joy.

i am gearing up to move my studio today. it will be a big project! the great room swap continues...


my etsy shop is closed until after the new year to give me time to move and get organized.

i am so thankful for everyone who shopped maternalNEST. i am so thrilled and flattered that my handmade goods get to be a part of your family's holiday gift giving. so thank you.

i was very busy this holiday season, a complete blessing. luckily i finished all of my Christmas orders just in time to decorate my own house and celebrate with my husband and my girls. it was harried but it was joyous and lovely. this was Chloe's first Christmas, an extra special reason to celebrate. Chloe was born January 8th so she really got into the fun of opening presents already being nearly a year. she is such a joy! already running around the house at 11months, being mischievous, entertaining everyone who walks into our home and passers by when we are out and about. i feel so lucky to have 2 such wonderful girls, so filled with personality! hopefully i will have some time later today to edit photos to post. Lily and Chloe were so cute in their Christmas attire.

after a couple days of resting after the holiday i am already prepping for what lies ahead. the next few weeks will be filled with heavy lifting, painting, gift making, party planning, cleaning and organizing... good thing i got a Starbucks card for Christmas...

anyway i thank all of you for reading and i hope all of you had a happy and healthy holiday! happiness to all of you in 2011!

i n s p i r a t i o n for Lily.

so as i mentioned in the "GREAT room swap" posting... we are really shaking things up and moving things around at my home. today i am taking a moment to start gathering ideas to decorate Lily's new room. i love to decorate little girl rooms... having 2 little girls now i have quite a bit of practice doing it. Lily has informed me that her room is to be pink, and to tell the truth i am not a "pink" girl... i always leaned toward blue and purple growing up. pink was always too girlie for me... though it turns out that i have a "girlie girl".
i am starting to build the girls room around the PBK brooke quilt. there will be 2 twin beds (one for Lily and one for Chloe... when she's a bit older). other than these two elements, the color pink and the bedding, i am working from a blank slate.
the room is on the second floor and has pitched ceilings so painting can be tricky. i really don't want the room to end up a big pink box. so i am thinking of creating a wainscoting treatment to break up the color, otherwise i will have to paint the ceiling whatever color i paint the walls.

i came across this cute scalloped border treatment at OHDEEDOH today, "natalie's sleeping space". the woman featured found the this painting technique posted at the ISLY blog.
i think that this may be the way to go. i can paint the walls pink and then create the scallop just under the roof line painting the scallop and everything above a nice white.



this is just a beginning, but every room needs a jumping off point.

(photos from today's post are from ohdeedoh.com and potterybarnkids.com)

h o l i d a y nesting.

i just wanted to take a moment to share a few things i am working on for the holiday season. i already posted my keepsake christmas ornament in my etsy shop and it has really gotten some good attention. there are a few more projects in the works which i hope to have posted in the next couple days. i'm having lots of fun making holiday decorations both for my shop and my own nest.

here are some shots of the burlap holiday banners i am making, there will also be more photos of the star garlands posted as soon as i can get them uploaded...




more to come ;)

the G R E A T room swap of 2010.

so we are going through the process of what i would like to call "the GREAT room swap of 2010" in my home. there are many reasons as to why we are shaking things up. it began because i decided it would be a good idea to move my workroom/ studio to another room in the house. my studio is located in the breeze way of our home (a room that connects the house to the garage), a main walking for anyone entering our home. i wish i could say that i was a neat crafter... why lie. for me, running my etsy shop, updating, returning emails, making things to sell, all while caring for two small kids, i find there is very little time or energy at the end of my day for organization. i am tired of THIS being the first thing people see when they enter my home. not only is it kind of embarrassing, but the traffic back and forth interrupts my focus while i am working. so the great shift begins. we are moving my 3 year old upstairs to the biggest room in the house which will later be shared with her younger sister when she is out of her crib. my work space is moving into her old room on the first floor, it has great light and a huge closet! it will be the perfect space for me.

now is the time to dream. my current studio was just thrown together out of necessity. a place to make the things i sell. there was no plan and because of it's location very little storage for everything. it's time to make a plan. i am excited, a bit overwhelmed, but excited.
so as i browse the web for inspiration i will leave the best of what i find here. mainly so i can find it later :)

so here is today's work room inspiration:

i need the biggest calendar i can find... i can make this the calendar of my dreams. i am a visual person and being able to keep track of all my orders and when they are due out is a huge necessity for me, and what will be a big key to my organizational success. i found this idea at marthastewart.com.
one wall of my new work space will be painted in chalk board paint. with this calendar right in the middle, so i can write any notes to myself on this wall. i think to take this idea to the next step, i am going to prime it with magnetic primer before painting the wall with the chalkboard paint.

i found this inspiration at decor8. i have 2 of those plastic folding tables (made by sterilite). nothing to look at but inexpensive and functional. i am going to paint them glossy gray like the table in the picture (thank god for plastic spray paint!) another thing i may pull from this inspiration is the decopage on the cupboard. they have a how to on marthastewart.com for that procedure too. i have a white storage closet that has no personality.


(all photos from today's inspiration are from marthastewart.com and decor8blog.com)

b l o g g i n g.

so i have never really be very good at keeping a journal. my whole life, even when i was a kid (before the i n t e r n e t) when journaling consisted of my "diary" and a pencil, i never could keep up with it. i have 5 or 6 blank books that i tried to keep record in and I never could seem to do it. each has about 3-4 entries, then a mass of blank pages. so here it goes... my latest attempt to get organized in my brain and share my thoughts.

p e a c e .

my grandmother j a n e m e n d e z died yesterday afternoon. she was my last living grandparent. her death h i t me much harder than i expected it to. she was 90 years old and had not been well for a while, so for her it is a blessing that it is over.
she was a funny, blunt, competitive new jersey b r a w d . she was the perfect 50's house wife, she sold avon back in the days when you went door to door. grandma loved a good martini, she served happy hour at her home often for friends and family. grandma jane loved to travel and she went all over the world through out her life. she survived 2 husbands and was a huge flirt, even to the end. she hated to lose at scrabble, or anything for that matter. she was l o v e d by us all. i will miss her very much.
rest in p e a c e grandma jane.

w e l c o m e .

welcome to maternalNEST. my name is c a r r i e and i have a shop on e t s y selling my handmade goods. i am the mother of 2 s w e e t girls, lily (3 years) and chloe (5 months). they keep me very b u s y most of the time, but i love to make things and i look forward to my journey through craft here and in my shop. making things makes me a better mommy :)

i look forward to posting c r a f t ideas, photos of my kids, and my l i f e with you.