Life is a little crazy around our house(es) these days. Our days are spent preparing for a baby in just a few short week, remodeling our new house, packing up our old house, and wrangling a 3-year-old, leaving little time for anything else. In the brief moments of pause, I'm either napping or thinking about how to make the transitions that are coming in the next several weeks smooth for everyone in our family, especially Ayla. So, I've been dreaming up her new bedroom, which will likely be the only finished room in the house when move in day arrives.  

I only moved twice as a child, and I distinctly remember my mom making a conscious effort to have my brother's bedroom and my bedroom complete the day we moved in. Our bedrooms were painted, decorated, furnished, and the sheets were washed, with a special note placed on our pillows. Opening the door to my new bedroom in a new house and having the whole room specifically set up for me was such a comforting thing. I am sure my little brother felt the same. And it made the moves go so smoothly for us.

Now that my family is making our own big move, I find myself so appreciative of the thought and planning my mom put into creating special rooms for their children during a time of big change. I also find myself baffled by how she managed to get two rooms completely put together in the midst of total chaos. I'm hoping this gift is genetic so that I can do the same for our little girl, who will be experiencing her fair share of change in the coming weeks. 

I'm realizing that the magic is in the planning, so I'm carefully creating lists and organizing boxes as I put Ayla's new room together. It has been a fun process, full of lots of Pinterest action and fabric and paint swatches. If it were up to Ayla, her room would be several shades of pink (or black, depending on her mood). While I want to honor her love affair with pink, I also want to make the room a little more balanced. I have long loved the combination of coral and aqua, and have decided to use this duo as the driving color forces in her room. Fortunately, she digs this combo too. In fact, she tells people that the walls of her new room will be "greenish-blue" and that everything else will be "pink!". She's sort-of right.

So far, I've purchased a couple of pieces to guide the room's color palette. I ordered the Pink Crow's Feet rug from Land of Nod. The coral and off-white combination is perfect, and the pattern adds a little modern flair to the more traditional furniture we'll be using in her room. It might be my favorite rug in the world. It should also go nicely with the Taj Pink duvet cover I ordered by Rickshaw Designs (unfortunately this beauty is on backorder and won't arrive until late-July).

Since we'll be moving her glider into the baby's room, I wanted to order some sort of seating for her bedroom so that we'd still have a place to read to her. After debating whether to go with another glider or accent chair, I purchased this settee in Paris Blue from angelo:HOME. This purchase was a little risky, as I have no idea where its color falls on the "aqua" scale (it looks like more of a powder blue), but since I haven't purchased paint yet, I'm thinking it will work with the coral and help guide me in a nice "blue/green" direction for the wall coloring. 

We currently have a bright white bed, night stand, and bookshelf that we'll be moving from her old room to her new room. I'm in the process of bringing a little color to these pieces by adding paint to the back panels for the night stand and bookshelf. And, I plan to replace the hardware on the night stand with something a little more colorful. I just picked up something very similar to this knob at Anthropologie - score! 

I've also been gathering artwork, frames, scraps of fabric, wallflowers, etc. to decorate her room. I can not tell you how strange it is to frame a picture and place it in a box marked "A's Room: Decor" rather than hang it up on the wall. But, this is how I'm rolling.

So, right now the room is a hodge-podge in boxes. It's the strangest experience I've ever had putting a room together, and it's outcome will truly be a surprise; let's hope it's a good one. Giving Ayla her own little space in a world of "new" makes this room feel like the most important one in the house. 

We're moving sometime in the next month. I hate the vague sound of that sentence, but it's the truth. Our whole moving timeline is vague due to the fact that the Curbly House continues to be full of charming surprises that are pushing our move-in date back.

The realization that we'll be having a new baby and moving into a new house only a few weeks apart is enough to induce even the calmest lady. Unfortunately for me, I am a Virgo to the core; way too Type A. This, and the fact that I've found myself in full-on nesting mode, has created a  moving recipe like no other. One that involves a lot of hyperventilating, and "Oh my goodness, if everything isn't clean and organized and neat, we're all gonna die."

To prevent the end of the world, I've found myself reading up on how to make a move go as smoothly as possible. Here are the tips I've found most helpful:

• Go slowly. A room-by-room schedule has been immensely helpful in helping me tackle the whole house and without feeling completely overwhelmed. Knowing I have a few days set aside each week to pack up a room has prevented total moving madness, because I only have so much time to devote to the process.
• Purge. There's no sense in moving a lot of useless items into your new place, so use this as an opportunity to sell and donate items.
• Label, label, label. I have encountered some fantastic printables that are designed to help you organize the contents of every box you pack.

Last week, my official moving schedule commenced, beginning with all of the upstairs closets. I packed up Ayla's closet in a matter of hours, using these Metro Baby Blog labels to organize all of her old baby clothes. If we have another girl, we'll reap the benefits of these beautiful organized bins, and if we have a boy - someone else will!

Once Ayla's closet was complete, I removed all of her books from her bookshelves and placed them in open bins to allow her access to them. We plan to keep a small collection of library books on her night stand for the next few weeks, but have found it extremely useful to give her access to the bins containing her favorites.

The final step to packing up Ayla's room was boxing up all of her room decor, new and old, in a labeled bin stored in her closet.

Next, I moved on to my closet, which was an embarrassingly large project. I hold onto everything, regardless of size or fashion trend, because you never know when peasant skirts will come back into style, and it's sure nice to have them in a variety of sizes. I actually surprised myself by purging like a pro during this project. I bagged up several bags of clothing and shoes and drove them right to the Epilepsy Foundation, which happens to have a donation hub just a few miles away from our house.

Once I settled on the clothing I wanted to keep, I organized that stuff into bins by season (e.g. summer shirts and dresses) or type (jeans and skirts). I selected a smallish rotation of clothing to keep my dresser, and plan to wear these staples repeatedly over the next month. 

After dealing with the upstairs closets, I moved into the bathroom. This was a relatively easy room to tackle, because most of the toiletries we use are already stored in bins. I did, however, take time to go through all of the over-the-counter medication we had stored in the medicine cabinet and check supply levels and expiration dates. I was able to toss a fair amount of infant Tylenol and expired bug spray, which created more space to store the things we are  actually using. I picked up these cheap, clear bins from Target to store nail polish and medication in an organized way. When we move, we should simply be able to place the bathroom bins into a box and move them without much thought.

