Baby James' Nursery!

Well, I'm back with another post in the same week! Oh my, things are getting crazy around here waiting for Baby James to arrive. Thanks for so many encouragements on keeping this blogging thing going. It really is fun to share and document life.

I have had so much fun decorating a nursery for a baby BOY... for our Sweet Baby James. His room makes me happy, and Caroline's new big girl room {which is still a work in progress!} makes me smile too because she is loving the little details and the big girl bed. More on that to come...

For now here are a few pictures of our little man's room:

The walls in this room were already yellow, and I loved the subtle creamy color... so it stayed. Jay was happy to not need to re-paint anything. 

 I added blues and natural colors and lots of burlap to the room. 

All of the art work for the walls were either gifts or things I made, which was important to me because I wanted to re-use as much as possible and keep things simple, in-expensive, and sentimental. 

 This is the same changing table from Caroline's nursery. Its my favorite because it is just a fun old dry sink from an antique store that worked perfectly for Caroline. I did purchase new baskets in blue and white polka dot and burlap from hobby lobby. 

Jay picked up this wooden cross on a trip to Texas back in January specifically for James. Love his thoughtfulness and style :)

Caroline has made the transition to a big girl bed relatively easily, and we are using her same crib for Baby James. His blue and white bedding is from pottery barn outlet that I picked up back in november on a black friday special. It is the Row, Row, your Boat Bedding. 

OH, and don't worry, we haven't gone completely wacky and hung that elephant painting off center over the crib..... My sweet, and VERY talented friend Emily painted the above elephant paint for Caroline's nursery, and she is painting me a matching one with a giraffe to go bedside the elephant over the other side of the crib. Its the last detail for the room, and I am so excited to see it soon!

My mama and Jay helped me to make the super popular and VERY easy rain gutter book shelves. They are the perfect thing for this spot in the room, and to help corral all of our millions of books. Caroline loves the shelves too! We used this tutorial, and I am really happy with the turn out. It ended up costing us about $30 total and about an hour, if even that long. 

 I didn't get the best picture of the curtains, but they are white with tiny stitched vertical stripes and are from ikea. They were what we already had in the room when it was a guest room, and theyworked perfect with the bedding. 

I did order black out fabric from Fabric.com and made liners for the back of the curtains so that I can pull them closed and block out the very bright morning sun light that comes in this room. The black out fabric was super cheap, like $4 a yard and I needed 5 yards. It works great and makes this room really dark even in bright day light!

Oh, and my sweet Mama found this neutral glider at a consignment sale in Greensboro. It is in perfect condition and was a great gift for the room. She is the best :) Caroline is still fairly attached to having a rocker in her room so it is nice to have two. 

Baby James' dresser was our one big purchase for his room. I found this one in the PERFECT colors at an antique mall here in Virginia back in January. Both my Mother-in-Law and Mom agreed that it was just made for this room. The colors were just too perfect! It is also well made and not particle board {i am pretty partial to sturdy, real furniture}. 

The sweet J is wrapped in yarn by my dear friend Jessie who is so talented and such a kindred spirit in all things baby and craftiness. I love that she had it as a decoration at Baby James' shower and it is now in his room!

 The mirror over the dresser was something I bought for $10 last summer from Home Goods. It was on clearance, and I bought it on a gut feeling just knowing it belonged to me. I wasn't even pregnant, and it sat in a closet until I found James' dresser and then it was the PERFECT fit. I just love when that happens! I usually never buy anything unless I know I have the right spot for it because I hate clutter and extra junk, but this mirror just spoke to me :)

James 1:17 is our verse for sweet Baby James. He is our perfect Gift. 

The giraffe lamp is from World Market. Love it with the simple textured white burlap shade. It is a soft glow for late nights. 

Sweet James, your room is all ready for you... and so are mom and dad and big sis. Come on! We are ready to snuggle and rock you!

Our Guest Room!

I have finally finished up a few of the projects in our Guest Room and I wanted to share the final product {atleast for now... I always seem to be wanting to change things around!} 

 The wall color is Blue Hubbard by Sherwin Williams. It is such a great color that we loved it so much we used it in our downstairs half-bath as well. Much, much better than the awful green carpet and green walls and green trim, don't you agree?

 This room sorta felt jungle-ish with the bamboo shades and if you look closely below you will notice the closet door pull is a frog. {OH MY!}

Its AMAZING what a coat of paint, new carpet, new blinds, new ceiling fan, and a little bit of taste in door handles can do for a space :)

Our "H" pillow was a wedding gift, and the chevron pillows my sweet mom found at Stien Mart. The Color matches perfectly and I am in love with all things chevron these days. 

I made my super simple pinch curtains from fabric that I fell in love with from Fabric.com. {Also with help from my sweet mama!} These were a post-caroline project. I think she was only about 4 weeks old and they took all day for two of us to go back in forth between rocking, feeding, and soothing her to get the babies lined and sewed! 

