Vine Covered Spaces

Last weekend my sister and I finally got to work on one of my Dad's Christmas presents - a backyard makeover! My husband and my mom were dragged into helping us and after 2 days of really hard work, we managed to give my dad a pretty nice looking backyard. I promise there will be pictures soon but I want to give the plants some time to grow and fill in a little first. While searching for inspiration for this project I came across so many beautiful outdoor spaces and realized that I am strongly drawn to anything covered in vines. 

 

House Beautiful

Country Living

Phil Thornberg

Via Velvet & Linen

Betsy Burnham

Windsor Castle

Unknown

House Beautiful

I know they can be invasive and depending on the type of vine they can even cause structural damage, but they are gorgeous and I love them anyway. What about you?

Reader Projects

A couple of readers have left comments lately with links to some of their DIY projects. I love seeing reader projects and thought I would share them with all of you in case you missed them.

First is Melissa from Love Your Pad. When she saw my DIY marbled paper post she posted a link to a project she recently did using marbled paper. Melissa found a beautiful marbled paper from Paper Mojo and adhered it to the top of an old coffee table and set it under glass. 

Before

 

After

What a great way to modernize an old, beat-up table. There are so many great papers/fabrics out there that the possibilities for a project like this are endless. You can read more about this project here.

Next, Christina left me a comment on my DIY Upholstered Headboard post with a link to a headboard that she and her husband made using my tutorial. I am so glad to know that my tutorial made enough sense for someone to follow it!

I think the headboard looks great! Also, I get a lot of questions about attaching the foam to the frame but I guess I didn't take a picture of that step, but Christina did. So, hopefully this photo helps clear up any questions that I haven't answered yet.

You can see more of this project here.

Great job, Melissa and Christina, and thanks for sharing your projects with us!

Mother's Day and a Design House

How was your weekend? Did all of the moms out there have a good Mother's Day? Mine got off to an early start since Riley decided to wake up at 4:30. We put her in bed with us and snuggled for a while before it became obvious that none of us were going back to sleep. So, Paul got up and brought me coffee in bed. Now, you are probably thinking this was a Mother's Day treat, but actually he brings me coffee in bed every. single. morning. Yes, I am spoiled. BUT - this morning he followed up coffee in bed with breakfast in bed with flowers!

That is a rare treat and it was wonderful!

After breakfast we tried our best to convice Riley to take a morning nap since she woke up so early but she was adamant that she was not tired. I found her like this around 9:00... 

The weather was nice so we spent the rest of the day wandering around a local arts and crafts festival. Later we grilled hamburgers for dinner and enjoyed dinner outside. I love eating breakfast, lunch or dinner outside. Afterwards I took Riley out for a hot fudge sundae. It was a pretty great Mother's Day!

Earlier in the weekend I went to check out the Charlottesville Design House with my friend Amy. The designers had a beautiful house to work with this year:

They didn't allow photos but the house is on the market and you can see what the house looked like before the designers took it over here. 

There were some really beautiful rooms and the designers were really nice. The Design House benefits a great cause - The Shelter for Help in Emergency and is open until May 22. If you are local, you should definitely check it out!

Would you rather

reside in a city penthouse

Jill Stuart's Apartment by Selldorf Architects | Elle Decor

Jill Stuart's Apartment by Selldorf Architects | Elle Decor

Jill Stuart's Apartment by Selldorf Architects | Elle Decor

Jill Stuart's Apartment by Selldorf Architects | Elle Decor

or a country estate?

Sag Harbor House by Steven Gambrel

Sag Harbor House by Steven Gambrel

Sag Harbor House by Steven Gambrel

Sag Harbor House by Steven Gambrel

Sag Harbor House by Steven Gambrel

Nursery Inspiration

Now that I am entering my third (and FINAL!) trimester, I am starting to panic when I realize that I have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this new baby. I haven't pulled out the baby gear or unpacked the newborn clothes that are in storage. I haven't bought a baby book or made child-care plans for Riley when the big day arrives. And I have not lifted a finger to start getting her nursery ready!

In my defense there are several reasons why I am a little bit behind. Due to major complications leading up to this pregnancy I wasn't even acknowledging that we were really going to have another baby until I was almost half way through. Not to mention the fact that I am terrible at being pregnant. I am one of the lucky ones that is sick the entire way through and I have to stay properly medicated to be able to get through each and every day. The first 5 months of this pregnancy I was pretty much a zombie and thinking about projects around the house was more than I could bare. Now that some of the fatigue and nausea has lifted and most of my client projects are wrapping up, it is time to focus!

Nurseries are fun but tricky at the same time. I don't want to do anything that she will outgrow too soon and I waffle back and forth between calm and neutral and fun and playful. 

After a few days of mulling things over, I have finally made a few decisions. All of these items are on their way to my house and will slowly be making an appearance in the nursery. 

 I still have a lot to figure out but at least it is a start!

Were you behind on planning for your second child too? I felt so "prepared" for Riley to arrive and this time it just seems like I am flying by the seat of my pants!

Recent Client Work

I had an installation at a client's house last week. The room isn't completely finished but since she is an out of town client and the remaining items can be finished from afar,  I probably won't get the opportunity to go back for final photographs for quite a while.

My client and her husband have recently moved into this house and were having trouble bringing this room together. Below are a couple of before pictures.

The room had recently been painted so we kept the existing color. We also decided to keep the rug, leather chair and a console table that is going to get a makeover. Other than that, everything else is new.

One of the first suggestions I made was to paint the fireplace white. It instantly brightened the room.

The sofa is waiting on a couple of pillows in this fabric.

It has been on backorder for months. The sectional is probably my very favorite sofa right now. I am having to force myself not to get one for my own living room. The fabric is a beautiful herringbone in camel and gray tones. It has great texture and doesn't show any pet hair which is important since my client and I both let our spoiled dogs on our furniture :)

  I have had a great time working with this client and I can't wait to see the whole room once it is complete!

I Heart Terrariums

Via Katy Elliot 

Sea and Asters

Smith and Hawken

Elle Decor 

House Beautiful

Terrain

Country Living

I am obsessed with terrariums lately. They are so pretty and low maintenance - my kind of greenery. I have used them in my last two client's homes and I think I am going to make one for my own house soon. What do you think of them?

Thrill of the Hunt

We spent Easter weekend in NC and we were on the go the whole time. We got in Thursday night and our first stop Friday morning was The Gingham Daisy. Do you remember this post about the one that got away? Well, it turns out that I couldn't let it go so I called my Mom a few days later and she was kind enough to go downtown and secure this piece of furniture for me.

We were finally able to go pick it up but we are storing it at my Mom's house for now so it will be awhile before this piece gets transformed.  

While I was there, I came across some other great finds. 

This little glass container caught my eye. Right now I am using it to store all of the random business cards that collect on my desk but it would also be great for jewelry.

I couldn't pass up this little sugar bowl. It was missing it's lid but I loved it anyway because it looks like a little trophy. 

But my favorite purchase was a bunch of Reader's Digest books. I love the colors and patterns so I bought all of them and figured I would have no trouble finding homes for them.

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating two birthdays, shopping for a client, and, of course, enjoying Easter festivities. 

Riley was ready to do some "hunting" of her own so my Dad found an Easter egg hunt in his neighborhood. We all got up bright and early Saturday morning to check it out. Even though the weather wasn't great, the event was a lot of fun. They had a petting zoo, an Easter Bunny, refreshments and an egg hunt! 

This was as close as Riley would get to the Easter Bunny.

And she only got that close because she wanted the lollipop they were giving out.

Even though she was too shy to talk to him, the Easter Bunny did manage to find Riley on Sunday morning. 

And he brought her the cutest little TOMS ever!

After a fabulous Easter lunch it was time to load up and head back home. We are so grateful that we got to spend the holiday with our family and can't thank them enough for hosting us. It only takes our little family of three about 5 minutes to turn the cleanest of houses into a disaster area when we travel and yet they always seem happy to see us anyway :) How was your weekend?

DIY Marbled Paper Art

I have mentioned that lately I am looking for new art for our house. While I hope to be able to purchase "real" art for some of our walls in the future, I am also trying to create some on my own. Yesterday I saw a tutorial online for marbled paper and since I had all of the supplies on hand I decided to give it a try. 

I totally expected this project to result in failure as a lot of my DIY projects do, but this one actually worked. And it was super easy and kind of fun!

Basically, you just need oil paints, paint thinner, a shallow metal tray, water, and paper. Start by mixing the colors you want with the paint thinner in small, individual cups to get a syrupy liquid. Fill the shallow tray with water and pour the paint/paint thinner mixture into the water at random. You can swirl the colors as much or as little as you like. Place a piece of paper in the water face down and let it soak for a few seconds. Pull it out and let it dry on an old towel. 

If I didn't swirl the colors in the water as much I got large clumps of color mixed in with the swirl patterns, like below:

When I swirled everything together I got patterns more like this:

The best part is, you have no idea what you are going to get and each one is different. I could have done this all day long if I hadn't run out of paint thinner. Because I hadn't planned on doing this project I didn't have nice thick paper on hand so I just used cheap white craft paper and the edges did curl a bit when they dried. Next time I do it I will have some heavy cotton or watercolor paper to make the final product a little sturdier. 

The only unpleasant part of this project is working with paint thinner. Obviously you need to have good ventilation and the clean up is a little more work but this is still one of the easiest and quickest projects I have ever done.

I popped one of them in a frame this morning and I love how it turned out. I might start putting these all over my house. My plan is to try to find a really big pan so I can do a giant-sized one for our dining room.

What do you think?

A trip to DC

Last week Paul and I decided our little family could use a get-away. We decided to drive up to DC over the weekend and take Riley around the city.

We knew the weather was supposed to be bad on Saturday so we played it by ear to see what we could fit in. We took the "choo choo train" (AKA the Metro) from our hotel in Woodley Park down to the Mall. 

The weather was overcast but for most of the afternoon the rain actually held off and the temperature was perfect. I think Riley's favorite thing was riding the carousel.

She would have stayed on that thing all day. I apologize for the blurry pictures - that thing goes around pretty fast!

Next we stopped by the Air and Space museum for Paul and the Museum of National History so Riley could see the dinosaurs. Since we were already dressed for rain, we let Riley play in one of the fountains along the way.

We made it back to our hotel by late afternoon. I can not say enough good things about the Omni Shoreham - great location, beautiful hotel, huge room, great service, etc., etc. Riley was thrilled to have her own bed and loved jumping up and down on it whenever she got the chance. 

For dinner, we met Paul's friend Josh at a nearby French restaurant called Petits Plats. It was such a quaint little place and the food was wonderful. After completely stuffing ourselves we walked back to our hotel in the POURING rain and called it a night.

Sunday we woke up to unbelievable weather - sunny and mid 70s!

We ate a delicious breakfast at the Open City Diner across from our hotel. I was super excited because they had chocolate croissants! Then we walked a couple of blocks over to the National Zoo. 

We had a blast! The animals were out and about enjoying the nice weather.

I think Riley's favorite part was the elephant. He looked so sweet and could do all sorts of tricks.

All of the animals were fun but my favorite part was watching the orangutans climb over our heads on the rope walks.

It was such a fun weekend and it was exactly what we needed after feeling cooped up over the last few weeks. We are already planning our next trip back. Hopefully next time I can fit in some shopping!