DIY Advent Calendar

December is quickly approaching, and this year, I really wanted to create an advent calendar that I could open with my 3 year old son each day leading up to Christmas:  

Last year we were given a Christmas Story advent calendar and my son looked forward to reading it each day and adding the daily ornament to the Christmas tree.  I became inspired to create my own calendar this year when I saw this image on Pinterest:

Happy Thanksgiving, and Bedroom Progress

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!   We are fortunate to have our family just a few minutes away; we look forward to celebrating all that we have been blessed with today.   This morning, I asked my three year old what he was thankful for.  His first response was food (boy, this is the right holiday for you) and his second response was his brother! 

We aren't hosting Thanksgiving this year so my older son and his dad are taking advantage of this 60 degree weather and they are working on our Christmas lights right now.  While my youngest naps, I thought I would quickly post some progress pics of our master bedroom:

Here is a picture of the room when we moved in:

And here it is now:

White Tablescape

We are hosting Christmas Eve this year and I've been thinking about what I would like to do for our table.  Based on the images I find myself pinning, I can tell this year I'm leaning towards whites, silver and gold, glass, and greenery.

When thinking through some items that I already have that fit within this theme, I recalled a table I set for my sister's bachelorette party years ago (in early 2008).  I used mostly white, crystal, and silver.

These pictures are not from our current house, rather, our old condo in Chicago.  Looking through these made me miss it just a little bit!  I put a condo tour up on Rate My Space years ago (deleted now since I didn't visit the account for years) and think maybe I will share some pics in another post.

Onto the party...we had an open concept condo and here is a view to the dining area:

To add some drama to the space and the light fixture, I purchased hanging votives from CB2 and tied them up with fishing line.  I would love to use these somewhere in my house this year, but I have images of little ones swinging from the string...and crashing to the floor.  So we'll see!  I purchased two feather boa's in lieu of a veil for that night, so I decided to use them in the decor before we headed out for the evening.

Vintage Industrial Big Boy Room

While expecting Baby Boy #2, we knew we would have to transition our first son, Brady, to his "big boy room."  We decided to keep the nursery as the nursery; for various reasons, it's better suited as that. Therefore, we knew that when we switched Brady to a "big boy bed" we would transition rooms as well.  We developed a plan:

#1 Pottery Barn Cargo Duvet and Madras Quilt (our big splurge for this room)
#2 Ikea EIVOR CIRKEL Rug
#3 Ikea NYVOLL Dresser
#4  Accessories Inspiration:  Walmart Soleous 12" fan and Restoration Hardware Baby and Child Lamp (I can't find this exact one anymore, but this one is similar)
#5 Restoration Hardware Vintage Canvas Stripe Panels (I DIY'd using IKEA Merete Panels)

(We used Container Store Elfa drawers for extra storage under the IKEA Malm Bed.  The bed is really low to the ground and these were the only containers low enough to squeeze under there.  We use them for extra blankets, sheets, and stuffed animals.)

Friday Finds

Today I walked away with just a few things from the thrift store:

Below is an instagram picture of the lanterns in their new home - my older son's bedroom.  We have an industrial / all things transportion theme going on in the room

DIY Nursery Bedding and Window Panels

UPDATE:  SEE FULL NURSERY TOUR HERE.

Baby Boy #2's nursery was all about keeping to a budget and to do so, I:

(1) Re-purposed and reused items from around my house
(2) DIY'd several projects (including the map nursery wall letters, Restoration Hardware inspired drapes, bedding, and sailboat mobile)
(3) and relied heavily on thrift store finds for finishing touches

For me, the most challenging project, by far, was the bedding:

I started the nursery by searching for inspiration around the web, and finally settled on a yellow and grey color scheme. 

I searched and searched, and kept coming up short for bedding that matched my vision.  Sure, Serena and Lily and other semi-custom sites had some great options.  However, I was not ready to spend $300 plus on a crib bedding set!  It proved more difficult than I had imagined finding mix and match bedding at a reasonable price point. 

Master Bedroom Inspiration

As I near completion on the boys' rooms, I've begun to think about "finishing" other areas of our house.  I love spending time in my bedroom at the end of the day to unwind and relax.   For that reason, I've focused in on our master bedroom next.  I took the following pic with my new iPhone (yes! and why did I wait so long?) this morning, so the quality is kind of eh:

Cool Weather Inspired Ideas

The crisp and cool air gets me excited for winter nights in front of the fire, playing board games, and drinking a little vino.  These images give me the urge to hit up my husbands closet, or maybe the local Goodwill, to look for some sweaters to do a little of this: