Pinterest December 2011 Additions: In My Dream House

12/21/2011

Are you on Pinterest? Since we’re in the process of planning our dream house, I’ve been trying to remember to pin images of features I love for our future home. Here are a few recent additions and what I loved about them.

I love the art and the fireplace here:

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Light airy living room with huge windows. Love it. Somewhere in the great room, if not in the living room:

Source: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Super cute breakfast nook, though I may prefer an island or peninsula in the kitchen with stools instead:

Source: designsponge.com via Martina on Pinterest

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The next 3 images totally inspired me to rethink the “den” into more of a creative space, playroom, art room:

Source: designmom.com via Martina on Pinterest

Source: designmom.com via Martina on Pinterest

Source: designmom.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Craft supply storage:

Source: designsponge.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Remind me to make sure we create a space in the kitchen to store cookbooks. I love what they did here on the island. Also, I like the white cabinet doors and white subway tile backsplash:

Source: designsponge.com via Martina on Pinterest

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Posted by mahlbrandt

This & That

12/05/2011

• Last week I was “in” court by speaker phone. That’s the third time I’ve been in court in the past month. Oh, how my life has changed.

• Precious had her first “solid” food this weekend, if rice cereal counts as a solid. She seemed to like it but learning how to swallow it will take some time.

• My mom was asked to testify at a brunch for her bible study/prayer group this week, about the miracle God did for us and Precious. She asked if I’d say something afterward. I wrote a 5 minute speech and I’ve rehearsed it in front of Photo Booth five times because I get nervous speaking in front of groups. But I have a lot to say. (In case you haven’t noticed…)

• We had the first of two court-ordered, pre-TPR, supervised visits with Precious’ birth mom last week. It felt so strange going into it—it’s a mess and the situation is unnatural in so many ways—but it went much better than I expected. That’s a whole blog post in itself.

• I’m really thankful for the adoption attorney we found. She seems super amazing and her price is great.

• Thank you to all of you who have donated to our adoption fundraiser! Just through this blog post, we’ve already collected over $500. We are blessed and amazed. You guys are the best!

• I keep finding money lately. Mostly quarters. In random places.

• I helped my parents put up their Christmas tree on Saturday and then on Sunday my mom helped me with ours. (Jason is in Texas.) Precious loves how shiny and sparkly it is. She’s gonna make Christmas so much more fun this year.

• Our house, our beloved MCM ranch, is officially on the market now. I’m sad because I love it but I’m also excited about the new season we’re moving into. I am not really looking forward to keeping the house clean ALL THE TIME…

2 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Me, Family: Precious/Ali | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Design*Sponge at Home, in Nashville!

11/28/2011

Are you a fan of Design*Sponge? It was one of my first favorite blogs and I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration through the site in the past few years. We submitted a before and after project a few years ago, some old office chairs we found in a dumpster and turned into a patio bench and chair. About a year ago, I was contact by one of the staff at Design Sponge asking if they could include our project in their upcoming book. Of course I agreed.

Well the book, Design*Sponge at Home, is out! Grace Bonney and the team have been doing a national book tour. When I found out they were coming to West Elm in Nashville on November 15th, I quickly bought a ticket to the pre-party craft event, which included a copy of the book and the opportunity to meet Grace and get my book signed. (Little did I know Nov. 15 was going to be such a crazy, landmark day in our lives…)

Page 349

I went alone but ended up meeting a girl who lives on our street and running into a friend of a friend I haven’t seen in years. (Renata, Jenni says hi!) Since I arrived late, I got a short personal tutorial from Grace on how to make a freezer paper stencil to create a custom hand painted cloth napkin.

After the craft, Jason came to meet me for snacks, silly photos in the photo booth, and to get our book signed by Grace. (He took the photos with me in them. Thanks honey!) Grace seemed genuinely excited to meet us and asked more about our bench project. Plus, I now have my very own signed copy of the gorgeous book sitting on our coffee table, ready to inspire a bunch more projects.

3 Comments | Art, Art: before & after, Art: gardening, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Thank you, Design Mom!

10/27/2011

I was beyond humbled when Gabrielle asked if she could interview me and feature our kids room in her Living With Kids series on Design Mom. I’ve been a daily reader of her blog for years and have gleaned a ton of inspiration from her and her beautiful family. I even won a giveaway for goodies from Petit Collage through her blog and got the alphabet poster that hangs in our nursery. So click on over there and check it out!

3 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

10/14/2011

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Rocker

10/03/2011

I was so excited that I have something to share that’s not related to foster care or babies… it’s actually home related and mid-century modern, too! Then I realized it is still very much related to foster care and babies. Oh well. I tried.

