Happy Halloween!

 Today I'm baking cupcakes and putting finishing touches on costumes for a soldier and two little mice.  

My mice are going to be a lot cuter than this guy was. 

Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!

 Halloween art tutorial here.

A Picture In The Window

 What do you guys think of this look? 

I really like it!

via

It also doesn't hurt that this bathroom is totally gorgeous!

Carved Cattle Skull

I know the title of this probably sounds kind of creepy or gross but really, isn't this beautiful?!

I found this on Pinterest but can't find it's original source, so if someone knows where this is from please let me know. 

 

Guest Posting: Favourite Furniture Fridays

 Today I'm over at Tiffany Leigh Interior Design 

talking about my favorite piece of furniture! 

Is it this one?

Or this??

Or one of these???

Or maybe this?

You'll have to come over to Tiffany's to see!

White Rooms

 via

via

via

via

via

via

I love color, but there is something so chic and relaxing about a mostly white room. 

I Get To See My Brother Today!!

Today's is a completely personal post- and I'm so excited to be writing it!! :D

We are on a plane, heading to Florida because tonight, my little brother gets home from California 

where he's been for the last two years serving a mission for our church. 

We haven't seen him the entire time he's been gone, so words seriously can't describe how excited I am!!!

Here's Rob & I and our oldest (this was before the twins came along) with my brother and two sisters.

And here's a picture of my brother that a family in California sent us.

I'm so proud of my brother and I CAN'T WAIT to see him!!

Meeting Nate

Today I'm busy getting all of us ready to go out of town tomorrow. I wasn't going to do a blog post since I have so much else to get done, but I just had to tell you guys really quick about my exciting Saturday.

If you follow me on twitter then you already know about it. 

Nate Berkus came to the Mall of America here in Minneapolis on Saturday to do a book signing for his new book The Things That Matter. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed on Friday night and saw an announcement from him about how he'd be at the mall the next day and I started shrieking and jumping up and down. 

I excitedly ran to Rob and waved my phone in his face while I breathlessly told him that Nate would be at the mall the next day and that I absolutely had to be there. 

Rob was awesome and stayed home with the kids the next day so I could go out to the mall.

I was glad he wasn't there to witness how pathetic I was.

Seriously, I've learned that I just can't handle myself around celebrities.

I would love to be able to play it cool, and not get excited because they're just regular people, after all. 

But the thing is, they're not. They're just so much better than the rest of us.

{hahaha I'm kidding!} But really, they're far cooler than I am, so the prospect of meeting someone famous makes me completely giddy. And I act like a star-struck teenager.

So getting to meet someone in the interior design world who I admire so much was beyond exciting. 

I was actually shaking while I waited my turn in line. 

Here I am meeting him. Wish I could say I played it cool and thanked him for the signature, but instead the second I got up to the table I started rambling. I actually started out by going "Oh my gosh, hiiii!" 

Ack. You guys, I gushed like a fool. Then I walked off in a daze and wondered what the heck I'd even said. If I ever meet anyone I admire again, I'm going to force myself to just smile and say hi. 

But I just couldn't with Nate. But the thing is, he was so nice! He was just as nice as he seems on tv. 

And I am absolutely in love with his book so far!

This page has to be one of my favorites-

So even though I acted like a total dork in front of one of my favorite designers, I had an awesome time and I'm so happy I got to meet him!

Fall

 

Isn't this just the epitome of Fall?

Using A Towel To Mat Pictures

 Yesterday I spent some time changing out what was in a few frames in the living and dining room.

The photo on the bottom shelf got traded out for a different one- 

this one is adorable but it's been here since last fall and I wanted something new.

So I swapped it for this one taken over the summer of all of us at the beach.

Don't ask me why during the fall I'm trading the perfect fall photo for a summer one, but I love this picture of all of us. And since it's taken from such a forgiving distance, I'm actually okay with having a picture of myself in a bathing suit on our dining room shelves. 

And I like how the colors in the photo look with everything else on the shelves.

The one of the kids in the leaves was darling, but all the orange just didn't go with anything.

After this little switch I turned my attention to this wall:

I've had these antique maps framed for years, and I've been feeling the urge to switch them out for some family photos. 

I had a few more 4x6 size pictures that I took over the summer, and I wanted to use them in these frames. I wanted the smaller photos in the large frames because I think it looks a little less busy than when there's a full-sized photograph adding a lot of color to an already small and busy area. We have the console table on this wall, which has a big basket on either side; this spot is crowded by toys, and combine that with all the dark trim around the window and baseboards, and it just feels kind of cluttery over here. So I didn't want to add to that feeling with busy looking pictures. 

I've learned that in a little house you have to put so much more thought into details like that.

So anyway, back to the picture framing.

Just for fun, and to see how it would look, I tried a couple pictures using the maps as mats (try saying that out loud...I'm having a hard time just thinking it!)

I think this is a cool look! Not right for what I was wanting for this wall, but I love it.

I especially liked the map of Nevada paired with the picture of Rob and I since Las Vegas is where we met. 

Both these frames came with mats that have cutouts for (4) 4x6 pictures. 

I wanted to use the mats, but I did not want to use the cutouts. 

I decided I would find some paper or something to lay on top of the cutouts and then attach my photos over that.

And then in my search for good paper, I came across this:

It's a dishtowel I embroidered a few years ago but never used because being the amateur that I was with my sewing machine, I'd stuck the mickey in a very awkward spot. 

He's cute though, right?

As soon as I saw this towel I knew it'd make the perfect mat for my photos.

It's white, so it wouldn't add any extra "clutter" to my wall, but what it would add is amazing texture.

And cut in half, each side was the perfect size.

I left the fabric really uneven and rough at the edges so that it would look more interesting. 

Just look at that awesome texture!

I love how they look on the wall!

{Don't mind the Halloween decor at the top of the picture. We do get real cobwebs, but not this bad!}

Oh and just so you can see what I was talking about with how cluttered this wall looks, here's a shot from further back:

Honestly, this area makes me pretty crazy. There is just nowhere to put this stuff. The basket on the left holds toys- it's suppose to be all the toys that the kids can have downstairs. I've always had the rule that all the toys have to stay in the playroom except the amount that can fit into a large basket. But my twins are toddlers and you know how toddler toys are- BIG. Like those cars on the right side of the console table. If I keep them upstairs, they try to drive them down the stairs. So we keep them here. The big square basket on the other side of them holds blankets that won't fit in the little hall closet upstairs.  And with every room in our house having half a wall taken up by a radiator, it really limits where I can put things. Which is why there is so much stuff crowded against this one wall in our living room. 

Sorry to rant. These are just things you don't think about when you live in a larger, newer home, and so now I have a hard time with it sometimes. But I deal with it the best I can- like by putting extra thought into how I frame things. :)

Some Unique Bowl Fillers

Monday's post got me thinking about other somewhat "different" ways to fill a bowl or vase...

Light bulbs

via

Corks

via T Does Wool

Thread Spools

Crayons

via Emily A Clark

Thumb Tacks

via Madigan Made

Paper

Book Page Paper Chain