ellie's nursery

While I was pregnant, most of my nesting instincts went straight into putting together a nursery for Ellie. I may have gone overboard, as I generally do, but it was such a fun way to keep busy during the final months of my pregnancy and collaborate with Matt. And even though in the first weeks of her life, we barely used this room and the daily concerns of caring for a newborn eclipsed all thoughts of cute decor, now that she's almost three months old I think she's actually beginning to notice and appreciate her surroundings. I so hope it will be a happy and cozy place for her to spend the first few years of her life.

The starting point for this nursery was the vintage curtains that Matt found at a consignment shop. They're actually identical to a set my grandmother had and I can remember sleeping on those sheets as a child. I couldn't resist them and they set the palette for the whole room--bright pops of coral, aqua, yellow, and spring green. This is actually the largest bedroom in our house, perhaps a little large for a nursery, but it adjoins our bedroom so it gives us easy access at night. It was already painted a lovely gray color, so at least we didn't have to repaint! The previous owners also used this room as a nursery and had painted the boarded-up fireplace with chalkboard paint for an improvised drawing space.

We tried to re-use and re-purpose as many things as we could, and the only new furniture we bought for the room was the crib, which we got at IKEA. The window seat (also from IKEA) was stolen from our sunroom. The pennant garland was from our wedding.

We re-purposed an old dresser from our guest room to use as a changing table and painted it a bright cheerful yellow. The turquoise ceramic knobs on the dresser came from Anthropologie.

We got the glider from the same consignment shop where we got the curtains. I recovered it in a nubby gray fabric with yellow piping. The tall dresser was inherited from my grandmother, and is the perfect size for tiny onesies and other pint-sized clothes. The wall art is a hodge podge of items, most notably the beautiful embroidered "E" made by Twin using the pattern in Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion and the fawn wall clock by DecoyLab (I saved up my pennies for that clock!). On top of the dresser, you can also see the beautiful keepsake box our friend Sara made for us to store all the little mementos of Ellie's childhood.

The beautiful gray wool blankie was made by my mother. It's the Brooklyn Tweed Shale Baby Blanket. I spent so many nights nursing and rocking Ellie with that warm blanket like a shawl over my shoulders. It really was like having a warm and reassuring snuggle from my own mama. Mom also made the blanket hanging from the Moses basket. It's inspired by the Hudson Bay blanket on the Purl Bee but done in our nursery colors. She used such a lovely soft wool that's been great for keeping Ellie warm this winter.

Ellie will have no shortage of little chairs when she starts toddling around.The rattan one and the straight wooden one are from my childhood, and the awesome yellow rocker is from Matt's. One of Matt's uncles got us the giraffe, who stands guard over the room very handsomely. Abby was terrified of the giraffe at first, but has now established a wary truce with it.

The cushion on the window seat has five dresden plates that I put together with fabrics from my stash. I'd never made dresden plates before--they are a lot of fun! I just appliqued them on with my sewing machine and did very minimal quilting. Not sure how practical the white fabric will be, but the cover does come off for washing (if I can pry it off--I always make my pillow covers too tight!).

Twin and I made the mobile using stuffed farm animals and veggies from IKEA. We just carefully hung each from embroidery thread and arranged them around two embroidery hoops. Ellie has just now (at about 10 weeks) begun noticing her mobile and she really does love looking up at it as she falls asleep. The crib is also guarded over by Shanna Murray's Lamb Family wall decal. And a peace sign, because our little girl is sure to have some hippie in her.

I got this little green lamp a couple years ago at an antiques store and rewired it myself (I had no idea rewiring a lamp was so easy!). I covered the shade with a scrap of Heather Ross's bicycle print. I don't know if that fabric is still in print, but I probably bought it about 7 years ago and have been hoarding it just in case I ever had a little girl. And now I do! I still have some in my stash, hopefully enough to make a little dress for her soon. The teddy bear I made a couple years ago from Hillary's book, more about it here. You may have also spied Space Boy and Olive, who now have a home in the nursery.
 

