Posts
This little room is one of my favorite rooms in the house. I get to change out the artwork all of the time and it gets a lot of natural light during the daytime. Usually the floor is covered with a train or dress up clothing or blocks or baby dolls, but today it happened to be clean (miracle!) and I took the opportunity to take a few snapshots. Hope you're having a lovely Tuesday! xo, Lauren
Showing posts with label Back Room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Back Room. Show all posts
Around Here
This little room is one of my favorite rooms in the house. I get to change out the artwork all of the time and it gets a lot of natural light during the daytime. Usually the floor is covered with a train or dress up clothing or blocks or baby dolls, but today it happened to be clean (miracle!) and I took the opportunity to take a few snapshots. Hope you're having a lovely Tuesday! xo, Lauren
Featured Artist: Anna See
I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to another of the wonderful sponsors of A Lovely Lark. Anna See is an artist and illustrator who runs an amazing Etsy shop where she sells gorgeous hand-pulled linocut prints. She wrote me the sweetest note that I just had to share with all of you to show you what a difference it makes when we support handmade:
I want to express my deep gratitude after being able to quit my dead-end nine-fiver to pursue my dream of contributing my art to the world full-time. In a world of mass production and big corporations, supporting small business and the handmade community is so very appreciated, as it is this support that enables my work to be produced. Each linocut print is completely hand carved and hand pulled with simple tools, like the back of a metal spoon, to transfer the ink to the paper and I put a lot of thought, love, and care into all my creations. I'm living a lot more modestly, and have had to relocate to a lower cost-of-living state (Nevada), to better try my hand at making this work, but I am so much more happier! Thank you for all your continued support!
Anna
I actually have personally been a big fan of Anna's for some time now and you may have seen one of her owl linocut prints in various photos of my home. Here's where he lives at the current moment:
A big thank you to Anna for sponsoring A Lovely Lark and to all of you who support handmade! See more of Anna's work at her Etsy shop here. xo, Lauren
Newness
We finished putting up the wallpaper above our mantel last night (don't mind the mess) and decided that if we were going to do new sconces it was now or never. Here's what we bought:
It's the Francis Sconce from Pottery Barn. We were looking for something that wouldn't necessarily stand out (in a good or bad way) because we really want the wallpaper and mirror to be the star. They're arriving today or Friday - sooo excited! Now I just have to get my house cleaned up for the party this weekend - my least favorite part. Oh well, nothing like a party for motivation!
xo, Lauren
Around Here
I've been in party crafting mode this past week - trying to pull off a pretty party but on a budget. We ended up moving the party date (to this coming weekend - eek! ) to make sure that Violet's Grammy could be there. Since it's Cinco de Mayo I think we're leaning more towards that as a theme, especially since I'm going to a Cinco de Mayo work shindig on Friday and she's lending me some of her loot (free stuff - score!). And who doesn't love a good fiesta? Not going to go too crazy theme-y but maybe some fringe, some pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey action and a couple of sombreros thrown in there. Ole!
In other news I'm still working on Violet's big girl room. I hung the hooks in the above photo myself (well, with my Dad's supervision lol). But power tools and me have never been best buds, so I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself.
I've been doing pancakes on the weekends now so that Violet has a change from her normal eggs, toast, and cereal routine. She gobbles them up - so excited that she has something new and tasty to eat. And speaking of tasty I was so worried about her birthday cake being horribly inedible (baking is also not my thing - especially not a dairy and soy free cake!) but I found out that Duncan Hines cake mix is dairy free and mostly soy free (it has soy oil which Violet can have) so she's going to have a tasty birthday cake after all - hurray!
Other than that I've been finishing up a few projects that I've been procrastinating on around the house. Nothing like a party to get your butt in gear. I painted Violet's silhouette, am sprucing up the art wall in our back room, and we got half of the wallpaper up in the living/dining area. Unfortunately the Hubster seems to have been struck by some sort of plague (he normally doesn't get sick, like ever) so we'll see if he's up to another round of wallpaper cutting, pasting, and hanging before the party. Anyway, I'm off to dive back into my world of crafting craziness. Wish me luck! xo, Lauren
P.S. Follow along on Instagram - @withtwocats
Got Art?
A few months ago I featured one of my favorite artists, Lulie Wallace here on with two cats, and I'm happy to say that I now officially have one of her pieces hanging on my wall. If you suffer from the winter blues like me and need a way to brighten up your, art is the best way to do it!
