Designing the nursery.... slowly yet surely...

Our house is so weird. I don't feel like getting into details of the weird layout but trust me - it's weird. OK look below at this floor plan to get an idea:

And you know, looking at this floor plan - it doesn't seem that weird!? Anyway, there's a point to the weird floor plan rant - it took us about 5 months to decide where the damn nursery would go! I'm secretly jealous of people with actual bedrooms. with closets. I read these design blogs and go to my friends houses with hallways that lead to individual private bedrooms (did I mention with closets!?) and I get a twinge of jealousy. 

ahhhh to decorate an actual bedroom for my unborn baby boy! what a dream! Then I come back to reality that i'm in a 150 year old drafty ass house with no proper heat, no private bedrooms, old electrical where fuses get blown on a too regular basis oh and with a rental unit taking up a quarter of the house! (i think my pregnancy hormones are in full gear today! ha!) 

Anyway - I do truly love my house and our intent all along was to slowwwwly bring her back to all her glory. Some days are better than others. Some days I wonder how the house is still standing!? One of my biggest fears is that the house will literally crumble to the ground and we'll be left with nothing but the nonfunctional fireplaces. (that I swear a funky smell seeps through depending on the weather. I think someone died in them and their scent slowly trickles out now and again... )

Whew... sometimes a girls gotta hate on her house! ANYWAY we decided to put the nursery in the "dining room" room. You can see it on the floor plan. That back door is now sealed and a huge ugly AC unit is there in its place. Oh and the wall between the dining room and laundry room will have a continuous wall. This was the black room I posted about HERE and below is a picture of what it looked like about a year ago. (it has since then become and office... a dining room... and storage room...)

AND I made a big step into the "accepting the fact a baby is indeed coming into this house in less than 12 weeks - yikes!" and bought a rug for the nursery. We have bought NOTHING for this poor little guy yet! Don't judge us though - I have about 4 friends I am inheriting a ton of baby booty from so I thankfully do not have to buy tons of clothes, etc. for him. It's all in storage until I get this room going...

So, what oh what kind of rug did Boo buy for this black nursery!? A trippy forrest green geometric chunky rug! Best part is that it was only $100 at Tuesday Morning! YES!

It seriously looks so good with all the black! I plan on painting the ceiling and trim and everything black. People think I'm nuts but then they see the tiny little room and get it. It's not a goth baby room. More of a chic baby room ;) 

Oh and this will be the crib:

classic! 

So we begin the nursery... wish me luck!

New Obsession: Faye Toogood

I just read a wonderful article on British designer Faye Toogood in the weeks NY Times Style Magazine. I just fell in love with her style! She has such a great eye and I found myself staring and analyzing every photograph of her home.

These chairs are amazing. Love the sconces. I want to redo our fireplaces with slate like this above pic...

This kitchen is sooooo cool! I love the huge quirky knobs!! 

She manages to achieve the perfect balance between minimalism and "things" (some may say clutter?!) I love that it's not trendy and the color palette is perfection in my opinion! It's definitely more of an artists home and not for everyone but I simply LOVE it!! What do you think? Check out the link and a video tour HERE.

Halloween Bywater Style...

 I would say the people living in my hood get a little more creative when it comes to their Halloween decor than most... I love the DIY style most bring and it's almost a competition of who comes up with the wackiest! Here's just a few snaps I took while walking the other day...

Googly eyes!! 

Every year this house puts crows, moss and branches on the front of their house. It's so simple yet so spoooooky!!

Nothing like some crazy decapitated heads hanging down!

This one below is just so simple and classic.

Creepy bride...

We bought a parachute off ebay (don't even ask...) and decided to string it in the tree at the park, Clouet Gardens across from our house. We attached a skeleton to it like the skeleton parachuted down and died in the tree! AAAhhhhhh trust me, it is funny! 

Here's Hubs and I with my 2 aunts & my uncle. My uncle loves to dress in drag any chance he gets! He walks better in 4" heels than I ever could.

We also tried something new this year at our park, Clouet Gardens. We had a movie night Halloween with a crafts hour as well. We thought mayb 20 - 30 people would show up and boy were we shocked! We had over 100 people come out!! It was great. There are so many kids in the neighborhood that were playing in the park. I'm glad it was such a hit and now we can really get planning on something great for next Halloween.

Here's a snap of the movie, Beetlejuice. The screen is about 14' x 12' so it's pretty big! Unfortunately it rained halfway through the movie so we had to call it a night :(

And there's a Halloween in the Bywater! 

Cool Art

I saw this art piece at Antenna Gallery last month during the monthly Second Saturday and thought it was really cool. Simple but I loved it.

The artist threaded pink thread onto the bristles and matched the thread with pink paint for the brush. (I'm assuming that's what they did, I didn't ask!) Also, terribly sorry but no artist credit for it :( I just snapped the picture without thinking.

Now for a tiny rant about Second Saturday - for all you NOLA locals who enjoy art - I urge you all to check out the Second Saturday art walk!! It's every second Saturday of the month and about 10 - 15 galleries mostly on St. Claude Avenue (Marigny/Bywater area) exhibit new shows.

 It's a lot of fun and a very cool scene! Think free wine, food trucks, hipsters everywhere... It reminds me of my NYC days in a way... when moving back to NOLA I was worried I would miss the art and culture that NYC had to offer and it's nice to have this monthly event to inspire me. A lot of the original art is very affordable so perfect for people just starting to collect art. We have bought a few pieces. 

Some outdoor art at another gallery. We were trying to look like a rock band album cover... failed miserably. (you see the creepy guy between us?! haaha we were going for Stevie Nicks esque?!!!)

Anyways - GO TO SECOND SATURDAY for some local cultcha dawlin's!!!!