As I mentioned recently, I’ve been on a home organization/home decoration kick since the calendar flipped to January.  We’ve been in our house for nearly four years now, but it’s all the stuff I’ve been doing the last several months that has made it really look and feel like us.  It would come as a surprise to no one that I’m incredibly particular about most things, and that definitely includes my home decor.  I would rather wait and think about exactly how I want a room to look than just throw in some generic decor for the sake of having it look “finished”.  Our front living room (pictured here) has perplexed me for a long time, and so I’ve been mulling this over for more than three years.

I knew I wanted some sort of art between the two wall vases above our love seat.  I thought of a large canvas of the family, but since that’s what we have on the mantle in our main family room, it seemed redundant.  Plus, as much as I love canvases, they become outdated quickly with the kids growing at the mind-boggling rate that they do.  It’s a pretty large space to fill and practically everything I could think of to fill it was not something I wanted to commit to long term.  Finally one evening while lying on the couch staring at the space, this idea came to me.  A frame of instagrams!  Fills the large space, still reflects our family, but no permanent commitment required.  PERFECTO!

So, I got to work and this idea quickly became a reality.  First step – finding a frame.  Now, let me just say I’m sure you could find something just wonderful in an antique shop, paint it as you see fit, and get the same look.  However, I’m so darned particular I knew it would take me ages to find my ideal frame in an antique shop and if there is one thing I don’t have, it’s free time to go searching around town in a bunch of stores.  Instead, I opted to order a custom frame from one of my favorite Etsy shops Rusty Mill.  (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Rusty Mill and they didn’t even know I was a blogger until a couple of days ago.  I just like their work, a lot!)  I’ve ordered from them a couple times before and have always loved the products.  I measured the space, chose my dimensions (30″ x 40″), and they crafted my frame (no glass needed – yay!)  While the frame was on its way, I ordered my prints from Printstagram.  (Again, no affiliation and they don’t know I’m writing this post.  This is just the company I decided to use.)  Based on the size of the frame I had ordered, I knew that a few sets of their 4-inch square prints would fill the frame nicely.  Again, I’m sure you could find some other printing method to end up with very similar results.  I didn’t have time to mess with trying to size and print them all myself, so this was the simplest option for me.

I bought a couple of packages of mini clothes pins at Joann’s and painted them gold with metallic craft paint.  (If you think that sounds time consuming, I’m with you.  I totally thought it would take forever and it actually took about 10 minutes.  No need for perfect detailing – just slap the paint on and let dry briefly.)  I prefer the look of a uniform neutral-ish color for the clothes pins because I think too bright or too many colors might detract from the images themselves, but that’s really a personal style choice.

When the frame and prints arrived, I dug up some old hemp twine I had from some craft project of years past.  I made up a single row of test prints and held it up so I could see about how many would fit in a row, and how many rows I could fit into the frame.  I used a staple gun to secure the prints, row by row, to the back of the frame.  Then I hung the frame in the place of honor and voila!  I was finally happy with the space that had been nagging at me for so long.  I absolutely love the way this project has added personality and transformed the room.  Our guests always enjoy looking through the photos, and the kids love to stand on the love seat and talk about what is happening in all the different pictures.

This is a fun and easy home decor project that can be easily adapted to whatever space you have available.  I’m excited to switch out some of the images in a few months with newer memories, and we’ll save the others in a book or album of some kind.  Hooray for ever-changing wall art!

What do you love best about the salad you see here?  For most people, I’m sure the answer would be the bacon.  While I do like the bacon (definite progress from a few years ago), I am all about the hard boiled eggs.  I love them.  (Don’t even get me started on deviled eggs.  They are my kryptonite.  Gah!)  But aside from my love of eggs, I love this salad overall.  The components just work so very well together.  The eggs provide a bit of creaminess, the bacon gives bacony goodness, obviously.  With the crunchy spinach leaves, earthy mushrooms and slight bite of the red onion, the combination is stellar.  This would make a really nice starter to a meal or does well on its own as a light-ish meal.

1. To start out the month of March, I finished up my last week of carrying the call pager of residency.  Handing it off for the last time was amazing.
2. At work last month, I had the opportunity to culture my own cells and then visualize and karyotype my own chromosomes.  It was so cool!
3. I got a flat tire on my car one evening that could only be fixed at the dealership while they ordered the new tire.  The very next morning while driving Ben’s car – no joke – another flat.  That’s two in 24 hours, in two vehicles.  Grrrr.  (For the record, both were nails/hunks of metal, so not due to my driving skills.  Ha!)  I’m so thankful my dad insisted I learn how to change a flat.  And also grateful to the seven(!) people who offered to help me fix it.
4. Boo for snow but yay for a sweet little snow angel!
5. We have a memory jar to record fun moments from 2013.  I had to jot down this one from Andrew: “When I’m big, I’m going to be a scientist-garbage man-police man.”  He then gave a detailed description of how he would change in and out of those various uniforms.
6. Knitting got real when I worked on the sleeves of my sweater.  Five needles at a time!  Actually not as hard as it looks, but I was freaked out at first.
7. We love IU basketball wins, but they are so much sweeter when witnessed with my brother Steve.  I love seeing his reaction when they win!
8. Sometimes they play well together.  Sometimes.
9. Caroline’s room got a makeover from nursery to big girl room.  Andrew was pretty excited to watch Dad paint.
10. We spent a fun weekend afternoon at the Children’s Museum.  The kids’ love so many of the exhibits but for me, the hall of mirrors never gets old :)
11. The best boy I could ever ask for, so the shirt seemed fitting.
12. My sweet girl is starting to show interest in baking.  Right now her main job is measuring cup drummer.
13. Andrew picked out a honey bear at our butcher shop, and then out of the blue spent the whole week asking for a biscuit with strawberries and honey.  The following weekend, I made it a reality.  He was beyond thrilled.
14. Caroline had her first haircut!  And by the way, tolerated it 1000% better than her brother did his first time.
15. Sweet snuggly girl.
16. I finished my sweater!  I still can’t believe that I completed a sweater that looks like something I would actually want to buy.  And it’s super comfy.
17. We had our living room repainted and the carpet replaced, which meant a temporary move of all furniture into our front room.  The kids were in heaven with this fort/jungle gym set up.
18. Snuggling with my girl on her last night of being a one year old.  I cannot believe how time has flown.
19. Caroline absolutely loves her big girl bed, and I love seeing my sleepy girl in the early morning time.
20. Ben’s mom brought Caroline this beautiful bouquet from her garden at her birthday party.  So sweet, and we are so ready for spring flowers!

