Office on the Move

I finally had to admit something to myself.  Even though having a separate dining room was on our wishlist when we were looking for our first house, we have only eaten in there a handful of times since moving in six years ago.  On the other hand, Bradley uses his office for doing freelance work at our house every day.  I hated that he was tucked away and secluded so much of the time.  So I asked if he would be interested in moving his office downstairs.  He could have easy access to the kitchen and when I’m home, we can see each other more.  We decided to give it a try.  

We did not repaint this time and we haven’t changed the light fixture, but we did move the bookshelves around to better accommodate his L-shaped desk.  I got his orange curtains up and all of his vintage cameras on the shelves, but we haven’t worked on changing out the art yet.  We still have three large Ikea frames that we purchased years ago for his office, but never found artwork for them.

I wasn’t ready to throw in the dining room “towel” yet, so for now the table and chairs are acting as a crafting table in the abandoned upstairs office.  I bought a wooden folding table for that rare occasion that we would need a place for guests to eat.

Flower Bed Makeover

There is a flower bed directly under the windows of our living room that I have had plans to completely make over for a while now.  When we first moved in, the previous owners had purchased four young Gardenias and placed them about a foot from the house in the bed.  At the time, the scale was right, but the shrubs grew out and up  until they were looking cramped and unruly.  I love Gardenias, but these just had to go.

As a side note, an older, existing Gardenia at the corner of this bed was always sickly-looking, so I had replaced it with a weeping Japanese Maple last year.  You can see how the original Gardenias were crammed up against the house behind the Maple Tree in the first picture:

After sending the uprooted Gardenias home with my cousin for his yard, I began my search for plants that would not get too big for this bed.  It gets morning sun and is in the shade by middle of the day.  I started with a dwarf gardenia on the end next to the patio.  Next to that, I added a Coral Bell and an Astillbe.  In the middle I chose an Arborvitae Fern from Scottsdale Farms.  On the end next to the weeping Japanese Maple tree, I put in a Hellebore from my mom’s garden.  Because I installed young plants that aren’t yet full size, I plugged in a few annuals to fill out the bed this year.

The dwarf Gardenia looks underwhelming, but the one I put in the courtyard a few years ago has really filled out nicely .  My hope is the new one will be as happy and grow as big as the mature one.

Speaking of the courtyard, I got a new dwarf hosta for this bed at the same time I got the Arborvitae Fern.  It is called a Blue Mouse Ears Hosta.  It is supposed to get about 12″ wide.

Pretty Little Finds: Bowls

I came across this picture from Martha Stewart Living through Pinterest a couple of years ago and it is still one of my favorite displays.

I don’t have much use for cookbooks – I get recipe ideas online exclusively.  For that reason, I have never dreamed of a cookbook shelf in my ideal kitchen.  But a shelf for a pretty collection of colorful bowls?  Yes!  Here are some of the pretty bowls I have come across online since saving this inspiration.

Source: Anthropologie

Source: West Elm

 Source: West Elm

Source: Camel & Yak

Source: World Market

Source: Nordstrom

Source: West Elm

Source: Orange and Pear 

Source: Anthropologie

Source: West Elm

Source: Anthropologie

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Nursery Organization

I spent last week with my best friend (since 2nd grade) at her home in Bentonville, AR.  We worked hard getting her nursery organized for the impending arrival of her first child – a boy!  She already had all of the furniture in place.  I wanted to help her get the closet and changing table supplies in order.  She sent me pictures of the space before I went out there so that I could start researching ideas.  I put together a Pinterest board for her and she chose her favorite ideas.  I moved the rest of the ideas and products I came across to another general nursery board.

Here are a few shots of the space before I arrived:

It turned out that there were no drawers in the space, so all of my ideas for drawer organization were scraped.  We worked on a shoestring budget to get our ideas implemented.  I had given her a closet organization kit and extra hangers at her baby shower because I knew I was going out to help with that aspect of the room.  It included a hanging organizer with 3 ‘drawer’ bins and two lidded totes as well as hangers and size separaters for the clothing rod.

