Happy Friday

Shoulder Satchels

With the addition of a diaper bag to the various items I now have to tote around (never mind the fact that I am toting around the actual baby who now weighs in at over 10 pounds!), it seems like a good time to downsize my purse.  While I will always love my Gucci Horse Bit Hobo that I got for a steal, I think it weighs a good 5 lbs with nothing in it.  Time to get a lightweight bag that won't fall off the shoulder every time I lean down to pick Bryan up.  I've been really into the cross body saddle bag for a while, especially for travel, and am excited to see that there are a slew of them to be had this season. Here are a few of my favorites:

a J Crew Rigby Saddle Bag
b  Banana Republic Yellow Quilted Cross Body Bag
c Lands End Canvas Long Strap Messanger
d  Asos Leather and Suede Croc Embossed Across Body Bag
e Asos Leather Metal Cube Bag 
h  H&M Cream Shoulder Bag
g Asos Green Leather Saddlebag

Master Bedroom Drapery - Progress

Back before Bryan I did a post mentioning my plans to install draperies in the master bedroom.  If you recall, the main window looked like this.

The plan was to install these draperies, this rod and then paint the rod gold so the end product looked like this:

Viola - so far so good.  Not sure if I am going to do the antique gold on the rod or not.  I may keep it black.  What do you think?

Next step is to decide on a pattern to paint on the drapes. I'm thinking I like either the grey stripe or chevron. The black and white options seem too stark to me now that I have the draperies installed in the space.

Style My Nest: the Fireplace

Starting today I hope to do a weekly blog post (the operative word is "hope" since everything is sort of up in the air with the new baby) where I style a little corner of our home.   With a limited number of accessories, there are certain areas where decisions have yet to be made stylistically.  Instead of waiting for the exact right piece though, I figure why not use what I have to do a little accessorizing at least temporarily?  It will give me good practice at styling a space and let me see the various options that might work for a vignette.

Part one is our fireplace.

Eventually I think a starburst mirror is in order and some tall urns among other things. but in the meantime I've created a little winter vignette with some IKEA frames and artwork I created a while back (that didn't sell in our recent garage sale), an oversized rustic wood snowflake that I found at a yard sale, and some of my collection of books and animals.

Next up is our bedroom dresser.

Better Late

Some Thanksgiving scenes from our house. I was inspired by Irene's post to do a little table styling and get out our fancy china.

Happy Friday

Let there be Felt

This holiday season I'm really into felt toys for kids. There is a certain artisanal quality about felt toys that seems very of the moment (and certainly some of these finds are hand made and sold by artisans on Etsy).  And I love that they come in everything from foodstuffs to campfires to tools. What are you digging for the holidays this year?

1. Tiny Felt Mushroom by MamaCOop
2. Felt Dumplings by Jakc
3.  What a Croc by Land of Nod
4.  Felt Toolbox by GulfCoastCottage
5.  Felt Farm Fresh Egg by Fairyfolk
6. Felt Campfire by Hopewell Creek

Guest Post: East Coast, West Coast - Part 1: The Rug

Thanks to my Boston buddy Michele of The Department of the Interior for her guest post today: 

As if I didn't already have enough friends who have migrated West, (ahem, Jess), my friend Jay recently ditched me and all of his friends on the East Coast for an opportunity to shack up in San Francisco. I don't really know why he'd ever want to leave Boston but he did. Now he's all complaining that his apartment isn't "done".  It's only been a month, be patient I tell him, but he's still anxious and ridiculously motivated. So I've been trying to help him select a few pieces of furniture for his smallish but very cutish one bedroom apartment. Which, by the way, is located across the street from Golden Gate Park, which I see is very nice from the photos he keeps sending me.

Since I'm still East Coast, we've been communicating via facetime, ivideo, email and texting. One afternoon he went on a rug searching bender.

The rug I really wanted him to get is this Ikea Stockholm Rand rug $199.00, but apparently they are sold out at every store in the country. He told me there was someone selling it on ebay for twice the retail amount. What's up with that?

So he finally settled on this shaggy Memphis Stone rug from Crate and Barrel. There's no wool in it so his feet won't get itchy.

My challenge for the living room now is to convince him that he needs a fabulous coffee table in a very bright color.  Like this one made from the hood of a Camaro.

The Weld House

How hard can that be with all of those amazing flea markets I keep reading about?

Stay tuned for my post on Jay's Entry. It involves a map.

By the way, if you're wondering how I got my text messages off my phone, I used Decipher TextMessage, made by Decipher Media of which my now West Coast friend Jay is co-founder.

Thanks Jess for inviting me to post a guest blog on The Eagle's Nest!

Michele

Happy Friday

Bryan turns 1 month on Sunday and he is quite the porker weighing in at over 10 lbs now (from 6lbs 13oz at birth).  Scott is taking the day off today for a little bonding with baby.  Here he is tickling the ivories with Bryan.

Guest Post: A Thanksgiving Table with DesignstILes

Hi Eagle Nesters. It's Irene from designstILes, filling in for Jess while she's on mommy duty. Thanksgiving is practically here and today I'm sharing an easy to create table setting fit for the food festive occasion.

When deciding how to decorate my table, I look through the items I already own and then fill in the blanks with pieces that fit my vision. If you have incomplete sets, don't be afraid to mix and match.

I'm always first inspired by color. Typical Thanksgiving colors are oranges, browns and yellows. To make things interesting, I add in an unexpected hue. For this table setting, I remembered I had leftover striped fabric in an ivory and celadon. I had just enough to use as a tablecloth. I then saw these ceramic pheasants at Z Gallerie and new immediately I'd want to use them. They're festive, add interest and bring in more color. The gray plate and orange trim napkin are also from Z Gallerie. The decorative pumpkins are from my local grocery store. The acorn candlestick holders were purchased at the flea market a few months ago. The stemware, vase and fake leaves were already pre-owned. I let my tablecloth inspire me and based the rest of my colors from there. I always like to add fresh flowers. I kept these simple so as not to detract from the pheasants.

Hope some of my tips helped you for your Thanksgiving table.

Happy Thursday!