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I was looking at girly rooms on Pottery Barn the other day. When we moved into this house I was so excited to decorate Reiley's room. I had a plan- a vision. But- so did Reiley. And because it was her room I let her plan and vision take over. Every once in a while though I see things that I know I love and could work into her room though. In honor of my friend, Christy, who overheard as a teenager someone state inside a dressing room..."Butterflies are sooo in right now!" I explored some options for room decor with butterflies... here are my findings. 

All of these ideas "seem" like super easy do-it-yourself types of projects and would be great for not only a little girl's room- but a summer party or decor. The butterfly chandelier is from PBkids-but I think with a butterfly punch and some string you could make it in an afternoon. The wall butterflies are also from PBkids-and with a few templates and patterned paper would be easy to make. The butterfly decorated lanterns are a project from Martha Stewart, as are the butterfly table cards on the wine glasses (the template is available for download). I think I will have to try my hand at a few of these in the next few weeks to keep us busy during the summer... 

I also used some butteflies within my centerpieces for my wedding. I wanted to keep it simple and inexpensive- I had Justin cut and stain wood squares to ground my centerpieces. Then I ordered these little notecards from Compendium (which I had, had my eye on for several years). Next, I picked up a few olive branches and placed them in a terra cotta pot wrapped in burlap. After all of that I thought it needed something else so I threw down some butterfly confetti I had made. Simple and inexpensive. 

So, if you are in the mood for some butterflies- or have a party coming up (or a little girls birthday party even)...

I did up this template for the wall butterflies if anyone wants to give it a go also- the smaller ones I am going to use the template on the Martha Stewart site (found on the table cards). 

Download Butterfly template 

photos of my workroom

little paper storage

a half empty inspiration board

some tins that store various items (chipboard, felt shapes, charms, vintage findings...)

A little tree stump I made in high school pottery class. I still remember the assignment was to build something with a lot of texture...I think I made a good choice. 

typewriter...I really wish that last "F" would fit...

vintage pan with embellishment tins ( I put my kit club embellishments in here or little groupings of random embellishments- like when you use a portion of embellishments but have a few left)

lack of ribbon organization. I am going to try to tackle this during this week. 

and a little display area. See those little beads on the floor to the left- it gets much worse when you open that closet (that is Reiley's crafting side of the closet). 

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I just updated the wholesale section of the blog last night (well, I added a section) as I finally worked out a wholesale guide for products in the shop. 

one year ago

(above: elevations and exterior perspective)

I was graduating college. 

I would like to reference a quote to Tommy Boy here: 

Tommy: "Did you hear I finally graduated?" 

Richard: "Yeah, in just a shade under a decade, too. All right." 

Tommy: "You know, a lot of people go to college for seven years." 

Richard: "I know. They're called doctors."

Go here to listen to it....then come right back

I love Tommy Boy.(were you calling from a walkie talkie?)

I can totally relate to Tommy. Not because I did poorly but because it took me a year to decide on a major. Then I had Reiley and could not go full time. So, I did what I could and 8 years later...I am not even using my degree as intended. But I feel I learned a lot and without my education would not be who I am today. At the very least- college prepared me for life. 

But because it is about that time for college graduations,  I felt compelled to revisit all of the hard work that I did only a year ago. Only it seems so much longer than a year ago. I thought I would share. 

(above: site model)

For those of you not aware of what a capstone project is... 

capstone |ˈkapˌstōn|

nouna stone fixed on top of something, typically a wall.• Archaeology a large, flat stone forming a roof over the chamber of a megalithic tomb.• figurative a concluding achievement.

Because I would always refer to my capstone all year long and nobody ever knew what I was talking about. 

(above: main floor plan & exterior photos) 

My capstone used a very old feed and grain building in the area. I chose it because it seriously looked cool to me and was interesting. Plus I like old things. I was not aware at the time the difficulties I would have in understanding the building (as there was not floor plans of the building- it being built in the early 1900's). I went on a few tours of the building and even walked around the downtown area to understand what the community was like before deciding on a purpose for the building itself. 

Interestingly enough, while I was starting my project, I was learning the building had just been purchased in order to save it from demolishment and that the community was looking for a use for the building. 

(above: community lounge perspective and concept)

My concept was connection to the community through history and the natural environment. ( and I apologize-I was noticing I never did credit the artists whose artwork was shown in these slides as I should have- and now I am not sure if I could find it since it was well over a year ago) 

I decided this building needed to benefit the community in different ways to earn revenue to pay for itself and give back to the community. The community is full of artists (mainly sculpture) and the building itself is only a few blocks from downtown. 

The finished building included lofts, apartments, a community lounge, cafe, yoga studio and of course...a paperie. 