Just a few weeks before Ellie was born, we found the little scooter at an antiques shop downtown and we couldn't resist bringing it home. This teddy bear is from my own childhood, ready for a new generation of love.

I took all these pictures just before Ellie was born, and this one makes me laugh. It could be captioned "Ready and Waiting." We were all so ready to welcome that baby. The dogs didn't know exactly what they were in for, but they definitely knew something was up.

And we need a picture of the star of all this cute decor. Here's Ellie at 10 weeks!

early summer colors

This is about the best time of year. The pups agree.

green stuff

I may have jinxed our mild winter because it's gotten quite chilly and gray the past few days. I'm paranoid about "jinxes" because Matt says I don't understand them. Not having grown up in a family where sports were paid much attention, I never learned that saying things like "Oh they're playing well!" or "They can't lose at this point, right?" is bad form. So now I am refining my jinxing abilities just to get his goat each time we watch a sporting event together.

Even if it's gotten a bit gray lately, though, we've still had a pretty sweet winter. And I've already started getting excited for spring, bringing bits inside to set on windows and planning what we'll do this year. (Must order veg seeds pronto.) 

Matt brought in some of the hellebore that's blooming outside. I love this plant. They're also called "Lenten Rose" because they bloom so early. They're the first thing to wake up every year and we've got quite a patch of them in the yard. Someone must have planted white and purple ones years ago, and they've spread quite a bit, so that now we have plants across the spectrum from purple to white. Their hardy evergreen leaves are also a staple in the garden through our hot humid summers and mild winters.

I've never considered myself very lucky with houseplants, but now I'm finding that, as with most things, it just takes a bit of effort and patience. And trying a lot of different plants. I planted these common succulents in tin cans on the kitchen window ledge and they're so easy to take care of. I just set them in the kitchen sink in a couple inches of warm water about once a month. That's all they seem to need.

A sunroom with wide windows and lots of natural light also helps. I honestly think just about anything would grow in our sunroom. I have been babying this maidenhair fern, spritzing it daily and keeping it nice and moist, and he seems really happy.
 

Matt bought me this foxtail fern last year. It sat on the front porch all summer, and has thrived in the sunroom this winter. It had gotten really potbound so I moved him to this large bamboo pot last week. He looks a little bottom-heavy but I think he'll fill it out quickly.

Happy weekend! We are going to see Todd Snider tonight, which I am really excited about. I hope he tells the tale of KK Rider. I can laugh until tears stream down my face.

mini-bathroom renovation

Sorry for my long absence! We've been enjoying the end-y bit of summer, which has been dry as a bone and hot as hades here. (I'm not complaining, though. Weeeeell, maybe I am just a bit. Looking forward to lovely crisp autumn and all that comes with it.) We had a two-week "staycation" at the end of July, followed by a week with my family in the mountains. Now, fully rested and totally depleted of vacation hours, it's back to work we go.

Our staycation was lovely though, full of great food and summer movies and relaxing together. Around the beginning of the second week, I started thinking "my, wouldn't this be a great time to try to renovate the bathroom a bit?" I mentioned this to Matt, at which point he sighed heavily, then gamely agreed to help me. Because he's such a good hubby.

This is the master bathroom, which is remarkably large for our modest, 1920s-vintage house (we think it was added on at some point). The fixtures are all fine, if a little generic. Since moving in, we've talked about doing a gut renovation "some day," and I started a wish list: free-standing tub, vintage-style lighting, hexagon tile flooring. But the reality is that we probably won't have the moola for a total renovation for many years. So we set out to see what we could do with as little investment as possible. The total renovation is still on the wish list, but we wanted to make it a more enjoyable space right now.

I forgot to take a "before" shot, but here's an in-progress picture to show you what we were working with. The floor was a hunter green vinyl sticky tile and the walls were the color of a band-aid. Somebody at some point must have liked this color combo. I'm not a big fan. I knew just changing those two elements would make a huge difference.

