For sheets, I found the Bazaar sheet from Land of Nod that I’m going to order soon.  I was going to just do white…but my kid said “no white!” so more floral motifs it is!

Another change from the original design is I’m changing the use for  the stripe fabric.  I’ll be using it on a custom corner headboard instead.

Premier Prints-Vertical Black/White

I fell in love with the concept after seeing it done for this bed by Designer: Annsley McAleer (Photo: Ben Gebo)

With talk of a second child in the mix, most of the pretty beds I had found were not going to be feasible with 2 kids in a room.  So I had to double dip with my furnishings and a bed/dresser combo was really the best choice. I chose a white platform bed with 6 drawers underneath it.  I’ll then do the corner headboard and I think it will be adorable!

While out shipping at Homegoods with my little one, she spotted this rattan head…cow…not sure?  Anyways, she wanted it.  At first I was laughing and then, after some thought, I thought “hey why not!”  It would add some texture to the space.  I can already see the future of the head in the room though.  Pretty sure I’ll be removing it from the wall after it scares her during the night.  But hey, we’ll try it out.  I think it will nice with the Bamboo shade I’m using.  I’m going to get it made with a blackout liner since the mini blinds let light blare on through so much.

So there you have it.  My plans for the big girl room.  I’m waiting on the bed and new mattress to arrive and am getting antsy!  My kid has no interest in staying put in her room during bed time right now so I’m hoping this new space will bring her a reason to stay put!  I’ve been talking to her about her new room and trying to include her in some decisions her and there.  She told me that she wants to stay at Grandma’s and then I do her room and then she come back for the surprise.  Yes, she wants a grand reveal!  Definitely the daughter of a designer.

The tile was the starting point.  It has warm and cool tones which is great.  I pulled out one of the grey tones and used that on the counter-top.  I’m doing a tall back splash at almost 14″ high and will actually run itself up into the medicine cabinets partially.  And let’s talk about the medicine cabinet.  Originally, I was going to use the Chenowith medicine cabinet from Rejuvenation.  I was all set.  Then, realized it was so darn wide that I couldn’t use side sconces as I had hoped for.  Then, I realized that the mirror itself,  was actually pretty small.  So back to the drawing board.  I couldn’t find a comparable style with better dimensions so ended up switching to the Stella from Pottery Barn.  I’m going to first try it out with the wood. I actually like the warmth it is bringing to the design. Buts still, in the end, side sconces were still not in the cards for the dimensions.  So we ended up adding an extra can light in the room so that we could use only a single sconce over each mirror and still have enough light.

The shower will be nice and big and I’m using the 12×24″ slate tiles both for the walls, and the floor.  Slate, can be BUSY.  Using the larger tile will help with that.  Since it won’t be repeating to and entirely new tile every 12″ but instead 24″ my hopes is that the grain won’t get too out of control.  I’m only adding a grey contrast tile for the shower pan and that’s it.  No accent tiles for the walls.  I think my eyes would die if I went any busier….they would most definitely.

So there it is in a nutshell.  I’ll try and get some better before and in progress photos for this job.  I’m not the best at keeping up with those, so I will try harder.  It’s really great to see the transformations that way.  Stay tuned!

I thought it would be fun to share some behind the scene shots on the day of our shoot. There is so much work and preparation that goes in prior to these shoots.  It’s such a relief and so great to have the whole team together on the day of to see everyone’s talents all pulled together.

The Berkeley Faculty Club was our shoot location.

Jennifer Skog getting down and dirty capturing details of our Bride.  You can see the outcome of this shot {HERE}.   Lindsay Skog of PMA getting our gorgeous bride ready.

PJ of Milk Glass Vintage Rentals setting our main table-scape.  Nicole of Nicole Ha Designs designing our AMAZING…yes amazing floral arrangements.   And last but not least…lil ole me =)

I designed a page of cards that I could adhere each board to.  The top reads “Valentine…you’ve skated into my heart!”. For the bottom, I added some tire marks and a multicolored “LOVE Sydney”. I printed the page out on some textured cardstock and then glued those to another page of red cardstock for more support.  I used removable glue dots to adhere the boards with (3 total dots or there isn’t enough stick to keep them on).

