Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Giving Art as a Gift! Have You Ever Done It?

· by · Leave a Comment

Giving someone a surprise is SO MUCH FUN. That’s just one of the reasons that I love being a blogger who gives products away all the time. I have a blast sending out those good news emails to the lucky winners. I get to have a Santa Claus moment several times each week!

I also really enjoy getting the opportunity to give a gift to people in my life for no particular reason. Personally, I find those unexpected gifts to be some of the most memorable.

Recently, I had the opportunity to give a gift to my blog assistant, Alanna. I’ve mentioned Alanna before, and I’d like to take another moment to highlight all the great work she does for this site. She works tirelessly behind the scenes to promote all these fantastic giveaways we have, and her posts on various contest sites and on Facebook and Twitter are the reason so many of you found your way to this corner of the blogosphere.

Alanna takes care of most of the parts of running this blog that tend to wear me out (indeed, like any type of work, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine!). Honestly, if I didn’t have her help, I likely would have burned out and quit blogging a long time ago (GASP!). But because of her help, I am still very joyful about blogging and it is something that I look forward to doing (almost) every single day!

So yeah, Alanna is an important person in the life of this blog! And I wanted to give her a gift to express my gratitude. So I asked her to hop over to one of my favorite online shopping destinations, , and pick out the perfect piece for her home.

She was so thrilled! She and her husband combed through the site and selected the perfect piece for their home. I didn’t want to pick out the art for her, because I think that art is a really personal thing, and it can be difficult to capture someone else’s style rather than simply picking out what you personally like.

Here’s Alanna’s precious daughter enjoying the process of unwrapping their art. This is a familiar scene to me, as Darah LOVES to play with all that bubble wrap, too!

And here’s the piece, which is on birchwood (it is such a cool look!) hanging on their wall!

I really had fun seeing what they chose. I think the piece is absolutely stunning, yet it is something I’ve never even noticed on Gallery Direct before, as I tend to search for art with cooler colors (blues, greens, yellows and grays). Did you catch that? You can search for art by color on Gallery Direct. That’s one of my favorite features of the site!

If you love the idea of giving a piece of art as a gift, but would much rather completely surprise the recipient with a finished piece, you might also want to consider uploading a photo (those are easier to get your hands on thanks to Facebook, Flickr and Instagram!) and have it turned into a work of art to hang in the home. And right now, all gallery wraps of photo uploads are 50% off! Woo hoo!!!! I’m actually going to be getting a wedding picture put on canvas for my sister and her husband as their Christmas present this year (they got married in May).

I’m so happy that I was able to give Alanna a piece of art to hang in her home. I think it is a very special type of gift, and it definitely inspires me to start paying closer attention to the artistic style of my friends and family so that I might be able to gift some art to them in the future! I’d love to hear if you have any tips for choosing art as a gift for someone else…it can be tricky! 

Disclosure: I serve as a blog ambassador for Gallery Direct. Product samples are provided as part of the program. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Decorating a Baby’s Nursery: Getting Past The Usual Suspects

· by · Leave a Comment

I spent HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS trying to figure out what I wanted Darah’s nursery to look like. Oh for the days when I had that kind of free time! Anyway, I was ADAMENT that her room would not look like every other little girl nursery out there, all pink and princessy and filled with stuff you’d expect to see, like Winnie the Pooh and other Disney characters. Not that there’s anything wrong with Disney characters. Some of my best friends are Disney characters!

Anyway, the irony wasn’t lost on me when after spending the better part of 3 months searching, I landed on a bedding scheme that was…wait for it….PINK. Yup, pink. The most stereotypical girl nursery color in the world.

But at least the design was unique. It was cherry blossoms and birds, and I did have a lot of fun incorporating those design elements into other facets of the room.

With Layah, I just didn’t have time do all that exhaustive research. And since she was baby number 2, I also didn’t really have the resources to start completely from scratch. She inherited many things from Darah’s room, which left me, once again, with a pink nursery.

But this time, I knew where to go to get her something really striking and different for her walls. Flowers, hearts, balloons, sparkles and any of the other usual suspects weren’t invited. I decided to go upscale and get my baby a gorgeous piece of framed art for her room.

Since the color scheme was already decided for me, I simply did a search for art by color at Gallery Direct. After sorting through many different options, I landed on this beautiful piece:

This is Spring Orchard II by Kim Coulter. Doesn’t it look amazing as a framed canvas? I enjoy looking at it while I nurse Layah in the rocking chair. It’s so peaceful and pretty, yet still unexpected in a nursery. I love it.

If you are looking for something a bit out of the ordinary for your baby’s room, why not bring in some beautiful art work? Gallery Direct has thousands of striking options, and their prices are really reasonable for the high quality product you receive.

Disclosure: I serve as a blog ambassador for Gallery Direct. Product samples are provided as part of the program. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Darah’s Big Girl Room Gets Big, Bold Color from Gallery Direct (GIVEAWAY!!!!)

