Design Mom's Book Tour Party

Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom fame is one of the most amazing women I know. She is brilliant, kind, funny and so creative. And she has six awesome kids! She may or may not have figured out how to get 32 hours into a day - I don't know how she does it all. She is a huge inspiration for me.

Gabrielle's brand new book shares her best tips for living with kids. It has become a fast favorite. (That cover!! Major heart eyes.) And check out page 224 for a space that might look familiar to you. :)

Gabby's book tour is headed to Phoenix this week and I'm helping her host a little party Wednesday, April 29 at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. Party starts at 7:00 pm! Please come!

Kate's Baby Shower

I saw this pretty image from Hostess Haven on Instagram today and the colors reminded me of a post that I meant to share a few weeks ago and never published!

My dear friend and assistant, Kate, adopted the most beautiful baby girl, who was born just a few weeks before Margot (future BFFs!). Kate's sisters, mom and I threw her a little baby shower here at the house to celebrate. I always mean to take lots of photos when I'm hosting a party, but things end up being too crazy. Thankfully my talented photographer friend, Sarah Webb, snapped a few photos of the spread we put out on the back porch. Kate's sisters and mom took care of all the drinks and the delicious food (bread and cheese and fruit, and the most delicious pain au chocolat from Proof Bread).

Kate and I are both Diet Coke lovers (our habits have only worsened from working together this year), so it felt appropriate to have a DC bar at her shower. Also, please don't judge me that we keep a giant pebble ice maker sitting on our back porch. :/ I was going to move it for the shower, but it weighs a million pounds and it was helpful to have ice for the drinks table! (...It's totally cool if you're judging me right now, but believe me when I say that ice is WORTH IT.)

I sewed some last minute skirted table cloths for the food tables and the little striped runner on the drinks table. And we strung little felt balls for a subtle backdrop behind the tables.

I made tissue paper tassels and bought yards and yards and yards of fringe in all different shades of blush, white and gold from a local fabric and trim warehouse called SAS and we tied them to the big 36" balloons that I bought on Amazon. We had balloons all over the house and fresh flower arrangements and that was pretty much it for decorations inside. We kept it simple.

I made the flower garlands using the same steps I did in this tutorial for Domino. I like how it looks with the garlands on the top of the tables too.

I just used whatever flowers they had at Trader Joe's and Sprouts - roses, parrot tulips, snap dragons, even some soft pink carnations. I've been using baby's breath lately too. It's back and it feels fresh again to me. Especially in a big bouquet all by itself! Wouldn't that be pretty?

It was a really fun day. I loved having an excuse to celebrate one of my favorite people in the world and her most perfect, beautiful, long-awaited daughter!

36" balloons  //  gold letter balloons  //  hex marble cheese plate  //  bread board  //  name card holders  //  floral plates  //  blush plates  //  floral straws  //  blue tumblers

tassel garlands  //  felt balls  //  chambray table cloth  //  pink napkins  //  gold flatware  //  milk glass cake plates  //  marbled planters

Marble Paper as Wallpaper

I'm working on a powder room project that could use a little punch. I love this bathroom published in Lonny. The walls were papered with marbled gift wrap (the same paper I used here). Isn't this space gorgeous? I love that the direction of the swirls is random - there's so much movement here!

Here are a few more of my favorite marbled paper walls. It's a great way to add a little excitement to a wall or a nook:

The Design Confidential

A Happy Blog

Rosa Beltran

Veronica Scheaffer

Because It's Awesome

And I think it's still so pretty for smaller applications. I really love marbled paper on the back of a bookshelf or secretary especially.

Bryn Dunn

Minted/Julep

Annabode

If you're in the market for some pretty paper for a project, here are a few of my favorites available online right now, ranging from $3-8 per sheet. I'm thinking one of these could be a winner for my powder bath project.

1  //  2  //  3  //  4  //  5  //  6

PS West Elm makes a marble print wallpaper now!

PPS If you're feeling adventurous, make your own marbled papers! I think it would be pretty to marbleize a few mats for a picture frame series. 

I Have This Thing With Floors (the Hex Tile Chapter)

My parents' big remodel is in the home stretch! There are three bathrooms that need tile and that's just about it. But three bathrooms worth of tile is a ton of tile! And we're at that point in the project where my parents are sort of sick of spending money so every dollar spent needs to really count. We used some of the quartzite from their kitchen for the countertops in the bathrooms, so that helped us with the budget, but that limited our tile options too. As we learned picking a backsplash tile, quartzite is gorgeous but is hard to pair up with tile!

Cement tiles are so cool and I would love to get to use them here, but they're not in the budget. I also really loved this teak wood tile, but again, it's on the pricey side. What IS in the budget though is $3.99/sq ft hex tiles. We found a ton at local discount tile stores all around the Valley. Floor and Decor has some really pretty grays and neutrals which would look great with the quartzite. We're just going to pop out and replace tiles of different colors in a repeating pattern on the mesh sheets. The gorgeous and talented Gwen from The Makerista did this in her bathroom and it turned out SO WELL. I think she actually had to place each tile by hand, which sounds really labor intensive, but look at the results! What a beautiful floor!

My parents live in a city called Snowflake, and we've talked about doing something like these snowflake patterns here, but we're still thinking about it. Is that too literal? Part of me sort of loves the idea.

image

I've found a million different patterns on the #Ihavethisthingwithfloors instagram account and hashtag. I feel like this account was made just for me. I majorly have a thing for good floors (and I bet you do, too). Check these out:

image

The girls upstairs bathroom is next on my list to tackle, so if all goes well with this tile project in my parents' house, I'd love to do something sweet and girly like one of these:

image

image

image

So many possibilities!! This last one makes my heart get all fluttery.  :)

(all images from here unless otherwise noted).