MOMMY'S FIRST CATCH! OH BOY!

{Post brought to you by Pink Door Design}

This baby shower invitation was designed specifically for the mommy-to-be and her husband, who LOVE to go fishing. They had already chosen beautiful bedding from Pottery Barn, so I chose to use the baby's bedding as the color scheme for their invitation.

Small note to Mary (mommy-to-be), congratulations on your first catch! I know he will be a fantastic new fishing buddy!

Mary's baby shower was hosted by her co-workers and I would like to share their snazzy shower snapshots. The hostesses mimicked the fishing theme in the shower decorations and I think everything turned out swimmingly!

These fishing poles (made out of bamboo sticks) were sitting next to the shower sign-in book as guests arrived. Hanging from the fishing poles were red and white bobbers with fish cut-outs. No details were spared, check out the pictures printed on the fish cut-outs... precious photos of Mary and her husband as babies!

Here is a close-up of the table centerpiece (one of my mom's many specialities).

Fresh flowers, fun fabric and fishes, OH MY!

Mary with the yummy chocolate cupcakes, adorned with
two graham cracker fish. Notice: the dessert presentation also
included gummy worms on the plates :)

And last but not least, a picture of the entire table. How cool are the strawberry topiaries?

A very clever idea. Plus, it's an edible arrangement that adds color & interest to the table! 

{Hostesses, a job well done!}

If you are fishing around for baby shower invitations, look no further! I would love to hook you up with a baby shower invite...whatever the theme may be!

THE LAUNDRY ROOM. LOADS OF FUN.

Our laundry room was plain. Lacking in color, simply a sea of white. White walls, white cabinets, white door....made complete with a white washer and dryer. My goal with this Breath of Fresh Erin project was to make the laundry room FUN. Loads of fun.

Although white is a clean color and very fitting for a laundry room, I was looking for something bright and cheery. As you can see in the before pictures, I jumped the gun and began testing out a coral color on the walls before remembering to take a BEFORE photo...but you can still see the overabundance of white!

{BEFORE}

our white laundry room.

{AFTER}

our new cheerful laundry room.

Now, please take a look at these high sliding cabinets in our laundry room. I am not sure the rationale behind these cabinets because in order to reach them you had to stand on the washer/dryer...not very functional if you ask me!! I was determined to give these cabinets purpose and lucky for me the boards were not made of real wood. I was able to take them out by easily snapping the boards in half. Within minutes, I said good bye ugly boards and hello little nook.

{BEFORE}

the old (and oh so high) cabinets.

{AFTER}

the neat new nook.

I love the coral cubbyhole paired with the light apple green walls, but by far my favorite part of the laundry room make-over is the charming floral chandelier. It's a bit feminine (obvi) which required LOTS of convincing with Clay. After a long discussion and promising him I would do his laundry for the rest of our lives, the lovely light fixture made it's way into our laundry room! A beautiful victory if I may say so myself! 

{BEFORE}

the former light fixture.

{AFTER}

the new lovely light fixture.



Laundry is not my favorite thing to do, however this re-do has definitely made doing our laundry a bit more pleasant!

A CORNY CHRISTMAS FOR CLAY.

My hubby is a big Baylor fan and loves to tailgate at the BU football games...so for Christmas, I ordered him a gift he could use for the upcoming football season. The game of cornhole! (In Texas, it is more commonly referred to as the bean bag game.)

 

After researching online I discovered there weren't many options for Baylor boards so I made the decision to order unpainted boards and paint them myself. I was excited about the idea of a blank canvas as I was a studio art major at Baylor and haven't painted many projects like this since I graduated.

Here is a preview of the unpainted wood:

Since the boards represent opposing teams, I painted them with different Baylor logos. Thanks to the help of a handy dandy tracer, I was able to draw the BU and Baylor bear to scale with ease. After picking out a lovely green and gold at Lowes and painting several layers of paint, the boards are complete. All they lack now is a protective coat and they are ready for play! 

 

 

Baylee with the finished Baylor boards. Sic'em Bears!

A NEW PURPOSE IN LIFE...YOU WROUGHT TO BE PROUD.

In May, Clay & I will have lived in our house for two years! Wow, it's crazy to think two years have already gone by....Today I am posting one of our first home projects - an old wrought iron trellis above the planter in our entry way.

Side note: <<Our house was built in 1957 and apparently planters were a big hit back then. For those of you who can't picture "the planter" I am referring to, I found a picture of our entry way before we moved in. Take a look at the right hand side of the photo...the white wrought iron trellis is above the brick half wall and the planter is located inside the half wall.>>

{view of entry way with trellis & planter}

I knew when we moved in our house the old & dated wrought iron trellis would have to go. I didn't want to throw it away and I didn't exactly have a gameplan, but knew it could be given a face lift and a new purpose somewhere else in our house. After removing the trellis, it sat outside in our backyard for months...here is the proof.

