Let's just get this out of the way: my party posts tend to be about a year late. Um, sorry about that.  But this one was really cute and maybe worth the wait. Before we moved, I decided to throw Dax an early first birthday party. It kind of killed me that he wasn't officially 1 year old but it was better than skipping it altogether since his birthday would be just a month after our big move. His and Nadia's birthday are just a day apart so I decided to throw a joint party. It also made sense to add a few more friends to the invite list and make it a going away party. So we held a "the DeLangie camp is packing up" + "Our Happy Campers are turning 4 and 1" party.  Here are the details:

I'm a little sad. This is the last installment of our Pretty Real Home Series. I hope you've learned a few things along the way. I sure did. Today Amber will be sharing her wisdom with us. If you haven't visited her blog you should.  Go ahead. I'll wait. Just make sure to come back. ;) Amber blogs with her husband and I swear if it was a goal of theirs, they could be the next YHL. They are that good. Their home is gorgeous and while they're taking it one space at a time, I've seen enough to know the evolution is one worth watching. And also I can attribute my ever increasing use of black in my home directly to Amber and Nick. Hashtag trendsetters. So I've gushed enough. Let's chat with Amber!

We're back with another installment of the Pretty Real Home Series. I've loved learning how to make my home stylish but also a practical haven for my family and hope you have too. Today we'll be chatting with Kristin of Paige Simple. Paige Simple is a stationery and party decor company, in short, but so much more. Kristin creates the most beautiful soirees and in my opinion is the best at the edit. It's beautiful, it's calculated, but somehow it seems simple. It seems she uses those same talents in her home. And for diversity's sake, I wanted to include someone with more transitional style. If the arrows and cow skull in my home freaked you out, or the black dining room in Abby's, or the mini Eames chairs in Jessica's, this is a great chance to see intentional and pretty design executed in a more traditional way.  So without further ado...

I don't know why I'm suddenly so into mantle decor. It's become a fun challenge to change it up by shopping my home. In our last house we had a fireplace I hated (Side note: why didn't we paint the brick white? Seriously if you are living with something you hate-with-a-capital-H because you're afraid or not "supposed" to paint it, just stop! YOU are the one living there. Don't stare at something you don't love for 12 years because you're scared!). So back to my point- our fireplace now isn't particularly fancy but it's bright, fresh, and a completely clean slate. With that in mind, the current black and gold accents felt too heavy for spring/summer. So a spring mantle was the goal.

Happy Friday! We're back with another installment of the Pretty Real Home Series. I can't wait to share what Abby has to say. I met Abby years and years ago and loved her chic Parisian haircut, style, and heart for the hurting.  She simply has style and grace. I visited her home when her stud muffin Judah was born and I was in awe of how well she put it together.  Since then she's started an interior stylist design company and I love to see how she takes rooms with no real design purpose and remakes them with style, practicality, and on a budget to boot.  She's one of the friends I know I can shoot a text to when I'm stumped for a fresh but educated perspective.  So without further ado: