Little Bean (6 Weeks)

Posted by Lindsay C on May 7, 2011 in Baby Stuff, Featured Articles, flickr, Me, Photography, Pregnancy | 2 comments

This picture was taken a few weeks ago and the little bean was the size of a coffee bean! I don’t remember what Baby Center or The Bump said (as for the size of the little baby) but we used a coffee bean instead.  And I dressed in browns to match.

That was a fun one – and a really sunny day! I could barely see after I took my sunglasses off.

Elaine’s website is here.  My boots are from Target.  My jeans and tee are from Lands’ End Canvas.  The scarf is from Old Navy. And my hair is copied from A Cup of Jo.

I’m so crafty…

Posted by Lindsay C on May 7, 2011 in Baby Stuff, Featured Articles, flickr, Me, Photography, Pregnancy | 0 comments

I make people!

Yep…there is a bun in the oven over here at Casa Christensen, and we are soooo excited! And so excited for Harper to have a sibling!  (That graphic is via here – pretty clever!).

And to document this exciting time in our lives, I’ve enlisted the help of my photographer friend, Elaine. She is so awesome, especially as she has committed to spending so much time with me from now until December, but to be honest we’re having lots and lots of fun with this project already.

We’ve dubbed it “Growing a Baby Bump Maternity Series (aka Baby C. #2)” and it’s pretty fun so far! And basically what we’re doing is taking a weekly photo with the fruit or vegetable that BabyCenter or The Bump compares the size of the growing little baby to in the weekly e-mails that I get.  Or we’ll improvise based on the size…because I didn’t really want to take a picture with a kidney bean. 

We started at 5 weeks, because before that it was the size of a tiny seed.  But believe me, I knew at 3 weeks and I probably e-mailed Elaine a day or 2 after we found out!  But at 5 weeks it was the size of a little pea (or sweet pea!).  Crazy, right? It’s kind of amazing to see how fast it grows!  And it’s amazing how fast you grow with baby number 2! Seriously, the baby is the size of a raspberry now at 8 weeks and I look like I did at about 16 weeks last time!

Now, I want to clarify that I didn’t think this up all by myself.  If you do a little googling you’ll see lots of pregnant women posing with fruits and veggies.  I’m just lucky that I have my professional photographer friend taking the pictures.   My favorite is the pregnancy series by this woman (her name is Carolee), who is a professional photographer herself, so I am curious to know who is taking HER picture.  Maybe her husband or it’s on a timer.  Or an assistant.  But her photos (and her clothes) are really cute!  Congrats to her!

Anyway, to the photos!

She also takes my portrait each time. It’s pretty nice to have some good pictures of yourself, especially for your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.            THANK YOU ELAINE!!

I’ll save the rest of the weekly photos for their own post.  Enjoy and thanks for all of your well wishes!! We are sooo excited to meet the newest member of the family…but as Juno says we’ll have to wait for him or her to “cook a little longer” and “get a little cuter!”

{I’m so crafty graphic via here.}

stir crazy

Posted by Lindsay C on Mar 27, 2011 in Bedroom, Decor, DIY, Featured Articles, handmade, Real Rooms | 0 comments

Yes, another bedroom post.  I do realize that was the last thing I blogged about.  But I can’t help it!  This is what happens when “Spring” weather doesn’t really arrive, no matter what the calendar says.  We were stuck in the house so I do a little work, we do a little cleaning, we watch a lot of TV but it all gets old. Fast.  My husband would stare out the windows and dream up landscaping plans for the summer.  So we start looking for projects around the house.  Without stepping foot outside or even getting into the car to go get supplies.

Saturday, 4:00 PM. I decide we need a headboard behind our bed.  So I start snooping around the house to see what fabrics I have on hand.  I have a pretty ticking stripe, but not much of it.  I decide I can upholster 2 small rectangles to attach to the wall, explain how I plan to do this and see what the husband thinks.  He can see my train of thought, but he thinks it will be too small.  So I keep looking through my fabrics and pull out a navy and cream linen in a floral, not thinking he will agree at all (why are men anti-flower??) but he says he likes it and I have a lot so we whip out the tape measure and see what kind of space we need to fill behind the bed.  We decide that 18″ tall x 78″ wide will do.

