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!

love and peanut butter cream pie

When browsing my favorite blogs yesterday, I came across a story so heartbreaking that I literally drove directly to the store, bought ingredients and started to create peanut butter cream pie.

Lisa from With Style & Grace, one of my daily reads, posted about gluten-free peanut butter cream pie. Read her post if you have time. I can’t do the story justice, but in short, Jennifer from In Jennie’s Kitchen lost her husband on Sunday. He was young. He had two daughters and a beautiful wife. He left this world much too soon.

In her post “For Mikey,” Jennifer said:

For those asking what they can do to help my healing process, make a peanut butter pie this Friday and share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there’s no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on.

So I did. I made a peanut butter cream pie for the first time ever using Jennifer’s recipe and thinking about how much I love my husband and new son while doing it.

Last night I shared a piece (or two) of the delicious pie with my sweet hubby while our baby napped peacefully. Check out the recipe on Jennie’s post and share it with someone you love!

All photos above were taken by me in our kitchen, but for some truly fantastic food photos, check out With Style and Grace.

you are my sunshine

Photo credit: Numsi.com

I have been eyeing up this “you are my sunshine” modular art in yellow or green for my son’s nursery since last December! It is made by local company, numsi. I was so excited to see it featured as a discounted piece on The Foundary today! I think the name art and the “you are awesome and you rock” pieces would also be great in children’s rooms, entryways or anywhere you need a little bright spot in your home. Enjoy!

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!