(above: apartment & loft perspective/ materials)

And- the cool thing is...just the other day Justin was telling me he heard about 'my' building on the news. That they might have a use for it. A non-profit real estate developer is interested in purchasing the building and using it as an affordable living/working space for artists and art/cultural organizations. I was so happy!

(top: yoga studio perspective & materials; bottom: paperie perspective and materials)

I know...totally lame name for a paper store. I tried to come up with something unique but ran out of time. I hoped most Interior Design majors would not understand how lame it was. Or maybe they were on to me the entire time. 

(above: cafe perspective and materials)

I thought the paperie would be my favorite part to design in the entire building...but it wasn't. The cafe the best part of the entire project for me. After learning that this particular area of the building powered the electricity/lighting for downtown and nearby residences in the community as it was just starting out I knew I had to tie that in to the theme. 

(above: cafe lighting and kinetic structure concept)

And...luckily I have a husband who is an electrical engineer to help me out with the details. 

I created this entire electrical/kinetic structure that would provide movement throughout the cafe. I even built a model of it (to make sure I would get an A...and I did). 

Thanks for letting me share my hard work that was done so very long ago ;) 

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All artwork & photos are the property of the writer of this website. Please do not use without permission. 

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We surprised Reiley on Saturday with a trip to the museum. The current exhibition is on natural disasters, which she has been very much interested in since last year when a nearby town was hit with a tornado. Since then she has declared she wants to become a 'tornado scientist' when she grows up...so I knew she would love it! 

So, we woke her up early and got all ready. Jumped in the car and she only asked a few time if we would tell her where we were going- but we did not tell her until we got there. 

When we pulled up she knew where we were- but I pointed out the signs on the building and she was very excited to learn we were there for her and her love for destruction- i mean natural disasters. 

All in all it was a fun day and a nice ending to our spring break. 

The billiard room is officially clean- but very empty. My favorite part has to be the carpet tiles...and the lighting. I have played a few games and I am quite terrible. It is all in good fun. 

We have plans to actually finish it off with trim, finish the busted out wall with a stair railing, and cover the entrance to our storage cubby with some sort of hinged door. 

I am actually liking our section where we busted out the wall. It opens it up quite well. I am excited to see how the railing will look. 

Eventually there will also be a small seating area (that is more counter height to allow for viewing) like this: 

and a small bar of some type- something like this: 

And...we have a lot of antique billiard items such as newpaper articles, books and other findings that will go up on the walls for display. 

So- it is very exciting! We just have the bare bones of it so far- but it is going to be a work in progress for us while we start on other things. 

I have been working (lots!) on my new items for my shop and have it 99% completed! There are three new lines that will be coming out hopefully by the end of this week or beginning of next week! It is all very exciting for me and I have the samples gathered up by each line on my work table right now- and they look like so much fun! In addition there are some redesigns of some product and most retired items have been removed from the shop already. 

So, hopefully by the end of the week I will be adding over 20 new items in the shop! 

I will give updates and sneak peeks as they come!

Are you ready for some seriously blurry photos? With absolutely horrible lighting? 

Here we go... 

Reiley drew a sketch to help the guys get the pool table down the stairs and into the newly finished billiard room...

The guys did not follow her sketch though.

So they were doomed from the get-go...

In a quick 15 minutes we had to make the decision to take down the remainder of the wall leading downstairs. 

and so we lost a mere 18 more inches of wall. 

Who needs a wall anyway? 

See all those gauges in the wall on the right there? 

That does not make me happy... 

And we're clear! 

Wall? What wall? 

Really though- we are putting up a wrought iron railing sometime in the future. That way when people come over they don't look like a bunch of lemmings jumping over the edge. 

So this is just going to be a bit larger of a railing now. 

It will be our feature. 

I will update with our updates as they go. 

Right now it is a horrible mess but they are playing on it after a long night of setting it up. 

We have all the sanding done, primer, all the walls are finally painted...

Right now we are working on installing the carpet tiles- which are looking really good ( I am quite jealous). 

And as I write this we are getting more and more people over to help move the pool table down the stairs and into the room. Then Justin's uncle is coming over to set up the table tomorrow (he does that for a living). 

The rest will be finished up over the weekend (the molding, doors will get swapped out and all the finishing touches. 

Here is the section of wall that was knocked out to get the table into the room. The wall was actually already angled like that but we just knocked down one more stud. Eventually, there will be some type of railing put in so that if we ever need to move the table out we can easily do so. 

All the lighting is finished and it looks great! 

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And I got some happy mail today! I am in love with this new line and ordered way too much of it! 

It actually is even prettier in real life- the colors are very crisp and bright! 

If only my photos that I have on order would have came in- I think that will be Monday though. 

So, I will probably spend a good portion of my "spring break" scrapbooking since I have not in so long and totally am missing it.