We moved into our home nearly a year ago, and it’s finally time to tackle our Master bedroom.
We already own a lovely master bedroom set that may eventually get a little paint and update, but for now does nicely. I know I want the room to feel airy, romantic, clean, and calm!
I tend to decorate on the more modern side, however want our bedroom to have a modern yet soft feel. Below are some of my favorite inspiration rooms from Pinterest, and a board I’ve been making for inspiration. I want the room to have lots of white, with blush, grey, navy, and mixed metals. I will also try to incorporate some natural wood for my husbands sake!
I love the overly romantic and soft feel of the first picture, however the second has a bit more of my modern feel I tend to go for. I will probably try to mix both styles.
This weeks ‘What I’m Nesting’ post is pretty simple. I have spent most of my free time the past week finishing up Shutterfly books with our family photos.
If I had to say there is one thing that I am proud of sticking to as a mom, it is photo and memory organization. I am a huge believer in making sure that the ease of taking photos in todays age doesn’t actually turn out to be a negative when our children have no pictures to look back on. As you add children and time starts to pass faster it’s harder to remember each little memory, so I have found if I stay on top of organizing the pictures in small time frames it works better.
As of now I do a Shutterfly book every 3 months (jan-march, april – june, and so on for each year). Some years I have done one or two 6 month books because of less pictures, but especially while the kids have been under 1 year old every 3 months works better.
The first page of each book I write about major things that happened during that time period. For example: baby milestones, trips, concerts, or birthdays.
I also do individual books for major life events like birthday parties, family photo sessions, newborn photos, and situations like that so that I get them ALL in print.
For us this has worked well as a way to keep our family memories from being stuck in a photo real on our phones, and I love that if heaven forbid something were to happen to our albums I could reorder all of those books and have them right back.
Other ways I organize memories and photos for our family:
Each of my kids have a baby book with monthly weights and all the other little milestones and photos.
I write in a notebook to the kiddos every 6 months (or so) with what life has looked like. I figure someday they will love to get those letters from me!!
Last would be videos – which I have been trying to figure out. I would love to know what you all have done to organize your videos of your kids or family. I think I will look for someone who can just compile all the videos I have taken over the past 4 years and do that every few years to put on DVD so they have home movies!
This is a really simple, but time consuming task to do, but it’s something I challenge all you other mamas to start – you will LOVE to look back on them. Hopefully I’ll be back later this week with a couple of DIY and home decor posts. I have been working non stop on our master bedroom and nursery – but the nursery won’t be revealed until baby bear is here!
Road trips with kids… they are certainly the most affordable and “easy” way to travel these days, but stressful none the less. We travel pretty frequently with our kiddos, and drive 12/14 hours to the beach 1-2 times a year, minimum. Over the past 4.5 years I have sort of pared down, and ‘perfected’ the items I take with us as staples for toddler travel must haves, then add to it as I go.
**We have TV’s in the head rests of my cars, so I am not ashamed to say that Ipads and movies are also a big help during travel for us. As with anything else as long as it isn’t a habit its not something i worry about — I don’t think their brains will turn to mush from a day or two of that on occasion.
Below are some of my “must pack items” for vacations with kids. I will link all items below.
Kids CamelBak Eddy water bottle: These are my favorite water bottles and when we travel I make sure to bring two along for each kiddo.
Keenz Stroller Wagon: This is fairly new and we are only on trip #2 with it, but its AMAZING. I hate pulling wagons, but there is no denying that they are the most functional option to use on beach trips – This wagon fixes that issue! There are too many amazing features to list about this item – so check out the site!
Replay Recycled Snack Stacks: These are by far my favorite travel food item for the kids at their current ages. I have 4 sets and always pack 3/4 stacked with different opened snacks in their backpack. Cuts down on trash for about 10 min too.. ha.
Pottery Barn Kids Backpacks: By far my favorite backpacks for the kids, and I pack each of them up a backpack for the car with snacks, waters, toys and books.
