Monthly Archives: March 2011

Ship Ahoy! This Pirate Room is Bootyful.

Get ready to batten down the hatches, mateys, because this little boy’s room is OUT. OF. CONTROL.

The main feature is an incredible floating pirate ship—you climb across a hanging rope bridge to get inside. BRILLIANT.

Designer Steve Kuhl created this room for a sweet little 6 year old boy in Minnesota. The boy’s father wanted to make sure his son had a much more whimsical, playful childhood than he himself did, and commissioned this fabulous space! Apparently the designer sketched up a space ship, a race car, a castle, and pirate ship—and of course the pirate ship won out. Honestly I don’t know which I’d choose. Seeing how cool this looks, I just might want the space ship!!

Hmmm, those are some awfully thick books on that shelf up there. Methinks Cap’n Papa is using junior’s book case for his overflow, the scurvy knave! Oh wait….he tricked out this whole room. He can stash as many books as he wants…

Alice, over at MyModernMet, spoke with Steve Kuhl and got even more info on this rad room.

“The room is also decked out with a rope bridge that connects the pirate ship to the top of a jail cell, and a rope suspended from the ship’s hull provides drop-in access to the closet. There’s even a completely hidden slide, that lets you travel downstairs in a more adventurous way.”

“The rope bridge is connected to the top of the jail cell, built to accommodate evil doers, thieves…and little sisters.” Or should I say, “Sistarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghs!”

“The response from the six year old was predictably awesome and sincere. Really there aren’t many moments in my career where I have seen such glee from a client.”

How terrific is this space?? Be sure to go on over to MyModernMet to see more photos. There is a hidden spiral staircase/slide entrance to the room that lies off the upstairs “mud room” that is crrrrrazy cool!

PS Special thanks to my friend Toria of TinyReads for tipping me to this cute space!

A Gingiber Nusery for Violet.

Do you guys remember our friend Stacie of Gingiber? She did a fabulous giveaway in December for a wonderful stripey reindeer pom pom stocking.  We were all wowed by her charming illustrations and wonderful design flair, so it really shouldn’t be much of a surprise that her great style would extend to her little girl Violet’s room. Sweet simple touches that create an overall winning look. That’s our girl Gingiber!

I asked Stacie what was her inspiration for this very special room and here is her very sweet response:

When I found out I was having a little girl, I was terrified of picking a name, let alone designing a nursery for this little person that I did not even know yet! So, I waited until she was about a year old to fully commit to a color scheme and design plan. My daughter is such a lively, smart, and bright little girl I wanted to decorate a room for Violet that was truly a reflection of her sweet little self! Also, I wanted a room that she could grow into. I think it will suit her for several more years.

My decorating style is definitely bright and saturated. I love color and was giddy to use Martha Stewart’s Vintage Map paint color for the walls. Also, I am also a bit of a cheapskate. I made the curtains and crib-skirt, refinished the dresser. Next came the furniture. The crib was a family hand-me-down, and all of the white ornate furniture was mine from when I was a little girl! I wanted to play down the utter girlishness of the white furniture, so I filled the rest of the room with some handmade stuffed animals and art from mine and also artist’s Etsy shops.

Would you like to see?

Well done on that perfect Vintage Map wall color, lady and the punches of red are so delightful.

I think my favorite piece is this friendly brass octopus lamp. I mean really, it is just too wonderful for words. Stacie got it at a BARN SALE. I’m in love!

Oh and Stacie also redid this dandy dresser in candy apple red. Ingenius!

Oh and a basket full of soft toys sounds sooo lovely too! And this wonderful mirrored set of drawers is something that will grow with Miss Violet into her teen years quite beautifully!

I love this easy going way of hanging art on a clipboard, it’s so accessible and friendly. Oh, and let’s talk about that great mirror. How wonderful of your parents to hold on to it for you!

The sweet Jenny Lind crib was nicely updated with an adorable birdie crib skirt that welcomed Violet home from the hospital where she was born.