There's so much color and life and wow! packed into that tiny little rectangle. It's truly amazing what some people can do with paint. I'm still playing around with the gallery wall in the back room - limited space and not enough for all of my favorites. I painted the one in the center but I still want to hang my landscape by Elijah Andrus as well...sigh. Too much art, too little wall space. I guess it's not the worst problem to have, right?!
Lulie is currently the featured artist over on Buy Some Damn Art and there's one painting left up for grabs! Or you can purchase directly from her website as well (which is what I did).
xo,
There's so much color and life and wow! packed into that tiny little rectangle. It's truly amazing what some people can do with paint. I'm still playing around with the gallery wall in the back room - limited space and not enough for all of my favorites. I painted the one in the center but I still want to hang my landscape by Elijah Andrus as well...sigh. Too much art, too little wall space. I guess it's not the worst problem to have, right?!
Lulie is currently the featured artist over on Buy Some Damn Art and there's one painting left up for grabs! Or you can purchase directly from her website as well (which is what I did).
xo,
Go with the Flow
So if you haven't noticed, I've been trying to freshen up the H-Haus this year. Nothing major - our furniture will stay, the paint will stay; I'll just be replacing/adding a few key accessories here and there. One thing I always try to think about is if our home has 'flow'. That doesn't mean I want the rooms to be matchy-matchy, but that I do want it to make sense together. Can I take a pillow out of the living room and throw it on the sofa in the back room without it looking crazy?
I'm super visual, so one of my favorite things to do to see how things are coming together is to make a collage. I take photos of the H-Haus, products I'm considering purchasing, and inspiration photos and layer them together to see if it all 'works'. Sometimes I create the collage on a pinboard, sometimes with glue, and sometimes on the computer. This time I went with the computer (considering I have a one-and-a-half year old this tends to be the fastest, cleanest option!) and I'm pretty pleased with the results:
If you look closely you'll see pics of the back room, living/dining room, bathroom, and even Violet's big girl room here along with some products that I've mentioned recently on the blog. A few inspiration photos help to give me an idea of what else I still need. You can see one of the main colors I'm trying to incorporate is a 'grellow'. I love how it's just so fresh and it makes me happy!
Stay tuned, I'll be sure to keep you updated as things come together!
xo,
I'm super visual, so one of my favorite things to do to see how things are coming together is to make a collage. I take photos of the H-Haus, products I'm considering purchasing, and inspiration photos and layer them together to see if it all 'works'. Sometimes I create the collage on a pinboard, sometimes with glue, and sometimes on the computer. This time I went with the computer (considering I have a one-and-a-half year old this tends to be the fastest, cleanest option!) and I'm pretty pleased with the results:
If you look closely you'll see pics of the back room, living/dining room, bathroom, and even Violet's big girl room here along with some products that I've mentioned recently on the blog. A few inspiration photos help to give me an idea of what else I still need. You can see one of the main colors I'm trying to incorporate is a 'grellow'. I love how it's just so fresh and it makes me happy!
Stay tuned, I'll be sure to keep you updated as things come together!
xo,
Etsy Love: Pillow Pairs
I've been on the hunt for a couple of cozy pillows for the back room, and the gorgeous patterns, colors, and textures of kilims have caught my eye. They look great paired together, or with a more graphic partner. Here are a few of my favorites from Etsy:
H-Haus Year in Review & Goals for 2012: The Back Room
2011 was a year of slow but steady progress on the H-Haus. I thought I'd write a few posts to prove to myself that we have made some headway (little by little) and to figure out my goals for our home in 2012. We'll start with the room that has come nearest to completion:
The Back Room
The back room was the big transformation of the H-Haus this year. We started out the year with freshly painted walls and a new charcoal-colored sofa, and not much else. Luckily the Hubster and his dad are pretty handy and installed new hand-built cabinetry into our small nook:
Next came the wallpaper. After some serious debate about the proper way to hang it, it went up smoothly and added a fun burst of color and pattern to the otherwise neutral-Nelly room.
On the adjacent wall, we threw up some magnetic paint followed by chalkboard paint, which the Hubster then framed out with trim:
We left just enough space in between our new pillars of storage bliss for the Hubster's grandmother's desk. I never thought we'd have space for an 'office' in the H-Haus but it just goes to show even small spaces can have big function!
To add even more storage, we snagged ourselves a bookshelf from IKEA and shared a few tips on how to style it with...books! (mostly) Imagine that.
And after a loooong and intense rug search and two duds, we finally (I think I hope) found a rug that's going to stick around for a while:
And after a long wait and much debate, we decided on a photo of the babe to have blown up onto a canvas.