Target Utility Totes: Not sure if these are sold during non summer seasons, but they are about $5 and AMAZING. They are similar to the Thirty One bags that people love. I typically load one with beach/pool toys, and one with indoor toys and such. (similar on Amazon here!)
Little Unicorn quilts: I have said it before. Best toddler blankets. But I love that they aren’t too warm so they can use them in the warmer weather and the car without over heating.
GoPod: I obviously didn’t take that on this trip, however if you have a baby its the best investment ever. Works like a travel jumper. We even use it outside at home.
Crayola Dry Erase Board Set: these are great for keeping them coloring and drawing without going through tons of paper, and a built in hard surface cuts down on tears.
Multi-use lap tray: These are amazing over the kids laps in the car. Makes eating in the car, coloring or even playing much better. They have deep sides to hold odds and ends too. The kids love them. (I used to own a sort of soft travel snack tray for use with car seats and I can vouch for this being a much better option!)
I would LOVE to hear what your favorite baby or toddler travel items are! We will be journeying out again not long after the baby arrives, and its been 2.5 years since I have hauled a baby along on one of these trips.
If you have kids you know that even in the kitchen their stuff takes over. Our kitchen is ample in size, but not massive, and I knew that I needed to get rid of a few things, and organize the cupboard I use for them in order to make room for baby items to join the mix. I decided to do a post for you on our kid cupboard organization to show you all how we keep things tidy!
My favorite plates and bowls for the past year or so have been from replay recycled. I love that they stack and are so durable. I decided it was time to invest in more of them and do away with all other plates and bowls. I use their plates, bowls, sippy cups, and snack stacks and can’t say enough good things about all of the items! — Edited to add that now over a year later we have a growing stack of the flat plates also, and you can get a sneak peak of their adult line over on this post.
I also got rid of all water bottles aside from kids camelbaks. All of them have their names on them in vinyl so I can easily take them to the gym/school/soccer and so on.
Aside from those items, I have a drawer with baby spoons and replay recycled silverware (SERIOUSLY the best silverware), and a second drawer with lidless cups and snack cups that the kids can access themselves for water or snacks. This was a new move to help them be more self sufficient before the baby arrives, and I have loved it.
This weeks “nesting” was a simple easy fix, but really helped simplify another area of our kitchen…now to decide where to organize and clean for next week!
I would love to see what you have been up to. Remember to tag me and use the hashtag #whatimnesting!
So, I don’t know about any of you other mama’s that are reading this, but the ‘nesting’ is a real thing here at my house. I am naturally a fairly clean/organized/busy person, but when I’m pregnant it is NEXT LEVEL. This time I feel like its a combination of “finishing” the house, because the baby is arriving just over a year after move in, as well as trying to get things organized in a way that the kids and Sam can maintain while I’m trapped under a nursing baby.
I decided that I would post a weekly snap shot into “What I’m Nesting” incase anyone else needs inexpensive quick ways to organize and clean up their home!
WHAT I’M NESTING – week 1
Pantry Overhaul
Moving into our new home gave us so much more space, and there have only been one or two spaces that I felt we ‘downgraded’. The pantry was one of those unfortunate areas. It is an average size, however has sliding doors, which for me aren’t ideal due to hiding half the pantry. Due to the pantry’s location the only other doors possible are accordion style doors – and those make me so nervous with little fingers, so until I decide if a Butlers Pantry is for us, organization, and making the best of the space we have was really our only option.
I decided that if similar items were housed in bins together it would keep things a bit less cluttered and would allow for the kids to easily access snacks as well as Sam to put things away without my direction (Im a bit of a control freak- ha).
Something else I always do is keep the kids snacks on the bottom shelf where they are accessible to them, and out of boxes. They can see all that’s offered and I don’t end up with empty boxes laying around. (as a side note – I also do this because if we have sitters I can tell them that the bottom shelf of our pantry is “Jack safe”. Jack has a serious egg allergy and although not everything in the house is egg free, everything for snacking within his reach is then safe for him to eat!)
