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Freak Show Circus First Birthday Party

My Baby Boy recently turned one and while I was drawn to the adorable circus and carnival themed parties I saw online, they just lacked that pizzazz I wanted for my birthday boy. I knew I wanted something masculine yet cute, but also unique and maybe even a bit edgy. I brainstormed our favorite travel locations and my mind was instantly drawn to Coney Island with its delicious hot dogs and ice cream and, of course, the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. And thus was born Baby K’s Freak Show Circus themed first birthday party!
The party was filled with homemade baking and DIY projects, from the backdrop for the cake smash to the freak show cutouts. All the DIY instructions and recipes are available on my blog, www.turquoisetoffee.wordpress.com !

CowaBunga

I grew up on the Jersey Shore, and my husband grew up on Martha’s Vineyard! The salt air is in our blood! However when we got married my husband’s job moved us right across the river to NYC (Edgewater, NJ).  When my son was born, I wanted him to know the “vibe” of the Jersey Shore and Martha’s Vineyard waters, as his nursery overlooked the Hudson River.  I did not want a traditional “nautical”, so I incorporated sharks, whales, surfboards, and anything that reminded me of the great vibes we get down the shore and on the Vineyard. It is truly our favorite room in the house.

Gender Neutral Colorful Giraffes

We found a painting of a giraffe with lots of bright colored paint strokes so we used that as the center piece and built around it. We wanted the room to be bright, playful and colorful to stimulate early childhood development. All of our furniture and giraffe accents are  iwhite with gold and brass accents so that the colorful decor would pop. Unintentionally circles/polka dots was also woven through the space to tie in the round-esque paint strokes in the painting. It’s a welcoming cozy space that we and our newborn love.

Elena’s Officially Forever Dollhouse

I have always loved dollhouses and enjoyed playing in my Barbie house when I was a little girl.  Now that I have a little girl of my own, I wanted to create a dollhouse that she could keep forever.  I started small with the IKEA Flisat dollhouse two years ago when she was two and half years old and put it in her playroom.  It was a great little starter house!  The adorable Calico Critter Tuxedo Cat family moved in and hours of play were had.  While the IKEA house was great, I had my sights set on a dollhouse that was front opening, had windows, and one you could close the mess away.  The Plan Toys Victorian Dollhouse was at the top of my list and boy is it AMAZING!  I was waitlisted on Wayfair for it and it finally came up available (and on sale!) so I pulled the trigger and purchased it.  This house is much bigger than the IKEA, so of course some redecorating and new furniture purchases had to happen, right? (wink, wink)
The Plan Toys house comes in a natural wood with a clear coat sealant.  While I like that look, I knew I would want it to match her updated playhouse with a white exterior and pink door.  I got to work sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, painting…I think you get the process.  It was definitely more labor intensive than I originally thought, and if I had to do it all over again I would buy an at home paint sprayer and save myself some time and mess.  But in the end it was so worth it!  The layout and space of this dollhouse was bigger, which meant I could add a bathroom, create a bigger kids space, and reconfigure the kitchen.  I got to work searching my favorite miniature stores for the Tuxedo Cat family’s new furniture.  Buying in miniature is so much fun, and way cheaper than redecorating your actual home.  I ran to Michaels Crafts in search of “wall paper” and found the cutest scrap book paper.  I applied the “wall paper” with a glue stick to the kitchen, bathroom, kids space, and living room.  I still have some finishing items I would like to add like light fixtures, a bathroom rug and change out some pillows, but I am loving how it has turned out.
I determined that the perfect place to put Elena’s new dollhouse was in her newly updated Officially Forever Big Girl bedroom.  Since my blog post about Elena’s bedroom, I have received many questions about the dollhouse.  I decided to create it’s own special blog post and give it the attention it deserves!  We have lots of fun using our imaginations and playing in the new dollhouse, it has been a great way to spend time together.