This week, I moved  downstairs and began with the living room. I removed all of the artwork from the walls, and took everything off of the shelves. I placed these items in cardboard boxes (this was the first time I used cardboard to store our goodies). Using these simple labels from The Project Girl (I printed them out of full-sheet labels that I picked up from our local office supply store), I packed everything neatly into boxes and employed a nice little color-coding system (e.g. orange=living room, red=master bedroom, etc.) using small colored labels. 

I love the simplicity of The Project Girl's labels, and plan to use them, along with the color-coding system to pack up the rest of the house. I have a lot of work ahead, but the process feels surprisingly manageable so far. Now, all I need is the stars to align, the baby to incubate for a few more weeks, and for the packing to continue to move along without too much ado. 

Do you have any moving tips? If so, I'd love to hear them in the comments section. 

This is a post in the Curbly House series! Follow along as we document every step of our complete home makeover, from gutting the walls to putting up the finishing touches. And don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments! 

We're in the middle of a huge remodeling project to create what promises to be our dream house. Last week, drywall started going up and I stopped having contractions, because for the first time in months, the house began looking like a house again. Read on to see how I'm gathering color inspiration for what promises to be a huge paint job.

The sight of fresh sheetrock immediately sent my brain into a dreamland filled with paint swatches and color schemes. I've mentioned before that I actually like the process of painting a room, but loathe the process of choosing colors. Luckily, Sherwin-Williams came to my rescue again with a new tool they call ChipIt! Basically, it's a tool that allows you to create paint palettes based on color schemes you like in photos, rooms, artwork, etc. Drag the ChipIt! button to your browser's toolbar to try it out yourself:

I wanted to keep the scope of my initial paint palettes small-ish, so I focused soley on the upstairs of our home. Specifically, our daughter Ayla's bedroom (read about the inspiration for her room here), the nursery, bathroom, master bedroom, and play room.

I chose an image from each board, and used the ChipIt! tool to generate a color palette. I opted to intall the ChipIt! tool in my toolbar so that it would be easy to access (the other option is to insert an image's URL on the ChipIt! site). I then created a Chip Book to hold all of my chip cards. From there, I uploaded everything to a Pinterest board so that I can continue to add little details to each board based on the chip cards I was given. 

Ayla's Room

This fabric from Spoonflower was the reason I wanted to go with a coral/aqua or pink/blue color scheme for Ayla's new bedroom. It's the cheeriest print in the universe. Based on the swatch, ChipIt! gave me these color ideas:

Play Room

Our new house has four bedrooms, which is a real treat. We'll be using the fourth bedroom as a toy storage hub, errr ... play room for all the kid stuff that's currently cluttering our house. I want to keep the wall color simple in the room, but love the thought of using wallpaper on one wall. This "Lovebirds" wallpaper by Aimee Wilder might just be the ticket. Based on the ChipIt! results, I think it will be fun to paint some of the furniture we'll be using in the room in the orange, gray, and ivory ChipIt! drew from the birds.

Master Bedroom

We won't be creating the master bedroom until we do our addition this fall (fingers crossed, we hope it will be this fall). But, we know we'd like to keep the room's colors soft and subtle to give it an open, airy feeling. The room will overlook our backyard, which is full of old trees, so it's important for the bedroom to have an organic feeling that keeps the space feeling natural. This image from Art.com captures the feeling we'll be going for with our new sleeping quarters:

Nursery

This wedding centerpiece from Ruffled inspired the colors in our initial nursery (read about that makeover here), and I love the color scheme so much that I want to bring it with us to the new house. Only this time, I plan to add polka-dots to the wall! Here's the color palette ChipIt! generated based on the photo:

Bathroom

In addition to thinking about paint colors for the upstairs bathroom, we're also in the process of choosing fixtures, a vanity, tiles, etc. This image from West Elm incorporates the colors and style we're considering, and ChipIt! gave us some great suggestions based on the image:

Our next step will be to get some paint swatches and samples, and begin putting some of these colors up on the walls to see how they work with each room. Stay tuned as our painting adventure begins!

Read all the posts in the Curbly House series! Follow along as we document every step of our complete home makeover, from gutting the walls to putting up the finishing touches. And don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments!

What's in a wall? If you've been following our Curbly House series, you know what was in our walls; squirrel nests, dead things, and lots of hundred-year-old newspaper. But what makes a wall more than just a bunch of lumber and drywall?

This week, I'm exploring ways to breathe life into our walls by adding hand-picked artwork. With the help of Art.com, we've got an amazing, expansive collection of artwork available. Read on to see how I'm plotting to decorate the walls at chez Curbly House (hint: no squirrels allowed).
Ok, before I start, you should check out this quick video from Art.com; it's a pretty sweet 3-dimensionalization (word? non-word?) of some famous pieces of art, and it's worth a watch:



Now, if you look at our 'before' pictures, it's easy to see that the house had a heaviness about it; many of the walls were painted darker accent colors, and the woodwork was all stained a dark brown. See what I mean?



We've decided to go with a neutral color palette inside the Curbly House to help brighten up the place. Now that everything is sheetrocked and mudded, the house looks a lot brighter and feels a lot happier (even while standing in the inch thick plaster dust that covers most of the floors).



Bringing color and light into this house was a priority to us from the get-go. However, both Bruno and I want to be sure not to overdo the "brightness" and make the place feel clinical. So, we're experimenting with paint colors and planning to add a lot of pattern and color to the walls through art!

I've been gleefully paging through several art collections on Art.com, like an overjoyed visitor at the Louvre. I spent most of my time perusing the Abstract, Vintage, Modern, and Botanical galleries.

Here are some of the ideas I'm tossing around for the stairwell gallery wall, the master bedroom centerpieces, and the sweet prints I want to frame in our kids' playroom.  

