Ariana's Room Tour

Welcome to Ariana's bedroom in Germany!

About 6 months ago we gave Ariana's room an update with new furniture from our Base Exchange that she can grown into as she becomes a little girl and not a baby or toddler. I'm finally getting around to taking photos and sharing them on the blog. A lot of the details we had in her room since she was a baby and some of them are from when I was a little girl! I'm not sure what you would call this style besides girly. Here we go.

We have an family friend (that's known our family since before I was born) who lives in Texas. She makes quilts and she made us this pretty quilt for Ariana's room. Nothing better than something made from the heart!

Ariana loves to sleep with stuffed animals and whoever is her newest doll or toy from our latest vacation. Currently she has "Berry" the Polar Bear from the Tiergarten Zoo in Austria, "Hole" her blanket bunny she's had since she was born, and her doll from Hungary.

Ariana loves to play dress up so we've had a dress up corner set up for her for the past year or so. Little wooden butterfly hooks are perfect for displaying dresses and cute accessories like her purses. We use a basket to store the shoes, a little jewerly box for the what seems like millions of beaded necklaces and for now just a tote box serves as our catch all for the rest of the dresses, hats, purses, crowns, boas and whatnots.

The doll sitting on her bookshelf is actually a porcelain puppet from Prague.

Her nightstand is too sweet to me. We bought her this ceramic carousel music box for Christmas and she loves playing it every night. She also has a framed picture of all of us from when Richard left for deployment in 2011/2012.

She also keeps some trinkets she's collected. A wooden tulip from Holland, a glass penguin from Czech Republic, mini Eiffel Tower from Paris, and a rock. These are her special things.

This is the other music box she has in her room. I got that as a baby from one of my mom's long time friends. The music is jerky when you play it but Ariana still loves having it in her room and looking at it.

The picture hanging over her chest of drawers is one of my favorites. It's of Alice in Wonderland and we bought it at a cute little boutique shop in Omaha Nebraska when I was pregnant with her and decorating her nursery.

When she was a baby I always put a bow and headband in her hair and made her a hairbow holder one weekend. 

Also just a few of her favorite dolls and bears.

Now that I know I'm having a boy, I can't wait to decorate a little boy's room! I've already started searching for fun finds online to create a cute space for him!

Art Wall

I've been working on our art wall for a few months now and it's finally all come together. I still have a piece or two in mind that may be added later.

I got this print because I loved it so much but didn't know where I was going to put it. I discovered that the colors went great in our living room. We had dark green couches and the walls are a lovely creamy shade. The accent walls are orange - that took some getting used to.

I picked up this drawing from a street artist while we were in Paris. I finally got it back from the custom framing shop. I love it, my husband thinks it's dorky. But he's dorky and I love him, so there.

You may recognized this cloud painting - it's one of my own that I had in my shop. I loved the colors so much with this room that I had to keep it for myself. Sorry if you had your eye on it - prints are still available though.

The mossy letter M was a project I made a few months ago (tutorial link at bottom of page)

And that yellow orange family painting I won in a giveaway!

I love this  picture. I took it of a Metro sign in Paris. The color goes great with the wall and  it's perfect also since our last name starts with a "M". I just threw it in a frame I had around the house.

I made this little mixed media keys piece to represent the 3 other homes we've lived in as a family -- Texas (our first newlywed apartment that was teeny tiny!), England (our first house together, a duplex that was base housing), and Nebraska (where we purchased our first real house, oh I miss it.). I had originally planned on using copies of real keys to those places but realized that I don't have copies to some, so this is what I came up with. I kinda like the skeleton keys better.

And there you have it. Sorry I didn't get a shot with the orange accent wall.

Resource Links:
+Moss letter M shown in this tutorial
+Do What You Love print from The Wheatfield
+Family painting won in Aisle to Aloha giveaway
+Cloud painting from my Etsy Shop (prints available!)

Moss Initial (Quick Tutorial)

I ordered the stuff to make this from Hobby Lobby forever ago, and it was my "me project" for March. 

I can't believe I'm only JUST NOW getting around to posting it! I'm such a slacker sometimes!

Here is a super quick tutorial!

All it takes is a big wooden letter, some fake moss, glue, scissors and ribbon.

I laid my letter out on the back side of the moss and trimmed around it, leaving enough to fold over all the edges.

You are warned, this is a VERY messy project!