· by · 102 Comments

We’ve already established that I absolutely loved Darah’s nursery. I never thought I would go all out with pink for my little one, but I did. And it was so sweet.

When we were getting ready for our recent move to a new house, I knew that it was the perfect opportunity to make some changes to Darah’s room. She had already been out of her crib for a while, but we just had her mattress on the floor (Montessori-style) while we waited to find a cool new bed for her. Changing rooms and moving to a house where we are allowed to paint opened up new possibilities, and I knew it was time to let all that pink go and explore some different colors.

Tim painted her walls a very pale gray so that we could experiment with bold colors with her accent pieces. I’m still trying to find some colorful drapes and perhaps an accent rug, but with help from Gallery Direct we have already found the statement piece of the room that is going to inspire everything else.

This print proudly hangs in Darah’s room, just above her gutter bookcases (thanks, Pinterest!). It is dramatic, it is fun, and it is full of beautiful colors. I absolutely love it! We have it in a size large, on canvas with no frame, and I have to tell you that from a distance it really does look like an original piece. You can see the texture of the painting and the brush strokes. You have to touch it to realize that it is a print! It looks magnificent!

It also brings such a vibrant pop of color to an otherwise very unassuming, very pale and neutral room. If you are working on making some changes to a room for your little one, carefully consider getting some great art. And MAKE IT BIG!! In the past, I’ve been very guilty of putting “art” on the wall that is no bigger than 8×10. Maybe the pieces are pretty, but they certainly don’t stand out at that size. Really go for it and make a splash with your art work. Gallery Direct is a site that can help you do this for a VERY reasonable rate. The piece we got for Darah retails for $249, but is on sale right now for just $125! AMAZING!!!

Gallery Direct also is a wonderful place to go if you want to turn photos into art. In fact, right now a 12 x 18 gallery wrap of your photo upload is just $49. That’s a PERFECT gift for Mother’s Day!

Win it!: Gallery Direct has a very special giveaway for 2 (yes, TWO!) of my readers: a 12 x 18 gallery wrap of your favorite photo! Woo hoo!

[Read more…]

Beautify the Space You Occupy All Day: Your Office!

· by · Leave a Comment

When I worked outside of the home, I had a really nice private office with beautifully selected furniture that I inherited from the person who was in it before me. But the walls were all bare and it still had an overall “generic” feel to it. One day it occurred to me that I was literally spending 1/3 of my day, 5 days a week, in that space. Why couldn’t it look a bit nicer? I asked my boss if there were any extra funds available to do just a little bit of decorating. He didn’t have much ($150, I seem to recall) but I said I would work with that and I hopped online to see what I could find to beautify the space.

In the end, I purchased some lovely curtains and rods, which really gave my office a more comfortable and less institutional feel. I also shopped around the office suite for some items. We had several pieces of framed art work from previous city-wide multi-cultural festivals just gathering dust in a closet. I selected a few and put them on the walls. They looked great! Then I spent the remaining funds I had on some plants, which also helped the space feel so much more inviting. My students commented that the office was staring to have a really peaceful feel to it and that they enjoyed visiting.

Now I work from my home, but I have taken the same mentality with my work space. I want it to feel productive and not cluttered, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be bare and devoid of anything interesting! I have art on my walls here to inspire me, and I’ve also put down area rugs and made sure my office chair is decent.

When Valentine’s Day was approaching a few weeks ago, I started thinking about a way to show my love for Tim outside of typical gifts like chocolate. I started to think about the space he dwells in when he is away from home. I asked him if he likes the look and feel of his office. I’ve seen the space, itself. It is large and has a lot of windows, which is very inviting. But other than that, it looks SO BORING!!!! And there’s not one single thing on any of the walls. So I encouraged him to think about a piece of art he might like to have on his walls, both to enjoy himself, and also for his visitors to get to enjoy.

He headed to Gallerydirect.com and spent some time looking around. And he did find something that he felt spoke to his role as a City Planner, and that would also bring some color and some life into his bland office. He loved this print by the abstract artist Jasper. While this isn’t the original piece, Gallery Direct is only offering 950 prints total of the work, so it is a limited edition. The print is also signed and numbered. Tim selected to get the print on paper, and to have it framed in a gorgeous metallic aged bronze frame. The end result was fantastic!

I have to say, we have ordered so many different combinations of print and frame options from Gallery Direct, and every single time, we are thrilled with the end result. Everything they offer is of the highest quality. Tim absolutely loves having some nice art work in his office, and it looks so polished and professional; just perfect for an office!

Gallery Direct is sure to have whatever you might be looking for to make your work space more inviting. You can search by style of art work, by color, and you can even upload your own images. I can’t say enough great things about this company and the quality of what you will receive. You will most definitely be pleased with your purchase!

Be sure to check out their site; it just got an overhaul and now is even easier to use!

Disclosure: I serve as a blog ambassador for Gallery Direct. Product samples are provided as part of the program. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.