rug sale and our family room featured

Overstock.com contacted me yesterday about my rug post. Turns out they have a rug sale starting today and wanted to feature a photo of our very unfinished family room. You can check it out here.  And if you’re in the market for a rug, you can get 15% off now. Enjoy!

giving thanks and embracing change {personal post}

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I want to take some time to give thanks. Although I incorporate personal notes in most of my posts, I seldom write a completely personal post. Today is the day my friends! We have so much change happening and I want to share the good news, the nervousness I’m feeling and the excitement. I also want to take some time to give thanks for many things in my life.

First, we had a baby in April! He’s wonderful! He’s changed our world beyond anything we could’ve expected. If you haven’t already, please meet Bodhi! I am more thankful for this little man and my husband than anything in the entire world. Bodhi is a busy, fun, silly, happy little guy who hates sleep! He loves life, so really just prefers to be awake. All. The. Time!

{Bodhi at the zoo! photo credit---live the fancy life}

Second, I got a new job! I started last week. I left a company that has been wonderful for more than four and a half years for a new challenge. So far so good! More change! I’m not good at change, by the way, but it is all positive change that I am learning to embrace. The challenges that come with new opportunity are far outweighed by the positives. Thanks to the Making Things Happen Intensive in Florida last December, I made the decision to leave a comfortable place with wonderful people for the unknown. For once, I didn’t let fear make decisions for me.

Third, we are building a home. As a design lover, I am enjoying every second of building our new home. We get to pick nearly everything and as you can see if you look at my pinterest, I am inspired! I plan to share some of our ideas as we go and I will do before and after posts once we move in and begin to furnish and decorate. For now, this is one of the kitchens I used as inspiration for our new kitchen.

{photo credit---House Beautiful

Shocker—this once small-town girl (Benson, Minnesota) turned city girl (St. Paul and Minneapolis) is headed to the suburbs. And I’m oddly pretty excited for our new hometown. The fact that I’ll be working downtown Minneapolis definitely softens the blow a bit and makes our new town feel peaceful, tranquil and secluded from our working lives. My husband and I are just one building apart and my drive time is much shorter.

There is something so comforting about the fact that we will finally be in a home with no plans or desire to leave. I think it will finally feel like “home” rather than just a house.

So, all three of these things are taking up most of my time right now and learning our new normal is our current challenge. But, we are so grateful for all we have.

{photo credit---live the fancy life}

As I work to embrace change, I want to give thanks for some constants in my life:

• My kind, compassionate, handsome husband (who is also a great cook) and my wild man son—You two keep me in check during our day-to-day lives. You are my everything!
• Our parents—My mom and my husband’s parents watch Bodhi every day during the week. This makes taking a new job so much less scary. Knowing Bodhi is ok makes each day a lot easier. And they love him so much. There is nothing like knowing that someone loves the people who are most important to you. Bodhi is adored by many.
• Inspiration—blogs, pinterest, photographers—all of these keep me inspired to blog, to write, to create, to host and to live a lovely life.
• Some very special girlfriends—I am a huge advocate for working hard on maintaining friendships with your girlfriends, but it’s hard when you have a baby! Having a baby has certainly brought me closer to some of my friends. I am so grateful for many people in my life, but the mama friends who have become some of my best friends are really helping me be a rockstar mama while trying to maintain some sort of self. Thank you to all of my friends and a special thank you to Cassie, Jana, Lisa and Leila for your support during the best moments I’ve had as a new mom and some of the most difficult. You know what you’ve done for me this past year. I am beyond thankful that you are in my life!
• No sleep—While I feel exhausted most days and most hours of every day, I am thankful for the extra time I get with my son in the middle of the night when most of you are fast asleep. Everyone says that time flies when you have a little one, but guess what!? Time totally flies! I’m trying to accept Bodhi’s terrible sleeping schedule and instead of feeling frustrated, we are working on enjoying those moments. Someday he will sleep in a college dorm room. Maybe even with girls. Noooo! So, I will enjoy this time now—while he’s just 6 months and tucked safely into bed under the same roof as us!

And last but not least, I live for the weekends. I get to do everything I love, spend time with those I love and sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get a nap. I am thankful for weekend naps with my guys! Life is beautiful!

{design dreams} — yellow front door

I want a yellow front door! For a long time now I thought about simply painting our red door yellow. Inexpensive, pretty easy and it could add a lot to the front of our house. Now I’m thinking I want a new door with pretty hardware like the doors below.

I love the house number and the potted plants on this one!

{photo credit---Design Sponge}

This one is so perfect—bright, clean and modern!

{photo credit---marthastewart.com}

And last but not least, I’m super inspired by this one that was featured in Real Simple.

{photo credit---RealSimple.com}

And how about the decor on these not-yellow doors? LOVE THEM!

{photo credit---blogs.babble.com}

While I don’t want an orange door, this one by Pottery Barn is pretty fun for Halloween!

{photo credit---Pottery Barn}

This might be a great weekend project for someone out there. What a simple way to make your house pop! Live the fancy life!

shabby chic diy

While my design style is very modern, I can certainly appreciate beauty in many styles. I just had to share the before and after photos of Tiffany’s $70 antique dry sink turned diy inexpensive fabulous changing table for her daughter Genevieve!

