Small Group Baby Shower

We ended our current small group with a baby shower celebration for one of the couples.  Decorations started at the front door with a chalkboard sign.  I just free-handed the greeting and the buck head silhouette.

Door Sign

In the living room, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut paper chevron arrows that I sewed into a garland.  The colors were inspired by fabric from the baby’s nursery.Paper Garland

I reused a mustache game I had made for a previous “Little Man” shower.  Everyone guessed the celebrity who’s mustache appears on each picture.  There were 12 photos and the winner went home with a Starbucks gift card.Mustache Game

In the dining room, we hung baby clothes and burp cloths from a clothesline above the drink table.  Per the mother-to-be’s request, we used the gifts as decor so that she didn’t have to open gifts in front of everyone.  I stacked paper accordion balls under the table to add some color.  I also picked up one large gift bag that all the gifts went into at the end of the night.Clothesline

The hydrangeas came out of my own garden!  They seem very happy this year.

This super-cute clothesline was made from the popular baby toy Lots of Links by Bright Starts and some fun boyish onesies.
Clothesline2

For the food table centerpiece, I made a diaper cake with a plush deer topper in honor of the father-to-be.  I placed it on a slab of birch and used a burlap table runner for a rustic feel.
Diaper Cake

Each group member brought a dish.  We had veggies with hummus, buffalo chicken dip, baked brie cups, and baby-shower-themed cupcakes.
Food Table
Food The night was a fun way to close out two years of doing life together.  Now, to divide and multiply!

Living Room Updates

Living 05.05b

I’ve made some big decor change-ups in the living room.  And it all started with our bathroom renovation.

I was on the hunt for some art to break up the large blue wall in the bathroom when I came across this print at Pier1.  I brought it home, but it was way too large for the bathroom.  So we gave it a trial run over the couch.  I decided I liked it there, but it didn’t go with the green accents I had going on in the room – curtain panels I had from when we moved into our first house nine years ago that looked a little washed out in the space and throw pillows in a green houndstooth and chocolate and green floral patterns.

Living 05.05c My next step was finding new curtain panels for not a lot of money.  I found these turquoise panels at Tuesday Morning for $20 per pair.  They are a little long and grommet-top is not my first choice, but they do look nice in the room.

Living 05.05dAfter finding the curtain panels, I knew I needed to find a way to bridge the gap between my houndstooth pillows that I love and am not ready to give up and the turquoise art and curtains.  I found this fun ikat chevron print fabric at Forsyth Fabrics here in Atlanta.  It has turquoise, the same green as the houndstooth, and a lime color on a cream backdrop.  It was on sale, so I bought three yards and had four pillow covers made for the inserts I removed from the old throw pillows.
Pillow 05.05Living 05.05aBefore:

Living Room 0615b

It feels like the room is so much more full now even though I didn’t add any furniture.  I guess that is what happens when you bring in big art and rich colors.  All this and I still haven’t found a piece of art for the bathroom.

Dining Room Updates

Dining 04.06a

When we first moved into our forever home, there was a Tiffany-style light in the dining room.  It wasn’t my style and didn’t really match the style of the house.  For an immediate solution, Bradley hung a brushed nickel five-arm chandelier that I had picked up at Goodwill.  It was underwhelming and I prefer polished nickel, but the one I liked was not in the budget.

We lived with it for two years.  I kept watching the chandelier I liked, but it only rose in price over time.  Then a couple of weeks ago, it popped up on Joss & Main for less than I had ever seen it.  I also realized that it had been discontinued at some point, so all of the vendors that stock it online would eventually not carry it anymore.  So I decided to go for it.  Bradley got it hung for me, and I am really happy with the style, finish and size.  It is the Pembroke 6-light chandelier by Elk Lighting.
Dining 04.06c

I’ve also changed out the curtains in the dining room for these turquoise panels.  That is a rabbit-hole of a story that I will share when I get around to doing a post about some changes I’ve made in the living room.Dining 04.06b Here is what the dining room looked like before:

Dining 0715a

Guest Bathroom Update

Guest Bath 03.20

Surprisingly, two years into living here, this is my first post about our guest bathroom.  It is the exact same layout as the main floor bathroom – it is even aligned exactly above the other bathroom in the floorplan.  Soon after we moved in, we discovered that the drain in the tub leaked, so initially, I painted the walls and left everything else alone until we could have a plumber fix the drain.  We finally got around to that back in October, and since then, I have worked on pulling the room together.

I prefer not having a separate shower curtain and liner, but the choices were slim for an extra long fabric liner, so I went with this navy striped curtain to play off the spare bedroom colors.  The wall color is the same as a lot of the rest of the house – Gobi Desert by Behr color-matched at Sherwin Williams.  The print hanging above the commode was a Groopdealz by Project Type.  As in the master bathroom, I also used Dover White by Sherwin Williams on the vanity and added Martha Stewart finial pulls to the cabinet doors.

Guest Bath 03.20b

Renovating this bathroom is not a priority, so minor changes I would like to make in here include framing the existing mirror with moulding, adding a timer to the exhaust fan switch, and trying out a gray colored grout-shield on the large white hexagon floor tile.

Spare Bedroom Update

Spare Bedroom 03.20

Since I last posted about our spare bedroom, I have made a few modifications.  After upgrading the guest bedroom to a queen-size bed, I was missing a headboard for this full-size mattress set.  I found a cute wooden headboard at Goodwill last July that I painted Coral Isle by Krylon.  I also switched out the frame above the bed for a tissue tassel garland from 2Berry Creative.

Full Headboard 03.20

I also made a couple of changes to the window treatments.  The PBK curtain panels had been left by the previous owner and I had put curtain rings on them so that I could hang one panel in the center of the two windows.  Unfortunately that made the panels puddle a little on the floor, so I eventually broke out the drill and raised the curtain rod a little – as well as widening it, to open up the windows a little more.  In December, I added roman shades to the window for a little more light control and privacy if we have someone stay in this room.

Before:
Third BR 0715a