Home: On Glitter Guide

Last fall, two weeks after Jack was born, I received an email from Glitter Guide: "we'd like to feature your home on Glitter Guide..."

Deep in the trenches of sleep deprivation and feeble attempts at juggling three children... I obviously responded immediately with a resounding YES. These opportunities don't just come around every day!! Photography of my newborn and our home sweet home is such a special gift (not to mention the complete honor it is to have it featured on such an inspiring site!).

I won't pretend I wasn't in panic mode about being photographed while I was still attempting to fit my pre-pregnancy jeans (nope, didn't make it into those by the shoot date, haha!), or about the fact that my clothing was either wayyy too big or wayyy too small for me. I had this great opportunity and I planned to 100% carpe diem this. 

SO. Our home and our family are featured in Glitter Guide's December archives if you'd like to take a look!! Photography is all by my sweet friend Sarah from Modern Kids Photography. Her talent is such a gift. It's amazing to have professional photos of the place we call home sweet home. It's a snapshot of our day-to-day, except in an extra pretty and clean state! Where are the scraps of paper and loose crayons under our dining room table, and the laundry being folded in my living room? HA. Nowhere to be found! Everything is immaculate here, all the time! ;) 

And ahhh, my tiny boy!! He's growing so fast and I'm just in love with the sweet baby shots of him!

So thankful for the feature and for the photography. Pop over to Glitter Guide for all the resources, an interview, and for MORE pictures!

xoxo, Kate

A Room for BABY!

WE ARE READY.

I've never been this ready to have a baby before! Emotionally, physically, mentally, AND now: logistically! He has a finished room!! Things are organized! It's kind of unbelievable in the best way. 

We were crazy enough to move two weeks before Sophie came on the scene (moving boxes everywhere as I was adjusting to my firstborn! yikes!), and we lived in a one-bedroom when Maggie was born, so her "nursery" was a mini crib in our bedroom. Cozy, yes we were! I've never felt our baby's space was truly ready for them before they came though, so this is a total novelty.

This time around we have an actual SPACE for our little boy, it's not a closet room, and it's not shared. It's the biggest deal to us. I've been able to nest and prep slowly and surely, and enjoy the "design" process immensely. Re-decorating is my favorite thing in the world, so this has been a labor of SO much love. 

ABC Print by Hanna Andersson

The rest of our home is whitewashed, as they say. I'm generally so partial to bright, light, white! Because of this, I was ready to take a risk in our baby's small room and paint it deep deep blue/green. I cannot even describe how nervous I was. It's just paint! Yes. It's just paint... but my husband is not a fan of painting, and I know that painting over deep colors would not be happening anytime soon if we didn't like the color. I painstakingly chose on my own after going back and forth on several shades. All of my options I found online, and sometimes screen colors and real life colors don't translate, so I was especially nervous. After two coats and a few things on the walls, my nerves calmed, and now I love it. 

I'm not so into dark woodwork, but we are tenants, and there are limits. ;) I'm just thankful for a wonderful landlord and that he lets us paint at all. 

Green Canvas Bucket c/o Maika Goods (similar) Knitted Taxi Rattle c/o Estella NYC ||ABC Backpack || Tee || Wall Hooks

One wall is entirely cabinets. We kept toys in this room before baby was on his way, and simply consolidated and purged to keep them in the girls' closet instead. The storage in the wooden cabinets is definitely sufficient for the time being. I'm an OCD organizer, which comes in handy with small spaces. Down the road I may need to share my closet with him for hanging items, but we'll cross that bridge when we need to. I'm totally fine with sharing. ;) All of the baby clothing is easily folded or rolled into size-appropriate baskets on shelves hidden by doors for now. 

The chair is a knockoff steal from Amazon. It doesn't look like much, but somehow during pregnancy it has been the MOST comfy for me. Hoping that carries through post-pregnancy days. It was really the only size of rocking chair that would fit in the small room, so I didn't have much of an option, but we're SO happy with it. I may add a pouf or small footstool to get myself reeeeally settled in. The basket was a gift from my sister and I love it to bits, and the rug- oh the rug... my favorite. The girls and I just sit on it sometimes, to chat and soak in the softness. 

The string of light balls in the window are Bright Lab Lights, and they cast a gorgeous soft night glow when it's dark out. They'll be perfect for middle of the night nursing sessions. Mine is a custom string I assembled at an event-- the custom option is also available online, or you can just buy a pre-strung version in great color options.

I don't have space for a changing table, but as I mentioned- Maggie's setup was a mini crib in our bedroom-- I grew accustomed to simply using a changing mat and moving it around the house as needed. Less is more here, so we're happy to be going with that strategy again.  

