abc clothesline

(blurry pictures are maddening!  hopefully i can get a better camera soon!)

i used my mom-in-law’s new cricket expression to cut out these large alphabet letters.  i strung them up on jute with mini-clothespins.  i’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.  i’d like the letters to be more sturdy, but chip board would have taken a much longer time to create.

i’m working on decorating noah’s room more, because it is fairly bland.  i just have a really hard time with boy decor, but i want him to have things to look at on his walls.  my next project for his room is to make book pockets that can hang low enough for him to take books in and out of.  we have books everywhere right now, and i need accessible storage. i have a picture in my head of what this will look like, but i’ll post an actual picture once i make it!

london sparrow

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LONDON SPARROW

say it to yourself a few times.  does it not linger on your breath with a heavy dose of whimsy and romanticism? i argue, it does.  my husband argues, it does not.

i am not pregnant, but we are going to try for our second this summer, and the idea of another baby in the forecast has me dreaming up names.  baby girl names specifically!  i do want a little girl. london has been my number one choice for many years now, but sparrow is a new development.  i saw it on a label at anthroplogie and haven’t been able to get away from it, although i have received mostly negative feedback. rrrrrrr…

i realize i have lost many readers with my lack of blog posts, but if you’re out there, what say you to this lovely name? honesty is respected, although may not be taken into account when the decision becomes imminent!

what are some of your favorite baby names that others have “opinions” on?

felt garland

the holidays have passed, but garland can have so many more purposes other than just accenting your christmas tree.  you can use  garland for a birthday party, a baby shower, a kid’s room, for that matter any room in your house, anytime!  anyway, i first saw this idea in a new book i got for christmas, homemade home, so i searched online for some other related ideas, and found tons.  felt garland!  it’s so easy, you don’t have to worry about anything unraveling if you aren’t great at sewing and it’s super cheap! here are some of my favorites from my search.

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and i’m back…

how time flies.  i have totally been neglecting this blog.  not only this blog, but i haven’t really been keeping up well with my personal blog either!  this is by far the busiest season of the year for me, but i must say, despite my blogging absence, i love it.  this time of year that is.  so many family get-togethers, parties, cookie baking afternoons, shopping trips, etc…

however, i’m back!  check out this EASY diy  project i just found.  how easy would it be to find an old dresser, paint it, and throw some cool knobs on it?  my bff found amazing hardware (similar to that found in this pic) at hobby lobby. so simple and gorgeous!

love this website.  it’s very worth checking out.(photo credit: apartment therapy)

another gorgeous sofa

i’m in love. if only it weren’t $4545. ouch.

credenza: before and after

before…

after…

we had a couple snafu’s along the way.  matt took the doors off so that we could adhere the fabric more easily; however, getting the doors back on was very challenging, and sadly after all of the shoving and forcing, the doors are now unusable.  even so, this credenza cost us a total of $30 with the primer, paint and fabric, and it’s better than what we had before.  it’s not perfect, but we like it and it does the job!  we’ve still got to figure out how to hide the ugly cords underneath.   eye sore.

couch and credenza

Here is the couch mentioned in my last blog, with the addition of my little man sitting atop.  He crawled on it while the cushions were still off, and I thought it was too cute not to photograph.

The couch ended up in our back room, which is a bit disappointing.  I wanted it to be front and center, but I couldn’t argue with the fact that it is not the best tv-viewing sofa.

Check out this beauty!  Sexy right?  This lovely credenza came from an Allstate vault, and we just happen to be in desperate need of a tv console.  Something to hide all the junk, you know?  And since we are on a budget, we decided to try to turn this baby into something we can live with.  I forgot to snap a picture before putting the first coat of primer on the top, but you can still get a pretty good idea of the ugliness factor.  I’ll post pics of the final product soon. 

antique couch

antique sofas are beautiful.  so much character and craftsmanship is embedded in their designs.

we have an antique couch and chair given to us from matt’s aunt theresa, who had gotten them from her parents. both are products of the 1940’s.  this is the closest image i could find of mine:

mine has  natural tweed upholstery and the wood trim is lighter.  i really love this sofa, and want to highlight it the best way possible in our new home, but i’m having difficulty placing it.  it’s not the most comfortable couch in the world, but it looks best in the room that has the tv in it.  what to do?

shower curtain dilemma

since we are moving and will now have TWO bathrooms, i get to pick out a new shower curtain!  the only problem is that i can’t figure out which direction to go…  the curtain will be for the hall bath, which will also be the bath noah will use.   as it will be pulling double duty for guests too though, do i go kiddish or guestish?  i’ve been looking for kiddy bathroom gear, and it’s a little tough, i have to say.  my choices seem to be frogs or sponge bob, neither of which i’m a huge fan.  my favorite shower curtains come from anthropologie, and i’m severely leaning this direction, even though they aren’t exactly meant for little boys.  what does a little boy care about a shower curtain anyway, right?  right?!

here’s the curtain we’ve had for years now.  i love it just as much now as i did the day i spent a small fortune on it.and here are the two i’m considering for the new bath.  thoughts/opinions?

have i mentioned that i get to move to a house in a few days?  i’m so excited i can’t stand it.

it’s been fun knowing you

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goodbye beautiful loft…it’s been a blast. (loft shown above is sadly not a picture of our actual loft…if it were, we would not be moving!)

matt and i have finally found a beautiful old house in the city that has just about everything we were hoping to find, so we will moving in about a week.  with all of the moving activities and preparation, my blog updates will slow for a while, but with a new space and new inspiration, i’ll be back at it as soon as i’m settled.

we’ve called fashion square lofts our home for three years now, and as fun as it has been, it’s time to move on.  with no doors, no storage, no outdoor space, and cement floors, it is simply not the easiest place for a young family to live.  my one year old needs a play area, and floors to fall down on (that won’t knock him unconscious), and grass to roll in.  we will treasure our time spent here in downtown st. louis though.

one day we’ll look back on the time when we were in our twenties, amidst our growing careers, having dinners street-side, and going out for gellato or a chai whenever the mood hit.  we’ll remember walks down to the arch or over to the current festival taking place across the street.  we’ll remember wasabi’s sushi eating contests and fashion shows that shut down our block. i’ll remember meeting shanna on the corner for city walks with our strollers in tow and taking teagan out for a walk late at night amidst the partiers and beggers. we’ll remember the jazz musician who used to play outside our windows on weekend nights. we’ll remember dragging our suitcases down washington to jump the metro to the airport.  we’ll remember the craziness that ensued after the cards won the world series in ‘06, and walking a few blocks  to catch the blues play every winter, and standing outside the stadium trying to get a glimpse of obama pitch the opener at the all-star game.    yes, this place has been good to us, but it’s time to move on.  city loft living has been energizing for our souls, but i have a feeling that an old turn-of-the-century house will hit us in all the right places too.  peace out fashion square.