round up: favorite small shops for babes!

it's no secret that I love Etsy, so it should come as no surprise that when it comes to buying unique items for Ronin, Etsy is my number one place to go. however, I have discovered a few other handmade shops along the way thanks to the easy networking of Instagram. and you have to admit, there's something incredibly rewarding about supporting small businesses. here's a little roundup of some of my favorite shops for babies.  

1 U.S. Wood Toys - adorable wooden toys made right here in DC. 

2 Little Hip Squeaks - baby blankets and headbands in fresh prints and fun colors.
3 Ajalor - vintage inspired handmade baby shoes. 
4 Two Giggles - modern baby books and journals. 
5 TrulySanctuary - eclectic, hip, and witty printed onesies (kids & adult sizes too). 
6 Smiling Tree Toys - personalized wooden toys, puzzles, teethers, nursery decor, etc.
7 LittleNestBox - colorful mobiles and garlands - customized to match your decor.
8 Juniper Wilde - sophisticated, eco-friendly decor and other products for kids. 
9 Candy Kirby Designs - organic baby leggings and blankets in stylish patterns. 

Friday loves

these curtains from Urban Outfitters. 

why am I just now realizing how affordable their window treatments are? 

I'm thinking these may be residing in our living room soon. 

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a thorough spring cleaning checklist. 

also known as: I'm nesting and I need help. 

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I'm usually not a fan of wall decals at all. 

however, I am really digging these circle name designs. 

I think they'd look great on a nursery wall above a crib or changing table!

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fo free: 830 printables - from lined paper, to budget sheets, to music paper. 

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I want to print this and frame it. 

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DIY: chalkboard paint + basic wooden blocks = creativity & fun for hours.

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how to: introduce pets to a new baby. 

I will definitely need these tips in a few weeks.

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this site is chock full of creative and unique gifts for all occasions.
like this modern personalized drink tub:

how awesome would this be as a housewarming gift?

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Mrs. Stroller's thoughts on breastfeeding.
I love this, as breastfeeding is one of the things I'm most worried about when it comes to having a baby. 
I really want it to work for us, but I am aware of all the issues that could arise.
fingers crossed that Ronin & I have a successful BF relationship.
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these baby shoes. 

anchors and sail boats?
SQUEEEEEEE.
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Happy Friday, lovahs!

baby Q related updates

whew! we have had a LOT going on last week, hence the lack of a shower post. however, Kaley posted about it here, so you can hop over there to check it out! 

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on the home front, the nursery is FINALLY painted. all I have left to do is the trim, and then I can finally start to put together furniture. we picked up a couple more odds and ends this weekend, mostly decor related... like this clock. I have a feeling I'll be working on his room until I go into labor, haha. for now, here are some photos of the painted walls - please note that these photos do NOT do the color justice. 

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I had a doctor's appointment on Friday, which revealed high blood pressure AGAIN (although it did go down by the end of my appointment), so my doctor now wants me to monitor my BP at home on a daily basis and record it. she also doesn't want me working in my office while the air conditioning isn't running properly, so I'll be working from home on the really brutal heat wave days. other than that, everything is A-okay with little baby Q. 

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I had a prenatal massage on Saturday afternoon, courtesy of a birthday gift from my BFF, Kaycie. it was so amazing that I scheduled another one for the beginning of August. it was just what I needed (especially on such a hot day) and I felt so relaxed afterward. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't indulge in the pampering earlier on! 

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yesterday, I had an appointment with a physical therapist for my pelvis. it turns out that my pelvis is misaligned (probably due to the stretching and pulling of ligaments during the pregnancy), which has been causing my pain for months on end. I'm going to start seeing her twice a week to work on strengthening my pelvic muscles, even though it goes against what my body is doing (loosening and softening around the pelvis) in order to prepare for child birth. 

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I had sushi (the cooked kind, thank you very much) with some friends on Friday evening. my friend Katie brought a gift for Ronin - two little preppy rompers and the cutest little baby sunglasses. I am really considering bringing them to the hospital and making him wear them right away. 

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Happy Tuesday, friends! :)

Friday loves

a smartphone wallet. 

aka the perfect little clutch for carrying minimal stuff.

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the top 100 best children's books.

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how to: create a home management binder.

dude. I love this. I NEED to be more organized at home, and this is one step I can take to accomplish that. I think once my nesting really kicks in, this will be one of my projects to take on.

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free: birth plan tool.

and another.

both of these were extremely helpful in creating a personalized birth plan for us. 

while I know a lot of people laugh at birth plans, there are a few things that I want to remember to do/to avoid during labor, and I know that having it written down will prevent me from forgetting to mention it.

I basically filled in the info in the second one and copied the results into a Word document. 

and then, when I found the tool in the first link, I just took some of the information from that and added to the document I had already created, since it contained some more options that I hadn't yet considered.

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John & Sherry's new DIY headboard. 

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how to tell if your eggs are still fresh:

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this ridiculously cute & creative love story.

holy crap, I can't imagine how much time it took to make that!

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this rug from Urban Outfitters. 

I need this for my entryway. right now.

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5 best places for party supplies.