Colorful and Girly Safari Nursery

The inspiration for my daughter’s nursery started with a flamingo painting my aunt had done for me for my birthday the year before I got pregnant. My mom and I have a thing for flamingos, which is why my aunt did the painting (she’s seriously so talented!). I knew I wanted to incorporate flamingos into the nursery when we found out we were having a girl, so initially that was the direction I was going in. The theme spiraled into more of a wild animal/safari theme as I was perusing pinterest and saw a print of a baby elephant in a flower crown. From there, my creative juices just started flowing!
I loved the idea of having a colorful nursery, not just shades of pink and white, so I found things in floral prints to complement the flower crowns on the baby animal prints. I also incorporated gold accents into the room in several places. Some of my most favorite items in the nursery were Etsy finds, including the 4 baby animal prints, the bible verse print above the glider, the mobile – which was customized to include a flamingo as well as gold accents (I’m obsessed with it!), and the wooden name sign above her crib, which we spray-painted gold. Another one of my favorite things in the nursery is the glider, which I happened to find at Babies R Us a few days before our local store closed for good. It was literally the only glider they had left in the store that wasn’t a floor model – in fact, they didn’t have a floor model of it so I bought it based on seeing the fabric in the box and looking up a picture of it online to see what it looked like put together. It was discounted to only $100 so even though I wasn’t sure it would fit in the nursery all that well, I couldn’t pass up the deal so I took a chance on it and I’m so glad I did! It not only looks great, it’s also super comfortable. I got a lot of the rest of the decor at my favorite store, Target, and all of the stuffed safari animals were gifted to Baby Reagan by my step-daughter from her collection.
Overall, splurging on a few items on Etsy and saving by shopping at Target or using decor we already had resulted in us not spending a ton but still creating a nursery we love, and we hope our daughter loves as she gets older. I hope she can grow into the room, and if she’s anything like the rest of her family she will be an animal lover so I hope she’ll love what we came up with for a long time.

A Colorful Jungle Safari Nursery

My husband and I love to travel! We are also huge animal lovers and wanted to incorporate our love for both into our son’s nursery. Our main goal when designing our nursery was to create a nursery that could easily transition into a toddler’s room.  We decided that an accent wall with a jungle theme or animals would be perfect to build the nursery around. I did a lot of research and finally found Annet Weelink Designs through Pinterest. Annet has the most beautiful wallpaper designs and I immediately fell in love with her watercolor jungle wallpaper. We think it really creates a fun, magical jungle for our son!  Over the years, we have collected small items from our travels and thought it would be fun to include those in the nursery as well- a walking stick from our gorilla trek in Rwanda, a photo from The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a giraffe and rhino from Mexico from my mother-in-law, a stuffed elephant from Thailand, etc. We had a lot of fun creating this nursery and we hope that our son grows to love and appreciate wildlife as much has we do! Side note: Our dog loves the nursery as well and had to sneak into the picture :) Photographer: Kasia Bacon.

Bowe Braedy’s Baby Animal Woodland Themed Nursery

I wanted to create a space that had loving, soothing energy for Bowe. Childhood memories of being in the woods with the animals always made me happy and at peace as a wild little wonderer. I used to pretend that all the baby animals were watching me and that the fairies were their protectors from the outside world who lived amungst the firms in the forest. Given how today, the current culture and stimulation is driven in an abundance by technology, and tablets, making his first environment a natural, rustic, clean edged woodland was an obvious choice for me. I took on the decor, design and interior decoration, where my husband took on all the heavy labor of remodeling the room from the floors, windows, framing, and finish work(trim). This was and is no means something I did on my own. It was a husband and wife team project. Looking back im extremely thankful to have had gone through this process with my husband. I got to actually see him in action. Watching him use his talent that he normally executes full time at Boeing as wing mechanic, was so fun to be apart of. Our love got us through at the end and was our inspiration all through out. Loving our son and each other. I recommend that you take your time, and don’t rush. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to try and revisit your options. I probably repainted the trim about 10 different shades of grey until I was satisfied. Giving yourself the green light to take a break if ever frustrated or tired is a must. I made sure to start knowing I had over 4 months to complete my vision. It’s OK to mess up! I messed up, and plenty mistakes were made, which in turn more than a few of those mistakes transpired into happy mistakes. Inspiring new ideas and over-all choices that I ended up actually using in the end. Love, patience, and following your heart/vision got me to the finish line. I’m so thankful for having the opportunity to start and now have to have completed our baby boys room and sacred first space. Something I will cherish and definitely one I will never forget. Happy Creating!
Love, Teal Seibold

Frozen Princess Party

Frozen has continued to be a popular theme, and at the shop we wanted to put together an event centered around Elsa & Anna without being overly Frozen specific. We worked with one of our favorite party product brands, Daydream Society, and put together a winter wonderland that evoked the Frozen spirit in a fresh way.
On the tables, we used the Frosted collection by Daydream Society. Layering small plates on top of larger plates fills the tables more and adds dimension. Plates were topped off with adorable cupcakes by a local favorite! We always love adding confetti on tables, and this snow confetti was perfect with the theme. Fun white sparkly Christmas picks were added as table centerpieces, and kids took home snowflake tattoos as their favor.
The backdrop needed to be fun and draw attention because we had Elsa and Anna coming from a local princess company (Princess Pros Entertainment). Iridescent foil curtains lined the backdrop and then we framed out the princesses with a sparkly balloon garland. We worked in blush, light blue, silver and snowflake balloons to give a magical feel to the garland. Everyone tends to go more blue with the Frozen theme, so we mixed in a little pink to change it up.
For the crafts, the party guests make snowflake wands and pipe cleaner tiaras – both fairly easy and affordable supply wise. We kept it easy and purchased foam snowflakes in different sizes and colors, and small snowflake stickers to add on top. on the sticks, we had them tie thin ribbons. The tiaras, they got creative and shaped sparkly silver pipe cleaners.
It was such a fun morning, and it is always fun to see the kids’ reactions when princesses walk in. Frozen is a favorite, and such a fun theme for winter! Plan a birthday party, holiday party or just a fun little get together.

