Happy Halloweenie!

So I had this great plan where I take a photo of Bella in her hot dog costume and say, "Happy Halloweenie!" It was a great plan, but I failed to remember that actually making that happen was a little above and beyond what I could handle. Big fail. Let's all pretend that it actually happened shall we?

Once I get some photos of Eden in her costume I will post them, but for today I figured I would FINALLY show you all that I did in fact embrace the fall spirit and put a little decor around the house. Nothing exciting, but hey, I tried. Oh and I discovered this year that I actually don't like Halloween. I think I just don't get it. Why would I want to decorate with fake spiders all over my house (we have plenty of live ones in our basement), dress up in weird clothing, watch movies that make me pee my pants, engorge myself in candy, and embrace dead people? I just don't get it. However, I did get enough of the spirit to take Eden to a couple of houses for fun. More on her experience on this day at a later time...let's just say she is all too happy embracing this holiday a lot more than I am.

As usual, for the decor, I stuck mostly to the mantle. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having a mantle? It has been my dream for so long to be able to have one to decorate and hang stockings from. The bad news is I don't have the money to buy anything for said mantle, so I just have to shop around my house. This wouldn't really be bad news except that I don't have much to use as it is. 

It is definitely more...cluttered...than I usually would be comfortable with. I like clean, simple, bare and this is most certainly none of that. It is kind of fun though and I am happy enough with it. I really do need to come up with a new look for the mantle for Christmas. I have pretty much continued keeping that old window with photos in the center and books on the side for the better part of a year.

I am in major obsessive love with my gold pumpkins. If I were a good blogger I would have taken before photos, but I'm not, so I am asking you to use your imagination. I bought these two pumpkins at the Dollar Tree. Which means I spent $2 for two foam pumpkins. Way better than the prices I had seen at a certain craft store. I originally planned on getting them all glittered up like I had done in years past, but after I had painted them up with some gold spray paint I realized I was quite happy with the result and left them as is. Maybe next year I will need a little more bling, but for now I am just loving them as is. 

Hope you all enjoyed yourselves on this Halloween! Want to know a fun fact? Today marked our 5 year dating anniversary. Yep, we started dating "officially" on Halloween in 2006. Our date consisted of LOTS of  scary movies. No, seriously. We watched the entire Halloween movie marathon until 3 a.m. Good to know we bonded over blood and guts. How romantic.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

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Birthday. Fail.

But not a birthday fail.

Photo by KC Photography - Addition of a pretty crown done by ME

Happy 4th birthday (well, yesterday...I started this post, but decided to sleep instead) to the greatest pup we know! Sadly, in doggy years she is now officially older than me. YIKES!

Now, about the fail. So, let's start with a photo of Eden's room all pulled together with a beautiful flokati rug. 

I was so proud of that find. We bought it at HomeGoods, $40 a piece (we bought two for a grand total of $80). 

A month into owning it I started to feel a little less proud of my find. A couple more months and Josh was begging me to toss it out the window as fast as my little arms would let me. Being the stubborn woman I am I waved my hand at him and said, "pish posh" continued on in my denial. 

Now, a year later, I finally hung my head in shame and admitted defeat. The rug is gone. Amazingly I felt this ginormous weight lifted off of my shoulders once it was gone...and once I had vacuumed the whole entire house, top to bottom, back to front, forward, sideways, and every which way in between. See, the reason this rug was so beyond horrible was because it shed. Like a dog. But MAJOR. In fact, we picked Bella for her almost zero shed factor, so why wouldn't we do the same when choosing a rug? Want proof?

Hint: Look at the giant wad of fluff to the right of Bella's head. Yep. That's the one. This was from walking across her rug ONCE to go get her from her crib.

This is a photo I took when Eden was a wee itty bitty baby. I was taking the photo to document the sisterly love, but thanks to a wonderful and honest friend who shall not be named (MEGAN WARD) my secret came to light. See, whenever someone would want to "drop by" I went into panic mode. Literally. Toys? I can throw them in a basket. Clothes? I can hide them in the closet, under the bed, in the hamper. Dishes? That's easy...throw them in the dishwasher...and so on. But big giant people eating dust bunnies?! This required a very tedious date with a vacuum and I most certainly could not do it before my dear friends would drop by. I really honestly like people to believe I am a very clean and organized girl (whether or not I actually am is up for debate). This rug was cause for concern. I saw it in all of your eyes. You would look down and see those feet eating monsters and you would get that look in your eye. You didn't mean to I'm sure, but it was there. That look of pure horror. It's like you wanted to say, "OH HONEY YOU NEED PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP IN A BAD WAY!"