Stairwell Gallery

1. Taupe III by Denise Duplock
2. Terracotta Spots by Denise Duplock
3. Travel Abroad III by Jarman Fagalde
4. Vintage Map of Paris by Ladyleia
5. Tour by Bicycle II by Chariklia Zarris
6. Diversion I Limited Edition by Chariklia Zarris

Master Bedroom



7. Duo Stem by James Burghardt
8. Pomponette (sky) by Denise Duplock
9. Dancing Flowers III Mary Calkins

Play Room

10. Green Zebra by Avalisa
11. Heart Balloon Girl by Unknown
12. Newspaper Kids by Peter Gebhardt

For a look at more of the pieces I'm smitten with, take a look at my Pinterest board (hey, you can even follow me while you're there!).

 

This post was sponsored by Art.com, but all opinions are my own.

There's something exquisite about spools of ribbon. They are the final touch on gifts, the last detail at the end of Pippi Longstocking's braids, and the very magic of a may pole. When the people at Midori Ribbon got in touch with us about doing a series of DIY ribbon projects, I jumped. And, when we looked at their web site and the lovely of these ribbons, I jumped a little higher. Read on for the first in a series of step-by-step tutorials.

After browsing through Midori Ribbon's extraordinary selection of ribbons, I selected several spools to embellish some lampshades, create a pendant lamp, and a pillow. These projects were pure joy. Today's project, a ruffled lampshade.

How to Make a Ruffled Ribbon Lampshade:

I knew I wanted to add a little something special to the plain, green lamp we had in our nursery. Our nursery colors are primarily gray and yellow, with little pops of accent colors here and there. Since the base of the lamp was already a nice green, I wanted to used an understated ribbon to embellish the shade. This cotton twill (color: stone) ribbon was the perfect embellishment. I opted to give a little texture to the shade by creating a ruffled effect with the ribbon. Below are the details.

Supplies:

• 9 yards of Cotton Twill ribbon (color: stone)
• lampshade (9" H x 11" W)
  
• chopstick
• hot glue gun and sticks
• ruler
• pencil

How To:

• Step 1: Using a ruler and pencil, create a faint line that will guide your ribbon down the lampshade. Make tick marks every 1 1/2 cm. to use as your glue guide marks.
• Step 2: Beginning at the top of the lampshade, secure the end of the ribbon to the top of the shade with a dab of hot glue. I left enough extra ribbon to allow it to reach around the top edge of the lampshade's frame.

• Step 3: Placing a chopstick between the top of the lampshade and the first mark, pull the ribbon taught over the chopstick to create a ruffle.
• Step 4: Use your hot glue gun to place a dab of glue on the first tick mark. 

• Step 5: Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you reach the bottom of the lampshade.
• Step 6: Once you reach the bottom of the frame, secure the ribbon's end with another dab of hot glue (again, I left enough ribbon to wrap it around the bottom of the lampshade's frame).

Check back tomorrow for another cool DIY project using ribbon to add color and texture to an everyday item! And don't forget to follow me on Pinterest (my ribbon board is here).




Thanks to Midori Ribbon for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.

This week I'm excited to be sharing a series of DIY projects involving the beautiful color, texture, and flowing shapes of ribbon. I'm thrilled that the folks at Midori Ribbon offered to work with me to let me explore some creative ways to use their gorgeous products. Read on to find out how to make this diamond ribbon lampshade!

For this lampshade, I wanted to create something with clean lines, and a classic pattern. The diamond pattern I chose loosely mimicked the lines of this rug that will be a focus in our daughter Ayla's new bedroom. The soft detail of the lines on the peony-colored ribbon was another subtle complement to the rug. This ribbon is truly stunning, and the herringbone pattern really pops off of the bright white shade. Here are the details of this shade:

Supplies:

• 10 yards of Cotton Herringbone ribbon (color: peony)
• lampshade (8" H x 9" W)
• chopstick
• hot glue gun and sticks
• tape measure
• pencil

How To:

• Step 1: Select a lampshade that has a cylindrical shape (the top and bottom circumference of the shade should be the same). The one I used had a circumference of 27 inches.
• Step 2: Decide how far apart you want to space your diamonds. I chose to place the ribbon 3 inches apart.
• Step 3: Using a pencil and tape measure, make tick marks around the top and bottom of your shade, starting and ending at the same point. I had a total of 9 tick marks.

• Step 4: Lay a strip of ribbon diagonally across your lampshade. Starting with a tick mark on the top of the shade, move your ribbon one tick mark ahead on the bottom portion of the shade. This staggering will create several diagonal lines.
• Step 5: Secure these initial pieces of ribbon in place with a pin.

• Step 6: Attach the ends of the ribbon to the edges of the lampshade with hot glue. I left myself a little extra ribbon at ach end so that I could wrap it around the wire rim of the shade for a cleaner finish (I used a chopstick for this part to avoid scorched fingertips!).
• Step 7: Starting at the top of the shade, place a strip of ribbon on top of one of your initial pieces, pin in place, and line it up diagonally with the ribbon the next slot over at the shade's base.

• Step 8: Repeat step 6.

Check back tomorrow for another cool DIY project using ribbon to add color and texture to an everyday item! And don't forget to follow me on Pinterest (my ribbon board is here).



Thanks to Midori Ribbon for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.

All this week I'm doing a series of DIY projects with colorful ribbon. Today I'm sharing an easy DIY I made for my daughter's closet. Read on to find out how to make this fun, colorful pendant lamp!
The lights in all our closets consist of bare exposed bulbs, with nothing more; they're plain-jane. I wanted to create something with a touch of whimsy for Ayla's closet, because even at 3-years-old, she spends quite a bit of time in there, changing clothes, planning outfits, and reading. Using a wreath frame, spray paint, and several lovely ribbons from Midori Ribbon, I created a mini chandelier that has been the perfect addition to Ayla's closet. Here are the details:

Supplies:

• Several strips of ribbon. I used the following ribbon from Midori:
  - Gala Dupioni (color: sea) *This silk dupioni ribbon is stunning beyond   belief!
  - Gala Dupioni (color: gerbera)
  - French Double-Faced Satin (colors: peony, maize, aquamarine, neptune)
  - Organdy (colors: watermelon and robin's egg blue)
  - Luster (color: lily) 
• wire wreath frame
• chopstick
• hot glue gun and sticks
• wood burner or soldering iron (optional)
• ruler
• rotary cutter and mat or scissors (I preferred the rotary cutter and mat over scissors, because cutting multiple strands of ribbon was a breeze) 

How To:

• Step 1 (Optional): Spray paint your wreath frame. My frame was forest green, so I painted it white.