Photo credit---Tiffany---The Taste{full} Life

Amazing, right? And I think this could work great as bedroom storage with space for jewelry on top as well! You can find Tiffany and more diy nursery goodness on her blog The Taste{full} Life! Enjoy!

our nursery featured

Happy Monday! Our nursery is featured on the Baby Lifestyles blog today. Although you saw it here first, head on over to get a few nursery design tips and browse all of the fabulous featured nurseries for inspiration!

fancy summer projects—built-in bookshelves

Finally I have a chance to blog as my little one rests peacefully in his Baby Bjorn! Having two free hands is rare these days, so typing anything has been a challenge.

Between lots of good times with our one-month-old baby, I have plans to get a few simple projects done this summer on my maternity leave. Our living room built-in bookshelves are boring! Beyond boring really! The trim and interiors are painted the same color as our walls. It is time to spruce them up a bit and I have found tons of great inspiration. I’m thinking white trim to match our baseboards and some kind of bold background. I know this will also inspire me to get rid of items and books that we don’t love and never look at or enjoy.

The first comes from my favorite DIY blog—Young House Love! Such good inspiration over there!

Photo credit---YoungHouseLove.com

I love the yellow background on this freestanding bookshelf. So bright and inviting.

Photo credit---homemadesimple.com

While I’m a little intimidated by the coral color for our house that we want to sell in the next year or so, I love the fresh look!

Photo credit---sasinteriors.net

And how about a fun wallpaper backing? This one is subtle which might be safe for a possible home sale in the future.

Photo credit---onsugar.com

And of course, solid white could be beautiful. I would add color with objects, framed art and books. I love the simplicity of white and it would add bright pops to our living room which only gets good natural light in the evenings when the sun is in the west.

Photo credit---decorpad.com

What house projects do you have on your list for summer? It’s such a great time to get things done! Now I just need to call granny day care to come enjoy Bodhi so I can hit the home improvement stores for some supplies! 🙂

our modern nursery

I am excited to share photos of our very modern nursery with you all today. We finished last weekend and with less than four weeks to go before our due date, we just need to find the perfect rug and iron the curtains (so, sorry in advance for the wrinkles). 🙂

We knew the moment we found out we were expecting our baby boy that our nursery would be modern, clean and minimal with neutral walls and lots of splashes of color throughout.

I found a lot of inspiration on blogs with modern nurseries including Chic & Cheap Nursery and Buy Modern Baby Blog.

We were even featured on Chic & Cheap Nursery this morning. Head on over to see the feature. For “before” photos of our nursery, click here and for our inspiration board and planning process, click here. We have a lot of people to thank for their help. My uncles did all of the painting! How lucky are we? And my mom did countless little things from shining the wood floors to cleaning anything and everything she could get her hands on. And my husband did all kinds of handy man things! Enjoy!

We designed our modern nursery with a color palette of grey, lime green, light blue, aqua and white. We wanted a room that was peaceful and serene, but that was still good for a child. We wanted to fill it with inspiration, color and interest but keep it simple and clean at the same time.

The bookshelf below is one of my favorite items in the room. My coworkers built and painted it. They even filled it with books for my baby shower. It is beautiful and is currently holding 52 books! Lucky little man also has a daddy who loves to read to him.

These hooks are perfect for our diaper bag and his cute frog robe from Great Auntie Chrissy!

As many of you know, we love to travel! While we definitely did not go with a theme for the room, we incorporated a few travel-related items in hopes that our little guy will also love to travel.

This subliminal message print is one of my favorite things. It’s letterpress! I LOVE letterpress as you may remember from our kitchen remodel.

One of my main goals as I designed the room was avoiding clutter and finding places to keep all of the little baby things that you need and have. We are fortunate to have a giant closet with drawers, so we still have room to grow.

I am completely and totally in love with the paper lantern cluster below—I call it his mobile even though it’s not a mobile at all. I spent several hours putting it together, finding just the right height, balance and number of lanterns. I hope he loves it.

I had to share one night photo. The room is so calm and relaxing with just the lamplight in the evenings.

Our little Minnesotan will also undoubtedly be a Cowboys fan like his daddy.

Books, books and more books. This isn’t even all of them!

Our oh-so-fancy vendors, shops and nursery favs:

Artwork:
Kandy, Sri Lanka, Austin, TX, Minneapolis, MN and Benson,
MN prints-Lisa Barbero on Etsy.

ABC’s name print-Apple Blossom Prints on Etsy. (Please note that we blocked baby’s name until he is born. Her prints are much better when you can see the entire thing. )

“You’re getting very sleepy” print-Sycamore Street Press on Etsy.

Bedding:
Custom-designed bedding and changing pad cover by Nursery Dreams on Etsy

Furniture:
Crib and changing table-Modo by Babyletto-purchased on AllModernBaby.com. Free shipping and no tax is awesome!

Poang chair by Ikea with white cover

White bookshelf created by my colleagues as part of a book-themed baby shower! One of my colleagues actually built it and three of them painted it. So sweet!

Side table-Mimic Cube by Crate and Barrel

Accessories:
Drum light fixture from Lowe’s

Hanging white wall shelf from Target

Mini green suitcases by Land of Nod

Ugly Doll at Pacifier Stores in Minneapolis

Curtains from Target

Faux white wood blinds by Home Depot

Closet door hardware-small zinnia knob in aqua by Anthropologie

Lime green organizing bin from Target

White mirror from Target

Lamp-Home Goods (not available online)

Hanging paper lanterns-Martha Stewart lanterns from Two Peas in a Bucket and star and white lanterns from The Paper Lantern Store

Now that the room is complete, I spend at least 20 minutes a day just sitting in the chair. We think baby likes the room too, as he tends to move a lot when we are in there. We’ll let you know when he arrives. Until then, live the fancy life!