Super Bowl First Birthday

Yes my son turned one a few weeks ago and in honor of my water breaking on Super Bowl Sunday while shopping for grocieries last year (not kidding actually in Whole Foods), we decided to throw him a football themed party on Super Bowl Sunday. Since we have been experiencing a lot of rain in SoCal this winter, we decided to play it safe and hold it at an indoor playground called Under the Sea. Food served included typical child-friendly football snacks...pretzels, animal crackers, fruit skewers, fruit crushers, seven layer dip and of course pizza.

For decor I found some cute football lanterns and football field table cloths at Oriental Tradingas well as mini footballs and football-themed rubber duckies for the kids to take home as favors. Cookies were from Beckers Bakery and the mini cupcakes were from Suzi Cakes. Che cupcake toppers were found in the dollar section of Target (one of my favorite parts of the store). To keep the theme going, we asked all of the kids to wear their favorite team jerseys to the party. Everyone looked adorable and it was fun to see who supported what team.

My son Tripp's favorite part was of course the cupcakes (we had Suzi Cakes make special ones with green icing to make the photos even funnier...always looking for a good photo op!).

Here are a few inspiring images of other football inspired cakes and cupcakes if you have a bigger budget:

This fabulous jersey cake designed by Haines from For Goodness Cakes

These bag & shoes are really a cake if you can believe it!

(I apologize I can't remember where I got this image and the one below from but they were too cute I just had to share)

Follow Us on Twitter

I have made the big decision to finally start tweeting. Yes Nursery Notations is finally on Twitter. I'm just getting the hang of it so be patient but I've got to tell you it is a lot of fun and I am learning about so many interesting blogs and people.

My comments are generally about interesting sales and products that I find on-line or in stores. So if you liked my post about the Mini Social Warehouse Sale, follow me!

If you are not a Twitter fan, suck it up and join! Remember how you thought you would never join Facebook? You really are missing out!

Mini Social Blowout Sale in Los Angeles

I know a lot of you live in the Los Angeles area so I wanted to let you know about the Mini Social blowout sale this weekend in Burbank. For those of you who don't live in Los Angeles I apologize for the tease.

The biggest mini sale ever!

Discounts up to 70% off.

Featured Brands include:
Egg by Susan Lazar, Splendid Littles, Crocs, Little Ella by Ella Moss, Oeuf, Melissa & Doug, Nest,
imps&elfs, Kate Quinn Organics, Morgan & Milo, eyeSpy, Acoustic and many more.

The Mini Social Warehouse Sale
Saturday, February 27th
9 am - 2 pm

120 E. Santa Anita Ave
Burbank, CA 91502
866-212-3259

Liberty of London collaborates with Target

UK fashion design house Liberty of London has paired up with Target to offer a large selection of products in menswear, womenswear, clothing for kids, housewares, and even children's bedding and accessories. Liberty is known for their small scale floral prints in unique color combinations. Products are scheduled to hit the shelves on March 14th so stop by your nearest Target store to scoop them up. The Liberty of London's colors and designs will add a little spring into your decor and wardrobe. Plus the prices will fit any budget!

Every kids needs a piggy bank!

A perfect tote for the beach or the park.

April showers bring May flowers, who says you can't be chic and cheap at the same time?

Great pillows for a little girl's bed or chair.

A beach cruiser is a necessity for summer.

a few more images of dishes, chairs, and gardening supplies...all great gift ideas

(Thank you to Melisa from Stylebeat for your post and for keeping me in the loop)

images via Stylebeat, NBC, Racked

Virginia's Caribbean Escape

One of my best friends is getting married at Round Hill in Jamaica in May and I am ecstatic to say that I will be attending with my husband, mom, and one year old in tow. Thank you Dare for getting married and for picking such a wonderful location!

Coincidentally Coastal Living Magazine just featured Round Hill in their February 2010 issue and has released some beautiful photos (pictured above and below) of the villas designed by Meg Braff. Her re-design of the resort villas were inspired by settings of the 1950's and 1960's when the Kennedys, Grace Kelly, Ralph Lauren & Paul Newman were all frequent guests. The style is crisp, polished and bright (but not overly). Basically a toned down Lilly Pulitzer. I can't wait to see the villas in person and to have a few rum beverages while celebrating the marriage of my dear friend.

Now I have been dying to share the photos below of another special friend's daughter's nursery (she and the bride are actually best friends also) in Raleigh, NC. The similarly of the colors in the two completely different spaces is inspiring. Virginia's nursery is so bright and cheerful, it almost takes you back to Palm Beach or the Caribbean. The tropical hues found in nature of palm green, coral pink, aqua blue, and banana yellow flourish on the wallpaper and on the fabric used for Virginia's bedding and glider. It actually makes me wonder if Virginia's mom was inspired by Round Hill or if this was just a coincidence that the colors match perfectly.

Virginia's mom was gracious enough to share her sources for her furniture, bedding and accessories:

Chandelier : Maura Daniel Four Light Chandelier

Lamp: Melon Pagoda Lamp by Serena & Lily

Bedding: Custom fabric by Thibaut

Wallpaper: Bayou by Thibaut

Furniture: Morigeau Lepine crib

(unfortunately the company is now out of business)

Glider: Serena & Lily Hayes Glider in Punch Basketweave with white trim

Now since little Virginia was recently blessed with the arrival of a baby brother, she's going to need to move out of her crib into a big girl bed soon. Here are a few proposed pieces of furniture and decorative accessories to help transform this beautiful nursery into a room suitable for a preschooler and beyond.

Ok back to dreaming about sitting by the pool!