• Step 2: Select and cut ribbon for each tier of the wreath frame (my frame had three tiers). You have a lot of creative freedom here ... your ribbon can be placed in patterns or randomly, and you can do varying lengths and cuts at the end of the ribbon, or keep the lengths standard for a more tailored look. To keep everything looking clean, I opted for a more tailored look and went with a separate pattern for each tier, and a diagonal cut at the base of each ribbon.
• Step 3: Using a wood cutting detailer, I went over the end of each piece of ribbon to keep it from unraveling. Note: This will not work with silk or organdy ribbon.

• Step 3: Attach ribbon to wreath frame with hot glue. Again, I used a chopstick to help prevent burned fingertips. For this chandelier, I attached the Silk Dupioni ribbon on the inner-most tier. On the middle tier, I used the Double-Face Satin, and on the outer-most tier, I used the Organdy and Luster ribbons.

• Step 4: Using string and ceiling hooks (I used these) attach the chandelier around the light bulb.

Check back tomorrow for another cool DIY project using ribbon to add color and texture to an everyday item! And don't forget to follow me on Pinterest (my ribbon board is here).

Thanks to Midori Ribbon for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.

This week I'm sharing a series of DIY projects using ribbon from the nice folks at Midori Ribbon. You can check out the first three projects here. A today, I'm embellishing a chevron pillow cover with beautiful pink ribbon! When I saw Midori's Silk Dupioni ribbon, I knew it would make beautiful rosettes. The ribbon itself has a lot of texture and movement, and it was easy to work into a rosette. I plan to use the pillow as an accent pillow in my daughter Ayla's bedroom, as the colors and feel of the pillow pair well with the color palette of her bedroom. Below are the supplies I used and the steps I followed: 

Supplies:

• One yard of Bossa Nova Dupioni Silk ribbon
• fabric (I used this chevron-print fabric)
• pillow insert
• ruler
• needle and thread

How To:

• Step 1: Create a pillow cover using the fabric of your choice. I followed this tutorial from Sparkle Power!

• Step 2: Using a needle and thread, and approximately 12 inches of ribbon, create ribbon rosettes by doing the following:
  - Using your needle and thread, create stitches about a 1/4 of an inch about the base of your ribbon.

- Cinch ribbon together, keeping the needle threaded. Roll the ribbon inward to create a rosette shape. Once the rosette is in place, use your needle and thread to hold it together. 

• Attach rosette to pillow cover using a needle and thread.
• Repeat the above steps to create as many rosettes as you like. 
• Step 3: Insert pillow form into cover.

Check back tomorrow for another cool DIY project using ribbon to add color and texture to an everyday item! And don't forget to follow me on Pinterest (my ribbon board is here).

Thanks to Midori Ribbon for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.

In my first post about choosing colors for the Curbly House, I found all kinds of beautiful color inspiration using the Sherwin-Williams' Chip It! tool. This little button led me to some great color combos and palettes, and helped me select wall and trim colors for nearly every room in the house! But the ChipIt! tool also helped us think about how to bring accent colors into each room through paint and decor. Read on to find out what I'm thinking, and to give me your feedback!

We're eager to revive a few old pieces of furniture with brighter paint colors. These are colors that I thought would be too bold for the walls, but still could add a great pop of personality to a room. I'm also thinking up ways to add color blocking accents to a few walls and rooms.

Here are some color choices I made and a few examples of how they can bring in additional color to a room. You can see all my Chip It! inspiration cards on my Pinterest board (and don't forget to follow me while you're there!)

NOTE: All the photos in this post are cropped pretty close, because we're saving the big room reveals for later in our Curbly House series. 

Ayla's Room Chip It! Inspiration

How We Used It:

We chose Rainwashed (SW6211) for Ayla's wall color, and then brought in the color Lotus Flower (SW6310) to incorporate the pink from our fabric swatch. We applied the Lotus Flower color to the back panels of her bookshelf and night stand, and also plan to paint the walls surrounding her window nook in this same pink. We'll break up this bit of pink around her window with white curtains and these flower wall magnets.

As a reminder, here's our Chip It! card (we strayed a bit from the exact color recommendations, but found the suggestions really helpful as starting points):






Upstairs Bathroom Chip It! Inspiration

How We Used It:

We fell in love with Quietude (SW6212) for the wall color because it worked so nicely with the gorgeous white glass tiles we chose for the shower and floor (they're the Lush 1x2 Cloud from ModWalls.com). This color also looked great with the wood tone in our vanity. We wanted to bring a little extra color into the room to give it a more organic feel, but were careful not too do anything too dramatic because this room is tiny. The Chip It! tool reminded us that greens would be a nice accent color and give the room a more organic feel, so we purchased some succulents and added a little extra color by painting terra cotta planters Offbeat Green (SW6706).

Here's the original Chip It! card:





(By the way, I spray-painted these by putting my normal Sherwin Williams latex paint in a hand-held, aerosol-powered sprayer like this one)



(Those tiles you can barely see in the background are from ModWalls.com, we'll be talking more about how much we love them later).

So, these two simple projects (painting the shelving in Ayla's room and coating a few terra cotta planters) added wonderful pops of bold color. We're thrilled with the results!

How about you? What's your favorite way to add color without overwhelming the walls? If you've tried the Chip It! tool, did you find any exciting combinations that really made your room? Let me know in the comments.



This is a post in the Curbly House series! Follow along as we document every step of our complete home makeover, from gutting the walls to putting up the finishing touches. And don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments! 

Last month I explored ways to add color and pattern to the Curbly House (check here if you missed it). But sometimes color and pattern aren't enough; art should also have meaning. You want to look at your walls and see a story in every picture. So today, I'm going to show you some tricks I've used to help inspire my search for art that's beautiful and personally significant. Read on to see what I mean (get it?)

The three themes I'm working with in today's inspiration boards are: 

• Literature and poetry
• Travel
• Music and films

I think it's really helpful to choose some themes that you can find meaning and personal or family connection with. This will help guide your art search. For each of these categories, I browsed the huge collection of photography, fine art, and prints at Art.com, looking for pieces that resonated with my experience. 

