{ miss "P's" winner }

Well, here we are... this is Phoebe's choice for her room.

She really likes the blue walls, so blue it will be.

Now to find the perfect paint color.

{ I'm totally up for suggestions if you have used a color similar to this with good results. }

We are going with the Amy Butler & Alexander Henry fabrics,  we both liked those best.

I just ordered them today, so we'll see how they work together in person and go from there.

Once I have the fabrics, and I know they will work out, then I'll work on selecting a paint color.

I've ordered the Marisol Spoon prints as well, and we can't wait to get them...they are so darn cute.

I probably don't have them scaled correctly in my image, 

so I may have to play with framing options to give them more impact.

Thanks to all of you who shared with me which one of the rooms you liked best.

I liked them both for different reasons, but I think I've kind of made a mix of the best parts of both.

Ultimately, Miss "P" made the decision, after all this is her apartment, and she needs to love it.

:: peace & love ::

Carrie

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{ pick one }

I spent some time today online looking for fabrics for the "apartment".

I found lots and lots of lovely fabrics, and I'll share some others I loved with you in another post.

I asked Miss "P" which ones she liked best, and she chose the ones featured below in the photos.

I took my original image, and altered it in Photoshop to create a visual for myself...

a little road map if you will... I want to spend time planning so when I get ready to do the work

there will be no questions as to what I'm going to do.

I'm very visual, so this will help me in my decision making process.

Can't say for sure it will look exactly like either one of these,  I could change some things,

but this is the general direction so far.  I always start out with a fabric choice first,

This gives me a good start in the right direction.

::  OPTION ONE ::

{ soothing & sophisticated }

{ this image uses fabric by Carolyn Gavin's Wild Thyme collection }

Wall colors are not exact, but may be something similar.

The sofa is actually a little more light blue and pretty in person, so the fabrics should work well.

I'm trying not to use anything too cutesy, because I want this to last a few years,

and we are getting into the preteen years soon.

The artwork on the walls is by Marisol Spoon, I adore her work,

and each of these prints has a little animal perched upon a lovely little girl.

We are still working with an animal theme, though more woodland than domestic.

The paint by numbers are still an option as well because we have them, but I really love these.

:: OPTION TWO ::

{ fun & funky }

{ the middle pillow fabric is Mocca by Alexander Henry, 

the other two pillows are Sunny Ta-Dot by Michael Miller,

and the lamp shade fabric is Lotus by Amy Butler }

This option is all about color and fabric...fun & funky...

Soooo,  WHICH ONE DO YOU LIKE??

Inquiring minds want to know...

:: peace & love ::

{ the vintage wren }

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{ making music }

This is Miss "P" who's room we've been working so hard on lately.

Today I have no decorating news, because I have been busy with my knitting.

I would love to get out there and start looking for some of the goodies I need for her apartment,

but today was a good rainy day perfect for sitting back catching up on Glee and my knitting.

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the family having a little music lesson.

Papa Wren is the music teacher here in our house... singing & guitar at least.

He only just learned to play himself a few years ago, and he never ceases to amaze me with his talent.

My kids are so lucky to have someone who can pass on a love of creating music with them.

Miss "P" is listening to her Dad sing her new song she's written,

and I have to admit that even though I'm slightly biased... It really is very good.

It's so cute because she knew exactly how it was supposed to sound and gave her dad direction.

Mr. "N" patiently waits his turn to get some direction of his own.

I love his cute little smirk, as he looks on.

This photo is all about the feet and the pajamas, I love my children's sweet feet.

Papa and Miss "P" working it out, she really likes to sing, and Mr. "N" really likes to play...

maybe one day they can go out and play together { a mama dreaming for her children }.

Miss "P" adds more lyrics for her song as they go along figuring things out.

Writing songs is such a fun creative process, we all get involved.

I love this special time with my family.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week so far.

Thanks so much for the encouraging comments on my new decorating project.

I'm really excited about her room, I can't wait to make some good headway on it.

I talked to my daddy today, and he is gonna help me with the woodworking bit, when I'm ready.

Now I just have to get busy figuring out the details like paints and fabrics.

Fun...Fun...Fun.... I'm ready to do some shopping.

:: peace & love ::

{ the vintage wren }

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{ a starting point }

This is my little Miss P's room after much cleaning, rearranging and reorganizing today.

