Projects

With winter still lingering, but being so ready for spring, I decided to create spring with a bright, flower-themed party for my daughter’s first birthday. But since we’re also a kitty-cat loving family, I just had to throw in a little kitty silhouette into the theme as well, and thus, a floral-cat themed party was born!
I first started with a custom design party pack from VonnLou Designs on Etsy (who was so FUN to work with, by the way. I highly recommend her!), who provided me with printable PDF’s for the invitations, signage, banners, cupcake toppers, etc. Once I had those, the rest was just embellishment! Most of the decor was made up of DIY tissue paper flower kits from Martha Stewart and Dollar Tree floral bunches that I turned into balloon strings and a floral wreath/chandelier for above the dessert table. For the balloon strings, I just detached the faux flower blooms from the stems and hot-glued them together around some yarn at various lengths (Tip from experience though- the flowers really weigh the balloons down! We found that we really couldn’t do more than 2-3 flower bunches on each string to hold up 4-5 latex balloons…any less balloons or more flowers and the balloons would sink to the floor. Boo!)
All of the food was homemade by me and my amazing mama. It was a labor of love, as we ended up needed to feed over 30 people (!!!), but having lots of elves on the day of to help assemble made it happen! I definitely suggest minimal hot foods- it’s just too hard to pre-prepare with enough time…and of course, keeping them hot is another challenge, unless you have chafing dishes. So in my opinion, room-temp foods are the way to go. ;)
It was a last minute addition, but I’m so glad that I did the little “time capsule” project, asking everyone to fill out a little card that Gracelyn won’t read until she turns 18- I think it will be so fun for her to open in eighteen years and see who was at her party and the wishes they made for her at her first birthday. :)
I know that my daughter won’t remember her 1st party, but I know she’s going to love looking back at the photos and seeing how much love surrounded her on this special day! <3

This room is a direct reflection of what makes my wife and I feel like kids again. With me, my energy comes from creating and designing things so the entire scheme right down to the hand painted stripes on the wall were from my own imagination. My wife is a lover of all things cute and cuddly especailly animals and specifically giraffes. Throughout the room there are different animals popping up from the tiny elephants on the sheets to the large woodcut giraffe on the wall.
The project isn’t just about starting things new, it is also a reflection of the past. the colors themselves are different variation of our own wedding colors 2 years prior and the larger painting of the wall contains the phrase “Ciao Bella”. Bella is the name of the 1st love in our lives, our Black Lab we adopted as a puppy. On the bookshelf you can also see nods to the past with porcelain dolls from my wife’s childhood and our favorite books we read when we were young. And finally right where it belongs, is a stuffed pig that even at 30 years old makes my wife tear up.
This nursery is a perfect representation of our past present and future, just as our future daughter will be.
 

The first item I purchased for the nursery was the bedding. I absolutely feel in love with it! The crib, nursery chair and dresser were passed down from Brinley’s older brother who is 3 now.The rest of the decor seemed to fall into place. The flowers on the wall were my mom’s idea, she saw a nursery at a client’s house that had them and told me about them… With my love for crafting I made a bunch of paper flowers myself. The bow and headband holders were made by my super talented and also very crafty best friend.

I grew up on a farm in the country, and even though we live in “town” now, I wanted Austin’s Southern Farm Nursery to reflect my family’s farm background.  The horns, which belonged to my grandfather, are the piece that inspired the Southern Farm concept.  A complement to Grandaddy’s horns is the sweet painting of the little boy by my grandmother, based on a vintage painting she found.  She is 85 and painted it especially for Austin, her first great grandson.
I sewed the tractors hanging from the mobile using felt and buttons for wheels, and I hung them from a branch found on the family farm.  I also cross-stitched the tractor in the distressed wooden frame, which was special to me because of the sweet cross-stitches my mother did for our nurseries when we were babies.
My best advice is “gift or thrift” whenever possible!  Almost everything in the nursery was either a gift or purchased inexpensively at TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Craigslist, and other budget-conscious options.

