Daddy Day Inspiration

After getting into a fight with my sewing machine tonight, I decided to peruse blogland to brighten my mood. Morse (my sewing machine) is winning right now. Maybe he'll be in a better mood to cooperate tomorrow.

Father's Day is 19 days away and always sneaks up on me way too fast. That, combined with my dad being extremely difficult to give a gift to, makes the day before Daddio Day hectic. You can only do so many picture frames, he doesn't wear ties and I'm getting a little too old to finger paint anything for him.

My dad doesn't get out on the greens much, but I thought the idea below would be so great for the golfer dad or even wannabe golfer dad. The post has a free printable and tutorial on assembly! Check it out!

(via Tatertots & Jello guest post by Inspiring Creations)

I also thought this was a really cute idea and extremely customizable, depending on the goodies and movies dad likes. My dad is a movie junkie so this might be the winner.

(via While He Was Napping)

But, of all the things I saw, this just printable won my heart.

(via Homespun with Love)

I love the sayings on here. Hopefully, these offer a little inspiration and I'll share what I end up deciding on for my dad, before June 19th!

Speechless Sundays: The First One

"And on the seventh day, God rested from all the work he had done." 

I'm going to give this a try on el blog-o and start a Speechless Sunday post (only on Sundays of course) where I post a picture (or two!) and not much more.

First try:

I want this. Really bad.

A Picture Is Worth...

... more than everything in the house. Seriously. We are packing up and getting rid of lots of things in my grandparents' house this weekend, as well as probably saving too much. Once we got to the pictures, it was a slow moving, but extremely joyful process. I learned so much about my grandparents/great-grandparents and made connections to stories I had heard growing up by having pictures to look at.

Grandma Shirley, age 24.

Apologies again for the phone camera, not to mention awful glare from taking a picture of a picture. But, isn't my Great Grandpa Syd a stud?! I adore this picture. (He's my Grandma Shirley's dad.)

Probably all time favorite picture, again, my Great-Grandpa Syd. Fish in one hand, pole in the other, cigarette in mouth, plaid jacket, standing next to an old car. This looks straight out of a magazine. (Again, sorry for the glare!)

Soon, [fingers crossed] I will be able to post beautiful digital images of the pictures above (and more) because we have started sending groups of photos to ScanDigital. Were it not for Groupon, I would not have heard of them. You can send in anything - slide, hard copies of photos, scrapbook pages, nearly any way a picture has been preserved since the beginning of photography - and they will clean the photo, scan it using the best technology and then all images are cropped, color corrected, and minor blemish/dust removed if needed. Your final product is a CD/DVD of every image as well as an online gallery of all your photos to share with family and friends. I may sound like a salesperson, but I'm just so excited and relieved to have digital images of all these priceless memories.

If you're interested in doing this, definitely check out their website and/or sign up for Groupon because they offer $100 worth of digital preservation Groupon for only $40. (Each hard copy photograph costs $0.38 for a 300dpi digital copy. This means each $100 Groupon will get you 268 digital images. Other formats of photos cost more.)

A Day Filled With Pretties

We are in the process of packing up my grandparents' house and it is quite an ordeal. I've never been a part of cleaning and going through someone's (or in this case, two people's) lives. There is so much of everything, from little collections to a pantry filled with more than one extra....of everything.

Something I never appreciated (or maybe even noticed) when I was younger, was how pretty everything at my grandparents' house was. My Grandma Shirley loved decorating her home and as we boxed things up, I just loved all the pretties we found around the house.

I love my grandparents' china, given to them by my Grandma Shirley's parents, Syd and Jean. It is Royal Doulton china from Enland. (They were English.) The stemware was given to them by my Papa Don's parents, Pearl and Jacob.

One of the many collections on display in the house that we packed up was of hair receivers. These were used back in the day (Victorian times until about the 1950's) for locks of hair. As hair was combed daily, locks were placed in the receivers and saved to make ratts, which were balls of hair used to make the poofs you see in many Victorian hair-dos. If you would like to know more (and see pictures of these hair-dos), you can read about them here.

My grandmother had 80-90 of these from all over the world. This is just a small glimpse of the variations, keep in mind, taken on a cell phone camera.

My mom and Auntie Les are picking one or two out they like and then us grandkids get to pick out one we like before we sell the rest. I hope I get this one! It's my favorite.

In addition to the hair receivers, my grandmother collected teacups. Here is one of my favorites!

And now, to move along, away from all the pretty breakables to just things that made their house so pretty.