Here's a rundown of the first six:

1. Mango Tango by Shirly Novak (inspired by House on Mango Street, one of my all-time favorite books)

2. Italy Print (a simple railway-inspired sign ... we spent part of our honeymoon in Italy)

3. Nabokov's Lolita Research Cards by Carl Mydans (Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is one of Bruno's favorites)

4. Tango Argentina by Misha Lenn (Bruno's family is from Buenos Aires, and we've travelled there a bunch. This reminds us of our attempted-tango-dances at underground milongas)

5. Garcia Lorca Illustration of One of His Poems (one of Bruno's favorite authors)

6. Portofino by Ginette Callaway (this was one of our favorite stops on our honeymoon. If you've been there, you know why. Take a second to visit SaveVernazza.com to learn about the devastating floods that nearly destroyed the city, and how you can help.)

And, without too much ado, the next six:

7. Selection of Beethoven's Hearing Aids (a great reminder of what you can achieve despite adversity)

8. Proofing Copy of A Page from 'Et Moi Aussi Je Suis Peintre' by Guillaume Apollinaire (I'm a huge fan of concrete poetry)

9. Snow at Montmartre by Hippolyte Camille Delpy (in my favorite movie, Amelie, the final action takes place at this Paris landmark ... we sat on the steps and ate crêpe on our honeymoon)

10. City Hotel Buenos Aires (another one inspired by Bruno's family heritage ... and I love the bold graphic style.)

11. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969 (Another of Bruno's favorite films. We arm-wrestled over this one for a while, and he one. Not my favorite, but he loves it. What do you think?)

12. Yeah! Yeah! U.S.A! (I grew up wishing I'd been a child of the 60s and idolizing the Beatles. This newspaper reprint captures that feeling for me).

Whew! If you want even more ideas for art inspiration, check out my Pinterest board (and follow me while you're at it). 

What are you favorite ways to find inspiration for meaningful works of art? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks to Art.com for sponsoring this post! They just redesigned their Web site to make it even easier to find images that inspire you. Please keep in mind that all the opinions here are mine alone. 

Note: This project is a reader submission from Rick in St. Paul, MN. We loved his colorful wrought-iron patio furniture makeover, and wanted to share it with you. Have a project you'd like us to share? Send us an e-mail to tips@curbly.com.

“Would you like our old patio furniture?”

That's the question my uncle asked me earlier this summer. It was a bit of a loaded question, especially when he told me that he was going to throw it away if we didn't want it. Hmm... if he was tossing it, why would I want it?

But once we looked at it, my wife and I loved the design and knew with some new paint, it would look great in our back yard. These wrought iron pieces used to be my grandparent's. We loved the history of the furniture and were excited to give it new life in the family.

There was a table with four chairs, two lounging chairs with foot rests, one springy chair and a small table. We decided to use two different Krylon spray-paint products: a rust protector paint for the table and chairs (always a good idea for outdoor furniture), and the Krylon Dual paint on the other chairs and small table.

There were a lot of great colors to choose from and as you can see from the pictures, the green color that we received was in tough shape. My wife decided on the Gloss Burgundy for the table and chairs because it went well with the cushions that we already had.

Then, for the other three chairs, we wanted some bright colors for our lawn. We have two young daughters and we allowed them to each pick one color for a chair. My oldest daughter (9) chose Mandarin and my younger daughter (7) chose Watermelon. Then we decided on Banner Red for the final chair and True Blue for the table.

The first step was to take a wire brush and get off all of the loose paint. This was a job for the whole family. Krylon also suggests using sandpaper, which was helpful for the small decorative details. Once all of the loose stuff was off, some sandpaper made all of the paint edges smooth. It took a couple of hours to do all the pieces. We kept the furniture over a tarp, which made the cleanup a snap.

Once the pieces were ready, we placed them over a piece of painters' plastic and started spraying. As a typical DIYer, I thought I knew best about how to apply the paint. I read the directions about applying thin even coats. They suggested even passes over the furniture with some overlap.

Of course, I put way too much paint on for the first chair (Watermelon). That meant I got some color streaks, uneven coverage and ran out of paint before totally covering the chair.

So, on the second chair, mandarin, I did exactly as the instructions suggested. It took three coats, but I had more than enough paint and got a nice even finish. I applied each coat after about 15 minutes, starting each pass off of the furniture and applying a light, even coat across the piece.

Once it dried, I turned the furniture over and did the other side. I took turns rotating between pieces and colors so that I didn't have any real wait time between coats. This worked great! I worked in the sun, and this made it a little difficult to see all of small spots I might have missed. Once the clouds showed up, it was much easier to see where I missed. I left them on the tarp for about an hour before I put them back in the yard. They were a little tacky, but after a few hours, they were ready.

We ate on the big table that night, having finished painting around 1 o'clock in the afternoon!

My whole process took about four hours from start to finish. Not bad for a heat of metal that was on the verge of being scrapped! Now we have some great looking, comfortable chairs that are really fun for our back yard. It was a great excuse to buy some new outdoor dining accessories. The color and the history of the chairs are a great conversation piece, and we spend a lot of time on our “new” furniture!

Halloween is just around the corner, and we've found some great free printables that will add some festive "orange and black" to your house. 

1. Eat, Drink and Be Scary via Craftily Ever After:

Print this out and place in a black frame, and BAM! (or BOO!) You've got yourself a festive mantel.

2. Halloween Countdown from Kiki and Company, via eighteen25:

It's not too late to start an official "Countdown to Halloween" at your house. This paper house would be great to assemble as a family. Each window and door reveal a Halloween/fall related activity to do together.

3. "Trick or Treat" Halloween Banner via Poofy Cheeks:

Hang this bunting from the front door to welcome trick-or-treaters.

4. Printable Labels via MyImaJENNation:

Planning a Halloween party? Use these labels to make your edibles appropriately disgusting.

5. Halloween Spell Book Cover via Chickabug:

Take an old book and print out this book cover of "spells, potions, and everything magical". It's the perfect addition to your coffee table library.

Happy printing! 

