Airplanes

I've been wanting to incorporate airplanes into my little boy's room. Not too much...I don't want it to be too themey, but I wanted just a few because I think they're boyish and I think they're cute. There are a lot of little airplane things around, but almost everything I find has red in it. I just like baby blue and brown, as those are the colors in my room, so it's been difficult to find things to match. So, I've decided to make somethings. Here are my thoughts.

I found these little guys at Michaels and Walmart. The big one, I actually built. Crazy, huh. Don't be fooled, it was all cut out with instructions, and it was a dollar...and the other two were 50 cents. They're teeny tiny and they won't stand up to playing, but I just wanted them to be decorations anyways. I want to seal them - they say to do it with linseed oil, but at the craft store that was like $16 or something crazy. I wonder where else you can get it...

Then, I was looking online for some cute wall art for his nursery, and I found these ideas:

Put them together and what have you got?? Bibbity Bobbity Boo!

Cute little airplane wall art:

They were really inexpensive to make. I just got wooden frames and spray painted them white. Then I decoupaged paper to the wooden back (that usually goes behind the picture) and I decoupaged the airplanes to the paper. The little airplanes are 15 cent cheapies that I painted blue, and then I got a brown paint pen and drew in the outline. Easy Peasy. They turned out pretty cute, I think.

I think airplanes can follow him into his childhood and maybe teen years also. Unlike some of the stuffed animals and other cutsie nursery things. Maybe someday, his room will evolve into being more like this Potterybarn cutie:

We shall see.

Quote Jars

I saw {this} on the Lettered Cottage and it sounds like a great idea, but it reminded me of something my aunt did that I want to remember and do. She kept a quote jar for each one of her kids and put funny things they said in them. I like the way these look all lined up side by side. Those labels are cute. I think quote jars for each person in my family would look cute as a decoration, if they looked like this. Anyway, when they grew up, and moved away from home, my aunt made a book with funny pictures and these funny quotes and gave it to them as a going away present. It was hilarious!! I love the idea and I'm going to do it, too.

Sailboat Cake

Love this cake idea from {Martha}. It's so cute for a little boy!! I'm guessing the fishies are cookies and the sailboat looks easy enough to make out of paper and a dowel, but how did they do that wave pattern in the frosting on the sides? Maybe they did straight lines and then ran a knife upwards to drag the frosting up to make the tips of the waves pointy. Sounds kind of hard, but it sure is cute!

Take Along Placemat

Smaller than a table cloth, easier to carry, and can be individual so each person has one made just for them. I like it! Cute idea from {Patchwork}. They tell us how to make it and everything! Awesome.

Edible Finger Paint

{Blissfully Domestic} had this awesome idea. How many kids have tried to eat their fingerpaint before?? Well this solves that problem. She used plain yogurt and gel food coloring. That's it. And this is what it looked like. Seems to work just fine. And taste good, too!

Lovely Nurseries

Since I just had a baby, I've been really scoping out the nurseries lately. I really wish I would have finished decorating my son's nursery before he came, but that just didn't happen, so it's been a LONG work in progress. I've found some nurseries that are really inspiring in my search for ideas, though, and I wanted to save them on here for future reference.

This lovely room is from Potterybarn Kids. It's cute, but super sophisticated at the same time.

I love how there is molding on that wall around a painted square of pink and the frames inside of it really pop, don't they? Great accent wall!

This lovely room is from {Project Nursery} I love what they did to that wall. It looks awesome. I also like what they put in their shelves to decorate. They did a really good job. I especially like the little suit cases.
Cute little crib.And what a great space saving idea - just put the dresser/changing table in the closet. They don't need all that room for clothes anyway...

This room is from {Serena and Lily} I used to want to do a neutral nursery, and I probably would have been ok with it for our little boy, but I just KNOW I'll want ALL girl when we have one. Isn't it so cute! However, I'd never go this pink...craziness. It IS cute how it's all grown-up-ish, though.





This one from Potterybarn Kids again is one of my favorites!! I love the colors. This room could totally grow up with your little boy without changing much and I really like that idea.

Love that rocking horse and that blue rocking chair, and I really like how they spelled his name vertically. Nice touch.



I LOVE this changing table from Potterybarn. If I had enough room in my baby's room I totally would have gotten something exactly like this. I love the way it looks, especially in that espresso color.