Gunner’s “What Little Boys are Made Of” Room

I know I have said it before, but I think one of the biggest challenges I faced with Gunner’s room, was trying to decide on a theme. Before he was born, I just knew I wanted a vintage military themed room. Well then Target came out with this amazing black and white modern line for nurseries and I had to incorporate that into it somehow. Then we moved to our new home and I decided I needed his room to be more colorful to showcase his personality. So through all of that, his room has just became a modge podge of everything that makes us, us, and I absolutely love how his room has turned into a “what little boys are made of” theme.

‘Glitter All Day’ Holiday Nursery

The sweetest pink nursery, all glamed up for the holidays!
Sourcing lovely festive items for this nursery was as simple as pie. It was just a matter of adding in a few shiny things to glam it up! It turned out to be quite a magical space in our home. Far from being traditional, it’s just perfect for my little girl.
My favourite part about styling her room was setting up this mini tree from Canadian Tire. It has fairly sturdy branches, so hanging heavier ornaments on it was a breeze. I filled it with vintage ornaments from my childhood. There is something beyond special about sharing pieces of your history with your children. My daughter is still barely 2, but one day I know she’ll love hearing about how I had a similar Christmas tree in my room growing up. I did pick up a few new additions, like a felt swan and pink ballet slippers from HomeSense, and these beautiful mini rose gold baubles. Instead of a star on top of the tree, I used one of her velvet hair clips. Legit so cute.
We usually hang headbands and hats on the hooks above her dresser, but I decided to switch these out with shimmery ornaments she can look up at while being dressed. And lucky for me, they are still out of reach! I saw this wool-woven tree at HomeSense in the most beautiful soft green colour, so added it to her shelf for a pop of texture.
This amazing bottle brush tree set from Indigo included a few pink and mauve coloured trees, for just the right amount of glitz. We updated her light box with a festive saying and perched a beautiful whitewashed nutcracker up on her floating shelves. And how sweet is this vintage car ornament? Some new board books for bedtime stories were the perfect finishing touch.
I just love how cheerful and sweet the rooms feels with these small and simple additions! I think I’ll have a hard time putting everything away in January, can bottle brush trees stay out year round?
Search ‘Rosé All Day’ on the project nursery blog to see this nursery in it’s regular ‘non-holiday’ state! Full room product sources are listed there too.

Winter Woodland Holiday Boy Room

A cozy woodsy room, filled with whimsy and holiday cheer!
I was a little too excited about styling my kid’s rooms for the holidays this year. I mean, it helped that my 3 year old was talking about decorating the entire house the day after halloween. The pressure was on! His room already had a bit of a woodsy feel with pops of green, so we stuck with a winter woodland style. It was pretty simple to spruce the space up for the holidays!
I started with these amazing bottle brush trees from Indigo. They came in a pack of 10, so I split them up between my son and daughter’s rooms based on colour. 
I found some fun finds from HomeSense, like this mini tree, nutcracker and stocking. The little wooden Santa figurines were from my childhood. I love telling my kids about all the decorations I grew up with, it makes this time of year so special and nostalgic.
I knew I had to drop by Canadian Tire and walked out with beautiful ornaments, like these mini monochrome baubles in black and silver. Since they didn’t come with any string, I picked up some nice black ribbon and hung them up on the tree. The easiest 5 minute DIY. And the little vintage camper ornament was a must!
I placed a few of the bottle brush trees with a wooden bead garland on his shelf to create another cute vignette! It turned out to be a great spot to feature some Christmas books too.
I’ve always loved this black IKEA stool under the window, it’s great for rotating in favourite books or toys on the weekly, so I knew this would be the perfect spot for his new nutcracker. And the Santa’s elf factor makes it extra cute, right?
The best part of all was witnessing my son’s reaction when he walked in the room for the first time… ‘wowwwww, it’s incredible’, he said. And that’s what it’s all about!