I just think the way she has everything positioned is perfect. It looks so charming. [Apologies for the poor photo quality.]

These are simple additions to the bathroom from Pier 1 (who knows how long ago) that give the bathroom that something extra.

The combination of precious baby dress with the wire heart hanger makes me smile every time I am in this room.

Okay, possibly probably out of place in this post, but I couldn't resist just loving this. Old school. 88 cups!

Despite all the emotions of cleaning out my grandparents' house, it was still quite delightful finding all the pretties from the life they lived.

Indoor Play Tent Tutorial

Sometimes, things you never knew you were looking for, end up smiling and waving hello at the most unexpected moment. I thought I was going to take a break from daydreaming about a future home as mentioned here and here. However, as I normally do when stumbling upon a new blog, I was checking out the About Me section (one of my faves!) and then of course, the Tutorials, or in this case "Tutes" over at Living With Punks.

A couple posts ago, I couldn't get enough of reading nooks. Here is one picture I featured from The Boo and the Boy.

I'm sure you've oogled over these in catalogs such as Pottery Barn Kids. Seems like you could make one if you thought about it hard enough, right? That's what Susan from Living with Punks thought too. She even went so far as to make a tutorial and share it!

How precious is the Minnie Mouse themed tent? My niece loves to hide in the racks at clothing stores and what little kid doesn't love their own little hide out? Susan's tutorial looks great. I am adding this to my potential birthday gifts to make for my niece's 3rd birthday. It's coming up soon, so we shall see!

Sleeping in Midair

After yesterday's post, I became sort of hooked on posting ideas and inspiration for my future dream home on here as a convenient way to share and save ideas. Not getting rid of my little black book filled with inspiration from magazine clippings any time soon, but this is so easy. Plus, after yesterday's ooohhing and ahhing over book nooks, I came across quite a few suspended beds. I had never thought of this. Some of these are just nuts. Check them out.

(via Curbly)

So here's where it starts to get a little nuts. 3 in one room?!?

And the nut-so-ness becomes more so, with double bunk beds!!! They are so cool looking but I just can't help but feel they aren't too safe.

This next picture is precisely why these beds seem unsafe to me. So maybe they're an adults only thing.

(via Coastal Living)

 
I love hammocks. A ton. I love sleeping in them. I don't know why a suspended bed never occurred to me. But, then again, entirely suspended beds are not hammocks. They don't snugly hug you and sway in the breeze. In fact, I can only imagine, you should minimize all sorts of swinging if possible in these hanging beds. Maybe I'm just naive on this subject, but as naive as I may be, I'm a million times more fascinated.

Okay, so this site says that this bed pictured does not sway and is held completely rigid. Still, this one to me looks cool, but then you've got to think, what's the point?

This one's pretty neat. It's marketed as The Floating Bed and although quite spendy, can be used indoor or outdoor. You can simply unhook it from the ceiling to switch, as needed. (I'm going to guess "simply" may be an overstatement.)

(via Floating Bed)

And finally, for the Grand-Daddy of them all, the magnetic floating bed. Ta-da! The bed was designed and created by Dutchman, Janjaap Ruijssenaars. Its development took over six years with the final product being suspended by enough magnets to hold nearly one ton (1,984 pounds!). In order to ensure the bed doesn't float in any given direction, there are four thin cables tethered to the walls. If you're interested in buying one, make your check out for $1.53 million dollars. Not sure if that includes shipping.

(via OhGizmo!)

So, my apologies. Not sure where this turned into a tech/geek blog, but every now and then, it's quite nice to find some inspiration outside your normal functioning realm of operation. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Also, at the end of the Babble article (where all of the un-captioned pictures are from) it says that Lowe's can help you make your own suspended bed. Very interesting...Maybe I can check that out...someday.

Reading Nooks for Every Bookworm

I glue clippings of inspiration for a future home from magazines and such into a little black book. In addition, I have a handful of ideas in my noggin that I need to write down. I've been doing this since high school. I'm such a dreamer.

Today, I stumbled upon too many super awesome reading spots/nooks I never could have dreamed up as a kid. However, I was such a little nerd and loved to read so much, I was never, ever concerned with where I read. (Not that I would have opposed any of the following spaces, of course.) Hopefully some day I will be blessed enough to be able to create a space like one of these for my own kiddos.

Just awesomely adorable, complete with curtains for a supreme sense of privacy.

I love the over-sized pillow complemented by simple lettering above. Are those books hanging from the ceiling? (Sidenote: I find the gnome table on the left holding Batman, hilarious.)