The bins I used are both inexpensive, and great for use on wire shelving where wicker baskets would start to get shredded.
I labeled each bin using my Silhouette, however you could label it with a label maker or by buying chalk label stickers at your craft store.
I store my baking supplies in Oxo containers and again used my Silhouette to cut out labels. This time I used some fun dry erase vinyl I had for the labels. I love that I can easily change out what the label on these say. I am always changing what I have on hand (like I’m on a serious homemade granola kick this pregnancy!)
I store my spices both on a 3 tier shelf (partially because getting them to stand on wire shelves was awful!) and to make it easier to see. I also have a small 3 tier drawer for spices. On the front of that I added the same dry erase vinyl to the front of those drawers in order to easily change what spices are in them instead of using the included labels (that are also a great option).
I use a Keurig drawer for our “odd” K-cups. I store our daily K-cups in a glass vase next to the coffee pot, but love the drawer as a way to keep decaf, hot cocoa, and flavored options on hand and organized.
At the top of my pantry I keep a few things in rubbermaid containers that are also labeled, and I keep a large milk crate on the floor of my pantry for onions and potatoes. There is also space on the floor for cases of water or things of that sort when needed.
Overall I have had our pantry organized for about a month while I’ve slowly added the labels and it has been amazing! For the first time I haven’t felt like my pantry was on a constant rotation of ‘newly cleaned’ to ‘needed cleaned again’. I’m hoping this takes one frequent chore off my to-do list once our sweet baby arrives.
I would LOVE to hear your organization or “nesting” ideas for me to fill the next 12-15 weeks with. Follow along and add your ideas in the comments or by using the hashtag #whatimnesting on Instagram!
Okay, as promised in my updated foyer post, I had THE EASIEST DIY project for you all. I wanted a large framed print hanging in our hallway but was set on it being more of a framed poster than art – so no glass. I wanted something on a budget, so this DIY Framed Poster was born.
Cost for mine will be for a 24×36 framed print – and it was less expensive because its black and white.
What you need:
Canvas stretchers from your craft store. (2 in the length, 2 in width). They sell them at Hobby Lobby and Michaels for sure, and are around $2 each full price.
A downloadable print. You can try a free print, but if you want a larger print I would recommend buying one off Etsy. Mine was only $5.
Print from preferred printer. I used Fedex for this print to have it the next day, but MPIX is another of my favorites. If printing at MPIX choose e-surface paper
Attach your canvas stretchers into a frame shape. (trust me a monkey could do this)
Add some super glue into the corners to help it stay
Stain if desired
Staple print to back
Attach picture hanger to the back
Hang on the wall and enjoy!
This truly is so easy, and I had never thought of using the canvas stretchers for such a project. All in all this project cost me $47 ($35 for print, $1 for picture hanger, $10 for canvas stretchers. I owned everything else)
If you decide to give this a try leave me a picture of your finished product! I would love to see it!
We have lived in our house for nearly a year with NOTHING happening in the foyer. Its a small-ish space, and I wanted to be really careful about making it feel cluttered. I think with the right pieces you can really make your entry way a beautiful space no matter the size. So read below to see how we went about decorating a small entry way.
For starters, when we moved in there was a formal living room to the right of our front door. We had no use for this space, but since Sam works from home a home office was a must, so we had the entryway reconfigured a bit and french doors added to that space.
We changed out the current light for something a bit more modern (but something small because the ceilings aren’t vaulted).
After months of looking I found the perfect little foyer table that fit in our small spot. I tend to learn towards a homey mid-century decor feel, so I was really drawn to the mirror but we will see if I eventually change it for something larger. All decor will be linked if possible, or something similar. We are a young family, so most of my decor I try to find on big sales – so sometimes its hard to link the exact options.
