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Here’s a little progress report on A’s bedroom renovation. We’ve finished all the room painting, including the magnetic paint stripe, and re-hung the surfboard.
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Our first grader has been asking for a “Big Boy Room” for more than a year now. He loves Legos, his kitty, experiments, trains, matchbox cars, computer games, and being mischevious. Two weekends ago we started the project by painting his ceiling white and the walls a medium cool grey with blue undertones.
Before: the entire room was a medium blue shade, which came with the house, and was fine for his baby-blue and white striped furniture and pale green crib.
A few things we’re keeping: his white twin bed with star headboard, Ryan’s surfboard, his armoire and dresser (though they will be repainted), the cute side table, and the star lantern. We’re losing the gross shaggy carpet, the bleached out rug, the “baby” artwork, and the curtains.
This past weekend we finished painting the room and started on the furniture. I’ll post photos soon of the progress. My favorite things so far is a big magnetic strip of paint on one wall, so A can post up favorite pictures.
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We have a first grader who is a little young for lots of the scarier Halloween party ideas out there. Here are some of my favorite not too spooky ideas to celebrate this ghoulish holiday.
1: Bat Halloween Party Invitation from Cardstore.com hint at a spooky time, but won’t totally scare off a kid from coming to the party 2: Decorating Bat cookies (cutter from Copper Gifts) and 3: Ghost cookies (cutter from Wilton) would make a fun party activity. Have older siblings or an adult ice all the cookies, and let the little ones shake shake shake the sprinkles all over & add the spooky eyes.
4: I love these scary scientific bottle labels from Martha Stewart for Grandin Road — put on fruit punch bottles for the kids and some nice Cabernet for the grown ups. 5:The spider vase fillers (from Pottery Barn) are so oversize and borderline cute that they won’t completely freak out the kids. 6: The Skeletal System Anatomical Chart is the real thing (found Birdie1′s Etsy shop). A little creepy, but cool.
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7: So it’s a little on the overboard side, but how amazing would it be to wallpaper a wall in your dining room with this spooky Woods wallpaper by Cole & Son? 8: I suggested this black bird/crow costume (found on MarthaStewart.com) to my son, but he said he’d rather be a bumblebee. “Awwww, cute,” I said. “I think you’d be an adorable bumblebee.”
“Yeah. So I can have a stinger on my butt,” he said.
Oh, right. Of course.
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I know, I know… it’s not even Halloween yet. But here’s a little peek at our new holiday photo card collection. It’s never too early to get them started! Each photo card design has a matching holiday party invitation design, cocktail napkins, stickers, and other goodies. (above: vertical version of PENNANT by Delphine).
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Above: CORIANDER holiday photo card by Delphine.
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Above: horizontal version of PENNANT by Delphine.
All designs and photos ©Delphine 2010.
I know, I’ve neglected the blog this month. Sorry! I hate excuses, but I have to say that with the combo of planning for a sixth birthday party (2 parties, actually), a house full of guests (whom I don’t get to see very often), stomach flu, preparation for NYIGF, creation of a brand new greeting card collection, a few unexpected design opportunities (requiring an updated portfolio), a huge design project with an overseas client, and an overall blah feeling, I’ve been overwhelmed and haven’t done a very good job with this blog thing. Do you ever feel overwhelmed? What do you do to cope? My desk is a real mess right now. I think that I’ll clean it off and have a fresh start…maybe that will help.
One thing that is helping our family stay organized this year is a chalkboard. It’s been collecting cobwebs in the corner of the warehouse for years, but we just cleaned it up and put it up in the kitchen, at 6 year-old eye level, with our son’s to do items for the day. Every morning while he eats breakfast we talk about what we’ll do that day and put it up on the board. I think it helps to have some structure to the day. He also really enjoys checking things off as we complete them. Sometimes he erases things he doesn’t like to do (the word “homework” seems to mysteriously dissapear nearly every day).
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Shopping for my five-year old can be tough. Seems like most clothes are either super preppy, or covered with cartoon characters. That’s why I’m really loving this cozy collection from Gap. It’s chic and cool … and if I lived somewhere where it got below 60 degrees I’d be all over this collection!
