Making changes ...

I've been lagging in the posting department lately ... busy busy busy doing too many other things.

I spent a few days visiting this little gal ... she just turned four months old. It was heaven!

Wedding season is approaching and I am busy crunching numbers and planning planning planning ...

I'm starting a fabulous dining room project - more on that later...

house beautiful

And I am in the process of doing a little re-branding. After twelve years of sharing my name, Inside Out Design, with too many other design companies (and apparently a pest control company - I heard today) I am changing my business name to Sherri Cassara Designs. I have someone working on a new logo for my business cards and letterhead (soooo excited!) and I am trying to clean up my blog a little. I played around tonight with some ideas for new blog headers ... 

Are you laughing yet? Yeah, well, I may just have to bite the bullet and hire someone, ha ha.

Hope your week is off to a great start! 

Do stripes make you look thin?

I think so!

I really wanted to show you the chic decal. Soooo didn't want you to see the ugly 21-year-old granite. Oh well! Thank you Hayley for finding the decal for me ... I really love it!

Thank-you's. Done.

Nothing all that imaginative. But they are done. And in the mail. 

I made some 'confetti' to go inside the card (my inspiration came from yesterday's post). I printed the words in columns on white card stock and cut them with my paper cutter. It went really fast.

I took the card I made this Christmas and changed the colors, the font and the writing. I used the font 2peas old type.

One of the thank-you's went to a dear friend of mine who brought me over a little gift for my birthday the other day ...

A little ceramic vase - made by a friend of hers (love!) - and filled with a lovely purple hydrangea.

She was going to fill it with white sweet peas because she knows I love them so much and they smell a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

But the ones she ordered came with really long stems and she couldn't bear to cut them down.

I am glad she didn't. Aren't they gorgeous. You should smell them!

They are the perfect accessory for my living room right now. Especially on this cold and rainy day!

I am joining Annie and linking up with Jane who writes a lovely blog called, Small but Charming. She is having a little flower party.

Thank you cards. Late.

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Can you believe I still have not sent my Christmas thank you cards? Yikes. I believe in the 'thank you note' and wonder if there is a statute of limitations on how long you can take before it is just too late. I am hoping at least 30 days. 

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Part of what has held me up is that I wanted to do something creative and yet I am having a creativity block.

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I like the ones I sent out last year & maybe that is the problem - I am stuck that I have to want to do something great instead of just getting them done. 

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Does that ever happen to you? Anyway, tackling the thank you notes is one of many things on my list for today. Wish me luck! 

Happy Monday everyone!

Musings on my Birthday week

A while back I got a not so nice email from someone who did not appreciate the content of my Sunday posts. After all they said, this is suppose to be a design blog. And it is. Kind of. But it is also filled with my thoughts and musings and opinions (it's my blog, right?). So if you are here today to see some fun design inspiration you should probably leave and come back in a day or two ... well except first check out this incredible cake by Eddie Ross.

Isn't this the most gorgeous cake you ever saw? Eddie made it for Jaithan's mom's birthday a couple of weeks ago ... you can read more about it (and more) on his blog here. His talent just astounds me.

Last week I had a birthday too (I still haven't calculated which one it is) but one of the good things about getting older and becoming more forgetful is that you can re-read books and they feel like new again. So today I started re-reading a book that I clearly have read before - I can tell I have read it before because it is earmarked - but I have absolutely no recollection of it. The book is by one of my favorite Christian authors - John Ortberg who is the pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. I love his sense of humor and simple way he writes. The book is titled, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box.

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In Chapter four of the book, John talks about how in our culture, we put a lot of emphasis on our outer person (which will someday pass away) instead of developing what will last (our inner being; our spirit). He says:

"You will get inundated with messages that try to get you to obsess over the outer you. Experts tell us that if you exercise regularly, you will add two years to your life. But the bad news is that you will spend those two years exercising. Winston Churchill lived into his nineties and said the only exercise he ever got was serving as a pallbearer for his friends that died while they were exercising." 

