C&C Around the House

While Katie has shared with you photos of her beautiful home, I haven't opened my house to all of our C&C readers since I shared photos of the Mini Fashionista's room nearly 3 years ago (post here). It's not that I wouldn't welcome each and every one of you into my home... it's just that it's nothing that fantastic. Truth be told, I have no design sense when it comes to home decor. I am, for the most part, happy with our home, but it certainly doesn't look like a feature in Elle Decor.

All that said, I have been working on our master bedroom for the past year or so. Slowly we have painted a wall, gotten a new rug, lamp and pillow shams and finally, just this week finished a picture wall that has been over a year in the making.

So, since I am pretty happy (and proud) of the results, especially given my lack of decorating skills, I thought I would share it with all of you. Forgive the poor light and bad picture quality...

Welcome to our bedroom.

Rug, light fixture, pillow shams and lamp from School House Electric. Bedding from Dwell Studio

All of the frames, the mirror and the gold "urchins" came from a fantastic store here in Portland called Christopher David.

I purchased a print of Italy (bottom right) from Christopher David and liked the frame so much that I was able to order the same custom sized frames for all the other art and photos I had for the wall. Their prices are extremely reasonable, they are friendly and helpful and they also have an amazing coffee shop in the store, so I can drink my latte, eat a croissant and shop all at the same time!

I am excited to be able to change out the photos (in 3 of the frames) to keep the wall "current". 

If you are curious about the pillow shams and lamp, they came from one of my all time favorite  Portland stores called School House Electric. The print on them was designed by another Portland company called Egg Press and created in collaboration with School House.

Stay tuned in the coming months for an updated tour of the Mini Fashionista's room. She is getting a "big girl" bed!

C & C Around the House

Late last year I was desperately looking for a piece of art for our dining room.

I ended up finding this framed print, Orchid, by Kristy Gammill on One Kings Lane. And while it worked really well and I loved the pop of color in the otherwise sea of grey, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. But this was a good place holder until I found "the one." 

Fast forward to two weeks ago, and I came across this instagram post from Christopher David in Portland (Regan has blogged about them before). 

I was instantly drawn to the painting and sent my closest advisor to check it out in person. She called me from the shop and sent a photo of the full piece. What you can't see in the photo is the incredible texture. It is 13 layers of paint and also has pieces of sand and lava rock. A quick call to Cosmin, the artist and one of Christopher David's owners, and this baby was on its way from Portland, Oregon, to Washington, D.C. 

We hung it last night and I can't be more pleased. 

If you live in the D.C. area and are interested in the Kristy Gamill piece, I'm considering selling it. E-mail me at cardicouture@gmail.com for more info. 

C&C Around the House

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've recently made some changes in the Mini Fashionista's room. She has been in a toddler bed since she was 16 months old, and while it was still a great bed for her to sleep in, it wasn't quite big enough for family story time or middle of the night wake ups. We have a pretty strict rule in our house that the Mini does NOT sleep in our bed. In fact, I can count the number of times she has on one hand. For that reason, there are times when I have had to stay in her bed with her in the middle of the night to get her to fall back asleep. Two months ago, after spending an hour in her bed in the middle of the night, I decided it was time for a big bed. If not for her, then for me!

You may remember what the Mini's room looked like, but if not, here is a photo from the post I did before she was born. Quite ironically, it was exactly three years ago (post here). Where does the time go?

We have actually made a number of changes to the room in the last three years. The rug has been replaced (it shed like a Golden Retriever), the crib became a toddler bed, the room has been filled with toys and books and the wall decals are gone. The Mini Fashionista found removing them to be a great form of entertainment during her naps. So much for hours of hard work to place them. 

After the removal of the wall decals, we had two maps framed by Christopher David (the same store that helped with my bedroom picture wall). We hope to share our love for travel with the Mini, so these maps serve both form and function. 

Here is the room before the arrival of the new bed! As a side note...if anyone is interested in buying the toddler bed/crib sheet set, I'm getting ready to sell it at a consignment sale for $35 (sheet, pillowcase, duvet cover and crib/bed skirt).  It's custom made Amy Butler fabric and in great shape. You can email cardicouture@gmail.com.

Here it is after!

The bed is from Room & Board (The Piper Bed) and is red with a powder coated finish. The wood is a maple veneer. The sheets are from Garnet Hill (Dot to Dot Percale Bedding). If you are looking for nice, well priced sheets, I highly suggest checking out their site.

Do you think she likes it?

C&C on the Move

This past weekend Katie and Dr. B came to visit us here in Portland. We hit up some of our favorite dining spots, Elephant's Delicatessen, Caffe Mingo, and Daily Cafe, did some damage at the Nike Employee store, took a barre3 class and spent a day adventuring to Mt. Hood and Hood River.

Here are a few photos from our MLK weekend adventures.

It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day at Mt. Hood.  We spent some time at Timberline Lodge and outside in the snow. Oregon is short on snow, but we still had fun.

Even The Muppet (a.k.a. our labradoodle Winston) got to come along!

After our stop at Mt. Hood we ventured to Hood River for some lunch and Beer. We had lunch at Double Mountain Brewery and Taproom and then the boys did some beer tasting at Pfriem Family Brewers. 

On Sunday Katie and I hit up the barre3 studio in the Pearl District and then followed it up with a coffee at Christopher David. 

I will leave you with some final thoughts from the Mini Fashionista.