The Colorful Minimalist//Nursery Tour

I'm a minimalist at heart, so when we found out we were pregnant, I wanted to know exactly what was necessary and what wasn't. As you can see, Simon's room isn't cluttered with a lot of extras, but it's still bright and fun. This room actually used to be my craft room and I had painted the geo wall (tutorial here) long before we knew a baby would be joining the family, but once we found out, I thought it would be the perfect room for him. With a statement wall that bold, you don't need much else. I knew I definitely wanted to bring life into the room with plants, so one day while pregnant, I was roaming the isle at Michael's and I found these giant faux filadendron leaves and decided to make a mobile for above the crib. It's always a conversation piece when people come see the room. I kept the rest of the space bright and clean. It's so fun to watch him as his eyes find new things each time we're in the room. His current favorite is the world map print.

One thing I did learn quick, was that, while it's nice to prepare as much as you can before the baby comes, even the minimalist in me ended up with things I didn't really need. As I've mentioned before, we chose to bed-share with Simon, so he's literally never slept in this crib. I'm tempted to get rid of it, but I guess I may use it in the future--we'll see.

Did you end up with a bunch of extras? What am I missing that is a favorite of yours?

click on the links to shop the look:
crib//sniglar ikea (painted)

sheets//land of nod

crib pillow//themodboho

oliver mouse//hazel village

frog//blablakids

fox blanket//dwell studio

color block blanket//koko nest

shelves//handmade by husband @marcusnielson

mobile//handmade by me @ashleyanielson

floor pouf//themodboho

rug//urban outfitters

dresser//vintage

favorite all natural lotion//tubby todd

wooden teether//chewable charm

sophie the giraffe teether//here

photo board book//nowvel (use Rm1Cy8RLc for  $3 off)

trash can//ikea

world print//urban outfitters

linen curtains//h&m​

Acapulco chair//onekingslane

the whole story...

❤❤❤

that wall!

As promised, I present to you my DIY Geo Wall instructions!

I used the sample size Behr paints from the Home Depot--these were the colors I started out with, but ended up changing my mind a few times as I got them up on the wall.

My final colors were:

Green//Garden Sprout

Navy//Velvet Evening

Dark Orange//Mesa Sunrise

Pink//Custom Color Match (LL-4 RL-13 VUL-19)

Light Blue//Custom Color Match (EL-41 RL-11 VUL-6)

Nude//Custom Color Match (CL-17 RUL-3 TL-1)

For the darker colors, like the green and the navy, I needed more than one sample size, so keep that in mind if you choose a lot of darker colors.

I stressed about how to make the perfect shapes for months, and then final realized I just needed to lock myself in the room and start taping--after all, in my mind, DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT when it comes to house projects.

So, I randomly taped off a starting point and as I got a few painted, I changed things here and there.

As you can see, I ripped off pieces of the paint chips and taped them where I thought the colors would look best, so i could keep a visual of my color plans. It also helped me not use too much of one color--i didn't want to end up with 5 green shapes and then not have any room left for my blue, I also didn't want one side of the wall to have tons of peach and one side to have none, etc.

I won't lie, it got a little overwhelming at times--so I had to take a few breaks.

It was at this point, i really wanted to stop. I was getting impatient about having to wait for each shape to dry before i could work on the shape next to it--as you can see, the tape has to go over the painted triangle in order to paint the next triangle without blending all the edges. In order to tape over it, it of course needed to by completely dry. I think the whole project took me 3 days.

p.s. I prefer the green Frog Tape to the blue tape--but i ran out half way, so I used some of both.

When it was all said and done, it was totally worth all the hard work--i get giddy every time i walk by this room--it's such a happy space for a my craft room and i'm really proud of how it turned out!

If you have any questions feel free to email me or leave them in the comments!

around the house, fall edition

jamie sent me a link to this halloween bat tutorial and i had to give it a try. i must say, i'm going to have a hard time taking them down, i like them so much.

my thrift store grandma was so pleased with me when i finally got some hooks to put away my trinkets. can't you just see the pride in her eyes?

 with the weather cooling down to a bone chilling 79 degrees at night, we decided it was time for some German soul-food--home-made knoodle with a mushroom cream sauce.

pumpkin from the ranch.

Do you decorate for the holidays? What's your favorite?

house tour: where we are so far.

a few weeks ago my SIL, Elizabeth was in town and came to see our house. 

not many people have seen it because, well we still have a lot of work to do on it, but she said i should post some pictures of the progress we've made, so per her suggestion, here's where we are so far:

LIVING ROOM//

KITCHEN//

 MASTER BEDROOM//

HERS &

 HIS//

i call the style bohemian mid-century modern.
i've had an obsession with mid-century style since 9th grade and have been collecting the furniture since then.
i got most of it from either my favorite antique store on main street called antique plaza or thrift stores.
collecting furniture at a young age makes for much less expensive home decorating expenses, so marcus was quite pleased with my young designer desires...:)

What's your home style?
Modern, Vintage, Mid-Century, Eclectic, Bohemian, Girly?

