**I’m going green today and recycling a post I wrote last October. This may be an oldie but it’s a goodie! Hope all my fellow East Coasters are safe and dry. We were lucky never to have lost power and, other than some trees down, to escape Sandy’s wrath.**

This color combo is really fresh and modern for nurseries or big kid rooms. You can accent with girly ruffles or clean lined-giraffes to make the room perfect for a girl or a boy, which makes this an ideal palette for surprise deliveries. Here are some of my favorite yellow and gray nurseries I’ve come across:

Photo via www.rhoneydesign.com

Photo via www.rhoneydesign.com

Photo via madebygirl.blogspot.com

Photo via realhousewivesofbc.blogspot.com

Photo via thedomesticwannabe.blogspot.com

Photo via littleelephantstitchery.com

Embroidery hoops with fabric via littleelephantstitchery.com

Photo from taliaaudenart.blogspot.com

Available on Etsy @gusandlula ($16)

We all know that Pinterest is a great place to start when you’re looking for design ideas and inspiration for your home. But if you’re looking for a few more helpful sites and resources, visit some of my favs below.

Copy Cat Chic specializes in finding the inexpensive alternative to that tulip chair you covet that’s not quite in the budget.

Decor8 has “fresh finds for hip spaces” and features beautiful photography full of chic urban lofts and pops of color.

One of my favorite DIY inspiration sites is Young House Love. John and Sherry Petersik (along with their dog and baby girl) have renovated and redecorated not one but two (!!) houses. I love their style and ability to deliver a high end look on a budget.

I discovered Apartment Therapy when a friend’s sister had her apartment featured a couple of years ago (click here to see the article). The site is super easy to navigate, with menu categories including small spaces, budget living, green living and searching by room.

The HGTV web site is a great resource for info on a plethora of topics. I love looking through the Rate My Space rooms to get inspiration from everyday spaces, especially when I was working on the little one’s nursery.

Houzz is a great site if you’re not only looking for design inspiration but also want the ability to search for and purchase items. I find it so frustrating when I find the perfect bath vanity in a picture and have no way of knowing who the manufacturer is or where I can buy it.

Finally, House Beautiful is where I go when I’m putting together my dream home in my head. The designer-styled rooms are simply stunning. I love them.

What sites do you frequent when looking for design inspiration?

Photo via po-selected.com

I know I just wrote that post title, but I’m already embarrassed by it. I can’t help it—it was the first thing that popped into my mind when I came across this adorable little guy at West Elm. The Birdrizzlers by PO: (that colon is part of the company name, not a typo, just to clarify) offer a unique alternative to your everyday oil and vinegar cruets.

In somewhat macabre fashion, the head pops off to reveal the hollow for the oil or vinegar. I didn’t buy one, so I can’t speak to whether or not there’s a tight enough seal to prevent leaks, but they do have silicone rings for a snug fit. I have to admit, these are definitely a fashionable upgrade from my $4 oil cruet from HomeGoods!

Note:  When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was obsessed with designing her nursery, and I looked everywhere for inspiration. But I didn’t want to only look at over-the-top designer nurseries that were both unrealistic and out of reach. I wanted to see real nurseries, put together by real people on a real budget.

In an effort to pay it forward to other mamas, I will occasionally spotlight nurseries and children’s rooms that I think are inspiring. I will try to include as much detail and shopping information as possible so that, if you like something, you can actually make it happen. If you think your nursery/room would be worth featuring, shoot me an e-mail (amber@mom-machine.com) and let me know!

My friend, Shannon, has really good taste and her house always looks so put together, so it’s no surprise that her son’s nursery is just, well, perfect.  “I wanted a classic, vintage nursery that was personalized [for him]. . . Finn is such a classic Irish name and I wanted a nursery that spoke to that,” Shannon explained. She was inspired by the Kate Greenway vintage nursery rhyme pictures that now hang above the dresser. “For some reason, the boy in the two pictures looked like a ‘Finn’ to me,” she said. Shannon chose classic, traditional furniture and added vintage and sentimental touches throughout, including her own baby shoes and a handmade banner from a friend, to complete the room.

Nursery Details:

Pictures above dresser: Kate Greenaway vintage nursery rhyme pictures from art.com, custom framed at Michael’s
Paint colors:  Bottom Accessible Beige; Top Honest Blue, both by Sherwin Williams
Bedding: Carousel Designs Little Bunny Cottontail Toile Crib Sheet
Curtains: Specially made using the Cottontail Blue Toile fabric from Carousel Designs
Recliner: Best Chairs TRYP Recliner
Changing table and crib: Ragazzi Pompei Collection in Espresso
Picture frames on wall: From Pomella and Rose Furnishings in Bel Air, MD
Vintage toys: From Pomella and Rose Furnishings in Bel Air, MD,  originally from Germany
Vintage jack in the box: From Tiny Toes, a baby boutique in Bel Air, MD
Books: Anthropologie (sadly, no longer available)
Shoes: Vintage, Shannon’s baby shoes
Floor lamp: Pottery Barn Kids (model no longer available)
Lamp on dresser: Carousel Designs (model no longer available)
Side table: From Pottery Barn Kids in Espresso
Toys sign above closet: Madison Belle
Blanket on chair: Blanket Lady
Wall monogram:  Three Hip Chicks

About four years ago, my husband and I received a set of Berkshire fleece sheets for Christmas and have since bought a set for pretty much every member of our family. It’s a running joke that my family should have bought stock in these sheets.

