New Garlands at GrayDayStudio: Art Deco and Neutral Florals

The stars aligned this morning and I was finally able to list new garlands I made at the beginning of last month! The first set is my Art Deco inspired series. Made with recycled shiny wallpaper and alternating black paper. They remind me of NYC in the 20's or a trip to the ballet. Perfect to spruce up your office space or home decor!

My second set is a neutral series of garlands that speak to spring. With their blossoming wallpaper pieces and neutral tones, they are sure to combat the winter doldrums!

Shop all garlands HERE. and Remember to use code 3garlands for 10% off your order when you purchase 3 or more!

30 week bump and our daughter's thoughts on pregnancy

I'm 30 weeks this week, that means I'm 7.5 months pregnant and in 6 weeks I'll be tick tick ticking ... So yeah, gotta dig out the baby clothes and other baby gear and finish setting up the baby's room! In the above photo, taken at my folk's house the other night, it looks like they served basketballs for dinner and I went back for seconds! ZING!

But in general, everything is going great! I feel like we are having a boy... but I'm not as certain as I was with our daughter (I was 99% sure she was a girl)! That being said the husband and I are still bouncing around boy names while we have our girl name options pretty set. So who knows what that means? All will be revealed once the little one comes along!

I also noticed a little trend I'm guilty of, using the bump as a TV tray during my snack/ computer breaks at the toddler's nap time. Obviously some snacks are healthier than others! I'm going to miss my snack shelf.

And last night, our daughter got talking about pregnancy... I think she is still wrapping her head around this whole concept. She's pretty into it though. She loves reading the baby book she got from my in-laws for Christmas, and she loves to pat my belly and talk to me about the baby. I've also been showing  her more baby photos of herself, which I think helps her to understand her own experience and babyhood. It will be an adjustment but she's so helpful and sweet with others, that it should be a fairly smooth transition!?!

(the bump makes a good toddler hand rest too)

Before and Afters: A round up of my Apartment Therapy "January Cure" Projects

It's the last day in January, thus I wanted to check in with my home accomplishments from Apartment Therapy's January Cure Challenge!  Here is my little round up of some before and afters. I'm going to elaborate on my bigger January Goal project- our daughter's bedroom, hopefully later today (or tomorrow!), after I finish the second curtain and take more pictures. We started the month off on a roll and despite being knocked flat with colds in the middle of the month, we pushed through and got a lot accomplished! Read my very first post HERE.

Above: the shelves in our living room/family room were decorated for Christmas at the beginning of the month, and over the course of January this little corner was tweaked. First the decorations came down and I reorganized the frames and objects on top, which subsequently rearranged the other surfaces of our family room. In keeping with one of the daily Apartment Therapy email challenges: to weed out books and magazines, I also recycled a big stack of magazines and you should see the pile of books in the basement waiting to list on Amazon. I also removed the chair from the right corner, which frees up both visual and physical space. Sounds crazy to take away seating options, but we have enough in this room and I can always bring it back should the need arise. And finally, the biggest change and addition to this corner is the lovely lamp from Bunny William's Beeline Home, that my sister gave me for Christmas. It adds a more modern element to the room. The previous lamp (that belonged to my grandparents) is now back in our bedroom, which was perfect since I lost a lamp to our daughter's new bedroom.

The kitchen in our rental is seriously dated, there are strange mirrors, a bar sink, and yellow plaid wallpaper, and then this funny built in above the sink. I day dream that if one were to do a minor revamp of the kitchen you could transform this built in into a deeper cabinet with a door that would house and hide the microwave, freeing up more counter space. In the meantime, I use these shelves to house some decorative objects as well as some functional kitchen items. However it was too cluttered and some objects needed to go elsewhere and be with other like objects. IE: the blue recipe box is now with our recipe books on the bookshelf in our dining room. It still feels a little crowded, but the 10 minute rearrange is a welcome improvement.

Entryway: We have a small collection of wool rugs that once belonged to my grandparents, and this lovely green and red rug is one of many. When we moved in in October, we needed a rug by the front door and this one was great initially, but in actuality was too small and buckled easily under foot and when opening and closing the door. So I happened to find this black and white rug by Nate Berkus at Target last week, that was thicker and bigger, and perfect for the space. Our living room has a lot of prints and color in it and I've been wanting to introduce more black and white/ graphic/ modern elements into the space, plus this rug stays in place. Hooray, all objectives accomplished! 

And if you've been following along this month I wrote a post about

reorganizing "the Staging area", by our front door. Read the Details HERE.

I also wrote about de-cluttering and organizing my

Bedroom Dresser. Read more about it's transformation Here.

And a post I wrote about adding more "Obje" to our home decor.

And a here's a little sneak peek of my bigger January Goal Project- Our Daughter's bedroom. Post to follow!

