Category Archives: Home Design and Decor

All’s Well that Ends with Aqua

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Okay, call me gutless, call me stuck-in-a-rut, but I after much internal debate over color, I just ordered an aqua step stool for our main floor bath.

The yellow was a contender, really it was.  But I just kept thinking about the fact that the reason I hated the yellow paint in our dining room was because it made our gorgeous cherry hardwood floors take on an unattractive orangish hue.  Those same cherry floors run right into the bathroom, so… aqua it was.

Now I just have to decide what towels to get.  Up ’till this point I’ve been using a random assortment of towels we’ve managed to collect through five years of marriage.  Since it’s just a half bath, I really only need a couple of hand towels, so I’m thinking it might be time to spring for something fresh and new.

After a brief online search, these are the two I like best:

Sonoma life + style Tiburon Medallion Bath Towels at Kohls

Lenox Simply Fine Bath Towels, Chrip Collection from Macy's

Lenox Simply Fine Bath Towels, Chirp Collection from Macy's

I’m not sure if I’ll go with either towel in the end.  While I love the geometric pattern, I wish the medallion towel had another color in it.  And even though the chirp towel has exactly the colors I was thinking of (including a bit of yellow!) I’m not sure if I really love the birds.

So, now I’m on a towel hunt.  Let me know if you spy anything interesting in aqua while you’re out and about!

But Which Color?

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Peter and I recently realized that we need a stool for our main floor bathroom, and soon… as in, yesterday would be good.  Alethea is no longer very interested in using her potty chair.  She wants to use the big toilet.  And as much as we applaud her potty training progress, when combined with her ‘do it myself’ attitude, it means that she is pulling herself chest first over the toilet multiple times every day.  Ick!

I’ll admit that my first thought was to add ‘bathroom stool’ to my Target shopping list.  But after another moment’s consideration, I decided to first check out Etsy to see if I could find something more unique and not made in China.  After all, accessories are the best way to give a small space a little pizazz.

After a brief search, I settled on this adorable Vintage Style Step Stool No 2 from Etsy seller CircleCreekHome:

I love the simple lines and distressed finish.  Picking the style was really easy.  Picking a color?  Not so much.

They’ve got a whole slew of gorgeous options, but I think I’ve finally got it narrowed down to two.

The first color option is aqua.  Anyone surprised?  I love aqua.  It’s serene, it’s sophisticated and yet, it’s still just a little bit sassy.  I could definitely be happy with aqua.

The second color is called ‘pencil’.  That’s right folks, it’s yellow!

‘But wait,’ you say, ‘Aren’t you the Elise who was eight months pregnant up on a step ladder in your dining room painting over a very similar shade of yellow just because you hated the color so much you couldn’t stand to look at it any longer?’

Yup, that’s me.

So what’s changed?  Well, tastes change for one thing.  And for another, I’m starting to be afraid that if I don’t break out soon, every room in my house is going to be some shade of blue, green or blue-green.  Because so far those are the main colors or primary accent colors in my living and dining rooms, the basement, my piano studio, the nursery and the girls’ bathroom.

What do you think?  Stick with tried and true, I’m sure to love it, never fails to make me happy aqua?  Or branch out, take a chance, be a little crazy and go for yellow?

Please help!  I have to make a decision very soon!  Alethea is probably just a day or two away from deciding that the toilet makes a perfect jungle gym.

Post Party Fun

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On Saturday we had my 30th birthday party at our house.  It was a super fun evening and I personally thought it was absolutely perfect.  Just what I wanted it to be!

Saturday night after the party, we just managed to get the left-over food put away before we crashed.  So, Sunday was spent cleaning up the house, since not only did we host a party, we also hauled all of our living room furniture to the garage and set up cocktail tables and a bar in our house.  Needless to say, it was a delightful, but extremely exhausting weekend.

So this morning, after Lydia, Alethea and I drove the rentals back to the party store, we came home and decided to kick back and have an alfresco lunch under the pop-up tent that is still set up on the back deck, and enjoy the centerpiece left from the party:

After checking out the food situation in the fridge, I ended up filling my plate with an oddly satisfying combination of one mini egg roll, one peanut-satay chicken skewer, a nice helping of apple pecan lettuce cups and a slice of carrot cake.

