J Cooper Photography

That whole President’s Day thing really confused me.  What day is it anyways??

1.  THANKS to all who came to the MATILDA JANE party.  We all had a great time!  I had planned on taking oodles of pictures of the food, clothing, and mingling guests.  Except I was too busy fondling the gorgeous clothing to remember.  Oh and eating.  And yakking with all the sweet people who stopped by!  I was so glad I held my spring trunk show the FIRST day of the season as several of the pieces are already sold out.  I’ve got a fun list of families signed up for my SPRING MINI SESSIONS now…can’t wait for a bit of warmer weather!

The girls spent hours in the afternoon making this sign for the party.  They thought it was a special treat to get to color on a giant piece of cardboard (note to self: you must really vary the art projects a bit more)…but really it was just a ploy to keep them from running obnoxiously through the house dumping toys

I did snap a few pictures of the some of the goodies before the guests arrived and I became completely sidetracked!

2.  Meet “Bubbles” and “Pebbles” (call me a terrible mother but I can’t for the life of me remember who is who)

These newest members of our family came to live with us on Sunday…after MUCH deliberating at the pet store.  They were a reward (ahem…bribe) for the girls for agreeing to share a room.  Little J was totally stoked about moving in with her big sister.  However…her big sister was not so keen on the idea of giving up her own space and bunking up with her sister.  We have been talking about the move for several months.  But each time I brought it up A would burst into tears about giving up her horse room.  It’s not that I didn’t feel bad for her.  It IS hard to share.  But I really felt like it was a life lesson and there was no other way to accomodate a room for our sweet Ethiopian baby.  We spend 80% of our lives in shared spaces and I really wanted both girls to have fun sharing a room.  The fish totally did the trick.  One day while A was sobbing uncontrollably about the loss of her room I yelled out “I’LL BUY YOU A FISH!” and she burst into a huge grin (wow am I a sucker or what?)  We haven’t had ONE tear since.  So far everyone has been happy and content with the new arrangement…

especially Bubbles and Pebbles who are the most pampered (or tortured?) fish alive.  They are residing near each girl’s bed right now but that living arrangement may need some tweaking after a certain someone  tried to snatch a fish out of the bowl bare handed (any guesses?)

3.  The girl’s new room.

This is far from done.  So far we’ve got their old rooms broken down and the furniture moved into the new room.  We took advantage of grandma and grandpa coming for a visit this weekend to do the BIG SWITCHEROO!  I bet my mother-in-law and I stood in the room for a full 2 hours trying to figure out how to get all of the furniture into the room!  I had a VISION of two sweet twin beds lined up on one wall with a nightstand between them.  Just like the Pottery Barn catalog (only sweeter cause my cuties would be all snuggles up in those beds).  But they just didn’t fit   So we went with an “L” arrangement.

I’m still working on the headboards.  Right now they are primed and A’s is just leaning against the wall so I could see what I thought of the arrangement.  I bought some cute wood decals for the front (flowers) and they will be an antique white like the rest of their furniture.  They both had complete bedroom sets which were (fortunately) the same color!

This is looking in from the door…the playroom doorway is at the foot of the bed.

J’s bed and dresser.  I’d love to do some type of collections of antique frames above their beds with photos and artwork.  I have a HUGE stash of leftover frames in the attic.  I think I will just bring out the spray paint and go to town

The bedding is from Target.  I would have LOVED to use matching vintage chenille bedspreads.  But I opted for cheap   Plus these coordinated with the playroom which is visable from their bedroom so it seemed like a logical choice.  The quilts ARE cute in person.  I’m not sure how well the will hold up over time…but we’ll see soon enough I’m sure.  There is still plenty of flu season left!

This is the other side of the room.  A’s dresser and hutch, their closet, and the attached bath.  That entire hutch is FULL of random ceramic “treasures”.  Heaven help me…WHY do little girls get so attached to EVERY MINUSCULE ART PROJECT?  I’d love to deck that hutch out with some of their vintage toys and special decorative things…but there isn’t an inch left

A little matching canvas I found last week at Target…

Friends Forever

4.  If anyone has any fun decorating ideas for me for above their beds shout them out!  I was thinking mismatched frames…maybe some embroidery hoops with fun fabrics…a letter…tiny shelves…etc.  ANYONE?

5.  Speaking of re-arranging.  For THREE years I have been staring at a LARGE BRASS BODY PART hanging from the ceiling in my foyer.  Everytime I opened the front door I shuddered.  It was THAT bad.  Actually worse.  For Christmas Mr. P and I gave ourselves a new chandelier!  It has been sitting here for awhile now as I got bids for a handyman for hire to hang it for us.  But when they quoted me $250 to climb a 16 foot ladder I figured my own sweet husband could risk life and limb and do it himself.  Which he did (with the help of my father-in-law).  And now I come home to this!

Let’s all say it together shall we….”AHHHHHHHH”.  What a relief!

6.  While I am writing this post Mr. Peepers is running around the basement shaking maracas and wearing a plastic stethoscope.  Where is my camera??

7.  We had a BUSY weekend and a late night Monday night.  Yesterday J could barely make it through her morning violin lesson without falling asleep.  Within 5 minutes of coming home I found her like this.  NAPS ROCK.

8.  OK…better.  Notice the addition of the blood pressure cuff?

9.  Last night our little man was singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” during dinner and it was quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life (although I do say that a lot).  Hoping I can catch it on video.  He even had the moves down…what a ham

10.  I’m out of photos so I’m gonna wrap this bad boy up.  I’m still working feverishly in the sweat shop sewing.  I’m really hoping to have my Etsy shop open soon!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY to you all (it is Wednesday, right?)