Indah Hand Dyed Pillows

Indah Hand Dyed Pillows by EMILY ALDER

Sometimes I think I should have renamed this blog ‘things I did before twins”.

You know, the age-old I can’t remember what life was like before kids. Well this would be more along the lines of look at all the things I did before twins. And now I am trying to do them again.

With the twins are approaching their fourth birthday, I’ve been able to set a schedule and slowly get back to work on some of my hobbies. I am in the process of restoring one of my grandmother’s antique claw foot chairs and wanted to order some fabric samples. While perusing the web, I fell in love with this Hand Dyed Indah Batik X’s fabric.

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A-FRAME TENT PROJECT

For the twins birthday this year, we planned for their gifts to be items that would give them some of their own space and encourage imaginary play. As much as I love being able to be home with them, it’s heavenly when they spend moments playing with just one another. We had looked at purchasing a play tent for them (this was at the top of our list) but looking at the price tag we thought it was something that we could easily make ourselves. The A-Frame tent has been a staple for many years, so why not give it a go ourselves.

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SIMPLE WHITE RANUNCULUS + EUCALYPTUS BOUQUET

EUCALYPTUS + RANUNCULUS BOUQUET on EMILY ALDER | tips for creating a beautiful DIY ranunculus and eucalyptus bouquet | www.EMILYALDER.com

I am not a red roses kind of gal. I never have been. I appreciate their significance in the history of romance, but they just aren’t for me. The first flower Matt ever gave me, hand delivered when picked me up for our first date, was a white gerber daisy. I still have the dried daisy in a box along with my wedding bouquet. So every Valentine’s Day (with the exception of this one), Matt stops by Blooms or Browne’s, the local floral shops owned the Browne Family who Matt grew up living on the same street with. He jokes how it’s easy to pick up flowers during the Valentine’s rush, because while most men are grabbing roses, he is picking ranunculus or hydrangea. You’re welcome, honey.

During our monthly trip to Costco, I always grab a bouquet of their greens if they have them. While picking them out I saw a bouquet of beautiful white ranunculus and couldn’t help myself.

That’s right, my favorite thing about Costco trips are the flowers.

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A DRESSER UPDATE

DRESSER DIY UPDATE | EMILY ALDER-2

For quite some time I have been coveting this Gabby Furniture Terrance Chest first spotted in this home tour by Studio McGee. If you haven’t had a chance to look through Studio McGee’s work, you definitely should. It’s gorgeous.

Henry and Ella had grown out of their dresser and we wanted to create something similar to the Gabby Furniture piece. Using that as inspiration, Matt and I took a plain wood Ikea dresser that was given to us by a friend and sanded, stained, and aged it with a steel wool process.

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