Thanksgiving means turkey, cranberries, guests, and extra seats at the table. As we prepare for the holiday, we decided to purchase a set of folding chairs to create additional seating for our guests. The chairs are super sturdy and comfortable, but they're not the most stylish kids on the block, so we decided to spiff them up using rivets, a staple gun, and some extra fabric we had lying around the house. Check out the tutorial below!

Tools and Materials:

•  Metal folding chairs with cushions
•  Fabric, preferably something thick
•  Staple gun
•  Rivet gun
•  Rivets

Our chairs' vinyl covered seats were attached to the metal base with rivets. This ended up being a great feature because our finished chair had no screws to poke your heiny.

1. Remove each chair's pad from the metal base. We removed the rivets from our chairs by using a hammer and a glazer bar (a pry bar or chisel will do too). We ran out and purchased a rivet gun and a set of rivets for less than $25. To get the other half of the rivet out from under the chairs' cushions, we simply removed the staples from the corners of the chair and peeled back the vinyl just enough to fish out the rivet remains. 

2. When we first ordered the chairs, we were planning on spray painting them. However, once they arrived, we liked the slate color and decided to skip this step. However, there are some great tutorials that show major transformations using paint. Check out this one from Design for Mankind for some inspiration!

3. Select a fabric to cover the chairs' seats. A heavier fabric will serve you best. We had several yards of a cotton-canvas grey and white chevron on hand (it's a medium weight fabric that's perfect for upholstery).

4. Attach the fabric to the cushion using a staple gun. If you're using a patterned fabric like we did, be sure the fabric is correctly aligned before covering the cushion. We attached the fabric right over the existing vinyl cushions, then cut away any fabric that blocked the rivet holes. When recovering a chair, it's best to save the corners for last.

5. Once the cushions were recovered, we treated them with a round of Scotch Guard to protect them from stains and make cleaning them a little easier.

6. Using rivets, reattach the cushions to the base of your chair. We simply fed the rivet in through the original holes and used the rivet gun to fasten it in place. It was a breeze!

This simple DIY project added a little more personality to our set of folding chairs. We think our Thanksgiving guests might actually be excited to sit in the "extra seating" during dinner!

We're heading into my very favorite time of year. Cooler temperatures, first snows (always magical), food a'plenty, good cheer, and gifts. Gift giving is my very favorite thing in the world. And, if "gift giver" was a career, I would be the president of the company. 

I think art is one of the best gifts to give and to receive. It's personal and meaningful, and, like a book, it keeps on giving; a constant reminder of a special moment or person.

Below is a collection of art gifts that will fit a few people on your list.

1. For the Romantic: The New Yorker Cover - September 15, 2008 Print by Eric Drooker

The cover of this magazine reminds me of the beginning of any relationship. It's a summer evening, the sky is rose colored, and the weather is perfect for a dress. Love is in the air. 

2. For the Naturalist: Park by Gustav Klimt

If you have a tree-lover in your house, this is perhaps the most stunning tree print in the world. Definitely hug worthy.

3. For the Dog Lover: Shake No. 3 by Becky Kinkead

I love the colors and movement in this piece, and the fact that the doggy shake is a familiar, endearing part of life with Fido.

4. For the Sportsman(woman): Football Play on Chalkboard by Howard Sokol

'Tis the season of football. And, although I may be the only person in the United States not to be a fan, I love this piece. There's something about the chalk dust and all those Xs and Os. I'm rooting for the Os.

5. For the Foodie: Wild Raspberries, c. 1959 (Green) by Andy Warhol

There's a whole world of Andy Warhol food-related prints that go beyond the soup cans. This print is one of a set of dessert prints that remind me of grandma's special lime jello. 

6. For the Mid-Century Fan: Orange Eames Rocking Chair by NaxArt

I believe the true beauty of Charles Eames' designs lie in the simplicity of his lines and colors. This print captures both of those traits, making a beautiful statement.

To see more of my favorite pieces of art - including this one I just gifted to our mantel -  check out my Pinterest board. 

Stocking stuffers are my very favorite thing about the holidays. There's something completely magical about the tiny things. Once again, we've compiled our annual collection of stocking stuffers for everyone on your list. Below is a list of the gems we found this year. We followed three simple rules while putting together this collection:

1. Everything must fit into a stocking.
2. Everything must be under $20.
3. Everything must be wonderful.

The lists are divided into the following categories:

• Ladies
• Gentlemen
• Kids

Ladies

1. Cooperative Geo-Colorblock Checkbook Wallet: This wallet holds it all, and the geometric pattern and bold colors make a statement.

2. Cuddle Cider: She'll use this satchel to steep a cozy cup of spiced cider. 

3. Moroccan Oil Soap: This bar of soap is the most delicious scented thing in the world. And, it'll make her skin oh-so-soft.

4. Clay Ombre Beads Necklace: This necklace features beautiful beads in gradient shades of blue to white.

5. Peach Chevron iPhone Skin: This vinyl decal attaches to her phone and prevents scuffs while adding a little style.

Gentlemen

1. Man Candles: These soy candles were designed by a 15-year-old to rival the traditional flowery candles on the market. With scents like sawdust, campfire, and dirt, they're worth a sniff.

2. Flask Funnel: "Don't Waste a Drop" when transferring your favorite libation from bottle to flask. This funnel will make sure your pour is spill-free.

3. Bacon Floss: Add a little flavor to his flossing routine with this bacon flavored dental floss. 

4. Stanley Classic Stainless Steel Flask: He'll take his drink of choice on the go in this timeless flask. 

5. Sam's Natural Olive + Rosemary Oil Beard Oil: He'll condition his scruff and smell divine with this moisturizing beard oil.

Kids

1. Drumstick Pencils: The days of air drumming are gone, once your kids get their hands on this pencil set.

2. Fingerprinting Art Set: Kids can add all sorts of bells and whistles to their fingerprints using this kit's ink, stamps, and colored pencils. 

3. Salt + Magic Shakers: Salt and Pepper will be applied liberally with these wand-shaped shakers.

4. Tim Burton's Playing Cards: A complete deck of playing cards featuring an array of Tim Burton characters. Anyone for go fish?

5. Color Apeel Crayon Sticks: No sharpening required! Kids can peel away the paper  wrappers to color to their heart's content.