I didn’t have enough chocolate to dip all of the strawberries I bought for the party, so Lydia got to eat some of the undipped extras along with her puffs and pureed carrots:

Alethea had reheated chicken nuggets left from the kids party in the basement along with veggies from the crudites platter and two cream-cheese and cucumber finger sandwiches.  The later of which she completely devoured:

While I can’t say I’m dying to throw another cocktail party in the very near future, I will say that it’s not such a bad thing to have a beautifully decorated house, yummy (I just almost typed yuppy, but that might apply too) food in the fridge and a plate of chocolate truffles to keep you company while blogging.

So if the smell of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting comes wafting through the computer, don’t mind me, I’m just reveling in the the post-party spoils!

DIY Map Art Meets Church Missionary Display

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It was recently decided at our church that we needed a better way to highlight the members and friends of our congregation who are working around the world in various missionary roles.  Trying to think outside the proverbial box, it was suggested that we attempt something more artistic and well, ‘cool’ than the typical bulletin board in the back hallway.  Following these fantastic instructions, here’s what I ended up with:

It’s a 2x3ft sepia toned world map Mod Podged onto 10 canvases from Michaels.  The hardest part was figuring out what sizes of canvases to use.  I literally spent an hour in Michaels trying to puzzle out what numbers added up to 24 by 36.  I had almost given up hope that anything would work out right, when suddenly, I stumbled on this arrangement which includes one 12×16, one 11×14, two 8x8s, two 5x7s and four 8x10s (two hung horizontally and two vertically).  Whew!

The map turned out so completely gorgeous that I wanted to keep it for my house (and I do think it would make lovely home decor).  However, in the end, I was very happy to see it hung in the foyer at church, because it looked even better with the missionary prayer cards hung above it on an inexpensive curtain rod.

I so admire each one of our missionaries for the work that they are doing overseas.  But I’m also glad that the good Lord can even use people like me doing fussy, putsy, paper and glue craft projects to reach others for Him.  What a mighty God we serve!

PS. Thanks to Heidi for suggesting the curtain rod for hanging the pictures, thanks to Chris for matting the cards so beautifully on scrapbook paper and thanks to Jill for sending me the link for the map project in the first place.  I wouldn’t have gotten far without it!

Rug Love

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Have you ever wanted something so badly you could hardly stand it?

That’s me right now.

See, I’ve been searching high and low for a reasonably priced wool rug for our living room for some time now.  I want something that looks like an antique Persian rug without the antique Persian rug price.  The main color has to be blue or blue-green and I don’t want any red in it.

Sounds simple enough, but after hours of searching I’d found nothing…

Until yesterday, when my Pottery Barn catalog arrived in the mail.  Their new rugs have just arrived and I’ve fallen hard for this one:

It’s soooooooooo perfect!

Now I just have to save my nickles and dimes (and maybe a few quarters too)!

A Sneak Peek

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I know it’s been a long time since I updated you all on the status of Alethea’s big girl room and there is a good reason for that; it’s simply because I haven’t made much progress on the home decor front lately.  See, I don’t want to put up pictures of the room right now because it just doesn’t look right with a light oak crib standing where the espresso colored twin size bed should be.  Plus Alethea is getting her quilt for her birthday, so that’s not in the room yet either and the quilt is what will tie all of the colors together.

Thus, no complete room pictures will be coming your way today, but I did manage to finally go through my photographs and pick out one to put in the frame I bought months ago at Target.  It looks so cute standing on the bookcase next to Alethea’s fancy jewel lamp that I just had to take a picture of it:

So that’s your taste for today of Alethea’s big girl room.  I promise I won’t forget to put up more pictures once the room is finished!

Inside and Out

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Here’s a riddle for you.

What do you do when you get a foot of snow at the end of February?

The answer:

Work on your Easter centerpiece!

I know it’s a little incongruent, but it sure makes me feel better to have some spring flowers around, even if they aren’t real.

This is my dollar store bird, isn’t he cheerful?

I’m really pleased with how the faux Pottery Barn robin’s eggs I made last year mixed in with the potted daisies, my new addition for this year.

Now I just have to hold on and keep believing that spring really is going to come on the outside of our house too!

A Very Clean House

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My goal for this week was to have a baby.  Thus far, I have not accomplished my goal.

However, my secondary goal was that for every day I didn’t have a baby, I would get lots done around the house so that A) I would stay on my feet and hopefully accomplish my primary goal, and B) even if I wasn’t successful in inducing labor, I would at least have less to do once the baby does arrive.