We stuck with sticky tile (hee) but chose a light, faux-marble one from Lowes. The colors in the tiles are quite lovely--mostly white and cream but with enough gray and brown smudgy bits that it has a lot of depth. And it hides dirt like a dream. I actually really enjoyed laying the floor, believe it or not. It was like one giant jigsaw puzzle. I LOVE jigsaw puzzles. Matt does not. We realized this after an hour or so, so he took over the painting from that point.

The walls are a very pale blue-gray and we repainted all the trim white. We also painted the base of the vanity a medium gray. I had originally chosen a minty green color that ended up looking dreadful. Just awful. Matt gave me an "I told you so look" and helped me pick out the gray color. Much better. We also replaced the giant frame-less mirror above the vanity with a smaller, framed one that we already owned.

We replaced some of the hardware with shiny new ones. The rusty black floor vent was replaced with a bright white one. We finally mounted a toilet-paper holder on the wall (we used to just keep the roll sitting on the back of the commode...it took me three weeks after installing it to stop twisting around behind me to reach for the tp).

This odd corner beside the shower is where we store our linens. There used to be two large, deep shelves here where we piled all our linens. It was impossible to keep it organized and neat, so we took down the shelves and put in an inexpensive storage cabinet. Now I don't have to stare at a jumble of towels and sheets.

I was going to sew a new shower curtain but then found this awesome one at Target. We also picked up the wooden floor mat and the cheerful yellow trash can there. I like the yellow accents and warm wood tones against the cool gray background.

I don't normally keep fresh flowers in my bathroom but maybe I should. I also hid all my ugly toiletries and only left out the pretty ones for these photos. I maybe watch too much HGTV. Speaking of which, there is an episode of Design Inc (here are some pics) that really inspired this bathroom. I love me some Sarah Richardson. I don't know that I am posh enough to live in any of her houses, but I do love watching her shows. Especially Sarah's Summer House. It is a modern day Blue Castle. (And if you haven't read The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery and have no idea what I am talking about, you need to read it. It is one of my favorite books of all time.)

I had to include this picture because Abby looks like a ghost. A sweet, friendly puppy ghost.

The whole "mini-reno" probably set us back about $200 and a few days of labor. One day we will get our claw-foot tub and ceramic tile, but in the meantime I know we will really enjoy this space.

my anniversary present

For my anniversary present, Matt had an old piece of my grandmother's cross-stitch custom-framed. I love it so much.

I found the sampler in the depths of my grandma's linen closet when we cleaned out her house. I don't know when during her lifetime she made it, or why she never framed it. I don't really remember my grandma doing much sewing or embroidery, though she must have done quite a bit earlier in her life. I'm not surprised at all, though, by how perfectly neat and precise her cross-stitch is.

The sampler is made up of delicate little motifs of flowers and animals, all in the most lovely muted colors.

Her initials are in the very center of the sampler. My grandma's name was Genevieve, which I've always thought such a beautiful name. She would laugh because many people didn't know how to pronounce it, and she was usually called "Gen." She died just over a year ago, and I'm so glad to have this little reminder of her where I can see it every day.

I knew that Matt was framing the cross-stitch, because I went with him to the store and hemmed and hawed endlessly over the framing options. I didn't know, though, that he also ordered and framed a photo of us. My brother took this picture of us at our family reunion last year. We're walking away from the camera, and we just look like we're having a lovely conversation. I can't remember if we were, but probably so. We tend to have mighty nice conversations.

late april blooms

Spring is galloping along here, aided by plenty of rain and warming weather. The rhododendron in front of the house is just opening up. We've now got a purple + lime green thing happening out front that was unforeseen but is quite awesome.

