It's a Boy!

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting a baby boy!!  We went last week for our ultrasound and I have to say it was the most amazing thing my husband and I have ever seen!  He wiggled all around while we watched him in 4D and is already melting our hearts.  Now the wait til May is on!  

Since we found out we are expecting a boy, I have been having so much fun putting together a nursery plan.  I have officially decided to go with a navy and turquoise blue color scheme.  

The first piece I have ordered is this rug from Land of Nod.  I've had it on my wishlist for months and months whether we found out we were having a boy or girl, it was going to go in the nursery.

I hope to find a dresser similar to this one.  Most of the furniture in my house is vintage but they all lean towards the girly side, so I love that this hollywood regency style dresser is a vintage piece, but with cleaner lines that can fit into a boy's room.  

I plan to make the window treatments myself, and will likely go with a stripe like this one.  I may even do wider navy and white stripes by making my own fabric which can be done by sewing together wide strips of fabric together horizontally.

I really love this crib from Pottery Barn, but am also leaning towards the Fillmore crib.

I also plan to make my own bedskirt, likely out of this navy and white chevron fabric which my husband really loves.

(find this skirt here)

The artwork really ties the color scheme together.  I have found a few that I love on Etsy, but talked to my friend Elizabeth who has a digital etsy shop and she may end up putting something together with me.  I'm having a hard time deciding whether I want to go nautical, or just with animals.

I have so many ideas and possibilities swirling around in my head so any of this may change at any time!  Here's a few more goodies that have caught my eye and would fit nicely into the nursery.

So there you have it!  Our first baby's nursery plan :)  

Baby on Board

If you're a fan on Facebook, you've already seen the big news.  If not, I am so excited to announce that we are expecting our first baby!!

Needless to say, with everything going on lately, I've been M.I.A. from blogging.  We find out this week what the gender of our baby will be which to me is one of the most exciting events in a pregnancy!  Some choose not to find out, but I am like a kid on Christmas morning who just can't wait!  This opens up a whole new world of planning.  Now we can finally start decorating the nursery which will be a load off of my mind.  The only problem for me is committing to one color scheme and one style.  I mean, this is my very first nursery and you only have that once so I want it to be perfect!  

Can't wait to come back and share the gender!  Also, don't be surprised to see lots of nursery ideas coming up.

Officially my favorite room in the house

As the summer draws to a close, I find myself doing a lot of "fall cleaning" instead of "spring cleaning".  I'm preparing for the long and (in my opinion) dreary winter.  You have probably figured out by now that I'm no stranger to color.  It's something that really makes me happy.  The constant is color, but what color it is can change like the wind.  So, in our transition from summer to winter, my husband and I decided it was time for a family room update.  Something bright, fresh, and clean.  

I can officially say that this is my favorite room in the house.  It's happy, uplifting, and soothing all at the same time.  The major pieces are neutral, with pops of color being the interchangeable accessories, with exception to the window treatments which I make myself so they are typically cost friendly.  

The starting point was the sofas that I absolutely fell in love with.  With a budget friendly price tag, they were a nice fit for us.  I love the clean lines, but that they still pair well with a vintage/eclectic/coastal/cottage style.  The coffee table we have had since our very first apartment.  So, though it's nothing special in appearance, it has some sentimental value.  We bought it(with change we saved in a jar!) from an antique dealer, but it's actually handmade and solid wood.  It's gone through some changes, recently being sanded, restained, and painted and actually started out as a small kitchen table before we chopped the legs off.

Every time I was out and about I kept my eyes out for the perfect throw pillows, but I just couldn't find anything that spoke to me.  I, instead, opted to go to the fabric store and make my own.  I wanted something that had a fun print, but that was a thick woven fabric because let's face it, we use our pillows so they need to be tough.  I couldn't be happier with these cheerful and colorful fabrics!