We don’t get too many rainy days here in Southern California. This past weekend it rained and it took my five-year-old about 30 seconds to rush into his room, pull on his galoshes, grab an umbrella, and head outside. He was desperately seeking puddles to stomp in. Alas it only rained for about 3 minutes, so no puddles. He did see his very first rainbow, though. You can’t see it in the photo, but it was a double rainbow. My son and I both were mesmerized.
I can’t wait to see Where The Wild Things Are. Meanwhile, I’m going to read the book to my son (again).
Bacon gumballs. Yes, these are real. Crazy! My son’s favorite two “foods” are bacon and gum … I wonder if he’d like this idea.
I love that Fisher Price is re-releasing some of their classic toys. I love this retro music box teaching clock. TOTALLY reminds me of first grade. It’s also available on Amazon.
Which reminds me, I was at Target yesterday and saw that they are gearing up for their back to school section. Yes, already. My heart quickened. I LOVE the back to school section. I could spend hours choosing file folders and pencils. And those plain pink rubber erasers. Love those. Almost makes me want to go back to school. But not quite.
I love artichokes! I think this one, in our backyard, is almost ready to eat. The other day while on a walk with my son I spotted a large patch of wild artichokes. Do you think it’s okay to pick them? I like them steamed and dipped in vinaigrette.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. I plan on taking a much needed day off, and spending it with my son at the beach.
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I’m loving springtime. Over the weekend we had a true rainstorm. With one bolt of lightning and a clap of thunder and everything! (It doesn’t rain much here in Southern California). I let my son (he’s five) stick his face out the window so he could smell the lovely rain scent. It was Friday night, and he was worried about the “Eastery Bunny” being able to make it on time due to the inclement weather. He suggested we leave a trail of carrots and lettuce leading up to our door so that the Big Guy could find us in the rain. I’m happy to report that the trail of carrots worked, and the bunny made it on time.
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I’ve finally started sorting through all the photos from the Little Lamb baby shower I co-hosted a few weeks ago, and will be posting them soon. Meanwhile, I thought I’d share a bit about how I planned the party.
The first thing I did was to get some help! Parties are a lot of work, so I leaned heavily on friends and my mom to help pull it all together (thanks, everyone!) First things first: we established a date, budget, general theme, and set a cap on the guest list (ours was 18). We chose a date a few months out, to give us plenty of time to plan; we all pitched in some cash at the beginning to one person (me) so that I could be in charge of buying all the décor, invites, flowers, etc. And we chose the “little lamb” theme and spring green colors because we knew that was the theme of the baby’s nursery décor.
My biggest tip for planning a little party is to shop your own home (and your friends’ homes) first, before buying a single thing! Luckily Carrie’s nursery décor happens to be my own favorite color, green, so I had lots of “decorations” around already.
Use your own talents, and those of your friends, to help save money. Since I’m a stationery designer I, naturally, designed the invites. My mom, who has a gift for floral arranging, offered to handle the flowers, someone else offered to do all the baking, and so on. This saved us a lot of cash!
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custom invitations by delphine
While I’m a huge fan of letterpress (duh), we went with low-cost digital printing for the invites. For about the cost of just a letterpress invititation, we were able to digitally print double sided invitations, registry inserts, thank you cards for favors for guests, thank you cards for Carrie, place cards, table cards, place cards, and sticker labels.
A preview of the dessert table.
The yellow flowers arrangements are actually plants (about $5 each at Home Depot). Mom lined the inside of big glass vases with citron colored paper, and placed lemons from the back yard on top of the pots. I grouped three paper balls leftover from my son’s birthday party under the chandelier (they store flat, and they were less than $3 each … they’re on their third party already!). I made the “BABY” banner with leftover cards from the invitation press run and a spool of ribbon from the dollar bin at Michael’s. Instead of buying a pricey cake, we used box mix, spiced it up a bit with Alex’s secret sauce, and made adorable cupcakes.
Next time I’ll share more details from the baby shower, including some downloadable pdfs for straw flags and cupcake toppers. Meanwhile, if you have any questions please leave a comment.
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One of my all-time favorite books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, now comes in a COLORING BOOK version. I bought it yesterday and am really looking forward to coloring it in with my five-year-old.