In conclusion, I have really enjoyed participating in Apartment Therapy's January Cure. I love the over riding lesson that much can be accomplished in a spare 10 minutes here and there. Those 10 minute clean ups add up to a bigger chunk of time at the end of the week to spend on larger, more in depth projects. So yeah, I'm gonna give my 30 week pregnant self a big pat on the back as I keep the motivation going into accomplishing more goals for February!

Skulls, snake skins and a wire sculpture- adding more "Obje" to our home

My Mom is organizing and editing her collection of awesome and funky objects, so her children are picking their favorites. Here's what I chose. Above: Beaver skull with dried hydrangea, apothecary jar of snake skins, piece of petrified wood, wire lion sculpture my mom made, and a turtle shell. And below is where I put these news treasures.

Our mantle received most of the goods, and they fit in nicely with my existing collection.

The snake skins are now grouped with my jar of quail eggs.  And the turtle shell now sits amongst my rocks- covering the outlet.

The right side of the mantle has the usual suspects, but now there is a wire lion sculpture in the mix!

The beaver skull didn't physically fit on the mantle plus it couldn't compete with the bear skull, so now it sits on the little blue dresser in our dining room, that houses napkins and table clothes. The petrified wood (not pictured) is on our recipe bookshelf opposite the dresser. Always so fun to get more funky pieces for the home!

Handmade Shout Out: Recent Etsy Favs

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wow, it's been many moons since I've written a handmade shout out! In fact sticking to my weekly and daily blog themes has been a challenge of late... but here I am and happy to share some recent etsy favorites with you! Enjoy!

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Home Video: "I Don't Bother You"

I have a fairly extensive nesting bucket list before our second one comes along... the biggest priority is to make an ultimate home video of all the clips I have taken over the past 27 months of our first born.  (this goes for pictures as well) There were so many instances this past fall where I wanted to share a clip right away, but alas I will admit it must not have been a priority. And so over the next few weeks you'll find little clips and bigger clips- of personal home videos here on the blog!

ABOVE: Our Daughter and her Dad play this new game, which is funny and sweet and almost a nightly tradition after bath... I just hope she understands it's just a game and it doesn't translate to actual sleepy-time (although her 2nd night in her new bed, proved to be quite bothersome... more on that later.) In the meantime this sleep deprived mother is watching home videos in order to focus on the positive aspects of her child! joking, kinda.

A Love Letter to Winter

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It's a tiny bit snowy here today, which somehow makes winter feel more purposeful rather than something to muddle through. Which is a nice way to begin to wrap up January and look forward to February. And so here is this week's Love Letter to Winter!

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Progress Report: Toddler Bedroom Makeover

I wanted to check in with my blog and those who read it ; ) to report back on what I've been up to this week... Besides lots of stuff, I've been working on our daughter's big room switch and makeover. It's my big nesting project this go around, plus I'm tying it in with the "January Cure's" bigger month project!

This week has been all about painting! As I mentioned earlier this month, our landlord gave us the go ahead, plus the supplies, to paint the wood paneling in the third bedroom. After a deep clean, it took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to cover the wood. Check out the very first picture at the top of the post to see what a difference a fresh set of blinds and paint can do to update a room!

In other news, I've made two trips to Ikea since Saturday! And here's what we got.

Pink Duvet Cover: Since we are moving the toddler directly form her crib to a twin bed, we already have a lot of twin bedding in the family. But I wanted to update an existing duvet cover without spending too much money. So I got this pink duvet cover for only $20! (Cheaper to buy it in the store than online) It's reversible- one side is striped while the other is gingham. I think I'll have the stripe side out.

White Storage shelving, Stolem: Then On Thursday, the Husband and I had a day all to ourselves (thanks mom!) so we went to ikea and got the toddler this storage unit. I had been scratching my head looking for something like this since October... I wanted a piece of furniture that was easy storage while creating a height appropriate surface where she could play etc. Then this week I learned about this Ikea piece on A Lovely Lark's post about her Daughter's room! Hooray!!! ps: parents also use the Expedit shelf, turned on its side, for this same purpose, but it was too big for her room. At a local fair trade store, I also bought a few baskets for her room to house toys etc, but the larger basket does not fit into the white ikea piece as I had hoped, so it will have to go back and be replaced.

There really isn't a budget for this room, since there isn't any spare money to spend, lol, but here are a few pieces I've been admiring for our daughter's room.

Reusable dress up wall decals, by lovemaestore (on sale for $25. Their larger version is here!)

Ladybug print, We have the artwork area pretty much covered, but this little one is just so sweet.

Striped storage tote, also comes in large and other colors.

Scalloped sheet set, if we needed sheets, I'd be all over these.

Aviary Sham, might not fit her request for a blue pillow, but still very sweet.

So it's been a busy week for this pregnant lady! But I'm very excited to see how the room shapes up. Since the paint is an eco friendly oil base paint, it still requires a few days to cure and air out. So the plan is to have her room set up by Sunday. (curtains and a potential floor pouf- sewn by yours truly, will happen next week!)