My sweet baby girls nursery has been my favorite project! My inspiration came slowly, it took 4 months to put the whole thing together.   When I saw the animal heads at TJ Maxx I knew I was going to incorporate them into a gallery wall.  I continued to find other fun animals to add throughout.  The large curtain rod branch came from the first time Emmy visited the beach at just a few weeks old.  This triggered the desire for a tree branch mobile which came from a lovely tree in our neighborhood.  Being on a tight budget made this nursery a rewarding challenge.  I enjoyed putting my custom stamp on things with DIY projects.
My tip, don’t be afraid to combine styles and add your special touch, I’ve learned that if you stick with things you love it can all come together!

Spot on Square

My sister is having her first baby. She is a young lady that loves all things shiny. As a matter of fact my girls call her auntie glitter! We wanted to give her a baby shower that recognized her love of all things shiny and still honor her baby boy Harper. The whole shower was DIY.

Chewbeads

I wanted to create a sweet little first birthday party for my second baby girl Mila. Being a winter baby I had to be creative and come up with a bright and cheery theme. Immediately I wanted to do a confetti themed birthday party for Mila. I love the various colors of the confetti so I choose rainbow colors for the party. Mila had a blast and I had fun planning the party.
The party was held at a local Gymboree Play and Music so I also wanted to incorporate their colors so rainbow colors were perfect for that. I ordered dresses for both my girls (Mila and her big sister) to match with the theme hence the polka colored dresses.

This room was designed for baby D. His mum loves the classical retro style for nurseries, so a lot of the details show that option: pillows, chest of drawers and the armchair. We wanted to mix the contemporary with retro to give it a cleaner look.

For my son’s first birthday we had a Dr. Seuss “Oh the Places You’ll Go” theme and I loved how it turned out! I wasn’t working so I wanted to set a budget because we all know how these things can spiral out of control. I looked into different venues but we ended up holding it at my mom’s house because she has more space and not to mention it was free. I will use any excuse to use photoshop so I made most of the decorations, the cake, and cupcakes myself.
Food Labels: I glued together coloured popsicle sticks to create tiny easels and designed the actual labels in Photoshop.
Cupcakes: They were basic vanilla with vanilla buttercream because I didn’t want to deal with food coloring stains with all the kids and everybody loves vanilla! I added striped paper straws and pompoms to make the truffula tree toppers.
Smash Cake: Again I went with vanilla, added a few sprinkles, printed the topper and stuck it on a paper straw.
Garland: I cheated on this one and got it at Target when they were liquidating their stuff here in Canada.
Quote Posters: I designed them in Photoshop, had them printed on cardstock, and then mounted them on foam core board. There were six in total.
Hot Air Balloons: I ordered 17″ clear latex balloons and poured some metallic sprinkles inside before blowing them up. I attached the balloons to the baskets using plastic ballon sticks and tape. I printed out the “1” labels and stuck them on the front but you could use any number or letter.
Ball Pit: I bought a bunch of pool noodles, which was tricky since they weren’t really in season yet but I found some at Canadian Tire. I cut them up with a serrated steak knife, I recommend doing this outside as it makes quite a mess! We threw them in a 6′ inflatable pool and the kids had a blast!
I had so much fun planning this for Link! And even though it was mega crazy, it was a fun day with all of our friends and family that we will always remember!

Inspired by the book Flora and the Flamingo, we planned a flamingo first birthday bash for our daughter, Genevieve. We used  loads of pinks and orange set against our deep blue dining room. Pinterest provided a lot of the baking inspiration – including the ombré cakes and flamingo sugar cookies. We set up a kids’ table for the party favors so the littles could enjoy their treats too! I incorporated a chalkboard wall with some fun facts about Gen and flamingo yard ornaments in our front yard directed our guests to the party!

When I found out I was pregnant I was super excited about designing our nursery! As an Interior Designer I worked on a lot of showrooms and kids’ rooms were always my favourite part. You have so much more creative freedom in children’s spaces and you can get away with more adventurous colour schemes too! The sad part was that when the time to finally design our own nursery I was too sick to really enjoy it and I couldn’t do all the things that I had planned. I did still manage to put together a simple room on a budget that was perfect for our little guy.
Striped Art – I bought two Ikea Lack tables on Black Friday, threw away the legs, and painted on the stripes and animals with acrylic paint.
Fox Art – My mom gave me the collage frame and created the “woodgrain animal tracks” in Photoshop. I removed the glass from the centre frame and added the wood fox that my sister-in-law found at Superstore.
Deer Art – I created the artwork in Photoshop and added it to an old Ikea frame I had in my basement.
Mobile – I adapted a Wood Painting Kit from Target, punched holes in the tops of the birds and hung them from dowels using fishing line.
Closet Organizer & Bins – I covered the front of the bins with a fabric that I found at a local quilting shop.

