Nursery Time!

I can't believe it has been almost 3 months since I updated this blog!  I'm happy to report that I've still been able to keep up with Brady's blog, but this one has been neglected.  Anyway, it's time to decorate the nursery for baby girl (who is due in just over 5 weeks!) so I thought I'd post some of my inspiration here.

We decided that we wanted to do a classic and neutral color for the walls and then bring in pink with the bedding, curtains, and accent pieces.  We'll be reusing the nursery furniture that we bought for Brady, which is a dark chocolate color.  I love it!

We chose this light tan color for the walls:

We painted this weekend and I love the color - especially with our white chair rail and trim.  It just looks so classic to me.

Then I picked out a pink and taupe damask pattern for the bedding.  Here is a sneak peek:

Then I got a cute pink shag rug to go in front of the crib:

And these waterfall ruffle curtains from Urban Outfitters in pale pink:

I have to admit that I haven't gotten the curtains yet and I am hoping that the difference in color between them and the bedding won't be an issue.  I have a feeling the curtains are going to be much paler than the rest of the pinks we are using, but hopefully it will all work together.  I have a backup plan if those don't work, so we'll see.  :)

For the wall behind the crib we are going to be putting a plum blossom tree with birds decal on the wall like this:

Of course our walls aren't pink so it will be on the neutral tan background and we'll have pink birds.  Anyway, I'm excited to see it all come together in the next few weeks and will post pictures when it's done!

Oh, and since I haven't posted in a while, here are some pictures from a recent photo shoot - our last one as a family of 3! (Thanks to Danielle Bryson Photography):

My favorite little man:

We can't wait to watch him grow into a great big brother!

Brady's 2nd Birthday Party!

My son turned 2 on July 2 and we had an amazing day celebrating with him!  This year we had his party at a local park that has a sprayground.  He loves water, so we knew this would be a hit!  He also loves cars and trucks so we went with a Firetruck theme this year.  You can see the invitations in this post.  I was very happy with how everything turned out, so I thought I'd share some details here:

Most of the decorations were around the cake table, so we'll start there:

I actually bought the lanterns for his party last year and the colors worked again so I used them as a backdrop for the cake table.  I got the idea from this photo I found on another blog.

I got the pieces for the banner on Etsy and assembled it myself and added a few additional touches.  It worked perfectly with our theme!

We had a bunch of kids at the party so I got them all firetruck hats and fire hydrant cups as favors.  I bought the hats and cups from Celebrate Express online.

Also in the photo above you can see Brady's cake and the cupcakes.  We just did a simple cake for him so that he could blow out the candles.  I bought this Fireman Mickey cake topper from Amazon.  It had the number 1 on the fire hat, but DH scraped that off and painted on a 2.

Here's another look at the cupcakes.  The cake and cupcakes were created by Eileen Carter (aka "The Cake Lady") and they were delicious and adorable as usual!  I got the idea for the little firetrucks on top from this blog and Eileen was happy to create them.  I think they are adorable!

On the right side of the cake table were the firetruck sugar cookie pops and water bottles with custom labels that I made (ignore my husband's sunglasses in the pic :):

For the water bottles I bought weatherproof labels from Online Labels and printed them on my inkjet printer.  The fire truck sugar cookie pops were one of my favorite things from the party!  When I made heart shaped cookie pops for Valentine's Day I knew I had to make them again for a party!  I ordered the fire truck cookie cutter from ebay and used the same recipes that I used for the heart shaped cookies.  They really are pretty simple to make and the hardest part is decorating... but if you don't try to be perfect that's easy, too!  Here are a few photos from the making of the cookies:

This shows some cookies in the various stages of icing (the ones without sticks were my "test" cookies):

MrKLB helped me with some of the decorating... he drew on the ladders and number 2 for all of them because I was tired of leaning over the countertop to do it!

Here they are all packaged up at the party.  I also made labels that went on the back that said "Thank you for coming to my party".  This picture doesn't really do them justice...

Let's see... what else?  Oh, MrKLB also made these cool firetruck centerpieces out of diaper boxes:

They were a last minute addition to the decorations and I think they turned out great!  He is so creative!  Now Brady has one of these in his room and likes to sit in it and have us push him around!

The centerpieces leads me to another star of the show... the GIANT balloons!

I got the idea that I wanted to do giant balloons and thought that when I asked MrKLB about it he would say they weren't worth it.  Well, I asked him and his response was "I love giant balloons!"  So, we had to do it!  Let me just say, these are so cool but such a pain in the butt!  I bought the balloons in a package at Party City and had them inflate them.  Well, they are 36" each, so I could only fit 4 into my SUV with the seats folded down!  So, I had to make 2 trips to Party City to get all of them.  Then, this is how we transported them to the party:

Here's a picture of Brady holding some of the balloons after the party.  I love it!

I think that really covers the highlights of the party.  It was a lot of fun and I think everyone had a good time!  Here's a picture of the 3 (well, almost 4!) of us before the party:

My sweet little man enjoying the water:

Brady in his fireman's hat enjoying some food:

Big boy blowing out the candles.  I love how it looks like Mickey is ready to put out the fire with his fire hose!

Oh, and I almost forgot about his shirt!  I got the shirt from Etsy seller smittenandcompany.  Here are a couple of pictures of it:

Well, there you go!  Another fun, successful birthday party!  Next year I'll also have to come up with ideas for a little girl's birthday... how fun!