For Christmas we bought ourselves a bit of bling for our little antique desk: a shiny new iMac!
And last, but not least, we installed a back-ordered long-awaited sconce and carved out a little space for more of our growing art collection.
Although there are still a few details we'd still like to add (a couple of throw pillows, a little touch-up paint, and a few more additions to our art wall) I'd say this room is pretty much finished! (Happy sigh)
Stay tuned tomorrow to find out which room has come sooo far but still has a looong way to go...
The Back Room
The back room was the big transformation of the H-Haus this year. We started out the year with freshly painted walls and a new charcoal-colored sofa, and not much else. Luckily the Hubster and his dad are pretty handy and installed new hand-built cabinetry into our small nook:
Next came the wallpaper. After some serious debate about the proper way to hang it, it went up smoothly and added a fun burst of color and pattern to the otherwise neutral-Nelly room.
On the adjacent wall, we threw up some magnetic paint followed by chalkboard paint, which the Hubster then framed out with trim:
We left just enough space in between our new pillars of storage bliss for the Hubster's grandmother's desk. I never thought we'd have space for an 'office' in the H-Haus but it just goes to show even small spaces can have big function!
To add even more storage, we snagged ourselves a bookshelf from IKEA and shared a few tips on how to style it with...books! (mostly) Imagine that.
And after a loooong and intense rug search and two duds, we finally (I think I hope) found a rug that's going to stick around for a while:
And after a long wait and much debate, we decided on a photo of the babe to have blown up onto a canvas.
For Christmas we bought ourselves a bit of bling for our little antique desk: a shiny new iMac!
Although there are still a few details we'd still like to add (a couple of throw pillows, a little touch-up paint, and a few more additions to our art wall) I'd say this room is pretty much finished! (Happy sigh)
Stay tuned tomorrow to find out which room has come sooo far but still has a looong way to go...
Snapshots
I can't believe how quickly time flies by. Christmas is almost here, my sister and her husband are arriving from Australia today for the holidays, and Violet is 19 months old! She can peel her own clementines and climb up into her booster seat - where has my little baby gone?! We've been hard at work on her big girl room so that it's ready whenever she is, along with improvements here and there on other parts of the H-Haus. Here are a few snapshots from our life lately:
1. Violet is in an amazing bedtime routine (knock on wood) and loves to sleep with her frog and blankies. She rarely cries or fusses anymore, but just babbles to herself in her sweet way until she drifts off to sleep. Without a paci I might add!
2. We've been hard at work creating our own personal gift wrap for the holidays. We got to try out a little sample on one of Violet's friends' birthday gifts - she was so proud of her creations!
3. It's nearly Christmas and that means cookie exchanges! I made simple sugar cookies, but you should've seen some of the crazy cookies I received in return.
4. Reusable gift tags from Etsy - they're almost too pretty to give away!
5. Working on a little corner of the back room - I've been itching for a place to display more of the art that I've collected over the years so another (miniature) frame wall it is.
6. Yeah, I buy cookbooks for the pretty pictures :)
7. Violet's dotty bedding has arrived! It compliments the pillows perfectly. Now we just need a bed...
8. A clean desk + a new home computer = a happy blogger.
9. One of my favorite things in Violet's big girl room - a flower garland from Lori Marie.
10. Sweet lion sweater for my little one from the littlest.
11. Just me being random at work.
12. We have a new furry friend - he visits us almost every evening and Violet just loves her outside "Diddy!"
If you're interested in more snapshots, I'd love to see you over on Instagram! Follow me and I'll be sure to follow you.
xo,
Ten Tips for Small Space Holiday Entertaining
In case you didn't already hear about it, I collaborated with Houzz.com to redesign my space for holiday entertaining. Since the H-Haus is teeny tiny, my focus was on rearranging and re-purposing to make room for guests. Seven other bloggers participated as well including Rubyellen of My Cakies, Ally of From the Right Bank, Kay of Kay Loves Vintage, Belinda of The Happy Home, Barbara of Hampton Hostess, Veronika of A Few Things from My Life, and Alicia of Atypical Type A.
I'd so appreciate it if you could visit my ideabook over on Houzz.com and leave a comment! Each comment counts as a vote and tomorrow is the last day of the contest! I'm currently in second place and trying hard to stay there. I could win $400 and one of my commenters will be randomly selected to win $100! Here's what I came up with:
Tip One: Smoke and mirrors! Plenty of light and reflective surfaces help a small space feel more expansive. Decorate with mirrors and metallics and turn on the lights! No need to dim them to create an intimate feeling when your space is already naturally intimate enough as is.