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my baby shower is tomorrow, so I'll hopefully have a recap of that next week! 

I'm so excited to celebrate baby Ronin with my friends and family. 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my feet don't swell up TOO bad. 

from what I hear, the menu is full of delicious goods, so you can't beat that! ;)

OH, and thank you all for your suggestions on my shower attire! the navy dress was a slam dunk among voters, and so that's what I'll be wearing.

Happy Friday, folks!

weekend recap (with cell phone pictures!)

Friday Night:

Sean & I met up with our awesome friends Kaycie & Adam and grabbed lunch at a local Irish place before heading into Baltimore. we had some drinks at Howl at the Moon and then cabbed over to Meyerhoff Symphony Hall to see this excellent fellow perform stand up comedy. 

and THEN I laughed so hard that I couldn't feel my face and I'm pretty sure I urinated a little in my pants. if you ever have the opportunity to see Louis CK's stand up, fucking DO IT. 

after the show was over, we headed back to Howl for some more drinks and good times all around. lots of dancing, singing, and people watching. and then Taco Bell for the drunk ride home. nom. 

Saturday:

clean clean clean clean clean clean. I cleaned my house from the minute I woke up until I had to leave for my cousin's sweet 16th birthday party in preparation for the Scentsy party I was hosting Sunday. I scrubbed baseboards, mopped floors, rearranged kitchen appliances, and hung up fun cork boards in the kitchen. 

cousin Sammy turned 16 years old. CRAZY! she's so beautiful and free spirited. love her to death. we had pizza and cake to celebrate. it's always wonderful to spend time with my mom's side of the family. 

when I returned home from the party (at about 9:30PM), I did a little more cleaning/straightening up and then convinced Sean to help me build our IKEA dining table that's been sitting in the kitchen (in the box) for MONTHS. 

I also decided that there was no way I could put together IKEA furniture without wine. this may or may not have had anything to do with the mistake we made while building, causing us to backtrack juuuuust a little bit to fix it. woops. the table only took us about 2 hours to put together, and that was mostly because we had to use a screwdriver because the drill battery was dead as a door nail. 

yes, I've already broken out the Christmas pajama pants. don't judge me. 

oh well. we got her done, and she is beautiful! there are two additional leaves to expand her to seat 8, but 4 is perfect for now. now I just need to figure out how to decorate a dining room table. 

Sunday:

got up super early since I STILL had more cleaning to do. I wanted the house to be absolutely spotless, so it got the deep clean that it so badly needed. finally got out to the grocery store and back to the house about 30 minutes before people started to arrive. 

the next couple hours went something like this: eat, drink wine, cuddle baby, gossip/girl talk, check the score of the Skins game, cuddle baby, drink more wine, show off Bear's amazing balancing skillz, drink more wine, eat, smell Scentsy, drink beer. 

it was a great time for sure. now that the house is completely cleaned, we will be having people over more often, fo sho. after everyone left, we cleaned up and parked our butts in front of the TV for the remainder of the evening. I vaguely remember falling asleep while watching Homeland last night. 

WHEW! so it was a great weekend for the Quinns and now it's back to reality... I've got a week full of work, school, a vet appointment for Miss Mama Cat, and a visit with a friend who recently decided to take in and foster her own mama cat and 4 wittle babies! eeeeks, can't wait to meet them! 

I hope you all had a FANTASTIC weekend like I did. 

oh, and tell me what you're reading right now. 

I haven't picked up a book in WEEKS and I really need to get back on the wagon soon. it's killing me! 

Bear says HAPPY MONDAY!

DIY fall decor

well would ya look at that. I promised to keep you updated on something I was planning on accomplishing over the weekend and I'm ACTUALLY posting about it! 

anyway. typically, I skip fall and only decorate for the holidays, but this year, I was really hoping to add those warm fall tones to my decor. what I didn't want to do though, was spend a fortune on accessories that I would only be displaying a few weeks out of the year. so, I went to Michael's in search of cheap solutions. 

I ended up picking out a few floral arrangements, a few plastic pumpkins, some fall colored scrapbook paper, a few fillers (pine cones, little mini pumpkins, wine corks), metal word art, a basket that says "harvest", and some candles. my total at Michael's was around $100, but that also included some other miscellaneous objects that were not used for fall decor. I'd say that I spent about $60-$70 on supplies for the fall stuff, which isn't bad considering that I would probably spend 3 times that much if I chose to decorate for fall by shopping at Pottery Barn. 

here's what I did in the living room... 

one of our end tables.
handmade art by me (tutorial to come later), CREEPY word art from Michael's. 

the tray on our coffee table - the pumpkin & candle are new.
please excuse the mess. 

I like to treat the top of my entertainment center as a mantle, and so I set up two vignettes on each end... 

the only new items are the basket and the pine cones - I already owned the books, woven fillers, and the pear reed diffuser.  

the pine cones didn't come up high enough initially, so I packed some paper into the bottom of the basket to allow them to peek out of the top. 

the vase and the candle holder were things I already owned... just added the white pumpkin and flowers. I think that yellow vase could be my single favorite decor accessory... it makes it's way through every season! 

for the middle shelf, I recreated this DIY artwork that I spotted on Pinterest using fall colored scrapbook paper and cut out letters spelling FALL from brown scrapbook paper. I simply glued everything together and placed them in simple black frames. easy peasy. 

