Too much! - so a quickie...

There is too much for me to share that I am having trouble organizing thoughts. So really quick, while flipping channels while working and peanut was napping (I promise I don't want TV during the day, no time between watching peanut, working and attempting to stay on top of house work) I found Nate Berkus on HSN, which is good background noise while to crank out project plans. He was standing on the most amazing rug. LOVE!! and great price!

I think I like the runner that is 2x9 (for $99). Now the question is what color and where to use it, I like them all!!

Darcy Moment - number one

So I have slowly been working on creating my version of Darcy Miller's photo/memory wall. Our tip to Ikea the other weekend supplied wonderful frames to allow progress on the wall. So far I only have one frame going (had slight glass breakage with other frames), but have plans for two more for this week.

Here is the vintage cake topper from our wedding. It has been sitting in shelf for the past few years, and I love that now it has a home and a place of importance. I need to change the photo to be of Nick and I and thinking black and white. The plan is to have all the frames be white with a mix of shadow boxes and normal frames salon style.

We have friends visiting at the end of June, so there is a fire under us to get some projects going on the house.

The Chairs are back!!

About 5 weeks ago we sent the (fugly) peach chairs out to be recovered in wool felt and on Saturday they arrived back home!! Our lovely $10 chairs have come so far. Plus now Nick cannot make fun of me for never getting anything recovered. The felt might not have been the best choice of fabric for this style of chair, however they feel like butter.

I realize these two photos will be much more impactful if I show you the before photo of the chairs. We have no idea who was the orginal maker of these chairs since they had already been recovered at least once before. I love the chrome legs and the long arms so don't really care if they are a big name or not.

And to show you how comfortable these chairs are, just take a look at our peanut lounging for the first time. Approved. The only bad part is right now the edges are covred in tape to make sure the cats don't start scratching at the new fabric.

Livable Kids Space

So as we are making a baby safe play space, I have been looking really hard for some inspiration. Since our living room is right when you come in the front door I don't want for it to scream plastic toys, but I still want for it to be an area that if we make a mess playing it is ok. I have been collecting images for a while that will work for either the future basement play room or now. We have not made too many choices, but know that the room will go back to being a universal room so don't wan to make any structural changes.

I love the chalkboard walls. I think for now will be a bit of a stretch, but I am thinking of find an old school house chalk board to use. Could be a cool art display. Also we have a similar rug that I was thinking of moving into the guest bedroom, but might work well in this room.

I love this room. The white walls, fun play poofs in bright colors and open space to play what ever. I wish we could paint the walls white, but I think I am at my limit with Nick and white walls.

I love the bookcases in this room. I wish we could do something similar, but I think it will be too permanent for a room that is only temporarily baby proof. I have found an interesting solution to book storage that I will share later. I am still trying to find more storage solutions for toys overall, but we have a few that will work for now.

How to Baby Proof

So I have been debating on the best method for baby proofing. Option 1 is getting a large movable play pin to use around the house. Option 2 is baby proofing the entire house. Option 3, baby proofing one large area of the house. We have decided to go with Option 3 for the time being. It does not seem right to keep James so confined, and now that he is crawling there is no way the whole house can be baby proofed. Plus the cats did not do very well with the baby gate.

The best room to make James safe is our living room. It gets great sunlight, is large enough that James has plenty of space to crawl around and installing a baby gate to cut of this area of the house will be the least traumatic to the cats. Time to say farewell to the old family room as we make slow but sure progress on the James safe version. The other bonus is we have can get rid of the blue/green color scheme. Taking down the curtians alone was a huge improvement!

The sofa will stay and so will the bench tucked under the table. My attempt at being Damien Hirst has moved to another room, but might come back.

The desk has moved into the den and all the plants have to moved into the guest bedroom. Even though the coffee table has "sharp corners of death," it is the perfect height for James to pull himself up and play. Currently it is a highly watched play area untill we get more padding on it.

The funiture/accessories shuffle has made the entire house a mess with items being displaced all over. Hopefully we will end up with a better arrangement once all is said and done. Plus I am excited for another project.

Random items

So working on the house has been slow, but that has not stopped us from shopping for house items. We have found a lot of great deals lately. Two weekends ago, we went to Half Priced Books and found amazing books. I got all the books below for $10 or less. Good deal!

This weekend found a local store that is selling the fixtures from the closed Ruhel stores. Nick got a great 10 foot table for the Nursery, while I purchased this print. The framing is wonderful. We also ordered a rug that will be in two weeks. I love buying store fixtures.

Finally. It is a very long story, but I was able to purchase 19 yards of Burnschwig Zebra fabric for $150. Looking at the shipping information, it was shipped from Burnschwig in 1980. Not really sure what I am going to do with the fabric yet, but are thinking of some ideas for James' room.

Decorating Project Obsession

I have a new decorating project obsession. It started with a Google image search for Darcy Miller’s wedding scrapbook. I have been working on my own wedding scrapbook (2 plus years later) in a similar format to hers. Darcy’s scrapbook is not your typical scrapbook, it was more like a memory book with inspiration photos, mementos from planning and photos from the wedding.

Darcy's Scrapbook via - The Wedding Library.

This is my scrapbook in progress. I only have a few pages done since I just got rights to our photos this past fall.

So that search brought me to Darcy’s website with her adorable illustrations, background information on her scrapbook and her exhibit “Family” at Partners and Spade. The exhibit was so amazing. Just like the weddings in MS Weddings, every detail was thought of, but the different methods she showcased photos from and mementos from over the years is brilliant. Not only did the exhibit inspire me for my wedding scrapbook, but I also plan to recreate this wall in our house.

It will be fun to gather all the images and mementos to showcase, but also for friends and family visiting to see all the great memories showcased. I plan to put this wall in the seating area of our kitchen. We currently have a large mirror there, however with baby proofing not thinking a heavy mirror resting on the floor is a good idea. This will be a long project since I need to locate frames, images and keepsakes and build overtime, but I think will be a great project for 2010.

You can see and read a lot more by Darcy's exhbit via the following links:

• WeddingBee
• TaDaShop!
• Donna Newman