If you are thinking that I’m crazy for loving a set of sheets this much, try them—I dare you not to love them. They are, hands down, the warmest, coziest sheets you will ever snuggle into on a cold winter’s night. We got a second set last year just so that we could always have one clean to put on our bed during the winter months.

They run about $60 for a queen set from Bed, Bath & Beyond, but you can nearly always find them at Marshalls, TJ Maxx or HomeGoods for about $40 for the same size. The low tonight in the DC area is 27°—do yourself a favor and take a trip to Marshalls tomorrow.

At the risk of sounding a bit Monica-ish, I have a new love in my life in the form of an all-purpose cleaner. I recently discovered the Method All-Purpose Cleaner in French Lavender from Target. I love love love the smell of lavender. It makes me feel like I’m in a spa instead of a chemical plant, like most cleaners out there. The Method cleaner is also natural and non-toxic, which helps my whole family breathe a little easier. But the best part? It actually WORKS! I use it to clean everything from the kitchen counters to the messy stove top to dried spaghetti on the high chair. It even cleans crayon scribbles in no time, which I found out the other day. Plus it doesn’t leave the granite all smudgy and streaky, which makes this clean freak very, very happy! (It’s the little things in life!)

My friend and coworker, Stephanie, is just so creative and crafty! She saw this picture of a Christmas ornament on Pinterest from the blog Flea Market Style and decided to make each of us at work a decoupage ornament for Christmas. Katie and I (the editors) got book print (Pride and Prejudice to be exact!), Brandi and Ariana (our web ladies) got fun origami paper, and Stacy (our resident insane Duke fan) got a Duke ornament. How cute are these?! It’s hard to tell in our lovely fluorescent office lighting, but they’re each covered in glitter and twinkle in the lights!

Since the original inspiration image was just a picture of an ornament from a store, Stephanie has very graciously shared with me her DIY tutorial, which I now happily share with you. You can use any type of paper (books, scrapbook paper, etc.), so if you decide to do this project with or for your kids, the possibilities are endless!

DIY Decoupage Ornament
(By Stephanie Patterson) 

• Any size clear glass or plastic ornament (I used 3-inch plastic ornaments)
• Mod Podge® or any decoupage medium
• Paint brush (I used a small sponge brush)
• New/old/recycled book pages or scrapbook paper
• Crystal glitter
• Yarn or string (I used Martha Stewart Eyelash yarn)
• Glitter card stock for the letter or you could really use anything that you want to use as tag-like adornment

1. Tear book pages into 1- to 2-inch pieces.
2. Remove the silver cap on the top of the ornament.
3. Using the Mod Podge as glue, paint some onto the ornament and then place the paper down on top.
4. Apply more Mod Podge over the paper to moisten it and flatten over the rounded surface.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with overlapping pieces of paper until the ornament is completely covered.
6. Let dry for approximately one hour.
7. Apply another coat of Mod Podge over the whole ornament and pour glitter over it, turning the ornament to coat the entire thing. Shake it to remove any excess glitter.
8. Let dry overnight.
9. Wrap the neck of ornament with yarn and add any adornments (to create the letter tag, I used my Cricut® Cutting Machine with glitter card stock and punched a small hole to thread the yarn through).
10. Replace the silver cap on the top of the ornament.
11. Use another bit of yarn to create a loop for hanging the ornament.

This post is a little late, considering Christmas is in just a few days, but better late than never! I decided to make my own Christmas wreath this year for the front door because I’m too cheap to pay for one (those things are EXPENSIVE!). So I went to Michael’s and bought two tubes of large ball ornaments (14 total), three tubes of small ball ornaments (21 total) and a wreath form. Because everything was on sale, it only cost me $12! Using a hot glue gun, I glued the ornaments onto the wreath form, making sure to alternate the colors and patterns. It might not be perfect, but I think it turned out pretty good! And it’s totally doable for a busy mom, or it could be a good project to do with your little one. The only change I would make is that I recommend getting four tubes of small ornaments rather than just three to help fill in any holes.

How cute is this umbrella stand I came across at TJ Maxx today?! Or at least I’ve decided it should be an umbrella stand. I suppose it could be a really big vase or something if you wanted it to be. I would totally have bought it if a) I thought my husband would actually agree to let me put it somewhere in our house, and b) I didn’t think my daughter would knock it over and break it in about 43 seconds. Sigh. One day I will again be able to have breakable objects below 3 ft in our house. Until then, will someone please give this little guy a good home? He can be found at the TJs at Farifax Towne Center.

Having a security system helps me sleep at night—not because I live in a bad area (please, our crime awareness report consists of graffiti in the tot lot) but because I have an overactive imagination and I might be a little bit afraid of the dark. But what I didn’t love was the way the keypad console looked on the blank wall in the middle of my foyer. So I decided to build a gallery wall around the console to help disguise it. What do you think—did I succeed? I think it blends in pretty well!

I made the picture in the upper left corner using a canvas, some wooden letters and a can of spray paint—super easy and cheap. The picture directly under that one is just some framed wrapping paper from the dollar section at Target. I got the idea for the picture in the bottom right corner from YoungHouseLove (love, love, love their hallway gallery! this is my poor man’s version). I grabbed some card stock and a Sharpie and voilà! Instant art. The other three frames hold family pictures. All of the picture frames came from either Target or HomeGoods.  Next up will be painting the wall (I’d love a little more contrast with the white frames)—we aren’t big fans of the creamy yellow shade, but we just haven’t gotten around to painting this part of the house yet.