So here is how we DIY’ed a headboard in less than 2 hours.

Our supplies:

• 3/4″ particle board (aka subfloor material) or any other plywood, 2x’s or scrap wood you have will do
• 2-3 yards of fabric
• batting, stuffing, polyfil, or whatever fluffy material you can want to use (ideally you’d want a piece of foam cut to the size of the wood/particle board, wrapped with quilting batting.  We used what we had!)
• heavy duty staples
• screws of various lengths
• 1×3 molding or other medium sized strips of wood
• tape measure, level, drill and bits

Steps:

Cut your base.  Like I said, we had a few sheets of 3/4″ subfloor particle board handy so using a tape measure, chalk snap line (to draw straight lines to cut) and a reciprocating saw we cut a rectangle that was 18″x78″.  Then we wrapped 3 sides in fabric (wrap the corners like a present), stapling the fabric down as we went.  Don’t pay attention to the Christmas lights and aluminum boat in the garage.

Unfortunately I cannot claim 99% of the handiwork here.  Thanks, honey…he was all over it while I offered suggestions, took pictures, and made sure the 2 year old was entertained.

Next step: stuff it.  We had 1 bag of Polyfil (pillow stuffing), and some old pillows that we didn’t use anymore.  So we ripped them open and used that, too.  We stood the headboard up on it’s end and stuffed it, trying to make it as even as possible within the fabric and smoothed as we went.

After it was even to our liking, we pulled the last side of fabric over the edge of the particle board and stapled.

Now we started talking about how the heck to attach it to the bed or the wall or whatever we could do.  We decided we didn’t want it flat against the wall for some dimension, and we could hide how it was attached behind the bed near the floor.  So we used some spare molding we had and cut 4 pieces for the corners, and cut the rest in half to make 2 long strips.

Then using shorter screws we attached the 6 pieces to the back of the headboard. 1 in each corner and 2 coming off the bottom.

Then we drilled pilot holes in the longer parts (that would be screwed to the wall) so the wood wouldn’t crack and stay strong.

Now we’re ready to hang it!

Using a level on top we just each held a side and screwed the support boards to the wall.

By 6:00 PM we had pushed the bed back, made the bed and I snapped some pictures.  You’ll might notice I sewed a pillow using the aforementioned ticking stripe I originally wanted for the headboard.  I wanted to tie the blue headboard in with the new euro shams (that I mentioned here). And I thought the stripe might do that.  Plus I’m a sucker for stripes.

Then I wonder if the old orange shams might tie in better so I throw them on and give it the ol’ eagle eye. And take a pic.

We decide we still like the green.

Side note: while my husband napped on Friday I switched out the stripey yellow roman shades that I’ve been whining about with the brown ones in the other room.  He didn’t notice until Saturday morning.  Then he asked why I hung them so high…I said “to make the windows look bigger!” Duh!

My room yesterday morning:

My room this morning:

Let’s see how long I leave it alone this time! Happy Spring!

Ready for its close up…

Posted by Lindsay C on Feb 20, 2011 in Bedroom, Decor, Featured Articles, Me, Real Rooms | 1 comment

My bedroom! I know, I know, you’ve been waiting in anticipation to see it.   It basically looks exactly the same as it has for last 6 months or more.  Only the euro shams are new as of the last week…I used to have a pair of orange and white ones, but they just didn’t work.  And the only reason I thought they didn’t work was because of those yellowy striped roman shades, which I wanted to keep.  So I had to search for a pattern or color to work with a yellowy off-white, a white, and gray.

Anyway, starting from the beginning…we moved into this room about a year ago.  It used to be Harper’s nursery.  It’s technically smaller than the other room we were in, and has a smaller closet, but it’s more of a square.  The other room is a long rectangle, and when you have a king size bed a square will suit it better.  Plus this room has a tiny half bathroom, and it’s nice to have the room with the bathroom.  So we ordered a new bed online, and when it arrived we moved into the other room, painted, put the bed together and I began decorating little by little.  We also needed another clothes storage idea (hence the dresser and armoire), because we lost half of our closet space, but gained a bathroom.

So back to the Euro shams…they were orange and white tile pattern Pottery Barn shams (which I’m not using, so if you’re interested in seeing or buying them, let me know!). My first thought were for dark gray ones like this (via West Elm).