Last year I planted a viburnum and I killed it. I think he was a casualty of poor drainage. I kept watering him religiously, which probably didn't help. Last year overall was not a good year for me and shrubs, but I am determined to do better this year. I really wanted a white viburnum, so we picked out a common snowball viburnum. I figured "common" might mean "hardy." I didn't even realize until it bloomed that these are the exact flowers that I had in my wedding. Bonus.

The arbor roses are taking off, and I fully expect this year they will make it over the top of the arbor and reach toward the sky. They are called Morning Magic roses and they are somehow akin to the knockout roses which just bloom and bloom. These do indeed seem to have a lot of get up and go. The buds are a lovely apricot pink and they open to almost white.

The snowmound spirea is just budding. This might be my favorite thing we planted last year. It's a petite shrub with delicate little leaves. It branches beautifully, sending out gently waving arms in all directions. It stays pretty all season, long after the blooms fade.

Someone at some point planted some mint in this garden which entrenched itself with fierce determination. I have been methodically pulling it out and replacing it with heuchera of various colors. I can't remember the names of these, I'm pretty sure the bronze one is called "Caramel."

The iris just opened up today. I got home from work and they were ready for their sunset photo.

The veggies are also coming along nicely. Looks like we are going to be eating lots of salads this summer. It really does taste better when it's out of your own garden, doesn't it? Part freshness and part pride, I expect. :)

bookcase lined...and dining room is DONE (for now)

Neither of us had ever had a proper dining room before this house, but we've managed to acquire some really lovely pieces and it's now one of my favorite rooms. The corner cabinet above was from my grandma's house and I feel so lucky to have inherited it. And every time I open one of the doors on the cabinet, the smell of my grandma's house envelops me. I love that part.

The bookcase is a hand-me-down from my parents that we painted white. For some reason the bookcase never had a back panel on it--I can only assume it used to be mounted flush against a wall and didn't need a back. This has been bothering me for some time, so last weekend I went to Lowe's and bought a piece of the thinnest plywood I could find. The nice Lowe's man cut it to the right size for me and I brought it home, covered it with fabric, and tacked it to the back of the bookcase. I contemplated using wallpaper remnants, but I didn't have any wallpaper. Fabric, I have lots of that. And this way I can switch the fabric out if I want.

I've had this leaf print in my stash for a long time and it seemed like a cheerful choice for the room.

I blogged before about our wall color choice and the awesome hoosier cabinet my parents got us for a wedding present. The rug is a beautiful old Karastan that has been in Matt's family for a long time. I never would have chosen a rug like this, thinking it would be too formal, but once we put it down in the room, it was perfect. The colors tie everything together and look so beautiful. Matt's hometown has a Karastan factory and his grandpa worked there for many years. I am fascinated by the art of carpet-weaving, and one of these days I want to get Papa to tell me all about it. This part of NC used to have an incredibly vibrant textile industry with thousands of mills. Most of those companies are now gone and the mills abandoned, though some are being reclaimed and turned into lofts or retail spaces. Thinking about it all makes the historian crafter nerd in me start to itch. But I digress.

For weeks we've been looking for just the right cabinet for a tiny bar tucked into the corner. Matt found this one which fits perfectly and has two handy shelves inside for glasses and drinks. The 5cent beer wallhanging was another wedding gift that came from the consignment shop downtown. We love that consignment shop. Our wine glasses are hanging from the business end of an old garden rake.

Under the window sits the hifi I got for Matt last Christmas (also from the consignment shop for $40). It didn't have a needle and the volume knob was wonky, but I found someone to repair it for $50 and now it plays perfectly. Matt's collection of albums is stored in an old crate that was unearthed when we cleaned out my grandma's garage. I have been trying to find a second, similarly-sized one because his collection will soon outgrow this one.

The Flatt and Scruggs albums get place of pride above the trim of the french doors.

And I'll leave you with the first peony of the season. He opened up on Saturday to say hello and I brought him indoors before the thunderstorms could toss him around. Is there anything more beautiful?