Her room is her refuge, her place to hang out and play with her friends.

She informed us that she wants her space to be decorated in chill colors.

What are chill colors you ask....

according to her HOT PINK & BLACK.

This is the sleeping side of her  "Apartment " as we are calling it.

Now, these aren't the after photo's, they are the in between photos.

Today, we totally flipped her room, and placed the furniture in it's new position.

This is her sweet little gate leading to her new sleeping area.

The area behind the gate used to be her play area, 

complete with a little kitchen, doll house, desk, and play table and chairs.

There was a lot going on back there,  complete with shelving for storing all the toys.

I designed the gate and bookcases as an attempt to keep her room cute from the doorway,

keeping the toys and clutter out of sight... her bed used to be where the little sofa is now.

I brought the little sofa in from the loft, to give here a place to "chill".

On the opposite wall is her closet, and bathroom doorway,

In between she has her T.V. and Wii.

She and her brother were quite excited to have this new open space to play Wii,

and couldn't wait until we cleaned everything up so they could play Mario Kart.

The inside view of her sleeping quarters,

It's not perfectly organized and pretty yet... we'll be working on that.

I did manage to get about three bags worth of stuffed animals stored in the attic,

I'll have to do a little more "cleaning out" when she is away.

They just can't give any of their babies up, they love their stuffed animals.

Here's the opposite side and her study/art area.

Again, this is just the beginning stages of our makeover...

So it isn't so pretty YET, not that it would stay that way if it were { let's be serious here }.

This is the view from the sofa side of her room...

closet on the left and powder room through the open doorway.

The blurry business across the gate is her name,

Which I plan to remove for the new redo.

This is her vanity area,

Through the door is the Jack & Jill bathroom she shares with her brother.

Let me remind you that she wanted a pink room when she was 3,

and boy did she get pink.... Rouge to be exact.

I cannot wait to get rid of this pink.

I can't believe she even mentioned pink at all, 

she never lets me buy her any pink clothing...

or anything else for that matter...

I guess HOT PINK is different because it's CHILL.... especially with black.

So, this is it....this is what I'm starting with.

:: TO DO LIST ::

1.  White paneled wainscoting around the room the same height as the bookshelves

2. Paint the walls above... color undetermined as of now { creamy white or pale blue }

3.  Add a frame around the huge mirror in her bathroom

4.  Recover the little sofa and paint the legs

5.  Find a rug for the "Chill" area

6.  New pillows for the sofa

7.  Paint the lamps and re-vamp shades

8.  I would love to find a chandelier or new overhead light fixture too.

I found this photo in my inspiration file,

I'm liking it a lot... I especially like the color of the furniture...hmmm...

uh oh my wheels are turning again.

So here I go, stay tuned to see where we end up with this re-do.

I would really love for her room to finally look cohesive and put together.

We'll see what I can accomplish on my own.

:: peace & love ::

{ the vintage wren }

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{ gearing up }

I have a big project in mind for this fall/winter involving my youngest daughter's bedroom.

Miss P is a spunky little punky with big interesting ideas on what she wants her room to look like.

Now the big challenge will be giving her what she wants while satisfying mom's need for lovely.

So today, I'm just gathering up some inspiration images.

{image}

I love the shelving and organization here, as well as the pretty blue & pink.

We already have pink walls which she's had since she was 3, so we're looking for a change of color.

So where these walls are pink we might do the opposite and do a pale blue to aqua color.

Possibly even white or cream, just to lighten things up a bit for her.

{image}

Oh deer, how awesome is this space for a girl, quite glamorous.

Not sure this is for my girl, she's not into girly so much.

I think it's pretty fab though, and she would LOVE the deer.

{image}

I like the fun color in this space, and the more modern clean look,

It has hot pink which was on her list of go to colors.

{image}

Now, this room speaks to the peacefulness and light I would like to add to her space.

I really like the painted trim... May have to explore this option for color pop.

Maybe an pretty pale blue for trim color instead of pink. Hmmmm.

{image}

I like this color blue on the walls, it feels a little more calm and peaceful than the rouge pink we have.

The little word mobile installment is a cute idea too.  A very sweet and simple room.

{image}

Now, this room is just fun, and it has the hot pink she requested,  

I'm not sure about the wall color,

even though it's lovely... I want a little softer look.