Let us know your favorite stocking stuffers to give and receive in the comments below!

The windows are the best thing about our new house. They are old and many need some repair, but they're full of character and they bathe us in natural light all day long. I can't tell you how many people have told us the place feels like a tree house, with all the natural light. We totally agree.

But after we lived here for a few days, we realized there's one problem with tree house living ... there's no privacy. So after a few nights of inadvertently putting on a show for the neighbors, we realized we desperately needed some window treatments. 

We began looking at blinds, shades, and curtains, and started making lists of the pros and cons. We love the idea of bringing pattern and color into our neutrally-colored walls through curtains. But given the number of windows we have and their size (we have 6 windows in the living room alone), most of our walls would be covered in floor-to-ceiling drapery. Choosing a print, color-scheme, etc. felt overwhelming, so we decided to enter the world of blinds for a more subtle solution.

We got in touch with the good people at Blinds.com, who were tremendously helpful in helping us navigate the paths of blinds, shades, and panels. The only thing we knew going into the process was that we wanted a natural look - stained or white wood or bamboo. And something that would match the character of our home. We also knew we wanted a covering that would provide a barrier between our house and the outside world, especially at night.

The most helpful part of our blinds search was the face-to-face Skype call we did with Ben. He asked a lot of great questions to help us tease out what we were looking for, and we were able to walk him around our house so that he could get a look at at our window trim and help us think about mounting options (our windows are 100 years old, so there's a lot of "character" to deal with). Our chat with Ben helped us realize that we most likely wanted a blind, versus a roman shade for these three reasons:

1. We wanted to be able to control the amount of light the entered our house depending on the time of day. We wanted full coverage at night, partial coverage at sunset when the light pours into the Southwest side of the house, and little coverage throughout the day. If we went the roman shade route, we would need to put fabric liners on them in order to achieve full privacy at night. These liners would ultimately give us less control during the daytime hours.

2. We wanted something that would lie flat when raised. Given the unique mounting of our windows (we only had 3/4 of an inch on which to mount hardware), shades would have bunched at the top when drawn open. Blinds, on the other hand, fold flat, and are tucked neatly away.

3. We needed something that would be easy to clean and sturdy enough to withstand life with two young children. If we went with a roman shade, we knew we wanted something that was a natural fiber, which Ben mentioned is a little harder to clean. We also had visions of baby food (we have a highchair a mere foot from our dining room windows) and other kid-related loot flying through the air and encountering our window treatments.

After our phone call, Ben sent us a package of samples of blinds and shades in a variety of materials and finishes so that we could get a better idea of what would work best for our windows. After much deliberation we settled on the perfect blinds for our windows.  

Check back tomorrow to see our windows! Spoiler alert: we are in love with our new coverings.

While you wait for the reveal, why not enter our giveaway to win one of two $500 Blinds.com gift cards! It's quick and free to enter. Click here to find out how.

And while you're at it, don't forget to follow @blindsdotcom on Pinterest and Facebook!

This post was sponsored by Blinds.com, and they donated product for us to review; however, all opinions are mine alone.

A few months ago we moved into a tree house. Well, not exactly. It's a real house, but it has more windows than a zebra has stripes. We love them (windows, and zebras), but grew tired of accidentally showing off for the neighbors at night. We needed a barrier between our house and the 'hood. Read on to find out what we ended up with ...

To refresh your memory, here are some pictures of our naked windows:

So we started searching for window treatments. You can read more about that search here. After deciding blinds were the way to go and with some consultation with Ben from Blinds.com, we made our choices. We ordered 2" wooden blinds painted in a white finish. 

Ben recommended going with 2"-wide blinds, because our windows are large, and he felt a 1" blind would feel too busy. He was totally right. To mount the 2" blinds on our 3/4 inch trim, we ordered a valance to hide the pulley system. This piece gives the blinds a polished look, and makes them look like they were meant to be on our windows. 

A few weeks later our order was complete and our front porch was filled with boxes o' blinds. Bruno and I have a secret love of good packaging, and as soon as we opened the first box I squealed, because the packaging was perfect. Everything was labeled, organized, wrapped, and easy to navigate. Bruno dove right in and began installing the blinds.

We allowed about 3 hours (about 30 minutes per blind) for the installation process. The first blind was the hardest, and took the full 30 minutes, but the remaining seven blinds were installed within an hour! Woot! 

When the blinds are up, they're so subtle you hardly notice them. In fact, initially, no one did because they fit so perfectly with the character of our house. This is exactly what we hoped for. Instead, people asked when our new windows were installed, which is probably the biggest compliment you can pay to 100-year-old windows. 

We love the blinds for a million reasons, but these three stand out:

1. We can control the amount of light that filters into our house at all points of the day and night.

2. We have total privacy at night.

3. They are easy to clean. 

If your windows are in need of some love, be sure to check out our giveaway. You could win one of two $500 Blinds.com gift cards! It's quick and free to enter. Click here to find out how. Your windows will love their new digs and you will too!

And while you're at it, don't forget to follow @blindsdotcom on Pinterest and Facebook!

This post was sponsored by Blinds.com, and they donated product for us to review; however, all opinions are mine alone.

Our little girl is turning four next week, and we're in full party planning mode. This year's planning is especially interesting since we're living in a house with no kitchen, and in various but consistent states of complete chaos. Nevertheless, it's our four-year-old's birthday, and there will be a rockin' little kids' birthday... in, um, an octogenarian par-tay room.

We're inches away from starting the next phase on the Curbly House: an addition with a new a kitchen. But for now, we're nestled in with a pile of blueprints and a mini prep-projects. Needless to say, our house is neither "kid" nor "party" friendly.

So, we're having the party at a family member's condominium. The median age in the building is 80, but they have a party room...which was last updated sometime in the 80s. It's going to be interesting.

Ayla is currently immersed in a world of magic, full of princesses and fairies. She has only seen three Disney princess movies, but she rattles off the stats of each princess in her collection like a baseball fanatic throws around batting averages. 

We're all about giving her a birthday party centered on her interests, but we are not all about a pre-packaged princess party bundle. After some negotiation (she may be four, but she's got all the makings of a lawyer), we decided to go with Rapunzel.