When I planned the menu for Caroline’s birthday party, these bars were something of an afterthought.  They helped round out the dessert portion of the menu, adding another berry treat for our little berry fiend.  I suspected they would be good but oh.my.gosh, people, these were definitely the highlight of the spread.  The buttery, crumbly crust with a hint of lemon and the amazing blackberry filling are an irresistible combination.  These bake up very thick, so you can cut them on the small side.  The recipe doubles easily in a 9 x 13-inch pan to feed a larger crowd.  This recipe will undoubtedly become a total staple for bringing to spring and summer parties, potlucks, and more.  I’m looking forward to trying it with other fruits as well.

Somehow it seems time has gone and played its tricks again, and our precious baby girl is no longer a baby at all.  Suddenly, she’s a big girl.  A big two year old(!) with a very big personality.  It took some time for me to settle on a fitting theme for her party, but eventually I tried to just think about what she likes best.  Of course as a two year old, she doesn’t have a great many favorite things yet but undoubtedly one of her absolute favorite things to do is to read.  Mostly to have us read to her, but sometimes to sit with books we have read so many times she knows them by heart, and then she “reads” them to herself.  She has a hilarious habit of backing up to any grown up’s lap with book in hand whether you’re ready or not.  But depending on your posture, it’s not always a lap she lands on.  We’ve both had our heads sat on on multiple occasions while lying on the playroom floor followed by, “I read book!”  So, I went with the idea of story time plus her favorite color purple, and came up with this simple celebration for our sweet girl.  (By the way, the photo above is completely unstaged – she just really likes berries.)

The invitations (by TomKat Studio) were precious, and I popped them into envelopes that I lined with old book pages to introduce the book theme.  The envelopes are from Paper Source (color is beet.)

Story time is a pretty subtle theme to work with, and I didn’t want to waste time or money collecting certain books or fancy vintage editions to decorate.  I did my best to make do with things we already had on hand.  We used this bookshelf that is normally in a different room to display photos of Caroline throughout the past year as well as some of her favorite books (the Baby Lit series I’ve mentioned before.)  I reused the picture frames from her party last year and just painted over the yellow ones with purple to coordinate.  Easy peasy.

I used pages from old, fallen apart books to make a few small paper flowers to decorate the birthday banner and I thought they were a cute touch.

A lot of beautiful spring flowers just happen to be purple, so that worked well bring the color scheme through the various details.  Irises were my mom’s favorite flower so they have a special meaning in our family, and it was nice to have some displayed on the main table.  She also really loved hyacinths so this arrangement just made me feel happy.

I have to give a special shout out to Molly of The TomKat Studio for the amazing party printables.  I always love their work and how the printables help pull a party together, but I especially loved this set.  The party circles and favor tags with the script background actually include some quotes from our favorite books.  Definitely love love loved that detail!

The party was in the middle of the afternoon so not during prime meal time and as a result, I kept the menu on the small side.  It was as follows:

Cucumber Bites
Deviled Eggs
Spring Veggie Goat Cheese Dip
Fruit Tartlets
Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Blackberry Pie Bars
Lemon Cupcakes with Whipped Vanilla Frosting

The tartlets are actually just a mini version of this fresh fruit tart.  I made a 1.5 batch of dough to yield about 20 tartlet shells.  I used a cookie cutter (about 3½-inch diameter) to cut out rounds of tart dough, pressed them into my nonstick cupcake pan, lined them with foil and filled with baking beads/dried beans, and baked at 375˚ F until golden and set.  I made a single batch of pastry cream and topped with fresh fruit.

I never pass up an opportunity to make the ever popular soft frosted sugar cookies, but this time I frosted them with a vaguely floral design.  I used the same frosting recipe but simply made it slightly stiffer (i.e. used less liquid) than the original version, and then piped it onto the cookies with a large closed star tip starting from the center and swirling outward.

We made a little collection of some of our family’s favorite storybooks for other kids to look at if they wanted.  The crate was actually just the box left over from one of the birthday gifts I had given Caroline a few days before the party.  And of course, I couldn’t resist cookie favors.  I made my favorite macaron recipe and filled them with dark chocolate ganache.

The weather on the day of the party was absolutely gorgeous, so we spent the majority of the day outside playing.  But eventually, we came inside to settle down and have story time before cupcakes.  We have quite a few educators in our families, so I tapped them as a resource for reading duties.  First my brother Steve, a fourth grade teacher, read one of our childhood favorites, Miss Nelson is Missing.  Man, I love that book.

Then Ben, a first grade teacher, followed it up with one of his childhood favorites (and what has become one of our absolute favorite stories for the kids at bedtime), Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-a-Zoo.

Happy birthday, sweet Caroline!  We couldn’t have dreamed up a more wonderful girl if we tried.