Don't worry, I didn't take it personally.

So, yeah...just wanted to admit that I failed. It happens a lot. I'm just hoping I could look back on this and laugh some day. The good news is I no longer need to clog up the vacuum with big white bunnies and I don't have to fear for my child's life every time she grabs a fur ball and sticks it down her throat.

Now time to find my poor girl a new rug for her hard floor. Rugs really do pull a room together in the nicest way.

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Hiding The Junk In The Trunk

With the addition of another member into the Crain household there was also an even bigger addition to the stuff we have in our house. We did our best to limit the amount of baby gadgets that we brought into our home, but of course the pile is always growing as Eden grows. 


One of our goals when choosing baby items was to find things that would fit "seamlessly" into our house. Obviously a bouncer is going to scream "A BABY LIVES HERE!" but we also believed that we could find a bouncer (or any baby item for that matter) that would blend in a bit better than its bright colored counterparts. Now, of course, if you happen to live in a home with bright colors, maybe the bright colored toys would be perfectly suited to your style...however, we have chosen muted colors so a toy that is bright red may stick out like a sore thumb. There were definitely some items that we brought in that were brightly colored since we wanted to make sure that Eden had toys that were visually stimulating as well. We liked the challenge of making those toys blend in as well. Let's just say, we have learned how to get a bit creative in finding storage. 


Since we do all of our living in (can you guess it?) our LIVING room...seriously folks, I know that is surprising...we had to get extra creative in terms of storage. While we do keep a good amount of stuff in Eden's room, there are a lot of items that would be inconvenient in there so we choose to keep it out in the living room.


So, I mentioned the bouncer earlier on. This wasn't necessarily intentional, but it really is a good starting point since it was the first item that we put on our registry. We chose to only register for a bouncer and not a swing...I had my reasons, but one of them was because I didn't want to have an extra item to take up our precious square footage (we are only working with 830). We LOVE our bouncer and hopefully I will finish up the post where I proclaim my love for certain baby items that have really been essential in our household so I can give you a summary of why I adore this bouncer. Anyway, our bouncer was essentially a two-in-one item since it was a stand-in for a swing and it was easy on the eyes. We even have had friends come over and not notice it sitting in the corner. Here it is in all its glory.

See how cute he is all tucked up next to the fireplace? Although Eden has pretty much grown out of using the bouncer (and in its place is a GIGANTIC but cute jumperoo) we still have it lying around because it just makes us happy to look at. 


Oh, yes. That bright colored object in the right hand corner of the photo has caught your attention hasn't it? Well, let me tell you more about it.

Eden's play mat is the only true "girly" object that we own in terms of large baby items. It was on sale and we figured, hey, why not. So how does this girl stomach having such a brightly colored object in her otherwise neutral house? Oh, that's simple. It is because we store it here:

Yep, if you were to come over to our house and feel the need to sneak a peak behind our sofa (hey it happens) you would see just a hint of pink behind there. The thing we love about this play mat is that it just folds flat and fits right behind our sofa and no one is the wiser....well, besides those peeping toms curious folks who happen to take a look back there. It is so easy to just hide it away when we need the house to be clean, or pull it right back out again when Eden is in her playful mood.


Our #1 favorite place to hide objects is our storage ottoman from here. 

We used to have a rectangular coffee table right in its place, but since we knew a baby was on the way, and that babies learning to walk seem to find the sharpest corners, we figured it was best to just replace it. The ottoman has been great! It stores objects that we don't want to be seen (and we always are on the lookout for extra storage in our teeny tiny abode), but it also makes a great place to rest weary feet and set drinks down on occasion. In short, if you need a place to hide things, run to the store and get yourself an ottoman...we currently own three and I am sure we will be adding more to the family. Inside our ottoman is a basket full of toys as well as some nursing supplies and a giant heap of blankets to keep our toes warm in the winter. Want to take a peak inside our ottoman? You know you do. 

Now, the point of this post wasn't "how to hide the fact that you have a baby that has taken over your lives and your house," it was more just to show you that just because you have a baby doesn't mean you can't still have a beautiful home. Besides, we think the baby toys just add to the beauty. I love seeing one of the many pink rattles scattered across the floor. I am proud of our baby girl and I have no problem showing her off. I just like to also believe that I can know where to stuff items so that visiting guests are none the wiser have a clean house if I want to. We know Eden will only continue to accumulate "stuff," but this just gives us even more of a reason to expand our creativity which is always a fun challenge. 