Then for each of her Teachers, I bought a jar of jelly and changed the label to read “Spread the LOVE”.  xoxo Sydney”

I again used the glue dots to wrap the label around the jar. When they go to use the jelly, they can easily take the top label off.  The original label was left on underneath so they would know what it was.  I used some fabric I cut into circles with pinking shears so the fabric wouldn’t fray.  Then wrapped twine around the lid to hold them place.  They came out so cute and my daughter is very excited to pass out her Valentine’s to all of her little friends!

And I’m very excited to say that I made them both into Printables for you to download!  I’ve never done this before so let’s hope the downloads all work fine.  Both are left blank where the name is so you can write in your own.  Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!

{click HERE to download your FREE copy of the Skateboard Valentine printable}

{click HERE to download your FREE copy of the Spread the Love printable}

Every year I host a Christmas party.  It started out as a cookie exchange many years back with some of my close friends from High School.  We started tiring of the cookie party…mainly because most of our cookies sucked!  So we decided to ditch the stressful late night baking and just get together for a Christmas gathering.  Over the years, we’ve grown and mainly in the kids department.  I wanted to set them up a special little place of their own and give them activities to keep them occupied.  Add 7 toddlers to the mix and well, that’s a party!  I truly wish I had taken an “after” shot of this tablescape.  It looked as if the Bumpuses hounds paid a visit to our party.

I scoured Pinterest for some fun ideas and I’ll share with you how I incorporated 5 different ideas I found on Pinterest plus one of my own to make this fun party.

REINDEER PB&Js::  I found this idea from the And Everything Sweet Blog.  Quick easy and was a fun main course for the kiddos.

CHEVRON BOWS::  Besides the fact that these chevron paper bows are adorable, they are offered as a free printable on the Ellinee Blog! Instead of using the included gift tag, I printed out a small photo of each child and attached with a small clothespin as their placecard.  This is the second time I used a printable from Ellinee.  I recently used their printable Holiday Petal Card for this years Teacher’s Gift.

SNOWMAN CUPS::  This was the cutest idea originally from the Blue Cricket Design Blog.  She used them to carry treats to her kids school, I added a straw for toddler drinks.

FELT CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATING:: From the Johnny in a Dress blog comes this felt tree idea.  I made two so that the kids weren’t trampling over one another trying to decorate them at the same time.  I also attached mine on foam core boards for portabilty since the party was taking place in my complexes clubhouse.

SUGAR CONE CHRISTMAS TREES:: From the Pigtails and Tutus blog comes this great idea to decorate sugar cones.  Much easier to do with younger kids than a whole gingerbread house.  I divvied out candies for each child to use which doubled as my table decor.

The party favor was a lollipop memory game I made.  To hold the sticks I used Sip-A-Mugs I found at Walmart.  That way when the game pieces wore down, the fun cups could still be used.

And here were a few of our guests enjoying the party.  This was before things really started getting rowdy and green and red sprinkles exploded in the room!  You think college kids are ragers…they got nothing on these little ones!

And there was no mistletoe in the room but that never stops my daughter for going in for some smooches.  This time her victim…Jennifer Skog’s daughter sweet baby Jane.  She didn’t seem to mind much.

The first item were some branch colored pencils that I found at Homegoods.  They have a cool story behind them too which I like too.  They are made from sustainable Tamarind Trees.  Tamarind Trees are farmed for their fruit and when trimmed, the branches are used to make branch pencils.  Pretty cool huh?  I did a search for them online and they are a little hard to find but I saw quite a few on ETSY.  Keep your eye out for them at discount stores…they are less expensive there than online.

My next great find was a free printable from the Elinee Journal.  Their Holiday Petal Cards were perfect holders for the small Target gift cards I also included with the gifts.  There are two version mine has a sweater background and the other has a tree grain print.  Wrapped the whole thing with a bow and my kid has her teacher presents to hand out when she goes to school today.

Other emerald green furnishings that I have been gushing over are velvet sofas.  They are so rich and can literally be almost the only color in the room and completely hold their own.  In fact I think that my favorite look for green velvet is to really have it be the star of the show. The surrounding colors be simple and neutral so that the green really pops.