The same fabric it was used again for Violet’s birthday party chair too! LOVE that touch!

You should absolutely check out Violet’s full birthday party too. It’s so darn CUTE, you’ll be grinning ear to ear!

Thanks so much for sharing Violet’s wonderful room with us, Stacie. Don’t forget to stop by the adorable  Gingiber shop.

Real Life :: Going to SXSW!

Well, my work is sending me to Austin tomorrow!  This is my first time going to Austin and I’m so so so excited! I’ve wanted to go for more than 10 years.

And it is for SXSW. Squee!  Fabulous music and fabulous conversations about tech and online tech innovations.  Yeah, I’m a total dork.

Fortunately as far as the food is concerned, CHOW created this terrific love letter to Austin with its most recent CHOW Tour.   I’m so excited to go to the food trucks there–I hope they are as good as Chairman Bao or the Waffle truck.

I probably won’t have much downtime, but what I have I’d love to use wisely, so I turn to you all–any suggestions? Any cool stores I should go to? Any great bars? I want to hear from you! Be sure to swing by this afternoon, I’ve got some more goodies to share!

Kiddo Bookshelf :: French Horns are Groovy

It’s time for another edition of the vintage book shelf! Whoo hoo! This one I found at a terrific estate sale, where I also walked away with an awesome Fisher Price record player for Wolfie! These illustrations are so charming—I think you’ll fall in love with them!

OLLIE!!!!! I love his little outfit and how spindley the legs on the his music stand are.

I didn’t include every single page (I figured there were only so many images of Ollie and his big bad horn that you needed to see!) but how cute, huh! Vintage children’s books make me so deliriously happy…..I don’t think I can ever have enough of them!

“Little Boy with a Big Horn”, Little Golden Book, 1950

Story by Jack Bechdolt
Illustrations by Aurelius Battaglia

Hello Lucky! Parties & Pretties

Oh my. So I’ve seen a few Circus birthday parties in my time. (You might remember this gorgeous circus party from Sandy of The Winding Road.) I have to say it’s the one theme that never really grows old for me….I’m still totally charmed by them! I was so excited to discover this deeeeelightful party from the ladies of Hello! Lucky. Little Jude was turning 1, and boy did his mama turn it out!

The cookies! The cake! It’s all perfect….down to the red stripy napkins! (found via Shop Sweet Lulu) These cupcakes are also so sweet. I love the homemade look to them and the rad little flags.

These super charming birthday hats were made out of pom poms, ruffly paper trim, stickers and poster board. LOOVE! You could also just get ready-made hats and add some poms and stickers to embellish them.

Here’s the adorable little Jude with dueling pianos!

Hee! I love the “ring of fire” hula hoop! Classic! And an upside down, flower pot becomes a great little circus stand with a little red and white paint.

How cute, huh? [can we discuss the amazing outfits on the grown ups?? high fives!] You can see even more of this terrific party on the Hello! Lucky blog.

While we’re on the topic of Hello! Lucky, I had to share some of their goods. A few years ago I was at a holiday warehouse sale and found their shop—where I was able to scoop up stacks of amazing letterpress cards for a song. I’ve been a fan ever since!

Hello! Lucky was founded by two very talented sisters, Eunice and Sabrina Moyle. Eunice Moyle is the creative director: a talented illustrator who began designing birth announcements and party invitations for friends and printing them on her antique Vandercook press. On a whim, she sent her card designs to Kate’s Paperie in New York City, and they immediately placed an order. Hello!Lucky was in business!

All their designs are super charming but I thought it would be fun to take a look at some sassy birthday announcements! Take a look and you’ll see what I mean:

They also do gorgeous custom letterpress announcements. Take a gander at these:

I’m a big fan of these sassy ladies! Be sure to swing by Hello! Lucky and see all of their beautiful work.

Oh, and don’t forget to enter our Winter Water Factory Giveaway! You could win the most adorable little dressie!