But I didn’t want it to get too boring with just a solid color and a lot of different textures.  So I consulted my online friend Maggie, and she thought darker was good, but some color would be fun.  She thought the West Elm shams would be good, or suggested I just go crazy with these (via Dwell Studio).  I love them, it’s just a little out of my budget, though!

So I kept searching…and waiting…and checking eBay.  Then I found a pair of West Elm euro shams in similar colors as the peacock set on eBay and decided to bid on them.  I hate bidding, I like to buy it now, so I put in a lowball bid and forgot about it.  And as my Green Bay Packers were winning the Superbowl (woot!) I got an e-mail saying that I won the shams!  So I paid for them and they were on their way, and I crossed my fingers hoping that they’d tie the room together and actually I think that they work quite well!  I am basically forcing it to work as I don’t want to replace the window blinds, but it’s all growing on me.

10 points to you if you know who else has this pattern in their bedroom in the home decor online blogging world.  I really did run across the shams by accident, knew who else had them so I wasn’t sure if they’d work, but I’m loving them now.  And 100 points to my friend Sarah who knew exactly who I’m talking about when I showed her the eBay photo of my shams.  And she did it while we were watching the Superbowl! Yes, I’m talking about the Youngsters at Young House Love (Hi Sherry and John!).

I swear I took a photo from this angle with the blind closed…oops.  Don’t I have a sweet view out there?? Neighbor’s green house…that green roof makes the light in our whole room green sometimes.

And for the rest of the little details…sorry, no time to link to everything…upper paint color is Wildwood by Benjamin Moore.  Lower is Acadia White by BM.  Bedside lights are IKEA,window blinds are from Home Depot, white sheets are from Wal-Mart (Canopy collection – very soft!) and the duvet cover is from the Chic Chenille duvet cover from Linensource. The gray flannel blanket is from the Home Shopping Network.

Frames (below) are IKEA…”L” is a Flickr find that I ordered a print of…Love Poster is from {Oh Brooke.} It used to be in Harper’s room.  Little silhouettes are a $5 for the pair antique store find.

Same for Glenn’s “G” and silhouette.

Our bed is a platform bed with drawers underneath.  We needed to be able to pull them out, so regular side tables wouldn’t work…this is our solution: antique crates screwed to the wall.  They used to hold apples.  Now they hold books and magazines I don’t read…remotes, charging iPods and cell phones.

Glenn’s side…

And just for fun…the opposite sides of the room to get a good layout. The cedar chest was made by Glenn’s great-uncle Glenn, and that dresser needs a paint job.  Apparently the bedroom is a good place to store golf clubs.  And I want a new light…probably a light-less fan, then add some recessed lights around the room.  I know a good electrician.   The door to the bathroom is on the right.

Half-bath…recently painted by my husband (Ashley Gray by Benjamin Moore – the same color we have in our living room). Yay for using leftover paint!  Glenn’s “closet” on the right.  Flat screen on top.

Other corner of the room.  Glenn’s closet (armoire purchased online).  My closet.  I hung curtains instead of bi-pass doors.  Little chair that I just hang clothes on.  Wedding photos (by Kathi Corder) on the walls in here.  The floors are laminate in an oak.  I normally am not a fan of oak but I really like my floors.  The main part of the house is a darker wood laminate.

Let me know if you have any other questions! Thanks for reading.

Not your grandma’s laminate.

Posted by Lindsay C on Feb 13, 2011 in Featured Articles, inspiration, Kitchen, Likely Favorites | 0 comments

I think that every single house I’ve lived in has had laminate countertops.  Blonde, faux-wood, bull-nose countertops with an ugly backsplash.  I’m just that lucky.

But now I live in a house that we own, so I constantly mull over countertop choices because we get to put in whatever we want.  And I am actually considering laminate.  One of the main reasons is because I think we can build it ourselves.  And the other reason is because these pictures are of laminate countertops.  For real!!

And my personal favorite (and Glenn’s, too!):

It’s called Petrified Wood.  Badass. Pardon my French.  But look how awesome the close-up looks!

I’d rock it in my kitchen.  The drama of granite without the price!