I am head over heels in l.o.v.e. with the large mirror above the sofa.  This was a $20 flea market find that was gold and had been stowed away in one of our closets for a couple of years.  I knew for $20 I could find a place to put it and I think with a fresh coat of white paint it looks perfect in it's new home.  Also, it's hard to tell in the picture, but there's a white bird cage on top of the T.V. cabinet.  I hope to find a few more to fill the space and may paint them green and aqua.  Not sure that the white is doing the trick for me.

The window treatments are one of my favorite features of the room.  My husband and I married in October 2008 and had a peacock colored wedding.  Not so much peacock feathers, though there were a few, but more just the jewel tones of the peacock.  Anyway, ever since then I have a little "thing" for peacocks.  I've had my eye on this fabric for a few years, so to finally have the chance to use it was fun.  One of my favorite tricks when hanging window treatments is to hang them high, which draws the eye up and makes your windows appear larger, and your ceilings higher.  There's nothing worse than a squatty window ;)  I also had a hard time finding a large(and affordable) piece of art work for the wall in between the two windows so I decided to pick up a brush(for the first time since high school) and attempt my own painting.  It's not a Monet, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It incorporates all of the colors I wanted with an ombre effect to it.

This is another little piece that's been with us for quite a while, and now that the walls are aqua, needs to be painted white.  The pretty bird picture is more cheap art.  It came from an Anthropologie calender several years ago and worked quite well in my new space as well as the old.  So, there it stayed.  

Opposite the sofa is the start of a gallery wall.  I'll eventually add more art as I find pieces that fit, but Rome wasn't built in a day(I have to remind my husband!).  With the exception of the temporary cut of fabric in the small oval frame, the rest are Etsy finds.  The tree is cool because it has R+J 2008(our initials and year we were married) in the trunk as if it were carved in there.  

(poor picture quality here)

This print in particular has some sentimental value because it was specially made by the artist(on Etsy) who created our peacock wedding invitations.  I really love that she was able to do this for us!  

So, there you have it!  Our new family room.  I'm sure it will receive a few more things here and there, but for the most part I am thrilled with our new space!

Studio Chair Before and After

Since setting up my studio I have been keeping my eye out for an interesting new desk chair.  We used kitchen cabinets for the base of my work space, so the height was higher than that of a normal desk.  I had no idea how hard it would be to find a taller desk chair, so I opted to go for a counter height bar stool.  

I found one in all of it's micro fiber glory and knew that the shape was good for what I wanted, but the look left something to be desired.  Comfort is also key since I can sit for hours at a time making jewelry.  

I found this graphic yellow and white print that coordinated well with the existing window treatments.  My original intention was to make a removable slip cover, but in the end I went with permanently upholstered.  It gave a more fitted, clean look to the chair.

Take a look at the before:

I'm now trying to decide if I want to paint the legs.  They appear black in the photo, but they are a dark espresso stain.  

I really love the extra pop of fun this print gives the room!  I have so enjoyed working in here and now it's just that much more comfy :)

I wish I had taken pictures of the step by step process, but I get too involved when I start projects like these and don't think about that at the time.  What do you think; paint the legs white or no?

Summer Sale!

Just wanted to pop in real quick and let you know that 

SLD is having a summer sale!  Time to make way for 

new fall styles!  Enjoy 10% off your entire order now 

through Sunday.  Use coupon code "SUMMER10" 

upon checkout.  

New Office Space

Last week I casually mentioned to my husband that we should turn one of our unused spare bedrooms into a studio/office space for me.  We currently had our office in a tiny upstairs bedroom that served as my shipping station, but nothing else really went on in there.  Much to my delight, before I could get the words out of my mouth my husband said "Yes!".  So that night we were purging unwanted stuff and swapping furniture up and down the stairs.  