This is baby Sophie’s nursery.
I wanted a fun + girly nursery with pieces that would transition well into a big girl room in the future.
I mixed things that I already owned with a few new pieces as well as some fun diys.

We were inspired by our home, Colorado.  We wanted to bring the outdoors in while maintaining a colorful and yet relaxing nursery.   We picked a few items such as the quilt made by soon to be Grandma Susie and the curtains. These items pop by maintaining a neutral palette for the rest of the room.  We added character to the room by incorporating unique items we found along the way.
Tags:  forest, gender neutral, woodland, animals, aspen, bright, nursery
 
 

My husband bought me the dachshund dog print by Tad Carpenter at Flatstock/Bumbershoot in Seattle about 5 years ago. We have two sweet dogs and I envisioned using the print someday in a dog-themed nursery suitable for either a girl or a boy. Fast forward and we are expecting a baby girl this spring!
I used the dog print as the focal point for the room over the crib and planned the decor around it. The nursery is in our basement which is unfortunately narrow with a low ceiling and little natural light. I wanted it to feel bright, colorful, and cheerful without being cluttered and cheesy. I had a lot of fun mixing sentimental items, DIY projects, and Etsy finds with furniture graciously gifted by family and friends.
There is no closet in the nursery so we affixed a kitchen towel rail from Ikea to a shelf from Pottery Barn Kids to make a “closet” for our girl. It was fun picking out the special clothes to display, including some dresses I sewed and her first St. Louis Cardinals jersey.
I love everything in the room, but the crochet dachshund dog with the red beret (purchased while shopping with my best friend and her newborn in Kansas City) and the dog coat hooks (purchased from Ikea years ago on a whim) always make me smile.
 
 

When I saw this rug in a few rooms on Pinterest, I just knew I had to have it! I love the colors and it’s what inspired the overall look of the nursery. The layout of the room is a little weird, but I think we made good use of the space. There were 3 closets, so we removed the doors to the biggest one and made it a cozy little sleeping cave. I’m really happy with this room because I think it looks fun and sweet, but still not too “baby-ish.” I’m hoping we can use a lot of the decor well into her tween years!

When we found out we were having a girl, I could not wait to get to work on creating a feminine and vintage, yet eclectic princess space. Metallics, hearts, and mixed textures were my inspiration as I set to work on Baby Charlote’s nursery. We had a small room to work with, so though I wanted to scoop up everything pink, gold, and sparkly I could find- I had to limit myself. I tried to maximize the space with DIY bookshelves, spray painted re-purposed storage and an IKEA-hacked customized closet. Though I splurged on a few things (bed skirt, rocker), I tried to lower the budget by creating my own garland, repurposed mirror, and some fun, cheap bins. Lastly, it was important that Charlie’s nursery had flairs of her namesake, her great-grandmother, in the room. WIth a sparkly C pillow and a mobile that plays “you are my sunshine” (her great-grandmother’s favorite lullaby), her great-grandmother’s presence cannot be missed.

I wanted to design a sweet and unique nursery for my baby girl. I picked every single item we have in her room, the process was not easy and took months but gladly we were able to have it done before our sweet girl arrived. We first had the room walls white but decided that it was missing an extra girly touch and the pink wall was the perfect choice. The color is pink elephant from Valspar. Many items are from Pottery Barn Kids but others were more affordable finds from Home Goods, Target, Lowes, Ikea, etc. We are so happy with the end result and fell that the nursery is really Chloe’s dream room.

I am a lover of all things unique!  After I created a one of kind Science Gender Reveal 2 years ago, I knew if I ever had another child, I would do something just as different. Move over cake reveals and balloon boxes, enter my volcano theme gender reveal with elements of a luau to boot.
This party is fun and unique a crowd pleaser for adults and kids!  The colors are vibrant and the effect is easy to achieve.  We had a blast doing this reveal!