Last Monday night I emailed Jason a link and said, “Can I get this? I want to rock my babies.” He replied back, “Yes dear. You can rock your babies in that chair. Go for it. Sweet mama and wife, I love you!” A couple of clickety clicks later on my Amazon iPhone app and it was ordered. It arrived on Thursday. Talk about rockin’ service! It took no more than 5 minutes to assemble and is exactly what I was hoping for. A white plastic-shell Eames replica rocking chair for our kids room. Precious and I have been enjoying it.

PS. If you want to get a real deal Eames rocker, you can buy one through Herman Miller for $479.

6 Comments | Art, Art: Bedoom for Foster Kids, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

House Tour: Master Bedroom

09/20/2011

Master Bedroom

If you were reading this blog prior to our kids room tour on Ohdeedoh, you may remember that once upon a time I was doing a house tour series. I started with the living room, then the kitchen and dining room, then the studio, the hall bathroom, the hallway and cloffice, and the master bathroom and laundry room. I haven’t yet shared the master bedroom because we have an embarrassing lack of night stands. There I said it. I’m ashamed about my alarm clock sitting on a pile of books. However, since it’s been several months now and we STILL don’t have night stands, the house tour must go on. Or something like that. (And just watch, we’ll probably end up finding the perfect night stands this week.) I’m swallowing my pride. Here is our (bedside table-less) master bedroom:

See, I’m too ashamed to even post these pictures full size…

Moving on.

Another embarrassment of our bedroom… the dresser with the missing drawer. We got a lot of good suggestions here and we haven’t done anything about it yet except add balance by replacing another drawer with a basket.

Who let those kids get married?

Jason’s mom made us this cross stitch as a wedding gift and it fits right into our fluffy cloudy white bedroom. (That was my goal… light, airy and clean like a cloud. Not like a sterile laboratory.)

I fought against the idea of installing a ceiling fan. I voted for a capiz shell chandelier. But it really does make a huge difference in keeping our room cooler.

There. That wasn’t too painful I guess. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of a complete master bedroom to replace these with by the end of the year.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Studio Murphy Workbench: In Progress

08/24/2011

Jason and I came up with an idea for a murphy bed style work table in his music studio utility room. We didn’t want something that would eat up precious floor space but he needed a work surface besides his desk or the floor for changing guitar strings, repairing effect pedals and soldering. It’s a fairly simple concept but I think Jason did a great job implementing it. It’s not a finished project yet, as you can see. He still needs to add drywall, mud it, prime it and paint it; and finish out the workbench with banding and add built-in hidden shelving and a power outlet.

The legs fold out on hinges like a drop leaf table. The table top is unlatched so it can fold down and rest on the legs.

It’s standing height or stool height. I have a specific kind of stool in mind… one of these retro chairs that doubles as a step stool. I saw one at a vintage store once but one of these replicas look like a decent option.

My old acoustic guitar is serving as a test dummy. We plan to add some felt or a rubbery soft surface to the table top that can be removed when he’s soldering.

I’ll be back to share the finished project whenever it’s done.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

House Tour: Master Bathroom & Laundry Room

08/22/2011

Master Bathroom

Oh man. So much to say about this room. And most of it has already been said. Once upon a time this room was a bedroom. The people who renovated the house before us quickly turned it into a bathroom with a washer and dryer in it. Basically it looked like a bedroom with hardwood floors, a washer and dryer in the closet nook, small shower, pedestal sink (zero storage) and a toilet in a little room. We re-renovated it into a much nicer and more practical master bathroom with a huge (4’x5′) hand-tiled shower with duel rain showers, tiled floors and a sink vanity made from a vintage piece of furniture. And, we did it ALL ourselves. If you have a few hours to burn, you can read all about our renovation project here.

Laundry Room

One of the best parts of the master bathroom renovation was creation of a separate laundry room. I remember having this floor plan epiphany while I was driving home from work one day. Originally we were just going to put doors in front of the W&D, but as the designated laundry-doer, I really wanted a walk in laundry room. Clearly, it’s not finished yet. Projects of higher priority caused us to stop when it was functional and say “good enough for now.” I have plans, though. Plans involving a craft/sewing table and prettier storage baskets for the shelves. Hopes of tiled floors (using the same tiles as the bathroom that we have in storage.) Dreams of attached drywall, mudded, primed, painted…

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Posted by mahlbrandt

IKEA 2012

08/18/2011

Have you looked through the IKEA 2012 catalog yet? I’ve skimmed but I haven’t had a chance to give it a thorough inspection yet. (I do that when I get the paper copy.) If you have, are you excited about any of the new products? I was intrigued and challenged by the Small Spaces video series.

I noticed that our SOMNAT crib went down $20 in price.

I’d love to have this poster…

Other than that nothing jumped out at me but I really enjoy browsing through the catalog every year. In several places IKEA succeeded in making these spaces look real and lived in. I love this. It’s a nice change from staged, perfect catalog images.

2 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

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