Esme’s Ethereal Escape

As soon as I learned I was having a baby girl, I was so excited to start her nursery! Though we didn’t have a name for her yet, I knew exactly what I wanted in a nursery. I wanted the room to be modern and have a touch of sophistication and maturity so that it could transition into a small child’s bedroom and potentially a teenager’s bedroom.
I began with purchasing a canvas print that I loved that featured all of my favorite colors. It was my source of inspiration and centerpiece to work off of. The colors I wanted to use throughout her room were turquoise, blush, pink, mauve, fuchsia, and my favorite, dark teal. I also wanted to have accents of gold and crystals throughout the nursery for that modern touch. I also didn’t have a specific theme, but I included a few touches of clouds, hot air balloons, and flowers, which I love!
My biggest advice and tip is to create an inspiration board of what you’d like your nursery to look like. I found some items online and color schemes and simply printed them out and cut them up to make a collage. It was a great way to bring it with me to stores or refer back to for online shopping.
I would also say “less is more.” There were items that I purchased that I returned because the space felt too cluttered or they didn’t flow with the space like I thought they would. A lot of the items in the nursery are also budget friendly, and I only splurged on one or two items.
Lastly, get creative! I didn’t like the knobs that the dresser came with. So, I swapped them out! The crystal curtain panel that I purchased, I had to cut in half. So, I did!
I absolutely love the end result! My husband jokes that I created the room I always wanted but never had! I’m ecstatic to create memories in the room with our baby girl, Esme. We chose her name an hour after she was born! :)

Luka’s Superhero Birthday Bash

My little superhero just turned three! I hope this party inspires you to get out your scissors and glue stick and tackle some fun DIY projects! Your birthday babe will thank you! Luka’s reaction to the party was priceless. We had the best time celebrating and I’m so happy with how everything turned out.
Newspaper poster – Created in Photoshop
Colourful block buildings – Used spare wood to create these and then a paint marker for the windows
Backdrop – Created in Photoshop and used good old Bristol board for the buildings
Treat bags – I used a free printable here: http://paixaodesigns.blogspot.com/2013/10/free-printables-from-superhero-party.html I also added Thank you for coming stickers that I created in PicMonkey
Signs – Made from left over drywall and black paint
All labels were created in PicMonkey.
xo!
Tara
 
 

Unicorn Bedroom Makeover

I would love to share the makeover of my seven year old daughter Adelyn’s bedroom makeover. For her “big girl” room she wanted unicorns, horses, and sparkles…so we compromised to still get her vision while “taking it down a notch”  (or about a dozen!). To create more of a softer look, I used subdued pastel colors, and lots of textures. We added in a lot of fun unicorn and horse items in either inexpensive decor items or easy-to-swap out artwork will sweet, girlish images. We used a new spindle style bed and layered on lots of pink, white, and gold bedding.
But, her favorite part of the room is her new pink sofa! While it is primarily a reading nook, as a bonus it also folds out as a second bed for sleepovers. I love her new Wall Gallery full of fun, whimsical art (where else can you use prints of fairy floss than a little girl’s room??) We added in some fun DIYs just as the $69 light fixture and $2 gold horse figure.
I also wanted to keep it really budget friendly since I wanted her to fully enjoy her space, and not freak out when she secretly brings out her hidden marker stash…I know it is in there somewhere!
My advice to readers for designing a kid room: don’t go over the top with a theme! Instead, do something a little more classic with neutral furniture, and then sprinkle in fun touches (such as our bubble gum blowing llama).
If you can see the whole room reveal (and the free “Shop This Room” printable) right here: http://postboxdesigns.com/2018/11/08/girl-bedroom-decor-kid-room-makeover-e-design/

Jessi Malay’s Floral Nursery

We knew early on that we wanted to incorporate this gorgeous floral wallpaper. Even though the space isn’t huge, the high ceilings and generous amount of natural light definitely make the room feel spacious enough for this oversized floral design. To add warmth, gold accents were incorporated throughout the room. We sourced items from different shops to achieve a unique and inviting space and that also added personality to the room. The acrylic crib and white dresser are slightly different styles yet compliment each other beautifully. We kept the larger pieces of furniture white and added color to the room with the smaller decor elements in pink, gold, and sage green.

Classy Coastal Nursery

Although we live in Upstate New York, my husband is from San Diego and I wanted to pay homage to his hometown and a beloved activity of his: surfing. I didn’t want to go overboard with the theme and be too beachy or nautical, since I want this room to grow with my baby boy. The result was “classy coastal”. There are some beachy elements and some nautical elements. I love to play around with patterns and textures so you can see that throughout this room. The first two things I chose that inspired the whole nursery were the Serena and Lily wallpaper, and the surf car print from Minted. I hope you love looking at these photos even half as much as I loved creating it!
 
*All photos taken by Michelle Lange Photography
**I’ve tried to link all items below but some were not available online

Rustic Farmhouse Baby Shower

My friend Amanda has a gorgeous farmhouse style home in Nashville, TN, so I thought a simple rustic farmhouse theme was perfect for her baby sprinkle. The shower was very feminine. Also very farmhouse with galvanized metal and lots of mason jars. I made a DIY Hula Hoop decor focal point. The DIY elements were easy! The co-hosts and I created a Walk Around Charcuterie table and desserts were a pie bar and cookie tray. We had a wishing tree for guests to write down wishes for the mama and baby on the way. Shower favors were deconstructed caramel apples.