Okay, so before I get a lot of weird comments, I am not (nor is he) saying not to exercise. God knows I need to exercise more and being healthy is way up there on my list of things I need to work on this year. But I really loved what he went on to say:

"Be grateful for the outer you. Come to peace with your body. Rejoice in its strengths. Accept it in its limitations. Be grateful for it. Wash it once in a while. (My sister Patti will most certainly get a laugh from this as we are both the poster children on pushing the limit on this since we have come to realize the less we shower the more we can get done!!!) Let it work hard. Be happy when it gets promoted. But remember, it's wasting away.

"Make your biggest investment in the you that will last. We have scales and mirrors and cameras and tape measures to track the development of our outer selves. But how how can we track the well-being of the part of us that will last? This may look a little different for everyone, but there are a few mirrors and scales that we all will probably need:

• Self-examination and confession
• Friends who love you enough to speak truth too you
• Time to be alone and listen to God
• Examination of your calendar and checkbook 
• Key questions, such as: How easily discouraged do I get these days? How easily irritated am I compared to six months ago? 
• Attention to your secret thought life. What is your mind drawn towards - really? Where do envy or blaming or judging or lusting rob your inner person of life and joy?

"Here's a concrete place to start: spend as much time caring for the inner you as you spend on the outer you."

 Good stuff, right?

Crib fun

She is almost four months old and it is about time I show you the finished crib! 

My painter was so generous to paint the crib for us (it was previously white) - I think it turned out amazing! The bumper was from Pottery Barn Kids, the skirt from The Land of Nod, and the sheet from Baby's R Us. And the butterfly mobile I found on Ebay. It was originally from Pottery Barn - I used them in several nurseries and a pediatric office and then they discontinued them. One of the first things I did when I found out that this new little baby was on the way was search for one for her.

The letters were a baby shower gift from my youngest daughter - she bought the letters and the paper from the Paper Source - I think they are just the perfect touch. 

And speaking of creative ...

craftaholic

How fun is that?

Not your mother's wallpaper

Well, I definitely took this relaxing thing a bit too far ... I extended my catch-up-on-sleep-weekend well into Monday. Thankfully I have an appointment today that will force me to get up and out early! The nice thing was I was able to catch up on a few blogs and noticed that Amy at Maison Decor has added some wallpaper to her living room. She put some nice play-by-play directions on her post if you are interested in putting up some paper yourself. Seriously, she makes it look so easy. Oh yeah ... she bought it at Lowe's. Really.

Wallpaper has become quite the thing lately ... The very stylish Marianne from Style for Living put some beautiful paper up in her home office last year ...

Sherry, from Design Indulgence just used some in a house renovation she is working on (so much more fun then just paint) ...

And I'm sure you've seen this from Jill Sorensen's house (Live. Like. You. blog) but it is worth repeating ...

Before

After

Amazing what a little wallpaper can do, isn't it? The possibilities are endless. 

Apartment Therapy

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pinterest via here

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Veranda

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via Apartment Therapy

Urban Outfitters

But I think my favorite of all of them is this idea ... removable wallpaper. How absolutely perfect for renters (and designers who change their minds a lot)! Check out this article here about how it went up ... and came down!

Okay, now get back to work!

A lazy Saturday & some decal love

I am being very lazy today. I just got back from driving my daughter back to school and moving her into her new apartment (yes, yet another one!). We are hoping this will be the last of the college apartments. But if it is not ... well, at least she has a mom who loves to help move!

While we were setting up her room, she found a decal that she had purchased for her last place and didn't use. You know how much I love using decals! If my sister who helps install decals for me is reading this ... sis, be grateful you weren't part of this one ... it was not the easiest. See the image above? It came in only two pieces (top and bottom). I cheated and cut it in to smaller pieces after I wanted to say some really bad words (ummm actually I think I did say the bad words) and that made it easier (the cutting not the cursing). Well, maybe both.

The trunk was a bit short and if I had started it on the floor the tree would have been a little dwarfed ... I love that we came up with the idea to have it coming out of the plug outlet. I'll let you come up with your own meaning!

In previous apartments, she has been able to paint but this one came with the standard white walls. The tree really makes it work. And speaking of decals ...

During my lazy Saturday morning spent catching up on some much needed sleep and opening up a few days worth of mail ... I found a fun brown envelope that came from The House of Smiths.

I am going to turn my plain white mixer into a statement piece ...

You know you want one too ... check them out here!
Hope you are having a great weekend everyone!