House of Hydrangeas

Well, a lot has been going on over here.  I've been prepping for our gender reveal party (which is a week from this Saturday!) while the man cave and guest rooms in our home have been getting some makeovers. The guest room and nursery are getting crown molding installed (we had it in our room and the dining room but not the three guest rooms for some reason), and the man cave is also getting board and batten where the bamboo used to be.  Bamboo, you say?  Let me remind you of how beautiful this room used to be.  Metallic gold paint up top and sheets of bamboo on the bottom.  Just not for me. I dreamed of a cozy and clean space that would be manly and classic... and a place for Jon to put all of his currently boxed up military memorabilia.  Charcoal Slate paint from Benjamin Moore was just what I envisioned, and the white board and batten that will run along the bottom will add some architecture while keeping the room from being too dark. Here's a pr...

Land of Nod is a great place for finding kid bedding you can mix and match, which is the easiest way to achieve a custom look on a budget.  And what's even better is that right now they are running a promo for an extra 20% off already reduced sale items.  Here's a grouping I chose for a little girl's room. I'm a sucker for mixing patterns and colors.  The polka dot, scalloped edge and floral print work well without competing with each other because the patterns are all a different scale.  While most of the bedding is pink, the blue sham is an unexpected element that creates a nice balance to all of the lighter pink tones.  I would have loved this as a little girl! Twin Scalloped Duvet-$83.95 Scalloped Euro-$19.95 Twin Sheet Set-$54.95 Blue Sham-$19.95 Subtotal: $178.80 less 20% with promo code SAVEMORE: $143.04 + taxes. Not a bad deal!

I heard a snippet of a Christmas song on a talk show yesterdy morning and immediately started singing along.  And then blurted out excitedly to Jon, "Honey!  We're going to have a baby with us at Christmas!"  It's in little, weird moments like that when the reality hits me.  On Tuesday I celebrated my last birthday in my twenties and my last birthday without baby.  Oh how different a year from now will be! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat a couple of weeks ago, and it was so surreal.  When I look at my stomach, all I think I see is a bloated belly.  At 16 weeks, I'm still in my regular clothes (which I'm not complaining about), and I'm back to my originial start weight from March!  See you later, nausea!  With the nausea at bay, and my waist not screaming "there's a baby in here!" it is at times hard to believe that a baby is growing inside of me. Here I am on Tuesday night (bump pic) and Wednesday before going out to run some erra...

Yesterday I started working on different furniture layouts for our baby's nursery.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Jon and I are having a baby! If you aren't a close friend or family member (or friend who saw our announcement on Facebook) this will be news to you!  Baby Reutter is set to make his/her debut around Decemeber 3.  The original due date was November 26th, but the doc said I was measuring small at my 10 week appoint and pushed the date back a week.  We will see which date is closest in the end.  I know the baby will make its debut on its own time anyway.  Did you know only 5% of women have their baby on their actual due date?  Crazy.  But I digress. Here is the picture we used to make the announcement on Facebook.  The top left picture was taken of us at the airport heading out to our honeymoon a little over three years ago.  And since we are now adding one to the team, we had to get Baby a Team Reutter shirt as well ...

In general, I enjoy a clean and crisp designed space.  However, when it comes to children's rooms and playrooms, I think the opposite yields the most magic.     Here's a look at wallpaper done right.  A child's room is the perfect place to let your imagination fly!  Mustard floors, blue floral print wallpaper and a fuchsia sombrero...why not?! Designed by Jennifer Jansch This playroom/bunk room was designed by Lisa Sherry.  I love how deceptively simple it looks.  Plus, she knows how to make storage look good! Designed by Lisa Sherry The textures and greens in this room had me swooning.  What little girl wouldn't want to lay her head here? source unknown

That's how long it's been since Jon and I said "I do." I know everyone always says it, but it really is hard to believe it's been three years.  Three years is a long time; yet, it still seems like it was just yesterday that we were standing on those windy shores of Inlet Beach, FL. I think a lot of the "just yesterday" memories are because I had such a hands-on experience with my wedding day.  I can still remember me and my sister putting together my bridesmaids bouquets, my mom and her best friend helping arrange the table centerpieces, my friend Emily making my table visions a reality on the day of the wedding and the list goes on.  It was quite a family affair, and I honestly wouldn't have changed it one bit.  Our special day was made even more special by the people who had their hands on it, and I will be forever grateful. I was looking through old albums last night and found some pictures from my sister's camera showing the beginning p...

When we first moved into our new home, these are the lights that hung over the bar in the kitchen.  Not horrid to most, but way too small for me.  And they screamed "builder grade." Here's another shot showing their small size and wrong height. After some research and oogling, I finally decided on some beautiful Regina Andrew globe pendants .  Thankfully, I was able to order them through work so the pricetag wasn't AS haunting.  But even still, I'd say the pricetag was well worth the transformation. via Tracery Interiors I opted for this darker finish to compliment our existing cabinet hardware. Here they are in action!  I absolutely love them and couldn't be happier with how they've transformed the space.  Now I just need to replace three other lights in the home!  Jon will be a master electrician before I'm done :) Here's one more before and after.  What do you think of the change?