DIY: morning! or our initials.

a few weeks ago i was picking up a little gift at anthropologie and i came across these metal letters. 

i instantly fell in love, as i have had a slight obsession with a&m ever since marcus got that engraved in my engagement ring.

i was so close to buying them, but i kept feeling like i could probably make something similar for less than $18 each, so i intagrammed this picture and a few people messaged me that similar cardboard and wooden letters were for sell at JoAnns or Michaels, you nice people even told me about apps that provide amazing coupons. <3 you!

So i drove immediately down to JoAnns with the app downloading as i ventured, found some very similar looking cardboard letters, used my newly acquired 40% off coupon, and for less than $5 i had what i needed! 

I happen to already have both gold and silver spray paint at my house, so i tried both out. 

the gold was too matte, so i went with silver. 

They're not an exact match (but could easily be with some faux distress painting), but i really like them and for $5 vs. $40, i'm very proud of myself.

now i just want to find an "&"...any suggestions?

current giveaway*

once you see the worst in people, you get to see the best in them.

after last weekend's event which allowed me to experience one of the very low ends of human behavior, i got to experience the very highest of it. 

we have received such a huge outpouring of love through this little trial we're going through. i have gotten some of the sweetest texts, emails, and twitter/facebook/instagram messages from friends and strangers a like.

people have brought treats to our door, dinner to our kitchen, flowers to our living room, and tears to my eyes with their kindness. my brother-in-law even said i could borrow his camera for awhile.

it's alway been hard for me to accept help from others (a trait i got from my mother). i feel like i've had such a blessed life and i don't want people "wasting" their service on me when there are others who need it more, but i'm trying to learn to accept it because sometimes i do need the help and i'm probably just too prideful to admit it.

so, thank you for your support, it's almost silly how much it means to me. 

i really love you all and i love experiencing how good people can be. 

you are each an inspiration. i wish i could give you every one of you happy flowers and hugs and perpetual rainbows in your kitchens. but since i can't, please accept my sincere and abundant gratitude.
<3

well, at least...

it's a funny thing--getting your house robbed.

we now find ourselves picking things up of value (either monetary or personal) and saying, "hey, at least they didn't take_______."

and for a moment, we're happy.

what a weird thing it took to make us appreciate all the little treasures we have in our home.

my favorite "hey they didn't take" item was mentioned last night:

we were brushing our teeth with our sonicare toothbrushes that we've had for years (and are really of no value to anyone but our teeth), but i had been crying all day and probably even had tears running down my face while brushing and marcus said, through his toothpaste foaming mouth, "hey, at least they didn't take our sonicares, so i guess we're still pretty rich."

*this story might make that funnier...

sad people who make sad life choices make me sad.

well today's post was supposed to be dedicated to the photos of the bridal shower i took on my canon dslr this weekend--i must say i took some adorable photos of all the little details, but instead someone who is awesomely sad in life decided to rob our house during the only 2 hours of the day we were out. 

so instead of crawling in bed saturday night after a nice movie with my sister at my parents house, we came home to our door slightly open, things moved around in our bedroom, and $800, a camping knife, and (didn't realize this until Sunday) but both our Canon DSLR and Canon Film SLR cameras stolen.

The cops came, and while they were nice, they offered us little comfort, and without theft insurance, we're just kind of out of luck.

I could handle the money i had been saving for a computer being gone, because i didn't already have the computer, so it wasn't changing my life by not being here.

And I could handle the knife being gone, although i felt bad for Marcus since he had just bought it.

But Sunday morning, when i woke up and realized the camera's were gone, i went into total meltdown mode. 

The tears finally came flowing and they didn't stop.

I thought i was okay after a sunday nap,  but then someone called me, and for the first time in my life, I started bawling to a near-stranger on the phone.

As far as monetary possessions, those two cameras are at the top of the list for me.

I love photography.

And those cameras have captured so many memories. 

Inside the camera bag they took, are literally thousands of photos on SD cards of our life, our wedding, our honeymoon, and our holidays with family.

It makes me feel so ill to think that
1. we now have to save up to buy them again, but
2. that someone is either going to look at all those memories we had together, or erase them all with no care for what they mean to us.

Ugh...I'm so over this situation. 

Sorry to be dragging you down with this, it's just that's why there won't be nice photos on the blog for a while.

I have to keep reminding myself that we still have lots of those photos on our computer, and we still have all of them in our hearts and minds.

And that, of course, it all could have been a lot worse.

And it helps that i still have these flowers in my kitchen and that Saved By The Bell is on Netflix InstantPlay.

Thanks for all the positive thoughts via instagram, facebook, and twitter. love you!