I decided to switch out some of the accessories in the bookcase this weekend too. 

luckily, we already had those orange office storage boxes from Ikea, so it wasn't too hard to make the bookcase look ready for fall. 

my excitement over this mustache scrapbook paper was embarrassing. 

glass vase filled with mini pumpkins, wine corks, and natural fillers (already owned). 

so that's it for our fall decor so far. I plan on switching out some of the art in the gallery wall for more autumn appropriate images and patterns (like this and this and this), so I'll make sure to shoot some pictures of that when it's completed. I still want to make a leafy garland out of scrapbook paper too (kinda like this, but strung together instead of hanging from a branch). 

other than adding the accessories, I keep fall scents burning in my Scentsy warmers until Christmas time comes. right now, we're enjoying the smell of Gingersnap! baked goods always remind me of fall. 

have you started to add some fall decor to your home yet? 

ALSO...I'm already working on convincing Sean to let me get real pumpkins this year for our porch! he's not buying it just yet, but maybe with the prospect of home baked pumpkin goodies, he'll change his mind! ;) 

Friday loves! [on a Sunday]

YHL's anniversary week! I love their Q&A video and the roundup of stats from this year. I've been a follower for a few years now, so it's really cool to see how they've evolved. 

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totally not internet related, but Sean bought me surprise tickets to the Caps home opener game against Carolina. CANNOT WAIT for hockey season to begin! 

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the new baby girl, Shirley, over here. 

GAH, she's so cute! I just want to squeeze her! 

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this Mustache Mania print. so fun. would look great in any room. 

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this roundup of painted pumpkins. 

if time allows, I might take on a project like this in a few weeks. 

I think it'd be fun to have one displayed in the house with a big ol' painted Q on it. 

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dipped monogram bottles. 

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the I'm a Giant dollhouse decorating challenge. 

participants include Emily Henderson of Secrets from a Stylist and Jenny from Little Green Notebook. 

I can't wait to see how they all create perfect little mini rooms. 

Lonny did this dollhouse last year, and I wanted to be shrunk 

"Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" style and live in there forever. 

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Happy Friday Sunday!

what I've been pinning lately...

since not everyone is on Pinterest (although, really... what are you waiting for? you should be there), I decided to share what I've been pinning lately here on the ol' blog. I've been feeling particularly inspired lately... probably has something to do with the change in weather, which further feeds my need to reinvent. 

I'll be decorating for fall this weekend, so be on the lookout for that next week! I'm hoping to gather some supplies for a few cheap DIY home decor projects (and will document the process, if my pending homework allows) at Michael's... so fingers crossed those ideas work out. 

anyhoodle. here's a look at what's caught my eye recently... 

gorgeous black & grey nature sleeve
[originally from here]

printable gift tags
[originally from here]
and on a similar note, I'm totally DIYing Christmas gifts this year.
details to come in a later post. 

these boots are fucking hot (and reasonably priced)
[originally from here] 

I heart this drawing and I think it would look rad in my bedroom
[originally from here]

I truly believe I would be a happier person with this bag
[originally from here]

the Gibson tuck... haven't tried it yet, but it looks SO easy and fancy
[originally from here]

I'd never want to live in a studio apt, but if I had to, I'd want it to look like this
[originally from here]

Emerald Gorge, in Oregon
[originally from here]

what have you been pinning lately? 

anyone else taking the homemade route for gifts this year?

Happy Wednesday!

Friday loves

Missoni for Target. duh. 

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book stamps! 

this one is immediately being added to my Christmas wish list. 

(and yes, I already have one started).

I lend my books out a lot, so I figured this cute stamp would help me keep track of my shit. also, my friend Jen has one and she LOVES it. yes please!

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this post by Veronika about how to pack, move, and stage your home. 

lots of great tips, especially for those of us who tend to stress out about packing and moving.

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West Elm & 20x200 collaborating.

fabulous pieces, fabulous artists. weeeeee!

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the discovery of this blog. 
this girl has lost 135lbs and has SUCH a great outlook on life.
her journey is so inspiring and I've found myself reading through her archives all week long.

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this DIY art project.

I'm thinking I will definitely be attempting something like this for our future office.

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John & Sherry's updated office light. 

it's amazing what a little spray pant and a big ol' drum shade can do to transform an outdated fixture.

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Design*Sponge at Home. 

yes please, for the love of Richard Gere, and thank you very much. 

ALSO going on my Christmas list rightfuckingnow.

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Lisa Sherry's home in the newest Lonny. 

if you haven't seen it, check it out. you will not be disappointed.

Lisa is one of my favorite designers and it is very clear that she didn't spare an ounce of talent when it came to designing her own home.

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Jenna Marbles' new video on creating unique pickup and hookup lines. 
effing hysterical.
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I would also like to give my best friend a heartfelt congratulations on the birth of her new baby boy, Rhys Anthony! he is just as beautiful as the rest of the family, and I cannot wait to snuggle him! 

Happy Friday, ya'll!