I adore the tree mural, and I could totally see that on a wall around her bed.

I think I can handle that, and I love a cherry tree... that would be fun to paint.

{image}

Another calming blue colored wall, love the colors in this space.

Very much the color scheme we are working with.

We have existing Tracy Porter bedding that I cannot part with,

so we'll be working our design around that bedding.

I'll try to share some images of Miss P's room to let you know where I'm coming from.

This should be an interesting redo,  I have lots of ideas floating around.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

The weather is fabulous here... now I've gotta get out and enjoy it.

:: peace & love ::

Carrie

P.S.  Can you tell we like a little color around our house, it always speaks to me.

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{ a rosey ring }

I'm always trying to think of new ideas and ways to use my knits,

and while I was knitting a rose brooch for a customer 

I had the idea that a rosey ring would be quite cute too.

So, I scrounged through my yarn stash looking for some tiny lace weight yarn.

Needless to say, I don't have a whole lot, but I did manage to find a ball of this turquoise color.

Not exactly what you think of when you think of roses, but it's still fun & I do them in all colors.

I then found one of the tiniest pairs of needles I own, this vintage pair of size 1's.

Then I cast on my stitches and started knitting the tiniest thing I think I've knit to date.

   

It was a little bit of a challenge, because this yarn is a little too fuzzy for this project, 

and those needles are just so small.  I admire all the ladies out there who knit socks with tiny needles.

Maybe one day, I'll tackle something a little bit larger with the baby needles.

For now, though, I'm happy with the way this turned out.

It's a little larger than I would like for it to be, but again I was just playing around with the yarn on hand.

I would like to give some crochet thread a try, and maybe even a smaller needle.

I have some lovely vintage tortoiseshell needles from Australia, and they are believe it or not tinier.

I simply sewed on an adjustable ring base, and there you have it a cute little accessory.

I'll have to get busy making some of these little cuties up for the farmer's market this fall,

I'm sure there are some little girl's and maybe big ones too who would think these very fun.

Lots of ideas popping up in my head for ways to use these little roses.

Thanks for stopping by,

and as always, thank you so much for the sweet comments.

I love nothing more than to read each and every one that comes in, they make my day.

Now, back to knitting for me.

:: peace & love ::

Carrie

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{ homemade laundry soap }

First of all let me say that I am an avid recycler,

and as such, I honestly get a little tired of seeing how much waste one family can create

by simply buying and using all the cleaning and beauty products needed to maintain a household.

I especially detest most packaging { sorry, I know it's necessary } , it's just not pretty,

and I'm always looking for prettier ways to store the daily essentials.

So, when I ran across a fellow bloggers post on making her own cleaning products I was super 

interested in giving it a try myself.  So, I purchased a book that she recommended called

Homemade : How to Make Hundreds of Everyday Products You Would Otherwise Buy

Elissa, I know you are no longer blogging, but if you happen to read this post,

the book is a fantastic resource...thank you for sharing.

One of the recipes that I've tried myself already is the one for homemade laundry soap.

I love it, it's so easy to mix up when you need it, and it's kinda fun too.

I also love being able to store it in a lovely container of my choosing,

and no more big bulky plastic laundry bottles to have to recycle.

Here you see my empty laundry soap container

and all the ingredients you will need to make your very own laundry soap.

Depending on how much detergent you want to make at one time,

or how large your container is you can double, triple, or quadruple the recipe accordingly.

It takes quadruple the recipe to fill my container this full.

{ this amount also uses only one bar of soap for 2 cups of soap flakes }

Here's the recipe... in case you would like to give it a try.

Now,  I know that I'm eliminating one big plastic container, 

and in it's place I now have three others... 

however, these ingredients are also used for many other

homemade cleaning products around my home, 

and they still last twice as long as  the other cleaners.

Tip 1 : the least expensive place I've found to buy the Borax is Target

{ it's more than double at the grocery store }

Tip 2 : the Washing Soda can be hard to locate, I purchased my first box online

{ my local Ace Hardware carries it, so check around locally first }

Tip 3 :  buying the baking soda would be much more economical at Costco or Sam's

or someplace similar where you can buy it in bulk.

I hope you'll give this a try,  I really have been very pleased with the way it works,

especially in my HE washer, as all the ingredients are low sudsing.

Happy Humpday!

