are very good at loving her and catering to her needs, but we're having a hard time with things like bedtime routines, nursing no more than every 2 hours (lately she'll even eat every 30 minutes for a few feedings.. that's got to end!), figuring out how to work discipline into the whole thing (especially when it comes to diaper changing... she throws a fit and I'm trying to learn the best way to teach her that that's not ok).  My Aunt has 6 very well behaved kids, so I really need to sit down with her and pick her brain about all these things.  I'm finding that with kids, the experience of others is invaluable.

Bran and I are doing great, though the move has been hard.  We love where we are in life and are excited to see what God has in store for us these next few months. 

I just recently started doing some work for my dad as his campaign assistant.  I'm really enjoying the work, especially since I can do it at my own pace and from home.  I started last week by giving his blog a face-lift (I got to do some wordpress experimenting which was fun).  This week I'm doing some more secretarial work like making phone calls for sign locations and entering data into a database. It's really nice being able to help my dad in this way, especially after being gone for so long.

That's it for now! (The baby just woke up...)  I'll update more later :)

Check it out!

I'm super excited about this stencil giveaway over at Three Men and a Lady.  I'm crossing my fingers!

Oh thank goodness for thunder storms.

Living room reveal!

I finally managed to snap some photos of our living room, but once again failed to take any before photos. Someday, maybe!

Paint color is Wedgewood Gray by Benjamin Moore

New pillows and slipcovers for the couches are on my list of things to buy.

Duke seems to like it here :)

More to come later!

Domino Content is Back!

Domino Magazine went under in early 2009 due to a lack of support in advertising. Until now, their archive content was only available to those who held on to all of their issues (I managed to keep the 5 or 6 I received during my subscription).  Their content is once again available to everyone over at Brides.com in their "home & registry" section. I'm thrilled!

$50 Gift Card Giveaway Winner!

 Using the random number generator over at random.org, I came up with entry #5...

Congratulations to.... Karen! 

You should receive an email from CSN stores with your promo code soon!

Thank you all so much for entering! I love doing giveaways so I'm sure there will be more in the near future!

Nursery progress!

I just used the last of my pb kids gift cards to buy these curtains for the nursery:

As soon as they get here I should be able to finally show you some pictures of it!