Farewell, October

October went by in the blink of an eye... can hardly believe it will soon be Thanksgiving and then Christmas! Where did the year go? Looking forward to the holidays with our new little man in the mix. I'm already guzzling hot cocoa daily :) Hope you enjoy the next few weeks ... that little bit of peace before the full swing of the holiday season.

(And yes, we found more of our fave white pumpkins this fall)

Fresh mail

OK, so I'm a little out of sequence here, but thought I'd share an easy way to achieve a cohesive look and feel for thank you notes and announcements (or really any event that dictates more than one mailing :).

I wanted to find a fresh and simple (read: Modern Cottage) approach to our  new little one's birth announcements and thank you notes. I couldn't find anything ready-made that I liked... I thought monogrammed cards would be cute, but I didn't care for any of the ones I saw - wrong colors and fonts and such. Instead, I simply chose some blank cards and envelopes in the colors of my liking and stamped an initial myself. Since our nursery colors and fabrics are menswear-inspired (charcoal greys, crisp whites, chambray, and textural grey-brown tones) with little hits of green, I chose ink in the color "lettuce" to go atop bright white cards. The envelopes are the perfect cementy-khaki color. The classic monogram stamp on the front looks sweet and simple, just what I was going for.

We also got some white ink to use on the gravel colored envelopes for the birth announcements (still in progress... also homemade!). It's fun and unexpected to see the little stamp on the backside of the envelope.

All of the materials were purchased at Paper Source which I adore. An easy way to get a custom, understated look for almost any occasion!

Welcome, baby.

Things have been a bit busier than usual this month, hence why we haven't posted in a bit. Our latest "project" has been taking up a lot of our time: We welcomed a little one earlier this month and he is just too cute for words. We've been taking some time off to simply stare at him adoringly and of course try and figure out how in the heck we will find time in life to do anything else besides feed, change, and cuddle him! But, we are hopeful that eventually we'll adapt and be able to balance baby-raising and design :) Speaking of which..... over the course of the pregnancy, I couldn't sit still until I had the nursery design all hammered out. In the process, we came across some really amazing finds, some of which we used, some we didn't... but we'll share all of them nonetheless as they are really fantastic. We'll also share the design of our Modern Cottage nursery in time... we think you'll love it.

(Organic cotton baby rattle found here).

Birthday swim

Scout turned nine end of July and to celebrate we took him down to the lake for a swim, possibly his favorite pastime e-v-e-r. The beach was packed but fortunately this area off to the side doesn't get much use and makes a perfect "dog" swimming area :) It's nearly impossible to get him out of the water once he's in, and with each toss and retrieval of the bright green tennis ball, he'll stay further and further back in the water - and simply expect us to wade in to collect the ball where he's left it floating sort of near shore. He is a smart one ... keeping just enough distance to ensure we can't quite reach him in order to coerce him out of the water when it's time to go home. The funny thing is, he acts very nonchalant about it. But we know he's always watching us out of the corner of his eye. In this case, after a nice long swim and many, many, tosses of the tennis ball, it took a few cookies to get him out. I think he'd stay in there all day if he could. I love that something so simple absolutely makes his day. Happy Birthday sweet dog.

Under the radar

We've been contemplating new end tables for our living room for a while now, but it's nothing urgent... the narrow white-painted wood ones we have now are mostly functional and fit the space well. They were just more of a quick solution since we already had them on hand -  they weren't purchased specifically for the space. So, we figured when we eventually encountered our new end tables, we'd know they were a match on the spot. More serendipity and less actively searching. (This has worked out well for us in the past).

Recently though this modern and unassuming little guy caught my eye as I paged through the latest CB2 catalog. I am especially intrigued by the clear acrylic casters. Brilliant touch. I also like that there's a lower shelf for magazines and such. It seems with our tables now, beverages and snacks are constantly fighting for real estate on top with the magazines . I also like how little visual space this piece takes up, yet the material and construction still add tons of interest and a generally very cool vibe.

Definitely one to consider....

Pretty

Loving this canvas art for over a fireplace or in a living room...a serene setting and great colors, perfect for a Modern Cottage. We've always had a soft spot for farmhouses and the simplicity of this piece does the subject matter justice.

Having a moment...

The horse affection continues...Words cannot express how much I love these plates. I wish they were sold individually- I'd get one of each and use them as wall art!