:: peace & love ::

Carrie

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{ fall front porch }

Compared to my last post these photos are rather tame.

This is my front porch simply decorated for fall.

I have to admit I went a little pumpkin crazy this year.

As soon as those little lovelies were available 

I was at the farmer's market every other day growing my little display.

 { okay, okay, so some of them aren't real...pumpkins aren't cheap you know. }

Anyhoo, this little display has been up for several weeks now, 

and of course as flowers do my sweet mums are slowly fading,

and those little green caterpillars have had a hay day eating my kale.

Needless to say, I'm glad I took these pictures when I did.

Can't believe it's taken me this long to share them with you.

  

I have to admit that I was very inspired by the display from my former post here,

and I knew that this year I would try to do something similar.

I have the pumpkins, but I just can't pull off the random beauty of that arrangement.

I seriously have problems with asymmetry,  it's not that I don't like it, It's just that I can't do it.

Everything in my life comes in pairs, and the left side always looks like the right.

I think I have a bit of a problem and sometimes that problem can lead to... B O R I N G.

I actually like my arrangement here, but as you can see it is very symmetrical...

there you have it symmetrical = happiness in this little wren's world.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week so far.

Thanks for your kind comments on my spooky decorating.

I enjoyed a trip to the library today 

and now have an awesome stack of new inspiration so

I'm getting ready to break out my knitting needles and get my knit on.

Maybe I'll have a little something to share with you soon.

:: Peace & Love ::

Carrie

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{ VELCOME }

Velcome, Velcome,

Ve are so glad you are here.

Ve thought ve vould have you for dinner.

Dropping the horrible vampire accent now.

Before we get much further into this month, I thought now would be a good time

to share some images of my home decorated for All Hallows Eve.

Now,  I haven't gotten this far this year, and probably won't.

I don't typically go all out for halloween, but last year we were hosting a party.

So that said, I thought I might share some of my spooky decorating ideas with you.

This is the scene our guests and trick or treaters walked up to.  

Including very spooky music, and strobe lights for effect.

I had strobe lights under the beheaded bride, 

and she was quite ethereal and spooky...

wish I could have captured it on film.

I have to admit, I had a little too much fun with the cobwebs,

the trick being to really thin them out to make them look realistic.

No front porch window is complete until it's plastered with some drippy,

 oozy fake blood,  and a few fake spiders too.

A little less spooky this is the table in my entryway.

I love the realistic looking crows, and had one on my shoulder most of the evening.

I had so much fun decorating for this party... I've never really spent so much time on Halloween before.

I made the chalkboard above my sideboard using a simple piece of black poster board.

I really liked the way it turned out, and the fact that it was temporary.

I filled containers with bloody cotton balls { not really... red kool aid },

wrapped them with strips of black gauzy fabric, and filled them with black roses.

In my candle holders {which I absolutely love for all seasons because they are so much fun to fill }

 I took some leaves and sticks and wrapped them with more cobwebs and made a nest of spiders,

the other I filled with rubbery eyeballs at found at Target, and I filled the bottom with water for effect.

No Halloween table is complete without beautiful white pumpkins.

These happen to be fake, but real ones would be even better.

Now please ignore the mess, but this photo was taken a little into the evening.

I just wanted to show that I used simple squares of black fabric on the table

{ I had them left over from my sons school party a few years before. }

I also purchased some gauzy black fabric, and my sister and I hung it in swags

simply cutting holes in the fabric, folding it over and tying it with little strips of fabric.

I think the window treatment turned out well, and it looked so great in person.

I also changed out the bulbs in my chandelier with flickering amber bulbs for effect,

it's hard to see in the photos, but they looked fabulous and set the mood perfectly.

The best part of all was getting dressed up... we were an entire vampire family.

I could hardly get Papa to take off his fangs later that evening.

I think he really got into the whole vampire thing...he had quite a good time.

Vampire Fangs... the kind you glue onto your teeth are great... an absolute must.

Our costumes were purchased at K-mart and came together for a Pirate couple.

We of course were going for a colonial vampire look.

I think it worked...what do you think?

I hope you enjoyed our halloween home tour.

Looking at these pics again makes me wish I were hosting another party this year,

but my best friend and I alternate houses each year for halloween and this year is all hers.

I think I'll just sit back and relax this year, it will be a lot less work.

:: Good Evening ::

Contessa Von Wren

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