And I totally wish I could find some bear bookends like that. They're so cute!!


I saw this room on {Daisy Pink Cupcake}. Isn't it lovely?? It feels so calming and cool. I absolutely love it! It totally looks vintage. Look at the hot air balloon light. Tan and blue go really well together.

This lovely is from {Rooms You Love}
As I already mentioned, when I have a girl, it will be girly! I just love this room. It's SO cute! I think my favorite parts are the mirror and the chandelier. The mirrors on the dresser are pretty cute, too. The more I look at it, the more I see. I like how this room seems really mature as well, even if it IS a little over the top. :)

This one, from Potterybarn again, is just really nice and neat looking.

I like the bedding, how it's so boyish and I really like the pictures above the crib. Cute idea.

I saw this one on Design Dazzle, and I really just love looking at it. So I put it on here. I don't know if I'd use any of these colors, but I think it is really well done!



Something about the way Potterybarn decorates their rooms gets me almost every time! I really just love the the colors. And that cute scallop on the walls is adorable. LOVE the chandelier.

I saw this room on Alkemie. I love it. I really like neutral rooms. And those teddy bears are so cute!! The chandelier is fun, and I love that canopy over the crib.
Very French. It's pretty cute.

This room is from Serena and Lily's Nursery Style book. If anyone is ever wondering how to make a room work with both a crib and a twin, this is the way to do it! It works so well. But, good luck with getting them to sleep together.

And here's a cute little idea from Potterybarn Kids for a twin nursery. I really like the storks.
And I really hope that if I ever have twins, they are a boy and a girl.

Master Bedroom Bedding Continued...

To see the origin of this post, click {here}.

This is kind of fun. {Inmod Design Studio} has a website where you can go in and design your own duvet cover. They have a lot of different fabrics in different colors to use as your base fabric, so it can be as luxurious or as cheap as you want, and then they have a few patterns you can choose from that they embroider onto the duvet cover in colors that you choose. It's pretty fun, and I think it's really well priced for being so custom!

These are their examples. They're pretty modern, but with different colors, or a different pattern, you can tone it down quite a bit, or spice it up...whatever. Pretty fun.

Kitchen Pick-Me-Up

Layla at {The Lettered Cottage} really enhanced the look of her kitchen by doing this one simple thing.
Her cabinets used to look like this - plain old cabinets. So, first she painted them black. But they were still pretty plain jane, right?
She decided to just build up the tops of them with boards and molding. Like so:

The end result is so awesome! It looks so great! And it wasn't a huge thing that she did. Just a little wood, and a little paint. I love it.
Speaking of loving it, I love open shelving in kitchens. Displaying everyday things is really charming. I really like these little baskets she has sitting on her shelves in there. She has little burlap chalkboard tags on them to label them as different catch-alls - something almost all of us need in our kitchens.
Well done!

Fabric Toys

I've been wanting to make some balls and cubes like these that I found at {Restoration Hardware Baby and Child}. The square looks easy enough, just some fabric squares sewn together into a cube, but the ball looks tricky. I didn't know exactly how to go about doing it. Well, The Purl Bee just added {photo galleries} to their blog, which I totally looked at - a lot of great ideas, by the way... And I came across this tutorial for making {fabric beach balls}. They are so cute! Exactly what I was looking for. They have templates you can download and everything. Thank you, Purl Bee!! I plan on putting some kind of jingle bell inside them so they make a sound when shaken. Now, if I can just figure out where to find that cute plush fabric, I'm set.


Ok, I just came across this {cube tutorial}, and I guess it's not as easy as it looks to make one. This is a really good tutorial, but I'd just change the size...Thanks Moda Bake Shop!

Word Book Continued...

To see the origin of this post, click {here}.

{Maya Road} makes these chipboard books. There are two different sizes that they make. On their website, the 3"X3" is $3 and the 5"X5" is $3.50. A pretty good deal if you ask me. I checked on their website, and they sell their products at tons of stores near me, so hopefully it's the same deal there so I don't have to pay for shipping. It looks like they have plenty of pages, and says they are acid free...so they're picture safe. I think to make the book, I'll just print my pictures on paper and then decopauge them onto the book that way...but I'll probably talk to a scrapbook store associate to see what they suggest. To be continued...