{the trellis removed}

In the meantime, I started collecting an assortment of letters for our guest room. Once I accumulated enough letters, I began brainstorming the best way to hang them on the wall...and then I remembered the rusted wrought iron trellis in our backyard! With the help of some paint and some hefty duty nails (for hanging), I present the new and improved wrought iron trellis. No longer above the half wall in our entry way, it is now hanging in our guest room as a neat vintage frame which houses all of the letters I found!

{ the old wrought iron trellis with a new purpose}

Moral of the story: never throw anything away because almost everything has hidden potiential - with a little imagination and some paint, an old (or ugly) piece can always get a new look!

WINE A LITTLE MORE.

I am deviating from my normal design related entries to share A Breath of Fresh Erin vacation.....

My incredibly sweet & thoughtful husband surprised me for our 3 year anniversary with a trip to Napa Valley. Didn't see that one coming...I was completely surprised. I have to give Clay props for being so sneaky. He secretly requested time off at my work and everyone in the office knew besides me. Can't believe I didn't have a clue. So to my husband, family, friends and co-workers: Job well done. You are all great secret keepers!

I loved Napa Valley. We stayed at the AVIA Napa located in downtown Napa. It was decorated beautifully. As you all probably know, I love decorating so I immediately started taking pictures of the lobby as soon as we entered the hotel. Please check out their photo gallery to appreciate their decor!

We drank lots of good wine and learned lots about wine on our trip. We visited several wonderful wineries - Robert Mondavi, Castello Di Amorosa, Raymond and Schraumsberg to name a few.

Wine Tour at Robert Mondavi.

Neat set-up outside of Raymond Winery. 

Castello di Amorosa Winery.

(same castle filmed for Jake's season of the Bachelor)

Sparkling Wine Tasting at Schraumsberg.

Did you know that California produces 90% of the wine in the U.S.? and that Napa Valley produces ONLY 4% of that! A very surprising number if you ask me since Napa Valley is so well known for their wine.

 A few highlights of our trip:

>> First time to eat an IN-N-OUT Burger. Oh so delicious.

>> We saw a peacock spread its feathers at Castello di Amorosa.

>> Tried fresh oysters for the very first time...still deciding how I feel about them.

>> Met the dog who was the centerfold in Winery Dogs of Napa Valley at Trahan Winery.

>> Drove across the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

We hope to visit Napa Valley again in the future, but in the meantime we will continue to drink all the delicious wine we brought back! :0)

WALKING THE LINE.

Oh my. It's been awhile since my last post....however it doesn't feel that long since I have been very busy working on multiple projects!

For those of you who have never been to our house, EVERY room is painted (with the exception of our hallway...which will probably be painted at some point in the near future). I really believe a paint color can transform any room.

Our kitchen was in need of some color so I went to Lowe's and bought four small samples of paint (side note: whoever came up with the sample paint idea is genious). Once I got all four samples on the wall, I couldn't decide between two of the colors and therefore decided to paint stripes...this way I didn't have to choose :0)

Since there is not much wall space in our kitchen I figured painting stripes would be a fairly challenging, but simple undertaking. However, I was mistaken. This painting project took FOREVER! I would like to say that you should not attempt to paint stripes if you do not have the following: 1. patience, 2. a realllly long level and 3. a helper (preferrably one with math skills). My sweet husband was #3 and I could not have gotten the stripes drawn/level on the kitchen wall without him.

Mi Cocina before.

please note: the vertical blinds need to go

Stripes complete!



 

Mi Cocina complete.

with new mirror & Bayley with her new bunny

Even though it took hours and hours to complete this painting project, I am pleased!

CELEBRATING THE BIG ONE. 

Ahh, decorating and design...these are a few of my favorite things.

My first couple of posts have been all about decorating and DIY projects so I thought I would switch things up a bit and post my latest pink door design. This birthday invitation was designed with love for my sweet cousin in Midland, Texas. Lauren, thank you for allowing me to design your little man's FIRST birthday invitation!

{front}

{back}

The cute phrase on the back of the invitation is compliments of Lisa (my mom). She is incredibly creative!! Growing up, my mom handmade ALL of our birthday invitations (and for those of you who don't know me very well, I have three younger siblings - that's ALOT of birthday invitations). I must say, we had the greatest birthdays parties...all thanks to my mom's creativity (and my dad's willingness to partake in her imaginative ideas)!

All that said: birthday parties, my mom & designing invitations put a big smile on my face! If you are in need of invitations or announcements, please let me know as I would love to design something just for you!