Tip Two: Open it up! Purchase a small table for everyday use that can expand for larger gatherings. A table for four is most comfortable and practical for our small space, but when we're entertaining we can open it up to seat six comfortably.
Tip Three: Go vertical and keep it simple. Keep your centerpieces tall for drama, but thin so that they don't take up too much valuable real estate on the table. I love this David Stark topiary from West Elm, but a few branches in a vase would work just as well.
We also kept the decor fairly simple - too much clutter only makes a small space feel smaller.
Tip Four: Use what you have. Don't be afraid to use your sofa for additional seating - guests will appreciate the comfy and cozy atmosphere it creates. Just make sure your table is low enough to accommodate the sofa height.
Tip Five: Fold-up furniture. Still need more space? Any old folding table can look beautiful with the addition of a tablecloth. This vintage lace beauty lets guests know that they're not an afterthought.
Tip Six: Repurpose! Ottomans or a bench from elsewhere in your home can help to keep the room feeling open, while providing even more seating for guests. Or folding chairs with slipcovers would be just as great.
Tip Seven: Be flexible. We simplified our settings for this table to accommodate its narrow profile. Everything doesn't have to be uniform to be beautiful.
Tip Eight: A space for the kids. A separate table for the kids can be tucked away in any nook or cranny near the main table, plus the little ones will love having their own special spot.
Tip Nine: Go buffet style. Serve your food buffet style to free up tabletop space. No buffet available? Use a TV stand, folding table, or even a desk.
Tip Ten: Get creative. Run out of space for a tree? A chalkboard tree or even a paper tannenbaum will look just as festive. And bonus - give your guests some chalk and they can help you decorate it!
If you think my ideabook is vote worthy, I'd so appreciate your comment (vote) on my ideabook here.
Thank you all soooo much!!!
XO,
I'd so appreciate it if you could visit my ideabook over on Houzz.com and leave a comment! Each comment counts as a vote and tomorrow is the last day of the contest! I'm currently in second place and trying hard to stay there. I could win $400 and one of my commenters will be randomly selected to win $100! Here's what I came up with:
Tip One: Smoke and mirrors! Plenty of light and reflective surfaces help a small space feel more expansive. Decorate with mirrors and metallics and turn on the lights! No need to dim them to create an intimate feeling when your space is already naturally intimate enough as is.
Tip Two: Open it up! Purchase a small table for everyday use that can expand for larger gatherings. A table for four is most comfortable and practical for our small space, but when we're entertaining we can open it up to seat six comfortably.
Tip Three: Go vertical and keep it simple. Keep your centerpieces tall for drama, but thin so that they don't take up too much valuable real estate on the table. I love this David Stark topiary from West Elm, but a few branches in a vase would work just as well.
We also kept the decor fairly simple - too much clutter only makes a small space feel smaller.
Tip Four: Use what you have. Don't be afraid to use your sofa for additional seating - guests will appreciate the comfy and cozy atmosphere it creates. Just make sure your table is low enough to accommodate the sofa height.
Tip Five: Fold-up furniture. Still need more space? Any old folding table can look beautiful with the addition of a tablecloth. This vintage lace beauty lets guests know that they're not an afterthought.
Tip Six: Repurpose! Ottomans or a bench from elsewhere in your home can help to keep the room feeling open, while providing even more seating for guests. Or folding chairs with slipcovers would be just as great.
Tip Seven: Be flexible. We simplified our settings for this table to accommodate its narrow profile. Everything doesn't have to be uniform to be beautiful.
Tip Eight: A space for the kids. A separate table for the kids can be tucked away in any nook or cranny near the main table, plus the little ones will love having their own special spot.
Tip Nine: Go buffet style. Serve your food buffet style to free up tabletop space. No buffet available? Use a TV stand, folding table, or even a desk.
Tip Ten: Get creative. Run out of space for a tree? A chalkboard tree or even a paper tannenbaum will look just as festive. And bonus - give your guests some chalk and they can help you decorate it!
If you think my ideabook is vote worthy, I'd so appreciate your comment (vote) on my ideabook here.
Thank you all soooo much!!!
XO,
A Gift to Ourselves
Our first present arrived in the mail yesterday - thank you thank you Megyn Barroner!!!
Now to hang it on the wall!!!
xo,
Now to hang it on the wall!!!
xo,
