Sleep in Style: Amenity's New Muir Furniture Collection

It somehow seems entirely possible that my dreams would be more fabulous if I slept in one of Amenity's new Muir furniture collection beds. I'd be so cool in my sleep. So, so cool. Plus, when I woke up and realized I wasn't actually that cool, I'd have all this extra storage as a consolation prize.
Fine print: The furniture is made from wood collected from demolition sites in LA, manufactured nearby, and finished with low-VOC, water-based stains.

Best Baby Shower Gifts: SewnNatural!

I mean, seriously. Could this stuff be any more adorable? SewnNatural, a one-woman shop, has created an online zoo of organic and vintage textile critters and dolls that are, yes, sew cute. Sorry. But it's true! Judge for yourself:




Man, that's one lucky lil' girl.


{Via OhDeeDoh.com}

Need a Hug? And/Or a Placemat?

Then you're in luck. Fuz, a new line of planet friendly home accessories, offers up this adorably affectionate placemat option. Pop out the center guy and let him hug your napkin for the sweetest lil' place setting you've ever seen. Gotta love felt!

Happy Friday! Xo, Finley (and her Hanna Anderssons)

That's a wrap on Finley's nursery tour! Thanks so much for taking a peek.

Here's Fi wishing you all a very happy Friday. She's chillin' in her 100% organic cotton Hanna Andersson outfit, courtesy of a friend who introduced us to the awesome brand. Not only are Hanna Andersson clothes extra soft and planet friendly, they also grows with your babe...two rows of snaps on this onesie mean Fi will be wearing it until she's walking! Plus, the pants have pockets -- super critical for a little lady who won't roll out the door without her wallet, keys, and pacifier.

Finley's Green Nursery Tour: The Best of the Rest!

I sewed these pillows by hand using leftover eco-felt and eco-stuffing from the birdie mobile project and fabric scraps from other projects (including the leftover Hable Construction green bead fabric used to upholster the glider). Yup, still waiting for that sewing machine donation...

As the daughter of a writer, Finley WILL love books. (Notice the emphasis is on will, not love? Mother's word is law.) So far, I think The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown (of Goodnight Moon fame) and Time for Bed by Mem Fox are at the top of my list. Fi certainly enjoys chomping on them with her tiny gums.
Hooray for wood toys and handmade stuffed animals as gifts! Finley received the Plan Toys wood snail above and the handmade monkey and flower doll below as gifts from friends, and my parents brought the pink elephant all the way back from a trip to India.
What else? The rug is constructed of Flor tiles made with post-industrial recycled content. The little end tables (below) next to the glider and crib are from Vivaterra -- they're chiseled from stumps of sustainable wood. Anyone who chisels anything deserves a shout out.

Man, I wish my camera weren't on the fritz. I really do think the colors pop more in person than in these images. But you get the idea, right?

Finley's Nursery Tour: DIY and BIY (Buy It Yourself) Art!

If you'll be so kind as to turn around now, you'll see the other half of Finley's nursery. Oh, here we are. Using the leftover no-VOC Natura paint from the tree mural, I painted the two canvases above Finley's changing table. My favorite animals? Ponies and puppies. One of the many wonderful things about being a parent of a not-yet-talking child is that you get to make all of your favorite things be your baby's favorite things too. So far, so good. Finley loves her ponies and puppies paintings. No word yet on dance movies, flip flops, and vodka tonics.


Listen up! I can not take credit for anything about these paintings other than the fact that I am a decent forger. After spending weeks on the Avalisa website, drooling over the crisp, colorful, funky animal prints and lamenting the fact that I could not afford them, I finally studied a couple of the designs closely and then painted my own. You should not do this. You should buy from Avalisa. Seriously. Get over there now. (Then come back.)

I bought the lovely custom family tree print above from the talented Karen Yi's Almost Sunday Etsy shop. It's a steal at $38. Since my busted camera can't do the print justice, check out the sample print from her shop below. Super pretty, right?

The final piece of art in the room is the fab Finley ABC print from Jennifer Ramos of MadeByGirl.com. I majorly heart it.


This is where it lives:


Tomorrow? All the miscellaneous details! Pillow, rugs, and tables...oh my!

Finley's Green Nursery: How to Make an Eco-Friendly Mobile!

Finley's birdie/flying fish/airplane (take your pick) mobile is one my favorite pieces in her nursery. I was kind of winging (sorry) the whole project, so I was pleasantly surprised when it came together to make a cute little mobile. I love how the crazy bird creatures twirl around to face different directions depending on how the air is circulating. Every so often, not as frequently as you might imagine, they all line up to face the exact same direction like a perfectly in sync flock. The best part? Finley is absolutely fascinated by them.

I used eco-felt (made from 100% recycled bottles) to make the hand-sewn creatures. (Yes. You read that right. Hand-sewn. Me. Hugely Pregnant. Watching bad TV. I'm now officially accepting sewing machine donations.) They're stuffed with eco-friendly fiberfill (made from corn). I found the branch in nearby Buena Vista Park and painted it with leftover non-toxic Natura paint from the mural project. I strung everything together with some fishing wire.


If you're making (or shopping for) a mobile, one of the things to keep in mind is the angle from which your baby will be viewing it. A surprising number of mobiles look adorably cute only from an adult/standing viewpoint. The best mobiles have interesting colors and shapes that are parallel to the floor, not the walls, so the baby can look up and be entertained while in her crib. That's why I created patterns with different felt shapes and colors on all of the birds' wings.

Tomorrow...we'll talk art!

Finley's Modern, Green Nursery...on a Budget!

Why hello there, loyal readers! Thanks so much for sticking around despite my long absence! I've been wanting to return for many weeks now, but boy do my days with little Finley fly. I'm committed to carving out some time to devote to my adventures in the blogosphere; I can't promise posts will be as frequent as they were in the pre-mommy days, but they'll be a lot more regular than they've been in the last 6 months!

I thought we'd jump start my return from maternity leave with a week long tour of Finley's modern, green nursery. In the final months of my pregnancy, my nesting instincts kicked into high gear and I spent many an evening painting, sewing, and surfing the Internet for nursery design inspiration. I wanted Finley's room to be all about harmonious contrasts...calm yet colorful, homemade yet modern, clean yet comfy, playful yet sophisticated...and most importantly green (yet on a budget). Compromises were made along the way -- Walmart. Sigh. -- but I'm thrilled with the results nonetheless. And for the record: Yes, having a pretty room in which to clean your baby's pooplosions makes all the difference in the world.

Let's begin the tour with the nursery's design focal point: The mural. Throughout my pregnancy, I frequently checked out the fabulous OhDeeDoh.com for inspiration, and it struck big time when I saw the Seuss-inspired tree mural created by reader Craig. Following in Craig's creative footsteps, I cut out three different sized circles using soup cans and other round shapes around the house, spent a couple of hours tracing them onto the wall, and then freehanded four wobbly Birch tree trunks. I then painted everything using Benjamin Moore's Natura paint (no VOCs!).


And so -- after a long delivery -- voila! The crisp, whimsical focal point of the nursery was born.



Tune in tomorrow for more on Finley's ecochic pad!