Newborn Photo Session and A Big Announcement

It's been a while but I am finally ready to get back to the blog!  Derek is now 11 weeks old and I swear he is bigger every morning when I go into his room!  The past two months have been a total whirlwind and I am finally starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of this whole mom thing... maybe.  Each day gets a little easier, and then super hard again, and then easier... it's a total roller coaster but I wouldn't change a thing!  When Derek was just 5 days old we had a newborn photo session at our home and these are a few of my favorites from that day.

And great news!  I will not being returning to my full-time job and will be dedicating my days to  the little man as well as the blog!  With this big change I'll be able to take on a lot more e-design and full service clients local to the Philadelphia area so please help me spread the word!

Sources: Master Bedroom Duvet- Serena and Lily,  Nursery Prints - Animal Print Shop, Tassel Garland - Fancy Face Studio, Chevron Rug - Rugs USA, Photos by Nina Price

Organizing the Nursery

Thank you all so much for all of your positive feedback on my nursery reveal last week!  I had so much fun decorating and can't wait to personalize it when this baby decides to arrive.  Currently I am two days past my due date so think positive thoughts for me that he or she doesn't wait too much longer!

If you are pregnant with your first or thinking about starting a family soon you will find that baby's come with a lot of stuff.  Like- more stuff than you can imagine.  And maybe I'll find I won't need half of it but it's always good to be prepared.  After my baby shower we set out to start organizing all of our great new gifts.

The dresser we have, Pottery Barn Emery, is also doubling as our changing table.  In one of the top two drawers we  are storing baby accessories- so this meant pacifiers, hats, socks, and mittens.

In the other drawers directly under the changing pad we have all of the diapers, wipes and creams.

The middle two drawers are onesies and sleepers organized by size.  We rolled the onesies to save on space- not sure we'll have time to do that in the future but it sure does make for a pretty picture!  And last set of drawers stores our swaddle blankets, bibs, burp cloths and stroller blankets.

I used the Ikea Skubb Box, set of 6 organizers and they are a lifesaver!  They keep everything everything neatly organized, come in great sizes and they're super cheap.

In the closet we repurposed the Ikea Kallax shelving unit I previously had in my office and laid it on it's side to utilize all of the storage space at the bottom of the closet.

Baby R has lots of books so we used the top two shelves for storing those and the bottom I used striped fabric bins from Target to store other blankets and baby supplies. 

Baby R's Gallery Wall

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some sneak peeks of Baby R's nursery as I finish it up and get ready for the big day.  The latest update to the nursery- the addition of a gallery wall.

If you remember- we don't know the gender so I am leaving the frames blank until he or she gets here.  It's a great way to have a gender neutral nursery but still be able to add some girl or boy charm once she/he gets here.

All of the frames are from Ikea and the starburst mirror set is from Target.

My best advice when doing a gallery wall is to buy more frames than you think you'll need and a lot of various sizes that way you have a lot of sizes to play with when you go to lay it out.  Nothing worse than having to make multiple trips to Ikea, especially if those trips are made on a weekend!

Gallery Wall Sources

Gold Starburst Mirror Set- Target Threshold

Light Grey Wood Frame - Ikea Jallvik

Grey Collage Frame - Ikea Osterslov

White Frames - Ikea Ribba

Small Grey Frame - Ikea Haverdal

Neutral Nursery Design

Dresser: Pottery Barn Emery Extra Wide Dresser

Light: World Market Large Capiz Lotus Hanging Pendant

Artwork: The Animal Print Shop Little Darlings

Rocker: Pottery Barn Wingback Convertible Rocker

Pillow: Caitlin Wilson Gold Dot Pillow

Pouf: Lulu & Georgia Kenza Moroccan Pouf

Crib Sheet: aden + anais Super Star Scout

Paint: Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray

Crib: Pottery Barn Kendall Fixed Gate Crib

In case you missed my post last week- we're expecting our first baby in May!  We decided not to find out the gender, although now that I've started planning the nursery it's killing me not know!  My plan is to keep it really neutral with white, beiges, greys and gold so that once the baby is here we can decorate it more to that specific gender.  Over the next week or so we're installing the World Market Capiz Light and hopefully getting the walls painted in Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray.  I'll update with photos along the way!

Grey and Fuchsia Nursery E-Design

My latest project has been designing a baby nursery for a friend.  Her only request was that it be charcoal grey and fuchsia.  I wanted the look of the room to be chic and modern but still soft.  I chose to go with mostly gender neutral staples so that the fuchsia could easily be swapped out for a boy friendly color in the future!  To keep things light I chose a lot of white furniture, including a white and mirrored cabinet from Home Decorators.  I like the idea of using a a cabinet or buffet as the changing table so it can be re-purposed somewhere else in the home when it's no longer needed.