A Nursery Fit for A Princess

My sister, Katie, is just three weeks away from her due date, and she and our mom have created the most beautiful and unique nursery for the new princess.

In keeping with the style of the home and their historic town, this room is both feminine and classic. Katie is such a visionary for interior design, and she always knows exactly what she wants to do in a room. Our mom, MiMi, somehow always sees our "visions" and is the one who carries them out! ;)

Baby C's nursery is bright and airy and has beautiful moldings and wainscoting. Katie chose dark furniture and beautiful silk dupioni for the bedding. The crib bumper and sheet were custom made at an adorable shop close by, and MiMi crafted the bedskirt and window treatments from a coordinating silk.

As an eclectic touch, Katie is using a very old, one-of-a-kind bookcase. This piece belonged to our great grandparents, and it was purchased as a radio - possibly similar to this one...

Photo courtesy of Nottingham Arkwright Society

Our father's mother eventually inherited this radio, and she converted it to a lovely bookcase (which Katie and I both used in college).

The custom mural that MiMi freehanded on the walls is the absolute stunner of this nursery though!!!!

From the historic Moravian houses...

to the bassett hound and dachshund (their pets)...

to Baby C's Daddy's two favorite NC Lighthouses: Cape Hatteras (shown) and Old Baldy and The George Washington Masonic Memorial (Dad is a Mason)...

to the two university flags Mimi incorporated on buildings (UNC Chapel Hill for mom and Appalachian State for dad) and even to the cows that Katie has always admired on the grounds of The Children's Home, Belted Galloways... MiMi captured it all!

Katie had not received her new rocker when I took these photos, so she placed this old rocker in its place...

This rocker also belonged to our great grandparents and was in their house when it burned in 1922. My dad's mother was just five years old when this happened 88 years ago. You can still see a burn mark on the back. Unfortunately it is not very comfortable, but this is the rocker that our mom (MiMi) used when Katie and I were babies. I love that butterfly pillow!

I hope you have enjoyed this cyber-tour of Baby C's nursery! It really is amazing to see in person! AND...it shouldn't be too hard to convert to a baby boy's nursery in the future! ;)

Black and White Wednesday

Lisa has a beautiful post today at The Long Road to China for the 4th Black and White Wednesday. Please be sure to stop by and check her out!

Since today marks our 4 month anniversary of taking Emma to Moscow, I decided to convert one of the photos I took in the Red Square. This photo is of the famous and beautiful St. Basil's Cathedral which was unbelievably constructed from 1555-1561. This cathedral is absolutely breathtaking in person, and I kept saying over and over to JC how surreal it was to be standing in front of it!

In magnificent color:

And my conversion to black and white:

4 Months Ago Today

Gotcha

Here we are in the car leaving Emma's Baby Home...4 Months ago today!

Snow Cream

It is a winter wonderland here in Northwest NC! The snow started around 5:15pm last night, and it is still coming down although now we are getting sleet mixed with fine snow. The totals are down a little from what was predicted but only because the snow mainly turned to sleet in the early morning hours. We have about eight inches of snow now with one inch of ice on top - one more inch expected before this is over. Did I mention that it was 60 degrees here Wednesday? Anyway, with the frigid temperature (23 degrees currently) and the chilling wind, our boys have not ventured out to play but once. They only lasted about 30 minutes before they returned FROZEN!

The one good thing that has come of the snow, however, is SNOW CREAM! I set a large bowl out on the patio table last night to collect our snow, and then I used the allrecipes.com recipe to make our first batch. You can find the recipe via the link here.

Jackson decided to decorate his bowl with sprinkles and an iced cookie on top! YUMMY!!!

Fashionista Friday

Emma had her two year check up today so of course I had to dress her up a little!!! ;) She is right on target developmentally and is 75th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height...she's going to be a big girl!

Anyway, I thought her outfit was so cute. The shirt was given to her by her Patsy, and I bought the courduroy dress and tights from Target - on major clearance (the dress was $6.48). Emma's Mimi gave her those awesome pink cowgirl boots!

Hope y'all have a great weekend! The snow storm started here about 30 minutes ago...we are right in the path here in North Carolina. We could possibly get 10 inches of snow! Just when I was getting spring fever too!

Black and White Wednesday

Today for Black and White Wednesday, I am posting three photos of Emma that I took on Sunday (her actual birthday). She has gotten to the point where she really does not want me to take her photo. She would much rather look at the image on the back of the camera after I have taken a photo. I am hoping this phase passes!

If you get a second, check out Lisa's blog (link above). She is such a talented lady, and there are many other bloggers who have linked up with her as well.

Emma's Sweet Shoppe

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!!!

We celebrated Emma's birthday yesterday with a Sweet Shoppe Party.

Four of Emma's friends and our families came to help celebrate Emma's second birthday with us. All morning we had been telling Emma "Happy Birthday", and by the end of the day, she could also say it. Very Sweet.

Here are LOTS of photos of Emma's big day. Although I know she won't remember this particular birthday, I think she felt very special!

I made lollipop topiaries for either side of the front door. They turned out really cute.

Since the theme was a sweet shoppe, I bought lots and lots of candy for everyone to take home with them. Too bad the majority of it was still here after everyone had left. I think I'll send it to JC's dental office in the morning. Ha Ha!

Here is the sign hanging above the candy bar. I cannot take credit for this. Many of my ideas came from this very talented blogger.

And this is the centerpiece that I literally threw together just 2 hours before the party.

Instead of a traditional cake, MiMi made wonderful cupcakes for the party. They were eye candy.

Emma waits for her guests to arrive...

Sarah (our Goddaughter) was the first to arrive. She was so cute. She wanted to have her picture made with Emma by the giant lollipops.

After everyone arrived, the girls got to choose a bear from a Bu*ild A Bear kit that I bought. Thankfully MiMi and Katie had taken these and sewn them up for the most part before the party. Mom had even divided each bear up with all of her "stuff" and put them in large baggies for me. I made initial monogram gift bags for the girls to take their bear home in...

And here are the Moms and girls stuffing their bears after gently kissing the hearts that they placed inside.

Here is Abby with her completed bear...

And Emma hugging her new bear after Patsy had sewn her up.

The last thing we did was sing "Happy Birthday" to Emma. She sure did love the spotlight. It was very cute.

And her face says it all...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL. WE ARE SO GLAD YOU ARE OURS.