Wire Letters

I love when I post about something and then a friend/reader emails me to tell me where I can find it!! So I thought I'd share with y'all!

When I shared this photo I was totally in love with these wire letters.  Had no clue where they were from. Well thank you Ashley!  She emailed me a day later and told me they are from Urban Outfitters!

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Whoohoo!! So glad to know where to find them!

I just love them. Too bad they don't have the letters I need :(  Oh well!

P.S. We didn't put our tree up for Christmas!! Eek!! Can you believe that?? We had so much going on that we didn't even have time!

Baby Room Inspiration

Once we found out that we were definitely adopting a baby I allowed myself to save some pictures for inspiration. I still wake up every morning in awe of what God is doing.  Pinch me!!

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I love the pops of color in this one. Very happy looking! Reminds me of pink lemonade.

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I absolutely love the geometic designs on the wall. I think it was done with tape!  Always wanted to get some of this. It's good for wall decor as well as wrapping gifts!

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I loved how all of the bedding was different patterns. This is where I got the idea of making our's all different patterns.

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I love this. We have MR.P's baptism outfit. His mom gave it to us for Christmas so I'm thinking we'll do something like this!

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I love this collection and how its descending! Very creative!

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I loved all these fabrics together...but I especially love the plates behind the bed!

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This one is one of my favorites! This is where I got the "look and feel" I was going for. We'll see if it turns out that way ;)

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#1 favorite inspiration picture. I wish I had been collecting letters for a while! How awesome would this be in the baby room?!?!

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Always loved these! Inspiration for our drapes.

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Just love this fabric!

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love how the top part of the wall is done in a design! Smart!

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love the basket. I also incorporated a basket like this into the room. Just can't reveal quite yet...but I'll tell you this...I did put books in it!

UPDATE: this was sent to me by a great friend Rebekah!

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Definitely is VERY helpful in making the room complete!

And there you have it! I loved all of these and they helped me come up with how I wanted our baby room to look. If you know where some of these pictures came from let me know! I can't believe I didn't save them :(

Mobile Inspiration

Baby mobiles have seriously come a long way. They used to be these tacky ones that attached to the crib. Not anymore! Oh, and don't worry...the blog isn't going to become baby central. I promise. Just keeping y'all up to date with my projects for the baby room. 

I am going to make my own mobile. But these are the ones that have inspired me!

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Tonight I am putting everything together. We'll see how that goes!!

Reels and Deals by a fellow friend & reader!

Good morning! Happy Christmas!! (you know, like in Harry Potter?? Never read the books, but I enjoy the movies)

You know I absolutely love a good deal. Well, my sweet friend also loves a good deal!! She is my guest blogger for today!

Meet Katie Clark!  We met in college at UGA. You don't even want to know the story. It's kind of crazy.  But here's a tad bit.  We met through mutual friends at our church in Athens because she was sitting behind me.  Well one Summer day I was waiting for the bus to take me to one of my summer classes. The bus never showed!!  I barely knew Katie, but I called her up to see if she could take me to class. Sweet thing jumped in her car and picked me up! A couple weeks later Katie needed a place to live. I happened to be living in a 4 bedroom house alone for the summer.  She asked if she could live with me and I said YES!

Here's a little peek at us from right after college...just because its always fun to look back :)

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Good morning blog world!! I just want to start off saying that I feel like Oprah's friend, Gayle, by making this guest appearance on Design A-Peele.  So thanks for having me!!

I bought these panels at Goodwill in Smyrna for $7.95.

You can't even get panels at Ikea for that price! When I bought them, I didn't know exactly where I'd use them but they were pretty good quality, definitely a step above Target, and neutral (my entire house is neutral) so I figured I could find a spot. If not, I was only out 8 bucks. They are Pottery Barn Kids brand.

 Even though I didn't NEED window treatments for functional reasons I thought they would help soften up my master bath that is nothing but hard surfaces. I think they help!

The black curtain rod was in my attic, a leftover from my husband's college apartment.

I bought 3 packs of rings from Walmart for $4.97 each with 7 rings in each bag. I needed 10 per panel. The rings had clips on them which I didn't need, so I simply pried them off and threw them away. They panels came with hooks on the back so my total cost was $23 + tax.

I try to stop in thrift stores especially when I am in a nice area of town and usually leave with at least one "treasure". I usually have a few things in mind that I am always keeping my eye out for. The trick is that you have to be willing to take a chance because even if the things you buy don't work every single time you still come out way ahead in the end. If I'm in a time crunch I will run in just to check the children's and home/furniture sections.

 

Again, thanks for having me! Hopefully, I'll be back with more treasures!!

Solving Everyday Problems: written by Mr.P

Hello blog world and distinguished readers of Design-a-Peele. For many months my wife has been making you laugh, cry, think and most importantly saving you money by decorating inexpensively...blah,blah, blah. In my opinion, she's been holding out on you and keeping her best secret in the dark when it comes to solving everyday problems. What secret is that? Me! I'm the brains behind most of her brilliance and I'm hijacking her blog today to show you a thing or two about how to make your life easier.

How many times has this happened to you?

Yup, you get up from the couch and BAM...you kick over your favorite beverage. If you're like us and have oversized furniture there simply isn't enough room for a side table all the time. My solution? If you've got kids out there you already have everything you need. Introducing, cup holders on wheels.

This may look like an ordinary stroller but under the proper circumstances all of a sudden it transforms into your best buddy! No more spills and having your wife give you that "I just had the carpets cleaned" look. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. (we also happened to get the entire set, carseat and stroller, for half of what it regularly sold for!)