We were able to reuse most everything we had.  I kept the window treatments and paint color from the previous bedroom setup because we've only been in this house for 4 years so I still loved those aspects of the room.  We then had to come up with a budget friendly desk idea.  I wanted something with lots of storage and lots of counter space to spread out.  Off to our local hardware store we went for ideas!  We came across some discounted unfinished kitchen cabinets.  Score!  Now for the counter top.  We looked into having white Formica counters made but that really didn't fit into the shoestring budget we had in mind.  Instead, we decided on inexpensive hollow core doors.  They were the perfect depth for our kitchen cabinets and at $19 each we felt like geniuses for coming up with this idea!  

This room gets great lighting in the morning but I can't seem to get it to photograph really well.  Anyway, our budget friendly desk in all it's glory!  If you are a fan on Facebook, you have already seen little snippets of the room. Now you can see what I had planned for those open frames.  I wanted to display some of my jewelry in a fun way.  I had thought of pegboard inside the frames, but am really not a huge fan of pegboard.  So instead I went with a cool radiator grill.  It has a little clover cutout rather than the plain old circle  pegboard.  This is one of my favorite features of the room.  The two oval frames were vintage Syroco mirrors I had packed away in a closet for a long time now.  I opted to keep one as a mirror for a little bit of interest on the wall.  A fresh coat of white paint on them and they are perfection in my eyes!

The shelves are mounted high so as not to get in the way of my counter space.  They are purely decorative right now, but I'm sure as I grow into the space and see how I will ultimately use it, they will be much needed storage. I like the clean look of the floating shelves.

There is an empty space in the corner next to the shelves that I plan on making a jewelry rack using decorative knobs mounted on a piece a wood.  A small detail that I'll get to eventually.

I'm looking forward to creating in this space.  Now all that's left to do is to move all of my beads and supplies in and get to work!  I couldn't have done any of this without  my amazing husband :)  He is so incredibly supportive and I am so thankful to have a man like him in my life.  

I  love my new space, what do you think?  

Before and After: Ottoman

There have been many small projects going on around here in whatever spare time I have.  I have lots of ideas, but finding the time to execute is a little harder.  I thought I'd share one of my projects I finished a couple of weeks ago.  


I found this ottoman a few years ago at an antique shop.  Nothing incredibly unique or special, but it fits just right in front of a chair in our bedroom.  Plus, I like the plain, classic lines that can be made a bit more exciting with a fun fabric.


Here's the before:

(Terrible photo taken at night)

The fabric itself I liked, but it didn't go with our new, "brighter" master bedroom plan.  So out with the old and in with the new....

After:

Much better!  I'm so very close to sharing the entire bedroom makeover.  Just a few small touch-ups to do before I can slap a "done" label on it!  

Here's a small look at the bedroom.  Things already look a tad different because I decided to paint the headboard a crisper white.

I hope to one day get rid of the grayish-blue carpet, but for now, it'll just have to do.

Graphic Roman Shades

I have mentioned before that I have a background in interior design, and while I was in school for my degree, I worked in a workroom making custom window treatments.  While I don't do that for a living now, I still do them for friends and family in my spare time.  Most recently I had the pleasure of making a roman shade and london balloon(aka butterfly balloon) for my aunt Kim's kitchen.  


Kim has the most gorgeous house in the country and I have always said she should have had a career in interior design.  Anyway, as I said I made her a workable roman shade and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!  

The kitchen itself is fairly neutral in black and white with warm wood tones and sleek stainless steel.  She added a fun pop by painting the walls purple, and kicked it up a notch with the vibrant printed fabric.  Check out that amazing antique butcher block!!  

This is a workable roman shade that will go up and down using the cord.  I have to point out something else.  See the bell to the right attached to the cabinet?  Well while I was there I learned that my Uncle Bobby did some handy work of his own.  He actually crafted antlers on the deer from tooth picks and coat hangers!  

Hillarious.

Anyway, I also made a london balloon(aka butterfly balloon) for the window in the eating area.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get very good lighting, but I'm going to share the finished product anyway.  I've made these for so long and they are one of the most requested styles I get from customers.  It's one of my favorite treatments to do because it goes great in most rooms that you just want some sort of top treatment for.  

