Wild One 1st Birthday Party

River turned ONE! Well, 2 months ago…#momlife

We went a little crazy with the party planning but he only turns one once right? We had a Where the Wild Things Are themed party at my parent’s house in Hanford. It was the perfect setting and space for his party. Luckily, my mom is super crafty and helped with most of the decorations. She built that boat out of cardboard! She made the photo prop too. Seriously, the lady loves to craft.

We purchased a lot of the other items on Etsy. My favorite was definitely the birthday sign from 72PaperPlanes. His little romper was also a pretty big hit. The cake was made by a family friend and all the other desserts were made by my mother-in-law also known as, “Grandma Fresno.” They looked super cute on the dessert/snack table with these little cupcake toppers. I also purchased all the signs from the same Etsy vendor as the cupcake toppers. One of my favorite purchases for the party was that big sign of all the Wild Things and River’s name at the top. My mom ended up getting that off eBay! Who knew eBay sold stuff like that. If anyone is interested in it just send me a message for a link. The party favor boxes, highchair sign, and centerpieces were all homemade 🙂

It was a pretty hot day so the kids had fun swimming and playing in water toys. The adults had fun eating and drinking 🙂 We had Chef Paul Pearson cater the party. If you ever find yourself in downtown Fresno, check out his restaurant on F street. Also, if you ever need a caterer, I highly recommend him. He does a lot of our family’s events and the food is amazing every time. I tried to time River’s naps perfectly so that he would enjoy his party to the fullest. I don’t know about your kiddos, but Riv laughs at my plans and does the exact opposite (insert eye roll emoji). It was all worth it in the end. And plus, he will remember all of it right?

Photos: Ellie Koleen

River’s Nursery

I spent a lot of time planning and styling this nursery before the arrival of our little guy. I would sit for hours in this room wondering what life would be like being a new mom, daydreaming of watching him sleep so peacefully in his crib, picturing how perfect everything was going to be…then reality punched me in the throat. Don’t get me wrong, being a mom is incredibly awesome! But it is hard stuff! Nothing anyone said to me would have prepared me for all the things related to having a newborn.

So when River arrived we were Team No Sleep. He definitely did not sleep in his crib for about 5 months, and things were far from perfect. I like to think it was our own version of perfect with some serious tests of patience and strength (for both of us). Thank God for my husband, family, friends, and our lactation specialist (nursing was a struggle…saved for another post).

Back to my daydreaming of sitting in this nursery…I knew I wanted to keep everything pretty gender neutral, clean and bright. We had the room painted in Benjamin Moore’s Classic Gray. I really like this color because it is gray without being too cold. When there is a lot of outside light filtering in, it feels more white. It has the perfect amount of brightness with a touch of warmth.

I drew the rest of the color scheme from that rug from esalerugs and from the piece above his crib. We had just gone on a trip to Joshua Tree a few months before I delivered and picked up that cactus skeleton. I decided to make it into a sort-of mobile with macrame and plants of course. Everything else came together from there.

We definitely spend a lot of time in this nursery now that our little guy is almost one. I am happy to say that he now does sleep in that crib and we spend lots of time on the faux fur carpet reading books and playing with toys.

 

Baskets, Mirror, Pottery-Target

Faux fur rug-Costco

Ladder-World Market

Glider-Buy Buy Baby

Ottoman-Wayfair

Letter Board-Letter Love Goods

Photographs by EllieKoleenPhotography.com

Let’s dive in

Well, I finally took the plunge and started this little blog. This has seriously been the longest internal struggle on one of those things that I’ve always wanted to do but never had the time, energy, guts, or know how to do. Well, I finally pulled the trigger and then realized, I now need to write actual posts… So here we are.

So now for introductions…Hi friends, my name is Jessica. I am a full-time Family Nurse Practitioner, a wife, a mommy, and lover of all things interior design. These two below are my whole world and that guy with the sweet stache has been my biggest cheerleader to finally start this thing.

I hope to share ideas, experiences, and real-life stuff with you all. My main goal is to share our many home projects. Designing our home has been one of my favorite hobbies. Even though I pursued a career in medicine, my real love is design. I hope this blog serves as a creative outlet for my design soul. And so does the husband, especially since I keep adding projects to the honey-do-list when I need a creative outlet! If this blog reaches any readers besides my hubs and besties, I hope that you all can share your experiences and feedback too!

Lastly, I will probably be sharing a lot about my other full-time job and the most rewarding one in life: Being a mama to this little boy. This is our son, River. He will be one this month and is the sweetest, most adventurous and loving person I’ve ever met. I’m a little obsessed with him. He has taught me so much about being a mom. Raising him has definitely been challenging but the rewards are soo incredible.

So, Thank guys! I am excited to finally be starting this journey. I can’t wait to see what this brings. I’m hoping to meet some new friends and creative minds along the way! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Photos by Ellie Koleen Photography