(the table and mirror were both target Threshold but have come and gone)
(side note – the books that I have on this table and use several other places in my house are all from thrift stores. I go to the book section and look for semi neutral books with titles that won’t scare my guests, and remove the dust covers)
The “Stay awhile” sign that is hung will be a quick DIY post this week that you will definitely want to check out. It was easy as can be, and to frame it cost me $15 dollars!
In our past home I built wooden baby gates for our stairways and LOVED them, but the way our spindles are in this house makes that nearly impossible (they are so thin, and the curved hand rail) so instead we went with a traditional metal baby gate. To help it look a bit better, I sewed a knit cover for it that can be easily slid off to be washed or changed out.
I went back and forth on a rug. We can’t do small doorway rugs in this house because the doors won’t pass over them (thus they cause more headache than they are worth), but I have gone back and forth on a runner. For now I decided against it, as we have so much carpet in the house I wanted to show the wood that we have. I do store a turkish towel in the basket to lay down or have people wipe their feet if needed. Let me know if you have any questions on this post and be sure to check out our home tour tab – a full update for the next year is coming soon.
I did these DIY painted mason jars after going to Anthropologie and completely falling in love. Every time I go in to Anthropologie I am so inspired by decor they have for their floor set, and this time was no exception, and led me to come up with an easy DIY.
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DIY Painted Mason Jars
This is a super easy DIY tutorial with limitless options of how the end result will look. The other reason I love it is it something you can do with things you are going to throw away.
If you are gearing up for the DIY you can save up pasta jars, jelly jars, and so on and use them for some of the jars you are going to paint.
I personally used a good mix of actual mason jars and other jars I had on hand and was setting out to make a really affordable and simple centerpiece for spring on my dinging room table.
Since that time I have used these jars for so many different things including baby shower decor, wedding shower decor and more. I have used them as a group and individually.
I didn’t want to go quite as bright as Anthropologie so went with a bit of an ombré look in tan-ish brown, white and pink.
They have been a fun, unique way to add color in a subtle way to tables and decor.
How to Create These Painted Mason Jars
I’ll give you a brief tutorial on how to do these, but this might honestly be the easiest DIY project I have yet to complete.
Supplies:
– Old Jars of different shapes and sizes (so start saving those pickle jars….or is it just pregnant me going through those weekly??) you may have to buy some, so here is a great set from Amazon
– disposable cups for paint mixing
– disposable spoon or skewer
– craft paint
– water
– something to set them on to get messy (I used disposable tin baking dishes I had on hand, and appreciated the lip, but it wouldn’t be necessary)
How to create the jars:
These are really easy to create – but there is a bit of an art to getting them different one by one.
I started with JUST paint and poured paint into a jar. Swirl it and tip it upside down. For some of them you want to leave them upside down for longer so it goes all the way to the top, but for some you want to tip them back right side after not too long.
There are some tips for making it a much smoother project
– water the paint down just a little. You don’t want the paint to watery, but if it’s really thick you will use so much more paint than necessary to complete only one jar.
-Add paint to the jars then turn it upside down. Let it run all the way to the top on some, and on others tip it right side up before its gone as far up. You want a good mix.
It is worth noting – this is one of the oldest blog posts I have done. I did my best to update it without cringing too much, but overall it is still a fun, easy going craft project that is great for beginners.
Pin the Photo Below for Later
If you are looking to save this idea on diy painted mason jars for later pin the photo below, and if you have questions be sure to leave a comment below, or DM me on Instagram (@arinsolange).
So the title here should give away the reason for this post.
Sweet Little #3 will be joining us in June.
I initially planned on taking a short break from blogging just to survive the first trimester awfulness, but that has turned into 22 weeks of me on hiatus. This little babe has been the toughest to bake by far. The first trimester was your typical not feeling awesome, but even more so I was more tired than I’ve ever felt in my life. By the time that subsided and I started feeling human again I started getting awful migraines several days a week. I have gotten migraines for years but haven’t had them this frequently since high school, and without being able to take much to help I was pretty miserable . (Partially in an attempt to help my headaches I did MAJORYLY cut my long locks. It is a huge change for me, but I’m loving it!)