All the kitchen images are of Formica in their new 180FX series. They’ve taken photos of actual giant slabs of granite, marble, wood, etc., and printed it actual size on laminate (plastic) sheets.  The real sheets are 4′x8′ or bigger so there is no small repeat like with cheesier versions. And I’ve seen DIY videos of simply adhering the sheets to 3/4″ particle board (aka subfloor material = cheap!), trimming it with a router, and ouila! You have a new countertop!

This gets me very excited! I know I’ve said it before but this puts a kitchen remodel closer than I’ve imagined! Enjoy!

{All images via Formica Flickr}.  Except the one of my lame kitchen!

trading spaces…completely

Posted by Lindsay C on Feb 1, 2011 in Crafts, Decor, Fabrics, Featured Articles, inspiration | 1 comment

So I’m at work today and decide to take a break and walk down to the antique store.  While I’m there I remember that I need to check out lace (hopefully large pieces like curtains or tablecloths) for decor for a wedding I’m helping with this summer.  Nada.  Nothing but teeny scraps or doilies.  So that makes me think of possibly buying it from a fabric store and hemming it if needed.  So I decide to check out fabric.com.  What do I see right on the homepage? Besides a sale on Packers and Steelers print – GO PACKERS!!!  But a line of fabric by former Trading Spaces carpenter Ty Pennington! And they’re actually pretty interesting patterns.

I thought they said home decor weight so my first thought was upholstery…but as I look closer it says “use for quilting and craft projects,” so I guess it’s too light.  Boo.  But they would make a kick-ass quilt! Or pillowcase, even if it isn’t heavy.

Ask and you shall receive! The patterns are available in quilting AND home decor weight – yippee! Yes, I’m too lazy to go back and delete my last comment.  Just enjoy the pretty pictures, ok??

For a heftier price per yard…of course.

You’re welcome.   Go check it out by clicking here.

My dirty little secret

Posted by Lindsay C on Jan 16, 2011 in Featured Articles, Kitchen | 0 comments

Wow…is anyone out there? I’m surprised this blog hasn’t shriveled up and died from lack of posting! Sorry about that…it was a busy, busy end of the year and 2011 has started off…very…interesting including a trip to the ER for me and a stay in the hospital! Very unexpected but I’m healing and trying to hit the ground running!  So anyway, back to the title of this post: my dirty little secret, ha!

It’s not as bad as you’d think, but let’s just say I am seriously neglecting a part of my house.  Subconsciously.  Well, maybe consciously but I’m not doing anything to stop or slow the neglect, and we’re not doing it on purpose, but I am realizing that if I just let it go we’ll have to do something about it sooner rather than later instead of sticking with the “it’s in good shape” excuse that I’ve been using ever since we moved in 2 and 1/2 years ago!  So here it is…my kitchen floor.  My dirty, beat up, eroding kitchen floor. Obviously I did not clean up for this photo!

When we moved in that was carpet butting up against the vinyl.  But we replaced the carpet with laminate throughout the house.  The carpet and vinyl had a metal threshold holding it all together, which helped avoid damage.  When we replaced it, we always intended on finding a new threshold, but as you can see the place where they come together is curved…and that’s been a challenge to find.  So we’ve done nothing about it…and the poor kitchen floor is suffering because of it.  And my subfloor is peeking through.  It’s becoming quite the eyesore. And my toddler trips on it occasionally!

But the good news is that means we can replace it!!  We have some amazing, space saving, budget conscious ideas to triple the size of our kitchen, and we are realizing that those dreams might not be too far away.  A slightly re-worked countertop and bar, moving an appliance, adding some cabinets and bumping out a wall and our kitchen will be HUGE! And the flooring will be replaced smack dab in the middle of it all.  On a straight line this time – no curves in sight! I. Am. So. Excited!

So why post this embarrassing picture of my neglected kitchen floor? Oh, you know me…I post anything on here that is embarrassing about myself! (Bikini picture, hello??).  But I also want to show you that everyone’s home has dirty little secrets when you look a little closer! And to hold myself accountable for actually accomplishing something awesome in my house.  Because my husband does all the dirty work, and because I really, really, really want a new kitchen! ASAP.

Thank you all for reading and checking in on me lately – I really appreciate it! I know I’ve not only neglected my kitchen floor, I’ve neglected my blog and website! Maybe I’ll get my act together soon…but don’t hold your breath!

xo,

L.