What little kid wouldn't want to hang out in the circus-esque tent? This seems like a doable project to try and make myself!

Precious little benches with a table, lamp and shelves within reach (the first couple rows anyway).

Fairy tale like reading spot, comfortably on a pretty pillow.

A hammock under the sun and by a tree. Too cute!

Waaaaay cool bunk bed with a stellar space below, complete with a bean bag and pillows for curling up with a book.

I just love the functionality of this one: space into the wall, sweet steps to climb to get there and big plus for mom - drawers under every step maximizing storage! Very well thought out.

Making the best out of a small space with pretty colors and wall mural, not to mention easy to reach books where sunlight will surely warm you up.

The tapestry in the back is a little dark for me, but I love the bookshelves on both sides of this built-in couch with plenty of pillows. Plus, this gives another idea of having a pull out trundle bed for guests instead of storage drawers.

Becoming a little bit more grown up, I love the circles and flower theme, mirrors, pinks/oranges/yellows and cool triangular tipped bookcases. Plus storage under the bench! (Wish the picture went around the wall on the right to see the full bench.)

I love the shape of this coral, elevated, over sized cubby space with a disco ball to create a unique feel.

Everyone loves the space under the stairs and opening it up to make it a reading nook is genius!

Probably not super easily done, but just way cool looking! (I'm guessing maybe this was from an ad somewhere before it was posted here.)

And, the ULTIMATE reading nook (or maybe every child's fantasy) an amoire entrance into a play room! How C.S. Lewis!

As cool as some of these spaces are, many of them just aren't realistic to make happen right now. We can all be dreamers but for an easy to accomplish with what you may already have solution to your book nook needs, check out Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick and her tutorial on making a reading nook. It is awesome. As are so many of her other projects for home. See?

The tutorial has all the info you need and how much it cost her (next to nothing!) to make this sweet spot out of a closet!

With books on the mind, I'll leave you with the following photo of what must be a bookworm's heaven.

Summer's A-Comin'

And I can't wait! Oregon has always loved to tease us human folk during months like May with a few beautiful, [gasp!] 70 degree sunshiney days sprinkled amongst the rainy, cloudy drizzle. Today, we got to experience one of these rare days. It made me so excited for the coming months and all the good stuff that comes with warm weather: camping, lemonade, pool time, NW Art & Air Festival, BBQs, sunshine, Oregon State Fair and on and on. I'll stop for now, but sure to share more later.

My sister and I were reminiscing while looking over old photos of summertime tonight. Here are some of our favorites from 2009 camping at Red Fish Lake in Idaho.

Boy, don't we all recall feeling this way when we were younger in life vests? Still hard not to giggle at this though!

This was summer time believe it or not. I really like this picture for some reason.

My sister and niece just make the most precious pictures.

I absolutely love looking at how much my niece has grown! She'll be 3 here in a couple weeks so I'll be sharing about the fiesta soon!

DIY Onesie & Matching Pants with Baby Booties

This an attempt to recreate the lost post that disappeared when Blogger was down last week. Take two!

I made these Itty Bitty Baby Booties for my friend Michelle's new baby, Olivia. She is closing in on 3 months now and keeps becoming more adorable.

Two things led me to create an entire matching baby ensemble using the Woodhaven Hearts fabric from JoAnn's. First, I had so much leftover fabric after making the booties, I probably could have made 5 more pairs, so I wasn't opposed to using a little more. Second, I had to use Heat 'n Bond to make the booties, which was a first for me and I fell in love with it. While I finished the booties, my mind raced with other ideas to use the Heat n' Bond for, such as the simple, DIY onesie pictured below.

I wanted to add a little something more to the onesie, so three little hearts were placed on the bum. The instructions included with Heat 'n Bond are simple and straightforward. Essentially, you iron the Heat 'n Bond on to the backside of the fabric. Then, peel off the backing, which at this point, gives you an iron-on transfer. Place it on whatever you wish (such as the onesie) and iron on to secure. For multiple washings, the instructions suggest sewing around the transfer. The hearts were so simple, I figured if they fell off, I'd just whip up another one to replace it.

I also ended up adding three more little hearts vertically on the bottom, left leg seam of these Carter's ruffled bum brown pants. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the pants for some reason. She has probably outgrown them at this point, which is a good thing being nearly 3 months old and the pants are newborn sized. Maybe I'll snag a picture of just the pants to add later next time I'm over at her house.

But really, if you've never used Heat n' Bond, it's just so simple, you have got to try it. The possibilities are really endless! Plus, I love matching gifts and it is just so easy!