{ IMAGE SOURCE }

So when I found out that Pantone named 2013 Color Of the Year Emerald you can say I was one happy designer.   I’m looking forward to 2013 and hoping I have opportunities to infuse it in my designs.

The inspiration for Raw Elegance came from a love of mixing and contrasting design elements.  I love something sparkly set against something weathered.  I wanted frilly materials to have a raw and tattered edge to them and metallics to have a patina.  Leather was another material used throughout the design.  The entire scheme was to appear slightly dark and grungy all the while still coming off very elegant.  My other intent with this design was to showcase PJ’s amazing collection of vintage pieces in a new way.  Vintage weddings have been huge the past few years and when the trend dies down, I wanted to show everyone there are still fantastic ways to use vintage pieces.  Mixing old and new elements are really what can give a design layers of interest.

All Photography By | Jennifer Skog

Setting the mood for our design was the Berkeley Faculty Club.  With its wooden walls and beams, taxidermy and antler topped fireplace, this venue was the perfect backdrop.  Again, with the need for contrast in the design, there was a great juxtaposition with this masculine venue and the femininity of our bride.

The color palette mainly consisted of creams, ivory, brown, and gold.  Green and a touch of purple were the only pops of color.  The table was set with layers of different raw edged lace patterns.  Atop sat wooden scalloped chargers, green ikat dinnerware and capiz shell wooden bowls.  To add a little sparkle, I use gold-rimmed stemware, cut crystal glasses and mother of pearl flatware.  A golden antler held the placecards at each setting and marbled chocolate textured by bubble wrap made for a special little treat.

To me, the flowers are always the crème de le crème of tablescapes.  Placed in leather strapped vases and heightened by chain link candelabras, these flowers added a great variance of height.  Arranged by Nicole Ha Designs, she used various white flowers, purple artichokes, leafy greens and feathers.  A weedier version was set atop a simple cake to add height.

The desert table was back dropped with an industrial shelf holding cut crystal stemware and vases. More leather was brought into this mix and the whole vignette was styled with vintage items. Fun plays on the faculty club were made by using two vintage desks.  The first, an old classroom desk.  The other, we used as our dessert table.

Our bride, although elegant needed to have some edge.  Her dress had layers and layers of tattered ruffles and was belted off with a slim leather belt with gold studs. Her necklace added some sparkle and color to an overall matte look.  For some flirty fun she wore ruffled socks with platform shoes.  Her edgy look was also brought out by Make-up artist Lindsay Skog.  Smoky eyes and a messy up do completed the look.

The stationary designed by The Card Lady

Our lounge showcased many of Milk Glasses’ vintage upholstered pieces.

For some flirty fun she wore ruffled socks with platform shoes.  Her edgy look was also brought out by Make-up artist Lindsay Skog of PMA.  Smoky eyes and a messy up do completed the look.

This design was featured on Style Me Pretty :: HERE

A huge thanks to all of the vendors involved in this project.  I could not have pulled this off without you!

THE WONDERFUL TEAM OF VENDORS

Photography: Jennifer Skog Photographers / Design: Jennifer Bishop Design / Vintage Rentals: Milk Glass Vintage Rentals / Floral: Nicole Ha Designs / Hair & Makeup: Lindsay Skog / Venue: Berkeley Faculty Club / Dress: Gabrielle’s Bridal Atelier / Cake: Jen’s Cakes / Rentals: Hartmann Studio Rentals / Stationery: The Card Lady / Chocolate: Forno Vecchino

My date for the evening…Miss Regan of Regan Baker Design.  If you don’t remember her, she designed that gorgeous Carmel Beach Bungalow.  I had a wonderful time browsing the event and talking design with her!  Our plan is to collaborate with one another to bring you a design for next years event.  It was great to see what we would be getting ourselves into for next year.  We chatted  with some of the designers who participated in this years event and all had wonderful things to say about the experience.  Baker-Bishop 2013…go team!

Moi & Regan Baker

There were 3 levels of tables…so many more than I even photographed.  But I did manage to snap a few of my favorites.  There were a lot of very rustic and natural tables.  Great florals and plant life mixed with interesting woods and metals.  I’ll let you browse and let the photos speak for themselves.