Moving on, if you're anything like me you don't have patience for clutter but you're also a little too lazy to do a whole lot about it.

Here's a scenario we're all familiar with. This could be your playroom, your office, your living room, etc. Have no fear my friends because an easy solution is right in front of you. Don't let your bulky furniture just stand useless against the wall, put it to good use! I call it Catty Corner Cleanup.

Where did all the mess go? Trash Can? Was it magic? No and no. 

 You've created space for junk simply by moving around some furniture! Do you feel your life getting a little easier? So do I. Too often in life we complicate things by simply not looking around for the easiest solutions. Some people may look at these examples and say, "wow, you're lazy!" I look them back in the eye and say, "Lazy? Maybe...Satisfied? Oh yeah!"

Design-a-peele has some great ideas she has shared with you in the past and may even share some with you in the future, but I couldn't sit by without letting you in on some of the real secrets that go on behind the scenes. Thanks for reading and don't be a stranger!

One of my favorite Winter things

I absolutely love my Patagonia fleece...

I wear it all winter long.  Which is why I asked for this one for Christmas.

Which then lead me to look for sweet baby Peele :)

I mean really!!  How stinkin' cute!!! 

(color is great for boys and girls!)



Just a little peek

Want a little sneak peek of baby's room?

MR.P and I went to our favorite antique store and found this old window. Then we found the star. It just made sense to add them together!  Hubster put it together while I was at work yesterday. Such a sweet surprise :)



On the hunt

For the perfect pair of wedges...that will go with everything! Like I have mentioned before, I like for my clothes to really work for me. So now that I am hunting for a pair of wedges I am using the same logic. Here are some that I feel would do the trick.

I think these are great for 2 reasons. 1 - they are the perfect color brown. 2 - they are only $20.  They look well made and like I could get a lot of use out of them. But here's a question. Would I wear them in the winter very much? I know they look winter-ish because of the leather and all, but wouldn't my feet get cold? And are they dress/casual all in the same? I usually lean towards casual.

These are basically my dream wedge. They are the perfect shape and have a great size heal...not too high and not too low for my longer jeans. They are gray/taupe though. Do they pass for light brown?  I'm thinking they could do the trick.

Now these are perfect!!! But, way out of the price range I am willing to pay :(  It's a good thing they were also sold out of my size so I wasn't even tempted.

So these were what I found during my search online.  Just don't have time to go anywhere or even have the desire to get out during all the Christmas traffic...unless I had all day :) 

What are your favorite online shoe places to shop?

No Sew Drapes

Oh, I just whipped these up yesterday. No big deal ;)

Totally gender nuetral ;)

This is my new best friend!  I feel like I am going to use this all the time. Now I won't drag my feet on projects because I need someone's help!!

If you want a tutorial let me know! They are super easy!

How to make a Crib Bed Skirt

Last night my sweet friend Katie came over to help make the bed skirt for the crib. I  did a lot of research on what I thought was best for our style as well as how easy it was going to be make it.  After seeing this one on one of my favorite blogs, I decided that was it. Simple and easy to make...as long as I have someone with me who knows what they are doing :)

Katie loaded up all her gear and her little girl Turner and headed to our house! 

Katie measured the crib first then cut the fabric into 3 different panels.  I wanted the bed skirt to be able to move with the crib as baby P gets older. So we made panels that tie to the springs under the mattress. That way when we move the mattress down we can pull the bed skirt up so it won't drag the floor.  Make sense?

Then we measured again to make sure we had plenty of fabric for each panel. Score! We measured right! Instead of sewing every single side, we decided to use Stitch Witchery. I got this from Joanne's for $3.  This saved us a lot of time and energy. Especially since this made for a smoother finish.  It was very easy to do. We folded each side twice (1 inch) and ironed down. Measured again to make sure we were still ok. Once we had everything perfectly straight we added the stitch witchery. We used a damp cloth over the fabric and pressed with the iron for 20 seconds. This bonded it all together beautifully.

Don't worry. I really was helping! But did take a break to play with baby T!  Isn't she precious?!?!  Katie did all the measuring and I did all the ironing. 

Actually, we did have a baby sitter. 

MR.P to the rescue! He did a great job with Turner. He even went and got us pizza so we didn't starve :)

Half way done.  Just making sure the length is just perfect.

Once all the panels were done, Katie finished them off by adding ties to the top so they would stay in place under the mattress. 5 ties to the front panel and 3 to each side panel.  She's so talented!!

All done!!  It's perfect! Exactly what I wanted!

The finished product. The total cost was probably $20.

Now I just need to add the mattress back in and the sheet!  Things are coming together!

Fabric is from Premier Fabrics.

Christmas Gift Ideas - stud earrings

This year I stayed on budget because I've made a lot of my gifts then added a few fun little things. Anyway, I thought I would share a few fun things I've found!

I don't know about y'all, but I love stud earrings. They are my favorite to wear. I found these cute owl earrings on etsy! 

And what about these? These are precious. I'd wear them every day! 

Such cute little flower earrings!  They would go with anything!

And these vintage butterfly ones are so cute. Usually not a fan of butterflies, but these are great!

These are just too sweet!

And last on the stud earrings list are these.  So stinkin' cute! love them!

All of these are great earrings for under $15! I'd say these are some great finds. I really think earrings can pull an outfit together. And for less than $15...that's a steal :)

I might have to get some because baby P can't be pulling on any dangly earrings!!  Whoohoo!  8 weeks and 5 days until he or she is born!!