Sky Inspired Ceilings

I'm a little obsessed with decorative ceilings and what is more natural than to want to have clouds painted in a child's nursery or room? Who doesn't want to look up at a beautiful sky when dozing off for a nap? I know that I personally sleep best when taking a nap outdoors (in a hammock or on the beach). It just seems like it would be instantly relaxing.

Now to get these clouds on your ceiling, you can either paint clouds or use cloud or sky inspired wall paper. The first two examples below are from York Wallcoverings. They have an array of cloud wallpaper options.

The first is called Kids Clouds RK6816 is a little more child-like because the clouds are faint and fluffy.

The second Clouds VV5816 has a more sophisticated look with stronger white highlights.

If you want a professional and customized design you will need to hire a muralist. My favorite muralist in Los Angeles is Nicole Blackburn of Celadon Studio. (She is now the resident muralist at Bellini in Beverly Hills). I have worked with her for over five years and she has painted numerous designs for us back at Sprout. Her clouds are ethereal and seem to glow. Also notice how the background in her sky is not just one tone and color of blue. This creates more interest and makes the sky look more realistic since nothing in nature is one solid color.

If clouds seem a too sophisticated, make them a little more whimsical by adding animal shapes or maybe your child's name somewhere in the clouds. You could even make this into a fun game by having your child find their name every night before they go to bed after story time.

Below is a more modern take of clouds painted in a baby's room. The artist is Kate Hoffman and I really like her look of the abstract clouds for a modern nursery.

Now if you like to paint and want to try and do it yourself, visit Murals & Faux Finishing for instructions and tips.

The first image in this post is from Ornamenta, beautiful hand-printed wallpapers, not for the budget conscious.

Bunk Rooms

1)

My stepbrother recently had his third child "Tex" a few weeks ago and this makes four grandchildren for my parents. Since my parents have five children and only two of us have kids so far, they are estimating that in a few years they will have anywhere from 10-15 grandchildren. So we are trying to convince them to build a bunk house in their back yard. This proposal is basically a mini back house with two rooms full of built-in bunk beds and a central play/tv room for the grandchildren to play in away from the main house. I've recently been collecting some images to propose to my mother for her design and I'd like to share them with you.

Which ones are your favorites?

2) First two images via Pink Wallpaper from Southern Accent and Traditional Home

3) image via Folder of Ideas

4) image via Folder of Ideas, room designed by Rod Mickley

5) image via Andrea Farrell realty

6) image via Coastal Living

7) image via House of Turquoise

8) room designed by Suzanne Kasler

9) image via Fresh Home

10) room designed by S.R. Gambrel

11) image via Ohdeedoh

My favorites are #1, 3, 4, 7, 8

Meri Meri

Have birthday party or shower to plan in the next few months? Well look no further Meri Meri is your one-stop shop for unique theme ideas, decorations, invites and cupcake toppers.

Meri Meri has been creating imaginative and playful stationary and party decorations for over 20 years since 1985. The company started with the founder Meredithe creating cards at her kitchen table. Soon stores in Los Angeles began selling her cards and she started recruiting friends to help her. The company grew from this little network of moms working from home with Meredithe's direction into an award winning stationary company now based outside of London and yes even Neiman Marcus now carries her designs. (See if you build it they will come! So stick with your hobbies!)

Meri Meri also sells traditional handmade cards, advent calendars, mechanical cards, and gift sets so I recommend visiting their website to take a look at their large array of products.

A special thank you to At Home with Kim Vallee to introducing me to this wonderful line.

Fabric Pom Poms

For those of you who know me, you know that I'm not a huge crafty person (unless it involves decorating). But I saw these fabric pom pom balls on a post today from Bloesem Kids and immediately thought those these were adorable. Once I checked out the link on Everyday Beautiful I realized that I could actually make these! All it takes is a pair of scissors, some fabric, ribbon, a hot glue gun, and a chinese lantern. The fabric design has a softer and more feminine feel than the paper and they really almost look like real flower petals.

These would look wonderful hung over a crib (similar to the paper ones used in Ava's nursery) or you could hang them from a tree or the ceiling at a baby showery instead of the standard chinese lanterns.

The complete tutorial can be found at Once Wed. (Wedding websites always have wonderful ideas which can cross over to children's room and party design.)

If you want to decorate with pom poms and don't want to make your own, the Etsy shop Pom Love is the place to buy them. They have a very large assortment of colors and sizes available to fill all of your needs.

Erin Condren Designs

I'm a sucker for buying gifts, and not just any gift, the perfect gift. What says "I did not buy this last minute" more than personalization?

If you are looking for a personalized gift for a friend, mother, sister or child which is original, useful and upbeat you must visit ErinCondren.com. Erin Condren is a wonderful stationary designer who designs bright and playful customizable stationary, notepads, gift tags, wrapping paper, and cards for adults, children and teens. The turnaround for printing is around a week and all designs are original and fantastic. While you are shopping for someone else, pick up something for yourself. I have some of the gift stickers and wrapping paper at home.

These practice pads are perfect for any child age 5-9. They can practice writing letters, numbers, words and their name. I especially like it how the alphabet is printed on each piece of paper so that the kids have an easy reference.

Personalized wrapping paper! This is definitely a fun gift for your best friend or mom. It also saves you some money because since your name is all over it, there is no need for a card.

This is one of the designs for the gift labels that I mentioned above. This decorative circle sticker is fun design different than your standard rectangular label.

Here is an example of one of her call me cards. Taffy is my favorite modern family card design.

(for those of you who don't know how to use the "Bump" app on you iPhone)

A personalized stationary notecard set complete with return labels.

Last but not least a thank you note card designed specifically for pre-schoolers, kindergardeners and lower school children. This is a great way to teach your children about writing thank you notes.