Big Boy Room Design Update

Brady has now officially moved into his big boy bedroom.  The transition has been much easier than I anticipated and he is doing great sleeping in his new bed (he was previously in the crib).  It's a little sad to see him move out of the nursery, but I love the way this room turned out so much that I'm just concentrating on that.  So, on to the pictures:

Here is the view looking into the room from the doorway.  We used two different colors of blue for the walls and the ceiling is actually also a very light blue.  We searched long and hard for the perfect ceiling fan and I love how this one looks in the room!  The rug is from Land of Nod and the curtains were purchased from Amazon.

Stepping into the room looking towards the corner:

A view from the closet doorway:

A view towards the doorway.  We created a desk and shelves for Brady using the elfa closet system from The Container Store.

The pillowcases are the transportation themed bedding from Dwell Studio.  I have plans to incorporate more of that decor into the room, but haven't done it yet.

Here are a couple of before and after shots to show the dramatic change.  The room was basically empty before and Brady would go in there sometimes to play in his tent.

I absolutely love the way the room turned out, and so does Brady!

A couple of sneak peeks...

We've been busy getting Brady's big boy room ready and made some great progress this weekend!  We touched up the paint that we had worked on the weekend before, installed the fan, put the bunk beds together, and hung the curtain rod and curtains.  Now it's starting to look like a room ready for a big boy!

We still need to buy mattresses, mattress cover, sheets, pillows, and such for the bed.  We also have plans for a cool wall unit where we can store toys and books and need to figure out the rest of the furniture that will go in there.  And then there's the question of what goes on the walls.  So, lots more to do, but Brady is already excited about what he calls "new room!" and loves to run in there and play.  Here is a sneak peek at the big boy in his new room:

We're also getting ready for Brady's 2nd birthday party and the invitations have gone out!  Here is the front:

And the back of the invitation:

I'm working on some cute stuff for the party and will continue to work on the big boy bedroom, so more pictures to follow!

A fun new project

I just realized I never officially announced it on this blog, but we are excitedly expecting a new addition to our family in November!  Brady is going to be a big brother!

Thanks to Etsy seller zoeysattic for the awesome t-shirt and Jody Lynn Photography for the photo!

So, now that we are going to be having a new baby, it's going to be time for our big boy to move into his big boy bedroom!  This is our most recent project at home.  We're in the process of painting his new room and getting furniture, etc.

This will definitely be a boy's room... as we're using a lot of blue!  The color inspiration comes from this awesome rug I bought from Land of Nod:

We're going with a couple of shades of blue for the walls and then orange and grey accents.  We just started painting this weekend and are really happy with our color choices.  One wall will be the darker blue (Behr Nocturnal Sea) and the rest of the walls are the lighter blue (Behr Madras Blue).

We are getting bunk beds for the room (because MrKLB always wanted bunk beds when he was a kid!) and the beds and dresser are a light honey finish.  Other furniture and decor are TBD but I have a vision for the room and I think it's going to look great!  More pictures to follow...

My Diaper Cake Experience...

I went to a friend's baby shower on Saturday.  I've been sick (sinus infection - yuck!) for about a week and a half so MrKLB and I stopped by Buy Buy Baby to get a gift earlier in the week on the one day I actually left the house.  I wasn't feeling creative so I got some useful items on the registry - Pampers Swaddlers, Diaper Pail Refill and then, at the suggestion of MrKLB, a Sophie teether.  "Everyone needs one of those," he said.  And he's right!

Anyway, fast forward to Friday night and I need to wrap these gifts.  I remembered someone on one of my Mommy message boards asking about diaper cakes recently, so I went back to look at that post and followed some links to directions on how to make one.  I found this site and decided I had everything I needed - well, mostly.  So, I started making the diaper cake on Friday night...

I rolled the diapers and wrapped each one in a rubber band.  Luckily our mail comes in a rubber band every day and we throw them in a drawer in our kitchen, so I had a ton of them lying around.  I used the box of diaper pail refills as the center instead of the baby powder like in the directions.  I did two tiers of diapers and used some pink scrapbook material that I had as decoration in between.  Then I put Sophie the Giraffe on top!

Then I needed ribbon... but I didn't have any wide ribbon in a color that would work so I decided to use ivory ribbon to wrap around and cover the rubber bands and used some pink yarn I had leftover from the Wall Letters project to do the rest.  I braided the yarn to do the top layer and bow and then just wrapped the yarn around the bottom layer.

Oh, and I wanted them to have the box that Sophie came in so I put that on the bottom and wrapped some more scrapbooking paper around it to make the base.  I stuck the card on top behind Sophie and Voila!  A diaper cake!

Catching up...

As usual, this blog of mine has been neglected while I've been busy keeping Brady's blog updated and enjoying every minute of him.  He is 21 months old now and I LOVE this age.  So far each new stage has been my favorite and while I know that may not continue forever, I'm hoping the trend keeps going for at least a little while!

I have nothing to complain about.  He is growing and learning and thriving.  We are blessed.  We still love our daycare and make the most of the time we have with him every morning, evening, and all weekend.  We are so proud of his most recent accomplishment - counting to 10!  Honestly, we don't really know at what age most kids start to reach a lot of milestones like counting, recognizing letters, spelling their name, etc., but it doesn't matter to us because we just assume he is a genius.  :)

I could go on and on about what an amazing little guy he is and how much personality he has, but I won't.  I'll just share a few pictures for now...

I can't stand the cuteness!

Since the big 2 is just a few months away it's time for me to start getting inspiration for his birthday party!  I have two different ideas as to what the theme may be so I need to pick one and then pick a color scheme.  We're probably just going to have his party at our house again this year because we had so much fun last year.  Time to get inspired!