My Favorite Giraffe

So a little over a year ago, my sister had a sweet baby boy.  BUT the story gets better.  When Abbe found out that she was preggers, she decided that she wanted to wait until she delivered to find out the gender of the baby.  This is where the fun begins. Abbe had her nurse write down the sex of the baby on a card and gave it to me.  I got to be the only person to know if Avery was Avery Blake or Avery Kate before he was born.  It was really fun.  I was in charge of getting the nursery together for Abbe.  She wanted to be in the loop with what things were going to look like, but did not want to know whether she was having a boy or girl.  This gave me the idea to do a giraffe nursery.  Khaki and cream could be the main colors and gender nuetral.  This way Abbe could be involved in the bulk of what was going on in her nursery, and watch the progress of things .   I selected fabric for a girl and boy and then told her I would either add pink and orange accents for a girl, or lime green and blue accents for a boy.  The plan was for me to finish everything but the accent colors about a month before her due date, and then to add in the final, gender determining, touches right before her due date.  Since she delivered a month early, we didn't get quite that far along in the process ahead of time, but we did get a finished product eventually:)

This dresser belonged to my Papa who passed away a couple of Christmas' ago.  It is so fun to have a special heirloom treasure to incorporate.  Some of our very favorite memories are with Papa!

Abbe loves her some monograming!  This is a fun idea.  After Avery outgrows his room and is way too cool to have his name on the wall, Abbe can take the "A" from his name and put it in a shadow box in the hall to remember his first room.  I think this will be really sweet one day to have a wall of shadow boxes with all your baby's first room momentos.

And a sweet picture of my very favorite giraffe:)  Such a cutie!  If this boy ever turns up missing, don't check Aunt Linde's house!  There is no way I would ever snatch this kid, nope not even a chance;)

Happy Wednesday (AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBE!!)

Black is Back

I am so thrilled that the color black is making a come back! While a sweet baby girl in pink and brown will always be adorable, I am glad to have something with a little "kick" reappear. The color black adds great accents to any space.

I have talked to several frustrated clients when they go to a paint store to grab some black paint and see the sea of "black" swatches. They walk away so annoyed, and with a greenish/blueish/blackish quart of paint. I thought I would share my favorite black with you. I have used this for client's cabinetry, moldings, and furniture. I have also used this color to help all of my personal mis match furniture coordinate.

So there you have it! Here is my favorite black in action. Tricorn Black SW 6285

Denim N' Diamonds

I have a former client, Holly, who asked me to donate to her kids' school district fund raiser. With a name like "Denim N' Diamonds" how can you resist? My hubby is not from Texas and said that "Denim N' Diamonds" is the perfect fund raiser name for Texas women. I think he is picturing some Texas Mommas:)

One of my very favorite things to do is to bring new life into something old. Of course refinishing heirloom pieces is most special to me when I know their story, but regardless it is a treat. I love to hit the Canton Trade Days and McKinney Trade Days to search for old treasures with potential.

I found this beaut in McKinney. My good friend Rachel braved the TERRIBLE weather with me to find this piece (gotta love a fine mist in the air...feels just like a sneeze!)

When painting for auctions I try to think of something fairly neutral so that it will fit the current style and color scheme of a wide variety of clients. Denim N' Diamonds is supporting children's education, so I painted a piece that could easily go in a child's room. I think the piece will fit in a bath or entry area as well.

I did a subtle tone on tone giraffe print with gold leaf detailing.

Gotta love some good old giraffe print. I mean, animal print is sooo cute! I had a killer leopard vest in 6th grade (it was even fuzzy when you touched it), and I bought a leopard print gift bag for my mom's birthday this year. I think the prints, in some way or another, are going the distance!

Good luck to Holly and everyone associated with the auction!

Party Favors

I love throwing parties and I LOVE making cutie party favors. One of my very closest friend's is expecting a sweet baby girl, and some good friends and I could not help but throw a party. I was inspired by a gift idea I saw recently and decided to make these fun party favors for Baby Maci.

Okay, here is the run down. First I bought these cute little "buttons" on a free standing cube thing at Michaels Craft Store. They were a bargain. A group of 24 cost less than $5. This came in handy later because we were only expecting a handful of guests. I got to be choosy about which prints I liked since I had more than enough pieces. I placed a glittery letter on the top of each piece. I bought these in the sticker section of Michaels as well. I used the letter "M" to represent Baby Maci, the letter "S" to represent the Shaw Family (Maci's mom and Dad), and the letter "L" to represent Maci's mom's first name. This allowed me to maximize my use of one packet of letters.

Next I put a small hole in the top of each piece. I lightly tapped a nail with a hammer on the front and backside of the top of each piece (don't forget to put something underneath while you hammer, or to hammer over a surface that won't mind inheriting an indention). Then, I went to my local hardware store and bought these little key rings. I liked that they weren't as stiff and big as normal key rings. I threaded them through the top of each piece.

And there you have it. These are cute little key rings. I encouraged each guest to pray for this sweet family and the little one they are expecting according to the letter on their key ring (people with "m" pray for Maci, people with "s" pray for the Shaws...). Hopefully they will see the key ring daily and pray for this sweet family daily!

P.S. And if you are making a party favor for a sweet baby girl, you might as well wrap a tiny party favor in a tiny pink box:) You can get the tiny pink boxes at Hobby Lobby.