Emily's Big Girl Room: from nursery to toddler room

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With great joy HHM and I welcomed our sixth grandchild,
 Audrey Ryan Edmonds on October 26, 2014.  

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When an ultrasound revealed another girl, Ashley and Ryan decided to keep the nursery as is and convert one of the guest rooms to a "big girl" room for Emily.  The room they chose, shares a Jack and Jill bathroom with the nursery so the girls will be able to share a bathroom as they grow.

Ashley immediately began pinning ideas for Emily's big girl room (here), as did I (here).  Ashley pinned several mood boards, but in the end, loved the fabric in this board she found on the blog, hellobee.  As it turns out, this was a guest post by one of my favorite bloggers, Camille of Effortless Style.                                   

Unfortunately, this beautiful Kate Spain fabric, Honey Tea Rose, was sold out everywhere we looked on line. Soooo, we both started pinning other fabrics in a large scale floral in a similar color palette. Neither of us found anything we liked as well.  In desperation, Ashley decided to call Kate Spain headquarters to see if the fabric was discontinued or just out of stock.  Although it had been discontinued, they found us several brick and mortar stores that had enough fabric in stock for the drapes!  Wow, what customer service!  Ashley immediately ordered the fabric and we had our inspiration piece.

Using the Honey Rose fabric as inspiration, we chose Sherwin Williams 6512 Balmy for the walls.  Ryan hates to paint but sweetly agreed to paint the walls, even though he insists the beige the builder chose is a neutral and should go with anything.  He also conceded to my insistence of a pink ceiling if RayRay (also known as HHM) would paint it.  In the end, Ryan helped paint the ceiling as he felt guilty sitting downstairs watching football while RayRay painted the ceiling Sherwin Williams 6595 Amour Pink.

Emily LOVES pink so we decided to go ahead with the pink velvet headboard.  Although we loved the headboard featured on the mood board, we decided this was a good place to save money and went with the Target Juliette Tufted Headboard in pink.  The full size we used is on sale now for $169.00 with free shipping!

People thought we were crazy to pick white bedding for a toddler's room, one word:  Bleach. We were also searching for a tucked duvet cover as we knew keeping a smooth duvet looking neat would be impossible with a two year old.  Hooray for built in wrinkles!  We researched many different white tucked duvet covers, before I stumbled on the Kasey Duvet Cover at the Nordstrom's Summer Sale.  The detailing is gorgeous and with the sale, the price was similar to some of the lower end options.  Sold!

After an extensive search, we came back to the rug on the mood board, the Spectrum Trellis GD40 rug.  This gorgeous rug is 100% wool, gets great reviews, and was a steal with the 75% off and free shipping offer they were running pre-Black Friday.

A quick trip to Ikea and we scored the lack wall shelf, ribba picture ledges, a Kallax shelving unit to use as a window seat and six white picture frames,

The Pottery Barn dollhouse I had in my nursery was the perfect shade of green to match the Ikea storage bins!  (I cannot find this color on the Ikea website anymore, but they may be available in store).The pink pouf was a splurge from Restoration Hardware Baby and Kids.

The chair is a hand me down from GiGi's condo and makes a perfect place for story time or for Mom to nurse Audrey while Emmie plays.  Wall mounted lamp. green throw and brass sea urchins are from Target. All our an additional 10% off right now.  The urchins also make great additions to your bookshelf or coffee table.

I painted several of the E's from Emily's nursery to match the night stand.  They were okay, but didn't quite work for me.  Enter HHM, some reader's digest books and a band saw,drill press and router table.  For 3 dollars each, we created these Anthropologie knock off Library Letters.  LOVE them!  You can now purchase the book letters at my booth at Factory Antiques or email for custom orders.

Sweet bunny was a birthday gift from Audrey and "Who."

The princess and the pea doll, a gift from my sister, also used to reside in Neena's nursery.  I donated it to the cause when accessorizing Emmie's nursery shelves.  She loves playing with it so much it followed her to her Big Girl Room.

We knew we wanted a ceiling fan, (we are in Hotlanta) but the options are so limited!  Everyone is looking for attractive ceiling fans, why isn't this market expanding?  A drum shade from Home Depot, a yard of fabric and some spray adhesive (and lots of clothespins) were all I needed to give this stock fan a little more personality.  The navy blue rug and drum shade are a nice counterpoint to the pastel walls and ceiling.

A target basket houses Emmie's collection of stuffed animals.

Neena's Lulie Wallace calendar was sacrificed for the wall above the bed.  Someday I hope to own an original piece by Charleston artist Lulie Wallace.

