Eloise at The Plaza

If your a fan of the children's books Eloise, then you'll flip for the new 2100 square foot retail store in the newly renovated Plaza Hotel.  Decked out from top to bottom in "Eloise Pink" with black the store is sure to be the envy of little girls and their mothers.  I hope to take my sweet girl for a visit one day for her and moi!  Oh and The Plaza now offers a Live Like Eloise Slumber Party Package, a luxury slumber party for your daughter and 5 of her bestest friends.

Eloise's Living Room

Eloise's Tea Room - It will be available for tea parties, birthday parties and other celebrations. 

Can't you just imagine?

Beautiful Belgian Style Nursery

Love this gorgeous Belgian style nursery from Windsor Smith.  Soft, serene and stunning

After Christmas Sale!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I am up bright and early for my annual after Christmas shopping social with the ladies. Every year we high tail it to Pottery Barn, PB Kids, Williams Sonoma, Restoration Hardware and Crate Barrel to pillage their shelves and snatch up all the beautiful holiday decorations we've been coveting from their catalogs for a fraction of the cost.




Wish me luck!

Best Cookbook for Kids

One of my favorite guilty pleasures in life is baking with my daughter. She loves to help and loves to bake. We bake often and most if not all of the recipes come from The Cake Mix Bible.  We're not fancy pants here when it comes to cooking.  We just like it to be fun and yummy and this book is the perfect cookbook for kids and their parents.

Why? Well simply put, it's really hard to mess up a dessert from this book and the recipes are easy and cheap. Every recipe contains one common ingredient a cake mix box of some flavor. I let my daughter, dump, measure and poor the ingredients (with my assistance of course) into the mix and help decorate the dessert when done.

Try it for yourself, I promise you'll form many wonderful memories over baked goods.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow?!

Are you ready?  I am not; it snuck up on me!

Image via A Gift Wrapped Life

The Nuddle Blanket-Isn't it just an overpriced SNUGGIE?

I stumble upon an ad for the Nuddle blanket (Nap+Cuddle=Nuddle; clever) and I was intrigued so I clicked on the link and found an overpriced Snuggie. Which by the way my friends, don't knock it till you try it. The Snuggie blankets are COMFORTABLE! I mean lay in a cocoon of comfort and warmth all day long on the couch comfortable. We got one from a white elephant gift exchange party and now my husband and I fight over it. I love my Snuggie, go by one for a family member or friend. They make great gifts and they are cheap!  $15 at Walgreens or CVS.

But anyway back to the real purpose of this post, so I found the Nuddle and I mean it's nice looking and all, but not for 4x the price of one Snuggie. I'm just sayin’...save your pennies.

Now I will give the Nuddle one advantage, they do have baby and kid sizes, which I have not found in the Snuggie. Okay, score one for the Nuddle. Do you Snuggie? Come on, you can tell, don’t be ashamed, be proud of your Snuggie.

See Look here. Doesn't this kid look Snuggie-I mean Nuddlie in this blanket?  This is kind of cool, I could use one of these for my car.  My daughter likes to snuggle.

Ultimate Crib Sheet - Does it live up to it's name?

So...I am curious about this Ultimate Crib Sheet accessory.  A lot of my clients want custom sheets for their cribs because they plan to use the UCS over their fancy custom made sheet.  I don't recall this when my daughter was born a few years back, but I am intrigued.  Apparently it makes changing the crib sheet a breeze and you don't even have to remove the bumpers or pull out the cumbersome mattress.  That's the ultimate crib accessory for someone who's barely 5'3". 

Pink & White and Everything Nice!

Arriving any day now is this sweet and beautiful pink and white bedding for a long distance friend.  My friend Shelby is expecting a girl, Avery is her name, and she'll be here before you know it.  I had the honor of making Avery's bedding and I was in love with the perfect shade of soft pink and creamy white fabrics. 

As usual my amateure photography doesn't do this bedding justice, but trust me it's beautiful.  The bumpers are lined in white chenille and the skirt is gathered with a perfect cream grosgrain ribbon to trim the hem.  Perfect pink bedding for a perfect little girl.  Congratulations Shelby!

Holiday Decor & Crafts for Kids

I am taking a couple of weeks off from work so that I can thoroughly enjoy the holidays with my family.  This is also why the blog has been so LAME lately.  Sorry!  I have been swamped trying to end '09 with a clean finish. 

In preparation for my stay-cation I'll be enjoying with my loved ones, I was searching for some fun holiday crafts and ideas to help keep the toddler busy and out of trouble.  Leave it to none other than Martha Stewart to provide enless ideas of inspiration.  Below are just a few I found, but head on over to her site and check them all out here. 

Pipe Cleaner Ornaments - cheap, easy and perfect for their mini trees.  Here's a video how to.

 

Mini Snow Village - Entire village craft set available for older kids.

No Sew Holiday Aprons

"Limited Edition" Custom Made Gift for the Family

Candy Bugs and Critters

Button Wreath Ornaments - This one I already have a ton of supplies for ;)

Popcorn Wreath - Uh...yummy!

Paper Plate Angels

An Oldie but a Goodie - create their own gift wrap paper

It's Snowing in Houston!!

A rare occasion indeed. See, not a lot, but enough to have fun.

Check out my kid's outfit.  We are in to dressing ourself these days and yes those are toe socks on her hands not gloves. I love her so much, such a free spirit.

And we made this little guy.  Remember as my friend Meli said, it's Texas snow. 