This is the room my Mama/Gram always stays in when she visits, and as I am typing this I am sorta feeling like I made her decorate her own guest room... Sorry Mama!

 My chalkboard was a fun Saturday afternoon project. I bought a poster frame from Target for super cheap, took out the plexi-glass, and painted the particle board backing of the frame with two coats of Chalk board paint from Lowes. It was SO easy!

{And check out those gorgeous leaves changing outside our guest room window. Fall is simply the best in our back yard. Come for a visit and you'll just want to sit and watch the leaves change out this window.}

I wrapped the thin picture hanging wire with Jute rope that I found in a dollar bin at Micheals to add a little something more to this plain black chalk board. The jute stayed in place great with several drops of hot glue. 

It's fun having a chalk board in my guest room to write welcome messages to our guests!

 I love dried hydrangeas. So beautiful and they hold their color really well for a long time!

 The top of the dresser is currently decorated for fall, and will most definitely be switched out for Christmas decorations {yay!} after Thanksgiving. 

The mirror is a Greensboro thrift store find that fits in with the color of the room perfectly. It was one of those things I saw, I loved, I grabbed, and I knew I would find the perfect spot for it eventually. Got to love a cheap, beautiful find.

 I got the idea for these framed quotes from some of our favorite hymns from Emily at Jones Design Co. Emily's art prints are SO beautiful, but I wanted to create something for a little bigger frames, and in slightly different colors for Fall. 

Now, friends and family- come visit us and stay in our Guest Room! Its ready for you anytime!

Touches of Fall to our Nest

I love Fall! Love orange and pumpkins and Halloween and changing leaves and Football... and I could go on and on. We got married in the fall and it was perfect. Perfect weather and perfect use of lots of fall decor at our reception. Anyway, I also love lots of fall decorations in our home.

With our busy, crazy lives, I finally got a few touches of fall up around the house and I wanted to share!

 Decorating the mantel is always a favorite. I like arranging and re-arranging {weird I know!} and figuring our what I need to make for finishing touches. 

I found this free fall printable here.  

"A life without love is like a year without Fall." Isn't that saying so true?

They have tons of cute ones and they're so easy to print one out, or get inspired and make your own print! I love finding ideas and re-creating my own art that fits our home and our colors.  

After finishing the arranging and re-arranging on the mantel, I knew my window need another touch, so I made bunting from left-over burlap scraps. I just free handed with black puffy paint the word "Fall" and attached to some jute with miniature close-pins. Very easy and quick, but I think it added so much. I am in love with bunting these days! 

 And it definitely isn't fall without several pumpkin spice candles!

I made an easy Fall wreath that I threw together with a $1 stick/vine wreath from Target (the dollar section is SERIOUSLY the best. Can't walk into target without browsing for a craft idea!) I loved them then, and I'm thankful now that I held on to a couple! I painted the tiny wooden "H" {$1 from Michael's} a dark Orange color with acrylic paint, and attached to the wreath with hot glue. Whole project took less than 5 minutes! 

It isn't fall without fresh gourds and pumpkins! Each one is so unique. 

Is it fall in your home too? I am hoping as Caroline grows up she enjoys helping me put out fun decorations each year and remembers all the fun of pull our special memories. I sure remember loving when my mom decorated for each holiday :) Happy Fall!

More about our $20 DIY Shelves

Y'all, I just love, love, love these shelves.

They are a pottery Barn knock off.... And the BEST part is that they only cost $20!! Like I mentioned in my Living room update last week, my dear friend Shannon made one for her home, and shared THIS tutorial with me. So thankful!

We followed Shanty 2 Chic's instructions to a tee and it only took my sweet husband about 45 minutes to nail these babies together and for me to apply the first coat of stain. I used a Rust-Oleum "Kona" Wood Stain and it went on great. I also used a old tee shirt to rub on a light coat of MinWax Wood Finish to seal it.

I also think these shelves would look great painted a fun bright color for a kids bedroom or playroom!

We literally just drilled these suckers right into a stud in the wall without trying to hide the screws because I knew I would be able to hide them later with frames. Super easy!

Here are a few of the close ups of things I used to fill my shelves. Lots of pictures of miss caroline of course, a few bible verses, a wooden "H" that I painted and covered with burlap, the word "JOY", a cheap mirror from Ikea and a small white ceramic owl. Aren't you just loving cute owls these days? 

I also made "Date that Made our Family" print that I saw on facebook. Easy, easy and very cute. AND framed our Family vision statement over a piece of burlap. Everything adds a personal touch to our Den. These shelves are fun because of the possibility of changing out items with the seasons. I already have some fun fall ideas rolling around in my head! :)