Lois's Room

Here are some pictures of Lois's room. (Sorry they're a little dark. This room doesn't get much light.) I've been meaning to post a few more pictures of her room for what seems like forever. I can't believe she's already 3 months old! I love her room and thought I better take a few pictures before she grows out of it. Before I know it she'll be a teenager and want to paint her walls black or something. I wonder what my nursery looked like.  I'll have to ask my mom.  I wonder if it looked anything like one of these retro rooms?  For Lois' room, though, it's all white with splashes of bright colors. I'm not crazy about pastel colors, which is why I avoided the usual pale baby colors for her room. Above is what you see when you look to the right once you're in the door. We got the daybed (which I love) and cubby style shelf from Ikea. To the right of the bed is a metal side table that I got at The Pickled Hutch and to the left is a green, metal spinning rack that my mom gave me, which now holds all of Lois' old books.

This is what you see when you first look in the room. We got her crib at Ikea, the Gulliver Crib, and the bedding is Tadpoles yellow gingham check from Target. And the heart blanket that I love is draped on the far side of the crib. Both the chifferobe dresser and the metal cart that I use for a changing table came from The Pickled Hutch.

You might remember the clothes above her bed . . . the birdie onesie is from Old Navy, my mom gave me the kitty cat apron and the thrid outfit came from a vintage clothes vendor at the Inman Park festival in Atlanta.

My nephews did the artwork above the daybed, and I bought the three frames for them at Ikea (one red, one yellow, one blue) .

One of the first party hats I made is on her dresser. This one I wore on my 31st birthday.

I love this tea towel I got at Anthropologie--I just use it on the top of her dresser because it's bright and like it so much.

A picture of me and my mom at the Inman Park festival a few years ago in our southern gal hats. (My mom hates this picture!)

The humpty lamp I got for $10 at the flea market.

A bus painting by Mose Tolliver.

My favorite thing in her room might be the curtains that I got at a consignment store called Carla's Clutter, which is now closed.


I use this metal cart for her changing table and have an old white metal basket and yellow wood tool cart to hold her diapers and supplies. I got them all at The Pickled Hutch.

Beside the bed is some mommy / baby reading with Mr. Hedgehog looking over things.

On the bed are a bunch of pillows and stuffies. My sister gave me the little lamb above. And my mom gave me the fun round pillow that's next to it.

My aunt made this ruffle pillow with Amy Butler fabric. She also made me some fantastic curtains with the same fabric--the only reason I don't use them in here is they were made to fit a shorter window.

I got this tulip and birdie pillow at a thrift store.

Inside each cubby in the shelf above the bed are fun knick knacks and books.



I got this fabric pocket wall hanging from Anthropologie. I'm not sure what it was intended for, but I use it for magazines.

One of many vintage books along with ABC blocks on the cute yellow nightstand table I got at Carla's Clutter.

And there you have it! The only things not shown here are two things that acually mean a lot to me--the vintage fabric lion that Alex gave me and an illustration that Michelle gave me. (It's hanging above the lamp next to the daybed. I took a few pictures of it, but none of them came out very good.)

Anthropologie Ornament Sale

Every year I try to build up our ornament collection a little bit and always love the ornaments at Antropologie. I wait to buy a few after Christmas, though, because they're so much cheaper then. We haven't had our own full size Christmas tree yet, mainly because we don't have enough ornaments to fill a tree. Next year I think we'll have enough ornaments. Here are a few of the really cute ornaments that are on sale at Anthropologie. I just bought a handful and can't wait to see them on our tree next year!

Dripping Jewels!

I've been wanting to have my engagement re-set for a long time now into something more antique or unusual looking. My aunt gave me the diamond for my engagement ring. It used to be part of a set of diamond earrings that belonged to my grandma (my dad's mom). My aunt had the diamonds removed and gave one of them to me and one to my sister. They are beautiful cushion cut diamonds, a shape that is not quite oval and not quite square, but somewhere in between. Initially I liked the setting I chose, but it didn't turn out exactly how I pictured. It has channel set diamonds on either side that are not flush against each other, and I don't like the small spaces between the diamonds. The center diamond also stands up high and I'm always crashing it into things. My friend Megan's aunt works for Southern Classic Jewelry and might be able to help me find something for my diamond when we go to Atlanta over Christmas. I checked out their web site and found this beautiful onyx and pearl ring. I love it! (I want to think about it and maybe see it in person, so don't go and buy it!) It's not what I have in mind for my diamond, but I love it. It's so pretty and interesting. I'd almost rather have something like this than a traditional looking diamond engagement ring. But I still want to find a new home for my diamond.

