Ode to Lilly

We all know that Lilly is pretty much the star of the show ‘round these parts. I mean, understandably so.  She is a pretty big deal, after all.

     A few weeks ago, Sara Whit and I trekked it up to Nashville to visit sister Myra and see some Nashville friends.    I got to go to dinner with my childhood friend Caitlin, and Sara Whit met up with her old buddy, Andrea.Andrea also happens to be a very talented photographer, who graciously takes pictures of Lilly every six months or so.  The pictures you see in this post were not taken by Andrea (hers are about a thousand times better), but rather by yours truly. I asked Andrea if she would mind if I took a few with my camera if I promised not to get in the way.  She was nice enough to accommodate me, so I lurked behind her while she took the real pics!  I just wanted to snap a few of our sweet little nugget!

Speaking of The Princess (this post is titled ‘Ode to Lilly’ after all!), I have been working on a little project for her for a couple of weeks. 

It all started with this window treatment:

And this antique bed (love):

With Lilly nearing the 2 1/2 year mark, Sara Whit decided it was high time that she move into her ‘Big Girl Bed.’  She already had those cute window treatments, made for her nursery.  And she talked Brian into painting this family heirloom one afternoon (don’t worry, it was a weird yellow-beige-glazed color before, and she got the okay from her mom to paint it…much better this way, trust me).

She picked out some more fabric to match the windows and let me go to town!  I was excited to tackle this project and had a lot of fun doing it, getting some great practice in on my sewing machine.  Sara Whit told me basically what she wanted, and I just sort of winged it from there.

I started with these shams:

I really wanted to point these out because I’m very proud of them because they took me approximately 1,382 days to complete.  Each.

Then I just used her other fabrics to do some fun throw pillows, too!Sara Whit got this pretty purple quilt for a great deal at Marshall’s.  Here’s how the whole bed looks in the room: Cute, right?!

I love the way it turned out!  The throw at the end of the bed is a weird size…we had a weird amount of that pink dandelion fabric so I just winged it.  The opposite side is backed with a soft, flannel fabric in light pink.

Sidenote:  Looking at this picture, I’m realizing a pattern with myself.  I cannot ‘design’ (if you could even call it that) a bed without a throw at the foot of the bed:  

 Our guest room 

 Our master bedroom.

Huh. 

What do you think about that?  For some reason I don’t feel like it’s finished if there isn’t SOMETHING down there tying everything together…anchoring it, in a way. 

Huh.

*Anyway*

Here’s the room from another angle so you can soak up all the pink cuteness you can stand for a Tuesday.

Lilly loved it.  I know this because she told me so.  See?  Doesn’t she look like she loves her Big Girl Room?! Here’s a good pic of the other side of the dandelion throw.  Soft and pink!  I was taking pics and all of a sudden I said, “Okay, night-night!”  And this is what she did: Funny girl. She said more than once… “My blankie!!  My pink blankie!”  This is two-year-old talk for, “I love it!” After our little bedroom photo shoot, I was walking out the door and she said, “Okay take one right here too:”  Goofer.

Sara Whitten and Brian thanked me by cooking a wonderful steak dinner for us!  It was lovely to spend time with this sweet family.  We ended the evening like this: And this: I love this picture!  Right before I took it I heard him say to her, “Hey girl, how’d you get so pretty?” 

Sweetness. 

I know I said that Lilly is totally the star of the show in our family.  There are many gatherings where we’ve looked at each other and said, “What did we do before Lilly?  Sit around and stare at each other?”

Well, all that is about to change for this little princess……Do you see what I see?!?!?!That’s right!  Lilly is going to be a big sister!She’s excited, can you tell?!?Coming April 2012….Baby Atwood #2!We are praying BOY for Brian’s sake.

In all seriousness, Lilly is such a joy and a LIGHT in our lives, and a second baby on the way is an answer to prayer!