room for the kids

I’m finally showing off the kids’ room! Well, for now, its still pretty much just Jack’s room, but Taylor will sleep in there soon enough. As soon as she’s not waking up and being a grunty girl all night long. 🙂 (Which I hope is soon, golly gee whiz.)

the view from the door

Originally, Jackson’s room was decorated in a pale yellow and baby blue motif, with a loose moon and stars theme. (And wouldn’t ya know it? Can’t find pictures anywhere. Darn.) Several vintage baby blankets in blue and yellow were hung on the walls and I made some artwork as well. The furniture in the room was Jack’s crib, a bookshelf and changing table handcrafted by Papa Keith, the dresser that had been Kyle’s, and a beautiful glider rocker that was a wedding gift from Kyle’s grandparents. And toys, of course. 🙂

toy corner

To make room for the girlie, we put Jack in a toddler bed from IKEA, and left the crib where it was. The rocking chair was moved to our room, and everything else rearranged, with the dresser going into the closet to free up wall space/play space. I wanted to create a room that was very little boy and girl – gender neutral and less baby/more kid without being boring. And I knew I wanted to move from pastels to brighter colors with a neutral background and I didn’t want to pain the walls.

 

the boy that lives here

the girl that lives here

I had a couple ideas, but my friend Sarah really helped me envision the space better, and then when my friend Lindsey gifted us with this adorable vintage counting book…the wheels really started turning. Pops of color, a little vintage flair, intentional spaces and using a lot of what we already had.

counting book in gallery frames

The final “ah-ha!” came when Kalyn made a beautiful blanket for Taylor and the idea for the final piece of wall art to tie the whole room together popped into my brain. This is as crafty as I get, people: felt, hot glue, cotton ball stuffing, ribbon and black crochet thread. 🙂 (Pardon the low quality iPod photo – the blanket is in the wash and this is the only picture I have of it in the room.)

wall art and Taylor's blanket

All in all, I’m super happy with how it turned out! A rundown of the updates:

• I changed the wall art, removing the vintage baby blankets and
• Added Taylor’s name to Jackson’s on the wall (letters: JoAnn’s, painted with red acrylic paint)
• Put in the shelf above the changing table to add storage space and to keep no-touch items out of reach for two-year-olds.  (shelf: IKEA)
• Added the string of lantern lights
• Rearranged to make a toy corner, the changing table area and the sleeping area more defined.

And since WordPress is not especially photo friendly, here’s a slideshow of more pictures. Let me know if you have any questions about anything!

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november = people!

today is the first day of November. I cannot believe how quickly October flew past, even with a slower schedule due to recovering from giving birth! My little smunchmuffin is a month old on Thursday and life marches on.

this month is full of happy things and celebrating special events and seeing wonderful people that I love very much, so I welcome November with open arms. 🙂 later this week, my dear friends Heidi and Lindsey are flying in to visit. It’s been about a year since we last were together, so I’m very excited to have them both here. We have nothing on the agenda except for sitting around and talking, with cups of tea and lattes in hand. Probably some scones will make their way into the picture as well.

apart from my friend Whitney whom I’ve known since childhood, these two women are my closest, long-time friends. we met 11 years ago and neither time nor miles have bested our friendship. 🙂 I love ’em. And Heidi is also bringing her sweet Annie girl, who was born in May! It will be so fun to introduce our girls to each other.

the rest of November is full with no less than two family weddings – Kyle’s brother on the 11th and Kyle’s cousin on the 26th. Also thrown in there is a now-annual Girls Night at our house (yay hot tub!) and Thanksgiving. Yes, ’tis going to be an epic month. My relational tank should be on FULL by the end of it!