Surprisingly, she didn’t have that many clothes yet – I know people love to give clothes at baby showers.  We hung what she had on the right side of the top bar.  In the lidded totes, she put blankets.  In the hanging organizer, she put onesies, socks, hats and infant shoes.  The black totes in the top of the closet were clearance finds at Target and hold extra diapers.  The other boxes on the top shelf are plain cardboard boxes wrapped in burlap and held extra wipes and toys to grow into.  We cut circular tags out of marigold-colored card stock and tied them to the totes using jute string.

The large toys/items in the bottom of the closet were just sitting out in the room when I arrived.  Now there is plenty of space in the closet to keep them until she needs them.

The shoe organizer hanging on the inside of the closet door was a recommendation I read about over and over.  We chose one with mesh pockets so that it is easy to see the contents at a glance.  She stored swaddling blankets, pacifiers, extra bath products and burp cloths here.

For the changing table, she picked up plain cardboard shipping boxes and attached some burlap and navy ribbon around the top to store things inside the doors.  We stored extra diapers, wipes, bath towels/washcloths, and sheets in the boxes.  I love that the changing table and crib were items her sister used for her first baby while she was living in Holland and they have made their way to Georgia and all the way to Arkansas now!

Above the changing table, we hung a peg board that we decorated and attached baskets for easy-to-reach storage.  The surface of the table is not much bigger than the changing pad – not much else will fit there, so having a place for items up off the surface should be nice.

The only thing we didn’t find during the week was a reasonably-priced wine/towel wall rack on which to store the rolled up baby blankets.  She is still on the lookout for that.  I was so happy that I got to be a small part of Baby Zion’s room and I can’t wait to meet him.  Thanks to the best friend in the world for playing host for a week and including me in this special time!

Cost Breakdown for the week:
Over-the-Door Shoe Organizer > $9 (Walmart)
Black Flexible Totes > $9 (Target)
Burlap-Covered Boxes > FREE (burlap was from a baby shower thrown by her MIL)
Boxes inside Changing Table > $3 (Walmart)
Burlap and Navy Ribbon > FREE (also from baby shower decor)
Tags for Bins and Totes > FREE (already owned card stock and jute string was from baby shower decor)
Pegboard > $10 (Lowes)
Pegboard hooks > $5 (Walmart – I had her go ahead and buy the variety pack so she can change the layout as baby’s needs change)
2 Fabric lidded totes (not pictured) > $2 (Consignment/Antique Store) 

Total: $36  (how’s that for shoe-string?)

Nacho Average Baby Shower

Our community group is bursting with babies!  We just welcomed the third in less than a year.  In February, we held a surprise baby shower for one of the couples.  It was themed ‘Nacho Average Baby Shower.’  We gathered ideas on Pinterest for weeks in advance and went all out with a taco bar for dinner and sopapillas with ice cream for dessert.

We hung papel picado banners in the foyer and colorful paper lanterns over the dining room opening at the host couple’s home.  I had tissue paper honeycomb balls and fans from previous birthday parties, so we hung them in a cluster from the ceiling fan in the living room.  The food table was covered with my homemade tablecloth that I normally use for my summer parties.  I painted my tiered food stands red to make them pop and tied skinny colorful ribbons to them.  I brought along my cactus and a couple of succulents as well as a pair of maracas I got in Mexico years ago.  The tacos were AMAZING, better than most restaurants.  I made white queso and our friends make the absolute best guacamole, period.  The sopapillas were just baked puff pastry, brushed with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

On the drinks/gifts table, we had a colorful tablecloth and a striped table runner which I found at Tuesday Morning.  I cut strips of crepe paper streamers, fringed them, and wrapped them around the drink tub to tie it into the theme (I did the same for the cutlery holder.)  I visited a local supermercado to pick up authentic Mexican Cokes (complete with spanish labeling.)  There was a delicious virgin margherita punch as well as the ingredients for the real thing for non-preggers.

I downloaded a Mariachi album from iTunes to play during the party.  We all wore fake mustaches and tiny plastic sombreros as the guests of honor showed up.  We had looked up the word surprise in Spanish beforehand, so we all yelled “Sorpresa” as the couple arrived.  It was a really fun night celebrating with the soon-to-be parents.