Mirror Mirror

I knew I wanted to put a mirror up on one of the walls in the nursery, so it was just a matter of finding the right one to go with our grey/white/yellow decor. It couldn't be too huge since the largest wall has all the decals on it, and the second largest wall has the crib ( I didn't want the mirror hanging above the crib), so it would hang on a small area by the french doors and the entrance to the room.

Not finding any mirrors that were just perfect (or that weren't over $100), I thought I could instead find an old unique looking mirror and refinish it instead.

For a fantastic $30, I found this beauty at a antique store in West Seattle, and I knew with a little paint it could look really cool for the babies room. Well after taping off the glass and using a $2 can a glossy yellow spray paint from Home Depot... I think the finished product turned out pretty good!

Before



and After...

Wall decals

The decals I ordered from Etsy are up on the walls of the nursery! It went easier than I thought it would... they came pre-cut and all numbered so it was easy to see where they should go. Our walls have a slight texture to them which made it slightly harder to get them to stick on really well... but it seems to have all worked out in the end.

Our wall also isn't quite as large as a full wall (since there is a closet on the right side) - so we didn't end up using all of the pieces otherwise it seemed like it would get way to crowded with branches and birds.... but who knows maybe we'll use the extra pieces later on or put up an extra yellow bird somewhere else in the room for fun as well.

And here are some pictures of the project throughout the process....

Getting the decals set up and figured out

The finished product! 

New lights

We have some new light fixtures in the house, a new light over our dining room table and a new light fixture in the baby's room. It is amazing how much new lighting changes the feel of a room.

The light over our dining room table we actually found about 4-5 months ago (at Crate & Barrel online) and ordered it. It seemed huge when it finally came in the mail, but I was hopeful it would look great and so we stored it for about 4 months in the basement... and when the wiring was finally done in our attic last weekend we were able to install it! I really like how it turned out and think it fits perfectly in our upstairs.

The baby's room light fixture we got at Ikea (for about $40), and Matt installed this in last weekend as well since all the new wiring was done and we were anxious to see how it would look. We love how modern it looks, yet "fun" for a kids room, and it will go great with our white & grey theme.

Dining Room light

Baby's room light



White ceramic animals

I have a love for things white and ceramic... and recently this extends to white ceramic animals. We recently purchased this Rhino from Z Gallery (it was already painted white like this... and we loved how it looks like it was folded from origami). I also have this little ceramic bird I picked up at the Thrift store for about 50 cents, and spray painted it white a few weeks ago.

 (*This may be part of the reason I am so obsessed with reading the very popular blog Young House Love, she has great design ideas, and also a love for finding fun objects and painting them white).

My obsession has luckily been ok'd by Matt (if he hated it I'm not sure how far I'd get with these... we have somewhat of an unspoken agreement that if either of us totally hates something... be it a ceiling fan or light fixture or anything house decor... even if the other person loves it we don't do it). So while I was away a couple weekends ago and he went garage sale shopping with his mom, he picked up this cute little frog for me to spray paint white. Not sure where it's going to go yet... but will be a fun addition to our decor somewhere... I think he might look cute sitting on top of a stack of books somewhere? We'll see.

Before & After

Holiday festiveness

Tried to keep the Holiday decorating simple this year (only because our house is under construction and its a little hard getting decorations out... plus our upstairs is packed with boxes since there is nowhere to store them in the basement while its being remodeled... so now a lot of room to put things up). Anyways, even while trying to keep it simple, I just love the weekend after Thanksgiving when I get to put up all of our festive holiday decor and our cute little tree.

Our little tree. Maybe one day we'll get a bigger one once there is more room in the house with the basement done and we move our big TV & entertainment console downstairs. Love the new Red Balls we have on it this year though and the the "G" ornament I picked up at Pottery Barn. =) 

Seasonal decor makes me happy

Like flowers, I have a soft spot for pumpkins. In fact I have to restrain myself or I would buy one everytime I see them at the store. When they first show up at our neighborhood vegetable stand (Tony's) it makes me just giddy. And when I found some of the really cool "Harvest Pumpkins" (the only way I can describe them is they look like heirloom tomatoes kind of) at Trader Joe's I went about crazy. I'm limiting myself this year to 2 large pumpkins on the porch this year, and a small one with a green gord as centerpieces on our table.

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul."  ––Luther Burbank

(ok, so I found this quote on the Trader Joe's website and stole it. I think its great though and expresses my love for flowers and other seasonal arrangements!)