Photos of a 4 year old’s “Princess Dress Up Tea Party” that show how to throw a party for children that adults can attend without going crazy.

Decoupaged book pages on canvas with painted quote

Giant canvas of Lemons

How to make a color blocked canvas purse.

Keep an eye out…I’ll try to get on this soon!

My first year hosting Thanksgiving.  Family=awesome.  Turkey=delicious. Festivities=perfect.  Let’s fast forward through all the hullabulloo and get to the important stuff: the decorating.

First up: Napkins.  Let’s be honest, paper napkins are easy and can be thrown away.  But do you really want to use paper napkins for a holiday get together for your family? I don’t.  And my mom would be appalled (as would I.)  Cloth napkins were definitly the way to go, but plain napkins just weren’t enough for me.  So I settled on two colors, khaki and coral.  I used brown fabric paint and a thin brush to paint “eat” in cursive on each napkin.  They ended up being the perfect pop of color for the table.

Here’s the rundown on how the table decor is assembled:

Layer 1 = Linen tablecloth. I chose a very simple natural linen from the fabric store and had them cut 5 yards (we had our kitchen table at the end of the dining room table, it was rather long) I left the edges raw and didn’t add anything to the fabric, I wanted it to be a neautral background.

Layer 2 = Ribbon.  Three widths and two colors (gold and dark brown) Are adhered to the table cloth with double stick tape.  No pieces, three LONG strips.

Layer 3 = Candles.  I wanted ridiculous amounts of candles.  I bought the ball candles, small pillar candles and tea lights with glass holders at various heights.  The different shapes of candles were then arranged on the table in “artful disarray”.  It was pretty magnificent seeing them all lit up!

Layer 4 = I’ll call them ‘colorful balls’.  These had been bunches on sticks meant to be additional decoration for floral arrangements, but I pulled them apart and spread them up and down the center of the table, careful to keep them away from the candle flames.

Layer 5 = Table setting.  Our everyday white dishes and clear glasses looked pretty happy on the printed paper placemats (why am I okay with paper placemats but not napkins? Who knows, I’m an enigma) My pretty napkins topped the plates and plain ol’ silverware finshed ‘er off.  Boom: perfect Katie table.

When I bought the frames for my produce paintings, I thought the black would work with the wrought iron/oil rubbed bronze look of the dining room chandelier. I was very wrong.

Because I have used gold framed artwork and the large gold framed mirror, the thick black frames were way too heavy and intrusive to the eye.  I lived with them for a while, hating them every time I walked by the dining room.  Should I buy new frames trimmed in gold to bring in all the metallic elements? Should I spray paint them the same gold as all the other frames in the room?

I decided it went against everything I do as a redesigner if I bought new frames when I had two perfectly changable frames right in front of me. And painting them the same gold as the other frames was resourceful but also a little boring and expected.

Out of the blue, I thought of the frame in my parents house that holds one of my grandmother’s (beautiful) paintings. It is an antique and is different from anything I’ve seen in stores. The raised edges are metallic gold but the depression between them is a beautiful shade of green.  Gold and green. How much more ‘Katie’ can you get?

So I painted the center, “depressed” section of the black frames with a mixture of a sage green, a touch of light gold and taupe. I used a sponge brush and kept the colors mottled to show the age/fading I desired.  The inner and outer raised edges of my frames were painted with a mixture of light gold, bronze and taupe to achieve a realistically antiqued finish.  When rack frame was done, I took it outside and gave it three coats of satin finish protective spray. 

Now, the frames are beautiful in their own right, and make the paitings look better and brighter as well. I am MUCH happier when I am in the dining room and am glad I decided to remake the frames rather than spend more money on new frames and let the black ones accumulate dust and take up space in the basement. 

I love the results.

I love it when I’m walking through a store and end up  blindsided by inspiration.  It happened with this pillow in Pottery Barn Kids. 

It’s such a great idea to make a letter to Santa into a cuddle pillow. I totally want to make this, with my own twist of course.

Now I just have to figure out what, exactly, my own twist IS!

I know I’m late posting this little tidbit, but if you like the idea, just bookmark this page for next year!

I needed some cute decorations for our front hall that trick or treaters would see from the street and as they came up our path.  These little guys were super simple, I just used a pencil to draw out easy bat silhouettes on black poster board and cut them out with scissors. 

Once I had a variety of sizes, I taped a few of them on the inside of the window and threaded the others with some black sewing thread and Hung them from the chandelier.  They were the perfect addition to this stop on the trick or treat trail.

