It doesn't have to be perfect...

...to be beautiful.

Since I began reading her blog, I have really identified with The Nester's philosophy that "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful".  I have been guilty of drooling over pictures of perfectly staged rooms on the blogs that I read.  But, you know what, folks?  That ain't life.  No one lives like that!  And, I'll admit that I've also been known to pile stuff in a corner so that I can fake it for that perfect shot.

So, here are some pictures of our beautiful and imperfect home this morning.  All of our lovely throw pillows are stacked here in this basket instead of being perfectly arranged on the couch.  Why, you ask?

 Because the couch is occupied!  Also notice the fitted sheet that stays on the couch 99% of the time it's not staged for blog photos.

 Here's the dining room table slash laundry folding area.

This is (was?) the wall to the kitchen.  Wanna talk about imperfections during a wall removal?!

 And, here we are in the kitchen.  Not a ton of dirty dishes this morning, but a few pots from last night's dinner.

 Colin's room isn't looking too bad.  After the weekend when we gave this room a mini-makeover and had it all perfectly staged, it felt nice but a little empty.  I actually loved seeing his weekend stuff strewn around and his covers messed up from him sitting in bed with his lap top.  Perfection is really overrated, especially if it means the room isn't being used.

 And, finally, here's my bed.  My lovely, comfy, messy bed.  And, if I'm being honest here, the reason my room never makes it onto my blog (I think this is the very first picture anyone has seen of it) is because it almost always looks like this.  I don't really believe in making my bed on a daily basis.  Haha!

So, there you have it.  Our beautiful, imperfect house!

xo,

Emily

linking up to Nester's party.

Colin's room reveal

Historically, President's Day weekend is a weekend of home projects or house purchases around here, and this year was no different.  A couple months ago, Colin started asking to move the furniture around in his room and to repaint the walls.  Knowing that he'd be in sunny Florida visiting his grandmother over this past weekend, I decided this would be the perfect time to paint his room and give it a mini-makeover.  I talked my dad into coming into town to handle the painting, and I started assembling things to use in his new room.  Some of the things I put into his room were things he had but we had never done anything with, some of the things were already in his room, and some of the things I purchased without him knowing.  My goal for this room makeover was major wow with little moolah (a novel idea, I know).  :)

Here's the before of his room:

There were already a lot of things going for his room.  The room is a great size, and he absolutely loves his furniture.  He also has 3 large windows that let in a ton of natural light, but the room had zero personality.  I cringe when I look at these photos.  It always bothered me that we had nothing hanging on his walls and no personalization going on, but whenever he picked something out for his room, it would be something that I knew he'd hate in a matter of weeks.  So, I kept putting off doing anything.

So, after several weeks of gathering things and working on secret projects and a weekend of painting, here is the after:

I have lots of details to share about the things I put into his room, but I have neither the time nor the attention span tonight to write about it all.  So, stay tuned for more deets.  Oh, and Colin loves his new room.  He has hardly left it, aside from going to school.  And, that makes this mom's heart happy!

xo,

Emily

**linking to the girls at

3 + 3 = perfection!

Earlier this week, I spent an evening going through the house and spackling some of the larger random holes that we have in the walls around the house.  And since I completed that project last night with the final round of sanding and then paint, I gave myself the green light to put some more holes in the breakfast room walls.  :)

You see, I'd been feeling like things were a little off balance in there.  Does anyone agree?

The shelves on the right are super helpful and functional storage, and it wasn't *so* bad when I had the some other things hanging on the left side, but once I removed them, the wall was awfully off balance.

Of course, that's nothing a quick trip to Ikea (and a hammer and a bunch of wall anchors and a drill and some screws and a tape measure and a level) can't fix!

Instead of 3 shelves, we now have 6!  Ahh, balance, sweet, balance!

Symmetry, how I've missed you!!

Since this project was driven more by aesthetics than a need for storage, I just threw some things up onto the shelves for staging.  Some stemware, a couple canisters, and frame with a piece of red craft paper worked pretty well for the left side.  The basket holds our cloth napkins that we use (and reuse until they're kinda grody) for each meal.  We gave up paper napkins and paper towels for the most part several years ago, so having cloth napkins within easy reach is important.

 On the right side, we have some more canisters, a vintage scale, another basket and a piece of framed burlap.  I do hope to get some more interesting art in the frames, but for now, place holders are just fine with me.

So, what do you all think?  Do you like the look of the 3 new shelves?  Do you agree that 3 + 3 = perfection?

 

xo,

Emily 

** linking to the girls at

A perfect puppy profile

Okay, so it's true that I originally completed this project several weeks ago, but I thought it was just the perfect one to post to Amanda's Pinterest Art Challenge.   Because, as we all know, even when we find other bloggers have done what we want to do, all inspiration starts with Pinterest.  So, without further ado, my contribution to the linky party:

So, we've already established that I'm usually a little late to the dance, right?  Along those lines, I'm just getting around to making one of those DIY canvas silhouettes.  Karah at The Space Between recently blogged about this very thing, and that got me inspired.

I already have this awesome sketch of Blake in the living room...

...so, I decided I should display Piper's profile, too.  I found this picture of her from Christmas 2010, resized it, and printed it out on regular old paper.

 Then, I cut out Piper's profile with plain old scissors.

Next, I outlined it onto the canvas with a pencil (can you even see that?), and I freehanded where necessary to make it fit.

 I decided that I wanted to paint the outside gray and leave Piper's profile in white.  A little bit of painting using some paint I already had on hand, and viola!

A perfect puppy profile!

Currently, Piper's profile is the newest addition to my growing collage wall in my office.

Total cost: zero dollars.  I had the paint and canvas (picked up a while back from Hobby Lobby on 50% off) and all the supplies already at the house.  I just love a sentimental (and free) project!

xo,

Emily

Lovely

I've been spending some time making sure our home is extra lovely.

I strung together some construction paper hearts using twine.

And, I put out our two little love birds.

 And, other than that, I kept our Valentine's Day mantle very simple.

Because, after Christmas, I was craving some beautiful but simple decorations.

I used to dislike Valentine's Day, but you know what?  I don't anymore.  It's a day for love, not a day for lovers.  And, I have so much love in my life to celebrate!

And, now I'll leave you with a movie quote:

"If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

Can you name that movie?

xo,

Emily

Welcome baby Boston

The impending arrival of a baby boy is a great reason to sit down with the sewing machine and get crafty.  And, I sure have had a good time with this shower gift!

 Baby Boston is due to arrive next month!

 I made this little name tag out of a paper bag I had sitting around from Christmas shopping.  I used pinking sheers to cut out a rectangle and stenciled the baby's name in some chocolate brown paint.

 I also picked up a pack of 5 cloth diapers and embellished them with some ribbon.

The baby's nursery is brown/cream with accents of navy and red.

 I also couldn't resist a couple fun little baby toys and a book.  

 The mother-to-be specifically requested a pillow for the nursery out of an old shower curtain.  Now, THAT'S my kind of a craft.  :)

With some remaining fabric from the pillow project, I made my favorite:  a pennant flag!

 And, well, that's it!

I hope my friend and her husband love the crafty gifts as much as I enjoyed making them!

xo,

Emily