I’m now 22 weeks along and aside from a head cold (you see what I mean…I was not meant to feel good this pregnancy haha) I am finally gaining some motivation and actually using my creative side a little more. We have known what we are having this time around for about 10 weeks now (which has been so fun!), but because we have a boy and a girl already have decided to only share that news with really close friends and family – IE anyone who will come in contact with my toddlers who will sing like a canary if asked that secret.
I’ve been busy moving Avé to her ‘big girl room‘, nursery planning and decorating, potty training the two-year old, and basically trying to keep the two I have from burning the house down. How am I going to survive three? ha
Hopefully I’ll be back more consistently now, and will post some of our recent happenings.
For the past month, I have been working on completing Avé’s toddler room’. I wanted to give her plenty of time to adjust to a new room before the baby arrives, and needed her out of the nursery in order to prepare it for the baby. I loved her nursery colors at our old house, so wanted to take small parts from that and incorporate them into this room. All and all I think her pink and gold toddler girl room was a success.
Because I took so much time to finish Avé’s room, a lot of thought went into many of the aspects of it. We went with a full size bed that we felt would truly grow with Avé for her whole life time at home, and very subtle pink walls that she and I would hopefully not tire of too quickly. The remainder of her furniture and bedspread are both white and easy to decorate around for years to come.
Pink and Gold Toddler Girl Room
Some aspects of her room have been in her room since she was in her nursery at our previous home, and others have been added along the way. It was really important to me that this room allowed for us to be able to make small tweaks as her personality grows and changes. I want her to have a put together room that makes me happy when I walk past it, but at the end of the day, also want her to look around and see the things she loves. At this point her only serious request was to have “pink walls!”.
I have linked many of the items at the end of this post, but if you have any questions please leave me a comment!
Nearly six months later – the basement TV is off the floor, and our babysitter no longer has to sit on a Pottery Barn anywhere chair for hours on end (sorry Hannah!). The basement playroom is finally ready to show off.
Basement Playroom Decor
The basement playroom was a bit hard for me wrap my head around decorating in this house. I had some ideas, but needed to figure out how to make it functional, multi – use, and stylish, all while leaving as much floor space open for the kids to play!
When we moved in I actually had planned to extend the playroom and finish more of the storage room, but after further planning – and seeing it without all of their stuff I figured I could make the space we had work well.
My first step was painting. The whole basement was a royal blue. That is A LOT of blue people!! I went with a warmer grey than I tend to use to add some variety from the rest of the house, as well as make the basement feel a bit more warm and homey. Overall the color was a great match to the new carpets we had installed when we first moved in, and was light enough to keep things bright in the dark basement.
I knew we needed toy storage, so went with 9 cube organizers from Target, with solid grey bins to keep things from looking too busy. Originally these were under the animal pictures along the side wall, but in an effort to make sure the kids had plenty of play space, we decided to move them to the front of the room and have them second as a TV stand, and we are thrilled with the functionality and space that opened up!
I should also add that those only have to hold a fraction of our toys because when we were looking to buy a house this time around one of the “must haves” was a closet for toy storage (or the space to add one). I knew from our last house that I wanted to be able to have some toys out of reach and sight for the kids at times, as well as for myself. No one wants to look at all 5,000 toys their kid owns all the time!!
The next hurdle was book storage and where to put a kids table (if we could). I originally was going to use the Ikea spice rack hack for books like I did in Jacks room, but decided to change that up a bit, and used Ikea book ledges instead. These book ledges are only $15 dollars a piece and hold SO MANY books, so are a great bang for your buck. My disclaimer (after more spackle than I care to admit): It is VERY important to hang these in a stud if you want to load them up with books. And with little hands grabbing books off of them I recommend it 100%.