Baby update. . . Lois is great but still keeping my hands full. I'm still in my PJs at 11 and typing this with one hand while tying to jiggle her to sleep with my other arm. She appears to have given up her need for a morning nap the last few days. Alas, she just won't sleep in the mornings lately. She just wants to be held. Takes after her mom!

iomoi Address Labels

The great things at iomoi are no secret, but every year I check out their new address labels, which I love. The only problem is I have a really hard time deciding which labels I like best! I ordered some as gifts a few years ago and everyone loved them. $42 for 120 labels--a pretty good price for a thoughtful, personalized gift. You can also create custom paperweights, coasters and trays and they have really cute e-stationery as well.

Gone Thrifting

Yesterday I went to the thrift store to see if I could find a shelf to go above the daybed in the baby room. I've been looking for a while and haven't found what I want yet. I didn't find one yesterday either so I think I'll just get a cubby style shelf from Ikea. I did find a few other things though! I got these two cute bright yellow tea cups that I'll use in the baby room to hold various little things, or I'll put a little stuffed animal in one of them on her shelf (I have a little bunny that would look adorable in one of those teacups). Then I got these other teacups, acually 6 of them though there are just 4 in the picutre. I really just wanted one to hold Q-tips in our bathroom, but I hated to break up the set, and I could use some more tea cups anyway. I also got a little dark blue plate with painted white flowers to set a candle on and a little pale aqua vase with yellow flowers. I'll think I give that to my sister. The colors are her style.

Then my favorite thing is this heart blanket! I heart it! I can't believe anyone could part with it. I just draped it over a chair so you could see it, but it looks better in person. I'll use it in the baby room as a throw for the daybed. It went straight to the dry cleaners, which will cost more than the blanket, but I have to have it cleaned properly for me to keep it even though it looked really clean and didn't have that thrift store smell. All for $28. Yay, I love thrifting!

Flea Market Outing

Yesterday the flea market was packed with lots of people and lots of fun stuff. It was a good flea market day, and it was beautiful outside as well. These first few pictures are from William Berg's space. He had a lot of really great things, including this cute old rocking horse among other things. A lot of his treasures are straight from France, where he goes on buying trips. He also had a basket filled with beautiful French linens.



And here are the few things I got. Below a painted watering can for $5. I'm making a small (very, very small) sitting area on our fire escape with an old white wrought iron table and a chair. I thought I'd put this on the table with some potted plants.


The baby room needed another lamp and I thought this humpty dumpty would be perfect. My mom has a handful of these wooden kinds of old lamps (I'm not sure if the style has a name). She has an ark with animals, a humpty dumpty, and a clown that I know of, but she may have more. She was planning to ship one to me, but for $10, I figured I'd just get this one and save my mom about that much in shipping.

Then I got this Mary Poppins book for $5 to add to the growing collection of kids books.

It was a fun flea market day. Look at all this stuff!

Flea Market Outing

Yesterday I went to the Alemany Flea Market. I woke up really early--4:30AM--and I just couldn't get back to sleep, so at 5:30 I got out of bed. I've never been to this flea market before 9:00, so I was excited to be there with all the early birds. One thing I think I prefer about going later is the chance of getting a better deal. I'm terrible at asking for a better deal, and rarely do, so I like it when vendors just offer up a better price than what's marked. Toward the end of the day it seems people are willing to come down on their prices a little more. This flea market isn't especially cheap (a very small wood aqua chippy painted side table for $87?), but you can find some really good deals now and then, and it's always fun to look around. I just bought one thing, which is now one of my favorite things ever, an amazing vintage fabric quilt top for $20. I love it! My mom's going to help me finish it and then it will go in the baby room. Here it is along with some other fun things I saw.

There's my quilt top! Mine's the one on the right, with a good bit of yellow in it.

Here it is a little closer. Click on the picture to see it larger--aren't all those little prints great?


Ah, a lovely lady. But do I really need another lady painting? I'd like another one, but she looked a little too melancholy for me today, and I wasn't sure I wanted to pay $65, though I think she was definitely worth it. The frame alone was great.


A huge bird cage! Not quite as big as Lisa's, but still very big and it looked really old.


One vendor that I really like a lot always has boxes of stuff in groupings--box of clocks, box of doll shoes, box of doll heads, box of door knobs, box of cars and trucks, box of vintage books, etc. I love looking through his boxes. He was also the one selling the lady portrait that I liked. And he sells re-purposed little brooms like you see in the first picture at the top of this post.


What a great trunk! I want a trunk for the baby room to serve as storage and a coffee table to go in front of the daybed we're getting ready to buy. The trunk was in Mary Millman's space, whose space always looks like a little antique shop. She does a great job arranging things so that everything looks nice and so you can see everything at once. A little decorated corner of the flea market. We got to talking and learned we both love the south! Ah, the south, where it's hot. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't have minded a little hot. Anyway, Mary is featured this month in the Maine Antiques Digest and can be found at the flea market on Sundays or by appointment if you might be interested in her antiques: sfflea@earthlink.net. She also had a great rug, below.