Lion Print and (similar) stacking toy by Hanna Andersson ||

Trains purchased in a set on Amazon

Mobile is a DIY using trick gliders from Seedling || Hanna Andersson makes the nicest crib sheets around- they have great patterns, but I preferred white in this particular space || Sophie the Giraffe is Hanna Andersson || Jellycat Fox is a gift for baby from his big sisters who want to play with it almost daily || Frames are by Blick, and they're my favorites-- I have them all over the house because they're reasonably priced and hold up SO much better than Ikea || Tiny Golden Gate is from Petit Collage || German license plate is nostalgic from when Brian and I were young and crazy and bought a car in Germany. || Crib is Pottery Barn Kids- classic & handed down

Brian had ONE BIG REQUEST in baby's room, and he said if I can do that, he's perfectly fine with me designing everything else. He wanted a Steph Curry poster on the wall. He didn't need it to be giant, but he said it couldn't just be in an irrelevant space. HA! Wish granted, Brian. Over the crib it is. If you look closely, you'll see he's dominating Lebron in this particular shot. We drink alllllll the Warrior's kool-aid around her, friends. By the end of basketball season, we were THIS close to letting Sophie purchase the tackiest pennant available with cartoon faces of all the GSW team for her wall in her room. Brian was actually the one who nixed it in the end. I was like, well it means SHE LOVES THE WARRIORS... yes she does, but yes, I'm glad one of her parents is sensible sometimes.

Gorgeous cable throw and SOFTEST rug ever, both Hanna Andersson. My favorite pieces in the room, hands down. I want both for my own room too. ;) 

We are counting down the days until we see our baby's face! I'm trying to remind myself that just because our girls arrived early (4&9 days), it does not mean our baby boy will! Reasoning with myself is totally futile-- I'm convinced he'll be here sooner than later. I had a night full of serious-breath-taking contractions last weekend, and I was juuust about to tap Brian to tell him it was go-time, and they stopped. Abruptly. UGH. 

So now my bag is packed (!!!), and the day is coming. His room is ready and so are we! And so are these teeny tiny shoes that showed up on our doorstep today-- Eeee! SO CUTE. Boys apparel is so underrated! I'm loving every tiny boy piece. :)

Shoes c/o Umi Shoes || Rug c/o Hanna Andersson

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So thankful to Hanna Andersson for collaborating with us on our baby's room. Product was provided, and all opinions are my own. I am floored by the quality of each piece, and we will all be enjoying the space SO much more because of the beautiful Hanna pieces. Affiliate links are also included in the post. Thank you for supporting the brands that support us! xx

Home Sweet Home: Bedroom

I've shown bits and pieces of home throughout my time writing on this space, but never given any full visual of our home sweet home.

I love home designs, home blogs, home magazines. Because of all the gorgeous visuals I've seen of other homes, I find it difficult to share bits of my own home- why? Because I know it's imperfect. I am not Emily Henderson! ;) That said, I love our home!!! We have invested a ton of time and energy making our home "us," and I've decided it's going to be a regular thing to share it here. I get so excited to see the inside of friends' homes, so I will share the inside of our home more often-- so come on in-- to our bedroom!  

I think bedrooms always gets most neglected. It's the easy room to say "aaaa, there's company coming! Shove all the unfolded laundry in my room and shut that door, quick!" ....Just me? I think not. It took us the longest time to really invest any energy into creating a lovely space for us, because it's the least seen. It's in the back of our home, so unless guests make a conscious effort to get back there, it's the easiest to dismiss. 

The re-vamp of the bedroom started with a terrible, free "makeover" we received that had to be undone asap. While we were thankful for effort of a team to renovate our bedroom for the purpose of promoting their work, we were most thankful to donate every piece when they were done. Before the makeover, we had a cracked headboard from a bed we had purchased through Craigslist, and a broken dresser. We were not interested in setting either back in our room. The time was now- carpe diem! Our first ever grown-up (non hand-me-down or second-hand) beautiful new bed and dresser were purchased during a West Elm flash sale (be on the lookout when you're in the market for furniture! The deals make all the difference!!), and both made me positively giddy. We've had them for almost a year, and I'm still thrilled every time I go into my room and snuggle in cozy blankets, or open the drawers to place folded laundry. 

Everything else progressed slowly but surely. Only recently have I actually gotten FOCUSED on completing the room though (nesting will do that! I'm telling you-- having a new baby coming has been essential in getting this home in order ;)... We recently got- dun dun duuuuuun: ART! 

A room with nice furniture is great and all, but the things that really make a room homey are walls covered with beautiful images, and greenery to feed off of it all. Almost every piece in our bedroom is from Minted, and we could not be happier with it. 

