This is a neat post from My Modern Met. It shows all the Olympic pictograms through the years of the summer Olympics in the various countries. There are so many more sports now. Check it out here!

We finally have the library in place on our newly constructed shelves. Jeff devoted so much care to making these. I'm so happy we decided to take the time to design this whole area ourselves. Even though it took so long to complete, we now have a very unique living room. They are so special compared to buying pre-made wall shelves (and they fit much better too). I just love looking over to this side of the room! 

Just like the first side that went up, these shelves are also built on angles. Each shelf alternates which direction the angle goes, from skinny to thick and from thick to skinny. The only difference is on this side they extend right from the fireplace to the wall. The shelves were each made to fit exactly with the wall. However, they fit too well, as we ended up having to cut a piece off just to be able to get them into place. It's not too noticeable but there is a piece missing out of each shelf on the fireplace side. Jeff plans to make small pieces to fit in there in the future. So I guess the shelves aren't 100% done, but they are at least now functional. 

To see how we created these shelves, and to see the process from the beginning check out my previous posts:
On making the shelves check out here 
​For the beginning of the process check out Weekend Project: Fireplace & Fireplace Update & Fireplace Done. 

Artist, Owen Gildersleeve, has created a Nissan car totally out of paper. This British designer, together with Thomas Forsyth made the full size paper version of the Nissan Juke. To see more, and watch a video on how it was made go to Contemporist. 

We would like to move Elara into one of the downstairs bedrooms so that she can have more room to play. We still haven't decided on which of the two rooms would be better for her, and for us, as we would still like to have an office and guest bed. She probably won't be sleeping down there for awhile yet, I just want to get her used to the idea, and for me to have a safe place for her to play while I work. 

 In the meantime, I've come up with this new "little girls" room theme: Pink Flamingos!

I'm way too excited about this! Check out my Pinterest Board for more ideas as this room develops. 

I have been collecting a bunch of photos and drawings of flamingos which I plan to make a gallery collage on one of the walls. Here are a couple that I will be using. The first is a drawing that I found at Chapters and the second is a photo we took on our vacation in Curacao. 

I also would like to create a reading corner with lots of cozy pillows. I have already bought photo frame ledges from Ikea that will hold all her books. I just need to add all the pillows!

I love this little kids chair from Monte, the same company that made our rocking chair. Maybe Elara will ask for it for Christmas haha. 

I got this little table and chair set from Ikea for Elara a few months ago. It is the same as the photo below except the little stool is white instead of dark pink. She loves it, especially for drawing with crayons or on her magnetic board. She is so excited that she is able to get on and off of the chairs herself. However, I have found her climbing up on the table too (see photo below). Elara certainly loves to climb everything!

For laundry and cloth diapers I got this pink feathery hanging wet bag from Funky Fluff.  Wet bags are great even if you don't cloth diaper. You can use them for anything, like wet bathing suits or any dirty clothes or wipes. They are great! What's wonderful about this hanging zippered one is it isn't easy for small hands to get into. 

We haven't decided on a bed yet. I love the idea of a daybed but I don't know how practical it would be for the future. Having bunk beds might be a good idea, or at least a loft bed so that the space underneath could be used for something. We could even sell our current guest bed and use whatever bed we get for Elara's room as the guest bed in the meantime. So many options, it's hard to pick the best one!

I really love the idea of getting a life sized wall decal of a flamingo! I have seen a few on Etsy, hopefully I can find one that we like and is affordable. 

We bought these curtains from Ikea on our last visit. They have a nice soft pattern and will add warmth to the downstairs room. I'm going to keep them floor length even though it's a small basement window. This way at night it will look like a nice big window and keep it cosy. 

We also had fun buying a few other accessories for Elara's future room on our Ikea trip (see photo below). I can't wait to set up her room, however, there are a few steps that have to come first. One, we have to pick the room! Then some fix up painting needs to be done, as well as replace the carpets. This is going to be our fun fall project! 

The balcony is finally done! Well, all the construction parts of the balcony are done. The glass panels are all in, the railing is up and Elara couldn't be happier running back and forth, and around and around the balcony's length. It's like a huge outdoor playpen! Next up, we need to seal the wood, add furniture, and possibly make some neat planters to go on it. I'm really impressed, and I'm thinking we will get a lot more use out of it now. 

How much fun would this rocker be as a kid!? It's a great design and would look so good sitting in a nursery. Plus, it looks like a lot of fun to ride. This rocker was designed by Nikolay Avakov of DZZZ from Armenia.  It was constructed with plywood, and has a minimal aesthetic.  Love it! See more pictures at Contemporist.

We got some new plants to mark the entrance to our house. They are just a little thing, but they add to my future modern look for the house. We just bought some simple grasses for the planters that will hopefully come back year after year, and are easy to maintain. We already had the planters, just sitting in the garage ready for something to be planted in them. The grasses just add a bit of decoration to our fairly plain front area. Hopefully we will add more in the future. The balcony railing has been finalized and ordered, and will be going up soon. Every little thing is adding to my overall vision for our place. 

We have a balcony again! However, it's still a little bit dangerous as there is no railing. It's being ordered now, so hopefully soon it will go up. We will still need to stain it, but it's looking great so far. 

Now that we have things rolling for the construction of our balcony I've starting playing with some ideas for on and under it.  We want to actually use our balcony this time around, as it pretty much just sat there before (which was probably a good thing as it was ready to collapse). 

The balcony is going up fast! They just have to add the floor boards and railing. However, the railing has not been finalized yet, so there will be a time when we will have a completed balcony without a railing. Which is almost as safe as having balcony about the collapse, and neither very good with a small child around. So, for now our doors have become permanently closed windows.

Here are a few ideas of things we would like to incorporate on the new balcony. ​​We are going to place our small table and chairs out there that we have had at every house we have lived in. Then maybe we will get another comfy chair to sit in and read, and place it right outside out bedroom balcony doors. Perhaps it will entice us to use the new balcony more! We would also like to add some big planters with some hardy plants, as it can harsh up there in the direct sun. Plus, we would like to make a few small palette planters (like below) with tall grasses for privacy and shade. That was the biggest problem with the balcony, that there was no privacy. Not that this will add much, but it's something.

Under the balcony and to the side of the front door there is a cozy little area that isn't being used at all. It's completely private, until someone comes to your door, and gets the wonderful afternoon sun. Even to set something up to make the front entrance look more inviting would be great! We'd also like to add some planters down here just to brighten things up, and I would love to add a couch swing. Below are some examples of the look I would love!

We would also like to change out the outdoor lighting for something more modern. Right now the lights are a traditional look and white, and I think we would like something darker to match our new house numbers and the new balcony. I like the look of the light in the photo below. Soon the front of the house is going to look so good and new!

The balcony is down, and in good time too. Most of the wood was rotten right through. When the construction crew stepped on the sagging side the boards collapsed. Ekkk, glad no one got hurt! It only took a few hours to come down. The view from the windows now feels so bright, and we feel really high up! Construction of the new balcony should start in the next couple of weeks. So exciting, I'll keep you posted!