Party Poufs

These would make such a cute decoration at any party, I think. I saw these on {Daisy Pink Cupcake}.
They look really easy to make, but just in case, here's a {tutorial} from Martha. They actually are easier to make than you would think...{Martha Stewart} tells us how - with tissue paper and pipe cleaners or wire. I love the scalloped edges to make them look prettier. Cute.

Design Consultations

I have always had a passion for both interior and exterior design. As a child, I used to draw floor plans of dream homes and furniture and proudly show them to my daddy who built homes! Playing house was more about setting up the house, the decorations, and the furniture than it was about actually playing... As I grew older, this passion grew as well. I didn't have a hard time deciding what I wanted to go to school for. I was thrilled to complete a bachelor's degree in Home and Family Living with an emphasis in Interior Design in April of 2008. I'm a stay at home mom right now, but I'd love to assist anyone who is interested in design expertise. I can easy assist you "virtually" by doing anything from answering simple questions, to revamping your entire space. Nothing excites me more than helping people improve the quality of their lives by improving the quality of their spaces. I always treat every design dilemma like it's my own and work hard to resolve all the issues, but I tailor the design to your taste and budget. If you'd like my assistance with a design-related issue, you can take a look at these different types of consultations I offer. My consultation prices are for one room/area only. Once I receive a notification of payment from Paypal, I'll contact you. I love this stuff, and I can't wait to work with you!! Please email me with any questions at brittanyvstaley@gmail.com.

1. Single Design Question - $5.00

This covers any question you may have that can be answered in about a paragraph. If you need advice on where to purchase something, how to hang something, which color to choose, how to use something, or just need an educated outside opinion on something, choose this option. Feel free to send me pictures if you feel the need. I'll answer your question within 1-2 days.

Examples:

What color should my paint, curtains, bedding, etc. be?
How I should I hang this (fill in the blank)?
What am I missing in this space?

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2. Written Consultation - $25.00

With this consultation, you will send me a couple of photographs of your design dilemma. I will type out a detailed description of what I would recommend. In my evaluation, I will include such things as color choices, resources, and the reasoning behind all of my suggestions. I'll get this back to you within a week after receiving your photos and questions.

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3. Photo Consultation - $40.00

This consultation is for those seeking full design inspiration. For this consultation, you will send me photos of your dilemma, as well as a written explanation of what you are struggling with and wish to accomplish in the space. This consultation includes the creation of a floor plan if needed for furniture arrangement, and "photo drawings" for you, using the photos you send me. My goal is to create a design direction for you to be inspired by, so that you will feel confident about the way your space has the potential to look and feel. I will provide a detailed description of my suggestions, including any recommendations on installations, materials, resources and color choices, as well as any other information I feel is necessary to help carry out the design the way I portray it in the drawing. This will be completed within 1-2 weeks of receiving your photos and questions.

To View Examples of Rooms I've done,

{Click Here}

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Testimonials

Brittany-Where do I even begin?! First, I told you before that after the living room didn't turn out quite the way I'd hoped, my design self-esteem took a huge hit and I've been really afraid to do anything else. Your help gave me the biggest confidence boost I could ever have hoped for! The pictures you make and the floor plans you send are so incredibly helpful! I can't tell you how amazing it is to look at a picture of our room and be able to see how our design idea will actually look! It's incredible! It was SO wonderful to hear that I actually have done some good things and that I chose good paint colors. Also, I can't tell you enough how helpful it was for you to tell me not only WHAT were the issues, but WHY and HOW to fix them. I feel like I've been enlightened. :) Some of the things you brought up I already knew subconsciously were issues, I just didn't understand WHY. And I didn't know HOW to fix them. But hearing from you that my inner-designer was on the right track, that I did a lot of things well, that other things were almost there and just needed tweaking, and that it's not going to take a complete remodel to fix my living room gave me the biggest confidence boost ever. I can NEVER thank you enough for that!!! I am definitely printing off your email as a reference for when I decorate in the future. It is full of so much wonderful information and has already helped me understand so many of the little mistakes I made and how to correct them. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! I feel like I'm back in control of my home and that I'm not terrificly far from having the room of my dreams. You're amazing! I always hoped (but never quite believed) my house could be as beautiful as what I see in magazines. And I'm thrilled that you've provided me an easy step-by-step process for turning my rooms in the rooms of my dreams. Thank you, thank you!
-Jaclyn