There you have it!  Like I said, I was just thrilled with how it turned out!  I have also been steadily working on our master bedroom re-do I told you about months ago.  It's coming along slow but steady.  The window treatments are done, artwork hung, ottoman recovered, and furniture freshly painted.  All that's left to do is distress the freshly painted furniture, and finish a little vanity stool project I've got going on.  

A Beautiful Bride

Several months ago I had the pleasure of working on an amazingly sweet bride's necklace for her big day.  It's so often that I make these pieces that I love,  and then ship them off to their new homes never to see them again.  But every so often, I get an exciting email full of gorgeous photos!  Well, you can imagine my delight when I heard from Jennifer and got these photos!

(necklace found here)

What a beautiful bride and a gorgeous wedding!  Thank you, Jennifer for sharing these photos!



Trunk Show Fun

I set up at a local trunk show last night and had a great time!  Said goodbye to lots of great pieces, which is great because I am getting ready to introduce a bunch of new goodies!  I thought I'd share a few photos. 

We set up at a cool downtown industrial style space and only had 1 table so I had to make the best of it by building my display upwards.  I made the step display that you see the necklaces on to the right.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I also had a live model assigned to me.  She was a local college student and the sweetest, most beautiful girl.  I absolutely loved working with her! 

The necklace she is wearing can be found here.  Earrings here.  At first, we had her wearing the necklace below, but with the swarm of local photographers I quickly decided she needed a big statement piece that would show up well in print.

Not a great photo on my part, but the necklace can be found here.  All in all it was a great night!  Thank you to all who showed up to support me!

I hope to follow up soon with some other fun photos ;)
Happy weekend!

Anniversary

It's hard to believe how fast time flies.  This month I am celebrating Silver Lining Decor's 3 year anniversary!  I have met and worked with so many amazing girls, and I cannot thank those who have supported this little dream of mine enough. 

In honor of my 3 year anniversary, I am offering 10% off your entire order!  Use coupon code "SPRING10" now through Sunday, April 8th.

There are TONS of new springtime goodies available, so stop by and check them out!

Don't forget to become a fan on facebook to be the first to know about sales and new arrivals!

Social Networking

I finally did it!  I took the plunge.  I am officially a "facebooker"(whatever that means).  I know I'm a little late on this train, but I was resisting for some strange reason.  Probably because my life is already so internet driven, I thought facebook would be just another "thing" that I would have to keep up with.  But, I really am enjoying it.  I'm not quite sure what I am doing right now, but I am managing to learn a few things here and there.  So come on ya'll, head on over and become a fan!  Show me some love!  Or you could just say hi ;)  You'll be the first to know about sales, new items, and whatever other random things I feel like posting! 

On another note, we have had a quite warm winter, which I am absolutely not complaining about.  It would be spring all year long if it were up to me.  Knowing that the warmer weather is in reach, I am dreaming of sun dresses, sandals, and the sun on my skin, which inspired this fun little number...

Last, my good friend Connie at 3 Divas Studio has started her new blog!  You must check her out!  She's witty and oh-so-talented with her gorgeous crocheted boho jewelry! 

Another piece of the puzzle

I finally wrapped up a small project yesterday for our revamped master bedroom plan.  I bought a vintage frame a few years ago for $2 from a flea market and have had it tucked away waiting for the perfect piece of art to go in it.  Remember this print I showed you?

(found here)



Well, after painting my $2 frame white, and adding a white mat, she's all framed up and looking beautiful in our master bedroom!



Again, I used my little trick to help make this print appear larger.  It measures 11x14 and I used a 16x20 mat and frame to beef it up a little.  I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!  I think this old frame painted white is absolutely perfect for the boho style of the print.

I am working on the window treatments now which is one of the most exciting elements of a room for me!  I then have a few other little odds and ends to touch up but we are getting close to a brighter, new feeling in our bedroom. 

Speaking of bright and new, I've got some fun new necklaces in the shop now!  Here's a little taste of them...

More coming soon!  See the whole collection here!