Family Pictures

Ages ago, I remember telling Eric that if ever Tyler & Wendy of Blue Lily came to our city, I would be booking us a session with them. As it turns out, my town was included on this year's world tour! I booked our September session with them all the way last December! In true Michigan style, rather than a beautiful fall day, our weather turned crazy hot and humid. In fact, minutes leading up to our session it was dark and raining. But the skies cleared, and our pictures happened. 

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Here's a peek at a few of my favorites!

oh, hey!

how are you?  We're doing well.

This fall in Michigan has been about as good as it gets,

here's a peek at what we've been up to.

a quick getaway to NYC with him.  

Yes, please.

we bring our trucks to go look at the trucks at the end of our street.

every day.

flea market shenanigans, that's a lot of legs!

(and Claire was totally embarrassed taking this picture)

my favorite flea market find

birthday prep!

she's SIX!

tub of dry beans + his trucks.

morning 'til night.

zoo exploring

 Parent Trap watching, Claire's first time.

I forgot how much I LOVE this movie.

smoothie making.

don't tell your kids, but sneak a half of an avocado into their smoothies.  

They'll never taste it, but it makes the smoothie super creamy, 

and adds some serious nutrition too

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Have a good one!

Before & After : Claire's Summer Bedroom

After posting pictures of our summer house progress on Instagram, I've had several people ask for blog posts with the details.  I'll do my best to get some of the rooms on here!  Since Claire's room was the first one complete, let's begin there.
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Here's a peek at Claire's room "before"

 There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it, it was just kind of dark and dingy.

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Claire's one and only request for her room was that it was PINK. So, I did my best to give her a sweet, girly pink room that she can hopefully enjoy for many years.

Claire got to put the first strokes of paint on the wall!

Pink can be a tricky color to pick out.  So many can turn peachy or lavender, or just be too bright in general.  Confession : we had one coat up of the first color I picked for the room, and it was waaay brighter than what I was looking for.  I really wanted a soft, powdery pink, and I feel like on our second try, we accomplished that.  We settled on Behr Light Rosebeige (190E-1).

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 and the after....

 so much lighter, brighter and more clean feeling.  In addition to painting the walls, we painted the ceiling a fresh coat of white, and had new carpet installed.  We also installed a white ceiling fan, and while ceiling fans may not be the most attractive fixtures, this is a second-story bedroom in a summer home, so function was key here.
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And now to the fun part...

first things first, I hung a cluster of lanterns in a corner near the ceiling.  I hung them using a single mug hook in the ceiling plus fishing line attached to each individual lantern.  Super easy.

 

The lanterns are a collection of pinks, corals, peach, aquas, greens and whites.

I ordered the lanterns from Luna Bazaar.

next up, laying out all of the items to go up on her walls!

Claire's bed is a full size Jenny Lind bed that I found on Craigslist.  It's painted in Sherwin Williams Swimming.  The sheets are from Target, and the white quilt is from TJ Maxx.  The accent pillows are from the Carol Roeda Studio.  And the shams are made by me, using this tutorial.

 

This little set up next to her bed is my favorite.   The "Trust in the Lord" print was set as a gift from the lovely Lindsay of Pen and Paint.  The frame is from Hobby Lobby.  The "You Are My Sunshine" print is from Pretty Smitten.  The polka dot lamp and picture frame are from Target.  The clock is from IKEA.  Her nightstand was a flea market find that I painted in Sherwin Williams Begonia.

This wall is special as both the desk and the dollhouse were mine from my bedroom growing up.  I refinished the desk with Sherwin Williams Begonia and added small glass knobs from Hobby Lobby.  I found small metal buckets at Hobby Lobby for all of her craft supplies.  I also refinished my old dollhouse with a fresh coat of paint and used scrapbook paper as wallpaper.

 "There's so much to Celebrate" free printable found here.
"I Am A Child Of God" free printable found here.
I mounted each of the printables to a thin piece of cardboard (think the back of a pad of paper) and placed a small metal scrapbooking clasp on each one.  It was a cheaper alternative to buying more frames, and in the end, I really like how simple they are.

Hoop art is such a great way to fill a wall without spending a lot.  Most of the fabric is from the "Flea Market Friends" line at Joann's.  The bike is a tea towel from Art Goodies.  And I made the silhouette of Claire by tracing a picture of her off of my computer screen and transferring it onto fabric.

 Claire's dresser is from IKEA.  The coral pouf is from Target, and her afgan is from the Trisha Brinks Instagram shop.

 The bike print is from Hillarie Tasche on Etsy (looks like her shop may no longer be open).  The print of bikes is a piece of gift wrap that I found in a small shop and cut down to the size of the frame.  The small frames on the dresser are from Target & Hobby Lobby.

and there it is!
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So far Claire has really enjoyed her room.
Her favorite thing to do in there is sit at her desk and work on projects.
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I have a few more plans for the room including curtains (the windows currently only have white roller shades that we installed) and a large "C" above her bed.  BUT, this is a summer home, so you know you just can't rush these things!

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See my Pinterest board for her room here.