I had originally thought that below those books would be the perfect spot for a kids table, but because of the walk way from the stairs, I wasn’t thrilled with how far it would jet out. My solution was an Ikea shelf and brackets hung around 20 inches from the ground, to serve as a bar width kids table. Make sure the shelf you pick and the shelves are the same length if you want this same result. (My kids already have a table in our family room upstairs, but I wanted an area they could color in the basement if they wanted). Another disclaimer: This too HAS to be in studs. For us in order to line up the book shelves and the shelf as well as for added security we added 2 utility shelf brackets below our shelf that are secured in the studs. those brackets are lined up with the two outside screws into the book shelves which allowed for a very secure hold.
My favorite part of our playroom was actually already a part of the house when we moved in. There is a 3 bedroom house built in under our stairwell (and past it into the storage room) complete with electricity. We have simply updated inside and outside paint, added new carpet, added a window box and house numbers, and generally cleaned it up. I moved our kids play kitchen into the main room of the house, and they LOVE it. The side room also has Avés doll bed and the back room typically is piled with blankets from Jack “going to bed.” The planter box was a difficult find due to the size of the window, so i ended up painting an ikea planter black, then securing it to the wall. To hold the flowers in place I spray painted pieces of a water noodle we used as a bed rail in jacks room brown, and put the flowers in that.
I went back and forth on a daybed or a futon for the basement seating. My original plan was a white daybed, but because it wasn’t going against the wall I wasn’t thrilled with how the back was finished on most of them I had seen, so ended up with a futon from Walmart that we LOVE. I ordered it and received it two days later and have been nothing but happy with it. The pillows are from Ikea and Target.
The art work hanging is from HomeGoods and Hobby Lobby and fit the modern design I was looking for, while also tying in my kids total admiration for animals. I also added some Pillowfort faux taxidermy pieces to one wall that the kids love.
Overall the whole family loves the functionality and versatility of the basement. I love that with the basement also housing our guest room it doesn’t feel overly childish, but still is clearly an area of fun and learning. The futon allows for extra sleeping space for guests which was important, but has been a comfortable place for our family to watch TV or hang out while the kids play.
I would love to answer any questions regarding the book/desk wall or the kids playhouse that you might have, so please feel free to leave any questions in the comments! Sources are tagged below
My sweet little Avé (she doesn’t look sassy at all, does she?) decided this past week that she is ready for a big girl bed. When I say she ‘decided’ I mean she climbed out of her crib then cried for the next two days about how “she fell out of her bed.” I had great plans of leaving my very independent toddler in her crib until we gave her a sibling to take it away. But as you can see I said independent – so she decided otherwise. I have been brainstorming what to do with her room and came up with some toddler girl room inspiration that I thought I would share!
I know I want her room to be bright, modern, and easy to change up. With toddler and young children’s rooms I find that rooms where you can add and subtract as their current focus’ change are great. So finding some stand out features that will last with smaller aspects that fit their current love works best, and will keep you from feeling like you’re wasting money.
The design board for my toddler girl room inspiration really fits both her personality as well as my decor style. The rug, lamp, and floral pillow are all items I have already purchased and will likely use in this room. I have gone back and forth between the lovely Jenny Lind beds from The Land of Nod, and this beautiful canopy bed from Pottery Barn Kids – or maybe there is an even better option? a beautiful tufted headboard maybe?
She LOVES dance and LOVES animals so either of those or maybe a mix of those sorts of ideas will definitely be a good thing to incorporate.
I would love to hear your ideas on Avé’s room and hear any feedback.
PS – if you want to see how her room ended up, click here!
My favorite part of our playroom was actually already a part of the house when we moved in. There is a 3 bedroom house built in under our stairwell (and past it into the storage room) complete with electricity. We have simply updated inside and outside paint, added new carpet, added a 