Using the leftover fabric from the drapes and drum shade, I made a pretty neck roll pillow for the bed.  As much as I love pillows, we wanted to make maintaining the room simple.

I headed to Anthropologie in search of a flower knob like those we used in the nursery, but ended up choosing this white milk glass knob instead.  Perfect with the white bedding!

A small dresser and some closet organizers in the walk in closet allow space in the room for Emily's play kitchen, also Pottery Barn.  

A floating shelf from Ikea adds space for some accessories. The chalkboard is a door inset picked up at an antique show in Charlotte.  We added a smaller matching one to Audrey's room.  Decoart Americana Clear Chalkboard Coating was used to give them a chalkboard finish without changing the original color.  Artwork purchased on Etsy and a pink corduroy bear she received from her Gigi made the move with Emily

Originally, the princess in the pea doll was supposed to be part of the vignette with her monogram.  However, Emmie loves playing with her so much we made some last minute substitutions by shopping other rooms in the house.  Eventually the candlesticks will return to the foyer when Neena completes a project that needs a little time to process in her imagination.  The pink crepe paper flowers are from her first birthday party.

Hooks for purses and aprons were incorporated to make it easy for Emmie to pick up.

Whew, you made it to the end of the post!  Lots of details to include.  If you would like help with your little one's room, Chapin Group would love to help.  Contact me at chapingroup@gmail.com.

Wendy

Mini Samoa Cheesecakes for HHM's Birthday

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This weekend, close friends joined us for a cozy dinner at home to celebrate HHM's birthday.  HHM always requests beef stroganoff and cheesecake for his birthday dinner.  The stroganoff recipe always stays the same but I like to experiment with the cheesecake recipe each year. I have a variety of recipes on my Pinterest cheesecake board. This year I combined several different recipes to create these mini Samoa Cheesecakes.                                                                                                               

These  adorable pedestal domes were purchased at Pottery Barn
several years ago.  I have used them in decorating in the past but 
doesn't the mini cheesecake look sweet on it?

For the crust I used the directions that came with the mini cheesecake pan, purchased from Williams Sonoma several years ago.  It is no longer on their website but is similar to this one from Amazon.  The pan provides the perfect portion size for this rich dessert.  In addition to cheesecake, these pans are perfect for individual bread puddings or cheese strata.

The filling was adapted from Glorious Treats' mini Kahlua cheesecake recipe.  I substituted a hazelnut liquor for the Kahlua to pair better with the Samoa topping. Apparently, I let my chocolate cool a little too long before adding it to the cream cheese mixture. The mixture was flecked with chocolate rather than spread throughout.  This small error did not effect the flavor.  I was nervous when I mixed the filling, it was much thinner than other cheesecake fillings I have made.  Not to worry, it baked up beautifully.

The fabulous Samoa topping recipe comes from Gimme Some Oven. The topping couldn't have been easier.  Simply toast the coconut in the oven and stir into caramel dip.  Done.  Gimme Some Oven also offers a recipe for homemade caramel sauce but I was running short on time.  HHM loves caramel and cheesecake so this was the perfect combination for him.

Mini Samoa Cheesecakes

Crust:

1 cup crushed oreos (approximately 12)

2 Tablespoons melted butter

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray mini cheesecake pan with with nonstick cooking spray.  Combine all ingredients and press into bottom of mini muffin pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Place on rack to cool.  

Filling:

2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

12 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup Frangilico

Melt chocolate in a small bowl and set aside.  Blend cream cheese until smooth.  Add sugar and incorporate.  Add egg and vanilla; continue to mix.  Add melted chocolate and blend.  Stir in Frangilico and bend until combined.

Reduce oven temperature to 250.  Fill wells in cheesecake pan approximately 3/4 full.  Bake until set, 22 -25 minutes.  Cool on rack to room temperature and then chill in refrigerator for several hours.  

Topping:

2 cups shredded sweetened coconut

1 3/4 cups caramel dip or sauce (you can either buy the 16-ounce store-bought tubs of caramel dip, or use 1 3/4 cups homemade caramel sauce)

4 ounces dark chocolate 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown coconut on a parchment lined cookie sheet, about 10 minutes.  Stir half way through.  Pour into bowl and add 1 cup caramel sauce.  Stir to combine.  

Place approximately 1 tablespoon of caramel sauce on each cheesecake.  Top with coconut caramel mixture.  Melt dark chocolate and drizzle over top.
Happy Birthday HHM!