Spring Break Staycationing

This week is Pretty Little Bare Feet's spring break. You may be thinking,

"Hmmm, isn't she only three? Is spring break that big a deal for y'all?"

Well, it definitely is, as Pretty Little Bare Feet is pretty married to her typical routine, & things that throw it off...

(like missing a whole week of nursery school)

...drive her crazy.

& when she's crazy, I'm crazy. & when we're both crazy, the house is crazy.

My Little Man? He's his usual

calm,

cool,

laid-back

little self. We should all be so zen!

So although I'm smack in the middle of a cabinet&pantry cleaning-out-&-reorganization...

...& I have laundry to change over...

...this morning's stir crazies have got me needing a break.

So I want to do just an itsy bitsy bit of blog catching up & share some fun with y'all.

No surprise, I have a sticky of ideas for Pinboards. I don't want to have a bunch of lame, one-or-two item Pinboards, so I wait to create them until I actually have some great things to put on them.

I keep getting excited about bracelets, which are very probably my favorite pieces of jewelry, but I haven't ventured out into creating a Pinboard solely devoted to bracelets. Instead, they keep getting pinned to either my Pretties Pinboard or My Style Pinboard.

(Depending, of course, on whether they're more dainty&pretty...or classically stylish. ;))

Bangles by Erica Courtney

Crystal&Leather Bangle Bracelets by House of Harlow 1960 at Bloomingdale's

Scrolled Link Bracelet in Gold at J. Crew

Striped Bone Bracelet by Marni at the Outnet

Katie Double Wrap in Shock Red by Marc Jacobs

Our Boring Staircase

We have lived in our home for almost three years now, & it has been a slooow process getting things decorated.

(& in some cases, even furnished!)

We bought more house than we had furniture for. With both My Prince & me being straight out of professional school, we had accumulated mostly odd hand-me-down furniture & inexpensive college apartment staples. We have bought some new items...however, we haven't made it a major priority because we have small children.

(I'm sure I don't have to tell y'all that our furniture is getting some pretty serious wear.)

Also, we don't want to spend money on items we aren't going to love. But we can't always budget for the items we truly want to have!

One of my biggest challenges has been decorating our walls. We have quite a bit of art, actually. Some of it is really great, like original hand-painted works from local artists & travels abroad. Some of it is less exciting, just cute stuff I've found at places like Hobby Lobby.

The issue for me is that I don't want to hang something that has not been properly framed&matted.

(& professional framing&matting can be pretty expensive!)

& in the case of family photographs...I do want to display the large, beautiful ones we have had professionally done - but I also don't want to completely overwhelm our shelves&walls. ;) I always second-guess my editing!

So although there are a few things hung here, & a couple over there, there is still a lot of work to be done on the walls of our house.

One area that is still completely bare is our staircase.

(Except for the wall that forms the base, but I think of that more as part of the little walkway that leads to our master bedroom.)

Our home has one of those stairwells with a small landing in the center, which U-turns the staircase the rest of the way upstairs. I see design ideas for curved&"straight-up" staircases all the time, so I decided to look around a bit for some ideas for what I have to work with. Do you love any of these?

(via: Home Klondike)

(via: Smith&Vansant Architects)

How cool would it be to have a built-bookcase on the landing?!

(via: Southern Accents)

Thank you, Pinterest, for letting me know that I am evidently the only person whose staircase does not have a window anywhere along its path. Also, for reminding me that design here may be thwarted by the fact that Pretty Little Bare Feet can reach many of the points along the stairs' walls, making anything that is hung there vulnerable to the whims of a tired little girl on her way to bed. This is especially important since apparently the only design option here is to just plaster a gazillion framed photos or pieces of art on the walls. ;)