Transition to a Big Boy Bed

This past Saturday (1/26), we assembled William's twin bed in his big boy room (or big boy room until we move). William was very excited to help with Daddy's tools and it only took us about an hour to remove the full bed and bed frame and assemble the twin bed. Ok, by we I mean my husband since I can't lift anything being 27 weeks pregnant.

Two weeks ago we had reconfigured the furniture in this same room because I sold an Ikea armoire through my local buy/sell page. Since the house is on the market, we moved things around to make the room look larger and it looks even better now with only William's furniture.

Last night (1/29) I decided to try and put William to sleep for the night in his bed. My husband and I have been spending time with him in the room setting it up, reading books and getting dressed to introduce him to his big boy room so the baby can have the other room. Well, it went MUCH better than I expected. I think my husband was pretty surprised to see him asleep in the bed.

This was all bittersweet for me. I wish I had thrown a last night in the crib celebration (only partly kidding) because now I hope he stays in the bed for good. Why switch him now? Well, I really didn't want to deal with a new house, new room, new bed and new baby all at once. Seemed like too much for our little boy. So, I just put him down for his first nap and managed to take a picture with my phone (sans flash of course). I hope he has sweet dreams!

It's Almost Easter!

Since next week is Easter (already!) I wanted to share my Easter "mantle" which is a table in our entryway since we don't have a mantle. You can see my springtime bunting hanging from the stair railing to the picture frame. Then there is a modge podge of different Easter decorations...

This is an Easter subway art that I designed, cut and created with my Silhouette, love the colors. I am a fan of the "oops" paint at Home Depot and this was a golden yellow color that I used as a base with some thinned out white paint over it.

The metal tin with the eggs was from last year and the three little bunnies are courtesy of my mom. So are the letter cutout blocks. When she moved in they appeared on the table. 

Happy Easter!

Spring Bunting

It is 12:30pm and I just finished a cute and quick 30 minute project. This week's Made by Me Monday was actually made on Monday…fun.  I figured since William is at Mother's Day Out I would take full advantage of my time alone and do a craft instead of clean. Much better option, right? In an effort to add some spring to our house, I went into my fabric box and cut some triangle pennants.

I did not measure them, just eyeball-ed it. I recently made precisely measured pennants for William's upcoming birthday party so I knew I wanted these to be smaller. Thats the best "measurement" I can give you :) I also cut two long thin pieces of scrap fabric to act as bias tape. Then I sewed it all together.

Wa-la! Simple, but sweet springtime bunting for our entryway (or dining room or wherever I decide to keep it). This may also be the only way I am permitted to decorate with pink!

Please ignore the random stuff on the table. Working on William's 12m frame and transitioning from Winter decor to Easter/spring/birthday!

My Business is on Facebook!!

This past week has been a busy one for me. You see, a few nights ago I launched Memorable Designs on Facebook. If you haven't "liked" it, please do!

In case you haven't been following Enjoy, Life and Love too long, I started a side business in August 2008 that I named Memorable Designs and used a blog and personal connections to promote my work. Keeping up this blog, the Memorable Designs blog, my personal email, my work email and my personal life proved to be a bit overwhelming so I got a bit slack on the blogging (other blog…is this confusing?).

As I have continued to grow my business creating photo books for weddings, babies, anniversaries and birthdays as well as video montages, I have started paper crafting again which is something I have liked to do for many years. In addition, you may have read that I got a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas (so exciting!!) so that makes my work much better, more detailed and more diverse. It also gives me the opportunity to design with vinyl which is alot of fun for me.

So as a bit of a business push, please think of me when you are planning baby showers or your child's birthday party and are interested in a coordinating banner, cupcake toppers, favor tags, etc or personalized party buckets, wall art, etc. I can't wait to start feeding my creativity even more and thanks for coming along on this journey with me :)

Holiday Home Tour

Since Christmas is quickly approaching (at the end of this week!) I wanted to give you a tour of our home during this time of year. Every year I decorate differently and this year presented a new challenge by the name of William. From folding up the ends of my tablecloth to not pulling out the Spode or Christmas village at all ( :( ) I wanted to keep it as kid friendly and easy to assemble/disassemble as possible. Next year he will be more "into" the lights, etc so I'm sure we will have fun!