So, no baby here, but I do have a pretty clean house, my hospital bag is packed, Christmas cards are almost ready to be mailed, I shoveled a wide path from our back patio door across the deck out to the grill, and I recruited Peter to help me with a variety of small projects around the house.  Yesterday, we hung up the candle holders he gave me for Christmas.  They look fantastic in the dining room above the buffet:

Eventually I’d like to get a mirror to go between them, but for the time being, we went with what we had, which was the School of Athens print that Peter brought me from the Vatican Museum during his trip there when we were in college.

It really feels good to have gotten so much done and also nice to to know that there is a deadline for everything.  My midwife called and let me know that they were able to schedule my inducement for next Wednesday, January 5th.  Of course, the baby could still come on her own before then, but one way or another, the end is in sight!

Busy, Not Giving Birth

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It’s been four days since I last posted.  Things around here have been a little crazy, but I haven’t gone into labor, so I thought I’d better post before people started wondering.

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

1) Monday & Tuesday – Making Christmas Treats

We managed to crank out some sugar cookies, cyclops cookies (aka peanut butter blossoms), cupcakes (from a box), caramel corn, puppy chow, as well as coated pretzels, which Alethea particularly enjoyed helping mommy make:

Taste testing counts as helping, right?

2) Tuesday – Party Prep

Tuesday night was my annual piano student Christmas party and mini-recital.  Basically I have all my students over to our house and they play Christmas songs for each other and then we eat junk food and play music themed games.  This year I tried something new – a build your own favor station:

It was a big hit with the kids, even with a strictly enforced limit on the number of pieces of candy they could take.

3) Wednesday – Errands, Check-Up and Lessons

I was fortunate to have lots of help from Alethea’s grandmothers on Wednesday, and thus was able to get to Target, go to my 38 week check-up, buy some more of Peter’s Christmas presents, and still make it home in time to teach several piano lessons.

Bad news is that my midwife said I’m dilated “one to two” centimeters.  Basically, I think she just wanted to make me feel better that I’m not any further along, despite having so many contractions on Saturday that I briefly debated whether I ought to head to the hospital.

Good news though is that the lessons I taught were my last for December, so I am officially free to have this baby without having to do any make-up lessons or refunds.  Woo hoo!

4) Today – Mommy and Alethea’s Fun Day

I’ve been feeling guilty that I’ve been so busy this week that Alethea has been forced to do a whole lot of self-entertaining, so today I planned to spend the whole morning doing Alethea’s favorite activities.  We didn’t get as much time together as I anticipated though, because Alethea slept in ’till 10am (hope she’s not getting sick).  However, Alethea did have fun taking a long bath with her tub toys and we also squeezed in some ‘art’ time.  Our project – decorating paper gift bags with markers:

So that’s our week thus far.

On the docket for tomorrow: a little more shopping, then cleaning the house, followed by the Christmas Eve service at church, then hosting Peter’s family’s traditional Chinese take-out Christmas Eve dinner, and rounded off with a bit of gift wrapping and stocking stuffing before bed.  Should be a delightful day!

O Tannenbaum

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On Wednesday night we decorated our Christmas tree.  I’m finally posting about it today, because after we got the last ornament on, I realized my camera battery was out of juice and I didn’t feel I should write a post about decorating the tree without having a picture of the final product.  At last, I have said picture, so let the fun begin!

How to Decorate a Christmas Tree with a 19 Month Old

Step 1: Bring the Ornaments Out of Storage

I love our Snapware ornament box.  It keeps the ornaments securely in one place, but the trays separate for ease of packing/unpacking.  Alethea liked it because she got a sneak peak of what was coming, before we even opened the box.  She kept saying “Ball, ball!” and pointing at the round glass ornaments.

Step 2: Pick Out an Unbreakable Ornament for 19 Month Old to Put on Tree

At this point, things were going well.  Alethea was happy to try her hand at getting the toy soldier to stay on the tree.

Step 3: Console 19 Month Old After She Realizes She is Not Supposed to Take the Ornament Back Off

In this case, the picture says it all…

Step 4: Distract 19 Month Old with a Different Ornament to Put on the Tree

This step worked especially well when the ornament had a picture of Alethea on it.

Step 5: Repeat Steps 2-4 Until 19 Month Old Loses Interest and Requires a Caramel Corn Break with Daddy

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of this, but it was really cute!

Step 6: Put 19 Month Old to Bed and Finish Decorating the Tree

Step 7: Stand Back, Admire the Finished Product and Then Flop Exhaustedly onto the Couch

Done!