Minted has endless options. Neutral colors, soft colors, and my personal preference: bolder colors. I'm SO in love with the gold foil U.S. map, and their frames are SIMPLE to hang (ohhh a complex or poorly frame is a nightmare... I'm looking at you- ikea Ribba frames!). I'm not a photographer, so I'm not quite sure how to fit the room properly into the camera frames, but for your reference, the bed is facing the dresser with the new Minted gallery wall. I have tweeked the objects on the dresser about 100x and will do so probably about 100 more times, because that's how I am, but I'm happy with the fullness and homey-ness we have in there for the time being. It's really become my favorite room to get some peaceful "me time." We love being able to have an area to enjoy our own grown-up space, sans toys and trinkets (though I love the toys and trinkets too!;)

On my wall: Pineapple Print, Twinkling Lights Print, & Bricks Print, US. Foil Map, Yellow Bricks

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Framed prints were provided for review. All opinions are our own! We love Minted!

Get Organized: Kitchen Edition

Anthropologie | Honest | Anek

Crate & Barrel | Anthropologie | Storiebrooke

Lydali | Williams-Sonoma | Target

The kitchen... ah the endless organization and re-organization of kitchens... Thankfully there are pretty products to make the cooking and cleaning a bit brighter and sunnier. 

Happy Friday, friends! Come back for links this weekend! xoxo

HouseKeeping 01

Prints: Foliage Leaf Wall Art | Zebra Wall Art | Printable Map of the USA {free!}

Pillows: Braided Pillow Cover | Sleep Sayings Needlepoint | Ice Cream Time Pillow

Storage: 3 Sprouts Fox Storage Bin | Bigso Stockholm Boxes | Numbers Cube Bin

There's nothing quite like starting a new year with a clean and beautiful home. January is for cleaning, purging, starting fresh and creating systems for all of the clutter that collects. Before I go any further, allow me to assure you that I have not yet recovered from the Christmas clutter and chaos that collected while we were traveling cross-country making snow angels and sipping far too many cups of coffee. We're all in this "clean the home for the new year" thing together...

I do; however, have some tips for organization systems, because organizing is my favorite thing. I can't even explain how excited I get when I re-organize a room or closet and color coordinate everything and create a proper place for each and every item we own, particularly in the kids' room.. I personally prefer to have all white as the backdrop to a bedroom for my kids {we inherited pale green walls, but I'm angling to change them very soon}, because as kids grow, their tastes change. White allows the accessories to grow with my kids. Colored accessories and bright toys don't overwhelm as much when their room has basic bones. 

I have an addiction to color-coordinating my children's clothing and books because it maintains a put-together look at any given time. Every outgrown clothing size goes directly into the properly marked bin, and anything we used only lightly, we send to consignment. My goal is to prevent excess- if we don't use it, it's handed-down, donated, consigned, or tossed, depending on the wear. The more we have the less we use what we have.

My strategy for the kids' closet is to have one basket where I can throw anything that they try that is outgrown. So like- if Sophie is getting dressed and I see her shirt sleeves are not where they should be, she changes out of that and I toss that shirt into the basket that lives above her dresser. Once the basket is full, I pull it down, and sort everything according to size into already-marked-by-size bins. It's worked like magic since Sophie was about one, so anytime Maggie's clothing begins to get small, we just pull out the next bin and switch it all, and re-label. Bam. Done in a quick 30-minute session. 

There you have it. A quick Monday tip for ya, and plenty of pretty goods to spruce up kids' rooms! 

xo. 

{*post includes affiliate links}

Weekends in December

Candle courtesy of RedEnvelope.

I know I said that fall is my favorite season, but after rainy, cozy, delightful evening that feels just right, December's stock goes way up. The candles, the lights, the Christmas music and movies just have that heartwarming effect that somehow only happens in December. December reminds us to give, to share, to get together with people we love. 

This December has been the best one for me since my childhood. To be perfectly honest, there have been some hard ones in there... when I was 11, 12, and 13 years old, my brother was pretty sick, and December can lose a bit of its charm when you're making multiple trips to the hospital in the rain + traffic as opposed to enjoying family with candles and Christmas lights. The years following reminded us of that sense of loss for one we adored so dearly. 

This December though... this December we're experiencing the magic of the season again. Our children cannot stay away from the tree and its glow and the ornaments. They sat by the tree to eat their dinner one night {not the best idea, lesson learned ;)}, Sophie will stand and gaze at an ornament just because it's beautiful {I remember doing the same as a child!}, and they want Christmas music playing at all hours of the day. We've been reading the story of Jesus' birth regularly, and talking about angels and stars and thankfulness.

Childhood is so sweet. It's such a gift. My children aren't even a bit stressed about giving gifts or about addressing envelopes or about travel. They're invigorated by it all, and their joy is rubbing off on us. I've never felt so stress-free in December and not because I'm lacking to-do's... believe me, I have plenty on my plate. ;)

December is best when a bit of perspective is handed to you daily by tiny little girls with big smiles.

Ps. RedEnvelope gave the candle to me as a gift, and it is actually one of the best candles we've had. The scent is perfection and the simple chic style is beautiful. All opinions are my own.