Welcome to...."Evan's Room"

Recently I saw a fun blog idea in which bloggers showcase their homes room by room as part of a "show us your life" series. More than something fun to write about, I thought it would be a great way to archive my first family home and even better, a good excuse to tidy things up(isn't a picture always!). So, I'll start my show & tell home series with the coolest room around here-Evan's!

Even before the ultrasound told us we were having a boy, my mind was pregnant with thoughts of nursery decor. Once we knew we were headed for blue, Chris and I quickly agreed that animals were the way to go. And voile, jungle tales it was! I am so happy with our nursery and I think Evan would agree. His room is my favorite in the house-besides the kitchen that is. The one thing I would add is paint-but as we are really hoping to move within this year, we figured it best to save the capachinno walls for another home.

In the past 2 years this room has taken on many forms. First, as a guest room with an extra closet for our excess clothes. Then it became more like my little craft area; we set up our small breakfast table in there and it was the perfect place to sew and create. Oh, and you know that "closet" everyone has in the house where you toss things that don't have a home(or at least not at that second)...you know the one where you throw the lone shoe and misplaced pillow in when the doorbell rings? Well, at times that room functioned as a giant one of those type closets. And now, it's been made into the perfect little room for our precious boy-by far it's greatest accomplishment!

Bathroom Makeover: A Whale's Tale

This past weekend our bathroom got a fun facelift and was swept out from formal Bed Bath & Beyond chic to a kid friendly under the sea theme. We love the new, bright colors and the whales are just too cute :-) As some extra icing, we think it's pretty gender neutral and will be a great kid bathroom for a long time to come. In our future "house house," I can't wait to carry over the theme with a touch of chocolate paint; no doubt blue and brown are a favorite pairing to my creative heart.

Before...

A Whaletastic after, voile!

Special Delivery!

With the special delivery of baby E's crib and dresser set, his room is well on it's way to being complete. Yesterday we had a somewhat cluttered yet blank canvass ghost of a guest room-and today it's a nursery!

UPS man pulls up with the goods(left)..Chris diligently working on the crib & dresser(right).

Chris was a champ with the assembly, and did a great job of putting everything solidly together. Notice my craftsmenship on the dresser knobs below, haha; I did my part baking cookies and passing the occasional screwdriver. I am more than pleased with how everything looks and am happy to say that both pieces really surpassed my expectations.

Presenting the adorable "after..."

Note the wood colors are a tad lighter than my camera's flash would have you believe-gotta love that point and shoot, lol. Just a few of the finer details to go-curtains, area rug, wall decor, changing pad, toy/book shelf, ect-and my vision will be complete. As a young but ambitious Martha Stewart lover, it's fun to have these home projects on the mind and daydream about colors, organization and other such creative decor outlets-what on earth will I online shop for after this room makeover, lol?

I'm overjoyed to have the cornerpeices of the room ready to go at 30 weeks, and can't wait to see the final product. :-)

*Not pictured-A sea of Styrofoam, a giant pile of cardboard boxes, and a confused, crib loving puppy.

A Birthday Bookshelf

This is my new cranberry colored bookshelf...

perfectly purposed for kitchen cookbooks.

As I said before, I received a few cookbooks for my birthday, and was unfortunately running out of places to put them. I had seen this bookshelf at World Market(on sale!) a few weeks ago and immediately pictured it in our kitchen. While I celebrated my birthday on Sat w/ my family in Goldsboro, Chris held back this special present for my actual birthday on Wednesday. Needless to say, I love it and am so excited to continue stocking these shelves in the years to come.

Sidenote: Those are my birthday flowers on the top shelf-I told Chris that they looked so good there he'd have to keep em' comin! Fresh flowers once a week I think...haha now I'm dreaming!

If these walls could talk...

...they'd say "We love our new curtains!!"

A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Oh how I love cupcake castles, and sprinkles, and aprons, and making a mess in the kitchen. I made these deliciously green cupcakes for Chris' New Years party with Kidstunes. Along with the always dreaded White Elephant exchange, there was also a fun awards ceremony, where Chris was aptly awarded the title of "Guitar Hero." While very true, I must say that Chris is much more than a guitar hero these days, spending more time with his new set of electric drums and sharpening his piano skills.
Oh, and I haven't forgotten my nod to Martha...sans the silver sprinkled tree branch. Without further ado, my mom's lovely New Year's table...

A beautifully set table, anxiously awaiting food and drink, laughter, family, full bellies and dessert-another one of my favorite things :)

Adventures in Sewing Part I

My first sewing project...not completely perfect, but a success nonetheless! (Just don't look too closely, lol :)

(I covered the floral patterned pillows, not the blue colored)

I love my new sewing machine, and can't wait to start on more projects. Once you get over the learning curve, it's not so complicated after all ;)

Finally, a Real Place to Eat

We finally got our dining room table ordered this past weekend, no more eating on the island for us! This is our first official "dining room" table. Before we had a smaller breakfast table in an eat-in kitchen setting, so this is definitely a nice change for us. And, it has a built-in leaf to make it bigger for company! I can't wait to have many dinners around our new table :)

Let the decorating begin!

Our home is still a work in progress, but I am happy to report that we are slowly but surely getting there! Our new couch was just delivered yesterday,and my next project will most likely be making the pillow covers-I went to the fabric store last night and was so excited to cut samples and envision them in our new living room...stay tuned for pics! For now, we are mostly done with our bedroom and the kitchen, give or take some wall art...