I love wearing ballet flats. I have numerous (too many) pairs of them in every texture and color. I would love it if Addie could wear them too, but they always slip off of her feet.

When I found pair of rainbow sparkle flats in her size for $5.50 I couldn’t pass them up. I figured I could sew some pretty pink ribbon on each shoe and we could tie a bow to make sure they stayed on her foot.

Then I realized that if I used ribbon, she would never put on her shoes by herself. So I decided on elastic straps. I chose thin elastic (1/4″) and placed it toward the front of the shoe, but not so far forward it would be useless.

Turns out, it was still useless; the shoes kept slipping off of Addie’s heels. So I cut the elastic out of the shoe.

Next, I tried 1″ wide no roll elastic and moved it toward the back of the shoe. It now hits right at the highest part of her foot and the shoes don’t slip. I made bows out of light pink satin blanket binding and sewed them very securely onto the middle of the straps to make them a little more attractive.

Finished product is pretty darn adorable…I still have no idea if Addison will actually wear the shoes.  But if nothing else, they’ll look great on the floor of her closet!

We’re heading to Disneyworld next week and we are stocking up on princess gear. Addie has every princess dress there ever was but has outgrown her Cinderella dress.  When at Joann fabrics this morning we saw this blue sparkle fabric and we both thought “cinderella!” So I made this layered skirt and caplet then added jewels and she will not take it off! The tiara is her own addition. Oh, those are sparkle tights as well Can’t get enough glitter at our house.

Do you have kids? Here is a fun idea for a Halloween breakfast… Get small bisquick shake and serve pancake mix, add a couple of drops of red and yellow food coloring to make the mix Orange. On a hot skillet pan, pour out a pumpkin shape with stem. While the first side is cooking shake some green sugar sprinkled on the stem only and pop some chocolate chips in for a jack o lantern face. Make sure to do all this on the raw batter side before you flip the pancake. Once everything is in place, flip that dude over and finish cooking. Serve it as your kid likes it and enjoy the accolades and appreciation! Happy Halloween!

Check out this cute little bugger I found for the guest room today. How cute is this! Perfect for reminding people not to settle in TOO much…hahaha, I’m just kidding. Kind of.

What do you want to feel when you walk into your bedroom?  I wanted peace, refinement, calm and elegance.  I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t a girly flower-fest, I needed a balance between masculinity and femininity. My method was to imagine some of the most beautiful hotel rooms I have stayed in and use the most common element in all the rooms: neutrals.  High quality bedding in whites and creams and multiple textures, oatmeal colored walls, white textured lamp shades over clear glass bases.  None of the wood pieces match making the room feel “created” more than “purchased”.  Three simple pieces of artwork hang above the bed and tie in with the wall of art across the room.

A desk in dark wood fills the corner by the windows with a chandelier adds a little sparkle.  Floating shelves display a variety of frames and art pieces.  The large clock was a late addition when I needed to balance out the weight of the wall but is really helpful in the dead of night when Addie wakes up and we have no idea what time it is!

There are SO many windows in this room, and I love every single one.  White linen curtains flank each window adding even more brightness while still being simple and elegant.

This is an odd jump from bedroom to bathroom, but this little corner is a good example of tying in the overall feeling of the bedroom in with the bathroom.  Little touches like flowers and candles can seem really cliche when placed next to the bathtub but if you really use them, find a way to make them less cheesy.  My solution was to place them in apothocary jars and on a woven tray to take away from the ‘sweetness’ factor.

Again, candles by the bathtub = cheesy.  I know.  But someone in our house loves having candles during a bath and it isn’t me.  Don’t worry, it’s not Chris either.  Addie loves her some glamour mixed with her Dora bath toys and a silver candelabra seemed to fit the bill.

Our bathroom walls are a mint green and in order to keep the calm and relaxed feeling of the bedroom I decided to use various shades of green rather than use MORE color and make the room feel busy.

Again, I tried to keep the balance between masculine & feminine so Chris doesn’t feel like he’s visiting in Katie-land.  This bedroom and bathroom needed to feel like a retreat from everything else in the world…something just for us.  Somewhere with the best sheets and the most comfortable mattress and the fluffiest down comforter and softest towels.  I think I achieved that feeling…and letting him have a flat screen in our bedroom for the first time in years didn’t hurt much either!

Some (real) pumpkins, a few leaf garlands on clearance at hobby lobby and boom! An inviting front porch. Love it!

Some way, some how, I am going to make this pillow. I dig it SO much.