baby blueprints...

Like most creative things, I procrastinate until I have a vision - and then once I "see" the space, I want to do it all in a day! Last weekend Mr. T and I painted the baby girl's nursery in Benjamin Moore's revere pewter. We are both in LOVE with this perfect neutral gray color.

The obvious next step is the furniture. After watching Annie Sloan chalk paint tutorials throughout my lunch break on Monday and Tuesday, I went to Milling Around on Tuesday night and purchased French Linen and Old White, the clear wax sealer, and an Annie Sloan brush to paint the glider, the bookshelf, the dresser/changing table, and 1930s bassinet I found in Canton, Tx. Once I started (at 6 pm) it was really hard to stop (at 12 am). With no prep work required with this amazing paint, I gave everything but the dresser a coat of paint and it looks fabulous. I will show you before and after pictures once I sand it to give it an antique finish and a clear wax it to seal it. I am going with very neutral and calming tones in the room - French Linen, Old White, Blush, and Gold Accents. I hope it is going to turn out very French Country, but we will see! We ordered the crib yesterday and it will be in Friday. Eeeek! T and I are super excited to see it all come together. I have pinned a million nurseries I love on Pinterest. This is a sketch I made of the layout I am going for in baby girl's nursery. (please no making fun of my drawing!)

I have been busy sending links to my mom and sisters to see what they think of crib bedding I have found online and getting their opinion on rugs, sconces, prints, basically everything... I am having so much fun dreaming up this little room that I decided to go ahead and draw out the front room as well. I don't have 1/2 the stuff I want to make it look this way, but that's the fun part - the search- right!?

I found out pretty quickly that I am really terrible at drawing chairs and anything to scale!

I am going to go with soft blues and tans in the front room area. This is my inspiration room from Blue Egg Brown Nest, whom I found on my crazy chalk paint youtube video time warp. She is just amazing.

Anyway, what do you think? Any tips on discount places to search for cool stuff in the Shreveport/Bossier area? I went to TJMaxx at lunch break today and had to walk away from some pretty pottery and glass vases... gotta finish that baby room before I move to another one! Hope everyone is doing well :) xoxo

making a house a home...

Things are beginning to settle down around here- post wedding and honeymoon. I am excited to share all of the stories and photos with you detailing our beautiful wedding day and adventurous road trip! If you know me at all, you know that I took a gazillion pictures of the trip and I just haven't been able to organize them yet into a blog post. However, that day is coming soon. What I have been doing is organizing our little house and making it cozy with all the wonderfully generous items our friends and family gifted us with over the last year.

When we got back from our honeymoon and picked up all the boxes from my mom's house, I was so anxious to set the table with our new placemats, napkins, plates, and silverware that once I did, we scheduled two dinner parties! I have christened the bread maker and the pistachio green kitchenaid mixer with pizza and a strawberry cake. I am looking forward to making popcorn with our whirley pop gadget and experimenting with our new ice cream maker! Mr. T is in the process of growing some watermelons and I am kind of hoping to make homemade popsicles out of them. I feel so inspired by all of these new kitchen accessories! My grandmother was a home economics teacher and my mom is the queen of the kitchen, so surely there is some of that in my genes, right?

My new role as a wife is different than a girlfriend or fiance, there's a lot of weight in that title -but the day-to-day stuff is a lot of the same- in a good way! I continue to ask myself, "What can I do for Tison today? How can I show him I love him right now?" This next chapter in our lives has so much potential and is filled with an ocean of possibilities. Talking with my husband about our future goals- sharing our dreams and encouraging one another to reach them...these are the things that make life worth living. This creative, positive, loving energy that is alive in our conversations inspires me daily. Can you tell my love language is quality time??

(yes, I still have some work to do on my baking techniques...but it was tasty!)

*photos from this weekend