So, to all of you out there bringing in a new member of the family (pets included) we encourage you to get creative and see if there is a way to seamlessly add in more "stuff" without having it overtake your home. Trust me, it's kind of fun. Or maybe I just have a sickness for organizing? Nah, couldn't be. 

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Pour Me Some Sugar

(via)

Pantone announced the 2011 color of the year...HONEYSUCKLE! Now admitedly I am not a lover of pink (although I don't mind it in small doses), however I can see this color working...and not just to aid indigestion (pepto anyone?). It is such a vibrant and happy color, definitely something I will be in the mood for come springtime.

When it comes to using honeysuckle in home decor, I don't think I could possibly get myself to use such a vibrant pink on my walls. Although, I am up for the challenge of making it look good and not too girly if anyone wants to push me to do so. I actually think if I had a giant closet with rows and rows of beautiful items that maybe, just maybe I would paint the walls honeysuckle. No guarantees though. When Josh reads this, he might pass out...he knows my feelings on pink.

So, while I am going to mourn the end of the 2010 color of the year, TURQUOISE (I have a love affair with that color), I am excited to challenge myself to inject some honeysuckle into our home and maybe even my wardrobe. As long as I say honeysuckle, I think I can stomach the idea.

Well, for those of you who love pink, today should be your happy day!

Also, I am in the midst of writing another post, but had to stop myself to break the news of the color of the year. Can't guarantee that the next post is worth reading, but had to share that I really am trying to break back into the blogworld after a short hiatus. So, until then, HAPPY THURSDAY!

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DIYing the Nest

One of our favorite things about the holidays is decorating. We can't wait to get our hands on those boxes that have been stored away for a year and begin to pull out all those little things that we forgot about. Now, neither of us are huge Halloween people. We like to celebrate, but when it comes to decorating we just are not into the black and orange spooky stuff. I would definitely say we prefer a more muted Fall palette with a few Halloween touches. This year my Halloween touch was coming in the form of glitter. I don't know what it is, but this season has brought about my love for sparkly things. Sometimes I feel like a bug to a light...I just get mesmerized. I definitely got the desire to get crafty for this holiday. Currently we are trying to save for a house and we are living in a very small apartment. Buying items for the holiday was pretty much out of the question (except for a GORGEOUS candle holder that we found for a steal). Here is my attempt at craftiness...

First, I fell in L.O.V.E with these pumpkins. I knew I had to attempt to make them in my own way. There is something inside of me that refuses to do anything EXACTLY the way I see them. This is true even in recipes...I always have to add something or take something away. I guess I am just a rule-breaker like that.

(Trying to find the source for these)

This was my inspiration, but here was my interpretation...

I love his cute little face. As you can see I added some things, used new materials, and didn't use other things. That's the beauty of creativity, you get to interpret it however you want.

I also wanted to add some real pumpkins in with my little pumpkin guy so I got my glitter on one more time and my cute pumpkins went from this...

To this...

Hint: If you wanted to use the pumpkins from year to year, you could easily buy craft pumpkins from Michael's and then keep them forever!

After receiving a few questions regarding this project I thought I would add some information. I chose to use Martha Stewart's glitter (I bought the 24 pack because I love it that much!). I REALLY like her glitter. Yes you can use other glitter, but I think her's is extra glittery and spectacular. I also used Martha's glitter glue with a brush applicator. While I know I could have probably saved money by using a regular craft glue (one that dries clear of course) I decided I wanted to go all out and buy her special glue. Sometimes I am a sucker for things like that. It worked well in my opinion, but I am sure its just regular glue. The colors I used for the two glitter pumpkins was fire opal and onyx. For the pumpkin guy above I used carnelian.

From there I wanted to put them all together to make a tablescape. Remember that candle holder I spoke of? Well, Josh and I found that on sale at ZGallerie and we just couldn't pass it up. I believe it was originally $17 down to $9. We were loving the color. I then searched around my house and looked through our holiday supplies for some more items to add. I found a silver plate, a napkin, and a couple of votives. In order to get a more pulled together look I also found some leaves that were lying on the ground outside of work. I snatched those right up, placed them on the silver plate and here is what we came up with...

We felt pretty good with the end result. Of course I would have liked to add more, but on a serious budget with only a few things to work with it's a great way to add a festive look. I challenge everyone to look around their houses for items that they can incorporate. You would be amazed at what you can reuse and repurpose in a whole new way. Try it out! 

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