Birch Event & Design: Logo

HELP! I'm currently in the process of logo and website design for Birch Event & Design. What are your thoughts on the below logos? The colors can be changed around.

Friday Favorite Things

Here today for another edition of Friday Favorite Things... Here are the FIVE items that caught my eye this week!

1. I really want to do a facelift to our house and these numbers, made from FREE Home Depot stir sticks, is easy and modern. 
   
   
   
2. Now that I have three kiddos I find myself taking more and more photos on my smartphone! I already have so much to lug around so the first thing to stay behind is my big cannon camera. Here are some great tips to taking better photos with your phone.  
3. I love some Kate Bower! (we are obviously ovulation sisters because our second and third are just weeks apart!) This week she shared the cute personalized alphabet family photo album that she made for her oldest son... I love this idea and want to make something like this for Hunter. Might do a mixture of family and other objects to do an alphabet book.
   
   
   
4.  My parents are currently in the market for a credenza in their dining room... I love this one made out of IKEA cabinets and furniture legs... LOVE!!!!
   
   
5. One of the goals that I have while home for maternity leave is to organize our attic and sell Emma's outgrown clothing. This post will be helpful when it comes to getting everything organized up there.

Hope that you all have a GREAT weekend and a Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there!

Nursery Diaries: Chapter 5 - FABRICS

It has been a hot second since my last Nursery Diaries post in fact the last one was before Gibson's arrival.

To catch up on the nursery progress here are the first few postings:

Chapter 1 - The Paint & The Plan
Chapter 2 - Adding the Rock
Chapter 3 - The Lighting
Chapter 4 - The Details

Now to talk fabrics... 

Changing Pad covers... I was originally going to try to make the covers for Gibson's changing pad but reality set in and I realized it was not worth the time... I'm not good with elastic. So I hit up amazon and fount two great covers

Via - $13.49

Via - $15.95

 I really like both of them and so does Gibson!!!

I also ordered gray jersey sheets from Amazon...

Via - $22.99 each

Round crib sheets are not something that you can just run out to Target or Buy Buy Baby for. I've been able to find them through Amazon, EBay, & etsy.

The curtains were purchased at Ikea on clearance (as they were being discontinued) for only $17.99 for two panels. I purchased two packages (4 panels) and hemmed the bottom to fit the needs of our windows.  They are the Lappljung Rand curtains

Now that they are sold out at IKEA you can find them on ebay but for around $50 for a package...

I think that the white, gray, & black in the curtains look great with our gray wall!!!

For the spot in the room that I utilize most frequently... the glider! 

The glider was a gift from a family friend when I was preggers with Emma and it has gotten a lot of use with all three of my kiddos. While the olive color doesn't really fit in with the grays and yellows in Gibson's room I think that it works with the wooden crib. 

To make the glider fit into the room more though I added the Gurli blanket from IKEA and two pillows...

The back square one was on clearance from Target for only $6.99 and the yellow zipper is the perfect pop for the room. The Valborg lumbar pillow in white and varying shades of grey was found at IKEA (only available on ebay now). 

 Here are all the fabrics that are currently incorporated in the room...

(We are still messing around with room layout... so it might not look exactly like this for much longer) and I need to remove the bunting from the top of the crib!

ANYWAY, there is a HUGE element still missing in the fabric department... THE BEDDING!

I've purchased the below fabrics to make the bedding (again it is hard to find good pre-made round crib bedding)

I'll be back with Chapter 6, in a few weeks, when I attempt to make the bedding for the crib (my mom has always made it in the past). Wish me luck!!!

Lucky yard work find... Morels

The other day I was doing some yard work (a rare occurrence) and found some morel mushrooms growing on the hill in my backyard. Morels are the only mushroom that my hubby will eat so I was super excited about the find.

I googled to make sure that they were not false morels and with how they are attached to the stem and the fact that the stem was hollow I felt confident that they were real and that no harm would come to us from eating them!

I knew exactly what recipe I wanted to make Fettuccine with Asparagus, Morels, and Tarragon from my Bon appetite: Fast Easy Fresh cookbook.

Ingredients 

• 8 ounces fresh morel mushrooms
• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 1C. Sliced Shallots 
• 1 lb Asparagus (trimmed & cut into 1 inch lengths) 
• 1 1/4 C. Veg Broth 
• 2/3 C. Heavy Whipping Cream 
• 2 1/2 T. Chopped fresh Tarragon 
• 12 oz Fettuccine 
• 1 C Grated Parmesan Cheese 

(I also cooked some chicken tenderloins chopped in 1 inch pieces and added to the dish)

Directions 

Melt butter in a heady skillet over medium-high heat. Add   shallots and morels; Saute until shallots are tender.

 

Add asparagus and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in cream and 2 T Tarragon. Simmer uncovered for until the sauce thickens, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and paper to taste.

Cook Fettuccine. Drain & return to pot. Add 1/2 C Parmesan cheese & morel and asparagus sauce; toss. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with remaining tarragon and Parmesan.

Emma even loved it!

Cannot wait to look for some more mushrooms! Such a lucky find.

Goals for May

So in April I missed out on creating any goals for the month... well because with a new little baby in the bunch my only goal was to survive the month!

But now it is May and I feel like we have settled into somewhat of a routine and I think that I can actually get a few things done this month.

1. No chinese food or pizza all month! I really need to start eating healthier. 
2. Join the Pentagon gym and work or at least twice a week. 
3. Plant a small garden in the backyard. 
4. Clean up the porch area and finish the sunburst mirror for the patio
5. Update dining room table... 
6. Get my business website up and running 
7. Find a landscaper for our house... Matt has been SUPER busy with his new job and his two classes

Not a ton of items on the list but I'm excited about knocking a few things off my to do list.

Favorite Things Friday

I'm going to share double the number of favorite items today because I missed out on last week!

1. Love just about EVERYTHING on this Bloggers' Favorite Things for Mother's Day list 
2. This new Blog.. Love the Gold desk and all of the other gold accents in her home office. 
   
3. I'm a huge fan of bows and love the round up of wedding details that include bows!!! 
4. I plan on making these yummy muffins this week with some strawberries that my parents brought back from a NC farmers market
   
5.  This wooden jewelry box would be easy to DIY. 
6. I wouldn't mind waking up to this basket on Mother's Day!!! HINT HINT Matt...
   
7.  Quick and Easy Chalkboard tray for entertaining!!! I'm going to go buy the supplies to make this now!!! 
8. I always tell Emma that I love her to the Moon and Back before bed each night. This necklace would be a great gift to give her! 
9. I would treasure this Meridian Bracelet and would want the coordinates of our house or the location of where we got married. 
   
10. I need to get the routine of doing some type of exercise each day. This is a simple morning routine that I think I could stick to.

My life with three kiddos...

So originally this post was going to be like the one that I did with Hunter that details every item of my day so that you can see what typical day in the Park household looks like... That post HERE

Throughout yesterday I took notes about the times that I did things and photos/videos. Last night I was sitting down to actually write the post and my photo made a noise and alerted me that there was a Google+ Auto Awesome movie that had been made about my day. Once I watched it I immediately switched gears and wanted to just share that today. Both Hunter and Gibson are sick so this perfectly shows my day... A LOT of crying, spit-up, a million diaper changes, taking Emma to school, trying to keep my living room clean and I forgot my diaper bag when I went on my errands. Thank goodness I had my wallet separate.

Total craziness!!!! 

Here is the video about our day... 

Maybe in a few weeks I will do a written out post.