Frugal Friday: Chic and Easy Fabric Art

I spied these beautiful framed fabrics on a featured nursery room from Spearmintbaby.com.  It got me thinking, how EASY and CHEAP this project really easy.  Even if you don't have a crafty bone in your body you can make this art for your child's room.

To help you out here are a few beautiful and FREE templates from the beloved Amy Butler.  To make this fabric art, start by printing your desired template on computer paper and enlarge or shrink to fit your frame as needed.  Once you have the right size cut out the template and pin it to your fabric.  Try to arrange your design so that it hits the center of the fabric pattern.  Notice above how the damask butterfly is perfectly centered over the fabric pattern?  It makes for a much more eye catching piece of art.

After you cut your fabric designs, glue or tape (double stick tape) the design to your frame back.  You can also use construction or other decorative papers to create a prettier background. 

Hope this helps sparks some decoration inspirations for your homes!  Click here for the Amy Butler patterns.

 

Congratulations Angela!

Angela who wrote,

"What a great idea! I can't believe the price???? I love it. I have 2 daughters and have been waiting to find prints for their rooms. I just haven't found the right thing yet. These would be adorable!"

is the winner of the vintage Barbie Prints. Angela please send your address info to vwalton@jacquelynreese.com. Congratulations!

Win a Set of Vintage Barbie Fashion Prints

Have you been a long time admirer of these vintage Barbie Fashion prints by Robert Best?  I have always loved these gorgeous prints for my daughter's room, but not the price tag.  These collectibles sell framed only for $80 and up a print until now.

I spied the Barbie Fashion Model Collection 2010 wall calendar at Sam's Club for $7.88.  Yes you read it right, 12 beautiful 12 x 12 prints for only .65 cents each!  I stopped dead in my tracks and almost passed out I was so excited!  These prints would look stunning as a collection framed and matted in a girl's room and that's just what I plan to do with mine.

You can buy these calendars at any Sam's Club and Amazon.com or this week only you can win yours right here!  For your chance to win 12 gorgeous vintage Barbie prints from One Haute Kid just leave a comment and good luck!  The winner will be announced Thursday, December 3.

Cheap-on the-chic Winter Wear for Tots

A few adorable cold weather clothes arrived for my daughter today, some Old Navy buys that were worth every penny.  $30 to be exact with my friends and family discount.

She looks adorable in this and it's fully lined. 

And these are oh so cute!

I am over and out for the holidays.  I have been sewing like a crazy woman and need a break.  If you are waiting on bedding I promise, It's in the works and right around the corner.  Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Outdoor fabric for baby bedding? But of course!

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have used outdoor fabric to make custom crib bedding for my customers. Most people would never consider the textile for a child's room, but with the huge selection of stylish fabrics available today the possibilities are endless and very deceiving (in a good way).


Outdoor fabric is designed to not fade, wrinkle and resist stains. Hello, shouldn't ALL baby stuff be made from such a textile? Of course like any fabric not all are created equal and some outdoor options are better than others. Below are just a few I scouted online and a couple I have used a time or two.

So what on earth would you make for your child from outdoor fabric? Think crib skirts, fabric for the outside of your bumpers, bumper ties, window treatments, floor cushions and play mats, hampers and changing pad covers. I could go on and on…

Shower Flowers 101: Elegant and Simple DIY Arrangements

This past weekend I co hosted a shower for one of my oldest and dearest friends Sarah.  She's expecting a boy in January so it was time to eat cake and shower her with gifts.  It was my responsibility to handle the floral decor for the event and well, I am no Eddie Ross, but I must say they turned out lovely.  Each arrangement cost only $15 and they were also gifts for the mother-to-be, and grandmothers-to-be.  Below I share with you how I put them together. 

First I headed to Sam's Club to purchase 4 dozen roses for $40.  I stuck with one type of flower to keep the cost down and the arrangements simple.  I went with the orange since it seemed fitting for fall.  Costco is also a great place to buy flowers in bulk for cheap and FYI; you can place your order in advance with the florist and select the exact color roses you want.

Then I went to a grocery florist to buy the vases, large heavy rectangle vases for only $7 each.  When I got home I washed them and cut large leaves from the plants in my backyard to line the inside of the vases and hide the stems.  This gives the arrangements a polished and more professional look.

I then divided up the roses evenly and cut them to the desired height I wanted them to sit in the vases.  I also pulled off any wilted and unsightly petals and excess leaves around the stalk leaving only a few at the bud.

Then to get even more creative I headed back out to my yard and clipped a few branches from a bush that was producing orange berries.  I clipped the branches to the desired height and let the berries just kind of organically hang over the edge of the vase.  I also pulled some leaves from another rather large monkey grass bush and created random loops around a few buds that I secured with floral wire to add more fill to the vases. 

After I arranged each vase as I described above, I then worked the buds around until they sat as I had desired and filled the vases with water and a bit of flower food that came with the roses.  I've also been told you can add a little sugar to the water, but I've never tried this.    Here they are below all lined up and ready to go.  Almost.  I could have stopped here and they would have been just fine for the event, but I decided to take them a step further. 

Since I made the baby bedding for the mother-to-be I headed to my studio and grabbed a few scraps of fabric that I cut with pinking shears to give the edges a zigzag cut and prevent the fabric from fraying.  I wrapped each vase in a different fabric with coordinating ribbon and secured the fabric in the back with straight pins.  And last the most popular vase of all was the monogrammed one with the baby's last name initial.

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and found some inspiration for your next dinner party or event!