As usual, I didn't do much outdoors except hang my handmade wreath on the door. Once inside, our foyer really gets into the Christmas spirit.

William's handprint tree and our Christmas Traditions book - DIY post on Tuesday!

This lovely painting was made for me by a dear friend

In our living room we of course have our tree and also our stockings hung along the staircase with red ribbon since we do not have a mantle.

I kept things really simple this year and used a Christmas plaid tablecloth, the same runner I used in 2010 and put out different glass votives I have. I also added a gingerbread house that my friends and I made in the middle.

I really decorated a little at a time this year and like how everything looks, but wish everyone at our house wasn't sick so we could have more Christmas fun!

Natural Autumnal Porch

This year I decided to make our front porch decorations stand out more than last year. I used the same vintage wood box, but did this instead:

Set the box on a large bale of straw and used it as a "pot" for a large chrysanthemum. I need to be better about remembering to water my flowers because the color has changed over a few weeks time since I'm a bit forgetful.

When my friend Emily was in town we added some gords and cut dried hydrangea from our bushes on the side of the house.

We also picked up our three pumpkins, two white and one green, to the steps. But, when I found this antique wash stand on the side of the road, I made the most of it and used it to add height to the other side of the front door. Now it is home to William's monogrammed pumpkin, two other pumpkins and some hydrangea.

I love it!

Canvas Prints

Ever since we moved into our house I have been looking for art to hang above our bed in the master bedroom. I had a framed quote above the bed, but we took it down when we realized we had a frame hanging in the room with the same quote: "Love forgives all things, endures all things...." A while back I was shopping for fabric for living room pillows and I absolutely fell in love with one print. It is white, black, gray, gold and purple. I wasn't sure about how my husband would react since we have sort of an agreement about floral things, but the boldness of this pattern means it doesn't scream female.

So, I went about making my own frames to stretch the fabric around and create canvas panels. The pictures are pretty self explanatory so I won't editorialize much.

Supplies:
wood (I used 3 pieces of 1x2x6 for two 19x19 frames)
saw
wood screws
screwdriver/drill
measuring tape
fabric
staple gun

Make sure all pieces are the same length or you won't have an even square

This is when I used a drill to make the holes for the wood screws

Cut enough fabric so it will wrap around the wood and can be stapled in the back

I wrapped the edges like a present so it looks clean

Glass Fall Centerpiece

Last week the temperature in Maryland dropped which meant Fall really has arrived. So, while the baby was playing in the living room, I decided to switch up my table decor in the dining room (our main eating area). I went with something very simple, at least for the time being, because I already had all of the elements at home.

These five multi-level votives are meant for candles, but since we don't have many dinners by candlelight in our house, although I wouldn't mind if we did ;), I filled them with....

...orange glass beads. I used these beads last year too, but in a different way.

I also chose to use the same placemats as last year, but bought plum colored napkins at World Market. 

Now once I get out to the farm this year, I'm sure some pumpkins will be added!!

New Shower Curtain = New Mood

A few weeks ago, this pattern caught my eye at World Market. The blue and green paisley was serene:

I could just picture this in our guest bathroom, so of course I bought it to make it happen! When we moved into our home, I had a really hard time finding a shower curtain for that bathroom. Funny story: when registering for wedding gifts, I actually registered for the same shower curtain at two different stores without even realizing it for our master bathroom. I guess it was exactly what I wanted. Anyway, this is what the bathroom used to look like:

The color was semi-metallic and I liked the texture, but it was pretty boring. And now the the reveal:

I like our new one MUCH more and it plays off the beachy theme in there. I don't want to make it too much of a "kids" bathroom, at least not for a few years and the bright blues and greens are good for a little boy anyway. The new pattern goes with my accessories too.