Style in Numbers: In honor of my Number Three, Rebecca's Roundup Style. Enjoy!

I love a good quote...

furniture collections from www.bakerfurniture.com

Browsing through my September 2010 Architectural Digest Magazine the other day, I was inspired by this advertisment by Baker Furniture:

"The art of things chosen well rather than often."

Amen. Some of these bloggers spend so much time filling up their houses with STUFF and doing projects just to spend money and busy themselves. That's not what good design is all about! Step back and take a look at the big picture and stop worrying about filling your space with more stuff and "creativity." Just create a nice home with things that are tasteful and have real meaning to you. Sometimes it takes years to achieve what you have always wanted, and often it is done in layers. Another favorite design quote of mine, and in a way a design principle for me is:

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."~William Morris

Have any favorite quotes that inspire you?

Nursery Reveal!

BEFORE

I was SO BUSY yesterday getting this all done! It felt so good to ACCOMPLISH something ~ my energy and spirits have not been what they used to be during this pregnancy, especially since I am ALMOST DUE!

FIRST: A look at the girl's room above: before

AFTER
Thank you to my mom who really made this possible - she helped me quilt and finish the top bedspread so they had matching ones. It really helped complete the room!

And (drumroll please...!) here are the before and after pics of the Nursery:

BEFORE

My first homemade sheet! I used the tutorial I found from HERE. The only thing I did differently was instead of doing elastic all the way around was just doing it on the short ends and it worked beautifully and saved alot of time and elastic. I bought this cowboy material off ebay for a couple dollars less than the cheap crib sheets cost at Target. It really only took about a half hour and it was totally worth it because you can't find this crib sheet anywhere else, and besides, look how CUTE it is!!

I had 4 extra 8"x8" squares from the sheet so I decided to whip up a matching pillow which I will need for all that rocking chair sitting. I used a pocket from a pair of daddy's old jeans and flannels that I had in my scrap pile. Gotta love it!

The final results!!!
The bumper, ruffle, boppy, chair, and dresser are from the last babes. The blanket was made by a friend. The awesome like new diaper bag with a million pockets was from a garage sale for a couple bucks. The changing pad and cover was a gift from my mom. The baskets were also from a garage sale- $5 for the set.

How adorable are these Cowboy BOOTies!?!
$1 at a garage sale

I LOVE how this room all came together. It was so easy because I have just been sort of collecting things over the years and I love red, white, and blue.
The frame was $1 garage sale. The stars used to be in my living room- both bought on clearance. The framed and matted pictures of Jesus were free from a stuff swap. The little punched tin horse hook used to hang in my mom's kitchen.

This was a sweet gift from my BFF's mom. Had to have a "bear rug" from Restoration Hardware baby. (Much cuter and softer than the real thing!) It will be great for baby pics!

That middle frame will be filled with baby's picture and announcement.

This rocking chair was a wedding gift from my husband's grandparents. I hand stenciled the 'W" monogram. We will have this thing forever, I love it. Spent many a night rocking sweet babies in this chair.

What do you think?! I hope you love it as much as we all do!
I feel like this is my final "hurrah" before the baby comes, and will probably be one of my last posts, at least for a long while. It has been fun, but I am looking forward to committing my time to even more important things: my family. (AND trying to get some sleep whenever I can AND trying to stay sane......)

Enjoy the eye candy and wish me luck!!!

linking to: http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/2011/07/party-time-link-up-to-your-real-room.html

It's beginning to look alot like... BABY!!!

Here is a little teaser as to what's in my mind of how I want the "Nursery" to look. Hopefully I will be able to show you AFTER pics when it's all put together!

I know these pics AREN'T PRETTY, folks, just KEEPIN' IT REAL! This is what I am workin' on right now and there is baby stuff EVERYWHERE! You KNOW I HATE CLUTTER and I am gonna get my hands on this today and make it all better and organized :)

Wish me luck that I don't go into labor early and look for upcoming pics of the final results!!!

What I am reading about: Healthy Eating

Every time I see an article on fake sugars, I read it and every time I read it, I find my suspicions are true: they are NO GOOD. I know from personal experience: my mom gets migraines from Aspartame and my children get diarrhea from Sucralose.
Then my mom gave me this book to read: Sweet Deception: Why Splenda, NutraSweet, and the FDA May be Hazardous to your Health; by Dr. Joseph Mercola. Just a few pages in this book and it was enough to convince me to never eat these chemicals or give them to my family ever again. The most frustrating thing to me is that because of politics and money, the FDA who is supposed to be keeping us safe from this stuff, turn a blind eye and approve it for us to eat in our everyday food.
Here is just a very small portion of the long list of complaints reported from aspartame consumers: cancer in animals, headaches and migraines, dizziness, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, seizures, swelling, speech impairment, sleep problems, breathing difficulty.... and the list goes on and on. I highly recommend this book, if just to get the word out. It is something the general population really needs to know. Start checking all food labels and make it a goal to banish these artificial sweeteners from your life for good!
While I am on the subject, I thought I would share with you four other books we have read in my home and that we highly recommend to others. Not only have we read these books, but we have tried at least one or two recipes in each of them that we have continue in our everyday life. Of course, sometimes we are "healthier" than others, but the point is that knowledge is power, right? One other thing: it is important to keep in mind that this is NOT about dieting. It is about creating a healthy LIFESTYLE by changing habits and being aware of how you must take care of your body for the rest of your life. And in my case, trying to raise and teach my children these habits from the beginning. So, here they are:

Eating Well for Optimum Health, by Dr. Andrew Weil
We never buy margarine anymore, always ground turkey instead of beef, and we love his recipe for preparing broccoli until it's cooked crisp tender with a little olive oil and red pepper flakes.

The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood, by Dr William Sears, his wife and sons.
This pumps you up to get your kids eating healthy and we like the Chocolate Oatmeal Flax Cookies, they are much like the ones made by Kashi.

You on a Diet by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz
Great for jumpstarting your new, healthy lifestyle! And overall great knowledge of how it all works.

The Abs Diet by David Zinczenko
This book was recommended to my husband by a good friend who is an Olympic-level skier from Lake Tahoe. It is very informative and we love every single shake recipe we have tried from this book.