Thank God for Pinterest. Nearly everything we're creating for the party was found or inspired by something we found on there. Here's a glimpse at what we're planning:

Decor:

• Sun Bunting: This sun bunting is inspired by the sun emblem in the movie. We're making our own using our Silhouette Cameo cutting machine. This machine is the shining star of our party decor, and there's no way we would have embarked on so much DIYing without it. You can order your own personalized bunting for a very reasonable price here. They also have this printable bunting for free!
  
• Braids: I found skeins of yellow yarn on sale and bought every one. We are braiding them to hang from the recessed ceiling. We're also creating a big A.
• Centerpieces: Each table will have a candle holder with a sun emblem. To create this we used vellum and paint markers. When we go married we bought several dozen vases in bulk to line the aisle during our ceremony. These vases were the best purchase ever. They have been used at least a dozen times in the last five years. 
• Backdrop: Floating lanterns are all the rage in the Rapunzel movie, Tangled. Ayla is currently painting her own set of "glowy lanterns" on a huge piece of blue canvas we picked up at the fabric store.

Food:

• Boats: We're creating these jello boats using blue jello and orange slices. We're making our mini flags using the Silhouette.
  
• Pub Food: The main food scene from the movie takes place in a pub. So, we're running with that theme and doing a build-your-own-sandwich station. We'll also have root beer on tap.
• Sun Bread: Since the sunshine is a recurring symbol in our Rapunzel theme, Ayla's amazing nana is making sun-shaped bread for the party.

Games & Entertainment: 

• Pin the Frying Pan on Flynn Rider: This game is a take on pin-the-tale-on-the donkey. We drew a poster of Flynn's face and printed out these frying pans.
• Limbo: We're placing a braid on an old broomstick for our dance party and limbo.
• Photo Booth: We're using Bruno's photobooth for our DIY photo booth. We ordered this backdrop for some sparkle, and are making some accessories attached to sticks for the guests to use in the photos.
• Face Painter: We hired a local face painter to come and work her face painting magic during the party.

For more Rapunzel party love, visit my Pinterest board. Check back next week for photos and a look at how it all turned out!

Thank you to Silhouette America for providing one Silhouette Cameo for review. I was not compensated for editorial coverage, and all opinions are mine alone. 

Last week, I wrote about some of our inspiration and preparation for our daughter's Rapunzel-themed birthday party. To recap, we wanted to give our four-year-old the party of her dreams without purchasing everything from a princess party pack. So, we enlisted the help of Pinterest and our Silhouette Cameo cutting machine and made it magical. Read on to see what we did.

We created sun buntings using our Silhouette, and purchased piles and piles of purple and yellow card stock to making buntings galore. Seriously. I think there were at least a dozen 10-foot buntings. 

I'll admit right here that without the Silhouette Cameo our decorations would have been muy minimal because the amount of precise cutting required to make these buntings would have been impossible. The machines software is easy to download, and the program is really easy to work with. For example, re-sizing objects, printing text, creating different geometric shapes is all easy-peasy, and the machine makes quick work of the designs you create. I think it's fair to say the Silhouette was the shining star of the party.

One of the best activities we had at the party was a photo booth complete with props. We found some great photobooth prop printables from Oh Happy Day and printed them on heavyweight card stock. We then programmed the Silhouette to cut out the props so that we didn't have to! We hot glued the paper accessories to sticks and were good to go.  

In addition to all of the paper decorations, we created candle holders, and yarn braids to mimic Rapunzel's golden hair. The party's theme was clear, but it wasn't conventional, which was exactly what we hoped for. And, most importantly, it was a huge hit with Ayla. When we asked her about her favorite part of the party, she said, "I loved all the decorations." Success.

Here are a few more images of all the decorations. Most of them were taken in our house the day before the party. I played around with a few arrangements so that we would have an idea of how to set things up once we arrived to the party room. We actually took very few pictures at the party because we were busy celebrating!

Thank you to Silhouette America for providing one Silhouette Cameo for review. I was not compensated for editorial coverage, and all opinions are mine alone. 

Last week I went to my first Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. For those of you who've never heard of it, it's basically a 3-day love-fest for bloggers. It's a conference where on-line personalities from all walks of creativity - interior designers, food lovers, photographers, writers, and fashionistas - gather to chat and play. It's like living three days in an on-line world; in a really good way. In addition to spending some quality time with some fellow Curbliers, I met some amazing people. Below is a roundup of sorts of some of the people whose creativity and advice blew me away. (Oh, and there was even a movie star involved!). Read on for all the details...

• Jenny Komenda from Little Green Notebook: Jenny was part of a panel that talked about building relationships with sponsors. She was brilliant and real. Her blog is amazing and when I met her later at the conference, she was sweet as honey.
• Melanie Burk from Fifth & Hazel: I met Melanie at lunch the first day of the conference. Her business cards were my very favorite (and that's a compliment, because business cards are like Valentines at Alt). Her website is brilliant, and it's full of printables that will make you run out and buy more ink for your printer. She also has a digital download shop called Caravan that you must visit.
• Emily Henderson from Style by Emily Henderson: I met Emily at the Clue themed party and went to her session on the future of blogging. She's equal parts adorable and hysterical, and her website is full of gems.
• Ashley from Sugar & Cloth: I met Ashley at the Whimseybox* dinner on Wednesday night, and her business cards were the most magical. Her site has recipes that make me want to cook and gorgeous DIY projects.
  * If you've never heard of Whimseybox, please check them out. They're all about "doing" and embody the whole "makers gotta make" mentality. 
• Jessica Alba from the Valentine's Day and Honest Company. Yes, you read that correctly. I did a mini interview with Jessica Alba and learned that she is a DIYer. She told me that she loves to find vintage treasures at flea markets and incorporate them in her home decor. All of the light fixtures in her house are vintage finds, and she recently added new life to some old picture frames, painting them hot pink for her daughter Honor's bedroom reading nook. 
  

I know that you'll love the above-mentioned blogs because they are all full of treasures and inspiration. 

And, if you are a beginning blogger or a pro, consider attending Alt (they have a San Francisco conference in May and a New York one in June). It's a great place to meet great people and get inspired!