Then, just hot glue down your moss all around and glue a ribbon on the back to hang it with.

(Note: I glued 2 separate ribbons on the back, and then made a bow out of another piece of ribbon and glued all of it together.)

Quick and easy!

I'm going to put it on my art wall in the living room. Here's the progress I've made so far.

 I have a few more things in mind to finish up the wall. I can't wait to bring it all together! I'm going to add my print from The Wheatfield and some sentimental pieces and a custom painting hopefully soon!

xo's

Cat

Studio Tour!

Step inside and take a look around my craft room/guest room. 

This is where the magic happens. Haha!! Ok, I had to, cheesy I know!

Anyways, if you're like me, you like seeing other peoples spaces, especially their crafty ones. I thought I would share mine with you.

This flower is my favorite paint palette. I love the colors all melted together.

 Here is my desk. This is where I sew (rarely) and do most of my painting. Sometimes I lay on the floor like a kid.

 

My sewing machine (don't worry I've got a project in mind for you soon!) See my adorable painting my friend Maggie made me! Right next to it is my inspiration notebook. Sometimes I jot down ideas for blogs or paintings or doodle out some designs.

 Pretty threads, they inspired this painting.

These flowers used to be in the kitchen, but when we bought some herbs, I moved them in here.

Mr Frenchy!! My plushie that I used to sell in my shop. This one is mine!

Some paintings and a mirror I thrifted.

 It was an ugly color so I repainted it this fun turquoise. Still need some hardware so I can hang it.

 I store my paintbrushes in recycled glass jars.

And I use a Cambells soup mug for my water cup.

 My chair that I finally brought in here. It used to me my Moms makeup chair when I was little. I think she thrifted it way back when.

Another window. My dress statue, buttons in a jar, and ribbon in a vase.

 This old jar is my absolute fav!

 Don't you just love furniture for free? Someone left this behind. I'm hoping this summer to re-do it but for now it holds my yarn and other materials. Seriously though, tons of yarn.

 Some thrifted hoops that are waiting to be turned into a project I've had in my head for months now but can't find just what I'm looking for.

AND, since you've made it to the end of this post you get a little bonus picture! 

I try to keep it real on my blog, so I'm going to show you the disaster area that was my craft room. 

If you are a neat freak look away now.

Consider yourself warned....

 Somehow (I guess because it's right by the front door) this became the room to dump junk in. If we got a box in the mail we just threw the box in here with all the packing materials. Random stuff from other rooms slowly made their way in here somehow too. It was a huge chore getting it re-orgainzed but I did it and I'm SO PROUD!!

Now, it's so neat and tidy I don't want to go in there and mess it up.

It's bound to happen though!

xo's

Cat

My Granny Square Blanket!! {And Bedroom Tour}

This past weekend, I FINALLY finished the granny square blanket for our bedroom. Yipee for me!! It's ginormous! It almost covers our entire queen size bed! I thought I would share some pictures of the blanket and also give you a tour of our new bedroom in our new house in Germany.

Here I've spread it out on the bed and you can see how big it is. I decided that every couple of years when we move, I'm going to let myself change up the bedroom. A couple new paintings, and new throw and some new pillows for the bed and I've got a whole new look. My mom gave us this beautiful white comforter for an early Christmas present this year so it creates a clean backdrop for easy changes later. Love the bright pops of color!!

All folded up. I'm in love with this blanket, it's so soft and cozy!!

Looking into our bedroom.

The beautiful peacock pillows are from Pillowmio Etsy Shop, and the heart painting is one I did last summer.

The blanket was the color inspiration for our room. See how it pulls it all together.

Our dresser.

Mini paintings I made for us. Our nicknames from high school.
I'm cupcake, he's muffin. We're nerds, we know! :)

The one lonely window in our bedroom, hence the poorly lit photos. I'm sorry haha!

Chest of drawers with our bird painting, another one by me, and my Grandma's old Avon bubble bath bottle and my elephant.

I adore this elephant. I got him for only a few bucks at a grocery store. He was marked down on clearance for their garden decorations at the end of the summer last year. Our family friend Nancy had one in her house and I knew I wanted one for mine too! He's so adorable!

And, so you can see how big the blanket is again, here I am snuggled up in it! Hahaha!

This was truly a labor of love and I'm so happy to be done with it! Now on to my next granny square blanket?!

Have you finished any fun projects lately? What are you working on?

xo's

Cat