Sandberg Ramblings

Well now that Ames is 15 months old his room is officially done!  I've been dreaming of this room since before we were even expecting a baby.  I always knew I wanted a room that was somewhat gender neutral,  with a mostly neutral color scheme and pops of bright color.  It's taken me 3 years to make and collect everything for his room, so it's definitely a project that's near and dear to me.  The green chair I found at an antique store while we lived in Iowa,  and when I got it home,  I realized on the bottom that it says it was also made in Iowa.  So it's a pretty sentimental souvenir from our time in Iowa -  especially since that is where Ames was born.  I also made quite a few things in this room -  like the mobile and some of the artwork  and my mom made the beautiful quilt  and helped me with the curtains.  Ames loves to hang out in here during the day too.  Mostly reading...

(the dirt we are so excited about. Well I guess it is grass covered dirt) It's been an exciting week around here! Ames finally has a real crib to sleep in, we celebrated our 5 year anniversary, and we signed on a lot to build our house!  Yes, our baby is almost 6 months old and finally has a crib. Since we knew we would be moving shortly after he was born, we held off buying one and just borrowed a bassinet and have had him in a pack and play since moving to Utah. Ames also went to his first baseball game and is loving his jumper these days.  I can't believe we have been married 5 years! We packed up ourselves and the breast pump :) and headed to Midway for our first night away from Ames. We stayed at the Homestead and swam in the crater mineral pool there. It was great to get away but of course just as exciting to get back and see our little guy. I'm so lucky to have Landon. He works hard everyday for our family and has made all of my b...

I registered for 2 of these lamps when we got married and I honestly still really like them, I just don't love them anymore. After a few years I'm just ready for something new, but new lamps aren't in my budget right now with the slew of baby things, so when I found 2 cans of white gloss spray paint in our storage room while packing I knew exactly what to do. I bought 2 spools of black and white striped ribbon at Joann Fabrics and I was off! Just tape of your cord, socket, and switch and start with a light layer of paint. You may even want to start with a primer coat. I didn't want to have to go buy any so I did without, and I felt like it still worked well.  I did several, probably 6 or 7 really light coats, letting it dry about 15-20 min in-between to keep it from dripping.  For the shade I adhered the ribbon around the top and bottom with fabric glue. Because my shade isn't a straight drum shade, and it tapers a bit, the botto...

As I've said before, since we will be moving in about 3 months, our little Ames won't have a nursery for a while. For now I've transformed a little corner of our bedroom into his temporary "mini nursery." The top of our dresser, my sock drawer, and a section of my closet, have turned into a changing table and clothing storage. We're getting closer and closer to being completely ready!   This experience has been really good for me.  I've really been able to focus on what's most important and not stress over things that don't really matter. It's made me cut back and realize what the necessities for having a newborn really are.  I've still had fun making fun little things like the artwork and mobile, but it's honestly nice not to have an entire nursery overwhelming me. Although it would be nice to have more storage space :)  A big thanks to my friend Karissa for letting us borrow her bassinet for a couple months!  Well I...

Well I am making a little progress on my office!  I cleared everything off and made use of some accessories I already had as well as purchasing a few new ones.  Here's a list of accessories just in case you want to spruce up your own office!  - Snow & Graham Calendar - Mini Green Ikat Bowl - Wooden Tape Dispenser - Giraffe Pillow - Homegoods - similar one here - Striped Throw- trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico - similar one here - Paper Tray, Patterned Pencils / Pens, & Cork Box - Target  - Bubble Glass Mini Bowl - World Market  The wall art is just temporary until I get my striped inspiration board done. Then I will transfer them to that. For now, this post gave me some great ideas for creating a temporary gallery wall.  I also used this idea to create the blue pencil vase. Just a $3 glass vase from TJMaxx and some acrylic paint! (The stripe on it is just an oversized, colored rubber band. You ...

This is the space I spend the majority of my time in. My office.  As you can tell, it is lacking in design attention. Since I'm spending a lot of time here I figure it could use a little cheering up.  We are moving in about 4 months so I haven't taken on many design projects in my home, but everything I'm planning for this space we will be able to take with us when we go.  My plans include: - Spray painting my pharmacy lamp with white lacquer  - A DIY oversized inspiration board in the black and white awning stripe fabric to hang on the wall behind my desk - adding a great wall clock, some bright office accessories, and hopefully a colorful kilim rug.  I'll be posting the finished product as well as the DIYs and such along the way, so be sure to check back in on my progress!  Here are some pictures I'm using as my inspiration... (P.S. - Don't forget to enter yesterday's giveaway !)   ...

When it comes to interior design and fashion, I'm a gold lover. I love gold finishes, accents, and accessories as I'm sure many of you do.  I have long been searching for the perfect gold spray paint to add a little gold in my own home. Everything I've tried has been too brown, too yellow, or not metallic enough.  That is until I found this gem... Unfortunately I have only been able to find it in this short cuts size, even online, but it is THE perfect gold spray paint. It dries amazingly fast as well which is a huge bonus.  I tried this , which I thought would be the same since it's made by Krylon, but it was basically a huge was of money. Way too brassy and yellow for my taste.  So for now I will stick with my short cuts :)  Here's a few of the little projects I've used it on lately...

Well I may not be able to decorate Ames' real nursery for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on a design for it! I have purchased a few of these items already and can't wait for the day when I can actually put it all together.  I don't really want the room to necessarily have a "theme" but the little gallery wall I've started has a bit of a zoo animal theme. Other than that, I just want everything else in the room to be mostly just different patterns and textures. As far as color, the room will probably be mostly white and grey with pops of color.  Here's a few nursery's I'm using for inspiration... Quilt / handmade by me Crib / Pouf / Glider / Pillow / Lamp / Mobile / Crib Sheet / Cube Sculpture Rhino / Giraffe / Striped Rug / Cowhide / Elephant Print / Owl Print /  Sheets (using for curtains) Wild Thing Print - can't find the source anywhere!  Green Chair...

Many people who come over to our place are amazed that it doesn't have the hand-me-down look of most newly married apartments.  Believe me, it did once.  At one point we had that unsightly leather, overstuffed, lazy boy loveseat/sofa set; black and grey metal office desk; tv armoire in a very traditional cherry stain with gold hardware, and everything else was cheap, black, and from Ikea. Don't get me wrong, I love Ikea, but you have to make the right choices there. At the time, I didn't really have a clue what I wanted and so I took the safe road just like everyone else, and chose black and simple. We were grateful to have furniture and so I did what I could with what I had.  Here's a glimpse back in time... Unlike most people, I'm not willing to wait until my husband is done with school and we have a house to actually love the space I live in. After all, I did name my design business Carpe Diem Design, so that really is my design phi...